I was reading my twitter feed Sunday Night (August 2) when I happened upon this ridiculous bit of writing by Matt Bruenig—“Small Businesses are Overrated”—from the Jan 16, 2018 issue of Jacobin Magazine.
This is a spot-on exposition of the confusion caused by people conflating socialism with State Capitalism. The number of people who describe themselves as leftists but at the same time use the term "democratic socialists," a philosophy that perfectly represents State Capitalism, is alarming. These people have been hoodwinked into believing they are espousing socialism when in reality they are just parroting State Capitalism cum Bernie Sanders, DSA, Our Revolution, the Squad, Ro Kanna, Shahid Buttar, Jamaal Bowman, just to name a few. This is not good for the socialist movement; it is a perversion that detracts from understanding what socialism is & how to take action. State Capitalism is top-down, as you describe, while socialism should be bottom-up, a grassroots project--encouraging, supporting & reinforcing individual efforts to join to build communities together, not from the top, not with a hierarchical caste system.
I enjoyed reading this. Your ideas are thought-provoking. You got me thinking that as socialists we need to learn how to become community builders.
I am hoping to turn this into a revolutionary free source for actual action.
This is a spot-on exposition of the confusion caused by people conflating socialism with State Capitalism. The number of people who describe themselves as leftists but at the same time use the term "democratic socialists," a philosophy that perfectly represents State Capitalism, is alarming. These people have been hoodwinked into believing they are espousing socialism when in reality they are just parroting State Capitalism cum Bernie Sanders, DSA, Our Revolution, the Squad, Ro Kanna, Shahid Buttar, Jamaal Bowman, just to name a few. This is not good for the socialist movement; it is a perversion that detracts from understanding what socialism is & how to take action. State Capitalism is top-down, as you describe, while socialism should be bottom-up, a grassroots project--encouraging, supporting & reinforcing individual efforts to join to build communities together, not from the top, not with a hierarchical caste system.
I enjoyed reading this. Your ideas are thought-provoking. You got me thinking that as socialists we need to learn how to become community builders.
I think a big problem with socialist message is that it often overlooks the fact we all need to leaders.
This is true & it flies in the face of the current tendency for Americans to flock behind a personality cult.