• hypercracker [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    2 months ago

    This article seems like a stalking horse for reactionary impulses that would result in throwing a lot of the most dedicated comrades under the bus. However, things like:

    You should have friends and relationships beyond your cadres, from work or from school, with other interests outside of politics, whether it be films, music, books, art or sports: the basic ingredients for both a healthy life and a tolerable personality.

    are definitely correct but I think this is responding to an online phenomenon. All the people I meet in IRL leftist organizing (outside of the DSA) are very interesting and I can have good not-explicitly-political conversations with them, even though the author of this piece would probably think many of them are losers because they are fat or trans have a queer-coded haircut or something.

    Honestly I think the author looked at a few too many USSR propaganda posters and basically developed some kind of RETVRN complex about it. They (ironically, for a communist) ignore the material forces in their society driving “alternative”-presenting people toward leftist beliefs and wonder why the tall handsome healthy white aryan supermen are not driven into communist arms. Like the article talks about Jeremy Corbyn not meeting their ideal. What the fuck?

  • KimJongGoku [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    2 months ago

    The people a society considers its “winners” are those who have benefited from said society or actively exploit it for their gain. Naturally those people will be generally less critical and more accepting of the status quo. That’s especially true if opposing the system comes with negative effects to one’s social capital or financial future. People who already have little to nothing aren’t scared of losing it when they don’t conform. Of course there are exceptions and those at the top are generally so insulated from their actions having any meaningful consequences that they can just afford to do whatever, but you don’t exactly have to be a fucking Marxist to figure out why disenfranchised and alienated people are the most likely to want things to be different, whether they put their hopes into left-wing movements or have their revolutionary potential destroyed by reactionary forces.