this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2026
0 points (NaN% liked)
Ask Lemmygrad
1356 readers
22 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
USU was founded by splitters from another group called RAS, who funny enough also founded RAS but were censured for misogyny and transphobia. The lead guy was told he couldn't post on Twitter anymore representing RAS and he split the party over it, describing himself as feeling "like Lenin after his stroke" because he couldn't post on Twitter anymore. So he started USU, who funnily enough revoked his Twitter posting privileges this month.
Time is a flat circle, we'll see how long it takes him to split USU into some other worthless micro cult around him, third time is the charm I'm sure.
do you have any sources to further reading on this topic? i loosely follow USU and tend to agree with most of their (outwardly, at least) claims regarding fundamental theory and organizing within the imperial core, and would therefore be significantly interested in anything regarding their organizational history, makeup, etc etc.
A lot of it was posted about on Twitter extensively as it happened, I don't have any screenshots. USU themselves posted a lot about it early on and posted all their meeting notes for the first 6-8 months of existing where they talked about a lot of things openly but later some of those early USU founders had disagreements and left. They removed the meeting notes around that time, not sure what other documentation is available from that period. They wrote a very long interpretation of the failings of the party they split where they blame all the trans women and had one token trans woman help write it who left that org not long after. It might still be up on their website somewhere but is very long and might not make sense without the context from the period that RAS was around
The founder who just got censured has been a notorious and prolific poster for nearly a decade so there has been a lot aired out in that time by different people. Because it's also irrelevant micro cult drama in the grand scheme there isnt really anything to read, just a blip some of us caught during the time it happened.
That's why I make it a point to mention this when they infrequently pop up here because they are grifters who seem like they say relatively agreeable things and sometimes write well but are predatory people who's entire model is finding groups of inexperienced leftists trying to start their own tiny orgs and co opt them into a sort of pyramid scheme they call a "federation."
Can you please give an example of these pyramid schemes? I need more information.
Sure, they email smaller orgs out of the blue and invite them to join a "federation" where they co-opt all the labor of these smaller orgs and take credit it for it despite being an only online organization. they do this to launder their lack of reputation by couching it in the work of people they've never met in places they've never been to. so when some small town fledgling leftists get their first reading group together, no other leftist orgs around to join so they start their own, start posting on socials about what they are doing, start doing some material aid in the streets, boom you'll get an invite by people pretending to have more experience organizing (despite only "organizing" online) who will "mentor" you and help make sure you are doing the "correct" things. you see the polished website and the well written words and assume they are legit, recognize that you are inexperienced and trying something new, and submit to them. then they will use the example of these stranger's work to legitimize themselves and absorb more smaller, inexperienced people and continue to launder their credibility on the backs of other people. I originally used the term kind of hyperbolic because it's not literally a pyramid scheme, but its like a social capital pyramid scheme
Makes sense, and I appreciate the literal explanation, and think it may be useful to baby leftists other than myself, as well. However, I have not seen anything of the sort from OP but I miss s lot due to 3D demands and sorting algorithm.
What I seem to have noticed from OP is a flurry of really informative posts, perhaps overstimulation and/or unknown variable, then some period of inactivity while they regroup. OP also publicly said they share their account. While I obviously can't verify anything, obviously, but a mod or admin skilled in anti/sec certainly could, had they time and inclination. And depending on if OP is acting in good faith or not, I would expect necessary time expenditure to be directly proportional to good/bad faith posting.
I'm talking about USU specifically, how they function as an "organization".
no clue if OP is involved with them or to what level if so. I just know OP commented on a 10 month old comment I made making the same critiques I am making here but seeming to defend USU and that behavior makes it seem like someone affiliated who is acting as their agent but that could be voluntary. It was weird to see a reply to something I said almost a year ago defending a micro cult, it definitely reads as "I'm a member of the micro cult" behavior to go looking for critique against them to attack
Edit:
Sorry I missed this when I read your comment, yeah that reads even more like they are operating in sync with USU since that is how they operate with shared social accounts but really no way to know
Noted. Thanks.
Edit: although I'm still not convinced, but will proceed with caution.
I've been skeptical of how they've posted about PSL in the past (a fair amount of alluding to receipts and tenuous connections implied, then not tending to show up with them in an organized manner that others can work through), but tried to keep an open mind on it in good faith.
The implication here seems like it needs addressing by them. It is possible for someone with good intentions to be acting with poor judgment and that can still be a problem. In my view, criticizing orgs is of course something we should be able to do, but we should strive to do it in a way that is specific and detailed on principled ideological grounds, as opposed to scattershot allusions to poor organizing/behavior or tenuous connections to ideological wrongness, else it can come across as dishonest, wrecker behavior.
Yeah I already read through all this shit about USU and it seems completely irrelevant and a way to deflect. At least Marx O. actually tried to read it even if they ended up using it as a manic scratching post.
I can't believe you feel comfortable babbling about Twitter drama without any receipts. I won't provide it for you lol
I've never been a fan of drama, my inner child just wants everyone to get along, but our world is harsh to such hopeful dreams. It's one reason why I want to see communism achieved, so the fighting can finally end, though I might not live to see it I at least want to assure it happens. Even the wreckers or those who act like them are just so sad and unfortunate, they don't realize the beautiful world that they are fighting against being born, or realize they are fighting it rather then helping it in the case of those who aren't trying to wreck but still making those kinds of mistakes.
It is just such a thing to think about, you know, that even the worst of the worst could have been the best of the best had their circumstances only been different. I know what it is like to drown in darkness struggling to hold on, so it makes me so sad when others are lost to it, if only they can discover that blazing light of hope that is the common interest of all humanity laying beneath the surface of false consciousness, that burns brightest in the Comrades of both past Revolutions and current Socialist countries, and yet exists in all of us as a common heritage, that they too can find and be saved by. I've been an atheist my whole life (since a traumatic event happened when I was just a toddler) but I feel like I've discovered the human spirit, not in some metaphysical or ideological way, but that exists in actual, physical reality, in between the interactions between humans with each other, and with the environment that is the bases of our existence, the human spirit that exists in the very fabric of society itself. I want to know more of it and I want others to know it as well.
After it's all said and done, leftists from the US and Europe will be the most inconsequential part of ending capitalism, both despite and because of their proximity to capital.
When it comes to the actors actually achieving progress for the people of the world outside of the imperial core, which western organizations are doing the most to support them? Who is uplifting their messages to the most people? Who is organizing the most demonstrations advocating for them in the US? Who is in the streets spreading their perspectives? PSL is the only contender by a long shot, and at the height of their success in this anyone trying to wreck and split them is themselves a counter revolutionary and even aligned with imperialism. They are the compatible left that they accuse the people doing real tangible work of being and it's blatant if you look beyond rhetoric and focus on the facts at hand. I've never been in PSL or tried to join but it's not hard to seek truth from facts for anyone who so desires
Hymns