Spoilers below

: https://www.reddit.com/r/andor/comments/1jwdgwg/is_andor_a_leftist_show/mmi1lui/

Reddit comment text (spoilers)

I keep seeing leftists/progressives/Marxists/whatever praise this show while being unable to to engage in the ruthless, pragmatic sacrifices that Andor shows are necessary to fight fascism.

Part of the show is the importance of throwing people under the bus for the greater good. The first thing we ever see Cassian do is shoot a fellow Rebel. The people who see every compromise as a betrayal and every inability to respond to global crisis as a genocide would never be able to do this. They’re willing to support the revolution when they picture themselves as Cassian but are they willing to picture themselves as Kreegyr?

Furthermore, all the people on “Team Luthen” seem deliberately designed to be “problematic.” Maarva kidnapped an indigenous-coded kid, gave him new name, and assimilated him to her culture. Luthen sells the cultural artifacts from the victims of the Empire. Gorn and Kino are repentant fascists or fascist collaborators. Tay Kolma is a banker. Davo Sculdun is a mobster.

Saw Gerrera is so paralyzed by ideological purity that he just sits around in his cave, underfunded, not really accomplishing anything. Team Luthen, on the other hand, welcomes anyone who hates the Empire regardless of their ideologies or motivations so they actually get things done.

The ultimate theme of Andor is that if you want to fight fascism, don’t expect to remain morally pure. Don’t get picky about who you work with or where you get your money from. And don’t expect to save everyone.

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I won’t exaggerate the leftist content of Andor. It’s not an explicitly Marxist show. But there are many themes which line up excellently with Marxist themes and historical events; for example, the writer Tony Gilroy confirming that young Stalin inspired certain events and characters.

I’m excited to recommend this show to my non-leftist family to expose them to some less liberal thought with a focus on anti-imperialism. But some comments in the thread remind me how easily liberalism accommodates, and subordinates, other ways of thought into the liberal world view without being undermined.

The fact that revolution is messy doesn’t knock revolutionaries down to the same level as fascists. There can be no comparison between imperial violence and anti imperial violence, nor between privilege and oppression.

The loss of Kreegyr was a tragedy because it was predictable yet unavoidable, like a slow moving train wreck. It’s not because revolutionaries are inherently bloodthirsty and callous by nature. Luthen himself may be, but he is also correct in identifying the necessity of the action within the context of war.

Moreover Saw Guerrera was correct to refuse alliance with liberals and centrists. Mere ideological purity was not his concern. He said it himself: those organizations lacked “clarity of purpose.” They refused or were unable to formulate a theory of the struggle and were therefore unreliable, if not dangerous, as allies. History shows this to be the correct stance to take with respect to social democracy and left liberalism.