this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2023
305 points (100.0% liked)

196

16238 readers
1696 users here now

Be sure to follow the rule before you head out.

Rule: You must post before you leave.

^other^ ^rules^

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

From: “Red Rosa: A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg” by Kate Evans.

top 29 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 58 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

The hexbears won't like this one.

But I do! Good post, OP.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Believe it or not, but hexbear has a variety of leftist ideologies, including those friendly to the work of Rosa Luxemburg and Emma Goldman

[–] [email protected] 51 points 10 months ago

Yet somehow only the smelliest turds float to the top...

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

There’s a great episode of Rev Left Radio with the author, highly recommend!

[–] [email protected] 26 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This is going to make a lot of people from instances that end in .ml very angry.

Prepare for the textwalls!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Not seeing a lot of textwalls.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago

I think a large part of the reason why is these guys defederated the riff-raff pretty early on.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago (1 children)

What's annoying is that we probably would be a whole lot closer to actual communism and anarchism if the bolsheviks never took power and destroy all the communism that was happening during the Russian revolution.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yup, and for a deep dive into the history of how this happened in both the USSR and Maoist China, I'd recommend Anark's series The State is Counterrevolutionary.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

The State is Counterrevolutionary

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

MLs: "The only way to socialism is through violent, top-down revolution."

Syndicalists, getting every W known to man: "Are we a joke to you??"

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (2 children)

What on earth is a top-down revolution? Wouldn't that just be a coup?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

Yup, also called a bourgeois revolution.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

The idea is to reverse the pyramid of power, so that the working class, which is usually at the bottom, becomes the top and the ruling class gets at the bottom. That way it would break any hierarchies

[–] [email protected] 21 points 10 months ago

Rosa Luxemburg was based as hell. And that's coming from an anarchist.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Dr. Wolff made a great video today about this very topic! It essentially boiled down to saying that a socialist revolution can only succeed if there is also a revolution in the workplace. Workers need to elect their managers, and have a strong union to coordinate production between industries.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

That was a really great episode, thanks for the shoutout! I usually only catch Economic Update on my local Leftist radio, but with that description I just had to seek it out, and I’m glad I did.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

A tankie will tell you to "read theory" and then get miffed if you read Rosa Luxemburg.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Not in my experience, but we’re all entitled to our own experiences, so I can’t fault you for yours.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (3 children)

"Those who would give up Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" -- Benjamin Franklin

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Trading liberty for safety is the entire point of a society, you absolute dunce.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

Toxic child

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm betting this one goes well over your head, lol

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

What's gone over my head, exactly? The entire purpose of a rules based society is you're protected, mostly from other people.

So please, explain it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

"Temporary" is the key word in that sentence. Benjamin Franklin said this famous quote in response to the governor of Pennsylvania being asked to levy a new tax to support the French and Indian war, which an old money family, the Penns, who ruled from afar, were trying to bribe him to veto. Ben Franklin was very much in favor of this tax and very much pro big government, so long as it was being done by the people (contrary to what all the libertarians who quote him seem to think). His argument was that if the governor kept taking bribes from the Penns, and just rolling over and doing whatever they told him to do, consequences to the state be damned, just so the Penns would keep the money flowing, he deserved whatever was coming to him when they decided to stop.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Imagine being this dense

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

You heard it first from old Ben, stop saving money for retirement, you’re just giving up on your current liberty to have some temporary safety later in life.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The irony that in this quote he was supporting the authority of government specifically on taxation for long term defense. "Temporary" was kind of the whole point.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Which is precisely why it works in this context. He was talking about the Pennsylvania governor's ability to levy a new tax which some Englanders who ruled from afar were trying to bribe him to veto. His argument was that if people gave up their ability to govern themselves and let some faraway Leviathan do it in the hopes that said Leviathan would keep them safe, they deserved whatever was coming to them. I think this translates nicely onto "Socialism is not some Christmas gift for those who accept a dictator now in the hopes of achieving freedom in the future."