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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 20, 2026

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You had these ideas all the time, in fact this shift to nationalism is how the original socialism evolved right after Lenin's death. This is how it worked everywhere since the beginning - be it Stalinism or Maoism, or different strains of socialism with nationalistic characteristics including Chavismo, Pol Potism etc. Some of them were also more pragmatic and more friendly toward capital such as Titoism or Dengism or Đổi Mới in Vietnam. You also have extremes such as in North Korea with outright ultranationalist Juche ideology and cult of personality which looks closer to absolute monarchy. This is the horseshoe theory in practice - socialist states evolve into fascist states by market reforms and fascist states sometimes evolve toward more outright socialism such as with Peronism or Ba'athism. They all gravitate toward this petty corrupt tyranny.

All of them to the single one are unable to solve shit, not to even talk about issues you are pointing out. This is the feature, not a bug of all the socialist systems. It is in their DNA that they will never achieve their purported goals.

Stalinism mobilized millions to fight WW2 and industrialized Russia. Mao unified mainland China. Ba'athism managed to drag various backwards sects into the modern age. All of these nations had big problems, and these guys tried to solve them.

But these nations did not reach the end of history, except N-Korea, so therefor they failed? Unlike the glorious western powers that are in the process of transitioning towards third worldism in the most literal sense possible since they can't maintain their populations whilst being blinded by greed.

National Socialism is a solution. When societies have a problem that they can't solve, often because the problem is baked into the system itself, they need someone to break the glass and pull the fire alarm. The post we are replying to is pointing out problems and looking for solutions. I find it obvious and predictable that OP is gravitating towards authoritarianism, calls to duty, necessity and unity. How do you get those things? National Socialism.

To that extent your post is just a general screed against failed states. Well, so far every state is a failed state. Except N-Korea, of course. So what is the point? Are we pretending that the course of human history hasn't been dictated by authoritarian leaders? Are we just not acknowledging that our 'democracies' and 'open societies' are a complete anomaly, a living experiment that is in the process of failing completely in every single country around the globe? Or are we pretending that we can afford to ignore the problems until they just poof and go away?