[Caution, leftist infighting/snide remarks below]
spoiler
I’m confused, doesn’t worsening material conditions count as political utility in his eyes?
Edit:I normally wouldn’t have an issue, since it’s actually pretty sane, but I literally thought to myself today “it would be funny if BE said Kirk’s death was a bad thing because adventurism will make things worse.” I was joking. I’m starting to hypothosize that economists [both accelerationist and reformists] are actually simps for the status quo
Man BE is on a streak of bad takes lately its kinda sad.
I dont understand this position. Does anyone really think the far right just, wasnt going to do anything before? Like they were waiting for something like this to happen? As if Trump wasnt already deploying the national guard in major cities? Like come on, the ruling class does not act out of petty revenge, and by this logic there is no actual action communists can take because anything can serve to provoke the far right.
And werent people saying this same thing about Trumps failed assassination last year? And nothing happened
Too many Americans are scared of things changing and want to just put the blame on whatever. They want to cling to the idea that the path we are on could somehow be avoided if X Y or Z didnt happen. If this event somehow changes what you think the future holds then you havent been paying attention.
It’s funny because the dudes a hardcore accelerationist when he talks about the west burning but then when things accelerate and he isn’t the one making all the comments he gets stuck up his own ass about it. At this point his ideology isn’t communism, it’s his own ego. He HAS to be contrarian to let us all know how dumb we are and how smart he is.
He more or less confirmed that explicitly.
Its sad but true. Hes gotta be a contrarian. He went from making high effort content of genuine academic quality in terms of research and analysis to just being against what everyone else is. I still think he has some good things to say every now and then but he took the ragebait too far and thats 90% of his politics now
It’s not that they weren’t going to do anything before. It’s that this lets them say “You see? I told you the left is out of control! They attacked us for no reason”. It solidifies the position. It gives them stronger grounds to do what they planned to regardless.
This is a completely unmaterialist take. This has absolutely 0 material effect on the situation. Stronger grounds to do what they wanted in the eyes of whom? Libs who werent gonna do shit either way? Conservative who were gonna eat up whatever they say regardless? Genuinely what is materially affected? This is a position based on the vibes of what sounds like should be true, not a realistic material analysis of the situation
Unmaterialist?
Yep, its based on a vibe or the idea of ‘solidifying their position’ when there is absolutely no material gain the right has from this, if anything they lost one of their main propagandists (which granted is only an issue for them in the short term, if even that). Their position is not ‘solidified’ and their grounds are not ‘stronger,’ the resources at their disposal, the propaganda they wield, and the industry they command is the same regardless if this guy is dead or alive. Hell Trump, Vance, Shapiro, everyone on the far right could die tonight and it would not significantly strengthen or weaken their long term political power, it would only cause short term confusion
Your position is solely based on vibes of what sounds like should be correct. This is something people implicitly accept as true without any critical thinking. It feels correct, its what everyone else is saying, and it aligns with how historical development is traditionally understood so it checks off the bias box as well. But make no mistake, this is an idealist view of the world. You absolutely cannot strengthen material power and material goals through ideals alone. Rhetoric does not create material power.
But lets just say that yes, youre correct. That his death really will somehow strengthen the far right overnight (as if they didnt already have the backing of the bourgeoisie with little challenge) and werent already deploying the national guard to major cities. Lets say such a thing not only is possible but even significantly beneficial to the far right as you describe. Would they not just orchestrate a similar event themselves to create the justification anyway? If they really needed it then theyd just do that. Ergo, Kirks death means nothing, because otherwise it wouldve been someone else and the outcome is identical. Because this was the trajectory regardless, and no ideals, rhetoric, sense of petty revenge can change that. No one man can change that by being dead or alive.
Your take is fairly unmaterialist and ignores class struggle in favor of individualism and vibe based idealism
They were always going to do that anyway, in the absence of a real event they would have made some shit up
Isn’t this more credible than some qanon shit? After all, we are talking about it too
Doesn’t matter at all whether it’s credible, they will do exactly what they were always planning to do
You’ll have to run that back for me. Are you saying the political aparatus is so powerful it can do whatever it wants with equal effectiveness of method? Or the public across the board being so stupid it doesn’t make a difference whether something is real or not? Or something else?
I assume this. In the end the yugoslav civil war didnt start because a random dude lied about putting a bottle up his bum.
Yes
If they really needed it, they wouldve staged a shooting of this caliber. Theyve done it before and theyll do it again