• BarrelsBallot@lemmygrad.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    24 hours ago

    Political impotency with praxis paint

    Any expected positive outcomes from this are the result of a uniquely american collective amnesia

    The best that can be hoped out of this is that the rise in left adjacent electoralism stokes fear in the moderate and fascist right, provoking a tragedy that would do more for class consciousness and solidarity, than years of short lived legislative and electoral gains ever could

    • CoolerOpposide [none/use name]@hexbear.netOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      23 hours ago

      the fear of the moderate and fascist right has already started to stoke the coals on class consciousness, people who are ardently anti-electoral in any sense just don’t think they’re seeing the results of it because they can’t fathom that electoralism doesn’t exist in a vacuum and will change who it presents to represent changing material conditions.

      • WildWeezing420 [he/him]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        edit-2
        23 hours ago

        Electoral reformism doesn’t exist in a vacuum, it exists as a release valve to consume that energy and displace it towards ends that are not threatening to the ruling class.

        Whenever communists historically participated in bourgeois elections they did so as communists, under a communist party. Not as stray cat “leftists” or within the Democrat Party (or equivalent Liberal-Fascist Party). They did so fully expecting to be ratfucked and cheated out of any victory they may obtain, but most importantly they did not conceal their beliefs or put their hopes into whatever random opportunists happened to volunteer to advance their own positions.

        • CoolerOpposide [none/use name]@hexbear.netOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          22 hours ago

          Rent freeze and free childcare are a little more than a release valve, they open up the actual ability to further organize and take the kinds of political and social risks that go a long way to keeping socialist sentiment down in the US

            • CoolerOpposide [none/use name]@hexbear.netOP
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              16 hours ago

              January 1st, 2026 when Zohran is sworn in and can appoint the balance changing vote of the Rent Guidelines Board with the single at-will appointee that serves at the mayors behest, thus changing the voting balance of the Rent Guidelines board from 5-4 in favor of raising the rent to 5-4 in favor of freezing the rent

                • CoolerOpposide [none/use name]@hexbear.netOP
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  15 hours ago

                  Well, rent won’t feeeze on the first since the latest guidelines board voted to raise it by that one, critical vote this year, but it won’t go up after that so I guess technically the rent freeze isn’t in effect until it gets voted on again later that year, but yeah that’s how it works so just be wary of that around the end of next year unless the appointment is enough itself

          • WildWeezing420 [he/him]@hexbear.net
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            22 hours ago

            Almost all gains for the working class in American history were achieved through rioting, labor pressure and strikes and competition against the USSR. Basically none of it was achieved through social Democrat electioneering

            • CoolerOpposide [none/use name]@hexbear.netOP
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              edit-2
              21 hours ago

              Very true.

              Now here’s an instance where if you go for 5 a minute walk on a Tuesday one (1) time you could freeze the rent for millions of proletarians, potentially including yourself, for years and also stop billions of dollars from going into the pockets of the local landlord class. The other option is the opposite of all of that happens and rents go up, including your own, and landlords get billions of dollars.

              Pretty straightforward and easy choice to make. If you don’t do this you are actually playing yourself, or are so privileged that several hundred dollars a month extra in your pocket mean nothing to you.

              • WildWeezing420 [he/him]@hexbear.net
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                5
                ·
                edit-2
                21 hours ago

                Yeah it’s just about 5 minutes of showing up. That’s all electoralism is. It isn’t a drain of millions of dollars of resources and thousands of hours of volunteer labor! And it certainly isn’t the crux of the social reformist worldview about how change is done, which you proselytize to the detriment of all other forms of activism. No way is it the underlying principle around which you convince others to organize

                • blunder [he/him]@hexbear.net
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  ·
                  9 hours ago

                  yeah spending thousands of hours volunteering and forming working political relationships with likeminded explicit socialists with common goals in your community is a terrible idea, no one should do it

                  • CoolerOpposide [none/use name]@hexbear.netOP
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    ·
                    4 hours ago

                    That’s what I’m saying. I know voting is bare minimum activism but like it’s more than nothing and you’ll never stop people from engaging in electoralism so what if you just got to tell all of the people in your neighborhood a socialist wants to freeze your rent?

                • CoolerOpposide [none/use name]@hexbear.netOP
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  ·
                  21 hours ago

                  Election already happened big dawg. Candidate is on the ballot. I doubt you are doing any electoral organizing given how clear you’ve made your stance on the subject.

                  Because of the hard work of other leftists, it would just be a 5 minute walk for you to freeze your own rent, the rent of millions of proletarians, and keep billions of dollars out of the pockets of landlord.

                  Armchair Leftist Final Boss type thought process to not simply participate at that point

                  • WildWeezing420 [he/him]@hexbear.net
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    3
                    ·
                    edit-2
                    19 hours ago

                    Election already happened big dawg. Candidate is on the ballot.

                    Oh ok, so this is the final Democrat Party election the DSA is participating in since they already sunk the cost and they’ll change their methods going forward?