this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2026
53 points (94.9% liked)
chat
8647 readers
155 users here now
Chat is a text only community for casual conversation, please keep shitposting to the absolute minimum. This is intended to be a separate space from c/chapotraphouse or the daily megathread. Chat does this by being a long-form community where topics will remain from day to day unlike the megathread, and it is distinct from c/chapotraphouse in that we ask you to engage in this community in a genuine way. Please keep shitposting, bits, and irony to a minimum.
As with all communities posts need to abide by the code of conduct, additionally moderators will remove any posts or comments deemed to be inappropriate.
Thank you and happy chatting!
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
They are severely idealistic about political power and don't understand that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. This blinds them to the need to immediately undermine/physically weaken their local reactionary paramilitary force at the cop shop. Within their flawed framework though, it's just one issue among many, so it's entirely reasonable to tactically compromise on it or put it on the back burner until a more opportune time and focus on a different issue. That's the charitable read at least
Right, so if political power grows out of the barrel of a gun, what steps could you take towards the NYPD when yours is non-existant? You can only weaken the NYPD so much with budget cuts until that very political power is exercised against you.
Dsa and mamdani would need to be expanding and organizing their base to be more militant, more politically developed, and into armed militias in preparation for future conflict. This includes at the very least talking openly about the problems instead of basically backing the blue and more or less no push back, even rhetorical
Nobody wants to die seriously pushing this. IDK how you solve the chicken-and-egg problem of wanting an armed left but most people won't do it unless they have lots of other armed comrades with them.
that's what mamdani needs to be educating people with his massive platform. talking about class contradictions, the nature of class war, etc. it doesn't need to start with immediately calling for arms, but he could be driving political development much more rapidly if he was about it
If only someone had written how to do a revolution to deal with this problem
I agree that budget cuts alone are insufficient. You need to build power of your own, obviously. Ideally redirect resources whenever possible. Another idea could be stuffing the department with as many of your cronies as possible to sabotage the department internally. There are many tactics which could be tried.
But obviously this would require a serious plan to phase out the police (meaning replace their minority of genuinely pro-social roles) and building an appropriate armed force. Mamdani almost certainly has no such plans. Removing Jessica Tisch and ideally replacing her with someone else who will stuff the department with wreckers is an easy step which could be taken though.