You do realize the US is the world’s worst Empire and thus the one peddling authoritarianism and violence, right?

For starters, there are only right and extreme right policies among the Dems and Reps. Secondly, there is a massive pool of disaffected voters that would vote for a lukewarm progressive like Bernie, who was projected to even steal Trump voters, because progressive policy is popular. The Dems ran rightward and lost their voters in general.

Don’t mind me, just taking advantage of a good Marxist meme to plug my Read Theory, Darn it! introductory reading list on Marxism.

As the contradictions within Capitalism sharpen, more and more workers are radicalized and develop Class Consciousness, but without reading theory, this can be taken advantage of by opportunists. The Capitalist machine is very good at this, they redirect problems with the system itself to other areas, like immigrants, queer people, and more. Theory helps cut through that smokescreen and allows us to see how to move beyond Capitalism.

That’s not what Socialism is, or even Communism. In every existing Socialist state, people have gotten higher or lower pay for different levels of intensity or skill. If getting paid the same is “the problem with pure socialism” then it sounds like it’s all cleared up!

Secondly, Social Democracy still relies on Capitalism, which necessarily moves in the direction of increased disparity and centralization of power in fewer and fewer hands. Moreover, as companies spread internationally, Capitalism turns to Imperialism, whereby workers in the Global South are paid a fraction of the wages a worker in the Global North would be paid. This form of hyper-exploitation for super-profits results in dramatically unequal exchange and underdevelopment. Socialism is the way forward, beyond this system of exploitation and eventual collapse.

I really recommend you give at least the first section of my reading list a try.

You can’t vote out fascism, fascism is Capitalism in decay and it doesn’t care about electoral politics.

I think you underestimate how many don’t vote because neither party offers them something worth voting for. A huge percentage of US Americans don’t vote, yet polling for progressive policies always polls better.

By going progressive you aren’t convincing the rare swing voter, but the massive number of disaffected voters. These aren’t far-left, but disenfranchised from the entire system.

They’d win elections more frequently, and the collapse of the US Empire would slow just a bit.

Socialism. I wrote an intro reading list for Marxism if you want to check it out.

Slavery used to be far more common than it is today.

Yes, after it was peaceful, it escalated. Peace was the first option, and then the dictator started murdering people. Pretending “just asking” gets dramatic change is horrible, especially when your own referenced article said it was “terribly one-sided.”

There’s no use talking to someone who supports slaughter of schoolchildren like you.

Gwang-Ju was peaceful, and the government slaughtered them. You keep pretending violence was the first choice, when peace was. Like I said, you have no idea what you’re talking about, and spit on the graves of schoolchildren murdered by Chun Doo-Hwan.

1987 only happened because the years preceding 1987 happened, and you insult the Korean people by lying about their history.

Like I said, you have no concept of time, everything is a static event for you, devoid of context. 1987 wasn’t the first time South Koreans fought against a dictatorship, and had been slaughtered for peaceful protests. Just because eventually the government conceded doesn’t mean it wasn’t paid for in civilian blood.

You have no idea what you’re talking about, and insult the Korean people who gave their lives, and insult the families of those who died.

They had already asked peacefully, and were slaughtered for doing so. The change was a cumulative effort with deep contextual history, and didn’t happen in a vacuum.

You have *no idea" what you’re talking about.

The Gwang-Ju protests were a pro-democracy protest against the dictator Chun Doo-Hwan. You have no idea what you’re talking about and are erasing the very real historical impact of the massacre.

Ah yes, peaceful, if you erase the Gwang-ju Massacre and other atrocities committed by “The Butcher” Chun Doo-Hwan.

The rights enjoyed by South Koreans were fought for with blood spilled by their own government and Capitalists. Don’t erase them.

No, I’m not. I am saying you are taking an abstract, idealist analysis that misses real historical motivations.

No, slavery was abolished because of technological progress and changes in Mode of Production. I’m thinking in a Historical Materialist perspective, there wasn’t a random beaming of empathy in humanity.

Lots of history proves that humans behaved differently based on the economic system in place. Why do you believe slavery has largely been abolished? Did humans suddenly change their minds about it?

Humans change quite a bit depending on Mode of Production, which shapes culture and norms.

War is a necessity as long as Imperialism remains the dominant contradiction in the world, we need to move beyond Capitalism to move beyond war.