While Cosmos' thread on Communists seems to be taking a 'let's whack an entire ideology with a stick' approach, I believe that when it comes to such a fractured and crazily varied sort of mess that is communism in general, certain splinter groups should be put under a microscope and mocked. This my friends, is where the magical insanity that is Posadism truly comes into its own. A boring scholar would simply say that Posadism is an offshoot of the Trotskyism branch of Marxist-Leninist thought of the Communist ideology, and leave it at that as it has enjoyed very little success. In terms of lolcowdom though, these guys are I think almost the champions when it comes to their ideology.
Let's start with the basics as given by wikipedia. Posadism was founded in 1962 by J. Posadas, a pseudonym used by Homero Rómulo Cristalli Frasnelli, an Argentinian Trotskyite, and has its roots in the Fourth International. Posadas and his followers had a major disagreement with the prevailing views of the rest of the Fourth International, regarding primarily nuclear war and if it would be necessary to ensure the victory of the proletariat over the capitalist oppressors. Posadas believed that the answer was 100% yes. When everyone else told him he was retarded, he picked up his ball and went home, forming another Forth International. Posadism would become the dominant form of thought in the communist world - nah I'm kidding, it mainly was restricted to Latin America, though his writings were published in english and I think Italian.
The Crazy Train though really starts when the Cuban Revolution begins. Posadas was at the time a rather influential thinker among Latin American Trotskyites, and a whole bunch of Posadists joined in on the fun in Cuba, helping Castro overthrow the Batista government with real enthusiasm. So much enthusiasm that they then instantly started to say that Castro wasn't going far enough, and even tried to assemble a group of Cuban soldiers to storm Guantanamo Bay in order to liberate the island fully (though also probably in the hope that this would start a nuclear war - because this happened after the missile crisis) which resulted in Castro forcibly removing them from the country. Posadas immediately claimed that Castro also had Che killed (despite him being both still alive at the time and in Bolivia) and then changed that to claiming Castro had Che prisoner and that all good revolutionaries should rise against Castro to free him (despite Che at this point in time having been dead for over a year) which went nowhere. This is the more sane part of Posadas' antics by the way.
Until his death in '81, Posadas continued to write and publish papers on communist thought and all that other malarkey they like to do, but things got weird fast. And I do mean weird. First, he started to claim that the USSR was making research into talking with dolphins (which was true) and that all dolphins are socialist life forms (probably not true) eager to learn communism (certainly not true) and become our marine comrades (hilariously untrue). Then he claimed that all aliens are socialists, because obviously any being advanced enough to travel between stars has advanced beyond imperialism and capitalism and embraced his particular brand of Marxism. He followed this up by saying that UFO's were thus these 'Space Comrades' watching us and waiting for our nuclear war to erupt at which point they would contact us and we would join them in the glory of interstellar communism.
Posadism lost a lot of it's influence shortly after, with other communists in Latin America mocking them and purposefully excluding them from meetings. Later writings included theories on water birth, human-nature harmony, and that if the aliens do invade, we should welcome them as liberators of the working class. Posadists to this day claim that this is all a smear fabrication (except the nuclear war part). Posadists also ran for election in Uruguay somewhat recently, receiving only 0.1% of the vote. Wikipedia estimates though, the actual membership of the Fourth International (Posadist) is probably around 100 at the most. They also still publish papers, interestingly enough, and give interviews.
If you got through this text wall, enjoy some spicy memes.
Let's start with the basics as given by wikipedia. Posadism was founded in 1962 by J. Posadas, a pseudonym used by Homero Rómulo Cristalli Frasnelli, an Argentinian Trotskyite, and has its roots in the Fourth International. Posadas and his followers had a major disagreement with the prevailing views of the rest of the Fourth International, regarding primarily nuclear war and if it would be necessary to ensure the victory of the proletariat over the capitalist oppressors. Posadas believed that the answer was 100% yes. When everyone else told him he was retarded, he picked up his ball and went home, forming another Forth International. Posadism would become the dominant form of thought in the communist world - nah I'm kidding, it mainly was restricted to Latin America, though his writings were published in english and I think Italian.
The Crazy Train though really starts when the Cuban Revolution begins. Posadas was at the time a rather influential thinker among Latin American Trotskyites, and a whole bunch of Posadists joined in on the fun in Cuba, helping Castro overthrow the Batista government with real enthusiasm. So much enthusiasm that they then instantly started to say that Castro wasn't going far enough, and even tried to assemble a group of Cuban soldiers to storm Guantanamo Bay in order to liberate the island fully (though also probably in the hope that this would start a nuclear war - because this happened after the missile crisis) which resulted in Castro forcibly removing them from the country. Posadas immediately claimed that Castro also had Che killed (despite him being both still alive at the time and in Bolivia) and then changed that to claiming Castro had Che prisoner and that all good revolutionaries should rise against Castro to free him (despite Che at this point in time having been dead for over a year) which went nowhere. This is the more sane part of Posadas' antics by the way.
Until his death in '81, Posadas continued to write and publish papers on communist thought and all that other malarkey they like to do, but things got weird fast. And I do mean weird. First, he started to claim that the USSR was making research into talking with dolphins (which was true) and that all dolphins are socialist life forms (probably not true) eager to learn communism (certainly not true) and become our marine comrades (hilariously untrue). Then he claimed that all aliens are socialists, because obviously any being advanced enough to travel between stars has advanced beyond imperialism and capitalism and embraced his particular brand of Marxism. He followed this up by saying that UFO's were thus these 'Space Comrades' watching us and waiting for our nuclear war to erupt at which point they would contact us and we would join them in the glory of interstellar communism.
Posadism lost a lot of it's influence shortly after, with other communists in Latin America mocking them and purposefully excluding them from meetings. Later writings included theories on water birth, human-nature harmony, and that if the aliens do invade, we should welcome them as liberators of the working class. Posadists to this day claim that this is all a smear fabrication (except the nuclear war part). Posadists also ran for election in Uruguay somewhat recently, receiving only 0.1% of the vote. Wikipedia estimates though, the actual membership of the Fourth International (Posadist) is probably around 100 at the most. They also still publish papers, interestingly enough, and give interviews.
If you got through this text wall, enjoy some spicy memes.
