Reminder that “leftists” are pawns of the western imperialist machine.
No left unity, only Marxist unity. No unity with running dogs of imperialism. Go look at any non-Marxist, explicitly “leftist” space and their takes on the CIA, US aggression, Russia, Ukraine, China, muh atrocity propaganda and they’re all hallucinating off the mind drugs that they can voooooote in socialism which to many of them just means free healthcare and a good job.
Can they become Marxist is the actual question because that is the only thing that will lead to real material gains for the working class internally and externally, the only thing which will put an end to the monstrous imperialist machinery and to western capital, the American/trans-Atlantic bourgeoisie themselves. If the US was swept by some anti-marxist, broad “leftist” movement I would predict any ‘revolution’ to come out of it would be sabotaged from within and not even by paid agents but by ignorant radical liberals who have an interest against the working class abroad and even much of it at home or at any rate leave the imperialist apparatus intact and replicate the conditions that presently exist. I would not even be shocked if the CIA were to try and create a false revolution if things get out of hand beyond their normal abilities to control to try and fool and placate the western proletariat into thinking they’ve won and to preserve the power of capital and western, racist, white hegemony.
This, the first test is anti-imperialism and most “leftists” in the west not only fail the test, they do it with vigor and pleasure.
Absolutely. The system is stacked against the youth and everyone knows it. Everyone knows deep down that something has to change, it’s just a matter of (like other users said) making theory easier to understand and showing others the solution.
Yes, we just need to find a way to make leftist theory easier to understand, while also pushing unfalsifiable and inherently true statements, such as “capitalism can never fix climate change”. Here’s a list of propaganda techniques to make things easier
That’s surprisingly useful!
Here is some Marxist literature on agitprop (agitation and propaganda) (I read most of these a long time ago, so I cannot remember what I thought of each one but the first is brief and will serve as a good starting point):
https://www.marxists.org/archive/hallas/works/1984/09/agitprop.htm – nice and short article by Hallas (a British Trotskyist)
https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-1a/atm-agit-prop.htm – August 29th Movement, ‘A Brief Review of Some Agitation and Propaganda’ – practical document; provides context and demonstrations of agitprop with Marxist analysis of its use and effect
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1902/feb/01.htm – Lenin, 1902, ‘Political Agitation and “The Class Point of View”’
https://www.marxists.org/archive/bell/1921/10/01.htm – CPGB, 1921, ‘Propaganda and Agitation’- dated, but practical advice on agitprop
PDF: https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-8/lawg-prop.pdf – LA Work Group, 1977, ‘Annotated Bibliography on Propaganda and Agitation’ – useful to find out where you can read more about agitprop
https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-8/rcp-agit-prop.htm – Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line, ‘On the Role of Agitation and Propaganda’
PDF: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/unions/blf/1890/0800-debs-agitation.pdf – Eugene V Debs, ‘Agitation and Agitators’
https://www.marxists.org/archive/cliff/works/1972/xx/circle.htm – Tony Cliff, ‘From Marxist circle to Agitation’ – (another British Trotskyist) a quote from the text reveals that the West may be in the same position yet again as was Russia in the late 1800s and Britain in the 1970s:
A complex chain of circumstances drove the Marxist movement back into small circle politics, a condition from which it is now in the process of emerging. This account of the problems associated with a similar transition in Russia towards the end of the last century has some relevance to controversies in the movement today.
Sorry, Comrade-Gen-Z’ers, but you’ve inherited a right mess.
Edit: typo
Gen z commie representing
Here I am 😎☝️☝️
Fr I think sometimes we have a sort of problem abstracting ourselves from the radicalization processes we’ve underwent from the experiences of the rest of our generation. I’m not saying that every gen zer is gonna become a communist or anything, I just think it’s potentially useful to think of oneself as part of a larger societal phenomenon, even if it’s hard to see. Many other young’ns are experiencing and seeing the same things we are, and I think a red wave is approaching fast as more of us enter early adulthood and have a better developed ability to organize.
For instance, I had a friend circle of about 12 people in college. All of them are at the very least communist sympathetic (in no small part because of my friendship) and most of them would straight up call themselves communist. This may be an exceptional example, but those great people are gonna go on to radicalize people around them, too. The seeds are planted and the roots are already strong.
I doubt many others will come to it through going down a quora rabbit hole while researching for a WWII related project, or randomly being recommended Genzedong by Reddit, and thinking it’s a joke at first, but I think I am doing my part in trying to move people in around leftward.
I consider myself first having become a lower-case c “communist” when I was 14. It’s been a while. I was radicalized by shitty living situations first and foremost, but through hours upon hours of deep diving Wikipedia and finding sources through them like the Grayzone (that they called conspiracist) I started calling myself a communist.
In fairness, I was mostly just an edgy, angry little shit. I was a “communist” first, then an anarchist, then a Maoist, and after finally starting to read theory beyond surface level stuff I’ve found myself at Marxism-Leninism. So it’s a little different, but the internet definitely radicalized me, an isolated hick from a Midwestern town the size of some classrooms. It’s a unique and individual experience, but I’m sure it’s only one out of many, many similar experiences, and many to come.
Another Gen Z commie right here as well.
It’s me, I’m the Gen z boogeyman. I think a lot of the headlines about “Gen z is more conservative” is a load of lib cope, and doesn’t really take into account that as capitalism gets progressively worse, capitalism will continue to breed its grave diggers.
As much as I hate bernie he’s helping to de-uglify the word “socialist”, he is obviously a social democrat but, he has his role in the pipeline. I think second thought on YouTube is good at exploiting this, he make videos about everyday problems (at least in the US) such as: student loans, expensive health care, climate change etcc, helping gen zers that don’t hate the word “socialism” to understand that socialism ain’t bernie, anyways it’s 24th December and Ive drinked like half a bottle of prosecco so I’m a bit drunk, I hope this rambling makes sense to you comrades.
on the other hand, I think he’s helped make the term “socialist” mean “pro-imperialist socdem”
There are various groups of people in every generation. Its the material conditions that drive change. The younger people today will have their minds defined by the collapse of the western bloc
I think most already are “leftist” as far as western politics goes but comparatively few are communist. What it’ll take to inform people, I’m not sure, but I think most of us are on the same page when it comes to our immediate circumstances (and only our immediate circumstances tbh)
I’m Gen Z so I’d say yes. I’d say it’s quite mixed like many generations. Some say we’re more progressive while other day we’re conservative. It honestly just seems like another ploy to pit people against each other, like the weirdly manufactured millennial v. Gen Z war.
A lot of people including gen z are against capitalism and everything it brought them, they just don’t know what to do with it
Yes, we have a few fascists and monarchies, but it’s a phase for a few years for most of them I hope.
2 things: 1. I’m Gen Z and I’m 26, if you’re talking about little kids I think you used the wrong phrase. 2. It’s all the same no matter what the generation is. I’ve met a lot of people my age or close to it who have similar beliefs, I’ve met a lot of regular old liberals and I’ve met more than a few right leaning folks who are just straight up Nazi apologists.
Gen Z is 1997-2012. So the youngest members are still 10 years old.
Oh damn I met person who was alt right at a gymnastics place and pretended to not who they were watching.
It’s certainly heading that way from what I’ve seen. Nearly everyone I knew in my school was either already a marxist, exploring leftist ideas, or at least open to such ideas. I don’t remember anyone being against socialism even slightly.
