Pragmatic Leftist Theory

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The neolibs are too far right. The tankies are doing whatever that is. Where's the space for the people who want fully-automated-luxury-gay-space-communism, but realize that it's gonna take a while and there are lots of steps between now and then? Here. This is that space.

Here, people should endeavor to discuss and devise practical, actionable leftist action. Vote lesser evil while you build grassroots coalitions. Unionize your workplace. Participate in SRAs. Build cohesion your local community. Educate the proletariat.

This is a place for practical people to develop practical plans to implement stable, incremental improvement.

If you're dead-set on drumming up all 18,453 True Leftists® into spontaneous Revolution, go somewhere else. The grown ups are talking.

Rules:

-1. Don't be a dick. Racism, sexism, other assorted bigotries, you know the drill. At least try to default to mutually respectful discussion. We're all on the same side here, unless you aren't, in which case kindly leave.

-2. Don't be a tankie. Yes I'm sure you have an extensive knowledge of century-old theory. There's been a century of history since then. Things didn't shake out as expected, maybe consider the possibility that a different angle of attack might be more effective in light of new data.

-3. Be practical. No one on the left benefits from counterproductive actions. This is a space informed by, not enslaved to, ideology. Promoting actions that are fundamentally untenable in the system in question, because they fulfill a sense of ideological purity, is a bad look. Don't do that.

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agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works

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submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works to c/PLT@sh.itjust.works

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You know it, you hate it, it's the electoral system of the United States! It's also one of the main reasons I created this instance.

You see a lot of people out there telling you to vote third party in close elections, or show your disdain for all the options by not voting. That's dumb. Like, really dumb.

There is no secret mechanism in first-past-the-post elections that tells a party why you didn't vote for them. All that matters at the end of election night is who got enough votes to win. Sometimes that's abstracted through the mechanism of the electoral college, but the principle is unchanged.

We all know the Democratic party sucks. We've got bigger fish to fry, namely the Republican party. There isn't a single issue that Republicans are better than Democrats on, and there isn't a single issue on which the Democrats are worse than the Republicans. FPTP yields a binary choice.

Even just strategizing about which party would be more convenient to fight against, I'd rather be fighting a Democratic administration for workers rights than a Republican one.

The only argument in favor of long-shot third party voting, the federal campaign financing for parties that meet some minimum threshold, is frankly unnecessary in the information age. A truly popular candidate can drum up support from social media for basically free. Whatever pittance you could possibly get by meeting that threshold is not really significant, and certainly not worth risking a Republican win.

Vote in every election. Support leftists in local elections. Random no-name candidates don't win major elections. Vote left for City Council, School Board, Comptroller, all those boring offices that give candidates the opportunity to demonstrate their policies and generate support for higher office. Campaign for leftists in lower office. If there are no leftists on the ballot, run yourself.

We can't keep complaining about not being represented if we don't put in the work to gain that representation. Also, vote in your damn primaries. Primary turnout is abysmal, and still people complain about their candidates. Organize, get out the vote.

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[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago

Would you care to elaborate?