Having come to ML from liberalism, I remember vividly my qualms, biases, and anxieties.

I was happy to dismiss writing authored by Stalin as ghost-written, and any praise as coerced.

Therefore his recorded interviews with European public figures were particularly eye-opening.
In 1931 he was interviewed by Swiss-German Emil Ludwig. Some brilliant excerpts:
redsails.org/stalin-and-lud… ImageImageImageImage
In 1934 he was interviewed by the extremely famous "Shakespeare of science fiction," H. G. Wells. The questions Wells posed Stalin may as well have been posed by anxious, liberal me.
redsails.org/stalin-and-wel… ImageImageImageImage
As things get more and more chaotic, it becomes more and more important to remember Assata's piercing words: "Only a fool lets somebody else tell him who his enemy is."

Do your *own* reading.
Don't let anybody else do your reading for you.
The repetition that this chapter of history is closed and that there is nothing defensible or salvageable in it is ubiquitous and incessant (some would mockingly say "totalitarian" 😄), so precisely on this basis I *insist* we reopen it.

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More from @RodericDay

26 Jan
toads from the AP and The Economist are furious that China has a large Uyghur population from which to draw positive testimony to counter their latest wave of atrocity propaganda

"how *dare* China present happy Uyghurs to oppose our angry, CIA-funded, regime-change Uyghurs!? 🤬" ImageImageImageImage
This Gady Epstein guy is particularly amusing ImageImageImageImage
Read 4 tweets
19 Jan
Some random thoughts about the psychology of ETIM exiles, Venezuelan/Cuban "expats," QAnon folk, HK rioters, Ukrainian Nazis in Canada, etc.

@moghilemear13's latest thread debunking a @guardian "long read" about the "Uyghur Gulag" got me thinking about it.
So, the woman who was supposedly sent to the gulag previously had a job in PetroChina, in what @moghilemear13 describes as an oil boomtown.

It seems like the pool of people who get radicalized isn't "the bottom of society," but the "upwardly mobile."
I was reading a (bad) essay on Mao Zedong by Zizek a while back, and this bit from him by it always stuck with me.

Zizek is literally quoting *Robert Conquest* (lol), but what made an impression was that the idea of the "subkulak" was so easily dismissed:
lacan.com/zizmaozedong.h… Image
Read 14 tweets
8 Jan
It's becoming fashionable for some Online Communists to speak derisively of how other Online Communists do too much theory, not enough organizing.

I think the opposite is the case. People don't even agree on what to think of China!

Assata's writing on the subject is insightful: Image
First of all, this is Twitter.

You should be doing one of two things: sharing interesting theory, or telling people *precisely* what exciting initiative they should get involved with.

The much more common and vague "organize!" is reminiscent of liberals yelling "learn to code!"
There's a *lot* of mass energy already out there.

An incomplete list:

- OWS
- Ferguson
- Standing Rock
- 2012 QC Strikes
- Wet'suwet'en solidarity
- 2020 BLM uprisings
- Bernie rallies
- Pussy hats
- CHAZ
- NC teacher strikes
- "storming" ICE camps
- airport Trump blockades
Read 9 tweets
17 Dec 20
This is still the best essay on "Identity Politics" that I have read (by @RedMaistre, originally on The North Star).

I am always on the lookout for a compelling response to it.

Losurdo (so, Gramsci?) seems to be at the root of all my favourite Marxism.
redsails.org/on-identitaria…
The dismissive understanding of identity as trap parrots the position of its alleged opponents and simply gives it a negative meaning:
one can’t be [X] and be anything more than that at the same time; one can’t be [X] and understand anyone who is not [X] or anything else beyond being [X], because others’ human experiences are so opaque, and yours to them.
Read 25 tweets
16 Dec 20
fun fact: this is close to a complete list of countries I use to convince people that the US props up puppet states at the same time it chokes the life of socialist ones to promote a bullshit idea that Capitalism > Socialism

you missed Israel and Saudi Arabia (vs Iran) though.
goes something like,

[Puppet State] : [Adversary State]
Japan/Taiwan/HK : China
ROK : DPRK
West (Nazi) Germany : GDR
Israel/Saudi Arabia : Iran
Chile/Colombia : Cuba/Venezuela/Bolivia

it's really on the nose to admit the pattern, I wouldn't advertise it like this if I were him
One insight is obvious: If you're a "capitalist" country, but there's no "socialist" country around you, the gloves come off completely.

The US will just fucking pummel your country to death and loot every last mineral, since there's no need to "keep up appearances."
Read 4 tweets
16 Dec 20
People don't like feeling left out; like their thing is uncool or unpopular or below consideration.

So I think socialism would fare better in popular communication if people focused less on responding to and engaging with liberals, and more on intra-communist dialogue.
Nuance is a weapon, and we should notice when we are told that "socialism" should be a big indistinct blob, whereas we must adhere to an exacting taxonomy whenever we refer to liberals and conservatives and alt-right and fascists and so on.
Speaking as a newbie: whenever I saw communists dialogue in public, even in disagreement, it made communism seem vast and historical and inspired curiosity.

Whereas e.g. refusing to take sides on "China" for the sake of "unity" made it seem opportunistic and cobbled together.
Read 8 tweets

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