Recently I posted a pretty harmless meme in my DSA chapter's Discord (see image). It was in response to South Korea's recent spate of Fascism.
In response I had comrades jump down my throat, attacking me for critical support of AES states like DPRK and China. According to these comrades "there is no real Socialist nation."
As tempting as it is to quit DSA I think I should stay and try to educate.
Comrades also jumped on me for a comment I made months ago in response to some right wing BS where I said "maybe Democracy isn't always a great idea". The point I was trying to make was that Trans rights and other basic freedoms should never be put up to a popularity contest... I'm ok with a state that defends these rights and doesn't allow a reactionary majority to vote them away!
During this thread, people brought up multiple times that DPRK isn't Democratic because the Kim's have always been the figurehead, China isn't Democratic because "reasons" (racism), China lies about their suicide rates to WHO, etc.
Frustrating. I'll post more details in the comments.
My question: What constitutes a "real" Democracy? Is it leadership changing hands every few years? We don't have that in the U.S. Is it secret ballots? All the nationa above have that. Is it that the people's votes and voices actually change the government actions? We saw this in China unfortunately when people demanded ending the COVID lock downs early. It was the wrong thing to do but done for the right reason.
And is there any hope for these people in my chapter? One of them was basically racist against Chinese people and they seem very set in this "not real Socialism" mindset.
shitting on the DPRK and China as a western "leftist" is basically a sign of willful ignorance. those people can be dismissed as lazy and racist for not doing the homework of reading the history of how those states were forged in the fires of resistance to western capital formations and aggressive imperialist encirclement.
to criticisize these countries with the same ahistorical talking points of western capitalist media is to repeat the lies a sadistic abuser tells about the survivor who has successfully resisted their abuse and found an admirable way to thrive.
native English speakers purporting to be leftist who can't even bother to listen to a few episodes from the season of Blowback about Korea should fuck all the way off. I have nothing but contempt for them and they are no different than avowed fascists, imo.
I have said it before but criticizing the DPRK is like observing a dog that has been violently abused, starved of food and denied necessary water, and trapped within a constricting cage, and then criticizing the limp in its step.