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Is Che Guevara or Soviet-style Communism trendy for the left?

Bikewer said:
Years ago, when I had just started my campus-police career, the local “Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade” would show up on campus with their red berets and a stack of flyers and a small bullhorn.
That was in the early 80s….

Our law and business-school students would pass these dedicated youngsters by as if they were lepers or plague carriers…… Eventually they quit coming.

More recently, an enthusiastic young lad set up a table on the sidewalk with a big sign… “Ask me about Marxism”. As far as I could tell… No one did.
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On the other hand, if someone set up a table with a sign saying "Ask me about fascism," there'd be a week of riots, arson, and looting protests in city centers across the country.
 
theprestige said:
On the other hand, if someone set up a table with a sign saying "Ask me about fascism," there'd be a week of riots, arson, and looting protests in city centers across the country.
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Probably because fascists are actually active and are having practical impact. What exactly does the CPUSA or other such organizations actually do? I presume they have lots of meetings, but beyond that, what is their output?

Fascist groups, on the other hand, are quite active. They are a recognized and influential part of the broader right wing coalition and showing up at protests or school board meetings with implied or realized threats of violence is their prime recruiting tactic.

If CPUSA members started beating up capitalists or whatever they'd probably draw increased levels of opprobrium. Relevancy is the difference.
 
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i like how people wanting a nazi to leave is presented as some kind of hypocrisy or problem
 
To illustrate the issue of relevancy in one pic:





The person on the right was just sentenced to over 8 years in prison for leading the fascist street riot shown in the picture (after much heel dragging by local, fash-sympathetic police). The person on the left is a member of the leadership of the local Republican party in good standing

In his first bid for elected office, Tooze, who lives in Oregon City, got 40% of the vote in the Oregon House District 40 Republican primary. And though he lost that race, he went on to get elected vice chair of the Clackamas County Republican Party, a role which positions him to help spread his violent extremist brand of politics to his neighbors and to influence which candidates the party backs or helps appoint to vacant seats.
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https://www.opb.org/article/2023/03/28/far-right-extremists-government-oregon-washington-idaho/

Where's the commie equivalency? Are CPUSA members being elected party functionaries within the Democratic Party? Is the DSA legitimizing street brawlers? Are local police departments giving de-facto permission for Red Guards to engage in low level terrorism in the streets? Is Joe Biden giving encouraging shout-outs to left wing street gangs?

Maybe "the left" isn't receiving such intense scrutiny because, generally speaking, their behavior is far less concerning.
 
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theprestige said:
On the other hand, if someone set up a table with a sign saying "Ask me about fascism," there'd be a week of riots, arson, and looting protests in city centers across the country.
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Think of it thusly: Visitors to Yellowstone are more mindful of grizzly bears than sharks.

Hope that helps.
 
theprestige said:
On the other hand, if someone set up a table with a sign saying "Ask me about fascism," there'd be a week of riots, arson, and looting protests in city centers across the country.
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No. There wouldn't. They would probably be ignored.
 
theprestige said:
Not in Atlanta, Chicago, Baltimore, San Francisco, or Portland, they wouldn't.
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Somebody peacefully sits down on a table and sets out a sign that says "ask me about fascism" and you think that would lead to a riot? Who are you lying to? Yourself?

One, that sign says little. The person could be against fascism.

Two, the fact is fascism original definition doesn't suggest militarism, autocracy, discrimination or oppression.

Now if you marched into these towns wearing NAZI paraphernalia and a sign saying fascism is good, then there could be a riot
 
acbytesla said:
Somebody peacefully sits down on a table and sets out a sign that says "ask me about fascism" and you think that would lead to a riot? Who are you lying to? Yourself?

One, that sign says little. The person could be against fascism.

Two, the fact is fascism original definition doesn't suggest militarism, autocracy, discrimination or oppression.

Now if you marched into these towns wearing NAZI paraphernalia and a sign saying fascism is good, then there could be a riot
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And as recent history has shown, that riot would most likely be started by the Nazis.
 
TurkeysGhost said:
Maybe "the left" isn't receiving such intense scrutiny because, generally speaking, their behavior is far less concerning.
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Maybe it's because the people portrayed by Republicans as being on the extreme left are not actually extremists.
 
TurkeysGhost said:
Where's the commie equivalency? Are CPUSA members being elected party functionaries within the Democratic Party? Is the DSA legitimizing street brawlers? Are local police departments giving de-facto permission for Red Guards to engage in low level terrorism in the streets? Is Joe Biden giving encouraging shout-outs to left wing street gangs?

Maybe "the left" isn't receiving such intense scrutiny because, generally speaking, their behavior is far less concerning.
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Your argument is faulty because the left-wing extremists you seem to be talking about don't want anything to do with the Democratic party. The Democractic party stands for everything the far-left hates: democracy, liberalism, capitalism and meritocracy. Hence why they only find a voice among worthless and completely impotent organizations that never manage to accomplish anything.
 
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Here's some lyrics from a Jefferson Airplane song that was quite popular in the 60's.

We are all outlaws in the eyes of America
In order to survive we steal cheat lie forge **** hide and deal
We are obscene lawless hideous dangerous dirty violent and young
But we should be together
Come on all you people standing around
Our life's too fine to let it die
We can be together

All your private property is target for your enemy
And your enemy
Is we

And Mao's little red book was quite popular. This stuff heavily age skewed to the young. There was also counter pop music like Okie From Muskogee.

Hot issues today are quite different and have a broader age distribution.
 
Arcade22 said:
Your argument is faulty because the left-wing extremists you seem to be talking about don't want anything to do with the Democratic party. The Democractic party stands for everything the far-left hates: democracy, liberalism, capitalism and meritocracy. Hence why they only find a voice among worthless and completely impotent organizations that never manage to accomplish anything.
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Seems to me the opposite. Pragmatic lefties know that the Democratic Party is largely a dead end, at least at the moment. Way more vibrancy and realistic paths to making a meaningful impact outside the electoral sphere. The recent increase in organized labor militancy is a big example, and the takeover of The Teamsters by the TDU wing is a million times more significant than whatever spat AOC is in with Dem party leadership at any given time.
 
Mojo said:
Maybe it's because the people portrayed by Republicans as being on the extreme left are not actually extremists.
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If you have said the GOP tires to portray everybody who has liberal opinions of being an extremist I would have agreed.
You implication the there are no extremist on the left is wrong,wrong.wrong.
 
TurkeysGhost said:
Seems to me the opposite. Pragmatic lefties know that the Democratic Party is largely a dead end, at least at the moment. Way more vibrancy and realistic paths to making a meaningful impact outside the electoral sphere. The recent increase in organized labor militancy is a big example, and the takeover of The Teamsters by the TDU wing is a million times more significant than whatever spat AOC is in with Dem party leadership at any given time.
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SO let's give up on the Dems, and let the GOP win the elections. Nice strategy.
ALos nice way of admititng that your opionion are way to the left of what is "mainstream" in the US.You are.of course, entitled to your opinions, but I doubt there is any kind of mass following for them.
 
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dudalb said:
SO let's give up on the Dems, and let the GOP win the elections. Nice strategy.
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Not sure I should be the one telling you this, but lefties and progressives aren't actually the ones driving the party, and neolibs and center-right dems bear the lion's share of the blame for any hypothetical electoral losses. Any failure to cobble together a working coalition falls entirely on the leadership, which ain't a bunch of DSA types.

They seem to be going all-in on the "Trump bad" message, which is true and seemed to have worked ok in the recent past, but I'm dubious that running with a complete lack of a positive vision of what they want to accomplish is a sound strategy. Time will tell I suppose.
 
TurkeysGhost said:
Not sure I should be the one telling you this, but lefties and progressives aren't actually the ones driving the party, and neolibs and center-right dems bear the lion's share of the blame for any hypothetical electoral losses. Any failure to cobble together a working coalition falls entirely on the leadership, which ain't a bunch of DSA types.

They seem to be going all-in on the "Trump bad" message, which is true and seemed to have worked ok in the recent past, but I'm dubious that running with a complete lack of a positive vision of what they want to accomplish is a sound strategy. Time will tell I suppose.
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Ah, the lost tribe school of politics. There is a vast tribe of left wing voters just waiting for the right candidate to call the home.

And I note your hatred of anybody not as far to the left as you are.
 
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