this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2026
26 points (100.0% liked)
Ask Lemmygrad
1289 readers
77 users here now
A place to ask questions of Lemmygrad's best and brightest
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Ultra-leftism can take different forms. Ultra-leftists don't correctly analyze and understand social conditions, so they criticize socialist countries for not already having progressed further toward communism (and often actively oppose them for this reason), and they criticize socialists for speaking to the people in the context of their own social conditions instead of pretending the people are ahead of where they are. They'll say things like that you're not a real socialist if you're not physically fighting agents of the capitalist state or only speaking about core issues like class (instead of what the people care about). They're often fixated on particular revolutionary leaders or particular kinds of direct action instead of real-life organizing based a serious and informed analysis of current social conditions.
Left-Wing Communism: an Infantile Disorder by Lenin is great but may take some extra time and effort and additional resources to understand if you're new to studying topics like this or unfamiliar with Lenin's history. "Infantile" isn't an insult here but a clear statement about how such ideas are based in undeveloped thinking.
On top of that, in my experience, ultraleftists also often become right opportunists when convenient.