theory

Ultimately, it's a hit piece from Bordigists that are trying to defend the merits of the same western Marxism Losurdo had dead to rights in Western Marxism. They use "neo-Stalinism" to reference the resurgance of Marxism-Leninism in the west, and consistently downtalk AES. They also uphold the secret speech as legitimate, and believe markets are capitalism in and of themselves, downplaying the existence of socialism in real life.

It's slop, ultimately, and I hope that doesn't count as breaking the sectatian rule here. So many of their arguments are utterly unbacked and rest on the assumed success of prior ultraleft arguments against socialism in real life, so many of their arguments rely on the debunked secret speech, and ultimately they work backwards from their conclusions to make a hitpiece on Losurdo for calling them out.

His intellectual output constitutes nothing less than the (re)entry of Stalinism into the realm of philosophy.

Philosophy could probably use a bit more of that honestly

I would double down on Cowbees recommendation of the Red Sails Article about him and Roberts.

Shit hit piece. Read the first part and learned nothing and was only frustrated.

"As might be gathered from these claims, Losurdo’s appraisal of Western Marxism was overwhelmingly negative. He instead recommended verbally supporting developmentalist regimes in the Third World building socialism in isolation. In other words, Losurdo advocated a form of neo-Stalinism."

Who's isolating the third world movements, Bordigist?

Imagine trying to write a hit piece at perhaps the most rigorous Marxist theorist the West has seen in half a century, couldn't be me. Any article earnestly arguing that "Stalinism" is a) something that exists and b) something that is relevant in any form to 2025 is quite frankly ridiuclous.

I haven't finished reading this, but I thought y'all would be interested to know that Ross Wolfe is a graduate from the University of Chicago. You know, the known psyop, that does its absolute best to turn real Marxist theory into the bullshit they peddle in the west.

This is something Gabriel Rockhill actually talks about in one his interview is promoting the new translation from Losurdo, Western Marxism, how it rises and how it falls.

Edit:

Took a few days and was finally able to chew through it. Basically it boils down to "no international revolution in the west no communism".

It's also a total rejection of socialism in isolation. Which means he obviously doesn't support any already existing socialist states.

Based on my reading of the Foundations of Leninism, it seems that this author is twisting the words of Lenin to make it seem as if Lenin hadn't changed his theories of socialism in isolation and the need for an international revolution.

Both of these themes—the need for coordinated international proletarian revolution in the most advanced countries, and the reabsorption of state power by society—will be explicated further in the third part of this essay. Needless to say, Losurdo diverged sharply from what Marx, Engels, and Lenin had to say

I think a wonderful way to describe his beef with this is that if the west isn't leading the revolution, then in his mind it's not communism.

Honestly I'm not really against a principled critical argument against Losurdo's overall technique (I do think he has a tendency to cherry-pick and strawman) but the tone of this is that of a defensive trot and it's so long to read this much from just some guy on a blog.

So yeah not reading free Palestine

Chicago school fake "socialist" liberals stay mad, all rhetoric no facts

This reads like a lot of hot farts. What is your fucking point, Ross Wolfe?

thought this was a spooky post first

I'm sorry to do this but this is who wrote this piece.