#reactionist

[creepykuroneko]

Real talk everyone needs to learn: it is possible for someone to be both a victim and an abuser even simultaneously.

You can be victim of childhood sexual abuse and still grow up to be a horrible person who abuses your own family. The cycle of violence is real people.

White women are victims of misogyny but they can also be perpetrators of racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, anti-semitism, islamophobia, classicism, sexism and abusive towards their families. Think about all those white women who claim to be feminists and looking out for other women but then still turn around and call the police on a black woman they saw in their neighborhood or a disabled homeless woman who was loitering outside a building. The term Karen exists for a reason and it is not about a woman who gets mad because her waiter brought her a tea instead of a coffee. It is a white woman who specifically targets black people and calls the police on them. There is a reason why white women have been fighting against social media to change the definition of calling a white woman a Karen. Saying the term was sexist didn't work (because misogynist don't believe in sexism) so now they try to claim that being a Karen is a superpower meant to stand up for the marginalized and get results.

Women of color are victims of both racism and sexism yet can still be guilty of racism, colorism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, anti-semitism, islamophobia, classicism, sexism and abusive towards their families. Colorism is a really big problem amongst all the various poc groups. unfortunately WOC still hold up the same racist cast standards. Whether it's turning to skin lightening products, straightening one's own hair to fit with eurocentric standards, getting plastic surgery, or repeating the mantra lighter than a brown paper bag, a lot of WOC buy into the idea of what is the right way to look and what is not. Before any of you reactionist are quick to scream, " but if they don't conform to eurocentric standards they are not going to be treated like human beings!" Conforming to the status quo literally does not cause racist to stop being racist. Keep in mind that these women don't just view themselves in a negative light but everyone else who looks like them as well. What do you think women who use skin lightening products do to their children? Especially their darker skin daughters? What do you think happens when these women pray that their child will be fair skin but then are mad to see that they ended up with a brown or black child? Talk to any black, hair stylist, pediatrician, or dermatologist and they will tell you that many parents are so quick to hide their child's natural curly hair while they are still toddlers. that they want their child to have straight hair by age 3. What do you think that does to a child's mental state and self-esteem?

A white physically disabled person will face discrimination for being disabled but still perpetuate racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, anti-semitism, islamophobia, classicism, sexism and abusive towards their families. There are some physically disabled people who rely on social safety nets whether it be food stamps, disability, Social Security etc etc and yet they believe that these programs should be more strict on who is allowed to receive benefits. Even though they themselves have complained about having to prove to their case worker that they are still disabled. They honestly believe that other people in need are fakers who just do not want to work. Because many families cannot afford to have a private nurse come over to assist their disabled relative, oftentimes people will care for their disabled relative despite having no medical training or knowledge. Well this is not the case for everyone, sometimes the family member they are taking care of is abusive towards them. They don't want them to leave the house, have friends, significant others, or even just a little bit of time to do something for themselves. They do abuse their caretaker, throwing things at them, calling them names, tearing down their self-esteem, and threatening to tell their caseworker that their caretaker is abusing them if their caretaker does anything they don't like. Yes this does happen in the real world.

The neurodivergent community is extremely guilty of ableism, especially towards other neurodivergent people. People will complain about how they have every right to exist in public and stem however they want, but then turn around wish that other neurodivergent people disappear. They call other disabled people normal or neurotypical for doing something that they personally do not like. The action in question is something that literally other neurodivergent people do. Think about how many posts you've seen on Tumblr where an autistic person complains about being triggered ( often times they don't even use the term trigger correctly) because their "neurotypical" coworker keeps talking very loudly and fast. Do you know who else talks very loudly and fast sometimes? Other autistic people and people with ADHD. The neurodivergent community seriously needs to stop diagnosing everyone around them as normal. Oftentimes when people try to hold neurodivergent people accountable, the neurodivergent person in question will try to completely manipulate the situation and say things like "my brain doesn't work. I don't understand did I do something bad?", " I can't be held accountable because I'm mentally disabled", or " ableism! How dare you treat me like this!". I had a former coworker who had a form of down syndrome. She would wait until management was not around and then scream in the faces of our other co-workers (often fellow neurodivergent people themselves) and literally call them stupid. When management would ask her about her behavior, she would immediately begin to cry on the spot and say she didn't know she was doing something bad. When he would leave the room she would stop crying and bragged to me about how she knew what she did. Please note she was a disabled white woman calling other disabled mostly black women stupid. For other cases of neurodivergent people being horrible people just look at Chris Chan or Jupiter the hybrid. Apart from believing that they are the only disabled person in the room, racism is also extremely common amongst neurodivergent people. White autistics also love to call the police on disabled brown and black people. If an Asian or black person announces that they are autistic, they are often met with skepticism by white neurodivergent people. I really do not have time to get into it but look up the racist history between who gets diagnosed with ADHD and who gets diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD). This very much plays a role in how neurodivergent people determine who is a "valid" neurodivergent person and who is not. Remember folks just because someone is neurodivergent that does not mean they are not upholding racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, anti-semitism, islamophobia, classicism, sexism and are abusive.

Trans people can face discrimination for being trans but then they themselves are also guilty of being transphobic. Just take a look at the trans men's rights activist movement (TMRA), the tramsmed community, and the huge rise of anti-feminist trans people. Please note I am not talking about trans people who are anti-terfs and serfs, but trans people who are anti-feminism in general. For some reason the TMRA movement also believes that every single trans woman is a terf? I refuse to go down that rabbit hole to see their "logic". Unfortunately for the trans community large chunks of the community still hold on to their same Conservative Christian values they were brought up with and it's very telling when you see people talk about who is a valid trans person and who is not. There are also trans people who are homophobic. They believe homosexuality is a sin. Take a look at trans influencers who make fun of gay people, especially those who do drag, and talk about how they find drag offensive despite the fact that the trans community has a long history with the drag community. Don't believe me? Take a look at trans influencer Nikki Secondino's anti drag comments on her platform before she was arrested for murdering her dad. As with the other groups the trans Community is still guilty of homophobia, ableism, anti-semitism, islamophobia, classicism, sexism and abusive towards their families.

Gay and lesbian people are victims of homophobia but also dish out the same bigotry. There is a huge problem of acephobia, biphobia, transphobia, and discrimination towards intersex people within the G & L community. Think about all the posts you've seen that come from gay people who say that they are gay but they're normal about it unlike the more stereotypical gay people out there. They are looking to conform to their conservative values. They want the approval of the society they were brought up in even though that Society does not like them. They want the benefits of being white, christian, middle-class, and they don't want queer people "messing it up for them". They want to prove to conservatives that they are still conservative just like them they just happened to be gay or lesbian is all. Not a surprise they are really horrible to their fellow gays, queers of color, and trans people. Some people like to joke about the man who has the public life with the wife and kids but then in private is a closet homosexual who goes to the hotel with a sex worker. The thing is though that is a reality that still goes on today. It's not uncommon for them to beat or even kill their lover. Think about all the gold star lesbians and gold star gay people out there and pay attention to the terminology they use. How proud they are to have never had sex with someone of the opposite gender or someone with X genitalia. Well some people may know and accept early on their sexuality that is not the case for everyone and that is not a bad thing. This type of ideology is extremely sexist, biphobic, transphobic, and homophobic. Clinging to these out of date views will not help the lgbtqia+ community in the long run. Another thing that the community does not like to acknowledge AT ALL is the domestic violence that happens amongst queer couples. Look up the tragic case of Lyndsey Vaux, a queer woman who was murdered by her lesbian girlfriend if you need proof that queer people can also be abusive domestic partners. Ask any asian, brown, or black member of the LGBT community their experiences and they will tell you they would rather hang out with cishet asian, brown, and black people than with a white group of the lgbt+ people. Because they are more likely to be accepted by straight members of their same race then they are to be accepted by the white queer community. I know I didn't touch on it but the gay and lesbian Community are also guilty of racism, ableism, sexism, classism and more than capable of abusing those they love.

Poor people tend to really hate other poor people especially in america. I loosely mentioned it above about how disabled people want social safety nets to be harder for other people to obtain despite the fact that they also need them. It's not just disabled people who are guilty of this though. I've met a lot of people who are on food stamps but at the same time think that food stamps should not exist because it "encourages the lazy bums to leech off the system". When you try to point out the fact that they are also receiving food stamps they try to justify it. They think of themselves as a good person who didn't intend to end up in this type of situation but clearly they are the only exception, everyone else just doesn't want to work. Look at the people who are anti-free lunch programs, anti-affirmative action, anti-affordable healthcare, and anti Universal basic income, anti homeless shelters, anti-free birth control, Pro Redline laws, Pro business, pro profits over people, the entire libertarian movement. Many of these people are in fact poor and working class themselves. They just cannot admit that. Hell even amongst homeless people there is judgment and discourse. Some homeless people really do believe they are better than other homeless people because " my situation is different from theirs". The YouTube channel invisible people is a heartbreaking Channel where the interviewer pays homeless people to interview them and share their stories. The guy who runs the channel used to be homeless himself. His goal is to humanize and try to help homeless people. Every once in awhile one of the people he interviews will be in complete denial about themselves and their situation. Bigotry is a problem with poor people just like every other group.

This post is not meant to divide the different marginalized groups but rather acknowledge the problems that already exist. If you consider yourself left leaning in the slightest but this post made you mad, it probably means you have some issues you need to work on. The reality is we live in a very bigoted society. It does not matter if you're a disabled, queer, non-binary, stunning creature, you still have to check yourself for any bias you learned growing up. White people in the lgbt+ community get mad when issues like racism are brought up and accuse queers of color of trying to divide the community. In reality it is the racism that divides the community not the acknowledgment of.

This is where I'm going to end this for now. I know there's a lot I didn't touch on but let's be honest this post is already too long. If any of my fellow marginalized people want to share their experiences about bigotry and discrimination within their own communities please do so.

[septictankie]

“[T]he anti-authoritarians demand that the political state be abolished at one stroke, even before the social conditions that gave birth to it have been destroyed. They demand that the first act of the social revolution shall be the abolition of authority. Have these gentlemen ever seen a revolution? 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; and if the victorious party does not want to have fought in vain, it must maintain this rule by means of the terror which its arms inspire in the reactionists. Would the Paris Commune have lasted a single day if it had not made use of this authority of the armed people against the bourgeois? Should we not, on the contrary, reproach it for not having used it freely enough?”

— Friedrich Engels, On Authority (1872)

[azhdakha]

Foreign communists, socialists, marxist, anarcho-communists, tell me, why are you so ignorant, cruel and denying every time it comes to people who's oppressors aren't the west, USA and NATO? Why is it that you are so radical and so fierce to the oppressors, why do you talk about the solidarity of oppressed people, but you are ready to deny or normalize, ignore the thousands, millions of people who had their lives broken and poisoned, their homes stolen, their identity destroyed, their dear ones killed, just because those who perpetuated it called themselves communist? Are you really that dumb so you cannot fathom that there can be more than one oppressor? That just because your people suffered from USA and USA is fighting against USSR, the second one is automatically good and never done nothing wrong throughput their existence? Why is your world so binary and simplified, stupid and unrealistic? Why are you ready to support and be an apologet for someone who did terrible things, why are you ready to be cold to human beings facing atrocities just to support your damn narrative? Or just because it's not you suffering and someone else, not your people, it's fine to butcher and humiliate someone? We live through this on a daily basis. Our parents lived through this. Our grandparents live through this. This is something we keep as a family history and tell each other on family meetings. Something that your grandma will tell you while you fall asleep. Something we don't even doubt regardless of our political stances, even if you're communist yourself, because it's our reality. It doesn't happen in a far away country. It happened here. But there come you, who have never fucking been here accusing us of lying and being an America's pet. Do you think that because we don't want to be oppressed and we don't want our oppression to be silenced and denied, we are America's puppets? If we want to live freely and not undert the boot of the regime that didn't see us as humans, if we want a normal life and human rights, we are filthy reactionists? Where is your love for human rights? We are you so ready to betray us and wish us to be killed by our oppressive government because our existence doesn't align with your narrative? Where is your radical stance against oppression?

[communist-manifesto-daily]

The Communist Manifesto - Part 3

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The bourgeoisie has disclosed how it came to pass that the brutal display of vigour in the Middle Ages, which reactionaries so much admire, found its fitting complement in the most slothful indolence. It has been the first to show what man’s activity can bring about. It has accomplished wonders far surpassing Egyptian pyramids, Roman aqueducts, and Gothic cathedrals; it has conducted expeditions that put in the shade all former Exoduses of nations and crusades.

The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society. Conservation of the old modes of production in unaltered form, was, on the contrary, the first condition of existence for all earlier industrial classes. Constant revolutionising of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.

The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connexions everywhere.

The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country. To the great chagrin of Reactionists, it has drawn from under the feet of industry the national ground on which it stood. All old-established national industries have been destroyed or are daily being destroyed. They are dislodged by new industries, whose introduction becomes a life and death question for all civilised nations, by industries that no longer work up indigenous raw material, but raw material drawn from the remotest zones; industries whose products are consumed, not only at home, but in every quarter of the globe. In place of the old wants, satisfied by the production of the country, we find new wants, requiring for their satisfaction the products of distant lands and climes. In place of the old local and national seclusion and self-sufficiency, we have intercourse in every direction, universal inter-dependence of nations. And as in material, so also in intellectual production. The intellectual creations of individual nations become common property. National one-sidedness and narrow-mindedness become more and more impossible, and from the numerous national and local literatures, there arises a world literature.

The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilisation. The cheap prices of commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters down all Chinese walls, with which it forces the barbarians’ intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to capitulate. It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls civilisation into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a world after its own image.

The bourgeoisie has subjected the country to the rule of the towns. It has created enormous cities, has greatly increased the urban population as compared with the rural, and has thus rescued a considerable part of the population from the idiocy of rural life. Just as it has made the country dependent on the towns, so it has made barbarian and semi-barbarian countries dependent on the civilised ones, nations of peasants on nations of bourgeois, the East on the West.

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[rjjameshiii]

RJ's Platinum Collection #21: The Quarry

Achieved on 3/6/2023 at 9:15 PM

Going by the fact that some of my previous Platinum's included Until Dawn, The Dark Pictures games, Detroit: Become Human, etcetera, I think it's no secret I love games where I can make choices that affect the plot. And Supermassive is really good at making horror games of that exact nature. So when The Quarry came out, I was super excited to play it and the Platinum for it!

Also, Brenda Song is in it. Enough said.

You get put in the shoes of nine teenagers - Ryan, Kaitlyn, Dylan, Emma, Abi, Jacob, Nick, Laura, and Max - as they spend one last night at the summer camp they've been working at in the woods. However, things go sideways real fast when the teens realize they're being stalked and hunted by a family of werewolves. So it's up to the player to help them all survive the night and make it out of the Quarry alive, with the assistance of a ghostly medium named Eliza in-between chapters.

I started by going into the game and doing a blind first playthrough. I figured that I had done such a good job with a blind playthrough in House of Ashes, I could probably do it again right? Well, unfortunately, that was not the case. By the time I finished the Epilogue of my first playthrough, I had only managed to keep three of the characters alive (Abi, Nick, and Max). Well, you win some, you lose some. At least I got 20 trophies still.

1/41: What's This? - Collected your first clue.

2/41: Forewarned Is Forearmed - Got a Tarot reading.

3/41: Prologue - Complete the Prologue.

4/41: The Truth Is Out There - Collected your first piece of evidence.

5/41: Chapter 1 - Complete Chapter 1.

6/41: It's All Coming Together - Found a matching clue.

7/41: Chapter 2 - Complete Chapter 2.

8/41: Chapter 3 - Complete Chapter 3.

9/41: Chapter 4 - Complete Chapter 4.

10/41: Chapter 5 - Complete Chapter 5.

11/41: Chapter 6 - Complete Chapter 6.

12/41: Chapter 7 - Complete Chapter 7.

13/41: Chapter 8 - Complete Chapter 8.

14/41: Reactionist - Activated 15 interrupts.

15/41: You're Breathetaking! - Passed five Don't Breath events.

16/41: Phlebotomy - Accepted the bite of a werewolf.

17/41: Mutually Assured - Laura and Travis killed each other.

18/41: Chapter 9 - Complete Chapter 9.

19/41: Chapter 10 - Complete Chapter 10.

20/41: Epilogue - Witnessed the Epilogue.

Onto my second playthrough! This time I used my knowledge of how I failed in the first playthrough, plus a few helpful guides, to make sure that all nine teens stayed alive. I also wanted to get all Tarot cards, all clues, and all evidence on this playthrough, but it turns out that is impossible because of a single path decision in Chapter 2. If you go one way, you find a Tarot card. If you go the other way, you find a Clue. However, you can't get BOTH on one playthrough. That is deeply irritating. I decided to do the Tarot cards, and eventually succeeded in my endeavor for an Everyone Survives playthrough.

21/41: Nick Of Time - Successfully took the fastest route to Nick.

22/41: Above The Law - Travis and Laura agreed to work together.

23/41: Decked Out - Found all Tarot cards.

24/41: The White Wolf - Killed Silas.

25/41: Family Matters - Killed all of the Hacketts.

26/41: Rough Night - Kept everyone alive.

I thought I had gotten all the evidence as well, but it turns out I missed one. However, I then discovered that it doesn't count if you just go to chapter select and pick up what you missed. I ended up having to do a third playthrough just to get the trophy for finding all ten pieces of evidence. Again, deeply irritating.

27/41: Conspiracy Theorist - Collected all evidence.

I then used chapter select to quickly replay Chapter 9 so that Ryan dies in the Hackett house, but Laura is able to kill Travis and escape so that she and Max reunite on the island. It was a cute little scene.

28/41: Should've Gone To The Motel - Reunited Laura and Max.

I then decided to just get a very easy trophy out of the way and start a movie mode playthrough. You don't need to actually finish it - just starting movie mode at all gets you the trophy.

29/41: Creature Feature - Started a movie mode playthrough.

I then started another new playthrough, this time going for making sure all nine characters died. I also went for the trophy for refusing Eliza's help in-between each chapter, since why bother learning the future if I already know everyone is gonna be dead?

30/41: Just A Flesh Wound - Saved a friend from infection.

31/41: Lovers' Quarrel - Nick killed Abi.

32/41: Hard Pass - Refused Eliza's help at every opportunity.

33/41: Hackett's Quarry Massacre - Killed everyone.

I then replayed Chapters 9 and 10 twice to get the trophies for having Kaitlyn be the sole survivor and for having Ryan be the sole survivor.

34/41: The Final Girl - Kaitlyn survived the night alone.

35/41: Last Man Standing - Ryan survived the night alone.

Now it was time for my fifth playthrough, this time going for the trophy for getting all nine characters turned into werewolves. You could do this on an Everybody Lives playthrough, but I just didn't think to do it at the time. Max, Laura, and Nick all get infected no matter what, but the other six require you to make specific choices in order to get them bitten. I also made sure to get all of the clues, and I also got the trophy for never missing in combat encounters as well.

36/41: Bizarre Yet Bonafide - Listened to the podcast.

37/41: Blood Pact - Infected every character.

38/41: Meddling Kids! - Collected all clues.

39/41: Peanut Butter Butterpops! - Never missed in a combat encounter.

Now I just had one more trophy, and it was for Jacob telling Emma the truth about how he sabotaged the car to keep them at camp for one more night. But in order to do that, you need Emma to be infected and then cured, but Jacob can't get infected at all. That did require me to do a partial playthrough of the game, but once I got the scene and unlocked the trophy, the Platinum was mine!

40/41: Nobody's Fool - Jacob told Emma the truth.

41/41: What Doesn't Kill You... - Achieved all the trophies!

I thought The Quarry was a great addition to Supermassive's collection - not as good as Until Dawn, but good in it's own right. However, I once again had to do multiple entire playthroughs of the game to get the Platinum, which I'm not the biggest fan of.

Rating: 8/10

[autolenaphilia]

I think it’s important for lefists to know that there is such a thing as a reactionary anti-capitalism. The root of recognizing it is that it objects to capitalism on the basis that capitalism destroys traditional culture, family and religion, and thus must be opposed to preserve tradition.

Marx’s Analysis

Now this charge against capitalism is of course completely true. Capitalism in Marxian analysis is a revolutionary force, one which destroys the material and social conditions of feudalism.

As Marx himself put it in the first chapter of the Communist manifesto:

“The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his “natural superiors”, and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous “cash payment”. It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervour, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation... In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation. “

“The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation. “

“The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country. To the great chagrin of Reactionists, it has drawn from under the feet of industry the national ground on which it stood. “

The most famous quote on the subject from that chapter is probably this description of what capitalism brings: “All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.“

This is ultimately a good thing in the Marxian analysis. The concepts of family, religion and cultural tradition swept away by capitalism are just sentimental nonsense and itself a mask for exploitation and oppression. Any queer person knows that intimately.

The origins of reactionary anti-capitalism

Now this revolutionizing of the world does not only leave the working class, dissatisfied, but also the old elites of the feudal world left behind by this development. In the European context in which Marx was writing, the old aristocracy reacted violently to capitalism and liberalism sweeping away their old feudal privileges. This led to the creation of conservative and reactionary ideology, in the original sense of the word, which was fiercely anticapitalist. Also the old religious elites of course also react negatively to all that is holy being profaned. The Catholic Church thus became and remains one of the main reactionary forces on the planet.

And this reactionary ideology was anti-capitalist, and can take on a deceptively socialist form. This was true even in Marx’s time, and he devotes the third chapter of the Manifesto to taking on “reactionary socialism” and “feudal socialism” and “clerical socialism.” which are well worth reading even today. As Marx notes, the exploitation of the working class was often used as a cudgel against the new capitalist system, but the old medieval feudal system that these reactionaries romanticized (quite literally in the case of the romantic artists) was no better towards the peasantry.

After Marx’s time

And in the 175 years since the manifesto, while the old feudal aristocracy is no longer a political force to be reckoned with, reactionary anti-capitalism is still a thing.

Of course the Catholic reactionary tradition has been very much alive in this period. It started with Joseph De Maistre, one of the founding ideological fathers of conservatism and through groups like Action Francaise still informs catholic politics today. The Catholic church supported fascist or fascist-like dictatorships in many countries during the 20th century, like the Estodo Novo in Portugal, the Francoist regime in Spain, the Austrofascist ständestaat in Austria, the Nazi puppet regime led by a Catholic priest in Slovakia and the extremely violent Ustashe in Croatia. And this is not in the past, you can see similar developments in Poland and Hungary today, where a kind of far-right fascist catholic dictatorship is developing.

And the Catholic church ideologically tends to not fully accept capitalism but instead preaches an social teaching and their own somewhat incoherent economic philosophy distributism as an alternative to both capitalism and socialism. It opposes capitalism from a reactionary standpoint, it’s why the Pope and the church both make anti-capitalist statements and anti-lgbt statements. The Catholic clergy is an old religious elite who doesn’t appreciate competition from the bourgeois.

Of course, the Catholic church is not alone among Christian churches to engage in this kind of rhetoric, the Orthodox churches have similar views, and you can find all kinds of politics in the protestant churches. Catholicism however is unified, global and consistent in a way no other religious movement is, and its politics are defined by this kind of reactionary thought.

20th century Fascism inherited the reactionary anti-capitalism of reactionary catholic thought. “The first feature of Ur-Fascism is the cult of tradition.“ as Umberto Eco put it, and that puts it somewhat with odds with capitalism as capitalism does play a revolutionary role. And so fascists use anti-capitalist rhetoric. They often appropriate socialist rhetoric for this end. Benito Mussolini was a former Italian Socialist Party member and knew how to sound like an anti-capitalist man of the working people when it suited him. And the Nazis called themselves National Socialists precisely to exploit popular enthusiasm for socialism and anti-capitalism.

Much of modern fascism are influenced by the French Nouvelle Droite, which borrows extensively from the left, not just anti-capitalist rhetoric but also anti-colonialist rhetoric. They have a doctrine of “ethnopluralism”, where each ethnicity should live and develop their cultures separately, and accordingly immigration to Europe of non-white people and European colonialism of non-white people are both condemned.

We can also speak of there being reactionary anti-imperialism in non-western countries. They have developed largely independently of the European forms of anti-capitalism, but arise from similar social conditions, like a religious leadership fearing being swept away by capitalist development and western imperialism. The forms of islamism that are explicitly against the west are a good example of this reactionary anti-imperialism, like the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran. There are of course other forms of islamism that are effectively aligned with the western world, like that of Saudi royal family and Erdogan’s government in Turkey.

Of course, none of these movements I mentioned have when they have come to power actually abolished capitalism. In fact, these fascist movements has frequently been backed by and controlled by the capitalist class. Reactionary anti-capitalism has remained a matter of rhetoric and ideology rather than practice, but that’s the point of it. It’s purpose is to manipulate people’s discontent with capitalism to support reactionary ends. Their position in practice is very much “not all capitalism.” And the dividing line is drawn in blood.

The Anti-semitism of reactionary anti-capitalism

This deserves its own section because it’s very important. Practically all the movements I mentioned above have been violently anti-semitic, and their antisemitism is central to their ideology. And antisemitism is central to practically all forms of reactionary anti-capitalism. This has been well-known for a long time, even by the 1890s antisemitism was called “the socialism of fools” by German socialists. Nowadays it’s sometimes hidden, in terms of “bankers” and “globalists” or by calling out individual wealthy Jewish people like George Soros rather than outright writing “the jews are doing this.”

The Jewish heterodox Marxian historian Moishe Postone wrote a brilliant analysis of Nazi antisemitism in his article “Anti-semitism and national socialism”, where he discusses nazi antisemitism as a “foreshortened anti-capitalism.” Antisemitic “anticapitalism” often condemns an abstracted and parasitical finance capitalism associated with jewish money-lenders/bankers, while valorizing industrial capitalism for producing concrete and real things. This was in practice how the nazis could justify allying itself with gentile industrialists while condemning jewish bankers. This is what runs through a lot of reactionary anticapitalism, and explains a lot about them.

What reactionary anti-capitalism is today

How do we recognize this reactionary anti-capitalist thinking and keep us from being drawn in by it and spreading it? As I said before, reactionary anti-capitalism objects to capitalism on the basis that capitalism destroys traditional culture, family and religion, and thus must be opposed to preserve tradition.

This means that it often is anti-modernist and makes appeals to nostalgia, to a mythical past golden age. The modern capitalist age has decayed and we must return to tradition to revive this golden age. It’s the concept of degeneracy, which I’ve written about before.

There is a strong but often non-explicit antisemitic current to this idea, where the wealthy jewish conspiracy is deliberately doing this to weaken the white race, by weakening white individuals moral and genetic strength.

One part of this that often goes unopposed by supposed leftists is the opposition to modern art, to atonal music and abstract art and other modernist artistic innovations. I have also written about this before.

The Family

The family is seen as all important, but also universally threatened by modern capitalist developments. Capitalism causes alienation, but in reactionary anti-capitalist discourse this term loses its complex Marxian definition and becomes simply about loneliness. And the cause of this loneliness is the capitalist destruction of the traditional family. The community offered by religion and other forms of traditional culture is also praised as curing this alienation, but also threatened by capitalism.

Feminism for example is often blamed in this kind of discourse. There is a type of anti-capitalist anti-feminism which focuses on women working outside the home as some unique great evil, because they are exploited by capitalism. And then the anti-feminist tells this story of a mythical golden age where women were mostly housewives and that was good because they didn’t have to work. And then capitalism destroyed this utopia to exploit women.

Of course in reality, being a housewife was only a thing for a minority of women at any point in history, working class women have pretty much always worked outside the home. And women being financially dependent on their husbands was not a good thing. The problem nowadays is not both partners in a straight relationship working, but the fact that they both are exploited by capitalism, and that women in addition to wage labor are often given the entire burden of taking care of children and the home, due to misogyny.

The threat of Queerness

And another threat is of course queer people. All forms of queerphobia, homophobia, lesbophobia, transphobia and transmisogyny are all part of reactionary anti-capitalism. Queerness is seen as the product of modern neoliberal capitalist degeneracy, and rainbow capitalism is seen as proof. The global spread of capitalism, globalization, is seen as spreading a kind of “globohomo”, which seems to both stand for “global homogenization” and “global homosexualization”, destroying the traditional family and culture across the globe by spreading queerness.

The reactionary hatred of queer people is of course tied to the antisemitic conspiracist thinking that pervades this discourse. I can recommend the article “The Eradication of “Talmudic Abstractions”: Anti-Semitism, Transmisogyny and the National Socialist Project” by Joni Alizah Cohen that examines how antisemitism, transmisogyny and nazism are all tied together.

The reactionary thinking of radical feminism

And this also goes though most of radfem thought, which is often a form of reactionary anti-capitalism. I criticized how antifeminism is given an anti-capitalist coat of paint, but you can also give reactionary thought (including antifeminism) a feminist coat of paint. Radfem ideology uses the arch-reactionary binary between the good, natural, concrete and gentile and the bad, artificial, abstract and jewish. It thus reproduces uncritically traditional ideas about womanhood. I talked about this before in this text, which I’ve already linked, but it’s relevant again. In radfem thought, trans women are the products of capitalist bioscience run amok, whereas cis women are natural. Modern commercialized forms of femininity such as make-up are “degenerate”, while a womanhood grounded in the ability to bear children is natural and thus unquestionably true and good. It’s the same ideas about womanhood fascists have, which is why radfems are able to work with them.

The opposition to legalizing sex work is often rooted in a reactionary anti-capitalism. The opponents of legalized sex work have a visceral reaction to it, because of a sentimental view of sex as some special act of intimacy. Sex work to paraphrase Marx removes that “sentimental veil” and “reduces” sex “to a mere money relation.” And the wish to criminalize sex work is trying to restore that sentimental veil. It’s often justified to save the sex workers, but in practice it just makes their work far more dangerous. In James Baldwin’s words, sentimentality is “the mask of cruelty.”

Conclusion

It’s all nonsense of course. The reason women and queer people are rebelling against the family is because it’s an oppressive institution for them, it is a patriarchal structure that favors the straight man. The community offered by traditional family, culture and religion often depends on the subjugation of women and queer people. And the traditional form of womanhood centered around childbirth is not good for neither cis or trans women, so we reject it.

To the extent that capitalism does destroy the family and traditional values, it’s a good thing. The problem with capitalism is actually that it doesn’t really destroy the family. Capitalism actually uses misogyny and queerphobia to keep the working class oppressed, and true liberation can only be achieved under socialism.

Of course there are lots of leftists that swallow this reactionary nonsense since it’s given an anti-capitalist coat of paint, even here on tumblr. So a lot of right-wing positions are seen not as right-wing at all by credulous uneducated left-wingers.

There are a lot of queer leftists who react to the topic of abolishing the family and criticizing misogynistic and queerphobic forms of religion in ways that is barely indistinguishable from the right-wing nonsense. You will hear a lot about the importance of “tradition”, “religion”, “culture” and “family” that wouldn’t be out of place in any fascist nouvelle droite website. The tumblr “leftists” won’t use words like “degenerate”, “globohomo” or “ethnopluralism” of course, but the ideological concepts behind those words are very much there.

And that’s the point of reactionary anti-capitalism. It’s to launder reactionary ideas by appealing to people’s discontent with capitalism. It redirects that discontent into dark territory.

[miguksae]

This fanfic is torture to me.

Ahhhhh

As soon as Heinkel came out, im threw phone.

please. This family tragedy...

ah. And later Subaru too...

ah...

How to suffer all kinds of torture with just one phone : read this

[gaechris]

Damien Cookie!!! (Choco Wafer/Reactionist Cookie)

I loge love love him so much!!

[comingtoyoursenses]

We need harm reduction so badly and all of the data supports this. I hate reactionists and how quick they are to misrepresent safe consumption sites. Ive had people try to argue to me that we are only prolonging people's addictions by providing them the (*clean!*) tools to use.. as if the goal isn't to keep them alive so they have the choice to recover from addiction if they choose. It isn't simple because drugs fuck with the brain and neurochemistry is complex. Funny how people who hold prejudiced beliefs about drug users are usually the ones who apply nuance the least...

[r0bita]

I can't be the only person who looks at content creators and reactionists online looking into media and shit and thinking how these people are so fucking useless when it comes to the boycotts, especially with Marvel and Disney.

These people could use their platforms to encourage people to boycott or at the very least voice their stance on what is happening, but it's clear that a lot of them are just sell outs who are no use to any good cause.

And you cannot tell me that these people don't know what's going on. It's all happening in real time and posted the internet DAILY. Do not give me that shit.

If there any honest exceptions to this, then please tell me, but right now I'm not seeing great results...

[but-a-humble-goon]

As I get older it's really started to drive me nuts the amount of people on youtube who dedicate their channels to let's plays or reaction content who clearly just don't... care? Currently I'm rewatching some Super Best Friends content and what stands out to me is that they are clearly enthusiastic about games, even the ones they don't like. They are constantly talking about the game as they play, they go into the mechanics, they discuss the plot, decide on their favorite characters, talk about the creators, make theories & predictions, give credit where credit's due to things they like etc. Contrast that with the average let's player/"reactionist" whose level of engagement with the media they're making content out of is effectively just 'I wasn't really paying attention and I don't really get it but it seems cool I guess haha.' I don't want to sound like a gatekeeper but I am asking the bare minimum by suggesting someone who wants to make a career off of the media they consume should at least be interested in it. It sometimes feels like I could replicate the kind of involvement I get from most content creators I see by sitting my dog in front of the laptop and filming it. If you're not passionate about the thing you're making content out of, make content about something else. And if there's nothing you're passionate enough about then wow, what a fulfilling life you must lead.

[fellshish]

Hi fell! I saw the poll about that tiktok poll and I just wanted to weigh in with my two cents (lol). I dont think "popular kids" have anything to do with this (said as a deeply unpopular nerd back in hs), fandom has been mean and cruel and petty and kind of a popularity contest (in parts!) all the way back to the livejournal days (like death threats over shipping drama in the hp fandom bad). I think its true that new fans getting into a thing tends to rehash discourse, but i think a lot of the "meaner" discourse like hating people for being "cringe" and antis vs shipper discourse is just indicative of trends in our culture as a whole (reactionist/ conformity/ purity culture). also not the main point but like everybody on tumblr has been here for 12 years the new kids are on tiktok and twitter and they are having shrimp colours of discourse we cant even imagine lol

Actually the op of that tiktok responded to a similar remark in a follow-up, let me link you here

I don’t have any answers honestly but could it be that purity culture started become more intense during covid too? But you could be right. A lot of what you say rings true. I think smarter people than me can say smarter things about it

I know most people on tumblr have been here ages so I think the poll will be interesting in terms of looking at ratios. If within the category of fans who joined during covid, there are percentage wise more popular kid fans than among the fans who were fandomming since before, then maybe that could be indicative of something relevant. I’m not a scientist azdjdjdj

[weliveinhell]

Real quick:

If someone asks you "what is the definition of a woman" I think we are all internet savvy enough to know it's a bad faith question with no real answer and the correct response is to make fun of them because they were never actually trying to engage in intellectual honesty.

Especially since they already have an answer in mind and will act like you are stupid if you don't say these six words "someone who's born with a vagina".

However, I feel like the actual answer gets buried in that conversation. So, "Someone who's gender identity is female" is that obvious answer worded with just as many words (6).

It's just there if you feel like giving an actual simple answer to shut them up. If they argue that point, then talk about how the other definition drags in a massive amount of not-women (specifically that), people who will deny, up and down, that they are not women, do not want to be treated like or seen as women.

After that who knows, but another point is that people who wave "middle school biology" around like a banner never bother to learn anything past that and you probably know something about intersex people that breaks the "penis equals man vagina equals woman" sex-imposed gender ideology that fuels right wing reactionist these days.

[anaxibiaclark]

I've been watching reactionists on YouTube react to The Last of Us. Most of them have never played the video game so they're going in blind. Which makes it so much better especially when the cold opening occurs in episode 9. At first, some of them didn't realize the lady running in the woods was Anna, Ellie's mom. So, when she gives birth, after being bitten, and coos over her daughter, saying "you fucking tell them, Ellie," they freak. My favorite part about this, a handful of them could not stop talking about how much Ellie looks like Anna or vice versa. And I'm just sitting there laughing my ass off because Ashley Johnson, Ellie herself, birthed this Ellie.

I'm sharing this reaction response because I love that it's pretty much a big FUCK YOU to those who criticized Bella's performance as Ellie. When a group of people can look at Ashley and see Bella, then Craig and Neil did their job. They picked the best person to play an iconic role.

I look forward to seeing Bella Ramsey, as Ellie, leave Washington State a pile of rubble in her wake.

[rebellum]

Gonna be real I liked the barbie movie and I get what they were trying to do with regards to referencing feminism and how it's for men too and being anti-mens rights reactionist

But, like

The whole "women introduced to patriarchy, immediately fall under its spell and become bimbos"

Is kinda misogynistic?

[nerendus]

I finally got my sister to play Bloodborne since she's somehow a frequent online and never heard of Dark Souls/Bloodborne so she's the ultimate reactionist I can get from this game. So far, she has named her character G'Barbra, a retired Aussie veteran in the American Revolutionary War who moved to Fantasy France to join an LGBTQ rave and kill a bunch of xenophobes. She desecrates the corpses of children because she has childhood trauma (from her mother??? being bitten by a werewolf??). Also the messengers are her cousins.