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#i don't think any of them ever lived in a communist country :
iberiancadre · 1 month
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I've talked about this before but I have a deep dislike of sentiment like this within "leftist" circles, regarding unions. And it's practically always from USamericans, go figure.
(Before anyone interprets this post on bad faith, which is inevitable, I am not against being in a union and I am not telling people not to join a union, it's the most inmediate form of protection workers have and that is, in fact, good)
It's this overbearing insistence on joining unions, treating it like the best (and only) way of achieving workers' liberation, and I think that shows either a bad understanding of what unions are or a bad understanding of how capitalism works. Unions are bargaining bodies for workers, that's it. They aren't revolutionary, and they aren't going to kill your boss. And I want to really hammer in this point. They aren't revolutionary. Precisely because their role is to bargain, and to achieve better conditions within the system of salaried work.
You are never going to "liquidate the ownership class" by getting longer breaks, paid holidays and an excellent health plan. Keep in mind, bargaining with the capitalist is necessary, and that in itself isn't non-revolutionary, not necessarily. But the only purpose of a union is to bargain. I really don't think people get this. A union's only purpose is to bargain, it is to negotiate. Negotiations also necessarily imply compromises and unsatisfactory deals. Unions are not a magic key to not being exploited, and they especially are not the way to liberation.*
I think this is especially prevalent in the US because of two things:
Their labor movement is so fucked that any kind of opposition to capitalism is by default radical. And therefore some people feel it's enough to just tell people to join a union. However, this isn't unique to the US and many places have it much, much worse
Living in the imperial hegemon makes it very easy to ignore any other place outside of their little sphere. People can go years engaging in left-of-DNC circles but without ever leaving their USamerican community, they end up not knowing who James Baldwin is, to give a topical example. This affects the US labor movement by allowing them to ignore other places' struggles, so it's very easy to see anything they do as the horizon of political action. They only need to look to their own country for examples in action, and the truth is that the labor movement in the US has been largely very mild. In the cases when it has not been mild (notable exceptions include the Black Panthers), it's largely forgotten, demonized or revised in bigger circles.
So you get people who call themselves communists just for being unionists. But a communist is someone who identifies the core of exploitation to be the very structure of capitalism and work and attacks it. You are not a communist, however, for believing the core of exploitation is your shit boss who refuses to pay for dental.
And what's funny is that 90% of what people on here claim to be communist and anti-capitalist is just the norm on most of the world. People will hype up the DSA or VoteSocialist2024 as if they're breaking ground, and then you read their programs and they're just socialdemocrats. They are nothing more than reformists, just another manager of capitalism.
My father works for one of the biggest textile manufacturers and distributors in the world, and unionization is the norm, it's a "union job" but it's still shitty and exploitative. There are in fact 3 unions, and they engage in petty electoralism within the workplace, only sometimes actually protecting worker's rights, and that's a country-wide norm. This is what unions end up becoming when they become established, especially with a friendly government in place.
CCOO was a union created in the late fascist dictatorship in Spain, and they were genuinely fighting (with guns!) against the dictatorship. And the moment the dictatorship ended and they became the largest union in the country, they slowly became less and less radical, and more complacent. Last year they signed a labor reform that legalizes highly precarious and inconsistent forms of work contracts. That's not "liquidating the ownership class", that's just social-democracy when it doesn't need to be the opposition anymore
To wrap up, a note on syndicalism, anarcho-syndicalism, etc.
Unions are by their very nature an organization that only operates within one aspect of the life of the working class, the workplace. Sure, it's the main one and the part that defines us as a class, but it isn't the only one. In order to actually "liquidate the ownership class", you have to take power by force, and that will have to involve intervening outside of the workplace. What syndicalists used to claim is that unions can be the base of a socialist society and organize the entire working class to destroy capitalism. However, at that point, you have created a party and called it a union. And not only a party, but a myriad of them, each with their own characteristics and desires. So a multi-party system. I will not get into the viability of multiple parties in socialism in this post, but they are not unions in anything by name.
Footnote under the cut:
*I know I'm repeating myself a lot these days on this topic, but if you live in an imperial core country, there is no way to have prosperity (as the example above puts it) without some of that wealth coming from imperialism. It does not matter if your particular country never had colonies, it does not matter if your country is stereotypically nice (fuck the Nordic countries). And no, the expoliated wealth does not only remain within the capitalist class, there is always at least some circulation of wealth from the capitalist to the workers within any welfare program. If your workplace can afford to have long breaks, that is at least in part because your capitalist is profiting from the exploitation of the third world, and because the entire economies of imperial core countries uses the wealth extracted to support their deficits and to stabilize their currencies.
It's not a hard concept. If you can understand that it's basically impossible to manufacture batteries for renewable energy without exercising violence on places like the Congo, it's not that hard to understand the same is true for most things.
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drdemonprince · 1 month
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Your blog is like a breath of fresh air. Thank you for all the wonderful thoughts and writing.
That said I actually have a question. I am pro-palestine(it feels stupid to call it that, as if it should even be a debate) and in a very left leaning friend group. But also a very white academic one. You know the type, read Marx, dream of the revolution but continue studying to end up in 9 to 5s instead of doing anything(I am guilty of it too, this isn't meant as insult just a description)
Anyways, as you can imagine they have been extremely hesitant when it comes to having any opinion on Israel or Palestine. That wouldn't be a problem in itself, I know how to start topics with them and get them thinking usually but in this case there is an additional problem. Whenever I try to broach the topic I get shutdown with "Look at all the shit that is going on here, our country is falling into fascism, I just don't have the energy to deal with this conflict. Please don't talk about it because it's triggering". And I have zero clue what to do. Forget getting them to go on protests with me, I can't even speak to them about it and feel really guilty. Its me bringing up a heavily triggering topic after all. It feels wrong to feel guilty though. I know at the end of the day it's not important if I could convince some people to give a fuck but do you have any advice? How to get over this guilt or maybe how to broach a topic with that considered?
My main problem is my fear of losing my friends because I have been ill for some time(as in physically unable to leave the house for more than a short grocery run, or my visits to the doctor, because of pain and my friends are what keep me alive) and losing their help would be not good.
My exact situation aside, do you have advice for someone to broach a topic that others describe as unpleasant/triggering without causing a huge rift in the group?
Thanks for your kind words and your question, Anon.
I think your friends suck and that you can do better than them. I think you should get out there and find yourself some Black, brown, working class anarchist and anarco-communist buds (and Marxists who show up for others in a real, observable way in their regular lives) as soon as you can.
I know that wasn't the answer you were looking for. But I have seen this kind of entirely theoretical, jaded, self-superior, passive, white well-off Marxist type a thousand times before, and I've failed to ever see them show up for other people in any kind of consistent way.
And it's not only the people systematically crushed beneath the wheel of Capital half a world away that they neglect, either. They tend to be pretty shitty friends and neighbors when it all comes down to it on the micro-level, too. Their smug over-intellectualism and dispassionate cynicism allows them to justify remaining disengaged and going along with the status quo in a way that ultimately serves capitalism very well.
There is a theoretical basis to this selfishness and disengagement, I will admit. This type of overly academic Marxist typically believes that the fall of capitalism is inevitable, that humans lack free will and only behave as befits their obvious material interests, and that there is nothing that one can do on a personal level to hasten any kind of Revolution, so there is nothing left to do but wait, and take care of oneself, and allow the future to unfold.
This is a perspective explicitly advocated for by people like the Chapo Trap House guys, and among academic white boy communist types, it is incredibly popular. I remember hearing Matt Christman saying on his vlogs that he essentially does not believe the conditions allowing capitalism to fall will happen in his lifetime, and so his only responsibility is to just take care of himself and his family and be comfortable.
Ultimately, these types wind up sounding and behaving exactly like capitalist economists who believe that everyone is rationally motivated only by increasing their personal wealth. They are disengaged from politics except insofar as they like to make snide jokes about current events for their own entertainment and enrichment, and they don't see themselves as having the capacity to exert a positive influence on the world, nor any obligation to. It's bleak shit.
At the same time, if your friends are in the circles that tend to read and listen to and promote this kind of stuff, surely they have also been exposed to popular leftist voices advocating loudly for the Palestinian cause. And yet still they have done nothing.
Hasan Piker has been vocally pro-Palestine his entire career, and his Twitch channel has been providing near constant coverage of Palestinian issues since October 7th. True Anon has had multiple episodes on the Israel Lobby, the suppression of pro-Palestinian activism and journalistic coverage, and has aired interviews with Normal Finkelstein. Palestine is the central topic of nearly every Trillbilly Worker's Party podcast for months now.
These are widely popular voices among the very types of Marxists that you say that your friends are, and many of these creators are close friends with the Chapo Trap House guys, whom your friends almost certainly are taking notes from. So it's nearly impossible to imagine that your friends have not encountered the near constant coverage of the struggle of the Palestinians that all the rest of us have. And yet still your friends do nothing. Still they do not care, and dismiss you when you share with them how despairing you feel.
Your friends have turned off an essential part of their hearts, I think. And I don't mean they lack empathy. Not having empathy is fine, I don't have it either -- but I make the conscious choice to care about the Palestinian cause and to advocate for it, because it aligns with my values. I give a fuck. My giving a fuck is conveyed through my actions, not through what I think about or how I feel.
Your friends are showing no interest in learning more about this genocide or doing anything about it. Perhaps some degree of ignorance or hesitancy could be justified early on because the Israeli apologist propaganda is so far reaching, but we're well past the point of that explaining away inaction by now. Over 100,000 people are missing and over 30,000 are known to be dead and little girls are being shot by snipers while seeking medical care while babies are left to rot in their NICU beds.
Your friends know this. Maybe not everyone in the world does, but if they're so well-read about leftist issues, your friends do. And they have chosen, for some reason, not to care. They've disconnected from the pain the Palestinian people are in, unplugged from the steady stream of upsetting information, sought comfort in a politics that says all too conveniently that nothing they do matters, and when you try to share with them how much anguish you are feeling about the mass deaths happening throughout the world, they're dismissive toward you.
Your friends suck. If acknowleding reality and confronting the horrors of a genocide is too tough and triggering for them, then a lot of horrors here at home will be too much for their fragile egos too. There are so many leftists you could be surrounding yourself with instead, I promise -- people who give back to their communities, people who are in the streets doing the tough work of feeding and housing and fighting for the release from prison of people every day, instead of using those local struggles as a shield for their inaction on a more global scale.
Fuck these people for real. This is a big glaring red flag and it will be relevant to your friendship and your life. One day many of them might see you and your problems and your human needs as too much of a distraction from their dry academic jerk-off sessions too. I've seen it a dozen times. Sorry to be so blunt. But you seem like a person who is putting their attention in all the right places and I don't want to see that compassion squandered on people who won't ever show you the same consideration. You can find people who actually walk the walk, they're everywhere.
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This is dark but do you think Comics!MK have any surviving extended family or is he truly the last of his family?
I like to think he has cousins but their parents didn't flee to America like Elias did so he hardly sees them
MCU Marc doesn't talk to family for very different reasons obviously
I got an ask!
Now this is a truly difficult question to answer for a lot of reasons, but I will do my best!
Comics Moon Knight has a LOT of re-writes. Moench only included Randall in Marc's known family. He was killed off before Moon Knight even had his own official comic (See the Incredible Hulk appearance, which I will review someday in the hopefully not too distant future). We don't get a lot of references to Randall in Moench's run after that. Like at all. In fact, there is so little discussed about Marc's family in Moench's OG run that I'm pretty sure that people forgot about his brother all together unless Marvel decided they needed to do something and then we got a quick "Oh yeah and then this happened" moment.
Zelenetz gave us Elias Spector and more of a family backstory. We got the story of how their mother died when he was very young, which is going to be retconned later on in Lemire's run when we see his father dying much earlier in Marc's life and his mother still being alive. We get no mention of Randall in this. There are a lot of people at the Shiva/Funeral, but since Elias was a prominent figure in their community (Rabbi), it's hard saying who is family and who is community.
As far as I am currently aware (I haven't dived through ALL the comics in a VERY long time and my re-read is slow and steady), no other family has ever shown up or is mentioned.
HISTORY LESSON!!! (TW Holocaust)
Elias Spector, as noted by Zelenetz, is from Czechoslovakia. Those of you that got a bit more of a history lesson than what they bothered to toss at you in high school, may recognize that this country has been through A LOT. So much so that it has been split, reunited, renamed, taken over, given independence, divided, and renamed and split over and over and over again.
It is safe to assume that his family lived there for a few generations. It's hard to say when they arrived there, but Jewish history is…strife with certain parts of Europe inviting Jewish people in then going "Just kidding" and kicking them out (or killing them) immediately afterwards.
And with the history of Czechoslovakia's REPEATED wars and revolutions and divides…. Who knows the history of the Spectors of if they all settled there or if they had been divided over time.
But what we DO know…
According to a census. In 1921, the Jewish population was 354,342. In 1946 it was 55,000. This was not because they decided to move.
The numbers continued to drop. By 1990, it was 7,800.
The German occupation started in 1930 and was not a pretty picture from the start. In 1939, the Jewish population realized this was not going to go well and desperately started to get out, but 78,000 had already been killed. Many were sent to surrounding camps where Typhus epidemics along with brutal conditions started to wipe them out even before 'the final solution' was put into action. Getting dark here: of the 15,000 CHILDREN that were sent to Auschwitz, only 93 came back.
In 1948, Communist Russia took over. Russia does not have a good history with their Jewish population.
In fact, the 40 year period of this occupation is called "Communist Holocaust". Jewish people were forbidden from practicing their religion and Jewish leaders were forced to leave, convert, or die. Children were prohibited from learning their own culture or religious practices.
So do I think that Moon Knight has any cousins surviving in Europe that didn't flee to America like Elias did?
It is with a very heavy heart that I have to given an honest answer: No.
Is it possible that maybe some of the family left with Elias and came to America or went to England? Maybe. Possibly some made it to Denmark or one of the few places that tried to help get a few out. But if they stayed in any of the countries that were occupied, I don't think they made it. And this may have given another reason behind Marc's anger at his father's unwillingness to do anything about the anti-antisemitism that he witnessed.
Perhaps Marc saw the children with extended family and wondered why he didn't have any. Or why they had no pictures or why his mother and father wouldn't talk about those that were left behind.
If he DID happen to have ANY family that survived, Marc probably has no idea where they are or how to find them or who they are. After the Holocaust, the surviving Jewish population was so scattered and left without homes to return to. The countries that they had fled did not welcome them back. Many didn't want to go back. It has only really been recently with the modernization of the internet that efforts have been made for survivors to reach out and try to find out what happened to their families.
With their father and mother gone, I wonder how much about his family Marc actually knew. The REAL question is: Would Marc, Jake, or Steven make an effort to try to reach out? Would they want to find survivors? Would they feel guilty? Would they be able to even talk with the surviving family? Would they want to?
I don't think Marc would. I think this is one more burden on his shoulders and he doesn't want to be a dark shadow on the surviving family tree. I think Steven would be curious and attempt to dig up records to find out what happened to his father's town or people, but I don't think he'd reach out. Jake doesn't travel. Jake's home and people are New York. I think his soft heart would feel the loss too much to want to know. But I do think that if he found any family living in New York, he'd wander by to say hello.
That being said: What about their daughter? Is she being raised Jewish? Marlene certainly is not Jewish. Or at least she was never given that designation in any of the comics that I can recall or in Moench's run. Even if she is not being raised Jewish, perhaps she would be the one to reach out. A generation reaching out to another to find answers and connection. And maybe through her, it would bring the Moon Knight system back to their own connections.
I can see Jake curiously looking at pictures of grandparents and aunts and uncles and saying "Look I have my Great Uncle's mustache!" only to be reminded that his mustache is very much a fake mustache and him quipping back that he has the same taste at least. I can also see Steven being delighted to trace his roots back and saying "The Spectors are survivors." I think even Marc might be able to sit down with his daughter and recall stories he had heard growing up about the town his family comes from and the people there.
And that does bring me a bit of optimism and hope. That they can share good things about a past that they used to look at and find only pain in. That maybe it would finally let them talk about it when it was something they couldn't talk about growing up. A way for him to say "I have generational trauma, but at least I can start to let it heal through my daughter."
SO.... That's a really long answer to your question, and maybe not the one you were looking for... But it's honest and probably more than Marvel will ever give us (I fear what Marvel might do to the history if they tried).
Thanks for asking!
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directdogman · 2 years
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How old is gingi?? Like did they exist before the dialup or after, or is it up to player interpretation? Of course if you don’t have to answer if you don’t have one but it’s been in my head. They don’t go online or school but can read hieroglyphs, a now dead way of communications, so it’s been in my brain.
You really wanna know Gingi's canon backstory? Well okay. But, don't get angry at me if you can't accept it this way.
gingi was born in london in 1847. growing up with no more than a shiny ha’penny and a glint in their eye, gingi got a job at the local textiles mill. Gingi worked this job from when they were 3 to when they were 23. Gingi was quoted as saying "eh, it aight" to their boss, referring to the grueling working conditions involved with the job, before being promptly beaten to a pulp and fired for speaking without permission.
Soon thereafter, Gingi found a troupe of Clowns- Sorry. Soon thereafter, Gingi found a gaggle of Clowns- No, that's not right either. Fuuuck, what do you call a group of clowns?
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I really don't think a group of clowns is called a 'clown alley', but none of this is correct, so I'll just move on.
Anyway, Gingi found many clowns living in the hills outside of town. They called themselves Luddites. They're were like communists, just without the sickles (only hammer.) Basically anarchists. Gingi, unsure of what a hammer even was (but desperate to learn) joined their ranks. The clowns mainly hunted boars with a flare gun in order to eat, which was a dangerous task, as any boars not instantly cooked once hit by a flare were obviously now on fire and PISSED. Their camp burned down like 6 times from angry flaming boars going apeshit at them.
Gingi learned many slurs from these degenerates in face paint. Eventually, Gingi ate one of the clowns' large red noses (at the behest of a talking snake) while the 'clown alley' was asleep and was thus cast out of the tribe having only a shiny ha’penny, a (now dulled) glint in their eye, and a tamed boar named Gregor. Gingi, feeling upset by this betrayal, decided to devour the devil snake. However, the devil snake was rife with parasites (it's literally satan from a biblical allegory, c'mon dude) so Gingi's flesh turned green, and it's still green to this day.
Gingi wandered throughout england with their boar (Gregor), soon coming to the conclusion that the english accent was really bad and that nobody should ever talk like that again. Shortly thereafter, Gingi heard about a land of opportunity on the other side of the Atlantic. One full of hoagies, the Dallas Cowboys, a place where people don't speak like they're British... Because now, they weren't. The country had just fought a revolution and George Washington had killed the Queen of Englanderland with a cannon over unpaid taxes. Washington had dubbed their new land... Ohio.
Gingi immediately did what any hardworking orphan bxy would do and built a raft out of hollowed out turnip husks so they could sail to Ohio, land of opportunity. Gingi drifted across the ocean for many days and many nights. At one point, Gingi landed in a strange land known as "Cuba". Gregor decided to settle down there with a young Joseph Stalin (stalin isn't evil yet at this point in the timeline, he's just a hot young dude with a mustache) so Gingi swam to florida by their lonesome. Spending 3 days in florida caused Gingi to get stabbed in the heart a bunch of times (hence the stitches/bruises on the chest.)
Gingi, now near the fabled land of Ohio, kept wandering, but noticed a gaggle of stray raccoons on the road. They screamed to Gingi "please, sxr, our mother went and focking DIED on us, we are SO hungry." Looking at these poor weeping and wanting animals, Gingi sprouted 4 new teats and began feeding them. To be clear, these were ADULT raccoons. They weren't even orphans, they just wanted Gingi's rancid milk for themselves. Bastards.
Soon thereafter, Gingi said "im still somehow not in ohio, how long have i been wandering" and checked their watch (A parting gift from Gregor, the boar) and realized it was the year 1960. A man with a phone head met Gingi and said "Hi, I'm Calman Crown. I'm from Dialtown, Georgia, not to be mixed up with Dialtown, WISCONSIN, home of Dialtown: Phone Dating Sim. You are green and have many nipples." Gingi replied "how dare you speak with me" and left him. Now that we're near present day, we've almost caught up to present day Dialtown.
gingi found a 2-for-1 offer in the local antique store. A phone + typewriter head, both made of stitched together flesh. Gingi pointed out that these heads wasn't antiques because they'd smell by now if they were, and the shopkeeper, now distraught that the two items gingi were holding WEREN'T antiques, gave the weird objects to gingi for FREE. In actuality, the two objects WERE stinky, the shop keeper just had a bad sense of smell from chain-smoking. Gingi put the phone made of flesh onto his head and said “great, i’ll save the typewriter for Karen’s route in Dialtown: Phone Dating Sim now on Steam.”
Alright, I think we're in 1963 now? Gingi’s green, has the head (and the nipples), but we’ve still a while to go. FUCK. Gingi, now feral + hungry, enters a random home nearby and mauls a baby Randy in his crib, like that damned Lindbergh Baby, and as such, Randy's life starts off SO badly and never recovers. He needs SO many stitches. Gingi buys a tent with their remaining shiny ha’penny and then sets up the tent in a local park. Gingi falls asleep for like 60 years and then wakes up. Dialtown Phone Dating Sim chapter 1 begins.
The End. Sorry if this isn't the origin story you wanted, but it beats a IS PHONEGINGI RANDY'S DAD? game theory episode. if it helps, just remember that every word of this was merely ass and didn't really happen. thanks. how dare you ask me anything. thanks. this is what you get. thanks.
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qqueenofhades · 2 years
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If I have to listen to/read one more leftist screech about how the only thing to fix America is some sort of grand revolution I will lose it. It's like they think everyone would show up at this revolution and that would be it, Victory is Ours! Except... the other side always shoots back and combat ain't pretty. They want blood in the streets and some ideological civil war and have no clue what that looks like.
They think armed conflict is a game and have zero clue what it's like (former Marine, I know what it's like and it's pure hell on earth). I vote Democrat, I protest, I put myself out there, but I have zero desire for their Glorious Revolution. I think they want some sort of Civil War Pt. 2 because they think it will result in a Glorious Destiny. To quote the writer Mercedes Lackey "Glorious destinies usually end in glorious funerals."
In actuality they just need to... vote. Regardless of whatever else they do, and they should do more, they need to vote. It's the primary thing, the basic act of participating as a citizen of this country. Just... vote. But I guess that's just not glorious enough. Le sigh... 😮‍💨
I mean, yeah. Especially since we literally just had the whole "try to violently overthrow the government" thing for the first time since the Civil War, and we can all agree that it sucked. I don't want a re-run of January 6 with so-called leftists, not least since it will obviously fail and I don’t trust those people with any kind of real power anyway. Not only that, but it will also instantly validate the fears of every single insecure white person in this country who has already been prepped to believe that the evil violent Black Lives Matter and Antifa and Scary Gays are coming for them, and it will entrench revanchist reactionary conservatism even more than is already the case. Besides, a) the right-wingers always like to boast that they have all the guns and the assault weapons, and b) this is yet again a case of tepidly reheated extremist-right-wing bullshit that masquerades as progressive, since “violently overthrow the government” has, as noted, generally been the wet dream and attempted exercise of the far right in America. (When it was the far left in the twentieth century, a la the Russian Revolution and the establishment of other communist “people’s republics” in Europe and Asia, that wasn’t a great idea either.)
Besides, as you say here and I have said before, ideological revolutions never, ever, work, and while they are not working, they seriously harm the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people that said crazy ideologues delusionally claim to be helping. Since the Online Leftists are a tiny percentage of the country, and the revolution-shouting lunatics are a minority percentage of that, their support is almost negligible. This is not some universally popular proposition that has a chance of happening tomorrow if all the keyboard warriors suddenly decided they were up for real fighting instead of posting stupid things on Twitter. (And they’re not going to do that anyway, so yeah.) Even when Republicans openly bragged that they got all these terrible things and major policy shifts by turning up and voting every year for 50 years straight, we still have the “vOtiNg doEsn’T mAtTer!!!” braindead takes continuing to proliferate at light speed. Not to mention what appears to be a deliberate effort to not learn anything from the past, ever, and just insist that all Democrats are or were not insufficiently pure or personally motivated to help, and that was obviously the entire problem.
The “revolution” that actually COULD happen, if people get off their moral high horse and condescend to carry out their basic and easy civic duty, is via the legislative and lawmaking process, and not by some fantasy violent blood-in-the-streets Bolshevik rerun. If people do in fact vote in sufficient numbers, help Democrats hold the House, and get just two, TWO more Democratic senators willing to break or reform the filibuster, there are a whole lot of things that could suddenly get passed, and undo a lot of the current Republican-inflicted damage, bad as it is. That INCLUDES abortion rights, voting rights, LGBTQ+ rights, climate policies, and everything else. The centrist argument that “we shouldn’t eliminate the filibuster because the Republicans might use it to do more bad things if they get back into the majority!!!” is, in my opinion, equally stupid. The Republicans are doing scads of bad things as fast as they can possibly get away with it, they have never been constrained by institutional norms and rules and even less so now, and if Democrats nobly refuse to play the same game, it’s going to get even worse. (I mean, what on earth makes you think that Mitch The Worst McConnell, if God forbid he became majority leader again, won’t just abolish the legislative filibuster anyway, even if the Democrats refuse to do it beforehand?) The Democrats NEED to take the offensive in the way the Republicans have done, and since the GOP has already done so much terrible, awful, generationally damaging shit, we need drastic measures in stopping them and reversing some of the worst of it (thus to lay the foundations for other reforms down the road). Not to mention, the Republicans WON’T GET BACK INTO POWER if y’all voted blue as much as you complain online!
Anyway. Yes. I likewise am sick of this stupid argument, and I deliberately limit my exposure to anywhere where I might see it, but it still pops up anyway. The sheer refusal to a) identify the people responsible, b) take the correct actions to oppose them, and c) do it more than once is just... yeah. I don’t get it.
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butchviking · 7 months
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I didn't call it a slippery slope, I called it a wedge argument. The difference being there are people actively trying to drive that wedge further, and there are, and it's irresponsible to act like there aren't. "First they came for the communists" isn't a cautionary statement on the dangers of wet hills.
And you absolutely did draw conclusions for me. I mentioned my family's history, and you responded:
"so then at least we can perhaps see eye to eye on admitting that the current system is not doing right by trans or dysphoric people either. gives negligent care, sweeps mistakes under the rug, does not necessarily have the best interests of the patients at heart. something should be done about that. what would you propose?"
While I can agree the current system isn't doing right by trans and dysphoric people, I'm afraid it's in the opposite direction to you. My country has a long history of gatekeeping all manner of care to marginalized people, and often presumes to know better than those seeking it, more often than not in error.
Ultimately though, if you don't trust the institutions that trained and cleared these surgeons to practice, what makes you think appealing to that same body to gatekeep these procedures will do exactly?
If the incentive to allow these procedures is monetary, the hurdles to access will be further monetized. If the hurdles are based in cognitive ability, the results will be skewed along a bias of race, class, and gender. If they're designed to judge mental stability, the results will be skewed along just about any societal bias you can think of.
you said that nazis who wanted to hurt your family "started right here". very solidly implying that having the belief that psychological treatment should be offered and evaluations carried out before letting people risk their lives to change things they don't like about themselves is something that can lead to beliefs like "humanity is divided into races and some are less human than others and should be hurt and eradicated". no slope or wedge or anything is ever going to drive me to a belief like that. ive been charitable to your points and tried to assume the best of you. you could do the same for me.
i didn't draw conclusions about your family history. i noted that you clearly distrust the authority of doctors and seem unhappy with the current state of transitonal care, so i tried to find some common ground and suggest something we might agree on. my response there had nothing to do with your family.
i think our biggest problem here is you see psychological evaluation & therapy as gatekeeping. i see it as help. i know a lot of people who would have benefited from proper evaluation, therapy, and even proper information about what they were getting themselves in for. ive never suggested outright denying anyone transional care, but if you do a psych eval of a young female who hates their body and feels disconnected from it and wants to change it, maybe you should discuss if there's any big obvious reason they might feel that way - abuse, eating disorders, societal misogyny. and then maybe you should help them talk about that and find ways to cope with it and come to terms with it. and then maybe you should check in how they feel about the steps they wanted to take, and if they still want to take those steps. im not advocating for making people jump through random hoops, pay money or pass some sort of cognitive test.. im advocating for things that i KNOW would have helped very real people who were not given that kind of consideration. maybe you coud benefit from getting to know more detransitioned people.
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laponarta-blog · 8 months
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So I've re-watched Oppenheimer
Idk how the discourse is here on tumblr, but I liked the movie, and as a STEM professional, the Tale of Oppenheimer hits me hard.
First of all, i watched the movie in IMAX this time. It was my first ever IMAX movie, and tbh I didn't notice any difference so idk what's all the fuss about it being "the superior" movie format
That being said, I want to talk about how I feel Oppenheimer's story speaks to me, and what kind of influence I wish it'd leave on other STEM people.
First of all, I don't really care about the politics in Oppenheimer's life. Communists? Left Wing? National Security? All of that seems so inconsequential after Trinity, what with the massive blast and the looming possibility of the end of the world through the incineration of the fabric of reality. Besides, science and academics develop in the same premises as philosophy and rhetoric, so it is really impossible to live out of touch with radical or upsold ideas unless your student body and/or Polisci or Philosophy departments are utterly dead silent.
Even if a core aspect of the movie is centered on the politics of nuclear arms and Oppenheimer's involvement in it after the end of the war, I feel like the most important side of his tale is the tragedy of being the director of the manhattan project.
The movie made it clear that the Manhattan project started as a reaction to the Nazis' weapons development program, along with the discovery of nuclear fission which, I can believe was easy to pick up by any quantum scientist to point towards the possibility of a bomb; so a big part of Oppenheimer's motivation came as a response to the real enemy, the Nazis. I don't think its unreasonable to try to catch up with your enemy, otherwise you'd be at a dumb disadvantage and at risk of being wiped or conquered.
But of course, the conflict was transformed towards the end. The Germans had surrendered and the Manhattan project had no reason to be completed, despite being so close to completion. However, the Japanese Empire proved to not be lackeys of the Nazis, and thus opted out of the possibility of surrendering alongside with them.
So suddenly, the war was NOT over, but the arms race was. The US had no reason to bomb Japan other than to force the end of the war. Of course they did it to prevent sending their soldiers to more battles and avoid their casualties, but they did so at the expense of Japanese civilians. It seems to me that it is incredibly easy, for a military person, to not have the vision to understand the pain of a civilian that does not belong to your own country, or in other words, to disregard the value of any life that is not affiliated to your own country; they are trained and pushed to be and act like that after all.
It's at this point were I feel Oppenheimer's views started to shift (maybe not). The danger of the A-bomb was so catastrophic and so uncalled for at this point; I don't think it was hard to find opposition. But it happened, they bombed Japan 2 times.
Of course we can't know for certain how Oppenheimer experienced his burden of having created a weapon of mass destruction that was no longer used to protect the US and the world from the Nazis, but to terrorize Japan into surrendering. The movie portrays it with illusions and a sort of PTSD, but really only Oppenheimer knows how he lived his daily life after that. We can, however, see things from his perspective. The bomb he worked on to fight the nazis was dropped on civilians for no reason other than as a display of power. There was no nobility behind the existence of a nuclear bomb because the Nazis never got to complete theirs in the end, but the US did, and god forbid if they were not going to use it.
Here lies the tragedy of Oppenheimer and the Military Industrial Complex and the development of Weapons.
"My le bomb, le killed people??"
YES! OF COURSE IT DID! IT WAS BUILT FOR THAT YOU MORON. WEAPONS ARE NOT MADE TO DISPLAY AT MUSEUMS OR HUNT GAME, YOU DONT DROP A FUCKING A-BOMB ON A DEER, YOU DROP IT ON PEOPLE, ON WARZONES THAT ARE NOT COMPLETELY EVACUATED FROM CIVILIANS, WHICH WILL DIE AS A RESULT OF THE WAR GOING ON IN THEIR CITY.
Oppenheimer's tale is the absolute worst scenario that any STEM researcher could find himself in; because not all conflicts have the nazis as an enemy, most of the time you don't even know who the enemy is, as your military engages with just guerillas or organized crime or whatever man. The reason why this is important is that you won't always have the sympathy of people like me, who understands that the Manhattan Project was, in its beginnings, a response to the Nazis to not be left behind. Because you are not fighting no nazis, so you can't justify researching bigger and bigger weapons in any other way.
Just like Oppenheimer, any kind of weapon development program carries the moral weight of executing civilians and innocent people. If you have a speck of awareness, it will catch you; you are not safe.
Weapons development is not noble, you may appear on the TIME's cover, you may get a medal, you may be famous for it, but there's blood on your hands, and on your bank account, and your conscience will let you see this in due time. At that moment, It will be far too late to do the right thing.
So, I am begging my STEM colleagues getting juicy contracts from Lockheed, Raytheon and the national labs to actually think about the type of work they are getting into and the moral implications behind it. The integrity of your life is too valuable to be involved in weapons of mass destruction or the fallacy that having the bigger weapon is the best solution to avoid war and protect yourself.
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mitigatedchaos · 2 years
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[ @arcticdementor ]
What I want is for you to give up. To take all those dreams of a high-tech transhuman future… and abandon them entirely, knowing that events have placed such futures forever outside of humanity’s reach. I want you to give up  on the idea of defeating the woke before they (irreversibly) collapse our civilization, and give up on any hope of a recovery from the dark age to follow. I want you to feel anxiety and dread in the pit of your stomach every time you think of the future, knowing that each coming year will certainly be worse than the prior (and perhaps, faced with that ever-worsening future, maybe conside whether it’s worth bothering living through it at all). I’m Arctic Dementor, and I’m here to suck all light and joy from things. When I’ve sucked all light and joy out of you, and left you utterly despairing, then I’ll be satisfied.
If you want to criticize Transhumanism because all of your worst outcomes are on the other side of The Singularity (whether that's in 2030 or 2300), might I suggest you instead use that gigantic IQ of yours to write about
Reproductive alignment, potential for value drift in the event of the technological commoditization of childbearing
The effects of evolution with effectively 'unlimited' 'investment capital,' through the combination of AI and fusion power, potentially rapidly consuming new surplus as soon as it is created
The apparent "Babel Limit" our civilization may be hitting, where concentrations of truth-production become nodes to be subverted, and information-faking technology increases at pace with information-finding technology
Risks in rendering so much mass human survival so heavily dependent on industrial technology (already an issue in late modernity)
...instead of trying to, I dunno, do psychological warfare on someone that's in a better position on that front than you. (You can skip covering the Electric Demon Hypothesis since you don't believe in it.)
Future new models who fundamentally depend on high industrial technology as part of their reproduction process might give in to total despair at the thought of a crash of industrial society, but, like...
I'm human. The whole "paramilitary cyborg manufactured by the defunct military of the former North American government" thing is just a bit - even if it's based on certain real elements of my background (related to this country's postwar dominance) - so like
My ancestors lived through the medieval era. My last name has a different meaning in this era, but I know what it meant back then.
I'm not going to have my brain broken by having to live like it's the 1700s, and steam tech is not particularly advanced - like yeah you need blast furnaces but those are ancient Chinese technology, and yeah you need machine tools but the first planes for that were creating by putting blue dye on metal plates and rubbing them together. Iron is 5% of the Earth's crust and you can get carbon from charcoal if you need to.
"But the transition back to 1700s tech would be hell" - Yeah I'm sure it would, and I might not even survive it, but how would curling up into a ball be helpful here? I mean for fuck's sake even if we get life extension tech I don't expect to live forever.
One of the nice things about camping - part of why I recommend it - is that shitting in an outhouse in the woods without a phone, and having to travel entirely by foot without car, helps reset your expectations of "normal" and understand on an intuitive (rather than purely academic) level what all of that energy and infrastructure in society is doing for you.
"what if you had to go on a camping trip for the rest of your life" "what if you had to farm every day" "what if there was a famine and you had to fight off the Communists" "what if there was no air conditioning" "what if you had to make brutal, tough decisions"
In what way are these supposed to be brain-breaking considerations?
Are you sure you don't have me confused with someone else, someone who has never touched a pocket knife before?
"but what if the Communists stay in power" - The Soviet Union managed what, 70 years? Mao was Chairman what, 27 years?
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ryuzakemo128 · 2 years
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The Angel Of Death
Chapter Four: Open The Flood Gates
<- Previous Chapter / Next Chapter ->
Trigger Warning(s): Mention Of Death, Cursing, Violence
Pairing: (Later on) Thomas Shelby x Red (Female Reader)
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1922
Red went over to the garrison, she walked over there looking as she would have been before world war one. She had the few letters that her friend hand-written and this small job is to deliver them to the Shelby Clan.
"I have a few letters for the man named Thomas Shelby, could you do me a favor and give them to him, it's important that you do this as soon as humanely possible."
Red paid the man 25 pounds to deliver them to him. She expected post haste, as both Red and Galina her employer won't have the patience for anything less. She went to get her next assignment, "This one is going to be long and exhausting, I can feel it" She thought to herself.
"All we have to do now is wait and we'll both know he'll wanting to expand into other countries."
"An ego like his wouldn't pass it up for anything."
"Whatever you do in your spare time, don't get the police involved or Mister Campbell involved."
"We get caught by either one, we'll get called Communists in the same breath as murderer."
"If you see anyone approach you that might be the police, Mister Campbell or anyone suspicious at all. Come to me and I'll handle it."
"Funny thing that, I was about to say that same thing to you."
"I entirely doubt that,"
"You're an investment to our employer and I might be new to this operation you two got. But I know that for a fact that she'd pissed if you died."
"Well for a young British man as yourself, point me the right direction for good alcohol."
"I'll do one better, take me along and you'll find my favorite kind of alcohol."
Red hated waiting, it was both awful and something that made her stop to think about what could happen or what could have happened. It made her think about everything that ever went completely side ways, things or people that almost killed her and the fact that the man at that bar didn't deliver those letter like she paid him to.
Luckily, Red knew there'd be several of her own little spies around the Garrison. Who better to spy on the police, Mister Campbell and The Peaky Blinders than the people that live there.
The pinnacle of Red's luck changed as often as the weather and sometimes, like the weather it stayed or left with it too. Laid in a house outside of town, full of information on those deemed necessary to come into contact with or to avoid.
Red stumbled home, after sending the young man home and as soon as she could go to bed. Red's mind wandered off into a memory of what she spoke to Galina about. During the time where Galina had the bright idea of Red taking over her business.
"I can't take over from you Galina,"
"Why the fuck not?"
"I work for you, I get paid by you and it's a beautiful cycle."
"I want you to take over, I don't want anyone near this thing and I know you'd be good for it."
"As long as there's a separate employer for the nastier business. Then I guess I'll consider it, I got people killed last time. I got great people, god loving people killed during that operation you sent us to"
"I won't be handing it over yet. Don't worry about that part, also you didn't get them killed. They knew the risks when they signed up and you shouldn't be so incredibly worked up over it either."
"Still doesn't feel right though,"
"We contacted their families, paid for the funerals and what they would have been paid went to them as well."
"I'll think about this, before then, we have other business to attend to"
"We can't come into contact before any other russian does, which means if you're going to help The Peaky Blinders. Do it in ways that won't be linked to you."
"I have no problem with that, it's what I should have done with the last one anyway."
"Red, you tried and to a lot of people that work for you. It's a lot more than they ever thought would happen."
"Galina, I couldn't protect the guy, how on earth would I be able to do it again if it failed the first time?"
"It won't fail because I'll hand pick them. So you won't have to and I make sure they know you'd do anything for them."
"I'm sure you find this amusing, a trainee spymaster that care about her spies."
"A little, not in the way you think. A while ago, you didn't care about anyone. Now you care about the people that work for you. I see that as a potential positive. Not just for me, but for whoever works for the both of us."
Red fell into a deep slumber, like she never had before and it would be the first long night of sleep in a long time. As Thomas Shelby contacted for a meeting with the both of them. The letters were sent and it is time they spoke to that Peaky Blinder Devil.
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oyasumibitch23 · 23 hours
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I'm sorry but I need to get this out of my system somewhere.
⚠PSA: NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU WANT TO DEFEND AND SUPPORT COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM THE WHOLE IDEA IS PREDETERMINED TO FAIL BY HUMAN NATURE⚠
in this rant that if called coherent attempt for a short essay woikd be an isult, i will tell you what's my problem with people on the internet
don't even think about talking how capitalism doesn't work either, WE CAN ALL SEE THAT and I am as much of a hater of capitalism as communism. neither were ever supposed to exist.
people as a species have this lust for power. not all of them of course but some. and those some will do anything to have that power. from kids creating groups on playgrounds and always chosing a leader (doesn't matter if it's voluntary or not- there is always one) to billionaires and politicians doing everything they can and can't to get some extra control over the folks.
there can never truly be communist society without selecting the right people and getting rid of the people that could be a threat. it's not about education, it's not about how the kids are raised. it's about the human nature. and think about it. no good hearted human, genuinely nice and sweet person will go to politics. and if they will they will be a minority. their voice won't be loud enough for them to be heard. because no honest and good person have the need to have thousands and millions of people in control.
every single time a socialist from the western countries pops up on social media claiming that socialism is the way is blinded by the hate for capitalism. I get it, we all hate the inflation, the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. I hate that I probably won't be able to afford my own house unless there's another crash in the global economy. noone wants to live like this besides already dying upper middle class and higher.
just look into the eastern Europe and ask the older residents how was it living under socialism. standing in lines for hours just for a toilet paper and luxuries like an orange. ask them what was it like to travel for a vacation that had to be approved by the government, how you had to leave one family member behind just to make sure you don't want to run away, and then after jumping through all the loops you could only go to Yugoslavia. the censorship and propaganda everywhere. they could only dream in a freedom of religion of any kind.
yes I admit, some of them are hard core communist to this day but it's the same breed of people that believes the earth is flat and that it's surrounded by an ice wall and that secret government run by Jewish lizards is controlling everyone.
we were never supposed to live in a big concrete cities, we were never supposed to be all waking up at 6am just to be at work for 8 or more hours and then go home and sleep for 8 hours. and no matter what would people do, now or 10, maybe even 100 years later, it will always end up in situation where someone is in the position of power and the people obey them.
peace out
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I genuinely want to put you under a microscope. Where does this thought process come from? Are you aware that you’re generalizing a huge population based off a few dipshits? Yes, our country sucks, and the actions of our government and politicians suck, yes some Americans are idiots and morons and terrible people, but that doesn’t mean we all deserve to die. My parents came to this country for a chance at a better life, and compared to what they could have accomplished in their home country, they’ve succeeded. America fucking sucks a lot of the time, but it’s not all bad.
And the soviet union had free trains and cheap housing. Nazi Germany had nice roads. Britain has a few nice parks. Just because there's a few nice places doesn't mean the place is good.
History's greatest democracy. A 55% literacy rate and the most prisoners in history. 100% filled to the brim with selfish assholes who only get off on hurting people. That's what the red caps are. Cruelty. And he will be president again.
EVERYone in America is 100% cool with killing children with robots and overthrowing democracies. No Healthcare. Bad schools. No public infrastructure. Bad water. Bad pay. Bad housing. They're all fine with it because they all vote for it. Or they don't vote and tell you that's actually the cool thing to do. Or that both sides are exactly the same. Morons. All of them. Within a margin of error.
Because soothing lies are easier than harsh truths. Because electing someone that would actually address these core issues would mean that they'd have to face the fact that they're not the greatest people to ever live. Any valid criticism of the regime, anytime you bring up the murder and exploitation, people spam my inbox with anon desperation. Blindly defending their masters.
Here you are doing it now.
The average yank wouldn't be able to identify your parent's country on a map and wouldn't give 2 penny fucks about it If the usa hired Nike to kill every single one of you. As long as shoes got 4 cents cheaper. These are a people who only complain about homelessness if it blocks their 35 min drive to a corner store because walkable cities and public transportation is communist and you're a faggot if you want to help others. I lived there for years. These are all things that have been said to me personally. Let's also throw in, "it's morally disgusting to charge companies taxes" and "I'd rather let my kids die in the streets than give a ni**er a penny of my money." Quote. Word for word. These are the people you blindly defend. They're gruesome monsters with no ethical restraints and no social contract. Everyone from themselves, call them rats is an insult to the communities rats can build. A rat would never bulldoze a park into concrete just to stop a black child from using it.
I treat yanks the way yanks treat others. Full stop. Nothing I say about you I haven't heard them personally say about others. They'd kill you and your parents of they'd thought they'd get away with it and they'll vote for someone who they think will.
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how would you describe your political affiliation then? i don't want to be following any rightwing apologists
Uh, criticizing people falling for communism/"communism is great but it was just done bad way!" is being rightwing apologist? How so? I don't believe "communism done right" scenario is possible. I'm from Poland, I know our history. PRL is not just "cool vintage times and nostalgia". In 1944 red army was just peacefully waiting on the other side til Warsaw burns down and Germans kill remaining civillians and run away (instead of helping anyone as expected), then after entering new authorities started chasing and killing AK soldiers even up until fucking 60's and bothering their families, and up until the end "inconvenient people" were spied, hunted, tortured and executed, people murdered in the streets at protests. Censorship, no freedom of speech, curfew. People getting kicked out of the houses belonging to their family for years, because hey, its the state's property (and in result, hundreds of historical buildings went to waste and literally decayed through these decades, because communists had great ideas like dumping compost inside). Introducing martial law on a whim in 1981. I'm very sorry that i'm not sympathetic towards people who beat others to death and rip out someone's fingernails to make them talk.
"Equal share for everyone!" There was nothing in the shops at times, whoever was first was getting stuff, others weren't. People waited for stuff like flat apartment or a car forever sometimes, especially if they did something deemed wrong by the government. Ever heard of Holodomor in Ukraine in 1932-1933? Great Chinese Famine in 1959-1961? Communism was so great, so great and equal that in fact millions of people died from hunger. The original concept had these grand aims and as a concept it might seem great, but it's always the outcome that matters. There's no equality, only government members and people on highest stands are living comfortably, and resorting to terrorizing others to get what they want - that's how it always ends. "There are people equal but some are more equal than the others". You'll never have leaders who will be wiling to live on the same level as common people and being "equal"to them, that's never their aim. Look at the world and its history and show me any country with this system that hasn't ended up like that. People can bitch about utopian socialism and how everything so far was just "done wrong way", but that's pointless. A fair system in which everybody's equal and safe is impossible. Humans are egoistical and powerhungry, and will put down others to elevate themselves if there;s a chance. Don't treat this as a defence of consumerism (incidentally, my previous sentence applies to it ideally as well) but wanting communism in 21st century and expecting it would be so great is wishful thinking.
I don't support any political party from my country (nor any other). They're all wasteless shit, nothing to choose there. I'm yet to see a side that proposes something that makes sense, and i don't believe there will be a time i'd get to. They're all politicians, and they're shady scum people by default, who have nothing in common with normal people. whoever believes they understand our problems or have any of our interests in mind is naive.
One more thing now that you're mentioning rightwing. Right is currently ruling party in my country (unfortunately). You might find interesting that our rightwing, similar to other parties, is full of ex communists who just rebranded for a new decade.
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kropotkins-revenge · 1 year
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(TW: Lots of unpleasantness of every variety)
I'm an anarchist and a communist in favor of moneyless/tradeless society. And nobody ever really asks, but it's because, for whatever stupid reason, I was born without the "don't think about it" mechanism. When I know something, the closest it gets to the "back of my mind" is to be in frame but out of focus. Think of when the TV camera is focused and centered on the news anchor, but it's a trendy cable news set and you see the newsroom in the background out of focus with dozens of busy people fluttering around doing things - it's exactly like that. I can focus on certain things, but most things I know are still very much a part of every conscious thought. I'm also really curious, so I know a lot of things.
So if you're a normal person, if you have the Don't Think About It mechanism, you hear that ICE raids homes and forces 5-year-old children to represent themselves in court, and you're rightfully upset and pissed off. Then after awhile you get distracted and you don't think about it until someone mentions it again. And that's okay - that's a natural coping mechanism. I just don't have it.
I can be sitting on the couch watching TV, and I'm focused on the show, but simultaneously, I'm thinking about how hundreds of people will freeze to death tonight because they don't have homes. How thousands of people are in concentration camps in this country, and how countless people aren't sure if they'll have food tomorrow. People exactly like me. How while I'm typing this, a number of women it's impossible to guess are being sexually assaulted, and how some of them may never recover in any meaningful way. Some of them may end up killing themselves over it. Some of them may live, but never feel safe ever again. How right now someone's remembering their childhood home that they can never go back to because a US missile blew it up, along with half the city and most of their friends.
How billions of people feel powerless and suffocated because they don't have the resources to live the life that would bring them fulfillment. How they blame themselves because they think they should be able to work hard enough to make that happen but the numbers just don't add up, and they think that's their fault. How countless people are dying, everywhere, literally and metaphorically, a little more dead every second, for reasons that all come back to the same root causes:
Capitalism, authoritarianism, and the belief certain people have that they're inherently better than other people.
And it's not that I'm just feeling reflective tonight, or something reminded me of one of those things and I went down a rabbit hole. This is every single second for me. Frequently even in my sleep. I know all those things are happening, and I can't un-know it, and I can't Not Think About it. For whatever reason I am biologically incapable.
People are dying. People are suffering. People are being tortured. People are in hell. I can feel them, every single second. They are *always* on my mind. I lay down in bed and all I can think about is how many people died in our concentration camps today, how many people froze to death, how many people were assaulted, how many people died in missile strikes to support our imperialism. Even how many people - myself included - are just sad because the very modest things they want for themselves and their families are completely out of reach, all because Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk want more yachts and keep the system rigged to make sure we can't get ahead. Every. Fucking. Second.
So yeah. Anarchist, communist, anti-money. Because I'm tired of having a perpetually broken heart for billions of innocent people. Because I want the world to run on a system where that doesn't have to happen. Where that *can't* happen. I want the systems that reward people for deciding they're better than everyone else and acting accordingly to burn to the fucking ground. I want them replaced with systems where everyone has what they need and selfishness and exploitation are both impossible and unneccessary.
Because I want the thing I know that stays just out of focus every second of my life to be "everyone is safe, everyone is happy, everyone is okay."
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bebxos · 3 years
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minisoc · 3 years
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As requested, line by line breakdown of testoster2's anti communist rant about parties.
> idk which baby leftist needs to hear this
off to a great condescending start from someone whose only left credit is claiming to be on the left on their Tumblr
> but joining a socialist party will be a waste of your time.
I couldn't imagine a more cop opinion to start us off with. i see things like this and i think: whose interests does this serve? "oh no baby leftists, don't join a party" just brings to mind this image
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> you'll probably have to pay a monthly due
that's true. every communist party in history has taken dues from members. it's typically scaled to what you can manage though and it's part of the collective effort of the party organization to make social change. my dues sent comrades to Venezuela and Cuba to learn from socialists there, they produced our programs for free lunches, it built our community centers. i have no regrets about paying my dues, i pay dues to my union as well.
> that goes to like. flyers no one reads
projection. sounds now like op is defending their own lack of action with a lack of belief in the possibility of change. in my experience people do read things and even change their minds after reading things. if people were not able to be affected by the written word then propagandists on all sides would be in a tough situation.
> that you yourself will have to give to people
oh no, you mean joining a party means you might have to do outreach and talk to people? can see why it's not for op, then.
> (this in case the money doesn't go straight in the party leader's pocket).
op has never seen this but says it like it's a fact. it would be pretty easy to find out if your party leadership is embezzling and your party should be structured in a way that you know they'd be thrown out if they betrayed everyone like this. i have that confidence in my party, at least.
this is also very reminiscent about how anti communists engage with propaganda. they feel comfortable making claims of any kind whether supported or not. anyway, this is another obvious cop opinion.
> you'll waste time writing papers and reports and shit, it'll feel like having a second job.
not explained is why writing is a waste of time. i think writing for a party is almost always a useful activity, whether you're making plans for a new action or campaign or producing new agitational materials or analysing the results of previous work so you can improve on it.
it is a job, though. being a communist does mean doing work, society won't change by sitting at home and attacking communist parties on Tumblr. the lifelong sacrifices made by hard working communists are why we have seen so many socialist victories in the last century.
> the most exciting events will be lib shit like elections
this again can only be projection. the most exciting times for me have been in some of the countries largest protest actions, organizing campaigns to free political prisoners, providing at risk communities with basic needs and engaging with them, building new unions, etc. etc
> or peaceful protests that the party would still organize w/o you as a member
here's the key issue with op i think. they want to be vital to the revolution. they don't want to think that they're only one of many people all working together. yes it's true the party will continue without you, especially a wannabe cop like you. but it doesn't mean party work is useless, it just means you are useless as an individual.
> (showing up at a protest w/o having a party affiliation gives you more freedom
freedom to do what, i do wonder? being afraid of party work bc it doesn't let you do whatever you want is kinda silly, if you don't want anyone to ever tell you what to do then yeah don't join a party. if you want to make change in the world then do.
> + makes you a bit less arrestable - as opposed to if a cop saw you carrying a name tag w the hammer and sickle on it. just fyi)
this again appears to have been just made up by op. I've never been arrested for wearing a pin or a party tshirt. i don't know a single person who has. and I've known plenty of people without any markings get arrested.
> all this w/o even mentioning how (depending on your luck) there could be a lot of infighting, splits, sometimes purges
well yes it sounds like there would be a lot of drama wherever op goes but it doesn't seem to be the case generally. my party did form in a split, but over 15 years ago. i don't see any reason to worry that it would happen again any time soon. we don't infight at all, sorta the concept of the party is people who want to work effectively together.
another bit of funny evidence that op is anti communist is the inclusion of the word purges, lol. purge means expulsion from party, ooh very sinister.
> all in all, joining a socialist party is a very, Very ineffective way of building communism lmao
well first it's simply a truth that no socialist country was ever built without a communist party. not one.
but also, did any of ops points have anything to do with effectiveness? all i gathered is they're pushing an individualistic, don't tell me what to do outlook. and the condescension about protests and flyering suggest they want something more adventurist, possibly involving violence. remember the fbi and police always instigate when they infiltrate groups. they always push for criminal actions and violence.
> i'd instead recommend you talk to your neighbours abt their lives, and see how you can help each other.
hey, guess what a party does! do you think our new tenants unions and unemployed councils could come into being without talking to neighbors? do you think our new unions could come into being without discussing the way we could help each other?
> if you live in like a very rich neighbourhood or something, instead of joining a socialist party
well isn't this an interesting premise. i wonder what it says about op that they want to emphasize what the well off should do.
> it'd be way more effective if you joined a liberal/conservative party and then fucked their shit up as much as possible
sure, just see every other attempt in history at wrecking or entryism with the Democratic party. i encourage you to look into it
> if ur only goal is meeting other leftists, only go to the first 2 or 3 party meetings, by then you'll know the scene and you'd have already befriended the interesting people. that;s my advice at least
this piece of advice is generally good. in fact before applying to join any party if at all possible i encourage you to meet with the members local to you, see how they work, see what you think of their ideas and what they're doing. if they're not active in your community, ask why not. there's nothing requiring you to join if it isn't for you. but if you want to make change in this country, learning how to do it from those with experience is best. and working together in an organization that can effectively chart a path forward is the only option there is. every communist revolution was built with the leadership of the communist party.
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zvaigzdelasas · 3 years
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Is china outsourcing to other nations not an exploitative practice? I don't get how it's any different from western nations doing it, nor how it benefits the nations they are profiting from?
China isn't outsourcing, countries don't outsource - Capital outsources. Some factions of chinese capital (such as the taiwanese owner of foxconn but also others) are certainly looking for other places now that labor isn't as cheap in china as it is elsewhere, but that's up to the working classes of those other countries to fight for.
I think bound up in this question is also the question of loans, which is gonna b addressed in the longpost I'm researching for atm. In short: if china didnt offer loans to developing nations they'd be forced into accepting IMF loans (yes I know china has a seat on the IMF, they're a part of the "I"). IMF loans arent evil because they're loans, they're evil because they have forced privatization measures included. Nobody would take those loans if they had another option, but at the scale of governments the IMF was for decades the only real choice. China provides a counterbalance. If another country is able to undercut china without forcing privatization then even better - more of a demonstration of the breakdown of global (hegemonic) capitalism. This isn't capitalism, it's math. Is it a market mechanism? Yep. Capitalism means more than markets in the abstract. Markets have existed for millenia.
China's goal isn't to singlehandedly herald a communist society. China's goal is to upend the current regime of US unipolarity and then focus on improving their own society, not supplanting it. "Multipolarity" the word to keep in mind here.
If, somehow, the world escaping from US hegemony doesn't itself create a massive global uptick in socialist revolutionary energy as a result of being substantially independent for the first time in living memory... then that multipolarity could theoretically very well settle into a new capitalist hegemony somewhere else (russia, EU, anglosphere, brazil, SA, India....).
Something to keep in mind when considering 'is china capitalist': would a third world capitalist state *in the age of imperialism* ever have been able to outpace the global hegemon? would it have been able to survive attempts to undermine it?
china doesn't see its job as funding international revolution, it sees it's job as leading by example & showing the world what a successful Socialist State can do for its people. That by itself provides a powerful counterbalance in stomping out the coagulation of a new hegemon. But ultimately it's up to the working classes of each nation to figure out what's best for them. If you think your government is misusing chinese loans, then overthrowing your government & instituting a democratically decided socialist state sounds like a good idea.
Some good places to start thinking more, will include more sources in my longpost
youtube
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