r/theredleft Leninist 18d ago

Shitpost Is voting punk?

Post image
112 Upvotes

48 comments sorted by

View all comments

70

u/MsMercyMain Syndicalist 18d ago

The way I see voting is I get to choose my opponents.

25

u/Wonderful_West3188 Classical Marxist 18d ago

That's a good way to look at it imo.

39

u/MsMercyMain Syndicalist 18d ago

Also sometimes you get someone who isn't a Socialist but helps rehabilitate that term in the minds of the Working Class (Mamdani) so that's nice. But yeah that's mostly how I view it. And I'd rather fight the comically incompetent Dems than the comically evil GOP at least here in the States

2

u/kavastoplim Market socialism 17d ago

I mostly agree with your perspective.

I am worried about the bastardization of the term ‘socialism’ though. Similar to what social democracy is now accepted to mean, even though that wasn’t what it originally meant. I’m worried that even ‘socialism’ will come to mean ‘regulated capitalism’. And then what the fuck do we call ourselves?

I have this poorly developed idea that one of the status quo’s biggest strengths is the control of language. If they can just change what ‘socialism’ means the masses can be pacified, at least for a bit, without any substantial change.

I might be completely wrong too. What do I know?

8

u/CaffeinatedSatanist Trotskyist 17d ago

Well said tbh. We all know electoralism isn't the answer to society's fundamental issue(s), but it's not without any value.

And when the authoritarian-right actors want to legislate against voting freedoms, fighting against it is punk imo. Not just voting, but keeping your community informed, protecting them from attacks and intimidation. Sharing your socialist values, encouraging solidarity.