I think the ACP targets people who want to… feel better about themselves, for lack of a better description. This isn’t some denunciation, but just an observation.

There’s a psychological thing I’ve started to notice, that humans wish to abdicate themselves of responsibility wherever possible. I’m unsure if this is a result of capitalism or just a general psychological quirk, but it is where a lot of failures to act and failures to think come from.

When I converted, I was a very Patriotic social democrat. Like full on Harry Truman doctrine and “speak softly and carry a big stick” level. I even made a post on r/asksocialists asking how to reconcile my patriotism with my [newfound] socialism. I did get a lot of good answers [and a few bad ones], but the thing I discovered about myself is that I was trying to get away from critically examining things. I definitely still do this in certain areas [even when I try not to] so I’m not judging anyone. My point is that I was acting out of discomfort.

I think people following the ACP most likely have some combination of beliefs or emotional reasons that make them suseptible.

1.A wish to keep the heros they used to have.

This was mine, and while I still have heros and people I idolize [although not to the same degree and definitely try to not let it influence my actual decision making], they aren’t the Washingtons and Bismarks and such that I used to have.

2. A wish to have the socially conservative values they have

3.A wish to be different

4.Communist autophobia

[This one I haven’t confirmed personally, but I think part of it might be that they have always been told “communists are soy woke people who hate people for being white and just want to write yaoi in their commune all day” by the internet and such. But since they can’t deny that the economic aspect of Marxism is right, they inherit this phobia into their own worldview in order to feel better about going against themselves.]

5.“Reactionary” philosophy

[What I mean by this is not reactionary in the political sense. Not that they aren’t also often reactionary, but that pat-socs look at the soviet union and such similar to how Maoists look at pre 76 China. They simply wish for a 1-1 return to the past, and that every policy Stalin and the CPSU had at the time is the exact same policy we should have now. It’s a reaction to the present, rather than an analysis of it].

So I think when looking at ways to stem the ACP’s influence, we should start here. There are the issues with petite bourgeois membership and such, but specifically the people we should be trying to reach probably already have the material conditions necessary to want to be a communist [besides those who are just edgy and wanna be nazbols cause they saw it in a hoi4 mod or something]

I think, materially speaking, the key things would be

1.Dont let the ACP lead or present their qualifications unchallenged. The ACP does like presenting their mutual aid stuff, so counter by actually investigating their mutual aid [not in person, that’s not necessary i dont think.] and seeing if what they say is true, or helpful. If they’re lying, spread the word. If they’re not lying, then we should lead where applicable. Obviously parties shouldn’t do this uncritically [probably better to stay at home and actually work on things rather than have your leaders gallivanting around the world], but communists don’t tail, and leading has, historically, had the best results for hopes of victory.

2.This is cliche, but getting organized. The ACP does mostly operate through the internet, and that’s a problem, but they shouldn’t be able to do real, lasting damage through it. So organizing those most likely to join the ACP will help nip off their bud. Additionally, actually showing material action puts your ideology on the same playing feild in terms of concrete actions, which then leaves ideology.

3.Educate. I know this is also cliche, but being accommodating, helpful and educating people will help nip the ideological buds. Additionally, helping people think critically will [hopefully] help them not follow a guy who says gamers should be sent to prison and homeless people are the ruling class of America.

Online, the best way is to curate the space and have disipline, as with any revisionism.

Right now I am more worried about social democrats like Mamdani than I am the ACP. But the playbook is, IMO, the same. Educate, organize, criticize, and offer an alternative.

Please feel free to ask for more clarification, I would write more in depth but I am short on time right now. I hope this was at least somewhat helpful for your question, I know its not a perfect one.

We can agree on the Venezuala issue while still vehemently arguing against him and the ACP. The issue is not Americans as a whole [currently], but those who are class conscious. The ACP represents similar threats that Mamdami and the social democrats to, just in a different form. That being that they will take class consciousness and drain it, and leave those who need leaders either leaderless and dissolutioned or mindless, unconcious thralls who regurgite the “logic” of the revisionists

I’d argue that bubbles are specific events causing a bust cycle [panic of 1819, crash of 1929, etc] of large proportions. Bust cycles are natural, but bubbles and depression/great recessions usually only happen once in a while

Gee I wonder if the post in the community titled “memes” is possibly a joke

I think beyond this, its incredibly daunting to just be told, “read theory.” Especially of someone’s idea of theory is Capital. And that isn’t even talking about how reading theory isn’t actually enough. I read quotations and yet still had to get critique of the Gotha programmed by someone. It was embarrassing but unfortunately necessary.

Personally I think a good mix of things is a good start, plus just having quick references for important questions. I.e, a baby communist should read quotations to understand how to be a communist, state and revolution to understand the state and, well, revolution, and however much economic matter is needed for them to “get it.” But that last section can also be done with videos by people like Hakim or The Marxist Project. And otherwise those are very readable works [quotations especially].

After the intial hurdles, people can learn a lot through experience and through general analysis, which can make theory (somewhat) redundant in terms of time, especially of they don’t become a cadre.

Im making a joke [that being that news articles will say “international community does x” when the international community is basically just the west, ignoring Russia, China, and the rest of the global south]

What are you talking about? The entire international community voted against it (/s) whats this “west” you speak of?

I don’t know if it’d sexual terms specifically, but definitely derogatory ones. The idea that sex is a punishment or a display of dominance or conquest is some archaic roman shit, like I said. Plus I feel like it deserves a form of respect, as odd as it is to say.

Also idk about Autism. Getting examined rn so ill wait to say anything before I get a diagnosis [except I 100% have adhd. All the symptoms are spot on with that]

It’s wierd for me because I genuinely have friends and do hobby work with pornography and kink communities [I dont mention it much here for obvious reasons but it’s pertinent in this case].

You would think that I would like this type of stuff, but I dont. I actually have a lot of respect for sex [per se, I can’t come up with a better way of phrasing it rn]. I think it’s interesting and can lead to a lot of exploration psychologically and socially. But I don’t think we’ve really “moved on” from puritinism, it just appears as a different form [maybe?]. Or perhaps it’s like two alcoholics. One drinks in flasks and constantly covers up their drinking, while being a member of a prohibitions group. That’s the culture of yesterday. The culture of today is one that stumbles back home and trips in the door smelling of bear and whiskey, and fully admits they’re an alcoholic but ignores all the problems that comes with it. Sex isn’t a poison like Alcohol but otherwise I hope my point is coming across here.

Idk what yall are talking about, the F-47 is amazing at stealth. No one has ever been able to see it

Good news to wake up to tbh

It probably wont be starvation for most [hopefully?]. What it’ll probably be is the racking up of debt, missed bills on electricity and other utilities, etc. to start at least. But there’s only so much you can cut out while still having access to the outside world. I think we’ll see people going homeless before they starve, though.

It really depends on how long the shutdown goes on for. There is a part of me that fears that we’ll genuinely see a famine if this goes on too long, especially since food bank services are already strained.

And, although I find it extremely unlikely, if the ai bubble pops in the middle of this…

Dawg you are fighting no one, you ain’t surviving the Venezualan SAMs

Oyster?

Wow, I can’t believe China is such a backwater that they’re still using computers the size of entire rooms (/s)

Tbf the never again moment should’ve been Friedrich Ebert but obviously that didn’t work [kinda] since we’re still having the same discussion a century later.

Actually no, a worse discussion. Because at least before social democrats pretended to actually want socialism. They were lying, but spotting lies is hard sometimes so I get it.

But Bernie and what not aren’t even socialists.

It’s like I’m at a ravine and there are two guys, one is building an actual bridge [although its far from complete] and another guy is standing next to two planks of wood that don’t even reach 2 feet over the drop. He tells me “Oh you should take my bridge, it’s already done, you just have to walk across.”

Then the other one, the one building a bridge, shouts over to me “Just help me build my bridge, it just needs some work.” The other one replies “this bridge already works, youre just making another bridge and excluding me from it because you don’t like my design.”

If I, a simpleton apparently, step onto the two planks of wood and immediately fall to the ravine floor, breaking all of my bones, I find a twin of the man at the top of the bridge. He tells me “oh, the bridge was never supposed to get you to the other side, it was supposed to help you land in the water instead of the rocks.” Unfortunately for me the man above actually started dismantling his “bridge” years ago and I still landed in the rocks.

Hopefully this is coherent as an analogy, I kinda just spaced out for a minute and wrote that.

pokes greece cmon do a revolution

I’m honestly not sure how much more profitable this’ll make it. It will certainly make it more profitable, but by how much I can’t really tell.

Cause like, on the one hand, people are definitely willing to pay for pornography in general, even in hobbyist spaces. Outside of that you of course have onlydans and such too, which rake in tons from pronography.

But at the same time, it can definitely be a race to the bottom because, as such a base impulse [made even more base by alienation] the standard for quality is infamously low. And people who are going to chatgpt for it are probably more on the side of not paying for things.

So idk. In any case, I don’t like it but :p

Tyson is a what? Goddammit. Why? I don’t really like the guy but cmon this is getting old at this point

1.Source? I legitimately hadn’t heard of this till now

2. Fine, Hasan is like…idk I don’t have a good analogy now. Dammit

I love how this is the immediate reaction of anyone whenever I or someone else criticizes Badempanada. This is going to be insulting, I’m sorry, but this is the same tactic of those rightist conservatives who just complain that “you’re a snowflake who gets offended by everything. Why do you need to be coddled you sissy?” Based off of nothing else but just me complaining he’s an insufferable douche (at best) to everyone, not just first worlders and not just rightists.

And you also engage in the same behavior that I’m complaining about in the post. You revel in how his abrasive personality makes westerners sooooo uncomfortable, ignoring how that same personality has led to him making extreme errors in his otherwise good analysis, and hurting genuine comrades.

I’m not complaining about how he makes westerners feel bad, I’m complaining that people put up with him for metaphysical reasons relating to that. Like Feynmann, he does stuff we wouldn’t put up with normally, but since he does it tow be quirky and different compared to his colleagues in the space, it’s alright.

And I’m genuinely trying to be extremely charitable. I’m comparing him to a Nobel award winning physicist for crying out loud. And I’m not dissecting him and his behavior (although I very well could, if I had the time or was terminally online enough), I’m really just complaining that is how we have to interact with him and his influence. I would much rather have a mature discussion about anti-imperialism, but every week or so he says something else that sounds super cool and unlimited genocide on the first world or whatever, but that people who have actually read theory have to take time deconstructing or responding to(his recent thing on unions is just one in a long string of issues). So in the end I just get sick of him and his entire persona.