GenZedong
This is a Dengist community in favor of Bashar al-Assad with no information that can lead to the arrest of Hillary Clinton, our fellow liberal and queen. This community is not ironic. We are Marxists-Leninists.
This community is for posts about Marxism and geopolitics (including shitposts to some extent). Serious posts can be posted here or in /c/GenZhou. Reactionary or ultra-leftist cringe posts belong in /c/shitreactionariessay or /c/shitultrassay respectively.
We have a Matrix homeserver and a Matrix space. See this thread for more information. If you believe the server may be down, check the status on status.elara.ws.
Rules:
- No bigotry, anti-communism, pro-imperialism or ultra-leftism (anti-AES)
- We support indigenous liberation as the primary contradiction in settler colonies like the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Israel
- If you post an archived link (excluding archive.org), include the URL of the original article as well
- Unless it's an obvious shitpost, include relevant sources
- For articles behind paywalls, try to include the text in the post
- Mark all posts containing NSFW images as NSFW (including things like Nazi imagery)
Edit: I don’t know why I was so cranky earlier. Just ignore my complaining that someone was supposedly complaining.
~~Depends on what harm you care about. Trump is very clearly much more damaging for Americans than Harris could ever hope to be, probably to the (eventual) benefit of the global population, however.~~
~~Anyway, Johnstone’s insistence on whining about a single lib imagining she has any influence to get anyone to do anything is tiring but maybe an ego-boost on some level—I couldn’t imagine why else she thinks it deserves mention at all.~~
Leaving aside which of the two genocidal fascist choices was worse, because i think that's just splitting hairs at this point...I for one appreciate Caitlin Johnstone's writing. I don't see it as whining at all. Yes she keeps repeating herself but that's because what she is saying about the brutality and inhumanity of US empire is something that needs to be repeated over and over ad nauseam until it sinks in with everyone who can be a potential ally in the fight against this genocidal empire, against this enemy of humanity.
She’s not wrong and usually I find her writing insightful, I just think “actually you and the group you view as your mortal enemies are the same” is a less than optimal rhetorical strategy for convincing anyone who isn’t already in the know and just comes across as incredibly smug and annoying to ‘normal’ folks. I was being overly flippant though I’m sure.
It's probably more useful look at it like the two parties are two sides of the same entity whose rule mostly comes down to capitalist interests making lobbying decisions, rather than viewing it as two distinct parties whose rule mostly comes down to how people vote as individuals.
In other words, we could get hung up on arguing over whether and how much materially worse Trump is or isn't, but if you look at it more like the two parties are the same sword and the republicans tend to be a more openly pointy end, that doesn't mean the democrats are actually harm reduction; they're still working on stabbing the world with the same sword (with the hilt being primarily controlled by the capitalist/imperialist power brokers, not the voters).
It can be observed time and again that the democrats are not a true opposition party and act as more of a buffer against / capture of reformist and revolutionary energy than anything actually oppositional to the more brazen republican agenda. The democrats help create the conditions that lead to someone like Trump by helping to block any kind of meaningful reform and quietly going along with practices that are similar if not identical to the worst republicans get called out for, so even from the standpoint of believing that the republicans are "significantly worse", the democrats are still helping them be that, which cannot be called harm reduction in the long-term. And even in the short-term, is such a dynamic from the democrats really improving lives or is it just buying the system as a whole more time to adapt to worsening conditions, such as by building cop cities and the like? By slowing the transition to something more brazenly fascistic?
Prior to the second Trump admin, I think what you’re saying is undeniable. Trump 2 is a bit of a new animal though. His intense breaks from previous foreign affairs and financial moves in opposition to the steadiness and easy predictability loved by big capital is a paradigm shift away from business as usual. We’re in uncharted waters right now I think. That’s not to say the dems will in anyway rise to protecting the previous govt paradigm, as you put it well, they aren’t there to be opposition.
My personal theory is that nothing would have been different if Harris would have been elected; just that the optics would have been handled differently. Israel still would have been being supplied and aided in their genocide. Tech-bros would have still steadily gained influence and lobbied, maybe not as in the open as the showboating of the republican party. If anything, I think Harris would have pressed on supplying and arming Ukraine further.
Just because Trump is being more brazen and open doesn't mean that the nature of the beast has changed.
To your point, I think people substantially overstate how different it would be, but Trump’s threats to capture Canada and Greenland, the arbitrarily imposed and lifted tariffs, and humiliating Euro allies in a way that causes even the sycophants over there to try and do something about it, wouldn’t have happened under Harris. I think the Trump admin is accelerating the decline of the US to the point that I’m no longer concerned the US empire will manage to limp along until climate change makes the planet uninhabitable. A long line of uninterrupted Obama-style admins could have kept the empire rolling for decades longer than could possibly be managed after this Trump admin.
I disagree. It would still happen; but at a much slower pace and a much more tactical one. Biden was humiliating Euro allies as well over Ukraine. Panama and Greenland have been the sights of American expansion since time immemorial with Greenland being already a satellite state filled with bases and research centers and Panama having the literal canal built in it.
The only thing I can give you is tariffs. Even then, I prefer this over Harris because the nonsensical trade wars offers more support to our cause than anything a democrat has done in the past 10 years.
Harris would be Biden 2. Biden made none of those moves or anything resembling them. The idea that a Harris govt would be making overtures to physically capturing NATO territory is so ridiculous that I’m not sure how you could possibly form such an opinion genuinely.
Because Greenland already has military bases. It's already in the periphery of the Empire and used heavily for staging and other arctic operations. Panama has been subject to U.S will as another nation in the periphery. Intervention in 89 for example.
Trump is just being more flagrant and loud. Mineral deal with Ukraine was before Trump, lmao. They would've used proxies and mercenaries like they always do, or would've made more extensive deals with Greenland for further military bases and operations. But sure, I'm ridiculous.
That’s exactly why capturing it physically makes no sense. It’s already controlled territory for all intents and purposes. Begging the people of Greenland to form an insurgency by invading the country, all so the US can own the territory on paper (more so than being part of NATO already makes it) has no benefit whatsoever.
Making deals to build more bases is exactly what Harris would do to accomplish the goal Trump is interested in. But that’s exactly business as usual, the polar opposite of threatening to invade.
Maybe I’m not understanding your point. You saying Harris would make deals to get more bases undermines the idea that Harris would be threatening Canada and Greenland with capture—which is what Trump is now doing. I thought you were saying that Harris would also be threatening to invade Greenland. That’s a ridiculous notion. Harris building bases in Greenland and deploying more troops to the arctic certainly isn’t, but a Harris govt (and any other presidential admin in memory, even Trump 1, when he was surrounded by old guard Bush republicans) would get the blessing of Denmark and Greenland to do it.
Do you not see a difference between making a deal with Denmark and Greenland to build bases vs the US threatening to take the land and personally physically administer all of Greenland? If you’re of the mind that it ultimately doesn’t matter how US troops end up in Greenland, whether as welcomed troops of an allied power, or an invading force, that may be our point of contention. I think that difference between new US troops in Greenland being perceived as ally or invader has huge implications for how the Euros and Canadians understand their relationship with the US from here forward.
That's why also capturing it physically wouldn't mean much in the first place. That was my point as well, it's controlled territory and the only difference between the Harris administration and the Trump administration is the showboating. Harris would already know that it is essentially a U.S puppet and would only sign on more military deals and build more bases in the face of opening arctic routes. Trump wants to appeal to the greater north-american nationalist base and attempt to secure things that would have his name remembered for it. However, I wouldn't be surprised if only in 10 years or so after Harris that another democrat would have considered some deal to make Greenland into a peripheral territory precisely because of the immense resources and access to the arctic. It's not like America hasn't done this before. I also feel like that we're moving into an era of reconsolidation and restructure where America isn't going to get the blessing of her allies anymore for the simple acts of being an Empire. Plenty of examples of this.
My point is that it really doesn't matter the difference. End-result would be the exact same. it already is essentially physically captured and the U.S can freely exert any influence there if they weren't worried about bad press, which is becoming increasingly clear even with Biden's administration and Israel and now Trump.
The implications for Euros and Canadians have been clear for a long while. They are just now realizing it or upset that the dogs aren't allowed to sit at the table.
Ok absolutely. I got caught up on a random detail and missed the forest for the trees a bit when reading what you were saying.
I think we're in agreement that he's acting somewhat differently than before. I think my focus is more just on emphasizing that, not dissimilar to Hitler, he's a sort of front man for an existing trajectory. And this is something where liberals (not saying you think this way) can get caught up on this idea of him being the source or Musk being the source and losing sight of how thoroughly enabled and encouraged on a system level this trajectory has been.
It still doesn't make sense to view Trump as a harm reduction option for the rest of the world. There was no credible harm reduction candidate this time around.
Trump is still the guy who reversed detente with Iran and went to the brink of war with them twice. He's completely untrustworthy as a negotiator and doesn't actually care about any of the underlying issues, which undercuts what should be easy wins (detente with the DPRK) and makes tougher negotiations even harder. He started his second term by saying he wants to invade Canada and Greenland. He's fucking with the water rights treaty the U.S. has with Mexico. He's a return to naked imperialism, not a rejection of imperialism.
His only positive move so far was forcing Israel to accept a ceasefire, which they've now torn up without repercussion. That's something, but not much.
I generally agree. My possibly naive hope is that Trump is significantly weakening the US’s position as global hegemon, which will eventually benefit humanity. But his admin’s actions are chaos at best and monstrous at worse.