928
How I Defeated Fascism With the Power of Love
(media.hachyderm.io)
source: unknown
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 15 May 2024
928 points (97.0% liked)
Lefty Memes
4276 readers
771 users here now
An international (English speaking) socialist Lemmy community free of the "ML" influence of instances like lemmy.ml and lemmygrad. This is a place for undogmatic shitposting and memes from a progressive, anti-capitalist and truly anti-imperialist perspective, regardless of specific ideology.
Serious posts, news, and discussion go in c/Socialism.
If you are new to socialism, you can ask questions and find resources over on c/Socialism101.
Please don't forget to help keep this community clean by reporting rule violations, updooting good contributions and downdooting those of low-quality!
Rules
0. Only post socialist memes
That refers to funny image macros and means that generally videos and screenshots are not allowed. Exceptions include explicitly humorous and short videos, as well as (social media) screenshots depicting a funny situation, joke, or joke picture relating to socialist movements, theory, societal issues, or political opponents. Examples would be the classic case of humorous Tumblr or Twitter posts/threads. (and no, agitprop text does not count as a meme)
1. Socialist Unity in the form of mutual respect and good faith interactions is enforced here
Try to keep an open mind, other schools of thought may offer points of view and analyses you haven't considered yet. Also: This is not a place for the Idealism vs. Materialism or rather Anarchism vs. Marxism debate(s), for that please visit c/AnarchismVsMarxism.
2. Anti-Imperialism means recognizing capitalist states like Russia and China as such,
as well as condemning (their) imperialism, even if it is of the "anti-USA" flavor.
3. No liberalism, (right-wing) revisionism or reactionaries.
That includes so called: Social Democracy, Democratic Socialism, Dengism, Market Socialism, Patriotic Socialism, National Bolshevism, Anarcho-Capitalism etc. . Anti-Socialist people and content have no place here, as well as the variety of "Marxist"-"Leninists" seen on lemmygrad and more specifically GenZedong (actual ML's are welcome as long as they agree to the rules and don't just copy paste/larp about stuff from a hundred years ago).
4. No Bigotry.
The only dangerous minority is the rich.
5. Don't demonize previous and current socialist experiments or (leading) individuals.
We must constructively learn from their mistakes, while acknowledging their achievements and recognizing when they have strayed away from socialist principles.
(if you are reading the rules to apply for modding this community, mention "Mantic Minotaur" when answering question 2)
6. Don't idolize/glorify previous and current socialist experiments or (leading) individuals.
Notable achievements in all spheres of society were made by various socialist/people's/democratic republics around the world. Mistakes, however, were made as well: bureaucratic castes of parasitic elites - as well as reactionary cults of personality - were established, many things were mismanaged and prejudice and bigotry sometimes replaced internationalism and progressiveness.
7. Absolutely no posts or comments meant to relativize(/apologize for), advocate, promote or defend:
- Racism
- Sexism
- Queerphobia
- Ableism
- Classism
- Rape or assault
- Genocide/ethnic cleansing or (mass) deportations
- Fascism
- (National) chauvinism
- Orientalism
- Colonialism or Imperialism (and their neo- counterparts)
- Zionism
- Religious fundamentalism of any kind
(This is not a definitive list, the spirit of the other rules still counts! Eventual duplicates with other rules are for emphasis.)
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Also this whole "love yourself first" is nothing but another divisive distraction - keep people individualised rather than coming together as a community, and also perpetuate the idea that our problems are personal rather than systemic.
I don't love myself, don't think I ever have, don't think I ever will, yet I don't see how that would or should stop me from fighting fascism.
If anything, I'm able to recognise that in large part, if not entirely, my feelings come down to the world we live in and how, as an "other" in many categories, my life is seen as both worthless and also somehow such a thereat that, in both cases, it needs to be destroyed, and the idea that I shouldn't act until I manage to "get over" all of that (and potentially get comfortable enough, or at least accept, the status quo), is beyond ridiculous. In reality it's the exact opposite - I must act if there is any hope for others to have a world where they don't feel like I and so many others are made to, because not loving myself has no bearing on my wanting good for others (and no, they don't have to be "loved ones", I don't even have to know them, that's the point of wanting a better society for everyone).
Or it's just a way to contract a fairly simple truth, that a person who has their shit together can organize and commit to mutual aid to a degree than someone who doesn't cannot.
You gotta know how to swim before trying to help others from drowning.
Fighting fascism is getting my shit together (if you'd bothered reading past that first sentence you might actually hear that my "shit" being the way it is is down to systemic issues, and no amount of "self work" can "get it together").
Also what's the point of trying to "swim" if you're in a toxic pond? If we're going to drag the metaphor out - get out of the fucking pond, help those around you out, so together you can all turn off the sewage pipe, and then get to cleaning up each other, and the pond. That is self care.
The neat thing about generalities such as "love yourself first" or "you have to learn to swim before you help others from drowning" is that they aren't specified towards anyone's specific circumstances......
It seems that you are taking a general statement and making them all about your specific life circumstances, which to be honest seem fairly melodramatic.
Lots of us deal with systemic issues, you're not the only minority in the US. Plenty of us still work to overcome the systemic abuse handed down to us by an uncaring or even malevolent state.
No one is saying you should be a self centered ass who doesn't help or care about anyone else. Just that people are fragile beings that need to be able to acknowledge they aren't a bottomless well of praxis.
Lots of people burn themselves out of the leftist movement, mainly by throwing the entirety of their effort towards a goal for a year or two and then becoming bitter or jaded that their hard work is not only unappreciated, but ineffective.
Revolution is a marathon, not a sprint. You have to learn to pace yourself.
I’ve spent my whole life focused on self growth. It’s been a wise decision, because unlike self love it cannot be passive. It forces me not only to form community, but to form a community that I can grow in. Individualism without isolation, but rather striving to be the kind of person I want around.
It could’ve stopped fascism long ago, and today it may help. But it alone won’t. I must act. We all must.
Yeah the self-love schtick does feel a little bit reductive, and kind of along the lines of "oh that person has depression, so that's why they're sad" levels of incuriousness about like, the potential context and origins of "mental illness", beyond just attributing everything to better ideas identification and purely physiological causes that are completely contextually devoid.
I dunno, I really do like. Find it absolutely fascinating, the degree to which your average person can be totally placated by a meaningless platitude.
First of all, "love yourself first" can be interpreted in various ways. bell hooks certainly meant it in a truly revolutionary, not a individualistic or distractive way.
What you describe sounds awfully much like how the boomer generation has approached live. For ever running away from personal problems by always keeping busy and distracting themselves. Sure, at least you are fighting fascism. A lot of leftists I know put all their energy into activism until they burn out. And often I suspect that they are running away from their own problems.
And sure, spending all your time with trying to self-love is obviously not the solution either. But it sure would help so much if people would reflect more upon their own emotional state and be more compassionate with themselves and others. This is not to say that we don't need activism to stop fascists though.