Posts by lawas@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #AhjXYLcLsohxd8Mtf6 by lawas@mastodon.social
2024-05-10T02:01:05Z
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@Radical_EgoCom Acknowledges that inequality is growing under capitalism but is cool with it because we get iPhones? What a shitty, selfish, petite bourgeois way of looking at the world. The accumulation of as much wealth as possible is the goal of the capitalist - it will always lead to inequality. Capitalism is also a crisis prone system, when the wealthy few do something that ruins the lives of millions of working people. Hard to argue with someone who clearly doesn’t care about people.
(DIR) Post #AhjhpAPPoDT3KcyZc0 by lawas@mastodon.social
2024-05-10T03:54:45Z
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@janisf @Radical_EgoCom The problem with capitalism is not how regulated it is. The problem with capitalism is that workers are denied the fruits of their surplus labor. A business’s profits are stolen wages. From the communist perspective, it’s an unjust economic system by design. It leads to accumulation at the top and has a long history of creating major crises as a result. This has been true for as long as capitalism has existed and only gets worse with time. It’s unstable.
(DIR) Post #AhkEdb7xwPifD5uBqC by lawas@mastodon.social
2024-05-10T04:19:56Z
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@janisf @Radical_EgoCom I’m a Marxist, so I think that system does exist. It’s not just a change of economic system though, it requires a social revolution led by a class-conscious party of working people. Communism is the only system that actually addresses inequality at its root. We drive hope by liberating people from oppression and that comes by smashing capitalism. Personally I don’t care about investors, I care about the working class.
(DIR) Post #AhkElymfs1fAtdwWqe by lawas@mastodon.social
2024-05-10T06:04:58Z
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@janisf @Radical_EgoCom I really don’t think you understand where I’m coming from lol. Investments are profits derived from other people’s labor, that’s inherently unjust just like the rest of system. I do care about people, which is why I want to create a world free from the systems oppressing us. I also specified a social revolution, it’s something people have to be on board with. Socialism: Scientific and Utopian is an intro to these ideas. State and Revolution is good too.
(DIR) Post #AhkEm0YvG7qqPZWZgu by lawas@mastodon.social
2024-05-10T06:58:07Z
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@janisf @Radical_EgoCom Again, a mass of the working people have to want a systemic change. I’m not interested in forcing people to do anything, I’m interested in raising class consciousness so workers decide to seize the means of production and as a result the full value of their labor. The reason these people even have to scrimp and save for retirement and work into old age is because of capitalism. Toppling this system built on unequal distribution fixes that problem.
(DIR) Post #Ahkw3rpgkZdWZw83IO by lawas@mastodon.social
2024-05-10T18:10:24Z
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@Radical_EgoCom @janisf @TessRants This. I think the point I was trying to make that was overlooked is that we actually have to convince people to change the system. Educating the working class to prepare them for proletarian rule is a key part of Marxist thought. We need to convince working people to abandon the system and overthrow the class that work against their self-interest. I wish people would read theory, this has all been covered by thinkers much smarter than us.
(DIR) Post #AhkwxTHXDV3eeUfSlM by lawas@mastodon.social
2024-05-10T18:20:26Z
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@Radical_EgoCom Okay I’m done with this thread, not worth pouring anymore time explaining concepts basic to the communist worldview to people who keep acknowledging how horrible capitalism is but still want to keep it because some people will be able to retire one day? I just don’t get it. Bending over backwards to justify and perpetuate this mess we’re in. I’m just gonna keep learning, educating, agitating and organizing until we can smash capitalism and the bourgeois state completely.
(DIR) Post #AiqgI9pQKIlBxQ9hGy by lawas@mastodon.social
2024-06-12T10:34:04Z
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@Radical_EgoCom @theceoofanarchism I think you nailed it there. The Marxist conception of the state is that it’s a tool of class domination. The organization of the armed proletariat exercising a monopoly on violence would be acting as a “state”, but even Marx and Engels said the dictatorship of the proletariat wouldn’t be a state in the proper sense of the word. And crucially, they stress the bourgeois state must be destroyed. We can’t simply take hold of the state as is.
(DIR) Post #AirIzkW2lMdvc2d34K by lawas@mastodon.social
2024-06-12T17:33:33Z
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@M_el_viejo @Radical_EgoCom @theceoofanarchism I’m sure there are other ways to organize, but Marxism-Leninism has proven to be one of the only ideologies to actually overthrow the rule of capital for any significant amount of time. If we want to win, we need to raise the class-consciousness of the proletariat. There’s no victory without mass support and education. They’re not ready now, but they can be if a real vanguard party leads the way.
(DIR) Post #AirKnAbCftNoeUAiBM by lawas@mastodon.social
2024-06-12T18:07:51Z
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@Radical_EgoCom @M_el_viejo @theceoofanarchism Any reading you’d recommend on Luxemburg’s tendency? I’ve read Reform or Revolution, a brilliant work, but haven’t really done a deep dive on her stance.
(DIR) Post #AirMKcHere7Y1cXfLE by lawas@mastodon.social
2024-06-12T18:24:56Z
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@Radical_EgoCom @M_el_viejo @theceoofanarchism I’ll add it to the list! More theory is always good. Thanks comrade! And just as an aside, I’m really thankful for the Marxists Internet Archive, it’s such an incredible resource.
(DIR) Post #AiuChzJSza8y2em0gK by lawas@mastodon.social
2024-06-14T03:21:26Z
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@Radical_EgoCom “A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.” -Mao Tse Tung
(DIR) Post #Aj08UomUkC6p4FI9c8 by lawas@mastodon.social
2024-06-17T00:02:30Z
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@Radical_EgoCom Shame to see how far CPUSA has fallen. I mean how does a communist party renounce Marxism-Leninism and the idea of revolution? Revisionism and reformism must be combatted at every turn. It always leads to failure.
(DIR) Post #Aj5zj40IzqP1jUf01A by lawas@mastodon.social
2024-06-19T19:22:20Z
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That Jacobin article on #NoamChomsky was hot garbage. The comparisons to #Marx are especially bizarre given that #Chomsky is probably one of the more prominent anti-communist liberals out there. He’s spent his career paying the most basic lip service to Marx and then ruthlessly criticizing socialist countries with no regard for larger historical context. He actually peddles the idea that Leninism is a right-wing perversion of Marx and referred to #Marxism as an “irrational cult.”
(DIR) Post #Aj5zj5EsP9eVYyU9Mu by lawas@mastodon.social
2024-06-19T19:22:21Z
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His views on the socialism and communism range from unhelpful to actively harmful. For someone who’s made a career out of being critical of the U.S. state, he’s sure spent a lot of time talking shit about the leftists who are actually trying to challenge that power. He’s just another liberal. His fairly accurate criticisms of the U.S. state fall flat when he wags his finger at revolutionaries and insists we can co-op our way to anarchism or something.
(DIR) Post #Aj5zj5cH0AMqjXQppw by lawas@mastodon.social
2024-06-19T19:22:21Z
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He talks like a radical but has proved to be pretty hostile to actual radicals. In effect, he’s just prolonging the status quo. Like other prominent liberals, he actually acts as an another defense for the rule of capital by endlessly belittling and misrepresenting real left movements. #communism #socialism
(DIR) Post #Aj6Dm2mHPWdI9mPnsG by lawas@mastodon.social
2024-06-19T22:18:51Z
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@corq @Radical_EgoCom Huh? The problem is that Chomsky very obviously is NOT knowledgeable on Marxism or communism in general. His “critiques” are not based on anything meaningful. If you listen to him talk about the USSR, for example, you’ll see he employs very little “nuance” in the way he talks about socialist countries. His dishonest critiques directed at numerous revolutionary movements only serve to preserve the current ruling order. So yeah, that’s bad.
(DIR) Post #AjKawQVV2y70q1Dygy by lawas@mastodon.social
2024-06-26T20:55:27Z
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@Radical_EgoCom I’d say yes. I just don’t think it’s realistic to dissolve the bourgeois state and immediately proceed to statelessness. I think history shows that the forces of capital are well-organized and class conscious, so we have to be too. If we use the Marxist conception of the state, meaning that the state is a tool of class domination, I don’t see how we can avoid having a “state” of some sort during the transition to communism.
(DIR) Post #AjT6ZohXg8WD0pncMi by lawas@mastodon.social
2024-06-30T23:27:35Z
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@Radical_EgoCom @n8chz Modern liberal politics and the attitude towards Marxist theory is so frustrating to me. Like yes, we actually study both contemporary and historical texts in order to have an ideology that’s actually grounded in reality. That doesn’t make us a “cult”, it makes us people who actually care about being able to justify the positions we hold. Having no sound theoretical basis for your politics or worldview is not a flex.
(DIR) Post #Ak089M6uxzMPZ56TZI by lawas@mastodon.social
2024-07-16T21:50:43Z
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@Radical_EgoCom Louisiana is extremely religious but devastatingly poor and underdeveloped. It’s also got one of the highest rates of income inequality, so I can’t really say I’m shocked. I know people like to point and laugh at those crazy southerners, but I think the reality is that much of the state was intentionally underdeveloped in order for anyone but the residents to profit from the state’s mineral wealth. Poor descendants of slaves still get it worse than anyone there.