this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2026
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The Deprogram
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"As revolutionaries, we don't have the right to say that we're tired of explaining. We must never stop explaining. We also know that when the people understand, they cannot but follow us. In any case, we, the people, have no enemies when it comes to peoples. Our only enemies are the imperialist regimes and organizations." Thomas Sankara, 1985
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Please, take a deep breath in and slowly breath it out, non of us are enemies, it isn't worth getting so heated over some podcasters, Comrade.
Edit: just noticed this post was 7 hours ago, might have been pointless to post this, whatevs.
Tbh, I'm more weary than heated (including when that was posted), but there is some real anger in me about the idea of people listening to the words of people who aren't doing much of anything who are saying others aren't doing much of anything (as if they are in a position to speak well on it) and some of these types of people are making careers off of this sort of vague meta commentary which follows a drama-based snake-eating-its-own-tail cycle. It would be almost funny if it wasn't so sad. It's really a thing that goes far beyond political commentary in my observation of, like, the youtube sphere, for example. There are entire long videos that get dedicated to doing a takedown of somebody else who makes videos and other videos that get dedicated to doing a takedown of a person who did a takedown of somebody else. And little to none of this type of thing has noticeable material consequences beyond drawing people into the drama spiral to take sides on it and expend energy arguing for or against their favorite persona. Much of it becomes another facet of profit-making, where the longer the drama goes on, the more money can be made off of it.
So there is an actual profit motive to stir the pot for "content". This is the kernel of it that probably gets the anger going in me the most.
I think it's okay to be irritated. I don't think comrades in the US should be coddled, but I genuinely do not think Hakim understands the specific obstacles that we face here in the US -- especially the immense mass material AND psychological obstacles we are up against. Have we failed, pathetically? I dont think it's necessarily unfair to say our influence has been pathetic. We gotta be honest about the state of things.
But this critique as some moral value judgment on people who are sincerely working hard to better things? I can't help but roll my eyes hard at this just like you (and I like Hakim and the Deprogram). I do think these podcasters do valuable work in making political education and analysis entertaining for people who are new to communism, but I'd argue most of them really have no idea what it's like to try to build mutual aid systems, organize brainwashed and burnt out coworkers, move in a way that makes organizing efforts accessible but also secure (I mean, a guy just got sentenced to 35 years in prison for moving a box of pamphlets for a protest he wasnt even at), or even trying to get people to stop buying a shitty cup of coffee. I genuinely don't believe they understand what it's like talking to your average Marvel-brained, social media addicted American right now.
The situations in early 20th century Russia and China were borderline apocalyptic for the people who lived in those societies, and those material conditions were what motivated people to give more of a shit. And while that's a bit reductive and that state of things is obviously no guarantee that things will eventually get better through a revolution/realignment/new progressive era, the US (and the rest of the imperial core) simply arent there yet. Imo things in the core simply need to get a lot, lot worse first. People gotta really feel like they have no other immediate choice.
Thanks for understanding. I'm glad I'm not alone in the feeling. I agree we do need to be real about how much and often liberation movements in the US have been dismantled or maneuvered into meaningless institutions that go nowhere, but yes, also, it is a bizarrely splintered and repressed situation as you touch on.
People can literally have different views based on what internet commentator they regularly listen to and there have gotta be thousands of them out there pontificating weekly. It does make me wonder if balkanization is more likely to ever happen than revolution. It's hard to unify people on stuff. You can get them to agree on some policies somewhat, but then there's a lot that is arbitrarily divided along democrat/republican lines (which is largely farcical divide and conquer to begin with, since those parties work for the same interests - not for you and I).
It also reminds me of that trope about how you can tell somebody in the US a bunch of socialist ideas without calling them socialist and they'll be like yeah, sounds good, and then you say it's socialist and they're like gasp, ew. The consequences of the Cold War and the Red Scare are no joke, and some of the original communist vanguard revolutions were carried out before the capitalists/imperialists really understood what communism was. Maybe they had an inkling, I'm not sure, but definitely not to the preoccupied repressive degree that they do these days. Of course they still faced repression and had to be careful around the law, and had various confrontations along the way. But I don't think they were facing such a planned media apparatus that explicitly seeks to be anti-communist. And certainly not one that was backed by global imperial power via high speed internet and near hegemonic influence over media across the globe.
The well has been poisoned to a ludicrous degree, in other words, and somehow we have to figure out how to get past that. I'm sure we can, somehow, with time. After all, many who hang out here would not be here if there weren't successful ways to "deprogram" people. But it's also an obstacle that is kind of unprecedented at scale. Lenin, Mao, etc. had difficult obstacles of their own, but dealing with high speed internet "fast food for the brain" was not one of them, so I don't think we're going to find much from them that addresses the level of poisoning of the well we're dealing with.
I dont think revolution is possible as the US currently exists. A political realignment or new era of progressive politics, maybe. But balkanization is much more likely than a revolution. Now, maybe within that there are socialist projects that are able to build from what remains. But I think the US will have to become more unrecognizable than what it is today.
That's not to say our organizing is for naught. We need to build our own political power and mutual aid systems in preparation for these moments.
And to your point, yeah, Lenin and Mao weren't dealing with the fact that every person has a little pocket spy that listens and tracks everything one does or says. They didnt deal with mass surveillance or algorithmic censorship on this scale. Communists back then had their own challenges for sure, but ours requires moving a lot differently while still trying to maintain our principles.