Posted on here some time back about how I had this argument with this one “Marxist” kid who probably believes all the stuff on here, he literally said Lenin (probably the least “authoritarian” Soviet leader minus Gorbachev) was an authoritarian, and that the Soviets (along with literally every other ruling/former ruling communist party since they were just like them) were basically Nazis who lied about being socialist to get power, to the point where he even called me a Nazi, along with unironically saying the horseshoe theory was true because “MLs are far-right.”
It annoys me whenever liberals try to pretend that they are leftists when they actively antagonize actual leftists. COINTELPRO and its consequences have been a disaster for the western left.
Marxism-Leninism is an ideology that is followed by a minimum of one hundred million people (add up all the members of the ruling communist parties worldwide to see how I got that number), and that doesn’t even count all the sympathizers and non-party members which is probably a billion or two. Yet apparently every single one of them is just lying about being socialist just so they can seize power and be authoritarians. The Nazis actively hated Marxism and stated that they were trying to take socialism from the socialists, while Marxist-Leninists quoted Marx and Engels all the time in their writings and talked about how they would achieve a socialist society.
The idea that Marxist-Leninists are all just lying authoritarians is something I find utterly ridiculous and laughable. You have to think outside of reality in order to believe that claim.
I like to tell people like this to read Blackshirts and Reds by Parenti. I forget in what detail atm, but he specifically goes over how Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy co-opted working class energy, while being opposed to working class power in actuality. In contrast with the Soviet Union, which had its issues, but was genuinely by/for the working class.
Like the thing these kind of people are talking about is sort of real?.. but it’s a rightist thing, it’s not something Lenin did or Stalin did or Mao did. There are shades of that happening now in the US, the rightists who claim to be ML or communist, but are also “patriots” (claiming there’s nothing wrong with being patriotic for a genocidal settler state developed into a global capitalist empire).
Also, I would say the use of the word “authoritarian” generally betrays how lacking a person’s political education has been and how desperately they need some grounding in history+theory from non-imperialist sources. Idk the origin of “authoritarian” as a term, but in practice, it gets used as a propaganda buzzword to contrast, claiming that “democracy for the rich” systems are “freedom” and other stuff is “authoritarian.” Meanwhile, the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Under what rock the freedom is hiding, I don’t know. People get told such spooky ghost story narratives about how “authoritarian” those “non freedom” countries are, while ignoring what’s in front of them: the “rights” written on a constitution that is as reliable as you are rich and that’s about as far as it goes.
Posted on here some time back about how I had this argument with this one “Marxist” kid who probably believes all the stuff on here, he literally said Lenin (probably the least “authoritarian” Soviet leader minus Gorbachev) was an authoritarian, and that the Soviets (along with literally every other ruling/former ruling communist party since they were just like them) were basically Nazis who lied about being socialist to get power, to the point where he even called me a Nazi, along with unironically saying the horseshoe theory was true because “MLs are far-right.”
It annoys me whenever liberals try to pretend that they are leftists when they actively antagonize actual leftists. COINTELPRO and its consequences have been a disaster for the western left.
Marxism-Leninism is an ideology that is followed by a minimum of one hundred million people (add up all the members of the ruling communist parties worldwide to see how I got that number), and that doesn’t even count all the sympathizers and non-party members which is probably a billion or two. Yet apparently every single one of them is just lying about being socialist just so they can seize power and be authoritarians. The Nazis actively hated Marxism and stated that they were trying to take socialism from the socialists, while Marxist-Leninists quoted Marx and Engels all the time in their writings and talked about how they would achieve a socialist society.
The idea that Marxist-Leninists are all just lying authoritarians is something I find utterly ridiculous and laughable. You have to think outside of reality in order to believe that claim.
I like to tell people like this to read Blackshirts and Reds by Parenti. I forget in what detail atm, but he specifically goes over how Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy co-opted working class energy, while being opposed to working class power in actuality. In contrast with the Soviet Union, which had its issues, but was genuinely by/for the working class.
Like the thing these kind of people are talking about is sort of real?.. but it’s a rightist thing, it’s not something Lenin did or Stalin did or Mao did. There are shades of that happening now in the US, the rightists who claim to be ML or communist, but are also “patriots” (claiming there’s nothing wrong with being patriotic for a genocidal settler state developed into a global capitalist empire).
Also, I would say the use of the word “authoritarian” generally betrays how lacking a person’s political education has been and how desperately they need some grounding in history+theory from non-imperialist sources. Idk the origin of “authoritarian” as a term, but in practice, it gets used as a propaganda buzzword to contrast, claiming that “democracy for the rich” systems are “freedom” and other stuff is “authoritarian.” Meanwhile, the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Under what rock the freedom is hiding, I don’t know. People get told such spooky ghost story narratives about how “authoritarian” those “non freedom” countries are, while ignoring what’s in front of them: the “rights” written on a constitution that is as reliable as you are rich and that’s about as far as it goes.