On Tue, Jan 6, 2026 at 10:25 PM, Mark Baugher wrote: > > playing with labels that are not self-defining
It's still encouraging that they don't succumb as readily to anti-Communist propaganda as did previous generations. That's probably due in part to the disappearance of the Soviet bloc; China does not appear as ideologically or militarily threatening as did the USSR with its global network of mass Communist parties and vast arsenal of nuclear weapons. Also, the working and living conditions of these younger Americans are deteriorating rather than improving so they no longer experience themselves as "living the American dream" as did their more upwardly mobile parents and grandparents. However, since the advent of social media they are mainly if not exclusively "online communists" who don't collectively organize or protest in the streets as did the Communist militants who were active in the trade unions and social movements in earlier periods. Consequently, their very radical viewpoints have very little practical social conseqences. Perhaps the large number of previously passive young workers mobilized by Mamdani, including the most privileged who are now becoming part of the precariat, is a harbinger that they are beginning to leave their laptops behind and joining today's "actually, existing" struggles. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#40077): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/40077 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/117115628/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
