However, hope is not lost, and no matter how difficult our task, it’s increasingly getting more feasible.
Soooo much this. Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will. Revolution is only possible if we believe that it is. Lenin believed it was possible but not in his lifetime. Lenin got one and only one thing wrong and that was it. We can never know when The Moment will come and all we can do right now is to try to grow these organizations but more importantly to discipline them. To employ or advocate for rigorous vetting standards (LOOKING AT YOU NYC DSA although your rejection of propaganda about china is cool and good) would be a good start. Of course it seems that on some level the DSA is highly compromised but from what I have heard from folks basically every party is compromised in the US. We have been simmering in the sauce for so long it’s like the first Matrix movie how just random ass street food vendors suddenly turn into super powered agents of the state.
They hardly fuckin need COINTELPRO when mother fuckers like the person in that DSA leak just do it for them.
I actually had a conversation with a coworker yesterday. He used to be a pastor and grew up in a super evangelical family. Now he has a podcast that is borderline liberation theology and an interrogation of right wing christianity. We got to talking and we were on our work phones but conversation basically led from MLK to Lenin because it is real easy when talking about current events to bring up the riot is the language of the unheard line and then from there get to Lenin and the opening passage of state and revolution about the coopting of revolutionary figures while sanitizing them.
Excellent way to bring up Lenin! Lenin’s observations are invaluable and can help us analyze our present conditions. It’s important to carry on his legacy and re-analyze our existing world, just like Lenin did with Marx and re-analyzed for his era, the era after imperialism had solidified but before there was a single international dictatorship of the bourgeoisie helmed by one country, the US Empire.
DSA isn’t compromised. It’s just that as a “big tent” org with no vetting standards wrecker shit is going to happen.
We should want a space for angry libs to go and learn what the left is truly about. What we shouldn’t do is allow them into spaces where they can do dumb shit without some form of vetting. But I will stand by the DSA being open to help people grow into comrades as a necessary part of the movement. It just needs to fill this role better.
The best argument you can make for the DSA not being compromised is that “compromised” implies having some baseline level of legitimacy that the DSA broadly lacks.
Soooo much this. Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will. Revolution is only possible if we believe that it is. Lenin believed it was possible but not in his lifetime. Lenin got one and only one thing wrong and that was it. We can never know when The Moment will come and all we can do right now is to try to grow these organizations but more importantly to discipline them. To employ or advocate for rigorous vetting standards (LOOKING AT YOU NYC DSA although your rejection of propaganda about china is cool and good) would be a good start. Of course it seems that on some level the DSA is highly compromised but from what I have heard from folks basically every party is compromised in the US. We have been simmering in the sauce for so long it’s like the first Matrix movie how just random ass street food vendors suddenly turn into super powered agents of the state.
They hardly fuckin need COINTELPRO when mother fuckers like the person in that DSA leak just do it for them.
Yep, well said! It’s hard, not easy nor impossible.
I actually had a conversation with a coworker yesterday. He used to be a pastor and grew up in a super evangelical family. Now he has a podcast that is borderline liberation theology and an interrogation of right wing christianity. We got to talking and we were on our work phones but conversation basically led from MLK to Lenin because it is real easy when talking about current events to bring up the riot is the language of the unheard line and then from there get to Lenin and the opening passage of state and revolution about the coopting of revolutionary figures while sanitizing them.
Excellent way to bring up Lenin! Lenin’s observations are invaluable and can help us analyze our present conditions. It’s important to carry on his legacy and re-analyze our existing world, just like Lenin did with Marx and re-analyzed for his era, the era after imperialism had solidified but before there was a single international dictatorship of the bourgeoisie helmed by one country, the US Empire.
DSA isn’t compromised. It’s just that as a “big tent” org with no vetting standards wrecker shit is going to happen.
We should want a space for angry libs to go and learn what the left is truly about. What we shouldn’t do is allow them into spaces where they can do dumb shit without some form of vetting. But I will stand by the DSA being open to help people grow into comrades as a necessary part of the movement. It just needs to fill this role better.
The best argument you can make for the DSA not being compromised is that “compromised” implies having some baseline level of legitimacy that the DSA broadly lacks.
That is literally what I meant by compromised.