Only a 6 minute video and he managed to fit in:
- Chavez and Maduro betraying the revolution and not building socialism,
- Maduro outlawing “the actual communists”,
- Venezuela supposedly never took any serious steps to diversify its economy from oil,
- Russian and Chinese imperialism,
- Some big bourgeoisie are “puppets of China and Russia”,
- Russian imperialism in Ukraine,
- China debt-trapping Venezuela.
His conclusion: “we should not advocate for return of Maduro to power”.
He also managed to confuse the separate events of the US striking the fishing boats and the US pirating the oil tankers arriving at “these boats were supposedly transporting drugs while many were in reality obviously oil tankers going to Cuba” as if he didn’t pay any attention before and did some last-minute research before making the video.
Update: I had a brief interaction with Finbol. He not only views Venezuela and China as capitalist, but even Cuba as well, which he linked me to Maoist articles to argue why. He’s definitely gone off the deep end into ultraleftism. I initially was inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt but after realizing he even claims Cuba is capitalist I realize he has definitely too far gone.
It’s mindboggling. Even if China and all those countries are indeed the most capitalist countries in the world, they are not the ones actively engaged in an open global crusade against anything and anyone leftist to the point of invading countries left and right. It would be like arguing that the USSR should declare war on the Western capitalist powers during the middle of Operation Barbarossa, and that’s with granting the ultras such a comparison.
Just saying 🤷
My biggest criticism was the whole
[they] never took any serious steps to establish a proletarian power or socialism
He doesn’t address the steps they took and show why they were not “serious” to him, he just claims they aren’t.
Not only did Chavez nationalize many industries, but he established communal councils throughout the country. These communal councils receive funds from the state enterprises and the right to decide how to distribute them into the community. They are also armed.
This significantly extends proletarian power because it means that Venezuela’s government is not just the party but an enormous network of armed communal councils throughout the country that directly have material interests in supporting the government and the state-owned enterprises because they directly receive financial support from the government.
That is something people often miss in the propaganda that paints Venezuela as if it was entirely ran by Maduro personally. If you topple the president, PSUV will just elect a new president. If you topple PSUV, then now you will still have to deal with the sea of communal councils throughout the whole country that are all armed and aligned with Chavismo.
Maduro also did a good job in consolidating power on the national level as well, something Chavez did not accomplish before he died and is where Allende failed. Allende also expanded grassroots participation with his industrial belts, but did not consolidate power on the national level so he was constantly fighting with the other parties and eventually overthrown. The fact Maduro got through maybe the most difficult step we would expect from a reformist approach is very impressive.
I am sure there are economic criticisms we can make of them like the economy not being great and not being diverse enough, but given they are under brutal sanctions it is hard to really expect much. The claim that not achieving wealth or diversity is proof a country is not socialist is also the same argument Maoists use against Cuba, but it’s just a bad argument because diversifying is hard without a lot of money and external investments which sanctioned countries don’t have access to.
I am sure there are economic criticisms we can make of them like the economy not being great and not being diverse enough, but given they are under brutal sanctions it is hard to really expect much. The claim that not achieving wealth or diversity is proof a country is not socialist is also the same argument Maoists use against Cuba, but it’s just a bad argument because diversifying is hard without a lot of money and external investments which sanctioned countries don’t have access to.
Venezuela did diversify. For example, its communes developed agricultural cooperatives in order to achieve food self-sufficiency. However more complex industries like pharmaceuticals, green energy, automobiles, etc can’t be built overnight. We are not talking about 19th century standards of industry, 21st century industry is infinitely more complex. Venezuela didn’t have an opportunity to absorb Western tech like China did.
What a great comment! Thank you for investigating Venezuela and for describing the enormous achievements of the Venezuelan gov’t.
The claim that not achieving wealth or diversity is proof a country is not socialist is also the same argument Maoists use against Cuba
But of course, if you do achieve wealth and diversity, it’s because you betrayed the Revolution and became capitalist. It’s Parenti’s unfalsifiable orthodoxy, but applied in reverse.
I’m tired of typing “another huge L for Western Marxist”
Your biggest mistake was trusting a western leftist. Same with Torkil Lauessen, no matter how much Hakim likes him.
I wasn’t watching him. What’s wrong with the Torkil Lauesen? I don’t know him but Hakim recommended his books and was planning to read them.
Thanks a lot! Comrade Hakim recommend me that book and I’m happy to discard it from my list!
Insane how one of the better leftist YouTubers just went hasan mode. I had watched him for like 10+ years. Anyways sadly its the norm in euroleft circles.
I think he’s less Hasan and more black redguard/onedime. He’s not going “ohh we don’t like Maduro cause otherwise liberals will dismiss us.” Hes just a Maoist.
Yep, I find bringing up Hasan Here quite weird. Not to make it a Hasan struggle session, but I’m pretty sure he has the more correct position on every single of the points.
Anyways sadly its the norm in euroleft circles.
Sadly true. Probably exacerbated by the fact that it’s Finland… Even the communists in Finland can’t fully escape the liberal brainworms.
The defeat of the Red Finns are a disaster for Finland.
Losurdo being right once again.
What is happening to Western Marxist? As if, we went back to cold war times to repeat the western marxism rhetoric
For every Second Thought there are 50 Vaushs.
Sad, but true. It’s an uphill battle in the West more than anywhere else.
In the Global south Marxism they’re not have to deal with this. They’re not buying Trots and libshit arguments since they’re not benefiting from the system. But, this creates a reactionaries and patsoc movements.
I stop watching him when I hear he mentioned Russian imperialism.
Umm no idea who that guy is but the shit he’s saying might be insulting to leftcoms.
He was also canceled for having weird relations to a minor on discord
deleted by creator
An Imgur link was detected in your comment. Here are links to the same location on alternative frontends that protect your privacy.
I stopped taking his modern views seriously after his stuff with Syria.
I think honestly him and a lot of people who do work like him are just…stuck in the past. It sucks, honestly, because of how important connecting those topics of history to present day circumstances is. But unfortunately people like him, onedime, just get stuck back there for some goddamn reason.
Wait, what’s wrong with 1Dime?
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On second thought, perhaps he shouldn’t be placed as a “Maoist.” Honestly he’s very vague on what his ideological throughline is, but it’s not Maoism.
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He’s not the worst person ever, I should point out. I wouldn’t trust him too much, but he’s certainly better than a lot of people
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1dime is a bit of an idealist sometimes [which might explain the lack of ideological throughline.] For example, his video on the cultural revolution handwaved away explanations about how certain structures would be good beyond them sounding socialist.
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He tries to do that thing that western leftists do where they try to make a direct ideological connection between enlightenment thinkers [Nietchze, Voltaire, etc.] And marxist ones [directly or indirectly saying marxism is a continuation of the enlightenment]. This, in my opinion at least, is a very baby leftist take that I struggled with in my first years. It’s not a horrible thing to think necessarily, but 1dime has obviously been a marxist for longer than I have, so it’s concerning he is making what is quite literally a Vaush level take at this point.
5.Speaking of Vaush level takes, he believes China is imperialist and capitalist, says there’s a genocide(?) In xinjiang and that the CPC is using “Bush Era tactics” on Uygers [I for one wish I got the same treatment as Uygers in China, considering they have gotten more prosperous], constantly plainly throws out bangers like “Stalin had dictatorial power and called all of his opponents Kulaks” (note: he doesn’t actually try to argue this, he simply throws this out as a truism. This is one of the reasons i get a little angry with him, as truisims like that are my least favorite form of argumentation), and other such things you can find on his Twitter and videos and such.
and that the CPC is using “Bush Era tactics” on Uygers
what?? vocational schools aren’t “bush era tactics.” bush era tactics are massacring civilians and invading and decimating countries.
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Check out his most recent video. Its really something
I watched that video and it’s a fucking joke; the guy seems it has something against the deprogram and co.
Which is kinda funny considering he appeared on the podcast. I remember making a post about his Chinese Cultural Revolution video back on TheDeprogram subreddit. The discussion was small but relatively insightful.
His whole “anti-stalinist” schtick just comes off as someone fighting shadow puppets to me.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Lots of bad takes imo. On a recent podcast he said something along the lines of “BLM was just an excuse for people to break stuff” with no pushback from his guest.
I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Why does lemmy deny russian imperialism do we think they are socialists too or do we ignore middle east africa and ukraine
Why does lemmy deny russian imperialism
We don’t. We just think it ended in October 1917.
do we think they are socialists too
No we do not.
or do we ignore middle east africa and ukraine
Why would we ignore instances in which Russia has acted in an anti-imperialist capacity?
Because we use the Marxist definition of Imperialism.
This article goes through the theory and also specifically addresses the myths of Russian Imperialism and others (This section) .
I also recommend this very thorough exposition of the current global order. The world definitely is not divided into imperialist and socialist countries only.
Turkiye is not a Global South. It was a part of it but it’s a biggest enemy of the workers revolution around the middle east and the Balkans. Biggest provider to Isn’treal to fund Palestinian genocide.
(This section)
How can Turkiye is not aligned? It’s a member state of NATO and killed and tortured many leftist/communist and committed genocide against its own people in the 70s with US of course?
You’re of course right that Turkey is quite reactionary. But Global South really just means “Not-Global North”. It’s not a coherent block.
As you must be aware, Turkey while formally being a NATO member, did not really follow the NATO line of “Russia bad”; nor did it follow the “Guaido is the president of Venezuela” line like the EU. It often opportunistically aligns with the West, like by helping with the assault on Syria; but economically, it increasingly follows an independent line (compare that to all the EU vassal states).
Indonesia also did a genocide against its own people in the 70s with US help, yet it’s one of the most important economies in BRICS now. India is similarly torn between East and West, like Turkey. There’s a reason all 3 of those countries are classified as “non-aligned”.
Again, Global South doesn’t mean “good”.
This was a good critique; I’ll take it. Feel free to recommend me to sources to read.
No worries, Turkiye is definitely one of the more subtler cases.
Btw, you seem to be a Turkish comrade. How seriously is the whole Turkiye vs Turkey taken? I didn’t mean to be inconsiderate, I just rolled with the name the article was using.
Btw, you seem to be a Turkish comrade. How seriously is the whole Turkiye vs Turkey taken? I didn’t mean to be inconsiderate, I just rolled with the name the article was using.
It’s not problem at all. I support the change since Turkiye is more correct name for the country.
