Debunking NATO propaganda and consent manufacturing means massively massively more than your personal relationships and comfort. I don't want to hear how hard it is to be called a 'shill for Putin'. People should have already been calling you a shill for Assad, for Kim Jong Un, for Xi, for Castro or you have been fucking NEGLIGENT AS LEFTISTS. If you're in the imperial core your primary fucking duty is to anti imperialism. Clearly a lot of you haven't been doing this. Now there are possible nuclear consequences and I see a great deal of you still too fucking chicken shit to stick their necks out for people living under the thumbs of America and NATO. Investigate the situation thoroughly and have an informed, consistent take based in Marxism and historical materialism and then REPEAT IT LOUDLY AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN AND LET IT BE KNOWN THAT THE WORKERS OF THE WORLD DO NOT STAND FOR THIS. This is supposed to be a board of principled communists, act like it.

Read Combat Liberalism

  • Civility [none/use name]
    ·
    3 years ago

    III. OPPOSE BOOK WORSHIP

    Whatever is written in a book is right — such is still the mentality of culturally backward Chinese peasants. Strangely enough, within the Communist Party there are also people who always say in a discussion, "Show me where it's written in the book." When we say that a directive of a higher organ of leadership is correct, that is not just because it comes from "a higher organ of leadership" but because its contents conform with both the objective and subjective circumstances of the struggle and meet its requirements. It is quite wrong to take a formalistic attitude and blindly carry out directives without discussing and examining them in the light of actual conditions simply because they come from a higher organ. It is the mischief done by this formalism which explains why the line and tactics of the Party do not take deeper root among the masses. To carry out a directive of a higher organ blindly, and seemingly without any disagreement, is not really to carry it out but is the most artful way of opposing or sabotaging it.

    The method of studying the social sciences exclusively from the book is likewise extremely dangerous and may even lead one onto the road of counter-revolution. Clear proof of this is provided by the fact that whole batches of Chinese Communists who confined themselves to books in their study of the social sciences have turned into counter-revolutionaries. When we say Marxism is correct, it is certainly not because Marx was a "prophet" but because his theory has been proved correct in our practice and in our struggle. We need Marxism in our struggle. In our acceptance of his theory no such formalisation of mystical notion as that of "prophecy" ever enters our minds. Many who have read Marxist books have become renegades from the revolution, whereas illiterate workers often grasp Marxism very well. Of course we should study Marxist books, but this study must be integrated with our country's actual conditions. We need books, but we must overcome book worship, which is divorced from the actual situation.

    How can we overcome book worship? The only way is to investigate the actual situation.

    --Mao Zedong, Oppose Book Worship, 1930

    • skyhighfly [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Universally, whenever Oppose Book Worship is quoted, it is used in a anti-intellectual and self-refuting way: you claim to oppose book worship and yet you quote this text without actually refuting Combat Liberalism.

      Why are you scared to contradict your "friends"? Why are you so afraid of making the truth known? If your friends will break up with you just because you've contradicted them: they are not your friends!

      If you truly have friends, it is your responsibility to educate them. You are knowledgeable here, they're not. They, as your friend, trust you and value your opinion more. You, as their friend, care about them and wish not for them to stay ignorant. Educate them! If you don't, not only are you failing your job as a communist, you are failing your job as a friend.

      A liberal is unprincipled and stands for nothing. By refusing to make a principled stand for the truth, you are a spineless liberal. By refusing to make a principled stand for the truth, by refusing to make a principled stand for what's right, you are the same as the spineless liberals of Weimar Germany who watched motionlessly as Hitler took power. You are the person who stands by blankly as communists are dragged out of their homes and taken away to be killed. You are the person who is too scared to speak out against Hitler. You are a spineless liberal of the highest order, who refuses to speak to even your friends who support you and will listen to you.

      You are a liberal.

      • sysgen [none/use name,they/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        This isn't self-refutation. It's a critique of your intellectual framework within itself to show that it is inconsistent and to change the terms of the debate. The self-refutation is done on your terms to show that they are unreasonable.