I have read my Soviet history, I have read articles about it, I have watched YouTube videos, and I have even read Trotsky but I still have no idea what being a Trotskyist is supposed to mean. It seems to me like one of Trotsky's main ideas is Permanent Revolution but what the Fuck does that mean from a practical standpoint? Does that mean being a Trotskyist means you want to gain power so you can start a global war against the bourgeoisie? It seems like whenever someone calls themselves a Trotskyist what they are really saying is they are a Communist but Stalin is bad so we need a new name. :trot-shining:
There's already great responses here so I don't have too much to add. Just wanna say permanent revolution is a highly polarizing phrase. As a person said below lenin himself supported a version of it. Not the same level as trotsky but the general idea was something he wasn't against. But trotskyism like stalinism I think is really a b.s. catch all term that effectively just means people who don't like stalin and the ussr. Isaac Deutscher in his books on trotsky said as much his own self. Now isaac was against stalin but even he recognized trotskyism wasn't really a thing and was just for people who were pissy at stalin. Even when trotsky was still alive his so called "followers" were a giant pain in the ass. All they ever did was argue with each other and most of them weren't as radical as he was nor followed many of his beliefs. So yeah I think permanent revolution is an interesting idea and one that under the right circumstances would work very well, but people calling themselves trotskyists I believe are wrong.