#revolutionary defeatism

[dinasaur1312]

Leftists in Europe attempting harm reduction need to get over it and embrace revolutionary defeatism. Europe exists on imperialism so its weakening is only a good thing that help allow oppressed countries to assert themselves. It sometimes seems like a lot of western leftists assume that communism can be achieved without imperialist struggle where they are stripped or luxuries stolen through imperialism.

[argyrocratie]

We saw the “Action Week” (or rather the non-public session of the “Anti-War Congress”, and even originally the international meeting as we expected it) not as D-Day, but as a moment in the process of strengthening, developing and consolidating the defeatist revolutionary community, which is not to be built, but is already historically pre-existing, emerging from the fertile soil of class societies and the need to abolish them. A process that includes the exchange of texts and critiques, discussions, the organization of concrete actions, the continuity of the community, and so on… in short, the very opposite of what the left and far left of capital has accustomed us to in its conferences and congresses… A ruthless critique of “conferentism” and “congressism” is more necessary and fundamental than ever…

What we hoped for (and continue to promote) is the building of stronger relationships within the camp of revolutionary defeatism and, if possible, achieving a certain level of programmatic centralization while retaining a certain decentralization of actions.

Unfortunately (or more prosaically, hic et nunc!), we cannot interpret the “defeatist” practices of so-called “Left Communism” groups as being aimed at this objective.

Based on the activities of certain groups, we get rather the impression that their aim is not to build a genuine community of struggle (centralized programmatically, but not necessarily practically), but to build a “party”, and a mass party furthermore. By way of example, we can see in the activity of the “No War but the Class War” collectives and platform an attempt to create a kind of “minimum program” to which as many people as possible can adhere without exacerbating the particularisms of those various elements; in this way, we can consider them as nothing less than recruitment offices. We can see in these practices certain concessions to those who are programmatically unclear, so that they can bring the mass dimension to their activities. For our part, we want to do exactly the opposite.

Of course, we didn’t expect all the groups invited to the “Action Week” to be on the same programmatic level, and we’re well aware that some organizations’ critique of capitalism is not developed and deepened in the same way. But our hope was to enable them, through discussion and common practice, to reach a higher, more dialectical and therefore more radical level of understanding of the reality of the world based on exploitation, and thus to open up the possibility of a common struggle.

Another thing we cannot endorse is the effort of so-called “Left Communism” groups to prefer so-called “theoretical” discussions to discussions about the real, practical struggle of the defeatist revolutionary movement. Their methodological approach is certainly based on the assumption that we should first agree on the origin of the war – which for most of them seems to be the decadence of capitalism, before discussing anything else.

For us, there should be no separation between a so-called “theoretical” discussion and a “practical” one. What we’re interested in is a discussion of how we can concretely struggle against capitalist war and peace, and what we can practically do about it. And within such a discussion, theoretical and programmatic questions will necessarily arise and be addressed. In short, we prefer to go from practice to theory, whereas for all these groups, it seems to be the other way round."

-Tridni valka, "[AW2024] Report from Prague"

[estradiolivia]

liberals like to act like Lenin is some sort of Russian nationalist who likes expansionism and would support the Ukraine War but lets remember Lenin came to prominence during World War I in which he was quite strongly was against Russia as a revolutionary strategy.

[petr1kov]

it's really funny to think about how one piece has been going for almost three decades but only three years or so have passed in-universe. which means the citizens of that world saw this weird teenage boy show up out of nowhere in the papers with a massive bounty already and follow that up by (allegedly) commiting a different and more insane war crime with each passing month, only to go missing for two years and then immediately pick up where he left off by increasing the scope of his insanity until he became an emperor of the sea himself. imagine keeping up with the morning papers in that world and wondering what the fuck luffy will do now

[xelidonia]

I'm obsessed with this line from Touga. "It's wrong of me to flirt with you since you're my equal (for now)." It's so insidious. It's got the same vibes as those guys who claim that being attracted to a muscular women is gay

[the-august-one]

Gonna put this song into heavy rotation for 2025. Remember, militant decency, self care is revolutionary, existence is resistance, and NO DEFEATISM. Keep your chin up, comrades. ✊🏻❤️

[anonymous-gambito]

Need a new RGU iteration so that Utena honors her first duel tradition this time by bringing a baseball bat and swinging it at saionji

[beesonjupiter]

i don't want to admit it but taynew are kind of growing on me in cherry magic..

i'm only 5 minutes in episode 9, so there's still plenty that can go wrong, but they're growing on me..

jan and sing can do no wrong, i love them so much i love them with all i have. do they have a series together? gmmtv give them a series

[hauntingblue]

Robin is going to meet luffy's father before luffy 💀💀

[prussianmemes]

i think wasting an afternoon recording voice lines for ghetto smosh spinoff "sovok smosh" with anton and ivan was not the best choice looking at how hard it is to make sure you're not being too esoteric.

the plotline of an outbreak of fraternal nations tweaking on imf loans is also frankly retarded.

[scamallach-1]

I’m still here forever forward to say: focus on the root. Focus on the root. Settler-colonialism will fall and even though it will not be due to “Americans”, it will happen because of the decolonial movements of indigenous peoples globally who are uniting and because of all those who whole-heartedly believe in them, fight for them and their righteous cause, fight and success.

Focus on the root. Focus only on the root. Dig your heels in. Be like the bulldozer of Al Aqsa Flood. Dig your heels in for humanity, regardless of who you are, and for indigenous decolonization globally.

[loserrofthecentury]

“Surrounded by people trying to help her(Utena tenjou)”

Did we watch the same show? Because being hated by everyone and literally taking the blame for everything was a core part of Anthy’s character. Also pre-episode 38 Utena didn’t help Anthy much in the grand scheme of things but it’s not like any of you like to acknowledge that

"Anthy's Just a Middle Schooler" Is Not the Gotcha People Think It Is

I got a message saying Anthy Himemiya from the anime Revolutionary Girl Utena and the Sohma head maid from the manga Fruits Basket "aren't even similar situations lol" because "Anthy is a middleschooler."

Cool, so is Azula from the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. You know, that character who was:

A literal child soldier

Weaponized by her nation

Groomed by her abusive father to be emotionally invulnerable

Never shown real love or support from anyone except her mother who suddenly disappeared

And still? She doesn't get treated like a blameless, helpless victim.

She's a tragic figure, absolutely. She's sympathetic. But her cruelty isn't swept under the rug. Avatar shows how her refusal to accept help and her obsession with control lead directly to her breakdown and downfall. The story acknowledges that her actions have consequences. Even if we mourn her, we still recognize the harm she caused.

Meanwhile, Anthy Himemiya in Revolutionary Girl Utena?

Also young (but clearly capable of choice)

Surrounded by people actively trying to help her (Utena Tenjou!!!)

Betrays Utena's love and trust at the most crucial moment

Enables Akio Ohtori's abuse and cruelty while knowingly playing along

And fandom's response is... "Well, she's just a kid" and "it's internalized misogyny" and "she didn't have a choice"?

Sorry, but you can be a victim and an enabler. That's not mutually exclusive.

We're allowed to have compassion for Anthy without rewriting the narrative to excuse all her actions. Especially when other characters in other stories—like Azula, or even Akito Sohma—get dragged for doing similar or even lesser things at the same age.

Stop using "she's just a child" as a shield when you never apply that same energy elsewhere.

[badtzbot]

i have to say the relationship that smoker has with the asl brothers is fucking hilarious. luffy pissed him off so badly one singular time that he followed the guy halfway into the grand line and then also into the new world just to track him down. he had to accept help from his crew in defeating crocodile and luffy did it via becoming a water balloon. and then tashigi, who he's responsible for, cried about it. he hates luffy and luffy calls him smokey and doesn't gaf. ace.... do i even have to say anything. they did it nasty sloppy style. ace annoyed the fuck out of him and you KNOW it. smoker tried to confront him in alabasta and luffy SMASHED ALL THREE OF THEM THROUGH A WALL. and then luffy escaped because ace played diversion! and smoker can't even Actually do anything because ace is a wb pirate and he canNOT afford to anger them. and sabo. i just know when smoker met sabo in movie stampede he was already like fuck me why is the ra here and then sabo was like "luffys my little brother" and smoker just wanted to straight up kill himself. he was like FUCK ME theres ANOTHER ONE OF THEM ????? and then he has to fucking work with the guy for the greater good. again.

and the rest of the family too. he can't even yell at garp because he's one of the few superior officers smoker respects. smoker's life is just a constant aneurysm and you KNOW it's bad when the one he, a marine, has the least beef with is the fucking LEADER OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY. smoker i hope your blood pressure goes down because between this and the cigars you're gonna die before you reach 40

[opencommunion]

January 17th, 1961: the US-backed assassination of Congolese revolutionary Patrice Lumumba

"Africa accuses the United States of this plot. Africa accuses the UN secretariat of having covered up this undertaking of economic recapture and of compromising the credibility of the United Nations. Patrice Lumumba was assassinated because he refused to see his country exist as a mere appendix of the imperialist economics of mining trusts. Patrice Lumumba was assassinated because he wanted to see his country freed from the destitution and servitude enforced by the imperialist monopolies. Patrice Lumumba was assassinated because he wanted to defend the unity of his country and because, when alive, and even when chained up, tortured, humiliated, he represented the will of the Congolese people to free itself.

‘If I am assassinated it will not be by an authentic African but by westerners’ — Patrice Lumumba himself denounced his murderers even before they revealed themselves by their ignorance of Africa. They forgot that by announcing the disappearance of Lumumba without daring to reveal the actual circumstances of his assassination, or the place of his inhumation, they proclaim that Lumumba has not been defeated. For the Congolese people, Patrice Lumumba will forever be the legendary hero of a victorious Congo.

Tomorrow, popular fervour will indicate the presence of Patrice Lumumba wherever the militants of freedom undertake to fight against the imperialist hordes: he will be simultaneously in Kivu, in Kasai, in Katanga, in Stanleyville, in Léopoldville — Patrice Lumumba will have been completely right. He recalled, through his supreme sacrifice, that ‘there can be no compromise with the enemies of freedom.’"

Frantz Fanon, "Africa Accuses the West," 1961

[jennaflare]

So Disco Elysium is the only game you've ever really liked

I get it! It's a phenomenal game with superb art and writing, and its themes are consistent and deeply explored. It sets a high bar for video games. But there are other really, really fantastic games out there. This is a list that is 100% my own taste of things that aren't necessarily similar, other than the fact that they're really fucking good. (A lot of these are on sale for the Steam Summer Sale until July 11 2024!)

In Stars and Time

In Stars and Time is a time loop game where you play as Siffrin, the rogue of a party at the end of their quest to save the day by defeating the King, who is freezing everybody in time! But something is wrong: every time you die, you loop back to the day before you fight the King. You're the only one who remembers the loops, so it's up to you to figure out why it's happening, and how to break out.

In Stars and Time is a heart-wrenching dive into mental health, friendship, and love. It's about feeling alone, and how awful it is when the people who love you don't notice (and how awful it is when they do). It's about falling deeper and deeper into your worst self and your worst tendencies, and how to come back from it.

The creator also did one of my favorite Disco Elysium comics ever, which is only tangentially relevant but worth mentioning.

Roadwarden

In Roadwarden, you play as the titular Roadwarden for an undeveloped and "wild" part of the kingdom. Monsters roam the forests and roads, and it's your job to keep people safe. On paper, anyway. Your real mission is to find out what is of value in the area, and how to take it from its people. How well you perform this task is up to you. It's an oldschool text-based RPG, and I take a lot of notes by hand when I play.

Roadwarden explores exploitation and industrialization by making you look in the face of your potential victims. You can only learn what your bosses want you to report on by getting close to the residents, after all. There are mysteries to be solved, secrets to be gathered, and hearts to win.

The Longing

The Longing is an adventure-idle game where you play as the solitary servant of a sleeping king. Your task is to wait for him, for four hundred days. Time in the game passes in realtime (for the most part). There are caves to explore, books to be read, and drawings to make.

The Longing is about loneliness and depression. It's about whether or not you decide to stay in that hole, and if you do, what you do with yourself while you're there. Maybe you'll wander. Maybe you'll stare at a wall. Maybe you'll just sleep until it's all over.

Papers, Please

Papers, Please casts you as a newly hired customs officer in a country that is rapidly tightening its borders as its fascist government tightens its fist. This game is stressful. Sometimes you intend to help out the revolutionaries when they asked, but then you got so stressed out trying to make your quota so you can feed your family and pay your bills that you didn't notice the name of the person they were hoping to contact while going through their papers. Sometimes someone puts a bomb in front of you and expects you to defuse it. Sometimes someone suggests you steal people's passports so you can get your family out, and with the horror you see daily, the idea tempts you more than you'd like.

Papers, Please is all about hard choices and testing your moral fortitude. Everything you do has consequences. Being a good person in this game is hardly ever rewarded, but not in a way that feels overly cynical. Papers, Please asks you what kind of person you want to be and what you're willing to sacrifice to get there.

The Return of the Obra Dinn

From the creator of Papers, Please, The Return of the Obra Dinn is a game where you play as an insurance investigator for the East India Trading Company. The ship the Obra Dinn has just floated back into port, its entire crew missing or dead. It's your job to figure out what happened aboard the vessel. For insurance reasons.

I don't know how to go into the themes of this too deeply without giving away too much, but the mechanics of the game itself make the game worth playing. You have a magic stopwatch that allows you to go back to the moment of a person's death, allowing you to try and figure out who (or what) killed them, and how. And the soundtrack is extremely good.

Outer Wilds

In Outer Wilds you play as an unnamed alien, and it's your first day going to space! Your planet's space program is pretty new still, so there's still lots to explore and discover on the planets within your system. There are ancient ruins from a mysterious race that once lived in your system, long before your species began to record history. Why were they here? Where did they go? How are they connected to the weird thing that keeps happening to you?

The fun of Outer Wilds is in the discovery and answering your own questions. The game never tells you where to go, and it never outright tells you anything. There are clues scattered through the system, and it's up to you to put them together and figure out your next steps. It's about the way that life always goes on, no matter what, even when it seems like the end of everything, forever. I'd recommend NOT reading anything else about this game. Just go play it. Seriously, the less you know, the more fun this is.

If on a Winter's Night, Four Travelers

In If on a Winter's Night, Four Travelers, you explore the circumstances of the deaths of four individuals.

This is a short one that took me about two and a half hours to play. If for no other reason, play it for the stunning pixel art. The game explores sexism, racism, and homophobia in the Victorian era and leans heavily into horror themes. Best of all: it's completely free!

Pentiment

Pentiment takes you to the 16th century, where you take the role of Andreas Maler, a journeyman artist working on his masterwork in the scriptorium of an abbey. When someone is murdered, Andreas takes responsibility for finding the culprit.

The game is set over 20~ years and you get to watch how Andreas' actions affect the village in various ways (who's alive the next time you come by, have people gotten married and had children...). It's an exploration of how the past affects the future, and what parts of that past we choose to keep or discard. It has beautiful art, and fans of both Disco and Pentiment often compare them.

Other games you might wanna check out

Night in the Woods, Dredge, Oxenfree, A House of Many Doors, Inscryption, Slay the Princess, Citizen Sleeper, Chants of Sennar, Loop Hero, The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, The Pale Beyond, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, Elsinore, Her Story, Before Your Eyes, Pathologic (not delved into above because the venn diagram of Pathologic fans and Disco fans is basically a circle)

[arscorpii]

in episode 1, utena defeated saionji with only a wooden sword, without any help from prince dios (i believe this was the case) as would be observed in later episodes. saionji was using the sword of dios against utena in the duel. i find this to be very impressive on utena's part because saionji was a skilled swordsman. it reminded me of how utena managed to pass through the rose gate without the sword of dios in episode 39, with only bare, bloody hands and a heart overflowing with love for anthy. unlike akio who failed to cut through the gate even with the strongest soul sword, the one pulled out of utena.

to commemorate the 28th year since revolutionary girl utena started airing (02/04/1997), here are some parallels between the first and final episodes of rgu (per chronological order of episode 1):

utena and anthy's hands slipping away from each other's grasp both in the opening and episode 39.

the duelling arena being destroyed as prince dios wakes up in the opening versus the duelling arena being destroyed by the swords of humanity's hatred in episode 39.

prince dios on his white horse, looking over a ledge with bare trees in the background from episode 1 versus akio looking up to anthy being stabbed by millions of swords representing humanity's hatred in midair in episode 39.

prince dios and baby utena with bare trees in the background in episode 1 versus anthy walking away at the ending of episode 39.

prince dios putting on the rose crest ring on baby utena's finger in episode 1 versus prince dios trying to kiss the ring in episode 39, as utena lies helpless on the floor in the rose bride dress.

baby utena watching prince dios riding away on his white horse in episode 1 versus anthy walking down the same path at the ending of episode 39.

baby utena wanting to be a prince in episode 1 versus utena apologising to anthy because she couldn't be a prince as she hangs over the ledge in episode 39.

utena and anthy respectively, emerging into the corridor in episodes 1 and 39.

utena, anthy, and the rose garden in episodes 1 and 39.

part 2 of the post