TΛVΛR
I am gobsmacked by how bottomless the pit of liberal idiocy is. Even they should see the argument of putting pressure on Biden to make him stop a genocide.
But that’s supposedly unreasonable. Liberals don’t even see that possibility. Apparently it is the other way around pressure needs to be applied on those who are against genocide as genocide is just a given. How fucking dare they.
Consequently they see even less potential for political participation than I do, yet they call the US democratic and I don’t.
They want to get it in your head that there is nothing you can do to prevent your representative from genociding, but that that doesn’t mean he doesn’t still represent your interests, “C’mon man”.
“If your representative doesn’t represent your interests, then we have to work on your interests! Especially if you have a problem with genocide.”
There must be a way to wake up from this fucking nightmare. Or better yet wake everyone else up!
Damn. Their last “stance” was like them eagerly byting on a cyanide capsule after somebody asked them for the time.
Geopolitics […] is obviously reactionary to everyone who understands Marxism
TIL Lenin didn’t understand Marxism and was reactionary
A more recent poll (from 2 days ago) finds that 21% stated they would either definitely (4%) or probably (17%) vote for BSW.
It is definitely one of the most interesting developments in German politics and I think it will have a net benefit, if only bc of its authentic opposition to warhorny transatlanticism that otherwise owns German politics and media.
However I can’t read this party yet honestly, the sentiment towards it in Germany is a remarkable ball of contradictions. My two cents as a German, when I read the (understandable) hopes that it could be a socialist party.
Although the central founder (SW) was a socialist in her youth, I can definitely not call it a socialist party, they themselves don’t. And in the recent press conference regarding their founding they also explained why, while many members come from a leftist tradition, they don’t call themselves “leftist” (its important to not that left/right have different connotations in every country), their explanation was along the lines that these words have lost their meaning to the German people.
They gathered some of the best politicians you can get from the German left, their recent recruitment of Fabio De Masi is something hopeful, whose stance against finance capital is one of the staunchest (he is a union/reform-socialist, I guess that’s the best you can get in Germany…)
However in their public communication there is nothing Marxist. They carry bourgeoise ideals on their banner. Since the established parties currently increasingly turn towards authoritarian measures and crackdowns against leftist groups there might be a strategic benefit in it for leftist groups though.
Their perception is dominated by other factors since the media exclusively focusses on them:
In Germany the “culture war” is a bit different than in the US, however here their position is not super appealing. They call out a lack of legislation focussing on material conditions of workers, but they draw from the culture war that this necessitates opposition to socially progressive topics and adopt somewhat of a reactionary position in some of these regards. IIRC SW called herself socially conservative.
This is one of the reasons why the parts receives more hostility from the liberals that consider themselves of the left, the other is their stance on refugee policy. While some of their members have in the past advocated for open borders it is their official position that “the numbers need to be lower”, their argument is not the ethnic-popular one that the media tries to put in their mouth but that integration-efforts are past its limits to which there is probably some truth to.
Their championing of bourgeoise values and the parts of their position to gender politics that are reactionary as well as their refugee policy seems to be much of the reason for their popularity. Partly bc the media focusses on these things exclusively (and on unfounded speculations they might be “in the Kremlins pocket”). But also no other German party wants peace in Ukraine and the Palestine and that appeals to people as well. They have some credibility bc they address truisms that are swept under the rug, like that the Nordstream bombing was facilitated by the US. The husband of the central founder was literally the only politician who would talk openly and frequently about the influence of US intelligence agencies.
All this will lead to a lot of member-applications from problematic corners os German society. They have announced that they will be careful with their admissions, and I see potential for growth in a “good” direction (probably not socialist tho).
While I see that they do and say some things bc it is necessary in our political landscape and having a traditional socialist party is impossible in Germany, I can’t bring myself to see them as Socialists with a practical strategy, but they are also not Nazbols. Currently (I didn’t dive into it) I believe they represent a true demsoc approach and flirt with that part of the national bourgeoisie that stands to lose a lot from transatlanticism, like companies who deal with Russia and China.
I believe strategic support is the right way currently, but I doubt they can be swayed towards a Socialist evolution. How they develop will be greatly influenced by how they will deal with the incentives they operate in, like capital interests and the media stirred excitement of reactionary elements for them.
Didn’t wanna cloud anyone’s enthusiasm, they are good news, especially with the AfD turning more and more radical on the right AND having more and more success in the polls.
Every president is Trump. Trump is the fucking face America always had. People who say Biden is better just don’t want to look into the mirror.
Knifes, forks, a spoon…
Seems like Stalin made the west shit itself with the whole arsenal of a typical kitchen shelf
Tried calling Putin, he didn’t answer. Its almost as if I have zero influence on him
After Stoltenberg and David Arakhamia admitted it, everybody has realized by now that Nato membership always was at the core of this conflict.
So, no, there is not only one person who can end this war. Not even liberals should be dumb enough to believe that line to begin with.
Assuming you don’t live in a dream world: What exactly is the realistic goal you have that more bloodshed will achieve?
If my fellow Western idiots had listened to us, Ukraine would have 20% more land and hundreds of thousands more people would be alive and Germanys tanking economy with military keynesianism knocking wouldn’t be at risk of turning the 30s of the 21st century into the 30s of the 20th century
You’re playing a little game that you pretend is fueled by care for Ukrainians (- those in Donbas and leftists), whose country you could not point to on a map 3 years ago, but is actually fueled by a media-induced need to see Putin humiliated.
This is the fucking real world where people aren’t just flag-emojis and nuclear weapons aren’t a boardgame that you can smugly flip over and where the “bad guys” aren’t cackling in secret about doing evil but where real contexts are distorted for propagandistic purposes.
Snap the fuck out of your infantile world view and start trying to understand war in order to prevent it or take the blue pill and accept that politics just isn’t your cup of tea.
There is too much at stake. We can never stop explaining but we can’t parent people either
Dreaming of a job, of creating surplus for your capitalist and thanking him for that opportunity, is shit.
Dreaming of labour however? Imagine you work in a Socialist society, whatever that means to you. However you imagine trustworthy Socialist leadership/guidance to look like, imagine it exists, you experiencing it, maybe you are a part of it.
Now ofc society still faces challenges, not everything is bliss. But people feel hopeful, encouraged by the changes they see happening around them. Changes, in fact, that they bring about with their labour. Housing being built, and populated. People being lifted out of poverty.
Maybe people come together in socialist meetings eager to engage, they feel their voices being heard, their needs being met. Maye they just want to connect. Without the alienating forces of capitalism people open up to one another, creating understanding among each other.
Renewable energy and public transportation advances. Maybe new means of production are envisioned. Reaction is on the backfoot. People unlearn the concept of externality, realizing we, workers on this planet, are all in this together and that that is the only way to progress. It sets in: We can’t create prosperity through externalization, not through slavery, not by exploiting an externalized global south, not by dumping trash in an “infinite” ocean, not by pumping CO2 into an “infinite” atmosphere, not by pushing the burden onto a gender, race or religion.
As all externality vanishes even the backwards start to wonder why that is not a problem? There is no need for squeezing the life out of someone “other” and isolating ourselves with the fruits of their labour. With modern forces of production our labour creates plenty. Nothing is siphoned off by the ruling class, the ruling class are the workers, it flows to where people need it most according to a Marxist analysis.
Whatever you imagine your labour is directly contributing. Maybe you’re a scientist and work on cold fusion or you optimize new ways to grow crop, without straining the environment through monocultures etc. Or you try to cure rare but harsh diseases whatever the case your funding isn’t cancelled bc you are not making anyone any money.
Or you are a teacher or construction worker, only you earn a lot and you know you help give to the people what they desperately need, whats more the people know it too, they even build you statues and of course you, like everyone else can rest peacefully knowing they have their health covered by the labour of other people.
You are a gear in a machine, but not in an imperial war machine, but in a cooperative machine that cures cancer, educates, struggles against oppression and aims to liberate every single person to allow them to live their life summoning their creative, mental, physical potential.
I would love to work and work and work in such a world. Unfortunately we have to work towards such a world and that means working in a hostile environment which turns the work into struggle, which makes it so much harder.
But dreaming of labour I can understand
Germany is creepy as fuck right now. Its completely sliding into Military Keynesianism
The decoupling from Russian energy, the “derisking” from Chinese markets and the move towards e-mobility which will crush German car companies (not saying I want more fossil cars - its just an analysis) are smashing the rate of profit. (That’s a thorough sweep through most of the economic base in Germany).
It does already lead to cuts on social spending which in turn makes ppl turn away from centrist libs.
Who are they turning to? Well the left is nonexistent in Germany, so they are looking the same way that capital which is on the losing side of things is looking: the far right AfD.
Meanwhile the transatlantic center is desperately trying to look for growth potential and finds the arms industry, which is in line with their Zionism, Islamophobia, Russophobia and Sinophobia anyways.
So we now have discussions in Germany that we have to be ready for war with Russia in no later than in 5 years and are proudly opening up new arms factories.
The more the AfD rises in polls the more the center will lean into war with Russia to mitigate an economic situation that benefits the AfD as well as create a narrative that is supposed to keep the “Russia friendly” AfD out of power.
Meanwhile more and more authoritarian laws are enacted to protect the centrist parties from losing power while at the same time Ukranian-“solidarity” lets fascist elements seep in the centrist parties, predominantly the green party and its foundations (Heinrich Böll, LibMod, …)
I am not certain of all the mechanisms but I don’t see any meaningful material development that would halt this. Renewables don’t provide profit rates that can satisfy capitalists.
I guess revolutionary potential in Germany grows higher than it has ever been, but with the huge head start in organization and capital of the right its going to be an uphill battle. Additionally a lot of whats left on the radical young left is massively confused (like pro-Israel, and pro-US), which is not to say psy-OPed.
Regarding organization I see some good development on the left around Palestine, but its often ppl with a migrant background who are massively in danger of state repression.
IDK I hope the more I am active the more opportunities will unfold, but I aside from organising I am considering leaving the country within the next years, although I would hope that we’ll somehow be able to prevent recreating the 30s of last century as well as the 40s where Russia has to solve our fascism problem again!
Looks like Luxemburg’s Socialism or Barbarism again and I am not here for the Barbarism
communism is not merely “good”, it is a necessity. But to get an understanding of what that means one has to make themselves familiar with the contradictions inherent to capitalism and understanding that capitalism is fundamentally incapable of overcoming them.
To give an example: Crippling economic crises arise within capitalism periodically because it is incapable of overcoming the contradiction between the “organization of production” in one company and the “anarchy of production” (unguided production) within all of society.
Capitalism can’t overcome this contradiction because the underlying reason for it is the contradiction between a socialized production and a private appropriation. This contradiction is the defining characteristic of capitalism however, so it can’t ever be resolved without abolishing the system. And we see this prediction of Marx play out time and time again.
Now you may think periodic crises are acceptable (why you would think that is beyond me as they are really truly not necessary). However there are many other realities that contradict capitalism like limited resources, limited capacity of our planet to absorb emissions, the inevitability of the global south’s independence and self-determination (very incomplete list)
Whatever type of capitalism you support, it requires some kind of externality that just isn’t real: infinite natural resources, an ocean that doesn’t care how much is dumped into it, an atmosphere that absorbs all emissions, a domestic working class that accepts exploitation, colonies / the global south to outsource exploitation to, etc. all of those things run out. This kind of “externality” is exposed as an illusion of bourgeois thought.
These contradictions (and more) are creating tensions like tectonic plates during a tectonic shift and we will surely see some more earthquakes. Possibilities include:
- Not being able to safe large parts of the planetary ecosystem.
- Countries falling into fascism to guarantee their national capitalists their profit rate as their main profit guarantor, the US, looses its imperial grip on the planet.
- More imperial wars
The alternative is: The abolition of the capitalist system, hence I spoke of necessity.
Or in Rosa Luxemburg’s words: “[It’s] Socialism or Barbarism”