Chapotraphouse

Makes sense, PSL shouldnt risk their org over a based act of adventurism, especially since they dont really have the support and infraestructure to go underground

He had a brief association with one branch of the PSL that ended in 2017.

Not surprised. The sort of person who would do this kind of individualist adventurism doesn't last long in the PSL.

Smart response since this isn't a free speech issue but a state security issue that could create severe legal blowback for them

Honestly with the responses I almost wonder if “He was not a member but we support his actions” would’ve been a better statement

Like, obviously I understand why they didn’t do that, but everyone’s acting like they did anyway, so why bother downplaying? At some point just say “Killing Zionists is good, end of sentence”

Edit: Sorry to be very clear I’m not saying they should have done this. This is just a comment about how even when they say the polite and proper thing people call them terrorists anyway

One of the DSA chapters I was in had some things going down before I joined. I didn't know what it was but learned a bit through my time there. In short, they were infiltrated and some members got put on some list. And that's just DSA, way before the more visible Palestine movement.

I know of some people during the occupy movement who had their calls tapped and put on list.

Orgs/people in them will be targeted and hit regardless no matter how tame, minor, powerful etc. I think covering your ass is fine, especially because this person wasn't an active member and it's just libel, but being so scared of feds that you end up burying your head in the sand is turbo lib shit. We all knew feds were a thing before organizing, we should have been had opsec and failsafe plans for things like this. If everytime someone on our side, even if not in an org, does something like this and gets condemned for being tired of waiting. Then what movement are we building? I vaguely remember Aaron Bushnell getting condemned for his choice in resistance.

I think this event will change things, I've seem mostly positive takes personally, and maybe organizing can change for the better to be at least more secure when[it's not if because if we're serious then they're coming] the fed fight comes.

Like I said, it's good they covered their ass and the statement is relatively tame but this is something we all should've been thinking about decades ago.

If anyone actually reads this and thinks "ah they should've praised the guy and said they supported him", please don't

I get why this is their statement and I agree that it's the best they can say in this situation, but I wish the Western left was big enough and militant enough that they could add one more sentence like "those zionists nevertheless deserved it" to the end of it.

Liz: don't do it

Brace: but if you do...

Liz: we disavow

"do not support it" can also be they just dont support adventurism, which is in line for them.

Ngl though I badly want someone to drop a "the chickens are coming home to roost"

too late. the headline is already out there, which will allow the trump admin to crush the party completely with no pushback by the general public

rip

I think the "correct" statement would this is a negative externalities of genocide and that when you do evil people aren't going to respond well to it. As that will get someone arrested I think the equilibrium statement is something to the effect of, " we have nothing to say because the government is not respecting first amendment rights at the moment" They chose the safest option and I am not mad about it.

Not condoning adventurism is principled ig

while they were absolute ghouls, a couple staffers were probably not very effective targets, and they could be more easily twisted into "victims of anti-Semitism" because of their distance from the levers of power

Well made statement. Says as little as possible and gives minimal meat for adversaries to latch on to.

Not Based

say what you want about Maoists in south east Asia ,they're principled as fuck even when they're wrong and they are mostly correct

Imagine being upset by this, LARPers. Imagine not understanding why this is a problem and even in terms of ill-advised adventurism was badly done with bad targets. This was not a planned act of some disciplined person, this was an individualistic act of despair and anger likely made with very minimal planning and highly emotional thinking. Movements cannot afford that kind of thing. Demcent exists for a reason.

If you care about something you owe it to that cause to be rational, to think clearly through your actions and their consequences and what they can and cannot achieve. Ask yourself are you doing this out of a selfish desire to be a martyr in the easiest way possible? Or are you trying to maximize the good you can do, the effect you can have. I think arguably if this person had gone to California and spent the next 6 months harassing Google employees for their company's participation in genocide they would have had a bigger impact. But that's not grandiose, that's not satisfying to the ego and martyrdom drive. It's not dramatic enough.

I really, really hope this person wasn't at any point a member. I really hope that they haven't been organizing with ANSWER lately. I hope they dropped out entirely because the zionists will use any excuse however tenuous to enable a harsher crackdown on what is very much a BDS movement not based around violence but economic and social pressure.

Those last 5 words will not save them.

This kind of thing is why we don't do adventurism. The shooter decided, without talking to anyone, that it was time to start shooting. Now PSL has an unexpected PR battle, and possible investigation, dropped on them without warning. Where is the strategy in that? How does this help PSL or the rest of us win the class war?

It's not even really about being on our best behavior or good PR, it's about practicality. Feds will come for the orgs eventually. But this kind of shit does not combat it in any way.