#Marxist anon

[marxistswiftieism]

It is genuinely so fucking crazy how racist some of you are towards people in the dprk. You sit there and go “ah!!! poor little brainwashed stupid fools! they CLEARLY need me, a westerner, to come and fix their backwards savage authoritarian society! They don’t know how to govern themselves so of course I, as a believer in FrEeDoM™️™️™️™️ and DeMoCrAcY™️™️™️ 🗳️🦅🇺🇸🎆🏈, need to show them how life should be lived by sending thumb drives containing, inexplicably, episodes of american cartoons and late night talk shows across the border thus proving how vastly superior our glorious liberal democratic republic is to their dictatorial regime!” and then somehow after doing all of that you will open up a history textbook to read about manifest destiny and the white man’s burden and go “oh how awful! Good thing I, a noble and educated citizen of a beautiful liberal democracy, would NEVER do that!!”

[crooked-wasteland]

With RedNote being popular, it’s a nice opportunity to have a great exchange of culture and languages. I wish it gets to stay as a Chinese app. We really need it especially when every media and how we perceive the world is often US-centric.

We often miss out on a lot of stuff from other countries. I also wonder how Viv and her stans would fare on the app if they were to try it. They’d be like those foreigners who hop into a different country and demand everyone speak English.

When people plan on migrating to a different platform, they should think of it like moving to a different country and consider whether they’re suited there. What are the pros and cons? What kind of culture and people live there? Will you be able to adapt to it?

For example, I’d tell them don’t just move over to Tumblr and expect to get popular through likes or followers (instead we get engagement through reblogs). People often expect everything to cater to them without putting in the work and using the right tools to moderate their online experiences.

They need to understand it’s not discriminatory to have certain topics banned in other platforms like LGBTQ+ themes, politics, sexual content, etc. They need to respect the norms and rules of that place. It’s like moving to Dubai and accusing them of homophobia because their religion doesn’t accept gay people (they’re a Muslim country, not America for god’s sake 🤦🏻‍♀️!).

So I am realizing I didn't finish my thought about RedNote. Please allow me to try again.

Thank you for the ask by the way, I felt this was connected to a Reblog that sparked my interest in needing to clarify it by Haru-Kuneko

Firstly, let's talk about Algorithms. Because we have been ruled by them for a little under 20 years. And GenZ is the generation who is most impacted by algorithms so far. Gen Alpha is not looking good. And the reason for that is because algorithms are woefully misunderstood by laymen.

Curating an online experience through algorithms wasn't designed for you or I to have a superior experience, it was designed to keep us on these apps and websites. They don't just give you more content that is similar to what you like, they trap you in that content and create the echo chamber. Part of the algorithm is intentionally designed to induce rage engagement for the sole purpose of reaffirming your existing algorithmic beliefs. It is designed to keep you engaged with the intent of putting you in a box. Your engagement, your attention, is the product they are buying and selling.

This has led to a drastic increase in internet tribalism and, just as capitalism has an end stage, so does algorithmic thought. With younger people who have never experienced an internet of their own interests, being force fed their beliefs and views that are reinforced by their communities they didn't necessarily choose. Algorithms take away from the act of critically thinking, and has pushed us past tribalism to Deindividuation.

(This video covers misinformation and disinformation, but goes into Deindividuation at timestamp 7:40 if you want to skip to that part.)

And algorithms have replaced personalities for younger people, especially those impacted socially by the pandemic in 2020. They are prepackaged beliefs and values that were primarily created for consumerism and marketing that has now sold our young people identities.

So entering RedBook, these people are, for most likely the first time, experiencing an algorithm that wasn't designed for them the way western websites use them. China's collectivist culture is all about conformity and cooperation. Rage content is not allowed, discourse is not allowed. It is a fundamental threat to their society as their values are not about stoking tenuous perceptions of freedom through false choices and beliefs that are actually predisposed to you based on your race, gender, and sexuality.

It's more about fitting in and being approved of, something Americans are desperate for in this era. They are so lonely that China's social emphasis on community is a fresh spring. And that's a bit of the problem.

Last night my spouse was on RedBook and I watched some videos over her shoulder. It's beautiful to see people connecting with others they are realizing they had a subliminal prejudice against. The US government has done a great job of ruining their citizens in this way where they think they are so superior and above everything, which is reinforced by other western nations. It's the first time for most people that they are in a space where America is not idealized like it is in the West, and they are feeling a genuine human connection because of the amount of curiosity the Chinese users have for them.

They are feeling seen at a time where their government doesn't represent them or care about their beliefs.

And at the same time, some people are swinging far out of bounds to the opposite extreme. People who were once firmly of the belief that the US was superior to China are now saying how amazing and perfect China is, when it isn't. There are some serious issues in China, specifically about corruption and the mismanagement of funds. One vide we saw was about “Green Growth” and how China has created extensive solar farms and increased production towards renewable energy, except Green Growth has been shown to be extremely unproductive in reducing carbon emissions.

That isn't to just dunk on China. Obviously, the same issues are true in the United States as well. Neither is worse than the other, to be frank. But because we have lived in a world devoid of critical thinking, the thing I was concerned about is happening: The extreme pendulum swings.

And to be frank, these extremist perspectives are natural and I am not inherently criticizing them for what they are, it's a teenager's mentality as they are being exposed to new social rules and learning how to integrate into a community. This is how a teenager's brain is functioning in high school and why they are so volatile. I'm not here to judge. Just to note that this is a dangerous thing, objectively. It is dangerous, but also natural and even necessary.

But that's what I meant by “lacking Dialectics”. The inability to engage with two opposing things being true is a dangerous place to be in and makes it extremely easy to radicalize individuals. China is far from perfect, but it isn't worse than the United States. My concern is how this lack of Dialectics, paired with the inherent tunnel vision of social media and emotional volatility of our emotionally immature and stunted society can just as easily breed fanaticism for some Chinese social paradise that genuinely does not exist.

(As an aside, I linked Dialectics in my previous post and realized that it probably didn't make any sense or was just very difficult to understand. So this link is a YouTube video of some guy explaining it to make it easier. My apologies.)

I'm overall supportive of this, hoping that it can radically change people's views towards the world and global communities. I hope this moves moderates to be more progressive and people to be more tolerant of other ideas, values, and societies. I hope people will be more interested in listening to my Marxist ramblings now that Communism is more about funny memes and kind humans and not some scary oppressive government. But there is always a shadow when you stand in the light.

(Which, to be frank, China is not at all a reflection of Marxism or Marxist Communism. The working conditions there are not any better here and labor is still exploited and expendable. They really are no different than the US.)

Don't forget about the shadow is all I ask.

[unhingedfemmecontent]

You really need to be raped until you realise the delusion you are in. Not by all men. Just 1 is enough. I don't believe women should be fucked by all men. Rather they should be by their own man. Yes continuous exposure to dick pounding inside your pussy, until you cum will help you break the delusion. Idiot.

no. i will never have sex with a man glad that bothers you so much though.

[scoliosiswizard]

china is not fascist nor are the economically imperialist. the belt and road initiative isnt some debt trap lol. you should probably start reading more about propaganda manufacturing in the west against china

I formed my opinions on this by talking to friends who live or have lived in Ghana, rural Japan and Peru, and from listening to actual chinese leftists talk, no western propaganda involved. Other than the standard background radiation everyone's raised with but that's why I listened to Chinese people.

Also I didn't even bring up Belt and Road, clearly you know how china's being imperialist if you immediately jump to defend it lmao.

Also also MF I just said China's probably equal or better than the US overall now what do you want. They ain't communist, we ain't communist. They got sweatshops, we got sweatshops. They have "officials aren't allowed to say anything even conceivably negative about Xi in western interviews, even if intentionally insignificant to prove a point" we have the entire government deciding to shut down TikTok.

[rxvera]

IIIIIiiiiii didn't know you were a BEYOND loverrrrrr

why does that fit tho

I cannot believe you didn't clock that I would be obsessed with a man that's compensating for a raging inferiority complex and likes to kill people but especially himself

[hussyknee]

hi! I like your blog very much, but minor question here. Your dni says marxists, does that include general communists, socialists, etc or no?

Anyone who doesn't call me "comrade", dream of overthrowing the government with armed revolt, deny the genocides of communist governments, or try to tell people who actually lived under communism that it wasn't "real communism" is welcome to follow me. Or if you do believe those things, don't subject me to them.

[pancakehouse]

wait i have a reason for top sirius. he is an aristocrat and why should aristocrats just get to lie around and do nothing. Workers of the world unite.

you know what you’ve made a fantastic point here this is so true sirius tries to lie back in one of those lush dormitory beds he is sooo comfy he’s relaxed ready to have a good time there’s crimson scarlet bright red pillows and duvet sheets all around him there’s little gold detailing on everything and well the irony is certainly not lost on remus he whips out his battered annotated dog-eared copy of the communist manifesto and is like WELL listen up here black ….

[thevalicemultiverse]

"WILL PENSIONS CRISIS CAUSED BY GAY MARXIST MUSLIM ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FROM THE ZIONIST-CONTROLLED EU CHEATING ON BENEFITS AND BISEXUAL BLACK TRANSGENDER PAEDOS TAKING OUR JOBS CAUSE HOUSE PRICE CRASH AND CANCER IN MARGINALIZED WHITE CHRISTIAN BLACKSHIRTS?!?"

"No, but it'll probably cause hearing loss thanks to assholes like you," Alice mutters, digging around in her ear.

[spaghettioverdose]

people are discovering I'm an evil tankie lmao

anyways the second one is particularly dumb. you speak of the concept of ml transfems like they're this wacky sort of weird rare position that no one really has. are you aware how many popular posters on this site are transfem MLs or transfem ML adjacent? moreover, based on what do you know that MLs are the most transphobic people on the left? like not talking about a subreddit or a discord server, or even CPGB. I'm talking about the movement as a whole. and if there is, a trend where marxism-leninism is especially transphobic (hint: there is not) is that due to the ideology itself being inherently transphobic or is it the people living in particular material conditions that lead to them holding out reactionary ideas?

I could bring up a million arguments to refute this like the incredibly progressive new family code in Cuba, or East Germany's progressive LGBT policies, or how people were already lamenting how many rights they were going to lose from the reunification, or the general trend of modern socialist states to make gains when it comes to LGBT rights and protections, but this has been brought up a million times and you are all still stupid.

Tell me anon, who am I, as a transfem, supposed to side with politically? Liberals who have all shown to be willing to throw us under the bus in record speeds if they believe it might get them three more votes? Anarchists who are utterly incapable of forming any kind of cohesive movement, incabable of holding powe for longer than 2 years, and incapable of organising the economy in any that helps anyone? Am I meant to become a trotskyite or a leftcom so I can whinge about stalinism all day and never do anything useful? What ideology should I fucking be anon? I've was a liberal and I was an anarchist and they both were shit. And believe it or not, anon, anarchists aren't as inherently good to transfems as you think either.

But besides even all this, you deeply misunderstand why I'm even an ML. I believe that marxism-leninism provides a scientific lens through which economy and politics can be analysed to produce analysis with actual predictive power. This is a quality that is very much absent from every non-marxist ideology. Every newer liberal economist that suddenly discovers a basic function of capitalist economy and who is then lauded as a genius, has been playing catch-up with Marx and they're still very far behind. Keynes discovered the concept of "in an economy that runs on commodities being bought, when no one has money to buy said commodities, the economy collapses" is something that scientific communists knew for since the later half of the 1800s. Marxism-leninism is the only form of leftwing ideology that has been effective. Marxism-leninism, when applied, has almost universally raised the standards of living, industrialisation, life expectancy and women's rights. I'm not an ML because I think of ideologies as sports teams, cliques, or fun little labels to add to myself.

[apas-95]

Hey can you believe in genes while also being a Marxist-Leninist? I wouldn't want to believe in anything idealist. :X

even if you're on anon I still know it's you lysenko

[txttletale]

"okay but what if I edit a marxist-leninist zine and capitalists are coming to hit me with a cement truck in retaliation for my political activities and I need to defend myself because not only am I the union shop steward at my job but I'm also the only regularly employed provider in my polycule and my girlfriend's disabled children will go hungry if I die - THEN is it okay to own a gun?" -your next usamerican anon, probably

the crazy thing is that i've never said it's not okay to own a gun! just that you're not Arming the Proletariat by doing it and that it's bad if you use it to kill people for stealing from you and these two things are incomprehensible to usamericans

[mesetacadre]

Half-doubting if this anon was even a good idea to begin with but, am I a bad communist for being actively hostile against any form of authoritarian concentration of power?

I just don't think any single person could embody the revolution much less serve it on a system built entirely on personalism where we worship the leader instead of the workers themselves. The only role individual people should have on communism is that of thinkers and philosophers, not of absolute rulers.

This may be drawn from a personal bias though, my country was destroyed by a dictatorship that would have gladly shot me and hid my body for being a lesbian and I have developed animosity towards authoritarians that is perhaps unhealthy.

Where do we draw the line to avoid becoming a red painted tyranny? Or am I just not a good communist for my intransigence?

Thank you for your time

I'll break this down into two parts, authority and idolatry

Authority is a value-neutral, metaphysical concept. It is the use of some kind of force to impose a will on others. If you consider yourself a communist, then how do you intend to overthrow capitalism without exerting authority? Engels said it best: «A revolution is certainly the most authoritarian thing there is; it is the act whereby one part of the population imposes its will upon the other part by means of rifles, bayonets and cannon — authoritarian means, if such there be at all». We must come to terms with this, as revolutionary marxists. If we refuse the concept of authority all-together, then all that can happen is that authority is applied against our entire class, for the rest of time. I also live in a first-world country that used to have a fascist dictatorship, and the ~150,000 thousand killed for political reasons, 30,000 disappeared, 500,000 interned in concentration camps, more than 100,000 summary trials, tens of thousands of slaves and the thousands tortured up to the very end can speak to its destructiveness. But it wasn't as simple as "they used authority, therefore all authority (abstractly) is bad". Franco's dictatorship responded to a series of needs that the Spanish and European bourgeoisie had, by the time of their sponsored coup d'etat in 1936, Spain was at the forefront of organization of the working class in Europe, the communist party had hundreds of thousand members if you include their youth wing, and the biggest unions reached the millions, in a country of just under 25 million. Italy, Germany, Austria and Portugal found themselves in a similar resurgence when their fascists took power, in every case financed by their biggest capitalists, national and foreign.

The point I'm getting at is that, if you want to understand class society, you have to go beyond the black-and-white, metaphysical liberal philosophy. Violence can be exerted by multiple classes through their own class organizations, and the character, context and sense of that violence changes accordingly. I'm not saying that all violence committed by workers without exception is wholly good. I'm saying that the relationship each class has with class society modifies the very reasoning and effect of that violence. And no example of violence in history can be really described as senseless. My country's dictatorship did not kill, torture and repress that many people for no reason, the holocaust did not happen because Hitler was an evil entity, and the various proletarian states, past and present, have not exerted their authority senselessly.

In marxist theory there are two very important concepts: the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie (DotB), and the dictatorship of the proletariat (DotP). The DotB is a catch-all term for any state of any form that serves capitalist interests. This is useful because, whether it's a liberal democracy with a strong welfare system, or Pinochet's Chile, they both ultimately serve to protect and expand the interest of the capitalist class. Put another way, the capitalist economy sustains the state and other entities like the media, the military, the government (what we call the suprastructure), while the capitalist economy underneath it all (what we call the infrastructure) maintains its existence. It is a dictatorship because it is one class enacting their own will in their own interests. The DotP is the same concept, but turned on its head. After our class has taken power and has began to build socialism-communism, it is actively enacting their sole will in their own interests. Why would the formerly exploited listen to what their former exploiters want? The proletariat must be able to repress the extant capitalist elements within and the permanently hostile capitalist class without. Dwell on this for a moment. While a DotP fosters democratic mechanisms for its class, the social majority (as all DotP in history have done), it simultaneously exerts its authority on those extraneous to the working class. If you live in a capitalist state, the very same thing is happening, just reversed. The managers of capitalism, i.e. the representatives in liberal democracy, govern for the capitalist class, even representing various sections of that class, while simultaneously repressing or preventing any organization of the working class.

I did not mention Chile as an example for no reason beforehand. When the working class of Chile attempted to build socialism through non-violent means, after the election of Allende (there were many tendencies within Allende's party and among his entire support base but that's beyond this post), they were met with an intervention that did not have any qualms about using violence, kickstarting Pinochet's 17 year long dictatorship, backed by Chilean and USAmerican capitalists, atop the corpses of at least 40,000 executed and/or tortured. Look up the massacre of Estadio Nacional if you're interested, it's where Victor Jara was murdered.

"Authority" in DotP is never as widespread nor as violent, firstly because it doesn't aim to repress the social majority, but rather the small but resourceful capitalist class, and secondly because its "repression" more often than not manifests in our actual goals, which is to build a socialist economy, which would necessarily eliminate the social basis for a capitalist class to exist in the first place. In the USSR, for example, the rich landowner peasants disappeared first an foremost because the structure of land ownership was completely changed, eliminating the source of their power. Any instances of actual violence were mostly against saboteurs during collectivization or during the grain seizures to curb the mass starvation that happened in the cities during the civil war, since no grain made it there. Capitalist authority is meant to keep the mass of working people subservient and exploited, proletarian authority is meant to protect the project of socialism-communism against attacks. It has never been about killing all the rich people, it has been about abolishing the capitalist mode of production and building a new one, one which does not need the oppression of any kind of people to keep functioning.

I recommend the following books if you're interested in sources about "authority" and democracy in DotPs:

The Soviets Expected It, Anna Louise Strong (1941). It is focused on the USSR's lead-up to the fascist invasion, but it contains a few examples from ALS' own, unsupervised, experience with soviet democracy and the general attitude of working people

In North Korea: First Eyewitness Reports, Anna Louise Strong (1949). Same as the previous one, it has a few examples of ALS' unsupervised travels through North Korea before the Korean War that talk about how democracy was set up.

The Triumph of Evil, Austin Murphy (2002). I've said a lot how this author is very annoying about keeping to this useless good vs evil dichotomy when talking about socialism and capitalism, but apart from those sporadic remarks, it's incredibly well researched. It focuses on economic aspects, but chapters 1, 2, especially 3, and 7 all contain analyses on the actual mechanisms of authority that DotP use, taking East Germany as an example. Again though, the author is very annoying as soon as he begins to give his personal opinions on morality.

Stasi State or Socialist Paradise? The German Democratic Republic and What Became of It, Bruni de la Motte and John Green (2015). Pretty self explanatory title, this one goes into more detail about the security apparatus of East Germany. I haven't read this one in full, but it has a dedicated chapter on democracy and the state security service.

Onto idolatry. I promise this part will be shorter.

I've written more in detail about this, but while personality worship is a problem, I don't agree that it leads to the problems you outline. It's undeniable that there have been elements of individual idolatry, but that's neither a reflection of actual power concentration or ever a substitution for the elevation of workers. Leadership in any communist party is always collective, and if it follows Leninist principles of organization even partially, then internal democracy is always guaranteed save for the most extreme of situations. Stalin might have been a popular figure, but the Central Committee he was a part of was not below him, and the periodical Congresses had more authority than the CC or any individual person. ALS mentions how, for example, the 1936 constitution was made. It was a wholly democratic process, more than a hundred thousand suggestions were all recieved and considered by the organs in charge. It was the most progressive constitution in its time, it guaranteed rights many of us still do not have. And that process supposedly happened while the "worship" of Stalin was in full force. Every position in DotPs has some mechanism of recall and accountability, everything is elected and ratified. Can you start a process of recall for any specific member of the state administration in your DotB? In one instance, as ALS says, in the region of Crimea up to half of the elected officials were all recalled in one year.

I keep using the USSR as an example because it's the system I'm most familiar with, but any other DotP you can think of has similar mechanisms and limitations to power. Once again, was there a certain amount of idolatry towards a few individuals? Yes. Was this a harmful vice which created unchecked concentration of power and undue oppression? Most certainly not. Besides this, we're materialists, and we understand that human psychology is largely molded by the underlying material conditions. Focusing on individuals when it comes to these sorts of things is almost inevitable for large groups of people because of how the exploitative economic conditions modify psychological tendencies. It is a remain of liberal ideology for the most part, and it should be fought against. But you can't expect millions of people to change how they view certain processes, changes like those take a lot of time, generations, and education.

I've spent essentially all of my political life within a party structure not very dissimilar from that of Cuba's, the USSR's, China's, the DPRK's, etc, and I can say with full confidence that it is the most democratic and simultaneously productive set of principles you can have in political activity. Compared to liberal democracy, and compared to horizontalist/non-centralized structures, even those employed by anarchists, which I have also experienced, it is still far more democratic and effective at taking into account all input without devolving into a glorified debate club.

I don't think you're a bad communist, having these doubts and talking to other people about it is a very good habit to have. If you still have doubts or want to keep talking about this, feel free to shoot me another ask or a private message :)

[edwad]

me: "i am not a marxist"

my anons:

[didalexiabreakupwitholgaisback]

this is very random but do you know where i can find the wallpaper/photo that aitana had when they did the tik tok for lock screens? it was a picture of camp nou during the el clasico with the stands having the gender equality symbol in yellow

i got you, anon. a few different options below:

you mean aitana, the daughter of marxist communist parents, is watching a movie about a takedown of the catholic church?! this is totally her jam 😅

[velvetvexations]

As a communist it bothers me so much that 90% of tumblr communists are either maoists (or Marxist-Leninist-maoists) and stan China super hard, or are like suuuuper weird about communist historical figures (like acting like they’re their shipping blorbos or insisting one or another was trans). And then yeah like other anon said there’s an overlap with the TRFs.

It’s like genuinely kind of embarrassing because I don’t want to be associated with them

sucks too because it's a self-perpetuating problem lol obnoxious people who loudly self-identify as communists make others refrain from doing so

by now major tenants of communism has just seeped into being basic scrub-tier morality so announcing you read all this theory and giving yourself the label and being part of The Communist Revolution attracts people who just want to jerk themselves off when basically everyone has the essentials down

the non-annoying communists gotta get louder because marxistpuppycatforcefem is not selling it well

[hussyknee]

Tumblr is not letting me edit this, so just to tack on that I know it doesn't answer your question entirely but I have a bad headache so I'm talking only about why Marxists, liberals and tankies are damaging and oppressive to the decolonial project. If your ideology is forcing the world top-down into a preconceived universal blueprint that's somehow supposed to maximise human happiness and freedom, then you're just peddling fascist, colonial bs. Anarchism and decolonization to me is collaborative, grassroots effort to center and empower voices from groups impacted by inequality and colonization. First interrogate the power dynamics, and then invert them one by one, then see how the narrative changes, then take your cues for action from that.

Hello I came from your recent post in the Palestine tag where in the replies you mentioned a few people whom you thought people should avoid. And then I went through your blog. If it is possible and I am asking this sincerely, can you tell me the difference between social anarchist and those who write anarchist/ communist etc etc. I have never been able to understand what the world order should be. Capitalism is bad but when I ask my professors what went wrong with communist nations, one told me that it wasn't real communism. And the other told me, it was always bound to fail but never could answer what should be the world order instead ( he is also rich as fuck and really discussing economy with him when he has the ability to spend endlessly and my family just...well :) let's say it feels patronizing).

I don't have the spoons to get into this, but "what the world order should be" is a fascist framing of social justice.

There is no "world order", only people and their right to the land they live off of, and their right to go somewhere else that has space for them and make a home for themselves there. The "world order" is a penitentiary system where each prison block is allowed to choose between one of two wardens and call it "democratic freedom". "Order" is what imperialists and colonial powere dress up as "peace" to legitimize their monopoly of coercive capital. "Order" is a means of achieving an artificial stability through subjugation and appeasement, making humanity into a equation of "expendable" Vs "non-expendable" and governance into a trolley problem. "Order" is the goal of liberals and marxists— the two ends of the fascist horseshoe. And they do that by insisting that the opposite of "order" is "chaos" and that chaos is the meaning of "anarchy".

People whose approach to issues of inequality or justice is "then what is the alternative system you propose?" are saying their priority is not actually working with the impacted community to find a way to alleviate either, but to find order and stability for themselves. The world is a Gordion knot of injustices and oppressions that need to be unravelled and wounds that need healing one by one, by as many hands as possible. None of that is going to come about by picking another pet imperialist genocider and hegemonic power and calling it "anti-colonial" as long as it's not the US, the way the Tankies do.