Notices by zassenhaus (zassenhaus@mastodon.bida.im)

@Radical_EgoCom @midtsveen

A system that does not need censorship and propaganda has more possibilities to survive than a system that needs those (all else equal).

@Radical_EgoCom @midtsveen if censorship and propaganda are needed to make socialism work, then it means that times are not mature as the material reality is just not there.
Assuming that we need a propaganda regime to make socialism work means completely disregard the material reason why capitalism needs to be replaced.

It is capitalism that, at this stage, needs a powerful propaganda and coercion machinery to drug people into consumerism.

2/2

@Yaminosenshi @Radical_EgoCom I do agree that Putin is basically a 21st century tzar, and I would like to remind that Bolsheviks didn't like tzars much.

And to the general point, are BRICS an asset for socialism? Possibly, partially, see above. Does this justify support for Russia in the Ukrainian war? Hell no. Russia happens to be, by pure chance, on the right side on the Israeli-Palestinian war, just because they oppose American imperialism.

In any case, I think we agree that the cartoon of BRICS punching America with a red arm with hammer and sickle painted on it does not really match reality much

@Radical_EgoCom @Yaminosenshi I misread your post, I need to sleep.
But Russia, with it's aggressive behaviour and its terribly undiversified economy, might be a liability for China, that needs open global markets for its economy to prosper. Also, Russia's main business - fossil fuel extraction - is going to damage every other member of BRICS in potentially catastrophic ways already in the medium term.

@Radical_EgoCom @Yaminosenshi although I have a romantic vision of Slavic people (and in particular Russians - and I'm perfectly aware of how despicable russian imperialism has been in the last 2 centuries) as the one that paid the highest blood tribute to defeat the Nazis and the pushed the boundary of science and technology bringing the first man to space, the big weight there is obviously China, with an economy that is an order of magnitude bigger than Russia and being, in essence, the biggest industrial economy in the world. It was China who decided that the Ukrainian war had to begin after the Beijing Olympics.

@Radical_EgoCom it would be stupid for the communists not to take advantage of the struggle between imperialist power blocs. this is what happened, after all, with the October revolution. We could even say that the October revolution was partially a direct result of the imperialist struggle: Lenin was almost wheeled in from Switzerland by the central empires to cripple the russian imperialism.
The BRICS are obviously the underdog here (for how long, though?), but it is a fragile opportunistic alliance where every partner is moved by nationalistic and imperialistic motives. They do not support socialism, they are just vultures that side with some of the victims of US imperialism because they know that they do not have choices.

@Radical_EgoCom this debate looks similar to the one that led to the fall of the 3rd international.

@Radical_EgoCom @MrLee capitalism is not contrary to fascism. Fascism is capitalism rotting. Fascism is the bourgeoisie freaking out because of the revolt and revolutions of the working class, turning to the "old good values" and turning off democracy to get "law and order", beating and killing trade union representatives and left-leaning politicians, while making friends with them strongest industrialists of the time (Krupp, Musk and the like).

What am I missing? What have I misunderstood of your post?