Of course, it is suicidal for the Democrats, since the Trump regime will also destroy them. But that's the problem with the Democrats: they embody the contradiction of the fact that no State whatsoever, with its militarized police forces and its prisons, can ever be seen as "democratic".

in this sense, it is not surprising at all that the Democrats in the USA, if they are to choose between supporting the "lawlessness" of pro-democratic protestors, or the "lawlessness" of the State (today represented by Trump), will always ultimately choose the latter

The funny thing is that Leftists will admit this in the case of Palestine – yes, of course Palestinians has the right to defend its own land – but they refuse to admit it to Ukraine.

But in positive terms, other people from the Eastern periphery can perhaps have a clearer grasp on the real meaning of Universalism and Internationalism, as the ideologies of the North x the South, the West x the Rest don't resonate with them.

Russia knows it, but it cynically manipulates the rhetoric to get the support of leftists and countries considered as part of the "South". Russia has obviously nothing to do with a global South – it is a disgruntled periphery of the West, a dark doppelganger of the latter

The question is not whether "the left" can be brought back into life – even if it could, it's arguably not worth trying – but rather, what new way of thinking could be capable of confronting the current Far Right internationalism, and its rule of simulacra.

The ideology in the 21st century is primarily a simulacrum, and those who can rule it are on top of the game. The Left assumed that we are still living in the 20th century era, when ideologies were "real". So the Left became a puppet in another's game, and consequently, it became irrelevant

Trumpism was in always primarily a "clone" of Putinism, which was the "real thing" (the only innovation in the USA is the AI authoritarian aspect). Still, the Left largely supported Russia – they probably had some vague images of hammers and sickles in their mind.

In my view, the leftist support for Russia in the West after 2022 was a large factor in 2024 Trump election, not only because some "horseshoe" leftists went on to directly vote for Trump, but more profoundly because it signaled a complete lack of comprehension of the global Right on part of the Left

Today (saying this as someone from Central/Eastern Europe), it is absolutely essential to support Ukraine, and even specifically Zelenskyy, as part of any just remotely coherent "internationalist" anti-fascist strategy. But to say that "Zelenskyy is a hero" is in fact controversial for many leftists

The left is not in opposition to the far right, nor is it in "internationalist". If there ever was internationalism on the left, it died in 2022, when the left in the West largely supported Putin, or at least somewhat advocated for him

Of course, this also means that the simplistic "anti-Western" discourse of the leftists from the Global South and USA is revealed as very vacuous, to the extent that the EU now largely does have a positive role in the global struggle for human freedom

At least the toxic "civilizational" discourse about the struggle between the "democratic" West and the "barbaric" Rest is gone forever, when the core West (USA) is now just as bad as Russia. From an anti-fascist perspective, neither NATO or BRICS can be seen as a bearers of any positive values

Also, we can finally say that in retrospect, 1984 completely *was* like 1984 i.ytimg.com/vi/ErwS24cBZ...

What i can’t understand, though, is that Orwell, as a Marxist, didn’t understand that slavery indeed *is* freedom for the slaveowner.

For me the “yes, this is 1984” moment came when I saw Vance claiming that Europe is “betraying its values” by trying to counter the rise of neo-fascism

Europe will certainly not get relevant by imitating authoritarian economic superpowers like USA or China - if it wants to become relevant again, it can only do so by doubling down on its Enlightenment legacy, its values of “egalitarianism” and rationality. Apart from this it has little to offer

In general, there is so much in this speech. “Soviet-sounding ugly words like misinformation” - so now science is officially considered a relic of communism- communism, considered synonymous with Enlightenment modernity as such, which is now officially a bygone, archaic era

from Russia – where they lived and resisted the authoritarian nightmare long before it also arrived to the West – lockedclub.bandcamp.com/album/it-s-m...