I highly doubt these people are feds as in employed by the US state department for the purpose of spreading pro-US narratives into “leftist” spaces. They don’t need that because, frankly, Americans are so indoctrinated that they (CIA, etc.) don’t need to actively do stuff like that anymore.

That doesn’t mean they never do it, btw. They absolutely do infiltrate groups and we know this because of the insider operations we’ve seen executed against the far right wingers that are stupid enough to openly start talking about doing OKC Federal building stuff again. There’s probably some example from the left recently but I can’t recall any. Probably a ton of informants planted amongst the few leftist anarchist groups that operate and do stuff like sabotage right winger’s rallies (like slashing their tires and spray painting their cars and stuff- it’s actually pretty comical stuff). Although that’s not a threat in the same way domestic terror from McVeigh types would be, FBI and such have an interest in equating them to claim “fairness” later on, even though in the US the only real violence ever comes from the right wing. I assume the few socialist/communist/ML/etc. book reading clubs are probably surveilled lightly, but, everyone knows those are packed with fucking nerds.

So, I think they’re definitely doing some stuff, but it’s mostly situated around catching the randos who say out of pocket, legally actionable things. Guys trying to set up militias and shit and getting way too descriptive in their purpose. Right wingers can be very descriptive. Left wingers can’t be.

Anyway, I think most of the fed-appearing places are just dumbass, libbed-up Americans for the most part. EU/UK, etc. are gonna hold similar opinions. NATO-aligned opinions, basically.

These people aren’t socialists in any real sense. They do not oppose US imperialism and hegemony. They support it if anything or rather often engage in “well, maybe US/NATO does some bad stuff, but will it be better if China replaced the US?!” (Yes, yes it would. Or at least oppose US dominance forcing the US state to temper its worst inclinations).

They close their eyes and ears, and it’s easy to avoid as an American, to the suffering and horror that US imperialism has brought to the world. If they do by accident see something like the genocide in Gaza well “1) that’s Israel, not US and 2) has nothing to do with capitalism, imperialism, or specifically US imperialism.” It’s just impossible for them to plug the pieces of the puzzle because they don’t want to.

Accepting that your home country, or union of countries (EU, because it’s just the little doggie of the US in the end), is responsible for all the suffering in the world, and that you play a role in that suffering even as a first world worker who owns zero capital… it’s depressing. The instinct is to lash out, deny, call people names, justify things, call people wreckers, whatever else, anything else except accepting what is plainly true and in front of you and that you have a responsibility beyond just feeling bad about it. If you understand that horrors are being done that benefit you… well, you gotta do something if you desire to be moral, as I think almost humans do. No one wants to be the “bad guy,” so if you followed a path to arriving at the first world exploiting the third world you either have to live with that knowledge like a curse or you can say “nah, I reject that because it makes me feel some way and it means actual substantial, scary changes would have to occur. I don’t know the outcome of that alternative future! I like this one where USA is number 1. I just want healthcare, free college, rights for gay people, etc., all the good liberal things. And I’m willing to never think about the rest of the world to obtain those things.”

And that’s why they’re liberals. Maybe they prefer socdems, I don’t really care. The point is they don’t fully engage with the Marxist and Leninist ideas around labor and capital and imperialism. I guess they call this “purity testing.” If condemning the imperialism of the US while also not buying into falsehoods about other nations sold to you by the US imperialists is “purity” then yes, that is the test, and you gotta pass it otherwise you’re not doing the full and accurate analysis. For some reason this annoys people. Like they wanna call themselves socialists and yet not believe in socialist principles. Why not just call yourself what you are, a liberal? Because “liberals are bad”? It’s just a circle of shit there. Yeah, liberals suck, so when people to your left say you’re being a shit-sucking liberal, maybe think about shit more. (Ranting now)