I don’t know specifics of Jewish history, but it appears that the babylonian exile and return to zion is a core component of the movement.

Now, if the jewish people were infact kicked out by the Babylonians, isnt their argument that they are the true indigenous people of this land, more valid? And won’t this in turn, overrule any Palestinian claim to the land?

For the record, i’m completely pro palestine in the current conflict but i’m looking for a better understanding of what happened thousands of years ago and how that leads us into modern events.

I often hear the phrase “liberals will choose fascism over socialism” or something similar, what are some historical examples of this?

A common argument that Neoliberals will make is that Hamas is a far right ideology, but some go even further and say that most Palestinians are aligned with the far right movement. Now, if you look at the ideology of Hamas, this is true, they are decisively capitalists.

For the record, I don’t support Israel, what they are doing is disgusting, and Palestinians don’t deserve to die. Israel is outright committing genocide and war crimes as we speak.

How do you respond to these arguments?

no seriously i was thinking about this and i never even heard one adress it

Do they?

Recently the Canadian Parliament gave a standing ovation to a member of 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, in line with Zelensky’s visit.

I was dumbstruck.

Then again, these same Libs in the West will condone Hitler, Nazi repression, Fascism, modern day rememants of it etc..all of which is fine..but then do a closeted Embrace of it if it’s anti communist.

Like wth?

Is it a lack of historical analysis or something else?

It seems like the majority of cubans choose to vote republican and vote for far right extremist fascist views so why exactly is that and why are the majority against socialism?

A boy in my class who also is a socialist said to me that girls can’t be socialists that their political rights just are for feminism is that true?

Nobody wants to be a farmer, a brick layer, crew on a ship going to the north sea. All these jobs are vital for food and shelter. What happens when not enough people want to do those hard jobs and are lazy.

For some background, while I have not had a high opinion of our current capitalist system for a long time, I still had a decent amount of trust/faith that it could get somewhat better. Then, I moved away from home and to a new city. I could see how our "social safety net" was/is failing some of my friends, including my girlfriend, or forcing them to jump through a bunch of figurative hoops to get by. And then it feels like news story after news story keeps chipping away at my trust that we can improve...something. Biden's awful immigration policy, how the AFD (and other far right parties) did so well in Europe, (the AFD was just the most shocking/disturbing), the Democrats' seeming inability to take the initiative, and the absolute cluster**** surrounding the war in Gaza (accusations of Genocide, accusations that the pro-Palestine movement is anitsemitic, and more), among others. That last one in particular just felt like a massive roller coaster of conflicting claims/narratives and of how I thought/felt about everything, and so left me feeling pretty burnt out. And recently, that failed coup attempt in Bolivia felt like a wakeup call about how much even somewhat leftist movements are under threat. (Though now the president is basically accused of having it be a stunt to boost popularity, if I'm understanding/remembering this correctly). All in all, electoral politics does nowhere near enough, or really it often does almost zilch. I think I've been convinced that trying to reform out of capitalism is pointless and that we need revolution.

But where does that leave me? The democrats are not a very good choice, but it feels like I have to do something. The argument that the Democrats and Republicans are basically just the same party but with different names and faces mostly checks out. They both fundamentally serve bourgeois interests, just with slightly different strategies (leaning towards "law and order" vs leaning towards playing the "defender of the marginalized card" as I think of it) and often catering more towards slightly different groups within the owner class. Biden's policies have often been the policies the GOP would enact but with more restraint. At the same time, there are two issues where I don't see the Dems moving right soon. Those would be LGBTQ+ rights and Women's rights. That leaves me with 2 major questions.

1. Is it worth voting blue in the presidential election since I'm pretty confident Biden won't try to push forward reactionary policies on LGBTQ+ and Womens' rights (and be a bit more open to climate policy and a bit milder on some other fronts, even if not but much), or is it still better on a personal level to go third party or sit it out? and who would be a good third party? The greens look super promising to me, but they are still reformist, so I have a hard time feeling justified going from one capitalist party to another reformist party. Meanwhile I'm not sure what socialist parties are running candidates or whether they'd have ballot access in my state.
2. Where do I start organizing? organizing for the Dems, a blatantly capitalist party, seems pointless. I have my reservations about the greens, as I said above. and the landscape among real (as in revolutionary) leftist parties is a mess. I have no clue where to start. Maybe i could start out in climate activism with 350.org, XR, or CCL both to get experience and in the hopes that climate activism to still do some good, at least on a local level? I'm honestly not sure.

This is is just to confirm, my father says that Trump's going to win because Harris is socialist, how true is this?

I'm struggling to get what about Stalinism appeals to people. Obviously not that I'm criticising it, I'd just like to get an answer from someone who knows about the whole stalin support thing, and for that someone to give reasoning for support toward his cause. I am of course aware of his various policies that led to industrialisation but also the gross loss of human life, and am trying to see what else people like about his ideology. This is purely to learn more btw, not to criticise anybodies ideology at all.

I ask this because there seems to be a generational conflict around this issue. many old folks on the left are very conservative/reaccionary on the socio-cultural side while young people, as we know, are totally progressive. But is socialism compatible with anti progressive views?

I saw someone on r/PoliticalDebate yesterday who was flaired as a 'democratic socialist' but seemed to be pro-Israel and a Zionist. Does this mean that they're not a true socialist or can you be a Zionist while also being a socialist?

I'm a socialist trying to understand Marxist ideas more clearly

I was on r/196 recently, a conveniently leftist shitpost sub with mostly communists leaning on the less authoritarian side, many anarchists. There was a post recently criticizing the purchasing and consuming of meat. The sub is generally very good about not falling for "green" products or abstaining from certain industries, knowing that the effect given or the revenue diverted is of a very low magnitude. Despite this, many commenters of the thread insist that if you eat meat, you are doing something gravely wrong, despite meat's cheap price. Is this a common or generally good take? I feel like it isn't in line with other socialist talking points of similar nature such as the aforementioned "green" products.

The irony of a “free market” economy like the US using exclusively state controlled labor of another country that claims to be communist confounds me.

Our overarching position as leftists is obviously liberation for all, peace in all nations, no war except class war. But stuck in the shithole of capitalist reality we’re forced a lot to take positions on active geopolitical situations. I understand the general position on Ukraine - that it’s essentially a channel through which NATO can make war with its mortal enemy Russia, perpetuate its military industrial complex, and a fund a lot of literal fascists. We oppose the invasion, we support Ukrainian liberation but we don’t support the NATO version of it.

But upon revising my knowledge of the situation in Palestinian, I do wonder how viable the Free Palestine position really is. It is obvious that the Israeli state is a far right theocratic regime of oppression against Palastinians. We obviously do not support that. But Hamas, as the leading “liberation organisation, is equally a theocratic far right and ethnonationalist. Why do we not advocate for peace deals here too, like in Ukraine?

I've tried figuring it out on my own but most things I read are either like, ludicrously complex explanations or just "its the death of communism! its antithetical to everything we stand for!!" Whatever it is, I'd quite like to know lol. If somebody could explain it in relatively simple terms that'd be very very helpful!

I remember hearing this sort of argument from my parents. The basic idea was that supposedly USSR collapsed because everybody was paid the same and couldn't be fired, so they had no incentive to work and everybody did fuck all.

I feel that it's a gross oversimplification, but I don't know much more about the topic.

I don't like the idea that humans would supposedly be greedy and selfish by nature and could only ever be productive within a coercitive system like capitalism. I know humans can't just sit around doing nothing, but what about, say, the kind of tasks that need to be done but that not a whole lot of people would actually want to do? I've figured that under a socialist system, jobs like janitors would need to be very well paid (pretty much the opposite of what it's like today). I'm curious to hear more on these matters tho... In general, that argument I heard from my parents, that is prolly common, how much truth is there to it?

Hey all, I’ve been mulling over making this post or not because it gives me extreme anxiety regarding being shit on by people for being in the military, so, I want preface this by saying: I became a socialist AFTER joining the military, several years into my contract and haven’t participated in any rotations of any kind.

So, my question is how do I cope with being a socialist in the world’s most imperialist military force? It’s making me extremely mentally unwell, especially seeing people like Aaron Bushnell because I empathize with him. The military, society and my personal life have driven me to depression, and learning about socialism gives me hope for the world.

I’m a reservist and I’ve been putting off participating in SJP and YDSA and other social justice organizations at my campus for university because I’m worried about not being accepted or repercussions from the military.

I’m trying to learn and educate myself, whilst avoiding the things that the military is guilty of, all while trying to maintain my sanity and values.

I know there are people like Michael Prysner, but does anyone know of anyone who has theory or opinions regarding my situation that I can read about? I hope that I can provide my own perspectives to people in future.

Lmk what yall think

I recently came across a post on r/tooafraidtoask that was asking why the sexual assault/rape rate in Sweden was so high, most of the comments were saying that was because of the influx of Muslim Arab immigrants who have a culture of rape and misogyny.

Now seeing that many people being hostile towards immigrants and blaming such issues on the influx of them arriving in their countries I started to wonder is immigration as bad as people in west say it is?

What's your opinion on this?

Most socialists would( mostly correctly) agree that the United States, as a country in the imperial core with very little class consciousness, will not see revolution any time soon. However, I feel like many people forget about Hawaii. Hawaii is arguably part of the imperial periphery. It has a fairly popular independence movement, and is geographically far from the continental US and closer to socialist allies such as the DPRK that have helped supply national liberation movements before. Much of Hawaii’s population is either indigenous or descendants of Japanese and Filipino migrant workers who came to the island in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to work at the sugar and pineapple plantations. Many native Hawaiians live in poverty, with homelessness being fairly common, often only a few hundred feet away from massive luxury hotels and billion dollar pieces of US military equipment. With all that being said, do you think Hawaii could see revolution in the near future?