meh i don’t wanna see any of these faces, even criticism of them is too much profile

wtf??? thanks for the info i was not at all aware that politico was an axel springer outlet

states are not unitary actors, there can be different arms of the state getting up to different, at times contradictory, shit

I’m not convinced capital is in a position to offer concessions in much of europe, given the crisis of capitalism; referring particularly to the plummeting global competetiveness of western economies, that puts us (those of us in the core) in a fundamentally novel political situation, just as you say in your second paragraph

distraction becomes a risk when concessions are a possibility, but I’m not convinced european capitalists are in a position to offer any – which is (potentially) why we see car factories being turned to military production, which is insulated from global markets in a way consumer goods production is not

this is more or less where I’m at, I like your use of agnosticism in particular, which fits neatly with what I’m trying to develop here

I would argue that capital’s capacity to offer reforms has totally degenarated, there is no slack in the present crisis conditions with which to appease even a socdem wave, which is why we are seeing escalating repression and militarisation of the state apparatus, despite no serious radical left force yet having entered the political arena in the uk, for example

given that escalating repression, processes of radicalisation are accelerating even among those who might have remained moderates in an earlier era given a higher capacity for capital to grant concessions and appease such moderates

edit: to your last point: I am not defending social denocracy as an ideology, I am however interested in the real effect of such a mobilisation, given present conditions, on class consciousness in the medium term – what we would prefer to see is not a relevant category imho

it would be better to leapfrog straight to a victorious leninist party, but where is the historical analysis in that? the whole point of a marxist approach is to reckon with the actual balance of social forces in a society, including the real development of class experiences, made in this case by a class regenerating after at least half a century of bitter defeats experienced by their parents and grandparents

a rigorous analysis requires a confrontation with the actual trajectory of class consciousness in core societies; such an analysis would surely show that the masses in most european states are not now ready for a leninist approach, though that day may come after a renewed parliamentary wave is destroyed by bourgeois forces in ever more blatant, illiberal fashion

perhaps we would wish ourselves a different political situation, but we risk idealism by dreaming too much of a society and conjuncture other than the one we are presented with by history

could one argue that attempting to vote your way to socialism --and failing-- is an important radicalising experience for an awakening working class movement in the present conjuncture?

im thinking particularly of what seems like a rising tide of socdem (but not only socdem) activity in the uk culminating in the new corbynite party (potentially mamdani also fits the bill in nyc)

thoughts?

edit 7hrs: for those curious, I’m informing some of my analysis on the new party in the uk from three essays published in recent weeks at NLR (https://newleftreview.org/sidecar), which I thought were interesting

:/

0_0

thanks

can someone point me to a concrete critique of sartre?

good book

this one is really fucking funny

spread these posts out a bit my guy no need to blow em all at once hahaha

edit ah nvm u addressed it disregard

Hahaha I can do you one better, a friend of mine asked why people hated Hitler so much (she is from a caucasus country, I am in Mitteleuropa), she was under the impression that only Stalin was bad and Adolf was just a particularly motivated guy whom one could/should be ambivalent about, particularly when compared to Stalin. She did listen very carefully to me and is a very smart woman, don’t get me wrong.

Her friend (also from said country) explained at a later point that the education system in said country had degraded significantly since… I’m sure you can guess the rest

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