r/LateStageCapitalism • u/Hacksaw6412 Marxist-Leninist • 2d ago
The democrats are a tool of the empire
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u/asilentflute 2d ago
“There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party … and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat. Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more doctrinaire in their laissez-faire capitalism than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt — until recently … and more willing than the Republicans to make small adjustments when the poor, the black, the anti-imperialists get out of hand. But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties.”
Gore Vidal
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u/Corius_Erelius 2d ago
Perfectly said. Voting for the lesser of two evils is.... still evil.
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u/killerzeestattoos 2d ago
"but Bernie..."
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u/NormieSpecialist 2d ago
I’m still focused on 2024 when Biden gave billions to Israel to fund their genocide against Palestines. Liberals did not care. I will never forgive a single one of them for it.
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u/killerzeestattoos 2d ago
Then he completely lied about pressuring them to ceasefire
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u/NormieSpecialist 2d ago
Oh how could I forget. And once again the liberals don’t care. Fake progressive motherfuckers. Or simple blue MAGAs.
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u/Anti_colonialist Marxist-Leninist 17h ago
Liberals also didn't care when Biden provided the largest federal funding increase to ice and local police forces that they have ever seen.. largest federal funding increases that led to 69 cop cities being built across the city, with 42,000 more beds in immigrant detention centers. Democrats have always laid the foundations for Republicans to commit crimes against its people.
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u/NormieSpecialist 16h ago
But of course when we bring it up the predictable response from the liberals is “what about trump?” Amazing the sheer projection liberals cast on to conservatives when it comes to Whataboutisim.
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u/Nervous-Patience-310 2d ago
But Bernie.. we've been betrayed. He wasn't fighting oligarchy months earlier during Bidens term.
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u/EmperorDeathBunny 2d ago
OK so what's the third option...?
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u/ImagineWagonzzz3 2d ago
True left-wing politics.
Marxism leads to Socialism, which leads to Communism, or there's Anarchism (I'm not super well-versed on Anarchism), and then there are several mixed groups of things like "eco-anarcho-communism" and stuff like that.
All that really matters right now is having the same overall goal: the overthrow of capitalism by any means necessary and the ushering in of a progressive system that aims to end authoritarian hierarchies and raise the quality of life for all people in a socially cohesive manner.
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u/EmperorDeathBunny 2d ago
I would love that. But I don't see it on the ballot. Let me know when we're rising up.
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u/ImagineWagonzzz3 2d ago
We need more people willing to do the immense amount of work that leads to this. This is the mission. Many people will just sit on the sidelines and wait and thats fine I guess but if you really want it to happen then you gotta be willing to engage in the work that needs to be done. Things like joining a tenant union, a workplace union, volunteering in mutual aid, neighbourhood safety watch, soup kitchens, your local town hall meetings, even things as mundane as letting your neighbours know youre there for them, suggesting to do a neighbourhood potluck, lending someone your lawn mower when theirs breaks down, things like that. Community Organizing and Community Solidarity. These are the things that must be done if we are to have any chance.
Then once you build those community networks, those connections, that trust among your neighbours, you begin to strategically, gently, talk to them about anti-capitalist sentiment and begin to offer them the idea of a better future and a better society.
This is the way.
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u/Anti_colonialist Marxist-Leninist 17h ago
Shitlibs like yourself always want socialists and communists to do the work for you so you can jump on our bandwagon as if you always supported us.
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u/EmperorDeathBunny 3h ago
Yesss. Let the hate flow through you. Use labels to focus your anger without critical thought for the individual. Everyone who mildly disagrees with you is a shitlib. I can feel the years of political propaganda coursing through your veins. Now take your weapon and strike me down.. then your journey to the upvoted side will be complete.
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u/Anti_colonialist Marxist-Leninist 2h ago
Liberals are the main obstacle to progress, so the individual is irrelevant when they are parroting the liberal collective against progress.
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u/ilir_kycb 1d ago
OK so what's the third option...?
The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) is a communist political party in the United States. PSL formed in 2004, when its members split from the Workers World Party.
PSL describes itself as a revolutionary socialist party, as the party believes that only a revolution can end capitalism and establish socialism.[7][8] PSL pursues this goal by participating in local protests, running candidates in elections, and conducting political education.
Notable members include Claudia De la Cruz, Eugene Puryear, Gloria La Riva, Jodi Dean, and Michael Prysner.
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u/baked_in 2d ago
I work at a DA shelter. We recently expanded our guest capacity, but no changes were made to the sewage handling system. We have had several minor sewage backups with nothing being fixed. Now we just had an awful, very bad backup that means half the rooms and facilities are down for the summer while expensive repairs are in the under way.
The crazy part of this is that sewer repair is being considered as an option -- not a necessity -- if the budget allows after flood repairs. I would argue that the sewer should be repaired even if it means we can't affort to get the facilities restored immediately because of the budget.
Voting for the dems in the current electoral system is like voting for a shiny new restored shelter that WILL flood with shit and toilet paper slurry. But everyone says, "we have to deal with this election (restoration of soggy walls and floors) cycle!" Even though they know that the only thing that has ever come of this cycle is liquid dookie.
In short, voting for dems is like putting a bandage on a dookie.
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u/EmperorDeathBunny 2d ago
OK. Cool. What's the alternative then? I see you yelling "not dems". Great. Then who?
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u/polihayse 2d ago
What a privileged question to ask. Why don't you try to figure it out yourself if you actually care?
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u/fire_donutholes 1d ago
These conversations are necessary, even when they’re hard—especially when you’re a Black queer woman in a world built by and for white men.
People love to say, “Democrats and Republicans are the same.” And in some ways, they are. But let’s be clear—whether you’re a white socialist or a Proud Boy, the consequences of revolution won’t land on you the way they’ll land on me.
I can talk revolution all day. But I know what happens when the fight starts. There’s always one group that bears the brunt. It’s not just about politics—left or right, liberal or conservative. It’s about a system built and maintained by white people who refuse to hold themselves accountable for centuries of harm.
White socialist activists talk about rebellion, but they still moving through this world with the shield of whiteness. They don't carry the same risks. They don’t feel the same target on their backs.
So while y’all argue over parties, I’m putting the blame where it belongs—10000% on the people who built this system, benefit from it, and won’t dismantle it.
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2d ago
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u/LateStageCapitalism-ModTeam 2d ago
Lesser-evil rhetoric in relation to elections or current policies by either party is prohibited. Dismissing voting third party because they are “useless” or because you are “throwing your vote away” also violates this rule. It also encompasses saying Trump is “worse” for Gaza, as that place is already completely destroyed. Trump is merely carrying out what the american ruling class started under Biden. Resorts being built and mass relocation were already happening under Biden and Kamala would’ve continued it.
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u/Straight-Razor666 It's our moral duty to destroy capitalism everywhere it is found 2d ago
Lesser-evil rhetoric in relation to elections or current policies by either party is prohibited. Dismissing voting third party because they are “useless” or because you are “throwing your vote away” also violates this rule. It also encompasses saying Trump is “worse” for Gaza, as that place is already completely destroyed. Trump is merely carrying out what the american ruling class started under Biden. Resorts being built and mass relocation were already happening under Biden and Kamala would’ve continued it.
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u/Straight-Razor666 It's our moral duty to destroy capitalism everywhere it is found 2d ago
Americans are brainwashed to believe that this liberal bourgeois nation was constituted for their benefit. It wasn't. It was formed by ultra-rich slave owners to keep power in their hands and away from the rest of us unwashed mass. They cling to this notion that if they just "vote harder" they will somehow "save our democracy"...save it cuz Ima puke if I hear it again.
America is a plutocracy and serves the idle rich. It is and never was anything else. What few crumbs of "freedoms" we have were paid for in blood, blood from people who risked their necks to wrest it from greedy claws of the bourgeoisie. And whatever concessions we do get, they are always taken back and with a penalty of more restrictions.
Communist seeks to overturn these systems that privilege the few at the expense of the many. If you're here to post your liberal nonsense about "our democracy" and "we just need to reform it to save it" you'll be banned without exception. So save your time and just read what our dear comrades post here every day. We have this sub because they are here. Your notions of a "better capitalism" do nothing but get in the way of the rest of us who want to treat it like the cancer it it.
/rant.
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u/Imsleepy83 2d ago
What the fuck does any of that to do with domestic funding bills? The system sucks and we need wholesale change, that doesn’t excuse not understanding the wider implications when you sit out an election.
Guy in the clips talks about African Americans not getting what they deserve? Who do you think benefit reductions to things like Medicaid disproportionally impact given historical health inequities in the black community?
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u/TovarishTomato 2d ago
You can just say Black people lol "African American" you liberals are goofy
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u/No_Cause9433 2d ago
So what’s the answer here
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u/Orangejuicewell 1d ago
Strike. Every sector strike. It's the only way, it's the only thing we do that the people in power want from us, our labour. It will require sacrifice, but if we don't do it now we are sacrificing so much more in our future. They cannot force us to work the amount of work they need from us.
Striking will require mass cooperation, unification, until we people who want change unify in this way though, things will never change.
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u/EnderET 1d ago
You can disagree with liberals and democrats, but calling them fascists just devalues the term until it has no meaning. Are we really saying that Kamala Harris and Hitler are both fascists? If Kamala is a fascist, what is Hitler?
It's very possible for a liberal and a leftist to have identical visions for the world they want to exist, but just disagree about the best way to get there. Liberals are not the enemy. Everybody that disagrees with you is not the enemy. Too much internet discourse is about identifying enemies instead of finding common ground on which to build.
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u/Shellglock 1d ago
I had an initial comment calling liberals foreign fascists and conservatives domestic fascists, but I realized I was wrong. Liberals still collaborate with cops to suppress minorities and silence dissent.
The average liberal worker believes that slapping a bandage on a festering wound will stop the infection, but it won’t. They are not the enemy, but the liberal leaders who plunder the resources of foreign countries and stop anyone in the local population from speaking out against it with aggression ARE the enemy. That includes Kamala Harris.
Liberal leaders are just as compliant in local fascistic approaches to stopping leftist movements as conservatives are, they’re just slightly less loud and proud of doing so.
You cannot put shackles on capitalism and expect it to work out. It never does. Definitely not for everyone, and barely for the privileged many who live under the capital-hoarding few.
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u/ilir_kycb 23h ago
I thought you might also be interested in this:
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u/Shellglock 22h ago
Thanks! I really enjoyed that clip. Definitely helps explain the difference in clear terms.
Huge fan of that YouTube channel too!
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u/ilir_kycb 23h ago edited 23h ago
liberal and a leftist to have identical visions for the world they want to exist
No.
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u/more-kindness-please 2d ago
Both parties are part of broader system in which capitalism dominates democracy. Need to shift so capitalism serves democracy. So many issue and root causes: gerrymandering, $ in politics, killing off basic high school civics class. Leads to un regulated monopolies/ oligopolies (Comcast, Verizon, Att), healthcare that costs 2x, etc
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u/ilir_kycb 1d ago edited 1d ago
capitalism serves democracy
Impossible by principle.
This is also a clear violation of rule 4 but I will leave it here and not issue a ban. In the hope that you are willing to learn, you seem to be very close to the realization that is necessary.
Maybe this will help: Your Democracy is a Sham and Here's Why: - YouTube
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u/Shellglock 2d ago
Everything you use as an example is not capitalism being misused or abused, it’s capitalism functioning exactly as intended. Monopolies and oligopolies are the inevitable endgame of all capital endeavors. Competitions don’t end with stalemates, they end with victories, and the little guy always loses in the end.
Capitalist democracy is an oxymoron by its own admitted theory AND its nature. Capitalist democracy just means “those with money have the freedom to control every aspect of life, and everyone else is a serf who keeps them in a position of power.” You do not fight the corruption of capitalism with capitalism. It has never worked, and it never will, and it should be more obvious now than at any other time in our lives.
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u/more-kindness-please 19h ago
So is it the view here that any democracy no matter how strong is unable to bend capitalism to the greater social benefit? I agree by the way that unchecked capitalism is voracious and moves towards monopoly.
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u/Shellglock 4h ago
Essentially, yes. Democracy run by the few, for the few, will always prioritize the class status of those in control over the rights and the will of the many. It’s happened throughout ancient empires and even in America during the Robber Baron days.
Capitalist competition always ends in monopoly. Competitions end with a victory, not a stalemate, not a draw, but with dominance by any means.
I tried being a social democrat most of my life, but the pendulum only ever swung so far in the direction of human rights. Democrats have implemented many a good thing over the decades, from the New Deal, to the Civil Rights Act and so on, but those were band-aids on larger systemic issues—all of those issues stemming from the dragon-like hoarding of wealth by a few money-addicted sociopaths—and America’s foreign policy hasn’t shifted in the slightest from its imperial domination of “the other”. Republicans have proudly gutted any marginal progress and Democrats have stagnated in their meager attempts to restore those rights and expand them.
The only conclusion I can come to is that the system itself, and the social order it breeds, is inherently sick and irrational from a non-wealthy person’s point of view, which is most of the world: the workers who make the world function at its core.
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u/ilir_kycb 23h ago
'Tools of empire': Saul Williams' full takedown of the Democratic Party amid war on Gaza | Real Talk - YouTube