So, I don't really know where to start here... I guess I'll just ramble on and hope I make sense. Episode 246 of The Deprogram was very controversial, if you go to the comments section of it and listen to the arguments made by JT, Yugo and Hakim it's, well... in my opinion pro-reformist. From what I can tell, an ACP channel (which if you don't know, the ACP is the American Communist Party, it can be described as Patriotic Socialist / NazBol / mixing right wing nationalism, bigotry, fascism with communism and also it actually tried to takeover the subreddit r/TankieTheDepogram, which was a whole thing not too long ago) has used this opportunity to propagndise for the ACP by making a video on this episode, a video which in my opinion was actually pretty good. It mostly just quoted Lenin so that's a big reason for the quality really lol.
At no point, apart from an American flag in the intro which I missed at first watch, does he argue for anything to do with the ACP or show any sign of being affiliated with them, unless maybe I have missed something I guess. Instead it seems he has taken this controversy as an opportunity, with this video, to promote himself as more communistic than the deprogram boys, get new subscribers and then he will I suspect down the line pull these new subs toward the NazBol nonsense.
I realised what was happening because at 12:35, in the video above, he mentions a channel which he claimed makes the type of content that Second Thought should, this channel is called REDGOD. So I start watching some of this REDGOD's videos and my ACP radar starts going off because of how much this guy is centering his content around America, I then notice something, his first upload is collabed with MidwesternMarx - a major promoter of the ACP. I'm thinking maybe this REDGOD guy doesn't know MidwesternMarx very well but I click on the video and the comments are well, let me just post a screenshot:
Yeah, so at this point I go back to the RTSG channel and see a video collabed with Jackson Hinkle, another major promoter for the ACP! Fuck me, these ACP bastards are sneaky, I feel like I just became friends with someone and then found out they beat their dog, you know, like I began to like this RTSG guy and REDGOD and now I am just disgusted that I was duped & invested in a person & didn't realise sooner (it took me like an hour before I clocked the ACP shit) what they are.
https://youtu.be/-XL6K1gbT-M - RTSG collab with Jackson Hinkle to help launch the channel
https://youtu.be/fPyf8MRT3-I - REDGOD collab with MidwesternMarx to help launch the channel
edit: https://youtu.be/GhHGffxUc3E - episode 246 of deprogram
As OP said, ACP are posers, not left, and it's not paranoia to notice when a channel pops up that is directly associated with them and is positioning itself as a critic of an existing left voice (The Deprogram). It's a misleading oversimplification to say The Deprogram has its issues and so does this channel as if they are the same.
It probably means little for the reader if they are not based in the US and that's fine. But it is still relevant as a general awareness thing because fash cosplaying as left, whether it's ACP or others, is a real thing that happens. Doesn't mean we should be paranoid about who shows up and where, but it's not merely "leftist infighting" to be keeping an eye out for those who are leveraging discontent to lead people astray. And it's not only an online thing, even if ACP themselves largely seem to be an online thing. It's a historical reality that fascists tried (sometimes successfully) to leverage the same working class energy that communists did but for reasserting capital in a different form.
I'm not American btw and I would say that the ACP are not only problematic to America, after all they took over control of the AskSocialists subreddit which is not confined to only users from the US region.
Also their ideas may appeal to other's own nationalities, what is to stop a politically fucked in the head, bigoted German, Brazilian, Korean or a Brit e.t.c. from liking the idea of their own reactionary, supremacist, nationalist, anti-capitalist movement after coming across some form of ACP propaganda/content?
That's a good point.
I struggle to articulate what I mean to say often so that means a lot to hear, thanks.
You bet, credit where it's due. I can relate in my own way. It's part of the reason I can end up writing such long-winded posts on here. Sometimes I'm thinking something through as I write, which is why it gets so long. Sometimes I do that and still don't feel like I conveyed what I wanted to say very well. And I consider myself a writer as a focus of craft, among other things. Some things are just hard to put into words.
For me, the hardest is when I understand something intuitively but have never had to explain it; it's one positive that I find in responding to SRS type posts or other cases of re-explaining things that tend to be taken as a given on here. It's practice at putting these sometimes complicated concepts into words.
So if you aren't already, remember to be understanding with yourself about it. Some of the best orators have speech writers behind them and some of the most lucid levels of understanding of that we've reached as a species were reached through collective investigation, experimentation, and discussion of millions over generations.
All good. ❤️
The greatest historical example is that of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, who we know weren't socialist in any way.