I barely used reddit before I discovered Genzedong and I barely use it now that GZD is gone. There are some good subs like #shitliberalssay, #sino, and #communism, etc… but GZD was special. I think GZD, whether deliberately or not, captured a certain intellectual and spiritual consciousness that is unrepresented on our mainstream platforms. It presented the truth in a form that was confident and not defensive – to me, a preview of what our society could look like in the future: where truth can be taken for granted, with the knowledge that others around you will not attack you if you express it. The fact that tens of thousands of people could agree and support each other on virtually any issue (fundamentally, but of course there were healthy debates and arguments taking place) tells us that this is truly something significant – a community whose political view represent a vision for our world that represents the ideals of true equality, true freedom, and true Truth, (which is why it was seen as a threat and consequently taken down) as opposed to whatever corrupted versions of these words exists within mainstream consciousness.
So, now that there is no GZD anymore (and let’s not delude ourselves; this group will never become as popular as the reddit one was), I think those of us who resonated with the spirit of GZD should try our absolute best to propagate that spirit across the rest of the mainstream internet as much as possible. This way, although we no longer have reddit as our virtual “hub”, we’ll be able to keep the spirit of GZD alive by spreading that same content/style of content across other platforms.
IMPORTANT: the goal is not to troll or insert ourselves where we are not welcome, but to expand and amplify the voices of the already existing groups already. Posts in a place where they are unwelcome will be stifled, but a group or community on a platform which already has a large number of individuals with a cohesive set of views can bring our message to the surface of that platform, where those outside of our community can see it, and see that it is a real, substantial movement… that is at least until the censors take it down, but then we start again.
All this being said, I don’t want to create an explicit list of communities or individuals because I don’t want to bring then unwelcome attention. We’ll find them if we seek them out. In my opinion, post-GZD, quora seems to have the best M-L and China related groups, and while it does suffer from some censorship and trolling issues, many of them have been able to grow quite well.
r/Sino is good but not exclusively for communists (which may actually be a good thing, we don’t want to be in echo chambers all the time). r/SLS is run by ban-happy radlib mods who hate MLs. r/Communism is full of Gonzaloite Maoists.
There are a few good ML subs left on reddit but they’re quite small.
Unfortunately, they have taken reactionary stance about the Ukraine conflict.
Well that sucks. Haven’t been there in a while, i wasn’t aware of that.
What’s the general stance of ML’s on Gonzalo? I’m a little unclear on him and his movement. Been asking around and getting mixed responses. Obviously considering it failing miserably in the end, he cannot be considered successful, but was the movement flawed fundamentally, of just undermined by Fujimori’s inhumane dictatorship?
Also, good to know about SLS, although it’s kind of disappointing to see so much division amongst the Left.
Fundamentally flawed. Did not follow the mass line. Engaged in counterproductive adventurism and used terroristic tactics. Did not establish the proper connections to and base among the masses that a revolutionary guerilla movement needs.
Completely different approach than what Mao used in China or Fidel and Che in Cuba. Some of the same problems of insufficient connection to the masses are also what led to the failure of Che’s guerilla war in Bolivia where he was captured and killed.
You cannot simply launch a guerilla war that is disconnected from the objective conditions in which the people live. Insufficient investigation/understanding of those conditions and of the needs and wants of the masses will always lead to failure.
Great answer. Thank you. I have also heard arguments that Gonzalo did a lot to “synthesize the theory of Lenin and Mao”. Any thoughts on this? (My knowledge of theory is admittedly lacking but I’m working on it)