Why is Trotskyism so popular among the left in the West?

Why is Trotskyism so popular among the left in the West?

A lot of people just want to feel different and most don't have the time or energy to scrutinize their ideology with a fine-toothed comb.

Because he lost.

he was the nicest right?
thats why the brown people killed him

He was right about literally everything

Because it's the most famous variety of anti-Stalinist Leninism.

Because his counterrevolutionary movement was backed by very powerful figures, including the Rothschilds.

Anti-communist reactions to the USSR.

Even the goldbuggery?

Kronstadt was a mistake.

Because he was right.

Because sectarianism keeps the left down and that's exactly what the super stronk western porky wants

why

So they can be leninists without answering for the continual failure of leninist projects, cause everything wrong with them is just the fault of 'muh stalinist bureaucracy even though the seeds of stalinism were planet by lenin and trotsky

/thread

Stalinophobia, and the fact that many on the left seem to be unable to take a nuanced opinion on the Soviet Union in response to said anti-communism.

because the trotskyist can speak the language of the average liberal but with an edge

all of these make sense

honest question, what do you think the USSR would've been like had Trotsky become the leader?

fear of following in the footsteps of Stalin,
fear of not following in the footsteps of Lenin.

It's this wonderful sort of "what if" scenario that provides an easy way out for those who like communism but not the degenerated workers' state that the USSR morphed into.

A lot like the sort who will believe that America would have been significantly different with Hilldawg in charge

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With that being said, I agree with international revolution and permanent revolution.

He never saw it coming, see he was too busy looking for a Russian soldier with an AK47 to notice.

Trotsky himself said that it wouldn't have been very different. But that's because it was an issue of which class had power, not which personality.

The dude excaimed "ARRIBA" after the murder.

because the west is dead

It's not Trotskyism, but post-Trotskyism that is popular. It does tend to call itself Trotskyism, but is quite far from it.

As for the reason: it's an attempt to have Capitalist-friendly Marxism. When Soviets rose, there was a necessity to destroy their monopoly on Communism: every single anti-Capitalist could turn into a Soviet Communist otherwise. World revolution was a distinct possibility in the interwar period.

Italy and Germany went with the "third way", that "equally rejects" Capitalism and Communism (aka Fascism), while America was presenting a "better" alternative to the population: more "humane", "smarter", more "correct", and so much more fashionable "Real" Marxism.

Hello, Paradox. No, Trotskyism is not Leninism.


There isn't.

Trotsky was a journalist first and foremost. He lost because he was lousy administrator, sucked at finding competent people, and was too self-centred - flaws that would've cost him leadership regardless of Stalin. Either Zinovyev or Kamenev would've deposed him.

Notice how Trotsky - initially, second only to Lenin - was constantly losing influence and support for more than a decade. In the end, he wasn't killed and got exiled instead only became he wasn't perceived as a threat. Him getting famous has more to do with him being a convenient figurehead, than with his talents (in 30s all of the opposition leaders in USSR nominally admitted their mistakes - except Trotsky, he was exiled already).

As for Stalin - he would've been killed, not exiled. His position was secured by his faction, real people that he could've - and would've - used. A very real threat.

Can you substantiate your agreement?

I recently made a thread about World Revolution, but got no informative replies.

The one thing I really don't understand is how Trotskyism managed to take the mantle of revolutionary lolbertarian marxism. After all, we already had Rosa-chan, yet Luxemburgism never got that big.

I believe that there would be more funding for "exporting the revolution" to other countries. Perhaps a bit less purging, although I can't be sure about this, since there would probably be some level of purging with anyone in office.

Before Trotsky, Bakunin was already saying that countries which follow marxism would become totalitarians. Tough luck brah.

Because it was the most well known anti-stalin marxism in the west and especially the anglosphere among the general public.

It was a great way to publicly be a marxist while distancing ones self from the USSR which was seen as the "big bad" during the cold war by the west.

I think that is a big part of it. That he wasn't Stalin. Most people who know trotsky usually don't know about some of his more controversial views (Terror and Communism).

The other part was that he was a great writer and speaker, which definitely won him a lot of popularity.


I'd say it was more he was bad at politics. His attacks on Lenin early on and his failure in siding with the Mensheviks fucked him over pretty hard.

Because Trotskyist revolutionary praxis is primarily entryism, which ultimately means providing critical support for one liberal against the other. Since the west has a lot of liberals, it's not hard to figure out the rest and also why this logically ends up being the major motivation for most splits in Trotskyism:
This then influences Trotskyists who, even if they do no maintain support for a particular liberal politics, will adapt their praxis to what their ideal entryist candidate should look like and do.

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?

I'm really not sure what point you're trying to make here.