“The United States is also a one-party state but, with typical American extravagance, they have two of them.”
I attribute the quote wrong all the time, but today the internet says it’s from Julius Nyerere, who was a prime minister in Africa back in the 1960s.
It’s the most anti-communist country on the planet, so there’s not much hope. Talk of raising wages or organizing collectively, or not agreeing with US imperialist foreign policy gets you labelled a commie / tankie by its witch-hunting, McCarthyite majority.
If there’s a list of countries to next take the communist road, the US would be dead last.
Nobody gets labeled a tankie get out of here with your projection lol.
Commie tho, all the time.
There were quite literally people throwing around the term “tankie” in this very thread.
I hope you realize Lemmy does not represent the average American…
Sure, but IRL and outside media I still hear “tankie” more than “commie,” and more importantly the original comment was made in the context of Lemmy.
You’ve heard people use the term “tankie” IRL? Damn, even the most brainpoisoned libs I know don’t do that.
Only once, and in passing, lol. The word is definitely very online
Talk of raising wages or organizing collectively, or not agreeing with US imperialist foreign policy gets you labelled a commie / tankie by its witch-hunting, McCarthyite majority
You’re telling me this statement is about Lemmy and not the US in general?
It relates to talking with USians in general, which includes interactions online, including Lemmy.
Step 1: Don’t generalize. Don’t say “Americans” when you mean “some Americans”. As you can see from browsing here and on other media sites, there are a great many vocal people who have voted Democrat for years but are entirely disappointed by decades of failed DNC leadership.
Step 2: Remind people that everyone is on their own side. Politicians might vote the way you want, or not, but their interests will never be exactly the same as yours. Don’t ever believe that the two-party system is an accurate description of our values.
Step 3: Share memes of Schumer.
Because the real fight is the rich vs the poor. Even rich democrats.
This is quote from their former member, Huey Long:
“They’ve got a set of Republican waiters on one side and a set of Democratic waiters on the other side, but no matter which set of waiters brings you the dish, the legislative grub is all prepared in the same Wall Street kitchen”
— Huey Long, campaign speech for the re-election of Senator Hattie Caraway (D-AR), 1932 (Williams p. 589)
The Deprogram podcast, Hakim, and Second Thought YT channels all exist to address this. It’s rather obvious to anybody willing to learn
Crypto tankies lol
USSR dindu muffin mate
You listed clowns who are trying to appeal to normies by hiding their real views.
That’s a crypto tankie. Similar to alt right pipe line.
Complaining about Marxist-Leninists on a platform made by MLs and the instance maintained by them is a bit silly. There’s nothing “crypto” about support for Communism on Lemmy.
Moreover, I find that the ones most critical of the USSR, as in the ones best looking at what honestly and truthfully went wrong with the Soviet Union, are MLs. It’s easy to regurgitate “100 gorillion dead no iphone vuvuzela,” but that isn’t particularly critical as it isn’t based in reality, just non-sequitors and gotchas.
Meanwhile, MLs can usually talk in depth about the issues with Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and even Kruschev’s reforms, or the struggles with planning by hand in a computerized era, discussion on whether or not the NEP should have been modified, extended, or eliminated even earlier or right on time, and more. This is because MLs want to use the Soviet Union as an example, learn from the good and learn from the bad so we can more effectively build a Socialist future.
Do you ever wonder why but a small minority of eastern Europeans hate USSR and Russia?!
Or why Ukraine is fighting its war?
tankie ignores the lived experience of people subjected to the Russian rule including communism area because america bad
Clown world
Most ex-Soviets regret the collapse of the USSR, actually. This is well-documented.
The article seems to be missing polling history from countries that don’t support it’s thesis, like Poland.
No idea what you mean by a “thesis,” but countries like Estonia are included. I am unsure if polling has been done in Poland regarding this, but even if everyone in Poland prefered Capitalism it would still be true that the majority of ex-Soviet citizens prefer Socialism.
ex-Soviet citizens prefer Socialism.
That’s not exactly what the polls in the article were about though?
We don’t have to do anything other then work on passing electoral reform one state at a time. Democrats can be whatever the hell they want, so long as everyone is free to vote how they want with the ability to transfer their vote.
Electoral Reform Videos
First Past The Post voting (What most states use now)
Videos on alternative electoral systems
Historically, that doesn’t actually fix systemic issues, though, like the only parties of relevance electorally being pre-approved and backed by the bourgeoisie. Moreover, electoral reform doesn’t have a real path to implementation that would make more sense than revolution to begin with.
it’s a long road with a lot more steps but simply “destroying” the notion that democrats are the good guys simply gets you republicans and that’s gotta be the worst way to shift left ever
The road is revolution, not just against the Democrats or Republicans, but the entire system.
revolution is easy to say on the internet but at the end of the day a lot of people die
People die without revolution, historically revolutionary Socialism has come with dramatic improvements in quality of life for the Working Class. Taking down the US Empire would massively uplift the burden on the Global South as well.
perhaps, or perhaps it could be replaced by something worse. there are no guarantees
Read up on historical revolution, Socialist revolution has a great track record, and if the US Empire didn’t interfere it would be even better.
economic systems don’t happen on accident
This has never done anything in countries that use it, like SK, Japan, Australia, etc. It might make the candidate stacking a little more expensive, but that’s it.
If capital stands above the political system, the method of voting doesn’t matter.
I’ve seen a lot of similar comments lately. People wanting to start 3rd parties etc, because the Democrats suck so bad.
Yes, it’s true. They suck, but if you’re going to beat the Republicans, you’ll need to look at what Trump did. He didn’t start a 3rd party. No, he took the existing party and changed it into whatever the fuck it is now.
You need to change the democratic party from within too, because 3rd parties will always lose because of the first past the post. 3rd parties also have a tendency to branch out, because quite frankly, not being Democrat or Republican isn’t enough of a politic in itself, and you guys don’t get along well on anything else. The Republicans had this issue for a long time until Trump came along providing them with something that united their voters more than the previous politic of simply being not Democrats.
The democratic party already has a framework for running politics and they actually have some kind of democracy within that allows people to change it. Yeah, it will require a lot of work to get enough people engaged in politics to make the change, but it is absolutely much less than what is required to start a successful 3rd party.
The difference with the Republican party’s changes with Trump and the idea of performing entryism in the Democrats to make it a worker party is that Trump’s changes to the GOP are already in line with what the Bourgeoisie wants. The DNC cannot be entered and changed into a working class party because they too get their base from the bourgeoisie.
This is why revolution is necessary to gain real change in favor of the working class.
The DNC cannot be entered and changed into a working class party because they too get their base from the bourgeoisie.
I think this is too pessimistic, especially in light of how bad all other options are for the left. Party bases change – Democrats used to be a lot closer to the working class, and (decades ago) delivered major policy improvements. With a lot of jobs re-proletarianizing, who’s to say the party base can’t shift back?
The biggest barrier to such a change is campaign donations, of course. But Bernie showed you can fund even a major presidential campaign through small donors, and we’re also at the point where corporate Dems have more money than they can effectively use (see the Harris campaign).
I haven’t really seen any evidence of this being possible. I maintain optimism, just in the revolutionary direction, not electorally.
So…if that’s your only option… when are you going to start a revolution?
When the working class is organized enough for that to happen. I suggest joining a party or organization near you so that you can assist with that, wherever you live.
I’m not American but I will promise to support you if it comes to that.
The workers unionisation in my country against land owners in the 1800s would not have succeeded without international support. I’d gladly chip in for anyone attempting to do the same.
🫡
they’re not good guys they are simply more competent at government
If they haven’t accepted it yet, I’m not sure they want to. The ones holding the lines seem to be just reactionaries pining for a return to the neoliberal status quo.
DUPOLOY
Stop re-electing these ancient incumbents who are WAY too comfortable being Republican-lite. Vote for younger candidates, preferably someone who was born AFTER the Battle of the Bulge.
I don’t think that makes a difference. Ben Shapiro is young and is alt-right
democrats are simply the ‘lesser evil’, and have been since the 1960s, at least… and we’ve needed a viable third party left of the mainstream for longer.
republican administrations drag us down and undo gains made. democrats repair some of the damage–but never quite enough, never push progress enough. they lose. it gets undone again and the cycle repeats.
but now it’s all getting destroyed. there may not be a continuation of the cycle. it’s hell from here on until ‘trumpism’ and maga are what is completely destroyed.
Yeah.
There is always that cycle that includes “Democrats didn’t do everything they promised so they deserve to suffer”, which brings in Republicans that cause far more damage.
And given the number of election cycles, you would think there would be some organization by now for overall leftist causes, but there isn’t. There is no party or organization out there that can pose an electoral threat. The right produced the TEA party, which morphed to MAGA. Leftists have nothing.
We need progressive primary challengers, and we need PARTICIPATION in the primaries. Primary voter turnout is like 15% or something equally pathetic last I checked.
That’s more because Primary candidates are all pre-selected and don’t stand to change the system. Voter apathy is high bevause voter will isn’t represented by the dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie.
Can’t do it . You must just get labelled a Russian bot and banned
Without electoral reform, there’s no functional reason to. The lesser evil of the current system is Democrats. If you want to enact change, push support for the progressive wing of the party and push for electoral reform.
Still doesn’t really solve the problem of candidates being pre-approved for the bourgeoisie.
Don’t let imperfection get in the way of progress. If you move slightly towards the left, you’re opening doors for more left ideology.
I think I’d agree with you more if I believed “pushing for XYZ” was a valid strategy for implementing structures opening the door for progress in a system dominated by those who benefit from the status quo. Without that belief, I turn to other historically succesful methods of gaining change, like millitant labor organizing and revolution.
