this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2025
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I know this is a tankie instance so I didn't downvote but I'm surprised again and again how ignorant tankies are about the concept of prefiguration or "unity of means and ends" or "building the new in the shell of the old" or what ever you want to call it. It's not about the state vanishing over night but about building a dual power that will fight the authority of the state. It's the same type of people who say anarchists can't read that have no idea about actual anarchist theory. Do better. Leave this strawman behind. It never was true and didn't age well.
Marxists aren't ignorant of prefiguration, we agree with some of it, such as building dual power. We don't agree that doing so erases the basis of class, and thus doesn't also erase the basis od the state. Marxists in general take the opposite approach to solving class struggle, believing in collectivization of all production and distribution to suit the needs of all, rather than creating loosely organized communalist cells, and this is because of analysis of class struggle being different for Marxists (and I believe more correct).
Sorry, I was overgeneralizating. I wasn't talking about Marxist Leninists or Marxists in general or all tankies but I encounter this attitude OP shows far too often. People read Engels's On Authority and think they know stuff which is frustrating.
I think having a shallow understanding of theory even within our own tendencies is a common problem that just comes with trying to study dense topics that are deliberately hidden from us. It isn't a fun problem, but it's one that comes with the territory. I try to do my best with it, that's why I made my intro Marxist-Leninist reading list for those that want one.