Precious in 2020.... I feel for the dude in that picture. it just keeps getting darker and stranger. I'm in KY and Rand Paul is the only peace candidate. uh.... weird how that happened. my mom tries to offer up bernie as an example of someone on the once-and-future-left who isn't a dumpster fire of oppressive virtue signaling crossed with total material dishonesty (a la green new deal battery lobby running into the composition of the accessible mineral crust of the planet as outlined by for example simon micheaux) crossed with "they want to forceably inject me with stuff". Thanks for helping me crash that last shred of false hope so maybe we can get somewhere new. What else throws me off is the conservative take that marxist politics must necessarily lead to repression as... And this is me working out an understanding of the argument here, and I'm still working on it... that it necessarily leads to repression because the Left would put into the State's hands the power to protect weak/minority/victim groups, and it will always expand the definition of who is in those groups and what protecting they need in order to expand its own power until it controls everything. Rather than permitting open, say, competitive marketplace of ideas, power more 'naturally' moving and shifting and establishing centers among the people of a place through their non-state interactions. What do you think of this whole line? I must say that my experience in 'horizontally organized spaces' has been a nightmare, where personal power and persuasion is perceived negatively, like it tends towards enforced equality and rule by procedure. and then goes nowhere. except at the Wooden Shoe, where the meetings could be quite long, but in the end the bookstore did run while I was there, just one lowly volunteer observing and ordering and shelving some books. anyway, glad to have found you. Substack is full of good stuff.
Marxism leads to liberation, not repression (except of the bourgeoisie and counter revolutionaries). A workers' state is completely different from a bourgeois state, I think that's the fundamental difference a lot of people don't understand.
"But the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes." - Karl Marx.
It's truly sad, isn't it, when those whom we reasonably trusted, supported and worked and advocated for, are found after all to have given up or sold out even their own apparent principles.
Whether it is because he lost his spine, gave in to lesser-of-evils beliefs and rationalizing, was threatened, or just got mentally weaker and lost his grasp of the nexus between the issues he now focuses on and American foreign policy, i certainly can't say. But whatever the reason, he became a shadow of the fighter he once was.
One thing I do know is that those of us who once backed and defended him were not simply mistaken. And he changed. We didn't...other than perhaps by opening our eyes a bit wider.
Brilliantly written, and bringing receipts.
Thank you!
Precious in 2020.... I feel for the dude in that picture. it just keeps getting darker and stranger. I'm in KY and Rand Paul is the only peace candidate. uh.... weird how that happened. my mom tries to offer up bernie as an example of someone on the once-and-future-left who isn't a dumpster fire of oppressive virtue signaling crossed with total material dishonesty (a la green new deal battery lobby running into the composition of the accessible mineral crust of the planet as outlined by for example simon micheaux) crossed with "they want to forceably inject me with stuff". Thanks for helping me crash that last shred of false hope so maybe we can get somewhere new. What else throws me off is the conservative take that marxist politics must necessarily lead to repression as... And this is me working out an understanding of the argument here, and I'm still working on it... that it necessarily leads to repression because the Left would put into the State's hands the power to protect weak/minority/victim groups, and it will always expand the definition of who is in those groups and what protecting they need in order to expand its own power until it controls everything. Rather than permitting open, say, competitive marketplace of ideas, power more 'naturally' moving and shifting and establishing centers among the people of a place through their non-state interactions. What do you think of this whole line? I must say that my experience in 'horizontally organized spaces' has been a nightmare, where personal power and persuasion is perceived negatively, like it tends towards enforced equality and rule by procedure. and then goes nowhere. except at the Wooden Shoe, where the meetings could be quite long, but in the end the bookstore did run while I was there, just one lowly volunteer observing and ordering and shelving some books. anyway, glad to have found you. Substack is full of good stuff.
Marxism leads to liberation, not repression (except of the bourgeoisie and counter revolutionaries). A workers' state is completely different from a bourgeois state, I think that's the fundamental difference a lot of people don't understand.
"But the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes." - Karl Marx.
It's truly sad, isn't it, when those whom we reasonably trusted, supported and worked and advocated for, are found after all to have given up or sold out even their own apparent principles.
Whether it is because he lost his spine, gave in to lesser-of-evils beliefs and rationalizing, was threatened, or just got mentally weaker and lost his grasp of the nexus between the issues he now focuses on and American foreign policy, i certainly can't say. But whatever the reason, he became a shadow of the fighter he once was.
One thing I do know is that those of us who once backed and defended him were not simply mistaken. And he changed. We didn't...other than perhaps by opening our eyes a bit wider.
Yes, I talk about this more in this article: https://birrion.substack.com/p/bernie-sanders-and-eugene-v-debs
We need a revolution, but Bernie isn't going to lead it.
Thank you so much, Birrion. Couldn't agree more with your assessment. Keep up the great work!