LaBellaLotta [any]

  • 25 Posts
  • 1.31K Comments
Joined 4 years ago
Cake day: September 23rd, 2020
  • LaBellaLotta [any]tohexbear•Mod statement on the lionization of Luigi Mangione
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    10 days ago

    “Reading the reaction as the lionization of an individual rather than an emotional outburst of an entire class of people suffering from years of oppression will, of course, lead the American left to miss their mark once more.”

    I second this. And I resist the urge to think “correctness” means anything in a vacuum and removed from action. I’m disappointed in the mods reactions to this because the reality is that it is absolutely fucking meaningless how “correct” our opinions are on this if we are never going to connect them to meaningful action.

    It is very terminally online IMO to think that these discussions being had about how to leverage this moment and what can be done with the momentum stirred up by The Adjuster only amount to “lionizing a fascist”. If all we can accomplish with this moment is another terminally online struggle session that ends with simply the conclusion “we shouldn’t lionize a fascist” then we deserve to lose the future. To me that is the most self defeating lesson we could possibly take from this.

    I think very often of this scene from the early days of the DPRK. Kim Il Sung had come into possession of a ledger containing the names of all the Korean people who had been collaborating with the Japanese colonizers. Rather than use it to purge his growing movement, he very publicly burned it as a sign of amnesty towards those amongst him who had collaborated, coercively or not.

    America is obviously not post WW2 Korea. America is a fascist country. It goes without saying that the biggest victims of fascism are the colonial subjects and persecuted “other” within the nation.

    That said, someone once told me that one of the many terrible things about living in a fascist country, one of the more subtle things, is that all of the ostensibly “good” people end up having to lie about who they are and what they believe, constantly, as a matter of survival. In America this tendency runs so deep it’s not even seen as dishonesty, it’s “grindset”.

    I am absolutely not saying Luigi Mangione is some sort of secret communist. That is obviously absurd. I guess what I take issue with is the idea that we can take his internet history as some sort of cross section of his human soul. I think that is over simple and a disingenuous interpretation of someone who should be deserving of a more charitable interpretation. Because if he doesn’t deserve that then no one in the west ever will. I mean for gods sake the guy wasn’t even 30 years old; aren’t we supposed to be the side that has a heart? It all just feels so callous to act as if it’s a betrayal to some bullshit revolutionary discipline to recognize that he is a sympathetic character whether you like him or not.

    This may not be true for most of us; but I think for a lot of young people your online persona is a PERFORMANCE of who you THINK YOU SHOULD BE.

    And yes I have read settlers and I understand “narrow self interest is not the same as class consciousness”.

    I think it is a mistake to read this quote and take it to mean “if it aligns with a westerners self interest it cannot possibly be class consciousness”

    I think it’s also missing the point of what has made third worldism arguably the most successful branch of communist thought: it can be brought into alignment with the self interests of the masses basically immediately. The early raids by the Vietcong on Chinese grain reserves happened because it not only took advantage of pre existing antagonism to the Chinese, it also gave people a real material example of class struggle being in their immediate self interest.

    Luigi Mangione is not a revolutionary to be emulated. He’s not a principled revolutionary and it’s absurd to expect revolutionary discipline from him. The point I’m trying to make here is that no matter where it is, in the first or the third world, building a revolutionary movement is a risky endeavor. It necessarily involves trusting in other people which always carries a certain amount of risk that only multiplies the more people you trust.

    As conditions deteriorate and life gets worse and worse for the average westerner; at some point the interpretation of the past will cease being relevant and we will be forced to reckon with different material conditions. I would echo the other voices in this thread saying that the point of revolutionary leadership is to lead people towards your position, not find the perfect revolutionary subjects already formed and ready to go.

    Until we have the courage to accept the risks inherent to trusting other people; flawed, imperfect people, and building a revolutionary movement, I don’t know what kind of future the western left has.

    Yes the average westerners self interests is aligned against understanding class conflict, yes you can’t get someone to understand something that it’s against their self interest to understand, yes “read settlers” blah blah fucking blah. If there’s one single fucking thing we should be able to glean from this moment it is that those things are not as true as they used to be and they will only continue to decay as U.S. Global hegemony does.

    The question I keep asking myself is; what is the fucking point of trying so hard to be CORRECT all the time if WE don’t even seem to believe we can use that to change hearts and minds?

  • LaBellaLotta [any]tonews•The last thing Luigi liked on Goodreads
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    12 days ago

    Vonnegut is a crucial early step in my own pipeline.

    I think it makes some of us uncomfortable that the Chuds we spend so much time seething about are, on an individual level, one crisis away from being a winnable comrade. Doesn’t mean we should handle them with kid gloves. It’s the same reason we critique each other and ourselves. Correct ideas are only arrived at through social practice. and it is incredibly frustrating that Americans are so empathetically stunted that it has to happen to them personally for them to understand, but still. We don’t get to get tired of making the case for socialism.

    It’s also worth remembering that all of your formative opinions being posted publicly and preserved forever is a fairly recent development in history and i would wager it has done more to harm working class solidarity than help it.

    I don’t agree with every position this kid has taken or probably still holds, but I don’t envy the hurt he went through to get where he is.

    o7 for having the heart and sense to know who his real enemies are unlike so many other young men like him.

  • LaBellaLotta [any]toEarth•Wholesome: I made eco-Marxism as a business plan and a class full of horticulturists was supportive
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    30 days ago

    Right, and landscaping in an area as dry as some parts of the central western U.S. is a very delicate art but it’s also critically important it is done mindfully because it is a very delicate ecosystem. Some people won’t like the aesthetic but screw em.

    I think in less dry parts of the U.S. just the pitch that your yard could be wildflowers instead of grass and it’s better for you and the environment could have pretty broad appeal.

    This could also position your org to be actively antagonizing HOA’s all the time. Could actually be productive struggle, seems like a good place to make enemies.