what’s the end goal here Zohran. ‘Socialism’ (actually social democracy) but with a roving gang of armed and organized fascists that we just ignore? are we just going to kick the issue of systemic racism down the road because it’s “woke 1” to even talk about, until it becomes a powder keg again? this is the actual internal DSA white chauvinism contradiction that MSM are clawing to find but they won’t use it as a real wedge because it’d increase the salience of Defund again
I am indeed saying that they seem to mostly be social liberals, though there are many genuine reformists as well. I don’t have census data on the matter though, and I do think the factions of genuine reformists have been growing overall.
I appreciate the recommendation and will read the essay.
The one thing that I would add to your summary of the issue is that there are different kinds of reformists, the genuinely counterrevolutionary electoralists vs the people seeking to advance socialism by every means available, having chosen pushing for reform as their particular job at the moment. I think this latter camp can be helpful and have historically been important (revolutionary organizations historically have often had both legal and illegal wings), the biggest problem with this distinction in my perception is that members of the first camp, counterrevolutionaries, will often pretend to be members of or at least strong allies to members of the second camp, when that is false and they are roughly as dangerous as any other kind of liberal.
for an example of an actual reformist the author/speaker (apparently this is a transcript of a speech, i have never noticed despite reading the essay a few times before lol) chose Hugo Chavez, which i think maps well with this distinction between genuine electoralist and a reformist who is actually willing to change their tactics.