MarxMadness [comrade/them]

While I think there’s a real question about how much of it is willful ignorance vs. propaganda working as intended, you’re largely correct. The reality that most U.S. citizens have maybe a high school understanding of their country’s foreign policy is the biggest hole in the “imperial proletariat as labor aristocratics” theory.

This is your response when you see facts you don’t like? Here’s a 2021 article on Biden’s support for Ukraine before Russia invaded:

Zelensky observed that Biden “knows Ukraine better than the previous president” and “will really help strengthen relations, help settle the war in Donbas, and end the occupation of our territory.”

Note the acknowledgement that there was already a war on.

While Zelensky’s comments may prove overly optimistic, there is little reason to doubt that the Biden presidency will be good for Ukraine… Whether Biden, who will face many demands on his time, will choose to engage personally is a different question. He knows Ukraine, having traveled there six times when he served as vice president.

To be fair to rank-and-file Democrats, I’m sure they largely didn’t know about the Banderite problem in Ukraine, if only because they probably paid little attention to the country as a whole. But the presence of neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine was certainly no secret. The Biden administration definitely knew the situation.

The thing that really blasts a hole in the neck of any conspiracy theory is that he was maybe a third-tier rodeo clown who had very little mainstream visibility

The white “working class” in the US have no revolutionary potential

I’ve read Settlers and don’t find it convincing. If you found it convincing, why quote someone from another imperial core proletarian movement?

Boiling it down to “Bernie killed Rosa” is not a good response to someone digging into the details of what she wrote.

And while there’s stuff worth considering here, we’re in a radically different situation than she was.

Those who can harm others to get ahead, and have that opportunity, do.

This isn’t true on an individual level, and individuals make decisions for countries. Why would it be true on a state level?

Not taking advantage of others (either other individuals or other states) isn’t even some idealistic pursuit, either. There are costs and risks to doing so, and there are benefits (e.g., peace and cooperation) to dealing with others honestly.

When you need multiple attempts to replicate something that’s existed for decades… maybe what you’re trying to do doesn’t work!

Imagine trying to vibe design something complex.

I’m not saying this should be reflexively opposed. I’m saying that if a movement is accepting help from some of the worst people in the world, that movement deserves a great deal of skepticism.

Who here is just pro-revolution independent of context? Violence is a tactic, not an end unto itself.

If your revolution is being propped up by fascist state that wants nothing more than to kill a bunch of your fellow citizens and steal your oil, there are some serious open questions about what your revolution seeks to achieve, and for whom.

the one where Brad Pitt speaks Jamaican patois

Don’t leave me hanging on this one!

A tweet that’s purely a take quoting a tweet that makes a “walking it back” claim without quoting a statement or anything? I’m supposed to take this at face value?

If there’s a real criticism here, let’s see what the guy actually said.