“Vanguardism” as a pejorative, that’s a new one. Either this is the sort of anarchist who thinks a group getting big enough to need an org chart constitutes fascism, or this is some Vaushite that just picked a random bit of ML jargon out of a hat and slapped an -ism on it.

[–] sleeplessone@lemmy.ml 30 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I have an anarchist coworker who uses the term pejoratively. He regularly rails against AES whenever the topic of capitalism or socialism come up, and even quoted Zizek about how dangerous true believers in the liberation of the proletariat are.

[–] miz@hexbear.net 35 points 7 months ago

"take it from a cynical opportunist like me, you don't want anybody in your movement who isn't a cynical opportunist" —Zizek

[–] CyborgMarx@hexbear.net 32 points 7 months ago

An anarchist who doesn't believe in liberation is a liberal in denial

[–] Drewfro66@lemmygrad.ml 19 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I've never heard the term "Vanguardism" until Vicky 3 started using it as a generic descriptor for Marxism-Leninism so you can be like 80% sure someone who uses the term is a Paradox nerd or heard it from a Paradox nerd

[–] alexei_1917@hexbear.net 5 points 7 months ago

I literally only play that game because I love the silly things you can do in it to make communism happen. Look, playing the USSR in an economic simulator or a Great Patriotic War game is awesome. But ahistorical revolution paths are even better. I swear, playing Vicky 3, is the only time I can ever get myself to admit that maybe the USSR shouldn't be held up as the be all and end all of communism, maybe the symbols of modern ML ideals don't need to be specifically Soviet symbols, maybe vanguardism doesn't have to be the exact words "all power to the soviets". (Most of the time, I'll say things about us being stuck in 1917, but... I'm worse than the comrades I'm criticizing. I still call myself a Bolshevik, for one, and I do tend to say "soviet" when I mean "council". Among other terminology from Soviet times that hasn't made any sense to still use since '91.)

Point is, I generally only play that game because I like its "vanguardism", and I always choose that path over any other leftist path. (As much as twelve year old me would have enjoyed the fantasy that anarchist paths in these games tend to offer.) And I do like the term in the context the game uses it in, and the context it's started to take on in RL politics.