[deleted]

So like I said, I think this one was much more what actually got them riled up, and the other thing was just pretext. I don't think just mostly-agreeing with Cowbee subjects someone to a 14 day ban. I think this was it.

(Also, I really do apologize for the length of this. I do feel like it's important to see the facts of what they decide is worth banning for, even if it's massive and tedious and it's sort of dubious whether copy pasting all this stuff to further litigate it is worthwhile.)

So I said (in reference to the same meme as previously):

Haven’t you heard? Shitting on liberals and not voting is all you need to do to defeat fascism. It’s literally the most important thing.

It’s too bad the Weimar Republic didn’t think of that. I feel like if only the German Communists had been spending all their energy shitting on the center, they might have had a pretty good chance of stopping Hitler from coming to power. Well, at least now we have the chance to try again, with the benefit of hindsight, and make sure we do that known successful strategy…

So Cowbee said:

The KPD was being murdered by the Nazis with the aid of the SPD. The KPD was correct, liberals will side with fascists over leftists when push comes to shove.

So I said:

I feel like we had this conversation before at some point lol… I will summarize my point of view on it and then probably dip from it:

• KPD in 1917: We’re going to seize all the guns and overthrow you and make Communism because Communism
• German government + German people and unions + SPD: Fuck no you’re not (gunfire)
• KPD in 1918: Wooooooowwwwwwwwww okay fuck you, I see how it is
• Germany: Hey KPD you still can have a seat in government, you have to get the votes though, no shooting your opposition, no seizing
• KPD: Woooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
• SPD in 1932: Hey we’re going to make an alliance with you because this guy is dangerous, we don’t care about the whole “trying to overthrow thing” that happened a generation ago
• KPD: Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
• Hitler: (wins)

And then much later:

• KPD (ones still alive): Hey we’re going to need all the trade unions to do what we want instead of what the workers want, because that’s leftism
• Germany: Lol fuck OFF

That is my summary. I realize you may have a different one but I don’t think I really want to get in an extended argument about it today. But yes, Germany in the 30s is a relevant example on this topic, I absolutely think.

(Oh, also, the KPD was being murdered by the Nazis with the aid of Stalin. The KPD was coordinating with Stalin, and he was selling them out because of course he was. I have absolutely no idea where you got this idea that the SPD was involved in what Hitler was doing to his opposition.)

So Cowbee said:

No, this is ridiculous. The KPD correctly warned of the rising threat of fascism, and correctly pointed out the need for revolution. The SPD pushed for Hindenburg, got him elected over Thallman, then Hindenburg gave the seat to Hitler. The SPD murdered KPD members, such as in the “bloody may” incident. Stalin did not “sell out” KPD members and work with Hitler, the negotiations to get Thallman out of prison fell through.

So I said:

https://www.wsws.org/en/special/library/foundations-ger/10.html

73 - The KPD had been established as a response to the betrayal of social democracy. But it proved just as unable as the SPD to weld together the working class and lead it into a struggle against the Nazis. A ten-year campaign against “Trotskyism” had politically corroded the party and transformed its leadership into a willing tool of Stalin. It repeated all the opportunist and ultra-left errors, against which Lenin and Trotsky had fought ten years before, and hid its paralysis and fatalism behind radical phrase-mongering. Until 1933, Trotsky tried relentlessly to correct the wrong course of the KPD. His writings on Germany from these years, which fill two thick volumes, prove his genius as a Marxist and political leader. Banished to a remote Turkish island, forced to rely on newspapers and reports from political friends, Trotsky demonstrated an understanding of German events and their internal dynamics that remains unparalleled to this day. He foresaw the events clearly and precisely and developed a convincing alternative to the devastating course of the KPD. The KPD responded not with arguments, but with slanders, violence and the entire weight of the Moscow apparatus.

74 - At the heart of the policy of the KPD was the thesis of social fascism. From the fact that both fascism and bourgeois democracy were forms of capitalist rule, the Comintern drew the conclusion that there was no contradiction between them, not even a relative one. Fascism and social democracy were the same―in the words of Stalin: “not antipodes, but twins”―the social democrats therefore were “social fascists”. The KPD rejected any collaboration with the SPD against the rightwing danger and, in some cases, even went so far as to make common cause with the Nazis―for example, when it supported the referendum initiated by the Nazis in 1931 to bring down the SPD-led Prussian state government. Occasionally it called for “a united front from below”. But this was not an offer to collaborate, but an ultimatum to the SPD members to break with their party.

75 - Trotsky decisively opposed this form of vulgar radicalism. He recalled that Marx and Engels had protested fiercely when Lassalle had called feudal counterrevolution and the liberal bourgeoisie “one reactionary mass”. Now Stalin and the KPD were repeating the same error. “It is absolutely correct to place on the Social Democrats the responsibility for the emergency legislation of Brüning as well as for the impending danger of fascist savagery. It is absolute balderdash to identify Social Democracy with fascism”, he wrote. “The Social Democracy, which is today the chief representative of the parliamentary-bourgeois regime, derives its support from the workers. Fascism is supported by the petty bourgeoisie. The Social Democracy without the mass organizations of the workers can have no influence. Fascism cannot entrench itself in power without annihilating the workers’ organizations. Parliament is the main arena of the Social Democracy. The system of fascism is based upon the destruction of parliamentarianism. For the monopolistic bourgeoisie, the parliamentary and fascist regimes represent only different vehicles of dominion; it has recourse to one or the other, depending upon the historical conditions. But for both the Social Democracy and fascism, the choice of one or the other vehicle has an independent significance; more than that, for them it is a question of political life or death.”[3]

76 - Trotsky fought untiringly for a policy of the united front. This would have made it possible for the KPD to use the contradiction between social democracy and fascism to unite the working class, win the confidence of the social democratic workers and expose the social democratic leaders. In an article written at the end of 1931, entitled “For a Workers’ United Front Against Fascism”, he explained: “Today the Social Democracy as a whole, with all its internal antagonisms, is forced into sharp conflict with the fascists. It is our task to take advantage of this conflict and not to unite the antagonists against us.” One must “show by deeds a complete readiness to make a bloc with the Social Democrats against the fascists” and “understand how to tear the workers away from their leaders in reality. But reality today is―the struggle against fascism.” It was necessary to “help the Social Democratic workers in action―in this new and extraordinary situation―to test the value of their organizations and leaders at this time, when it is a matter of life and death for the working class.”[4]

77 - The refusal of the KPD to accept such a policy led to the German catastrophe.

I won’t say I agree with 100% of the analysis on that page but a lot of that last part of analysis seems completely spot-on to me. And, of course, how Trotsky predicted is exactly how it played out.

So Cowbee said:

Trotsky was a wrecker through and through in his later years. Any claims of wanting “unity” are laughable when contrasted with his own anti-unity wrecker behavior within the soviet union. Trotksy himself was no “Marxist genius,” he believed the proletariat should attack the peasantry and hoped the developed countries would rebel and save the Russian proletariat from backlash. Social Democracy had sided with the fascists against the communists, and insodoing ruined Germany.

What Trotksy wanted happened: The SPD got what they wanted, and Hindenburg gave the seat to Hitler. Trotksy was wrong, just like the SPD was.

So I said:

“The party cannot fail, it can only be failed.”

Anyway, like I said I don’t plan to have an extensive debate. I’ll leave you with this:

https://jacobin.com/2021/08/hitler-stalin-pact-nazis-communist-deportation-soviet

Edit: Fun fact, I’ve actually visited Trotsky’s house in exile in Mexico City.

And that was the end of that, I think. Apologies again for the length and tedium. Here, see a dog and an owl, they're buds: