this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2024
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Post is from Xitter, so I copied it below

All the takes are correct and yet they also miss the point.

Yes, it was insane for the Democrats to think they could win by running a soulless candidate, without a shred of progressive policy vision, pursuing endorsements from neocon war-hawks everybody hates, while arming and funding a genocide, and belittling and crushing those who have enough morality to protest it.  It is enraging that the Democrats are so smug and blind to this.

But these are all just symptoms.  The deeper reality is that liberalism has failed, liberalism is dead, and people urgently need to wake up to this fact and respond accordingly. It is a defunct ideology that cannot offer any meaningful solutions to our social and ecological crises and it must be abandoned.

Democrats have proven over and over again that they cannot accept even basic steps like public healthcare, affordable housing, and a public job guarantee - things that would dramatically improve the material, social and political conditions of the working classes. And they cannot accept a public finance strategy that would steer production away from fossil fuels and toward green transition to give us a shot at a liveable future.

Why? Because these things run against the objectives of capital accumulation. And for liberals capital is sacrosanct. They will do whatever it takes to ensure elite accumulation, it is their only consistent commitment.  At home, they suppress and demonize progressive and socialist tendencies. Abroad, they engage in endless wars and violence to suppress input prices in the global South and prevent any possibility of sovereign economic development.

The Democrats have done all this purposefully and knowingly, for my whole life, not as some kind of "mistake" but in full consciousness that it is in the interests of capital.

And because liberalism cannot address our crises, and because it crushes socialist alternatives, it inevitably paves the way for right-wing populism.  They know this pattern, and yet they risk it every time - this election being only the most recent example. They did it in 2016, when they actively crushed the Sanders campaign and sent Trump to the White House. They do it because ultimately they (and I mean the liberal ruling class here) don't really mind if fascists take power, so long as the latter too ensure the conditions for capital accumulation. They 100% prefer this to the possibility of a socialist alternative.

So, progressives have to face reality. The dream of "converting" the Democratic party is dead. This is now a fact and it must be accepted. The only option is to build a mass-based movement that can reclaim the working classes and mobilize a political vehicle that can integrate disparate progressive struggles into a unified and formidable political force and achieve substantive transformation. This will take real work, actual organizing, but it must be done and that process must begin now.

Link: https://x.com/jasonhickel/status/1854107107743682797

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Liberalism. (noun) a political orientation that favors social progress by reform and by changing laws rather than by revolution.

What they're saying is that revolution is the only option.

[–] stoly 25 points 1 month ago (3 children)

And the ability to revolt ended somewhere around WWI when the number and types of mass killing machines increased dramatically. Anyone who attempts it now will be taken out by someone flying a drone from a secure location.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I've been saying the same damn thing to all those who said something about a civil war. What are your peashooters to a fucking unmanned drone, controlled from hundreds of miles away, that will bomb your ass????

[–] stoly 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

And yet if you say that those people become tankie level angry at you because it’s all symbolic anyway. The sort of person who yells at a minimum wage employee over an inconvenience is too much of a snowflake to actually put their life on the line.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Oh, yes. Those 2nd amendment morons always forget we don't have just muskets and cannons anymore. Your little AR rifle, and realistically, any other weapon you can even conceivably get your hands on, is NOT going to stand up against a military machine gun in the current era. They don't NEED those machine guns though, because they will, as we said, just bomb your stupid ass from however many thousands of feet in the air, while they laugh at you for even thinking you were going to do something.

[–] stoly 2 points 1 month ago

When I feel mean, the story I tell involves some dude under a mountain on Colorado shedding a single tear as they drop the bomb in your house.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You can tell when the liberals are really frazzled when their arguments are so lost in hyperreality that they don’t even make cursory sense anymore.

Absolutely delicious.

Let me guess, next you’re going to call me a Trump supporter 😂

[–] stoly 2 points 1 month ago

No, more like edgy teen.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

A revolution doesn't have to mean a sort of military coup, what we would have to attack is their sources of capital, the flow of wealth flowing upward. Something like general strikes and mass unionization to put control of capital back into the hands of the working class.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

these weapons mean nothing when we can revolt simply by withholding our labor.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

This is the usual case of Americans using political words differently from the rest of the world (like libertarian instead of ancap).

When Americans say 'liberalism' they really mean 'neoliberalism'.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Liberalism is not dead, it is functioning as intended, to enable fascism.

Now more than ever, stop conflating liberalism with leftism.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago

Agreed, liberalism is thriving because the fascist collective is still in power, the flags are just red for the next four years. What another resounding victory for capitalism.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Some shit head on shitter has a shower thought and thinks iamverysmart.

Antonio Gramsci explained ALL of this 100 years ago.

Liberalism exists to protect asset owning class . They throw a few cultural crumbs about sexual freedom and racial equality to working people and create an illusion of progress. Meanwhile capital flows upwards.

All this outrage today from people who still haven’t gotten themselves health care , still have gotten teachers more than 30 odd grand, and still see their quality of live eroding . Not to mention murderous foreign policy that has people waiting for the downfall of the hegemony.

This is why they teach you to slur socialism. All the answers were written and your not suppose know them.

[–] feedum_sneedson 0 points 1 month ago

My knees and elbows hurt so much.

[–] IMNOTCRAZYINSTITUTION 24 points 1 month ago (2 children)

yeah and where's your revolution? when's that gonna happen? how's that gonna happen? who's going to do it? who are the leaders? anyone who thinks revolution is coming to america is a fool. there is no substantial support for it and no one can even agree what it means! revolution to what end?

[–] pigup 2 points 1 month ago

Further, how in earth would that ever be organized, online? in person while carrying your pocket listening device? Without your phone in front of millions of cameras everywhere?

[–] eatCasserole 2 points 1 month ago

It's a long ass road but a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Are you gonna accept fascism, or take the step?

Labor organizing is a good thing to work on - it can bring about modest improvements for the working class, and you can't be too organized. Educate anyone who's willing to listen, educate yourself, actually read stuff. Maybe there's a local organization you can join. Maybe there are some smaller wins possible in local politics, get familiar with who's on your city council, go to some meetings or something. There are many options. Sitting on your couch and declaring hopelessness isn't the best one.

[–] homesweethomeMrL 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

I never had an account. I saw the text elsewhere and searched for the original source

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Unfortunately I strongly believe that capital will always win. It's literal power. The only positive we could hope for in all of this is the democratic party dies, but I doubt that. :/

[–] eatCasserole 2 points 1 month ago

Capitalism is highly unstable, and the US empire is in decline. I strongly believe that without the support of a global hegemon, capital will win less and less.

Just look at how many times the US and its minions have intervened to topple or compromise socialist movements around the world. Without that intervention, many may have been successful. They can only keep this up for so long, and I suspect they're already starting to strain.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 month ago

"The only positive we could hope for"? Dream bigger.

The Democratic Party® has always been a satiating alt product shoveled out to those that can't/won't suckle alongside their blithe & grunty meatbag siblings... all squirming w/self-import in the same muck they're all born in and will all die in — while the proverbial spider-mom wonders from the old timber above if showing *any@ of them a glimpse into the larger Truth©'d actually change anything at all.

We know it doesn't. Eat your slop, citizen. Life is pain.