Comment on Evil Bisexuals
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 month agoShe can’t be viewed in a positive light, because she’s an Evil Icky Socialist.
Comment on Evil Bisexuals
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 month agoShe can’t be viewed in a positive light, because she’s an Evil Icky Socialist.
mechoman444@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Democratic socialist not a socialist.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 month ago
You may not like it, but…
mechoman444@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Democratic socialism is fundamentally and ideologically different from traditional socialism. It combines a democratic system of government with a socialist economic model to create a system where capitalism can’t run amok the way it does now.
She is not simply a socialist. She is a democratic socialist. One of the worst things about the English language is the word “social” and all of its various iterations, many of which have vastly different meanings. I wish they could have come up with different nomenclature, because it would save us from having these ridiculous discussions all the time.
Moreover, there are numerous wildly successful countries that practice social democracy, whereas there are essentially no countries that meaningfully practice democratic socialism.
Therefore, social democracy in practice is successful, while democratic socialism is a great idea that has yet to be implemented on any meaningful scale.
This is why the distinction matters. AOC isn’t a traditional socialist. She doesn’t espouse Leninist or Stalinist ideology.
It is so tiresome having to constantly make this distinction so people don’t immediately go down the “socialist” rabbit hole.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 month ago
The field of socialist political theory doesn’t begin with Lenin and end with Mao. You have plenty of rival and parallel traditions, from Eugene Debbs to Peter Kropotkin to Murray Bookchin to Richard Wolff.
Lenin got the (relative) benefit of a very specific moment in a very specific region. Russia was on the cusp of the industrial revolution just as its aristocratic government had overcommitted to a horrifying military campaign that hollowed out its national leadership. This, in a country where a couple of super-cities dictated the political fortunes of the largest contiguous sovereign landmass on earth.
No shit AOC isn’t Lenin. We’re never going to get another Lenin, because we’re never going to see a mass labor movement catch on at the tail end of WW1 in Petrograd just as the diesel engine is becoming popular. This isn’t even about ideology, it’s about material conditions.
I mean, I agree, but for slightly different reasons. People keep casting back 100 years and saying “Ah, but you’re not trying to unionize the steelworkers from inside a sealed boxcar, so you’re not doing socialism correctly”.
But when you crack the hood on AOC’s Green New Deal and peak inside, that’s exactly the sort of shit Lenin would have championed. Massive economic modernizations that accrue wealth directly to the working class as social unit? A sprawling state-directed bureaucracy to manage the industrial reforms? Decoupling a critical domestic utility from the private sector while drastically increasing productivity to make the commodity virtually free at point of use?
That’s So Lenin!
I’ll spot you that AOC’s aged like milk. She came into office leading a parade of angry activists to Nancy Pelosi’s front door and came an inch shy of nailing 99 Leftist Theses to her front door. Now she just blows up my phone with annoying donation requests and does stupid Twitch streams repeating hashed over health care talking points for the 90th time.
But slapping the “DemSuc” label on her, because she’s not chanting chapter and verse out of the Little Red Book while wearing a Mao Suit is just getting hung up on bullshit aesthetics. The least Lenin thing she’s done is lose. But its not for lack of trying. It’s certainly not for lack of ideology.
DarkFuture@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Nuance isn’t exactly a virtue conservatives possess.