this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2025
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El Chisme
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Western/ Global North “leftists” try not to fall for another social fascist challenge (Impossible).
Even before this came out, the fact that this guy is an Iraq/ Afghan War vet who went there FOUR times, once as a BLACKWATER MERCENARY who is also proud of this fact and refuses to acknowledge what he did was wrong should have been a massive red flag. I know a lot of people here don’t like BadEmpanada, but he was 100% in the right to condemn Hasan and everyone else who supported this guy.
BadEmpanada's stance is basically that no veterans should be part of the left regardless of their opinion now about the US military or any regrets they may have. Him being right is less about good analysis or good judgement of character and more about being a broken clock. He has the same opinion of Mike Prysner that he does of Graham Platner.
no veterans should be "leaders" of the western left. simple as. They can be rank-and-file if they are truly penitent. None of this "as a veteran" horseshit
People should be judged based on where they are now, their actions in the present, and their self-criticism of their past actions. Graham Platner is unfit to be a leader in any leftist movement because, among many other reasons, he basically thinks the US wasn't engaged in anything wrong overseas. Someone like a Mike Prysner is the opposite of that and has done a lot of action to prove that he is not the same as he was. AES wouldn't exist in a lot of AES countries if people like Zhu De had been continuously rejected over their imperial/mercenary military past instead of being brought into the party by leaders like Zhou Enlai.
I have to question what your theory of revolution is, and how to hold onto it against capital, if you really think that it isn't going to involve a good amount of military conflict against reactionary forces. That doesn't mean you just left anyone who is a veteran into the movement, but that also doesn't mean you reject everyone who was one, either. If they are a fucking heinous war criminal, that's one thing, but some grunt who regrets what they did, understands and owns up to it, and wants to work towards a communist future is a different thingm
No. They should not be "judged where they are now" on a pragmatic political level. Our representatives should be unimpeachable with a long history of doing what's right and being correct and principled. We have a large enough pool of people to draw from, nobody has a "right" to some type of atonement of their sins and re-appraisal. If some bloodsoaked warmonger wants forgiveness, he can ask it of his victims, and he can become a rank-and-file.
There's a difference between a soldier who has proved their merit and allegiance to the revolution, and grifters trying to gain personal political power on the backs of leftists.
What’s key here though is I really don’t think ANYONE who we should take seriously or consider a comrade is saying Platner is a “leader” of the left. I believe most hexbears who are positive about Mamdani (or Platner before all this), myself included, see these people as weather vanes. They show there is definitely potential for the working class in the US to congeal into a class for itself. They show that people think the status quo is fucked and they want something better. But our class consciousness is so fucked and we have such a long row to hoe, it’s not unreasonable to point to political reps that might do things that the working class wants (even if they are only doing it for opportunistic reasons) and leverage that into more class consciousness.
Elected representatives are leaders. Just one more social fascist with a nazi tattoo bro, just one more - electoralist addicts coping
They are leaders in a definitional sense, not in a leader that we are upholding as our leader.
You are seeking out the least charitable possible explanation in this entire thread, including calling me a Nazi / social fascist elsewhere.
ah so... leaders?
You want guys like this to win and for America to become more like this guy? We could have one billion mamdanicans and we'd still be a social fascist shithole. This is a flawed conception of how to do politics
You literally deleted your comment in shame where you said that "hexbear is getting too leftcom for me" because we were purity testing over nazism.
I deleted it before you commented because I felt it wasn’t useful to the discussion, then undeleted it when I saw you commented because I’m not a jerk.
Let me guess, this doesn't apply to criminals who have killed, assaulted, or stolen from working class people?
You still haven't answered my question, Mr. Allende: what's your theory do revolution as it regards military struggle, and where to you intend to find people with the knowledge and experience to train a revolutionary military force if not from the militar?
Actually, it's hilarious that you are making this argument less than 24 hours after defending Napoleon as a progressive when others pointed out he was a colonial imperialist who reinstated slavery.
Correct, these criminals should not be put into leadership positions of the revolution or the working class party.
Oh, I see, so if they had previously engaged in protection rackets or organizied and conducted bank robberies where regular people were killed intentionally or in the crossfire, that would be proof they shouldn't be leaders?
Napoleon gets a pass through for colonialism and reinstituting slavery in the third world, though, huh? He's a progressive in your mind since he at least smashed the feudal system in Europe?
i wouldn't vote for napoleon or put him in charge of anything lmaoo
Crimes against the state are not crimes against the proletariat
Protection rackets and innocent people dying in the crossfire of your crimes aren't crimes against the proletariat?
No you'd just call Napoleon a progressive icon lmao
i was literally paraphrasing the The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte in those comments. You got an issue with the argument, take it up with the big man
No, you were defending Napoleon as "progressive relative to his era" when he was doing the same thing you are mad at Platner for doing, only on a much grander scale, and then getting upset when people correctly said he is a fascist icon:
https://hexbear.net/comment/6603402
There have been so many critiques from third world marxists of Marx's orientalism, but hey, he could overlook Napoleon's crimes in Africa and the New World since he freed the whites from monarchism, so I guess I should too!
I think you're having a difficult time parsing what Marxists mean when they use "progressive" as in world-historically progressive, as in, develops us from Feudalism into Capitalism. You're deliberately misunderstanding Marx's point here to get a "gotcha" on me because you want to suck off the troops.
I wouldn't put ancient-brained napoleon into any leadership position in a modern leftist movement, so you're just shadowboxing here.
No, I understand what you meant perfectly well by your last comment in that thread, where you express you are upset that someone correctly called Napoleon a fascist icon. Stop trying to hide behind Marx.
Napoleon existed before fascism did. Therefore he can't be a fascist.
Nowadays the people that hold most reverence for Napoleon are not fascist, but Liberals. Napoleon was the great contradictory Illiberal Liberalizer. He's a Liberal Icon, not a fascist one. So no, it's not correct.
Dude enlisted in the marines, the branch you go to when you want to commit heinous warcrimes (euphemistically termed as "fucking shit up"). The people who sign up for financial reasons or don't really want to be there join the army or navy. You can see it in racial statistics where the US navy has the most POC while the marines has the least. Even using propaganda as an excuse, there's an (overly simplified and misleading) understanding that you're going to shoot people if you're a marine while you're just stuck on a boat if you're a sailor. Now factor in the fact that the marines has the highest minimum physical requirements compared with the other branches, and it paints him and every other marine recruit as people who really want to commit warcrimes.
Hasan supported this guy? lol 😔
im pretty sure most people on this website did up til about a week ago, as evidenced by the fact that all i know about him is that about a week ago he was well regarded and now its come out his whole shit was a lie
Anyone could look at his national socialist platform and guess where this was going. He was talking about helping veterans and revitalizing the shipbuilding industry while being an unrepentant mercenary/imperialist
we have to beat the radlibs support for all these social fascists out of them one-by-one for the rest of time. they never learn
Ya I remember telling a friend I don't know anything about this guy but from what I had seen so far, he was pretty based before. Now I'm pretty embarrassed, but oh well, you've got to adjust with new information. All I remember seeing on here was posts of his leaked reddit comments saying capitalism needs to be torn down, the shit the US is doing abroad is bad, the military radicalized him, things like that.
I didn't know he was a Blackwater mercenary who had reenlisted multiple times, doesn't regret it and says everything he did was good, and he has a Nazi tattoo. Obviously, thats some different context lol.
?
Didn't it come out a week ago that this guy had done multiple tours in Iraq (including as a mercenary) and had minimal regrets, while calling himself a communist at one point? That's all I knew about him and was enough to set off the alarm bells.
Never heard of the guy before today. There's one Post on this site with the guy's name in it before today. Guess I've succeeded in being less online?
This is what I find wacky about this story. I can buy a vet having a genuine change of heart, but a FUCKING BLACKWATER MERC???
Seriously why would anyone left if Clinton touch this guy with a ten foot pole?