this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2026
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You do know that communist parties grew out of social democratic parties right? Seeing as my family members weren't Russian it was kind of irrelevant for them what the Bolsheviks were doing they were sick of war, they were just were trying to scrape food together because at the end of the first world war people in continental Europe were starving and the idea of waging a class war for the radical section of the party that sent you into the war in the first place just seemed tiresome.
Anyways what I'm getting at is I kind of understand why so many people are cynical about socialism since for some people its not some crazy new radical idea, they've been burnt by politics before.
The Russian Social Democratic Party was a communist party, not what we think of as social democracy. I'm specifically talking about Russia, because Russia was the only country at the beginning of the 20th century to actually achieve socialism. Your family, unless I'm misreading you, isn't what I'm talking about when advocating for socialism, because they never achieved it if they weren't in Russia at the time of World War I.
I know what Social Democratic parties were, I'm trying to explain to you that some people were already disillusioned by what you call communist parties before the Bolsheviks had their revolution. I'm telling you I had family members who were part of the revolutionary proletariat before the Social Democratic communist split and by the time the first world war ended they were already disillusioned with the whole ideology.
Sure, but I don't really think that's universal.
It was a big part of why the Nazi party came to power and why so many people didn't fight back against it people were so disillusioned with politics and the socialist parties had lost a lot of trust.
By the time fascism was on the rise they were just in survival mode because they'd already seen one war and just wanted to survive the next one. It's was hard to get a bunch of people to fight for an idea that has screwed them over already. It definitely wasn't the right thing to do but it turns out not every one is a hero when it comes to fighting oppressive regimes even if they don't like them. Enough people will just keep their heads down and try to survive.
History isn't something that just takes place in books it happened to real people who also play a role in shaping its outcome. The only reason I'm still doing leftist stuff is because I met Eric Hobsbawm (or im pretty sure it was him) and I promised him I'd keep fighting for a better future.
Filler text
No not the SPD, just out of interest are you american?
Gotcha. Either way, I'm aware that activism can be draining and it can be easy to become demotivated.
More than just draining politics can get you killed. I edited my other post so idk if you saw it but just out of interest are you american? You don't need to dox yourself it's why I didn't tell you which country I'm talking about, but you were close to guessing which social democratic party I'm talking about.
Yea I'm not going to press you any further, I'll edit it out of my comments. Yes, I'm a Statesian.
Its cool, don't worry about it if people know a lot about history they'll probably be able to guess from the context and most intelligence agencies already know who I am if they wanted to come for me they could. I just don't need to make it explicit 😀
Fair enough!
Ah I figured you were american, don't take this the wrong way but I feel like you guys often treat European leftism more like an intellectual exercise than what it actually was which was a mass political movement that touched millions of peoples lives in different ways. Millions of people lost their lives families were torn apart whole countries were dissolved or they gained their independence. I don't think the United States has ever really experienced anything like it since the civil war. The twentieth century is moving further and further away but for lots of people the political systems it created and ideological conflicts had very real effects on the people who experienced them.
Believe me, I'm not a Eurocomm, I'm very aware of the lacking Statesian left and the weakening of the movement in Europe.
I think you missed the point of what I was saying and idk what you mean by eurocomm. Anyways it's late and I'm tired I probably won't be back for a while because posting is dumb, so bon voyage fellow traveller.