>>17795421 (OP)I think it's better to start with asking the question of why communism gained a strong foothold in Russia, China, and a few other places (Yugoslavia). The main thing is that these were countries seriously lagging behind in industrialization, and the Marxists were the most pro-industrial of the revolutionary parties, and the native capitalists tended to be more like comprador / middlemen for foreign business interests (including in Russia) engaged in resource extraction, which set the stage for radical, pro-industrial, anti-feudal / anti-traditionalist, anti-capitalist parties to seize power and an attempt to modernize those societies.
Also a complete lack of a democratic tradition which enabled these revolutions to attain a certain monolithic character:
https://youtu.be/L7i1LY441Hs
>>17795630Good post.
>>17795470I think the Pragmatism is a big one. The "fuck you, pay me" attitude mentioned here
>>17795670 but that can be expressed in a form of American socialism, but it's a pragmatic one. People can debate whether our socialist politicians are "real" socialists (to be honest I don't fucking care) but generally it's gonna take this form I think, and there were actually a fair number of these people in the early 20th century and we're probably returning to the historical median.
American federalism and "all politics is local" also plays a role. For example, the national DSA organization is basically useless and the people in it who read Trotsky and want to turn it into some centralized vanguard party can unendorse AOC because she was too close to Biden, but it has no politically effect, and the NYC-DSA which powered Mamdani's win can just ignore them if they want to. In reality the org is like a brand for a various, semi-autonomous local initiatives.