So, the 4th of July is here, which means that you'll spend the next 24 hours seeing left-wing publications talking about slavery and posting that fucking Frederick Douglass speech again and again.
For those of us who have some respect for the American revolution, let's share interesting reads, thoughts, images, passages, etc.
Happy 4th.
ok fam
absolutely disgusting
ok fam
Are you serious?
The foundation of materialist thought is the belief that societies advance through different stages based on the available tools of accumulation, production and distribution, and the political structure reflects those. And, consequently, we should judge political events based on what mold they're breaking, and what developments the new mold can bring.
This is why Marx praised the bourgeois revolutions of the Dutch, the English, the American and the French. This is why he wanted one in Germany. This is why Lenin wanted one in Russia.
You're not supposed to look at any moment of history where a bourgeois order existed and go "ew, capitalism!" you moron.
spooks
There is a difference between understanding the historical necessity of a material stage and "having respect" for it which is a moralistic, meaningless endeavor.
There is nothing "respectable" in the American Revolution. It is certainly an interesting subject of analysis, but not some sort of ideal we should put on a pedestal.
Better than a monarchy tbh
If you don't show some admiration for previous events and struggles that advanced the course of history and choose, instead, to reserve all of your respect for the one that will finally create an "ideal" society, then you're not only moralistic but also idealistic.
Acknowledging historical necessity means acknowledging the necessity of events like the American revolution, even if they don't perfectly reflect your views. Otherwise you're no better than the liberals who think the French Revolution was bad because it got violent.
There's really no reason to celebrate the conservative American Revolution when we have the genuinely revolutionary French Revolution.
Without the American Revolution there would be no French Revolution
Sorry we created a country where you can freely express your retarded opinion- the white man
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Yeah collapsing into bonapartism was really fucking revolutionary.
The American revolution is really unique in history because it was first the establishment of democracy as a founding principle in a nation state.
But the questions is, is democracy really all that great? It seems like a mixed bag to me.
wat
Your anger is misplaced, you want to direct it at the refusal to help the french revolt not too long after
I think it would be wise to ask what kind of democracy was it, first.
American democracy was only ever intended to be plutocratic. The fact that others got suffrage was only through sweat, blood, and tears.
Not true at all. The only thing delegates at the Constitutional Convention ever talked about were the evils of democracy and the various threats to their property rights. If a polis using the US system were to have existed in classical Greece it would have been immediately identified as an oligarchy. Plenty of cities had elections for magistrates, but nobody ever claimed this was democracy. Democracy only exists when all major policy is decided upon by popular will, anything less is rule by the few.
It's obviously the only legitimate form of government, the way it's been consistently stamped out by ruling classes time and time again is a testament to that.
"The history of modern, civilised America opened with one of those great, really liberating, really revolutionary wars of which there have been so few compared to the vast number of wars of conquest which, like the present imperialist war, were caused by squabbles among kings, landowners or capitalists over the division of usurped lands or ill-gotten gains. That was the war the American people waged against the British robbers who oppressed America and held her in colonial slavery, in the same way as these “civilised” bloodsuckers are still oppressing and holding in colonial slavery hundreds of millions of people in India, Egypt, and all parts of the world."
V.I. Lenin
Heh, no. You might be able to claim that it contributed to the French Revolution, but that it caused the French Revolution isn't even remotely accurate.
We're all aware that the French Revolution ultimately failed to achieve its goals. The point is, the French Revolution had goals that were genuinely revolutionary, whereas the American Revolution was just a separatist war by the wealthy landowners and merchants who would have been perfectly happy with another monarchy if Paine hadn't fucked that up for them.
FTFY
Louis won them the war, and the revolutiinaries had just killed Louis. I can understand having mixed feelings about them.
The ridiculous expenses caused by France getting involved in the American Revolution definitely had something to do with it.
don't you have cuckporn to 'research?'
REMINDER THAT THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION WAS A COUNTER REVOLUTION AGAINST THE DIRECT DEMOCRACIES THAT AROSE IN COMMUNES SUCH AS IN NEW ENGLAND! ANARCHISM IS ALWAYS POSSIBLE MATERIAL DIALECTICS ARE UTTER BUNKUM!
You mean a counter-revolution against the sans-culottes?
lol
made me laugh hard
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What? It's funny because it came out of nowhere and was all dramatic because it was uppercase and red haha
O beautiful, our properties
Our lands and woods and grains
Our fields and mines and factories
Our ships and trains and planes!
Accumulate, accumulate! We never get enough
Of profits, income, capital, and other lovely stuff.
O beautiful, our trophy wives
Their diamonds, furs, and shoes
Our speedboats, cars, jets, limousines
Our photos in the news!
Accumulate, accumulate! We never get enough
Of profits, income, capital, and other lovely stuff.
O beautiful, our spacious yachts
That slice across the seas
Our mansions, villas, spas, resorts
Our blessed lives of ease!
Accumulate, accumulate! We never get enough
Of profits, income, capital, and other lovely stuff.
O beautiful, our shining skies
Our water, earth, and air
Our horses, cooks, maids, mistresses,
Chauffeurs, butlers, au pairs!
Accumulate, accumulate! We never get enough
Of profits, income, capital, and other lovely stuff!
toppest of kek
This shit right here.
I see that most of you ex-Holla Forumsyps still have residual patriotic sentiments that you're dealing with. I suggest a therapy session of pissing on the flag, reading books, injecting marijuanas, blaspheming against God, or other un-American activities until these feelings subside.
By that logic, we should also be celebrating the War of Austrian Succession.
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First, the only revolutionary aspect of the American Revolution was Thomas Paine and his ideas. Naturally, the the more authentically democratic government he helped to establish in Pennsylvania was dismantled, he had nothing to do with the establishment of the American constitution, and after he returned from France after assisting in the French Revolution, he was ostracized and died alone, and it became something of a tradition for American presidencies to denounce Paine thereafter.
Second, the Left tried to "reclaim" the American Revolution for almost the latter half of the 20th Century. It, and every other attempt to "claim" right-wing ideology for the Left, has been a colossal failure, and only served to strengthen the Right, because ultimately there's no counter-narrative to challenge the American Exceptionalist narrative, and the Right is always going to be more authentically nationalist.
ahahahahahaha
good
Not even american bruh. I just acknowledge that the petty iconoclasm behind hating or dismissing the American revolution is childish. It's the political equivalent of an adbusters image.
What the fuck are these communists doing thinking hating the United States is appropriate
Holy shit that one caught me by surprise
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…NOT!
Yeah fuck them. If you hold a favorable view of the French revolution you must be a French nationalist and patriotard amiright?
I don't remember the OP mentioning the French Revolution, nor do I see how it's applicable here.
Perhaps you have some latent patriotic fervor in you? There's multiple history books and documentaries that can cure you of that ailment.
Who is talking about "celebrating?"
I thought that you would still be pissed at him over the 15th Amendment.
Fuck all amendments and fuck the united states
KEK.
THE WORLD HATES YOU, 'MURICA!
Where? The most I've ever seen said about the American Revolution in the 20th Century was a quote by Malcolm X that was decidedly in the opposite direction of what you're claiming.
Yes, in the face of an increasingly reactionary monarchy
All I see is pointless moralizing. What exactly would be superior about rule by the British crown? Would it have helped increase industrialization? Would it have helped resolve labor disputes in the favor of the workers? Perhaps you could argue it would help radicalize them.
But if you want to go circlejerk about how progressive you are, /r/socialism/ is that way
Fuck off pseudointellectual. There was no clear "goal" for either of these revolutions. The french revolutionary government was filled with a mix of extremely reactionary elements, literal monarchists and some straight up socialists. All these people were struggling against each other, which is why you get all the beheadings and the thermidorian reaction and such.
And then you have the same thing in the American revolution. You have the Jefferson faction struggling with the Hamiltonian Federalists. The guys like Paine and Samuel Adams who were extremely adamant about personal liberties and then the slaveholders in the south who didn't like that idea. The American government was intended to be something different until Shay's rebellion scared the leaders about the countrie's survival. The policies of the Constitution were extremely controversial.
The French Revolution would not have happened without the American Revolution to inspire it, nor would it have happened without Paine's writings.
Tl;dr eat a dick
So Holla Forums, which US president you you fuck?
Hillary :^)
Obama
I'm not American but I still consider Thomas Paines work very inspiring.
The Injuns would have survived quite a bit longer. Also, slavery would have been abolished sooner and without the bloody Civil War.
Fuck no. The Brits would have never allowed their mercantile colonies to become industrial rivals. In terms of historical materialism, the American Revolution was a very good thing.
Apart from the early elimination of slavery, no.
Poor George III was just a bit crazy.
The French Revolution was inevitable, but the financial strains caused by France's participation in the American Revolution were a catalyst.
Are you only able to compute one sentence at a time? I said I'm not fucking american.
lol
This is the sort of opinion you adhere to because you think it will shock people at school or family meetings.
I don't even know what's your logic here, probably something about taxes or the "UK would abolish slavery soon" line.
Horne pls go
Roosvelt
Basically america overthrew its colonial oppressors which was the spark to the beginning of the end of colonialism but we did it while also being white men so tumblr still thinks we are racist.
The american revolution inspired the french revolution which lead to the enlightenment and why you dont get thrown in prison for bad mouthing kings.
B-but the American Revolution was started by Satanic Freemasons!!!
Americans like repeating this, and while there may be a dimension of truth to it, the material conditions in France were such that a revolution was going to happen regardless of what the Americans did.
That's not how it works. "Material conditions" for Socialism have been present for centuries but we're still living under capitalism.
Socialists are not fatalists, events and individuals influence reality even if they are limited by circumstances.
Regardless of how childish it may or may not be, trying to defend the American Revolution as a fucking communist is completely asinine and equally as petty.
The American Revolution was a liberal revolution centered on Enlightenment values. Literally why should any of us give a fuck? Because of muh dialectics? Get real. The only revolutipn that makes sense for us to celebrate is a communist one, and if you really think the American Revolution wad anything other than liberal Enlightenment bullshit you need to read moar about the shit you're talking about. The American Revolution was a disappointing affair more than anything else.