There’s a very short list of innocent Israeli citizens. Mordecai Vanunu, @LegitTayUpdates, …
Replies in here are proof people want U.S capitalism to be saved FDR style, as soon as we get an AOC in office who will re-distribute the spoils of imperialism, the rising pro-global south sentiments in the U.S will be snuffed out and it’ll be back to business
Feel free to hand these out:
…when AOCIA is president and orders a drone strike on a school full of children but the libs go back to brunch saying “They should have chosen better parents.”
People have not gotten rid of their liberal brainworms, despite being “leftists.” Great Man of History is something we, as scientific socialists, reject. AOC is not going to change the system of capitalism that inflicts imperialism and colonialism on the rest of the world. She is going to be changed by the system as a prerequisite for becoming president. You don’t get elected to that office without being a true believer of capitalism.
Most of us live here, and generally “I hope life gets worse and harder for me, my loved ones, and the rest of my country” feels like a bad position to have
It’s not a position to have, it’s the position we’re in. We don’t have a say in the matter- worsening conditions are inevitable we just get to choose how long it takes
Lmao yeah can’t disagree there. I said the other day “You may not be interested in accelerationism but accelerationism is interested in you”
I made a conscious decision years ago that I refused to be an accelerationist, deciding “Life should get worse for vast numbers of people” is an immoral belief, but yet again nobody in power asked my opinion on things and accelerationism seems to be the path we’re taking anyway.
yes, but it’s probably too late for that, the usa just isn’t as powerful or dominant as it was in the mid century and there’s no getting that back no matter what the sentiments of the people living there
So long as she votes no on any additional funding, be it for “defense” or otherwise, it doesn’t matter so much how she qualifies her position. This is actually one of those don’t let perfect be enemy of good scenarios.
She thinks she can somehow cozy up to the left and progressives whilst also having Zionists not hate her. Spoiler alert: Zionists will never not hate her.
i wish some people here would take the same position
She is against sensing funding for it so I don’t really care that much about her garbage rhetoric around the correct position tbh.
Anything less than an embargo is a concession. Winning a concession from her is a win, but it means later having to deal with the consequences of her ideological opposition to this sort of thing.
AOC is basically a democrat that actually can be pulled left. Previously: “we should only fund ‘defensive’ weapons”. Now: “they’re still ‘defensive’ weapons but we shouldn’t spend precious tax payer dollars on them.”
The catch now is she’s justifying us not paying because Israel should be able to fund the Iron Dome itself. It shouldn’t be funded and Israel should be under Cuban or North Korean levels of sanctions and embargos.
She’s running for Prez
I think she’s the frontrunner for 2028 tbh
And fuck, I’ve got my issues with her but she’s miles better than anyone else who’s even remotely close
Yeah. She’s far more in tune with where popular opinion is at than any other Democrat. But I’m worried she’ll get elected and flop fucking HARD in office because she’s not serious about fighting tooth and nail with capital.
However, it’s not impossible for the US to respond to crisis with a productive progressive realignment. It happened under FDR. Better and more progressive capitalist management could smooth over a lot of contradictions, especially if it aligns with the empire being forced down from its most aggressive foreign policy by Iran.
If she is anything like FDR, she will be the most effective fascist of the 20th century for sure. FDRism is incompatible with a progressivr US foreign policy, it is in fact predicated on a regressive foreign policy to provide plunder to distribute to the deserving citizenry
That’s not really accurate. FDR had the least imperialist foreign policy of any US president by far. He made genuine anti-imperialist bonds with Latin America because he had actual communists in his administration. The US entered its new imperialist phase after his death. Greg Grandin has good work on this in Empire’s Workshop and America América.
Not that I think AOC would be anti-imperialist or anything, but FDR was not an imperialist expansionist in comparison to other US presidents. US social democracy was built on settler colonial wealth and unionized labor. Exploitation of the global south accelerated at the same time as the US working class was crushed by neoliberalism
smooth over a lot of contradictions
Would this not just make meaningful change less likely? Any progressive reform of capitalism is gonna be temporary and also get people less interested in changing the underlying systems, at least in my view. Not to say that progressive reforms can’t make things materially better for people both in and under the influence of the US, but that they’re ultimately just a pressure valve to remove discontent and will be eroded down by capital before (relatively) long.
Would this not just make meaningful change less likely?
That is absolutely a strong possibility. Hence my phrasing - “smoothing over”, not resolving. The contradictions become more bearable, but the system of capitalism remains in place. Just like with the New Deal, a lack of deep structural change would lead to those gains being rolled back over time. And AOC would need to make quite the face turn to wield the resources of the state to build the working class power to defend those gains long term. She also doesn’t have the mass coalition to actually force through policy like the New Deal if she even cared to. I’m extremely anxious about her winning because it could derail so much working class and anti-imperialist organization. But that’s not an inevitability.
Any progressive reform of capitalism is gonna be temporary and also get people less interested in changing the underlying systems, at least in my view. Not to say that progressive reforms can’t make things materially better for people both in and under the influence of the US, but that they’re ultimately just a pressure valve to remove discontent and will be eroded down by capital before (relatively) long.
They are not just a pressure valve. They are the legitimate victories of working class struggle. Reforms can advance revolution as much as they can prevent it if the working class sees them as the victory of class struggle. If they see it instead as the victory of a bourgeois party like the Democrats, then revolution is weakened. What would Americans of 2028, 2029 believe?
Of course, the New Deal comparison only has so much relevance. The US began the New Deal when it was a relatively ascendant power but exploded into global dominance after WWII. The growth of US social democracy went hand in hand with the establishment of the new imperial order. Today, the US is very clearly on decline and the leading power is the People’s Republic of China. There is no military reassertion of US dominance coming - only socialism can resolve the contradictions in the US.
If the US enters a new period of social democracy, it will be in a dialectical relationship with revolutionary movements at home and abroad. It will not be the end of class struggle but a new phase of it. It doesn’t really matter if AOC is good or bad - a person like her would come to power if the working class had enough power to force it but not enough for a revolution.
Sure but the alternative is “Wish for things to get worse for me, my loved ones, and the rest of the country I live in in a vague hope it’ll get bad enough that something will break” and while that view may not be incorrect it’s a shitty way to live and relate to the people around you
And me, and everybody in my family would happily vote for her. I’ll even campaign for her, and I’ve never campaigned for anyone.
one google buyout of entity startup brought them more money than this defense subsidy in 10 years.
also lmayo at arriving at rahm emanuel position, son of irgun member, truly irredeemable nation
dsa can’t even enforce bds line in their quest for alleged power, the power of doing business as usual, but now our consultants are reaping the windfall of ngo money
It hardly needs to be said here, but:
There is no such thing as a purely defensive weapon. Limiting a theoretical enemy’s ability to retaliate makes it less risky and less costly to engage in offensive warfare.
The best defense is attack, the best attack is defense. Dialectics
Imagine every leftist began doing the 67 hand gesture every time they said the word dialectics.
Republicans by any other definition other than the cloak that they wear.
I mean she does argue against funding Israel and sending them weapons.
Plenty of republicans want our tax dollars back home now
Cool
Except if it’s “for defense”
I think she’s a cowardly de facto zionist, but literally in this very post she is arguing against that.
Ah, I misread it initially. thought she was still about the defensive weapons with her feckless “They can already afford to fund the iron dome”
Though the statement implies that if they couldn’t afford it, her tune may have been different.
No, she’s literally walked back that dogshit take and is basically saying the Israelis can pay for it themselves, “defensive” included
She’s doing what we wanted her to do, tho late
I want an embargo, she just wants to let Israel buy it themselves. This leaves the cutout to some less-than-conspicuous funding of the entity and their continued purchase of the “defensive” weapons…
It’s a concession from her, which means it’ll be quickly reversed when not expedient
Sure, but that’s not in her power to overcome on her lonesome; an organized movement and working-class party is required to discipline her and keep pushing her politican ass toward the embargo stance
She only “arrived” at this position because of collaboration with the organizing outgrowths of the Zohran campaign and DSA, whose influence are now overshadowing the Warrenite DC consultants she surrounds herself with
It’s in her power to organize by calling for things like an embargo. She can’t actually make an embargo happen alone, she’d need an organized movement behind her to make it happen, but as an elected she’s in a key position to organize such a movement.
Zohran is actually a good example: he lead the movement that elected him. He didn’t do it alone, but he plays a key role as their elected. If she wasn’t a useless careerist and was actually interested in making things happen, she could do the same thing.
She could and she should, but she won’t; her political instincts are garbage, so an organized movement has to push her into opening the door for better left politicians to emerge and advance the development of US opposition forces
Sure the trick with such people is to continue making it expedient. But history tells us this is not simple thing and you’re pushing against the empire at its strongest point (institutionalized parties in a bourgeois democratic system of the imperial core). That’s why accepting this as a method for success is precarious at best. And that’s why the weak “we won’t give em the weapons for free anymore” is the best we will get until more rigorous methods are applied. I hope the DSA marxists can make that happen, but I refuse to accept this as an example of a method for victory.
but I refuse to accept this as an example of a method for victory.
Why? One of the most popular politicians in the United States is normalizing pro-Palestinian politics. Why shouldn’t we positively reinforce that development and hail it as a victory? It’s worth it if only for morale purposes
Once the genocide was paused :) ty AOC
Pretty sure she explicitly said she was against all funding now, which is an improvement over that old “defense” bullshit.
That was also the moment I said she’ll never be selected as presidential candidate.
if i’ve learned anything from the mearsheimer expanded universe, that makes her alt right
what communities omg nobody fucking live there.
