I don't like spending this much time arguing against campism but they just keep talking at me.
this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2026
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Thanks for sharing this perspective.
As a baby leftist, I don't want to fall into the traps of others when it comes to heralding the goods of past socialist experiments without criticizing the ills as well.
Nothing is perfect, as you say, and it a materialist socialists' life long project to see the world clearly for all the material conditions that exist, and have existed up until this point. Idealist socialists and idealist communists will capsize their entire movement, and endlessly make things about purity tests.
The words "purity tests" sets off my liberal detector, because of accusations of "purity testing" being used to defend Democratic party entryism and terrible DSA candidates from criticism.
Outside of any liberal usage, you have to acknowledge the phenomenon of leftist purity testing, especially on Lemmy. It's part of what makes the ML spaces so unsavory.
I mean,
Even the terrible DSA candidates are DSA candidates, and so far as socialist movements go they have the absolute advantage of popularity right now. I'm really, really tired of publicly glazing Democrats because the general class consciousness is so low that slowing the bleeding is the best we can get electorally.
I would be absolutely chuffed if terrible DSA candidates displaced terrible DNC candidates, because at the very least it puts "Socialist" in the general public awareness, and lowers the barrier for decent DSA candidates. And the DSA is a better class of lesser evil overall. And the better the lesser evil, the more effective my dual power is going to be.
Which is to say, purity testing is a real problem, and you don't have to be a liberal to recognize that any proper leftist movement is going to need to engage the actual proletariat, and most of those guys are tribalistic dummies.
The DSA cannot at all be compared to the groups I was talking about because they fail at one of the main requirements, to be an anti-imperialist movement, their candidates have like backed out from every meaningful thing. They are not really "democratic socialists" they are closer to social democrats.
Not really? The official DSA platform includes dissolving the Senate. The movement itself is pretty anti-imperialist, even if individual candidates have to waffle a bit to get elected by the tribalistic dummies.
Still though, a better class of lesser evil than the DNC in any case, that can't be denied. I haven't seen a significant level of "backing out", and certainly not from every meaningful thing. Until class consciousness attains a level to make more direct means practical, I'd rather shill for a lesser evil that sucks a bit less. DSA > DNC, even if both are a far cry from a proper International.