I’m not one to post often. I’m not really one to rant to strangers online often, even. But, after migrating from r*ddit to lemmy, I’ve had this on my mind and this seemed like the place to vent.
I see discourse about tankies constantly on Lemmy. This struck me as odd. Why are these so called tankies such a threat? Why do I see people calling themselves left-wing and attacking tankies more voraciously than neoliberals and, sometimes, even fascists?
I think I know the answer, just as well as most people who will read this. These are the Zizeks of the world: people who do indeed think in a left-wing oriented way, but fail to recognise that they’re also Western to the core and the biases that come with that.
I sincerely care about this much less than the actual reason I’m making this post. That is: why don’t these people notice that their talking points, left-oriented as they may seem, always end up supporting US allies or attacking US enemies? I mean, do these people not see that Ukraine winning the war is a boon to the US, regardless of who is “right” in that conflict? Many other such cases, but I think I’ve made my point, or, rather, my confusion, clear.
That’s it. That’s the post.
Even outside the West nationalism should be limited, because it is very easy to overdo and then it destroys proletarian solidarity from within.
Depends on the class-character of the nationalism. There is a distinct difference between proletarian-nationalism and bourgeoise-nationalism. Irish, Palestinian, south american and african comrades all need proletarian-nationalism and display class solidarity with each other’s struggles. It is bourgeoise-nationalism that does not.
There are definitely two different types of nationalism in the historically exploited countries of the periphery.
You can’t really have proletarian nationalism without bourgeois nationalism. Look at Poland, for example, its pre-1917 proletarian nationalists either went full communist or full bourgeois nationalist, because proletarian nationalism is an unstable middle ground that can exist only in very specific conditions.
That’s always going to happen, when the revolution dawns there is always going to be a faction siding with the bourgeoise and a faction siding with the proles and a civil war that breaks out as a result of that. What happened with how Poland has become today is because it integrated into the EU and stopped being hyper exploited part of the periphery.
No, I’m talking about interwar Poland. Piłsudski presented himself as a left-wing nationalist and after Poland regained independence he did more damage to the left than the right could even dream.
Nationalism is dangerous, because it can easily divert significant part of working class for the defense of capitalism.