Recent content by Nyvis

Oh yeah it's basically impossible to exit the capitalist mode of production through liberal democracy. It's designed to stymie large changes while making them pretty easy to wreck in return as well as cutting off politicians from their base and any grassroot movement that put them there. This...

Well, as a Marxist, none of this seem Marxist or anti capitalist, so I wonder about that last part. On the other hand, that makes sense. An anti government backlash is logical at this point. I'm not sure it'd be a right-libertarian one, but if this is post leftists they're a bit more...

Oh no, not the posties... Even America doesn't deserve this!

What would really make or break it would be defection from republican state party organizations to provide the backbone as well as from incumbents who'd get the advantage of defending their seats. If it's Trump alone, it'll end up a grift with none of the organization needed to break through the...

People really really underestimate the difficulty in setting up third parties in the modern American system due to past examples well before it solidified. In all likelihood they'll end up like Kayne's PR run: not even on the ballot in most places.

Convincing Labour that FPTP structurally favour the Tories over them would be interesting. A referendum with Labour on side might pass. A combination of PR with regional devolution to maintain local voices would be a neat change of pace for Britain. One thing I have to worry about is what...

I had a thought for a POD: what if Kerensky had decided to escalate over the soviets' refusal to send the Petrograd garrison to the front? I could see it being a strong parallel with Ebert's attempt at breaking up the VMD and the way it precipitated the spartacist uprising. An abortive left...

Simply halting privatization is already a pretty big change for our era, I guess. The modern middle class does reliably oppose things for hurting people a thousand times as rich as them, doesn't it? So they're probably right about it hurting quite a bit... On the other hand, yeah, that...

Kinda want to see it just to enjoy the fireworks when the politicians have to contend with a proper angry far left party in their assembly. How do they end up being the voice of the opposition to the government? Simply a very divided right?

Ah yeah, it's subtle but now that I'm awake, I can see it. Wait, wait, PS/LO duel for the top? That's even more crazy. I can see the right grudgingly voting for Chevènement to avoid the Trotskyist hordes at the gate.

Nice to see some French politics, even if it is quite awful. Might be worth highlighting who got into the second round, that tend to matter a lot in French elections.

Funny you mention that, because Bukharin is the one who coined Socialism In One Country. Stalin, as the grifter he is, stole it shamelessly, just like he stole Trotsky's economic policy. Of course Bukharin's approach was a bit different as you can expect. You definitely don't get the Stalin to...

Bukharin is noted as not really having a hard edge by Lenin himself. A lot of problematic party members will probably just get an assignment in a backwater managing something inconsequential or early retirement. I wonder what this means for culture, actually. Probably not as straight edge...

It's worth remembering that everyone advocating for the NEP did so on the basis of it as temporary, even arch-NEPer Bukharin. What Bukharin wanted was a gradual phase out rather than Stalin's crash collectivization. I could see the lesson taken abroad being "maybe don't nationalize if you don't...

Yep. It was also a necessary idea. Anything else is likely to lead into catastrophic disaster. The left SR broke over the extent of the concessions rather than peace because most non Lenin people had a lot of delusions about how good of a peace they could get.