you, a nerd who expects spontaneous revolution from an uneducated working class, by which allowing well funded liberal orgs to supress revolutionary potential
me, a chad organizer who views protests as a way to engage with and educate an increasingly disillusioned working class to increase revolutionary potential
I wish I felt alive inside anymore, I've felt cold and dead and hopeless for years now. I tried that and it was like trying to talk the grand canyon into filling itself in
I've read Lenin, and tried using his methods and analysis to take targeted action based on my local material conditions and consciousness, but I'm not strong enough to keep trying and trying while accomplishing nothing, and my knowledge of Lenin just makes it so I see all around me what I am too weak to engage in
I don't remember how to have revolutionary optimism
How many decades did the Bolsheviks spend as a tiny, marginal group? How many years of trying and failing? How many years in exile? The lesson of Lenin is that only by continuing to diligently organize and being active even when it looks like you have no chance of succeeding can you lay the groundwork for eventual success. So maybe it won't happen in your lifetime, like Lenin didn't believe would happen in his, but the foundation you have built will serve for the next generation of revolutionaries to rise even higher. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Revolutionary optimism is first and foremost about recognizing that and developing the necessary fortitude and endurance to get back up no matter how many times you fall, to know that even if you must retreat today you will be able to advance again tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
How many decades did the Bolsheviks spend as a tiny, marginal group? How many years of trying and failing? How many years in exile? The lesson of Lenin is that only by continuing to diligently organize...
yes, like I said I know exactly how much of a failure I am
I know what I should be doing I know what has been done before me and that I am failing to do it, but I just don't have it in me
Take some time to recover and maybe you will feel differently at some point. It's ok to just be a supporter or sympathizer. Not everyone is cut out to be a cadre. That doesn't mean you failed. People have different roles to play in the revolution.
does getting brutalized by cops make a difference? does that stop the bombs dropping? maybe it feels brave, but how does that feeling educate the working class? how does your government mandated beating raise class consciousness in the imperial core?
these are networking and educational events, having cops there beating people makes it way harder to have productive political conversations.
Like yes, we have to fight them, but we also need to obtain political legitimacy in order to displace blue fascists as the "face of the left" so we can use real power to do something about the atrocities that are being committed in our name.
Without legitimate power we can't defund the police, we can't divest from Israel, we can't house people, &c. and we sure as hell can't stop the bombs from dropping. The burgussy will obviously do everything they can to stop us from ever gaining that kind of power, but by struggling for it we legitimize our position and demonstrate why revolution is necessary to achieve even modest goals like "not doing genocide."
Yeah I saw mention in another thread of a group of protestors breaking down the door of a police station (or similar?) and terminally onlines criticising them for not entering the building.
But to what end? A tiny isolated outbreak of violence without legitimacy or even a coherent goal or shared understanding between the participants is a recipe for pointless disaster.
I'm surprised they went as far as kicking down a door and that is honestly "enough" natural escalation in that moment. We're so impatient that we'd rather see our comrades hurl themselves off a cliff so we can see them "do something." It's pathetic.
OK what about talking to people about history and connecting them to the long history of socialist struggle in America? The working class is starting to see the issues with empire, now is a great time to help people understand what is going on so we can do something about it!
The left in America is useless, they won't even commit random acts of terror. Nothing is going to change if we don't go and harass people until the police come in and arrest us for freedom.
on main
deleted by creator
People on hexbear be like "your plan pales in comparison to my strategy, firebombing a Walmart" and then not firebomb a Walmart
Agreed. This criticism about protest doing nothing is meaningless with the complete absence of firebombed Walmarts.
I'd even accept a firebombed CVS or something, but ain't no one doing that either, smdh.
Honestly CVS should be firebombed first. Caremark causes far more harm than Walmart.
Strike where opportunity presents itself. Don't let perfect be the enemy of burning down Walmart.
💯
you, a nerd who expects spontaneous revolution from an uneducated working class, by which allowing well funded liberal orgs to supress revolutionary potential
me, a chad organizer who views protests as a way to engage with and educate an increasingly disillusioned working class to increase revolutionary potential
y'all need to read lenin
I wish I felt alive inside anymore, I've felt cold and dead and hopeless for years now. I tried that and it was like trying to talk the grand canyon into filling itself in
I've read Lenin, and tried using his methods and analysis to take targeted action based on my local material conditions and consciousness, but I'm not strong enough to keep trying and trying while accomplishing nothing, and my knowledge of Lenin just makes it so I see all around me what I am too weak to engage in
I don't remember how to have revolutionary optimism
And I feel ashamed that I don't even try anymore
Join an org. An individual does not a vanguard party make
I was in an org for years I wasn't just on a street corner with a sign saying its the end of days
How many decades did the Bolsheviks spend as a tiny, marginal group? How many years of trying and failing? How many years in exile? The lesson of Lenin is that only by continuing to diligently organize and being active even when it looks like you have no chance of succeeding can you lay the groundwork for eventual success. So maybe it won't happen in your lifetime, like Lenin didn't believe would happen in his, but the foundation you have built will serve for the next generation of revolutionaries to rise even higher. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Revolutionary optimism is first and foremost about recognizing that and developing the necessary fortitude and endurance to get back up no matter how many times you fall, to know that even if you must retreat today you will be able to advance again tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
yes, like I said I know exactly how much of a failure I am
I know what I should be doing I know what has been done before me and that I am failing to do it, but I just don't have it in me
Take some time to recover and maybe you will feel differently at some point. It's ok to just be a supporter or sympathizer. Not everyone is cut out to be a cadre. That doesn't mean you failed. People have different roles to play in the revolution.
does getting brutalized by cops make a difference? does that stop the bombs dropping? maybe it feels brave, but how does that feeling educate the working class? how does your government mandated beating raise class consciousness in the imperial core?
these are networking and educational events, having cops there beating people makes it way harder to have productive political conversations.
Like yes, we have to fight them, but we also need to obtain political legitimacy in order to displace blue fascists as the "face of the left" so we can use real power to do something about the atrocities that are being committed in our name.
Without legitimate power we can't defund the police, we can't divest from Israel, we can't house people, &c. and we sure as hell can't stop the bombs from dropping. The burgussy will obviously do everything they can to stop us from ever gaining that kind of power, but by struggling for it we legitimize our position and demonstrate why revolution is necessary to achieve even modest goals like "not doing genocide."
Yeah I saw mention in another thread of a group of protestors breaking down the door of a police station (or similar?) and terminally onlines criticising them for not entering the building.
But to what end? A tiny isolated outbreak of violence without legitimacy or even a coherent goal or shared understanding between the participants is a recipe for pointless disaster.
I'm surprised they went as far as kicking down a door and that is honestly "enough" natural escalation in that moment. We're so impatient that we'd rather see our comrades hurl themselves off a cliff so we can see them "do something." It's pathetic.
OK what about talking to people about history and connecting them to the long history of socialist struggle in America? The working class is starting to see the issues with empire, now is a great time to help people understand what is going on so we can do something about it!
Yeah ok white boy go get arrested
Instant gratification brain
The most revolutionary option is, of course, staying home and doing nothing about anything
I agree, but also I'm eepy. Always so eepy. Must take many naps.