I don't think it was irrational for people to support him at a time when his social media made him seem like he could be a genuine contender, coming out as autistic despite the ridicule he knew he would get
everybody realized after the Destiny video that he had no idea what he was talking about and couldn't defend anything, barely anybody really supported him after that and his attempt to create a new party was a move so dumb I don't see how he could have any supporters left by that point
his candidacy wasn't ruined by his positions or anything like that, it was ruined by him being a shit candidate that was able to pretend to be decent when the spotlight wasn't really on him
his social media following could have really benefitted him had he ran a smart campaign, knew what he was talking about and stayed with the Democratic Party, so it's nonsense to make fun of that tbh
Joshua Collins is something to learn from if we're going to throw in on some electoralism
- know your positions
- know what you're talking about
- know your audience and what speaks to them
- network in real life, not just online (harder with COVID)
- run a real ground campaign (harder with COVID)
- don't depend on anything but honest to god hard work
- practice those debate skills
the next AOC could be here right now, it's just a matter of playing your campaign the right way
People love to shit on mr. 4congress (because he’s a dumb dork). But he also ran a master class on what not to do if you’re trying to turn terminal online-ness into an electoral campaign. That’s important information for anyone considering running for an office who doesn’t want to end up absolutely humiliating themselves. Like that fucking dweeb josh.
I have no idea how effective he was at building a brand but people should definitely look into that as a boost for their campaigns at the very least
True. I get slightly annoyed by Matt, Jacobin and a lot of other online leftist commentators constantly ridiculing "online activism." Imo most insurgent candidates in the last four years owe much of their success to candidates actively organizing online
I agree, but I think we should also make a distinction between activism online as a supplement to activism, and extremely online activism.
I am not under any illusions that social democracy will save anything but it's better than nothing
the revolution won't happen tomorrow and may never imo because Americans are entirely too individualistic, even leftists, and have you ever tried to change an American? let alone tens of millions of them?
Even if it never does anything by itself, electing socialists can show our pathetic, capital-cucked, chud-filled, baby-brained country that there is actually an alternative to the conveyor belt they're on. Didn't like, fucking Lenin say it was a good idea to do some electoralism or am I thinking of someone else.
The problem is that we don’t have infinite resources to do everything. We have limited resources and losing an election is the complete loss of resources whereas if we used that money/manpower to build more permanent counter-hegemony we would be in a better place. Electoralism is useful as a background to get more people involved in building power.
We have limited resources and losing an election is the complete loss of resources whereas if we used that money/manpower to build more permanent counter-hegemony we would be in a better place.
Who's actually doing this though? Outside of electoralism I don't see any organized movement towards supplanting the power structure that rules us.
To expand on 1, have several stump speeches prepared. Like if you want to be a politician, you need to be prepared for when someone asks broadly and vaguely what you stand for, to go into a small speech about your policy positions and why they are good/important.
Also, don't do internet bloodsport debates on twitch with people like Destiny. Best case scenario, it's a waste of time.
His vote count would have been wildly different had he been a Dem. He still would have lost but that one change is what created the embarrassment.
Everyone would have just been posting about how it's sad he did poorly instead of what an absolutely catastrophic loss it was.
and if you do all that they'll just manufacture some bullshit about brushing past someone at a party to smear you anyway
bourgeois electoralism is a scam
Good analysis.
To expand on this a bit: repeat points 4, 5, and 6 a whole bunch of times.
Thanks for taking the lessons from this and helping to articulate them rather than kicking the dead horse <3
Look, think about how often the ruling class eats shit even when they spend unthinkable sums of cash.
It's just a numbers game. Every now and then, you will get burned in an election.
The question is whether the resources you expended is worth a roll of the dice, whether you have a real shot to take a seat and, hopefully, a tiny bit of power.
People gave, what, 20 bucks per? What did it really cost you?
Not that there's no lesson to be learned about grifters and morons. But you will be grifted sometimes no matter how skeptical you are.
So just make some notes for the future, and move on. There's not much soul searching to be done here.
