on the american left's love affair with failure

[solarbird]

Alexander Reid Ross 🌻 · 10:48 PM · Oct 13, 2022:

[Ukraine is] sort of a 1956 moment for the left... Either support those defending against belligerent invasion from an imperialist power or gtfo

I am staggered by how completely so much of the left has blown this moment, both in lining up with the overtly imperialist authoritarian whose self-proclaimed fascists architected this war, and in missing the raw political opportunity offered them on a goddamn. silver. platter.

I mean... all they had to do was look at the reactionary authoritarian whose regime extinguished democratic elections, routinely jails or assassinates political opponents, legalised domestic abuse (YES REALLY), REALLY hates the queers, and who launched an explicit war of conquest and genocide against a small neighbour whose territorial integrity they guaranteed in exchange for surrendering their nukes, and NOT go, "oh man, he's definitely our guy!"

IT'S NOT A HARD CALL.

But they blew it!

There are leftists who didn't blow it. I'm QTing one who absolutely didn't! I hope they're the future of the US left, because WE NEED ONE FOR REALS KIDS. But NOT the tankie clowncar making most of the noise.

At least they're cleanly sorting themselves apart.

Seriously this is a great guide for the future. "Were they FOR or AGAINST the extermination of Ukrainians?"

Very simple test! Very straightforward answers! Really, really rare in politics, too. Convenient.

And staggeringly appalling.

Alexander references '56; I can definitely see that. But to me, this is worse. This is '39-40, the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and the would-be partition of P/o/l/a/n/d/ Ukraine.

Putin has rehabilitated Stalin and wants to restore his empire. You're either for that or you're not.

And before you accuse me of trying to turn this into a low-resolution rerun of World War II, I strongly advise you go look at what Putin has been saying, in his own goddamn words.

Because that's what he wants it to be, domestically, and is not afraid to say so. Only he's the one quoting Hitler without irony, and it's his architect of policy who went around saying the only thing wrong with Nazi Fascism is that it was Germans doing it, and not Russians.

And they picked this guy as their hero.

Christ.

Just imagine if they hadn't been this fucking stupid. This fucking dumb. Oh my god the opportunity here.

Being actually anti-imperialist, loud and in front, actually opposing an actual forthright war of conquest by a country which explicitly wants to restore an empire they lost and exterminate a culture... with EVERYONE EXCEPT OUR HOMEGROWN FASCISTS AGREEING WITH YOU.

For the first time in their political lives, everyone except our own fascists actually might want to hear what else they had to say.

The opportunities lost. My gods. The opportunities lost.

But now, no, they're the tankie magat wanna-bes in bed with Putin and spouting nonsense to support imperial religious wars against queers, women, and self-determination, and for bonus points, you can be damn sure nobody's gonna give up their nukes ever again after this.

I've said more times than I can count that the American left is in love with failure. Not all of it, but a lot of it. Success is anathema to so many of them.

This also shows up in condemning imperfect successes and flat-out blunt refusal to celebrate ANY wins of ANY kind.

This opportunity is SO clear and SO obvious I have a hard time seeing missing it as anything less than a combination of puritanical dogmatism ("the US / west is ALWAYS the worst actor") and out-and-out self-sabotage.

These last couple of years have kinda driven it home to me. "In love with failure" started as a quip, turned into a hypothesis, and as far as I'm concerned, it's now a pretty robust theory.

They're in love with failure, because successes are always imperfect and incomplete and therefore not successes and celebrating them is selling out.

But failure - oh, sweet failure - shows purity was retained.

And so, they cannot let it go.

And that... that is one hell of a political pathology.

Comments

[dewline]

...yeah.

No dissent against any of this. None.

Sidebar: I think there are factions within the Canadian left may be of the same mindset. Others that are dangerously close to "centrist", as well.

[solarbird]

There are. And it's widespread in New Zealand, as well. I have contact there. I wanted to limit my specific analysis to the US, but as far as I can tell, it's throughout the anglosphere.

[gwydion]

I do not understand how anyone can look at the Russian War on Ukraine and not see a clear case of right and wrong, and yet here we are.

[solarbird]

I think it started with some very wrong lessons from Bush II's war against Iraq. To grab the relevant parts from that Twitter thread:

All governments lie in their national interests. Some prefer to avoid it when they can. Others do not care one way ora nother. Some prefer to lie - to enrich the mix, one might say.

So the lesson is not "the US always lies, everyone else doesn't."

The lesson is, "the actual facts on the actual ground are what matter."

That sounds obvious, and it, it is so clearly not...

...as the facts on the ground so clearly tell us.

[gwydion]

It makes me tired, though not as tired as the Ukrainians are right now, obviously.

[talkswithwind]

This poked a hole in my information bubble, because I wasn't aware there were lefties somehow advocating for partition. I knew damn well there were rightists who were, goes with getting significant funding from the aggressor.

And yeah, this isn't a 1956 situation. It's a continuation of the 1930s bullshit we've been living with for the last six years.

[solarbird]

Look up "red-brown convergence" and tankies.

[kevin_standlee]

Exactly right. People have to remember that the perfect is the enemy of the good, and being unwilling to accept any wins because they aren't 100% is a great way to end up with nothing at all.