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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   34988 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 3, 2023

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Interesting to see that the communist party of Britain came out against gender identity, being the “only party in Britain to do so”.

Rather good arguments as well.

https://www.communistparty.org.uk/the-gender-recognition-bill-and-equality-law/

Of course the average generation Z twitter communist (of the type who has read one book and it’s not the communist manifesto, but the one from the evil transphobe) is up in arms in their respective bedrooms and basements. What would the communist party of Great Britain, an actual party rooted in tradition and theory, associated with actual working people who leave their bedrooms know about communism anyway. It’s all about beating up terfs. It’s always been about beating up terfs, that’s what historical determinism is about.

I don’t live in Britain anymore but if I did I would vote for the communists for the first time ever.

The "Communist Party of Britain" is a tiny Stalinist sect. The CPB should not be confused with the Communist Party of Great Britain. The CPB was formed as an offshoot of the slightly more mainstream CPGB in the 1980s when the leadership of the latter decided "hm, maybe totalitarianism and mass murder is bad". From the first paragraph of the CPB's Wikipedia article:

It is affiliated nationally to the Cuba Solidarity Campaign[10] and the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign. (...) After the fall of the Soviet Union, the party was one of two original British signatories to the Pyongyang Declaration.

The Pyongyang Declaration:

The Pyongyang Declaration, officially titled Let Us Defend and Advance the Cause of Socialism, was a statement signed by a number of political parties on 20 April 1992 that calls for the unity of the socialist camp and a vow to safeguard socialism. Representatives of 70 communist and socialist parties from 51 countries arrived in Pyongyang to celebrate Kim Il-sung's 80th birthday.

So you would side with (even vote for!) these Stalinists, North Korea apologists, wannabe mass murderers, these certified lunatics, because they said "trans bad"?

You will surely understand why your post doesn't make me more sympathetic to the anti-trans side.

So you would side with (even vote for!) these Stalinists, North Korea apologists, wannabe mass murderers, these certified lunatics, because they said "trans bad"?

The Trans Question in an actual, living political issue in western countries. It matters; it has a direct impact on people's lives. Taking a stand one way or the other entails having some amount of skin in the game. An individual's views on trans issues are a strong signal of what sort of social classifications they belong to.

In contrast to being pro- or anti-trans, being pro- or anti-Stalin is much closer to being a personal aesthetic choice. It's a dead issue. There is no realistic chance of anyone implementing a Stalinist agenda in any western democracy. It's spatially and temporally distant from us; one is free to treat it with a degree of irony.

From that perspective, someone's views on trans issues say a lot more to me about what type of person they are than their views on Stalinism. I choose my political allies based on their perspectives on living issues, living questions. Their views on dead issues and lost causes are less relevant.

There is no realistic chance of anyone implementing a Stalinist agenda in any western democracy.

Some would disagree in reference to the Critical Theory Revolution. No, it won't have red banners, hammers-and-sickles, and drawn-out applauses for Uncle Joe, but the substance would still be there.

Im not sure I care about what sways your opinion. What I like about the CPB is that they are one of the few socialist parties to describe trans as a neoliberal project.

Why would you like that, it’s not solely a neoliberal project, it’s clearly much far reaching than “neoliberal”, and especially rich considering it was vastly overrepresented in the left before it was present anywhere else including the neoliberal Center.

Why wouldn’t I like that. I’m not a communist, a socialist, a neo liberal or a neo conservative. Or a green, mainly because they have unworkable policies. So I vote for the best option.

Confusing

You will surely understand why this doesn't make me more sympathetic to the anti-trans side.

No I don't. By your own admission this is a tiny Stalinist sect. The majority of communists nowadays are pro trans. It's a bit weird that the same thing doesn't make you lose sympathy for the pro-trans side.

Sorry, by "this", I meant the post I was replying to. I have edited the comment now to clarify.

The reason the post doesn't make me more sympathetic to the anti-trans side is that it was someone from the anti-trans side who saw this insane Stalinist sect post something anti-trans and then apparently decided that Stalinism isn't so bad after all as long as it keeps trans women out of women's toilets.

It still comes off as "it's ok if you vote for the commies, as long it's the pro-trans ones" given the leanings of communists, and trans activists.

I think Tarn's comment was more along the lines of something Brandon Hererra once said in a Gun Meme Review video: "stop simping for Communists." You're interpreting it in the other direction.

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