Hi im new here, cause im trans, also a bit into leftism (I like the red vibe and hate capitalism) but not committed mostly because im new to politics in general. This is a burner because the whole subject seems very heated and I don’t want my main account banned.
so it was very surprising to me to see commies just… argue? Marxist Leninist, tankie, whatever, just seem to be like other commies, but ya’ll just hate them? I mean didn’t commies like the soviet union? I get China because of the weird capitalism its got, but I thought the soviets were like ya’lls trump card? I mean what else do ya’ll have? I mean I know it had baddies, but I thought ya’ll had like different views on it? I mean there was so much going on they at least have to had done something.
Like apparently the lemmy developers are ‘tankies’, but who cares? They built the thing, and it seems like they’ve just let us do whatever we want, nothing bad right?
It all just seems like different methods. being anarchist is fine (I don’t know what you do at all but it seems like you’re around at least), but being a ‘tankie’ makes you a fascist? Im just very very confused. Didn’t the USSR fight Nazis? I’m not giving them a kiss or anything but they killed quite a lot of Nazis, isn’t that at least kinda good?
I only recently found out that commies even had like different ideologies. I want to get into leftism, but it seems to be about the same as if I just stayed out of it, everyone is spending all the time fighting people, but I thought your whole thing was fight the man, not fight other commies?
And then I see leftists just lackluster in their critiques of America? I mean, anyone knows america hates commies, all of em, beat yall in '91 (honestly suprised yall still here). Now its ‘america is a flawed democracy’ and ‘bad nato but only when they do things’. I thought ya’ll at least had strong opinions? Why can’t you just hate america, thought that was yalls thing?
Its very silly to try to adopt revolutionary things and then like… limp dick it. Like, NATO is a capitalist alliance, shouldn’t commies hate that? Seems very straightforward. I mean I know Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is very bad, but does that mean defending a capitalist state? Yall spend a lot of time arguing for NATO against these tankies (while I don’t understand their position, it seems to at least be in that ‘fuck the US’ thing I thought yall did). Although I see the whole thing as too much for me to understand, some of yall do sort of agree with NATO bad too, but somehow its good for them to fight another capitalist? How’s that doing anything for ya?
Its all very confusing
I admit I care little for yalls squabbles, yall seem to care an awful lot about footnotes in history when the future looks like a big chance. Like I dont know what the hell happened in the Spain civil war, but how does that like change anything? Nobody sides yall commies seem to care about it period. Don’t yall hate capitalism, why then do yall spend half the time getting angry at other commies?
Its very silly in my view, and again very counterproductive
Its souring to get into communism and hear that apparently all the big dudes and big things in it are bags of shit, and I should read a bunch of small guys that only yall seem to know. Like Marx is BIG, but apparently he’s bad now? Like I know its older, but isn’t capitalism? Doesn’t seemed to have changed very much, but the products sure have, but the system is still big guy owns thing, exploits worker, hoards wealth, an that sorta thing. He’s like the floorboards, but now he isn’t? Did yall convene after the 90s and hit a reset on the whole thing? Starting from scratch?
I wanted to ask them their opinions, but they seem a little scary, so Ill talk to yall first. I just wants some clarifications about this issue.
It sounds like you think history ought to be simple and it sounds like you think people’s political views ought to be simple. The reality is that everything is more nuanced, and it takes time and energy to understand. A lot of people, probably people similar to you, don’t want to spend that time and energy. But here you are, so perhaps you are willing to give it a whirl.
To begin with, the enemy of your enemy might not be your friend. Just because the USSR fought against Nazi Germany doesn’t mean that the USSR was run by people that we’d like to have lunch with.
And then it’s important not to think that the USSR in the early 40s is the same as what it was in the late 80s. Countries change over time.
It looks like you want people to hold very strong positions. “Communism is entirely good/bad.” “The US loves freedom.” “Marx is bad.” … In reality, political leaders are smart, and they’re very good at manipulating people who have simplistic absolutist views such as these. It is necessary to pay attention to the details.
And finally, even if I have some very strong belief, if I tried to push it dogmatically on to other people on the internet then they will just block me. It’s often a better strategy to try to discuss things and assume or hope that the other person is going to use their brain, just as you are willing to use yours.
Of course there’s no reaching some folks, and some people are just here to troll, but that’s nothing new and nothing to write home about.
I feel like whenever someone says the word ‘nuance’ its usually just an excuse to not have a position on somethin. But yeah I know you gotta know your way around the shovel, but at the end of the day its a decision between making a new shovel or finishing the job.
I mean, yeah I don’t think many people would like to dine with stalin, but does that make them not communist anymore?
I mean in the 40s they took berlin an in the 80s they kinda ker splat, seems like they just got weaker, not like any different
and that last part I guess its strange to be absolutist, but someone needs to just pick a side, and yeah there’s many sides, but just keep picking yours until youve found your niche. Maybe thats bad, but I don’t wanna jus spend my time going over the menu options when I could’ve been eating a nice steak the whole time. And everyone else seems to have decided too, even though they have opinions on it that don’t match.
ha I guess I did jus kinda say my piece and not consider yours all too well, but ill keep it in mind to think over when I get a nice smoke.
Thank you for giving a clarification. Im just trying to wade my way through this storm.