Remember when you had the 2nd International, huge marxist parties like the SPD in Germany, all saying they would never support an imperialist war and were true marxists, and then when WW1 began they all sold out and supported the war? Good times. Very few, like Vladimir Lenin, Rosa Luxembourg and Eugene Debs, remained true to marxism and opposed the war. Well i think a similar situation is happening now with the SMO in Ukraine.
From “democratic socialists” to MLs to maoists to anarchists, they all said they would never support US imperialism, they would never support a new Iraq WMD lie. And yet, when the SMO began and the west started demonizing Russia and beating the drums of war, most of these ostensibly “leftist” figures, especially western figures, sold out and supported the antirussian histeria. From BreadTube to YoungTurks to maoists like Marxist Paul to anarchists, they all sold out. Even some principled MLs like Second Thought and Hakim have shied away from condemning this war histeria and supporting Russia. I think this will be the collapse of the 2nd International of our era, the new divide between true antiimperialists and sellouts.
What are your thoughts?
I pretty much trust everything Brian Becker says. Dude is spot on pretty much 100% of the time. I just started listening to Ben Norton and he’s great as well.
I do really enjoy Hakim, Yugopnik, Second Thought (I like JT but his stuff is more basic)/The Deprogram. They don’t seem to talk about Russia that much. I get it sorta, you’ll get a huge crosshair on you if you don’t parrot the West on this. That seems to be waning though.
The corporate news is slowly confirming the things the “crazy leftists” have been saying the whole time. Like that there are Nato Spec Ops Forces/intel on the ground directing intel flows, that the sanctions are causing blowback, the list goes on. If western leftists can’t see these things are the case or they call Russia imperialist they show they don’t understand shit.
There are too many good voices out there to waste time on people who have a half-assed, Western narrative-confirming takes.
I know especially after their episode with Ben, but that’s the whole point of the podcast, and there’s enough episodes in stock for socdems/DemSocs to adapt.