The US has commited genocide against Koreans (both sides of the parallel), Vietnamese, Iraqi, Palestinian, and far, far more. The US is currently trying to topple Iran because Iran is refusing to play ball with the genocidal US Empire. The US Empire is by far the worst state on the planet, without it the fascist Entity engaged in current war with Iran would not exist and Palestine would be free.

This is extremely naive. Iran has its problems, but there’s no comparison, the US is not a democracy and is the active creator of genocide around the world today. If Iran was toppled, conditions for Iranians and Palestinians would get far worse, not better.

The old one is also seen as as bad as the flag of Nazi Germany in East and Southeast Asia. Imperial Japan was extremely brutal, and the use of the rising sun flag in modern times is a symbol of fascism in Japan, like the swastika.

All systems change, Capitalism doesn’t “pervert” dialectics any more than feudalism did. It isn’t perversion so much as it is the progression of dialectics, this is why Marxists describe the dialectical movement as endless spirals. All systems resist the next stage in development, in fact Capitalism is quite a young system in comparison to how long feudalism lasted.

As for Imperialism, I recommend you read Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism. In it, Lenin describes how Capitalism has grown and morphed since the time of Marx, who didn’t live long enough to see Imperialism really become the dominant contradiction upon which all other contradictions rest in the modern world.

Thanks! And gotcha. I think I follow what you’re trying to say. Personally, I don’t really agree that Capitalism’s resiliance disproves dialectics. Imperialism is not distinct from Capitalism, as an example, it’s Capitalism at its latest stages, when Capital must move outward or die. This exports the worst of contradictions to the Global South, but doesn’t perpetuate Capitalism, it’s a temporary stop-gap. Crisis still rocks the Capitalist system, concentration continues in fewer and fewer hands, and the proletariat continues to swell in ratio compared to the Bourgeoisie. As Imperialism is fought against, this brings the disparity back to the Imperial core (Burkina Faso kicking France out, for example).

The dialectic still moves forward in all of this. In all this time, there’s still movement, there’s still increasing disparity, there’s still drive for revolution. Marx was wrong in that he thought revolution would come to the developed countries first, but Marxists like Lenin and Fanon analyzed why that didn’t happen, and it was because Imperialism is that final delay. Dialectics continues to be at play, but the primary contradiction is Imperialism, not an individual nations’ class struggle. Ie, Burkina Faso’s number one contradiction is combatting Imperialism, not resolving internal class conflict, same with the US, where the proletariat largely wishes to continue Imperialism over changing the entire system.

I think, as far as countries like the USSR, PRC, Cuba, etc are concerned, they are examples of Marxist Socialism. You don’t have to agree with that as a form of socialism you agree with, but I don’t agree with rejecting Marxism as validly Socialist. I personally don’t agree with Anarchism, as an example, but I acknowledge it as a form of Socialism as well, and that’s good enough for left unity IMO. I say they follow Marxism, as all are examples of societies where the State is governed by the proletariat, and the large firms and key industries are overwhelmingly publicly owned and thus the proletariat is in control of the government and economy.

Either way, to return, adaptation is a form of dialectics in action. Dialectics doesn’t mean entire systems can only change into new entire systems, but that everything is in a constant stream of change, inwardly propelled. Systems like the welfare safety net don’t resolve class contradictions, they delay revolution at the expense of, usually, lower super-profits from Imperialism.

No problem!

Lemmy has a much higher proportion of Marxists to other users than Reddit does, so the anti-Marxism is also pretty high in response.

Supporting Palestine is not “pointless.”

Supporting Palestine is not “pointless.”

Support for Palestine at a time when Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians and launched an unprovoked war on Iran is a good thing. Fascism will find excuses to target you anyways, the answer isn’t to play ball, but to seek safety in numbers and organizing. Rallying around correct messaging is the point of protest, not just saying “we are mildly upset but don’t want to actually do anythint!”

The problem is that in the era of Imperialism, war is a necessity to certify new markets and redraw Imperial lines. The US provokes war in order to secure new markets for financial domination. It isn’t about progress, it’s about plunder.

Exactly. Fascism and liberalism are both superstructural elements arising from the Capitalist base, liberalism in better times and fascism in dire times. They aren’t really distinct ideologies so much as they are the same ideology in different circumstances, and this lets liberalism pretend it can beat fascism.

Why the Hegelian dialectic, and not the Materialist dialectic? Marx’s advancements on Hegel are, to my knowledge, near universal in accrptance among dialecticians, as Hegel could never escape the trap of his Absolute Idealism. Hegel’s insistance that everyone moves towards their own self-interest, and that this advances the universal Spirit, are wrong, but Marx’s correction on the dialectic to return it to the economic base and Materialist outlook are what brought about Historical Materialism.

If you are speaking on the Marxist dialectic, then your critique doesn’t follow outright, as Capitalism has changed into Imperialism, and Imperialism is what caused the Russian, Chinese, Cuban, Vietnamese, Korean, etc revolutions. Each of these new Socialist systems is still stamped with what came before it, as is consistent with Materialist dialectics, so this may already be what you’re getting at, if I’m reading you correctly. Resolving contradictions is a historical process, not a mental one.

The DNC and GOP are not hostile factions, but different wings of Capital. Organizing goes a lot further than random collective actions, but the tedious work of building organized structures, party building, doing the groundwork. We need to study former successful revolutions like the Russian, Chinese, Cuban, Vietnamese, etc and adapt what we can apply to our revolution. Parties like PSL in the US are already doing that, and are rapidly growing because they are at the forefront of resistance movements.

I think a strong understanding of Marxism helps seed the revolutionary optimism that makes watching the news more bearable than for liberals who see the world as a scary swirl of chaos and no way out. Lenin says it well:

Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle.

This fits the liberal nihilism to a T.

The winning strategy has always been worker organizing, and it certainly isn’t too late to mitigate the damage of Climate Change. Handcuffing yourself because we have no way of acting within the rules set out by the system is the exact type of nihilism the system is designed to instill, even Climate Doomerism is a tool of the oil barons to demoralize activists and organizers. We can change, and it takes organizing and overthrow of the present state of things, not playing a game created by the House to only ever allow them to win.

No problem! Made it after the US election, because I thought it would be a good opportunity to help people understand what’s going on and what we can actually do proactively. Glad you like it!

Excellent bit.

The US has hundreds more millitary bases around the world than any other country. It dominates the world financially via Imperialism, it intentionally underdevelops countries in the global south in order to have them reliant on US food exports so the US gets cheap imports.

Some countries do call out the US Empire for what it is. Palestine, the former USSR, the PRC, Cuba, DPRK, South Africa, Iran, the Russian Federation, all countries the US Empire thoroughly demonizes and propagandizes against as much as it can.

The good news is that the Empire is crumbling, so hopefully we can overthrow it and replace it with a Socialist system.

“Radio Free X” news outlets are generally all US State Department propaganda designed to discredit and de-legitimize their geopolitical adversaries, famously the USSR and PRC, but also Cuba, etc. It’s all very real.

deleted by creator