Just found you recently, happy to see an open anarchist here. Very frustrating to be Iranian (born, grew up, and live in the west) and an anarchist and to encounter people who think anti US imperialism means I like what’s happening in Iran. The B&W thinking is so real for people who have been indoctrinated only into western imperialism and come into a reactionary position when they finally learn their system is bad. Congratulations on your book, please write imperialism bad (maybe also authoritarianism bad)
I feel like a man without a country. I'm not a Democrat and I'm not a Republican. I just find it so hard to see what's going on in Gaza, and so many Jews and Christians feel helpless. Thank you.
@@TuanTran-h5f It means that it is more satisfying to actually do something that helps people than it is to talk to other leftists about whether it was a worthwhile action. I spend a noticeable amount of time trying to connect with other leftists and it so far hasn't been terribly effective. But when I help someone in my own network or elsewhere in a tangible way I feel great. I feel grounded. I just love that particular sentence they used because it's so succinct.
I agree that the term "LEFTIST" has lost all meaning over the past year and a half. I have found it as a Lakota (Native) person to basically mean a yt supremacist who wants to build a 3rd party based on some of their goals regarding communism but also wants to keep the hierarchy of yt supremacy. All Americans besides Native tribes and the descendants of formerly enslaved people have benefitted from the U.S. as a country built on stolen Native land and 500 broken treaties which are guaranteed in the Constitution. Americans whose great, great-grandparents (Gov. Stitt of OK) took part in the Oklahoma Land Run and people like Laura Ingalls Wilder whose parents filed claims for land in South Dakota on stolen Lakota land. They have already participated in communism. LoL The state providing largesse for the proletariat. Poor Europeans were enticed to America by newspaper articles of "Free Land". The U.S. took the land, the goods (crops) and distributed them to the masses initially before switching to capitalism because their goal was to genocide Native tribes and to erase and replace us. They dug up our burial grounds and placed the remains of our ancestors in storage at museums and allowed universities to experiment on those remains as well. Any American leftist or not pretending to have some high moral ground, is kidding themselves about passing some leftist purity test. I'm on X and had a mutual who ranted and raved about being 3rd party and being all in for the little people. One day I commented on her post regarding the evils of capitalism. I said that the early days of raising and trading cattle in the Bronze Age is where the etymology for the word CAPITALISM originated. She freaked out and started saying how terrible Native people are and how we caused numerous Ice Age species to go extinct, all of which has been debunked. Lol She thought I would freak out at her obsolete archaeological data. I just told her that I knew by her attitude that she was a yt supremacist and I unfollowed her. This led to a discussion with other mutuals about the racism that is part of the leftist movement at present. I even know some Native people who are big fans of Marx, a European who impregnated his wife's indentured maid and never claimed the child. That's enough for me to spit on Marxism. Idgaf. Anyway, anarchy is the future. Watching the billionaires in both parties control every election going back to Reagan/Bush because I'm a grandma and I've seen a lot of corruption get accepted and even idealized, I don't think there is any future for my kids and grandkids with the present system which is enabling convicted felons to the White House when most ex-cons aren't allowed to vote. Free Palestine. Let the days of colonialism end.
Leftist around the world outside of America are anti imperialist. Leftist in America are imperialist in sheep's clothing that shove down the throat of countries around the world freedom, democracy and human rights. These words mention above is the reason why the land of the native people's in the America has been colonized. It the reason why many global south country have been colonized. It seems people here and the person in the video doesn't understand the reality of life around the world.
It's not. People were a little disappointed that Sim was praising the current Syrian government even though they have ties to isis and Sim is accusing them of praising Assad. The reality is that communists don't like Assad, but they don't like isis either.
In Greece since autumn 1983 a Sadistic Horrible Crime has been committed against a 17-year-old girl in 1983 and her family (her mother's brother was murdered by the Security Battalions by pulling out his nails and teeth with pliers on 08/08/1944) which was updated in autumn 2005. Do you or the KKE know anything?
@@ju13hpm Sim isn't the only person feeling this way. Don't know where you've been, but the far left in the US and some other Western countries have been rife with Assad apologists (and some outright supporters) for years. They're in our independent media too. There are also a disturbing number of Putin apologists; I've lost a lot of friends over the Russia/Ukraine in the last decade and especially in the past couple years because I value the perspectives of comrades in and around Russia over theirs. Haven't seen many people praising Erdogan tbh, but I wouldn't be surprised at this point.
Oh thank goodness! I was very worried you're gonna come out as a liberal, the way i sighed when you instantly follow up with anarchist Edit: *the way i sighed WITH RELIEF
At the risk of being a loud communist, I want to push back on the "tankie" bit, because it's often used in a way that lumps all non-anarchists on the left together. The people who try to invite those "Axis of Resistance" types are what principled Marxists refer to as "opportunists" or "adventurist". Opportunism in this case is an alliance between a section of the workers and the bourgeoisie, directed against the mass of the proletariat. A good example of past opportunists was the socialist party in Germany during WWI, who supported the war rather than opposed it. One of the more frustrating parts of "the left" in the US is that 100+ years of Red Scare propaganda and party infiltrations have all but obliterated any real knowledge or willingness to study actual Marxism, which has left us with a lot fewer principled Marxists and a lot more people who are fetishizing Marxism or doing it as a "bit", and their interests are 𝘯𝘰𝘵 aligned with the working class. There are zero reasons for the working class to align with the likes of Erdogan, Assad, and their ilk, and every reason for us to support Palestine.
Yeah, there's a particular flavor of edgelord who I refer to as "ushanka lifestylists" that are really just there because Marxism is controversial, and they wind up painting themselves to look like what the US has trained its population to think communists are, which winds up reinforcing that propaganda, and the cycle continues.
The moment you claim to be part of any political group, ideology, etc, everyone in earshot has now determined based on their own preconceptions, both what you think, and what they think about you and now it's your burden to argue against well fortified misconceptions harbored for years if not decades. This isn't a game worth playing in order to find a place to fit in, at least in my personal experience.
I'm a communist and I'd just like to apologise for talking over you (meaning anarchists, not you specifically). We're angry. We all are, at the systems that hold us down. From capitalism to patriarchy to European superiority (white supremacy). It's easy to lash out at anyone whom we perceive as slowing down the movement or making us question our stance when there's a tsunami of right wing "let's just talk" trolls out there wearing down our spoon supply. I think it's appropriate to say that some of us are more anti-colonial and anti-genocide than others. Modern communism should not be built on a pile of bones, on stolen land. To that end, please don't leave the party. Help us cleanse it of the natz33s from the inside. Also, I shed a tear at your accolade written in rubble; I'm sure your words could never truly express how proud you must be.
I think that’s a little oversimplified. I agree with what you said, but it’s insufficient. Marxism has always refused to make room for other ‘axes of oppression’, whether feminist or indigenous or queer or disabled, or any of the host of other things you could fill in here. You cannot read Marx seriously and come away thinking anything but all oppression is economic at its root. And it simply isn’t.
I don’t think you can truly be Left while upholding the apartheid. The people I encounter (who are otherwise progressive on every other issue) are for the most part progressive Libs. Anyone who claims to be Left while being Pro-Euro Disney is like a person wearing an “I’m a Vegetarian” t-shirt while eating a McRib sandwich.
Love you and this. I don't really go by any labels of anarchist communist or what have you. I do believe in many of the ideas of both leftist groups and most definitely agree with what you have to say here. So appreciate all you share.
I use the term "American anarchist" for myself because America has a fine tradition of anarchism. But states and borders are pretty stupid, to be clear 🤣 for the A always 🥰
Love this! I'm so relieved to find people on the left who feel the same way I do. I felt so lonely and depressed after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine because I realized I was in community with some people who not only defended, but actually supported that action. Lots of regurgitation of talking points I recognized from Russian state media, which I used to gobble up when I was an angry, but naïve teenager in the mid-late '00s. The recent history between Russia, Ukraine, and the West is a topic I took the time to educate myself about, prioritizing the perspectives of Ukrainians and Russians with whom I share values, as well as people who are intimately familiar with the region. That put me at such odds with some of the people I followed and interacted with that I became reluctant to spend time in online leftist spaces. In a way it was a good thing because it pushed me to leave that bubble and focus more on connecting with people in my local community and actually DOING things... but it was painful and confusing for a while there. I'm still learning to balance cooperation and compromise with staying true to myself and my beliefs. The past year of getting more involved in Palestine-related activism has given me a lot of practice because it's involved working with people from many different worldviews and ideologies.
Maraming salamat sa pakikiisa mo sa mga taong nag-aasam ng paglaya sa mga sistemang mapanakop, maging sistema ng mga taong nagsasabing sila' para sa rebolusyon ngunit handang magsakripisyo ng tao o mga taong nagdeklarang para sa demokrasya ngunit sinusupil ang mga boses ng api... Andito na ang taghirap, at matagal nang nandito ang taghirap para sa tulad naming ipit sa Global South, ang taghirap na sinabi ni Le Guin-sensei: "I think hard times are coming, when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, and can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies, to other ways of being..." "Matatandaan natin ang kalayaan... we will remember freedom." (Sorry for expressing my feels in my mother language, Sim-sensei.. 'just felt more sincere that way!) 🍉🏳⚧ 🖤❤
Hi 👋 😊 Well , I consider myself a true communist ( or true definition of communist not the fake communism in Russia or China) and an anarchist. I agree 💯 % of what you say. I am also part Jewish German ( Ashken ) and I don’t want to be associated with ziombies . I will have to wait for a copy because of our postal workers are on strike and refuse to use Amazon. Big Angel hugs and blessings to you and yours 🧚
there is only a deranged media/establishment segment in Russia that larps as communists (colloquially called zommunists). on the whole it's madness to call Russia a communist country, especially considering that it was created out of anti-communism (and Putin was one of the people who directly helped that creation).
@@azarahwagner2749 so you're saying that those duplicitous Asians could never do communism right? Is that what you're saying? Congratulations, you invented white supremacy with extra steps
Sim Kern, please read this or I will cry. I pre-ordered your book and have no intention of cancelling it over ideological disagreements. I find that operating that way, that is, cutting people off over disagreements without even trying to communicate, is simply unsustainable and will inevitably alienate everyone. I admit that the following is full of appeals to emotion, but it's me trying to articulate how this subject is personal for me. While I understand the frustration with the way anarchists are treated on the left. That said, I, as a disabled person who is oppressed by the capitalist system I live under, find the equating of "authoritarian communism" with capitalism in terms of harm to be highly problematic. Personally speaking, I'm highly sympathetic to anarchism and horizontal organizing, so I don't like the way that it's often completely dismissed. However, I have no future to look forward to, so I would rather people just DO SOMETHING to combat what we have right now than to refuse to associate, work with, or speak with others over disagreements that could easily be a matter of misconceptions or miscommunication. I'm no fan of some of the more backwards politics popular with ACP, for example, but I'm not ready to dismiss them as all being good-for-nothing fascists when they are in fact doing good work such as Lyme disease vaccinations. I would be more than willing to work with them to that end, if only I had access to reliable transportation. As critical as you may be of "authoritarian communism," I hope you understand how saying or implying that it's as bad as capitalism is not only incorrect, but also is dismissive of my personal experience of living in a capitalist culture. I've always been really slow and weak, both mentally and physically, and it's only gotten worse now that I'm physically disabled. The most logical ideology that is compatible with capitalism, to me, is social Darwinism, thanks to which I developed an intense self hatred that I'm still struggling to unlearn today and that I keep finding myself relearning with every encounter I have with capitalism. If I have to live under capitalism, it's illogical to not hate myself because the ideology that justifies it classifies me as disposable or as a parasite on society. I've even been called a "burden on society" by someone who was supposed to be trying to help me with becoming employable. Say what you want about communism, but accepting its logic does not necessitate that I hate myself the way that capitalism does. I truly believe that this system of capitalism is more authoritarian than any attempt at communism; it just does a better job of obscuring its authoritarianism by making it seem less personal and "just human nature." As an anarchist, your ideology is not completely at odds with that of communists the way it is with that of capitalism. I believe that anarchists have a significantly greater chance of accomplishing things under an authoritarian communist system than a capitalist system and that's because the ultimate goal is the same: the end of oppressive social hierarchy. The difference is in the methodology of achieving that end, and honestly, that to me is why the rest of the left shouldn't be so quick to dismiss what anarchists have to say. At the same time, anarchists shouldn't be so quick to dismiss anything that might not be "anarchist enough." Also, since I already played the identity politics card with disability, I feel like I should mention that I'm Palestinian American. Don't get me wrong, though. I've been extremely critical of deference politics and am grateful for the way that you articulated the concept. I only mention my identity as a thing to bear in mind regarding where I'm coming from and how I experience things, not as a way to exercise any sort of authority that cannot be questioned. If you read this, thank you. If you didn't, I hope you stub your toe.
1. I followed you on TikTok and i love your takes. 2. While Bashar Al Assad was a murdering tyrant, he also allowed a pipeline of weapons to Hezbollah, which benefitted Gaza. Regardless, Hamas wished well to all Syrians. 3. When it comes down to it, neither Hezbollah or Hamas (xept maybe the PFLP faction) are not that inclusive when it comes down to it. Grassroots, yes, but not necessarily socialist, communist or anarchist and certainly not a big proponent of LGBTQIA+.....and while i prefer the anarchist ideology over any other, so far, i tend to believe in the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I'm aware that Assad is a tyrant, and i'm glad that the oppressed are rid of him. I'm aware that Iran is a theocratic dictatorship, but i would've welcomed any help from them during the Syria offence. I'm aware that Putin is a corrupt imperialist, Same for Xi Jinping. But my enemy, above all, the most harmful imperial on this planet is by far the USA and fighting on a zillion fronts at the same time seems insane to me
Holy hell, what are these kids thinking that Putin is a friendly?! Oh my fucking Gaia! Are these the chronically online kids I keep hearing about? I am left wing and a progressive, and I would never consider another dictator to be an ally. Sim, I just had you channel suggested to me by RUclips maybe two weeks ago, and I am so thankful that you exist. The picture of Mohammed's message made me tear up. Please keep making a difference. I hope one day to join you.
I think it has something to do with some people being new to politics and jumped straight right into the scene without fully understanding things. Kinda like how some of my muslim friends who are usually politically ignorant until recently (bc of Palestine), praising candace owens without knowing her full history of being a right wing bigot
The “communists” you speak of are tankies: “Marxist Leninists.” These are authoritarian state communists, and they have always promoted “anti-imperialism” and “Third Worldism” and never understood working class liberation. Some better thinkers are Loren Goldner, CLR James, Rosa Luxemburg, and the “left communists”: Lenin of State and Revolution, Pannekoek, Goerter, Mattick, Bordiga, etc. There is a communist critique of tankies, from 1917 onward. And of course Guy Debord and Jacques Camatte.
Fun fact, Pannekoek's surname literally translates to the Dutch word for pancake. Also there's a Dutch comedian who shares this surname (Peter Pannekoek) and I'm still not sure if him and Anton are relatives (tried to Google it once)
If you also want to be an ecological minded, anarchistic, democratic, leftist, who is anti-Fascist, anti-Zionist, anti-capitalist, and holds true to the ideals of the Enlightenment, then consider Social Ecology. Please support the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) as they will have a real fight on their hands dealing with HTS when attention is turned towards that region
I have a question: Why does the political Right seem more organised and coherent than the political Left? Is it something to do with how the political Right orginated from traditional forms of government and strict societal boundaries?
I'm not sure that they are all that organized. I think that they can afford to have more in-fighting by virtue of the advantages they get. They're far less burdened by morality, which allows them to have more money and therefore more power. The left doesn't have that kind of power, so in-fighting is more devastating.
James T. Kirk: The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Spock: An Arabic proverb attributed to a prince who was betrayed and decapitated by his own subjects. James T. Kirk: Well, still, it's a hell of a quote.
Frankly I've never heard anyone on the Left praise Assad. Of course, I'm not a "Communist". But I am a Marxist and like you Anarchist. Marxism itself is not a leftwing thing; it's simply a critique of Capitalism that aims to empower the workers and end the crushing Oligarchy.
You haven't heard it because they don't. The reality appears to be that Sim just woke up and decided she wants to be an imperialist. That's what she calls anarchism: donating to CIA front groups like white helmets, al-Nusra, or other Israel-backed and Saudi-backed Sunni supremacist mercenary groups. She probably thinks that war in Ukraine is actually about helping Ukrainians, or that UHURU are Russian agents.
I had something vaguely similar the other week. I went to a council meeting with some SWP as a Labour councilor was proposing to stop their pension fund investing in Israeli arms suppliers. Which seemed to go well. I and another who was a piano tuner stayed afterwards. Later a Conservative councilor spoke against the "Citizen" social housing landlords plan to raise rents by spitting the rent into two parts, as a way to raise the rent. The actual rent part they legally aren't allowed to raise over a certain amount and the sweeping the stairs and cutting the grass part which has no limitations on how much it can be raised. The councilor had asked for support from Labour councilors for this, but they weren't interested. Surely if they are actually on the left that's the sort of thing they should also support.
Yes! Tankies are so much more of a problem than most people on the Left are willing to admit. This comment section is probably going to get brigaded by really loud Tankies. This was all so well-said! Thank you for speaking on this. And what an incredible “thank you” from Palestine! I do find anarchist theory really appealing. I don’t like letting the Tankies just have the Left, though. That tends to go really badly for everyone, historically speaking. Personally, I refuse to accept Tankies as a part of the Left. They are fascists wearing Red, they’re on the Right, even when they don’t realize it themselves. Most people who support fascists have no idea about any type of politics, so you gotta look at what they *do.* Like supporting dictators because they hate the U.S.-that doesn’t make them any less evil.
They are Leftists, they are just authoritarian Leftists because of the means they embrace. There are no "red fascists" because horseshoe theory is not real. That would render every definition of 'fascist' meaningless. There are simply different spectrums on the Left which can never be bridged together. The rhetoric and means auth-Leftists embrace does make it easy for real fascists to pretend to be them if they want, (Like Jackson Hinkle or Nazbols) but it doesn't mean that auth-Leftists are fascists themselves. The "red-brown alliance" pipeline and huge amount of miseducation are definitely a real problem because of this. I hope more State socialists realize the many pitfalls of their ideologies and move towards the libertarian socialist spectrum quickly. But for that we need to help them and others who are becoming radicalized in this moment reach that conclusion. Very important to share and create more of our own educational materials and not just make criticisms of others.
I don't think it helps when anarchists and socdems are unwilling to distinguish between sincere Marxists and Marxist-Leninists, and tankies. In my mind (as an ML), a tankie is someone who simply takes the idealist position that "US bad, therefore enemies of US good" - defending Putin, Erdogan etc. Many MLs seem to have forgotten the doctrines of revolutionary defeatism and national self determination promoted by Lenin and instead chosen to side with Putin on the invasion of Ukraine as somehow an anti-imperialist... invasion? But it's unfortunate in my eyes when non-Marxist leftists don't make the distinction and lump in MLs with these people. Especially when it seems that anarchists often struggle with formulating revolutionary movements without the backing of vanguard parties.
Are these the accelerationists who think Trump making things as bad as possible is a "good thing " because destroying the system (at whatever cost) will make life SO BAD for EVERYONE that we HAVE to start over with a new system?
Consider me horrified too. I’ve been several flavours of leftist through the years, usually more than one at a time, which never seems to work very well, and I’m not sure I’m an anarchist, but that might be all that’s left that I can believe in. Also, props for the absolutely brilliant taste in sci-fi.
i never thought that i will cry watching your video... Oh my God it's true palestinians is very kind hearted they are the one who accepted israel when they didn't have any place, helpung them give them warm but.. we all know the rest. See that letter in the rubble is break my heart 😢😢😢 May God bless you thank you for the video!!! ❤️💚🖤🤍
💚🖤 It has always been difficult to deal with the infantilization thrown our way by online authoritarian Leftists, even by the acquaintances who we've only shown respect towards. It's difficult to be called "purely idealist" by the people who merely assert that States will "wither away" when the "good guys" take over and centralize hierarchical power structures "the correct way." I like your analogy. But I don’t like to use the word tankie. I do think it's better to aptly describe them as authoritarian Leftists or state socialists. Left-unity is a fantasy. State socialist strategies and anti-State strategies cannot be synthesized. It's better when people leave that notion behind in favor of properly understanding how power structures function, maintain themselves, and replicate. Prefiguring horizontal societies from the bottom up is the only way to go! 🏳️⚧️🏴🏳️🌈
how does a utopian commune, even a network of such, dissolve the state? This is the fundamental question that remains to be answered. From the perspective of Engels in "socialism utopian and scientific", the answer is that it cannot. The state functions as a vehicle of class oppression, and will act in opposition to any movement, peaceful or not, that threatens its power. See the camp-ins for Palestine, for instance - they were completely peaceful protests, broken up by police violence. This is why we say that the working class must be organised, and the revolution defended with force, if it is to succeed. Compare Allende's Chile to Castro's Cuba: Allende's movement did not build the apparatus for defending the revolution, and was insurrected by the CIA. Castro's movement made connections with the wider revolutionary states, and engaged in "authoritarianism" (self-defense), and survived. Is this ideal? No, of course we would rather not have to engage in such tactics. But we do not live in an ideal world.
Engels never understood what anarchism is. He was not some kind of genius like Marx, he was a silly man and weirdly obsessed with odd and irrelevant things. Marx was an asshole and wrong sometimes, but at least made some contributions. Even Marx changed his opinions toward the end of his career after he witnessed the rise of the Paris Commune and praised it saying States must be subverted that way. This is why orthodox Marxists are considered libertarian communists. Anarchism is organizational, not non-organizational. Horizontalism must be organized, but by free association. The State will not dissolve by itself is the point. The goal is to create worldwide democratic confederations of communes and defend them against State forces militarily. States must all be subverted and dissolved by force. I never advocated for pacifism or magical thinking. The new societies which would have the knowledge and collective strength to do so must be created through prefiguration. Vanguards imposing their will on pre-existing society is equivalent to any other authoritarian regime and is not a "scientific" solution, only an unsuccessful waste of human capacities. Having good intentions is not good enough. I'm always confused by how much you people assume you know all while calling yourselves "scientific" thinkers. States of course oppose all liberatory movements, that is why all States are inherently counter-revolutionary. There is no such thing as a "revolutionary State," that claim is an obvious contradiction. Please watch the series by Anark called "The State is Counter-Revolutionary" to get a grasp on what we've actually argued. I don't care if people choose to use the word utopia poetically, I only care about the context it is used in. But you did not hear me use it and I know plenty of anarchists who refuse to use it. Life, the world, existence is never perfect or the way you say "ideal" here. But the goal is the creation of ideal power structures which will always be horizontal, but also fluid and able to change whenever necessary to suit the needs of individuals and the collective. I'm not going to promise any kind of future to anyone, which is what you "scientific" socialists like to do. Nobody knows the future. I'm saying anarchist analysis understands how power functions and is liberation in action. And no matter what the future holds, what we propose is still worth working towards. Average people tend to agree when it is explained to them, and correctly view you auth-Leftists as cults. @@alexjeffrey3981
@@River_Rune your reply contains a mix of emotional assertions and arguments - I will reply to the arguments as I think they're worth having. Engels' arguments against anarchism come from his endless debates with Proudhon and Bakunin within the IWA. So I would say that he was familiar with the subject. Marx's argument around the Paris Commune is that their successes relate to their proletarianisation of the elements of state that are required for organising and self-defense, namely the creation of the National Guard (a militia, replacing the bourgeois army) and the creation of a form of representative central governance to manage production and allocation of physical capital (land and machinery). This is, by most accounts, a state. In the same way, the Catalonian revolution that many anarchists uphold as a vision of anarchist revolution also formed a state comprising the workers unions, and the collectivisation of agriculture. This is almost identical to the start of the Bolshevik revolution, with the replacement of the provisional government with the workers' councils and the initial attempts at collectivisation of agriculture (though with private property and expropriations remaining in place in most cases due to the weakness of the party due to the ongoing civil war). So where exactly is the difference at this point? Anarchists and Marxist-Leninists both agree that the ideal form of political and economic organisation consists of worker self-management and free association, with centralisation and coordination managed by participative democracy. The problem lies in how to handle attacks from bourgeois states, and this is why anarchism has thusfar been handily defeated and Marxist-Leninist states have devolved into bureaucratic state-capitalism. Because the anarchists refuse to use the power of the state to crush counter-revolution and thus fall to it, and the Marxist-Leninists use this power, that rather rapidly evolves into an instrument of bureaucratic class power rather than workers' collective power. But there isn't a third option; when Marx wrote of revolution, he wrote of simultaneous worldwide revolution and thus the question of remaining bourgeois states was left as a question for the audience. As for states being inherently counter-revolutionary; states represent a class interest. The question of how to create a proletarian state that is resistant to counter-revolution without creating structures that make it vulnerable to internal bureaucratic counter-revolution remains an open question. But the arguments anarchists raise about how they want to create a state but call it not a state despite retaining many of the core functions of a state seem rather pointless. We can't get to communism without some intermediate form of industrial organisation and self-defense. Once the bourgeois state is overthrown and the revolutionaries are left to organise the workers as the displaced and international bourgeoisie plot to retake their power, there has to be some kind of self-defense that doesn't require every worker to already be a class-conscious revolutionary, and that's why the vanguard exists - to perform the leading role as the class-conscious sector of the workers. Before this point, I'm a big fan of prefiguration and grassroots organising as a way to build class consciousness and organise the working class, but that's not the area in which anarchists and MLs are divided. None of this is in any way related to cultish behaviour, though I agree that the "tankie" section of MLs are very cultish in their beliefs and I do my best to separate myself from them and their simplistic worldviews. But revolution and theory-craft is hard, and I think the left would be in a better position if anarchists and MLs would work together to try to create structures that actually advance us as a class. After all, we all want the same end result and are primarily divided on the means to get there, a problem that can be worked through via rational discussion and analysis of historical trends. That's why I consider the dialectical approach to be "scientific", even though you scoffed at it - because it has a material basis and a model for rational advancement. But just throwing rocks at each other gets us nowhere.
Your replies are difficult for me to read when they are made into big walls of texts with few spaces in between. I'm genuinely sorry to anyone if my being extremely direct comes off as aggression or emotional in some way. I tried to render it emotionless actually, so that's interesting to me, but sorry. ^_^' I have no idea what you think was an emotional assertion. I did express my astonishment at how much can be assumed by people who describe themselves as "scientific" and explained that your assumptions were wrong and why. I know quite a bit about Engels, I don't need you to tell me who he argued with. He mischaracterized Proudhon and Bakunin and anarchism in general, like incorrectly calling it non-organizational. He was a factory owner who said his employees and other workers were incapable of organizing themselves and that's all most people need to know, though. Maybe you think calling him silly was an emotional assertion as well. I think it's not that; when compared to other people who different kinds of socialists revere he was a very unserious man. But maybe you'd have preferred if I had just said he was unserious instead. Anarchists do not uphold the Paris Commune or Catalonia as the way forward, we mostly criticize them but say there are many good things to learn from them. Like I said, anarchists are not against organized community defense. We are against representative government and in favor of a democratic confederation of consensus councils. All factions of authoritarian Leftists have a cultishness to them, especially due to their promotions of a cult of personality. For instance, people being completely uncritical of Engels and acting as if he and others like him were prophets. Neither Marxism or dialectical materialism has a criticism of hierarchical power structures or explanations of how those power structures intertwine (kyriarchy) and replicate themselves, so they are not as useful as some would like to believe. If I "scoffed" in my reply, I scoffed at people who one day start referring to themselves as scientific while promising an exact outcome and not realizing that their stagnant methodologies are not scientific. Most anarchists were once Marxists, including myself. Vanguards and so-called professional revolutionaries are not needed. Socialism is worker control, not worker management, meaning regimes like the Bolsheviks never achieved socialism. Soviets had already created successful communes in the countryside before the Bolsheviks took over and outlawed worker control. Hierarchical power structures are not necessary to educate the masses about anything or institute free association. I've already offered corrections and a recommendation to check out a four part series on why States are fundamentally counter-revolutionary, how there is no such thing as "socialist / proletarian States" etc. I've seen many different kinds of people saying they enjoy the series and get something out of it, I hope you find time to see it and the other ones on the channel. Prefigurative politics are not simply to build class consciousness, they are to build a new society, so we disagree. And there is a historical pattern of decline of prefigurative movements when usurped by centralized revolutionary authority. (See Boggs' analysis) I hope people understand I have no intention of "throwing stones" at other Leftists, I make a point to highlight their good intentions even when a ton of them are treating others in an awful manner. I just want people to understand the libertarian socialist spectrum in full and anarchism specifically. Left-unity is a fantasy because our strategies are not able to be synthesized; antithesis is the reality and I'm content to acknowledge it. I can agree it is a nice fantasy and would make everything easier but unfortunately it's not real. Making nice with people and sharing similar end goals is not enough. Unity / disunity are the wrong words; we need to talk about synthesis / antithesis of the means or strategies. Anarchists practice Means-Ends Unity theory, which explains why the end must justify the means and vice-versa. Please look into that one. That doesn't mean I am an asshole to anyone. I socialize with everyone respectfully and have acquaintances who believe in lots of different things that I don't. My initial comment was about how others and myself have been treated unfairly and continue to be misunderstood by those Leftists who embrace the same ideologies which historically were used to persecute people with mine and who like to speak on behalf of everyone. I stand by everything I said including that average people tend to agree with libertarian socialist strategies rather than yours, and that only time and dedication to liberation in action can make clear the possible future outcomes. Feel free to find me on Discord, my ID is in my bio. I'm not a fan of debate here for many reasons including that this platform now disappears many of my posts. But you can find me all over Leftube livestreams. I'm always chilling in a tiny livestream Friday and Saturday nights hosted on the Untitled Anarchist Seagull Channel. The mixed crowd in there are almost all Left-unity, we usually just make fun of right-wingers, libs, zios, etc. Maybe you can drop by sometime. @@alexjeffrey3981
We do. They don't have any power, but they're loud and take up a lot of room in leftist spaces. I don't think the problem is quite as bad IRL as it seems to be online, but it's worth discussing.
this division is the reason why we could never have another red revolution AND also the reason why the whole world is so close to be ruled by actual n*z* emperor.
Maybe your list of followers/subscribers will shrink after this, but - as you already knew - the ones that will stay and the ones you've won over (like myself) - even if it's a few - are worth a thousand of those who'll leave, because we are the ones who don't blindly follow our cirlcle of buddies, but the truth ✊🏻
Yes we have to unite and strengthen against the fascists in this world. Ya Rabb (SWT) help us. Strengthen our Ummah. Let us be of help and protection to one another. Amin.
I like anarcho-communists (but I like anarcho-syndicalists better!), and I hate tankies. I have no idea how they call themselves "left wing" when they love any right-wing commercial, imperial, or religious interest as long as that interest is slightly less than 100% pro USA.
So my understanding is you have heard too much defense for Assad? I can get that. Assad was a force that could counter Israel but doesn’t mean they are good force or should be defended. I feel you can understand a power can keep another in check but it doesn’t mean they are good. Not sure if it fair to put this all on leftist, leftwing myself and not a fan of Assad but I can get why you raising it
assad wasn't even a counter to israel, he was just the guy doing his own horrible canvas in his own corner, meaning that not many, including the palestinians, weep from his lost
@ think you misunderstood my usage and others, it not that he physically helps it’s that he doesn’t block land movement of supplies for Hamas from Iran etc.
"I will now choose a prettier label for myself" I mean the self exoneration from actual accomplishment and civilizational impact keeps on as the constant that it always was. "I'm not here to do, I'm here to judge". ☕.
@ I honestly respected her content but like… anarchism (or at least the orthodox forms of anarchism) have communism as the end goal. Usually, when an anarchist refers to “tankies”, they refer to them as “Marxists-Leninists” or “authoritarian socialists” not just “communists”. I do think I should reword my original comment, I’m sure they actually hold anarchist views, but I think this was just poor political literacy and not really them just being a liberal. I don’t like to theory shame or make fun of people for being new to the left, but I am disappointed in the narrative of this video. Ñ
This is all really unnecessary. Plenty of commies think exactly like you on these issues. And love Ursula LeGuin and The Dispossessed. I don't see how any of this helps anyone do anything. We all need to log TF off and organize.
No idea what you’re talking about? What circles are you running in that are full of fringe opportunists? I have not heard most Socialists, Communists or ML’s praise Putin or Assad. Socialists, Communists and ML’s will be the first to say that russia’s frantic jump to capitalism was very much not a good thing and praise Rojava/Northeast Syria for their democratic, feminist, egalitarian anarchist government. I’m fairly sure these are strawmen or at the very least that you are projecting your experience of a fringe group of left colored fascists onto the whole of non-anarchist people on the left. I personally don’t subscribe to a specific current and think that every socialist project needs to be adapted to its own region, like Ho Chi Minh thought is specific to Viet Nam and its material situation. I celebrate the socialist projects of the past that managed to substantially increase the quality of life and equality of their population and I celebrate the socialist projects of the present, like Cuba, the EZLN, Rojava, Laos and Viet Nam for persevering despite the adversity and still be able to improve the material conditions of their members. I find it unhelpful and overall selfish to quibble about factions and identities rather than being United by class struggle, class consciousness and class solidarity. We have to stand together in the fight for worker’s rights, women’s rights, childen’s rights, disability rights, queer rights, ethnic minority rights and overall human rights. Remember, separated we beg, but together we bargain. We’re not reaching socialism, anarchism, communism, syndicalism or any form of government left of social democracy if we don’t work together. The specific ideology does not matter as long as we improve the material conditions of the people so we all are insured a dignified life where all our basic necessities are met.
@@acircleproductions8495 the word tankie is just the lib version of woke, you use it as a thought terminating epithet for yourself and a cudgel to attack anyone to your left
Just found you recently, happy to see an open anarchist here. Very frustrating to be Iranian (born, grew up, and live in the west) and an anarchist and to encounter people who think anti US imperialism means I like what’s happening in Iran. The B&W thinking is so real for people who have been indoctrinated only into western imperialism and come into a reactionary position when they finally learn their system is bad. Congratulations on your book, please write imperialism bad (maybe also authoritarianism bad)
I feel like a man without a country. I'm not a Democrat and I'm not a Republican. I just find it so hard to see what's going on in Gaza, and so many Jews and Christians feel helpless. Thank you.
"Direct aid is how anarchists stay grounded."
Wow. Yeah.
What does that even mean?
@@TuanTran-h5f It means that it is more satisfying to actually do something that helps people than it is to talk to other leftists about whether it was a worthwhile action.
I spend a noticeable amount of time trying to connect with other leftists and it so far hasn't been terribly effective.
But when I help someone in my own network or elsewhere in a tangible way I feel great. I feel grounded.
I just love that particular sentence they used because it's so succinct.
I agree that the term "LEFTIST" has lost all meaning over the past year and a half. I have found it as a Lakota (Native) person to basically mean a yt supremacist who wants to build a 3rd party based on some of their goals regarding communism but also wants to keep the hierarchy of yt supremacy. All Americans besides Native tribes and the descendants of formerly enslaved people have benefitted from the U.S. as a country built on stolen Native land and 500 broken treaties which are guaranteed in the Constitution. Americans whose great, great-grandparents (Gov. Stitt of OK) took part in the Oklahoma Land Run and people like Laura Ingalls Wilder whose parents filed claims for land in South Dakota on stolen Lakota land. They have already participated in communism. LoL The state providing largesse for the proletariat. Poor Europeans were enticed to America by newspaper articles of "Free Land". The U.S. took the land, the goods (crops) and distributed them to the masses initially before switching to capitalism because their goal was to genocide Native tribes and to erase and replace us. They dug up our burial grounds and placed the remains of our ancestors in storage at museums and allowed universities to experiment on those remains as well. Any American leftist or not pretending to have some high moral ground, is kidding themselves about passing some leftist purity test. I'm on X and had a mutual who ranted and raved about being 3rd party and being all in for the little people. One day I commented on her post regarding the evils of capitalism. I said that the early days of raising and trading cattle in the Bronze Age is where the etymology for the word CAPITALISM originated. She freaked out and started saying how terrible Native people are and how we caused numerous Ice Age species to go extinct, all of which has been debunked. Lol She thought I would freak out at her obsolete archaeological data. I just told her that I knew by her attitude that she was a yt supremacist and I unfollowed her. This led to a discussion with other mutuals about the racism that is part of the leftist movement at present. I even know some Native people who are big fans of Marx, a European who impregnated his wife's indentured maid and never claimed the child. That's enough for me to spit on Marxism. Idgaf. Anyway, anarchy is the future. Watching the billionaires in both parties control every election going back to Reagan/Bush because I'm a grandma and I've seen a lot of corruption get accepted and even idealized, I don't think there is any future for my kids and grandkids with the present system which is enabling convicted felons to the White House when most ex-cons aren't allowed to vote. Free Palestine. Let the days of colonialism end.
Leftist around the world outside of America are anti imperialist. Leftist in America are imperialist in sheep's clothing that shove down the throat of countries around the world freedom, democracy and human rights. These words mention above is the reason why the land of the native people's in the America has been colonized. It the reason why many global south country have been colonized. It seems people here and the person in the video doesn't understand the reality of life around the world.
@@gnostic268 the Marx thing is a rumour and not credibly proven. It was just created generally as slander
Love This ❤ You Are So Correct
I am from Greece and haven't heard any communist praising Putin, Erdogan or Assad, don't know tf is happening in America.
It's not. People were a little disappointed that Sim was praising the current Syrian government even though they have ties to isis and Sim is accusing them of praising Assad. The reality is that communists don't like Assad, but they don't like isis either.
In Greece since autumn 1983 a Sadistic Horrible Crime has been committed against a 17-year-old girl in 1983 and her family (her mother's brother was murdered by the Security Battalions by pulling out his nails and teeth with pliers on 08/08/1944) which was updated in autumn 2005. Do you or the KKE know anything?
@@ju13hpm hold up, which Syrian government? Are we forgetting the Kurdish one?
@@ju13hpm Sim isn't the only person feeling this way. Don't know where you've been, but the far left in the US and some other Western countries have been rife with Assad apologists (and some outright supporters) for years. They're in our independent media too. There are also a disturbing number of Putin apologists; I've lost a lot of friends over the Russia/Ukraine in the last decade and especially in the past couple years because I value the perspectives of comrades in and around Russia over theirs. Haven't seen many people praising Erdogan tbh, but I wouldn't be surprised at this point.
@@macp6033 why would this person know anything about this they could've been born in 2004 for all we know
Okay but why do I now have to wait for the book I preordered? I want to read and share it so freaking badly
I decided to get two more so I have lots to lend out!
We bought 10 so we could stuff the local little free library.
Oh thank goodness! I was very worried you're gonna come out as a liberal, the way i sighed when you instantly follow up with anarchist
Edit: *the way i sighed WITH RELIEF
@@aeoligarlic4024 she may as well have, she used all the classic lib talking points
she literally does sound like a typical lib.
At the risk of being a loud communist, I want to push back on the "tankie" bit, because it's often used in a way that lumps all non-anarchists on the left together. The people who try to invite those "Axis of Resistance" types are what principled Marxists refer to as "opportunists" or "adventurist". Opportunism in this case is an alliance between a section of the workers and the bourgeoisie, directed against the mass of the proletariat. A good example of past opportunists was the socialist party in Germany during WWI, who supported the war rather than opposed it. One of the more frustrating parts of "the left" in the US is that 100+ years of Red Scare propaganda and party infiltrations have all but obliterated any real knowledge or willingness to study actual Marxism, which has left us with a lot fewer principled Marxists and a lot more people who are fetishizing Marxism or doing it as a "bit", and their interests are 𝘯𝘰𝘵 aligned with the working class. There are zero reasons for the working class to align with the likes of Erdogan, Assad, and their ilk, and every reason for us to support Palestine.
Communist Cosplayers
Yeah, there's a particular flavor of edgelord who I refer to as "ushanka lifestylists" that are really just there because Marxism is controversial, and they wind up painting themselves to look like what the US has trained its population to think communists are, which winds up reinforcing that propaganda, and the cycle continues.
@@philippschwarz4539 essentially, yes, this is what the OP is talking about
The moment you claim to be part of any political group, ideology, etc, everyone in earshot has now determined based on their own preconceptions, both what you think, and what they think about you and now it's your burden to argue against well fortified misconceptions harbored for years if not decades. This isn't a game worth playing in order to find a place to fit in, at least in my personal experience.
I'm a communist and I'd just like to apologise for talking over you (meaning anarchists, not you specifically).
We're angry. We all are, at the systems that hold us down. From capitalism to patriarchy to European superiority (white supremacy). It's easy to lash out at anyone whom we perceive as slowing down the movement or making us question our stance when there's a tsunami of right wing "let's just talk" trolls out there wearing down our spoon supply.
I think it's appropriate to say that some of us are more anti-colonial and anti-genocide than others. Modern communism should not be built on a pile of bones, on stolen land. To that end, please don't leave the party. Help us cleanse it of the natz33s from the inside.
Also, I shed a tear at your accolade written in rubble; I'm sure your words could never truly express how proud you must be.
I think that’s a little oversimplified. I agree with what you said, but it’s insufficient. Marxism has always refused to make room for other ‘axes of oppression’, whether feminist or indigenous or queer or disabled, or any of the host of other things you could fill in here. You cannot read Marx seriously and come away thinking anything but all oppression is economic at its root. And it simply isn’t.
Sim, could you pin the link to send aid to Mohammed (sp?) in the comments section, please?
I don’t think you can truly be Left while upholding the apartheid. The people I encounter (who are otherwise progressive on every other issue) are for the most part progressive Libs. Anyone who claims to be Left while being Pro-Euro Disney is like a person wearing an “I’m a Vegetarian” t-shirt while eating a McRib sandwich.
I like your passion, sincerity and analytic work.
I agree. I like also her true humanism. (as well as her knowledge.) I wish people like her would start multiplying.
I am from Quebec CANADA and you are such an inspiring person thank you I will be looking to buy your book Genocide bad ❤❤
Love you and this. I don't really go by any labels of anarchist communist or what have you. I do believe in many of the ideas of both leftist groups and most definitely agree with what you have to say here. So appreciate all you share.
I use the term "American anarchist" for myself because America has a fine tradition of anarchism.
But states and borders are pretty stupid, to be clear 🤣
for the A always
🥰
I'm a socialist. The fight is between Capital and society itself.
Love this! I'm so relieved to find people on the left who feel the same way I do. I felt so lonely and depressed after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine because I realized I was in community with some people who not only defended, but actually supported that action. Lots of regurgitation of talking points I recognized from Russian state media, which I used to gobble up when I was an angry, but naïve teenager in the mid-late '00s. The recent history between Russia, Ukraine, and the West is a topic I took the time to educate myself about, prioritizing the perspectives of Ukrainians and Russians with whom I share values, as well as people who are intimately familiar with the region. That put me at such odds with some of the people I followed and interacted with that I became reluctant to spend time in online leftist spaces.
In a way it was a good thing because it pushed me to leave that bubble and focus more on connecting with people in my local community and actually DOING things... but it was painful and confusing for a while there. I'm still learning to balance cooperation and compromise with staying true to myself and my beliefs. The past year of getting more involved in Palestine-related activism has given me a lot of practice because it's involved working with people from many different worldviews and ideologies.
Idk where you get that the Left was ok with Russia invading UK. THAT IS NOT A THING. Thats the Right hun, don't get it twisted
yooo octavia butler shout out. honestly, this was an apprehensive click, but i'm glad i did.
I love Octavia Butler. She’s so underrated, every time I hear someone bring her up I’m like 👀
Maraming salamat sa pakikiisa mo sa mga taong nag-aasam ng paglaya sa mga sistemang mapanakop, maging sistema ng mga taong nagsasabing sila' para sa rebolusyon ngunit handang magsakripisyo ng tao o mga taong nagdeklarang para sa demokrasya ngunit sinusupil ang mga boses ng api...
Andito na ang taghirap, at matagal nang nandito ang taghirap para sa tulad naming ipit sa Global South, ang taghirap na sinabi ni Le Guin-sensei: "I think hard times are coming, when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, and can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies, to other ways of being..."
"Matatandaan natin ang kalayaan... we will remember freedom."
(Sorry for expressing my feels in my mother language, Sim-sensei.. 'just felt more sincere that way!)
🍉🏳⚧ 🖤❤
President JFK,jr.: “… we do it not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard.”
Hi 👋 😊
Well , I consider myself a true communist ( or true definition of communist not the fake communism in Russia or China) and an anarchist.
I agree 💯 % of what you say. I am also part Jewish German ( Ashken ) and I don’t want to be associated with ziombies .
I will have to wait for a copy because of our postal workers are on strike and refuse to use Amazon.
Big Angel hugs and blessings to you and yours 🧚
"not the fake communism" habibi it's the kind that was actually tried you can't pretend it didn't happen
@@xunqianbaidu6917surely that was more like state capitalism.
there is only a deranged media/establishment segment in Russia that larps as communists (colloquially called zommunists).
on the whole it's madness to call Russia a communist country, especially considering that it was created out of anti-communism (and Putin was one of the people who directly helped that creation).
CUPW ftw! Also, you can place a pre-order now. It'll be delivered in March. CUPW would have won by then.
@@azarahwagner2749 so you're saying that those duplicitous Asians could never do communism right? Is that what you're saying?
Congratulations, you invented white supremacy with extra steps
Sim Kern, please read this or I will cry.
I pre-ordered your book and have no intention of cancelling it over ideological disagreements. I find that operating that way, that is, cutting people off over disagreements without even trying to communicate, is simply unsustainable and will inevitably alienate everyone. I admit that the following is full of appeals to emotion, but it's me trying to articulate how this subject is personal for me.
While I understand the frustration with the way anarchists are treated on the left. That said, I, as a disabled person who is oppressed by the capitalist system I live under, find the equating of "authoritarian communism" with capitalism in terms of harm to be highly problematic.
Personally speaking, I'm highly sympathetic to anarchism and horizontal organizing, so I don't like the way that it's often completely dismissed. However, I have no future to look forward to, so I would rather people just DO SOMETHING to combat what we have right now than to refuse to associate, work with, or speak with others over disagreements that could easily be a matter of misconceptions or miscommunication. I'm no fan of some of the more backwards politics popular with ACP, for example, but I'm not ready to dismiss them as all being good-for-nothing fascists when they are in fact doing good work such as Lyme disease vaccinations. I would be more than willing to work with them to that end, if only I had access to reliable transportation.
As critical as you may be of "authoritarian communism," I hope you understand how saying or implying that it's as bad as capitalism is not only incorrect, but also is dismissive of my personal experience of living in a capitalist culture. I've always been really slow and weak, both mentally and physically, and it's only gotten worse now that I'm physically disabled. The most logical ideology that is compatible with capitalism, to me, is social Darwinism, thanks to which I developed an intense self hatred that I'm still struggling to unlearn today and that I keep finding myself relearning with every encounter I have with capitalism. If I have to live under capitalism, it's illogical to not hate myself because the ideology that justifies it classifies me as disposable or as a parasite on society. I've even been called a "burden on society" by someone who was supposed to be trying to help me with becoming employable. Say what you want about communism, but accepting its logic does not necessitate that I hate myself the way that capitalism does.
I truly believe that this system of capitalism is more authoritarian than any attempt at communism; it just does a better job of obscuring its authoritarianism by making it seem less personal and "just human nature." As an anarchist, your ideology is not completely at odds with that of communists the way it is with that of capitalism. I believe that anarchists have a significantly greater chance of accomplishing things under an authoritarian communist system than a capitalist system and that's because the ultimate goal is the same: the end of oppressive social hierarchy. The difference is in the methodology of achieving that end, and honestly, that to me is why the rest of the left shouldn't be so quick to dismiss what anarchists have to say. At the same time, anarchists shouldn't be so quick to dismiss anything that might not be "anarchist enough."
Also, since I already played the identity politics card with disability, I feel like I should mention that I'm Palestinian American. Don't get me wrong, though. I've been extremely critical of deference politics and am grateful for the way that you articulated the concept. I only mention my identity as a thing to bear in mind regarding where I'm coming from and how I experience things, not as a way to exercise any sort of authority that cannot be questioned.
If you read this, thank you. If you didn't, I hope you stub your toe.
Who are the other SF writers worth reading besides Butler and Leguin?
Kim Stanley Robinson. Specifically his Mars trilogy.
1. I followed you on TikTok and i love your takes. 2. While Bashar Al Assad was a murdering tyrant, he also allowed a pipeline of weapons to Hezbollah, which benefitted Gaza. Regardless, Hamas wished well to all Syrians. 3. When it comes down to it, neither Hezbollah or Hamas (xept maybe the PFLP faction) are not that inclusive when it comes down to it. Grassroots, yes, but not necessarily socialist, communist or anarchist and certainly not a big proponent of LGBTQIA+.....and while i prefer the anarchist ideology over any other, so far, i tend to believe in the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I'm aware that Assad is a tyrant, and i'm glad that the oppressed are rid of him. I'm aware that Iran is a theocratic dictatorship, but i would've welcomed any help from them during the Syria offence. I'm aware that Putin is a corrupt imperialist, Same for Xi Jinping. But my enemy, above all, the most harmful imperial on this planet is by far the USA and fighting on a zillion fronts at the same time seems insane to me
Holy hell, what are these kids thinking that Putin is a friendly?! Oh my fucking Gaia! Are these the chronically online kids I keep hearing about? I am left wing and a progressive, and I would never consider another dictator to be an ally.
Sim, I just had you channel suggested to me by RUclips maybe two weeks ago, and I am so thankful that you exist. The picture of Mohammed's message made me tear up. Please keep making a difference. I hope one day to join you.
I think it has something to do with some people being new to politics and jumped straight right into the scene without fully understanding things. Kinda like how some of my muslim friends who are usually politically ignorant until recently (bc of Palestine), praising candace owens without knowing her full history of being a right wing bigot
The “communists” you speak of are tankies: “Marxist Leninists.” These are authoritarian state communists, and they have always promoted “anti-imperialism” and “Third Worldism” and never understood working class liberation. Some better thinkers are Loren Goldner, CLR James, Rosa Luxemburg, and the “left communists”: Lenin of State and Revolution, Pannekoek, Goerter, Mattick, Bordiga, etc. There is a communist critique of tankies, from 1917 onward. And of course Guy Debord and Jacques Camatte.
Fun fact, Pannekoek's surname literally translates to the Dutch word for pancake. Also there's a Dutch comedian who shares this surname (Peter Pannekoek) and I'm still not sure if him and Anton are relatives (tried to Google it once)
If you also want to be an ecological minded, anarchistic, democratic, leftist, who is anti-Fascist, anti-Zionist, anti-capitalist, and holds true to the ideals of the Enlightenment, then consider Social Ecology. Please support the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) as they will have a real fight on their hands dealing with HTS when attention is turned towards that region
Jewishness and anarchism have a long history together. ‘Mutual Aid’ by Peter Kropotkin is very close to my heart.
I have a question: Why does the political Right seem more organised and coherent than the political Left?
Is it something to do with how the political Right orginated from traditional forms of government and strict societal boundaries?
I'm not sure that they are all that organized. I think that they can afford to have more in-fighting by virtue of the advantages they get. They're far less burdened by morality, which allows them to have more money and therefore more power. The left doesn't have that kind of power, so in-fighting is more devastating.
I love you, Sim. Very, very, very much. 🫶🏽
Thank you pure soul ❤🇵🇸✨️
James T. Kirk: The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Spock: An Arabic proverb attributed to a prince who was betrayed and decapitated by his own subjects.
James T. Kirk: Well, still, it's a hell of a quote.
Frankly I've never heard anyone on the Left praise Assad. Of course, I'm not a "Communist". But I am a Marxist and like you Anarchist. Marxism itself is not a leftwing thing; it's simply a critique of Capitalism that aims to empower the workers and end the crushing Oligarchy.
You haven't heard it because they don't. The reality appears to be that Sim just woke up and decided she wants to be an imperialist. That's what she calls anarchism: donating to CIA front groups like white helmets, al-Nusra, or other Israel-backed and Saudi-backed Sunni supremacist mercenary groups. She probably thinks that war in Ukraine is actually about helping Ukrainians, or that UHURU are Russian agents.
Then you have lived in a cave these last days...
I have pretty good wifi in my cave and I've never heard it either.
@@JustinTheGreysomething still must be wrong with your cave, if you haven't noticed the disgusting trend Sim's talking about
i doubt its praising assad as much as it is saying that the syrian civil war is being done for western interests
I had something vaguely similar the other week. I went to a council meeting with some SWP as a Labour councilor was proposing to stop their pension fund investing in Israeli arms suppliers. Which seemed to go well. I and another who was a piano tuner stayed afterwards. Later a Conservative councilor spoke against the "Citizen" social housing landlords plan to raise rents by spitting the rent into two parts, as a way to raise the rent. The actual rent part they legally aren't allowed to raise over a certain amount and the sweeping the stairs and cutting the grass part which has no limitations on how much it can be raised. The councilor had asked for support from Labour councilors for this, but they weren't interested. Surely if they are actually on the left that's the sort of thing they should also support.
Yes! Tankies are so much more of a problem than most people on the Left are willing to admit. This comment section is probably going to get brigaded by really loud Tankies.
This was all so well-said! Thank you for speaking on this. And what an incredible “thank you” from Palestine!
I do find anarchist theory really appealing. I don’t like letting the Tankies just have the Left, though. That tends to go really badly for everyone, historically speaking. Personally, I refuse to accept Tankies as a part of the Left. They are fascists wearing Red, they’re on the Right, even when they don’t realize it themselves. Most people who support fascists have no idea about any type of politics, so you gotta look at what they *do.* Like supporting dictators because they hate the U.S.-that doesn’t make them any less evil.
They are Leftists, they are just authoritarian Leftists because of the means they embrace.
There are no "red fascists" because horseshoe theory is not real. That would render every definition of 'fascist' meaningless.
There are simply different spectrums on the Left which can never be bridged together.
The rhetoric and means auth-Leftists embrace does make it easy for real fascists to pretend to be them if they want,
(Like Jackson Hinkle or Nazbols)
but it doesn't mean that auth-Leftists are fascists themselves.
The "red-brown alliance" pipeline and huge amount of miseducation are definitely a real problem because of this.
I hope more State socialists realize the many pitfalls of their ideologies and move towards the libertarian socialist spectrum quickly.
But for that we need to help them and others who are becoming radicalized in this moment reach that conclusion.
Very important to share and create more of our own educational materials and not just make criticisms of others.
I don't think it helps when anarchists and socdems are unwilling to distinguish between sincere Marxists and Marxist-Leninists, and tankies. In my mind (as an ML), a tankie is someone who simply takes the idealist position that "US bad, therefore enemies of US good" - defending Putin, Erdogan etc. Many MLs seem to have forgotten the doctrines of revolutionary defeatism and national self determination promoted by Lenin and instead chosen to side with Putin on the invasion of Ukraine as somehow an anti-imperialist... invasion? But it's unfortunate in my eyes when non-Marxist leftists don't make the distinction and lump in MLs with these people. Especially when it seems that anarchists often struggle with formulating revolutionary movements without the backing of vanguard parties.
Are these the accelerationists who think Trump making things as bad as possible is a "good thing " because destroying the system (at whatever cost) will make life SO BAD for EVERYONE that we HAVE to start over with a new system?
Consider me horrified too. I’ve been several flavours of leftist through the years, usually more than one at a time, which never seems to work very well, and I’m not sure I’m an anarchist, but that might be all that’s left that I can believe in. Also, props for the absolutely brilliant taste in sci-fi.
Exceptionally well roared, lion 👏🏻
i never thought that i will cry watching your video... Oh my God it's true palestinians is very kind hearted they are the one who accepted israel when they didn't have any place, helpung them give them warm but.. we all know the rest. See that letter in the rubble is break my heart 😢😢😢 May God bless you thank you for the video!!! ❤️💚🖤🤍
💚🖤
It has always been difficult to deal with the infantilization thrown our way by online authoritarian Leftists, even by the acquaintances who we've only shown respect towards.
It's difficult to be called "purely idealist" by the people who merely assert that States will "wither away" when the "good guys" take over and centralize hierarchical power structures "the correct way."
I like your analogy. But I don’t like to use the word tankie. I do think it's better to aptly describe them as authoritarian Leftists or state socialists.
Left-unity is a fantasy. State socialist strategies and anti-State strategies cannot be synthesized.
It's better when people leave that notion behind in favor of properly understanding how power structures function, maintain themselves, and replicate.
Prefiguring horizontal societies from the bottom up is the only way to go! 🏳️⚧️🏴🏳️🌈
And that thank you message from Gaza is one of the most beautiful things I've seen all year, maybe in my life.
Thanks for sharing it here!
how does a utopian commune, even a network of such, dissolve the state? This is the fundamental question that remains to be answered. From the perspective of Engels in "socialism utopian and scientific", the answer is that it cannot. The state functions as a vehicle of class oppression, and will act in opposition to any movement, peaceful or not, that threatens its power. See the camp-ins for Palestine, for instance - they were completely peaceful protests, broken up by police violence. This is why we say that the working class must be organised, and the revolution defended with force, if it is to succeed. Compare Allende's Chile to Castro's Cuba: Allende's movement did not build the apparatus for defending the revolution, and was insurrected by the CIA. Castro's movement made connections with the wider revolutionary states, and engaged in "authoritarianism" (self-defense), and survived. Is this ideal? No, of course we would rather not have to engage in such tactics. But we do not live in an ideal world.
Engels never understood what anarchism is. He was not some kind of genius like Marx, he was a silly man and weirdly obsessed with odd and irrelevant things.
Marx was an asshole and wrong sometimes, but at least made some contributions.
Even Marx changed his opinions toward the end of his career after he witnessed the rise of the Paris Commune and praised it saying States must be subverted that way. This is why orthodox Marxists are considered libertarian communists.
Anarchism is organizational, not non-organizational.
Horizontalism must be organized, but by free association.
The State will not dissolve by itself is the point.
The goal is to create worldwide democratic confederations of communes and defend them against State forces militarily.
States must all be subverted and dissolved by force. I never advocated for pacifism or magical thinking.
The new societies which would have the knowledge and collective strength to do so must be created through prefiguration.
Vanguards imposing their will on pre-existing society is equivalent to any other authoritarian regime and is not a "scientific" solution, only an unsuccessful waste of human capacities.
Having good intentions is not good enough.
I'm always confused by how much you people assume you know all while calling yourselves "scientific" thinkers.
States of course oppose all liberatory movements, that is why all States are inherently counter-revolutionary.
There is no such thing as a "revolutionary State," that claim is an obvious contradiction.
Please watch the series by Anark called "The State is Counter-Revolutionary" to get a grasp on what we've actually argued.
I don't care if people choose to use the word utopia poetically, I only care about the context it is used in.
But you did not hear me use it and I know plenty of anarchists who refuse to use it.
Life, the world, existence is never perfect or the way you say "ideal" here.
But the goal is the creation of ideal power structures which will always be horizontal, but also fluid and able to change whenever necessary to suit the needs of individuals and the collective.
I'm not going to promise any kind of future to anyone, which is what you "scientific" socialists like to do.
Nobody knows the future.
I'm saying anarchist analysis understands how power functions and is liberation in action.
And no matter what the future holds, what we propose is still worth working towards.
Average people tend to agree when it is explained to them, and correctly view you auth-Leftists as cults. @@alexjeffrey3981
@@River_Rune your reply contains a mix of emotional assertions and arguments - I will reply to the arguments as I think they're worth having.
Engels' arguments against anarchism come from his endless debates with Proudhon and Bakunin within the IWA. So I would say that he was familiar with the subject. Marx's argument around the Paris Commune is that their successes relate to their proletarianisation of the elements of state that are required for organising and self-defense, namely the creation of the National Guard (a militia, replacing the bourgeois army) and the creation of a form of representative central governance to manage production and allocation of physical capital (land and machinery). This is, by most accounts, a state. In the same way, the Catalonian revolution that many anarchists uphold as a vision of anarchist revolution also formed a state comprising the workers unions, and the collectivisation of agriculture. This is almost identical to the start of the Bolshevik revolution, with the replacement of the provisional government with the workers' councils and the initial attempts at collectivisation of agriculture (though with private property and expropriations remaining in place in most cases due to the weakness of the party due to the ongoing civil war). So where exactly is the difference at this point? Anarchists and Marxist-Leninists both agree that the ideal form of political and economic organisation consists of worker self-management and free association, with centralisation and coordination managed by participative democracy. The problem lies in how to handle attacks from bourgeois states, and this is why anarchism has thusfar been handily defeated and Marxist-Leninist states have devolved into bureaucratic state-capitalism. Because the anarchists refuse to use the power of the state to crush counter-revolution and thus fall to it, and the Marxist-Leninists use this power, that rather rapidly evolves into an instrument of bureaucratic class power rather than workers' collective power. But there isn't a third option; when Marx wrote of revolution, he wrote of simultaneous worldwide revolution and thus the question of remaining bourgeois states was left as a question for the audience.
As for states being inherently counter-revolutionary; states represent a class interest. The question of how to create a proletarian state that is resistant to counter-revolution without creating structures that make it vulnerable to internal bureaucratic counter-revolution remains an open question. But the arguments anarchists raise about how they want to create a state but call it not a state despite retaining many of the core functions of a state seem rather pointless. We can't get to communism without some intermediate form of industrial organisation and self-defense. Once the bourgeois state is overthrown and the revolutionaries are left to organise the workers as the displaced and international bourgeoisie plot to retake their power, there has to be some kind of self-defense that doesn't require every worker to already be a class-conscious revolutionary, and that's why the vanguard exists - to perform the leading role as the class-conscious sector of the workers. Before this point, I'm a big fan of prefiguration and grassroots organising as a way to build class consciousness and organise the working class, but that's not the area in which anarchists and MLs are divided.
None of this is in any way related to cultish behaviour, though I agree that the "tankie" section of MLs are very cultish in their beliefs and I do my best to separate myself from them and their simplistic worldviews. But revolution and theory-craft is hard, and I think the left would be in a better position if anarchists and MLs would work together to try to create structures that actually advance us as a class. After all, we all want the same end result and are primarily divided on the means to get there, a problem that can be worked through via rational discussion and analysis of historical trends. That's why I consider the dialectical approach to be "scientific", even though you scoffed at it - because it has a material basis and a model for rational advancement. But just throwing rocks at each other gets us nowhere.
Your replies are difficult for me to read when they are made into big walls of texts with few spaces in between.
I'm genuinely sorry to anyone if my being extremely direct comes off as aggression or emotional in some way.
I tried to render it emotionless actually, so that's interesting to me, but sorry.
^_^'
I have no idea what you think was an emotional assertion. I did express my astonishment at how much can be assumed by people who describe themselves as "scientific" and explained that your assumptions were wrong and why.
I know quite a bit about Engels, I don't need you to tell me who he argued with. He mischaracterized Proudhon and Bakunin and anarchism in general, like incorrectly calling it non-organizational.
He was a factory owner who said his employees and other workers were incapable of organizing themselves and that's all most people need to know, though.
Maybe you think calling him silly was an emotional assertion as well. I think it's not that; when compared to other people who different kinds of socialists revere he was a very unserious man. But maybe you'd have preferred if I had just said he was unserious instead.
Anarchists do not uphold the Paris Commune or Catalonia as the way forward, we mostly criticize them but say there are many good things to learn from them.
Like I said, anarchists are not against organized community defense.
We are against representative government and in favor of a democratic confederation of consensus councils.
All factions of authoritarian Leftists have a cultishness to them, especially due to their promotions of a cult of personality.
For instance, people being completely uncritical of Engels and acting as if he and others like him were prophets.
Neither Marxism or dialectical materialism has a criticism of hierarchical power structures or explanations of how those power structures intertwine (kyriarchy) and replicate themselves, so they are not as useful as some would like to believe.
If I "scoffed" in my reply, I scoffed at people who one day start referring to themselves as scientific while promising an exact outcome and not realizing that their stagnant methodologies are not scientific.
Most anarchists were once Marxists, including myself.
Vanguards and so-called professional revolutionaries are not needed. Socialism is worker control, not worker management, meaning regimes like the Bolsheviks never achieved socialism. Soviets had already created successful communes in the countryside before the Bolsheviks took over and outlawed worker control.
Hierarchical power structures are not necessary to educate the masses about anything or institute free association.
I've already offered corrections and a recommendation to check out a four part series on why States are fundamentally counter-revolutionary, how there is no such thing as "socialist / proletarian States" etc.
I've seen many different kinds of people saying they enjoy the series and get something out of it, I hope you find time to see it and the other ones on the channel.
Prefigurative politics are not simply to build class consciousness, they are to build a new society, so we disagree.
And there is a historical pattern of decline of prefigurative movements when usurped by centralized revolutionary authority.
(See Boggs' analysis)
I hope people understand I have no intention of "throwing stones" at other Leftists, I make a point to highlight their good intentions even when a ton of them are treating others in an awful manner.
I just want people to understand the libertarian socialist spectrum in full and anarchism specifically.
Left-unity is a fantasy because our strategies are not able to be synthesized; antithesis is the reality and I'm content to acknowledge it.
I can agree it is a nice fantasy and would make everything easier but unfortunately it's not real.
Making nice with people and sharing similar end goals is not enough.
Unity / disunity are the wrong words;
we need to talk about synthesis / antithesis of the means or strategies.
Anarchists practice Means-Ends Unity theory, which explains why the end must justify the means and vice-versa.
Please look into that one.
That doesn't mean I am an asshole to anyone.
I socialize with everyone respectfully and have acquaintances who believe in lots of different things that I don't.
My initial comment was about how others and myself have been treated unfairly and continue to be misunderstood by those Leftists who embrace the same ideologies which historically were used to persecute people with mine and who like to speak on behalf of everyone.
I stand by everything I said including that average people tend to agree with libertarian socialist strategies rather than yours, and that only time and dedication to liberation in action can make clear the possible future outcomes.
Feel free to find me on Discord, my ID is in my bio. I'm not a fan of debate here for many reasons including that this platform now disappears many of my posts.
But you can find me all over Leftube livestreams.
I'm always chilling in a tiny livestream Friday and Saturday nights hosted on the Untitled Anarchist Seagull Channel.
The mixed crowd in there are almost all Left-unity, we usually just make fun of right-wingers, libs, zios, etc.
Maybe you can drop by sometime.
@@alexjeffrey3981
what is this ' ' communists ' story ?? do we have communists in USA ?
We do. They don't have any power, but they're loud and take up a lot of room in leftist spaces. I don't think the problem is quite as bad IRL as it seems to be online, but it's worth discussing.
Yes!!!!!! This author is 100% correct in describing what I have encountered in leftist activism in the USA!
@@fighttheevilrobots3417 hello uncle maga
As a Star Trek space communist, I love my leftist anarchist friends ❤ and I’d rather go with you to Denny’s than hang out with the tankies 🤢
Yeah I am one of those too. IDIC!!
@ live long, and prosper 🖖
this division is the reason why we could never have another red revolution AND also the reason why the whole world is so close to be ruled by actual n*z* emperor.
Since Yesterday rhe 3rd video I have seen of You. Will look for more Thank You.
Free Palestine ♥️
lol sounds like people are only hanging out with yt leftists tbh.
And terminally online ones too
Maybe your list of followers/subscribers will shrink after this, but - as you already knew - the ones that will stay and the ones you've won over (like myself) - even if it's a few - are worth a thousand of those who'll leave, because we are the ones who don't blindly follow our cirlcle of buddies, but the truth ✊🏻
Don't stop talking about Palestine
@@LPRH246 never
Could not have said it better myself. People assume too much about me if I use the wrong labels.
Yes we have to unite and strengthen against the fascists in this world.
Ya Rabb (SWT) help us. Strengthen our Ummah. Let us be of help and protection to one another. Amin.
I like anarcho-communists (but I like anarcho-syndicalists better!), and I hate tankies. I have no idea how they call themselves "left wing" when they love any right-wing commercial, imperial, or religious interest as long as that interest is slightly less than 100% pro USA.
That was amazing 🖤💛💚❤️
So my understanding is you have heard too much defense for Assad? I can get that. Assad was a force that could counter Israel but doesn’t mean they are good force or should be defended. I feel you can understand a power can keep another in check but it doesn’t mean they are good.
Not sure if it fair to put this all on leftist, leftwing myself and not a fan of Assad but I can get why you raising it
assad wasn't even a counter to israel, he was just the guy doing his own horrible canvas in his own corner, meaning that not many, including the palestinians, weep from his lost
@ think you misunderstood my usage and others, it not that he physically helps it’s that he doesn’t block land movement of supplies for Hamas from Iran etc.
@@minestar2247 so are the new guys a counter to iSSrael?
@@PhalisoBringerOfDoom so far, NO
@@PhalisoBringerOfDoom if it’s ISIS or D@esh, absolutely not. They have worked with iSSrael.
Octavia!!!!!! Yesssss!!!!!!!
Drum circles >>> frat parties
Just subbed.
Centrist is the new Liberal.
Maybe I’m looking in the wrong place? I’m not seeing the direct aid link mentioned.
"I will now choose a prettier label for myself" I mean the self exoneration from actual accomplishment and civilizational impact keeps on as the constant that it always was. "I'm not here to do, I'm here to judge". ☕.
That criticism rings hollow on a channel like this one.
@jfm14 perhaps, if you equal engaging in political activism in already democratic countries with having a course-altering impact on civilization
So you’re an “anarchist” anti-communist. Mhm, I’m sure you’re actually an anarchist
whole thing seemed rather performative and dramatic
@ I honestly respected her content but like… anarchism (or at least the orthodox forms of anarchism) have communism as the end goal. Usually, when an anarchist refers to “tankies”, they refer to them as “Marxists-Leninists” or “authoritarian socialists” not just “communists”. I do think I should reword my original comment, I’m sure they actually hold anarchist views, but I think this was just poor political literacy and not really them just being a liberal. I don’t like to theory shame or make fun of people for being new to the left, but I am disappointed in the narrative of this video. Ñ
Stand up and stand together ❤️ 🙏
I love me a good rant, well thought. Honestly, the cravenness of the left these days is mind boggling.
I think you need some clarity on "The Resistance" though. We'll get there.
I see you, how do we make a Denny's?
Love your integrity!
Truth to power!!
I’ve been noodling a whole “why I left the left” video where I explain actually I am now much more radical than the left.
Left is a very broad umbrella term. It's lack of specificity unfortunately allows the right to use it against anyone on The Left.
But yes. Assad is a monster.
Fuck yes! ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ Welcome to the party! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
😂 That moment when you're thankful for being normal
This is all really unnecessary. Plenty of commies think exactly like you on these issues. And love Ursula LeGuin and The Dispossessed. I don't see how any of this helps anyone do anything. We all need to log TF off and organize.
thank you.
No idea what you’re talking about? What circles are you running in that are full of fringe opportunists?
I have not heard most Socialists, Communists or ML’s praise Putin or Assad. Socialists, Communists and ML’s will be the first to say that russia’s frantic jump to capitalism was very much not a good thing and praise Rojava/Northeast Syria for their democratic, feminist, egalitarian anarchist government.
I’m fairly sure these are strawmen or at the very least that you are projecting your experience of a fringe group of left colored fascists onto the whole of non-anarchist people on the left.
I personally don’t subscribe to a specific current and think that every socialist project needs to be adapted to its own region, like Ho Chi Minh thought is specific to Viet Nam and its material situation.
I celebrate the socialist projects of the past that managed to substantially increase the quality of life and equality of their population and I celebrate the socialist projects of the present, like Cuba, the EZLN, Rojava, Laos and Viet Nam for persevering despite the adversity and still be able to improve the material conditions of their members.
I find it unhelpful and overall selfish to quibble about factions and identities rather than being United by class struggle, class consciousness and class solidarity. We have to stand together in the fight for worker’s rights, women’s rights, childen’s rights, disability rights, queer rights, ethnic minority rights and overall human rights. Remember, separated we beg, but together we bargain.
We’re not reaching socialism, anarchism, communism, syndicalism or any form of government left of social democracy if we don’t work together.
The specific ideology does not matter as long as we improve the material conditions of the people so we all are insured a dignified life where all our basic necessities are met.
😍
Anarchism 🏴
So refreshing to hear basic logic and moral common sense. Tankies gonna tank.
@@acircleproductions8495 the word tankie is just the lib version of woke, you use it as a thought terminating epithet for yourself and a cudgel to attack anyone to your left
you're making it all about yourself
She's an anarchist. What did you expect?
I'm more of a socialist than an anarchist, but I'd love to leave the party with you. haha haha haha sob haha
ruclips.net/video/xzlMME_sekI/видео.htmlsi=Qx5YIDa2U85um0DC
I refer to myself as a progressive at this point
Sounds good, we can be friends until the revolution. Then things get difficult
Comrade. 🥰
I’ll see you at Denny’s.