To defeat the state, we in the core of imperialism need to make U.S. hegemony too weakened for our ruling class to be able to use it to hold back revolution. And to cripple the beast by attacking it from within its heart, we need to take away the social base Washington depends on to be able to maintain its global war machine; that social base being the U.S. working class.
Ok, this was a good response. I’ll take your word for it and give Becker and PSL the benefit of the doubt on this one, because i had previously only heard good things from them in the past. I still think Shea gets an unfairly bad rap on this site and for the life of me i can’t understand why.
We’re telling you why. It’s because he’s lying through his fucking teeth in a way that requires him to deeply understand what he’s doing.
I’m not sure how you conclude that he is lying. He may simply be overly critical and have picked up on something that was not meant that way. He’s not even saying that you shouldn’t support PSL, he is just critical of this one thing they said. I’m sure he has a bias, it’s clear he thinks PCUSA is a more preferable organization that has a better position on the Russia issue. But i don’t see where he is deliberately lying. You’re being just as uncharitable toward him as he is toward Becker. For my part i remain unconvinced that either of them are acting in bad faith, i think they are both hostage to their own biases, as we all are.
Rainer literally interprets Becker’s critical support across MULTIPLE sources of Becker’s words as anti-Russian sentiment. If anyone listens to Becker’s words across multiple sources, it’s clear that he’s not anti-Russian despite critiquing Russia as not socialist, which is accurate. But then Rainer goes on to find Becker’s words of support for anti-imperialism, which are no doubt inclusive of Becker’s words establishing pretty clearly that Russia is not an imperialist power, and instead of revising his understanding he literally accuses Becker of being inconsistent in his position and being self-contradictory.
Now, if it were you, a normal every day person who hasn’t been doing political analysis in the public sphere for 5 years like Rainer has, and you found some milquetoast critique of Russia as not socialist, some demuring that multipolarity is not enough on its own, and some anti-war sentiment, you could be excused for thinking that the speaker was maybe not to your political liking. But then, if you find more words by that person that absolutely support your political position, you might think “hmm, maybe I was wrong about this person” and maybe you’d listen to them more and learn more about their position.
Rainer, on the other hand, has been writing hit pieces against Becker and the PSL for months now, if not longer. He clearly has listened to more of their content than you have, and when he specifically selects, in some cases omits words from his selections of quotations, cuts quotations short, and recontextualizes them and editorializes off them, and then he comes across words that contradict his interpretation, he doubles down and accuses them of being inconsistent and self-contradictory.
It would be fucking hilariously hamfisted propaganda if people like you, who I’ve never had issue with, are actually considering that maybe he’s just a little biased perhaps. It’s honestly too much. Please, just listen to Becker’s podcast, specifically select only the Ukraine episodes to keep it short. Listen to them on 1.35 speed. Skip the parts about other topics. It’s not that hard to show how much of a snake Rainer is being here.
I used to listen to Becker’s program but i will admit i have let it slide somewhat since the Russia conflict started. That’s why i was so surprised to read this from Rainer because it wasn’t what i was expecting. I don’t know what Rainer’s motivation is but i will take your advice and be more critical when reading his attacks on other leftists. I still think he is correct on what he writes about supporting Russia, but he does seem to have a bit too much of an axe to grind with other leftists. Maybe it’s because drama gets good engagement on social media. But that kind of thing is not to my liking, i think the more active leftist orgs we have the better, even if some of them are imperfect and sometimes skew too far toward either right opportunism or ultra leftism.
Thank you for taking the time to write actual responses and educate me instead of just dismissing me like some others have done here.