That such iconography could circulate for years within the US military and diplomatic-security apparatus underscores what the World Socialist Web Site reported six years ago in “Neo-Nazi networks exposed across US military”: fascist and white-supremacist currents have been cultivated inside the armed forces.
Because the liberalism hasn’t been purged out of the American left, yet.
I wrote this comment the other day saying that the American left is not even at step one yet, they are effectively at step zero.
They haven’t done the most basic class analysis to figure out who are their friends, who are their enemies yet. That’s why you get so much confusion.
Theory is absolutely critical in that it provides a framework to help you identify the primary contradictions and formulate a strategy to achieve your political goals. Since it is impossible to predict the future of a complex world, a theoretical framework is the best tool you can employ to help you in this process:
From Mao’s Analyses of the Classes in Chinese Society, 1926
It often feels like we’re not even at step zero. besides tiny contingents people(I say relatively) Many I’ve seen don’t engage or outright rebuke theory because of low literacy, mental illness, poor quality of life making reading hard, etc. etc. Not to say those don’t inhibit the ability to read and consume theory however most of those things apply to every person I’ve known who has read theory!
The “left” has embraced the anti-intellectualism that is so often slung at the right and merely posits ourselves as intellectual having absorbed nothing but the knowledge of what our institutions tell us and our experience shows us.
Hell! I’ve seen people try throwing left-wing communism as a brick against this not realizing they’re those siding with the bandits for a share of the loot, they are the very ones siding with their own bourgeois against the international working class! (Generously assuming they read more than 5-pages of the book).
This generally is due to the main mass of the “left” here being liberals fleeing towards nominal leftism in times of panic, I dismiss those since they also return to “brunch” the moment the fascistic nature of the state begins to appear less overt. But some of the people I’ve seen saying these things and behaving this way have been “leftists” longer than I’ve been potty trained, ignoring this analysis for longer than I’ve been able to read! That is the part that frustrates me.
I agree with you here, though. It doesn’t help that from what I’ve seen, much of the left is very white and are not the most marginalized sections of society. Also, there has yet to be a purging of the contempt for those same marginalized in many cases. Some of the same people glorifying the brugereich’s greatest soldier also think every working class reactionary needs to be eliminated.
There isn’t just an incoherence of the situation: for many, they still haven’t found coherence in ideology. It’s many of the same failings of white unionism and previous organizing attempts here.
Vietnamese and Chinese peasants (just two of many examples) were able to learn theory while being murdered by fascist war criminals, no amerikkkan has an excuse.
I have another comment making fun of that here: https://hexbear.net/comment/6611507
These are people in the imperial core. IDK how to reorient them but we need to have some patience.
They show far less patience to the masses than I withheld from them.
My frustration is the blatant hypocrisy here on site In the past week I’ve seen many cases of people suddenly swapping tone on genocide and acting like this is bluesky and yet we have an issue an engage in struggle session when those outside the core say we’re flippant and untrustworthy?
And frankly I’m unsure how much patience I should even show from a solely selfish perspective. My comparison to white unionism wasn’t accidental or incidental, I’m a Black guy that knows this will include me at some point like it has damn near every other time. Snarling Wolf vs. Smiling Fox. Those that act like this are either white chauvinists in nature or uncle toms. Both of those are circumstancial allies, at full optimism, but not friends.
It’s utterly outrageous and must be engaged with as such coming from fellow “leftists,” and it’s been non-stop genocide apologia for each and every bastard with a camera that offers to piss on the American masses to cool them off.
I thought I was losing my mind when people justified Zohran saying he’d work with Nazis and my brain twisted itself in knots to take it as them missing the fact that is the nature of the comment. But now we decided they need to be those who direct the masses!
This hasn’t been people saying, “well if they feel really bad maybe we can let them mop floors,” their looking at a multi decade long career of imperialism, followed by choosing to do it for a private company as well, and saying, “well you’re being quite overdramatic saying he can’t lead the people, have you considered he said he feels bad about it?”
I’ve personally moved on how to consider these these people over the last few months. Seeing what a viper pit the DSA became was a wake up call for me re: Zohran. I can’t trust NYC DSA folks. Or most DSA folks.
The frustrating thing is these people should be close to getting it, right? I mean if they aren’t true comrades, who are?
There’s a silver lining in that these ghouls have to pretend to support some mild populist reforms now to be popular. It’s that or mask-off Fascism. If this was 2006 I’m sure this Platber guy would be a neo-con.
Some of them maybe. Many are young and this is their first time experiencing this and no one reads the theory that tells them this is how it goes. Many have no interest and are perpetually too invested in this hell state to want to.
And I’m very unsure if this populism, will bring anything good. Fascism uses populism for its appeal too.
Gotta struggle none the less.