this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2025
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The best time was forty years ago, under Reagan. The second best time is now.
The real best time was the US revolution, if we are being technical. However, now is the best we have.
The second best time is always now. Regret solves nothing.
That actually sounds like a good personal motto. For a long time mine has been, "There's always more than one way," but you've got me thinking.
Maybe, idk if that's really true. I would say that in its context, the revolution was about as good as it possibly could have been. The articles of confederation had some actually good shit in it like automatic citizenship for first nations peoples, and the constitution that replaced it was wildly left for its time. The lack of a monarch definitely had much of colonial Europe clutching its pearls. It's basically been downhill ever since, though.
The problem was that the US revolution was really a bourgeois revolution that primarily served genocidal Settler-Colonialists and slavers. It could have taken on a leftward character had it been led by indigenous peoples and the Proletariat, but because it wasn't, we have the modern US Empire and all the sins it has wrought.
You're right, and I think that it's putting the cart before the horse. Marxist theory wouldn't exist for another century, and a lot of Marx's observations that led him to his theories were contingent upon the world that the enlightenment brought about. Had Marx been born 100 years earlier, he probably would have been a Republican (in the Jacobin sense, not the modern US party sense).
+1 Insightful
It seems like most big changes are set in motion by elites who benefit from them, with the teeming masses convinced a) to go along and b) that they're driving. Historically this could be because elites have had a pulpit, either from holding office or having access to publishing and more recently broadcasting. In really recent times the masses finally got access to a broad audience via the Internet, but since they mostly use it to post boobs and complain about game companies, elites are still in the driver's seat.
It's possible that being led around by a privileged few is just how humans work, and it's up to enlightened individual elites to make parts of the world better for short periods while they're alive.
"Die Ereignisse von 1933 bis 1945 hätten spätestens 1928 bekämpft werden müssen. Später war es zu spät. Man darf nicht warten bis der Freiheitskampf Landesverrat genannt wird. Man darf nicht warten, bis aus dem Schneeball eine Lawine geworden ist. Man muss den rollenden Schneeball zertreten. Die Lawine hält keiner mehr auf. Sie ruht erst, wenn sie alles unter sich begraben hat."
~ Erich Kästner, 1958
Maintaining revolutionary optimism is important. The only thing certain is the passage of time, we must do our best to change the course of history so that it serves Humanity over Capital as best we can. Reading theory and organizing are still critical and still effective. If you want some place to start, I have an introductory Marxist-Leninist reading list.
No, the salutes happen after people already let it die.
𝕯𝖎𝖊𝖘𝖊 𝕶𝖔𝖒𝖒𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖆𝖗𝖘𝖊𝖐𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 𝖎𝖘𝖙 𝖓𝖚𝖓 𝕰𝖎𝖌𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖚𝖒 𝖉𝖊𝖗 𝕭𝖚𝖓𝖉𝖊𝖘𝖗𝖊𝖕𝖚𝖇𝖑𝖎𝖐 𝕯𝖊𝖚𝖙𝖘𝖈𝖍𝖑𝖆𝖓𝖉
So langsam glaube ich wir müssten mal deutschen Geschichtsunterricht in den USA machen. Aber dann sehe ich wie so viele in Deutschland, die vermutlich deutschen Geschichtsunterricht hatten, hinter der AFD stehen. Und dann bin ich mir nicht mehr so sicher.
Can someone share a clip of the full hand movement performed?
It's undeniable.
Thanks man, I only ever seen a video of this guy before dressed as and acting like Wario in court, what a fuckin' knob. Anyone who doesn't have time to watch the video, he definitely smacks his heart and throws up a sieg heil, twice
It's definitely on YouTube