Strasserism has been a thing for a while and it has its roots in settler labor unions of the US. The same prejudices that allow nazis to see lgbt+ and bipoc as inferior or inhuman allows white leftists to justify their racism by dressing it up as class warfare because only the workers they identify with are actual workers.
Look at the PatSoc crowd, it’s got real adherents and they’re not particularly sneaky about their Strasserist tendencies. We shouldn’t pretend these are just sockpuppets trying to make communists look bad. Some certainly are, but this is a real current that has to be opposed because if it becomes popular (and it has been popular already, in the US and in Nazi Germany) then it’s not that difficult to pivot to doing the same unspeakable shit but pretend it’s for the good of workers.
And if history has shown us anything, it is that white workers will be enthusiastic.
I mean, I consider some of the current patsoc types to fall under “cosplaying as one to try to fuck things up” or “cosplaying as one to try to capture labor energy under a new brand of fascism, much like Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, etc.” It’s not that I think they’re all internet trolls; more so that this particular one doesn’t read like someone who is sincerely trying to be a communist. Either way, the outcome is much the same, that we have to make it clear what is and isn’t helpful and acceptable.
That said, I can tell you some of the tells of it that makes me think it’s more “total bullshit” than “sincere but wrong”, so that people can consider it for spotting nonsense in the future. 1) It is vacuously academic. It leans heavily into overly formal academic language, as some communists are prone to doing, but doesn’t do meaningful analysis with it. 2) It ends with the unearned “comrades” as if it’s talking to party members it has fought alongside in pitched battle. 3) It uses a lot of “and the rest of the fucking owl” reasoning, jumping around in a racist premise to get to its conclusion. 4) It’s got a username like “Karlkropotkin”. Same energy as “hello fellow kids” but “hello fellow communists, what a marxist day we’re having. Have you read up on kropotkin lately? I have. In fact, I was just doing communist things over in my communally shared place of residence in order to advance the cause of the global proletariat against the bourgeoisie.”
Strasserism has been a thing for a while and it has its roots in settler labor unions of the US. The same prejudices that allow nazis to see lgbt+ and bipoc as inferior or inhuman allows white leftists to justify their racism by dressing it up as class warfare because only the workers they identify with are actual workers.
Look at the PatSoc crowd, it’s got real adherents and they’re not particularly sneaky about their Strasserist tendencies. We shouldn’t pretend these are just sockpuppets trying to make communists look bad. Some certainly are, but this is a real current that has to be opposed because if it becomes popular (and it has been popular already, in the US and in Nazi Germany) then it’s not that difficult to pivot to doing the same unspeakable shit but pretend it’s for the good of workers.
And if history has shown us anything, it is that white workers will be enthusiastic.
I mean, I consider some of the current patsoc types to fall under “cosplaying as one to try to fuck things up” or “cosplaying as one to try to capture labor energy under a new brand of fascism, much like Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, etc.” It’s not that I think they’re all internet trolls; more so that this particular one doesn’t read like someone who is sincerely trying to be a communist. Either way, the outcome is much the same, that we have to make it clear what is and isn’t helpful and acceptable.
That said, I can tell you some of the tells of it that makes me think it’s more “total bullshit” than “sincere but wrong”, so that people can consider it for spotting nonsense in the future. 1) It is vacuously academic. It leans heavily into overly formal academic language, as some communists are prone to doing, but doesn’t do meaningful analysis with it. 2) It ends with the unearned “comrades” as if it’s talking to party members it has fought alongside in pitched battle. 3) It uses a lot of “and the rest of the fucking owl” reasoning, jumping around in a racist premise to get to its conclusion. 4) It’s got a username like “Karlkropotkin”. Same energy as “hello fellow kids” but “hello fellow communists, what a marxist day we’re having. Have you read up on kropotkin lately? I have. In fact, I was just doing communist things over in my communally shared place of residence in order to advance the cause of the global proletariat against the bourgeoisie.”