All the time I hear about "the CIA will coup this", "America supported that", "These people opposed US Imperialism". A topic could have absolutely nothing to do with america and involve a place on the exact opposite part of the earth and Americans will find a way to make it about America. For example, people talk about Russian politics and Putin yet seem to support Putin wholeheartedly because his Russia "opposes american imperialism". This framing of the conversation seemingly ignoring how Russian people feel about his reign, how the EU has been having to drag america into the latest sanctions against Russia, and how for the last 4 years America had an ostensibly Pro-Russian president. I swear American Leftists don't care at all about Capitalism or Communism and just want to oppose the United States. Most of the world and people don't care about American influence, let alone to such an obsessive degree.

  • MoralisticCommunist [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Lenin talked about this sort of anti patriotic sentiment back in 1915 during WWI saying, "During a reactionary war a revolutionary class cannot but desire the defeat of its government."

    Of course this doesn't mean leftists should just support all of America's enemies or become posadists, but the general principle of desiring the defeat of your own government is very applicable to genuinely revolutionary leftists within the reactionary war mongering United States of Amerikkka.

    The USA is the current world hegemon with military bases in dozens of countries on every continent. Domestically the US is a settler colonial state built off the near extermination of one race and the mass enslavement of another. Someone living in the belly of this beast who's number one goal isn't dismantling the American empire is not a genuine anti-imperialist and frankly not a genuine ally to Indigenous and black people.

    Also in practical terms it only makes sense that a revolutionary would want to overthrow their own capitalist government first before overthrowing other ones. Of course having general solidarity for the proletariat in other countries is still good and I think the people who participated in the International brigades or the YPG International are heroes of the revolution but it is more pragmatic for most people to focus primarily on their own local communities. So for leftists living in the US this involve fervent opposition to the American state.

    https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1915/jul/26.htm