It’s fascinating to me how the same people who like to do purity tests for China or Vietnam claiming they’re not actually communist are also the ones who’ll defend places like US or Canada saying yeah it’s not perfect, but it’s the ideal of the system that matters.
It’s such an incredible example of cognitive dissonance. These people able to recognize that their own system doesn’t live up to the ideal they have in their heads, but still treat it as a valid interpretation of the idea, but when it comes to a system they dislike then the same logic doesn’t apply all of a sudden.
Yeah it also comes up during election cycles in the US. If you say you don’t want to vote Democrat, you might hear someone say that you shouldn’t focus on purity and vote pragmatically™.
Of course they are either unable to understand that there are different politcal aims at play, or they are trying to extort you.
When the “Republican friend” tries to suggest a moderate or alternative dem for “pragmatic purposes” it’s often taken in bad faith. RFK Jr is a decent example of this today, a lot of Dems hate him because he sucks and is an obvious grifter. But if a communist or some other ‘lefty’ doesn’t want to vote for Democrats, they are selling everyone out to Trump because of a dangerous lack of pragmatism.
Yup
I’ve taken to telling reformist liberals that I have literally no reason to want to see the state that murders people like me in the streets routinely perpetuating. Like, telling me that “it could be the end of our democracy” is threatening me with a good time, bc frankly, don’t no one in the hood live in a democracy. They’re out here criminalizing New Afrikans for so many things that it can genuinely be umbrella’d under “existing while Black”, and it’s an even 50/50 as to whether or not your ass gets sent to the morgue because of that criminalization; so why should I care for a nation that won’t change? That won’t humor the first inklings of accountability or reparation?