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Lemmygrad mod team statement on "patriotic socialism"
(lemmygrad.ml)
submitted
2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)
by
muad_dibber@lemmygrad.ml
to
c/communism@lemmygrad.ml
The Lemmygrad mod team has deliberated and decided that "patsocs", especially those claiming the title such as Maupin, Hinckle, and Infrared, are hereby banned and are not welcome on lemmygrad.
This ban does not include those who feel some level of "patriotism" (for lack of a better word) for non-settler states ( namely those who have historically been victims of colonialism ).
Discussions surrounding the topics of settler-colonialism, and decolonization will always be allowed, as long as they don't veer into the territory of defenses of colonialism, or affinity with colonizer over the colonized.
This includes:
- No apologia of settler-colonialism, or defenses of colonizer over the colonized. IE no defenses of Israelis over Palestinians, or European Settlers over indigenous americans fighting for the return of stolen lands.
- Please adhere to the Marxist-Leninist principle of Right of Nations to Self-Determination: especially holding true for indigeous peoples.
- Please adhere to the Marxist-Leninist principle of Proletarian Internationalism.
- No social-chauvinism, or opportunistic appeals to "conservative values" to win converts to socialism.
Here are some Marxist books / resources to learn more about Settler-Colonialism ( Audiobook torrents are linked as well )
- Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz - An indigenous people's history of the US . audiobook
- Walter Rodney - How europe underdeveloped Africa . audiobook
- Zak Cope - Divided world divided class . audiobook
- Nick Estes - Red Nation Rising: From Bordertown Violence to Native Liberation
- J. Sakai - Settlers : The Mythology of the white proletariat . audiobook
- Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz - Not a nation of immigrants . audiobook
- Rashid Khalidi - The hundred years war on Palestine . audiobook
- Galeano - Open veins of latin america . audiobook
- Vincent Bevins - The Jakarta method . audiobook
- Fanon - The wretched of the earth . audiobook
- CLR James - The Black Jacobins . audiobook
The wildest take from them was Zionist defense. I never knew, they believe things as silly as the Israeli working class is brainwashed into wanting free houses, they don't really want them.
Where are y'all running into these people? I see people who have opened discussion on how to possibly use existing American patriotism as a radicalization tool (I'm against it, but still understand why there are those that see some value in the idea). But I'm fortunate enough not to have run into any of these specifically terrible takes yet. Seriously, who the f are these "socialists" that support Israel?
I know that I am replying to a 2 year old comment but I think that these patsoc types have made more significant moves into spaces outside of their cultish beginnings (i.e., not being from the USA, "MAGA communism" only became apparent to me recently and I joined Lemmygrad because I was so frustrated with seeing "communist" channels on Telegram, for example, allowing this kind of shit and seeing one supposedly "ML" party from the UK (which as an aside I believe to be run by spooks) embrace the "ideology" and to essentially jump on the bandwagon in a truly grotesque, opportunistic move in a desire to be relevant and perhaps gain some new members. I can't see any other justification for their actions. They make the excuse that the "MAGA" movement contains proletarian elements, which is true, but this is territory similar to suggesting that the "national socialists" contained proletarian elements, or the Union of Fascists of Britain and we saw how that played out. I reminded them that Stalin saw the "national socialists" for what they were before WW2 started, as did most communists I am sure, and also that one of the most significant moments in the history of the proletariat in 20th century England was the Battle of Cable Street, in which antifascists and ordinary members of the public came together to beat the shit out of Oswald Mosley's thugs. Antifascism has been a longstanding current in Britain generally, and to see what is essentially a fascist movement being supported by "Marxist-Leninists" is a disgrace and should not be allowed.
But my main point is that they seemed to have spread. I was fooled into entering spaces before I realised that these movements were so significant. I have seen people discuss them as terminally online but the attempted "synthesis" (again, grotesque: apologies to Marx, Lenin and of course Hegel) of the Cult of Maga with "communism" is a potential danger which cannot be slept on. MAGA fascists were highly visible and helped to bring fascists out of the woodworks. It could well be that the "MAGA communists" do the same.
It seems to me that the whole thing is a psyop designed to discredit communist theory and "communists", given the significant emergence of proletarians in the USA discovering Marxist/Marxist-Leninist theory over the last ten years or so. But I do believe that it has the potential to become a more significant threat to being a mere online cult of wackos that are likely being manipulated by some kind of COINTELPRO style psyop into accepting distorted ideas about communism.
It should be noted that I haven't seen these people defend Israel but they do focus much energy on the proxy war in Ukraine and this was in part why I started to pay attention to some of the articles they put out, coming from places like The Grayzone, but they hardly seem to talk about Palestine at all, which is of course an international emergency requiring the attention of communists around the world as I write this. Also, my only exposure to this is via channels which proclaim to be "communist" but are indeed "patsocs" and who, in these channels, "defend" and promote "MAGA communism", as I said, to the point that a self-proclaimed "Marxist-Leninist" party in my country jumping on this bandwagon (they are a very small party and are highly reactionary, especially on issues such as trans issues, but they claim to uphold an anti-revisionist line, yet are apparently funded by the state apparatus and I hear this from an old comrade who is approaching 90 and has heard and seen it all before. This party split from the original ML party of the Comintern due to revisionism in the main body of the party, which does have serious problems in itself. Anyway I am rambling).