This is just a vent post. I don’t really use reddit much, but I’m getting increasingly tired of the anti-materialist perspectives and obsessive purists who refused to engage with the actual lives of people whom they supposedly seek the emancipation of.
This was just sorta sparked by yet another ignorant post about Venezuela that I’m honestly getting too tired to debate over, but it’s just been a culmination of different factors.
I’m just glad the Grad is willing to have mutual respect amongst eachother. As well as the fact that it’s not filled with as many vague posters or utterly pigheaded people.
Again this is just a stream of consciousness vent. Obviously reddit is gonna be filled with the most excruciatingly annoying people on earth but I was at least hoping an ostensibly ML sub would be able to fucking take into consideration that the pedophile genocide regime has no qualms about butchering thousands. I’m well aware of the funked situation Venezuela is in and how stomach turning it is to see all the concessions they are making.
However how is it that so many redditors can’t see the fact that the US was ready to do to Venezuela 10x what it’s doing to Iran? Has my brain just been fried by the images of corpses these past few months, let alone years, to where I want to avert the possibility of seeing more? I really can’t tell why it’s so unclear to them. The images of death across Iran, across Palestine, across Sudan, I can’t get them out of my head when I think about Venezuela’s potential fate, and I’m not sure if it’s impeding my ability to see these other Communists perspectives.
Apologies for the vent post, I’ll probably just sleep this off by tomorrow. Hopefully with some more better news on the Iran War thread, whatever that may be.
We know reddit is completely and utterly fed infested. We should assume that sub is no exception. So what would you do if you were a fed tasked to it? Try to undermine faith in any and all socialist projects!
- the USSR was authoritarian
- so is China! tinymansquareTM
- Venezuela has never had “true” socialism
- etc etc etc
The saddest part is that many in the west eat it up. As to exactly why they do, that’s another matter, but it does provide a convenient cover for cynicism, apathy, and a lack of organization and praxis.
After the ACP coup most MLs left and never returned. And similar to TrueAnon the whole mamdani pledge of allegiance made socdems the owner of these spaces.
The place is still anti-reformist, but honestly to a degree that seems unhealthy. Not in the sense that they shouldn’t oppose socdems, but in the sense that they start moralizing the entire debate rather than engage with it for what it is.
I guess I’m just tired of what’s essentially shouting matches between people trying to be “the most principled” rather than laying out any real analysis. It’s all statement of positions and effects rather than an investigation of why things are and how they’re evolving.
Venezuela is one thing for example. I’ve seen all the news reports, I actively have to filter then out when I report in the war thread because they’re off topic. However I’d be willing to talk with people who don’t agree with the strategic retreat theory if they’d just put forward anything other than headlines.
One person replied to this post demonstrating skepticism to the strategic retreat theory but I respect their input not only because they weren’t rude but because it was a genuine attempt to invite discussion on this topic.
This issue is with a lot of things on the sub. From the debate about vetrans to socdems to the ACP. It’s not that I take positions that are different from most MLs but I want people to discuss those positions in a way that’s actually grounded in analysis rather than just saying it because it’s the most “principled”. It feels maddeningly similiar to how Parenti describes critics of Cuba but these people support Cuba!
This is a thing about the western left that I’ve disliked dealing with irl as well when organizing. The tendency to arrange a perfect set of positions rather than build a set of positions based on existing moving parts.
True that is a toxic and unhealthy trait - the oscillating between absolute blind dooming and rigid devotion.
I don’t think it was then, most ML’s left Reddit after the Ukraine debacle, we won, but Reddit stomped on any antiukrainian stance, so mods left GenZedong which then was apropriated by centist westolefto. Then it was sliding down, any ML space, even the tiny subs, was either abandoned or turned to bothsides nonsense. Deprogram sub was the last attempt to create marxist space on Reddit, but it was quickly filled by all manner of idealists.
Nononono I get where you’re coming from, you don’t have to apologise. Honestly I left Reddit a year ago for smaller leftist instances here, and my mental health and clarity have improved so much. I finally feel at peace
Whenever I check Reddit now, people just seem unnecessarily rude and full of Western chauvinism. Plus I just refuse to engage with politics on there anymore
So yeah let them rot and focus on your own wellbeing. Reddit is a lost cause
The “socialists” on R*ddit in 2026 are controlled opposition. It’s why /c/chapotraphouse got banned while a bunch of Gonzaloites still maintain their subreddits. R*ddit socialistsTM are either radlibs, ultras, or patsocs.
How are there still Guzmanoids? Is it just for the same reason Trotskyites lasted so long with such a high profile (threat level zero/sink for potential comrades)
I take your point, it’s one that has been posted here a couple times and I can’t help but doubt it. I don’t have a well thought-out refutation, but I don’t see any verification either. The series of events we’ve seen can fit a tactical retreat due to overwhelming force, or it could be a capitulation with a side of placating there public and ideological allies.
I’ve long come to not hold it against anyone, who opposed China in around the period 1975-2013. The mountains of evidence we’ve got to support the PRC bring a proper workers’ state largely wasn’t there. In the case of Venezuela, I haven’t seen enough to fully accept that this has been a retreat, and I don’t see anything on the horizon to properly quell the doubt. I hold out hope in my heart in any case.
Honestly, I’m just happy my opinion doesn’t come up on the subject, I feel as easy to sway as an autumn leaf.
Social media is designed to elicit the worst tendencies of people. Needless antagonism, faceless openents who can’t be hurt, distorted information. The end result is an unproductive space that prizes engagement and dopamine over any actual progress, either personal or communal. Honestly, getting banned from reddit was a godsend.
As an aside I’m also mostly an advocate of the strategic retreat position but I have some doubts, particularly around the normalisation or relations with Israel.
Where is Venezuela’s oil revenue?
Being stolen by imperialists
