. Last tended to <ahref='https://code.incremental.social/thepaperpilot/pages/commit/9aa6bf46bfd132527bed478007a37223f4f29de6'title='Thu Nov 28 22:01:32 2024 -0600'><timeclass='dt-updated'datetime='Thu Nov 28 22:01:32 2024 -0600'>2024-11-28</time></a>
.</span></p><hr><details><summary>Referenced by:</summary><ahref="/garden/debate/index.md">Debate</a><ahref="/garden/filter-bubbles/index.md">Filter Bubbles</a><ahref="/garden/my-political-beliefs/index.md">My Political Beliefs</a><ahref="/garden/my-political-journey/index.md">My Political Journey</a></details><p><ahref="/garden/my-political-journey/">My Political Journey</a> has brought me to the broad label of being a leftist. Leftism encompasses many ideologies, each with unique visions for an egalitarian society and strategies to achieve it. These pages are my tool to test my understanding by articulating these ideas in my own terms. I don't care to label myself any further than leftist, as in my mind I'm still a student of leftist ideologies and have personally been finding insight across the spectrum of leftist ideologies. As a reminder, this digital garden is a perpetual work in progress and only reflects my understanding of a topic at time of writing.</p><h2id="what-is-leftism"tabindex="-1">What is Leftism? <aclass="header-anchor"href="#what-is-leftism"aria-label="Permalink to "What is Leftism?""></a></h2><p>Leftism refers to a wide range of political ideologies that share a general opposition to hierarchical structures, particularly class hierarchies. Leftists seek an egalitarian society, though their vision of what this entails and how to achieve it vary significantly. They aim to replace systems based on profit and exploitation with ones prioritizing collective well-being. This typically places them against capitalism, however some leftists seek to retain the role of markets and sometimes even private property.</p><h2id="major-leftist-ideologies"tabindex="-1">Major Leftist Ideologies <aclass="header-anchor"href="#major-leftist-ideologies"aria-label="Permalink to "Major Leftist Ideologies""></a></h2><h3id="marxism-leninism"tabindex="-1">Marxism-Leninism <aclass="header-anchor"href="#marxism-leninism"aria-label="Permalink to "Marxism-Leninism""></a></h3><p>Marxist-Leninists believe the way towards communism - a classless, stateless, moneyless society - requires a transitionary phase called the "dictatorship of the proletariat". This involves a revolutionary vanguard party seizing control of the state to protect against counter-revolutionary forces and reorganize society along socialist lines. The vanguard party will typically do so by taking advantage of a crisis brought on by the contradictions of capitalism. As material abundance is achieved and exploitation becomes structurally impossible, the state will "wither away," giving rise to communism.</p><p>Examples of MLism include the Soviet Union and other 20th century communist movements.</p><p>Critiques of MLism focus on the authoritarian nature of the transitionary phase and whether the state will truly willingly "wither away" as described.</p><p>Maoism and Dengism are adaptations of MLism that apply it to the specific context of China following its Communist Revolution.</p><h3id="anarchism"tabindex="-1"><ahref="/garden/anarchism/">Anarchism</a><aclass="header-anchor"href="#anarchism"aria-label="Permalink to "[Anarchism](/garden/anarchism/index.md)""></a></h3><p>Anarchists reject the state entirely, viewing it as an inherently oppressive institution that cannot be reformed or repurposed for liberation. Anarchism envisions the immediate transition to a classless, stateless, moneyless society organized through voluntary associations, mutual aid, and decentralized decision-making. Unlike Marxist-Leninists, anarchists argue against any transitionary state, believing it will perpetuate hierarchy rather than dismantle it.</p><p>Historical examples include the anarchist collectives in Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War, which experimented with decentralized governance and worker control.</p><p>Critics of anarchism often point to decentralized systems being harder to "scale up" without introducing oppressive hierarchies, and their vulnera
