We’ve also seen years of what Russia in its current state and Putin are capable of. None of it is good. Hell, when I was more active in activist circles I was in very close proximity to a Russian-driven disinformation campaign in 2016 that used and exploited leftist organizations for its own benefit. It wasn’t some “hey, we’re friends” situation; it was the Kremlin using and disposing of people to destabilize in the same way the US and western powers have for decades themselves. Hitching your wagon to other political powers is a shit idea. There is a reason I don’t trust any politician.

That's my point. USSR and the CCP have arguably permanently damaged the communism "brand".

And you talked to russians, things were even worse for nations occupied by the russians.

You're from .ml, your opinion on tankies is coming from inside the house.

Frankly history has shown what happens to leftists who side with tankies. I for one will never be making that mistake again.

You should be doing all that you can to avoid bad at all.

You should be looking at revolution not voting.

It was widely expected that Chirac and Lionel Jospin, the outgoing cohabitation Prime Minister and nominee of the Socialist Party, would be the most popular candidates in the first round, thus going on to face each other in the runoff, with opinion polls showing a hypothetical Chirac versus Jospin second round too close to call. However, Jospin unexpectedly finished in third place behind Le Pen. Journalists and politicians claimed polls had failed to predict Le Pen's second-place finish in the general election, though his strong stance could be seen in the week prior to the election.[citation needed] This led to serious discussions about polling techniques, the climate of French politics and especially the high numbers of candidates from the left-wing.

Although Le Pen's political party, the National Front, described itself as mainstream conservative, observers largely agreed in defining it as a far-right and nationalist party. As a protest, almost all French political parties called for their supporters to vote against Le Pen, most notably the Socialists, who were traditionally billed as the archrivals to Chirac's party. Chirac thus went on to win in the largest landslide in a presidential election in French history (greater even than that of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte in 1848, the first by direct ballot), winning over 82% of the vote.

That sure sounds like a carbon copy of US politics (or vice versa). You have politicians and journalists spinning a story about how things will turn out, and when they dont turn out that way the leftist candidates move to the right to find 'solidarity' just before the right sweeps the entire government.

Trying to decouple the term and core ideas from the past actions is going to be an uphill battle forever. That requires imagination and forward thinking, but you have the folks dunking on it because of the atrocities carried out under it, and the folks on the other side that have managed to embrace those parts so hard that they can no longer sea reason or find nuance.

You’re from .ml

I'm an anarchist, I have done anarchist organizing for years.

See the comments for a bunch of examples

Yes, we need a "brand" that builds upon the ideals (and some of the theory) of communism/Marxism while taking in account both history (e.g. even something as simple as democratic governance being non-negotiable) and the "spirit" and challenges of our times.

a tankie has a gun with one bullet, and across from them is a socialist, a liberal, a conservative, and a tiny clone of hitler

Real life marxists tend to be okay, I don't mind them. But, online those people literally try to dominate ALL discourse in leftism to the point where every single contact people have with leftists is someone who believes those things unironically.

I'm not going to argue on the validity of that, but you're using .ml; Where the dev-admins themselves deny genocide and spout transphobic hate.

I can't take anything you say in good faith if you willingly use that space.

Those people were not being ironic, no. I think it's just a phenomenon that is excessively more common amongst internet MLs. Real life MLs are okay for the most part. Internet MLs are pretty much a cult that will try to take over ANY leftist community or be the dominant form of leftist discourse through any means necessary and will excessively push propaganda from literal fascists because they happen to be against liberals.

All I'm saying is that an embarrassing amount of leftists are terminally online and unable to do anything to try to push leftism other than argue with liberals online and spout hate towards those they see as "betraying" leftism. Those people don't actually do any organization IRL, which to me is a blessing... but sometimes that doesn't work. Brazil, and by extension all of South America, has a very bad problem with MLs dominating online AND IRL discourse, making it hard for other forms of leftism to be considered or even debated in good faith.

Yes it is exactly like how antichrists have co-opted the term Christian. For many if it ever was, it will never be clean again in their lifetime unless there's some massive Purge. They never were Christians and, will never be christians. But as long as they're allowed to be the face of Christianity it's only going to hurt it as a whole. At least more than it already hurts itself.

I'm trans and not a fan of what nutomic has said either, but have had no issues with any of the other admins. I certainly haven't seen those comments reflect in how they moderate, I even got made a mod here because I was calling out and reporting transphobia.

If he says anything like that in a comm I control I'll be banning him myself though.

They put their thumb on the scale with Mamdani and he won anyway.

He won a primary but has yet to win the election. This is the same party that also produced Trump supporter Adams and sleazebag Cuomo. The same party that just ousted recently elected party leaders for wanting to primary candidates like Adams and Cuomo with candidates like Mamdani. They've demonstrated time and time again that they'd rather have someone like Trump win than allow someone like Mamdani to take office and that's what he'll be facing in the general election.

Because primary turnout is something like 15% of eligible voters, who are disproportionately old and "centrist".

Because people have been beaten down with the same club for so long that they've given up. I can say with almost certainty that a majority of people these days are just voting against the other candidate rather than voting for someone, so how do you build a coalition of people behind someone in an environment like that? You don't.

I'm just saying it wouldn't matter if we quit the infighting, rallied behind a good prospect, and actually showed up to vote for them as the Democratic candidate.

I completely agree that's possible in theory but then it brings us back to square one where the DNC won't give them any support, puts out attack ads about how they're "too radical," excludes them from debates, and corporate media gives them no coverage. You're asking for a machine to produce a product that isn't wanted by the people actually running the machine.

People here and on Reddit will tell you election after election that it's on you to compromise and meet these right-wing Democrats where they stand. That "now is not the right time," that you should "vote blue no matter who," that "everything is on the line this time" as these very same candidates lose election after election. If you argue with them you're just met with a bunch of thought-terminating cliches like "bOtH SiDeS" or "Russian plant" and treated as a scapegoat for not compromising to their disgusting and ineffective values, meanwhile they act like said loser candidate was "the best option" in hindsight despite the fact that they lost yet again.

At this point I'd be perfectly happy to throw the Democratic party in the incinerator alongside the Republican party and just starting over from scratch. They only exist at this point to act as controlled opposition and kayfabe to give the appearance of two opposing sides.

Well... How hard to they want to use that word?

Even more because if everybody is actually agreeing, that means they didn't wander anywhere outside of the "Social Democracy" boundaries of communism, and don't need to use the generic label that fascists stole long ago.

Why do you think those are mutually exclusive? Can you not walk and chew gum at the same time? Wouldn't doing all that you can do involve both laying the groundwork for revolution AND strategically voting against worse in the meantime? Voting doesn't prevent me from democratizing my workplace, organizing with other leftists, educating non-leftists, or anything else that furthers direct action.

Why do you think it's an either/or choice?

Because no one else has the popularity to win at the moment?

Yes, leninists are nominally on the left. Nominally. However throughout history most similar ideologies have consistently exterminated executed and oppressed everyone that ever disagreed with them. Allies or not. Left or right. Which makes them authoritarian and untrustworthy first. Left at their convenience.

As an anarchist, I have no major beef with actual communist. While I will disagree a lot with demsoc or socdems. I have no issue allying with them where we agree. Because even though we disagree, on the things we agree on. I know they are just as committed, and won't turn on us the moment it's convenient.

But I'm all too familiar with the type that behave like the comic. I think we all are. Anyone using the term shitlib or blue maga for instance.