Look, I actually have to spend my time around Americans. I dislike them probably more than a lot of people who say stuff like in [https://www.reddit.com/r/TankieTheDeprogram/s/eHww4UALHm](this thread). But it’s not out of lack of trying.
But that’s besides the point. No other country’s people gets treated this way. And no, I’m not going to say I’m more oppressed than people in the global south or whatever. In fact a lot of psychological problems result from the fact that I’m privileged to be in the global north.
But Americans are so often…dismissed. That’s the only term i can come up with. But everyone talks about it in such idealist matter. They always talk individuals or idealism or whatever. The closest to material analysis is “the proletariat’s material conditions are closer aligned to the imperialist Bourgeoisie.” But that doesn’t just apply to Americans.
But, look. Why doesn’t any other people get treated this way? Genuinely. I don’t think Stalin sat down and said “well Germany lost a major world war and went through multiple economic crises and still hasn’t had a socialist revolution. So obviously it’s a lost cause, kill all of them.” Japan and South Korea are never treated this way, despite being very arguably in similar boats. And if we want to talk about material conditions, what about Indonesia or Iran or Cambodia or so many other nations? They haven’t had socialist revolutions yet despite their material conditions, so does that mean these people are useless treatlerites too?
I’m sorry. I know, again, we’re in the imperial core, we’re privileged. I don’t know what part of my mentally ill brain it is, but it’s just that the logic completely fails for me and that gives me anxiety, because reasons. Not just that, but the actual oppression of the communist and self determination movements here are also just ignored.
This is a reason why many amerikan Internet communists believe this.
Lots of Internet communists lack discipline/patience etc of being dedicated revolutionaries. They want communists somewhere to be successful but They don’t want to do the extremely difficult task of long term revolutionary organizing, which can take decades to bear fruit, if it ever does. There’s a high chance you will spend time in exile or in prison. And there is never a guarantee of success. Therefore there is a tendency among Amerikan comrades to emphasis the material conditions which make revolutionary organizing difficult in the usa as the reason the Amerikkkan left is inherently useless, and therefore they can justify there spectator-like relationship to politics. They can watch from the side lines and root for the socialists/anti imperialists instead of taking and difficult and dangerous agentic role in politics. (Notably comrades from other countries often do this as well, it’s not solely an American problem)
It is true that the material conditions in the usa do not currently seem conducive to revolution, and that the state of the US revolutionary left is severely underdeveloped to put it politely. However to conclude that the US proletariat/left is entirely useless and should not even try is missing two points. Firstly, we can’t actually tell where revolutions will succeed, least of all decades in advance. Many Bolshevik leaders didn’t think they would live to see a socialist revolution in Russia. If they had given up on the organizing project, concluding that the material conditions were better in Germany or France, there would not have been a Bolshevik revolution in Russia. Secondly, by living in the usa you have many opportunities to disrupt the imperialist war machine, in acts of material solidarity with global anti imperialist forces. Whether or not your organizing actually results in a socialist transformation of the usa (which I hope it does) the opportunity exists to do some serious good.
This part is so so important. People have got to escape doomer/depression thinking about the state of the world; I do not mean that as a “just get better” criticism either. I just mean that it can cause people to see things in a gloomier way than they fully are and feel more pessimistic than is warranted for the situation. Neither pessimism nor blind optimism is something we can afford. The stakes are too high.