The Left Opposition Podcast

Initially we wanted to talk about the DSA after a few short discussions on a video that came across our desk as well as a shitty Atlantic article that came out last year about how it's best to just ignore the news, but we ran too long and will discuss the DSA another time.

Rathbone is a political tiktok influencer who I think has done some really great work dispelling myths surrounding the Israeli occupation and genocide of Palestine which is why it's disappointing to hear this video, unfortunately extremely common among Marxist circles when it comes to critically analysing the class nature of China. His position is western American Leftists should shut up about China while we heavily disagree. What some Marxists call a multipolar world we see it as an emerging inter-imperialist world that will inevitably lead to war. The Communist Party of China is a bourgeois party that deserves to be studied and criticized.

Sources for today's episode:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/03/information-news-addiction-liberal-depression/673351/

Ending song is Woody Guthrie's Do Re Mi, where he sings about the dustbowl forcing people west to California, like Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath.

Just Aaron and Chris this week discussing some of the news that's been circulating, some major stuff and some stuff you might not have heard about.

Aaron opens the episode gushing about Carl Sagan, one of many figures and influences that led him away from liberalism and toward an internationalist perspective of the world. We then read a letter from NY mag about liberals getting their feelings hurt when called names for raising money for the genocidal Democratic party. Israel bombed some workers for the crime of feeding hungry Palestinians. We go on to discuss ExxonMobil stifling shareholders expressing concern over the environment, and Arizona using an archaic law to ban abortion.

Sources for this week's episode

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nuez1HlBvqA&t=282s&ab_channel=alekospagonis

https://marxist.ca/article/israel-murders-aid-workers-western-imperialism-is-complicit

https://www.levernews.com/exxon-declares-war-on-its-dissenters/

https://www.liberationnews.org/u-s-workers-forced-to-bail-out-intel-a-top-100-company/

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/left-wing-authoritarians-shutting-down-the-democratic-party.html

Aaron, Chris, Matt, Joe and Doug coming at you once again taking a break from our patsoc nonsense to take a look at the alternative to Trump's movement. If we are so vehemently against Trump and the MAGA communist movement, we must be Democrats, right? In this episode we take a short tally of just where the Democrats have fallen short for working people, how left wing movements die in their vicinity, and what the next option for the working class is.

Who knows maybe there are Marxists who can convince us to vote for the Democrats? We look at Adolph Reed's piece in The Nation who essentially argues "yeah we all hate Biden, but the only way to hold him accountable is to elect him". We also turn to CPUSA's article on the importance of not technically voting for the Democrats, but against Trump in 2024. We examine where this article falls short in convincing us.

We will be very clear: a vote for the Democrats is a vote for genocide, a vote for the enemy of the working class. The only path is for a workers government on a socialist program as part of a broader socialist movement of the working class.

Readings for this episode:

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/communist-league/1850-ad1.htm

https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1944/1944-fas.htm

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/adolph-reed-biden/

https://cpusa.org/article/not-one-step-back-vote-against-fascism-2024/

https://www.socialistalternative.org/2022/05/04/never-voting-for-a-democrat-again/

https://socialistrevolution.org/mobilize-labor-to-defend-trans-rights/

This week we take a deep dive into one of the most popular Marxist Leninists MAGA communists in the media, Jackson Hinkle. With over 2 million followers on Twitter, he's had the ear of Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson, Alex Jones and many other prominent media figures. Where did he come from and why is he special?

The long and short of it, is everything he has done has been for clout. We mostly let Hinkle speak for himself here, but he arose from a small time streamer to a major media figure seemingly over night. We go over what his beliefs are, his understanding of communism, his adulation of Russia, China, Putin and Trump, as well as his transphobia by accusing all Nazis of being gay and transgender going as far as calling them all "f****ts".

At the end of the day he has no fundamental understanding of Marxism, his demeanor changes depending on who he is talking to, and ultimately he is a massive grifter and likely doesn't believe in what he's saying.

Also we welcome newcomer Joe, you can find him on youtube as Radicalize Me.

https://www.youtube.com/@radicalizeme5380

Show sources:

https://banned.video/watch?id=654d6f8a668ba733e3d56648

https://rumble.com/v1kt7c7-in-focus-addison-smith-questions-jackson-hinkle-on-maga-communism.html

https://twitter.com/JzeViewing/status/1728982309100306664

https://www.maoisme.no/2023/03/multipolarisme-er-ikke-antiimperialisme/

https://www.socialistalternative.org/2017/05/21/review-100-years-ago-forgotten-soviet-revolution-lgbtq-rights/

https://www.socialistalternative.org/2016/01/16/womens-lgbt-liberation-revolutionary-russia/

Hello comrades! This is our first episode of the Left Opposition where we take on the capitalist news of the week, the current goings on around the world, discuss current Marxist theory and books we're reading, and critique certain segments of the Marxist current gaining steam in the American zeitgeist: the patriotic socialists or so called "MAGA" communist movement. We round out the episode with introductions to ourselves followed by a heartfelt discussion about comrade Aaron Bushnell and his heroic sacrifice, and how to channel that energy into taking on the imperialist empire by reading theory and organizing the working class.