Even if it were true that Marx threw out his entire life’s work and became an anarchist on his deathbed, how did the Paris Commune turn out? Why has no anarchist society lasted more than a few months before collapsing from within, or from without by capitalist/imperialist forces? Anarchism has not and can not succeed in the world we presently live in, if for no other reason than they cannot defend themselves against the imperialist forces of the monopoly capitalists who want to profit from everything everywhere.

From Michael Parenti’s 1997 book Blackshirts and Reds:

But a real socialism, it is argued, would be controlled by the workers themselves through direct participation instead of being run by Leninists, Stalinists, Castroites, or other ill-willed, power-hungry, bureaucratic cabals of evil men who betray revolutions. Unfortunately, this “pure socialism” view is ahistorical and nonfalsifiable; it cannot be tested against the actualities of history. It compares an ideal against an imperfect reality, and the reality comes off a poor second. It imagines what socialism would be like in a world far better than this one, where no strong state structure or security force is required, where none of the value produced by workers needs to be expropriated to rebuild society and defend it from invasion and internal sabotage.

The pure socialists’ ideological anticipations remain untainted by existing practice. They do not explain how the manifold functions of a revolutionary society would be organized, how external attack and internal sabotage would be thwarted, how bureaucracy would be avoided, scarce resources allocated, policy differences settled, priorities set, and production and distribution conducted. Instead, they offer vague statements about how the workers themselves will directly own and control the means of production and will arrive at their own solutions through creative struggle. No surprise then that the pure socialists support every revolution except the ones that succeed.

The pure socialists had a vision of a new society that would create and be created by new people, a society so transformed in its fundaments as to leave little opportunity for wrongful acts, corruption, and criminal abuses of state power. There would be no bureaucracy or self-interested coteries, no ruthless conflicts or hurtful decisions. When the reality proves different and more difficult, some on the Left proceed to condemn the real thing and announce that they “feel betrayed” by this or that revolution.

“Socialism in one country” is the invention of a bourgeois dictator who sought to destroy communism because it was a threat to his power.

Declassified CIA report:

Even in Stalin’s time there was collective leadership. The Western idea of a dictator within the Communist setup is exaggerated. Misunderstandings on that subject are caused by lack of comprehension of the real nature and organization of the Communist power structure. Stalin, although holding wide powers, was merely the captain of a team and it seems obvious that Khrushchev will be the new captain.

A lot of the cold war propaganda about the USSR turned out to be bullshit, as contemporary Western academic historians will tell you, including Domenico Losurdo.

Karl Marx died an anarchist.

This is laughably false by simply reading what Marx actually wrote.

Liberalism means PRO CAPITALISM.

The first sentence from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism:

Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property and equality before the law.

From the first paragraph of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_property†:

Private property is foundational to capitalism, an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit.

Liberalism: A Counter-History (online copy)

†Not to be confused with personal property.

That the majority of Democrats have always and will always caucus with the Republicans to suppress the left.

stinky sheets of blurry purple letters

Hey now, the fresh ones smelled pretty good!

They would be financially remiss not to seriously consider it.

Sesame Street taught me phonics.

H.Con.Res. 9: Denouncing the horrors of socialism.

Feb 2, 2023 at 12:36 p.m. ET. On the Resolution in the House.

Spez is probably a centimillionaire, and Sam Altman supposedly has a 9% stake in Reddit. It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it.

Who knows what this pseudo-event is about, other than shoving oligarchs in my face again. Fuck all these fuckers.

Bernie has been pretty shitty on foreign policy. He supported the NATO bombing of Belgrade for 78 straight days, which is why he fell out of favor with his socialist friend, Michael Parenti. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLNQEHbusSA&t=39s

Sometimes the evolution of language isn’t so much organic as it is a political project, such as a century of red scares and socialist purges.

Americans believe Sanders when he calls himself a socialist because they’ve lost a vocabulary for socialism itself. And they think Sanders’ centrism is “the left,” because the Overton window has shifted so far right that there is no left left.

We can’t simply use their terms, because their terminology is both muddled and lacking.

We know that, which is why we’re trying to deprogram Americans from the Orwellian newspeak they’ve been mistaught so they can develop class consciousness.

No, it’s anti-pinkwashing. It’s anti-liberals failing to protect the vulnerable yet again. What have we gained since the pussyhat movement but the loss of reproductive rights under Biden’s watch?

Unity means Vote Blue no Matter Who,
unless they’re to the left of the center-right,
in which case we spare no expense or moral compunction to primary the fuck out of them.

Yes, it’s hard for them to understand because of a lifetime of anti-socialist & pro-capitalist propaganda, propaganda which most of them aren’t even aware of, because for them it’s just common sense.

A lie can travel around the world and back again while the truth is lacing up its boots.

As if you know communism from a ham sandwich. You and I have already been over this: https://lemm.ee/comment/11869887

Here’s another one, from Michael Parenti’s 1997 Blackshirts and Reds:

But a real socialism, it is argued, would be controlled by the workers themselves through direct participation instead of being run by Leninists, Stalinists, Castroites, or other ill-willed, power-hungry, bureaucratic cabals of evil men who betray revolutions. Unfortunately, this “pure socialism” view is ahistorical and nonfalsifiable; it cannot be tested against the actualities of history. It compares an ideal against an imperfect reality, and the reality comes off a poor second. It imagines what socialism would be like in a world far better than this one, where no strong state structure or security force is required, where none of the value produced by workers needs to be expropriated to rebuild society and defend it from invasion and internal sabotage.

The pure socialists’ ideological anticipations remain untainted by existing practice. They do not explain how the manifold functions of a revolutionary society would be organized, how external attack and internal sabotage would be thwarted, how bureaucracy would be avoided, scarce resources allocated, policy differences settled, priorities set, and production and distribution conducted. Instead, they offer vague statements about how the workers themselves will directly own and control the means of production and will arrive at their own solutions through creative struggle. No surprise then that the pure socialists support every revolution except the ones that succeed.

The pure socialists had a vision of a new society that would create and be created by new people, a society so transformed in its fundaments as to leave little opportunity for wrongful acts, corruption, and criminal abuses of state power. There would be no bureaucracy or self-interested coteries, no ruthless conflicts or hurtful decisions. When the reality proves different and more difficult, some on the Left proceed to condemn the real thing and announce that they “feel betrayed” by this or that revolution.

Ultras fear the scroll.

What if I told you that our federal taxes don’t go toward food stamps at all, and in fact pay for nothing?

• The United States can always pay any debt it has because we can always print money to do that.
  — Former Fed. Res. Chair. Alan Greenspan
• Why The Government Has Infinite Money
• What Caused Hyperinflation In Weimar, Zimbabwe And Venezuela?

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