It seems most cross tendency engagement devolves in to fights between leftcoms/anarchists vs AES supporters or “Dengists” vs Maoists. Anyone can point at each other and say “they started it” and avoid responsibilities. We agree on 90% of stuff but Anarchists decide to randomly call us tankies and we feel the need to defend ourselves or else look like we lost without an argument. Likewise we make memes about Anarkiddies and write texts denouncing them and they feel the same. Among scientific socialists we see China as an ally and an example to learn from while Maoists want to call out “revisionism.” There seems to be a contradiction between the history of different socialist experiments and disagreements not really mattering to our own conditions and those experiments also being vital learning experiences for us.
It’s strange to think about how we pretty much agree with Patsocs on more than almost any other tendency yet they are almost useless because they don’t understand the basic dialectical method and why have our positions beyond aesthetics and thus cannot understand the basic material conditions of this country.
We can keep trying to bring more people into our own sects and hope they do work for our own type of socialism irl, but if we’re so divided how can this happen. Of course we should all just log off and do things irl, but then some will fall into the trap of either larping or just helping their own friends without the wider goal of revolution.
We all need to remember that the feds let us speak because we spend all our time bickering. How can we unify as a revolutionary left? There are projects irl for trying to find unity as scientific socialists like ChunkaLuta, but it would be nice to be able to do the same online. In a way I’m just wishing everyone could just listen to revleft and everything could work out, but what can Lemmygrad and hexbear do for this vision?
spoiler
I used to be an absolute ardent supporter of Left Unity.
However, every passing day I see less and less in common between MLs and anarchists/leftcoms/socdems/etc.
Yes, I do think many of us share some core values: wanting to help the oppressed. But the way they fundamentally see the world, their priorities, their methodology, the narrative they are deeply invested into, the very fabric of how they think, is so radically different that they are functionally liberals to me, which is to say, are functionally fascists…they are playthings of the CIA with one purpose, catching those who fall from grace before they land in the mystical land of Actually Revolutionary Politics.
This is how I see, for example, “anarchism” more than how I see individual anarchists. Individually, I know many non-MLs who are very bright and have good hearts, we have several here on Lemmygrad. The key issue with many is simply that they have been dogmatically indoctrinated into a cult, it is that simple to me. I absolutely want to deradicalize and reeducate as many as possible…and I would say the same thing about the massive swathe of apolitical people, as well as liberals, conservatives, and fascists. Among each of these spheres, I regularly see redeemable, grossly misled people.
However, I am increasingly of the opinion that it will be easier to radicalize someone who is simply poor, much faster than it will be to radicalize all the near-Left red herrings, despite them seemingly being so much closer to us politically already. A vast number seem to be those whose indoctrination into the Compatible Left has made them violently allergic to anything even remotely associated with AES. Most times (definitely not all times!), when I try to talk to an anarchist/leftcom/socdem/etc., I am talking to someone who is oozing self-assured, contemptuous smugness, born and raised within the white petit bourgeois mentality. When I talk to poorer, less white, less suburban, more apolitical, less terminally online people, who I would describe as “center right” politically, these people actually seem (again on average) more inclined to listen in good-ish faith. Their class character certainly makes them predispositioned to believe that America is a thoroughbred liar, that food and housing are uptmost signs of a just society, etc.
Lately, when I sit and scheme or socially experiment IRL with radicalization techniques and strategies, I am much less focused lately on other “leftists” and much more focused on the apolitical poor. I’ve had much better luck that way, even though a core characteristic of apolitical people is them being, well, not that deeply interested in politics.
That said, I don’t think Left Unity is a total waste, I think there are multiple fronts to this war that all are in dire need of attention. I think I am also just very cynical from my personal experience; it’s gotten to the point that I cannot stand to be around hardly any “alternative” folk here as I regard them all as spoiled hipsters. I have a history of being bullied by such people, and I recognize my very personal hatred towards them may be clouding my rationality.
I like this perspective. These “leftists” are not to be unified with, but are pretty much more liberals to be brought to our side, and more difficult ones at that. This reminded me of how my conservative mostly “apolitical” “middle class” grandma was far more receptive than my insane anarchist aunt who thinks she literally knows everything (the income thing is flipped, but the point about “left” is still there). The annoying part is how “apolitical” people don’t want to talk about politics while those who do are harder to convince.