That’s a good way to look at it :3 I haven’t read a ton of theory or anything and I struggle to think of how those ideological differences won’t lead to bad things or failure, and a lot of tankies want me dead, but so do fascists and liberalism seems really bad at avoiding that so Idk. The thought just scares me considering how much they seem to love Stalin and how many comrades he locked up or killed after the revolution (Lenin might’ve started that Idk, I just know a lot of revolutionaries got punished for not agreeing on how things should be done).
I know not every revolution is so bloody, and for all I know there are MLs who never turned on their comrades, so I’m sorry if I’ve mischaracterized your friends based on the views of their specific group. I get not all MLs are “tankies”, I just struggle to differentiate them sometimes and not feel hate and fear towards them after seeing a lot of tankies cheer on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and deny + justify multiple genocides and brag about how they’ll kill anarchists after the revolution. I literally had an ML “friend” tell me once that if Stalin killing jews was the price of revolution, then that’s what it takes and it’s justified. I know it’s not reasonable of me, but that’s the first kind of thing that pops into my mind whenever someone says they’re an ML
I’m sorry you’ve run into those people, the world needs people who will think for themselves and remain steadfast in their commitment to human decency and equality regardless of the propaganda that will undoubtedly swirl around us. There could very reasonably be another ‘red scare’ soon and we all know it won’t discriminate between communists and anarchists and will very likely sweep up a number of people who would self-describe as liberals/democratic socialists too. We need to focus on protecting the most vulnerable (where I am—immigrants and people who lack basic food/shelter) and organizing to meet our community’s needs outside the existing government structures where we can. And, perhaps sooner than we’d like or are ready for, networking to get people safely out of hostile states.
That’s a good way to look at it :3 I haven’t read a ton of theory or anything and I struggle to think of how those ideological differences won’t lead to bad things or failure, and a lot of tankies want me dead, but so do fascists and liberalism seems really bad at avoiding that so Idk. The thought just scares me considering how much they seem to love Stalin and how many comrades he locked up or killed after the revolution (Lenin might’ve started that Idk, I just know a lot of revolutionaries got punished for not agreeing on how things should be done).
I know not every revolution is so bloody, and for all I know there are MLs who never turned on their comrades, so I’m sorry if I’ve mischaracterized your friends based on the views of their specific group. I get not all MLs are “tankies”, I just struggle to differentiate them sometimes and not feel hate and fear towards them after seeing a lot of tankies cheer on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and deny + justify multiple genocides and brag about how they’ll kill anarchists after the revolution. I literally had an ML “friend” tell me once that if Stalin killing jews was the price of revolution, then that’s what it takes and it’s justified. I know it’s not reasonable of me, but that’s the first kind of thing that pops into my mind whenever someone says they’re an ML
I’m sorry you’ve run into those people, the world needs people who will think for themselves and remain steadfast in their commitment to human decency and equality regardless of the propaganda that will undoubtedly swirl around us. There could very reasonably be another ‘red scare’ soon and we all know it won’t discriminate between communists and anarchists and will very likely sweep up a number of people who would self-describe as liberals/democratic socialists too. We need to focus on protecting the most vulnerable (where I am—immigrants and people who lack basic food/shelter) and organizing to meet our community’s needs outside the existing government structures where we can. And, perhaps sooner than we’d like or are ready for, networking to get people safely out of hostile states.