I know this is talked about every day, but I wanna ask, how soon is shit gonna hit the fan? If you asked me 2 years ago...

hi Holla Forums

...

Extremely under-prepared. Not even because of what will happen, but because of what's already happened. You don't even have to project - the best examples are in the police force and surveillance state. We watch our police murder unarmed people and get away with it, the Patriot Act is a "fact of life" (and during Obama, I saw self-identified 'leftists' defend it as though it was necessary just to keep people alive - I hope they're fucking choking on it now that we have a bona fide insecure retard for a president) and the same communications monopolies who just got a legal go-ahead to censor information also take money from the government to spy on the public.

During Bush, surveillance was used heavily to spy on anti-war protesters. It's spectacular to think about how much the US ramped up data collection in a day-and-age when their biggest threat came down to a few angry men with boxcutters who were already being monitored before they did 9/11. And they use their it to go after Quaker pacifist groups.

The situation with the cops has been bad for a long time, but I think it's reaching a new critical. Now that we can see and prove what they're doing, now that we know they're still being infiltrated by white supremacists, now that the public at large is well-aware of the entrapment schemes they pull to collect more money… the public at large can watch as fuck-all gets done and the media airs "both sides" trash apologizing for disasters like the Daniel Shaver incident and the cops continue to get more military equipment and continue to slam ordinary people on the ground for not appreciating it when they bust in doors.

It's not just black folks or minorities or radicals or any of that. If you aren't watching out for the cops, they will fuck you and you may well end up in-and-out of jail just because they have zero incentive to coherently explain parole conditions. They aren't answering to anybody, and they take the apathy of the political class and loud cheerleading of right-wing blowhards as encouragement to embrace their destiny as publicly-paid street thugs allegedly under attack from society.

So, to get around to the vain LARPING - here's the retarded shit I think we ought to do. We need to make our stances clear on the surveillance and police state - no. We oppose that stuff and will show why it isn't actually improving lives, and then destroy it. No in-between bullshit. In case of confusion, there is no value in "accelerating" towards a reactionary authoritarian society controlled by the capitalist class. Neoliberal accelerationism (inasmuch as it can be separated from the even more blatantly authoritarian pseudo-fascist Trump shit) is also bullshit, but at least the theory of accelerating to peak market freedom and productivity makes some sense - accelerating directly to a state where you effectively muzzle the entire proletariat and may not even get the benefit of raised productivity is just suicide. There is no revolutionary or even reform potential there, dictatorships don't exist to allow dismantling.

We need to interact more with bourgeois politics - that sphere is what we're living in, denying this is retarded. Organized fuckery is a good idea. The far right is small, but they flex their muscle all the time and get disproportionate power. We should be more willing to build and destroy politicians. Simultaneously if possible - fight for the best plausible outcome, but also do what you can to demonstrate how shit that outcome is and what an inept scumbag that politician is. Coherently oppose their policies, direct anger against them, and raise politicians to replace them with actual leftist ideas as the anger builds. When shenanigans are pulled against them, contest it.

To contest it, and to amplify ourselves in all this, we'll need to build communications. We should be involved more in tech, as well as making a positive presence known in society. The pothole-fixing anarchists are a good start on this in America - and I'm serious. When we demonstrate more and more the ability to train people and acquaint the public with their own roles in society, we will become closer and closer to presenting a real challenge to the status quo of a deliberately alienated and underemployed workforce - and, importantly, practically encouraging our ideas.

This requires connection - and that's another thing. We here at leftypol worry a lot. About the FBI, about false flags, about Jim. But so long as we know how to avoid direct entrapment (most of the time), we need to be connecting - or at least branching out. Our basic stance of anti-idpol, anti-neoliberal leftism has massive appeal and yet it gets shut down fucking everywhere. We as leftypols need to act more. Like, when I came here it seems like ya'll were better about it - like, the Wolff thing that got /r/soc buttblasted was great! We need as fucking much of that as we can get., plus real life organizing. We're wasting some of our potential not doing enough to build community.

And, lastly but not leastly - arm, train, stock. This one's obvious, but it bears repeating every time.

Jesus, I fucked this sentence up - they used their surveillance powers to go after Quaker pacifist groups is how it should read.

Give me an example of the far right flexing it's muscle? inb4 you say memes got trump elected.

I'm just waiting for someone to assassinate Trump or some other high-level official. It will happen eventually, because no security is air-tight, except in a country where the entire population is already subjugated like the DPRK. No, it's not like that here. There are too many smart people here, who are crazy and who don't care if they die if it's for "a cause". Trump still goes around in public places, making speeches and shaking hands; one guy with a hidden shiv that's not made of metal, and he's dead before the secret service can blink.

At this point, I've largely lost faith that anything can ever be done about this country. The greatest mercy to me would be if my entire family were somehow killed in some kind of terrorist attack, so I could be free of any obligation to stay any longer.

On the militant front:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Portland_train_attack
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stabbing_of_Timothy_Caughman
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Olathe,_Kansas_shooting
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Minneapolis_shooting
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unite_the_Right_rally#Vehicular_attack_and_homicide
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knoxville_Unitarian_Universalist_church_shooting
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Lafayette_shooting#Prior_to_the_shooting
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overland_Park_Jewish_Community_Center_shooting
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Sikh_temple_shooting
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charleston_church_shooting
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundy_standoff
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_High_School_shooting

and add in any number of right-leaning militias, infiltration of police forces, police militarization itself, and the right's frequent fixation on gun politics which are mostly about "we have all the guns" - it's not a coincidence that they also commit so much murder, I assume that it's a sacrifice they're willing to take for the benefit of being intimidating.

On the bourgeois political front:

Yes, both the 2000 and 2016 elections. Not because of any 'meme warfare' bullshit, but just in the sense that if anything left of the GOP (ie the only other party - the right/center right Dems) ever won with fewer votes we'd see an instant upshoot in even more instances like those listed above. Obama's election was an insane instant reeeeeeefest - not because of what he actually was (an imperialist neoliberal shill) or whether or not he had the most votes but because of some bullshit about communism and fags and Islam.

And unless they can win with fewer votes (actually this also occurred in congress in 2016), they're often contesting it and claiming voter fraud (an empty claim, which is generally not followed up with actual improvement of machines - something sorely needed on the vulnerable technology) - Pat McRory's loss, and then recently Mary Norwood in Atlanta. Across the board, the far right seem to be way more empowered to pull this sort of stuff than the center/right liberal pussies - and it's flexing, groping for disproportionate political power and baiting vulnerable nuts to move the Overton window further to the right without actually having to attract more people to the right.

There's a war on Christmas. A war on cops. A war on marriage. But the purported invading force in these inane "culture wars" is a mass of largely unarmed (and quite average) pussies, some of whom go to the lengths of being rude to people online. Economics isn't even touched where civil rights and civil society are contested day and night.

Never because everyone here is a pussy who won't JUST FUCKING START THE NEXT CIVIL WAR ALREADY, because "Muh pr!"
And the right wing is too incompetent to ever start it, and the few who are still care about "muh pr."
Maybe one day the whole thing will blow open, but then return to porky in control because both sides will eternally still be prevented to fight.

So what should I add here?

If necessary (and it is necessary), start treating the Dems the way that far right-wingers treat them - scare the bastards, invite major neoliberal Dems to engage in intercourse with our guns, enjoy the immunity of being a large, armed, angry mob who still at least holds the pretense of participating in mainstream politics. But with actual leftist positions and real, coherent complaints. Pay attention to the Dems, and then as they continue to fail (which they will - besides being pussies, they are inept), divert efforts away from the failing DNC and into our own representatives. Ed.'s note: If they can't get elected right away, perhaps act as though they did - set up councils to run any service or maintenance in town that we have the time and numbers to manage.

We should make sure that we have a coherent audible presence raining hellfire on the Dems while also sending them leftward and supporting them (not monetarily) when it comes to issues where they may be willing to prevent us from getting screwed over harder and there is not a choice left of them. This is because it can get worse, and it can get harder, and we have a need to prevent that without stopping our work (should it properly begin).

And of course, put the GOP in their place, too. This is actually an important point for winning converts - see the infamous Richard Spencer punch. Be they the idpol left, the current batch of liberals, even centrists - they've had enough of all this, and they don't see opportunity in America's mainstream liberal "left." They look fondly to smug neo-Nazis getting punched in the face, and I bet many of them would look fondly to people coming up against the neoliberal order, too. The truth is, we aren't special. I mean, the specialest thing here is that we're chantards of some ilk - that's what's weird about us. The prevalence of the IDPol left, of the LARPing bullshit - I think many of them have their hearts at least sort of in the right place… they're diverted from liberals to the "left," but it's a controlled "left" stuck in park. It's really and truly not just their fault that this happens, they get exposed to idpol before they get exposed to anti-idpol and idpol, right now, is still prevalent. We need to keep working on changing that.

While we must counter the far-left, I think its equally important to fight off the forces of idpol as well. For example, if they see us defending a white conservative against some racist-ass mexican person, that would look good in many people's eyes.

counter the far-right*

I kinda post this every thread about the next few years, but honestly I have a praxis that could work in the west: I called it "Pessimistic Reformism".

The basic tenets are that you have your Corbyn, Melenchon ect. types get elected. The next step is to not hold any bars and go full fucking Allande with actual demsoc. However, the plan is to bait the deep state into an attempted coup, or some such ation /and be prepared for it/. Creating extra-state structures to fight any coup that is attempted and win it. Winning a counter coup effectively give you the power to institute a DotP right there and then: look At Erdogan's Turkey and the power he now wields. With a DotP in place, and the elements of the deep state that want to overthrow socialism fought and defeated, the real shit can start.

I think you're right about the cops. The right wing groups, as numerous and well armed as they are, don't need to do violence themselves because the cops do it for them. It looks bad on camera but that doesn't mean they won't do it, look at Standing Rock. There was a virtual media blackout about that, and if I recall the Iraq War protests were largely ignored too.
The Democrats are ripe for total collapse but in low level elections they have the advantage of running anonymous empty suits against cartoonishly evil Republicans. That's still enough for a lot of people.

The right-populists will win hard when the next crisis hits, but they're just capitalists so they won't be able to fix shit. People will be disillusioned and they'll be voted out in favor of similarly ineffectual SocDems or Libs. Status quo continues as we slowly slide into corporate technocracy or a collapse. Nothing interesting will happen on the Left because the modern left is a castrated mess and even its relatively more powerful predecessors never accomplished their goal.