chapotraphouse

unstoppable material interest meets immoveable ideological prism

there's a good quote from Trotsky (yes, bare with me) about how liberals disavow the French revolution and Marxists are the true inheritors of that struggle's legacy.

The Great French Revolution was indeed a national revolution. And what is more, within the national framework, the world struggle of the bourgeoisie for domination, for power, and for undivided triumph found its classical expression.

Jacobinism is now a term of reproach on the lips of all liberal wiseacres. Bourgeois hatred of revolution, its hatred towards the masses, hatred of the force and grandeur of the history that is made in the streets, is concentrated in one cry of indignation and fear – Jacobinism! We, the world army of Communism, have long ago made our historical reckoning with Jacobinism. The whole of the present international proletarian movement was formed and grew strong in the struggle against the traditions of Jacobinism. We subjected its theories to criticism, we exposed its historical limitations, its social contradictoriness, its utopianism, we exposed its phraseology, and broke with its traditions, which for decades had been regarded as the sacred heritage of the revolution.

But we defend Jacobinism against the attacks, the calumny, and the stupid vituperations of anaemic, phlegmatic liberalism. The bourgeoisie has shamefully betrayed all the traditions of its historical youth, and its present hirelings dishonour the graves of its ancestors and scoff at the ashes of their ideals. The proletariat has taken the honour of the revolutionary past of the bourgeoisie under its protection. The proletariat, however radically it may have, in practice, broken with the revolutionary traditions of the bourgeoisie, nevertheless preserves them, as a sacred heritage of great passions, heroism and initiative, and its heart beats in sympathy with the speeches and acts of the Jacobin Convention.

https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1931/tpr/rp03.htm

I'm starting to realize most people I've met have political beliefs no more complex than "I can do whatever I want and also I'm not gay." No conception of what class they belong to, no idea what organizing is, rather just stuck in the idea their personal opinions are what matters the most. They don't want anything that could possibly impede consumerism. Also it's really important to know they're not gay. They never want to be mistaken for gay and that's their central political motivation.

Anything that might imply they're gay could be bad, including wearing sunscreen, shaving, eating soy, driving the speed limit. All of that is gay and is thus the political opposition.

Is that what you're struggling with? Most Americans seem to think yelling at TV or being in a Facebook group constitutes praxis. I mean we're posters so we're not much better but at least I know I'm just a goofus cackling at a pig shit emoji

You cracked the code for pretty much all of the "nonpolitical" chuds around me, especially the "not gay" virtue signaling.

political beliefs no more complex than "I can do whatever I want and also I'm not gay."

Not true. They also know there are good guys and bad guys.

And exactly like atheism, it is the intense, structured formation of a formal critique in analysis, a thought experiment to test the default assumption, an attempt to understand why the starting conclusion "feels wrong" than directly leads to a unwinnable confrontation with the magical thinking that underpins both of these enterprises

Like a bishop once told me, not all atheists went to seminary but studying at a seminary "earnestly, in good faith" will inevitably lead to a struggle with atheism for the rest of their life

There's a bit of the spirit of the political revolutionary in the atheist movement I guess, in this way. I'm not sure what to do with it, but I think it's something to jot down for the moment

I think it's a really big problem how the position of permanent and principled critique of religion as mystification has been surrendered by people who described themselves as on the left, including, communists, and taken up by reactionary Neoliberals and Neoconservatives, whose critiques are obviously deeply ignorant and reactionary, and motivated to a huge degree by a desire to feel intellectually superior to others, but in a way analogous to junk food, as these people do not actually have any interesting things to say, let alone critiques, of religion other than obvious and trivial ones which are expressed in a reactionary way.

The most hardcore atheists I know are all Iranian communists, for obvious reasons.

Back in my internet arguing days I would usually help my opponent with their argument but still point out why they were wrong.

But have you considered that the really enlightened mindset is precisely Super Sigma-Male 3 in which one is too busy holding their hand over a flame, flexing their bicep in a mirror, dreaming of murdering minorities, and transcending the need for compassion to have time for politics?

Why yes, yes i would believe that. The classic Christian USian pro-death penalty/anti-abortion combo.

If ideology were a drive thru it would be the #2. The #1 would be fiscally conservative/socially liberal with super sized fries and a 64 oz soda

I don't know how to tell this person this but they executed Jesus

True for antisemites but the problem is the centrists / liberals are actually completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies is my point. To stick with the example, the checks and balances is what you're supposed to defend against the savage lawless hordes elsewhere, how you gonna throw that shit overboard at the slightest ideological disagreement with the institutions you jerk off over. Not even leftists are that infighty

Moralists don't really have beliefs. Sometimes they stumble on one, like on a child's toy left on the carpet. The toy must be put away immediately. And the child reprimanded. Centrism isn't change -- not even incremental change. It is control. Over yourself and the world. Exercise it. Look up at the sky, at the dark shapes of Coalition airships hanging there. Ask yourself: is there something sinister in moralism? And then answer: no. God is in his heaven. Everything is normal on Earth.