And no, I don’t mean, the supposed “Playful Bullying” (that will upset me too, same with being teased), or being even lightly prodded.
The other day, I was questioned on whether I “actually am a leftist”, by a friend. After I nervously answered fairly basic questions such as believing in healthcare and collective labor, they weren’t convinced. Ever since that day, I felt like I couldn’t be a leftist, especially since I lost any confidence in my ability to be “better” according to that person’s standards. If I couldn’t satisfy their standards that one time, what would be the point of trying to read theory and trying again? Yes I admit, I haven’t tried to read theory. I have no confidence that I would do it correctly.
So, I was already completely lacking in confidence in actually being a good enough leftist. But after that incident where I was bullied and picked on, even for a few minutes… Something in me gave up trying to keep up with the people on this website. It also made me fear and lose confidence in trying, for fear that I would encounter other “Secret Tests of Character” like that.
I feel as though in terms of personality, I am too quiet, too shy, and I have too little to say or contribute anyways, to feel at home here. It feels as though speaking the loudest and having lots to say is what matters the most here, and that is something I cannot do.
So, given that everyone insists “read theory”, which I haven’t been able to, does this mean I am not at the standards I seem to see here?
Both are true
Everybody thinks they’re the vanguard, nobody thinks they’re the proletariat. We need a whole hell of a lot more of one than the other.
The vanguard is the proletariat. They’re not separate from the masses, but rather the most politically advanced and organized section of it
The first among equals as it were. Let’s put it this way, artists and ditch diggers are equally important in a socialist society but for some reason everyone wants to be artists.
Wow its literally like Animal Farm 1984
Literal anticommunist talking point, to wit:
What are you talking about, man? You seem to be thinking that a vanguard party is a bunch of pointy head intellectuals pushing up their glasses. It’s just the people who are politically aware and actively engaging in organized class struggle. Do you think a ditch digger cannot join or would not be welcomed into a vanguard party?
Read some Mao and free your mind from anticommunist State Department talking points
I’m 100% in favor of vanguardism but ideology doesn’t cloud my perception of what it is. My original sentiment was that not everybody is the leader of the revolution, not even most people, not even many people, but everybody is still a revolutionary.
When left libertarians argue that communism is authoritarian do you argue that it’s not and that it’s actually democratic and blah blah blah or do you say yes, authority is required to maintain a socialist state in the face of reaction? All the guys whose names get letters tagged onto Marxism got that, and all the guys that nobody’s heard of who thought differently got killed or subverted.
The political compass is not theory.
It’s an extremely prominent and recognizable strain of left wing thought.
I don’t know what you’re trying to say here. Outside the context of an actual mass movement for a revolution, this isn’t the case. Most people are not revolutionaries, and if they were they’d likely be in the vanguard.
I certainly don’t adopt their childish notions of “authoritarianism,” a term popularized by the CIA to conflate communist and fascist governments. I don’t say “uhh actually authoritarianism is based
”
Socialist states are definitionally more democratic than a bourgeois state because the government represents the interests of the proletariat rather than the tiny fraction of the ownership class. Democracy is not bad or unsocialist. Bourgeois democracy is bad because it is not, in fact, democratic. Authority can be effectively wielded to crush reaction by the democratic, socialist state. The USSR was democratic. Cuba is democratic. China is democratic.
We’re both arguing past each other. The person who started the thread who wondering if they’re a bad person for not reading theory is who I responded to by saying that not everybody has to be at the vanguard. You then took offense that I made a distinction between the vanguard and proletarian mass before pulling a hard U-turn and making a clear distinction between the vanguard and proletarian mass by arguing that they are the ones whose actions are revolutionary regardless of whether there is a revolution. Up until this point we largely agree but you seem to be chafing at the lack of sugar coating on my part. I don’t need that to be committed, do you need that?
I disagree about democracy. Democratic elements are very socialist, but the principles of democracy as an overriding governmental structure are anti-socialist. Take the recent Venezuelan elections, I don’t give a shit even if Maduro rigged the election, sustaining the revolution is always more important than democracy. The state obviously has to find a way to respond to the discontentment but allowing reaction to vote its way back in to power can not be allowed.