Cowbee [he/they]

Actually, this town has more than enough room for the two of us

He/him or they/them, doesn’t matter too much

Marxist-Leninist ☭

Interested in Marxism-Leninism? Check out my “Read Theory, Darn it!” introductory reading list!

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: December 31st, 2023

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  • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.mltoMemes@lemmy.mlLiberals
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    17 hours ago

    Generally, the DPRK is seen similarly to Cuba, they would be doing far better if the US Empire wasn’t sanctioning them directly to cause harm. As for Stalin, it depends on what you’re talking about, the Great Purge had no more than 700,000 condemned to death, and that doesn’t mean every one of them was actually executed. Stalin certainly wasn’t a saint, but at the same time he wasn’t worse than Hitler and killed 10-20 million like the Black Book of Communism would have you think.

    Ultimately though, Marxism isn’t “become DPRK” or “be Stalin.” I think you have to study Marxism more to understand why those questions largely don’t matter for building Socialism. I suggest you read Blackshirts and Reds.



  • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.mltoMemes@lemmy.mlLiberals
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    21 hours ago

    I’m not Dessalines, but as the curator of the other list, I can do my best to answer.

    When you say that Marxism has become “brutal and distorted,” I think you’re operating from a mindset and understanding rooted in Western culture and education. I would say, based on my research and reading into AES (Actually Existing Socialism), these countries such as Cuba, the PRC, and the former USSR all apply Marxist understanding and methods to amazing effect.

    The Red Scare never ended, and being aware that it existed isn’t enough to actually understand what AES is like. The history of AES, and the conditions within those countries, is not reported faithfully or honestly in the West, so it is very difficult. That doesn’t mean they are perfect, but it means they are real, and come with real victories for the Working Class.

    That’s why the opening sections of my reading list include Blackshirts and Reds as well as Dr. Michael Parenti’s 1986 lecture, these 2 really give an eye-opening look into the mythology and demonization of AES in the west, and how that process is intentional and persists to this day.

    To circle back to your question, Marxists are hopeful because Marxism works, we know this and see it happening. We learn from the mistakes our predecessors made and we promise to carry their work forward.

    As a final side-note, regarding the Nazis: it was the Red Army that did 80% of the fighting against the Nazis. We have Marxists to thank for the defeat of the Nazis, and we can do it again.














    1. The Soviet Union was democratic. They had a structure called Soviet Democracy, elaborated on in Soviet Democracy, written by Pat Sloan. It looked like this in practice:

    1. The people participated in and owned the government.

    2. The government was not a “private entity,” that’s deeply silly.

    Even if all of what drag said was true, it still would not be neoliberal, itself an ideology surrounding privatization and international Capitalism. drag has been explained all of this before, though, drag is just a Nazi-defending troll, so drag doesn’t actually care.



  • Not sure how that connects, I support AES and I’m a Marxist-Leninist, the target of McCarthyism. drag calling people lynching the Soviets as “Communists” is very silly, the Communists and peasants in Hungary opposed the Nazis who were lynching Communists and Jewish people.


  • I think lynching the Communist, Soviet officials and Jewish people is a pretty Nazi thing to do, especially coming from people that sided with the Nazis in World War II and were being made to pay reparations for doing so. drag has no coherent ideology other than getting upset at Communists to the point of defending Nazis.


  • Maybe drag could stop defending Nazi sympathizers that lynched Communists and Jewish people as “revolutionaries.” If the Soviets gave power to the Nazi sympathizers, the pograms would have continued. Seems the origin of the Nazi problem was the Nazis, and not the anti-fascist Red Army.