If we’re going to take lessons from the failures of AOC this is it. Most of us would be doing the same thing if we got yeeted from bartender to congress at age 29 if there wasn’t socialist think tanks and institutions for us to lean on. This isn’t to forgive her; she could’ve risen to meet the challenge but didn’t. But the lesson isn’t her personal moral failing.
The bartending stint is not only a narrative perpetuated by AOC’s own campaign/ PR managers, but also designed to cover up what she actually did during her post-grad/ pre-congress period: working for a venture capitalist firm called GAGEis (or Gage Strategies) run by 2 Israeli-Americans.
She also founded her own enterprise (yes), called Brook Avenue Press, which is "a social enterprise dedicated to providing relevant educational products to children and parents in urban areas.”, according to her Boston University biography that is still publicly viewable.
AOC’s official biography on the US House of Reps website does NOT list any of this.
calling aoc a socialist is an insult lmao, much less using her record to say actually elected socialists would behave no differently. I thought we settled this struggle session here years ago
It’s less to do with struggle sessions on Hexbear and more to do with the “Democratic Socialist” label that she and her supporters still use to this day.
Like I’m sure we all know she isn’t a Marxist or Anarchist, but many people IRL who aren’t terminally online will see the label and go “oh, she’s a socialist? So she wants America to become China/ Cuba/ North Korea” or even worse will think “Oh so she wants us to be socialist like Scandinavia”, both of which are wrong for reasons I don’t need to explain here.
It’s a major gripe I’ve had for a while now with Western liberals co-opting terms with the phrase “Socialism” in them and then doing things that no actual socialist advocates for. And like, I get the argument that having “socialists” in power helps de-stigmatize the term and encourage people to look to more left-wing ideas, but I usually counter this reasoning by saying it de-radicalizes far more people instead by making them think Social Democracy (a term I VASTLY prefer to describe people like AOC and Bernie) is Socialism and keeps them from moving further left by offering just enough welfare policies to not agitate the ruling class anymore. I personally KNOW people who think this way. It’s the same strategy Western Europe and Anglo colonies like Canada and Australia pulled last century, and it worked to great effect. Hell, America tried it before with FDR to incredible results. And while there are some nominally better “Democratic Socialists” in the Global South, particularly in Latin American countries, they still largely play by the rules set by international capital and neoliberal institutions.
Sorry, I’m just venting my frustration at the lack of any revolutionary socialist movements almost anywhere in the world even after 30+ years of unopposed neoliberal fuckery. I guess my point is we still have a long, long way to go before we reach the former heights that the Bolsheviks did.
Fuck No. You’re learning absolutely nothing if petty campism is the lesson you’re taking from this. If you read the Dropsite article about Mamdani’s win then you’ll know NYC-DSA has learned their lessons from the disappointments of AOC and Bowman.
Even then that doesn’t mean it was a mistake to sneak AOC into office before they were ready to provide her the institutional backing she needed to stay the course. The point is to learn why her experiment failed and apply the lessons you learn.
As City & State previously reported, NYC-DSA voted overwhelmingly to endorse Ocasio-Cortez earlier this year, with more than 80% of DSA members in the chapter’s Queens and Bronx/Upper Manhattan branches voting in favor of endorsing her for reelection
“In February 2024 NYC-DSA, a chapter of the National DSA, voted to re-endorse Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as we have every election year since 2018. Today, AOC is still endorsed by NYC-DSA. NYC-DSA withdrew its request for a National DSA endorsement after the primary passed and the National Political Committee honored this request,” the NYC-DSA chapter said in a statement.
“It is not uncommon for chapters and National DSA to diverge on endorsements,” the statement continued. “Her endorsement passed with significant support in the chapter, and the chapter remains supportive of her candidacy.”
i couldnt find a single article of NYC-DSA backing national’s decision, it’s not fucking “petty campism” to think that one of the chapters renowned for being probably the most lib in the entire DSA (at least it was from my time in DSA) is probably still lib???
i’ll put my trust in nycdsa when they actually show they can exert real pressure* on the officials they helped elect or start helping elect officials as “DSA” on the ballot and not “D” and not a moment before.
btw no i dont currently think zohran is the same as aoc or bownman or sanders (although he certainly has done stuff already that makes me worried), but i will view it as essentially luck for them to stumble on such a good principled candidate (unless again they show some sign of being able to reign him in.)
*
this is actually being charitable to nyc dsa, it’s possible that they could have been exerting this pressure and just dont actually disagree very much with what AOC has been doing…
This is a case study in US electoralism not a grand evaluation about how lib NYC-DSA is. They couldn’t keep a hold on her to begin with because in 2019 they had no one to back her up in office and so she was “lost to the consultant class”. If she snuck into office a few years ago, then we probably wouldn’t be seeing this behavior from her.
Or you know, major in economics and international relations at Boston, work for that old Kennedy who couldn’t run for president after murdering too many sex workers
If we’re going to take lessons from the failures of AOC this is it. Most of us would be doing the same thing if we got yeeted from bartender to congress at age 29 if there wasn’t socialist think tanks and institutions for us to lean on. This isn’t to forgive her; she could’ve risen to meet the challenge but didn’t. But the lesson isn’t her personal moral failing.
the bartender shit is a narrative
The bartending stint is not only a narrative perpetuated by AOC’s own campaign/ PR managers, but also designed to cover up what she actually did during her post-grad/ pre-congress period: working for a venture capitalist firm called GAGEis (or Gage Strategies) run by 2 Israeli-Americans.
She also founded her own enterprise (yes), called Brook Avenue Press, which is "a social enterprise dedicated to providing relevant educational products to children and parents in urban areas.”, according to her Boston University biography that is still publicly viewable.
AOC’s official biography on the US House of Reps website does NOT list any of this.
Here’s a Times of Israel article that openly talks about all this written back in 2020
You all fell for the grift.
calling aoc a socialist is an insult lmao, much less using her record to say actually elected socialists would behave no differently. I thought we settled this struggle session here years ago
It’s less to do with struggle sessions on Hexbear and more to do with the “Democratic Socialist” label that she and her supporters still use to this day.
Like I’m sure we all know she isn’t a Marxist or Anarchist, but many people IRL who aren’t terminally online will see the label and go “oh, she’s a socialist? So she wants America to become China/ Cuba/ North Korea” or even worse will think “Oh so she wants us to be socialist like Scandinavia”, both of which are wrong for reasons I don’t need to explain here.
It’s a major gripe I’ve had for a while now with Western liberals co-opting terms with the phrase “Socialism” in them and then doing things that no actual socialist advocates for. And like, I get the argument that having “socialists” in power helps de-stigmatize the term and encourage people to look to more left-wing ideas, but I usually counter this reasoning by saying it de-radicalizes far more people instead by making them think Social Democracy (a term I VASTLY prefer to describe people like AOC and Bernie) is Socialism and keeps them from moving further left by offering just enough welfare policies to not agitate the ruling class anymore. I personally KNOW people who think this way. It’s the same strategy Western Europe and Anglo colonies like Canada and Australia pulled last century, and it worked to great effect. Hell, America tried it before with FDR to incredible results. And while there are some nominally better “Democratic Socialists” in the Global South, particularly in Latin American countries, they still largely play by the rules set by international capital and neoliberal institutions.
Sorry, I’m just venting my frustration at the lack of any revolutionary socialist movements almost anywhere in the world even after 30+ years of unopposed neoliberal fuckery. I guess my point is we still have a long, long way to go before we reach the former heights that the Bolsheviks did.
it’s a failing of NY DSA? that’s something i can easily get behind lol
Fuck No. You’re learning absolutely nothing if petty campism is the lesson you’re taking from this. If you read the Dropsite article about Mamdani’s win then you’ll know NYC-DSA has learned their lessons from the disappointments of AOC and Bowman.
Even then that doesn’t mean it was a mistake to sneak AOC into office before they were ready to provide her the institutional backing she needed to stay the course. The point is to learn why her experiment failed and apply the lessons you learn.
they were fucking endorsing her even after national dsa unendorsed her https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2024/07/real-story-behind-dsas-decision-unendorse-aoc/398024/
i couldnt find a single article of NYC-DSA backing national’s decision, it’s not fucking “petty campism” to think that one of the chapters renowned for being probably the most lib in the entire DSA (at least it was from my time in DSA) is probably still lib???
i’ll put my trust in nycdsa when they actually show they can exert real pressure* on the officials they helped elect or start helping elect officials as “DSA” on the ballot and not “D” and not a moment before.
btw no i dont currently think zohran is the same as aoc or bownman or sanders (although he certainly has done stuff already that makes me worried), but i will view it as essentially luck for them to stumble on such a good principled candidate (unless again they show some sign of being able to reign him in.)
*
this is actually being charitable to nyc dsa, it’s possible that they could have been exerting this pressure and just dont actually disagree very much with what AOC has been doing…
This is a case study in US electoralism not a grand evaluation about how lib NYC-DSA is. They couldn’t keep a hold on her to begin with because in 2019 they had no one to back her up in office and so she was “lost to the consultant class”. If she snuck into office a few years ago, then we probably wouldn’t be seeing this behavior from her.
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Or you know, major in economics and international relations at Boston, work for that old Kennedy who couldn’t run for president after murdering too many sex workers