• Bnova [he/him]
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              4510 months ago

              You should check out Vincent Bevins’ book The Jakarta Method. He covers the genocide of leftists in Indonesia but throughout it talks to people who’ve been victims of the Jakarta Method, people who were ostensibly where you are, they were communists who were against the use of force. And do you know what happened to them and their friends? They had to flee for their lives while their friends got murdered because as it turns out Capitalists will absolutely use authority to squash and kill anything that even remotely threatens their power. They’ve since changed their mind.

                • JamesConeZone [they/them]
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                  3710 months ago

                  I don’t know a single communist who supports Russia or Putin. Why would they support a capitalist state? Do you mean that they argue why, in historical materialist terms, war between Russia and the West has been caused by western expansion? In that case, they are explaining geopolitical movements to our current situation, not supporting Russia if that makes sense. I can see how “critical support” against American imperialism (eg, support with heavy criticism) can come off as being “pro-Russia” from the outside, but it really is just explaining, contra the neoliberal take on geopolitical war, why war is happening. Communists don’t approach international politics as good vs bad, they are far more nuanced which can be read as “pro” things they aren’t. Does that make sense? I am inebriated

                • ComradeCmdrPiggy [he/him]
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                  10 months ago

                  a lot of people here are taking their rightful hatred of capitalism and channeling it into the support of an oligarchic authoritarian (Putin and Russia)

                  Google “1993 constitutional crisis” to see where the correct channeling of hate for capitalism went.

                  FWIW similar fates for leftists have occurred in Iran, Palestine, Afghanistan, and other countries that hate the US but have ended up being run by highly reactionary factions.

                • BurgerPunk [he/him, comrade/them]
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                  10 months ago

                  I think you’re a really confused kid. I hope you read the Jakarta method, and hopefully at some point any book by an actual communist. Here’s a good one by Engel’s, its very short, https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm

                  If you’re communist you should learn what that means. And probably not tell us what you think we believe. Just deciding you know what we believe and telling us that our whole ideology is about misplaced anger, and how we don’t make sense is actually a little authoritarian to borrow your language

            • AntiOutsideAktion [he/him]
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              2910 months ago

              300 years after the revolution people who talk about ‘communism’ will be using your definition. For now when people say ‘communism’ they’re talking about the ML(M) project of achieving that goal. This is a conversation that’s been going on for 150 years now. Not only have people argued out what you’re talking about, they’ve been able to see in real life what happens when you try to put principle to practice. You can’t have communism without class war. And if you don’t suppress the ruling class they will inevitably erode and destroy whatever victories you take from them. You have to use ‘authority’.

            • Egon [they/them]
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              710 months ago

              Who gives a shot what you believe in, when your actions and ideology supports the dictatorship of the bourgeoise? It doesn’t matter what esoteric strain you are, it matters what you do and it matters what the end of those actions are

          • Wertheimer [any]
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            10 months ago

            Before “tankie” became such a popular term the difference was framed as a question of “socialism from above” versus “socialism from below,” as discussed in this Hal Draper pamphlet.

            • AntiOutsideAktion [he/him]
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              10 months ago

              You sound like you heard what communism is through word of mouth in a country with 80 years of genocidal anticommunism

            • BurgerPunk [he/him, comrade/them]
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              2910 months ago

              Okay, you’ve described communism as a theoretical state that we as socialist want to arrive at as we resolve the contridictions within society.

              How is this different than what people like me that you call tankies are talking about. What fo you know that we don’t?

                • BurgerPunk [he/him, comrade/them]
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                  3410 months ago

                  Forget about Ukraine for a minute. I want you to explain to me your theory of democratic communism. What’s the theory of change? What does a democratic comminist revolutuon look like? Is there a theoretical basis for these beliefs?

                  I’m a marxist leninist, i am someone you would call a tankie. I want you to explain to me you’re version of communism

                • ShimmeringKoi [comrade/them]
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                  10 months ago

                  A) What makes you think we think the Russian Federation is “Communist”?

                  B) Why do you not also describe Ukraine as an oligarchy when it’s entire reputation for the last 30 years is as one of the most ludicrously corrupt places on Earth?

            • Egon [they/them]
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              510 months ago

              And how do you envision that coming about in a world ruled by capitalists that are unwilling to let go of power?

                • Egon [they/them]
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                  610 months ago

                  And if you instate that “real” democracy in a world that is full of capitalists that will work towards destroying it (as you for example saw with the USSR in its infancy or Nicaragua or Cuba), how do you think your newfound democracy should defend itself?

    • the post of tom joad
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      110 months ago

      tankie is just a prejorative the neolibs throw at anyone left of the fine oligarchic capitalism we currently enjoy. I’m fine with it