this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2025
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China is Authoritarian Capitalist.
Nuance and critical thinking is lost on tankies. Amd
It's very unfortunate. We need all the left allies we can get in this time of crisis, but tankies choosing to simp for a different form of repressive elite-controlled state to beat the proletariat down with just is... not helpful.
We need a united front against fascism and capitalism, but instead we're getting offered Thalmann by these folk.
How is a proletarian democracy possible without the capitalists capturing the votes of the majority?
Grassroots organization and education. Fact of the matter is, it's an ugly, long, and arduous task. But if the Russian people could do it even under the eye of the Tsar's secret police, we can do the same. After the February Revolution, which dislodged the Tsar but not, notably, the capitalist elites, the (relatively free and fair) elections which followed resulted in a supermajority for socialist parties, with capitalist and reactionary parties receiving less than 20% of the vote.
Even under the Tsar in monitored elections, in 1907, socialist and left-wing parties managed a plurality of 42% before the Duma was dissolved and socialist parties suppressed.
But this was the result of continuous effort for the previous 60 years, not just a sudden outburst of leftist love in the suddenly class-conscious proletariat - and this effort was hampered on several occasions not by mild reformers in some way 'disrupting' revolutionary sentiment, but by suppression by archreactionaries which came to power. Unlike us, the Russian people did not have a choice who became Tsar; they could not pick the least bad option even out of a measly two. But we can.
We can win. It's not hopeless. But we can't:
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Sit on our asses (as so many Americans are willing to do)
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Bet everything on a sudden and spontaneous wave of support (as some online 'thinkers' seem to want)
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Rely on established methods and institutions to represent the changing times (as neolibs will insist on - just one more election cycle bro, then we can REALLY deliver)
We have to organize. We have to educate. We have to agitate. And worst of all, we have to stay the fuck alive 'til then.
But if the Russian people could do it even under the eye of the Tsar’s secret police, we can do the same.
The Tsar's police was lenient. I don't remember names but I was surprised by how many opportunities the revolutionists got when reading Wikipedia pages.
We look like people from those days but our mental frameworks are entirely different. The internet offers the infrastructure to organize and educate for free. You can reach almost anybody instantly. And yet, no political movement for the people.
The capitalists have adapted. There is no we. But even if you create a democratic movement, how do you prevent the capitalists from taking over if they can buy the prettier and more eloquent leaders? If you give people the choice they will elect Ronald Reagan.