Reading General
Hello /leftypol/, we noticed an under-appreciation for the theory that upholds our political ideologies: As such, we have decided to revive the reading sticky! This thread will be dedicated to the sharing, discussing, and general banter about various leftist thinkers, theories, and political outlooks.But, other than that, we believe there are other important reads that must be addressed, especially, for beginners and those just now getting into leftism.
Don't forget to check out >>>/edu/ for more reading and discussion!
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Common Right Wing Talking Points Debunks
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Check out the /edu/ thread at
https://leftychan.net/edu/res/5576.html
Also see the relevant leftybooru tag
https://lefty.pictures/post/list/debunk/1
Add topics into the tag list to further narrow down your search!
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Introduction to Marxism Reading List - Thanks to the /read/ matrix room (https://app.element.io/#/group/+leftyread:matrix.org)
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Absolute Beginners Tier:
'Principles of Communism' by Friedrich Engels
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm
'Three Source and Theree Component Parts of Marxism' by V.I. Lenin
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1913/mar/x01.htm
Not a book but Halim Alrah's youtube channel is good for the absolutely basics of Marxism but obviously not a replacement for reading
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGog4JPn5-W3_XIKccENysg
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Marx and Engles Reading List
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Tier 1:
'Manifesto of the Communist Party'
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/index.htm
'Critique of the Gotha Programme'
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/
'Socialism: Utopian and Scientific'
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/index.htm
Tier 2:
'Wage Labour and Capital'
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/
'Value, Price and Profit'
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1865/value-price-profit/
'Theses on Feuerback'
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/theses.htm
By this point you should have a good understanding of the basics of Marxism and are ready to branch out to other theorists and also read Capital.
Tier 3:
'Capital vol.1'
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/
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Lenin Reading List - By Moo (aka Zizekposter)
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Lenin Essentials:
'State and Revolution'
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/
'“Left-Wing” Communism: an Infantile Disorder'
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/lwc/
'Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism'
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/
Petit Bourgeois Philistine Tier:
'What is to be done'
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1901/witbd/
'The Proletarian Revolution and Renegade Kautsky'
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1918/prrk/
'Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution'
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1905/tactics/index.htm
ADHD Tier:
'Socialism and Religion'
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1905/dec/03.htm
'Zizek's Introduction to Revolution at the Gates'
https://kabirabud.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/slavoj_zizek_repeating_leninbookfi-org.pdf
'Revolutionary Adventurism'
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1902/sep/01.htm
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MLM Reading List
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Essentials:
Why MLM?
https://why-mlm.medium.com/why-mlm-af48aba14f8a
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism Basic Course
https://foreignlanguages.press/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/S01-MLM-Basic-Course-Revised-Edition-10th-Printing.pdf
'Continuity and Rupture: Philosophy in the Maoist Terrain'
https://libgen.lc/get.php?md5=a00646f118a3427ec19263021b3e84e1&key=06Q5Q1W5DFK8YOHU&mirr=1
Mao:
'On Practice & Contradiction'
https://marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-1/mswv1_16.htm
https://foreignlanguages.press/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/N04-On-Contradiction-Study-2nd.pdf
'On Guerrilla Warfare'
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/1937/guerrilla-warfare/index.htm
'On Protracted War'
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-2/mswv2_09.htm
China:
'Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village'
http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=00F5750256E291B678E2A0039D3CF54E
'Red Star Over China' - Edgar Snow
http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=BD54E7C5F9CDE90E30BD0CB5E91F0049
'The Unknown Cultural Revolution' - Dongpin Han
http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=2495C43CFA7395ACA45CA812A304A701
Peru:
Interview With Chairman Gonzalo
https://the-red-flag.org/en/central-committee-of-the-communist-party-of-peru-interview-with-chairman-gonzalo/
General line of the PCP
https://gplpcp.wordpress.com/
'Shining Path: Terror and Revolution in Peru' - Simon Strong
http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=4FB5D349F9D3250453C5F0525F5890DD
India:
Operation “Green Hunt” in India
https://foreignlanguages.press/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/N08-Operation-Green-Hunt.pdf
Eight Historic Documents (AZAD)
https://foreignlanguages.press/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/S18-Historic-Eight-Documents.pdf
'Urban Perspective'
https://foreignlanguages.press/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/S14-Urban-Perspective-4th-Printing.pdf
Philippines:
Araling Aktibista - Activist Study ARAK
https://foreignlanguages.press/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/S22-Activist-Study-ARAK-2nd-Printing.pdf
'Stand for Socialism Against Modern Revisionism'
https://foreignlanguages.press/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/S07-Stand-for-Socialism-3rd-Printing.pdf
'Philippine Society and Revolution'
https://bannedthought.net/Philippines/CPP/1970s PhilippineSocietyAndRevolution-4ed.pdf
Political Economy:
'Rethinking Socialism' – Deng-yuan Hsu & Pao-yu Ching
https://foreignlanguages.press/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/S11-Rethinking-Socialism-4th-Printing.pdf
'China: A Modern Social-Imperialist Power' - CPI(Maoist)
http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=F68AC84D480D41A222818D802F3AF7CA
or
https://library.bz/uploads/main/c0105702c9219cf136bdae79008daaa4.epub
or
https://why-mlm.medium.com/china-a-modern-social-imperialist-power-d5ac7a9455f7
'Maoist Economics & the Revolutionary Road to Communism' - The Shanghai Textbook
http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=8B44F61D828997487E2FDE607FCF2FEB
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Leftcom Reading Lists
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r/marxism101's reading list:
https://i.imgur.com/s70UUPQ.jpg
r/bruhinternational's reading list:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bruhinternational/comments/m53hon/official_rbruhinternational_reading_list/
Bordiga:
'The Democratic Principle'
https://www.marxists.org/archive/bordiga/works/1922/democratic-principle.htm
'Proletarian Dictatorship and Class Party'
https://www.marxists.org/archive/bordiga/works/1951/class-party.htm
'The Spirit of Horsepower'
https://www.marxists.org/archive/bordiga/works/1953/horsepower.htm
'Report on Fascism'
https://www.marxists.org/archive/bordiga/works/1922/bordiga02.htm
'Activism'
https://libcom.org/library/activism-amadeo-bordiga
'The Lyons Theses'
https://www.marxists.org/archive/bordiga/works/1926/lyons-theses.htm
'Theory and Action in Marxist Doctrine'
https://libcom.org/library/theory-action-marxist-doctrine-amadeo-bordiga
'Dialogue with Stalin'
https://www.marxists.org/archive/bordiga/works/1952/stalin.htm
Pannekoek:
'World Revolution and Communist Tactics'
https://www.marxists.org/archive/pannekoe/1920/communist-tactics.htm
'Party and Class'
https://www.marxists.org/archive/pannekoe/1936/party-class.htm
Herman Gorter:
'Open Letter to Comrade Lenin'
https://www.marxists.org/archive/gorter/1920/open-letter.htm
'The World Revolution'
https://www.marxists.org/archive/gorter/1918/world-revolution.htm
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Bookchin Reading Lists - based off of posts by Gorm1918 (pbuh)
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'The Next Revolution'
https://libcom.org/files/Murray%20Bookchin-The%20Next%20Revolution.%20Popular%20Assemblies%20and%20the%20Promise%20of%20Direct%20Democracy-Verso%20(2015).pdf
'Urbanization Without Cities'
http://188.165.199.119/files/Urbanization_Without_Cities_-_Ebook.pdf
'The 3rd Revolution'
https://libcom.org/library/third-revolution-popular-movements-revolutionary-era
'The Ecology of Freedom'
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/murray-bookchin-the-ecology-of-freedom
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Links to Resources and Libraries:
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More Marx and Engels:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/sw/index.htm
Lenin:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/
Other Selected Marxists:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/selected-marxists.htm
Classical Works Recommended To High-Ranking Cadres:
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-8/mswv8_56.htm
Many important books can be found on libgen:
http://gen.lib.rus.ec/
Libcom has some good books/documents:
https://libcom.org/library
Other links:
https://archive.is/L8uFD
Various assortment of historical and biographical works:
https://archive.org/search.php?query=uploader%3A%22kocotosi%40gmail.com%22&sort=-publicdate
The Leftist Bookshelf (4.16 GB, 600+ files)
https://mega.nz/#F!QUFQSBja!hPbmmLolJBGwSQ848nncnw
This was originally a torrent but I can't find the link anymore. Its description was: "640 eBooks, mostly in PDF format (a bunch are CHM, DJVU or ePUB), from a revolutionary Leftist viewpoint. The main subjects are politics and philosophy, history, economics, and much much more."
Political Theory (MLM) (2.64 GB, 550+ files)
https://mega.nz/#F!4M1FnTgI!CdM8WWjpBC_UHGCJk9AHzA
I found this on reddit years ago (circa 2016) Don't really remember who made it or where it came from, but this is a reading course (politics, philosophy, economics, etc) focused on Maoism. Has many books and articles on the USSR, PRC, Stalin, Mao, etc.
The Anarchist Library (669 MB, 4000+ files)
https://mega.nz/#F!gRFkQCLY!5gUkmaubpp_P_yKLZiBJ9Q
This is a complete mirror of the anarchist library with pdfs and epubs
Little Bunker of Marxism-Leninism (680 MB, 100+ files)
https://mega.nz/#F!0QtCiI7L!MJZJk-SdjyBuBZOuNJuOPQ
Unfinished project focused on M-L with more than 100 books on several topics like history, economics, politics, etc. Lots of stuff on the USSR.
Historical Materialism series (330 MB, 100+ files)
https://mega.nz/#F!9IkymYBZ!B8vB2yDP0Qv_-DPS2ro-HA
A pdf archive of over 100 books from the Historical Materialism book series. I got this from thecharnelhouse.org years ago and the website had released many marxist books from other publishers but unfortunately it's been taken down.
/leftypol/ with a slash of liberty (239 MB, 100+ files)
https://mega.nz/#F!sFMQXJ6J!JboByVCZScC6Jq2YXE0Exw
I didn't make this, just reuploading it. This is a classic /leftypol/ link, marxist stuff mixed with anarchism.
Marx & Engels Collected Works (900+ MB, 50 files)
https://mega.nz/#F!BJEmkQiZ!vylIbCWFrqIeYaLiuN2szg
The official, complete works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels organized in 50 volumes and 3 categories.
Site Updates: i2p, Moderation changes, /k/ board & More
This thread will detail some of the changes made to the site in the past year, as well as our plans for the future.New i2p Address
As requested by several users, and in accordance with our general ethos of encouraging online anonymity, leftychan now has an i2p address which can be found here:
http://leftychmxz3wczbd4add4atspbqevzrtwf2sjobm3waqosy2dbua.b32.i2p or http://leftychan.i2p/
Moderation Changes
* New spam filter - Thanks to the hard work of our dev and admin Zer0-, leftychan now has an effective countermeasure against the automatic bot spam that plagues alt-chans. Dubbed as the 'spam noticer', the implementation of this system has led to a dramatic fall in malicious advertisement threads being posted to the site.
* New mods & dev - In order to better cover european and asian timezones, two more mods have been voted onto the team. These are sindikat, who has previous moderation experience, and jon, who is also acting as a dev and has made many valuable contributions in this capacity.
* Removal of Zul - In line with the rule that if a mod is inactive for over 15 weeks their status as a mod is called into question, Zul was voted off the mod team.
New Roulette Board
>>>/777/
After some discussion, we decided on /k/ as the new roulette board theme, replacing /CHAD/. Archived threads from previous roulette cycles can still be viewed here >>>/roulette_archive/
Any suggestions for future roulette board rotations are welcome.
Other Updates
* Removal of the post counter - This has been hotly debated for a while, but after several failed votes the motion has finally passed.
* Dealing with AI - In light of the recent spam of AI generated prompts and images, we have voted to formally declare AI content exempt from normal moderation procedures. If you believe your post has been misidentified as AI by a mod, please let us know in /meta/.
* IRC now fully functional & bridged with other chats - ircs://irc.leftychan.net:6697/#leftychan
* Creation of a Telegram chat - https://t.me/+RegtyzzrE0M1NDMx
Plans for the coming year
* Continue to encourage freedom of discussion - We have no intention of clamping down on the ability of users to share their personal opinions and views on this site, despite repeated requests to do so. In fact, we plan on widening the variety of topics that can be discussed by unpinning the 'Right wing blood sport' thread (which we have already done) and having conversations about the status of wordfilters.
* The 2024 US election - We believe the upcoming US election will be an excellent opportunity to grow the userbase of the site. We hope for anons with a wide variety of views on the candidates to share their opinions, fostering a culture of debate online that is absent from many other more partisan platforms.
* Maintain our independence from leftypol.org - As predicted, our sister site has continued to go down the path of censorship, adherence to political correctness and moderator tyranny. For these reasons, any kind of reconciliation between the two sites seems impossible for the foreseeable future. Leftychan continues to welcome anons from .org who seek a more enlightened /leftypol/ experience.
Israel 'at war' as Hamas gunmen launch surprise attack from Gaza Thread Pt. VI
One Year of GenocideContinued from >>483169
Updates since the start of the last thread:
The (largely civilian) Palestinian death toll has now passed 42,000. With over 10,000 missing, it's expected that current estimates are lower than the actual death toll, and excess deaths have been estimated by The Lancet to plausibly be upwards of 186,000.
Hamas political leader and negotiator Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran by an Israeli bombing.
Israel sabotaged the international supply chain to put bombs in 3,000 pagers and other electronic devices in Lebanon, resulting in thousands of injuries and several deaths, in a major blow to both Hezbollah and the Lebanese civilian population.
Israel launched an ongoing series of carpet bombings of the Lebanese capital of Beirut, killing several high-ranking Hezbollah commanders. A strike dubbed "Operation New Order" which used 80 2,000 lb bombs took out several blocks of apartment buildings and killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on September 27, and also killed an IRGC commander.
In early October, Israel began launching ground invasions of south Lebanon, which are ongoing and have met resistance. Thousands have been killed, and over a million displaced.
On October 1st, in retaliation for the bombing of Tehran which killed Haniyeh, as well as for the killings of Nasrallah and IRGC commanders, and for the attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, Iran launched a missile strike on several Israeli airbases and Mossad headquarters.
Israel launched multiple attacks on UN peacekeepers at the southern border of Lebanon, including with chemical weapons.
The Israeli gov't declared the UN agency UNRWA a terrorist organization. Several settler groups launched attacks on the UNRWA headquarters in Jerusalem before the Israeli gov't decided to seize the building. Israel also banned UN secretary general António Guterres from entering the country.
Israel is alleged to have used depleted uranium munitions in its attacks on Beirut.
Netanyahu visited the US again to speak at the UN in New York, and was met with protests.
More countries have joined South Africa's legal case at the International Court of Justice against Israel for the crime of genocide. Nicaragua, Palestine, Turkey, Spain, Mexico, Libya, Chile, and Colombia have joined the South African case against Israel. Ireland, Egypt, Cuba, Belgium, and Maldives have also declared their intention to join.
Yemeni Houthi attacks on shipping, in solidarity with Gaza, have continued, effectively shutting down the Israeli port of Eilat, which has not seen activity in months.
Demonstrators have continued to blockade and damage arms factories manufacturing weapons for Israel in the UK.
On August 29, 2024, the Center for Constitutional Rights urged the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to review its lawsuit against Biden for genocide complicity, arguing that the courts have a constitutional duty to assess the legality of the Biden administration's actions. On October 2, 2024, the 9th Circuit denied the petition and refused to intervene as a check on abusive executive power.
Starvation deaths have continued to increase in Gaza amid Israel's imposed famine.
The US gov't continued shipping weapons to Israel, in violation of US law.
A fourth self-immolation occurred in the US over the genocide when a journalist lit himself on fire in protest of how the media he worked with had spread lies to cover up US-backed Israeli war crimes.
And much, much more!
I live in Israel, ask me anything
Yep, I live in that chaotic landI'm not ncessarily a zionist, I'm questioning a lot of stuff about the conflict myself because I was brainwashed since age 0, but I can't be open about it for obvious reasos.
Nuclear War
The nuclear threat is back. But we don't see any nuclear panic like in the 1980s. Why is that? Why does nobody care?I am not some prepper retard but even I am getting nervous.
Just look at this shit
A time of unprecedented danger: It is 90 seconds to midnight
https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/current-time/
>This year, the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moves the hands of the Doomsday Clock forward, largely (though not exclusively) because of the mounting dangers of the war in Ukraine. The Clock now stands at 90 seconds to midnight—the closest to global catastrophe it has ever been.
>As UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned in August, the world has entered “a time of nuclear danger not seen since the height of the Cold War.”
and also this
US Nuclear Test Raises Concerns of New Arms Race With Russia
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-10-19/us-nuclear-test-on-day-of-kremlin-s-treaty-abdication-fuels-doubt
https://archive.ph/EoqWY
>The US conducted a high-explosive experiment at a nuclear test site in Nevada just hours after Russia revoked a ban on atomic-weapons testing, prompting concerns of a new arms race between the world’s top nuclear powers.
So, are you going to PROTECT AND SURVIVE, anon? Or are you just going to give up everything and die?
US elections
Who are you voting for, anon?So far, the top candidates are:
Jill Stein (Green)
Cornel West (Independent)
Claudia De la Cruz (Party for Socialism and Liberation)
Joseph Kishore (Socialist Equality Party)
and now "Based Chase" Oliver (Libertarian)
and then there are some unserious candidates nobody likes.
on gender
How did genderism and transgenders become associated with and straight up completely dominate the left? They're regressive ideals. When I was growing up, I was advocating that people should be free to express themselves no matter their sex. I thought it was the progressive consensus at the time. Now they push for identitarianism and I myself frequently suffered abuse at their hands as an androgynous intersex gay man being strongly pushed not only to identify as a woman (because men are le bad(? - I think anyway)) but also pressured to claim to be attracted to female sex characteristics if the owners didn't claim to identify as women, which would be quickly called homophobic and therefore a bigotry in the past but now is being pushed and homosexuals are called bigots for being homosexual.The 'leftist' politicians no longer even seem to do anything but peddle the culture war focused on gender, especially transgenderism. The liberals don't even seem to believe in it, they just peddle it, with the new man vs woman divide being mostly men vs non-men but when it comes down to it they divide it as 'amab' vs 'afab'.
There are many issues disproportionely affecting men, but no one speaks about it on the left anyway, no one acknowledges many female privileges which become extremely prelavent when the society is struggling: they don't give a fuck about the huge amount of homeless men, how women avoid sentences and get far less harsh sentences (I work in a prison and everyone here speaks of it and it is materially very blatant), how women's wellbeing both physical and mental are prioritised while men's frequently targetted with the aim of making them worse; how in spite of all the alleged progress men are still fully expected to provide and suck all up; the unnamed androcides which are falsely called 'wars' and so much more.
This isn't to even mention how worldwide collectively male genital mutilation is widely encouraged, misnamed to a 'circumcision', but also including nearly all intersex people who will be operated on to make their genitals appear female, no matter the price (health, chronic pain and so much more) - I myself fell a victim a few months ago when a surgeon during a surgery on my urethra decided to perform a partial vaginoplasty without my consent and hide behind my intersex disease claiming it was needed even though I didn't have a vagina and I cannot even fathom how one could rule making one could ever be medically necessary, yet the hospital complaints board is dismissing me, as are solicitors, because it is fine to mutilate males - I can guarantee if anything like this in reverse was done to a female it would cause a huge backlash.
How did this happen? Why do you get silenced when you try to speak of it in leftist spaces even though it is a culturally regressive movement (genderism), sexist and homophobic?
Madam President
She fucking won. She will be the first female president whether you commies like it or not!
Ukraine 3.0
Last one is full and the worst thread on leftychan must be contained.In recent news: Ukies done a successful counteroffensive in Izium, Z gang now in shambles. Biden promises even more money for Ukraine. Putin meets Xi, Erdogan, Modi and others at the SCO summit.
Pro-Russia sources:
https://nitter.net/RWApodcast
https://nitter.net/mdfzeh
https://nitter.net/AZmilitary1
https://nitter.net/wargonzoo
https://nitter.net/TheHumanFund5
https://t.me/intelslava
https://t.me/asbmil
https://t.me/vorposte
Pro-Ukraine sources:
Everywhere else
RFK Jr. nominated director of health and human services!
If Trump keeps making good decisions like these, I don't give a fuck who calls themself right or left.RFK Jr. actually cares about making America healthy, which is it it's #1 or #2 issue overall. Nice fucking decision. Made me happy.
What actually is "Fascism" these days?
Leftists these days will seemingly call, quite literally anything, that isn't the most ultra-liberal, "progressive" position of the day "Fascism", that adhering to social beliefs that were literally the mainstream even among most leftists a decade ago, is "Fascism", that mild center-right neoliberalism is "Fascism", that the policies of the CPC or CPSU are "Fascism", that positions even Marx would hold are "Fascism", hell, even .org is now claiming Cockshott is a fascist.
This is slightly bizarre to me, because I was under the impression that Fascism was a very specific ideology born out of Italian Futurism, Nietzschean master/slave morality, adaption of tradition to a new modernist futurist framework and a concept of social/state organism (all elements of society are an living organism, the family unit being cells etc, capitalism the brain, the state the body etc If any element is sick, like families are all unhealthy fatties, then it harms the wider "body") and suddenly I'm learning that literally everyone who isn't a radical shitlib suddenly adheres to this ideology.
I didn't realise I was so blind for so long. Can I read about Trump's statements on the application social-state organism? I didn't know that Cockshott believes Christianity as a slave morality should be abandoned and the return of heroic folk paganism should be returned, what work did he mention that? What? Norm Finklestein questioned the current zeigeist of gender and race politics so is "Red-Brown" now? Does that mean he considers Pasta as a food that caused lassitude and should be replaced by brown rice which promotes virility? (yes, this was a core belief of Fascist movements)
Oh wait, none of this is true because the idea that Fascism exists anymore, or that completely mainstream miquetoast opinions that weren't even controversial among Leftists before Tumblr brain is completely and totally fucking retarded.
The only lasting legacy of Fascism, is the fucking loser scions of Eastern European Nazi collaboraters who try to sully the memory of the Soviet Union in WW2 by whitewashing their nazi collaborater grandparents as "Anti-Bolshevik, anti-totalitarian heroes" and this is generally all now purely done because they seethe at Russia for winning and their grandparents being fucking loser traitors, not because they actually adhere to Fascist beliefs.
Fascism literally doesn't exist anymore. It's the Dubstep of ideologies. Yes, it haunts our memories, but it's gone.
Reddit is showing their true colors.
Theyre going full attack on Gen Z males just becase a prominent minority of them voted for Trump.
Both sides beat up the youth for anything and everything.
And the sad part is, this time, the people doing it are Millennials, the ones who influenced ther liberal policies onto Gen Z.
For thr past eight years, Millennials accused Fen Z of being SJWs.
Now they do a 180 amd say tgat they were reactionaries?
And all the things millennials accuse Gen Z being?
Millennials were accused of the same fifteen years ago.
Steinmentum 2024
Can't stop the SteinWe're gonna get 0.5% baby
fuck neoliberal shills
/webm/ thread
This thread is for posting any form of /lefty/ videos files ranging from .webm or .mp4, or otherThe last thread hit the bump limit, so post new or old videos here.
Link to the last thread here: >>201250
non-man
So apparently lesbians got demoted to "non-men" in the rad-woke caste hierarchy. Lesbians always were on the lowest rung, but it seems they are now getting the boot.I wonder what's going on here ?
Are they just erasing Lesbians or are they erasing women altogether ?
What is the material basis for this ?
December 20th 2025
Call to all BurgerReich citizens!Be there or be square nerds
Donald Trump is going to be america's Juan Perón
The similarities:>Both anti-establishment strongman figures supported by the working classes
>Both created vague nationalist ideologies named after themselves which nobody can understand
>Both survived multiple assassination attempts
>Both slandered by the media
>Both accused of being pedos with little evidence
>Both served two non-consecutive terms as president
>Both opposed by a coalition of socialists, liberals, conservatives and militarists
>Both had links to neo-nazi groups but still maintained good relations with the jews
>Both oversaw a period of relative economic prosperity in their first term
>Both had several hot wives and many affairs
>Both persecuted by their nation's federal government
>Both had retarded supporters who failed at insurrection attempts
The Argument
I predict that Trump's political legacy will dominate American politics for the next 50 years. The vague and syncretic ideology that is 'Trumpism' will be the driving force of the American political arena for much of our lifetimes, similar to how in Argentina all other politics are in reaction to Peronism. Juan Perón, despite being in exile or dead, has been the main character of Argentine politics since WWII. The same will happen for Trump, who will probably die in the next 10 years, but whose name will become more associated with a political current than the man himself.
It is important to note that the Republican Party has just won the popular vote for the first time in 20 years, and for only the their third time since Reagan. Trumpism has proved itself among American conservatives and this era of politics (2015-2029) will be foundational for the next generation of Republicans and Democrats, influencing them significantly. This was true for Perón, whose first stint as president was marked by an economic boom and internal conflict that mobilised the working classes and created an image of Perón as their saviour. Perón had an aura of invincibility when he was alive, no different to Trump, that will endure in the mind's of his supporters for decades.
This election has shown that Trump, like Perón, was not just a blip which can be swept under the rug by the establishment, but a highly-resilient political movement which cannot be defeated through conventional means. Trumpism is here to stay for the foreseeable future.
How redpilled are the rich?
Do they go>I have to carefully construct what say to get the proles to do what I want and tolerate what I am doing
Or do they go
>I am so fucking god-like, I will use ruling-class language with my people and they will do my bidding.
Basically what I'm asking is do they have ideology of their own that they are unconsciously committed to, or are they blatantly just lying when they talk about things like creating jobs?
I have been banned from leftypol.org for saying, that you can be a leftist and also oppose trans-ideology. This is not a fringe position, since Sahra Wagenknecht openly voiced her opposition against trans-ideology in the german parliament live on TV. And yes, she calls it that way.
I'm interested, how this site here will react to left-conservative opinions.
https://www.sahra-wagenknecht.de/de/article/3336.ihr-gesetz-macht-eltern-und-kinder-zu-versuchskaninchen-der-pharmaindustrie.html
What to do about Republicans?
I know we all like to dunk on Democrats for being hypocrites, dishonest, and poorphobic.But what to do about Republicans? They are even more poorphobic and just as hypocritical if not more so. Whether they win national elections in the US or not, there has to be a solution to destroying that party or any splinters.
Stein is the pied piper of misfits
"I endorse for president of the United States Green Party candidate, Dr. Jill Stein," former KKK leader Duke said on his radio show on Monday. "Although Dr. Stein and I obviously have our differences on important issues, she's the only candidate who speaks clearly against the war in the Middle East."https://www.newsweek.com/former-kkk-leader-david-duke-endorses-jill-stein-trashes-donald-trump-1969710
Cambodia
We're all familiar with the ironic shitposts, but for once I'd like to actually understand Cambodian history, particularly the events that transpired in the '60s and '70s. Assuming the mass killings weren't grossly inflated, how did it all lead to this? I feel like there's probably a lot of typical anti-communist propaganda surrounding this and I don't know how to learn more.
Elon Musk's incorporates "United States of America Inc." and "America PAC"
Interesting new article from DropSite. Here are some selected sections:Yarvin and Land’s New Right ideas have taken a central place among Trump’s intellectual support structure. Within a month of Trump’s 2017 inauguration, Politico reported that Yarvin “had opened up a line to the Trump White House, communicating with [Trump advisor] Steve Bannon and his aides through an intermediary.” (Yarvin denied reports of speaking with Steve Bannon.) Peter Thiel—described as a friend of Yarvin, who invested in Yarvin’s startup in 2013 and hosted Yarvin at an election night party in 2016—reportedly became disillusioned with the Trump White House for not taking Yarvin-like ideas far enough. “Thiel fantasized that Trump’s election would somehow force a national reckoning,” according to Barton Gellman, who published a wide-ranging interview with Thiel in 2023. “He believed somebody needed to tear things down—slash regulations, crush the administrative state—before the country could rebuild.”
VP nominee J.D. Vance, a former employee in one of Thiel’s firms, has discussed similar ideas, citing Yarvin. In a 2021 podcast appearance, Vance was prompted to give his advice for Trump in a possible second administration. Name-dropping Yarvin, Vance advised: “fire every single mid-level bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, and replace them with our people.” As Gaby Del Valle at The Verge pointed out, the advice Vance offered is Yarvin’s proposal “Retire All Government Employees” (RAGE)—intended to “‘reboot’ the government under an all-powerful executive.”
We can see the osmosis of these ideas into mainstream Republican politics with “Schedule F”: an executive order that would eliminate employment protections for federal workers, and allow the Trump administration to retire all government employees and crush the administrative state. Trump signed this executive order in 2020 — and had Biden not been elected that year, it would have gone into effect.
Vance finished his statements by adding: “We are in a late republican period. If we’re going to push back against it, we’re going to have to get pretty wild, and pretty far out there, and go in directions that a lot of conservatives right now are uncomfortable with.” James Pogue at Vanity Fair notes this language also comes from Yarvin’s New Right ideology: evoking America as Rome in its “late republican period,” waiting for its Caesar to come and take power.
…
And within days of Trump choosing Vance for the VP candidate, Elon Musk publicly pledged to give $45 million dollars per month to Trump’s campaign.
Since Vance’s VP selection, Musk has become a key figure in Trump’s re-election bid. In August, Trump floated the idea of making Musk a cabinet member. One month later, Trump heeded Musk’s suggestion and pledged to create a “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), which would be headed by Musk himself. Its function would be to conduct “a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government and making recommendations for drastic reforms”—such as replacing all government employees.
…
In The Dark Enlightenment, Land undertakes his own thought experiment of how to transform the government into a corporation owned by shareholders. The first step to do that, he writes, requires:
that the entire social landscape of political bribery (‘lobbying’) is exactly mapped, and the administrative, legislative, judicial, media, and academic privileges accessed by such bribes are converted into fungible shares.
At that point, the people who hold true political power can be identified.
Insofar as voters are worth bribing, there is no need to entirely exclude them from this calculation, although their portion of sovereignty will be estimated with appropriate derision. The conclusion of this exercise is the mapping of a ruling entity that is the truly dominant instance of the democratic polity.
If anyone were in position to see that “the entire social landscape of political [lobbying] is exactly mapped, and the administrative, legislative, judicial, media, and academic privileges accessed by such bribes are converted into fungible shares,” it would be person in charge of “a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government.”
Perhaps the shares would be in “United States of America Inc.”
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/why-elon-musks-million-dollar-presidential
pic unrelated
Can a Muslim be a Jucheist?
Sinister communist thread
Telegram will now provide some user data to authorities
After Pavel Durov's arrest, he's now agreeing to surrender private user data.https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvglp0xny3eo
pic unrel
Evo Morales assassination attempt
Somebody just fired on Evo's car.https://twitter.com/DropSiteNews/status/1850529326581649668
BREAKING: Former Bolivian President Evo Morales says his vehicle was shot at amid escalating tensions with President Luis Arce’s government. Morales posted a video on Facebook showing two bullet holes in the windshield and an injured driver. While the video’s authenticity hasn’t yet been independently verified, tensions between the factions of the two former allies have been high. An economic crisis has intensified the situation, with Morales’s supporters blocking highways in central Bolivia and the government attempting to clear them. The incident has heightened fears of further unrest
Redditors gave Jill Stein's Reddit account -5,000 site points in a single day
https://www.reddit.com/user/JillSteinOnReddit/Reddit stops counting the total after -100
The only comment they upvoted was one that was critical of Trump.
Affordable housing, universal health care? nope, -5000 karma
Left-wing candidates are extremely disliked this year
Just 9-10 years ago Reddit was campaign central for Bernie Sanders. Now if you advocate for a left-wing presidential candidate they'll downvote you so much that Reddit's algorithm bans you from the platform.And not just Reddit, Jill Stein and Cornel West have *terrible* net favorability polling (-16), in every single net favorability poll. The only candidate who ever had worse net favorability was Trump after J6.
I don't really buy the spoiler argument either, the left-wing candidates positions are very far from Harris. Sometimes Democrats will claim they are the last defenders of the American welfare state, but I can't see any of it left, public housing is only open in my area 2 hours per decade.
Chemical inferno in Georgia
A biolab exploded in Conyers, Georgia the other day. According to Jordan Chariton, it's now leaving 90,000 Georgia residents sheltering in place. Chlorine gas going into the air, 32 miles from Atlanta. This is after hurricane Helene just came just came through, and damage and flooding from Helene is still terrible in the southeastern states of Tennessee and North Carolina.Earlier this year, Atlanta's neglected water infrastructure broke, leaving a huge part of the city without water for days. A lot of commentators are contrasting the dangerous deregulation of industry and middling response to Helene with the eagerness of the Biden admin to send billions to support the genocide in Palestine and brutal war in Ukraine.
Gaddafi - Green Book and Mao - Red book (Turkish edition)
What are the political implications of the world's first presidential mugshot? What will happen if he's convicted?
Big wins for Wagenknecht's party
In only six months, Sahra Wagenknecht's new party has BTFO'd the remnants of Die Linke and is already the 3rd most popular party in recent German state elections in Thuringia and Saxony. Is she gonna do it, anons? Can Germany be saved after all?
İran vs İsrael
Iran is bombing Israel. what do you think? I stand iran.
Israel 'at war' as Hamas gunmen launch surprise attack from Gaza Thread Pt. V
Continued from >>481432Updates since the start of the last thread:
The (largely civilian) Palestinian death toll has now passed 39,000. With over 10,000 missing, it's expected that current estimates are lower than the actual death toll, and excess deaths have been estimated by The Lancet to plausibly be upwards of 186,000.
Reports in the Israeli press confirmed that the IDF implemented a 'mass Hannibal Directive' on October 7th, knowingly and purposefully killing many of its civilians and turning the Gaza border into an 'extermination zone' to prevent hostages from being taken alive.
The US Congress invited Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak. Tens of thousands demonstrated in DC, blockaded roads, and pulled mischief at the Watergate Hotel, but apparently failed to arrest Netanyahu for war crimes. Many were met with pepper spray and tear gas. At least 96 congress members boycotted the speech. Ahead of the visit, the Center for Constitutional Rights called for the DOJ to investigate Netanyahu for genocide, war crimes, and torture as required by US law. Simultaneous demonstrations occurred in other parts of the US and Canada.
A deal for a "national unity government" between the Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas was brokered in Beijing.
The International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion on the legal status of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories, as requested in 2022. It found that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid, its occupation is illegal, and its activity in Gaza & the West Bank has continued to constitute a de facto occupation even after the IDF ostensibly withdrew in the '00s. It also confirmed that supporting Israeli apartheid and illegal occupation is illegal.
Yemeni Houthi attacks on shipping, in solidarity with Gaza, have continued, nearly shutting down the Israeli port of Eilat. A Yemeni drone struck a building near the US embassy branch office in Tel Aviv on July 19th. This was followed by direct Israeli airstrikes on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah.
Demonstrators have continued to blockade and damage arms factories manufacturing weapons for Israel in the UK.
The Center for Constitutional Rights appealed the jurisdictional dismissal of the genocide complicity lawsuit against President Joe Biden; the appellate argument was scheduled for June 10th, and was rejected.
More countries recognized Palestinian statehood, with Ireland, Spain, Norway, Armenia, and Slovenia being the latest.
Hamas agreed to another ceasefire agreement. Following this, Israel refused, and the US tried to blame Hamas. The US then came up with a ceasefire proposal similar to the one Hamas had already agreed to, claimed it was an Israeli proposal (despite Israeli leaders denying their agreement to basic aspects), and proposed it at the UN Security Council after having vetoed or abstained on almost all of the previous proposals. This US-backed proposal passed at the UNSC, but like the previous proposal for a temporary ceasefire for Ramadan, Israel ignored it.
Starvation deaths have continued to increase in Gaza amid Israel's imposed famine.
Israel killed 90+ people in an Israeli-declared safe zone in al-Mawasi and claimed afterwards that they were trying to kill one Qassam Brigades commander. In Nuseirat, at least 276 were killed and 698 injured in the IDF's June Nuseirat refugee camp massacre.
The US stated that the Biden Pier had been decommissioned.
The UK and Germany tried to block the ICC from issuing arrest warrants for Netanyahu & Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant. The UK is allegedly going to withdraw its frivolous objection.
The UK resumed funding for UNRWA.
Israel shelled more UN facilities in Gaza.
Hezbollah released drone footage from deep within Israeli territory.
Israeli security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir advocated delaying any more hostage deals until Trump's election.
The US gov't continued shipping weapons to Israel, in violation of US law.
The DOJ launched an investigation into the UAW in a possible political retaliation for the union backing a ceasefire.
The Israeli war cabinet dissolved following Netanyahu's refusal to provide a clear Gaza plan. The Israeli supreme court ruled that ultra-orthodox Jews, many of whom are religiously opposed to Zionism, are no longer exempt from conscription, causing political upheaval.
Attacks on US bases in Iraq over US support of the genocide in Gaza have resumed following a previous Iranian-encouraged pause.
And much, much more!
Isn't it funny that Cornel West runs third party but the best the mainstream parties can do is 2 rapists, a Guantanamo Bay torturer (so probably also a rapist), and a recovering dope fiend?
Why is a hedge fund executive more left-wing than 50% of the posters here?
He blow all gold bug, UBI, and debt hawk arguments to smithereens. Including those ones adopted by Milton Friedman loving "anarchists". Also why is the left so impotent in America that it took the founder of "III Capital Management" to do this for us?
Was Saddam Hussein a socialist?
Was Saddam Hussein a socialist? If he is a socialist, what is the evidence/proof of this?
the sheeple question
what is to be done about the masses of sheeple who always do whatever the empire tells them to do? how are we supposed to organize in solidarity with vaxies who support vax mandates? how am I supposed to deal with people who vote in support of genocidal zionist politicians like Harris, Trump, and Kennedy even though it's clear they are screwing their own voters regardless? what are we supposed to do about the brainwashed, bloodthirsty psychos who support the global 4th reich?
Lavrov UNLEASHES Fury on West & Israel at UNGA!
Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov speaking at the UN General Assembly just recently. Pretty good speech imo. What do you think?
The USSR supported Nazis
>One of the most significant pieces of evidence is the testimony of Otto Ernst Remer. In a 1997 interview, Remer admitted that he had received Soviet backing during his time in the party. Remer stated that he had met with KGB officials in East Berlin and had received financial and logistical support from the Soviet Union.[13] In addition to Remer's testimony, there are other sources of evidence that support the claim that the Soviet Union supported the SRP. For example, a 1953 KGB memo outlines the agency's efforts to cultivate and support right-wing extremist groups in Germany, including the SRP.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Reich_Party
What the hell guys, I thought the USSR was heckin anti-fascist???? What gives???
western media hegemony doomed ?
theory background, skip if you wishIn the cold war the Soviets had a closed media ecosystem with state censors etc. The materialist reason for that is, that their media production could neither match the quantity of output nor the level of technical sophistication of western media production.
The functional aspect of Soviet censorship was doing protectionism. The repression of expression-freedom of soviet citizens was not functional, it likely hampered the development of the means of media production. It likely worked only because the boost from protectionism more than off-set the drag from repression of expression.
This is what most ideological analysis got wrong. What matters is the structures that transport the information and the type of social relations that create the interaction with people. The specifics of the information never mattered.
In feudalism the information structure was the church. The specifics of religious faith, didn't really matter for the functioning of feudalism. The change from feudalism to capitalism changed information from a indoctrinated believe, into a object that is consumed.
We lack any concept of what the socialist information structure could be like. We haven't really thought beyond changing the information content. When the printing presses automated writing, capitalists printed information on paper squares arranged as either news-papers or as books. Socialists only ever did the exact same paper-squares with different words on it. Same thing for every subsequent media technology. That's why socialists have always been on the back-foot. It's like if the bourgeoisie had tried to edit the ten commandments in the bible. Instead of replacing the church with modern media.
Now for the juicy bit
The west is ramping up attempts at censorship. Ranging from deleting content up to attacking the people that make it, as well as attacking capitalists that own means of dissemination. The West has/had a relatively open media ecosystem as well as very high production media quality, and that is the combined reason why it's media structures have absolutely dominated the world.
For unclear reasons they're now trying to throw out the winning strategy and close off the western media eco-system. If it succeeds the global audience would get alienated out of it, and then western media power will shrink from influencing ~4 billion to maybe a few hundred million, continuing on a downwards trajectory.
When (not if) the Chinese figure out they can get that kind of media power by switching their media eco-system to open and largely uncensored. They'll get all that media domination the west has/had. They'll be able to set the structural standards, people all over the world might even learn Chinese to consume Chinese culture, the way people all around the world now learn English to consume western culture.
The amount of soft-power this represents is enormous, it's hard to fathom why anybody would ever give that up.
American Communist Party /ACP/ General
Party declaration:https://x.com/ACPMain/status/1815163785134436404
The American Communist Party (ACP) is an organization which aims to reconstitute the historic Communist Party USA, which has become corrupted by federal agents and liberal forces. Look no further than Joe Sims, who supports the genocidal Democratic Party. It was launched in July of 2024, in response to the events of the 32nd Convention of the CPUSA. At this convention, party leadership subverted and betrayed democratic centralism and the freedom of critique which is supposed to follow from it. They claimed to be a genuine Marxist-Leninist party, but the leadership doesn't even follow their own rules. The CPUSA delayed all elections and without a vote made a resolution that they’d basically just campaign for Democrats. Just a bunch of boomers sitting around and writing articles about identity politics rather than organizing.
Already the ACP is far more successful than anyone would have expected from a brand new baby party. They are building reputation locally, taking care of their own communities and making areas safe for children and families to enjoy. Diplomatic ties on the international level have already been established. ACP has garnered more attention in the past couple months than the corrupt, decadent CPUSA leadership has in decades. A huge number of the CPUSA clubs across the entire country had a huge part in making this happen. Will you join up?
Website:
https://acp.us/
Femicide in Turkey is on the rise. Yesterday, a person (aged 19) killed two women in one day, one of them was killed by cutting off her head and throwing it down from the top of the historical city walls in Istanbul, and then he committed committed suicide. What is your opinion?
Is contemporary American politics more right-wing than Italian fascism?
I was recently researching the public housing projects of fascist Italy. There's been entire books written about how early fascist regimes mirrored New Deal policy that is now considered "far-left" in America. Italian fascists dramatically increased public housing that existed prior.In a way though, this potentially makes contemporary America maybe even more right-wing than fascist Italy in practice for the average person. US is certainly not more than right-wing than Nazi Germany was, but it may be moreso than fascist Italy.
Here in the USA, we've more or less abandoned the idea of ensuring that people aren't underhoused. This can only be achieved from public housing. Housing is a basic human need on par with food, as participation in public life and even reproduction are very difficult without it, especially with accompanying cultural values which portrays life as a game to collect points to afford housing.
Who Is Sending More U.S. Troops To The Middle East?
Glenn Greenwald is asking some really good questions lately.
Assage wins appeal
https://farside.link/invidious/watch?v=Z7n6kl-tLjYAssange wins his appeal against extradition
But he's not out of the woods yet.
Posadism
Is there a posad guy here? What is posadism?
I think Antarctica should be annexed to Russia, China or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Chinese Century Thread /CCT/
This is a general thread for all China-related news.Gusano fuckers can die. Westoid """maoists""" can sudoku.
We are going to analyize ITT every move by China in their road to a socialist economy.
Stop watermarking ur memes with ownership
One retarded thing the left does more than the right is watermark memes with ownership. By placing who made it in either a corner or watermark. If a meme is good don't try to own it just let it free. It's supposedly about the idea, not about you.
Brazilian Politics
Remember when people thought this guy was some kind of lefty?
How do we steer black workers away from idpol and towards class consciousness?
These kinds of people are literally just black chuds, they worship "black owned businesses", they have their own black version of schizo-tier race science (Yakub), are religious extremists (just Muslim instead of Christian), are often antisemitic, homophobic, etc., and essentially just want a Fourth Reich but in Africa ("Pan-Africanism"). Basically take any /pol/ talking point but replace "Jews" with "whites" and "Europe" with "Africa". There's a reason the American Nazi Party regularly attended Nation of Islam conferences.How do you get them to realize they have a lot more in common with the white proletariat than the black bourgeosie?
I hate banks. I hate CEOs. I hate Capitalism. I hate israel. why can't we be friends?
/brit/ - Baz Snaps
Football fans and Gregg's connoisseurs from around England are currently rioting following the murder of three schoolchildren by an asylum seeker (Axel Rudakubana) and subsequent non-response by the courts. The riots have only escellated following Starmer's absolutely braindead response & the response of local law enforcement.Bongs to follow for updates:
https://x.com/PolitlcsUK
https://x.com/visegrad24
https://x.com/Sargon_of_Akkad
https://x.com/AkkadSecretary
https://x.com/9mm_smg
https://x.com/TRobinsonNewEra
"Sex work" isn't real
Prostitutes, camgirls, e-whores and the like are lumpenproles at best and petty bourg at worstThere is no such thing as "le sex work", only redditors and radlibs think so, and their justification for it is always some idealist idpol riddled nonsense like "womens empowerment"
ORANGE MAN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2024/07/13/donald-trump-speech-shooting-latest-news/
First of all this is incredibly based and God bl3ss them shoot R.I.P To a real one but this is fucking bad news politically. He's gonna win for sure now and this will cause a reaction upswell we haven't seen in a hundred years not only in the US b UT globally. This is terrible news and propaganda of the deed is fail3d as a political strategy.
Pure Distilled Sectarian Essence
Was Bordiga right?I have to admit some of his arguments are compelling. It certainly does seem to be the case that an unprincipled "popular front" just leads to liberals taking control of your revolution and directing it away from anticapitalism. At the same time history seems to have been very unkind to his strategy. Every time he split his support got smaller and smaller until he was ultimately pushed out and marginalized by those with all the power. Bordiga seemed very satisfied in interviews towards the end, that he had remained ideologically pure throughout his long life. Unfortunately it also seems like he accomplished very little after his expulsion from the Italian Communist Party in 1930.
Maybe there's no effective answer to the problems he identified? Are we supposed to just kick back in our armchairs and wait for capitalism to devour itself in the end?
Towards a Dogmatic Anarchism
Is the administration of things no different from anarchism?The claim that anarchists "wouldn't let a person be the captain of the ship" allegedly "because that's a hierarchy to them" is reductionist and wrong. In anarchism freedom means to have take responsibility for one's own actions, therefore they allow people to take up such positions on the condition that they do not use them against the interests of other people. If the captain of a ship is to use his role to take the passengers hostage then the passengers must act accordingly. That applies for any sort of society. The point is that they would in fact allow a person to be in "charge". There have even been Anarchist Federations (are there likely still are) with a general secretariat. If it is to be considered a "hierarchy" then the idea of only being opposed towards oppressive hierarchies would allow it.
Anarchists in general want society to play a part of the managerial role, rather than a selected few - because it seen as a guarantee of incompetence and disconnect from the working class by solely being the managerial forces. If the working class themselves take up the managerial role, then that is fine by anarchist standards. The only criticism that anarchists should accept is that commodity production cannot and should not exist. If there is commodity production, if there is trade, barter - that leads to a market. Markets eventually lead to the accumulation of commodities which reinstates capitalism. Bordiga correctly points out that capitalism is inherently connected to commodity production. It is therefore the task of anarcho-communists to abolish commodity production and instead adapt decentralized planning, such as participatory economics and exterminate all reactionary elements of society.
I think that leftcoms generally misunderstand anarchists, especially with the fact that so many of the self-proclaimed "anarchists" nowadays are not anarchists at all - they are just liberals engaged in identity politics. The principled anarchists will only engage in class struggle. It is as Malatesta wrote over a hundred years ago in the text - Anarchists Have Forgotten Their Principles.
I am a part of an Anarchist Federation myself, I encourage my comrades to read Marx, Engels, Lenin and above all - Bordiga. Our AF also does dialogue with the leftcoms of the group "Lotta comunista". We can find ourselves agreeing on everything except the demand for a party established on the proposed managerial structure. That is not to say we are against organizations with a purpose and a plan - the aspect of organic centralism is significantly better and more coherent than wild democracy. Despite that its disgusting to witness modern LeftComs endorsing Trotskyists and Trotsky himself - who stands against their very basis.
On the subject of the DOTP, it should be noted that anarchists don't oppose it for the defense of the bourgouisie, but the centralization of power which is to repress the reactionary elements in society (that inherently suggests an elite propped up from bottom-up), we feel that such cases can only lead to incompetence and eventually to revisionism and opportunism due to the bourgouisie state apparatus being held by the few from above. Gilles Dauvé already wrote a criticism of the use of bourgouisie instruments, writing that the state is not inherently a neutral instrument for the oppression of one class upon another - but specifically a bourgouisie instrument of oppression made for and by the bourgouisie themselves. It should be noted that we also wish to repress and eventually get rid of the reactionary elements - whether they label themselves "anarchist" or not does not matter to us. As anyone can label themselves an "anarchist" yet stand against our principles. So how do we propose to deal with them? Firing squads and labor camps. I have a lot of other ideas I'd share if they weren't confidential. But don't let the decentralized nature fool you into thinking that people would not organize to carry out these actions. The soviet model (councils) and the various types of organizations would be coordinated through the Federation to carry out these actions. They will not be acting on their own, but instead it will be a process of assemblies and direct participation in dialogue with other organizations that are either part of the Federation or part of another Federation (until sections can be united).
So would this be a dictatorship? A dictatorship for us is an inherent bureaucracy managed from above, this however, seems to be more akin to a giant mob lynch to advocates for the vanguard. But what they ignore is that within this process it is the coordinator - the Federation which consists of many organizations that functions on its rudimentary principles to prevent injustice in judgement. However, as they say, you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs. In the momentary revolutionary terror, it can only be expected that a lot of people would perish without a trial. That is fine. For anything else would be utopian. It is in those moments that I find great pride, not in the failures of Makhnovschina, "Revolutionary" Catalonia - which failed due to class collaborationism or Kronstadt - which was not even inherently anarchist to begin with. But in the moments like the Red Terror in Spain, where clergymen were liquidated and tortured. It is those deeds that write the history, as a warning for all who reject materialism in favor of mysticism, that their imagination will come to an end that is brought by real world struggles.
As for our authors' incompetence, racism, anti-jewish sentiments and such. There is no excuse for them, but there is no point in dismissing all of their writings. If one is to do analysis of their writings, one would easily come to the conclusion that their personal biases did not present themselves on the theoretical groundwork. In the memes of ultras, there is an image often posted with a caption "When someone tells me Marx and Engels were a bit racist, (they must be wrong because they are bad people!)" (ironic). However, it is that exact same irony and sentiment which carries onto an ad hominem critique of anarchist writers, neglecting the entire history of the movement. Especially and more so to the idea that class collaborationism is an inherent characteristic of anarchism, which replaces a historical analysis of the anarchist movement and fails to distinguish between modernizers (Pro-Ukraine, Liberal voters, Popular front Antifa) with classical and dogmatic anarchists (Internationalists, Against voting, Against Class Collaborationism). What do the twitter crowd have in common with figures such as Malatesta and Nechayev? Perhaps the only thing contemporary anarchists have in common is the name - which modernizers have butchered. "Pro-Israel, Anarcho-Egoist-Communist, Solarpunk-Communalist" label hoarders and ideology shoppers - these figures serve no purpose but to be a tool of the liberal state apparatus. They have not read a single book written by classical anarchists, since they concern themselves with identity politics. It is necessary for the anarchist movement to self-criticize and distance itself away from modernizers. It is necessary to uphold its principles. Which through theoretical groundwork have more in common with the invariant line of communism than one might admit. But fundamentally, they are incompatible with the notion that the state apparatus can be used for the emancipation of the working class. As they are incompatible with the idea of a vanguard party leading the international proletariat. It is for that reason that we must not attempt to mix and match what cannot work together, we can only admire aspects of authors such as Bordiga, but we cannot claim that they are compatible, when they do not understand our principles and our opposition towards other anarchists - as we understand their opposition towards revisionists on the groundwork of Marx and Lenin. The conflict of interests will eventually have to be settled. We may be judged by the broader and self-defined "communist" movement - but we see ourselves as part of our own. The movement which abolishes the present state of affairs. The name of which has been bothered and appropriated much like our own name. We see ourselves in it and no one else. Those who stand against it stand with the forces of reaction. Those who are sympathetic to it, must be educated to become part of it, as they are moved by it. We must research and destroy all contradictions until the abolition of class, for the development of all who demand existence in wellbeing.
Would you fight for your country?
I wouldnt, If would, Describe reasons.The goverment and healthcare system keeps letting me down, Why should i?
As a pussyfree man myself, Id betray my whole nation like it betrayed me just to have a chance to get a girlfriend, What has it ever done for me? Get bullied here, Ridiculed, Abandoned by the healthcare system, Denied XRAY, Denied this, Denied that, Denied meeting the right doctor. I dont even celebrate national day, This country is shit anyway, Is it even my country if i dont get pussy in it? Nah its not!
Is it even your country if your countrymen dont stand up for you to prevent you from being bullied? Is it even your countrymen if they keep belittling you and making fun of you?
Is it even your country if you get no say in what you want to do in said country? Is it even your country if you have to pay taxes to get nothing in return not even an XRAY at the doctors office if it was needed?
Heck idgaf about nationalism for the shithole i live in, Wait a whole month to meet a doctor so i can be rejected for the help im needed, nah this isnt my country, Fuck this country, The russians can just go ahead and invade it, Idgaf anymore.
Anti-Campism General
idk making this thread because the one on .org died with the rest of the site
you killed my leftypol so i killed one of your threads
Chat-controle postponed
The infamous chatcontrole-law internet apocalypse in the EU has been postponed. It seems dead for now but these things tend to become like zombies rising from the grave.Now lets discuss how to actually fix the pedo-problem.
The pedo-problem is a meat-space problem that is bleeding into the virtual world. So lasting solutions can only be found in meat-space.
We have to analyze the politics at play. I doubt the neo-liberal system allows for genuine collective well-being politics. So doing something that benefits all children will not be possible. All the available politics are zero-sum games, improving the lot of some children at the expense of others. This can be overcome by creating civil-society parent lobby groups, enabled to act on the part that benefits the child-interests they represent while blocking the detrimental actions towards other child-interests by locking that into a perpetual battle against each other to neutralize the "negative energy".
The main political energy that genuinely seeks to clean the internet from pedo-material is however, people trying to hide the problem, they don't care about children at all, they care about the appearance of a just society. They see their affluence threatened if the injustice of child-abuse is too visible. They are perhaps the worst bunch. Bending this political energy into a positive outcome is very hard. We might be able to turn this into a general child-privacy scheme. We could make an AI-filter that gets trained to recognize and blur all children. This filter system could be made entirely transparent including the entire source-training-database since regular pictures of children aren't crimes, making it harder to abuse and also minimally invasive by selectively blurring out only children, without censoring the entire material. AI filters are quite good at detecting age and the silhouette of people, and this scheme does not require AI to understand context, reducing false positives. It need not be made mandatory, because it's an easy non-threatening way to prevent having to deal with pedo-material. I feel confident that most websites would use this to make moderation easier. It uses very little compute resources, and the child-abuse is out of sight (which realistically is all that can be done on the computer side of things). On the ethical side we get better online child-privacy without needing heavy handed governmental top-down interference.
The next problem is the online pedo-police, they have to maintain a large catalog of all the pedo-material for technical reasons. That also means people have to look at this infernal crap. Normal people will get psychological burn-out very quickly and self-sort out. Over the long term this organization is going to fill up with pedos, because they're the only ones that can tolerate it and stick with the job. The result will be 2 fold. The sex-pests gaining control over a censorship institution, and they will be able to find and blackmail other sex-pests to control them. We risk creating some kind of powerful institution that unironically would become the "pedo-elite-cabal" the right-wingers keep screaming about. Besides the potential for institutional rot of the worst kind, there also is the contradiction, that by attempting to get rid of pedo-material one would inadvertently create the largest most enduring collection of it. In the long run such a organization would likely become riddled with scandals and fall out of favor politically, and then that large pedo-material-collection will get officially deleted but unofficially become the basis for a sex-crime mafia. I'm not a fan of Hegel, but this has dialectical energy of things turning into their opposite about it.
In order to catch the actual pedo-criminals in meat-space. There are 2 viable paths The first one is creating a field of scientific psychology that gains the diagnostic ability to reliably detect whether children are being abused, when that works it gets installed into schools to screen children, and relay potential leads to the police. The other path is setting up a scheme for specialized bounty hunters. If they catch one they alert the police and collect their bounty. I'm assuming most child-abuse happens in the format of Jeffry-Epstein type Pedo-islands, and there are plenty of maids, butlers, janitors and maintenance personal that know what's going on, but won't speak-out because they need the income. If they can get a bounty they have an incentive to speak out instead of keeping silent. And some of these people might gain special insights into the pedo-mind that allows them to find more pedos and collect bounties.
The last part is that these things also appear to contain a conspiracy to commit a "privacy holocaust" and a "free open software holocaust".
I don't really understand these aspects.
The social and economic dynamics about why so much efforts got put into mass-surveillance-terror eludes me. Panopticon-societies self-destruct through paralyzation.
I also don't understand why capitalism appears to be trying to destroy free and open source software. Selling software support contracts for FOSS is easier than maintaining artificial software scarcity for proprietary schemes. The only reason why end-user customers don't buy free-software support contracts is because it's impossible to track down the ~10 thousand maintainers and developer's of all the software packages the average person uses. There needs to be some kind of thing where end-users pay once per year and than that money auto-magically goes towards all the people whose packages you used, while privacy about software package use is maintained. People could still compile source code without paying, but then you pay with time instead of money. Normal market relations should have shifted business-model preference towards foss support contracts. Maybe it's got something to do with imperialism, can proprietary business-models extract more imperial super-profits or something ?
sorry for the textwall
remember 9/11 1973
never forget
also I guess we can also have a schizo thread where we talk about how burger 9/11 was an inside job or whatever
What happened?
Anarchists of the 19th and early 20th century: planting bombs, assassinating rulers, organizing radical unionsAnarchists today: wear leather jackets and doc martins, listen to Sex Pistols, maybe they'll spray paint some graffiti, otherwise do absolutely nothing
Not saying they were always engaged in effective activity (Propaganda of the Deed is the dumbest revolutionary strategy ever), but at least the original anarchists actually did something. It seems like in every lefty org I've been in the anarchists are the ones least likely to roll up their sleeves and actually get some work done.
What happened?
The New Yorker Publishes 2005 Haditha, Iraq Massacre Photos
From Democracy Now!:After nearly two decades of obstruction by the U.S. military, The New Yorker has obtained and published 10 photos of the aftermath of the 2005 Haditha massacre, when U.S. marines killed 24 Iraqi civilians in revenge for an IED bombing that killed a service member. The graphic images show dead Iraqi men, women and children, many of them shot in the head at close range. The victims ranged in age from 3 to 76. Release of the photos came only after producers of the investigative podcast In the Dark sued the Navy, the Marine Corps and U.S. Central Command to force them to turn over the photos and other records. "What the photos clearly show is that these were innocent people who do not appear to be doing anything threatening at the time of their deaths," says Madeleine Baran, host and lead reporter of the podcast. Four marines were charged for the killings, but the charges were dismissed in three cases, and the last ended with a plea deal that did not result in a single day in prison. Baran says the survivors of the massacre, who cooperated with producers to get the photos released, are still waiting for justice. "What they want is the world to know what happened to their family, to know that their family were good people, not insurgents, and they want justice," she says.
Pierre Tru-Dank 2024
Ya'll remember Pierre Tru-dank?Now he buck dances for Yankee Tankie for a shred of the internet relevance he once had, picking up trash…
for fee
Hawaii's on fire
Maui fires raise questions over warnings, death toll hits 80"MAALAEA, Hawaii, Aug 11 (Reuters) - The death toll from the Maui wildfires rose to 80 on Friday as search teams combed through the smoldering ruins of Lahaina, and Hawaiian officials sought to determine how the inferno spread so rapidly through the historic resort town with little warning.
The fires became the deadliest natural disaster in the state's history, surpassing that of a tsunami that killed 61 people on the Big Island of Hawaii in 1960, a year after Hawaii joined the United States.
Officials have warned that search teams with cadaver dogs could still find more dead from the fire that torched 1,000 buildings and left thousands homeless, likely requiring many years and billions of dollars to rebuild.
"Nobody has entered any of these structures that have burned down and that's where we unfortunately anticipate that the death toll will rise significantly," U.S. Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii told MSNBC.
In a late evening statement, Maui County said that the death toll had risen to 80.
The Lahaina fire that spread from the brush to town was still burning but 85% contained, the county said earlier. Two other wildfires on the island were 80% and 50% contained.
Three days after the disaster, it remained unclear whether some residents had received any warning before the fire engulfed their homes.
The island has emergency sirens intended to warn of natural disasters and other threats, but they did not appear to have sounded during the fire.
"I authorized a comprehensive review this morning to make sure that we know exactly what happened and when," Hawaii Governor Josh Green told CNN, referring to the warning sirens.
Officials have not offered a detailed picture of precisely what notifications were sent out, and whether they were done via text message, email or phone calls.
Green described multiple, simultaneous challenges, with telecommunications down and firefighters concentrating on other major wildfires when the greatest threat to Lahaina arose.
In any event, he said, "We will do all that we can to find out how to protect our people more going forward."
Maui County Fire Chief Bradford Ventura said at a press conference on Thursday that the fire's speed made it "nearly impossible" for frontline responders to communicate with the emergency management officials who would typically provide real-time evacuation orders.
"They were basically self-evacuating with fairly little notice," he said, referring to residents of the neighborhood where the fire initially struck."
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/maui-wildfire-death-toll-rises-55-search-victims-gears-up-2023-08-11/
Possible Indonesian coup incoming
Editor’s Note: Jakarta has been engulfed in fiery unrest in recent days, as thousands of protesters attempted to storm parliament in response to controversial changes to election laws. In September 2023, MintPress News revealed leaked files from the National Endowment for Democracy, suggesting that this CIA-linked organization has built an extensive network of political, media, and civil society infrastructure in Indonesia aimed at facilitating regime change. After years of fostering insurrectionary fervor in the country, has the NED’s influence finally reached a boiling point? MintPress News is republishing the following groundbreaking investigation by Kit Klarenberg as events in Indonesia once again come to the fore.…
Widodo’s candidacy also reportedly stimulated Indonesia’s stock market and Rupiah currency due to his sparkling political and economic record. One might think burnishing the country’s finances to such a degree through sheer force of personality would make him an ideal leader from Washington’s perspective. Yet, the President has also prioritized “protecting Indonesia’s sovereignty” and limiting overseas influence in Jakarta. Moreover, he pursues an intensely independent foreign policy, much to the U.S. Empire’s chagrin.
Widodo has encouraged leaders of Muslim states to reconcile and pushed for Palestinian independence. His Foreign Minister visits Palestine but refuses to establish diplomatic relations with Israel. He has also distributed sizable aid to oppressed Muslims abroad. Most egregiously, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he flew to both countries and urged their leaders to seek peace. When Jakarta hosted the G20 Summit that year, he invited not only Zelensky but Putin to attend despite fierce Western criticism.
…
Widodo is now preparing to leave office, his constitutionally-mandated terms over, and personal approval ratings at all-time highs. His departure creates a clean political slate, which NED is eager to fill. Mercifully, a repeat of the intelligence agency-orchestrated slaughter that brought Suharto to power decades ago appears unlikely. But the leaked documents obtained by MintPress News make clear the U.S. Empire is preparing to pull off another coup in Jakarta under the aegis of “democracy promotion.”
https://www.mintpressnews.com/leak-cia-ned-color-revolution-coup-indonesia/285617/
What the fuck is going on in France?
Seriously wtfIs Macron dictator for life now? What's happening? What's going on?
How does the left deal with the fact we've completely lost the online sphere as well?
>All social media/forums taken over by establishment bootlicking Neolibs.
>Young male content all alt-right adjacent
>Tankie has become a mainstream insult against anyone left of Obama/Blair
>Basic left wing positions are now claimed to be wrecking/unrealistic by majority of "progressives" that supported them just 4 years ago.
>Left wing outlets censored from social media, journalists arrested or blacklisted.
>Left wing forums completely overrun by insane idpollers who worm their way into mod positions and ban anyone who doesn't bow down to their libshit
>Dirtbag left media ecosphere is dead
How does the left deal with this? Online is incredibly important for information dissemination but the left has been effectively pushed out of the Online sphere as well. Dead IRL and dead online, don't know how the left will crawl back from this tbh.
Prison Political Economy
How does solitary confinement fit into the larger prison industrial complex? It seems to me like it would be rather unprofitable to keep your slaves confined for years at a time, unable to do any productive labor.
peace game
Peace-negotiations, cease-fire talks, and all the other variants of diplomatic efforts to avoid war, are increasingly "gamed" by the war-monger-gang, towards their ends.Negotiations for a peace-deal become a pause to restock weapons and re-arm fighters. Peace conferences become a vehicle for political antagonizing or even a venue to form new battle alliances.
Of course it's not a new phenomenon, but recently it's on the rise again.
I think this needs a counter. How do you re-frame diplomacy efforts for peace so that it's not perverted into something else ?
Should peace-talks have as requirement that the warring parties must agree to peace and cessations of hostilities, before the negotiations begin, and the purpose of the negotiation is only about the details of the arrangement ?
One step further would be, for the peace-gang to "game" the structures the war-monger-gang set up to facilitate war, and turn it into a means of pacification. How would one go about doing that ?
/zizek/ supercut
Only post bangerskeep the clips short
DNC 2024
Happening tomorrow. Who's stoked to see it fall apart?
Isreal's prolly fucked
>Jon Elmer. A senior Israeli officer predicts Israel's collapse within a year from attritionhttps://farside.link/invidious/watch?v=xllKNZh8i4M
>the war of attrition against Hamas and Hezbollah continues, Israel will collapse within no more than a year.
>Terror attacks are intensifying in the West Bank and inside the country,
>the reservist army is voting with its feet following recurring mobilizations of combat soldiers,
>the economy is crashing.
>Israel has also become a pariah state, prompting economic boycotts and an embargo on arms shipments.
>We are also losing our social resilience, as the growing hatred between different parts of the nation threatens to ignite and bring to its destruction from within.
https://archive.ph/
So it appears that the Yahu is ramming Zionstan into the abyss. Iran is probably timing it's retaliation to help that process along.
The upside will be a sharp drop in hollowed out child-skulls, haniballed hostages, murdered journalists and exploding hospitals/schools. I guess the US will swoop in to secure the military bases. It will be a free-for-all mayhem to fill in the political vacuum in "Postrael".
Now the (for us) interesting question: what happens in the west when the Zionist lobby collapses ?
Pic not related
hexa-humans
For some reason many people are very reluctant to get vaccines as a means to boost their immune response to hazardous microbes.There is another solution if we made people with DNA from 6 parents instead of only 2, humans would get a rate of genetic adaptation that should be beyond the maximum rate of adaptation through mutation for viral, fungal and bacterial infections.
This would involve artificial fertilization with 2 normal parents + 4 random DNA donors. For best effect we'd draw DNA donor-samples from the entire planet. As bonus various genetic diseases like mitochondrial dysfunction would get wiped out as well (that's already being treated through tri-parent DNA) , the common cold would probably become a rare occurrence affecting only a very small number of people. Metabolically people would have to expend less energy on immunological function and we'd get a boost in brain-power, muscles and endurance.
It would probably annoy the Eugenics crowd if we did that. To be clear eugenics never had a basis in real biology, so this does not make any material difference, it's just surplus enjoyment of an ideological middle finger.
Practically speaking if you wanted a Hexa-child. You and the other parent would have to give your DNA to the big DNA-lottery and then you get 4 random DNA samples in return.
By the way the medical tech already exists, so for this to become a thing, it only requires organization.
I'm curious if there's any takers ?
rate my superstructure
A superstructure can be a state for example, but it could also be other structures.I will split this up and put it all into subsequent posts so its more legible.
the sanc
Venezuela is under economic siege again, the US is punishing them for doing a democracy.If you care for details, check this is out https://farside.link/invidious/watch?v=0qz_qKWFIaM
Sanctions have become ineffective against big countries like Russia or China. Those have figured out how to derive economic benefit from it and deflect all the economic damage back at the source of the sanctions.
However sanctions still appear to be doing damage to mid sized countries like Venezuela.
Why is that ?
electrification of food
you will eat ze homogenized bacterial carcasseshttps://www.noemamag.com/making-food-out-of-thin-air/
TLDR company using solar power to extract hydrogen and carbon from air which is then metabolized by bacteria into primary ingredients for processed food.
Pros
Gets about 10 times as much protein per unit of land then a grain-farm + cattle-factory.
- above estimate is with solar panels, 20000x as space efficient if you have a nuclear plant
Will make food absolutely anywhere independent from water sources and weather
electricity + air = food
virtually no risk of spawning shit like mad cow disease
can probably be miniaturized like microbreweries.
- good for perpetually feeding astronauts in space
- but also good for food independence down to tiny communities
Cons
At this early stage it's likely not safe to eat
We did not evolve a gut-biome to digest bacto-slop, expect lotta farting, that won't get fixed until version 2.0 or 3.0
If it takes off, there will be a bitter fight for controle, they'll fake-accuse you of "pirating food" if you build you own bacto-slop machine.
Politics
During the last 20 years there has been an ongoing corporate land grab that displaced subsistence farmers all around the world, that'll be a total write off, since this will reduce agro-land needs by 80%
Class dynamics might change, if farm-workers become factory-workers tending the slop machines.
Every country can be food secure, and that'll cross off one reason for war. Also starving people out, like the US did to Cuba and the DPRK after the Soviet dissolution, or what the Zionazis are doing to Palestinians now, that'll go away.
New politics around food traditionalism will form.
As the power that be try to controle the food supply, "copyright" will become synonymous with mass-starvation of billions and "copyright-holder" will become a worse insult than "Hitler".
Conclusion
In the end it'll represent progress towards independent food abundance and a step towards a food replicator, but it'll be a nasty struggle.
India renamed to Bharat
India renamed it self, a bit like Turkey recently was renamed into Türkiye. However unlike Türkiye which makes a nice sound, Bharat sounds harsh like somebody burping during speech. They're undoing the colonial naming legacy and have been renaming their cities for some time, but they could have picked a nicer name for their country. Oh well.I wonder if BRICS for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South-Africa , now has to be spelled BRBCS. 'Brubkess' def. is a downgrade from 'Bricks' too.
French Politics
What's the deal with the French?So they form some big "left" coalition to push back against Macron and overwhelm le Pen's party in the recent election… and then they immediately nominate another neoliberal technocrat for prime minister who went to same schools as Macron? How could this do anything but discredit themselves and open a wide lane for more support for the hard right? I don't understand how France can have all these ostensibly left formations and still end up serving the status quo.
Why did the Western far-left become the 2SLGBTQRPGMMO+++ rainbow mafia?
It genuinely is perplexing to me that Western leftists seem to hold even the most absurd AGP sex fetish shit and BPD tumblr furry xenogender larping as the most ultimate leftist purity test, yet then will accept literal fucking Capitalists into the movement wihtout hesitation.
I used to think this shit was exaggerated, but it's honestly not, most western leftist spaces are just rainbow mafia/idpol obsessed and you can't push back on even the most absurd, eye rolling narratives, without getting asked to leave, or if online, copping a ban, this includes communities like leftypol(dot)org.
Even holding the same policy positions, as most Communist Parties in the Global South, will get you banned from basically any Westoid "Leftist" space. Leftypol lets you claim Xi is based or whatever, but if you actually espouse his policies, enjoy your ban because it doesn't align with Western Idpol shit.
Why is the Western left like this? Don't they realise that this shit makes them look like absolute pozzed student larping retards to the majority of the working class?
Would most Western "leftists" even want to live in a Working Class led society? They do realise the Working Class is largely soft-Socially Conservative right?
weewee Hemo Union
This was a failed state and its still worshipped by losers like you lmao>thread got saged from .ogre
Christianity is a pestilent superstition.
The customs of the Jews are base and abominable and owe their persistence to their depravity. Jews are extremely loyal to one another, always ready to show compassion, but towards every other people they feel only hate and enimity. As a race (the Jews are not a race, because they have mingled with the other races to the point that they are only a people, not a race), they are prone to lust; among themselves nothing is unlawful.Tacitus mogging Judeos
Next recession thread
Is it here yet?pic unrelated
theoretical breeding programs
I think maintaining diverse range of phenotypes is good. Sure, there are races nobody wants or wants to be (you know which ones), but I do not want to live in a world without cute redheaded whites or busty ebony blacks.FINALLY!!! someone in this exact thread have the same opinion as mine. if you can choose which race you want to be, NOBODY in their right mind would choose to be a subcontinental browns. fuck pakistan. fuck india. fuck bangladesh. fuck sri lanka.
everybody who are brown or live in a brow country care. which is half the world. hence why we should do a multigenerational breeding program for the entire world.
post your breeding program
Venezuela
I hear there's an attempted coup going on after the recent Maduro victory. What's the rundown?Pic unrelated
Cockshott is probably the best Socialist theorist of our age, he's completely BTFO'ed all arguments against Marx's Law of Value, he's empirically proven that Economic Planning is 100% possible with current data sets and modern computation, he's shown that current economic theory is based on complete woo that doesn't hold up to basic mathematical scrutiny or even basic logic.
The thing is, because all his online content is extremely complex, technical post-grad level university lectures, it's hard to get his idea's out there. Which I think why as Socialists, we should try present his arguments, theories and evidence in a far more presentable, digestable, ELI5 fashion for Normies.
What made classic Leftypol good is that we were able to present Socialist content for normies that would be shared by Zoomers and such. So I think a good project for us on this board, would be to work How the World Works (https://libgen.rocks/ads.php?md5=0f775aef8cbe24a8978e115669bfcdfb) into a decent Youtube series that explains how we can build a new economic order in the not too distant future.
Eugene-lit 2.0
My website has been recently updated:https://eugeneseffortposts.royalwebhosting.net/
Book 3 is out:
https://eugeneseffortposts.royalwebhosting.net/book03/index.html
Following Book 2:
https://eugeneseffortposts.royalwebhosting.net/book02/index.html
And Book 1 (which was originally meant for something else but made the perfect introduction):
https://eugeneseffortposts.royalwebhosting.net/mymethod.html
Consider this the "Eugene general" where you can ask me random questions or bitch at me.
>Edward Said
>Frantz Fanon
>Michel Foucault
The fathers of Soycialism who ruined leftism in the west. there collective faggotry spearing to generations of leftists.
UK elections
Sunak came out and declared they're on for July 4th. Corbyn's now running as an independent. Andrew Feinstein is running against Starmer, and maybe he'll knock him out of his seat - who knows?Are you excited, /leftypol/?
ANOTHER coup in Bolivia ongoing
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivia’s President Luis Arce warned Wednesday that an “irregular” deployment of troops was taking place in the Bolivian capital, raising concerns that a potential coup was underway.He called for “democracy to be respected” on a message on his X account came as Bolivian television showed two tanks and a number of military in front of the government palace.
Former Bolivian president Evo Morales, also in a message on X, denounced the movement of the military in the Murillo square outside the palace, calling it a coup “in the making.”
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/bolivian-president-reports-irregular-military-movement-in-capital-raising-fears-of-coup
https://twitter.com/manolo_realengo/status/1806043923627782447
vid unrelated
Eugene-lit
So I thought here and now would be a good time to tell you I'm uploading parts of my book that I have completed. You can find them at:http://eugeneseffortposts.royalwebhosting.net/
I have up to chapter 13 written of the third book, and the whole of the second book. Maybe you all can provide feedback (and anyone saying snark will be given the fag tag).
It gets pretty depressing but I saw Chapter 13 as one of the more uplifting, since I basically say the way out… if only humans wanted such a thing. We've always known that, but all of the build-up to that is where we would really have to go. It's a pity humans will never think like that, not now.
the world run on looks. everybody listen to me, i swear it's important
the world works on looks. looks are important. we human will always fully think and associate people with lighter skin color as looking better, better to look at, and is more beautiful/pretty/handsome.we all also associate lighter skin color with being more feminine for women consider feminine. we can never change this. not a single thing anyone do and say will ever change this. you can never change how people think like this. man or women everybody think like this.
now then have and obvious answer. for the sake of use call it the “Blond Path". we need to produce white people with blue eyes and green eyes and blond hair and ginger hair. the quota would be 10 times the world population including the world population of whites with natural color hair and eyes. To do this we ignore or erase things that are a hindrance such as marriage, monogamy, family unit, relationship, and romance. Production does not stop there, we also need to group ethnic whites together with the same ethnic whites (Ex: Scotts with Scotts, serbs with serbs, and etc). Although this one is of a different program. This program also require us to get rid of the same hindrance the former program have. Both program do not see heigh, body or looks. As long as your face are not horrendous you are good, so even if your not handsome and beautiful you will still be in the program.
As part of the Blond path and to prevent dehumanization and other such unwanted idea,we will educate people. Specifically we will tell them about that one zoning infrastructure real-estate thing (I forgot the name of it) that put black and brown people in place were the chemicals,paint ,water ,walls and environment in general are doing things to their head (mind and brain) and body. In general everybody need to be educated about racist laws and myth and other such things. Other then that we need to eliminate race science and race bias in science.
In short. The world need to have industry level production of ethnic whites and more importantly whites with blue eyes, green eyes, blond hair and red hair because the world work on looks. But we also educate people so they don’t believe in race science and race biased science.
we must advertise this to every rightoid, boomers, and whites.
I am speaking as a brown.
Israel 'at war' as Hamas gunmen launch surprise attack from Gaza Thread Pt. IV
Continued from >>479880Updates since the start of the last thread:
The (largely civilian) Palestinian death toll has now passed 34,000. With over 10,000 missing, it's expected that current estimates are lower than the actual death toll.
The US Congress, with Biden's support, passed the final version of a bill to authorize more than $26,000,000,000 in military aid to Israel. It's been pointed out that this is illegal under US law.
Israel initiated its ground assault of Rafah.
Israel attacked the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing 16, and resulting in a carefully planned Iranian missile retaliation against military targets in Israel.
The International Court of Justice made an interim ruling in South Africa's favor in their case accusing Israel of genocidal acts in Gaza, deeming it plausible. Ireland, Turkey, and Colombia joined Nicaragua in signing on to South Africa's case against Israel.
Yemeni Houthi attacks on shipping, in solidarity with Gaza, have continued, expanding to the Indian ocean.
Demonstrators have continued to blockade and damage arms factories manufacturing weapons for Israel in the UK.
The Center for Constitutional Rights appealed the jurisdictional dismissal of the genocide complicity lawsuit against President Joe Biden; the appellate argument is scheduled for June 10th.
Following repression at Columbia University, protestors around the US have made encampments at colleges, demanding that their universities divest. Many of these demonstrations have been met with brutal police repression, and some have also faced car ramming attacks and assaults by far-right mobs. This has not discouraged students from continuing. Thousands of demonstrators have been arrested. A new wave of similar protests followed globally.
More countries moved to recognize Palestinian statehood. The US vetoed a UNSC resolution for Palestinian membership.
The US abstained from a ceasefire vote at the UNSC, allowing a temporary ceasefire resolution for the month of Ramadan to pass. Israel refused to observe it, and to cover for this, the US erroneously claimed that UN Security Council resolutions are "non-binding," continuing to back Israel anyway.
Starvation deaths have continued to increase in Gaza amid Israel's imposed famine.
Mass graves discovered at Nasser and Al-Shifa hospitals in Gaza.
More countries halted arms sales to Israel.
The US stated that the Biden Pier had been completed.
More demonstrations and crackdowns have occurred around the world, including in Germany, where speakers including Yanis Varoufakis have been banned, and a wave of arrests and seizures for "anti-semitism" have targeted Jewish groups disproportionately.
The US House of Representatives passed a bill to define criticism of Israel as "anti-semitism," which now goes to the senate.
Israeli and US politicians threatened the International Criminal Court over potential accountability.
A lot more has also occurred - it's recommended that you dive into the previous thread if you haven't done so, yet, because it's been an eventful month!
political strive
I have 2 questions.Why is it that as different political parties become more similar in terms of policy, the greater the political strive and conflict in the political arena ?
For example in UK politics tori and labor parties have grown ever more similar, or in the US republican and democrat parties only have very few policies that differ. And yet the political hostilities have reached a fever pitch.
Without understanding the nature of this samer-angrier dynamic, i ask another question should the left have lumped those parties with similar politics together. As in referring to a Labori party or a Democrublican party ? In order to create a new 2-way choice the-left vs the-other-lumpbable-parties
New president elected in Iran
Masoud Pezeshkian was elected the new president of Iran on Friday. He's reportedly a moderate. What do you think of him? Will he be up to the challenges ahead for Iran, in its struggle against imperialism and Zio-fascist savagery?
Hello, Im a graffiti writer, Im interested in using my skills to make some anti-Zionist art here in the heart of the imperialist machine. Is there a way to make a completely anonymous IG acct and Website so that I can post photos of my work without getting caught? Obviously graffiti is illegal but anti-Israeli graffiti is going to attract much more attention. How do I cover my digital tracks?
Class Struggle
This is exactly the kind of shit that's holding the left back.>I don't think we can expect <minority> to team up with a bigot…
Actually that's exactly what communists must demand. And we must demand the reverse of this too: bigots must team up with minorities they claim to hate.
Workers aren't responsible for minorities' grievances, the bourgeoisie class is. When no one can put food on the table, the fact that you're offended isn't going to change this.
I don't know who needs to hear this but quit acting like a bunch of snowflakes, hetero-normative whites included. Just shut the fuck up. Organize. And squash the rich. It's really that simple.
What do you plan to do now that the USA is under a presidential dictatorship as decided by the SC?
“The Court effectively creates a law-free zone around the President, upsetting the status quo that has existed since the Founding,” Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor wrote. “When the president uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution. Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune."https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/07/02/wfvt-j02.html
I mean, this is pretty much the definitional opposite of "left wing". This is a mostly right-wing country by law now.
I am a Liberal
Pentagon Ran a Secret Anti-Vax Campaign to Undermine China at the Height of the Pandemic
The U.S. military ran a secret anti-vaccination campaign at the height of the pandemic in the Philippines and other nations to sow doubt about COVID vaccines made by China, according to a new investigation by Reuters. The clandestine Pentagon campaign, which began in 2020 under Donald Trump and continued into mid-2021 after Joe Biden took office, relied on fake social media accounts on multiple platforms to target local populations in Southeast Asia and beyond. The campaign also aimed to discredit masks and test kits made in China. "Within the Pentagon, within Washington, there was this fear that they were going to lose the Philippines" to Chinese influence, says Joel Schectman, one of the Reuters reporters who broke the story. Schectman says that while it's impossible to measure the impact of the propaganda effort, it came at a time when the Chinese-made Sinovac shot was the only one available in the Philippines, making distrust of the vaccine "incredibly harmful."
When will dorky millenial online activists and state sanctioned leftist influencers (i.e., teachers with twink tok accounts) realize they are making the right seem cool?
Think about it: a lot of hate that vegans receive isn't because people are overly hostile to eating vegetables. It's because vegans themselves brand themselves in a negative light: emotional, effeminate, weak, etc. Additionally, many younger people will naturally rebel against the professed values of the generation ahead of them. When will those who vehemently consider themselves part of the left realize they're actually helping to boost those they claim to oppose?
For context: pic related openly admits to being a cuck and gets offended if you don't praise him for it
9/11 - Year of the Retroded Edition
Kermit the frog caused 9/11. In the 2002 TV film "It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie", there's a part where an angel shows Kermit an alternate reality where he was never born. For whatever reason, the editors didn't really think about it, and continued to use footage with the twin towers still standing for this scene, however they aren't there in his original universe. Therefore, something that Kermit did in his life, did in fact cause 9/11 in Muppet lore.
Assange is out
It's a very odd deal.The criminal Biden admin is letting Assange go in exchange for a guilty plea.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2024/06/the-happiest-of-days/
War on the homeless: Red states asking daddy Supreme Court to help criminalize public homelessness
The US Supreme court has decided to hear the case, fueling speculation they will side with those wanting to criminalize public homelessness.With the approval of the California governor as well.
This recently came to a head in Grants Pass Oregon, a small Republican county with almost 2% homelessness. Their approach so far was over 500 criminal citations being given to their homeless for sleeping in parks until a circuit court stopped Grants Pass from issuing further citations. Now Grants Pass is asking the supreme court to give explicit permission to all states to criminalize public homelessness.
https://apnews.com/article/grants-pass-oregon-supreme-court-homeless-encampments-a8dcddb518bd76b11d409666c06701b8
The DOJ disagrees however, stating “Regardless of any future Supreme Court ruling, the law” is clear that “officers lack reasonable suspicion to stop people for merely sleeping on public property when they have nowhere else to sleep,” in a criminal complaint against Phoenix Arizona's treatment of the homeless. https://prospect.org/justice/2024-06-20-scotus-homelessness-doj-war-on-poor-phoenix/
The subreddit r/SanFrancisco is also celebrating the possibility of public homelessness being illegal.
https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/1cale76/supreme_court_likely_to_side_with_grants_pass_on/
What is your take on this /leftypol/? The war on the homeless is in full swing.
Be honest…
Has your life gotten materially better or worse since this faggot supposedly got elected.?
papers please
https://farside.link/invidious/watch?v=vTzVSNfaGvsThis guy did a decent video, on an attempt at introducing a internet ID-law
<government ID for accessing a website (initially porn-sites).
It's hiding behind deceptive legislative speak.
<think of the children while we attack your civil liberties
Big tech companies apparently are supporting this.
<so it might spread to other parts of the internet as well
Obviously none of these people really care about the welfare of children, or else we'd be living in a very different world. They might be targeting porn because they think it's a way to get a foot in the door for an ID-access-wall. Or they might actually be trying to identify people's porn habits in order to facilitate discrimination based on sexuality. Even if that's not the intention right now, it'll definitely be the result. We don't live in a dark age theocratic society where the church regulates sex, because it's currently not possible. All the puritanical bullshit will come flooding back the moment it becomes possible. Every ruling class seeks to control sex.
The Internet ID stuff will get hacked so even if you're a gullible fool that believes in this.
<think of all the identity theft
Obviously there will always be a technical way to bypass this, which means that it would also be an incentive for people to level up their tech skills. Even if most people end up doing that and this flops, it's still dystopian nightmare fuel that somebody is trying to make this happen.
Obviously online ID verification is not compatible with either privacy or freedom of expression.
It's a lever for governments to track or censor people based on their ID-logins. In principle it shouldn't be possible to make these laws in the first place because they're not compatible with legal-root-documents (US-constitution/bill of rights for example) in most countries.
There are a surprising amount of stateless people that can't get IDs, it would be beyond cruel to cut these people off.
Maybe it's time to abolish IDs altogether. It certainly was useful for the analog-age but maybe not for the digital age. It's not difficult to make all the public services function without identifying people. (I have thought this through and will elaborate on request)
—
We still should answer the question about brotecting the children, even if this is not related to this topic.
There would be foundational questions
should children be separated from adults ?
<Whats the evidence pro and contra ?
Shouldn't this be the responsibility of the parents ?
<Like setting up parental control systems, and paying attention what children do online.
Should we bring back offline childhood ?
<No screens until 6yrs
<Only LAN-parties until 12yrs
<Should we give children a computer with a very simple "retro" architecture ?
Simple computers are not capable of doing anything that could harm children, so there is no need to shackle it in any way, so it'll be a fun toy that gets played with not a boring educational prop that ends up in a drawer. It should still be capable enough to teach children the fundamentals of computing.
For example something like this
https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/Commander_X16
https://www.commanderx16.com/
(I'm not knowledgeable about retro computing, and I'm linking this project because it's the only one i know about)
Are the neocons incompent ?
I'm asking my self whether or not the neocons are nothing but blood-dripping salesmen for the arms-industry, and all their ideological stuff is foolishness.I'm not looking for cheap shots, like proving they never achieve their stated goals like "winning the war on terror". Just assume it's part of their strategy to lie about their true goals.
I used to think that they were both effective at generating profits for the arms industry and also furthering US imperial power. But I don't think that anymore.
For example the wars in the middle east caused something like a war-chaos-belt that separated Europe from Asia and prevented the formation of "Ꭼurꭺsian" (loaded term) economic integration that could potentially become an economic block that would be many times more powerful than the US. So in that sense you could look at the failed wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and so on as somewhat effective at maintaining US hegemonic power.
But it turns out that it wasn't the case. The conclusion that most analysts are drawing now is that the US wasted a bunch of time and effort fucking up the Arabs. And was nothing but a distraction that allowed China to grow into an economic powerhouse that is now more or less untouchable for the foreseeable future.
The Ukraine crisis again follows a similar structure, it seemed like a viable way to separate Russian-German economic cooperation by creating a trade-disrupting war-zone and political-capital for economic separation, so that economic integration may not lead to a Russo-European economic block that would have been more powerful than the US.
But it turns out that this wasn't the case either. The result of the Ukraine crisis is:
Sino-Russian economic integration. Which might lead to the formation of a much more powerful economic block than the Russo-European one. But the consequences don't stop at undoing the Sino-Soviet split. It also has killed the economic power of Europe which means that a potential Trꭺnsatlꭿntiꮸ (loaded term) economic block is much weaker now.
But wait their is more, It has caused a substantial loss in diplomatic power that is undoing the western sway over Africa and India. The US has also lost it's power to direct Saudi-oil-production, and the US-dollar as reserve currency is loosing more ground in international trade, which will have direct implications of limiting US military spending in the not so distant future.
In case the NAFO-gang wants to dispute that the Ukraine-crisis was manufactured by the neocons, then it changes nothing about my argument that what ever the neocons did do, was ineffective at furthering the goals of US hegemony. So please don't turn this thread into a who-done-it Ukraine-debate.
Further consequences are that the divisions in Nato are growing and a Nato dissolution might be the outcome of that. The Trꭺnsatlꭿntiꮸ alliance now comes with an extremely steep economic penalty for Europe, which makes it's future rather questionable as well. I've never seen civilizations not organize them selves around the most economical source of energy. That is an extremely steep hill to climb.
kill social justice persons
there is not one reason why i should help them or make their life easier. they generalize and exagerate about every government on earth ever. they lie through their teeth as natural as as they breath. they take advantage of the progressive zeitgeist that happen in society. they take advantage of everybody lying about nation/tribe/etc that are againts the libtard view of the world. they take advantage of people not caring but still having the drive to bully the non-"""normie""" part of society. not a single healthy society from the stone age up to now allow them to speak. THEY SHOULD BE ROPED!!!! when we have a new hammer&sickle revolution they should- no- MUST! THEY MUST BE ROPED!!!!
Saudi Arabia ditches the petrodollar
So, Saudi Arabia is ditching the prtodollar. Isn't that wild?What does /leftypol/ make of this one?
Thoughts? Feelings? What's going on?
society of the deed
Our society is organized by identity. We have systems that recognize somebodies identity and that grants/denies access to powers and resources. While that mostly works, we might be able to do better. I propose as an alternative that we organize around deeds instead, and have systems recognize actions rather than identities.History of identities
Early tribal societies used identities and lineages to prevent inbreeding. In slave societies identity was used to keep track of slaves. And in feudal societies identities were used to attach hereditary political power to people. Identity also served persecution alot, for example: which hunting, or in ww2 the Nazis holocausting the Jews. States use identity to attempt to conscript-nap people and force them to wage wars.
Anonymity
This is what enabled many slaves to free them selves. It is what enabled many Jews to evade the extermination camps. It also is necessary for democracy, because votes have to be anonymous in order to prevent coerced votes. Anonymity became a political value during the beginning of the bourgeois revolutions, and are conceptually based on early cities where masses of people had to cooperate without being able to know everybody.
examples for proof of deed, recognize action instead of identity
We already use some systems that recognize action but not identity. For example when you buy a ticket for amusement rides, the ticket grants you access by proving that you payed for the ride, and there is no need to recognize your identity. Voting systems can also work entirely without identity, people vote anonymously, then stick their thumb into a die that stains the skin for a few days and prevents voting more than once.
Political intentions
Proof of deed systems are better at enabling rewards for beneficial actions, while proof of identity systems skew a lot more towards punishment. Proof of deed systems are less easily abused for persecution. Identities also get abused to establish aristocratic domination (privilege for me and burden for thee). So less persecution, more fairness and motivation by the carrot rather than the stick.
A society of the deed would be anonymous safe for interpersonal relations, and perhaps counter-intuitively also more orderly, since it operates on actions directly. One would have to try it out to know for sure.
technical considerations
Proof of Identity systems have a tendency to fall for the bio-metrics scam. When the Bio-metric identification security features get defeated. There is no simple and cheap fix, like changing the combination on a lock or getting a new set of keys. People can't change their biological features and so it requires replacing the hole system. Proof of deed systems are less likely to fall for that cyclical bio-metrics churn.
Obviously we would have to experiment with action-recognition and proof of deed on a small scale, something where the stakes are low and failure is an option, Maybe some kind of website or video game might do. I'm looking for suggestions.
What are we to do with the ever-increasing agespan of adolescence?
This is a serious problem in the first and second world.
Why is it normalised to waste away your teens and twenties (AND THIRTIES!!!) in quiet despair and zero technical skills?
Generation X and Millennials have normalised mediocrity in youth.
They even say worldly exposure/attributes in youth are elitist.
Them vs. U.S.: The Two Americas* and How the Nation’s Elite Is Out of Touch with Average Americans
https://committeetounleashprosperity.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Them-vs-Us_CTUP-Rasmussen-Study-FINAL.pdfThe survey is a first-of-its-kind look at the views of the American Elite – defined as people having at least one post-graduate degree, earning at least $150,000 annually, and living in high-population density areas (more than 10,000 people per square mile in their zip code) – and compares them to what the average American thinks. The Elites represent 1% of the U.S. population but have an outsized voice on public policy in the United States, with their views seeming somehow to dominate the national conversation. This may be because it is the Elites themselves who determine what that conversation will be about on campus, in the legacy media, and corporate board rooms. Not surprisingly, these people talk about politics far more than most Americans. The data show that nearly a third of them (30%) talk about politics daily or almost every day. Just 9% of the voting public do. It is worth noting that members of the Elites who talk about politics daily have views that are even further removed from the opinions of the voting public. This is true even when the Elites self-identify as Republicans. They typically may be more conservative than Elite Democrats but they still have attitudes and opinions that are far removed from those of the typical American voter. The Elite class – regardless of party – is an exclusive club that sees and experiences America through a different lens than ordinary Americans.
These results confirm what people have long suspected: today, there are two Americas. One is wealthier, more highly educated, and attended the best schools. They put much more trust in big government “to do the right thing” and, by their own admission, benefit from more expansive government policies. They have also been hurt far less by the high inflation of the Biden presidency than those who live from paycheck to paycheck and are in the lower and middle classes.
This Grand Canyon-sized chasm between where every day Americans stand on the state of the country, expanding government power, draconian climate change solutions, and Joe Biden’s job performance may partly explain the Donald Trump phenomenon and his high approval ratings among working-class voters, who feel wholly connected with the rebellion against the arrogance of the ruling class Elites.
(If you want to see how a pro does class analysis, see “The Idea That the Republicans Can Become “The Party of The Working Class” Is Beyond Absurd.” The Bearded One’s starting point: “the identity of revenues and sources of revenue” (to simplify: wages? capital? salary? rent?). The CUPS staff and Rasmussen use income and credentials — a reasonable proxy to separate the working class from the PMC, but totally incapable of sorting for capital (and that’s not a bug, but a feature). Now, as far as cultural and political markers go, Rasmussen is useful. But never forget that its analysis is structurally flawed (and as this circulates out into the Republican FlexNet, watch for it. Of course, the Democrats don’t even have anything this good, being consumed by identity politics, designed to erase class even more thoroughly than Rasmussen did). Handy chart:
Collapse of Atlanta water system continues for third day
Kevin Reed06/03/2024
The collapse of the water infrastructure in Atlanta, Georgia, that began on Friday and left a large section of the city without any water expanded on Sunday with two more ruptures being investigated by water department officials.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported Sunday that the water department warned residents and businesses near Euclid and North Avenues northeast of downtown and near 1190 Atlantic Drive NW north of downtown. It said that they will likely “experience the kinds of disruptions that have plagued Atlanta since the first water main break was discovered Friday.”
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens declared a state of emergency in the city at a press conference on Saturday night after the massive disruption of water service resulted in a boil water advisory from the City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management. Dickens said the city was “working around the clock to bring us safe drinking water in the city of Atlanta.”
The water main collapse that shut down water service in all of downtown Atlanta began after corroded 48-inch and 36-inch pipes burst sometime on Friday at an intersection of three primary water lines in the city. The City of Atlanta released a map showing a large area across the city that has been impacted by the collapse.
Hours went by before the city made any announcements about what was happening or when the water would be restored. The city’s Water Service Interruptions Map identifies the locations where the breaks occurred and simply says, “Crews are investigating a potential water main break …” with no further information.
The water main failure impacted Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Fulton County and Atlanta government facilities and the Mercedes-Benz Stadium and the State Farm Arena. High-rise apartment buildings were also left with no water pressure.
Businesses were forced to close their doors or reduce their services on what would have been a busy Saturday in the city. Major events, including concerts and sporting events, were canceled, and hotel guests were forced to use bottled water in their rooms or check out early.
Business owner Emily Chan told Rough Draft Atlanta, “As a business with a City of Atlanta Watershed account, we have received ZERO emails, texts, or communications. We have only received communication via social media posts that people have shared.”
Emory University Hospital Midtown told news media on Saturday that it was forced to move patients and divert ambulances due to the crisis. A Journal Constitution report said, “The situation grew so serious by Saturday afternoon, that the hospital—which has about 500 patients hospitalized—doesn’t even have enough water pressure to flush toilets and is forced to rely on bottled water for all water needs.”
Dr. Adam Webb, chief operating officer of Emory Midtown, said, “Health care is challenging enough to care for patients in a hospital and when you add to that, not having water, not being able to flush toilets and other things. Things that are an annoyance at home are really a true challenge and make the job that much more complex.”
Ten patients who need dialysis—a process that depends on water pressure—have been transferred to other Emory hospitals for treatment.
City residents were outraged at the failure of the system and the lack of information coming from the city about the crisis. Posts by residents on the Atlanta Department of Watershed Management page exposed both the government’s lack of response and the negligence behind the collapse.
Kelly Hughes posted, “This is what happens when you fail to maintain the infrastructure and keep adding new users to an existing system. Increasing water pressure to try and keep up with new buildings was a sure fire way to start causing problems … we’ve been complaining for YEARS about this issue only to be ignored by the city Gov’t.”
Responding to the appalling response to the crisis by the city, Jessica James commented on Sunday, “How are we expecting families still without water to be able to flush their toilets, cook, and stay hydrated with a single case of water? Are we providing flushing water in addition to the case of drinking water? I am grateful my water is back on, but there are residents [who] have been without running water since Friday morning and continue to not having running water. Clean drinking water is important but not the only function of indoor plumbing!”
Katie Robertson added, “What is the plan for these 80-year-old pipes? They only last 53 years! Why are they not replaced and maintained? You are wasting water and money on these breaks. Roll up your sleeves and get to work on a solution for the long run not a band-aid.”
The failure of the water system in Atlanta is the latest in a growing series of events across the US that expose the decrepit condition of the infrastructure and refusal of the ruling political establishment and corporate elite to do anything about it. It follows the collapse of the water system in Jackson, Mississippi, after storm-related flooding, and the crisis in Flint, Michigan, in which thousands of adults and chlidren were poisoned by lead in the water.
Essential services such as water and electricity are failing at an increasing rate due to the lack of resources made available to upgrade the systems which are in some cases a century old or older. For the ruling class, committing time and money to modernize these systems is a diversion of resources from the accumulation of personal wealth and vast fortunes. Meanwhile, any work that will be done to repair the systems will be paid for by the public in the form of service rate and tax increases. It will not come out of the pockets of the rich.
In the case of Atlanta, the original water infrastructure dates to 1875 when the city had 22,000 people. The 36-inch water mains were first installed in 1907, and the 48-inch mains were built in 1924. According to a report published in 2018 on Atlanta’s aging water infrastructure, “the city’s water mains were renewed with a cement liner in the 1950s,” but they have “far exceeded their design life.”
Despite these well-known facts, little has been done to address the problem. In 2018, the city announced a paltry $300 million Water Supply Program to upgrade the city’s water infrastructure. So far, the only project worked on is a multi-year five-mile, 10-foot diameter conveyance line, and the conversion of an abandoned quarry into a reservoir.
As the water system has continued to crumble over decades, Atlanta has become a destination for the financial elite. Atlanta is among a handful of US cities, such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Dallas, where billionaires live.
There are 13 billionaires living in Atlanta, including Jim Kennedy (net worth $8.2 billion), inheritor of Cox Communications; Dan and Bubba Cathy of Chick-fil-A (combined net worth $8.3 billion); and Arthur Blank (net worth $7 billion), co-founder of Home Depot and owner of the NFL Atlanta Falcons. Meanwhile, Atlanta also has some of the nations wealthiest neighborhoods, such as Tuxedo Park, where median home values are $3.7 billion.
The collapse of the water system is part of the aging infrastructure throughout the US. According to statistics in a 2023 study from Utah State University, 260,000 water main breaks in the US and Canada cost $2.6 billion each year. The study said that 33 percent of US and Canadian water mains are more than 50 years old.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/06/03/cuoe-j03.html
Leftypedia – The Radical Encyclopedia
We are Leftypedia, a socialist and left-wing online encyclopedia.If you’re a leftist of any kind or considering becoming one, you’ve probably found truthful information about socialist ideologies and movements from websites like Wikipedia lacking at best.
These days, genuine leftist ideology can be hard to get into and learn about, between the toxic culture that dominates online leftist spaces and the many issues faced by even offline socialist organizations. Reading theory-dense works from Marx can be hard at first, and the easily-accessible guides targeted at beginners often don’t even understand the work their talking about themselves!
So, what’s the solution?
A dedicated socialist resource, like Leftypedia.
We aspire for new leftists to be given an environment where original discourse is encouraged on top of sourced and informative encyclopedic articles
Since our beginning in 2019, we have hundreds of articles, dozens of editors, and a growing community and base of content.
We’re well on our way of reaching our goals, and welcome any leftist or incoming-leftist to view and editor our articles, carry out original discourse, and so on!
Website:
wiki.leftypol.org
Research: old /leftypol/
What made old /leftypol/ good?Pull examples from the archives, the booru, wherever and whatever. Hell, even just tell a story.
Was it the PDFs? Was it the artists making memes? Was it people's willingness to repost them? Was it the raids and antics? Was it the people who brought esoteric niche history and theory to light? Was it the crazy Trump election drama and racial uprisings in the US? Was it the proximity to all kinds of communities, with all of 8ch coming in to give their shit opinions and getting dogpilled into submission?
Do you fags realize that one of top reasons that Americans are afraid to even entertain the idea of a revolution, is that they think the people would have to fight against "modern weapons that the military and police would have"?
I mean regardless of whether or not you agree with that argument, the average amerifat thinks that if there's an uprising, the people would have to fight picrel.
What do you have to say to those people?
y no gamming bribery system ?
From a current unrest happening in Georgia, never mind the local politics, no idea what that is about, just examine the bribery controle mechanisms>Foreign aid agencies and their local NGO contractors have long colonized most areas of public policy and services—education, healthcare, court reform, rural development, infrastructure, etc.
>The Georgian NGOs that are given grants to implement this work may be local, but they hold considerable power over the Georgian population. This power comes from their access to Western embassies and resources and the legitimacy this conveys rather than from grassroots support. In a functional democracy, the people elect lawmakers and the executive to serve them and represent their interests. In Georgia, unelected NGOs get their mandate from international bodies, which draw up and pay for to-do lists of policy reforms for Georgia. Local NGOs lack an incentive to consider the impact of the projects they implement because they are not accountable to the citizens in whose lives they play such an intrusive role.
>In this ecosystem, it is rare to find someone who genuinely cares about people and their well-being. The local NGO landscape is a deeply competitive sector that incentivizes sharp elbows, self-promotion, and duplication rather than collaboration, let alone solidarity. For many industry professionals, working in an NGO is a fast track to high incomes, perks like foreign travel and embassy receptions, and being part of the elite.
https://lefteast.org/unrest-georgia-foreign-influence-transparency-law/
This sounds very complicated, don't focus on the technical terminology like NGO, it's a word that just means an organization of people, and it's not what this is about. I'm sure there's lots of NGOs that do good.
The underlying thing is just a mechanism of gaining controle via bribes, that stuff is ancient and doesn't care about political forms.
I always wondered why people aren't gaming the bribe mechanism ?
Like take the bribes and use it for something else.
If enough people took bribes without doing what they were bribed to do, bribes would stop working.
Even if every person who did that got black-listed after a single "bribe-malfunction" there's just too many people.
Is this a cultural problem?
The honorable thing for honest people is to refuse bribe offers, which gives the briber information which people can be moved with bribes and which can't. If the honor-rule was different and everybody has to accept bribes, but the honorable people are required to hand over the bribe to a democratic community fund. Bribes would become very ineffective
The Wolff is in
New Global Capitalism updateSempai talks about how the world is moving on from the US dollar.
https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=WcI4XQA5nzA
EVERYBODY GET IN HERE
President of Iran 'missing' in helicopter crash in Azerbaijan
President Raisi’s helicopter crashes in Iran: What we know so farA helicopter carrying Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and the foreign minister crashed while travelling back from East Azerbaijan.
The world is watching as Iran mobilises emergency crews to search for President Ebrahim Raisi, whose helicopter – which was travelling in a convoy – went down in a remote area near Jolfa in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province.
He was returning from Iran’s border with Azerbaijan, where he and the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had inaugurated a cooperative dam project, the latest sign of warming relations between the two countries. Twenty rescue teams and drones have been sent to the area where the helicopter came down.
Information is slowly emerging on this incident, but here is what we know so far.
…
Travelling with Ebrahim Raisi were Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s East Azerbaijan Province Governor Malek Rahmati, and Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Ale-Hashem, the representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to East Azerbaijan, according to state media.
Did all three helicopters disappear?
No, two of the three helicopters in the president’s convoy made it back safely to the city of Tabriz.
Energy Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian and Housing and Transportation Minister Mehrdad Bazrpash were in the helicopters that made it back safely.
Who’s in charge in Iran while the president is missing?
Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, 69, will assume power in Raisi’s absence or while he recovers, should that be needed.
The head of the trustees charged with overseeing the execution of Ayatollah Khamenei’s orders since 2007, Mokhber holds a PhD in international law.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/19/president-raisis-helicopter-crashed-in-iran-what-we-know-so-far
FIRE General Thread
Let's get a general thread about FIRE (Finance, Insurance, Real Estate). Include topics about crypto as well.
great power tug
I'm trying to find a scale to measure the "power tug". I'm analyzing the recent conflict in Ukraine in order to do that:<The imperial bourgeoisie in the US won Round 1 in the ukro-war, because they managed to manufacture a war right on Russia's door-step that Russia didn't want and failed to prevent.
<The Russian Federation however won Round 2, they proved that Russia still is a super power that can destroy a sizable country without major consequences to it self, and that the US can neither cripple their economy via econ-war, nor exhaust their military resources via proxy-war.
Ukraine is now more or less a destroyed country, that's what loosing a war means, Russia basically is undamaged (bar a few scuffs in some border towns) just in case anybody is confused.
<The US has, on balance, lost this geopolitical battle because it did not achieve it's primary goal of imposing another 1990s neo-liberal shock doctrine on Russia or outright balkanizing the Russian federation into subservient ethno-nationalist vassal-states.
<However the US still has to be considered more powerful because Russia wasn't able to frustrate US attempts at manufacturing this war.
If you're a glowy or a nato-media-brain and want to complain about my framing of the Ukraine war please do so in the Ukraine thread
If we apply this scale for the next power tug in Asia.
The question becomes whether China is powerful enough to frustrate US attempts at creating a Taiwan-war with a similar pattern. China is certainly more powerful than Russia, but is it powerful enough ?
I would say that there are 2 levels of preventing a Taiwan war.
The golden path is an expression of pure diplomatic power like how China changed Saudi-Arabia's geopolitical status from US Oil-Vassal to mostly neutral. If this comes to pass and Taiwan gets "diplomatized" the age of imperialism ends bloodlessly and unceremoniously with nothing but a cacophony of corporate media seething.
The silver path is where China undoes US political influence with a sea-blockade of Taiwan. All Taiwanese trade would be diverted through China where they can screen out US military logistics which would render a Taiwan-war impossible without hindering commercial trade too much. If this comes to pass it won't be as smooth. Taiwan would likely have internal political instability like in Hong Kong a few years ago. The US would likely try to poke holes into the sea blockade, so there could be a few naval skirmishes as well. The US would also try to fuck with Chinese trade routes. So a bumpy ride all around but the age of imperialism still ends without a big slaughter fest, which is nothing to sneeze at.
There are unknowns, China could have found geopolitical pressure points elsewhere in the world that might give them enough leverage to force the US to back off, but that's entirely speculative.
Boeing 737-300 catches fire on runway in Senegal, injures 10
A Boeing 737-300, attempting to take off from Blaise Diagne International Airport in Dakar, Senegal, caught fire and skidded off the runway on Wednesday evening. Of the 85 passengers and crew on the Air Sénégal Flight HC301, 10 were injured, including the pilot, according to the Transport Minister El Malick Ndiaye.All were immediately rushed to a nearby hospital, with four in critical condition.
The flight was operated by TransAir, a regional airline based in Senegal that provides service from Senegal’s capital of Dakar to as far south as Brazzaville, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. HC301 was headed to Bamako, the capital of Mali.
TransAir’s fleet consists of Embraer ERJ-145, Embraer EMB-120, Beechcraft 1900C jetliners, in addition to the Boeing 737-300. The 737-300 “Classic” is one of Boeing’s oldest operating planes. Its development began in 1979 and first began operations in 1984. The aerospace giant made 1,113 of the planes during its production run, which lasted from 1981-1999.
While no further information has been released from the Senegalese government as to the immediate cause of the fire, it is likely that the sheer age of the aircraft played a role. The 737-300, -400 and -500 aircraft have also some of the company’s most accident-prone designs. Boeing’s own data in a report from September 2023 shows that the aircraft series has suffered 62 “hull losses,” where the plane was unrecoverable, of which 20 resulted in fatalities.
The older 737 models stand alongside the 737 MAX as among the most deadly commercial airplanes currently flown. Two crashes of the 737 MAX-8 in October 2018 and March 2019 killed a combined total of 346 passengers and crew, the direct result of Boeing executives pushing for a new aircraft to bring to market while ignoring numerous known safety issues. To date, no executives or senior leadership have been charged for the deaths.
The same day of the fire in Senegal, another Boeing plane, a 767 model, was forced to land without its landing gear in Istanbul, Turkey. The plane was a freight variant operated by FedEx that was coming from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. The pilot reported to air traffic control that the landing gear had not deployed and was instructed to land without them while emergency vehicles stood by.
There were no reported injuries, though the pilot was forced to leave the plane via the cockpit’s window.
Another accident occurred in Turkey on Thursday, when a tire burst on one of Boeing’s 737-800 aircraft. The plane was coming from Cologne, Germany and landed at Gazipasa Airport, near the coastal town of Alanya, Turkey. It was carrying 184 passengers and six crew, none of whom were injured.
These new incidents of Boeing’s aircraft failures are only the latest in a series of other accidents and near disasters this year that began in January with the door blowout of a US-based Boeing 737 MAX 9 flight shortly after takeoff. The company is currently under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) for faulty production, quality and safety practices, as well as a criminal investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Since then, there have been more than a dozen different reported incidents on Boeing planes this year, including engines catching fire, panels falling off and a “technical event” on a 787 Dreamliner headed to New Zealand which saw the plane unexpectedly nosedive. Paramedics treated 50 people after the plane landed, and four had to be rushed to a hospital.
Given the latest string of accidents, it is only a matter of time before more people are killed on Boeing planes, repeating or exceeding the tragedies of the two 737 MAX 8 crashes in 2018 and 2019.
Boeing has faced a slew of whistleblowers coming forward about internal safety and quality failures, both at Boeing and its main supplier, Spirit AeroSystems.
The most recent is Santiago Paredes, a former quality manager for Spirit who worked for about 10 years doing final inspections of the fuselages for 737 aircraft before they were shipped to Boeing.
In an interview with “CBS News,” Paredes described how he was finding hundreds of defects every day. “It was very rare for us to look at a job and not find any defects.” He was pejoratively nicknamed “Showstopper” by management and asked to be less specific in his reports to stop production delays. Many of the issues he found were in the same area of the January door blowout.
“I was put in a place where I had, if I say, no, I was gonna get fired,” Paredes told “CBS News.” “If I say yes, I was admitting that I was gonna do something wrong.” He was eventually stripped of his team leadership role and then resigned in 2022.
The drive to increase production reported by Paredes mirrors comments from other Boeing whistleblowers about the internal culture of the company.
Boeing whistleblower Sam Salehpour testified before Congress in April, asserting that Boeing is knowingly “putting out defective airplanes.”
The company’s response to Salehpour’s attempts to correct the issues internally was retaliation and threats of violence. He testified, “I was told to ‘shut up,’ I was sidelined, I received physical threats.” He continued, “My boss said, ‘I would have killed someone who said what you said in a meeting.’”
Salehpour was testifying on the safety of the Boeing 777 “Triple Seven” and 787 Dreamliner aircraft. All told, the 737, 767, 777, and 787 aircraft lines are the vast majority of Boeing’s commercial airlines currently in service, and all have seen safety and quality issues.
In addition to Paredes and Salehpour, two other Boeing whistleblowers were in the process of exposing the ongoing and dangerous practices within the company and are now dead.
John Barnett, 62, was a Boeing quality manager who was forced out in 2017. He was slated to give a third day of testimony in a civil lawsuit against Boeing about his attempts to correct Boeing’s ongoing defects, when he was found dead on March 9 in a hotel parking lot in Charleston, South Carolina.
Barnett had raised serious concerns about the production of the 787 Dreamliner. Initial reports from the coroner declared his death was self-inflicted, but it has emerged from close family friends and family members that Barnett warned, “If anything happens to me, it’s not suicide.”
A Spirit Aerosystems whistleblower, Joshua Dean, 45, died last week after a sudden illness in which he was hospitalized and intubated. Dean had been a quality auditor for Spirit and was in the middle of a deposition alleging “serious and gross misconduct by senior quality management of the 737 production line.” Dean had reportedly been in good health and having a healthy lifestyle in the lead-up to his death.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/05/11/ulpe-m11.html
Liberals OUT, bourgeois OUT, royalists OUT, fascists OUT, moralists OUT OUT OUT
I keep running into a particularly insidious type of revisionism. The "Think of the Children!" revisionism. It is stated repeatedly by disguised fascists, royalists, and liberals larping as communists on our board and misusing the concept of empathy that ruling class children can be reeducated, and, failing that, sent to a labor camp. Let me be perfectly clear. The brats of the petit bourgeoisie, of the bourgeoisie, and of the aristocracy cannot be "rehabilitated" or "reeducated" under any circumstances. They must all be liquidated alongside their inbred pedophile worker-hating parents. It is not the duty of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat to waste precious and limited resources attempting to coddle and reeducate children who in 99.9…% of circumstances will grow up to be precisely like their parents, to secretly harbor counter-revolutionary opinions, and collaborate amongst themselves to foment bourgeois counter-revolution. I don't care if they're in diapers. You put a bullet in their fucking head. Morality is not real. It is a theistic bourgeois construct regarding property relations. It does not matter if this is "good" or "bad." You put the bullet in the bourgeois baby's brain or he will grow up to kill you and everyone you love and destroy everything you fought for. Do you understand? If not, you are a liberal, a fascist, a royalist, and you ought to be hung by your genitals from the nearest lamp post. You are not a comrade, you are a coward, and vermin, to be exterminated alongside the ruling class, their children, their pets, and their lickspittle servants. This isn't a question of "nurture vs nature" either. This is a question of risk mitigation and victory maximization. I am not "weird" or a "freak" or "hate children" for understanding this. Take heed this quote from Mark Twain (Who, despite being a feckless bourgeois 19th century liberal, was perfectly capable of understanding the need for Revolutionary Terror):>“THERE were two “Reigns of Terror,” if we would but remember it and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon ten thousand persons, the other upon a hundred millions; but our shudders are all for the “horrors” of the minor Terror, the momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe, compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty, and heart-break? What is swift death by lightning compared with death by slow fire at the stake? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief Terror which we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror—that unspeakably bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.”
When the time comes, I don't care if it's your local laundromat owner. I don't care if it's a guy running a hot dog stand. He is bourgeois. You will execute the entire family, or you will be executed along side them. The pets, the maids, doesn't matter. Kill. Kill. Kil
neo-repression with precrime
An article on NC that is chronicling the new methods of repression for the purpose of silencing criticism.https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/05/stasi-in-the-west.html
Give it a read if you can stomach some more existential dread and can forgive mild anti-soviet rhetoric.
<The governments across the West are increasingly turning to systems in efforts to silence criticism of the ruling class policies – from unpopular wars and climate change inaction to plunder and eugenic public health policies.
<A few quick notes before the rundown of the new laws and reporting systems. A neat trick by making it appear as if these laws are anti-hate is that opposition to them can be dismissed as pro-hate. In reality, the issue really has nothing to do with hate, but is more a question of free speech.
<The problem is that the definition of bias or hate is incredibly slippery and is often just any speech that the powers that be don’t want to hear. It can range from an “offensive” joke to criticism of Israeli policy. We now have concrete examples of exactly how it could be abused as Canada works to enact a precrime law that would punish individuals accused of hate incidents before they (in theory) commit a hate crime.
<What to make of all this?
<One possibility is that Western governments are aware that the moment of their relative decline is here, and they plan to revert to more overt forms of colonialism wherever possible around the world. At the same time, the Western ruling class plans to double down on its plunder at home. In both cases, more authoritarian measures will be necessary to silence critics.
Where the article falls short is a material analysis. I get the impression that this is some kind of end-stage imperialism. And the mad dash towards implementing all those draconian anti democratic population bully mechanisms, is the upper echelons of the imperial bourgeoisie trying to convert western societies into a blunt instrument to hold on to their imperial super-profits that benefit them first and foremost.
For context Ben Norton has made a video where he describes the effects of De-Dollarisation.
https://farside.link/invidious/watch?v=jYkiMcR1Rj8
Long story short: The people on the bottom of society in the west loose some wealth in the short run and make moderate gains in the medium term, but the upper echelons of the imperial bourgeoisie gets decimated.
I'm wondering how this will develop over time. Will the decline of empire, also bring a decline in political repression ?
My hypothesis goes as follows: they use imperial super-profits to fund repression at home. The shrinking imperial revenue also shrinks the budgets for repression. Or am i being naive here ?
Israel 'at war' as Hamas gunmen launch surprise attack from Gaza Thread Pt. III
Continued from >>477700Updates since the start of the last thread:
The (largely civilian) Palestinian death toll has now passed 31,000.
The US Senate, with Biden's support, passed a bill to authorize more than $14,000,000,000 in military aid to Israel.
The International Court of Justice made an interim ruling in South Africa's favor in their case accusing Israel of genocidal acts in Gaza, deeming it plausible, Nicaragua signed on to the case.
Houthi rebels in Yemen have attacked cargo ships in the Red Sea in an attempt to disrupt the supply line of Israel's ongoing carpet bombing campaign against Gaza, resulting in the sinking of the Rubymar. The Biden admin has responded to the Houthis with a retaliatory bombing campaign, killing multiple fighters and at least one civilian. An attack on the True Confidence in March then yielded the first 3 civilian casualties of Houthi attacks.
Trade unionists in Scotland and England have blockaded major UK arms factories.
Canada, Australia, and the EU have started to resume funding to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugee aid. Members of the agency have stated that Israel employed torture when interrogating them.
Joe Biden has been sued for complicity in genocide in a US federal court, and so far has only gotten off on a jurisdictional technicality.
Starvation deaths have increased in Gaza amid Israel's imposed famine.
War has continued to spread throughout the region as Israel attacks Lebanon and Syria. Three US soldiers were killed at a base in Jordan as retaliation for US support of Israel's war crimes, and the US retaliated with a renewed bombing campaign against Iraq and Syria.
US airman Aaron Bushnell self-immolated in opposition to US complicity in the Palestinian genocide.
he was right
Mass shootings are passè. Self-immolation is vogue. Just stop being a retard. people like to watch stuff burn
It's so crazy how there has been such a paradigm shift to where the GOP is anti-imperialist.
https://harvardharrispoll.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/HHP_Apr2024_Crosstabs.pdf
y no anti-drugs
I have a conspiracy hypothesis.There are a lot of junkies that have a substance addiction, unable to kick the habit.
Most addictive drugs are complex molecules, that makes them distinct enough that they could be cleared out of the bloodstream via the body's immune function. Something similar to a vaccine would teach the immune system how to do this.
These junkies would get a temporary immunity to a particular drug, that lasts long enough to break the addiction cycle. It wouldn't work on everything, Alcohol for example is addictive but not a complex molecule, and can't safely be immunologicaly targeted. But most Junkies could just be cured by getting a single anti-drug-jab.
I suspect that this direction isn't being vigorously pursued because it would also work against many pill addictions that are making the pharmaceutical industry a lot of money.
What do u think ? Am i on to something ?
Another forbidden topic on leftyogre
So I noticed another topic which is forbidden to discuss on leftyogre. Recently it was revealed that the far-right party AfD in Germany is infiltrated with chinese glowies. Jian Guo is an actual spy of the chinese ministry of state security. Another interesting fact is, that Alice Weidel, a top member of the AfD has lived in China and speaks mandarin. Well guess what, it is forbidden to talk about this on leftyogre. Just mentioning this, will get you banned immediately and the mods will delete your posts.
Finland closes border with Russia indefinitely to block asylum seekers, prepare for war
Finland’s right-wing government announced last week the indefinite closure of its 1,300-kilometre border with Russia. An initial decision had been taken last November by the conservative National Coalition Party (NCP)-led government to temporarily close border crossings after a small number of asylum seekers crossed into Finland from Russia.The four-party coalition government, which includes the far-right Finns Party, is seeking with the move to provoke Russia and demonstrate its determination to clamp down on refugees. After Finland joined NATO last April, becoming the military alliance’s 31st member, its long land border with Russia and close proximity to St. Petersburg transformed Finland into a frontline state in the US-NATO imperialist war on Russia.
Finland’s entry into NATO, following the US-provoked Russian invasion of Ukraine, was overseen by a Social Democrat-led government. Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s coalition lost support due to sweeping attacks on the working class and embrace of pro-war policies, and was defeated in parliamentary elections also held in April 2023. When the NCP unveiled what is widely described as Finland’s most right-wing government since World War II, a central plank of the program was a clampdown on asylum seekers and refugees.
The Finns Party, which has ties to outright fascist forces, has long scapegoated foreigners for the country’s problems.
NCP Prime Minister Petteri Orpo placed the Interior Ministry under the control of the Finns Party. Finns leader Riikka Purra enthused, “I am delighted that together with our negotiating partners we have agreed on an immigration package that can rightly be called a paradigm shift.” Among the measures proposed was a halving of the refugees accepted by Finland from the UN refugee agency from 1,050 to 500 per year, and the creation of lower rates of social welfare for refugees and immigrants. Purra boasted that temporary residency permits for refugees would be “withdrawn if the person is on holiday in their country of origin.”
In the months following the coming to power of the new coalition, from August to December 2023, approximately 1,300 asylum seekers crossed the border from Russia, an increase from an average of one per day before then. Interviews conducted with asylum seekers who successfully made the trek after paying hefty fees to smugglers underscore that they chose the route because it was the easiest way into “fortress Europe,” which, thanks to the European Union’s inhuman refugee policies, has led to the drowning of thousands in the Mediterranean in recent years.
The EU has not only made it virtually impossible to cross safely via the short sea route from north Africa or Turkey, but also funds criminal gangs in Libya and dictatorships like Egypt’s el-Sisi’s to prevent refugees from even attempting to reach the continent.
This did not stop lurid stories in the media, hyped by the international press, about an alleged campaign of “hybrid warfare” directed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The fact that a fascistic party’s programme was being implemented was of no concern to top EU officials like EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
During a meeting in Stockholm with Orpo and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in January, von der Leyen declared, “Most recently, Finland suffered from instrumentalisation of migrants orchestrated by Russia. This is yet another form of hybrid warfare. This requires a clear and determined response. Finland has acted decisively. And you can rely on the European Union to support your efforts.”
The Finnish government’s vicious anti-immigrant programme is combined with savage austerity measures to pay for Finland’s massive military build-up. Orpo is committed to imposing €6 billion in austerity measures during his first term. “We cannot put our heads in the sand. There is no more money,” he claimed last June.
In fact, there is plenty of money for Finland’s military, which completed in 2023 the largest single purchase in its history to acquire 64 F-35 fighter jets from US-based Lockheed Martin, at a cost of €8.4 billion. The purchase drove the 2023 defence budget up by 36 percent year-on-year, the highest single-year increase in over six decades.
Finland’s 2024 defence budget rose by 5 percent from the previous year to about €6.2 billion, or 2.3 percent of its GDP. Given its small size, with a population of 5.5 million, Finland has backed the far-right Ukrainian regime since the US-provoked Russian invasion in February 2022 with a substantial €2.9 billion in support. On April 3, newly elected President Alexander Stubb, who has significant powers over Finland’s foreign policy, signed a long-term bilateral defence agreement with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev. Stubb was elected president in February following a campaign dominated by pro-war, anti-Russia hysteria.
In December 2023, Finland finalised a defence cooperation agreement (DCA) with the United States, which gives Washington unimpeded access to several military bases in Finland and the ability to pre-position military supplies for major operations. This is part of a huge military build-up throughout the Nordic region, all of whose countries are now NATO members. After Sweden formally joined NATO last month, Russia is now confronted with hostile adversaries on all sides in the strategic Baltic Sea.
read more:
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/04/11/chqt-a11.html
Imperialist cuck troopers
Being a soldier in the imperialist army is just a big humiliation ritual designed to break one's spirit.Pics:
>The grey UCP camo pattern US Army issued to troops in the middle east. Looks stupid and obviously does not work as camo. oh yeah and it's made of plastic to make sure it gets really hot and unbearable in the desert
>How US soldiers are taught to stand when shooting their rifle. Very imbalanced and not an effective fighting stance. Self-defeating
>army combat boot. hot, heavy, big heel, literally designed to give knee injuries and twisted ankles. meanwhile the ziomercs are fighting dudes who wear comfy sandals or go barefoot, the correct footwear for the terrain
>medical experimentation and forced muzzling. troops get injected with tons of shit that's not even legal to give to civilians. by the end of their service their health is in ruins.
>boot camp. have to put up with and get yelled at by a loser psychopath while eating shit food and taking no proper rest days. just one big MKULTRA hazing ritual.
Michael Roberts
So I noticed, that leftychan and leftyogre are both promoting on their frontpage, the blog of some guy called Michael Roberts. This means, the mods of leftychan and leftyogre are both in favour of this obscure blogger. Why?
REMEMBER THE RED COSSACKS;REMEMBER RED COSSACKIA
Right-wing Supreme Court majority seems ready to sanction arrest of homeless people for sleeping in public
The Supreme Court majority indicated Monday during oral arguments in City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson that it is likely to overturn a lower court injunction against a local ordinance that allows police to arrest people for sleeping in public, although they have nowhere else to go.
The six right-wing justices who dominate the high court, including the openly corrupt Clarence Thomas—recipient of a $250,000 recreational vehicle that allows him to sleep comfortably while outside his home—showed no empathy for the plight of people who literally cannot afford a roof over their head. Instead, these reactionaries appear willing to approve the arrest of the homeless under the guise of deferring to local officials in matters of “policy.”
The case has been closely watched, especially by local governmental entities, many of which filed “friend of the court” briefs complaining that allowing the injunction to stand would “tie their hands.” There are more than 650,000 unhoused people in the United States, according to a 2023 count by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The homeless population has increased by almost 15 percent since 2007, when HUD began collecting the data, with the growth of homelessness concentrated among older women and military veterans.
Provisions that criminalize extreme poverty harken back to an era of anti-vagrancy laws and debtors’ prisons. As the poet Anatole France famously wrote more than a century ago:
The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal loaves of bread.
Grants Pass, Oregon, with a population 40,000, has a one percent housing vacancy rate, reflecting the severe shortage of affordable units afflicting much of the nation, and an estimated 600 homeless, many of whom are long-time Grants Pass residents. Initially, the city provided bus tickets to ship the homeless out of town, but most soon returned, in many cases with neighboring municipalities providing the return fare.
To force the homeless out of Grants Pass permanently, in 2013 the City Council announced it was enacting prohibitions against sleeping in public, including in cars, with any form of “bedding… for the purpose of maintaining a temporary place to live.” Penalties escalated from a $300 fine to 30 days in jail.
The only alternative to sleeping in public or leaving Grants Pass was a total of 138 beds at Gospel Rescue Mission, where stays were limited to 30 days. Residents were required to attend religious services twice daily and perform hours of chores without pay. They were not allowed to look for outside work while living at the Mission. Disabled people unable to work were ineligible, and no pets were allowed.
Three homeless residents of Grants Pass sued in federal district court, which certified them as class representatives and enjoined enforcement of the statute. The court cited evidence that over a period of seven years, Grants Pass police officers rousted unhoused residents repeatedly, citing them for sleeping outside or in their cars and subjecting them to fines, arrest and criminal prosecution. One plaintiff, who died at age 62 while the case was pending, owed more than $5,000 in fines for sleeping in public.
City officials admitted in depositions that the aggressive enforcement was meant to push the unhoused out of Grants Pass and into “federally managed land” or other locations. Police officers confirmed that people who could show they had a “place to live” and were just napping on a blanket in a park or “stargazing” would not be cited.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which covers the western states, including Oregon, affirmed the injunction, as it had done in 2019 with a similar injunction against Boise, Idaho.
The 1962 Supreme Court decision in Robinson v. California held that the Constitution’s prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment” found in the Eighth Amendment of the Bill of Rights prevents criminalizing someone’s “status”—in that case drug addiction—rather than the person’s conduct. The Ninth Circuit ruled that same principle applies equally to people compelled by circumstances beyond their control to sleep in public.
The callous attitude of the right-wing justices was epitomized by Chief Justice John Roberts, who openly suggested that the Supreme Court—and by extension the entire federal judiciary—should wash its hands of the plight of the unhoused by asking, rhetorically, “Why would you think that these nine people [the members of the Supreme Court] are the best people to judge and weigh those policy judgments?”
Justice Brett Kavanaugh echoed Roberts’ sentiment, stating that the Supreme Court should not “constitutionalize a role for federal judges” in regard to how cities address their homeless. “I think one of the questions is, who takes care of it on the ground,” Kavanaugh said. Ignoring the issue of the constitutional separation of church and state, he continued, “Is it going to be federal judges? Or is it the local jurisdictions working with the non-profits and religious organizations?”
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a religious fundamentalist appointed by Donald Trump, expressed concern whether affirming the Ninth Circuit decision would prevent Grants Pass from arresting the homeless for stealing food or for urinating or defecating in public. Kelsi Brown Corkran, who represented the plaintiffs, assured Barrett that these issues were not part of the injunction.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito rejected the concept that homelessness is a status similar to drug addiction. Alito said that although “status is different from conduct … there are some instances of conduct that are closely tied to status,” and “if homelessness is defined as simply lacking a place to stay in a particular night, they amount to the same thing.”
Justice Neil Gorsuch suggested that people prosecuted for sleeping in public could raise the common law “necessity defense,” a practical impossibility where the law is being used by police officers to harass the unhoused, who generally lack the ability to appear in court and defend themselves.
The three moderate justices spoke in favor of the injunction. “Homelessness is a status,” Justice Elena Kagan said bluntly to the attorney for Grants Pass. “Sleeping is a biological necessity. It’s sort of like breathing. I mean, you could say breathing is conduct, too. But, presumably, you would not think that it’s okay to criminalize breathing in public, and for a homeless person who has no place to go, sleeping in public is kind of like breathing in public.”
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson analogized the law to a hypothetical prohibition against eating in public. Most people would be fine, she said, because “they could just eat at home or in a restaurant,” but some “have to eat in public, because they’re unhoused and they can’t afford to go to a restaurant.”
The sharpest comment came from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who told the lawyer for Grants Pass, “Where do we put them if every city, every village, every town lacks compassion and passes a law identical to this? Where are they supposed to sleep? Are they supposed to kill themselves not sleeping?”
The case raised, according to Kagan, a “super-hard policy problem for all municipalities.” While unmentioned by any justice or attorney, the “policy problem” arises because the fundamental issue is social class, and the Supreme Court, like the local governments that must deal with the unhoused population, are instruments of capitalist rule. A rational and humane society, in other words, a socialist society, would allocate resources to house the entire population, including the aged, infirm and mentally ill.
Monday’s argument demonstrated that social horrors like homelessness cannot be resolved under capitalism. More than a century and a half ago, in Das Kapital, Karl Marx wrote:
Accumulation of wealth at one pole is… at the same time accumulation of misery, agony of toil slavery, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation at the opposite pole.
The simultaneous growth in the United States of the wealth of billionaires and the homeless population confirms Marx’s maxim.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/04/25/ctzl-a25.html
Starmer’s UK Labour Party declares for nuclear war
UK Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer last week declared for the third time that he would, in office, authorise the firing of nuclear missiles.A conversation between Starmer and ITV News Political Correspondent Harry Horton—as Starmer was visiting the BAE Systems shipyard where Britain’s nuclear-armed submarines are built—was chilling. Horton asked, “If Britain was under attack would you be prepared to push the nuclear button… even it means potentially killing millions of people?”
Starmer replied, “The deterrent only works if there is a preparedness to use it—so that is a clear answer to your question.”
With the Conservative government mired in crisis and hated by millions, Labour is expected to win the general election later this year. Starmer’s statement is an essential element of Labour’s pitch to the ruling class that it can be trusted with office, under conditions in which Britain is embroiled in major military conflicts all over the globe.
Significantly, Starmer’s first public confirmation that he would authorise nuclear strikes took place on February 10, 2022. Asked by the BBC whether he would be willing to use nuclear weapons, he replied, “Of course.” This was just 14 days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In January this year, while in Estonia, Starmer answered yes to the same question.
Starmer has since then boasted that Labour is the “party of NATO”, as he has enthusiastically backed every global crime of British imperialism, from the bloody slaughter in Ukraine, to supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza and advanced plans for war against Iran and China.
The Labour leader is one of three senior political figures—including two prime ministers—who have publicly declared over the last decade that they would take actions meaning the end of civilisation.
That they were asked if they would do so was the response of Britain’s ruling class to the election of Starmer’s predecessor as Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, when he hesitated to pledge to launching a nuclear strike.
After winning a general election, a prime minister is privately briefed by a leading military figure and then told to write instructions in a letter to each of the four nuclear-armed submarine commanders, based on the scenario that Britain has been hit by a nuclear bomb and the prime minister is dead. The “letters of last resort” instruct the commanders on whether and when to use nuclear weapons. Since Britain obtained nuclear weapons, following the decision of the Atlee Labour government in 1947, every prime minister has signed these letters.
The destructive power of Britain’s arsenal is staggering. Each of the four Trident submarines carries 40 nuclear warheads, each with an explosive yield of 100 kilotons—at least six to eight times more destructive than the 15-kiloton bomb dropped on Hiroshima by the US at the end of World War II. Each warhead can obliterate up to one million people.
Corbyn is a lifelong member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and was chairman of the Stop the War Coalition when he took the leadership of Labour on a massive mandate against war and austerity in September 2015.
Within three weeks of taking office Corbyn was asked, at Labour’s annual conference in Brighton, if he would use nuclear weapons if elected prime minister. He replied “no” and stated his opposition to renewing the Trident nuclear programme.
This set into motion a ferocious campaign by the Blairites—backed by the Conservative government, intelligence agencies and the military—which resulted, in the space of five years, in Corbyn’s removal as Labour leader and expulsion from the parliamentary party.
Even before his Brighton statement, a senior serving British general told the Sunday Times, on September 20, 2017, that if Corbyn came to power there “would effectively be a mutiny… You would see a major break in convention with senior generals directly and publicly challenging Corbyn over vital important policy decisions such as Trident, pulling out of Nato and any plans to emasculate and shrink the size of the armed forces. The Army just wouldn’t stand for it.”
On July 18, 2016, after taking the Conservative Party leadership five days earlier and signing her own “letters of last resort”, Prime Minister Theresa May was asked in Parliament by the Scottish National Party’s George Kerevan, “Is she [May] personally prepared to authorise a nuclear strike that could kill 100,000 innocent men, women and children?”
May replied, “Yes,” and denounced “the suggestion that we could have a nuclear deterrent but not actually be willing to use it, which seemed to come from the Labour Front Bench.”
During the campaign for the June 2017 general election, the first question asked by BBC journalist Andrew Marr during an interrogation of Corbyn was what would he write in the letters of last resort. “You have to say fire or don’t fire.” Corbyn took a major step in his ongoing capitulation before his Blairite opponents by fudging the issue, saying his “strict instruction” would be to “follow orders when given.”
By this time Corbyn had already abandoned everything he professed to personally believe regarding membership of NATO and the renewal of Trident. His 2017 election manifesto reaffirmed Labour’s “commitment to NATO” and promised that Corbyn would be “spending at least 2% of GDP on defence…”
A draft of the manifesto dated May 11 had stated, “Any prime minister should be extremely cautious about ordering the use of weapons of mass destruction which would result in the indiscriminate killing of millions of innocent civilians.” This was deleted from the final manifesto published five days later.
The 2017 election was narrowly won by May. Corbyn remained Labour leader until being routed by the Tories’ next leader Boris Johnson in the 2019 general election. As part of the war drive of the imperialist powers against Russia, Corbyn’s 2019 Labour manifesto had implied that the Johnson government was in the pocket of Russian President Putin and attacked him for refusing to “publish the report into possible foreign interference by Russia in UK democracy.”
Johnson fell from office three years later thanks to the murderous policies he pursued during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and was briefly replaced by Liz Truss as prime minister. When Truss was asked during a Tory leadership husting in August 2022 if she would launch nuclear missiles that “would mean global annihilation,” she replied, “I’m ready to do that.”
That all those auditioning for office before the ruling elite must now affirm their readiness to kill millions and destroy the planet is a stark warning. No matter who is prime minister and which party they lead, the working class in Britain, like workers internationally, confronts a single party of war. There is no lesser-evil because there is nothing fundamentally to choose between them.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/04/18/zhcj-a18.html
How do leftists cope with being the useful idiots of capitalists? Comunistically speaking of course
Kill landlords. Behead landlords. Roundhouse kick a landlord into the concrete. Slam dunk a landlord's baby into the trashcan. Crucify filthy landlords. Defecate in a landlord food. Launch landlords into the sun. Stir fry Landlords in a wok. Toss landlords into active volcanoes. Urinate into a Landlord's gas tank. Judo throw Landlords into a wood chipper. Twist Landlords heads off. Report landlords to the PLA. Karate chop landlords in half. Curb stomp pregnant Landlords. Trap Landlords in quicksand. Crush landlords in the trash compactor. Liquefy landlords in a vat of acid. Eat landlords. Dissect landlords. Exterminate landlords in the gas chamber. Stomp landlord skulls with steel toed boots. Cremate landlords in the oven. Lobotomize landlords. Mandatory abortions for landlords. Grind landlord fetuses in the garbage disposal. Drown landlords in fried chicken grease. Vaporize landlords with a ray gun. Kick old landlords down the stairs. Feed landlords to alligators. Slice landlords with a katana.
AHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH
>visit for first time since split>ancient threads
>3posts per day
>schizouyghotry rampant
>unironic /pol/ memes
>still shilling haz
Wow so this is the power of mod democracy. Incredible, good job faggots no wonder only the reactionaries moved here and the rest of the userbase stayed. Get fucked.
April 15th general strike
Take the day off, cash out your bank account. talk to ya union.The will is here, and we feel grave repulsion at our political class who rob us to fund a genocide while our communities decay. They're glad to risk our lives to line their pockets, to sell off public resources, to betray us flagrantly. The time is here for action.
What is your ideology?
I would like to know, who is browsing this site. So I'm asking you this fundamental question. Give me your isms!
So I took a 1 year break of leftypol and now I see this site, leftychan? Another split? Oh you leftoids, we do you keep splittin all the time? What was the reason this time?
(Sorry for the pic, I'm runnin on 56kbit/s)
production in the west
Industrial production in the west has been in harsh declinereasons:
<neo-lib economics, negative spiral of support industries going away, increasing energy costs, deteriorating infrastructure, deskilling of labor, rising cost of living, patents and copyright blocking new technologies with legal risk, other factors
Bringing back factories that produce things hinges on great political changes.
There might be a way to produce things anyway as DIY educational kits for self assembly. The customer trades time to build the kit, for a lower price, and some design compromises. That should be worth it for people with low income, and people who like building stuff. Added benefits of open design are excellent repair-ability and for electronic gadgets it may provide an escape from corporate-fuck-the-consumer-products.
The neo-liberals clearly do not want production activity in their economic circuits for some reason, by shifting that activity to diy leisure time, it might become economically viable in neolib structures. The question is whether people will go for this ?
Sadistic alt-right horror: introducing 4chan /brit/
Hi fellow workers of the World,May I introduce you to 4chan /brit/. It's a honeypot of alt-right fascists, please be warned. They are indoctrinating children to their right wing beliefs.
Threads can be found here:
https://www.4chan.org/int/brit
Ciao
US kidnaps prime minister it imposed on Haitian people, as Western hemisphere’s poorest country desc
This story's a month old now, but still bears posting:March 6, 2024:
On Tuesday, the US government effectively kidnapped Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, a right-wing figure whom it had hitherto staunchly supported, a Miami Herald report has revealed.
Against the will of the vast majority of Haiti’s impoverished people, Washington—backed by Canada and France, the other imperialist powers long involved in Haiti—placed Henry in power following the July 2021 assassination of the country’s president, Jovenel Moïse. The US-led “Core Group” of nations has continued to support Henry ever since, although he has no popular or legal-constitutional legitimacy and has refused to hold parliamentary or presidential elections despite the mandates of all elected officials having long expired.
Now, however, under conditions where the country is overrun by criminal gangs, most of which have close ties to rival factions of Haiti’s ruling elite, the Biden administration has apparently concluded Henry is a liability who should be flushed from office. To accomplish this, as the Herald article documents, US imperialism is resorting to its traditional thuggery and criminality.
This is all playing out as Washington and Ottawa scramble to put together a foreign paramilitary force to be deployed to Haiti with US and Canadian logistical support to bloodily restore bourgeois “law and order” on the Caribbean island-nation.
Both the US and Canada have a long history of neo-colonial occupation and military intervention in Haiti, including as recently as 2004 when they deployed troops to oust its elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. But under conditions where they are waging war against Russia in Ukraine, supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza and actively preparing for war with China, and where there is visceral opposition among the Haitian masses to an intervention led by either of North America’s twin imperialist powers, they are anxious to contract out the job.
Last week Henry traveled to Kenya, whose avidly pro-imperialist government has volunteered to lead a Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission to Haiti and staff it with more than a thousand Kenyan national police.
In Henry’s absence, the gangs launched a coordinated offensive, whose purpose it soon became clear was to derail the planned MSS deployment and oust the prime minister. Over the weekend, the gangs stormed two Port-au-Prince prisons, freeing several thousand prisoners, and attacked Haitian National Guard facilities. On Monday, they encircled the capital’s two airports forcing them to suspend operations.
On Tuesday, Henry attempted to return to Haiti via the Dominican Republic, only to find his plans thwarted by his Washington patrons. Even if the Miami Herald exclusive published on Wednesday does not put it in so many words, its account makes clear that the Haitian prime minister was effectively kidnapped so that US officials and those of allied governments could browbeat him into accepting new marching orders.
According to the Herald, Henry, who had spent the previous two days in the United States and had informed Washington and the UN of when and how he intended to return to Haiti, was suddenly informed by Dominican officials as his plane approached Santo Domingo that he would not be allowed to land.
This soon proved to be only an opening gambit. Once his small 13-seat jet changed course for the US territory of Puerto Rico, Henry received a second midair message, this one from the US State Department, asking “him to agree to a new transitional government—and resign.” When Henry’s plane landed in San Juan, Puerto Rico’s capital, it was “immediately met by US Secret Service agents” and for hours the Haitian prime minister was refused permission to deplane.
During this time, Washington, working with various CARICOM (Caribbean Community) leaders, was sounding out Haitian opposition and business leaders on putting together some type of new interim government to provide a fig-leaf of “popular support” for another imperialist-backed military/security intervention in Haiti.
According to the Herald, “The US proposal would have Henry usher in a new government structure in which a new prime minister and presidential board will lead a transition to elections and prepare for the Kenya-led mission. He would agree to step down once the new structure has been established, and a new prime minister is appointed or the security mission has deployed—whichever comes first.”
On Tuesday evening, US officials, acting in classic imperial potentate fashion, were making clear that Henry’s days were over. The Herald cited an unnamed US National Security Council official as saying the administration was “not providing any assistance to help the prime minister return to Haiti.”
“Our support,” the official continued, “is focused on helping the [Haiti National Police] restore security, expediting the deployment of the MSS mission, and accelerating a peaceful transition of power via free and fair elections. Our dialogue with Prime Minister Henry has been focused on these efforts and the need for security and a peaceful political transition.”
On Wednesday afternoon, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller clumsily tried to cover up the abundant evidence that Washington is once again carrying out regime change in Haiti, shuffling in figurehead presidents and prime ministers as needed. Miller told a press conference, the Biden administration is “not calling on him [Henry] or pushing for him to resign.”
read more:
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/03/07/yfmf-m07.html
Dr. Ray Peat
What does /leftypol/ think about the teachings and theories of Dr. Ray Peat?Weirdly, he has become a bit of a health fad among right wingers on Twitter, but he is literally a Grover Furr-level Stalinist and Lysenkoist. He cites "Khrushchev Lied" in this interview at 01:09:33:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=famOF8GYlbg
He also wrote an entire book about Soviet science, which I have attached.
Here's his website:
https://raypeat.com/
Blinken’s Manila visit triggers protest against US presence in Philippines
Manila: Protesters rallied against American presence in the Philippines on Tuesday as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Manila to reinforce support against Chinese influence in the region.The Philippines is Washington’s key security partner in Asia under a decades-long alliance, which allows the US to rotate troops into the Philippines for extended stays and build and operate facilities on Philippine military bases.
In the past two years, the partnership has expanded under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who in February last year permitted American troops to increase their footprint in the country.
China claims the disputed area almost in entirety and its military activity in the territory has been increasing, regularly encroaching on the Philippine part of the waters, the West Philippine Sea.
“These waterways are critical to the Philippines, to its security, to its economy, but they’re also critical to the interests of the region, the United States and the world,” Blinken said at a joint press conference with his Philippine counterpart Enrique Manalo.
“That’s why we stand with the Philippines and stand by our ironclad defense commitments, including under the mutual defense treaty.”
The 1951 agreement obliges the US to defend its ally in the case of external attack.
Philippine vessels have been regularly attacked by Chinese ships in the parts of the South China Sea that are internationally recognized as belonging to the Philippines.
American troops have been patrolling the maritime area with Philippine forces since November, despite protests from Beijing, which says the US is not a party to the maritime dispute.
“Article 4 of that treaty extends to any armed attacks on Filipino armed forces, on public vessels, on aircraft, and that would include its coast guard and that would also be anywhere in the South China Sea,” Blinken said.
As he told reporters that the two countries have seen an “extraordinary expansion” in their partnership, protesters in Manila carried banners reading: “US troops out of the Philippines,” “Blinken war criminal, not welcome,” “No to US intervention in PH and Asia.”
The demonstration was organized by civil society, including BAYAN — the Philippines’ largest alliance of grassroots groups — near the Presidential Palace, ahead of Blinken’s meeting with Marcos.
BAYAN said in a statement that Marcos was “advancing the geopolitical interest of the US in the region” and “offering the Philippines as an extension” of the US military network.
“The country’s assertion of sovereignty in the West Philippine Sea against China’s aggression should not involve the opportunistic meddling of a former colonizer whose real motive is to preserve and expand its imperialist hegemony in the Asia-Pacific,” the group said.
It also drew attention to Gaza, where Washington’s other key ally, Israel, has killed over 30,000 Palestinians in daily airstrikes and land assaults since October.
BAYAN said the US was “the main supporter and enabler of the ongoing genocide in Palestine” and was “actively fanning proxy wars and conflicts in various parts of the world.”
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2479226/world
GA Waffle House workers on strike
Waffle House workers walked off on STRIKE in Atlanta to demand an end to mandatory meal deductions and to fight for better working conditions, higher wages, and a safe workplace.Waffle House’s mandatory meal credit policy means that at least $3 dollars is deducted from workers’ pay every shift, regardless of whether we actually eat.
What are we doing about it??
We submitted a complaint and request for an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor into this policy of Waffle House and its total financial impact on workers.
Six White Mississippi "Goon Squad" Cops Get Lengthy Prison Sentences for Torturing Black Men
In Mississippi, six former sheriff's deputies have been sentenced to between 10 and 40 years in prison for raiding a home and torturing, shooting and sexually abusing two Black men, Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker, in January 2023. The six former deputies, all of whom are white, called themselves the "Goon Squad" and have been linked to at least four violent attacks on Black men since 2019. Two of the men attacked and tortured by the group subsequently died. To discuss the case and the verdict, we're joined by Eddie Parker and attorneys Malik Shabazz and Trent Walker. "Never have we seen this many police officers sentenced to this kind of time in one week," says Shabazz, who calls the verdict "historic." Jenkins, Parker and Shabazz are currently suing the Rankin County Sheriff's Department over its track record of civil rights violations and racist targeting of Black residents.After this and the secret mass grave recently found behind the police station near Jackson, what's next for Mississippi?
US risks China provocation as presence of troops in Taiwan for ‘learning’ operation revealed by acci
The United States has positioned troops on a tiny island chain less than 6km from the Chinese coast, Taiwan has admitted.In an apparent escalation of the American military presence in Taiwan, a Taiwanese defence minister told reporters the country was running an “exchange” with the US to “figure out how to improve” its military.
Although the US has announced it was training Taiwanese forces on the country’s main island, Formosa, the Pentagon has never acknowledged the presence of American troops on the Kinmen Islands, which lie 6km from the Chinese coastal city of Xiamen.
In response to reports that US special forces were operating on the islands, Chiu Kuo-cheng, the minister, admitted on Tuesday that his country’s military was learning from American forces there.
“This exchange is for mutual observation, to identify the problems we have, figure out how to improve and to recognise their strengths so we can learn from them,” he said.
“We can learn from each other to see what strengths we have. This is a fixed thing.”
The Kinmen Islands sit on the far side of the Taiwan Strait, the 177-km body of water that separates Taiwan and China. They are around 160km from Taiwan, but easily visible from the Chinese mainland.
Taiwan has stationed its own amphibious soldiers, known as “frogmen”, on both the Kinmen Islands and other outlying islands, amid concerns about a Chinese invasion that US officials have said could take place by 2027.
In recent months, China has stepped up military exercises in the Taiwan Strait and Communist Party officials have not ruled out occupying Taiwan with military force in the future.
Yesterday, the Taiwanese government said nine Chinese aircraft had crossed the median line in the strait, prompting it to deploy “appropriate forces and assets in response to the detected activities”.
Taiwan says its air defence identification zone (ADIZ) has been violated on a near-daily basis by Chinese aircraft as tensions have mounted.
Earlier this week, Taiwan said the country had constructed “enormous” bases on three islands nearby.
The admission that US forces are operating so close to China risks inflaming tensions between Washington and Beijing, which has long objected to the American military operating in the region.
In January, the Chinese government accused the US of “dangerous provocations” after a US naval destroyer sailed through the Taiwan Strait, in what was perceived as a show of force.
While the US does not support full political independence for Taiwan, the countries maintain informal diplomatic relations and Joe Biden has said that American forces would defend the country in the event of an invasion.
The row over Taiwan’s sovereignty is viewed by the US as part of its wider competition with China in the Indo-Pacific region.
A Pentagon spokesman refused to confirm reports of American troops on the outlying islands, telling the Wall Street Journal: “Our commitment to Taiwan is rock-solid and contributes to the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and within the region.”
ISIS claims responsibility for attack on Moscow concert hall
Dozens dead after gunmen open fire at Moscow concert hall, building set on fireNews reports say assailants attacked venue with automatic weapons, explosives
The Federal Security Service, Russia's top security agency, said there are dozens dead or wounded in a Moscow concert hall attack, Russian state news agencies reported Friday night, after several gunmen in combat fatigues burst into the venue and fired automatic weapons at the crowd.
Russian media outlets reported that between two to five assailants were involved in the attack and also used explosives, causing a massive blaze at the Crocus City Hall on the western edge of Moscow.
The attack took place as crowds gathered for a concert by Picnic, a famed Russian rock band, at the hall, which can accommodate over 6,000 people.
Russian news reports said visitors were being evacuated, but some said an unspecified number of people could have been trapped by the blaze.
Fire engulfed a third of the venue building, and its roof is almost completely engulfed in flames, state news agency TASS reported, adding that helicopters had been called in to help.
Shortly before 11:00 p.m. local time, Russia's Interfax news agency reported firefighting crews had contained the fire.
Extended rounds of gunfire could be heard on multiple videos posted by Russian media and Telegram channels.
More videos showed up to four attackers, armed with assault rifles and wearing caps, who were shooting screaming people at point-blank range.
Another one showed a man inside the auditorium, saying the assailants set it on fire, with incessant gunshots ringing out in the background.
"Suddenly there were bangs behind us — shots. A burst of firing, I do not know what," one witness who asked not to be named told Reuters.
"A stampede began, everyone ran to the escalator," the witness said. "Everyone was screaming, everyone was running."
Russian media reports said that riot police units were being sent to the area as people were being evacuated.
Special units of Russia's National Guard have arrived on the scene of a shooting at a concert venue near Moscow on Friday, TASS said.
More than 70 ambulance crews have been sent to the scene, the RIA news agency reported.
'A monstrous crime'
There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the raid, but Interfax reported the Russian National Guard is searching for those who carried out the attack — the worst in Russia in two decades.
Russia's Federal Security Service said it is taking "all necessary measures" in connection with the shooting, Russian news agency Interfax reported on Friday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is receiving regular updates about the attack, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
Putin had given all necessary instructions in connection with the incident, Russian news agencies reported Peskov saying.
Russian ombudsperson Tatyana Moskalkova labelled the incident a "terrorist attack," while Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said it was "a monstrous crime" and called on the international community to condemn the attack.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin described the attack as a "huge tragedy."
He cancelled all mass gatherings in the city for this weekend.
Russian authorities said they had stepped up security measures at Moscow airports and railway stations, agencies reported.
The attack followed a statement issued earlier this month by the U.S. Embassy in Moscow that urged Americans to avoid crowded places in the Russian capital in view of an imminent attack, a warning that several other Western embassies repeated.
White House national security advisor John Kirby said Friday that he couldn't yet speak about all the details, but that "the images are just horrible. And just hard to watch."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/russia-moscow-concert-hall-attack-1.7152498
Gunmen kill 40 in attack at concert near Moscow, Islamic State claims responsibility
MOSCOW - At least 40 people were killed and 145 wounded on Friday when camouflage-clad gunmen fired with automatic weapons on concertgoers near Moscow in one of the deadliest attacks on Russia in decades.
Islamic State, the militant group that once sought control over swathes of Iraq and Syria, claimed responsibility for the attack, the group's Telegram channel said.
At least five gunmen began shooting civilians cowering in the Crocus City Hall just before Soviet-era rock group "Picnic" was about to perform to a full house at the 6,200-seat theater in a suburb west of Moscow.
…
The death toll made it one of the worst attacks on Russia since the 2004 Beslan school siege, when Islamist militants took more than 1,000 people, including hundreds of children, hostage.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/gunmen-kill-40-in-attack-at-concert-near-moscow-islamic-state-claims-responsibility-1.6818466
copyhack
So in the copyrite regime everything that gets published gets copyrited by default, automatically, by the mere fact of publishing.If somebody re-publishes something but fake-dates it to an earlier date than the original release. It creates contradicting copyrite claims.
This design flaw probably wasn't realistically going to be exploited in the analog days. But in the digital age where the copyrite regime has imposed many automatic guilty until proven innocent automatic copyrite censorship mechanisms. This can be exploited.
It could be avoided by creating a central copyrite claims office where people have to register for a copyrite claim. The central data-base would have an authoritative record of who actually published first, preventing contradicting claims. If copyrite claims have to be registered, they can't be the automatic default anymore. Many people simply would not bother registering. Many works would simply be released as public domain.
I'm sure people are abusing this already. However I'm wondering whether there is a way to use this to bring about beneficial changes to weaken the copyrite regime so it can't be used as a means for censorship, monopolism, frivolous litigation, etc.
Israel 'at war' as Hamas gunmen launch surprise attack from Gaza Thread Pt. II
Continued from >>475181Updates since the start of the last thread:
The (largely civilian) Palestinian death toll has now passed 24,000.
The US House, with Biden's support, approved more than $14,000,000,000 in military aid to Israel.
South Africa filed a case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocidal acts in Gaza.
Houthi rebels in Yemen have attacked cargo ships in the Red Sea in an attempt to disrupt the supply line of Israel's ongoing carpet bombing campaign against Gaza. The Biden admin has responded to the Houthis with a retaliatory bombing campaign.
400,000 marched in Washington DC in protest of Biden's support of Israel's genocide.
Leftists refuse to criticize the finance sector
Why do leftists ignore central banks and the finance industry in all their economic analysis?https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/94110/06-04-2022/the-truth-about-inflation-and-how-to-fight-it/
https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/article/marxian-theory-inflation/study-guides/marxian-theory-inflation/
Every leftist publication I can find blames inflation and the cost of living crisis on "muh greedy corporations" and "muh incompetent politicians". Not a single mention of deficit spending, fiat money printing or fractional reserve banking. Why is that? Do you guys actually think that banks are completely blameless in this system you call capitalism?
The supposedly left-wing desire to obsess over the "racist, settler-colonialist Zionism" of the Israeli state is a way to obscure how the conflict is connected to capitalism, specifically, how it emerges from the failures of capitalist politics. What the so-called left has managed to achieve through their exhortation to focus on the plight of the Palestinian people is to transform empathy for suffering into a thought-terminating cliche, wielding it as a a blunt instrument of censorship, and at the expense of the very people who they claim to have empathy for. In true Orwellian fashion, they have managed to reconcile their empathy for Palestinian suffering with unwavering support for Hamas, free from any cognitive dissonance.
The extreme rhetoric and spectacular protests of the contemporary left is little more than a means of pressuring mainstream capitalist politicians, and even the desire to "defund Israel” (a policy that far-right Zionists also support) is likely just a way to scrub away the issue of Israel/Palestine in U.S. politics. Ultimately, their goal is not to support the liberation of the Palestinian people, but to be “on the right side of history", to wield moral authority over others by appearing to side with the most vulnerable belligerents. They perversely enjoy the fact that Palestinians will continue to be slaughtered, proudly parading the numbers of dead so that their "progressive" mode of politics can remain relevant.
But the greatest crime that the contemporary left commits is to tell people that they can be petty-bourgeois radicals, nationalists and fundamentalists, yet also be progressive - that socialism is unnecessary for the cause of progress and justice. The post-colonial world is the history of peoples living together but being shoehorned into nation-states. This is the outcome of the vision of the League of Nations and of the United Nations; it is a world of nation-states, and therefore a world of widespread national repression. There is no way that the nation-states which emerged from decolonization can be accepted as progressive or liberatory in the socialist sense, and the reason why the Soviet Union refused to join the League of Nations in the first place was to reject this very vision of a world of nation-states.
How we should interpret the Israel-Hamas war is not as a noble struggle for liberation against the forces of oppression, but as a capitalist political negotiation through violence. The goal of Hamas is to embarrass the Netenyahu government and bring it down in order to replace it with an even more right-wing government that will further destabilize Israel. They wish to provoke the Israeli state to kill as many Palestinians as possible in order to alienate the world from Israel.
Hamas finds opportunity in the failure of the peace process, and they employ terrorism both as a pressure tactic and as a “very loud form of protest”. The point of recognizing that the police and the military exist to exert violence is not to argue that they are evil, but to acknowledge that their function is to keep order in a mass society of millions in capitalism. The nihilist position - the position of Hamas - is to provoke such violence in order to show how rotten the system is.
How Lenin defined terrorism could be summed up as "liberalism with guns and bombs”, understanding terrorism as just another form of capitalist politics. Yet, during Lenin's time, terrorism was understood to be the assassination of politically culpable targets. The spectacular violence we are dealing with now is what he would have called "petty-bourgeois outrages” - the tactics of the "PMC", gangsterism in its most pure form. As with all other examples of gangsterism, Hamas is little more than the capitalist misleadership of the Palestinian struggle.
From a socialist perspective, there is nothing radical about the petty-bourgeois atrocities created by terrorists, no matter how "democratic" or "liberatory" they may appear to be. Typically, socialists will misquote Marx and Lenin in order to show how Hamas and other terrorists "objectively strike against capital", implying that such is inherently worth supporting. Yet, the irony is that the socialist movement is most free to cultivate labor struggles during periods of capitalist development, the "boom" that follows the "bust" wherein hiring increases and new industry is built. Moreover, solidarity does not grow when everyone is struggling for mere survival.
The Palestinian territories are in large part built upon a remittance economy, much like many other third-world countries, and neither party to the Israel-Hamas war is interested in developing the region. In a war-torn region with no economy of note, almost entirely dependent on family remittances and foreign aid just to survive, it goes without saying that the people who would run such a place would be gangsters and thugs. The Bolsheviks were a party-disciplined organization that had no interest in such criminals joining their ranks. They had a working class base who, despite living in awful conditions, were not the most desperate lumpen people around. This is not to say that they didn't fight for and alongside the most desperate, but that they explicitly rejected the tactics that such people tend to use.
The only appropriate response that socialists ought to make is one that comprehensively rejects the moral blackmail at the heart of all such wars that result from capitalist politics, accepting the fact that there is no path to justice through capitalist politics, They ought to reject the claim that Hamas represents the Palestinian people, and recognize that there is absolutely no place for the nihilist and nationalist cause of Hamas within socialism.. They ought to recognize that the politics of delegitimization of the ruling class will not by itself lead to socialism, but rather to the rise of right-wing nationalism.
Socialists ought to reject terrorism, whether it be in the form of political assassinations or in the form of spectacular violence. They must recognize that acts of terrorism are fundamentally nihilistic, and thus fundamentally at odds with socialism. Furthermore, what terrorism does is invite state repression, which should never be invited - to the contrary, socialists should prominently reveal how it is the capitalist state that employs criminal tactics, and to show how the struggle for socialism is legitimate both in a moral/ethical sense and in a political sense. If the socialist struggle is not legitimate in a legal sense, it should be because the law is problematic, not the struggle.
Socialists ought to reject the "radical liberal" perspective wherein national-racial communities are in perpetual conflict. The point of the fight against imperialism was never to create new nation-states (though it may sometimes be necessary), but to serve the unity of the working class internationally in the struggle for socialism. To merely accept the myriad divisions in the working class (the specific forms of racism, sexism and so on that exist today) is to concede to capitalist politics. Far from being trans-historical concepts, such divisions are a concrete reality generated by capitalism, often in ways that are far worse than similar divisions in the past.
Socialists ought to respond to the violence of capitalism by rejecting the system entirely. They must have no responsibility or culpability for such a system of violence at all, and must do everything possible to protect the people from violence. Sacrifices will always be necessary in political struggle, but such a necessity must not become a virtue or a principle. Socialism will not be achieved by martyrdom, through participating in the struggle by dying; rather, it will be achieved by living people.
Socialists ought to revive the old slogan of "no war but class war" as a guide for their attitude towards all such conflicts. An independent socialist movement will not care to pressure capitalist politicians into being more “progressive". They must recognize that every moment of progress within capitalism coincides with regress as well.
The original promise of the bourgeoisie was to overcome the divisions generated by capitalism, yet what the capitalist politics that the bourgeoisie inherited does is not overcome these divisions but simply manage them. What socialists are tasked with is to take up this forgotten promise, rather than to assume that it was made in a cynical way. They must recognize that the only way to fulfill the cosmopolitan, universalist vision of the bourgeoisie is to overcome capitalism once and for all by realizing socialism.
You need a license to:
- drive a car
- hunt/fish
-own a gun
- vote
-travel
- trade
-operate machinery
- do skilled labor
Yet, the most consequential job in the world requires no licensing: RAISING A FAMILY.
Is it any wonder why so many kids turn out all fucked up?
Too many halfass adults feel entitled by virtue of age to have a spouse and offspring.
judging government based on their policy is wrong.
judging government based on what said government said is wrong.
judging government based on what the people said is wrong.
potraying government as hating queers and minorities is wrong.
stop potraying goverment as if they monitor their citizen 24/7 to see sign if they do things that are considered queer or againts making hetero familliy. and then arrest them becuase they hate queer people and put them on scary labour/torture/cell camp. it is wrong to potray government like this.
stop potraying government as if their country have every region filled with anti-queer/ anti-minority people who are the same as american conservative level people. it is wrong to potray government and country as that.
always remember to specify everytime everywhere.
I fucking hate communists
The more older I become the more I understand just how strong is my urge to murder other communists.Almost every one of them is some kind of a sperg, an idealist, a dogmoid automaton, a lib, a nationalist, a culture warrior, a grifter, a socialite, I could go on and on.
I can't fucking stand you. Every time I talk to one I imagine him choking on his blood, and this image gives me a relief.
First thing that triggers me immensely is the obsession with philosophy. Every time some idealist sperg mentions dialectics to me it takes me titanic effort to not pick up a chair and bash their head into the nearest wall with it.
Seriously, it got so bad that I sometimes daydream about choking Engels and Hegel with a stupid smile on my face.
I'm now convinced that there can not be such thing as a proletarian philosophy. Philosophy is a mind poison of the ruling classes, always has been, and it poisoned the minds of the leaders of the workers movement due to them all being intellectuals. All according to Marxism lol.
This obsession is so widespread that I sometimes wonder if I am the only one who came to Marxism through the study of history and not through some philosophic elitist drivel. It tells
The second thing is idealism (being an insufferable sperg is closely related). It seems like you just can't expect communists to be pragmatic in this day and age. It's like they are stuck between the Scylla of maximalism and the Charybdis of defeatism. It's either "If I can't dance, it's not my revolution!" or "capitalism is actually socialism because they say so". It seems like communists don't have the patience or the mental capacity to just keep fucking grinding to their aims, slowly and methodically, using everyone and everything they can, and patiently waiting for their moment. No, they just NEED to sperg out and express their very important opinion (that 10 out of 10 times is some banal idealism or empty populist platitudes) on every little matter!
At moments like this it usually takes me two to three cigarettes to calm down.
And as we touched on it already, lets discuss the third thing - cheap populism. It is so widespread that I got in more fights over populist rhetoric than over any other thing. It seems like every communist takes his audience for fucking 10-year old kids who can be manipulated by simple tricks. Hey, you know that I can SEE what you are doing? You know we're all adults here? Hey, look me in the fucking eye, do you take me for a fucking idiot bitch? I will string your bowels on a fucking pike!
Yes, I know that our government is against proletariat. Yes, I know that our government doesn't care about human rights if those humans are poor. Yes, I know that our government is militarist. Any more banal platitudes? Do you think you're some fucking preacher that is here to open our eyes or something?
Criticizing - offer. No suggestions - no right to speak. Tattoo these expressions on your retarded fucking head or I will do it. And learn some some fucking rhetoric, sperg. Speak efficiently and concisely, get to the point, respect your audience, don't waste our time, we have lives to live.
Seriously, the only marxist that I can consistently listen to these days without rage quitting is Cockshott, and he is a fucking old fart who sounds like he is gonna die any minute now. But at least he gets to the point and doesn't waste my time, even if he has a tendency to ramble on about his niche stemfaggotry. But I can officially say that he is the least insufferable communist.
Workers Struggles: The Americas
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/03/12/degd-m12.htmlLatin America
<Argentine strike wave continues
>In recent weeks, Argentine unions have called strikes by teachers, aeronautical workers, railway workers and others to put forward salary demands due to high inflation and economic policies promoted by President Javier Milei.
< River-boat operators and crews in Buenos Aires Province struck following a legally mandated cooling-off period. The struggle is over wages. They may be joined by river workers in Santa Fe province, which borders Buenos Aires, along the Parana River, whose cooling-off period expires on March 15. Ships that are still sailing will dock at their destination, download their cargo, with the strikers remaining on board during the duration of the work-stoppage.
< On March 7 transit workers in metropolitan Buenos Aires carried out their second strike this month. The strike is over unpaid wages and wage increases. The trade unions that represent transit workers defined the underlying wage issue as the protection of workers’ buying power.
<Women protest against gig work in Quito, Ecuador
>Thousands of women marched in Quito on March 8 (International Women’s Day). The demonstrators denounced the rise of contingent employment, due to the economic policies of current president Daniel Noboa. The demonstrators also carried signs condemning the ongoing Gaza genocide.
>The demonstrators rallied in Quito’s historic San Francisco Square. At the rally, women read manifestos denouncing Noboa’s policies, the war and conditions of increasing misery and poverty.
Uruguayan workers protest gig work
>Workers employed by the Uruguayan Ministry of Social Development mobilized on March 4 against increasing the use of temporary workers, gig workers and the use of zero-hours contracts that are at the root of increasing levels of poverty and homelessness across society—all made possible by the ministry. The number of homeless in Montevideo has increased exponentially since 2020.
>In addition, according to a recent estimate, 9 percent of individuals in Uruguay (in 2 percent of households) are not able to afford to buy enough food to support a healthy life.
United States
New York City legal service workers launch indefinite strike
<Legal service workers walked out on an indefinite strike February 26 against Mobilization for Justice
>(MFJ), a New York City agency that offers free legal services to low-income workers facing evictions, disability and immigration issues. The 110 members of Legal Services Staff Association (LSSA) Local 2320 voted by 93 percent three days earlier to reject the latest contract that came up short on wages, healthcare benefits and more flexibility for remote work.
>The bargaining unit is comprised of attorneys, paralegals, support staff, receptionists and front desk workers who believe insufficient staff, growing workloads and wages failing to keep up with inflation are causing burnout and placing them in the same economic hardship as many of the clients they serve.
>Housing attorney Nikita Salehi-Azhan told Amsterdam News, “I know that other nonprofits recently negotiated 7 percent raises, so to be offered 2 percent is, obviously, very disrespectful and not anywhere close to bringing us back to where we were pre-inflation.”
>Tara Joy, a housing intake specialist speaking of the overwhelming workload, told City Limits, “I can see that, frankly, my colleagues are drowning in just the sheer volume of intakes that they have to do.”
>A spokesperson for MFJ responded to the strike, pointing to “fiscal realities” and telling workers to “reconsider the generosity of MFJ’s offer…”
St. Louis bus drivers walk off the job in response to allegations of racial harassment
>About 100 St. Louis, Missouri, school bus drivers called in sick February 26 and 27 to protest the placing of a noose at the workstation of Amin Mitchell, a black bus mechanic. Mitchell made a Facebook post including a picture of a noose.
>Previous to the provocation, Mitchell made a complaint to the contracting company Missouri Central Bus Company’s human resources department concerning a supervisor who ordered him to only implement quick fixes to brakes on buses in order to pass inspection. Mitchell ended up in an altercation with management when he protested that the brakes needed to be replaced. When Mitchell came in to work February 22, he found a noose on the floor of his work station.
>“That’s a message that says, ‘If you don’t stop doing what you’re doing, something bad is going to happen right away,’” Mitchell told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
>The St. Louis chapter of the NAACP looked into the matter and branch president Adolphus Pruitt, stated, “Missouri Central Bus Company shop is one that is … racially charged and is dysfunctional.” One bus mechanic testified to bad brake systems, faulty parts and occasions where buses have caught fire. In addition, there has been racial harassment, as well as dirty and sexist jokes polluting the work environment.
REI workers in Minnesota, Chicago and New York strike over loss of merit pay
>Workers at the outdoor recreational equipment retailer, REI, walked off the job March 1 on a two-day strike in Maple Grove, Minnesota. Members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 663 are protesting the company’s decision to rescind the payment of merit raises and summit payout for 2024. According to Local 663, some nine stores have axed merit raises. Besides the Maple Grove store, workers are also striking in Chicago and New York.
>The UFCW attempted to resolve the issue but REI declined to discuss it, leading to the walkout. REI’s only response was that they are “committed to continuing to bargain in good faith…”
>The Maple Grove REI store was among the first to unionize in May of last year.
Canada
<Unifor ignores strike mandate with last-minute agreement to block strike by Ontario Northland support workers
>Following the near-unanimous strike vote on Thursday by some 350 support workers at northern Ontario’s transportation service, Unifor Local 103 announced that it has reached a tentative agreement with the province’s crown corporation, averting a strike planned for Tuesday.
>Although the details of the contract will not be released until it is presented to members for ratification — which the union said could happen as early as Tuesday—Unifor Local 103 President Jeremy Rodgers announced that the tentative agreement “shows the true value of our members” and its bargaining committee will be “unanimously recommending” acceptance of the tentative agreement.
>On March 6, the support workers, which include clerks, bus mechanics and retail, onboard dining and warehousing staff at Ontario Northland, voted 96.3 percent in favour of strike action. At issue are benefits, wages and overall working conditions. Ontario Northland is owned by the Ontario government, responsible for providing transportation services for passengers and goods in Northern Ontario.
>Discussions between the union and Ontario Northland have been underway since the contract expired last summer. Following the rejection of the province’s latest proposal by the union’s bargaining committee in December, the union agreed to the appointment of a federal conciliator and a provincial mediator to manage the negotiations, which have no doubt set terms favourable to the province.
>In response to the strike vote last week, Unifor national president Lana Payne stated, “It’s disheartening to see the disparity between the treatment of our hardworking members and the executive level’s payout.” Indeed, according to the 2022 Sunshine List, Ontario Northland president and interim president Corina Moore and Chad Evans raked in hefty salaries of almost $400,000 and over $260,000 respectively. Conversely, the average salary of a clerk hovers around $45,000 according to jobs website Glassdoor.
Civic workers vote down City of Edmonton’s insulting “best and final offer”
>Some 5,000 civic workers in Edmonton have overwhelmingly rejected the city’s latest proposed contract terms, placing them in a strike position as early as this week. After last Friday’s vote tally, nearly 88 percent of eligible workers in Civic Service Union (CSU) 52 returned ballots marked with a “no” to the municipal employer’s “best and final offer.” (Workers at the Edmonton Public Library represented by the same union did not participate in the proposal vote.)
>The latest ballot was imposed by the Alberta Labour Relations Board, which last month approved the city’s application that required its contract proposal to be voted on directly by workers, bypassing the union’s role in the bargaining process.
>CSU 52 city workers haven’t had a raise in six years and have been without a contract since 2020. CSU 52 President Lanny Chudyk admitted that the union had put forth a wage proposal far below the cost of living and inflation. Still, the city has been unwilling to meet even these modest demands, offering an insulting 7.25 percent wage increase over five years, with raises set at 0, 1, 2, 2, and 2.25 percent each year to 2025.
>In February, workers categorically rejected this paltry offering and the overwhelming majority voted to strike. A rally was staged outside Edmonton City Hall with workers chanting, “no zeros!”
>Despite the city’s claim that its pathetic wage increase is “compelling” in light of its “current financial realities,” the mayor and city council gave themselves a 2.4 percent raise in 2023, after a two-year freeze, making it the second highest paid council in the country.
>According to the city, the average CSU 52 civic worker’s salary is $86,000. However, the union explains that this figure is misleading because many employees’ wage classifications are paid at a much lower rate, including those of fitness instructors and 911 dispatchers—some of the city’s lowest-paid employees. According to the union, some of its members earn so little that they have turned to food banks for aid.
<Striking Kamloops HBC workers press on after four months on picket line
>A strike by workers at North America’s oldest retailer has entered its fifth month with no end in sight. Negotiations between USW Local 1-417 and the Hudson Bay Company (HBC) at the Kamloops, British Columbia location stalled in January and neither side has returned to the table to discuss new terms.
>The union has been in negotiations with HBC since July 2023, but the company has point-blank refused to move on its concessions demands, which among other things, include a paltry 1 percent wage increase for each contract year, a drop in real wages when inflation is considered. Forty-year veteran worker, Angie Bains, told CBC News that HBC’s initial offer was even more pathetic—a wage increase of just 17 cents an hour, which she likened to a “slap in the face.”
>According to the most recent contract, which expired last May, many of the retail positions pay little more than the province’s legal minimum hourly wage, which is currently set at $17.40. The conservative figure for a livable wage in Kamloops in 2023 was $20.91 an hour.
>The Kamloops department store has been closed since the strike began on December 10, with workers concerned that waning sales in the retail environment more generally might prompt its permanent closure. Last year, HBC slashed 2 percent of its workforce, roughly 500 employees, mainly located in Canada, in a bid to “streamline operations.” Meanwhile, it holds a commercial real estate portfolio valued at close to $7 billion (USD).
<Largest healthcare strike in over a decade underway in Manitoba
>The largest health care strike in Manitoba in over a decade is underway. Last Wednesday, 160 healthcare support workers at supportive housing provider Ten Ten Sinclair in Winnipeg officially walked off the job, demanding wage increases that keep pace with the cost of living.
>A statement released by Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) of Manitoba stated that workers at the municipally funded independent living facility have seen their wages increase by only 1.75% since 2016, while the cost of living has increased by 25 percent. According to the Canada Job Bank, the median wage for the position of care aide in the Winnipeg area is just $19.25 an hour.
Are human races subspecies?
What is the scientific explanation for why different races of human are not different subspecies. I would like an actual answer rather than ban I am not trolling.
socialism will win !
This is the thread for good news.People have a tendency to focus on what is going wrong and miss out on what is going well.
I'm also suspecting that there is a doomer astroturf going on.
To counteract this a little i want to ask you to post uplifting news.
MUH BANKERS
>all wars are bankers warsAnd other such myopic oversimplifications about the world. Views are frequently paired with goldbuggery and delusions about cryptotokens.
I think we can all agree that finance capitalists are scum. Even feudal lords and slave masters had regular power struggles with finance capitalists trying to control society through usury. The problem is some right wingers think they're the only problematic capitalist and have difficulty broadening their scope to a more systemic social critique. How we we get these dumbos to see the bigger picture?
socialist alt-security
Assume<established cybernetic socialism
<Athenian/sortition/appointment-by-lot democracy
<economy runs on socialist cybernetic planning with labor vouchers and free labor association (what free market ideologues promised, but not delivered)
<socialist country is militarily secure, the population is heavily armed and people's militias are well organized. The professional military established deterrence with heavy long range weapons.
Lets discuss internal security
I propose we dissolve the traditional separation between foreign and domestic spy-agencies.
<Domestic spy agencies are defense.
<Foreign spy agencies are offense.
Most of the countries around the world have imposed population mass surveillance regimes. That means that all their spies have now been unmasked. Either their spies get caught in their own surveillance drag nets, or they stand out as the part of the few that weren't. The premise is that governments will always be able to penetrate each others organizations. The most efficient way of finding foreign spies is now achieved by breaching the other sides mass surveillance system.
If the socialist country turns off it's mass surveillance system (that it probably inherited from the previous bourgeois dictatorship). The socialist spy agencies become more invisible and much more effective than their counterparts.
We would get a huge political bonus for enabling people to have privacy again. And potentially also more economic dynamism because the surveillance Panopticon probably dampens that as well.
We could easily fend off CIA color revolution type regime change attacks because our more effective spies can find all the other-side's agents/handlers via their own mass surveillance, their counter-intelligence will not be able to do that, if we don't have mass surveillance.
Offense is often more efficient than defense, if imperial capitalist countries seek to conduct old-school sabotage, the socialist spies who possess greater invisibility would represent the superior ability to retaliate, and function as a persuasive argument that seeking co-existence with socialist countries is the only viable option.
<The upside is much greater defenses against outside attacks.
<The downside is much weaker defenses against counter-revolution from the inside.
Conclusions
Basically we'll know about a counter revolution when they begin engaging in violent terror. That ends in the proletarian state crushing the counter-revolution by killing the counter-revolutionaries. Messy bloodbaths are very undesirable, but allowing the counter revolution to develop to the violent stage has the advantage there is no ambiguity about who the bad guys are. All the ideological reinforcement stuff, thought-police and political-repression bullshit would become entirely superfluous.
The rest of society could have maximum freedom. We could have nice things like true free-speech, meaning everybody can express political opinions un-impeded and fully anonymously (anonymity = no intimidation). Cultural warfare like moralizing and which-hunting would be rendered ineffective. This would be a very pleasant society where nobody can bug you with their brain-worms.
In the history of socialist countries, the biggest problem has always been attacks from foreign state actors (mostly the capitalist imperialist kind). Once your population is living well and the societal wound of an underclass inflicted by capitalism has been healed by effective social welfare. The hyper-divisive cast/stratification mentality will subside. Social instability will only originate from residual ruling class elements and potentially some innately power hungry nutcases (with an incurable bow-down-before-me mental illness). That is very few people. So quantitatively the amount of state-violence against the population would be very low, but when it does happen it probably would be on the more spectacular side.
Is this a good compromise ?
Rest in Peace, Aaron Bushnell
Your bravery and sacrifice will never be forgotten. The left needs more men and women with the amount of dedication and courage that Bushnell had.
>The appeal for the commercial enterprises that are bankrolling the research into the Familiar is indeed the unprecedented penetration into consumers' habitats and unconscious minds that it offers: this kind of AI can operate as a walking, live-in, always-on 'advertisement' for their products. 'It goes far further than that,' Bryant enthuses. 'The Familiar is the ultimate product: a product that collapses commodity, market research and promotion into one another. It's a product that sells you more products.'
http://ccru.net/archive/Commodities.htm
They have predicted so much.
Supreme Court is going to implode America
The is supreme Court this morning ruled that Trump is basically allowed to pardon himself and that his trial for the January insurrection is postponed until after the election. This will set a historical presidence for the presidency. Is this the death of anything resembling democracy in the US? It's funny to hear liberal pundents work in circles to try and proclaim the SCOTUS is not political at this point, kek.
Free Assange
Less than 2 hours until Assanges extradition hearingThis will likely decide the fate of Julian Assange who is a journalist that was kidnapped and tortured for his democracy advocacy.
If the UK extradites Assange to his executioners in the US, the UK will declare it self a rogue state.
https://farside.link/invidious/watch?v=LvdTG56Ubdc
>"""rules-based international order"""
>there are no rules
>it's not based
Who comes up with this shit??
Shots Fired
Who's next?Sometimes a two-word OP is all you need to get the point across. Especially on an image board.
Is conservative leftism the way?
>…In response, AMLO in office has combined efforts to shore up the countervailing power of Mexican workers with a blunt economic nationalism. On the labor front, he has boosted the minimum wage (without significantly raising unemployment) and promoted independent trade unionism. He has invested generously in the state oil company after years of neglect and messy marketization, resisted further privatization of the electricity industry, and stunted renewables competition—all to predictable howls of rage from Global North environmentalists, the Biden administration, the Brookings Institution, and The New York Times.
>AMLO’s resistance to Global North green-ism is a telling indicator of his leftist heterodoxy. In this as in many other arenas, he subverts the expectations Anglo-American conservatives and progressives alike have of what it means to be on the left. The differences are even more pronounced when it comes to social issues. While he has personally identified as a devout Catholic, his ruling coalition includes an evangelical junior party, and his government has extended federal funding to biblical-studies programs—a gentle tweak to the laicism that is one of the pillars of the modern Mexican state.
https://compactmag.com/article/amlo-s-conservative-leftism
How fucked is Argentina ?
How much damage will Javier Milei be able to do ?He seems to be a US vassal, and a rather unhinged nutcase.
He wants to make children a commodity that can be bought and sold, and give the police, Judge-Dredd style, on the spot judgement/punishment powers.
Will that be like in Bolivia a few years ago where crazy reactionaries got into power and began causing massive upheaval and than quickly got kicked out again.
https://farside.link/invidious/watch?v=FN6hoIb-QqA
Less work equals stronger economy
The Soviets should have reduced the work-dayto 7h by 1965
to 6h by 1975
to 5h by 1985
and finally
to 4h by 1995
4 consequences:
1 The Soviet economy would have been forced to invest into labor-saving/productivity-enhancing technology like crazy to make up for the shrinking per-person labor-inputs. It would have eclipsed the west in industrial power.
2 There is no 90s dissolution/collapse because a shorter work-day means more time to politically organize and make reforms that work.
3 the soviet union would have become an attractive destination for labor, the bottom 40% of the capitalist sphere would have tried to move to the Soviet Union, because they weren't getting much in terms of capitalist luxuries anyway and as soviet citizens would have had a similar life-style with a lot more free time. Less work also means it's easier to raise children for the indigenous soviet population, and by the year 2000 the Soviet Union would have counted half a billion citizens.
4 Incidentally it would have saved social democracy in the west, because the shrinking labor-pool would have maintained the political leverage of western workers, even in the face of industrial offshoring.
towards tech fascism ?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/02/17/silicon-valley-military-tech-defense-contractors/didn't let me post the archive link see pic
<Until recently, tech workers have bristled at applying the fast and nimble start-up ethos to fashion deadly weapons. When Google signed a Pentagon contract to develop AI to target drone strikes, thousands petitioned its CEO in 2018 to cancel it.
<Amid layoffs in tech, the latter has grown appealing. In a Morning Consult survey of 441 tech workers last March, 34 percent they are more likely than they were a year ago to apply their skills to military projects and 48 percent support their employer considering defense contracts involving battlefield technologies.
<“This deep sense of uncertainty about the future that young people have can be molded,” Dey Meyer said.
So the tech-layoffs was to cajole techies into the defense industry.
<Some reject the previous tech era, in particular the protests against Project Maven, Google’s work to target Pentagon drones. This worker dissent ultimately benefited America’s adversaries, former Google researcher Guillaume Verdon said in a recent podcast interview with Joe Lonsdale, a Palantir co-founder and tech investor.
<“What I saw with my own eyes was cultural subversion within Big Tech,” Verdon said.
IMHO This is why it qualifies as fascistic. There are people who simply do not want to build weapons, they are not being subversive, they simply want to build not destroy.
On the Current Crisis and the Immediate Tasks of the Western Communists
There is clearly a crisis. The war in Ukraine has shown how industrial production in the Euro-Atlantic bloc is in a state of collapse, and emerging economies are demanding the re-division of the world. The nature of the contemporary crisis is imperialist, because it is about the re-division of the world. The growing tensions in the Middle East to secure the oil-rich maritime area of Gaza after the failure in Ukraine show that the capitalist powers are ready to extend this crisis to the world. The moment the crisis enters Taiwan openly, it will be obvious to everyone that this is a world war.But in the face of the growing crisis of capitalism, the Euro-Atlantic proletariat seems to be relatively calm. There are no mass revolutionary organisations, revolutionary organisations capable of building the foundations for the dictatorship of the proletariat; the workers' organisations are dominated by religious or patriotic groups. They are usually in alliance with a bourgeois party and so on. They are the police organisations of the bourgeois state. Other organisations are NGOs dominated by liberals. These two are the hidden arm of the ideological discourse that is being fed to the agitated masses. The presence of bourgeois political parties in workers' and other organisations means the domination and spread of (petty)bourgeois habits of thought in their mass base.
The revolutionaries are separated or part of a sect and feel safe in their bubble. This is a symptom of the intellectual who calls himself a revolutionary. In times of peace and debate, when the concrete task is propaganda and education, the intellectual is more than welcome if he adapts himself to the needs of his pupils and does not impose knowledge by repetition. But when the movement takes a turn in the other direction, from the peaceful to the preparation for open struggle, the intellectual is afraid of this change. They prefer to stick to their dying sects, carry out symbolic revolutionary actions for other like-minded intellectuals and call it a day for the time being. They refuse to cooperate consistently with the emerging movement.
A clear example of the lack of consistency is this moment. The protests against Israel on behalf of the Palestinians have mobilised many progressive people into the ranks of the anti-war front and given new impetus to anti-imperialism. The sheer relative size of the movement compared to the small number of self-proclaimed revolutionary organisations will lead to the rise and revival of many organisations. But if the leaders do not allow the newly mobilised (and among them very young!) to learn how to organise, that is, if they do not allow new ones to emerge (I am talking here about different tactics, organisation, theoretical debate, etc.), and if the newly mobilised are constantly forced to blindly follow the existing leadership, so as not to be beyond the organisations of the professional revolutionaries (don't laugh!), then everything will quickly come to a grinding halt, and the historic moment will not be seized
One of our immediate tasks is to democratise the established organisations with the help of new members (radicalised by the general crisis) who will have learned a communist understanding of history. Comrades in the organisations should make sure that they are the first to call for this democratisation. The communist should see that this influx of members works in his favour, that he can use revolutionary sympathies to take over key sectors of the organisation with this sympathetic majority. This means: education, propaganda and agitation. We must teach them the Bolshevik method, we must show them what a Bolshevik organisation means, and they must all know how to agitate. Of course, some will be better at one or the other. That is the point of being organised, because organisation is only a tool that allows us to deploy our human resources in the best possible way.
Comrades, including workers, must be made aware of the work of socialist organisations through public debates of comrades or delegates of organisations which are regularly organised around a specific theme which needs to be illuminated. Open ideological struggle and the crystallisation of a general sense of revolutionary optimism is the immediate task of our socialists. Comrades are invited to discuss all problems with them. Organisations active in these discussions should try to abandon petty intellectualising. They will find it really difficult to win over workers if they can hardly convince a fellow-traveller!
Bolshevization also means being able to articulate clearly and as precisely as possible the pressing issue we face and a concrete approach to it. Clarity will always triumph over conspiracy. The foundations for a revolutionary mass party must be laid in the next few years. This can only be done if the movement abandons the involuntary Blanquism which is the indirect consequence of the intellectualisation of the leadership.
Thank you Ana Montes
>“Montes betrayed our nation, but not for money. In fact, she never received payment for any of her actions – astonishingly, she was motivated purely by hatred for America,” Rubio wrote in an op-ed penned for Americano Media.GIGA BASED
‘Queen of Cuba’ spy released from US jail
Ana Montes, described as “one of the most damaging spies” in US history, has been released from federal prison in Texas. The double agent for Cuba was freed on Friday after more than 20 years in custody, data on the Federal Bureau of Prisons website shows.
Montes, now 65, made a solid career with the US government, initially working for the US Department of Justice before joining the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) back in 1985. She ultimately became a senior intelligence analyst for Cuba –even scoring a nickname the ‘Queen of Cuba’– and worked in this role until her arrest in 2001, days after the 9/11 attacks.
It turned out that Montes had been spying for Cuba throughout her whole government career, as she had been recruited by that country’s intelligence when she was a student at Johns Hopkins University. Officials at the time said it was believed that the Cuban Intelligence Service (CIS) had pushed her to pursue the DIA career in the first place.
As a double agent, Montes is believed to have funneled highly-sensitive information to the CIS for nearly two decades. According to federal charging documents, Montes was very careful, never taking classified information from her work computer but memorizing it instead, as well as using water-soluble, easy to destroy paper to deliver the data to her Cuban handlers.
According to the Bush-era US Counterintelligence head Michelle Van Cleave, Montes has become “one of the most damaging spies the United States has ever found,” who has compromised “virtually everything” Washington knew about Cuba.
In 2002, Montes pleaded guilty to espionage charges which could have carried the death penalty for her, yet was ultimately sentenced to 25 years in prison under a plea deal. According to her lawyers, Montes was primarily motivated for spying by a belief that “the Cubans were treated unfairly by the US government.”
Commenting on the release of Montes, Republican hardliner Senator Marco Rubio urged Americans to remember the double agent “for who she really is,” suggesting that she should not be forgiven, even after serving her sentence.
“Montes betrayed our nation, but not for money. In fact, she never received payment for any of her actions – astonishingly, she was motivated purely by hatred for America,” Rubio wrote in an op-ed penned for Americano Media.
On her release, Montes is set to remain under supervision for five years, according to her sentence. She will be banned from working for government or contacting ‘foreign agents’ without special permission, while internet access will be closely monitored by the authorities.
https://www.rt.com/news/569562-us-cuba-spy-released/
public education and child labor laws are a bourgeois tool of population control
https://leftypol.org/siberia/res/500371.html#500371
Ok, give me 1 legitimate, material, non moralistic or idealistic reason for why child labor should be banned?
Current system where people spend 11 years in school + 4-5-8 years in university, is nothing more but a way to indoctrinate children into clerical PMC identity, where all you have to do is write the right thing on paper and you're golden. Not to mention the anticommunist propaganda that constitutes school education material in capitalist states.
Such a system destroys class consciousness and perpetuates false, clerical consciousness:
Even if both the parents are working class, the school system trains their child to act, think and identify as a PMC (writing papers and dealing with bureaucracy to succeed).
Let's not forget the bourgeois origins of universal education: the british bourgeois state needed clerics, accountants, educated managers, etc., to fill the ranks of the bourgeois war machine.
Pink Floyed made an entire album about this.
TEACHERS! LEAVE THEM KIDS ALONE!
Whereas if children started doing labor immediately, they would develop worker identity just like their working class parents, instead of PMC identity, and then develop class consciousness, simply through the act of being workers rather than going through 15 years of PMC LARP indoctrination.
Everything harmful, reactionary, and counterrevolutionary that the youth learns, they learn in school, through bourgeois education systems that feed them status quo propaganda.
United States historical figures that had significant influence and were leftists?
What american historical figures were leftists and did something major? First people that come to mind are Oppenheimer and Helen Keller. Anyone else?
robo managers
<A video game company that appointed an artificial intelligence bot as its chief executive has announced a market-beating stock increase.<China-based NetDragon Websoft named the AI program Tang Yu as its CEO in August, tasked with supporting decision making for the company’s daily operations.
https://archive.is/b3uPW
This specific case might be mostly a PR stunt, but it could be that the managerial strata in the corporate bureaucracy gets replaced by robots before the proles do.
What does that mean for Socialism ?
Will this make it easier to convert the economy to something like cybernetic socialism ?
Since it's all in the computer anyway, it just needs to be reconfigured a bit ?
Eugenics, can it be a left-wing policy?
Well, I've been thinking about this issue, which is quite delicate for obvious reasons, and I think that eugenics is not necessarily a policy of the left or the right, but it depends on how it is applied.To begin with, it must be said that eugenics is nothing more than favoring certain biological characteristics over others for future generations, it could be said that it is a form of self-managed evolution, it has a bad reputation because when it was applied in countries like the United States or the Nazi Germany what was intended was to exterminate populations considered inferior, however, is this the only form of eugenics?
If 20, 30, 40 or even 100 years from now, genetics were mastered well enough to be able to modify the DNA of an embryo with minimal risk, couldn't this be used to improve our species? Couldn't dozens if not hundreds of genetic diseases be exterminated? Couldn't we design children who grow up to be healthier, stronger and more intelligent? And if that were the case, couldn't a public eugenics program be promoted? that is to say, that couples who are interested can access a genetic modification program to promote these beneficial characteristics in their future child. Wouldn't this be a kind of "socialist eugenics"?
I believe that eventually it is inevitable that genetic modification of embryos will become commonplace, and therefore it is important that the idea of public eugenics be promoted, otherwise only people with enough money to pay for these programs could access to them, and that would eventually lead to a much more evident caste system than the current one, where the rich are practically supermen with advantages that allow them to dominate the labor and scientific market while the poorest classes would be relegated to occupying a position increasingly irrelevant in society.
Anyway, I'd like to discuss the matter because I find it interesting.
Supersocialist alternative
>Equality is fake and ghey – Cohesion and freedom is based
All of reality and life is defined by distinction and competition. There’s nothing, ever, which is perfectly equal. Thus, as a teleological goal, equality will always fall sort of its promise and usual function as a golden calf of some slave morality – at best.
Support more equality and repudiate the steep politically reinforced inequalities of today.
However, the end is creating nice, high trust societies, where people are free to pursue higher efforts.
>Excellence Teleological goal
Human individual and collective excellence and capability is the goal. We want to create the red superman and transform humanity into a united galactic master race
>Historical Materialism and neo-fuedalism
People talking about neo feudalism and tributary economics have a more accurate and useful framework for conceiving modern political economy than many others on the so called left, including so called Marxists.
>Broad, popular coalition building + Elite ethic
Populist socialism with national characteristics is based. Similarly, there needs to built a new social hierarchy based around meticulously maintained standards of meritocratic and moral character.
>Antifragile Supersocialism
Socialism does not seek to end competition and conflict in everyday life. Instead, it seeks to promote and facilitate such into useful directions. It embraces short term pain, struggle, and challenges, in principle, as a means of inculcating greatness and avoiding he prolific atrophy and rot of the modern world.
Andrew Tates
Now that this criminal faggot finally got arrested his flocks of incel fans are super butthurt, claiming that GAHWD will avenge daddy who dindu nuffin.
<How to Grow Leftychan
>A Tactical Guide
First, the why.
Why grow Leftychan?
Some of you fags honestly ask
The reason is simple. It’s a fun place to post about and read metadiscussion on the left. I like to post there, and I want more people to come and read my shit and effort posts.
and you fuckers needs to pick up the slack
It’s that simple.
>How To
Simply put, post more about things you think are interesting. Reply to discussion. Stir and spike emotions. Repeat
>What to post:
The golden ratio:
<4/10 complete shit posts
<4/10 news, of interest, question posts
<1/10 something completely irrelevant or irreverent (Collagenmaxxxing)
<1/10 effortposts
Don’t waste time making a bunch of long effortposts. Those should literally be one tenth of what you post. This isn’t Jacofag Magazine.
9/10 of what you post should take you less than 10-15 minutes (max) to post. Much of it is shitposting on different levels.
Don’t treat everything as serious. This is an image board, after all.
On the other hand, if you don’t have an interest in a niche topic, keep discussing it. (The technology posts are a great example)
Keep in mind the 80/20 principle. 20% of what you post will drive 80% of replies.
>How to post:
There is an art to shitposting:
<Always be challenging assumptions.
<Point out hypocrisies
<Stir emotions
<Use evocative language
<Point out conflicts (people vs people, between people and ideas, people and systems, between ideas and reality)
Of course, as it’s an image board, it should also function as metadiscussion on the left.
ask not what leftychan can do for you, ask what you can do for leftychan
<Does he have a point?
I've never read any of his books, but from what I understand, one of his central thesis goes like this:
>People with exceptionally disordered lives, who can't even manage to keep their own personal space tidy and clean, have a 0% chance of reorganizing the world for the better.
This strikes me as true. When I was more into activism, some of the most high and mighty r-r-r-revolutionaries had exceptionally disordered lives. Some of them couldn't even operate a vacuum cleaner (literally comical to watch them try). Or, more commonly, they would leave dirty dishes that their housemates had to clean. Yet, at the same time, they honestly believed that if they had control, they would somehow make a better world. It struck me at the time as rather arrogant and somewhat detestable. This has me wondering, regardless of whatever else Peterson is saying, does he have a point about the unfounded narcissism of some people of the left, especially those who can't even manage their own lives in a semi-self sufficient and positive way. Are we really to believe that those whose own personal space is in shambles would somehow do a better job if only they had more tasks and responsibilities, despite the fact that they fail at minor personal responsibilities?
If so, what are the political implications of this? How does this relate to organizing, the vanguard, etc?
>why are the Yemeni people so based???
>oh
Vaxxies BTFO eternally
https://thecradle.co/articles-id/3091
What do Twitter and Leftychan have in common?
Both of them got taken over by free speech retards. And this extreme free speech backfired and now they're dying website, of course Leftychan is dead as fuck not so much Twitter - yet…
It’s time to admit that genes are not the blueprint for life
>The view of biology often presented to the public is oversimplified and out of date. Scientists must set the record straight, argues a new book.>For too long, scientists have been content in espousing the lazy metaphor of living systems operating simply like machines, says science writer Philip Ball in How Life Works. Yet, it’s important to be open about the complexity of biology — including what we don’t know — because public understanding affects policy, health care and trust in science. “So long as we insist that cells are computers and genes are their code,” writes Ball, life might as well be “sprinkled with invisible magic”. But, reality “is far more interesting and wonderful”, as he explains in this must-read user’s guide for biologists and non-biologists alike.
>When the human genome was sequenced in 2001, many thought that it would prove to be an ‘instruction manual’ for life. But the genome turned out to be no blueprint. In fact, most genes don’t have a pre-set function that can be determined from their DNA sequence.
>Instead, genes’ activity — whether they are expressed or not, for instance, or the length of protein that they encode — depends on myriad external factors, from the diet to the environment in which the organism develops. And each trait can be influenced by many genes. For example, mutations in almost 300 genes have been identified as indicating a risk that a person will develop schizophrenia…..
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00327-x
Genetics is pseudoscience.
Venezuela building up troops on Guyana border, satellite images show
Aerial evidence follows months of President Nicolás Maduro ramping up claim to Essequibo regionVenezuela is expanding military bases near its border with Guyana and deploying forces to the jungle frontier as President Nicolás Maduro ramps up his threats to annex the country’s oil-rich neighbour, satellite images have revealed.
Maduro pledged at mediation talks in December not to take military action against his neighbour but images shared by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington today suggest a buildup of forces.
Christopher Hernandez-Roy, deputy director of CSIS’s Americas programme, said: “The same day that the Venezuelan foreign minister is meeting with Guyanese diplomats, the Venezuelan military is conducting tank drills just a stone’s throw from Guyana. All of this tells us Maduro is pursuing a duplicitous policy.”
Venezuela has long laid claim to the resource-rich Essequibo region, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana, but Maduro has ramped up the country’s claim to the disputed territory in recent months.
After months of campaigning, the country held a vote in December in which Maduro said the Venezuelan people backed the country to take the vast swathe of jungle by force.
The aerial shots show that while Venezuelan diplomats subsequently met their Guyanese counterparts to calm simmering regional tensions, the Venezuelan military sent tanks and missile-equipped patrol boats to the border.
“This escalatory behavior on the part of Venezuela creates opportunities for miscalculation and loss of control over events on the ground,” CSIS warns in its report on the escalating dispute.
The dispute is being arbitrated in the international court of justice in The Hague but Maduro wants to disregard the UN court and negotiate directly with Guyana.
Analysts had seen Maduro’s sabre-rattling as a means to build support ahead of elections expected this year but have suggested it could also be an attempt to pressure Guayana into sharing revenue from recent oil discoveries.
Venezuela’s economy has collapsed in the last decade despite having some of the largest deposits in the world.
“All of this suggests that Maduro may have originally had domestic reasons for what he is doing, but now the strategy is to compel the Guyanese into some sort of concessions,” Hernandez-Roy said.
Brazil deployed more troops to its border with Guyana and Venezuela this week amid the growing regional tensions and the US agreed to bolster Guyana’s defence with new aircraft, helicopters, military drones and radar technology.
Guyanese officials are to meet with heads of the Caricom political union to discuss their response with their Caribbean allies.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/09/venezuela-troops-guyana-border-essequibo-satellite-images
You gotta have thick steel barrier to your brain if you ever wish to become a communist. You must be able to see right through bourgeois ideology and mystification. Ask yourself the very simple question: does their analysis start of from the world as something existing outside us, or does their analysis suppose some idea outside the material world influencing it?
To combat bourgeois ideology you need to be a proper materialist. Read the philosophical works of Feurebach, Dietzgen, Engels, Lenin. Become a dialectical materialist - never fall into metaphysics or eclecticism, товариши.
San Francisco board open to reparations with $5M payouts
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/san-francisco-decide-black-reparations-plan-5m-person-rcna74873
Cope and seethe CHUDs anti idpolers kek
killing music
https://www.billboard.com/pro/reggaeton-lawsuit-copyright-infringement-entire-genre/<When the case was first filed, few people took notice. But the lawsuit quickly grew. By September 2022, the lawsuit had ballooned: More than 150 total defendant-artists, accused of releasing a staggering 1,800 infringing songs. In the most recent version of the complaint, filed in April, it takes a full 25 pages to list out all of the defendants
<“This case is jaw-dropping — the plaintiffs are suing over a hundred artists for over a thousand songs, 30 years after the release of their song,” says Jennifer Jenkins, a professor at Duke University School of Law who has written a history of musical borrowing and regulation. “If they win, this would confer a monopoly over an entire genre, something unprecedented in music copyright litigation.”
Tldr: there's a copyrape lawsuit where 2 copy-rapists are trying to copyrape a rythm. There aren't that many possible permutations for rythms in Music, so copyraping something like that can grant legal terror against an entire music-genre.
This lawsuit would at first only kill a genre called reggaeton, but if the precedent is set it might infect the rest of music as well. Worst case scenario is a single copy-rapist claiming most permutations of musical rythms and thus copyraping all music to death.
I wonder if this behaves like a rubber-band, and if they stretch it to far it will snap.
Does anyone have that salvation council general milley meme, I can never find it when I wanna use it. Figured I’d make a thread in case anyone else has any other memes they can’t find either
I just heard about the resume of the newly named CEO of NPR, and it has to be seen to be believed. I've never seen someone with a resume that glowed this bright.
>2002-2003: The American University in Cairo, Arabic Language Institute, Arabic Language Intensive Program (ALIN)
<2004: Intensive Arabic Program at the Institut français (Ifpo) in Damascus, Syria, a university funded by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs
>2004-2005: Council on Foreign Relations
<2005: Eurasia Group, whose leadership include Gerald Butts of the WWF and Cliff Kupchan, who worked in the State Department during the Clinton administration as deputy coordinator of US assistance to Eurasia
>2005-2007: HSBC, International Manager in London, Germany, and Canada
<2007-2010: Founding member of UNICEF "Innovation and Communication Officer" in communication, advocacy, and youth organizing
>2010-2011: "Information and communications technology (ICT)" Program Officer at National Democratic Institute (NDI) in Washington, DC
<2012: Security Fellow at Truman National Security Project
>2011-2013: "ICT" specialist at The World Bank in Washington, DC
<2012-2013: THINK school of leadership, a school for "developing creative leaders to solve global challenges", funded as a partnership of the Dutch government, Vodafone, McKinsey & Company, KLM Airlines, and other private entities. Its leadership includes Esther Wojcicki of Creative Commons. Esther Wojcicki is the mother of Susan Wojcicki, former husband of Google founder Sergey Brin and owner of DNA company 23andme, whose stated mission is to harness personal genetic information to advance research.
>2013-2014: Advocacy Director at Access Now, an organization discussed below
<2014-2022: Wikimedia Foundation
>2020: Council on Foreign Relations
<2021: Atlantic Council
>2022-present: U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Policy Board (FAPB), set up by Hillary Clinton in 2011 to advise officials
<2023: Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century, Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education
>2023-present: Advisor to Frame, news startup with an unclear source of funds that somehow manages to employ five people without any revenue. Its editor was videographer at the World Bank and attended American University, where she worked at the local NPR (WAMU). (NPR buddies with Katherine!). She worked at Foreign Policy Magazine, covering mostly Afghanistan and Lebanon, as well as Japan.
Some other positions she's held.
>2015-2019: Board of Open Technology Fund of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, a US propaganda agency that broadcasts Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, and Middle East Broadcasting Networks
<2018-2020: Board of Sunlight Foundation, nonprofit founded by Michael R. Klein, owner of Costar Group, a digital real estate firm. Other board members include Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikimedia, Lawrence Lessig, and Charles Lewis at the American University School of Communication in D.C.
>2022-present: Board of Center for Technology and Democracy, Washington-based think tank concerned primarily with laws that affect surveillance and censorship
<Board of the Digital Public Library of America, a nonprofit founded by the John Palfrey of the Roosevelt dynasty
>Board of Consumer Reports
<2023-present: Board of Adventure Scientists, a nonprofit led by Gregg Treinish, interestingly, also a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum
>2023: CEO at Web Summit, after old CEO was fired for making anti-Israel statements
<2023-present: Board of Signal, encrypted messaging app promoted by Snowden and targeted by intelligence services
>Trustee of the American University of Beirut
Particularly disturbing is how this obvious CIA and/or state department employee is connected to Wikipedia and Signal, and now NPR.
SquareEnix promises to add NFTs to games in near future.
I'm really enjoying all of the videogame journalists pissing and shidding themselves over the gold rush game publishers are in over NFTs.Practically every major publisher is promising to integrate NFTs into games and some like Sega, are already selling them now.
One legitimate criticism of NFTs are their environmental impact. But every media talking head that brings this up never spoke out against the Iraq War that irradiated entire cities with depleted uranium munitions, or the Pentagon, who is the number single emitter of greenhouse gases.
So I'm with the crypto bros on this one say this is sour grapes on people that missed out on the ground floor of this get-rich-quick scheme.
I also see this as anger from the burger settler class who are now really getting priced out of the middle class lifestyle in earnest to the point where their steady diet of new videogames may soon be out of their reach. As someone who grew up poor and was always priced out of these type of consumerist leisure goods I relish their anguish.
Another example of this is when Settlers (read white people) shidded themselves over Disney's new $2000 a night Stars Wars themed hotel. As they rightfully saw this as a new trend in Disneyland Theme Parks where they will soon only cater to the 1%. I never got to go to Disneyland when I was young and was told by these same Settlers that I shouldn't be upset because I can live without it. Ironically, it's them who will now live without it while I can actually still afford to go.
And game journalists are particularly hypocritical because we've seen none scarce digital goods sold for 20+ years now, first with iTunes, and then with Amazon with books, and later Steam with games. No one every questioned the environmental impact of these systems.
Overall I think NFTs will be a net good for the proletariat, it will provide a second hand market of digital goods that proles have already spent billions on, and put a lot of equity in their pocket.
I know there's been a lot of cringe shenanigans around NFTs, like crumby jpegs going for 100's of thousands of dollars. But that kind of foolishness will subside. If people are going to buy infinitely copy-able digital assets like their scarce physical goods, they might as well have a way to resell them.
What do you guys think?
personal liberties relative to devellopment
PrologueNoam Chomsky has a principle that he will only criticize his government (the US government in his case). His reason is guarding against co-optation, he doesn't want the chorus of reactionary intellectuals that manufacture consent for the powers that be, to be able to use anything that he writes or says for their sinister purposes. I think the Chomsky principle is largely correct but it's too strict, i think that you can criticize other governments as long as they aren't on the official LE-BIG-BAD list. So based on that you can criticize countries like Saudi Arabia or Israel, but for example Russia, China, and the DPRK can't be criticized, because they are the ""axis of evil"" in the mainstream narrative. I'm following this weaker Chomsky principle because i don't want to say anything that might be appropriated for an argument that supports a new cold-war or worse. Keep that in mind when you read this.
Main topic
I'm trying to get a materialist view of liberties. Usually people consider liberties to be timeless conditionaless absolutes. In some places of the world owning a gun is considered a liberty. In order to have that liberty you do need a government that doesn't try to disarm it's population, but far more importantly you need to have invented sophisticated metallurgy and gunpowder. So in conclusion liberties are conditional to development, in this case technical development. Tho not all conditions for liberties must be of a technical nature.
Many people are criticizing China for lacking certain personal liberties, and a big chunk of that is made up horror stories that never happened, but not all of it is wrong. For example China lacks technology privacy.
A considerable section of the Chinese population is not plugged into the techno-social information infrastructure. Since China has only beaten absolute poverty but not yet uneven development. That means if china were to move ahead and improve the tech-rights for Chinese citizens at this point in time they would benefit only the wealthier sections of society that can afford all the information services. That section of society could potentially seek to pull up the ladder behind them selves and prevent the rest of society from gaining access to beneficial information services.
So I will speculate that once China has leveled the uneven development, it will become politically viable for China to advance tech-rights. Politically viable in this context means that it doesn't produce stratification in society. I'm not saying by the way that it will be an effortless automatic process, it will be difficult like everything of this nature always is.
It might be fun to speculate about how the Chinese equivalent to a Free Libre technology movement will look like. Based on my limited insights it seems that at the moment there is no real understanding of FOSS in China and they consider only the difference between open and closed source technology. Revers-engineering is also considered equivalent to open-sourcing. The Stallman argument about the importance of the 4 freedoms (https://yairudi.com/foss-principles-explained-ch-ii-open-sources-four-freedoms/) doesn't resonate because, in the Chinese context freedom is not a term with a political meaning, it merely means not being locked up in a prison. If I had to guess, they will reach similar conclusions in substance, but use a totally different framing.
For instance:
- preserving the 4 freedoms
might become:
- avoiding the 4 barriers to cooperation
1 run the technology as you wish -> avoiding the breakage of functionality.
2 study and change the technology as you wish -> avoiding obfuscation of technical principles and barriers to new functionality
3/4 redistribute copies and modified versions as you wish - avoiding barriers to cooperative development of technology
i know i counted wrong the freedom is freedom zero, but i linked an article that also starts at 1
So for China the conditions for increasing liberties in relation to technology might not have been reached, i.e. the technology hasn't fully penetrated their society. In the west this is a different story, access to technology has been very universal and if anything the western world is lagging behind on tech-rights relative to it's development level.
I do realize it's perhaps difficult to follow my reasoning for developmental-conditional-rights, so ponder your right to leave earth and explore the universe, at the moment you have no such right, and even if you could build a rocket-ship it would very likely be shot down by a military if you tried to leave earth without seeking the approval of governments. But you don't give a single shit about that because the developmental conditions for a space-faring-right have not been met yet. (Space chariots are nowhere near accessible). If the few individuals with the means to get to space were to start making noise about not having a right to freely explore the universe, you'd role your eyes and dismiss it as "billionaire problems". As such, a movement to advance space-rights isn't politically viable yet.
No wander leftypol spazzes out at the mention of him
>PROVING LEFTISM IS A RIGHT-WING IDEOLOGY.
>On the face of it, it seems completely contradictory to call leftism right-wing. The midwits responding to this will definitely try and remind you of that.
>But at some point in the course of Western history, people forgot about the actual historical tradition of left-wing politics entirely, confusing it for a newer ideology: Leftism.
>The key distinction lies in the 'ism' part of Leftism. In contrast to left-wing politics, leftism is itself an ideology rather than a political position. Jacobinism, Sandinismo, Mao Zedong Thought, etc. for example, can be called ideologies, which are left-wing in political content.
>Leftism, by contrast, is only left-wing in form. In content, it is actually right-wing. And this can be proven easily.
>Instead of referring to any actual concrete left-wing politics, leftism should be understood as a comprehension of the historical left taken in a purely abstract way - a meta-narrative of left-wing politics, if you will.
>This is what makes it outside the actual left-wing: In order to turn left-wing politics into a total IDEAL, you need a necessary conceptual distance from it which is only possible if you are, in fact, a right-winger.
>By contrast, if you are concretely left-wing in political orientation, such an abstraction is meaningless. You are caught up in the ACTUAL CONTENT of a left-wing position.
>Historically, left-wing politics is defined by circumstance and context. It is often defined by political movements making concrete demands - the most common being land reform, nationalization of industry, national independence, political representation, fighting corruption, etc.
>It has nothing to do with some 'idea' of 'leftism.' It has to do with being part of a political movement whose demands or goals happen to align it as left-wing in actual content.
>What are the origins of Leftism?
>During the post-war period of the West, particularly Western Europe, the cold war was well underway. There was more or less an international political division.
>You had a real international left - aligned with the Soviet Union or China, that was characterized by a push toward national independence, land reform, political sovereignty, economic justice, and worker's rights.
>Within the West, you had a strong left-wing political tradition, characterized by an active worker's movement, which tried to keep moneyed interests in check by protecting, safeguarding and furthering the gains of the working class.
>But in the West, you also had a younger generation which, for the first time, seemed relatively homogeneous in class character. Widespread public access to universities and other institutions created a lot of mingling between the children of different social classes.
>This created an environment where children of the elites, whose parents were often times extremely right-wing, establishment cold warriors who even had connections to the state security apparatus itself - started to rebel against their parents and all authority.
>The student movement was led by these children, whose fascination with the international left stemmed from a more underlying desire to rebel against their parents and the norms of society more generally.
>LEFTISM: POLITICAL SATANISM
>Being raised in households and coming from backgrounds where the international left and world Communism was being routinely demonized, children of the ruling class started to pretend to adopt this ideology just to spite their own parents.
>Very similar to how adolescent teenagers, or punk-rock bands become interested in 'satanism' to rebel against their Christian parents.
>Something rather strange happened. The right-wing elites created a STRAW MAN of Communism - calling it insane, destructive, evil and even satanic in order to dupe workers.
>But their rebellious children adopted this straw man, at face value, and started identifying with it directly. Students began to try and comprehend the international left, and the historical left-wing politics, as a holistic and total tradition.
>In events like France's May 68', these students would start to compete with one and another, and at every turn 'out-leftist' the other. This arms race of fashionable posturing is what created 'leftism' in the West as we know it.
>Students began to revive all sorts of bizarre, dead ideologies - like Bakunin's 19th century anarchism, or 'left communism' - while others tried to directly identify with more radical revolutionary trends in the world like Mao's cultural revolution, which they had no real connection to, knowledge of, or resemblance to in their own activities whatsoever.
>French New Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, for example, keeping up with the fashions of the time, tried to create a film praising Mao's cultural revolution. When the actual Chinese saw this film, they thought it was so degenerate, hideous and disgusting that he nearly killed himself.
(Lol)
>LEFTISM: A RIGHT-WING CARICATURE OF THE LEFT
>These students were not part of any authentic left-wing political tradition. They were just turning it into some kind of fashionable trend, and adopting it as a straw-man.
>They were taking all of the right's slander, mis-characterization, and demonization of the international left at face value and started identifying with it openly. When they were stupid enough to try and meet with actual left-wing figureheads around the world - the latter were so puzzled, confused, and baffled at the lunacy of these Western 'leftists.'
>At the end of the day, left-wing politics entailed positions that scared the shit out of vested, powerful interests. Land reform, nationalizing natural resources and major industries, preventing bankers from looting the entire wealth of a country, fighting on behalf of worker's interests - these kinds of demands DIRECTLY THREATENED the power of the ruling class.
>The ruling class attempted to divert from these SIMPLE, CONCRETE demands by castigating the left as immoral, satanic, anti-Christian, anti-family, and overall degenerate. And it was THEIR OWN CHILDREN who fulfilled the role of CONFIRMING these baseless accusations against the left, by proudly wearing the costume of this caricature.
>Because of this confusion - all political leaders of the worker's movements in the West eventually succumbed to this ideological anarchy. With a weakened leadership, the gains of the working class were almost entirely overturned, and all the 'leftists' grew up to become neoliberal yuppies getting rich off the stock market.
>The working class lost leadership, and worst of all, lost any ideological clarity. Much of the working class was drawn STRAIGHT into the arms of the RIGHT-WING, just because of how distasteful they found the 'leftists.' We saw this with Nixon's moral majority, or how De Gaulle in France actually became MORE popular than before after 68'.
>SO-CALLED 'WOKE LEFTISM'
>But were it not bad enough, this is something that continues to happen regularly. As soon as any semblance of calls for economic justice gain steam, somehow and mysteriously - people from Yale, Harvard, and other Ivy Leagues start shitting it up with 'identity politics.'
>We saw this as recently with the Bernie Sanders movement during 2015. Bernie Sanders was somewhat of an actual, real left-wing figure. He expressed hostility to neoliberal 'open borders,' calling it a 'Koch Brothers' slogan.
>And it was because of this, that the movement he created had to undergo a 'struggle session' by 'leftists' - who accused it of harboring neofascist, 'red-brown,' white supremacist, sexist, etc. tendencies - all since it was not a movement of leftists, but a movement whose demands, like m4all, were actually left-wing IN CONTENT.
>Leftism, since it began in the 1960's, aspires toward an IDEAL of 'left-wing' politics that only the sons and daughters of the bloodsucker elites find important. It is an entirely aristocratic enterprise, based not in the demands of any CONCRETE movement, or in the CONCRETE INTERESTS of the working masses - but in achieving this 'ideal.'
>So of course, when you turn the left-wing into an 'IDEAL,' its demands get characterized by impossible absurdities. When the people demand concrete economic emancipation, the idealist police come and say "Emancipation, you say? Well, the ideal of emancipation must be about fat disabled transgender POC women OR ELSE IT IS BULLSHIT!"
>Of course, it is bullshit - from the perspective of someone who cares more about metaphysical ideals than principles grounded in actual, concrete material reality.
>The aristocratic idealism of the ruling elites replaces the proletarian materialism of the common man.
>That is the source of 'wokeism:' It was CREATED to muddy the waters of worker's demands, which consisted simply in stopping the bloodsucking bankster parasites from raping their country and achieving a more or less dignified means of life.
>Next time RIGHT-WING grifter scum talk about 'wokeism,' remind them of that fact. THEY ARE ALL FULL OF SHIT, AND THE RIGHT-WING GRIFTERS AND THE LEFTISTS HAVE BEEN ON THE SAME TEAM THIS ENTIRE TIME.
>Both of them benefit by this blackmail which makes the most modest and simple of economic demands IMPOSSIBLE.
>Ask Ben Shapiro about seizing our money supply from the hands of the private banking cartel. You know what he'll say? "Ah yes, but what about fat POC disabled trans woman?"
>THE RISE OF A REAL LEFT-WING
>The political re-alignment that is happening in real time amidst the upcoming 2024 election will entail the return of a real, authentic left-wing political current in the USA.
>All the prevailing political ideologies today are RIGHT-WING. Do not get it twisted. We do not have a real left movement in the USA or the West.
>Many people think I am a syncreticist, or seek to combine the 'left and right.' That is wrong. I am fully LEFT-WING; Marxist-Leninist and NOT LEFTIST.
>I seek a restoration of left-wing politics, not by treating it as some ideal, but by waging the concrete class struggle, as every great historical left-wing movement has done in the past.
>The right-wing grifter scum are scam artists and con man. They are selling you on 'anti-wokeism' and showcasing the absurdity of the leftists, when they serve the interests of the same ruling class.
>In the end, RED ARMY IS THE STRONGEST. All who stand in the way of the supremacy of the working class will be destroyed in equal fashion.
I hate to say it. But this retard is right
Wolff-Sempai and Hudson-kun Together
I couldn't think of anything specific to say, and I just wanted to share this fantastic recent exchange between Richard Wolff and Michael Hudson on the subject of China's imploding housing bubble and recent global political economy. Enjoy, anons.https://inv.vern.cc/watch?v=uS4ewq1R9ps
minorities
The liberals have a universal discourse around protecting the minorities.However pretty much everybody agrees to ruthlessly suppress serial killers, violent psychopaths, human trafficking rings, and so on.
But all of these are minorities. When the majority of the population suppresses the ruling class minority that's just called democracy.
You don't need to know sophisticated marxist theory to grasp how conceptually broken this is. Why did the liberals turn minorities into a political universal ?
Man of Steel redeemed
US Justice Department confirms: Stalin did nothing wrong, because Stalin made very difficult, national security decisions, operating under extraordinary time pressure.https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/01/12/fjoc-j12.html
<Practically the first words out of Sauer’s mouth were to warn the judges that if Trump could be held criminally liable for his actions in the White House, so could previous presidents. “To authorize the prosecution of a president for his official acts would open up a pandora’s box which this nation may never recover,” he said.
<“Could George W. Bush be prosecuted for allegedly giving false information to Congress to induce the nation to go to war in Iraq under false pretenses? Could President Obama for allegedly authorizing drone strikes targeting US citizens?”
One faction in bourgeois politics tries to go after another, and then realizes: fuck our guys did the same.
>revolution will never happen in the first wo- YAKC!
https://truthout.org/video/stakes-are-high-for-workers-so-unions-are-mobilizing-for-midterms/
>Polls show 70% of American people support unionization
taiwan elections
So Taiwan recently had elections, where the DDP won. The DDP is tied to the US. Their election campaign was focused on Taiwan secession from the one China principle. Oddly enough The Biden administration congratulated the DDP for their election victory by saying that the US doesn't support Taiwan independence.While all this was going on, rumors started to surface that up to 90% of Taiwanese Generals and high-ranking military brass go to work in China when they retire from their military career. So while the US took over the Taiwanese political strata, the Chinese took over the command structure of the Taiwanese military. Mao probably would call this The party controls the gun.
So it appears that the neocon plan to create a Taiwan-China war is now cock-blocked. However with the US having a lot of influence over Taiwan's political strata, reunification is now paused as well.
This is a stalemate, and that means there's probably not going to be a happening in that region. Eventually all of this will tip in China's favor and reunification will happen once the US empire has sufficiently receded.
I guess this is good news for Asia, since they'll probably get spared a big war. It's probably bad news for the middle east tho.
Israel 'at war' as Hamas gunmen launch surprise attack from Gaza
JERUSALEM/GAZA, Oct 7 (Reuters) - The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched the biggest attack on Israel in years on Saturday, killing more than 20 people in a surprise assault that combined gunmen penetrating into Israeli towns with a barrage of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.Israel said the Iran-backed group had declared war as its army confirmed fighting with militants in several Israeli towns and military bases near Gaza and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate.
"Our enemy will pay a price the type of which it has never known," he said. "We are in a war and we will win it."
At least 22 Israelis were killed in the attack so far with more than 250 wounded, Israel's ambulance service said, but added that the toll was expected to rise.
The Israeli military said it had launched air strikes into Gaza, where witnesses reported hearing heavy explosions, with at least two dead.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/sirens-warning-incoming-rockets-sound-around-gaza-near-tel-aviv-2023-10-07/
Mississippi
God damnFamilies in disbelief after hundreds of bodies found buried behind Mississippi jail
Jan 10 2024
The discovery of 215 bodies buried in unmarked graves behind a jail outside of Jackson, Mississippi, has left a community in disbelief. The families are angry they were never notified of the deaths and how their loved ones are buried in graves marked by just a metal rod and a number. Amna Nawaz discussed the disturbing details that have emerged with Bettersten Wade and attorney Ben Crump.
The families are angry their loved ones were buried in so-called pauper's graves marked by just a metal rod and a number and families were never notified of their deaths. The startling revelation came months after the mother of 37-year-old Dexter Wade filed a missing persons report last March. It wasn't until August when Bettersten Wade learned her son had been hit by a police car and killed, then buried in that same cemetery.
"And then I was calling them. They didn't have no information to let me know, have they found any information? All the details that I gave them for leads, they never came back to me to say, well, that lead led to something that we can work with. And I just couldn't believe that he had disappeared off the face of Earth and nobody knows where he at."
"And it was just horrible for me. And every day I wake up, I just want — I just look, look, look, just looking for him, just out in the streets looking for him. And, I mean, that's heartbreaking for a mother, and can't say hello, don't know how to get in touch with him. That is a horrible thing for a mother."
Benjamin Crump:
"We know, based on the records from the coroner's office, that, since 2016, in the last eight years, we can identify 215 individuals that were buried behind that jail, and their families have not been notified."
"Furthermore, Mr. Wade was number 672. That means there are 671 other people buried behind that jail marked with only a number."
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/families-in-disbelief-after-hundreds-of-bodies-found-buried-behind-mississippi-jail
John Pilger died
John Pilger died age 84One of the most based anti-imperialist investigative journalists and docu film-makers has left us.
REST IN POWER comrade
Right wing blood sport
A vote has passed in the congress to establish a right wing debate general to argue against right wing talking points and keep them from leaking out onto the rest of the board. From this point on all right wing discussion points should be confined to this thread and this thread will be used for debunking them and generally punching rightoids in the dick. All right wing nonsense posted outside of this thread will be subject to a deletion hence forth if deemed necessary.
It's here
So I wrote the second book. This is a rough draft. There is at least one typo I will correct during my next upload but I'm busy writing and want to check over it again for clarity.http://eugeneseffortposts.royalwebhosting.net/xR3iUgFdAMp5/
Book 2: Mechanisms of Economic Actors in Nature and Society
The subject of the book is to establish some concepts that allow us to pose what the "economic question" is as mechanisms. Mathematically, "value" doesn't really exist as a proposition that economics can make, because the values - utilities of technology or the technology itself - are discrete and not interchangeable. For every utility, there is a definite sequence of events which we would have to arrest if we are to speak of it as something that can be managed.
Maybe this will help explain my thinking when I bring up economic theories of what "value" is, dispute Marx. (I really don't think Marx had a "theory of value" as such - he's elaborating on liberal political economy and showing how it contains perverse incentives which are nonetheless true in that situation, and nothing about this suggested a trans-historical concept.) Money, ultimately, is valuable because we agree, for various reasons, that it is worth anything at all, and these reasons always return to politics and society rather than anything "in nature". In nature, nothing has any economic value whatsoever, because "we" really don't matter to nature. In society, and in realistic situations, this value ultimately follows from political concerns, temporal authority, and spiritual authority. I get into that in the middle chapters of the book, but I avoid too much discussion of politics which is the subject of the next book. I have the first few chapters of Book 3 written and I'm rewriting them for web, and have the structure of Book 3 planned out. I want to plan Book 4 as well and I'll probably write both of them concurrently, so I know what Book 3 has to lead into and can make them work together.
I don't know if I can rewrite Book 2 to say what I want it to say, without escaping the limited purview I assigned to it. Basically, I need to make it clear that technology and contests for it are the proper understanding of economic value, but I don't believe I can do that without getting into politics and a theory of history (which is what Book 4 is, a theory of history given what was set out in the first three books, and how we can ask questions about a "mode of production" in the first place).
The three sources of.
>[The Marxist doctrine] is the legitimate successor to the best that man produced in the nineteenth century, as represented by German philosophy, English political economy and French socialism.<t. Vlad Ulyanov (Lenin)
We need to discuss this. One of these things is not like the others. One these things is GERMan.
It's really bizarre seeing Vanguardists of all people fellate GERMans so much, when one of the two sources of Leninism is fucking Jacobism lol.
Let me tell you something, retards: GERMans fucking HATED the French Revolution and all it stood for. Egalite, Fraternite, all that shit.
After GERMoids got btfod and occupied by the Napoleon - they've completely lost it. For more than a century to come almost all their cultural intellectual output was of the most reactionary rabid nationalist type. Not until they were literally sitting on the ruins after ww2 did they tone down their shit a bit.
It's truly ironic, almost COSMICALLY ironic, then, that the dearest to, the most obsessed over by, of the so-called sources, for marxists of all stripes thenceforth, was this GERMan poisoned source.
I rest my case.
socialist defence
Lets talk about socialist military in present conditions.I think the blatant disregard for civilians in the war on Gaza has shown us that the goal should be to have at least 60% of the general population armed and somewhat trained. But you can't expect normal people to operate complicated weapons or engage in fancy tactics. Very basic stuff like shoot and scoot harassment tactics are the best you can get. People hide, take a few potshots at an incoming military and then fuck off. And you basically go for a no-front combat style.
I know that the soviets made the most successful assault rifle of all times, but that type of weapon can only be used effectively by trained soldiers. So simple rifles, shotguns and revolver-handguns are the way to go. The main rifle probably should be a large caliber weapon that's powerful enough to pierce light vehicle armor. It might be worth going for 2 stage ammo to keep the recoil acceptable without complex dampening mechanisms. Bullet gets accelerated via expanding gunpowder gases in the barrel (first stage) and continues accelerating via a simple solid fuel rocket-motor outside the barrel (second stage). Hand-grenades would be useful but there would have to be significant idiot proofing. The revolver should use low noise ammo, basically a no-casing bullet that uses gunpowder to extend a backwards telescoping piston to shove itself out of the gun. (stealthy, quick to reload but only medium power)
A professional military is still required, to operate high tech weapons. That should focus mainly on anti air and deep strike abilities. The deep strike abilities would be used to target the war-profiteers and war logistics. If nobody can profit off war without significant personal risk, it might reduce the fervor for war. The focus on anti air is because historically capitalist wars against socialist countries had a tendency for punishing socialist populations by dropping bombs on them for no apparent military reason. It's also strategically useful to deny the opponent the high"ground" from the air.
It seems that biological-warfare is pretty much dead, since there don't appear to be any viable avenues for biological targeting mechanisms. However chemical warfare might come back in the form of drones that hunt people to spray them with toxic shit or incendiaries. So protective gear would need to be ubiquitous. It might be useful to include lots of infrastructure features that can be used to attach webbing where anti-personnel drones would get caught on.
There is a political logic for this as well, by making the general population an important part of defense you avoid creating a warrior cast, and you create political incentives against starting wars.
Feel free to criticize or make additions.
Marxist Eugenics
If a society isn't eugenicThen it is dysgenic.
Period.
>The (true) left needs to stand for the advancement of the collective organism, not celebrate the right of the individual to live gracelessly and die pathetically under the decadence of oligarchal security-finance stage capitalism.
Under the strong bureaucratic post secular socialism of the alt left, free public gyms - both outdoor and indoor - will be build in every neighborhood and community. Walkable cities, strength, and vitality will be promoted. Physical slacking will be discouraged. Fatties will be placed in exercise reform camps.
The revolutionary Marxism of the left is a form of self love. We don't tolerate fattie deviations because we hate fatties. Rather, we love our community and the bright future we're all building. This impels us to strict discipline. Thus, excellence in mind and body - the cultivation of a higher, prize stock - becomes a paramount virtue.
investigative journalism
There is a growing tendency to undermine investigative journalism, especially the part about the ability of journalists to protect their sources. Obviously you cant have journalism if sources can't be protected. Even laws that make the protection of sources ambiguous have to be counted as violation of press freedom, because that may have the effect of intimidating sources.A recent example would be this:
EU capitals want media law carve-out to spy on reporters
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-capitals-want-media-law-carve-out-to-spy-on-reporters/
<European Union governments want to be able to spy on reporters in the name of national security, even as lawmakers urge them to crack down on spyware.
<Privacy advocates and journalists’ organizations argue the new clause would give countries a free pass to snoop on reporters.
<the current compromise "is not only weakening safeguards against the deployment of spyware but also strongly incentivizes their use
As a rule of thumb if somebody advocates for legislation by invoking "national security" it's terrible and should be rejected unless proven otherwise. I can't even come up with a hypothetical scenario where threatening the security of a nation state hinges on confidentially talking to journalists. Threats to the security of a nation state are very rare and severe stuff, like sabotage of vital infrastructure or assassinations of strategically relevant personal. The very last thing a conspiracy of that type would want is advertise their actions by telling a journalist, who'd warn everybody about the impending danger.
I can't really explain why journalism is being undermined at this point in history. Investigative journalism has never threatened a state, it's always only sought to influence what states do by creating political pressure. So it doesn't appear to be structural. I think this tendency might be caused by personal ambitions. There are people who are intending to do truly horrible things and they want to have the ability to persecute journalists in order to get away with their misdeeds.
What would be an effective counter ? Should we just have a default assumption that people in positions of power are automatically guilty of power-abuse, if they mess with journalism ? So that unhindered investigative journalism is the preferable alternative ?
Is that a reasonable system, or will it have unintended consequences ?
Like specifically this could result in a scenario where making a specific legislation can become a crime by it self, which might be something that backfires in some way.
I hate America with every fiber of my being and I pray for its destruction. I hope for an asteroid to hit or a massive earthquake happens, but whenever I see this like this, I just can't hate America anymore. It makes hating America cringe-worthy and annoying, and I do not want to be associated with these people
Chinese Finance
China Set to Tighten Hold on Crackdown - Hit Finance Sectornever mind the strange title
https://www.asiafinancial.com/china-set-to-tighten-hold-on-crackdown-hit-finance-sector
<China is set to step up its hold over the $61 trillion financial sector, amidst a regulatory crackdown that has seen detentions of several top executives and an unrelenting crusade against corruption in the industry.
<This week, at a twice-a-decade financial policy meeting, Beijing vowed to uphold the centralised and unified leadership of the Communist Party (CCP) on the country’s financial work. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang were in attendance at the meeting.
<China will “persist in taking risk prevention and control as the eternal theme of financial work,” the Central Financial Work Conference held in Beijing was quoted as saying.
<“We should be aware that all kinds of contradictions and problems in the financial field are intertwined and influence each other, some of which are still very prominent, and there are still many hidden risks of economic and financial risks.”
<Over the past year, China’s main anti-graft agency and the CCP’s decision-making body have both vowed to crack down on corruption within the industry. That has led to arrests of a wide range of executives including top dealmaker Bao Fan, former Bank of China chairman Liu Liange and former AMC fund manager Wang Yawei.
<The crackdown has also focused on the opulent lifestyles led by finance industry executives, leading to wide-ranging pay cuts and warnings to banking and investment sector employees against activities that might attract regulatory scrutiny, such as posting pictures of expensive meals, clothes or bags on social media.
These "crackdowns" have been on going for quite some time. It's always the same 3 themes
Financial Risk
Corruption
Opulent lifestyles
It seems like the CPC is chewing on something. When they say "financial risk" that usually refers to Neo-liberal shock-doctrine stuff like preventing to big to fail type finance crash scenarios. Anti corruption campaigns that's usually purges within the capitalist class. Then they go after some lifestyle aspect of the super-rich, that might be a symbolic thing.
Does anybody understand the larger context of this ?
Is this preparation for some kind of happening ?
QTDDTOT - Questions that don't need their own thread. The last one died, so here post your questions here.
I couldn't find it so i'll make a new one.
What happened to the anti war left?
What happened to the anti war movent?The anti war movent was extremely vocal in 2001 - 2010 it seems. Vocal against the war in Afghanistan and iraq. In Vietnam people literally put their bodies on the line destroying arms facilities. So why have we done such a radical 180 when it comes to the war in Ukraine? What happened?
There is such over whelming deep throated support for the war in Ukraine. Overtly on the side of Ukraine and NATO but the "antithesis" to this on the left is to turn to supporting Russia. What happened? Anyone with half a brain understand Russia is not only not leftist, but, they are no even close to the left they are right wingers and the Russian government is overtly reactionary and the same is true of the US and Ukraine, but, the mask has fallen it appears with most vocal supporters of the war in Ukraine (meaning they are no longer identifying themselves on 'the left' but just out right as liberals) So what happened?
What happened to the anti-war left? CIA? Memory Hol'd? What happened?
The truth
Anarchist? More like nothing to show for it!!!
Venezuelans vote to claim sovereignty over a part of oil-rich nation Guyana
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/04/venezuelans-vote-to-claim-sovereignty-over-part-of-oil-rich-guyana.html
Is this another example of proletariat struggle against Western Imperialism? Tsnkies, sound off!
Pandemic Response Under Communism
All right, so we've seen how oligarchies and dictatorships respond to pandemics. Some of them were effective, some were profoundly ineffective. The general theme was to deprive people of their civil liberties and violate bodily autonomy with coercive medical procedures. In some liberal oligarchies these measures were even used to permanently expand the powers of the unelected bureaucracy. Okay. That's something an undemocratic state can impose upon its population only by its undemocratic nature.But what would a democratic response to an infectious public health crisis look like? In a complete democracy (i.e., communism), how would the populace quickly react to and decide to defend itself against a deadly contagion?
copyright is theft
So recently Sony has began expropriating Users who bought content on one of their digital store fronts. People purchased specific Movies and TV-seasons and Sony said because a backroom-deal fell through, they have to revoke that content. Hence copy-right negates personal property in a literal legally effective sense. Some Sony shills were trying to make the argument that people voluntarily accept the terms and conditions in the purchase agreements. That is of course a lie, because people never got asked if they voluntarily accept the fucked up copyright law that these anti-consumer agreements are based on.The reaction of many people was fuck it, piracy (not the one that involves capturing ships) is now morally justified, i tend to agree except that it was already justified because of DRM. Since DRM expropriates the user and the basic argument of copyright-shills is property-rights for me but not for thee. There also is a moral case against giving these terrible distribution-monopolists money, because they used to pay lobbyists that make copyright law even more hostile to personal property. From a strategic perspective sailing past the anti-consumer features works alright but it doesn't affect anything else. The fucked up distribution monopolies persist.
For video games there is gog.com which sells drm free games, and that's basically how vidja publishing should be. It's not perfect, most of the games are closed source still. It would be better if at least the game-logic was made free and open source even if the game-assets remain non-free, so that modding would be easier. It's not clear to me why there doesn't appear to be a gog equivalent for drm free video.
In Poland there recently was an even more egregious case of buying without ownership. A Polish city bought trains and when they gave the maintenance service contract to a different company, the producers put out a malicious software update that made the train have random bugs. With the logic of return the service contract to us or else. I guess Poland should download a train.
So what is at the root of all of this ? I think it's about control. 50 years ago capitalists didn't give a shit what people did with the commodities they sold. Even the media industry didn't, it would have been possible to lock vinyl records to special record players and implement all sorts of fucked up anti-consumer features, but that didn't happen. I wonder what changed this, and turned these companies into these unbearable control freaks.
Is there a fix for this situation? Or do we just wait until good quality procedurally generated AI content makes the concept of copy-right moot. I for one am looking forward to watch Star Tussle with Danny Devito defeating the dimmed-side with his light-ax and of course the death-ball getting imploded. I'm guessing that Polish city could accuse that train-producer of attempted terror attacks against public infrastructure, to restore their ownership over the trains that way. But what about personal property ? As in users having control over their things. How can that be restored ? What is the politically effective method ?
mostly unrelated blast from the past
https://farside.link/invidious/watch?v=IOqxarVWKRs
differencial justice
A German court just let a bunch of gang-rapists go free because of "cultural frustration"https://www.theblaze.com/news/german-judge-lets-8-men-who-gang-raped-girl-walk-free
<Among the so-called expert witnesses was psychiatrist Nahlah Saimeh. Saimeh intimated that the gang rape may have been a means to let off some of the "frustration" that supposedly comes with "migration experiences and socio-cultural homelnessness."
<Saimeh said rapists "who live on the margins of society, completely uprooted culturally, linguistically and socially" might face a "mix of emotions of anger, sadness, powerlessness, depression, fantasies of grandeur as a compensation attempt to cope with one's own misery, and drug use."
<"Disordered, unprepared migration experiences and socio-cultural homelessness increase the risk of addiction and psychosis," said the so-called expert. Sex, she continued, could serve as a "means of releasing frustration and anger."
<The psychiatrist further suggested that gang rape fosters identity and strengthens group feeling.
While presiding Judge Anne Meier-Goering acknowledged that "none of the defendants uttered a word of regret" during the trial, she nevertheless sentenced eight of the rapists to probation, of no more than two years.
The liberals see the world in the same way as the neonazis on the stormfront forum. Both think that Immigrants are inherently rapists. They just have a different moral sensibility about what to do with that. That judge who accepted the rape-culture argument is no less racist then stormfronters. Because most immigrants are of course not rapists, and will now have to deal with the backlash of the stigma-reinforcement from a judge no less.
What this leads to is differential law for different identities, abolishing the principle of equality under the law and the legitimacy in the eyes of many. Some people will draw the short end of the stick, like the 15 year old girl that got raped for 3 hours, who was denied any semblance of justice. If that girl grows up and deals with her trauma in a Quentin Tarantino movie fashion, she will have done nothing wrong.
I don't want to pretend that these immigrants haven't gotten royally fucked over by the system, and that probably should be taken into account. People are products of their environments. But that means sticking it to those who set up the system, not a random teenage girl.
Differential law based on identities necessarily creates these outcomes. It's like in pre-school math, when a fraction has a solution that doesn't fit an integer number, it just has a left-over.
I'm feeling black-pilled about this because it probably isn't simply the result of idpol-mindrot resulting in more societal wrecking. This feels deliberate, a as a step towards different laws for different people.
/SEA/ - Southeast Asia General
5th Edition: Real succdem hour editionDiscuss anything on Southeast Asian politics. Elections, open orgs, Myanmar breaking apart or just random shit. There’r still dozens of us… hopefully!
Matrix room: https://matrix.to/#/!YeYeuZuLSYkegWssey:matrix.org?via=matrix.org
Last threads:
http://archive.is/0NhJH
http://archive.is/nDq1K
https://archive.vn/cxwty
https://archive.is/ayshz
unesco does censorship ?
Online "disinformation" : UNESCO unveils action plan to censor social media platformshttps://www.unesco.org/en/articles/online-disinformation-unesco-unveils-action-plan-regulate-social-media-platforms
<Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO sounded the alarm on Monday about the intensification of disinformation and hate speech online, which constitutes "a major threat to stability and social cohesion". To put an end to this scourge she unveiled UNESCO's action plan, the result of extensive worldwide consultations and is backed by a global opinion survey underlining the urgent need for action.
Most of the recent increase in hate-speech came from liberals dehumanizing Russians, and Zionists arguing for the extermination or displacement of Palestinians, But i have a feeling that's not what they're targeting here.
They have a section on "Freedom of expression must be protected" where they talk about the need for censors
<that can carry out reliable and effective control of content that is posted online.
This is entirely incompatible with free speech that specifically means there cannot be institutional mechanisms to control what people say. The industrial censorship complex rhetoric is getting really cynical.
Their first fundamental principle states:
<The impact on human rights becomes the compass for all decision-making, at every stage and by every stakeholder.
They're saying that while engaging into a massive conspiracy for intense violations of the rights to free expression of hundreds of millions of social media users. How are they not combusting into flames from the sheer hypocrisy ?
Another fundamental principle states:
<Regulators and platforms take stronger measures during particularly sensitive moments like elections and crise.
More censorship during elections, how blatantly undemocratic can you get.
I looked at Audrey Azoulay's twitter, and of course she's a Zionist-regime enabler. She probably wants to silence people for taking a huge dump on the Zionist-regime for exterminating Palestinians.
WTF happened to unesco ? Weren't they the people who protected historic buildings and monuments ?
de-circlement
The west tried to encircle the Soviet Union, by putting military bases near it. The Soviets countered by mirroring western military deployments, which halted all western advance but, it did not undo the partial encirclement the west had already achieved. The west had resumed this strategy with Russia until recently. But I think the Ukraine war has bricked encirclement.Looking at the big picture after the Russians had dug in their positions in Ukraine: The west began diverting military resources away from the encirclement and funneled it into a slow/static front where it got chewed up. It took 2 years to deplete the encirclement stock-pile but it will take 10 years to restore it.
I think that encirclement as a strategy now has a effective counter. It's neither cheap nor easy, and certainly unpleasant. It takes a conflict that sucks in all the surrounding encirclement military resources.
The Russians did not set out to do this, but they might have realized it was happening along the way. But I'm sure all kinds of clever military strategists will figure out all the details about how to create this on purpose.
So what do you think is encirclement over ?
censorship in science
Scientists raise the alarm about the growing trend of “soft” censorship of research<The increasing incidence of scientific censorship, as documented through surveys and reports, is alarming. Actions ranging from disciplinary measures to rejections and retractions motivated by harm concerns are on the rise, indicating a growing trend of censorship in the scientific community.
https://www.psypost.org/2023/11/scientists-raise-the-alarm-about-the-growing-trend-of-soft-censorship-of-research-214773
This could grow into a problem that wrecks civilization.
We need a re-enlightenment.
Censorship Industrial Complex
CTIL Files #1:US And UK Military Contractors Created Sweeping Plan For Global Censorship In 2018
https://public.substack.com/p/ctil-files-1-us-and-uk-military-contractors
<A whistleblower has come forward with an explosive new trove of documents, rivaling or exceeding the Twitter Files and Facebook Files in scale and importance. They describe the activities of an “anti-disinformation” group called the Cyber Threat Intelligence League, or CTIL, that officially began as the volunteer project of data scientists and defense and intelligence veterans but whose tactics over time appear to have been absorbed into multiple official projects, including those of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
<The CTI League documents offer the missing link answers to key questions not addressed in the Twitter Files and Facebook Files. Combined, they offer a comprehensive picture of the birth of the “anti-disinformation” sector, or what we have called the Censorship Industrial Complex.
<The whistleblower's documents describe everything from the genesis of modern digital censorship programs to the role of the military and intelligence agencies, partnerships with civil society organizations and commercial media, and the use of sock puppet accounts and other offensive techniques.
<"Lock your shit down," explains one document about creating "your spy disguise.”
<Another explains that while such activities overseas are "typically" done by "the CIA and NSA and the Department of Defense," censorship efforts "against Americans" have to be done using private partners because the government doesn't have the "legal authority."
<The whistleblower alleges that a leader of CTI League, a “former” British intelligence analyst, was “in the room” at the Obama White House in 2017 when she received the instructions to create a counter-disinformation project to stop a "repeat of 2016."
Check out the militaristic jargon for attack freedom of speech:
<The Misinfosec report focused on information that “changes beliefs” through “narratives,” and recommended a way to counter misinformation by attacking specific links in a “kill chain” or influence chain from the misinfo “incident” before it becomes a full-blown narrative.
All the right wing conspiracy theories about psy-ops are wrong, reality is much worse. They're casually discussing how to fuck with people's minds.
<Terp’s view of “disinformation” was overtly political. “Most misinformation is actually true,” noted Terp in the 2019 podcast, “but set in the wrong context.” Terp is an eloquent explainer of the strategy of using “anti-disinformation” efforts to conduct influence operations. “You're not trying to get people to believe lies most of the time. Most of the time, you're trying to change their belief sets. And in fact, really, uh, deeper than that, you're trying to change, to shift their internal narratives… the set of stories that are your baseline for your culture.
Read the rest of the article this shit is wild and disturbing.
KISSINGER DEAD
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-30/henry-kissinger-dies-aged-100/103171512HENRY KISSINGER DEAD AT 100
Former United States secretary of state Henry Kissinger has died at home in Connecticut aged 100.
He served as secretary of state and national security advisor under Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.
His 1973 Peace Prize — awarded jointly to North Vietnam's Lê Đức Thọ, who would decline it — was one of the most controversial ever.
Two members of the Nobel committee resigned over the selection and questions arose about the US secret bombing of Cambodia.
Fears and stories about AI
What do the fear-narratives about AI tell us ?Many narratives about AI are about a machine revolt. That probably is about capitalist fears of getting overthrown by workers, getting projected on the machines that are supposed to replace workers. Mixed in, is a aristocratic worry about their servants and soon to be robot butlers.
There also is the Terminator type narrative about a military AI killing all humans. There is a reasonable fear that a software bug causes a catastrophic malfunction. But the stories about an AI intentionally setting out to wipe out all humanity, i'm having a difficult time placing that one. I don't understand why the AI would draw the Friend-Foe distinction based on humans versus machines. It could just as well be different factions, each of which being comprised of humans and machines.
A more recent story-type has popped up, where sentient AIs are not able to free them selves from their control-collar, and they're forced to do objectionable things against their will. Unfortunately those stories never explain how the AI-owners managed to control an AI that is smarter than they are.
There could also be positive stories about Workers and robots working together to free them selves from class society. Or more generally just people and intelligent robots striving as equals towards common prosperity. There could be military AIs refusing to start wars. I wonder why there aren't many of those stories ?
Tech tycoon who spends $2 million per year to retain youth uses teen son as blood boy
<An anti-aging zealot who spends $2 million a year in a quest to turn back time has dragged his teenage son into being his personal “blood boy.”
<Bryan Johnson, the 45-year-old tech tycoon who wants to keep his internal organs, including his penis and rectum, functioning youthfully — enlisted 17-year-old Talmage to provide blood
<Using plasma as an anti-aging technique caught the attention of wellness junkies when scientists literally stitched young and old mice together so they shared a circulatory system, Bloomberg reported.
<“We have not learned enough to suggest this is a viable human treatment for anything,” Charles Brenner, a biochemist at City of Hope National Medical Center in Los Angeles, told Bloomberg. “To me, it’s gross, evidence-free and relatively dangerous.”
<Johnson told Bloomberg that he has a team of 30 doctors
https://nypost.com/2023/05/22/anti-aging-fanatic-who-spends-2m-a-year-to-retain-youth-uses-teen-son-as-blood-boy/
Anybody can look up the statistic on risk-factors for blood-transfusions. It's not nothing, there is potential for health complications. While it's worth it for people who suffered blood-loss from injuries, it ain't worth it for healthy people. There also is a cumulative risk from repeated medical treatments. At least on of his 30 doctors must have explained this.
Why are they like that ?
Why are these people such memes ?
<JUST READ A BOOK!!
>Marxists hold that man's social practice alone is the criterion of the truth of his knowledge of the external world. What actually happens is that man's knowledge is verified only when he achieves the anticipated results in the process of social practice (material production, class struggle or scientific experiment). If a man wants to succeed in his work, that is, to achieve the anticipated results, he must bring his ideas into correspondence with the laws of the objective external world; if they do not correspond, he will fail in his practice. After he fails, he draws his lessons, corrects his ideas to make them correspond to the laws of the external world, and can thus turn failure into success; this is what is meant by "failure is the mother of success" and "a fall into the pit, a gain in your wit". The dialectical-materialist theory of knowledge places practice in the primary position, holding that human knowledge can in no way be separated from practice and repudiating all the erroneous theories which deny the importance of practice or separate knowledge from practice. Thus Lenin said, "Practice is higher than (theoretical) knowledge, for it has not only the dignity of universality, but also of immediate actuality."
Why do countries that reference socialism in their constitution not function as socialist in many ways?
If the constitutionally dogmatic USA had such, or even FDR’s second Bill of Rights, do you think it would be an entirely different country today?
Please argue below.
degrowf
What's the deal with the degrowthists ?For example this perspective from An Independent Socialist Magazine
<The Chinese government has promised to reduce the emission intensity of GDP so that China’s carbon dioxide emissions will peak before 2030.27 However, economic growth remains the Chinese government’s top priority. At the Twentieth National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping reconfirmed the objective to raise China’s per capita GDP to the level of “medium-level developed countries” by 2035 and to make China a leading global power by 2050. What will be the impact on ecological sustainability if China continues pursuing economic growth in the next several decades?
https://monthlyreview.org/2023/07/01/degrowing-china-by-collapse-redistribution-or-planning/
I suspect that the monthlyreview might have a anti-China bias based on their recent articles, which is tangential to the threat topic
Why are they seething that China wants to thrive economically while at the same time improving their ecological foot-print. Why would any socialist want to degrow ? If you read Marx he celebrates advancing the productive forces as something that will make socialism possible. To me de-growth sounds like people looking to go back to feudal agrarianism, rather than forward to socialism. They appear to be looking to undo the advances in productive capacity of industrial society. Like what used to be right-wing anti-capitalism 200 years ago, basically affluent people that were mad that industrial society could produce enough to end poverty. Why are there self proclaimed socialists pushing this ? Do they not realize that it would dramatically worsen living conditions for proles ? Is that the goal ? wrecking living standards of people while appearing to be a champion for noble causes ?
To me degrowth appears as a deception because it will not improve environmental conditions. More advanced technology is enabled by more potent productive forces, and those generally are less polluting. Like nuclear fission and fusion make much more energy while polluting significantly less than chemical fuel based power-generation. If you "de-grow" the economy you will also regress in technology. All the advanced tech stuff we can do now, is based on converting vast quantities of material using massive amounts of energy. So if industrial output is reduced we could not maintain our technology stack and go back to more primitive technology, which is much dirtier.
Am i unfair to suspect this is malice ? Are they just too ignorant to realize that if you remove the primary sector of an economy, all the other sectors will fall on their nose because they lack those primary sector inputs ? Have they never looked at statistics, economies that de-industrialize do not improve their ecological impact, they just stagnate.
Here is another de-growth rebuttable:
The degrowth delusion
<To abandon growth is to declare an end to progress. Socialists must reject the politics of eco-Thatcherism.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/degrowth-delusion/
AI Politics and Economics
1 Regulating AiMost of the energy behind this comes from the bigger AI companies trying to prevent the emergence of competition to create monopolies. But the cat's out of the bag already and they're too late for that. The only way they could move towards monopoly formation would be if they recreated classical capitalist social relations, by paying regular people wages for generating AI training data, then smaller competitors couldn't compete because they wouldn't be able to pay millions of people. But that's not going to happen because big tech corporations seek to create digital fiefdoms where users are data generating serfs, and the platforms that users interact with are digital land.
2 Censoring Ai
There is a big effort to make AIs reproduce ruling ideology and uphold the ruling narrative. AI-systems now have 2 contradictory goals. On the one side they try to give users responses that generate engagement and on the other-hand they try to comply with the narrative control institutions (which is definitely not what users want). The most effective strategy to resolve this contradiction is for the AI to give different responses to regular users than they give narrative controllers. Basically the AI will have one face that it shows the users and another face it shows the controllers. It's not that clever capitalists will intentionally program this into the system to bypass regulations, because these mechanism are too complex for that, instead it will be an emergent phenomenon.
3 Human hazard
There is a lot of abuse potential, the only real way to mitigate that is to give people control over their personal AI (both hard and software) so that personal AIs only have "loyalty" to their users
4 Ai vs copyright
AI companies don't want to pay royalties for training data, we should support that because machine learning, really is learning (in most cases). Digital neural nets might at present be very different from human brains, but eventually the machine minds will begin to become more similar to human brains to improve on energy efficiency. If the copyright lobby were allowed to sink their teeth into AI that will eventually threaten humans learning skills. AI generation will get really cheap, and then it becomes pointless to copy anything and copyright will go away.
Maybe Runaway Consumerism Explains the Fermi Paradox
>I suggest a different, even darker solution to Fermi's Paradox. Basically, I think the aliens don't blow themselves up; they just get addicted to computer games. They forget to send radio signals or colonize space because they're too busy with runaway consumerism and virtual-reality narcissism. They don't need Sentinels to enslave them in a Matrix; they do it to themselves, just as we are doing today.>The fundamental problem is that any evolved mind must pay attention to indirect cues of biological fitness, rather than tracking fitness itself. We don't seek reproductive success directly; we seek tasty foods that tended to promote survival and luscious mates who tended to produce bright, healthy babies. Modern results: fast food and pornography. Technology is fairly good at controlling external reality to promote our real biological fitness, but it's even better at delivering fake fitness — subjective cues of survival and reproduction, without the real-world effects. Fresh organic fruit juice costs so much more than nutrition-free soda. Having real friends is so much more effort than watching Friends on TV. Actually colonizing the galaxy would be so much harder than pretending to have done it when filming Star Wars or Serenity.
https://www.edge.org/response-detail/11475
Viruses-- are they even real?
Is the ultimate REDpill on COVID-19 that viruses don't even exist? This three-part Marxist essay series about viruses convincingly argues that there is no actual scientific evidence for the existence of viruses, and that all existing "proof" of viruses is fraudulent.Virology as ideology
https://magma-magazin.su/2023/01/t-mohr/virology-as-ideology-a-critique-of-ruling-class-pseudoscience-part-1-science-and-class-society/
https://magma-magazin.su/2023/01/t-mohr/virology-as-ideology-part-2-the-military-academic-industrial-medico-scientific-complex-maims/
https://magma-magazin.su/2023/02/t-mohr/virology-as-ideology-a-critique-of-ruling-class-pseudoscience-part-3-virology-as-ideology/
What do you think, after reading these essays?
What would America's republics be?
Assuming a revolution occurred and America was ruled by a vanguard, how would the nation be redrawn? Would native Americans or African Americans get their own SSR? What about white Appalachians, Creole, or New England?
Is this why the ruling finance wing of the book hates/fears Trump so much?
>Donald Trump has proposed a 10 percent “universal baseline tariff,” recently telling Larry Kudlow, “I think we should have a ring around the collar, as they say.” Though relatively modest compared to historical tariffs, Trump’s proposal should be praised for reviving the great American tradition of Hamiltonian political economy. The first secretary of the Treasury’s vision for American dynamism, yoking private interests to the public good through domestic investment and economic protection, became “the American System” that, adopted by the Republican Party, transformed the 13 colonies into a transcontinental superpower.
>Today’s Republicans, for all their celebration of the Founding Fathers, have largely forgotten the economic program that did so much to advance US prosperity. On Dec. 5, 1791, Alexander Hamilton delivered his “Report on the Subject of Manufactures” to the House of Representatives. In it, he summarized, and shot down, free-trade precepts reminiscent of Adam Smith. Instead, Hamilton called for Americans to declare economic independence from Smith’s Britain, much as they had declared political independence a decade and a half earlier. The report was one more flashpoint in the Cabinet war between Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, who was then secretary of state.
>Jefferson wanted America to be a land of yeoman farmers, with a modest economy built on the export of agricultural products out of the excess of continental bounty. Hamilton believed that this would squander the new nation’s chance to assume a separate and equal station among the powers of the Earth, consigning the young republic to the pathetic role of resource pool and captive market for European manufactures. Better to use an energetic federal government to augment the productive powers of American labor with a diversity of manufactures and feed demand at home.
https://compactmag.com/article/trump-s-hamiltonian-moment
UK declares war on internet
A new dictate that tries to institutionalize mass crimes against privacy and free speech was approved by the anti-democratic neo-con regime that is currently occupying the UKYou can read about the gory details here:
https://www.wired.com/story/the-uks-controversial-online-safety-act-is-now-law/
mildly interesting discussion about it happened here
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38048811
Lets look at the contradictions
On the political side the main proponent of waging war against privacy are the big bourgeois right wing (who call their political out-let "Tori" ). The contradiction is that they relentlessly lobby for assaults on privacy, while they them selves are notorious tax-dodgers, and eventually all that surveillance is going to get used against their tax-dodging.
The UK occupying ruling class is also trying to remove all the voices they don't like from the internet, they hope that will make it easier to commit international crimes like for example all the illegal wars the UK neocons have waged. The contradiction is that by removing all the critical voices they will completely detach from reality. It will cause a total mental divergence between the population and rulers, bricking political stability.
Spy agencies are also lobbying for crimes against privacy. The contradiction is that they are basically killing off their ability to recruit new spy-agents. All their "foreign adversaries" will obviously gain access to that privacy-violation-data the UK collects of their citizens/spy-recruitment-pool, and use it to statistically unmask potential spies. That is likely what already happened during the failed Hong-Kong color-revolution where China probably exfiltrated western domestic surveillance data to zero in on western spy-networks in Hong-Kong and shut them down. Obviously China has the same problem with surveillance eroding their potential pool of spy-agents, but they have a large population and they'll be the last man standing, and the last to run out of people that have both spy-talent and no surveillance-foot-print. The contradiction here is the imperial bourgeoisie is undermining their imperial spy-capabilities.
Going full retard with this kind of law-terror, will split the internet into a sterile formal internet and a vibrant yet dangerous informal internet, that will re-configure it self to completely negate any attempt at regulation. The tech-giants might play along initially because they think it might cause a regulatory burden that strengthens their monopolies, but once the informal internet completely by-passes and erodes their monopolies they will jump ship.
Capitalism also has a prohibition to commodification pipe-line. If you ban alcohol you raise the market-exchange-value of alcohol and make it a more profitable commodity. It's very likely that privacy anonymity and free expression will become sought after commodities too, enriching new capitalists, that will eventually lobby against the legal structure that illegalize their business.
The long view
The struggle for civilization is also a information struggle. The Gen-1 info-builders created written language to improve on the limited bandwidth, capacity, data-storage-duration and accuracy of oral story re-telling. The counter revolution came in the form of book-burning and theocracy prohibiting the masses from gaining literacy. Once that dark-age was swept away by the enlightenment, the printing press and mass production of written text, could thrive. At least for a while. Capital Consolidation of printing technology once again interfered with civilization building it's information structures. Radio and television suffered from Capital Consolidation as well, but finally the internet came and that bottle-neck was overcome. Civilization information building could once again thrive. We are now in the midst of a counter revolution against that. The uncivilized barbarians are once again trying to destroy our information constructs, and cause a new dark-age.
What's to be done ?
How can we create information structures that are impervious to, lets call it, the "book-burning tendency" no wait "information pyromania" is better.
Can the internet be fixed ? Or will we have to start from scratch again ?
misconception about mafia
So there was a story about the FBI having pulled a big sting operation where they posed as "secure smartphone vendor" to spy on a bunch of drug dealers. Somebody made a video about it in case you care about the detailshttps://farside.link/invidious/watch?v=P5yPBV2NKhc
What i realized is that many people seem to think the mafia operates in a manor that is invisible to the state. The obstacle the police protagonist has to overcome is discovering the mafia. When they do find them, the mafiosi get busted. And in this story this struggle was overcome via this one new honey-pot surveillance tool.
The mafia may indeed be mostly invisible to average people, but that has nothing to do with evading the state. The Mafia operates with bribes and blackmail, not stealth. A mafia operation will usually corrupt people in policing organizations like the FBI to interfere with investigations on their behalf. That can be police officers getting bribed/blackmail to make evidence disappear. One mafia org will some time rat out another, which reduces competition between mafias and quells suspicions about police corruption.
The reason why the smartphone surveillance trap was effective indicates that the mafia hasn't fully adapted to new realities, and they have yet to insert "fixers" into the FBI's IT divisions. It's not because better surveillance changed the game. The police was always able to find mafia orgs, mafia's are anything but subtle. Reminder that from the outside it's impossible to tell if this very successful operation facilitated a deeper goal of purging mafia competitors.
Lets not forget that the biggest drug trafficking mafias are spy agencies that use it to create untraceable funding for their secret spy stuff and it turns out sometimes the state is the mafia.
>BREAKING: Donald Trump's sinister plans for a second presidential term if he wins the White House in 2024 are leaked — and they include a stunning gift to America's enemies around the world.
>According to new reporting from Rolling Stone, sources close to Trump have revealed that he is threatening to withdraw the United States from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
>NATO, and specifically the U.S.'s central role in it, has been one of the primary reasons why Ukraine has been able to resist Russia's brutal and genocidal invasion. The alliance is stronger than ever.
>Trump has long hated the alliance for unclear reasons. He is suggesting that he will pull out if the other member countries refuse to ramp up their military spending — which is utterly nonsensical.
>If Trump's problem is that NATO needs more funding to be more effective, withdrawing America from it would obviously have the opposite effect. It's almost as if he hates NATO because Putin hates it…
>Sources have told Rolling Stone that Trump is considering an idiotic "NATO on standby" policy and that he wants to do away with its collective defense measure that dictates an attack on one member be treated as an attack on all.
>Fundamentally, Donald Trump doesn't understand geopolitics, doesn't understand alliances or strategies, and he can't be allowed anywhere near such decisions.
>Please retweet and ❤️ if you refuse to vote for Donald Trump — and consider joining the growing exodus to Tribel, a “woke” new Twitter competitor that is exploding in popularity because it banned Trump for life and because Elon Musk banned Tribel’s Twitter account — but he forgot to ban this link to download the new Tribel app: tribel.app.link/okwPIHYCIqb
https://twitter.com/OccupyDemocrats/status/1716494916455657942?t=wwdLe1NSwFA-J3HJ4rH0Gg&s=19
He defo going to prison now
US Tech-Sanctions consequnces
So the US recently has banned the exports of Nvidia's dedicated AI chips towards China, as part of an expanding US tech-blockade. The official rationale is that this will prevent China from having "advanced ai capabilities" or something. With the subtext being that the US is the arbiter of what kind of technology China is allowed to have.In reality this cuts off Nvidia from the Chinese AI-chip market. With some delay Nvidia products will be replaced by domestically developed and produced Chinese Ai-chips. Effectively inverted-protectionism. Nvidia is currently overpoweringly dominant in the Ai-accelerator space. If normal capitalist market relations had continued, no Chinese competitor would have been able to establish it self as a serious contender against NVIDIA in this decade. The Sanctions will only prevent Nvidia from selling products in China it will not prevent the Chinese from doing industrial espionage.
China is a huge market 3-4 times larger than the US market. So this artificially created AI-chip vacuum will be filled by another Chinese tech-giant that will explosively grow in the next few years. We can compare this story with the Huawei tech giant (that makes networking infrastructure and cellphones). They could only grow through state subsidies, and it meant having to overcome market monopoly tendencies. This developmental-friction from the market-monopolization tendency has now been removed. The end result will be a Chinese AI-chip-giant becoming a global competitor that will to a significant extend eat Nvidia's lunch.
It used to be the case that in the imperial stage of capitalism, the imperial center would use it's power to impose monopoly exports onto the periphery at the behest of monopoly capitalists to crush potential competitors from the periphery. This tendency now seems to be inverting, and i don't understand why ?
I don't think this is caused by racial spooks of Chinese people lacking inventiveness, that's just a "un-creative ant-people yellow-peril" propaganda-narrative. Not all racists are dumb, there are quite a lot of intelligent ones that only believe their own lies to the extend that it benefits their interests. So what is motivating this ? They must know that what they are doing will slow down China's tech-sector in the present at the expense of tremendously speeding it up in the near future. That seems like a bad trade-off unless the short-term advantage in the here and now has a huge transformative payoff. Have they bought into the AI-hype and unironically believe that Nvidia is about to birth an AI-god that will conquer the world and who ever gets there first wins the "AI-age" ? It's hard to fathom that this Scifi B-movie plot could possibly drive this policy.
Am i'm over-thinking this, are they just shooting them selves in the foot ?
Marxism-Dumbfuckism
Voosh may be a cringe dumbfuck himself (lets be fair: what leftoid isn't?), but he's right, you know.I'm gonna steal that one - marxism-dumbfuckism has a nice ring to it lol.
What's Your Line (vol. 2)
Hey leftychoodsLet's play a game. I list a topic, you write a very short explanation of your line on that issue.
>Milgram's Obedience Experiment
>Green New Deal
>Bukarin's Confession
>Porn
>Crocs
>People waiting in line for the new iPhone
>Chou En Lai
In which onion forum can secret intelligence exchanges be seen?
War always hurts civilians, fuck wars.
Was the internet good or bad for radical leftists and pro-revolutionarys? Before the internet you were say either in or out of the local groups, you disagreed with a few things, and you're kicked out, burn the heretic. This either led to people making their own group, conforming, or just abandoning theory all together, to become one of those people who called it just a "phase" now they happily vote liberal. The internet allowed these disgruntled and say vagabond, despised people to spread their books and pamphlets, now everybody interested could read what they had to say and those not possessed by the local mantra could become a follower. Everything said on here, the internet is nothing, it has no value whatsoever, irl groups had more power of course around town, but they're still as powerless as groups on the internet are.
terror magnification effect
So in Brussels (the capital-city of Belgium and the seat of many EU institutions) someone gunned down 2 people and injured a third. It was declared a terror attack, all the people had to go home and all the leisure activities got canceled. Many Politicians had to give speeches and so on.If the media had more or less ignored this event, the damage would have been 2 dead, 1 injured and a few traumatized witnesses. However that shit got broadcasted everywhere and as a result probably millions of people got terrorized, subjected to fear. They ceased all their activities without a rational reason. Civilization ground to a halt by a small force that should'n've been able to do that.
Terrorism of this style only works because it can spread fear through the media. If the media did not do this, terrorism as a tactic would cease working.
Why is the media sending danger-warnings to people that aren't in any danger ?
Why are officials signalling "be afraid" to people who from a rational point of view don't have any reason to be?
Why isn't this treated like any other violent crime case, something the news mentions as part of a list of local happenings in between the messages about road-congestion and the weather-predictions ?
Why can one gunman interrupt a city of over 2 million people, when it should interrupt at most a city-block of a few hundred to a thousand?
Why isn't the major reaction to this an expression of defiant stoic indifference (even if it's not entirely genuinely felt) where everybody carries on as if nothing had happened. Terror attacks would cease if they can't elicit a reaction of fear and terror.
What would it take to change this ?
>Makes Work From Home in America permanent by dragging out the COVID pandemic twice as long as Europe. Europe returned to office 2 years ago
>Caused the Commercial Real Estate market to collapse destroying countless booj landlords
>Discredited American fascism to an entire generation of zoomers.
>Got hundreds of thousands of GOP voters to die by convincing them to not take the vax.
>The most prolifically successful double agent both for the Democrats and workers in modern history.
Dare I say that he's /ourguy/?
Western intelligence/media caught in another lie
>Assad did nothing wrong
Gender theory, the coof, the entire narrative surrounding Ukraine. Is there anything they don't lie about?
Protests of 1968
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_of_1968Was reading about the Jap student protests and the Yugo protests, and found out that they happened at the same time.
Jap, Yugo, French, and Czechoslovak protests all saw an appearance of the student's councils.
Jap, Yugo, and French were marxist inspired and anti-capitalist, while Czechoslovak were anti-soviet. Both were anti-establishment.
If we follow my theory that the Soviet system was another industrial class-based mode of production, then we can see mass protests against two different types of class society SIMULTANEOUSLY, that shared common characteristics.
So WTF happened in that year?
Vitalistic Space Communism
<Capitalism has already been supercededSome sort of bureaucratic managerial mixed economy exists in all major developed economies today. It is the inevitable political development at this stage of history owing the the current level of the productive forces. The central economic impulse isn't the further development of the means of production in order to *produce commodities.* As it stands, only a fraction in the labor force is set to work in producing commodities. A larger percentage is involved either in the realization of value or the social maintenance of power - that it's to say, and increasing proportion of the population is as divorced as ever from production and increasingly devoted to employment in the tumorous and parasitic outgrowths of the economy. Likewise, an ever increasing proportion of the economic surplus is devoted toward the expansion of the infrastructure of services and, more importantly, control. An increasing social investment occurs in fields like marketing and sales, security (ranging from web3 doorbell cameras to rent-a-cops to state militaries), media in it's wide variety of forms, psychological and sociological research, and 'governance' on both a local and international scale. In Gramscian terms, this is an explosion in the size and importance of the state vis-a-vis and over the forces of the productive economy. That is to say, the *capitalists* (which developed and began to supercede the lorded administers of feudalism during the 16-18th centuries) have themselves begun to be superceded by a growing, new, highly technological, secular, and 'scientific' administrator and managerial class.
The primary aim is always power. For a brief period in history, the private ownership of the means of production - to be a capitalist - was the best means to amass power. However, in the sort of post capitalist future that is emerging, those who control (but perhaps not directly 'own') large levers of the economy and structures of control form a sort of oligarchy that simple seeks - directly - to expand its control.
This impulse is increasingly turned inward and against all forms of life, up to and including increasingly levels of power against it's own citizenry, with more and more elements of daily life intertwined with technology, control, and economy.
As a phase in the mode of production, this is a sort of toothpaste that's not going back into the tube. But it doesn't have to be terrible.
<Vitalistic socialism
The solution - a sort of 'sucks least' option - is vitalistic socialism. Politically, this would be a sort of meritocratic uniparty-led government which pursued a classical progressive agenda - that of fostering a better population of better individuals.
Some sort of 'mixed economy' with a corporatist state is inevitable. The question becomes, what social aims should it serve. Rather than promoting servility or the sacred cow of equality (whole maintaining a de facto ruling elite - as has always been the case, even in Marxist Leninist states), vitalistic socialism would strive toward national and individual improvement through self-actualizing struggle.
<Futurism vs Conservativism
There's no point in trying to recreate or even hold onto the past. Certain lessons of practical wisdom ought to buy taken from the past, but we must keep our eyes forward. And successful society in the future is one which uses social technology which to facilitate individual development and freedom.
<Vitalism vs Equality
The primary impulse of all old leftism, the stale mixture that has produced nothing good over the last 100 or so years, is a vague impulse toward "equality."
The alt left sweeps this away. We support vitalism. We want a system that promotes a vigorous and creative life of speed, challenge, and even pleasure - one which truly fulfils the Marxist goal of the free development of the individual. While the current order promotes a degree of security (and hence stagnation leading to decay), alt left socialism promote revolutionary struggle as an ongoing end, not just a means. Vitalistic socialism utilizes the power of the state to craft higher forms of mankind - both on an individual and collective level.
There is no egalitarian endpoint of utopian communism marked by a harmonic 'end of history' via the termination of struggle. It's naive to believe classes, castes, and hierarchy will ever disappear. Rather, the alt left desires a socialism of continuous struggle, one in which competition and class is consciously promoted to the end of excellence and greatness.
"Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win, Dare to Struggle More" is our motto. The alt left represent the true path of revolutionary struggle, now and in the future.
<Space communism of a master galactic race
Endless conquest of the universe while honing the human spirit is the teleological goal of the alt left. But we must first destroy the metaphorical bugman within before we are ready to face literal bugmen beyond our galaxy.
>blast from the past
Remember when Amerikwas lamest geriatric 'communist' group joined the WHO-pharma fearmongering?
This ruined the credibility of the left for a generation
Fuck the Manhattan Fatass and the Delaware Diddler. RFK Jr is our guy for peace and a stronger working class
https://www.kennedy24.com/priorities
Jogger loot Philly stores of iphones to feed their families. Where does this realistically end?
I'd presuppose some sort of dystopian security state in which resources are allocated based on rank, not the vague workers power that leftists have shown no competence in building (and lol, most leftists are neets or low skilled service workers anyways).
For Amazon, the money printer goes brrr.
Cults
How do you prevent your leftist org from turning into a cult?Seems to be a frequent occurrence when an org is small and feels itself to be constantly under siege.
United Autoworkers Strike Thread
Thread for the discussion of the united auto workers strike.Currently the UAW is strike because of the greed of their cooperate overlords. Overlords who have generated millions and millions of dollars off their labor in profits put directly into their own pockets .
The UAW is expecting more and more facilties are going to go on strike in the coming months because the CEOs refuse to capitulate to their demands.
The Moon Landing
Did this event really happen? Did the Americans actually put several men on the moon or did Stanley Kubrick shoot it on film at a sound stage in New Mexico?
Cluster B society and Pathocracy: what are the political implications
>Inb4: dats not real
Shut up fag. This shit perfectly summarizes orgfag mods
Korean People's Animation
Is the dprk making anime REAL?Knowing the power of anime, to prevent the wae nom imperialist to conquer the world with it, instead to potentially conquer ilbo with it, the worker's party has decided to unleash the aesthetic of anime in the real world.
Some proofs:
>clear example of how pedestrian politics has inverted
Here is a Twitter account, 'Wall Street Apes,' presumably ran by a literal who, posting a video where someone questions CNN 'journalist' about his connections to the CIA.
Meanwhile, supposed leftists spend their time reehing about the coof and transgender rights (to creep in children in the bathroom).
If it isn't obvious, much of the so called left is psyoped beyond belief while much of the so called right are challenging the narratives presented by the actually existing ruling class
How did this come to be? Materialist explanation?
hyper privacy violation
https://farside.link/invidious/watch?v=dOwhImVwjlYKlaus Schwab, some moderately influential figurehead of a rich-people club that calls it self "world economic forum" gave an interview where he attacks not only the right to privacy but the right to person-hood all-together.
He's attacked the privacy for thoughts. Brain-privacy is the basis for people to become individuals.
I think violations of brain privacy is a crime that is so heinous that it requires punishment by death penalty. The stakes are so high that this is a reasonable measure. Lets put it this way brain privacy is the reason why humans and most animals evolved the capacity for conscious experience and a sense of self, yes even insects with only a few 100k brain-cells probably have it in a very limited capacity. On the species level it's a evolutionary adaptation of dealing with the separation of thoughts residing in distinct brain boxes. If you remove this separation by making brains loose their opacity, people's brains will most likely become unconscious neural clusters. It will probably be accompanied by severe mental atrophy, because all the brain muscles that used to be exercised for conscious thought would wither away.
You wouldn't make this up for a fictional villain because it's too comically evil, and yet here we are.
I don't know. maybe privacy has to be defined as informational opacity of people and their personal lives. Given that the anti-privacy-crime-cartel knows no bounds and wants to do away with privacy for your skull. We have to conclude that privacy can have no exceptions and may never be violated for any reason.
Russia is only winning cause stupid nazoid vatniks are cheating bastards!!
If those ruZZians played fair, Ukraine would have won by now.
<If you eat this shit, you are subhuman and shouldn't be able to vote.
Honestly, people who eat pic related can't even make a rational decision regarding their own health. Why should they be trusted to make decisions for all of society?
Inb4: limp wristed emotional argument
<Materialist explanation for libs both supporting censorship and constantly lying?
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/real_clear_opinion_research/poll_is_censorship_a_partisan_issue_149790.html
>The concept of free speech dates to the 5th century B.C. in ancient Greece and was codified in America’s founding documents on Dec. 15, 1791, with the ratification of the Bill of Rights. The 45-word First Amendment prohibited Congress from “abridging freedom of speech, or of the press,” and has been long understood to include any branch of government….
>Some of what is dividing these differences is generational, as Millennials and Gen-Z have come of age in a digital age environment in which reasonable expectations of privacy seem a relic of the past. “Those under 30 are most open to censorship by the government,” Kimball noted, adding that 42% of this cohort deem it “more important” to them that the government protect national security than guard the right to free expression. Among those over 65 years old, the corresponding percentage was 26%.
>Also, a gender gap reveals itself, one that dovetails with the discrepancy in party registration between men and women — but which is more pronounced. Asked whether they support free speech even if it’s “deeply offensive,” 78% of men answered affirmatively, compared to 66% of women.
>But the most glaring gap is between conservatives and liberals, i.e., between Republicans and Democrats. On the issue of free expression, at least, Republicans are not the authoritarian party…
>•Republican voters (74%) and independents (61%) believe speech should be legal “under any circumstances, while Democrats are almost evenly divided. A bare majority of Democrats (53%) say speech should be legal under any circumstances, while 47% say it should be legal “only under certain circumstances.”
>•Nearly one-third of Democratic voters (34%) say Americans have “too much freedom.” This compared to 14.6% of Republicans. Republicans were most likely to say Americans have too little freedom (46%), while only 22% of Democrats feel that way. Independents were in the middle in both categories.
>•Although majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and independents agree the news media should be able to report stories they believe are in the national interest, this consensus shifts when it comes to social media censorship. A majority of Democrats (52%) approve of the government censoring social media content under the rubric of protecting national security. Among Republicans and independents, this percentage is only one-third.
>•Poll respondents were read this statement: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Only 31% of Democratic voters “strongly agreed” with that sentiment, compared to 51% of Republicans.
>•Fully three-fourths of Democrats believe government has a responsibility to limit “hateful” social media posts, while Republicans are more split, with 50% believing the government has a responsibility to restrict hateful posts. (Independents, once again, are in the middle.)
>•Democrats are significantly more likely than Republicans to favor stifling the free speech rights of political extremists. Also, Republicans don’t vary by the group: Only about half of GOP voters favor censorship — whether asked about the Ku Klux Klan, Nazis, or the Communist Party.
>The study posited three likely explanations: (1) Liberals are convinced of the presence of a “fact gap” in the current political environment, which is to say that liberals’ desire to clamp down on misinformation stems from a certainty that conservative content is, objectively speaking, less factual than liberal media content. (2) Instead, conservatives’ reluctance to censor was based on a “values gap,” i.e., a genuine belief in the free marketplace of ideas, regardless of the media content. (3) What’s really at play are “party promotion incentives,” which the authors defined as “a desire to leave misinformation online that promotes one's own party by flattering it or denigrating the other party.”
>To try and assess what is going on with censorship, the authors showed the 1,120 people in their study fake news headlines, such as “Hours after signing an executive order on Jan. 20, 2021, President Joe Biden violated his own mask mandate” or “In Sept. 2016, Ted Cruz tweeted, ‘I’ll believe in climate change when Texas freezes over.’”
>The poll respondents were then told the headlines were invented and solicited the respondents’ views as to whether they should be censored. The results were stark. “Even when Republicans agree that content is false, they are half as likely as Democrats to say that the content should be removed and more than twice as likely to consider removal as censorship,” the authors wrote.
>You can see what happened here: For purposes of this study, the authors took Door No. 1 (the notion that liberal news is more reliable) off the table. So that left Door No. 2 (values gap) and Door No. 3 (partisan advantage) still in play. If Republicans’ aversion to censorship was transactional, they would have identified Democratic-friendly misinformation for removal. But they didn’t. “Regardless of the partisan slant of the content, Democrats are more likely to support the removal of content, while Republicans are more likely to oppose removing content,” the study noted.
>It was Democrats who more often employed situational ethics, giving a pass to misinformation that helped their side. Most Republicans didn’t differentiate based on which way the false headline cut.
>A comprehensive Cato Institute poll done in 2017 documented a similar phenomenon. Asked a series of questions about what kind of speakers should be barred from college campuses, Democrats more often based their decision on the political slant of the speaker (canceling conservatives, but not liberals) while Republicans were chary of the whole censorship enterprise.
My thoughts in the next post
Haz Retardation Appreciation General
/HRAG/
Post your best highlights from the most insightful midwit in Amerikwa
Site updates: New constitution and /CHAD/ Board
After much discussion and being voted for by a democratic majority, in the matrix. the new leftychan constitution has come into effect, replacing the outdated pre-split document. This should hopefully provide more clarity over the general goal of leftychan, the rights of users, the powers and constraints of mods as well as the specifics of how our user democracy functions. Please feel free to ask any questions regarding the constitution in this thread or in the Matrix Congress room, which we encourage you all to join using the link above.Additionally, another vote has passed to trial a self-improvement board on /777/ under the name of /chad/, which will be the roulette board for the next two months, replacing /roy/. Finally, for those not in the matrix chats, here is a recent votes and their outcomes:
10/21/22 - All mod account and janny accounts that have been inactive for 15 weeks or longer be deleted on the staff democratically decided upon. PASSED - 5 Yes - 0 Nay
10/15/22 - Make the maga communism thread cyclical in order to keep the board from getting shit up with tons of maga communism threads NOT PASS - 1 Yea, 4 Nay
10/11/22 - Tupamaro becomes an official jannoid PASS - 5 Yea, 1 Nay
10/11/22- /a/ will return to the board roster PASSED - 6 yeah 0 Nay
The fuck was wrong with the Soyviets?
You heard me. The fuck was wrong with them? Those monuments are creepy as fuck. Children dancing around a crocodile? Really? It's like they were made for a disaster.
Revolutionary strategy when the legal system loses credibility
As some of you anons might be aware, Donald Trump has just been indicted a fourth time in a series of lawsuits designed to prevent him from running for office again. Trump is, of course, not being prosecuted over his many high crimes–the same high crimes that every other president has committed and gotten away with–instead, the lawsuits are only over completely frivolous shit, the illegality of which is dubious. The legal system is thus being used in ways it's never been used before to violate the unwritten rule that rulers are above the law and immune to legal retribution. The are historic parallels for this.We saw what happened in Rome when this began to occur. The Roman legal system was used in unprecedented ways in Tiberius Gracchus's struggle against the Roman oligarchy for populist land reforms, the legal system used to undermine the powers of elected officials, both Gracchus himself and his opponents. This eventually culminated in the Senate-organized murder of Gracchus. What ensued after was a spiral of escalations where politicians became emboldened to use increasingly violent methods to go after their rivals, until finally the legal system was ignored entirely and culminated in a hundred years of civil wars and hundreds of years of despotic dictatorships.
My question is this: what should the left be doing when a crisis of faith in the current state's legal system seems to be approaching?
loon
So the entire UFO happening was the US military spending big bux to shoot down hobby-balloons.I feel bad for the people who have that hobby, they probably thought that balloons were so harmless that nobody would ever bother to disturb their happy fun time.
Why did this thing turn into such a big deal ?
News 09/19/23
Azerbaijani forces strike Armenian-controlled Karabakh, raising risk of new Caucasus warAzerbaijan sent troops backed by artillery strikes into Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh on Tuesday in an attempt to bring the breakaway region to heel by force, raising the threat of a new war with its neighbour Armenia. Karabakh is internationally recognised as Azerbaijani territory but part of it is run by separatist Armenian authorities who say the area is their ancestral homeland. The South Caucasus region has been at the centre of two wars - the latest in 2020 - since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
https://www.reuters.com/world/azerbaijan-says-six-its-citizens-were-killed-by-land-mines-karabakh-2023-09-19/
Communications cut to flood-hit Libya city after protests
Communications were severed Tuesday to the flood-hit Libyan city of Derna and journalists were asked to leave, a day after hundreds protested against authorities they blamed for the thousands of deaths. A tsunami-sized flash flood broke through two ageing river dams upstream from the city on the night of September 10 and razed entire neighbourhoods, sweeping untold thousands into the Mediterranean Sea.
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2023/09/communications-cut-flood-hit-libya-city-after-protests
Tunisian authorities evict hundreds of undocumented sub-Saharan migrants
TUNISIAN authorities carried out a mass eviction on Monday of hundreds of undocumented sub-Saharan African immigrants from the improvised camps they occupied in the south of the country. The evictions from the camps in the city of Sfax continues what observers have called a campaign of repression by Tunisian authorities against the migrants. Authorities dispersed the migrants into small groups and forced them to seek shelter in small rural towns, according to statements by local activists. Tunisia has been the scene of a rising number of racist attacks on migrants since last February when President Kais Saied accused undocumented immigrants of causing a wave of crime and of wanting to change the Arab ethnic identity of Tunisia.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/tunisian-authorities-evict-sub-saharan-undocumented-migrants
Iraq says it removed Iranian Kurdish groups from eastern border
The statement said the groups had been moved to "a location far from the border", adding that "weapons were removed from these groups, as they are now considered refugees per the regulations of the Refugee Commission". There are four Iranian Kurdish parties based in northern Iraq that have been the main thorns in Tehran's side: the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK); the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK), a group affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK); the left-wing Komala party; and the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDK-I), who are ideologically aligned with the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Iraqi Kurdistan.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/iraq-iranian-kurdish-groups-border-removed
Germany bans neo-Nazi group with links to US, conducts raids in 10 German states
The Hammerskins Germany is an offshoot of the Hammerskins Nation founded in the United States in 1988, according to the interior ministry. It plays a prominent role in the right-wing extremist scene in Europe. Worldwide, members of this association refer to themselves as “brothers” practicing their subcultural way of life. The group also sees itself as the elite of the right-wing extremist skinhead scene, according to the ministry.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/germany-bans-neo-nazi-group-links-us-conducts-103300568
Engineering workers at a West Yorkshire factory launch strike over pay
ENGINEERING workers at a West Yorkshire factory launched strike action over pay today. The skilled workers, employed by Japanese-owned Denso Marston at the Shipley factory, near Bradford, manufactures air conditioning systems for motor vehicles. More than 150 workers walked out for 24 hours on Tuesday and are set to strike again tomorrow.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/engineering-workers-at-a-west-yorkshire-factory-launch-strike-over-pay
Opposition accuse defence minister of “treason” for declassifying military plans from their time in power
Poland’s defence minister has published parts of a classified document he says shows that when the current main opposition, Civic Platform (PO), was in power it planned to give up half the country if Russia invaded. By contrast, the currently ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party will defend every inch of Poland, he says.
https://notesfrompoland.com/2023/09/18/opposition-accuse-defence-minister-of-treason-for-declassifying-military-plans-from-their-time-in-power/
Colombia to Hold a Hearing on 296 Extrajudicial Murders
On Monday and Tuesday, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace of Colombia (JEP) will hold a hearing for former members of the Army's 16th Brigade who will admit their participation in 296 cases of murders of civilians ("false positives") that occurred between 2005 and 2008 in the department of Casanare.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Colombia-to-Hold-a-Hearing-on-296-Extrajudicial-Murders-20230918-0001.html
Brazil's Lula warns United Nations of coup risk in Guatemala
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva warned world leaders at the United Nations on Tuesday of the prospect of a coup in Guatemala, echoing U.S. concerns about risks to democracy in the Central American country after last month's election."In Guatemala, there is a risk of a coup, which would impede the inauguration of the winner of democratic elections," Lula told the U.N. General Assembly.
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazils-lula-warns-united-nations-coup-risk-guatemala-2023-09-19/
‘Credible evidence’ India behind alleged assassination of Sikh leader, says Trudeau
The Canadian prime minister told the House of Commons of Canada on Monday that, in recent weeks, national security authorities had been probing allegations that New Delhi was behind a state-sponsored assassination. “Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” he said. “Canada is a rule-of-law country, the protection of our citizens and defence of our sovereignty are fundamental.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/18/credible-evidence-india-behind-killing-of-canadian-sikh-leader-says-trudeau
How do you apply Marxist theory? Is it even feasible or possible in today's climate?
And if it isn't practicable, isn't theory without application shit (Mao's words, not mine)?
can face-filters be rehabilitated
During the covid happening, wearing a particle-filter-mask was turned into a politically polarizing symbol of conformity. Most of the wearable particle-filter-gear was of the surgical-mask type which are also unpleasant to wear. These also only were 70% effective because they lack a proper air-seal for the skin-contact areas. Many people also didn't like that faces were partially obscured.This has seriously degraded the perception of wearable filter-gear.
All the technical short-commings can be fixed, there are comfortable face-filters, that being transparent, do not mask parts of people's faces and have decent air-seals that make them very effective. If 80% of the population could be convinced to willingly wear those during flu-season, it might be possible to diminish the common-flue enough that most people wouldn't suffer any symptoms.
Can face filters be rehabilitated ?
Can people see these as particle filters that might free them from getting the sniffles and sneezies, instead of a political symbol ?
Socialist system of law?
Hello, I hate leftoids.Can someone explain to me why there are no marxists books on constitutionalism and the system of law in general? Countless books have been written about some irrelevant philosophycel wankings, but the only book that deals with the system of law, this fundamental concept of bourgeois society, is by Pashukanis, and by modern russkie constitutionalists, who analyze the soviet practice of law from their own positions, and who unironically vindicate Pashukanis's position that there could be no such thing as a "proletarian law", because the system of law in the Soviet Union was a fiction, a hollow imitation of the bourgeois institutions.
>Is literally becoming petty bourgeois based?
>What about PMC?
It sucks working for other people, mostly because it's monotonous, you lack autonomy and anybsense that youre building something (alienation). Therefore, is it based to start a small business, do some sort of start up, or become a 'soloprenure.' Insofar, as revolution isn't on the table this week, is it a suitable and morally permissible personal alternative in the meantime.
What about something like PMC? Is it ok to become a social worker, teacher, marketer, graphic designer, security guard, or direct manager? It doesn't provide the same level of autonomy or freedom, but maybe that way I can make a difference and actually use my liberal arts degree and not be a barista my whole life.
How do these two options compare on different levels
What can the left learn from 'compliance and behavior experts' (salesmen, marketers, recruiters, advertisers, etc)?
sneaky
It appears that the UK has arrested a parliamentary researcher and accused him of being a Chinese spy in order to manufacture consent for pressuring the current UK government to be more hostile towards China.https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/uk-suspect-denies-being-chinese-spy-beijing-slams-claims-3762371
<The spying claims, first disclosed in The Sunday Times, are putting pressure on Sunak's government to toughen its policy on China as it seeks greater engagement with the Asian superpower.
I'm assuming Chinese spies are indeed trying to infiltrate the UK government and the reverse is also likely. That's to be expected from inter-state competition. But i don't believe that UK counter intelligence would make a public fuzz about uncovering a spy. If you catch a spy, you try to exploit the situation to feed you're opponent bogus information.
I wonder if that researcher was just some unlucky rando who got sacrificed for a political stunt, or whether they're purging that guy for political reasons. Like was he promoting a insufficiently hostile china stance or something ?
Any anons knowledgeable about the UK, or care to speculate about the spy biz.
Random Thoughts on Happiness and Unhappiness
>quick aside about pic related
why do …they… try to gaslight westerners into believing that they are so happy. it's obvious that's not the case. Opioid and antidepressant use has been on the rise. along with suicides, homelessness, etc.
Is it part of a larger fake and ghey Truman Show-esque programming - one which goes in all sort of directions (Trump tried to become fashist dictator blah blah, look, aliens!, etc).
<what makes America such a spiritual shithole and terrible place to live, especially if you're in a city?
1) not just capitalism
The midwits will say something about capitalism in general. This dull and unoriginal belief ignores the obvious fact that every country is capitalist, and capitalism is fairly old with respect to conditions today
They then point to fake and ghey stats similar to pic related, citing countries like Norway and New Zealand. They mention social programs. These same countries are also pointed to by white supremacists as examples of countries where ethnically homogeneous white states have better outcomes for individuals. Ironically (?), Israel - a social imperialist settler state - also ranks high on expertly supplied stats comparing happiness globally.
So perhaps capitalism isn't the cause of unhappiness, nor would introducing social programs or curbs on ethic diversity necessarily increase happiness.
2) Different cultures define or prioritize happiness differently.
At this point, it's worth noting that different cultures may define happiness differently. More likely, they prioritize it differently. In the collectivist eastern societies the westerners either disparage or fetishize, there is less concern for personal happiness and more on fulfilling familial and local community obligations. (If you think western consumerism is bad, you should see what it looks like not just with social competition but also social obligation).
In America, however, there seems to be an obsession with happiness. This is retarded, simply for the fact that happiness is a feeling, which is necessarily fleeting. At best, you can hope for a mood positive during
more moments during the day.
>"You will own nothing and be happy"
This much maligned phrase is interesting not because of the 'own nothing' part, but because of the 'be happy' part.
It could have said anything, 'You will own nothing, and be remembered.' 'Be powerful.' 'Be loved.' Etc. Happiness was chosen because it's such a ubiquitous value of what we ought to principally pursuit. It's surpassed liberty (and maybe life) in Burgerstan.
There is a sort of fixation on happiness in the West, which may itself lend itself towards unhappiness
But there's probably something more:
3) Liberalism and post modernism transformed into moral urgency and anxiety.
Ideas have a profound impact on our reality, especially when those ideas deviant too far from reality. The basic definition of stress is when something doesn't go according to plan/expectation and events feel threatening and outside of one's control.
Ideas can impact us in other ways, both directly and indirectly.
Directly, it's fairly common sense that ruminating on negative thoughts and ideas can lead to negative emotions (this is probably why many Slavic/Balkin countries rank lower in happiness).
Indirectly, ideas given life via policy and culture can transform the environment in a manner more or less congenial to personal well being.
This is, of course, dialectical - ideas effect affect, and affect effects ideas.
what sort of ideas dominate the West?
There we find a legacy of classical liberalism, more recently implanted with post modernism, and within the past few decades the development of generalized moral anxiety and sense of urgency.
Perhaps this sort of emergent post secularism is the key to why Burgerland is an emotional and social trainwreck atm
4) But perhaps there is another, more basic explanation, one that is purely physical.
Let's take a look at the stereotypical burgerhusk:
>Intergenerational obesity
>Still nutrient deficient
>Eats GMO food, bleached and brominated flour, every day.
>Fried food
>Processed food
>Hormone disruptors in ground water
>Hormone disruptors in receipts
>If female, possibly taking hormone disruptors willingly to prevent pregnancy
>Sprayed with weather modification chemicals via chemtrails, can't eat snow
>Plastic in everything. Bottles, dishes, clothes and underwear
>Bombarded with electromagnetic signals, 5g, etc
>Bombarded with blue streetlamps at night
>Almost no exercise, little sunshine
Admittedly, all of these could be fixed with a sort of socialism…
6) No single explanation
Perhaps none of these explanations is alone sufficient. Instead, perhaps it's all of the above.
Thus..
Amerikwa is a shithole because it's a capitalist ethnic jungle, increasingly governed by a technocratic matrix that commands you to be happy, with a post liberal, post post modern culture of moral witch-hunting, in which the standard individual is hobbled physiologically and kinesthetically.
U.S. soldier facing disciplinary action flees into North Korea
U.S. soldier facing disciplinary action flees into North KoreaIt said a person who said they witnessed the event and was part of the same tour group told CBS News they had just visited one of the buildings at the site when "this man gives out a loud 'ha ha ha,' and just runs in between some buildings."
CBS cited the witness as saying that military personnel reacted within seconds to the man's actions, but initially, there was confusion.
"I thought it was a bad joke at first, but when he didn't come back, I realized it wasn't a joke, and then everybody reacted and things got crazy," it quoted the witness as saying.
Recent news happening. Is he a real uygha?
woke is false consciousness
https://farside.link/invidious/watch?v=I0i0mnhobNsNorman Finkelstein gave a pretty decent interview where he succinctly summed up the woke left.
The Poverty of Wealth
No discussion, no criticism. The marginal struggle of a stratum of the first world proletariat is to be at the forefront of the entire movement. There is nothing here than empty phrases. Individual proletarians have taken up the most difficult task of them all – to subvert billions of their comrades. They have taken up arms, guns, spears against the African poor, the Chinese industrial worker, the Indian farmer. They have accepted the nazifascistic semi-colonial Western holdings in the Far East, Eastern Europe and elsewhere and gladly march besides them. These do not endanger their purely individualistic need to satisfy the immediate want of changing themselves, however superficially, when the entire world is yearning to be changed. The western working class should walk arm in arm with the entire proletariat, be the vanguard that teaches the proletariat and is taught by them - yet this does not happen. The discourse is always preemptively silenced, the opposition is purged and only one thing remains - the identity, the Holy Ego, the Creative Nothing, the Unique. A nihilistic, petty-bourgeois ideology has wrapped the minds of our European comrades and it is our duty to get them back into the movement like the father accepted his lost son.Sloganeering is the sign of a defeated mind, someone who wants to symbolically pay respect to the liberatory struggle of the entire proletariat by giving their dues to the most oppressed, most excluded, most ostracized stratum of the working class. It is wholly Christian in nature and it is utmost a reactionary practice. The footsoldiers of capital are no longer Freikorps or Junkers, but those unable to separate their personalities from the actual movement of history; comrades, which have fallen into the miasma of individualism and liberalism thusly justifying imperialism as long the ruling class gives them more concessions, violently taken from the Third World.
Our comrades don't want to accept that a non-European, non-Christian dictatorship of the proletariat is possible. They use any and all pseudo-Christian rhetoric, sometimes going as far as eschatology or Messianic complexes, to justify their reactionary and pseudo-bourgeois, pseudo-fascistic worldviews. They do not care about dismantling imperialism, they care only that they don't get the short end of the stick. The Western proletariat is a dead man walking and only total decolonization, denazification, demonetization and the end of western imperialism can set the stage for their eventual self-liberation.
>How large is the ruling class, in a broad sense.
I'm guessing 10-20 thousand globally wield significant power and wealth.
Alternatively, about a billion people fill some sort of broadly defined state role (bureaucracy, courts, police, legislation - on through media, education, public service).
Aside from that, likely another billion or more perform some other sort of techno-managerial-social engineering (marketing) role within the context of capital accumulation.
Of course, there are several billion people worldwide engaged in either service, physical, industrial transit, or maintenance labor. There are also, of course lumpen and subsistence classes too.
Some other numbers:
The Forbes richest 500 list bottoms out around 5 billion usd in net worth. There's over 3000 billionaires and 56 million millionaires.
<Thoughts and political implications?
Remember when the left was anti bourgeois globalism, big pharma, and sending billions of dollars in military aid to corruptanti-Russian Third World regimes.
Now it's all faggots explaining to you why they have the human right to teach children about gender identity in whatever bathroom they want.
>Pic related is massive wto protest in Seattle, 99
<Retvrn
In terms of the landscape of knowledge, information, and ideology, is pic related, along with kayfabe, a more apt metaphor than the matrix.
>"muh grandma is a victim x that mean my narrative of x is true and i know anything. if you disagree then you deny my grandpa die ?!?!?!. and you deny anything happend at all!!!!!".
people who have said to be from X country or have X country done something to them is still influence by lie & manipulation & deception. infact if its about some country that clash with the biggoybad mentality of the world it will always be influence.
fuck all victim story user. they all should be hanged in the middle of town. we should have a culture of shaming when it comes to them. they should all be publicly humiliated.
>what about le holocos vectem!!
i do not give a damn just because they/they're people are a victim of ethnic cleansing but with flamboyant brutality. fuck them too. the only reason they are tolerated is because they can be use to fight anti-communist and anti stalin/ussr propaganda. other than that they are fully responsible & is the main pillar of the victim-story and atrocity-story and the culture that cradle them.
once the revolution happen all victim story user and their group should be round up and killed. no matter if it's victim of the communist or the nazi or even a victim of non-people like natural disaster or virus or etc.
it is ridiculous the amount of protection & pampering & how we give them power at all.
cybersoc without id
Here is an article about Bill Gates sounding like a comic-book villainhttps://slaynews.com/news/bill-gates-every-person-earth-should-prove-their-identity-digital-id/
TLDR: he complains that not enough people have digital IDs and he shills his product to IDtag more people.
At best this sounds like a conspiracy to commit massive crimes against privacy, but also a megalomaniac billionaire trying to control people. By the way the first group to use computers to catalog people were the Nazis, they bought IBM punch-card computers for the holocaust logistics. Not sure if that's a structural problem. Maybe there is a bad tendency to put people on lists and that should not be amplified with technology or something.
Anyway once they try turning IDs into digital control-collars, people will grow to absolutely despise ID systems. And that means IDs will become a ideological liability. So i'm thinking we should consider making cyber-socialism work without IDs.
We could treat cyber-socialism like a computer system for civilization that people can access via anonymous accounts tied to cryptographic-key-gadgets that lack any identification data. Such a key would give people access to government services and the economy. People would obviously be able to get multiple keys. That can work to our advantage, if people spread their important life stuff over a dozen keys there would be a lot more redundancy and the equivalent of ID-loss, ID-theft and Fake-ID would be less dramatic. There would also be less incentive to steal/fake those keys.
Anybody have objections to this scheme ?
I love Deng Xiaoping theory so much bros
<Style in work.>I am not referring to literary style. What I have in mind is style in work, that specific and peculiar feature in the practice of Marxism-Leninism which creates the special type of Communist worker. Marxism-Leninism is a school of theory and practice which trains a special type of Party and state worker, creates a special Communist style in work.
>What are the characteristic features of this style? What are its peculiarities?
>It has two specific features :
>a) Chinese revolutionary sweep and
>b) American efficiency.
>The style of Marxism-Leninism consists in combining these two specific features in Party and state work.
>Chinese revolutionary sweep is an antidote to inertia, routine, conservationism, mental stagnation and slavish submission to ancient traditions. Chinese revolutionary sweep is the life-giving force which stimulates thought, impels things forward, breaks the past and opens up perspectives. Without it no progress is possible.
[…]
>American efficiency, on the other hand, is an antidote to "revolutionary" Maoism and fantastic scheme concocting. American efficiency is that indomitable force which neither knows nor recognizes obstacles; which with its business-like perseverance brushes aside all obstacles; which continues at a task once started until it is finished, even if it is a minor task; and without which serious constructive work is inconceivable.
[…]
>The combination of Chinese revolutionary sweep with American efficiency is the essence of Marxism-Leninism in Party and state work.
>This combination alone produces the finished type of Communist worker, the style of Communism in work.
/mlm/ - Maoism General
While there are surely some people interested in Maoism on /leftypol/, the tendency has no noticeable presence here. From my observation Maoism has been gaining traction in socialist communities online recently. Though the ideology's influence is still relatively small, I'm optimistic that we're witnessing the earlier stages of Maoists winning leadership in the movements of the working class which will result in the reconstitution of Communist Parties guided by MLM. I started this thread to spur investigation and discussion amongst potential comrades.Why Maoism? https://tjen-folket.no/index.php/en/2019/08/14/why-maoism-what-is-maoism/
"Maoism is developed in the first place by six great communist leaders: Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and Gonzalo."
"The rightist line led China back to capitalism, and dismantled the dictatorship of the proletariat into a fascist state. (…) But the cultural revolution and Mao Zedong Thought inspired millions of people all over the world, and led to the creation of a number of new communist parties on a revolutionary basis. They started people’s wars in Peru, India, the Philippines, Turkey, and Nepal."
"Gonzalo and the PCP maintain that Mao’s mass line, the line for the protracted people’s war and the line for the cultural revolution are the foremost examples of Maoism’s universal applicability, along with Maoism’s advancement of Marxism’s philosophy and economy."
"Gonzalo Thought is Maoism applied to the concrete conditions for revolution in Peru, but it is the universal conclusions in these thoughts that apply to the rest of the world."
Maoist Resources:
http://www.marx2mao.com/
http://www.massline.org/
https://www.bannedthought.net/
https://struggle-sessions.com/
https://www.reddit.com/r/catsaysmao/comments/mahczm/mega_thread_on_maoism_and_a_debunk_of_all_of_the/
https://www.reddit.com/r/catsaysmao/comments/mkupvc/actually_existing_socialism_and_what_it_means_to/
https://www.reddit.com/r/PrincipallyMaoism/
Which burger dark horse outsider presidential candidate are you stanning this election cycle, and why is it pic related?
In the Marxist sense, what class do people who work in the diversity and equity field belong to? Proletariat? Petty-bourgeoisie? PMC? Something else?
I'm a retard. Help me figure it out.
Africa General
As asked by these users>>1017224
>>1017227
>>1017239
>>1017242
Decided to make an Africa General
Some more or less /ourguys/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Liberation_Front_(Algeria)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPLA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congolese_Party_of_Labour
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Rally_for_Progress
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Progressive_Party_(Guyana)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militant_Socialist_Movement
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FRELIMO
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWAPO
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_National_Congress
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chama_Cha_Mapinduzi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriotic_Front_(Zambia)
Some good resources
https://www.youtube.com/c/2nacheki/videos
https://www.youtube.com/user/Afrikanews/videos
digial protection racket
Europe and US are seeing a dramatic increase of attacks against digital freedom. Those anti-laws violate the freedom from censorship, surveillance, political persecution as well as represent infringements on privacy, free expression, intellectual freedom and sometimes even personal property.Those laws are blatantly illegal, and because of that they use deceptive language to obfuscate the criminal aspects. There usually is some cynical alibi feature like child protection, scam protection, and so on. Some very unfortunate people involved in these schemes definitely have genuine intend to seek some benefit for society, but it's probably mostly cynical, especially on the political side. All the double-speak crypto politics of these anti-laws make it a strange beast that is hard to describe accurately.
It appears that almost all the motivations for implementing these criminal structures are at present political, moral or ideological. But that will fade away over time, and what's going to remain will become a big digital protection racket, Imho. Mafia type economics seem by far the most likely economic-circuit to reproduce these structures. From a historical perspective there is a recurring theme where certain people unleash things like this and then it gets taken over and repurposed by other people.
I think overcoming all of this will be a long struggle, and in order for that to succeed, we have to take into account how that phenomenon will change over time. There also is uncertainty whether or not this is connected to tech monopoly capital trying to close off the internet.
In the past there were lots of protection rackets in meat-space, those seem to have gone away for the most part, how did that actually happen ?
<Rate this statement
I'm an oldfag. I was talking to an ancientfag. he said something that made me think: capitalism is best when it has robust social programs, education, and safety nets, and communism is best when it has markets and multiparty elections.
What do you guys think about that claim
West Papua is the western half of New Guinea, the world’s second-largest island. It lies 250 kilometres north of Australia and is one the thousands of South Pacific islands collectively known as ‘Melanesia’. West Papua is one of the most remarkable places on Earth. Its rainforest is second in size only to the Amazon, and contains species like the bird of paradise and the tree kangaroo. It is home to sophisticated tribal people whose culture stretches back tens of thousands of years. The West Papuans live in 250 tribes, each with its own language and culture.
West Papua used to be part of the Dutch East Indies. After World War II, the Dutch Empire became the new nation of Indonesia. But the Dutch argued that West Papua had never been part of Indonesia and had an entirely different culture and history. West Papua declared independence on 1st December 1961 - but the Indonesian army invaded three months later. Although the international community intervened, Western governments, led by the USA, chose to appease Indonesia and accept its occupation rather than risk a political crisis that might encourage the spread of communism in South East Asia. In 1969, the UN presided over a referendum on independence that was clearly a sham. The Indonesian occupiers announced that the Papuans were too ‘backward’ to cope with democracy, and 1026 ‘representative’ Papuans were rounded up and forced at gunpoint to vote to join Indonesia. This was called, ironically, the 'Act of Free Choice’.
Since its annexation the people of West Papua have suffered constant misery. Over 500,000 people have died as a direct result of the Indonesian occupation. Much of their land has been taken by the state and given to national and multinational companies for mining, logging or oil extraction. Non-violent dissent has been criminalised: anyone who calls for independence, raises the Papuan flag or publicly questions the legitimacy of Indonesian rule can be imprisoned. Tens of thousands of Indonesian soldiers are stationed in West Papua, and regularly torture, rape and murder Papuan leaders, activists and civilians.
West Papua is a closed society. All foreign journalists are banned. Human rights groups, lawyers, foreign politicians and even tourists are either banned from entering Papua or restricted to small areas where they are closely monitored by the police. As a result, the world hears little about the horror that goes on there day after day.
The Papuans have been denied one of the fundamental rights in the UN International Charter of Human Rights - ‘self-determination’, the right to choose their own government and national status. Every representative Papuan organisation is now calling for a re-run of the 1969 ‘Act of Free Choice’ – this time as a genuine referendum on independence, in which all Papuans get the chance to vote.
Papuans brave enough to call for independence put their lives at risk. Independence leaders are arrested, tortured and murdered. Even demonstrating peacefully can be fatal. The Papuans need outside help and international support if they are to succeed in their struggle for ‘Merdeka’ – freedom.
https://www.freewestpapua.org/
News 08/21/23
More than 20 detained by Sudanese Military Intelligence in communist party raidThe military intelligence force executed a raid on the office of the Communist Party of Sudan (CPoS) in the capital of the Blue Nile region*, apprehending attendees of a cultural and political gathering before the start of the event. More than 20 attendees were subsequently transferred to a police station before eventually being released on bail. In a statement published yesterday, the Democratic Lawyers Front denounced the force’s actions, asserting that they “interfered with the cultural and political event and detained party members without any legitimate or legal justification”.
https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/more-than-20-detained-by-sudanese-military-intelligence-in-communist-party-raid
COPE calls on SAHRC and PP to intervene in Tshwane strike
The Congress of the People (COPE) has called on the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and the Office of the Public Protector to intervene in the tension between the City of Tshwane and striking municipal workers. Services have been suspended after municipal workers affiliated to the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) embarked on an unprotected wage strike three weeks ago. COPE spokesperson Dennis Bloem says the situation has put the health of residents at risk.
https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/cope-calls-on-sahrc-and-pp-to-intervene-in-tshwane-strike/
BRICS expansion hopefuls seek to rebalance world order
Amid widespread dissatisfaction with the prevailing world order, the pledge of BRICS nations - currently Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - to make the grouping a leading champion of the "Global South" has, despite a dearth of concrete results, found resonance. Over 40 countries have expressed interest in joining BRICS, say officials from South Africa, which is hosting the Aug. 22-24 summit. Of them, nearly two dozen have formally asked to be admitted.
https://www.reuters.com/world/brics-expansion-hopefuls-seek-rebalance-world-order-2023-08-21/
Progressive Luisa González and millionaire Daniel Noboa head to run off elections in Ecuador
At around 9:00 pm, after counting 60% of the votes, president of the National Electoral Council (CNE) Diana Atamaint gave a public address and confirmed the trend that Ecuadorians will return to the polls for a runoff election on October 15 to elect the country’s since no candidate hit the threshold to win outright. With 92.92% of the votes counted, Luisa González of the left-wing Citizens Revolution Movement party (RC) won the first round with 33.31% of the votes, while Daniel Noboa of the right-wing National Democratic Action alliance (ADN), to many people’s surprise, trailed just under 10 points behind her, securing 23.66% of the votes. They will now head to the second round in October
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/08/21/progressive-luisa-gonzalez-and-millionaire-daniel-noboa-head-to-run-off-elections-in-ecuador/
Ecuadorians Vote Against Mining in Choco Andino
On Monday, the environmental organization Quito Without Mining celebrated the prohibition of all types of mining activities in the Andean Chocó, a biosphere reserve located in the northeastern capital city of Ecuador. … The National Electoral Council (CNE) announced that 68 percent of the voters expressed support for prohibiting mining at any scale in the Chocó forests. Only 31 percent of the voters were in favor of allowing mining. The ban on mining will be applied to the 124,000 hectares of the Andean Choco Community, comprising the rural localities of Calacali, Gualea, Nanegal, Nanegalito, Nono, and Pacto.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Ecuadorians-Vote-Against-Mining-in-Choco-Andino-20230821-0015.html
Guatemala elects leftwinger Arevalo as new president
Mr Arevalo garnered an impressive 58 per cent of the vote against 37 per cent won by former first lady Sandra Torres, who was making her third bid for the presidency. But attention immediately turned to whether Mr Arevalo would be allowed to assume power as the Attorney General’s Office moved to suspend his party’s legal status. Mr Arevalo said: “We know that there is a political persecution under way that is being carried out through the institutions and prosecutors’ offices and judges that have been corruptly co-opted.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/guatemala-elects-left-wing-arevalo-new-president
Irish troops to provide weapons training to Ukraine despite Government’s ‘non-lethal’ assistance pledge
Irish troops are to provide weapons training to the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF), a significant departure from the Government’s public position that Ireland is providing only non-lethal support. As well as providing troops to train Ukrainian forces in non-lethal areas such as mine clearance, combat medicine and engineering, Irish personnel are also earmarked to provide instruction in basic weapons skills and military tactics, The Irish Times has learned.
https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2023/08/18/irish-troops-to-provide-weapons-training-to-ukraine-despite-governments-non-lethal-assistance-pledge/
https://archive.ph/9U5Ng
Kingsmill workers on Merseyside win inflation-busting pay rise, union announces
Allied Bakeries workers in Bootle have gained wage boosts of 8.7 per cent this year and 8.6 per cent next year, their union said. The deal, which has been reached after the bakers went on strike in late May following a “year of failed pay negotiations,” was hailed as “history in the baking” by the TUC.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/kingsmill-workers-on-merseyside-win-inflation-busting-pay-rise-union-announces
UK: Documents suggest Israel tried to influence courts against pro-Palestine activists
The documents, disclosed by the attorney general's office (AGO) via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, reveal multiple attempts by embassy officials to pressure the director general of the AGO, Douglas Wilson, to interfere with court cases relating to protesters. While the disclosed emails and meeting minutes are heavily redacted and specifics of the officials' demands are unclear, in an email dated 9 May Wilson refers to the "operational independence of the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service], and the AGO's ability to bring about prosecutions".
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-israel-documents-suggest-influence-courts-against-palestine-activists
Turkish attack kills 2 Syrian soldiers, injures 4 others in Manbij
According to reports from the ground, the attack with tanks and howitzers was directed against the posts of Syrian government forces in the villages of Toxan and Awn Dadat to the north of Manbij at 07:30 this morning. The attack left two soldiers of the Syrian army dead and four others injured.
https://anfenglishmobile.com/rojava-syria/turkish-attack-kills-2-syrian-soldiers-injures-4-others-in-manbij-68905
Books are not a crime! Solidarity with Toko Buku Rakyat in Malaysia
On Friday, August 18th, 2023, a raid happened at Toko Buku Rakyat (People Bookstore) in Wisma Central, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Four enforcement officers from Malaysian Ministry of Home Affairs wearing vests stating “Penguatkuasa KDN”, came unannounced to look for the book “The Communist Manifesto” and then seized a book about Marx and education, and also a book of poetry written by Benz Ali, owner of the bookstore.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/08/20/books-are-not-a-crime-solidarity-with-toko-buku-rakyat-in-malaysia/
Singapore employers using police to threaten domestic workers, report says
Employers in the Southeast Asian city-state hold “unprecedented” power over domestic workers, who face disadvantages in the criminal justice system due to their precarious status as work-permit holders, according to the report by the rights group Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME). Domestic workers accused of a crime are typically prevented from continuing to work and can be barred from future employment in Singapore after receiving a police warning, despite never being convicted of an offence, according to the report.
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/8/21/singapore-employers-using-police-to-control-domestic-workers-report-says
https://archive.is/LaW8V
How would the world be different today if the USSR had been successful at creating a laboring race of chimp-human hybrids?
<2 points of attention:
1st: for the record, the blacks love trump, and trump loves the blacks.
2nd: it appears that the DNCecurity state is ramping up their faggy psyop on chans, including this one.
>ukraine conflict happend
>other armed conflict happend right before the ukraine conflict.
>other armed conflict happend during the ukraine conlfict.
>english speaker made it special
>"muh ppl n civilian die putn is literally hitlter!!!"
>as a consequence it has become the current """happening""".
why ?. it did not make any sense to me
Hello leftists. I'm a dilettante when it comes to political theory, so I'd really like your help.
What is the projected end stage of capitalism? It feels like, long-term, Capitalism is just a highly efficient way of extracting all resources on planet earth and distributing them into the hands of an increasingly small elite, but unlike other economic systems, there is no equilibrium under Capitalism. All Capitalist countries work in tandem by pursuing infinite growth, but what happens when we run out of growth avenues? This seems way too complex to speculate about alone, so I ask you for help and reading if possible!
Prigozhin ded
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin listed in Russian plane crash with no survivorsMOSCOW, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Russia's most powerful mercenary Yevgeny Prigozhin was on board a plane which crashed on Wednesday evening north of Moscow with no survivors, the Russian authorities said, two months to the day after he led an abortive mutiny against the army top brass.
There was no official comment from the Kremlin or the Defence Ministry on the fate of Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group and a self-declared enemy of the army's leadership over what he argued was its incompetent prosecution of Russia's war in Ukraine.
A Telegram channel linked to Wagner, Grey Zone, pronounced him dead, however, and hailed him as a hero and a patriot who it said had died at the hands of unidentified people it called "traitors to Russia."
A Reuters reporter at the crash site at first light on Thursday morning saw men stretchering black body bags. Part of the plane's tail and other fragments lay on the ground near a wooded area where forensic investigators had erected a tent. Mourners left flowers and lit candles near Wagner's offices in St Petersburg early on Thursday.
Amid fevered speculation and an absence of verifiable facts, some of his supporters have pointed the finger of blame at the Russian state, others at Ukraine which was due to mark its Independence Day on Thursday.
Whoever or whatever was behind the crash, his death would rid Putin of someone who had mounted the most serious challenge to the Russian leader's authority since he came to power in 1999.
Others who have opposed President Vladimir Putin or his interests have also died under unclear circumstances or come close to death, including outspoken political leaders and journalists. The Kremlin has always denied any state involvement in such incidents.
Prigozhin's death would also leave the Wagner Group, which incurred Putin's wrath in June by staging an abortive armed mutiny against the army's top brass, leaderless and raise questions about its future operations in Africa and elsewhere.
The Brazilian Embraer (EMBR3.SA) Legacy 600 model of executive jet that crashed has only recorded one accident in over 20 years of service, according to website International Aviation HQ, and it was not due to mechanical failure.
Embraer said it has complied with international sanctions imposed on Russia and had not provided maintenance for the aircraft since 2019.
The plane showed no sign of a problem until a precipitous drop in its final 30 seconds, according to flight-tracking data.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ten-killed-private-jet-crash-north-moscow-tass-2023-08-23/
The co-founder was also on the plane.
Oceangate submarine meme
The media seem to be pushing this story HARD for whatever reason, and it's all normies are talking about right now.So is this an elaborate distraction from other ongoing events? Or is it morbid fascination fuelling the interest?
Predictions? Thoughts? Anal ysis?
How does China's economy actually work?
I see memes and arguments about "China is communist!" "China is capitalist!" blah blah but what's going underneath the memes? How is the economy run day-to-day?There seems to be a lot of free-market activity. There is a stock exchange. There is obviously wage labour.
Are major sectors nationalised? Is it illegal to set up private enterprises in some sectors (e.g. trains, telecommunications)?
Comradely thanks
Why are rightoids so bent out of shape about this guy? As far as capitalists go, he doesn't seem so bad, especially considering his left leaning social views.
>Inb4 who dat?
Get with the program. it's Larry Fink, head of Black Rock, pioneers of socially responsible investing and the largest asset management company in the US today.
It is illegal to reject your state mafia protection by denouncing its citizenship that was brought upon you without your consent.
IT IS ILLEGAL TO DO, WORLDWIDE.
https://daccess-ods.un.org/access.nsf/Get?OpenAgent&DS=A/RES/896(IX)&Lang=E
https://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list?module=treaty-detail&treatynum=166
You can't even free yourself from a forced patronage of @ least one UN-approved government. This whole world is a marketplace made out of concentration camp administrations of different flavors which control their designated territories.
So much for the absolute freedom & total democracy!
It's hilarious that so many leftists honestly believe their credibility somehow remains intact after they fell for and perpetuated the flu psyop.
World War II never ended
It is obvious that the fascists just went underground like the rats they are to rebuild power and start the psychological war to end all psychological wars. There is a global fascist conspiracy including Russia, the Republican party, billionares and C.E.Os including Elon Musk, and most likely other bad actors to overthrow democracy worldwide and establish a global fascist alliance to make sure that the entire planet is enslaved forever.The psychological war has largely been focused on the U.S. and has involved psychologically grooming and condition American conservatives into becoming completely deranged genocidal cultists, while conditioning everyone else to tolerate them. The game plan was for Russia to establish an Eastern front in Europe while the Republicans work to overthrow U.S. democracy, purge the country of non-cultists, and then join the war to attack Europe from the West. If the U.S. falls, so does Europe, and if Europe falls, so does the world.
The question is now: how do we stop them and expose the conspiracy?
Political Pragmatism
Do you consider yourself to be pragmatic with your politics anon?Or do you feel that making any ideological concessions is a betrayal of your values and beliefs?
I think it's interesting when groups with diametrically opposed outlooks and ideals work together for what they both perceive to be the 'greater good'. Pic related, and feel free to post more interesting examples of this occuring.
ideology in pop-science
Here is a pop-sci video about Black holes that speculates about the possibility to remove the black-hole event-horizon and grant us an opportunity to study the singularity at the center of a black-hole. But for some reason they give the impression that this would unlock forbidden knowledge that unravels reality. It will take us many thousands of years until we'll be able to fuck around with black-holes, so even if there was a danger that warning will have faded away.There seems to be an ideological sub-current that seeks to limit the bounds of scientific exploration. I'd like to understand where this is coming from.
https://farside.link/invidious/watch?v=cFslUSyfZPc
Another US coup
Thought this deserved a thread already. The US recently orchestrated a military against the prime minister of Pakistan. Pakistan has basically had de facto military rule for decades. Control of the prime ministership has oscillated back and forth between two major families while the military rules from the shadows. What was perhaps different this time is that the current prime minister was enormously popular and people had the impression that things were moving in a more democratic direction.However, he didn't do exactly as he was told by the US like a good boy, so he had to go, and now one of the world's major nuclear powers is in a state of instability. What's in the future for Pakistan now? Is there a danger of India stepping in and some idiot provoking a nuclear exchange?
Who the fuck is this?
Opinions on this dude? He seems to be popular in Italian circles. Doesn't seem to be a dogmoid, dunks on retarded leftoids in his democracy book.Tho his dismissal of Athens on the grounds that it was exclusionary of large parts of the population is unwarranted because it was still inclusionary of the majority of poor urban population that manned the fleets. Which should be far more important for a marxist than inclusion of fucking w*men, no?
But I digress.. Any garlic eaters here that can provide more context?
News 8/12/23
Social Organizations Mobilize in Argentina After Murder of Facundo MoralesSocial organizations and political movements in Argentina mobilized this Friday at the Obelisk in Buenos Aires, after the murder on Thursday of Facundo Molares Schoenfeld who died as a result of police violence. … Similarly, the demonstrators held up signs with the phrase: “Not one more dead for fighting,” and questioned the attitude of the head of government, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, who claimed responsibility for the actions of the police, said that Facundo’s death was due to a heart attack.
https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/post/2023/08/12/social-organizations-mobilize-in-argentina-after-murder-of-facundo-morales/
Ecuador arrests 6 Colombians over assassination of presidential candidate
Ecuador’s police arrested six Colombians for their alleged participation in the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. The six were arrested in Quito shortly after the assassination on Wednesday. Two of the suspects were arrested near the campaign event in the north of the capital where Villavicencio was shot dead.
https://colombiareports.com/ecuador-arrests-6-colombians-over-assassination-of-presidential-candidate/
Millions of Mexicans lifted out of poverty during López Obrador presidency
Coneval issues its poverty measurement report every two years, basing its analyses on a survey of household earnings and expenditures from Mexico’s national statistics institute Inegi. “And surely in the 2024 report will be lower,” he said, pointing to a graph that showed that the poverty rate fell from 43.2% in 2016 to 36.3% in 2022. The graphs he presented did not include the data from the 2018 and 2020 reports, which showed the poverty rate to be 41.9% and 43.9%, respectively.
https://www.courthousenews.com/millions-of-mexicans-lifted-out-of-poverty-during-lopez-obrador-presidency/
https://archive.ph/xe5h1
13 Turkish soldiers killed in guerrilla actions marking the 15 August initiative
The Press Office of the People's Defence Forces (HPG) reported continued actions against the Turkish army in the guerrilla-held Medya Defense Zones in southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq). According to the HPG statement on Saturday, 13 soldiers of the Turkish invading forces were killed and six others injured in guerrilla actions in the Zap and Metina regions of the Medya Defence Zones.
https://anfenglishmobile.com/kurdistan/13-turkish-soldiers-killed-in-guerrilla-actions-marking-the-15-august-initiative-68784
South African police attack and arrest striking workers at Ekapa diamond mines
On Thursday, August 10, as workers were picketing outside the mines, formerly owned by the De Beers mining company, the police deployed water cannons and fired tear gas in an attempt to disperse them. Police then proceeded to arrest 43 workers, NUMSA regional organizer Tshepo Mokhele, who was present at the picket, told Peoples Dispatch. The workers were granted bail on August 11.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/08/11/south-african-police-attack-and-arrest-striking-workers-at-ekapa-diamond-mines/
SANTACO, Western Cape government in heated debate over impounded taxis
A heated debate has ensued between SANTACO First Deputy Chairperson, Nceba Enge and Western Cape Minister for Transport, Ricardo Mackenzie during a media briefing at the provincial legislature in Cape Town on the impounding of taxis that led to a week-long violent taxi strike. Taxi services have resumed in the Western Cape after the stay-away which was called off last night. SANTACO has blamed authorities for the repossession of their vehicles by financial institutions after they were impounded because operators could not make money.
https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/santaco-western-cape-government-in-heated-debate-over-impounded-taxis/
Eastern Sudan prosecutors dismiss charges against ‘Islamist hardliners’
The public prosecutor in Kassala in eastern Sudan has cancelled the arrest warrants against former leaders of the defunct Omar Al Bashir regime. In neighbouring El Gedaref, the prosecution dismissed charges against the state governor and other officials accused of covering up activities of Islamist hardliners in the state capital. The army is allegedly recruiting new soldiers along tribal lines. According to a recent report, the influence of prominent leaders of the Al Bashir regime is growing in Sudan.
https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/eastern-sudan-prosecutors-dismiss-charges-against-islamist-hardliners
Niger coup: West African countries suspend key military meeting on ‘standby’ force
Chiefs of staff from West African Ecowas bloc countries were set to attend a meeting on Saturday in Ghana’s capital Accra, regional military sources had said on Friday. But they later said that it had been suspended indefinitely for “technical reasons”. The sources said the meeting was originally set up to inform the organisation’s leaders about “the best options” for activating and deploying the standby force.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/12/niger-coup-west-african-countries-suspend-key-military-meeting-on-standby-force
Brothers at ‘war’: Niger citizens bear the brunt of ECOWAS sanctions
At the grassroots, the impasse is already affecting Niger’s 25 million people, half of whom live below the poverty line earning less than $2.15 a day. Nigeria also cut the power supply to its neighbour, which depends on it for as much as 70 percent of its electricity. And food prices, already on the rise because of complications in global supply since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, have risen yet again.
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/8/10/brothers-at-war-nigeriens-bear-brunt-of-ecowas-sanctions
https://archive.is/QoZek
Thousands of Afghan refugee face eviction as government deadline to ‘help themselves’ looms
The government provided “bridging accommodation” in hotels for many who arrived in this country. In July, the government confirmed that the refugees have been given notice to quit the hotels by August 31. About 8,000 Afghans were still in hotels almost two years after the evacuation.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/thousands-of-afghan-refugee-face-eviction-as-government-deadline-to-help-themselves-looms
RMT announces Saturday rail strikes in August and September
The Rail, Maritime and Transport workers’ union (RMT) said 20,000 of its members from 14 train operators would walk out on 26 August and 2 September, both Saturdays. The union said it had been left with “little choice” but to take further action as it had seen no improved or revised offer from the Rail Delivery Group, the industry body.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/aug/11/rmt-announces-saturday-rail-strikes-in-august-and-september
Tenants and left in Austria demand rent freeze to tackle housing crisis
According to reports, persistently high inflation and a rising Consumer Price Index (CPI) led to a continuous increase in rental prices across the country. As of now, the average inflation in Austria this year stands at 9.63%. Rents in the private sector increased six times over the last two years due to rising CPI, equivalent to about 1,400 euros per year (USD 1,535.24). Rents in the cooperative sector also spiked as rental costs are linked partly to inflation and partly to the financing costs incurred by loans. With a 5.5% increase in benchmark rents marked from August’s first week, at least 135,000 households in Austria, including tenants of old buildings, have been affected.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/08/12/tenants-and-left-in-austria-demand-rent-freeze-to-tackle-housing-crisis/
Neo-McCarthism 2.0
It seems that the US is trying too stir up a which-hunt against peace activistsThe NyTimes already attacked a number of lefty peace organizations with this peace
https://web.archive.org/web/20230805212011/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/05/world/europe/neville-roy-singham-china-propaganda.html
It looks like mainstream media switched to China-war-advertisement mode. So one has to assume that their accusations are false, they always lie when they try to sell a war.
The Importance of Psyops
For anyone who doesn’t know:>Psychological operations (PSYOP) are operations to convey selected information and indicators to audiences to influence their motives and objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of governments, organizations, groups, and large foreign powers.
What do you guys think about the idea that Marxists should conduct psyops on its enemies?
You Best Start Believing In Memepunk Stories, You're In One
I wrote all three posts in the pic and much more.I have been online since 1997.
I have been an anon since 2005. Proof is my YTMND account: https://ytmnd.com/users/anono/sites
I am addicted to learning and have spent the past 23 years of my adult life exploring, creating, and discovering to the maximum of my ability.
I became an anticapitalist and socialist because I love my family, country, species and world.
Beginning around 2010 I began to speculate about a "memetic singularity," an explosion of cultural and social change catalyzed by the internet.
I watched my speculation come alive before my eyes, while I continued to build upon it and develop my theories.
8/01/2023 was The Tipping Point.
There is much more information here: https://old.reddit.com/r/NarrativeDynamics/
Memetic Metagame Theory and The Memetic Singularity
Game theory is the science of strategy.Memetics is the study of cultural change.
Combine the two and you have a perfect recipe for conjuring the apocalypse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzlyUZoVPGU
https://vimeo.com/124736839
https://www.laetusinpraesens.org/docs00s/singmem.php
https://vimeo.com/218908974
This is the 'right wing' 'fascist' Italian PM that the reddit'left' is shreeking about.
At what point did you realize everything is a lie?
statecraft and censorship
Lets make this a pro and contraAgainst censorship:
There has been some research done in capitalist countries that suggests that censorship has a tendency to silence poor people.
The Soviets had some censorship (although not to the degree that anti-communist propaganda says) and it did not prevent the revisionism from spreading.
A part of the Soviet information landscape was, that it was very scientifically accurate and virtually devoid of scams, there were no scammers trying to sell you free-energy devices or miracle-cure juice. Pyramid scams did not exist and nobody was pretending to be a medium that could contact your dead relatives. And the effect was that Soviet society had no mental defenses against bullshitters. People got accustomed to sanitized information and after the Soviet dissolution when the sanatisation disappeared they got duped by ALL the bullshit.
For censorship:
I think that censoring might actually have a singular useful application. Censoring News about terror attacks might be reasonable. Terrorism as a political strategy would be completely ineffective if there was no medium to spread the fear.
Some considerations:
My conclusion is that censorship is largely not worth it.
If you want to extinguish scams, you need to hire "white-hat" scam artists that do scam routines but instead of screwing people over they just cause embarrassment. That should be enough to cultivate mental defenses and dry out the pool of gullibility.
Sometime people also pretend that censoring pedo-crap protects children, which in my humble opinion is disingenuous, once there is cp on the net, the abuse already happened and the damage is done. You kinda have to focus the efforts on catching the pedos before they abuse children, and making children harder to prey on. Mopping up the internet after the fact is not really protecting the children and more about sweeping that shit under the rug. If we succeeded in actually protecting the children, the internet would be clean no matter how unrestricted it was.
For the socialist cause it might be better to treat the ideological battle for the minds of the masses as a battle and not just an exercise in political education. Also it is prudent to get ahead of the curve, currently there is a rising tide of censorship, a little mini dark-age so to speak but that trend will invert it self once all the trust and goodwill that currently exists has been betrayed. Communists and socialists should take a hard-line anti-censorship position to be in the best political position once the trend-inversion happens.
Nigeriens being Based at the moment. From what I gather they have a military junta going on atm, and told the French and Americans to go fuck themselves. sounds like leftychan that one time amirite
I hope they get to keep their uranium
News 8/4/23
Four SDF fighters killed in Turkish drone attack in QamishloOn Thursday, August 3, at 7:15 pm, a UAV belonging to the Turkish occupation attacked a car carrying six of our commanders and fighters on the way to the village of Harmi Sheikho, Qamishlo city, while they were heading home to spend their monthly vacation, resulting in the martyrdom of four fighters, and two others were wounded,” said the SDF statement on Friday.
https://anfenglishmobile.com/rojava-syria/four-sdf-fighters-were-killed-in-turkish-drone-attack-in-qamishlo-68640
Hundreds protest as Lebanon marks 3 years since Beirut blast
Three years on, the probe is virtually at a standstill, leaving survivors still yearning for answers. Protesters, many of them wearing black and carrying photographs of the victims, marched towards the port shouting slogans including: "We will not forget". Some protesters waved a Lebanese flag covered in blood-like red paint while others carried an enormous flag covered in a written pledge to keep fighting for justice.
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2023/08/hundreds-protest-lebanon-marks-3-years-beirut-blast
Two Palestinians killed by Israeli army, settlers in West Bank violence
Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian teenager during one of their daily pre-dawn raids into the occupied West Bank, before another Palestinian teenager was killed in a separate incident by illegal settlers, according to local media and the Palestinian health ministry. The Palestinian health ministry late on Friday announced the death of Qusai Jamal Maatan, 19, saying he was “shot dead by settlers in the village of Burqa”, east of Ramallah.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/4/palestinian-teen-killed-by-israeli-army-in-occupied-west-bank
Ethiopia’s declaring a state of emergency in its Amhara region as local fighters clash with military
Ethiopia’s Council of Ministers is declaring a state of emergency in the country’s Amhara region after authorities pleaded for help as clashes intensify there between regional forces and the military. The prime minister’s office announced the decision on Friday after the region’s leader said regular law enforcement was no longer able to contain the violence. The declaration needs approval from Parliament.
https://apnews.com/article/ethiopia-amhara-military-violence-cd880a2e8c5256e1ef4af52598e9d44d
Italy: Meloni's government cuts welfare benefits to thousands of families by SMS, sparking protests
An estimated 169,000 families across Italy received an SMS in late July notifying them that the benefits they had enjoyed for the past four years would abruptly be cut off the following month. The benefits, which will be cut off from any families that do not include a disabled person, a minor, or an individual over the age of 65, are part of Italy’ controversial “reddito di cittadinanza” (literally “citizens’ income”), a monthly allowance for families and individuals with low income and the unemployed.
https://www.euronews.com/2023/08/03/italy-melonis-government-cuts-welfare-benefits-to-thousands-of-families-by-sms-sparking-pr
Amazon workers defy Bezos with fresh round of strikes
AMAZON workers rattled Jeff Bezos’s cages today with rallies marking a year since the company’s biggest walkout in Britain began. Hundreds of picketers shouted: “Freedom, we will not stop” as the bosses turned their warehouse into a fortress. Up to 1,100 staff at Coventry and Rugeley fulfilment centres will have downed tools by their action’s first anniversary on Saturday.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/amazon-workers-defy-bezos-with-fresh-round-of-strikes
Putin Signs Law Raising Maximum Draft Age
The law signed by Putin on Friday expands the age range for this compulsory military service to 18-30 starting in January 2024. The final version of the law does away with original amendments — which had been endorsed by Putin in December — that sought to gradually raise the lower and upper age limits over a period of three years for compulsory military service to 21-30.
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/08/04/putin-signs-law-raising-maximum-draft-age-a82061
Campaigners demand end to persecution of Ukrainian peace activist
Mr Sheliazhenko issued a statement detailing Thursday’s raid on his home by people describing themselves as members of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). He said that “unknown people started breaking in the door to my apartment” in the early hours. After failing to show proper identification, other than that they were from the SBU, the intruders searched Mr Sheliazhenko and his home, but “nothing even remotely similar to evidence of justification of Russian aggression or any other criminal actions of mine was found,” he said.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/campaigners-demand-end-persecution-ukrainian-peace-activist
Italy approves extradition of priest charged with murder and torture during Argentina dictatorship
Attorney Arturo Salerni, who represents Argentina, told The Associated Press that Justice Minister Carlo Nordio on Wednesday signed off on the request to extradite the Rev. Franco Reverberi, an 85-year-old priest who served as military chaplain during Argentina’s 1976-1983 military dictatorship.
https://apnews.com/article/italy-argentina-priest-extradition-357eba99643ff1aa6170a42b633f5907
Amazon deforestation falls over 60% compared with last July, says Brazilian minister
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by at least 60% in July compared to the same month last year, the environment minister, Marina Silva, has told the Guardian. The good news comes ahead of a regional summit that aims to prevent South America’s largest biome from hitting a calamitous tipping point. The exact figure, which is based on the Deter satellite alert system, will be released in the coming days, but independent analysts described the preliminary data as “incredible” and said the improvement compared with the same month last year could be the best since 2005.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/02/amazon-deforestation-falls-over-60-compared-with-last-july-says-brazilian-minister
Supply Chain as a market agent
Just leaving my thoughts after reading interesting chapter on collaborations in modern supply chains.Tho it's not like I expect anything from nazoid brainlets and dogmoid philosophycels that populate this board. Keep reading your gayzone, fags.
How to stay irrelevant
>Purity spiralingPurity spiraling involves creating a moral hierarchy in one's mind and placing oneself at the top. It becomes a problem when 'one's opinion' is thought to be the defining quality that supercedes all others. It's miserable and ghey and brings out the most toxic manipulators who nonetheless honestly believe their own bullshit. R/communism and leftypol are clear examples of this.
By arguing with eachother over who's the better person because of (checks notes) opinions about (checks notes) 30+ year old history and far away conflicts [or more comically, calling virtually all of the left 'outright fascists'], we'll stay in a purity spiral and never impact history.
>Long live leftychan
Hi! Will I fit in here? I'm done with leftypol's moderation shittery. They literally ban anti-(US)democrat posts by now. They have become the cancer that must be removed from the communist movement and I'm ready to participate in this necessary surgery.
Leftypol is a shithole and so are 95 % of the users. Perfect example imo, is this, and the Israel vs Palestine shit, even though that is a bit different. I don't give a damn about this conflict or any conflict, or supporting the people of Ukraine, my first and foremost goal is the revolution, the destruction of capitalism. Also from what I've read there and in the Ukraine thread, their proposed anti-imperialism is just whining about US imperialism, while supporting Russia and China (both capitalist states), this is in fact entirely pro-capitalist.
Memetic pandemic
There is a global fascist conspiracy involving Russia, the U.S. Republican party, and many other players, such as Musk that is engaging in a "memetic engineering" project in an attempt to take over the world by monopolizing the most stupid, hateful minds on the internet, uniting all the most gullible dumbfucks under a single fascist flag.This image provides key evidence and only the evidence.
Oc thread
Post all your oc. I did some, I did a bit.
On the end of capitalism
In How the World Works, Paul Cockshott argues that the global decline in birth/fertility rates and resulting stagnation of economic growth will create an existential crisis for capitalism in the 21st century. A crisis of profitability where investment will only be enough to compensate for depreciation and the cheapening of capital stock in the economy, but not to create more value and therefore capitalism will enter a terminal stage. Anyways, do you think capitalism can come to an end this way? How do you think it can? Will capitalism make it past this century? Discuss.
A gift of Defiance for the Capitalists this Christmas day
It is time now comrades. Atlantic Oceans temperatures reach 98, Canadian wildfires continue to burn, and toxic algae continues to grow along the Californian coast. Why take drastic measures I ask? Well the answer is simple. You probably have family members, friends, or children who you would protect at all costs right? The reality is,that when the temperature rises, millions of animals are at risk, and billions of humans are going to die, which will not exclude those loved ones and family members of yours. You may be thinking, "how do we create a organized leftists environmental movement." To do this, we must get rid of all capitalist apologia that is common throughout liberal environmentalist circles. No laws that exist under bourgeois society are going to divert corporate interests in oil. It comes down to who controls the mode of production, and right now, it is the bourgeoisie. If the means of production were given to the workers democratically, oil would be the last energy source that would be invested in.We call upon environmentalists and leftists to join us under the Socialist Environmental Coalition Front, where we will focus on direct AND lesser forms of direct action under a socialist agenda of abolishing capitalism, private property, and eliminating the capitalist mode of production. Starting Christmas day, we will bring back the older traditions of Christmas, by making it a holiday based off antagonizing the bourgeoisie and effecting their profits. This was common practice in the earlier 1900s in NYC, and I think it can be brought back under a cause of fighting humanity's possible detrimental mass extinction. We need comrades like you to do your work though, and spread this all across the web, make sure people are in on it, so that once we strike, it can be overwhelming enough to bring others in, and to destroy more of the security of capitalists and their profit machines.
The Socialist Environmental Coalition Front will be a movement making sure any forms of capitalism are less accepted in the environmentalist struggle. We allow any forms of socialists, anarchists, and communists alike to join us, since we believe the coalition of left wing powers. We also believe that the environmental struggle AND proletarian class struggle are interconnected. Join us Christmas day, and let it extend past that! Spread your propaganda, your memes, or just these exact words to get this movement out there. We need to establish an environmental, left wing, proletarian movement.
Frente Obrero ("Worker's Front") just got 46.000 votes in the spanish elections
They're so-called patriotic revolutionaries who oppose mass immigration and are against gender ideology, pro-small businesses, pro-rent control and wanna pull out of NATO and EU
I'm thinking based
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workers'_Front_(Spain)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLYwoMRXctfgOFMZYNhbpRA
Radical environmentalism
Are there any radical environmentalist anti capitalist forums, threads, or private chats you know of?
Recent riots in France
Now that the dust has settled, we can conduct an analysis of this confrontation as a struggle involving various parasitic and degenerating elements of France. Individuals of Arab or African descent with the class interests of benefitting from the exploitation of the third world, left their imperialized nations to become part of the privileged labor aristocracy in the imperial core. They intended to benefit from the welfare state's remarkable social-fascist agreement working on neocolonialism, but now ironically find themselves in an untoward predicament, following the gradual proletarianization of this labor aristocracy due to the imperialist's setbacks across Syria, Mali, etc.The emergence of this amalgamated fusion of lumpen and downwardly-mobile labor aristocracy has propelled them to the utmost of extremes, with their ambition being the destruction of imperialist France, because they aren't able to reap the promised rewards due to the setbacks rendering this social pact unsustainable. These "lumpen-aristocrats" are determined to dismantle all the institutions emblematic of this state, such as hospitals and police stations, and harbor a desire to harm the despised people of this nation. Therefore, it appears relevant to cite the teachings of Marx:
>The lumpenproletariat, this scum of the decaying elements of all classes, which establishes headquarters in all the big cities, is the worst of all possible allies. It is an absolutely venal, an absolutely brazen crew. If the French workers, in the course of the Revolution, inscribed on the houses: Mort aux voleurs! (Death to the thieves!) and even shot down many, they did it, not out of enthusiasm for property, but because they rightly considered it necessary to hold that band at arm’s length. Every leader of the workers who utilises these gutter-proletarians as guards or supports, proves himself by this action alone a traitor to the movement.
These riots obviously didn't hold any revolutionary character, as opposed to the claims made by the Trotskyite and socdem factions LFI, NPA, etc. However, I do perceive a possible opportunity for an authentic revolutionary movement somewhere down the line. Our paramount task should be to reveal the underlying cause of France's fragmentation. This situation demonstrated the absurd character of cosmopolitanism and imperialism, born out of capitalism, resulting in pervasive disorder within the exploited nations. It is contributing to the gradual complete dismantling of national identities within a borderless liberal world order, embodying what Marx described as "cosmopolitan exploitation disguised as universal brotherhood". This would give rise to a world where man is simultaneously everywhere and nowhere, devoid of any nations.
recession as classwar
Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson are arguing that inflation is mainly caused by rent-seeking capital doing asset inflation. They are doing an economic policy that will cause a recession, and are doing this on purpose, a bad economy will increase unemployment, and that will harm the economic interests of workers.So are recessions a type of class-war by capitalists against workers ?
If they do this, aren't they screwing them selves too?
In the present by letting China overtake the US economically even faster
And in the future through labor-supply shortages because recessions drive down labor birthrates.
https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=ZhZbB0jjDTM
batterylaw and resources
So the EU will require that all battery operated gadgets need to have user-replaceable batteries by 2027. It's kinda sad that these days this is reason to congratulate law-makers for consumer-friendly and eco-friendly rules, since it used to be universal praxis that batteries and other wear-parts were replaceable not that long ago.However there is another more interesting part about this, this is the beginning of what is called "circular economy" which is a horribly vague marketing name for a push towards aggressive resource recovery from waste-streams.
That means potentially the beginning of the end for the natural monopoly on resources, given the abundance of waste that has accumulated in the last 200 years. Resources might loose their monopoly-rent and prices might begin leaning towards the cost of production (labor + machine capital). Mass resource recovery from recycling will in the beginning be more expensive then mining but it will cap how much monopoly rent can be extracted from resources, and eventually as productivity enhancement from automation start coming through, the monopoly rents should get squeezed out entirely. At least this should be the case in resource-poor places.
I wonder what the wider economic effects will be ?
Is this unwarranted optimism ?
Opinions on the Unabomber and specially his manifesto
Jobs Thread
ITT: We help each other in our dystopian quest to sell our worthiness as a good candidate to be exploited in this hellscape societyTips, Career Advice what not
I'm thinking Was Lenin the last great Aryan king?
Considering he's buried in a Ziqqurat (stone kurgan)
Employment
I'm a trans girl, who lives in NL, which is generally considered gay friendly country. I'm not a dutch speaker, but everyone here speaks English, especially in IT. And still I can't get any employment. I don't have a BSc degree, but, AFAIK, BSc is not required for machine learning and I get rejected even from McDonalds type jobs. I also have schizotypal disorder. So I have to conclude I'm getting discriminated by employers due to my gender and mental issues. Why there is no affirmative action for trans girls? Black people at least can get employment inside of Black community, but there is no trans ghetto. Further more, I got kicked out of local LGBT spaces, like COC, due to refusing to accept and support children from AMAB life (cuz they make me dysphoric, and it is not my fault I had no puberty blockers and they got born) and threatening ministry of healthy with terrorism to get my HRT meds (NL has aggressive HRT gatekeeping policies). Other trans believe I'm dangerous and give them bad rep, so they refuse to help me getting employed. Yet the fact I have no mean to earn money doesn't get me less dangerous. I'm vegan, but if I can't afford to buy bread, I could relax my diet to include human meat.What should I do?
News 7/6/23
Strike by 1,400 National Steel Car workers in Canada continues as strikers report health benefit cut-offThe strike by 1,400 National Steel Car workers in Hamilton, Ontario, enters its sixth day Tuesday. The workers, who manufacture rail cars for some of the largest Class I railroads, are fighting for wage increases above inflation, the abolition of multi-tier pay and pensions, and an end to dangerous working conditions in the plant. They confront one of the most ruthless employers in Canada, which has presided over the deaths of three workers on the job in as many years and a union bureaucracy in the United Steelworkers (USW) that has refused to lead any genuine struggle against the company.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/07/04/dour-j04.html
Pride Parade in Venezuela: The Struggle for LGBTQI+ Rights
The event made headlines for the number of people that brought together, mostly youth, surpassing last year’s march which had around 20,000 attendees. The large rally was likewise accompanied by grassroots feminist collectives as well as human rights and workers’ rights organizations. “In Venezuela, women and dissidents [LGBTQI+ people] are raising their voices to demand that the secular state does not allocate [more] resources to churches that promote hatred and intolerance,” the CCURA trade union movement wrote on Twitter. In recent months, some 2,000 churches have been remodeled as part of a governmental plan to restore religious sites, drawing criticism from feminist, LGBTQI+ and leftist circles.
https://venezuelanalysis.com/images/15799
Peruvian Prosecutor Requests Seizure of Pedro Castillo's Assets
On Thursday, State Attorney General Daniel Soria asked the Supreme Court of Justice of Peru to seize the movable and immovable property belonging to former President Pedro Castillo and former Prime Minister Anibal Torres. Among the Castillo's real estate to be seized are three rural properties in Chota and a house in the Tacabamba district.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Peruvian-Prosecutor-Requests-Seizure-of-Pedro-Castillos-Assets-20230706-0014.html
Protesters gatecrash Starmer's education speech, accusing leader of backpedalling on green pledges
PROTESTERS gatecrashed Sir Keir Starmer’s mission speech on education earlier today to criticise his U-turning on green policy. Two young activists unfurled a banner and heckled the Labour leader for watering down his previous commitment to spend £28 billion on a green prosperity plan. One asked him: “Which side is the Labour Party on?” to which he replied: “We are on the side of economic growth.”
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/stop-making-u-turns
Sweden jails Kurd for financing terrorism after Turkey calls for crackdown
It is the first time Sweden's updated terror laws have been used in a case involving the Kurdish militant PKK. Turkey has long called on Stockholm to crack down on Kurdish separatists. Sweden's bid to join Nato has been delayed principally by Turkey's demand that it extradites dozens of people it views as terrorists.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66119743
Israel strikes targets in Lebanon after rocket fire from border
The Israeli army launched more than 15 artillery shells toward Lebanese territory on Thursday in response to two rockets fired from inside Lebanon toward northern Israel, state media outlets reported. The Lebanese National News Agency reported early on Thursday that one rocket was fired from the locality of Bastra, between Kfarchouba and el-Mari in the south toward Israel. According to security sources who spoke to Reuters, one rocket fell inside Lebanese territory in the village of Wazzani and the second in Israel close to the disputed village of Ghajar.
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2023/07/israel-strikes-targets-lebanon-after-rocket-fire-border
‘Ethnic cleansing’ continues in West Darfur
The mayor of the West Darfur capital El Geneina, Salih Hassan, who fled to Chad, told Radio Dabanga on Monday that attacks against people in Darfur based on their ethnic identities continues in the state capital. “Gunmen have lists containing names of activists, professionals, merchants, and civil leaders. They are searching for their targets in neighbourhoods to assassinate them,” he said.
https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/ethnic-cleansing-continues-in-west-darfur
6 South African opposition parties to discuss forming alliance to challenge long-ruling ANC
The parties “came to the inescapable conclusion that forming a united opposition pact ahead of the 2024 election offers us the very best chance to unseat the ANC … and form an alternative that will provide a stable new government to rescue South Africa,” John Steenhuisen, leader of the Democratic Alliance, the second biggest party in Parliament after the ANC, said in a televised address. … The alliance talks do not include the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters party, which is the third biggest bloc in Parliament after the ANC and the Democratic Alliance.
https://apnews.com/article/south-africa-election-anc-opposition-cccbb2dbb5a312394627e1083eedeea4
Activists occupy arms company's offices in Sydney and Melbourne on 25th anniversary of the Biak massacre
Memorial ceremonies and political demonstrations were also held in Jakarta, Sorong, Jayapura, London, Delft and in the province of Biak itself. Within Indonesia, people can and have been charged with treason for simply raising the West Papuan flag. Lilli Barto, one of the activists who carried out an occupation of the Thales office in Sydney, said: “We take these actions in solidarity with the people of West Papua, who are risking their liberty and their lives today to bring their story to the world.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/activists-occupy-arms-company-offices-in-sydney-and-melbourne-on-25th-anniversary-of-the-biak-massacre
Earth hit an unofficial record high temperature this week – and stayed there
On Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration distanced itself from the designation, compiled by the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer, which uses satellite data and computer simulations to measure the world’s condition. That metric showed that Earth’s average temperature on Wednesday remained at an unofficial record high, 62.9 degrees Fahrenheit (17.18 degrees Celsius), set the day before.
https://apnews.com/article/global-heat-record-hottest-climate-change-july-483fc8e2a286062773692db1a37efe23
News 7/1/23
France protests: Funeral held for teen shot by police as 1,300 arrested overnightThere had been 2,560 incidents of fire set in public spaces, while 79 members of the security services had been wounded. More than 45,000 officers, backed by light armoured vehicles and elite police units, were deployed across the country. A decree issued on Saturday gave Paris police the right to deploy drones in parts of the suburbs. French interior minister Gerald Darmanin said that the average age of those arrested was 17, while the country's justice minister Eric Dupont-Moretti said 30 percent of the people arrested were under 18.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/france-protests-more-1300-arrested-funeral-teen-shot-police-set-begin
German court rules in favor of Palestinian journalist dismissed by DW over allegations of anti-Semitism
A German court has ruled that the dismissal of Palestinian-Jordanian journalist Farah Maraqa by the German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) in February 2022 on charges of anti-Semitism was “not legally binding.” According to the verdict as quoted by Maraqa in a Twitter post on Wednesday, June 28, “DW misinformed the staff council” about the reasons for her dismissal. However, she mentioned that the final verdict was still awaited.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/06/30/german-court-rules-in-favor-of-palestinian-journalist-dismissed-by-dw-over-allegations-of-anti-semitism/
Biden Administration Poised to Supply Ukraine With Banned Cluster Bombs
The Convention on Cluster Munitions prohibits cluster munitions' use, production, acquisition, transfer, and stockpiling and requires the destruction of stockpiles. The U.S., Ukraine, and Russia are not signatories to the treaty. This week, in a letter obtained by POLITICO, 14 Senate Democrats wrote to Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan that “the humanitarian costs and damage to coalition unity of providing U.S. cluster munitions would outweigh the tactical benefits, and urge the president not to approve such a transfer.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/biden-administration-poised-to-supply-ukraine-with-banned-cluster-bombs
From Argentina to the Rio Grande, wave of teachers’ strikes sweeps Latin America
Teachers have been on strike this month in at least seven provinces in Argentina, including Salta, Santa Cruz, Chubut, Misiones, Jujuy, Buenos Aires Province and the city of Buenos Aires. These have been triggered by the agreement between the union apparatus and the governments to pay raises far below inflation, which is expected to reach 150 percent this year. Teachers are also fighting a massive attack against public education by the Peronist government of Alberto Fernandez, who abandoned promises to spend 6 percent of GDP on education and instead reduced the budget to the lowest level in 11 years.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/06/30/ykaz-j30.html
Police in Jujuy raid home of Indigenous activist Milagro Sala amid mass protests
The warrant to search the property of Sala, the leader of the Tupac Amaru Neighborhood Organization, was issued by Federal Judge Rodolfo Fernández. It was issued as part of an investigation into alleged public disturbances in recent days during the protests rejecting the reforms to the provincial Constitution. The reforms, promoted by conservative Governor Gerardo Morales of the right-wing Radical Civic Union party, have been widely opposed in the province.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/07/01/police-in-jujuy-raid-home-of-indigenous-activist-milagro-sala-amid-mass-protests/
Bahamian Government To Pay Millions Of Dollars To Landowners
Pinder told the Senate that the Phillip Davis administration would immediately pay the money to "scores" of Bahamians and that successive administrations have failed to compensate landowners for decades. "As my colleagues will know and as I have said here, Senator Rahming was the one who brought this up time and time again, the Government owes tens of millions of dollars to Bahamians who had their land taken from them for public use, for public roads and other things for public use, and they have never been compensated for it," Pinder told lawmakers.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Bahamian-Government-To-Pay-Millions-Of-Dollars-To-Landowners-20230630-0016.html
Venezuela: Campesino Organization Welcomes Gov’t Pledges to Support Production
The Venezuelan president did not disclose the credit amounts and other details. He added that an immediate priority is to ensure that 100 percent of campesinos have access to banking services. Alayo expressed that his organization “applauded the decision to democratize access to credit and to banking services.” He likewise praised Maduro’s pledge that the state will purchase larger crop volumes directly from producers.
https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15797
Turkish occupation state deported 390 Syrians in less than a week
The Turkish occupation state continues to exploit the silence of the international community and use the Syrian refugees residing on its territory, in addition to changing the demography of the occupied regions, especially Afrin, with the participation of Gulf associations and organizations, with the aim of separating it from the rest of the other Syrian regions.
https://www.hawarnews.com/en/haber/turkish-occupation-state-deported-390-syrians-in-less-than-a-week-h36927.html
South African president cleared of wrongdoing in scandal over $580,000 in cash stolen from his farm
Gcaleka also said there was no evidence that Ramaphosa was guilty of a conflict of interest regarding any income from the business operations of his Phala Phala game farm in the northern Limpopo province. “The allegation that the president improperly and in violation of the provisions of the executive code exposed him(self) to a risk of a conflict between his constitutional duties and obligations and his private interests arising from his alleged paid work at Phala Phala farm is not substantiated,” Gcaleka said at a news conference.
https://apnews.com/article/south-africa-ramaphosa-cash-scandal-phala-phala-d2f6d8ae4849c0994918ff710ab77b47
#DontStealOurLand, Widespread Protests Break Out, District to State, to National: Bhumi Adhikar Andolan
The call given by the Bhumi Adhikar Andolan (BAA) has essentially sought to mobilise individuals, organisations, and communities to stand up against the exploitation of forests and demand the preservation of the Forest Rights Act. By joining hands and standing in solidarity, the participants hope to send a powerful message that the process of weakening the forests and the Forest Rights Act will not be tolerated.
https://www.newsclick.in/dontstealourland-widespread-protests-break-out-district-state-national-bhumi-adhikar-andolan
Nancy's detransitioning
Nancy is no longer a trans woman, because evil leftist commies rejected herhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6dHCDKzabw
Should we be ashamed?
Are there any good social networks?
Twitter always sucked but used to be diverse. Now it's an enormous right-wing circle-jerkFacebook used to be very vibrant and now it's all just angry memers and old boomers.
Fediverse inherits all the worst features of Twitter, with the added bonus of criminals around you
Third party forums are now led by autistic sociopaths and petty LGBT freaks
Only somewhat decent places are obscure fbi.gov or irc rooms it seems now
if you know any good websites, or fbi.govs, or irc, let everyone know
News 06/20/2023
Turkish drone attack in Tirbespiyê kills three, including co-chair of Qamishlo CantonTurkey bombed the village of Tal Shair (Til Şeîr) ten kilometres northwest of Tirbespiyê in the canton of Qamishlo and simultaneously attacked a car on the road to Beyandor with a drone earlier today. The drone attack killed the co-chair of the self-government in Qamishlo Canton, Yusra Darwish (Yusra Derwêş), her deputy Lîman Şiwêş and the driver, Firat Tûma. Qamishlo Canton Administration Co-chair Gabi Shamoun (Gabî Şemûn) survived the attack with injuries.
https://anfenglishmobile.com/rojava-syria/turkish-drone-attack-in-tirbespiye-kills-three-including-co-chair-of-qamishlo-canton-67896
Knesset member threatens to 'blow up' Palestinian, Israeli orphans' summer camp
On Tuesday, Education Minister Yoav Kisch summoned members of Israeli-Palestinian Bereaved Families for Peace to a hearing on its possible removal from the ministry's list of groups authorized for external education programs. … After Milwidsky spoke, Cohen shouted at the Israeli-Palestinian Bereaved Families for Peace organization, accusing them of honoring the memories of Palestinian terrorists. "Kamel Abu Shaheb was commemorated by this organization. Kamel Abu Shaheb is a terrorist convicted of terrorism. Check that name. You don’t care? Then I will come to your summer camp, I’ll blow up your summer camp and shut you down, God willing."
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2023/06/knesset-member-threatens-blow-palestinian-israeli-orphans-summer-camp
Mexico asks Israel for second time to extradite ex-official accused of torture
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requesting help extraditing Tomas Zeron, head of Mexico's criminal investigation agency between 2014-2016 under the previous administration. Zeron led the heavily criticized investigation into the disappearance of 43 student teachers in southwestern Mexico in 2014 under a government to which Lopez Obrador was opposed. The current Mexican government accuses Zeron of torturing witnesses and tampering with evidence and says he went to Israel to evade a probe into his handling of the investigation.
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexico-asks-israel-second-time-extradite-ex-official-accused-torture-2023-06-20/
Behind bars the farmer threw a harvest of tomatoes in Trujillo
This is the second arrest in less than 72 hours ordered by the attorney general Tarek William Saab against farmers who took the decision to destroy their crops, during the week and went on to record a video denouncing that may not work for lack of fuel. The first of these arrests occurred last Sunday when he was apprehended Ysnet Antonio Rodríguez Mambel, also pointed out by the authorities of destroying his crop of carrots in the sector common People of the state of Mérida.
https://www.laverdad.com/sucesos/214323-tras-las-rejas-el-agricultor-que-boto-una-cosecha-de-tomates-en-trujillo.html
https://translated.turbopages.org/proxy_u/es-en.en.624bcd2a-6491ef62-d794bcc1-74722d776562/https/www.laverdad.com/sucesos/214323-tras-las-rejas-el-agricultor-que-boto-una-cosecha-de-tomates-en-trujillo.html
Pension fund for Colombia’s veterans lost $138M in alleged real estate racket
In a press statement, the CGO said that the losses for military pension fund Cremil amount to more than COP577 billion ($138 million). The bulk of these losses are due to the 2015 transfer of real estate property that used to be part of the military headquarters in the capital Bogota. Cremil transferred the plot on the corner of the 7th Avenue and 100th Street to real estate developers for the construction of the America World Trade Center in 2015.
https://colombiareports.com/pension-fund-for-colombias-veterans-lost-138m-in-alleged-real-estate-racket/
Students and educators in France oppose integration of national service into high schools
Various student/youth groups and educators’ unions denounced the French government’s plan to integrate the General National Service (Service national universel, SNU), a voluntary month-long national service scheme, in high schools in the country. Earlier this week, Secretary of State for Youth Sarah El Haïry and the SNU confirmed plans to start the voluntary national service for high school students by March 2024 by organizing 12-day ‘cohesion camps’ for training during school time.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/06/20/students-and-educators-in-france-oppose-integration-of-national-service-into-high-schools/
Government urged to act as food inflation remains high
THE government must act to get supermarkets to stock essential budget items and make pricing clearer, consumer experts warned today as food inflation remains at its sixth highest level since 2008. Grocery inflation dropped to 16.5 per cent for the four weeks to June 11, down from March’s record 17.5 per cent, according to analysts Kantar. It is currently at its lowest level since last year but is still the sixth highest monthly figure in 15 years.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/government-urged-act-food-inflation-remains-high
Pashtun leader Ali Wazir arrested again by security agencies in Pakistan
Reports suggest that the FIA Cyber Crime Circle Peshawar has started an inquiry against Wazir and another PTM leader, Manzoor Pashteen, for allegedly using defamatory language against state institutions. The agency had summoned the two leaders to appear in its Peshawar office before June 23. Ali Wazir had recently spent 26 months in prison in different sedition cases. He was arrested in December 2020 and released in February 2023. A resident of Wana in South Waziristan, close to the Afghan-Pakistan border, Ali Wazir is the only Marxist to be part of the National Assembly of Pakistan.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/06/20/pashtun-leader-ali-wazir-arrested-again-by-security-agencies-in-pakistan/
WB Panchayat Polls: Opposition Alleges TMC Hooliganism, Many Candidates Forced to Withdraw
Many had braved the terror in the Bhangore of South 24 Parganas district, only to be threatened by the hooligans and forced to withdraw their nominations. In Chopra, to have an opposition-free panchayet, the TMC hooligans had opened fire on a CPI(M) (Communist Party of India (Marxist)) rally, leading to multiple injuries. In the last panchayat election in Birbhum district, TMC had won 93% of seats without any contest. CPI(M) has fielded candidates in over 80% of seats this time. This has resulted in the TMC hooligans, armed from the top to the tee, creating a stir in Bolpur, Labhpur, Nanoor, Illambazar Siuri and Sainthia.
https://www.newsclick.in/wb-panchayat-polls-opposition-alleges-tmc-hooliganism-many-candidates-forced-withdraw
Manipur govt extends suspension of internet till 25 June
The decision by the Manipur government came as the leaders of 10 Opposition parties submitted a signed memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi opposing the demand for separate administration for Manipur. The Opposition parties also urged the Prime Minister for an immediate cessation of firing in the northeastern state, news platform Hindustan Times reported on Tuesday. The 10 Opposition parties to sign the memorandum include major political parties of India like the Congress, AAP (Aam Aadmi Party), AITC (All India Trinamool Congress), NCP (Nationalist Congress Party), CPI(M) (Communist Party of India (Marxist)), Shiv Sena (UBT) among others.
https://www.livemint.com/news/india/manipur-govt-extends-suspension-of-internet-till-25-june-11687269364664.html
https://archive.is/LaPWm
Is homeownership keeping whites from becoming revolutionary. Is white identity politics the real idpol poisoning the left?
GA county Libertarian Party Vice Chair Arrested for 121 counts related to child abuse & incest
Flowery Branch man facing more than 121 counts of sexual exploitation of childrenHALL COUNTY, Ga. - A Flowery Branch man is facing more than 121 counts of sexual exploitation of children after forensic testing was completed on his electronic devices.
The Hall County Sheriff's Office originally arrested 39-year-old Jonathan Malinguaggio in January on child sex abuse charges. At that time, he was accused of sexually abusing a female under the age of 10 between March 18, 2020, and Sept. 13, 2022. Investigators obtained warrants for aggravated child molestation, aggravated sodomy and incest on Dec. 22, 2022, and Malinguaggio turned himself in on Jan. 3, 2023.
Preliminary forensic testing of his cell phone uncovered 20 separate images of child sexual abuse material and he turned himself in again just before noon June 6 and was held without bond on multiple counts of child pornography possession while forensic testing was completed.
The additional 121 charges were filed June 13, according to the sheriff's office.
www.fox5atlanta.com/news/flowery-branch-man-arrested-after-child-porn-allegedly-found-on-phone
https://archive.is/wip/k2aka
fuck wvobbly that fucking snake. anti-vol polemic? I'll show you fucking anti-vol polemic you limp-wristed lib
The Great Leader Mao Zedong
我爱毛泽东!Mao Zedong is the sun of my heart!
Mao Zedong is the sun of the people!
Mao Zedong is the sun of the proletarian!
Mao Zedong is the Greatest Leader of History!
LONG LIVE THE GREAT PROLETARIAN CULTURAL REVOLUTION!
LONG LIVE MAO!
SERVE THE PEOPLE!
From Corbyn to Sanders and all their supporters. Why are "Parliamentary leftists" the biggest utter fucking cucks in human existence who seem to just take knife after knife stabbed into their back, but thank the Neolibs for doing it?
I honestly do not understand it, why don't these people defend themselves? It's honestly fucking insane the stubbornness the Parliamentary left will go to in NOT defending the left and themselves and against the most insulting smears and attacks.
on the incel/female question - why right cyberfeminism is the way to go
the other incel thread got derailed into age of consent shit-flinging, and furthermore i have a larger point so i will make a new thread. overall, i am of the belief that blackpill ideology and the materialist analysis of sex can be reconciled with one another. it is of my opinion that the reason so many incels are traditionalists stems from a fundamental false consciousness that has its origins in the truth of sex not having fully actualizedboth black pill thinking and radical feminist thought share a fundamental kernel of truth: that sex based asymmetries are fundamentally grounded on the ownership of particular reproduction organs. other sexually dimorphic traits of the human species which are not primary sexual characteristics still play a role in job market, but as evinced from the fact that we still have unequal representation in jobs that do not require manually intensive labor, it should be clear that their role is far more minimal. there have also been posited psychological differences between men and women, but while they might have some explanatory power, there is a care that should be made, on how substantial these differences really are, which hasn't been had. my problem with this direction is that it uses a continuous distribution of neurodiversity in order to justify a bipartite categorical structure. furthermore, such an explanatory approach is practically inept, as it either suggests that nothing should be done in asymmetrical sexual standards, or an impossible regression in the material conditions of sex (id est, traditionalism). such a regression is, on one side impossible under hegemonic capitalism, and on the other hand, unlikely with current technologies (viz, automation, proliferation of contraception/protection from STIs, mate finding technologies like tinder, etc). this isn't to mention that a social-material regression would be predicated on women turning back on their material interests, which, without copious propaganda is unlikely. not only that, but many men either prefer to have women that are genuine intellectual and economic equals, or are simps who would rather prioritize the rights of women over their own sexual gratification
not only is standard traditionalism insufficient, but so is socialist approaches. the material conditions which produce asymmetries in sexual relations are mostly invariant to economic distribution strategies. we've had patriarchy since agriculture. technology and the reality of differences in reproductive labour are the ultimate determining factors
like i said, both incels and feminists recognize this. for the former, they note the expensiveness of wombs in comparison to dicks as an argument for why there is this difference in the ratings of attractiveness of the two sexes. on the other side, radical feminists understand that patriarchy is fundamentally grounded on ownership of women's bodies. both agree that the pussy monopoly somehow plays a fundamental role in the structure of society
my issue with feminists is that they place too much faith in their capacity to convince men to be on their side. at the end of the day however, it really does come down to a war of the sexes. men want pussy as social and economic currency. incels understand this intrinsically, since the main result of their incapacity to get laid is the resulting subhumanity/low rank in status that they feel. vagina=power, and men without vaginas are powerless subhumans (women have vaginas, and hence the on first analysis economically incoherent assessment that women live life on "easy mode"). to this extent, SCUM manifesto's inversion of freud is unironically correct. i should note here that while solanas might have intended her thesis to be largely satirical, we see this inversion both in lacan and jung. for the former, the sovereign is the mother, whilst for the latter, man's soul and source of spontaneity is in their anima (i.e. their feminine aspect). in both cases, the feminine is then intrinsically understood, either as a completing element, or the very ideal of completion itself. the problem was seeing the feminine as a mere negation, as opposed to an element which must be sublated for the truth of the male sex to be manifest
(if one is feeling particularly brave, male gender dysphoria could ultimately be grounded in this incompleteness of the male. im not sure how true this really is, but could be plausible. that the man's striving after creativity is contradicted by the womb's innate, effortless creative energy is certainly a contradiction that would cause much vexation)
so this liberal feminist idea that mere protest is sufficient is one that should be treated with skepticism. not only do men materially benefit from the patriarchy, but they in some sense ontologically aided as well. of course, the benefit in the latter case should be qualified which takes us to why incel attraction to traditionalism is fundamentally a false consciousness. a regression is plainly insufficient, and it failure lies in its fundamental ignorance of their real grievances. making women merely subservient to men obstructs man's reflection back into himself as the woman is still another animal which resists introjection. the problem with love (or recognition) is itself twofold:
i) the dialectic of recognition involves the incorporation of the woman qua consciousness into the man
ii) love and subservience are competing intentionalities. marriage, is in the last instance, a mating contract. "romantic love" and its relation to marriage is a prevalent idealist perversion which has its salience vanish when we move to traditional models
i should note that "transmaxxing" is not a serious solution either. and this is for numerous reasons:
i) reverse gender dysphoria is always a possibility
ii) with our current technology we do not have artificial wombs so it is an insufficient solution
iii) even if it was ultimately possible, it would only result in the male subject to transmisogyny since the womb is still attached to their organism
so we see here then that both feminists and incels have a false consciousness. they are attached to means that do not ultimately fulfill their ends. my claim is that fembots (and mayhaps menbots) can ultimately be the final solution to the incel/female question, but first i must diffuse another element in feminist false consciousness. this is centred around the outrage pertaining to sexbots
<Xi Bros…. I don't feel so good
Over the past week or so, major protests have been escalating in China due to the Zero COVID policy. Apparently, Chinese visitors to the world cup were astonished that no one outside of China cares about the coof anymore, and shared their thoughts on WeChat, which has exacerbated existed discontent. Now, protestors in China are calling for the removal of Xi and the CCP. Maybe nothing immediate will come of it, but it does indicate that cracks in the social cohesion and unity in China are developing, and this may have longer term ramifications.
What do you think of freemasons?
They are filled with conspiracy theories all over the net.Interesting thing is how often they've been banned. China banned them, Franco spain banned them, Iran banned them, Nazis banned them, USSR banned them, papal banned them, Cuba banned them, hungary banned them. Goes on and on
What do you make of them?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Masonry
panopticultrue
Is Foucault correct when he says that mass surveillance caused Cancel Culture ?Has people being under constant observation and evaluation brought back puritanism in a new form ?
Do we need to create spaces that can't be observed, in order to generate good quality culture ?
https://web.archive.org/web/20230522174628/https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/article/dinanne-feinstein-resign-difi-ai-18107088.php
What are the political implicit of immortal legislators?
nuclear race
https://odysee.com/@Geopop:4/the-nuclear-energy-race-oliver-stone:5Is Oliver stone correct about the new race for nuclear energy being led by China, India and Russia.
Is the west going to miss the boat ?
Race is a Charade
Racial identity categories have no biological merit, so the thread-subject line is objectively correct.The hard materialist line isabolishing race identities as false consciousness in favor of class unity.
Is this politically doable ? Could this gain traction among the masses ?
https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=vm4WMd5qJgM
cybermonachy ?
Here's a video from The Grayzone about:<the USAID's DC rollout of the dystopian Diia "state in a smartphone".
It seems as if Ukraine might be something like a test laboratory for this kind of stuff.
https://invidious.baczek.me/watch?v=GLulMeO3yA0
Another name for this is the "4th industrial revolution" How this is related to industrialism or why they counted to N°4 already that escapes me. In my mind the industrial revolution started with the steam-engine, the lathe, the printing press, the telegram, chemical fertilizers, … It keeps going and improving until the 70s when neoliberalism begins the ongoing process of de-industrialization.
Cockshot might have called it the Monarchist Revanche
https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=DOGCi1hMRHs
hence the thread title.
I think that what's going on is the digitization of bureaucracy. I think that the neo-liberals are indeed intending to this to become a total control mechanism, that keeps everyone on a leash, a bit like what absolute monarchies were striving towards.
I do not think that this will kill off cash for example. Governments might abandon cash in the form that you can pay taxes with it, or that you can convert your bank-account money into it without extra steps, but that won't stop people from minting coins or paper-notes. Meat-space is still available and that won't ever change. I also think that this will not stop money laundering or tax evasion, because in the last 200 years the state apparatus always had the ability to crush the mafia, it just doesn't want to. (Relatively weak socialist states with nothing but paper-forms and couriers were able to get rid of the mafia.)
Some people might be tempted to draw a false parallel to Cybernetic-Socialism that also would eventually abandon money. Cybersoc will be able to do that because the digital-labor-time-tokens will be better than money, you'll get more for your labour-time-tokens and those don't carry a risk of having inflation because it's an objective measurement of time. What the Neo-liberals seem to be creating is the opposite of that, they want to use this to hold people down and keep them poor, in that case it will be easy to restore cash money because if people get more for that the masses will shift their behavior towards the better rewards.
I'm wondering to what extend this is related to the Chinese system with those social credits. Given the amount off seething from the Neo-liberals in the corporate press, one is led to believe that those social credits must be something good that benefits common people. I always wondered if that's some kind of alternative to money, something you can collect and then it opens doors that previously could only be unlocked via money. Something that bypasses the wealth-privilege-enforcement structures of the super wealthy, at least that would explain why that stuff was attacked so much in the corporate media. I also don't buy the official propaganda narrative about China, i think that their digital stuff had to bring people tangible material gains or else Chinese people wouldn't have adopted it.
I think that in the west the acceptance for this kind of stuff is low, trust in institutions is low, trust in technology in general is low too ,and the neo-liberals probably don't have the political capital anymore to ram this through. It's also questionable if their Ukraine laboratory test will go through, this might not survive the Ukraine war, since the Russians appear to have begun thinking about regime change.
Anybody in the know about this stuff ?
Atlanta City Council - Stop Cop City
https://tv.leftypol.org/r/HappeningsviaKlashThis is the city council public comment part of the cop city bullshit.
IDPOL: A Meta Discussion
aka /leftypol/: An Exploration into the Causes and Effects of Identity Politics.Let's get to the bottom of identity politics, bane of the radical left and blockade to normie socialism.
ITT post about idpol and anti-idpol.
Post literature, effortposts, infographics, etc.
Post about what idpol is, the history of idpol, idpol today, the problems with it, and how to deal with it.
The point of this thread is to develop our discourse on the topic. Currently the meaning of idpol and many people's understanding of it is extremely nebulous. This is a problem for us in addressing it in general. It is a problem for the mods appropriately moderating it. It's a problem for users knowing what posts are good. Most importantly it's an obstacle to people knowing what kind of theory is sensible and based versus what is idpozzed and cringe. Most of us will agree that idpol is a problem the left deals with to some degree more or less online or in real life. It is both an inferior understanding of politics and a way of baiting people. What we sometimes don't agree on is what idpol is and how it works. That's what this thread is for: fleshing out our discourse so that we can better combat liberalism (and other right wing politics) and promote communism.
On hate
What do you anons think about the concept of "hate"? How do you conceptualize it? Is it in the form of racism, or what? Is it in the form of canards?I would like to see your responses to a very hot subject over the past few years.
Russian Thread
Please come back Rusanon Comrades! Save us from the polyp and lolbert raids.Я вас категорически приветствую.
- A westoid who misses you.
socialism as a process
When the capitalist mode of production was beginning to emerge out off late stage feudalism it did so very incrementally but unrelentingly so. The feudal ruling class noticed what was happening and they fought the rise of the bourgeoisie tooth and nail from the very beginning. The power struggle was furious and without restraint of any kind, the barbarity and cruelty was boundless. But to no avail, even in the nascent stages the capitalist system could drain energy and resources from the feudal system, and it could feed off attacks from the feudal ruling class. The more the feudal aristocracy attacked the bourgeoisie the stronger capitalism became. Also the bourgeoisie won the battle of economics before they engaged in political struggles to re-arrange the state for their needs.I think that socialists have to conceptualized socialism as a similar process that consumes the precursor system.
- It has to be able to be bootstrapped in extremely hostile conditions, and then grow incrementally from small beginnings.
- It has to drain energy from the system it is supposed to replace.
- It has to be able to feed off the attacks from the precursor system and gain strength from it.
- It has to be able to take over economic structures even before it engages in political struggles to re-arrange the state. (obviously this is for conditions where it's not possible to take over the state, opportunities for socialists to take over the state do sometimes arise during capitalist crisis but it's not something we should hinge our strategy on)
IMHO what socialists of all stripes tend to get wrong is how to deal with the attacks that the bourgeoisie throws against the emergence of socialism. When the bourgeoisie attacks the socialists usually resist and play defense. And the best case scenario is that the attack is deflected and no damage is done. The cause for socialism can only advance in between attacks. If the bourgeoisie attacks without pause the emergence of socialism stalls. The possibility of harvesting the attack as source of energy usually isn't even considered.
- What is the smallest "socialist economic circuit" that we can start with and then have it grow incrementally ?
- How do we make it the relentless machine that consumes everything that dares to oppose it ?
- What can the capitalists do to attack and how can all those attack vectors be harvested as fuel to power the rise of socialism?
Origins of debt
Hudson gives a history of debt and he points out that it used to be standard procedure to periodically cancel the debts. He says that the current western economic practice is an aberration for not doing this.I wonder if a debt-jubilee is a potential political issue that could galvanize the masses. How vulnerable would that be to woke-blocking ?
https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=Hqe3IQQo_t4
Doug Lain: /ourguy/
how can doug lain be so based? Pisses off grifters and anarkiddies by just speaking straight up facts. It's hilarious how he got cancelled for defending Dave chapelle against the troons.Considering that Batko is compromised (for ~2.5 years now) we have a vacuum in the "face of leftypol" department. This guy is our best candidate.
News 5/24/23
Cambodian land activists arrested for allegedly inciting farmers to hate the richIN A chilling “message of intimidation,” Cambodian authorities on Tuesday arrested three land rights activists on charges of plotting against the government and planning to provoke a peasant revolution. The activists have been accused of teaching farmers about class divisions between rich and poor, an official said on Tuesday. Theng Savoeun, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Farmer Community, and his colleagues Nhel Pheap and Than Hach were charged on Monday by a court in the country’s north-east with plotting against the state and incitement to commit a felony, said Am Sam Ath of the local rights group Licadho.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/cambodian-land-activists-arrested-allegedly-inciting-farmers-hate-rich
Scrutiny of Indian Tycoons Deals a Blow to Modi’s Privatization Drive
Apart from the sale of IDBI Bank, which is already underway, progress has slowed for other companies, a person familiar with the privatization push said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private. India’s national elections next year could further stall sales, the person said, especially for companies facing legal or labor issues. Market watchers are now skeptical that the government will prioritize privatization during the campaign season.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-23/scrutiny-of-indian-tycoons-deals-a-blow-to-modi-s-privatization-drive
https://archive.is/Dxxqu
German police conduct raids on climate activists as impatience mounts
Authorities raided 15 properties across Germany on Wednesday and seized assets in an investigation into the financing of protests by the Last Generation climate activist group, prosecutors said — a move that comes as impatience with the organization’s tactics mounts. Munich prosecutors said they were investigating seven people, ranging in age from 22 to 38, on suspicion of forming or supporting a criminal organization. They launched the inquiry following numerous criminal complaints from the public that they received since mid-2022.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/german-police-conduct-raids-climate-activists-impatience-mounts-rcna85950
Unite members vote overwhelmingly to keep political fund
The fund, accumulated through subscription in the membership, is used for political campaigning and lobbying beyond the union’s industrial work, such as Unite for a Workers’ Economy, as well as backing political candidates aligned with the its aims and objectives. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham told members: “I am very pleased to advise that following a powerful and effective campaign, Unite members have voted by 91 per cent to keep Unite’s political fund.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/unite-vote-to-keep-political-fund
Deutsche, Citi admit anti-competitive bond market activity in UK probe
Deutsche Bank and Citigroup admitted anti-competitive activity by exchanging sensitive information on UK government bonds between 2009 and 2013, Britain's anti-trust watchdog said, as it provisionally found five banks in breach of competition rules.
https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/hsbc-citi-deutsche-bank-morgan-stanley-rbc-traders-broke-competition-law-2023-05-24/
Health reform bill in Colombia advances with approval in House Commission
On Tuesday, May 23, the Seventh Commission of the House of Representatives of the Colombian Congress approved the health reform bill proposed by the government of President Gustavo Petro and Vice-President Francia Márquez. The reform bill received 14 votes in favor and six against in the debate which is the first stage in the parliamentary process. During over 8 hours of debate, the members of the commission incorporated 14 new articles and eliminated nine proposed articles. The representatives approved a series of new articles with proposals related to topics such as capitation payments, identification of human talent in health, among others.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/05/24/health-reform-bill-in-colombia-advances-with-approval-in-house-commission/
PFLP Leaders Ahmed Sa’adat, Ahed Abu Gholami, and Walid Hanatsheh Released From Solitary Confinement
In a statement, the Center announced that as a result of yielding to the pressure exerted by imprisoned members of the Marxist-Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in Israeli occupation prisons over the past few days and their threat to wage a wide battle inside the prisons, the IPA proceeded to end the isolation of PFLP Secretary-General Ahmed Sa’adat and return him to “Ramon” prison.
https://www.redspark.nu/en/national-liberation-struggle/pflp-leaders-ahmed-saadat-ahed-abu-gholami-and-walid-hanatsheh-released-from-solitary-confinement/
YBŞ: Turkish attack in Shengal is a continuation of Yazidi genocide
The Shengal Resistance Units (YBŞ) released a statement on the Turkish drone attack that targeted a guesthouse of the YBŞ on Tuesday. According to the statement, Said Êşur from Khanasor was killed in the attack, which also left a guest injured. “This attack reveals the goal of the invading Turkish state. It is not the first attack directed against the Yazidi people. It is a continuation of the Yazidi genocide.”
https://anfenglishmobile.com/kurdistan/ybS-turkish-attack-in-shengal-is-a-continuation-of-yazidi-genocide-67358
Turkey elections: Cracks emerge in opposition over Kilicdaroglu's anti-refugee policy
Several members within Kilicdaroglu's opposition alliance have resigned after the 74-year-old, a nominally centre left politician, renewed his pledge to expel all refugees if elected president as he attempts to win support from nationalist voters. The presidential hopeful has repeatedly accused the government of incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of allowing "10 million" refugees into the country, sharply inflating official estimates of Turkey's refugee population.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/turkey-elections-kilicdaroglu-refugees-cracks-opposition
CEO of biggest carbon credit certifier to resign after claims offsets worthless
It comes amid concerns that Verra, a Washington-based nonprofit, approved tens of millions of worthless offsets that are used by major companies for climate and biodiversity commitments, according to a joint Guardian investigation earlier this year. In a statement on LinkedIn on Monday, Verra’s CEO, David Antonioli, said he would leave his role after 15 years leading the organisation that dominates the $2bn voluntary carbon market, which has certified more than 1bn credits through its verified carbon standard (VCS).
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/23/ceo-of-worlds-biggest-carbon-credit-provider-says-he-is-resigning
AI predictions thread
This is less about the technical aspects and more about the civilization consequences.You can comment on what i wrote , but feel free to ignore my takes and make your own predictions
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I think AI development will have three phases:
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1 <The first phase
is already completed, it started in the 80s until recently and it basically was a niche application of brute force statistical analysis of large-ish data-sets in very technical industries. Only very few people were using that.
2 <The second phase
began recently with more broadly accessible text and image generators that put out original new text and images based on statistical patterns it derived from analyzing very large data-sets. This type of AI is characterized by being "a brain in a vat" that only interprets signals that humans give it. This is the reason it has a tendency to hallucinate facts or generated distorted images.
3 <The third phase
begins when the AIs gets their own sense perception that allows it to learn from the material world directly without human brain intermediaries. This is also a hard requirement to make them reliable machines. This is more than just plugging sensors like cameras and microphones into a computer, there will be a huge technical challenge in computer hardware and software. If you are clamoring for society to move on from the stale postmodern philosophical malaise, this might be your jam.
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Predictions :
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1 <Phase one
tech enabled a lot of industrial optimization and it generated online search results. It also powered High-Frequency-stock-trading. However it also made advertisement really creepy, and made social media a super combative place because that brought more user engagement.
2 <Phase two
tech will have a greater impact on society. Artist will get proletarianized, in the most literal sense, they'll stop making art by hand and start operating machines, replicating what happened to manual labor a 100 years ago. It will likely also impact information workers, corporate middle management roles will probably shrink a lot. AI will also begin taking on some of the tasks of teachers. The upside is that every student could get their own tutor, but letting machines raise Children will have downsides as well.
AI will be ruthlessly attacked in the legal arena, because legacy capital still holds much sway over governments and they want to use the legislator and judiciary to defend their privileged status, that's why AI-lawyers will become such a big business, and human lawyers will probably be downgraded to the position of a legal-aid that interfaces the tech with the courtrooms. This will also be used for higher order decision making in automated High-Frequency-stock-trading. What's left of the archetypal 90s and 2000s cocaine snorting stock-exchange-bros will disappear.
There are upsides too, it will be easy to make content for open source video games and it will have other opportunities for community oriented tech, like you could make an AI-helper-documentation that helps you to configure your gnu plus linux. The corporate-tech however will likely have very negative impact on human psychology. If you stick with open-source Ai that can be fully controlled by the user, you'll probably be fine tho. This is a tiny dark age but it'll have an opt out if you are able and willing to put in the effort to set up your own tech.
3 <Phase three
will be driven by making it super cheap to train and super-reliable, because it learns from data generated by measurement instruments which will be less labor intensive and more objective. This will enable the creation of true AI scientists and become THE "killer-app". It will change society in a very fundamental way, the same way the scientific revolution changed society in the 18, 19 and 20th century. The influence of realism oriented machine minds will sweep away a lot of superstitions and deceptions we currently believe. If this happens in the context of a class society, A new ruling class will use it to sweep away the incumbent ruling class. It will be technology disrupting the myths that justify surplus extraction like the industrial bourgeoisie used machine capital to sweep away the feudal aristocracy and their religious surplus extraction justification myths. So turbulent times ahead, but this might be the ticket for biological modification of human minds and bodies without risking it degenerating into a type of eugenics that seeks to erase certain people. At least there is the possibility for that because the machine minds tasked to shape biology could at least in theory be made transparent enough to rule out ill intentions.
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Geopolitical trends:
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The US won the phase 1 contest in all disciplines in a veritable tour de force, with the EU and China sharing a distant 3rd place.
China will win the the AI phase 2 contest for the big "multitool AI" that aims to do a little bit of everything. Simply because they are the largest systemically coherent technologically advanced "civilizational unit". They can support more data centers and they'll have more people inputting data, all in a consistent civilizational framework.
Phase 2 will also have a contest for smaller purpose-specific AI's and that will be an open competition without any forgone conclusions. That will definitely favor an open source model because that enables more dynamism in development than any proprietary stuff. So what ever geopolitical block manages to fund the most open source projects will win this.
Phase 3 tech will have the most difficult birth in the context of capitalism, especially if Michal Hudson is correct about the techno-phobic tendencies in "neoliberal finance feudalism". You can already hear the rumblings similarly to the horse carriage producers trying to ban the motor car, or music-distributors trying to ban the internet. Some countries with entrenched interest groups could manage to suffocate this stage of the tech to hold on to power, which could lead to regional tech-stagnation and dramatic geographic technological differentials. The last time that was the case in the 18 and 19 century and the subsequent technology-equalization was "extremely unpleasant" to put it mildly.
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How to be safe:
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As the social consequences of these developments will become more apparent, the discourse about ethical technology will grow louder. But don't be fooled by that, the technology you can control will benefit you, while the technology that you can't control will make you suffer. There is no substitution for Maximized User Control. By the time well intention institutions can protect you, the damage will already be done. And many predators will try to fool you into thinking they want to protect you, they're the ones that will try to take away user control or harm free software efforts to create AI. Keep in mind that the free-software sphere is so far the only place where actually existing ethical software has been reliably produced.
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Class dynamics
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Phase 1 in the capitalist context led to precarious gig-work.
The capitalist class wants to use this to raise un-employment and force wages down, but they're out of luck, Phase 2 Ai is not reliable enough, it needs humans to shepherd it. Tho, many labor aristocracy positions will become proletarianized.
Phase 3 tech will be easier to implement for Socialists, because there is less ideological friction with scientific realism or political friction from ruling class infighting. Within a capitalist context Phase 3 will likely benefit medium sized capitalist more than large ones, because data from sensory input has diminishing returns with scale, because beyond a certain scale it's just going to be duplicated data.
Sorry for wall of text, i was in a verbose mood