Lock and Load was one of my favorite shows growing up

o7

They are digital slaves. Make no mistake about it.

… we’re volunteers.

Some people do community clubs as a way to kill time with casual acquaintances. I have severe social anxiety so that’s not a desirable option. Some people do sports. I’m a cripple. Some people do church shit. I hate hymns and I don’t believe in God.

So I moderate. And post.

I’m glad my posting offers you some relief! I like to remind myself now and again that most people on here are sensible sorts.

This is one of the first critical pieces I read back when I first started researching them. Unfortunately I can’t find any free scholarly articles that look familiar/trigger the old memory muscle, and I’m not quite in the mood to read dozens of articles in a search query looking for one that doesn’t say “Zapatista” once and then 29 pages of unrelated stuff on populist movements.

Fucking JSTOR search, lmao.

Unfortunately, the last time I did a deep dive on the Zapatistas, I was in college, and had access to journals. Let me see what I can dig up now.

Much of the Zapatista ‘success’ narrative has been coasting on the fact that there was enough protest over the place being shot up in the early 2000s that the Mexican government stopped trying to send troops there. Since, there’s been very little improvement in their situation (relative to the rest of Mexico, mind) despite massive amounts of outside aid being poured in for local, supposedly sustainable, projects; including large amounts of aid from the Mexican government. The younger generation has largely abandoned the movement because the place is under crushing poverty and political infighting has hamstrung their ability to utilize the aid they get. The localties that pledge their allegiance to the Zapatista cause generally have an only skin-deep connection to the ideology, mired in oppressive traditions and the power of each village’s elites, who generally have a clientistic relationship with the Zapatistas and change sides whenever the government or the Zapatistas offer them more. And recently they all but dissolved their main organizational body because, for all of their military posturing, they were incapable of fending off drug lords who moved into the area (unsurprising, considering that the local loyalty to the Zapatista cause is shaky at best). Their response? To blame the Mexican army for not fighting them off.

They have an amazing PR arm for outreach to other leftists internationally. But it’s just a PR arm.

I don’t know about Rojava’s long-term prospects, (and considering how long the Syrian Civil War has gone on, I’d be a fool to try to prognosticate) but they’ve done good work in restoring educational capacity and creating a seemingly stable left-wing organization in the middle of a very brutal civil war. They transitioned from an ethnic-based org to an extremely pluralistic org with remarkable speed and efficiency, and their militia forces have been very effective in defending their territory from both other rebels (and terrorists), and state forces. The local economy is thriving with the system of cooperatives and local councils, and corruption is noticeably less than in surrounding areas.

Gods only know how it’ll end, though. I have concerns about what happens when the Syrian state recovers (or is replaced). Plus, Turkiye won’t stand for it if they don’t have to, Iranian proxies in Iraq are unlikely to look fondly on Rojava, and the US support for Kurds is tepid at best and prone to sudden drawbacks for domestic or international political concerns. That’s a hell of a position to be in.

Done

IS George sentient, though?

Zapatistas have a good PR arm, that’s it. Always stick up for the CNT-FAI and Rojava though.

“Well, I speak the most Italian, so I’ll be your escort. Donowitz speaks the second most, so he’ll be your Italian cameraman. Omar speaks third most, so he’ll be Donny’s assistant.”

“I don’t speak Italian.”

“Like I said, third best.”

Oh thank the gods, I was worried we might have lost our #1 spot in monolingualism.

Liberalism is when no tank

If you’re shooting, shoot to kill. There’s not a non-lethal place to shoot a human being.

But yeah, jumping straight to the gun might be a bit much for some guy rummaging through your living room drawer. Russia is more like a hardened criminal who’s been threatening you every night for the past month busting down your door and beating your kid to death.

The Civil Rights Act wasn’t passed because civil rights activists were victimized until the oppressors felt bad for them and saw their humanity, it was passed after MLK got shot and every city burned for a week.

The Civil Rights Act was passed 4 years before MLK died.

Yeah. The status quo is fucked. The rise in leftism is the only solace I have. The kids are alright, I hope.

Can’t wait for them to influence foreign policy.

Luckily, flat earth has few foreign policy implications yet. But general hostility to science, the root of flat eartherism, is definitely something that has had noticeable effects on our society and politics.

I would be flabbergasted if there were more than 1% of the figures you pointed out were tankies, let alone 10%.

I said ‘buy into tankie talking points’. The point isn’t that the 10% (itself just a random number, of course) are tankies, but that 10% are influenced by the shite that tankies spread.

Although I would emphasize that there is a certain percentage of people who are batshit insane on any given issue, and some 10% of Americans are tolerant of fascism. 10% of Gen Z going tankie instead doesn’t seem that far-fetched to me.

Also tankies don’t believe in voting

This is true, but as mentioned, it’s not even about them, specifically - but what effects they have on discourse.

and are still dwarfed by other sources of misinformation.

Yeah, if I was in charge of a NGO dedicated to combating misinformation or something I wouldn’t be dedicating many resources to tankies specifically.

Lets say tomorrow there are no more tankies, they magically never existed in the english speaking world, what actually changes for the US?

Support for Ukraine increases by 2%-3% points as a very loud (as you note) minority is no longer amplifying misinformation and propaganda under the guise of combating the absolutely fucked state of our society.

The people actually effecting Ukraine aide are the conservatives who lean fascist.

Oh, the lion’s share of the blame belongs to them, absolutely.

and they certainly dont influence US foreign policy.

They influence voters, who influence US foreign policy. The increasing hostility on the left (or what passes for it in the US) is very much fueled by online left spaces where such fascist talking points are tolerated or celebrated. Communism isn’t as unpopular as it was for my parents’ and grandparents’ generation, and with that broader shift comes the possibility (and reality) of radicalism and sheer edgy fucking stupidity getting ahold of a minority of those shifting. Approximately 30% of Gen Z (and 27% of my gen, Millennials) has a positive view of Marxism (which is great!). If we assume only 10% of them are dumb enough to buy into tankie talking points, that’s still some 6 million people.

Even with a written contract, it’s still a question of whether you want to fight it, which is often more hassle than it’s worth.