this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2026
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Marxists-Leninists (as in, the ML in lemmy.ml) use the term "liberals" to describe anyone living under a Western capitalist system. Especially MLs on Lemmy, they consider any username not from the Tankie Triad to be liberal (or anarchist, which is somehow worse).
Profoundly wrong statement.
First because that's not how Marxist-Leninists use the word 'liberal', that's a definition you just made up while ignoring decades of literature. Second, because it implies that is not what the word actually means to literally everyone, not just Leninists or even just socialists, everywhere on the planet with the exception of the US liberal duopoly.
Third, because it mistakenly assumes people are calling you a liberal because of your instance, and not because of your shit takes.
The ML usage of the term liberal comes from Classical Liberalism, right? Please correct me.
Also I hate how y'all think I'm personally evil because I haven't Read Theory. Y'all are my first exposure to MLs and I don't have any control over what my society has taught me. (I'm not defending what my society has taught me, I've been deconstructing for a long time and not stopping.)
Is naivete a sin?
No investigation no right to speak is a core part of MarxistLeninist thought as it has evolved. Naivete is not "a sin" but if you haven't researched a topic you shouldn't speak on it.
As Chairman Mao put it:
No? I'm an ML and I live in a capitalist country. Further, liberals are absolutely worse than anarchists.
Where are progressives on that scale? Oh, and do fascists, I definitely want to know how a fascist stacks up against a liberal!
If you're not anti capitalist and anti bourgeois democracy even if you're "progressive" you're just a flavour of liberal. Fascists are obviously worse than liberals although they tend to agree on a surprising amount of things when push comes to shove unfortunately. Scratch a liberal and a fascist bleeds is a widespread phrase for a reason.
The formula for a fascist is liberal plus time, multiplied by war
"Progressive" doesn't really mean anything beyond "left of establishment democrats." They range from liberal to socialist. Fascists are a twin of liberalism, worse but fundamentally connected.
I'll stand corrected on the anarchist comment. But if one lives in a capitalist country, one inevitably supports capitalism, right? Even if it's against their will.
This sounds more and more like Original Sin.
Existing within capitalism does not mean you cannot work to overthrow it and must ideologically support it by espousing liberal talking points.
"liberal" denotes adherence to bourgeois democracy and capitalist property relations, (pro bourgeois democracy and private property)
The critique of certain "anarchists" is that they guise reactionary politics in radical language, which aids capitalism.
It's really dumb, possibly even a psyop. Because according to militant left the true communism has never been achieved, therefore everyone on earth is under a western capitalist system
This is nonsense. Communism has not been achieved, but socialism absolutely has. Communism has not been achieved not for lack of trying, but because it is a post-socialist system. There's no psyop.
First, let's be precise about terms: capitalism is defined by private ownership of the means of production, profit-driven accumulation, and wage labor; socialism is defined by social ownership (state, collective, or cooperative), planning mechanisms, and the subordination of remaining market forces to developmental and social goals. They are distinct modes of production, not a binary where anything short of stateless communism "counts" as capitalism.
Second, "Western capitalism" isn't a universal default, it specifically describes the Euro-Amerikan core and its integrated vassals (NATO, Five Eyes, dependent economies). That system is hegemonic, but it is not total. Russia, for instance, operates a distinct sovereign-capitalist model: not socialist, but explicitly de-linked from Western financial architecture and actively contesting unipolar dominance.
Third, China, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam are explicitly in the early stages of the socialist transitionary period. Their frameworks (especially China's "primary stage of socialism") theorize that underdeveloped socialist states must develop productive forces, utilize regulated markets, and engage globally while maintaining proletarian state power and public ownership of commanding heights. This isn't "capitalism with red flags"; it's a materialist strategy to build the basis for higher-stage socialism. Dismissing these distinctions because communism hasn't been "achieved" yet misunderstands dialectics: transition is a process, not an event. You don't call a bridge under construction meaningless because it has yet to reach the other side.