Anything they broke, we can rebuild, even if it takes decades. Maybe we can rebuild the unions and our parties differently this time, and find ways to make them harder to break.
We can counter their massive propaganda machine by building our own propaganda machine. This is why Marxist organizations publish articles on their websites! This is why some orgs still sell newspapers, even at a loss! This is why they put up leaflets and invite people to public meetings! This is why parties now establish a social media presence!
Even when dealing with explicit state violence, there are usually ways to respond and adapt in self-defense. Portland protestors responded to tear gas by bringing leaf blowers to blow the gas away and started wearing gas masks, just to give a novel example.
We know what the obstacles are, and proactively take measures to overcome them, or to figure out what the best measures are.
Even if the biosphere mostly collapses and we're living in Mad Max hellworld or Spaceballs hellworld, so long as capitalists are exploiting workers this project is worthwhile. Socialism will win eventually if the workers can establish a position of sufficient strength and deal the final death blow to the last capitalist stronghold. Even if everyone on Earth dies except Elon Musk and a few thousand people who go to Mars, Musk's workers can and probably will eventually revolt against him or his descendants on Mars and establish some sort of socialist society there.
We're in this precarious position now only because the previous two generations of socialists saw the collapse of the (by that time very bureaucratically degenerated) USSR in 1991 and either gave up and took the grillpill, or desperately sought out radical/postmodern new ideas, throwing Marxist baby out with the revisionist bathwater. I refuse to make that same mistake, and I don't want you to make that mistake either.
Our generation is probably fucked but we can act now to make conditions less shitty or more advantageous for our descendants.
Neither am I. But guess what, other people in our generation are having kids, because anti-natalism isn't actually very popular. We have to give them the tools they need to fight back once we're too old and too dead to make a difference anymore.
I'm also not having kids because I'm just gonna die alone and miserable because I'm a worthless trash person who isn't capable of basic interaction with people.
You're almost certainly not worthless. If you provide value or are capable of providing value to society, if people would be materially or emotionally worse off if you died, you're not worthless.
I get no value of out life. I'm going to die miserable and alone and I'm too much of a complete misfit to change that and sometimes I just can't stand it and I need to post about it.
He had more than any of us could dream of, and it took nothing.
Newspapers? They have a trillion dollars so in media enterprises.
Portland protestors responded to tear gas by bringing leaf blowers to blow the gas away and started wearing gas masks, just to give a novel example.
and in response the feds deployed their own blowers and the violence only intensified.
Ted Wheeler managed to win because a bunch of idiots just couldn't bear to vote for the alternative, so they split the vote. They went out of their way to do it. Why? Icky socialism and opportunistic idpol.
80% of portland wants an oversight board? Good luck with that, courts aren't going to let you do that. Contracts > Democracy, obviously. Just like they wouldn't let Seattle regulate the cops.
I mean honest to god the left in this country is so fucked that the state is about legalize murder and we have no response besides whining. It's hopeless. The only thing that will change anything is massive violence and societal collapse. That will only lead to worse places.
While you're jerking off with notions of a third party the world is being irreparably damaged and millions of deaths are going to follow.
Third parties are not a new idea. This happens to varying degrees constantly. You aren't going to win this way.
edit: I mean that article is 4 years old. You alter the numbers and you just print it again today.
All you're doing by building a third party is letting them pit their entire entrenched system against you. Then you whine and wonder why it didn't work.
Why does it have to be a completely new idea? Why throw the entire historical memory of Marxism away? Generation X tried doing this in search of completely original ideas and it got them almost nowhere, compared to the progress made since Occupy in 2011.
This is where I disagree. Marxism is a science, not a dogma. We aren't acting identically to how Marxists did a century ago, because conditions are different and we have extra information to work with. There are tried and tested approaches that we know can work under certain conditions, which we still use because they've yielded at least limited, partial, or small successes.
There has been no progress since 2011, things have only gotten worse and we have no reason whatsoever to expect that trajector to do anything but steepen.
A bunch of libs who think socialism means free health care aren't going to change that.
Anything they broke, we can rebuild, even if it takes decades. Maybe we can rebuild the unions and our parties differently this time, and find ways to make them harder to break.
We can counter their massive propaganda machine by building our own propaganda machine. This is why Marxist organizations publish articles on their websites! This is why some orgs still sell newspapers, even at a loss! This is why they put up leaflets and invite people to public meetings! This is why parties now establish a social media presence!
Even when dealing with explicit state violence, there are usually ways to respond and adapt in self-defense. Portland protestors responded to tear gas by bringing leaf blowers to blow the gas away and started wearing gas masks, just to give a novel example.
We know what the obstacles are, and proactively take measures to overcome them, or to figure out what the best measures are.
If you are trying to operate on that sort of timeline you've already lost.
Even if the biosphere mostly collapses and we're living in Mad Max hellworld or Spaceballs hellworld, so long as capitalists are exploiting workers this project is worthwhile. Socialism will win eventually if the workers can establish a position of sufficient strength and deal the final death blow to the last capitalist stronghold. Even if everyone on Earth dies except Elon Musk and a few thousand people who go to Mars, Musk's workers can and probably will eventually revolt against him or his descendants on Mars and establish some sort of socialist society there.
We're in this precarious position now only because the previous two generations of socialists saw the collapse of the (by that time very bureaucratically degenerated) USSR in 1991 and either gave up and took the grillpill, or desperately sought out radical/postmodern new ideas, throwing Marxist baby out with the revisionist bathwater. I refuse to make that same mistake, and I don't want you to make that mistake either.
Our generation is probably fucked but we can act now to make conditions less shitty or more advantageous for our descendants.
What descendants?
I'm never having kids.
Neither am I. But guess what, other people in our generation are having kids, because anti-natalism isn't actually very popular. We have to give them the tools they need to fight back once we're too old and too dead to make a difference anymore.
I'm also not having kids because I'm just gonna die alone and miserable because I'm a worthless trash person who isn't capable of basic interaction with people.
You're almost certainly not worthless. If you provide value or are capable of providing value to society, if people would be materially or emotionally worse off if you died, you're not worthless.
I get no value of out life. I'm going to die miserable and alone and I'm too much of a complete misfit to change that and sometimes I just can't stand it and I need to post about it.
Mostly I'm just quietly low key miserable.
I'm clearly not in a position to help you. Either log off and rest or go to /c/mentalhealth. Please.
They crushed Bernie effortlessly. Effortlessly.
He had more than any of us could dream of, and it took nothing.
Newspapers? They have a trillion dollars so in media enterprises.
and in response the feds deployed their own blowers and the violence only intensified.
Ted Wheeler managed to win because a bunch of idiots just couldn't bear to vote for the alternative, so they split the vote. They went out of their way to do it. Why? Icky socialism and opportunistic idpol.
80% of portland wants an oversight board? Good luck with that, courts aren't going to let you do that. Contracts > Democracy, obviously. Just like they wouldn't let Seattle regulate the cops.
I mean honest to god the left in this country is so fucked that the state is about legalize murder and we have no response besides whining. It's hopeless. The only thing that will change anything is massive violence and societal collapse. That will only lead to worse places.
Read this. We don't have "no response besides whining". https://isreview.org/issue/107/case-independent-left-party
While you're jerking off with notions of a third party the world is being irreparably damaged and millions of deaths are going to follow.
Third parties are not a new idea. This happens to varying degrees constantly. You aren't going to win this way.
edit: I mean that article is 4 years old. You alter the numbers and you just print it again today.
All you're doing by building a third party is letting them pit their entire entrenched system against you. Then you whine and wonder why it didn't work.
See that's not a new idea.
Why does it have to be a completely new idea? Why throw the entire historical memory of Marxism away? Generation X tried doing this in search of completely original ideas and it got them almost nowhere, compared to the progress made since Occupy in 2011.
Well you're doing the same thing expecting different results and you're doing exactly what every power structure is designed to stop you from doing.
It's insanity. It's like trying to fight a war by exclusively attacking the enemies most fortified positions head on.
This is where I disagree. Marxism is a science, not a dogma. We aren't acting identically to how Marxists did a century ago, because conditions are different and we have extra information to work with. There are tried and tested approaches that we know can work under certain conditions, which we still use because they've yielded at least limited, partial, or small successes.
There has been no progress since 2011, things have only gotten worse and we have no reason whatsoever to expect that trajector to do anything but steepen.
A bunch of libs who think socialism means free health care aren't going to change that.