A very interesting interview. Their guest essentially shuts down assertions about direct US Govt manipulation and instead goes over the history of Pakistani politics to illustrate how broken and colonized their government is. It seems to paint Khan as a blip in the status quo with the military and bourgeoise steering things back into the US’s good graces just through their own interests. It seems to make sense given how many decades the US entrenched itself in their government and policy. Due to material conditions the imperialism machine just runs itself.
I would give the whole thing a watch before making snap judgements. It’s really enlightening to have info from inside the country.
By these standards, we should not support Lula in brazil then.
It’s also not just western leftists that have reached this conclusion… Pakistanis of all stripes also have. The people in the mass protests there are not western leftists. As if the biggest imperialist power on earth would leave them alone after IK refused the US military bases and was generally an obstacle to US foreign policy.
Edit: https://youtu.be/3pQ0wTb_jBM much better view with evidence of the events
I’ll give the video a watch a bit later when I have time, but there is one thing you said that stood out to me:
I don’t support any liberal/bourgeois politician, anywhere, for any reason. My thoughts on these matters have no significance to the people these decisions affect as some random worker from the global north. So I don’t particularly see why I would want to join a great man’s cause as though I’m being urged to vote for Biden.
My interest in these topics isn’t to propagandize other people as much as it is to analyze the historical materiality of the situation and get a feel for the direction global politics is moving, as that’s all I can and should do so as to not meddle in the affairs of third worlders like a colonizer (again, not like I can do anything about it anyway).
Notice how my posts take quotes from the person (a very well educated communist leader to boot) who’s actually living in that situation and are not purely drawn from my own conclusions.
We should support Lula because he improves the lives of Brazilians. There is no instant communism button anywhere and he is way better than bolsanaro. In fact it is up to us in the global north to stop our government from meddling in the affairs of Brazil (Lula coup) and elsewhere. We don’t exist in isolation.
Also I am Pakistani, so I do have a stake in third world politics, at least in spirit I want to see my people flourish. IK was introducing social welfare programs to help the poor and that’s something even if he isn’t communist.
Also let’s not appeal to authority. The Pakistani left is myopic af and that’s why they are so small and ineffective amongst other reasons like an effective dismantling.
Oh they are all capitalist is a very simplistic take.
Edit: also, not attacking you… Just critiquing the opinions of the video.
I appreciate this. I think my pov is going to differ from yours because I come from a place of trying to get rid of capitalist brainworms while living in the imperial core, where most anti-establishment people fall into fascist conspiracy theory holes (even self-proclaimed leftists). A lot of white socialists are…to put it shortly they’re paternalistic towards minorities and it’s kinda gross. They give off the impression that they see themselves like the ideological shepherds of the flock. So my perspective is that western leftists need to focus on our own problems but keep international affairs in the back of our minds.
Like I’m aware that Lula was kind of like Brazil’s Bernie Sanders (except he actually was elected and enacted the social programs he promised), and I would correct people who say he wasn’t at least Progressive or SocDem in policy, but at the same time it’s kind of not my business to try and sell the ‘idea’ of Lula to people.