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| #Post#: 11336-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Leftist ideological camps in the big picture; Socialism, Marxism | |
| , True Leftism, etc. | |
| By: Zea_mays Date: February 17, 2022, 6:29 am | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| I see 3 primary tasks when it comes to outlining a more accurate | |
| political classification/typology of Socialism: | |
| (1) Tracing Socialism's history to its ancient/mythical origins, | |
| using our non-Communist definition of Socialism: "Socialism is | |
| the belief that state intervention is essential to realistically | |
| combatting social injustice, and that it is the moral duty of | |
| the state to so intervene." This will establish that Marxists | |
| did not invent Socialism, that they do not have a monopoly over | |
| its definition, and that Socialism is far more encompassing than | |
| just Marxist Socialism/Communism. | |
| (2) After (1) is complete, we can move to the modern era, and | |
| compare/contrast key points of various Socialist ideologies to | |
| demonstrate their overall similarities and key differences. This | |
| will once and for all establish that Marxist Socialism/Communism | |
| is merely one type of Socialism among many competing versions. | |
| (3) After (2) is complete, it will be obvious that many | |
| "Communist" ideologies and Communist-influenced ideologies have | |
| thoroughly diverged from actual Marxism. We can then outline | |
| ways to salvage Socialist ideologies which have more in common | |
| with the True Left than actual Marxism. | |
| And once this is done, we can visualize the results using a | |
| tree/phylogeny to show how these ideologies are related to one | |
| another, and summarize key similarities/differences in a table. | |
| #Post#: 11337-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: Leftist ideological camps in the big picture; Socialism, Mar | |
| xism, True Leftism, etc. | |
| By: Zea_mays Date: February 17, 2022, 6:33 am | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| I don't have all the answers for these already plotted out, so | |
| feel free to add any information to this discussion. To help us | |
| begin, I will outline some basic information. | |
| In the other thread, we already touched upon some of these | |
| ideas. | |
| Here we discussed how leftist ideologies might be classified: | |
| https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/national-socialism-is-revolution… | |
| https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/national-socialism-is-revolution… | |
| https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/national-socialism-is-revolution… | |
| https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/national-socialism-is-revolution… | |
| https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/national-socialism-is-revolution… | |
| https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/national-socialism-is-revolution… | |
| Other discussion that took place: | |
| https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/national-socialism-is-revolution… | |
| https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/national-socialism-is-revolution… | |
| https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/national-socialism-is-revolution… | |
| https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/national-socialism-is-revolution… | |
| https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/national-socialism-is-revolution… | |
| https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/national-socialism-is-revolution… | |
| https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/national-socialism-is-revolution… | |
| ---- | |
| For (1), it seems conventional history declares that "Pre-Marx | |
| Socialism" began in the "Enlightenment Era" around the time of | |
| the French Revolution and continued into the 1830s. I believe | |
| Marx/Engels themselves wrote a bit about their | |
| relation/development from these earlier 'Socialists'. | |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_socialism | |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Marx_socialists | |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Types_of_socialism#Early_interpretations | |
| Marx himself, and scholars following his lead, also declared | |
| that some ancient pre-state societies resembled "primitive | |
| communism". This was based on various (largely inaccurate) | |
| assumptions about "class" and economic conditions in | |
| hunter-gatherer societies: | |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Marxist_communism | |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primitive_communism | |
| We briefly discussed in the other thread about why Communists | |
| did not consider these "primitives" to be "real" Communists, and | |
| why these societies should not be considered Socialists anyway: | |
| https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/national-socialism-is-revolution… | |
| https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/national-socialism-is-revolution… | |
| More recent scholars have tried to more broadly examine | |
| Socialism in ancient state societies and religious societies, | |
| based on actual practices resembling Socialism: | |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_socialism#In_antiquity | |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism#Early_socialism | |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_communism#Developments_in_Christian_co… | |
| Since (1) is about ancient types of Socialism, examining the | |
| many types of Socialism explicitly based on religion will also | |
| be useful. (Recall that orthodox Marxism/Communism is explicitly | |
| anti-religion). From these pages, it looks like most of the | |
| ideologies are "unorthodox" Communists who have embraced | |
| religion, rather than actual ancient implementations of | |
| religious Socialism, however. | |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Types_of_socialism#Religious_socialism | |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_socialism | |
| ---- | |
| For (2), we have established the Socialism of historic National | |
| Socialism and briefly touched upon the Socialist/Marxist origins | |
| of Fascism: | |
| https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/national-socialism-is-revolution… | |
| We have also seen that scholars A. James Gregor and Bertrand | |
| Russell are in general agreement with our classification of | |
| leftism encompassing National Socialism and Fascism. In | |
| particular, A. James Gregor dedicated his career to comparing | |
| and contrasting Fascism, Socialism, and Marxism, and it will be | |
| beneficial to consult his works for aim (2). | |
| https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/national-socialism-is-revolution… | |
| https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/national-socialism-is-revolution… | |
| There is a lot of overlap between (2) and (3), depending on how | |
| deeply diverged from orthodox Marxism a particular ideology is, | |
| but I think it might be best if we consider (2) to simply be | |
| comparing/contrasting ideologies. | |
| For example, what are the basic tenets of "orthodox Marxism"? | |
| What are the key similarities/differences of orthodox Marxism | |
| vs. Stalinism, or vs. Maoism, or vs. Dengism, etc. What are the | |
| similarities and differences of orthodox Marxism vs. Stalinism | |
| vs. Hitlerism/National Socialism? Or orthodox Marxism vs. | |
| Dengism vs. Hitlerism vs. Fascism? | |
| The point of this exercise is that Communism, National | |
| Socialism, and Fascism were all competing Socialist ideologies | |
| in the early 20th century, and that many of the major Communist | |
| ideologies throughout the 20th century were so deeply diverged | |
| from orthodox Marxism that, logically, they should be considered | |
| entirely distinct ideologies from actual orthodox Marxism. (For | |
| example, Juche recognized this and officially cut its ties with | |
| Marxism in order to go its own way). | |
| ---- | |
| This leads in to aim (3). Some of these "Communist" ideologies | |
| which have basically rejected all the key tenets of actual | |
| Marxism can be salvaged by the True Left. Indeed, after | |
| outlining a comparison of the key points of their ideologies, it | |
| will be very apparent that ideologies like Socialism with | |
| Chinese Characteristics have more in common with National | |
| Socialism than actual orthodox Marxism. | |
| Above I am talking about political regimes that have actually | |
| been in power. But there are also other leftist ideologies, | |
| which have remained mostly theoretical/philosophical, which have | |
| nevertheless been needlessly trapped under the umbrella of | |
| Marxist thought. I will discuss these more below. | |
| #Post#: 11339-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: Leftist ideological camps in the big picture; Socialism, Mar | |
| xism, True Leftism, etc. | |
| By: Zea_mays Date: February 17, 2022, 6:57 am | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Recently I was skimming through some of the history of | |
| Marxism/Communism and different schools of Marxist/Communist | |
| thought that have arisen over the past 100 years, and it really | |
| reinforced to me the importance of re-establishing Socialism as | |
| the umbrella term under leftism. | |
| For example, why does all of this need to be "Marxist"? I'm not | |
| saying it's True Leftist or even salvageable, but why does it | |
| need to be "Marxist" instead of its own type of | |
| leftism/Socialism? The core focus of actual Marxism is on | |
| "class" and economic/material conditions. Yet these ideologies | |
| all reject that these are the primary issues in human society! | |
| Immediately after the Russian Revolution in the early 1920s, | |
| many Communist theorists rejected the strict | |
| "materialist-economic" focus of orthodox Marxism and instead | |
| placed primacy on the the role of how culture and traditions | |
| shape society. I suppose we can say they had a | |
| "cultural-economic" focus (or maybe "cultural-material"). | |
| [quote]Less concerned with economic analysis than earlier | |
| schools of Marxist thought, Western Marxism placed greater | |
| emphasis on the study of the cultural trends of capitalist | |
| society, deploying the more philosophical and subjective aspects | |
| of Marxism, and incorporating non-Marxist approaches to | |
| investigating culture and historical development.[2] | |
| [...] | |
| Perry Anderson notes that Western Marxism was born from the | |
| failure of proletarian revolutions in various advanced | |
| capitalist societies in Western Europe � Germany, Austria, | |
| Hungary and Italy � in the wake of the First World War.[11] He | |
| argues that the tradition represents a divorce between socialist | |
| theory and working-class practice that resulted from the defeat | |
| and stagnation of the Western working class after 1920.[12][13] | |
| Western Marxism traces its origins to 1923, when Gy�rgy Luk�cs's | |
| History and Class Consciousness and Karl Korsch's Marxism and | |
| Philosophy were published.[1] In these books, Luk�cs and Korsch | |
| proffer a Marxism that underlines the Hegelian basis of Marx's | |
| thought. They argue that Marxism is not simply a theory of | |
| political economy that improves on its bourgeois predecessors, | |
| nor a scientific sociology, akin to the natural sciences. For | |
| them, Marxism is primarily a critique � a self-conscious | |
| transformation of society. They stipulate that Marxism does not | |
| make philosophy obsolete, as "vulgar" Marxism believes; instead | |
| Marxism preserves the truths of philosophy until their | |
| revolutionary transformation into reality.[14] | |
| Their work was met with hostility by the Third | |
| International,[15] which saw Marxism as a universal science of | |
| history and nature.[14] Nonetheless, this style of Marxism was | |
| taken up by Germany's Frankfurt School in the 1930s.[1] | |
| [...] | |
| the theorists who downplay the primacy of economic analysis are | |
| considered Western Marxists. Where the base of the capitalist | |
| economy is the focus of earlier Marxists, the Western Marxists | |
| concentrate on the problems of superstructures,[18] as their | |
| attention centres on culture, philosophy, and art.[1] | |
| [...] | |
| While Engels saw dialectics as a universal and scientific law of | |
| nature, Western Marxists do not see Marxism as a general | |
| science, but solely as a theory of the cultural and historical | |
| structure of society.[14] | |
| Many Western Marxists believe the philosophical key to Marxism | |
| is found in the works of the Young Marx, where his encounters | |
| with Hegel, the Young Hegelians and Ludwig Feuerbach reveal what | |
| they see as the humanist core of Marxist theory.[25] However, | |
| the structural Marxism of Louis Althusser, which attempts to | |
| purge Marxism of Hegelianism and humanism, also belongs to | |
| Western Marxism, as does the anti-Hegelianism of Galvano Della | |
| Volpe.[26][/quote] | |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Marxism | |
| Growing out of this, the famous "Frankfurt School" of "Critical | |
| Theory" placed even more emphasis on the cultural aspect and a | |
| much stronger critique on orthodox Marxism. | |
| [quote]"With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it | |
| argues that social problems stem more from social structures and | |
| cultural assumptions than from individuals. It argues that | |
| ideology is the principal obstacle to human liberation.[1] | |
| [...] | |
| The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy distinguishes between | |
| Critical Theory (capitalized) as the product of several | |
| generations of German philosophers and social theorists of the | |
| Frankfurt School on the one hand, and any philosophical approach | |
| that seeks emancipation for human beings and actively works to | |
| change society in accordance with human needs (usually called | |
| "critical theory", without capitalization) on the other. | |
| Philosophical approaches within this broader definition include | |
| feminism, critical race theory, and forms of | |
| postcolonialism.[7]"[/quote] | |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_theory | |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_School | |
| By the Counterculture era, leftists elevated basically every | |
| issue to be equal or more important than the Marxist | |
| economic/class focus. | |
| [quote]The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the | |
| 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who | |
| campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and | |
| political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights, | |
| abortion rights, gender roles and drug policy reforms.[1] Some | |
| see the New Left as an oppositional reaction to earlier Marxist | |
| and labor union movements for social justice that focused on | |
| dialectical materialism and social class, while others who used | |
| the term see the movement as a continuation and revitalization | |
| of traditional leftist goals.[2][3][4] | |
| [...] | |
| Herbert Marcuse, associated with the Frankfurt School of | |
| critical theory, is celebrated as the "Father of the New | |
| Left"[8][/quote] | |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Left | |
| While rejecting Marxist obsession with economics was good, it is | |
| no surprise that the usual suspects once again derailed leftism | |
| into pursuing the wrong things: | |
| [quote]The German-Jewish critical theorist Herbert Marcuse is | |
| referred to as the "Father of the New Left". He rejected the | |
| theory of class struggle and the Marxist concern with labor. | |
| According to Leszek Kołakowski, Marcuse argued that since | |
| "all questions of material existence have been solved, moral | |
| commands and prohibitions are no longer relevant". He regarded | |
| the realization of man's erotic nature, or Eros, as the true | |
| liberation of humanity, which inspired the utopias of Jerry | |
| Rubin and others.[11] However, Marcuse also believed the concept | |
| of Logos, which involves one's reason, would absorb Eros over | |
| time as well.[12] Another prominent New Left thinker, Ernst | |
| Bloch, believed that socialism would prove the means for all | |
| human beings to become immortal and eventually create | |
| God.[13][/quote] | |
| Then we have Critical Race Theory, which seems to take certain | |
| methodological ideas from the original "Critical Theory" (hence | |
| the name). But its focus on race and society is a complete | |
| ideological break with the materialist-economic focus of | |
| orthodox Marxism and the cultural-economic focus of "Western | |
| Marxism" and the original Critical Theory school. | |
| I suppose we could say CRT is "cultural-race" focused--with | |
| culture shaping our perceptions of "race" and these cultural | |
| views shaping society. National Socialism is "race-culture" | |
| focused--with innate biological factors shaping culture, and | |
| hence society. | |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_race_theory | |
| Relatedly, "Intersectionality" places economic factors as merely | |
| one of many factors shaping society (and often one of the | |
| factors of comparatively lesser importance to activists applying | |
| intersectonality). Critical Race Theorists (and National | |
| Socialists) argue racism/race is the most important form of | |
| tribalistic oppression in their application of | |
| intersectionality. When applied to politics/social justice, | |
| intersectionality is a Socialist mentality which has no logical | |
| reason to remain connected to Marxist thought. | |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersectionality | |
| Present-day orthodox Marxists argue that all forms of tribalism | |
| are ultimately derived from "classism"/economic factors (even | |
| racism is just an "illusion" to distract from classism, | |
| somehow). I suppose "cultural-economic Marxists" (like those of | |
| the original Critical Theory/Frankfurt School) would make some | |
| convoluted explanation of how "classism" and other forms of | |
| tribalism all have some complex cross-pollination and try to | |
| "critique" their way to untangling these complexities? Lol. | |
| I'm sure plenty of Intersectionality activists and academic | |
| theorists do not see themselves as connected with | |
| Marxism/Communism, but Intersectionality is just one aspect of | |
| leftism/Socialism, so these individuals nevertheless often draw | |
| inspiration from pre-existing Communist ideas, since they know | |
| of no other source for leftist attitudes beyond | |
| intersectionality/anti-tribalist critque. Rightists also try to | |
| tie them to Communism by basically grouping all social justice | |
| activism under the umbrella of "Cultural Marxism"--even though | |
| 21-century social justice advocates have completely diverged | |
| from actual Marxism, and even the Frankfurt School (who are | |
| supposedly the originators of "Cultural Marxism") themselves had | |
| rejected many of orthodox Marxism's core ideas! | |
| ---- | |
| Again, why does all of the stuff listed above need to be | |
| "Marxist"? Especially Critical Race Theory/Intersectionality, | |
| which are basically "race-culture" focused (instead of | |
| "materialist-economic" or "cultural-economic" focused), just | |
| like National Socialism! | |
| Do modern empiricists call themselves "Aristotelians"? They may | |
| give homage to him for putting certain attitudes into words, but | |
| they don't feel the need to elevate him to godhood where all | |
| their own (very divergent) philosophical developments are | |
| required to be mere shadows of his own. Instead, they all fall | |
| under the umbrella of empiricism; with many empiricist | |
| philosophers being in ideological disagreement with one another | |
| and essentially all of them moving well beyond a strict | |
| adherence to Aristotle's original ideas. | |
| What is badly needed is to restrict the meaning of Marxism to | |
| just "orthodox Marxism" (the pure theory of Marx/Engels) and | |
| Communism (i.e. Marxist-Leninism and other closely-related | |
| political movements which tried to be strict in their adherence | |
| to orthodox Marxism). | |
| All these other things that are considered sub-types of | |
| Marxism/Communism, "Marxist schools of thought", leftist | |
| movements with practical elements that are derailed by | |
| Marxist-influenced intellectual fops and their beloved Marxist | |
| abstractions, etc., need to be liberated from their constraints | |
| and just allowed to be types of Socialism. People think that | |
| Socialism _needs_ to be Marxist, and hence they shoe-horn | |
| Marxist theory, constructs, and general framing into everything. | |
| Socialism does not need to be Marxist. Even most of what has | |
| been called "Marxism" for the past 100 years has become | |
| thoroughly un-Marxist in character. | |
| I guess with the political success of the USSR, | |
| Socialist-sympathetic intellectuals desperately tried to keep | |
| (ostensibly non-Communist) developments of Socialism hanging on | |
| to Communism by a thread...? Or stupid academic traditionalism | |
| compelled intellectuals who were inspired by Marx to want to | |
| claim their (ostensibly non-Marxist) critiques and | |
| reformulations of Socialism as the "successor" to Marx, or | |
| whatever? | |
| I don't know, but the obsession for Socialist theorists to carry | |
| water for Marxism is just so absurd. As Hitler said, he came to | |
| liberate Socialism from Marxism. Imagine if Critical Race Theory | |
| was liberated from its unnecessary Marxist baggage. If it were | |
| to be reclassified based on its ideological characteristics | |
| alone, it would group closer to National Socialism than Marxism. | |
| At the very least, there would be little stopping Critical Race | |
| Theory from logically evolving towards the True Left/National | |
| Socialism if the threads needlessly tying it down to Marxism | |
| were severed. | |
| Even the cultural-economic schools of Socialist critique could | |
| likely give useful insights for us to use, if they stopped being | |
| held back by a stupid 19th-century philosophy which has long | |
| outlived any usefulness... Instead of trying to conform | |
| themselves to Marx's overly-academic analyses and shoe-horn in | |
| his endless constructs, they could just exist as fresh forms of | |
| Socialism. Why does critiquing things (along lines very | |
| different from Marx) need to be "Marxist"? Is doing geometry | |
| ideologically Pythagorean? | |
| As I mentioned before, even Stalinism by the 1920s rejected the | |
| strict internationalist focus of orthodox Marxism. While | |
| Stalinism didn't acknowledge any breaks from Communism, | |
| Socialism with Chinese Characteristics acknowledged certain | |
| breaks, despite functionally barely being "Communist" at all. | |
| (If we were to reclassify it, its state control of reproduction | |
| and centrally-directed economy would place it far closer to | |
| National Socialism than to actual Communism). The various | |
| political movements lumped under "African Socialism", "Arab | |
| Socialism", "Third World Socialism", and others, have also | |
| broken with Marxism in key ways, which is at least acknowledged | |
| by calling these ideologies simply Socialism. Juche managed to | |
| break with Communism/Marxism completely. | |
| But the various intellectual movements--which have far more | |
| ideological flexibility than political regimes--which should | |
| have been able to distance themselves from Marxism the most have | |
| not. How absurd. | |
| They are all poisoned by the (very incorrect) convention of | |
| placing Socialism as a mere derivative of Communism/Marxism, | |
| rather than Marxist Socialism/Communism being merely one type of | |
| a wide variety of possible Socialist schools of thought. | |
| #Post#: 11368-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: Leftist ideological camps in the big picture; Socialism, Mar | |
| xism, True Leftism, etc. | |
| By: guest55 Date: February 18, 2022, 10:41 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Oh, this is the thread I was referring to here: | |
| https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/national-socialism-is-revolution… | |
| /> | |
| When I have more time I'll have to revisit this thread here and | |
| go in depth into it. But yea, as I was saying on the post I | |
| linked above, shouldn't we do a full break down of John Locke | |
| and topics like the "social contract" also? | |
| #Post#: 11369-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: Leftist ideological camps in the big picture; Socialism, Mar | |
| xism, True Leftism, etc. | |
| By: guest55 Date: February 18, 2022, 10:45 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Btw, I get the renaissance and enlightenment mixed up often, not | |
| sure why.... | |
| #Post#: 11599-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: Leftist ideological camps in the big picture; Socialism, Mar | |
| xism, True Leftism, etc. | |
| By: Zea_mays Date: March 1, 2022, 4:46 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| I'm not sure if it would be necessary to do a thorough | |
| examination of John Locke and other "Enlightenment" theorists. | |
| For a Progressive or Communist (who theoretically value | |
| democracy), they may find it important to trace themselves back | |
| to him, but I don't see why it should be necessary for our | |
| re-establishment of Socialism as its own category to do so. | |
| (Beyond what the main site did by broadly distinguishing the | |
| False Left's origins in "Enlightenment"/democracy/Locke-ist | |
| ideas vs the True Left which rejects these foundations.) | |
| They way I'm looking at this is: instead of trying to further | |
| distinguish the False Left as a whole vs the True Left, since | |
| democracy is on its way out (e.g. the most powerful political | |
| party in the US has been pro-oligarchy for 2+ years, and other | |
| Western nations will surely follow suit), we should focus on | |
| prying apart the False Left and True Left within the category of | |
| Socialism. | |
| Democracy is dying on its own as rightists reject it and as | |
| leftists begin to wonder aloud why mentally ill and | |
| empathy-devoid rightist votes are allowed to count the same as | |
| theirs. At some point leftists will be forced to choose between | |
| rightist oligarchists (or rightists who support voting for | |
| "whites" only) vs autocratic Socialism. We must ensure we are | |
| ready to present authentic Socialism to them by that point. | |
| ---- | |
| On the other hand, I've seen some Communists try to claim China | |
| is somehow more "democratic" than the US. So we will have to | |
| explain how councils being made up of non-elite community | |
| members from local regions, different professions, etc. is not | |
| "representative" in the same way as democracy claims to be | |
| "representative". | |
| In other words, we will have to explain how the ostensibly | |
| positive things democracy claims it wants to achieve are (1) not | |
| exclusive to democracy and (2) are actually not even possible | |
| under democracy. Just as I described how the ostensibly positive | |
| things about "equality" are not exclusive to egalitarianism: | |
| https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/national-socialism-is-revolution… | |
| #Post#: 11600-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: Leftist ideological camps in the big picture; Socialism, Mar | |
| xism, True Leftism, etc. | |
| By: Zea_mays Date: March 1, 2022, 5:03 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Recall my attempt to classify leftist ideologies in this post: | |
| https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/national-socialism-is-revolution… | |
| Based on what 90sRetroFan said about "Enlightenment" attitudes | |
| being broadly rightist: | |
| https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/national-socialism-is-revolution… | |
| And how Communists tend to consider regular liberalism to be | |
| "rightism", I moved Enlightenment-based democracy to rightism to | |
| see how things would look. | |
| Here is a very basic outline of rightism I came up with. It is | |
| not as fleshed out as the tree of leftism. I am open to | |
| criticism on it. Since democracy is such an old ideology, it | |
| only made sense if I subdivided Tier 3 democratic political | |
| movements into two tiers. | |
| Tier 0. (Temperament) | |
| - Rightism | |
| Tier 1. (Abstract/general attitudes) | |
| - (a) Western "Enlightenment" ideas | |
| - (b) Traditionalist-Tribalism | |
| Tier 2. (Ideological theories) | |
| - (a) Democracy | |
| - (b1) Traditionalism | |
| - (b2) Ethno-tribalism | |
| -- (c) I think many pre-Marx "Utopian Socialists" would have | |
| dashed lines from the Socialism (leftist) and Western | |
| "Enlightenment" (rightist) categories, placing them about | |
| halfway between. | |
| Tier 3. (Political movements addressing the problems defined by | |
| the ideological theories) | |
| - (b1) Confucianism, Vedicism, Judeo-Christian traditionalism, | |
| etc. | |
| - (b2) White 'Nationalism'/Neo-Nazism | |
| - (b2) Zionism | |
| - (b2) others | |
| Tier 3.1 (early democratic political ideologies) | |
| - (a1) Liberalism | |
| - (a2) Conservatism | |
| Tier 3.2 (derived democratic political ideologies) | |
| -- Social Democracy/Progressivism (has dashed lines from | |
| Marxism and Democracy categories indicating influence from both. | |
| (Maybe 2/3s democracy, 1/3s social consciousness originally | |
| deriving from Marxist attitudes?)) | |
| - Paleoconservatism (? has dashed lines from Judeo-Christian | |
| traditionalism and Conservatism.) | |
| - Neoconservatism (? derived from Paleoconservatism.) | |
| - Neoliberalism (has dashed lines from Liberalism and | |
| Neoconservatism.) | |
| Tier 4. (Specific implementation of the political movement to | |
| govern based on the specific circumstances of a country and time | |
| period) | |
| - Since democratic governments reject strong leadership, the | |
| -isms under this category would be derived from specific party | |
| platforms, "think tank" ideological platforms, etc. | |
| ---- | |
| Would this classification make the term "False Left" more | |
| difficult to use? I don't necessarily think so. It seems our | |
| argument is that ideologies which have been categorized as False | |
| Left are built upon shaky and inconsistent ideological | |
| foundations to begin with (and hence are not actually truly | |
| leftist). I have even seen some Communists call Bernie Sanders a | |
| rightist (despite literally being the "far-left" of mainstream | |
| US politics), so I don't think we should be afraid to | |
| acknowledge some False Left ideologies are closer to rightism | |
| than actual leftism. | |
| Further thoughts: | |
| I kind of hastily threw Paleoconservatism and Neoconservatism in | |
| there. There may be a more precise way to indicate the dashed | |
| lines showing their evolution. | |
| Where would Alt-Rightism fall? Dashed lines from Conservatism, | |
| White 'Nationalism', and Judeo-Christian traditionalism? | |
| However, the Wikipedia article on Paleoconservatism claims it | |
| was an influence on the US Alt-Right (and lists many | |
| Alt-Rightists as examples of "Paleoconservatives"). This | |
| influence from US-centric Paleoconservatism may not hold true | |
| for EU-based identitarian movements. | |
| Circling back to John Locke, maybe we should spend time | |
| examining/criticizing him in order to make the particular | |
| argument "Enlightenment" democracy is broadly rightist, rather | |
| than genuinely leftist? | |
| Should Humanism be included? A Renaissance predecessor of the | |
| "Enlightenment" category? Should Marxism be considered | |
| influenced by both Humanism and (authentic) Socialism, thereby | |
| providing a reason demonstrating why its interpretation of | |
| Socialism is poor? e.g. ctrl+F for "Marx" in the following | |
| article: | |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanism | |
| As for Social Democracy/Progressivism being influenced by | |
| Marxism, see the very last part of this post. Apparently | |
| liberalism only really began to care about 'social liberalism' | |
| after actual Socialism arrived on the scene: | |
| https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/national-socialism-is-revolution… | |
| I suppose present-day "social liberals" have degenerated into | |
| mere Humanists rather than actual Socialists? | |
| #Post#: 11602-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: Leftist ideological camps in the big picture; Socialism, Mar | |
| xism, True Leftism, etc. | |
| By: guest55 Date: March 1, 2022, 5:43 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| [quote]Where would Alt-Rightism fall? Dashed lines from | |
| Conservatism, White 'Nationalism', and Judeo-Christian | |
| traditionalism?[/quote] | |
| What about "Christian Identity"? Is it even Judeo-Christian? I | |
| would argue it's entirely Judaism? All CI really argues is that | |
| the Jews currently occupying Palestine are "fake Jews" and that | |
| the "real Jews" are Western Europeans? | |
| [quote]Christian Identity (also known as Identity | |
| Christianity)[1] is an interpretation of Christianity which | |
| advocates the belief that only Celtic and Germanic peoples, such | |
| as the Anglo-Saxon, Nordic nations, and/or Aryan people and | |
| people of kindred blood are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, | |
| and Jacob and are therefore the descendants of the ancient | |
| Israelites. [/quote] | |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Identity | |
| Christian Identity's New Role On The Extreme Right | |
| [quote]With its ideology linked to numerous domestic terrorist | |
| attacks in the late 20th century, Christian Identity (CI) has | |
| significantly influenced the development of American far-right | |
| extremism. As an antisemitic and racist belief system, Christian | |
| Identity provides religious justification for violence and | |
| domestic terrorism. Although the traditional CI movement has | |
| declined, Christian Identity has risen in importance as a | |
| radicalizing and mobilizing force within existing neofascist | |
| accelerationist communities. After examining the Christian | |
| Identity movement�s history, belief system, rhetoric, decline, | |
| and resurgent presence on Telegram, this paper will evaluate the | |
| current state of the modern CI movement.[/quote] | |
| https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec/ctec-pu… | |
| Apparently, it's "anti-Semitic" to argue that you're the "real | |
| Jew"!? ??? ::) :D | |
| #Post#: 11603-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: Leftist ideological camps in the big picture; Socialism, Mar | |
| xism, True Leftism, etc. | |
| By: Zea_mays Date: March 1, 2022, 6:28 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| I think all 'Gentile-Chosenism' ideologies like that can be said | |
| to be derived from (b1) Old Testament traditionalism and (b2) | |
| 'White' Supremacy. So, maybe 'Gentile-Chosenism' as a general | |
| category can be put as a Tier 3.2 derived ideology stemming from | |
| earlier (b1) and (b2) ideologies. And then specific types of | |
| 'Gentile-Chosenism' like "British Israelism" and "Christian | |
| Identity" can be placed in Tier 4? Maybe? | |
| ------- | |
| Unrelated: | |
| As a thought to follow up my previous post--the term "Dark | |
| Enlightenment" or "Neo-Reactionary Movement" is sometimes used | |
| as a catch-all to describe emerging rightist ideologies which | |
| reject either humanism/egalitarianism or democracy. | |
| Maybe this could be its own Tier 2 classification, deriving from | |
| both the "Enlightenment" (since some groups do value democracy, | |
| and probably all of them value the empiricist aspects of the | |
| "Enlightenment") and Traditionalist-Tribalism (this part should | |
| be obvious; also some "Dark Enlightenment" ideologies do reject | |
| most ideological foundations of the "Enlightenment", rendering | |
| the inclusion of another category necessary). | |
| This would include Alt-Rightism, Nouvelle Droite, Generation | |
| Identity/Identitarian Movement, what we call ZC, etc. It seems | |
| like Duginism should be included in this as well. | |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment | |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_dark_web | |
| I don't want to get too side-tracked into discussing rightism in | |
| general in this thread. Although in redefining Socialism, it | |
| will be important to show how True Left criticisms of democracy, | |
| humanism, egalitarianism, the "Enlightenment", and so forth are | |
| different from the "Dark Enlightenment"/"Neo-Reactionary" | |
| criticisms of them. Therefore we can include them in our | |
| ideological comparisons/contrasts in our discussion on these | |
| topics. | |
| #Post#: 11705-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: Leftist ideological camps in the big picture; Socialism, Mar | |
| xism, True Leftism, etc. | |
| By: Zea_mays Date: March 4, 2022, 10:35 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| I have come to realize that aim 1 (exploring | |
| pre-"Enlightenment"/pre-Marx/ancient examples of Socialism) is | |
| going to involve a lot of discussion and will be more a matter | |
| of history and archaeology, rather than strictly ideological. | |
| So I have made a new thread: | |
| https://trueleft.createaforum.com/ancient-world/ancient-candidates-for-socialis… | |
| In the current thread, we can stick to the ideological focus of | |
| aims 2 and 3. I would say it's ok to talk about Socialism from | |
| the 1700s to mid-1800s in this thread as well, since the | |
| development of these ideologies are important to understand the | |
| milieu in which Marxism developed. From what I'm reading, it | |
| seems like Marxism emerged as the dominant ideology of the | |
| "communalist" camp of Socialism (the other major one being | |
| Anarchism, which soon succumbed to Marxism via | |
| "Anarcho-Communism"). This "communalist" camp was itself merely | |
| one type of competing Socialism at the time. | |
| ***************************************************** | |
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