Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley): The biggest problem with the western left is that it doesn't exist. To look at a lot of leftist discourse today you might think the left's biggest problem is that some leftists have the wrong beliefs about this or that issue, or that the left pays too much or not enough attention to identity politics, or places too much or not enough emphasis on electoral politics, or is too sympathetic toward enemies of the US empire or not sympathetic enough, or that this or that faction gets it all wrong — but it's not. The biggest problem is that there aren't anywhere remotely close to enough leftists to get anything done in the west today.
Never ceases to amaze me that Bernie and the squad voted to fund the Ukraine proxy war. The left is now a corporate virtue signaling operation through ESG and DIE. I launched a satirical startup called the current thing company to serve these consoomers - here is the shark tank pitch: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/current-thing-company-yuri-sharktank
Another one that hurts to read, because it's so right on. Especially given that I'm already agonized by this morning's news: that the horrible debt limit bill has passed through Congress, probably been signed by Biden by now. Among other horrors, it mandates all agencies and courts get out of the way of completing the Mountain Valley Pipeline. I live in WV, which it passes through, but what's most important is the precedent--what future project is going to bother with the regulatory process when they can just bribe a few Congresspeople to attach a free pass for it to the next piece of must-pass legislation? This comes on top of all the other Biden betrayals on environment and climate. Trying to preserve some habitable places on Earth requires desperate, direct action--we cannot ever get responsible legislation passed through any of our governments, all owned by the big corporations. As are the media, which makes organizing very hard. The other news is that three more activists have been arrested in Atlanta, for the crime of fund-raising for those arrested in the Cop City protests. Since arrestees have laughably been charged with terrorism (and denied bail), therefore fundraising for them is aiding terrorism and money laundering. Clearly ANY visible opposition to Cop City is grounds for arrest. Not just the cops, the city leaders are going along with this. Atlanta is thus the first but surely not the last city to go full police city (as in police state, but on a city level). Which brings us back to the pipeline, and climate/environmental activism in general--preserving habitable places requires direct action, but the oil companies have already gotten bills passed in many state legislatures--in the US, and we just saw with Caitlin's post of a few days ago, it's happening in Australia too. And UK...
Most of what passes for "left" in the West is just Team R with a different idpol.
Things that the Empire cares about such as bailing out the billionaires at the casino again or putting another war of aggression on the national credit card get near-unanimous support.
In the last half of the 20th century the US purged anything that smelled of socialism from their capitalist- warfare state. The McCarthy hearings of the 1950's were a big part of this. In the West socialism has been vilified out of existence until it makes a comeback there is little hope for real change. Liberalism is also dead and Western governments, are all neoliberal which is actually economic fascism. Political parties on both sides of the Can/US border have had their identities and integrity utterly destroyed by neoliberalism as the ideology that has been around for half a century and nobody wants to discuss how it has destroyed the collective West and made war perpetual.
There is a steadfast refusal to recognize that China and Russia are not the problem . The problem is that we have chosen ruinous ideologies, democracy has collapsed and governments are riven with corruption.
As Chalmers Johnson said, you can have empire, or democracy; but you can't have both. His trilogy demonstrated how empire is driving the US and the West to wreck and ruin.
Warfare is merely gas thrown on the fire, accelerating decline. As has been noted change ultimately must start in the streets.
That’s cos no one has a clue what to do. It depresses and demotivates. As Mark Fisher said “It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than it is the end of capitalism.” He killed himself. And Western Neoliberalism has done a fine job in atomising and disenchanting us all. In the light of all this I think an organised radical left is unlikely and the best we might hope for is the coming inevitable collapse. Open to ideas.
There’s a lot of irony in your complaining about people on the Left complaining about their own.
I perceive the bigger issue is that a lot of people have been convinced that alleged Left political parties like the Democrats are “far Left Socialists”. The fact that anyone could believe this, including a lot of people who would self identify as being a Lefty, shows just how desperate the situation is.
This is an area where labels are used instrumentally. When the socialist or communist label is deployed, there is nobody to stand up and defend the truth that ad hominem labeling is intended to obscure. Virtually everyone is mum when the charge of communist is leveled. That is the power of propaganda.
This is the reason I have come to the conclusion that the USA needs to break up. It will have to happen from inside the country because no other nation can do it from outside, attempting it would trigger WWIII.
I would like to see a greater number of people on the traditional “left,” but I don’t think the biggest problem is too few on the left. The biggest problem is too few in the opposition.
I no longer care whether a person is on the right or left (whatever that even means anymore), I only want to know if a person is an imperialist (neoliberal), or an anti-imperialist.
There has never been a Socialist movement less interested in recruiting workers and educating workers in Socialism than the current Left in the USA. In their heyday, a Communist party building would always include a Workers School. The Party school in NYC alone had more than 5,000 students. Another major problem with the American Left is the refusal to recognize the extent to which Federal informants have infiltrated and in some cases (e.g., unfortunately, the CPUSA) control organizations.
Maybe it doesn't exist in terms of the old left like 1960's and 1970's communism. But the democrats sure are the best leftist clones I have ever seen. It doesn't matter what we call it really, it's all the same...humanity under the yoke of government and tyrants unnamed.
Reminds me of how organizations like Code Pink refused to participate in the "Rage Against the Machine" protest in DC in 2022. Because, I believe Ron Paul spoke at the event, and Jackson Hinkle,etc. Even though the event had many well known Left/Indie - intellectuals speaking, such as Chris Hedges, Jimmy Dore, Jill Stein, Roger Waters, Tara Reade, Max Blumenthal, etc.
Decisions like this is one of the reasons why the Left barely exists. You're not going to create a strong movement if you insist only certain qualified people who pass your defined Left litmus test can be invited to your rallies. Although, this is not a new problem for the Left. MLK had all sorts of difficulties keeping the civil rights movement he led focused and there was quite a bit of acrimony with civil rights leaders at the time, including with Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X.
When you grow up as a US citizen and you are taught about politics is school. You are being taught by the empire itself. So you not only have the information they want you to have, they teach you that it is the right information. You have two options, Democrats or Republicans, might as well be one party like the Democractic-Republican party of the past. Humor aside.
The empire doesn't want real leftists. Why would it want to create significant opposition? If you listen to Democrats or progressives(who ironically aren't progressive) is that they can't do anything because they don't have enough leftists-ever! They tell you to keep voting for them in a never ending cycle of failure, election after election. If they fail, it is our fault because not enough of us voted for them. That's the thing, there never will be enough.
That's b\y design. Year after year they impliment the same failing strategy with the same predictible results. It doesn't matter who we vote for. The people we vote for are empire servants, not public servants.
After this leftists also have a hard time creating more leftists because not many know what one is. That we are taught that being on the left is being a Democrat. After this, we are inudated with that we are such a small number that we need to submit to the Democrats to have any hope of success. Why would we join the opposition who supports the empire? I am still learning about being left...It will be a long journey but I am never going to be a main stream supporter again.
Lastly, we need to be able to communicate with each other and do so to the best of our ability. You have written about influence of thought being more powerful than censorship. This is just one example.
Well, what is your argument genius? I'll give you an argument: communism wasn't responsible for the first and second world wars that killed 150 millions, and that figure is reliable, unlike your likely source: The Black Book of Communism, a tome NO accredited university on the planet would stock, except maybe in the psychology dept. as exhibit #1, testament to the gullibility of human beings in the West. The West and liberalism are also responsible for every subsequent war, with perhaps another 100 millions dead, many more wounded and/or impoverished. The US interfered negatively in almost half the countries in the world, wreaking destruction and impoverishment, unimpeded or interrupted. On the other hand Mao, dogged by Western backed pitbulls, was single-handedly responsible for killing a million people, as he fled for his life? A little idiotic on its surface, I would say. And if you are looking for personal insults, you came to the right place.
Never ceases to amaze me that Bernie and the squad voted to fund the Ukraine proxy war. The left is now a corporate virtue signaling operation through ESG and DIE. I launched a satirical startup called the current thing company to serve these consoomers - here is the shark tank pitch: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/current-thing-company-yuri-sharktank
Another one that hurts to read, because it's so right on. Especially given that I'm already agonized by this morning's news: that the horrible debt limit bill has passed through Congress, probably been signed by Biden by now. Among other horrors, it mandates all agencies and courts get out of the way of completing the Mountain Valley Pipeline. I live in WV, which it passes through, but what's most important is the precedent--what future project is going to bother with the regulatory process when they can just bribe a few Congresspeople to attach a free pass for it to the next piece of must-pass legislation? This comes on top of all the other Biden betrayals on environment and climate. Trying to preserve some habitable places on Earth requires desperate, direct action--we cannot ever get responsible legislation passed through any of our governments, all owned by the big corporations. As are the media, which makes organizing very hard. The other news is that three more activists have been arrested in Atlanta, for the crime of fund-raising for those arrested in the Cop City protests. Since arrestees have laughably been charged with terrorism (and denied bail), therefore fundraising for them is aiding terrorism and money laundering. Clearly ANY visible opposition to Cop City is grounds for arrest. Not just the cops, the city leaders are going along with this. Atlanta is thus the first but surely not the last city to go full police city (as in police state, but on a city level). Which brings us back to the pipeline, and climate/environmental activism in general--preserving habitable places requires direct action, but the oil companies have already gotten bills passed in many state legislatures--in the US, and we just saw with Caitlin's post of a few days ago, it's happening in Australia too. And UK...
Most of what passes for "left" in the West is just Team R with a different idpol.
Things that the Empire cares about such as bailing out the billionaires at the casino again or putting another war of aggression on the national credit card get near-unanimous support.
In the last half of the 20th century the US purged anything that smelled of socialism from their capitalist- warfare state. The McCarthy hearings of the 1950's were a big part of this. In the West socialism has been vilified out of existence until it makes a comeback there is little hope for real change. Liberalism is also dead and Western governments, are all neoliberal which is actually economic fascism. Political parties on both sides of the Can/US border have had their identities and integrity utterly destroyed by neoliberalism as the ideology that has been around for half a century and nobody wants to discuss how it has destroyed the collective West and made war perpetual.
There is a steadfast refusal to recognize that China and Russia are not the problem . The problem is that we have chosen ruinous ideologies, democracy has collapsed and governments are riven with corruption.
As Chalmers Johnson said, you can have empire, or democracy; but you can't have both. His trilogy demonstrated how empire is driving the US and the West to wreck and ruin.
Warfare is merely gas thrown on the fire, accelerating decline. As has been noted change ultimately must start in the streets.
That’s cos no one has a clue what to do. It depresses and demotivates. As Mark Fisher said “It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than it is the end of capitalism.” He killed himself. And Western Neoliberalism has done a fine job in atomising and disenchanting us all. In the light of all this I think an organised radical left is unlikely and the best we might hope for is the coming inevitable collapse. Open to ideas.
There’s a lot of irony in your complaining about people on the Left complaining about their own.
I perceive the bigger issue is that a lot of people have been convinced that alleged Left political parties like the Democrats are “far Left Socialists”. The fact that anyone could believe this, including a lot of people who would self identify as being a Lefty, shows just how desperate the situation is.
This is an area where labels are used instrumentally. When the socialist or communist label is deployed, there is nobody to stand up and defend the truth that ad hominem labeling is intended to obscure. Virtually everyone is mum when the charge of communist is leveled. That is the power of propaganda.
As an avowed capitalist (shocker) I'm not onboard with the communist train. Millions tend to die when we walk that path, and I'd prefer to avoid it.
Nonetheless I think I have a great way to convince people that the West is morally bankrupt, just read Confessions of an Economic Hitman.
It's nearly impossible to read this book and not lose all faith that we're the good guys.
https://theunhedgedcapitalist.substack.com/p/book-review-confessions-of-an-economic
This is the reason I have come to the conclusion that the USA needs to break up. It will have to happen from inside the country because no other nation can do it from outside, attempting it would trigger WWIII.
I think the left is an obsolete concept as is the right and centre for politics. Try awareness of what colonialism truly is , I that see happening .
Thinking about it as the MSM refuses to.
One sees the ever increasing escalation with lies by MSM about the Ukraine War fooling many compassionate people which I find abhorrent.
This escalation brings what the colonial mind does to a whole new level in its use of violent destruction of people and economies .
To look for the truth is more important than seeking a political label to describe who you are.
Why play the divide and conquer game used by the Hegemon with your friends sticking a political label on them?
I would like to see a greater number of people on the traditional “left,” but I don’t think the biggest problem is too few on the left. The biggest problem is too few in the opposition.
I no longer care whether a person is on the right or left (whatever that even means anymore), I only want to know if a person is an imperialist (neoliberal), or an anti-imperialist.
There has never been a Socialist movement less interested in recruiting workers and educating workers in Socialism than the current Left in the USA. In their heyday, a Communist party building would always include a Workers School. The Party school in NYC alone had more than 5,000 students. Another major problem with the American Left is the refusal to recognize the extent to which Federal informants have infiltrated and in some cases (e.g., unfortunately, the CPUSA) control organizations.
Maybe it doesn't exist in terms of the old left like 1960's and 1970's communism. But the democrats sure are the best leftist clones I have ever seen. It doesn't matter what we call it really, it's all the same...humanity under the yoke of government and tyrants unnamed.
Reminds me of how organizations like Code Pink refused to participate in the "Rage Against the Machine" protest in DC in 2022. Because, I believe Ron Paul spoke at the event, and Jackson Hinkle,etc. Even though the event had many well known Left/Indie - intellectuals speaking, such as Chris Hedges, Jimmy Dore, Jill Stein, Roger Waters, Tara Reade, Max Blumenthal, etc.
Decisions like this is one of the reasons why the Left barely exists. You're not going to create a strong movement if you insist only certain qualified people who pass your defined Left litmus test can be invited to your rallies. Although, this is not a new problem for the Left. MLK had all sorts of difficulties keeping the civil rights movement he led focused and there was quite a bit of acrimony with civil rights leaders at the time, including with Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X.
When you grow up as a US citizen and you are taught about politics is school. You are being taught by the empire itself. So you not only have the information they want you to have, they teach you that it is the right information. You have two options, Democrats or Republicans, might as well be one party like the Democractic-Republican party of the past. Humor aside.
The empire doesn't want real leftists. Why would it want to create significant opposition? If you listen to Democrats or progressives(who ironically aren't progressive) is that they can't do anything because they don't have enough leftists-ever! They tell you to keep voting for them in a never ending cycle of failure, election after election. If they fail, it is our fault because not enough of us voted for them. That's the thing, there never will be enough.
That's b\y design. Year after year they impliment the same failing strategy with the same predictible results. It doesn't matter who we vote for. The people we vote for are empire servants, not public servants.
After this leftists also have a hard time creating more leftists because not many know what one is. That we are taught that being on the left is being a Democrat. After this, we are inudated with that we are such a small number that we need to submit to the Democrats to have any hope of success. Why would we join the opposition who supports the empire? I am still learning about being left...It will be a long journey but I am never going to be a main stream supporter again.
Lastly, we need to be able to communicate with each other and do so to the best of our ability. You have written about influence of thought being more powerful than censorship. This is just one example.
Well, what is your argument genius? I'll give you an argument: communism wasn't responsible for the first and second world wars that killed 150 millions, and that figure is reliable, unlike your likely source: The Black Book of Communism, a tome NO accredited university on the planet would stock, except maybe in the psychology dept. as exhibit #1, testament to the gullibility of human beings in the West. The West and liberalism are also responsible for every subsequent war, with perhaps another 100 millions dead, many more wounded and/or impoverished. The US interfered negatively in almost half the countries in the world, wreaking destruction and impoverishment, unimpeded or interrupted. On the other hand Mao, dogged by Western backed pitbulls, was single-handedly responsible for killing a million people, as he fled for his life? A little idiotic on its surface, I would say. And if you are looking for personal insults, you came to the right place.