"You can't resist for very long a truth you discover for yourself."
Joined February 2011
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4 May 2025
Whether I'll ever write again remains uncertain, but meanwhile I'm seeing where this other road takes me.
youtube.com/watch?v=Zk3rGYwm…
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Roderic Day retweeted
One comparison might be to major scientific debates of the past and present, which often had "figureheads".
Bohr vs Einstein (quantum mechanics), Hoyle vs Gamow (fate of universe), Poincare vs Russell (logicism), etc.
Of course, Stalin vs Trotsky had real human casualties.
Olgin and Losurdo (among others) have both written well about why this disagreement remains relevant: Stalin and Trotsky are historical "avatars" for different constituencies.
I'd concede that centering their names confuses more than clarifies, but who's got a good alternative?
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Olgin and Losurdo (among others) have both written well about why this disagreement remains relevant: Stalin and Trotsky are historical "avatars" for different constituencies.
I'd concede that centering their names confuses more than clarifies, but who's got a good alternative?
It's fascinating that two men fighting over a long dead revolution 100 years ago still infects people's thinking to the point were everything has to be divided into Stalinist or Trotskyite.
Both Trots and MLs conceptualize anyone they disagree with as part of the other camp.
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Sure, any idiot can jump into the communist scene and stay "Gosh you guys stop fighting!!!" but it's honestly about as mature and serious as those idiots who keep calling on Palestinians and "Israelis" to "make peace together."
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Nobody should cater to obnoxious idiots who barely delve into a space and immediately demand everyone change how they do things to make them more comfortable.
Serious people learn why a discussion is taking place, take sides, and help conclude it.
See e.g. Lu Xun, Ho Chi Minh:
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While communists work towards social and intellectual cohesion, anarchists instead just "individually" express completely contradictory beliefs, and reject any duty to explain or curate their community.
Thus anarchists are free from responsibility, but also free from power.
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"Ugh communists are so sectarian, always fighting over who counts as a communist…"
Yeah, sorry, but labels are important.
If doctors didn't carefully police who gets to call themselves a doctor, then calling oneself a doctor would lose meaning and social utility.
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This is all detailed very beautifully and respectfully in one of the absolute best texts on @RedSailsOrg, Ann Robertson's essay on Marx and Bakunin's incredibly deep and consequential philosophical differences.
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Jun 13
I've been thinking a bit about the post I quoted, and some of the replies and QRTs my post then got.
I've got clear-ish stances on anarchists, tailists (ACP), weaklings (DSA), fanatics (MLM), Hudsonites, etc.
But about these niche micro-tendency Marxier-than-thou hipsters?
Jun 10
Marx would never give instruction as idiotic as "Abolish the commodity form!" because it's wildly metaphysical, akin to "Advance history further!"
Marx in fact acidly ripped into writers who made such bombastic claims, and always gave priority to studying reality over pleading.
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Jun 13
So, my preferred attitude to the niche micro-tendencies is… just to ignore them.
They don't usually survive outside of university, because "being into Debord" stops being cool social currency.
Twitter pseudonymity obscures the fact that that's what you're dealing with.
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Jun 13
But some of them are sharp and maybe they'll have good contributions to make in maturity. Good luck to them and us all I suppose!
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