For me I think it has to be Russiagate. It’s just become a catch all for centrist libs to refuse to believe anything bad about their team, make up crazy conspiracies about anyone to their left or right, dismiss every contradiction of capitalism as “Russian interference”. It’s maddening. At least the RWNJ conspiracies like Q and the Alex Jones shit are usually pretty funny because of how ridiculous they are, russiagate doesn’t even have that going for it.
What are some other contenders?
The word "tankie" has been weaponized to create as much left infighting as possible.
I got banned from r/completeanarchy for saying Trotsky wasn't as bad as Hitler.
Yeah. Today in a thread regarding a meme that featured Stalin, Trotsky, and Mussolini.
What the fuck? Trotsky isn't even Tankie material. Bitches still mad about Kronstadt smh
I've come away with the impression that they think all Russians are dictators.
/r/C@ to lib pipeline?
Sucks. I used to browse that sub and it looked like a safe haven for trotskyists who didn't want to hang out with the scary tankies in r/FC (who hated their guts, actually)
With us it's really a coin toss of whether we associate trotskyists with the POUM or Kronstadt
What? Holy shit? Trotsky? Fucking Trotsky got you banned? I'm an unironic Stalinist but I won't even go so far as to say "Trotsky and Hitler? I see no difference".
As a trotskyist who argues with stalinists, I'm pretty sure that you, as an unironic stalinist, are supposed to pretend that "Stalinism" isn't a thing.
Yup. That's how much someone being banned for upholding Trotsky had triggered me. I'm so mad that I'll become a trotskyist.
As a tankie, I agree with you, the Trotskyist, that Stalinism isn’t a thing
Just response. A community that is in a lib place like reddit has to have easy trigger fingers to survive against the trolls and so called "normies"/libs.
It is an opinion you can express (at best without the Hitler comparision which takes away from the Shoa) easily towards anarchists, but best when drunk at 2am on a party after covid, instead of an public all internet message board.
I think the use of tankie is irrelevant currently, as other material things, like covid, rent, jobs, orgnaizing etc. became more relevant.
I don't think the word its self leads to infighting. Its annoying when people use it wrong or just call EVERYONE tankies.
Maybe I'm not looking at it right though. Do you think there would be less infighting without "tankie" being tossed around?
Don't you think there would just be some other term used instead?
The term "tankie" is a Boogeyman. To anarchists, all socialists are tankies. To socdems, anarchists are tankies. The Democrats have learned the word tankie and are using it to refer to all leftists.
It doesn't mean anything, it's just a memetic carrier for leftover McCarthyism.
Trump becoming a Nixonian figure who bends all reality and political discussion around his singular person, like a black hole.
You literally can't discuss politics anymore without in some relating it back to Trump and what he says or does. Political affiliation is no longer determined by ideology or even party but rather your personal opinion regarding Donald Trump.
This is the greater-scope problem. Russiagate is just one symptom of it.
Yeah the general lockstep cult shit libs have undergone just in a mad dash to oppose the cheeto in chief is the most annoying thing. Everything surrounding it to the humor to the just blank-slate look as they repeat "blue no matter who". Trump really broke these peoples brains into thinking George W Bush is someone we should respect
As with a lot of things, the right observes a very real phenomenon in their "Trump Derangement Syndrome" meme but of course apply it in the most malicious and disingenuous way possible.
Does the political compass count? Because I want to say the political compass. It has singlehandedly ruined any understanding of politics for anyone who uses it, while making them think they are some sort of genius. My younger brother is now impossible to talk to about politics. The whole 'communism is when the government does things' is probably also thanks to the political compass, as well as liberal and leftist meaning the exact same thing to anyone who uses it. That last part is probably the worst.
Yeah I think I meant more for younger people who discovered politics through the political compass. Probably should have made that clearer though
8values is a so much better than political compass, but equality/markets is still a supremely mediocre substitute for asking who should control the means of production.
All my homies realize that the entire idea of political mapping is a libertarian party marketing scheme.
Don't worry I have undergone re education, it won't happen again
But like, just the annoyingly sectarian closet-mccarthyist types.
This is the crater of COINTELPRO.
The belief that getting rid of Trump and "returning to normalcy" is the most important goal ever
The lib political imagination is incredibly circumscribed. It's either a failure or success by the American education system, depending on how cynical I am at any moment.
Yep! The average American's politics are purely reaction to events, not driven by any framework.
And unfortunately, I think that's likely to get worse.
For me the "china bad" on steroids that we are experiencing now since Its not only imperialist propaganda but also pointless, at least they picked somebody to bully that will not be fucked with .
But overall Its gotta be the darn cheeto in the whitehouse.
Watching this intentional development of a new Cold War has been incredibly frustrating to watch.
It's like watching a boomer sink into the comfy seat, the one their ass has worn into a perfect mold, as everyone in the establishment gets to return to the well worn brainpaths of "the Commies are coming for our precious bodily essences".
Dont sweat it, If anything is gonna push the Chinese to the left which what we need more than anything worldwide.
Like fuck Bernie, Corbyn and every other suckdem if China goes full on permanent revolution.
Obviously is not gonna happen, IMO due to geopolitical and cultural reasons, but I believe a swift turn towards support of a trully powerful New International can happen in our lifetimes.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if China wants to spread global communism I’ll go fifth column against the Australian boug on day one
Honorable mention: libs saying everything shouldn't be political. I've heard so many people say black lives shouldn't be political, science shouldn't be political, etc. These things have always been political, of course climate change is political when ignoring it benefits the economy tremendously. I feel like refusing to accept that everything is political leads to a failure of a worldview very in tune with the incoherent ideology of liberals, because you never look at the bigger issue and see who benefits from pushing these issues. It's not random that black lives matter is contentious, we have a police state that will fight tooth and nail to keep their power.
Broke: not everything is political
Woke: everything is political
Bespoke Marxism: everything is economic and politics is part of the superstructure
If I had to choose one, it'd be the use of obviously disingenuous and politically motivated accusations of anti-semitism made against the left by liberals that were used to destroy Corbyn and substantially weaken the position of the UK left, as well as, the concomitant creation of a situation in which, in the UK at least, it is close to impossible to publicly express solidarity with Palestinians while retaining a public platform. At least the Russian government actually sucks - even if Russiagate is largely bullshit designed to break liberal boomer's brains and distract them from the fact that the Dems have nothing to offer to anyone who isn't a board member of Goldman Sacs. The anti-semitism stuff is literally a bunch of blatantly racist and islamophobic liberals throwing out apologia for genocide, while calling those trying to build resistance against it fascists.
I've gotten so tired of hearing people call the democratic party Marxist. I mean, I wish, but I've literally gotten to the point where I tell people "you don't know what marxism is, therefore any opinion you hold on it isn't worth hearing." and then they try to give a definition and its totally wrong and i just say "see, you don't actually know what it is."
It pisses people off.
A helpful technique here is "describe X in a way someone who agrees with X would." It cuts through shit like "well that's not what they say, but it's what they really mean."
I love the no-explanation downvotes I get when I try to explain that socialism doesn't mean "the government doing things" on Hacker News.
Culture wars over incredibly stupid things, and libs/chuds immediately heading to the trenches. Like, the beans thing. The fucking beans thing.
It's like fucking clockwork. I hate to use the "orange man bad" phrase, but unfortunately it really describes how this automatic process works. The dang Cheeto says something is good/bad, libs/chuds must immediately embrace/reject the topic, it's over in 4 days, and ready to cycle again.
The Goya beans thing. https://www.thecut.com/2020/07/trump-goya-beans-photo-fiber.html
The beans was peak shitlibbery. "Yes, let's worry about the CEO saying '#OrangeManGood' instead of '#OrangeManBad' when people are being evicted."
Gravel had a fire tweet about this sort of shit that he/they deleted sadly because it triggered the libs hard.
