this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2025
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Pragmatic Leftist Theory

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The neolibs are too far right. The tankies are doing whatever that is. Where's the space for the people who want fully-automated-luxury-gay-space-communism, but realize that it's gonna take a while and there are lots of steps between now and then? Here. This is that space.

Here, people should endeavor to discuss and devise practical, actionable leftist action. Vote lesser evil while you build grassroots coalitions. Unionize your workplace. Participate in SRAs. Build cohesion your local community. Educate the proletariat.

This is a place for practical people to develop practical plans to implement stable, incremental improvement.

If you're dead-set on drumming up all 18,453 True Leftists® into spontaneous Revolution, go somewhere else. The grown ups are talking.

Rules:

-1. Don't be a dick. Racism, sexism, other assorted bigotries, you know the drill. At least try to default to mutually respectful discussion. We're all on the same side here, unless you aren't, in which case kindly leave.

-2. Don't be a tankie. Yes I'm sure you have an extensive knowledge of century-old theory. There's been a century of history since then. Things didn't shake out as expected, maybe consider the possibility that a different angle of attack might be more effective in light of new data.

-3. Be practical. No one on the left benefits from counterproductive actions. This is a space informed by, not enslaved to, ideology. Promoting actions that are fundamentally untenable in the system in question, because they fulfill a sense of ideological purity, is a bad look. Don't do that.

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What does the ideal government system look like? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works to c/PLT@sh.itjust.works
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You can snap your fingers tomorrow, and it's the day after the revolution, time to sign the Constitution. How does it work?

Assume total creative control, but once it's written it's in the hands of the general population. They will eventually twist and distort it any way they can.

ETA: I should have been more specific. I'm looking more for basic structure, not policy. Monarchy, direct democracy, democratic republic, that angle. Should everything be a pure democracy referendum? Should we delegate to representatives? How much power do we give them? How do we delineate governmental strata (nation, state, county, city, neighborhood, etc.)? How do we allocate authority to those strata? How do we divide powers, and how do those powers check one another?

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[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Representative democracy with easy recall of politicians by ballot initiatives, market socialism by extreme restriction and regulation of joint-stock corporations (rather than a total ban due to various edge-cases in which they may be useful), some nationalized industries, wealth and income caps, ranked-choice voting, unicameral legislature, a weak judiciary, weaker executive branch, and a centralized law enforcement system held to a higher rather than lower standard than the general population. The last one probably puts me in conflict with a large number of leftists, but I've seen what local enforcement looks like, and I've not been impressed.

I would have to really resist the temptation to let my inner burgher shine and writing in something to restrict the representation of rural areas though.

No one hates rural areas as much as someone who escaped from them.

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

a centralized law enforcement system held to a higher rather than lower standard than the general population.

It's wild to me that the US has some of the most lenient training requirements for law enforcement. That should be a 4 year degree at minimum, like the rest of the civilized world. I'm all for "defund the police", in the sense of reallocating a large portion of their funding for social workers and other alternative engagement resources, but some people do crimes and that has to be accounted for. "Local enforcement" is just sparkling mob justice.

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

Most times, I believe, leftists who speak of localized enforcement are discussing something more akin to sheriff elections (but with fewer powers to abuse) or policing-by-lot. But both of those rely very heavily on the 'militia mindset' that I've always found suspect in certain leftist strains - professionalism and specialization is an advantage of civilization, including in government, not something to be thrown away entirely simply because many institutions preferred to specialize for repression instead of impartial enforcement of democratically constructed law.

[–] janus2@lemmy.zip 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

something close to the United Federation of Planets I guess. not that they're perfect but they're certainly a fuck ton of steps in the right direction

there i said it. i unironically want fully automated luxury gay space communism

[–] janus2@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 weeks ago

some disorganized hot takes of mine:

  • zero censorship is better than imperfect censorship
  • ecological restoration efforts are more important than guillotining billionaires
  • education reform should be a close second priority to environmental reform
  • literally legalize every fucking drug we do NOT have time to waste on that bullshit. people will OD en masse and that will be tragic but like, fuck man, some of them will get better too if we aren't forcing them into a criminal goddamn underworld??
  • we should be handing out birth control and sterilization procedures like candy. people need to be EMBARRASSED to have biological, non-adopted children.
[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 weeks ago

I mean, it's pretty damn big concept to try and squeeze into this kind of setting.

But to spitball it like an elevator pitch, call it socialized economy with baked in core rights around a representative democracy. Strong term limits, ranked choice voting, explicit forbiddence of the worst facets of fascism and bigotry and a clear line that all rights are to be held by all people within the country in question.

Exactly what rights get enumerated is up in the air, but I'd say that freedom of speech and press beyond the bare minimum restrictions against fascism and bigotry are a no brainer. Due process has to be in there. I favor jury trials heavily as well.

I tend to be against any limitations on arms that are only limited for the general populace, but I'm open to negotiations on exactly what that means as long as someone has a realistic plan on making those restrictions stick across the board. Wanna ban a class of weapons? Great, make a plan to destroy every single one and prevent them being made again. No exceptions for anyone, so make damn sure the military can make do with whatever gets allowed.

Under due process and equal protection, it has to be very clearly explained that there's no fuckery. IDGAF if in a hundred years some trick of mutation gives rise the the fucking X-Men only they all look like the toxic avenger, they have the same rights as everyone else.

This includes, but is not limited to what I consider the ultimate right that all others should protect: body autonomy. Wanna have your nose cut off and replaced with a dildo? That's on you. As absurd as that is as a possibility, that's what body autonomy means. Your right to own your own body is not negotiable. Now, you can't force anyone to do the work, but that's a separate issue entirely. There's a laundry list of shit that shouldn't even be a question.

That's the basics.

[–] archonet@lemy.lol 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

insofar as voting: Direct democracy, mandatory (under significant penalty) ranked-choice voting with an option for "none of the above" -- and if that wins, you go back to the fucking drawing board and find some new candidates or policy ideas. No bullshit voting districts, no bullshit representatives except in advisory make-shit-happen roles, not decide-what-happens roles. Local laws get voted on by everyone living in the county over 18 for more than half a calendar year, state laws get voted on by everyone living in the state for more than half a year, and so on for national. You get a day off for voting, it's a twice yearly national holiday and no employer can force you to work on those days (or must give you an alternative day off) under severe penalty -- once for state and local referendums and once for national or regional policy decisions (what makes sense for the midwest may not make sense for the northeast or west coast, but probably best to have them all vote on the same policy at once as a region instead of as individual states over a few different election cycles).

Democracy is a participation sport and I'm tired of being subject to the whims of the loudest idiots in the room.

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You get a day off for voting, it's a twice yearly national holiday and no employer can force you to work on those days (or must give you an alternative day off) under severe penalty

A voting day isn't really practical here, since there can't just be a day when no one works. There's something that must be done every single day.

I like the idea of a voting week, and you must have one day off that week to vote. I also vastly prefer mail-in overall, I do mail-in and being able to casually research every name on the ballot at my leisure is amazing. Trying to remember all your choices from the sample ballot when you're in-person honestly sucks. But I'm super bad with names, so that might just be me.

I kinda like mandatory voting, but also I think that forcing apathetic people is mostly just going to add noise to the actual will of the people who care enough to engage. There are pros and cons, I'd need to do a more detailed analysis to have a strong opinion either way.

[–] archonet@lemy.lol 1 points 2 weeks ago

Fair point, hence why I said "or must give you an alternative day off".

Noise would still be a better problem to have, especially with ranked-choice voting in place, than having millions of people who just didn't give enough of a shit to bother. At least if it's mandatory you're forcing some of them think about how things are going and where they'd like them to go from here, even if they end up just writing in "Mickey Mouse" or some silly bullshit.