Welcome again to everybody! Make yourself at home <3 In the time honoured tradition of our group, here is our weekly discussion thread!
I promise I’ll work on Element soon
We are excited to announce a new discord server for Trans Communists. Check it out!
uwu
deleted by creator
I actually really like these. Thanks for making these!
The one for /c/movies could be simplified a bit, but these are quite good. Did you draw, or did you use existing icons? There are many permissively licensed icon sets we could use with symbols for pretty much any type of community
deleted by creator
There are icon packs that are either public domain or very permissively licensed (e.g. you just have to credit the author, which we could do in the community description). This is a very popular one, and the license (CC BY 4.0) only requires attribution, so you don’t have to include the full license text (which probably wouldn’t fit)
I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with twitter, but it seems to be taking a similar turn to Reddit earlier this year.
Accounts that I follow are regularly bombarded by lib/fascist( and even patsoc) freaks. It’s depressing.
Specifically, I’ve noticed Ben Norton being targeted. I’m even wondering if he should make his account private for a while or abandon twitter temporarily.
Patsocs have started digging up his deleted tweets from like 2014. Any reasonable person is going to have totally different opinions as time progresses. Plus the fact that he deleted them means he no longer believes that. Total idiocy.
Life is… not good
I won’t be seeing you guys for a while, if I’m back at all.
I won’t forget you, my friends and comrades. May we meet when That Day comes.
fuck, I hope things get better
Take care comrade. Sucks to see you go and I hope you will be fine
Wishing you the best, please take care of yourself
Sorry to hear this. I hope things improve for you.
What’s happening?
Nooooo please be safe!!
Hello I hope you all have a nice week :D
thank you
A Dutch investigative journalist is now coming forward because she got her hands on a report made on her by the Dutch Intelligence Agency, marking her as a threat. She investigated right wing orgs and was often critical of current society.
In the article other people came forward how they were contacted by agencies to write anti-Soviet/Russian and pro-US news. You often think it’s sort of meme-y to see ghosts everywhere but it’s fucking real, not only in the US. These people get paid for writing this propaganda. Disgusting again.
Been playing this idle type game on android called Idle Civilisation. It’s made by someone in Russia and idk if they’re a Marxist but you can tell dialectical materialism is all over this game. You evolve from a prehistorical tribe of homo sapiens all the way to space communism, or anything in-between. There’s classes
It’s actually helped me refine my understanding of some concepts just by playing it and then unlocking achievements. When you achieve something the game gives you a text about the real-life equivalent. Following the game, the reason Marx’s prediction didn’t come true about a socialist revolution in Western Europe is because capitalists were too entrenched to overthrow at this stage. Whereas in Russia and China, capitalists lived alongside and were subordinate to the feudal system, which allowed the growing proletariat class to successfully overthrow the state.
Only drawback really is that the game is an idle game and there’s not much depth to those, but you do have to take the right decisions if you want to follow a certain path and unlock achievements.
sounds nice, too bad I only have a computer
Thanks for this information, gonna check it out, I love idle games for my neurodivergent brain.
Any other suggestions?
Edit Opening the game discussing class systems and means of production, damn lol
2nd edit Quoting Engels
Re-posting from the old thread:
So apparently the White House speaker proclaimed that republicans in USA are fascists. Not that it would surprise anyone here, but I doubt such open rhetoric is being used for no reason. Is US establishment preparing to go full mask off, “in the name of democracy”? Any comrades from the yankee land to clarify and/or correct me?
In Illinois, there was a press conference led by some leaders of the state-- governor, representatives, senators etc. The ideological war is being viewed more as a war by a lot of democrats esp. on the lower level. In this press conference, you could damn near feel like billionaire Pritzker was about to go full tankie mode and call for re-education facilities to be built, I mean it was wild. It’s become difficult to parse the reasoning for this, as democrat rhetoric, especially among the state level (as opposed to the federal) leaders, is becoming more and more fiery. They said the Supreme Court was undemocratic and “run by right-wing extremists”, that Illinois would protect the right to abortion by “any means necessary”, that the Republican party is overrun with women-hating white supremacists. It’s nuts.
Two possibilities I see:
- democratic leadership has a better grip on the pulse of the Amerikan psyche than they have previously and understand now that most Amerikans are against fascism. They’re only using this rhetoric opportunistically to get more votes and still don’t have any actual plans to defend women’s rights, or do anything besides preserve private property as they always have.
- democratic state leadership is getting younger, more female, blacker, and gayer. More than a couple of the speakers at this event were gay women, and more than a couple were in their 30s rather than the geriatrics that usually hold these conferences. Left-liberal or social democratic “radicals” like the squad are more and more successful at “infiltrating” the democratic party than they have been in the past, and perhaps they really do believe these things and haven’t been consigned to vote and act based on lobbyists’ interests like the squad proper as it’s considerably easier to win state elections than federal ones without corporate funding.
This potential ideological shift from the bottom may also be influencing the rhetoric of those at the top like the White House speaker. Anything correct that comes out of the mouth of someone who represents the federal government, I would immediately consider as almost certainly an oppprtunistic bid against people leaving the democrats in droves once they figure out democratic leadership and republican leadership are on the same side. Biden is saying shit like “the Republicans thought they knew the power of women. (insert state) proved them wrong” whenever a state votes against outlawing abortion. Biden obviously did absolutely fuckall in preventing the overturn of Roe V Wade, and he has a penchant for exerting his own power over women thru sexual assault – he doesn’t believe a word he says, he just knows that embracing feminist talking points will keep him popular with an increasingly more radical democratic base. This is likely true for anyone at the top calling Republicans fascists, I think.
Thank you for the analysis
When liberals talk about fascism, they mean the material base. Once I realized that, I was able to understand so much of the crap they regularly spout. “Fascism” for them is the material, concrete world (especially the world of labor) that moves by its own laws and can’t be reduced to their moralistic bullshit.
Right now, the Democrats have gotten it into their heads that the Republicans are channeling working-class anger (which is only very partially true). So of course, the Republicans are now “fascist.” It’s really as simple as that.
Please elaborate. What do you mean by material base in this context?
Essentially, liberalism is a moralistic ideology. Its prescriptions are all on the level of abstractions, ungrounded in anything real. You see this in seminal liberal thinkers like Locke and Hobbes: they start, not from a consideration of history, but from a hypothetical “free, autonomous individual” existing in a “state of nature.” Liberal society ultimately tries to institutionalize the entire realm of human interaction, so that nothing remains which is not intelligible from the principles of liberalism.
Of course, this is doomed to fail, because liberal ideas and liberal institutions are like finance capital: all spun out of thin air. Reality, history, people, the inner tendencies of economic systems, will all eventually have their say, and it will be against liberalism and capitalism. That’s what I mean by the material base in this context: the concrete as opposed to the abstract. Liberalism is at war with the concrete, and whenever it rears its head (or appears to) they call it fascist. It’s why (for instance) they can call Russia fascist for acting rationally in the Ukraine, and pretend that the Ukrainian government – which is run by, you know, actual committed fascists – is some sort of “true democracy.”
Thank you for the explanation!
People in Belgium are now facing electricity/gas bills of 500-1000 euros a month, or an end bill next year of 3000-4000 euro’s. These are poverty numbers for a majority of people.
But we owned the Russians, I guess. And our corporate overlords made record profits. Yay, poverty.
On top of this, and I kid you not, municipalities will be shutting down street lights because the electricity costs are too high.
People have to sit in the dark because of this
I’m surprised they’re not installing huge hamster wheels connected to generators. Those cold people would soon warm up powering the street lights.
It’s sickening and scary. Absolutely no idea how people are going to make it through this winter.
Ruled by people who can only see the market. And if the market doesn’t provide, it’s our own fault. It’s ideologically impossible for the ruling class to accept the need for – or even to acknowledge – other models of distribution. And this applies to almost every ‘politician’. Even when a government steps in, they do so (inadvertently or explicitly) by asking the market to provide a solution which the state can buy at the ‘best’ price.
The bonus to this is that even the most milquetoast politically active people are starting to get a revolutionary spirit. The important thing for our party is to not let them turn to the far right.
The message of ‘5-10 years of hardships’ from the prime minister awakened something I guess.
You’re right, there.
I’ve found it remarkably easy to bring up our politics recently. Almost everyone I come across is feeling the squeeze in some way. Whether it’s energy, food, general inflation, interest / mortgage rates, house prices, rent, stagnating wages, redundancies. I can’t think of anyone I talk to regularly who isn’t worrying about at least one of these things. And they bring it up!
This time five years ago, or even last year, pre- and "mid-"pandemic (I don’t believe it’s over), I’d struggle to find a common issue to bring up. Seriously struggling to pay the bills was only something that happened to the poorest, the laziest, and to people in other countries (in bourgeois eyes, anyway; we know better). If I spoke then about capitalism, I’d often get rebuffed. Not anymore. Well, not so much anymore.
Although now the challenge is pointing out where the real blame lies (i.e. not Ukraine / Russia, Brexit, this or that party, ‘Chinese’ / ‘Russian’ investment (of course, it’s only ever the Russians and Chinese who would use investments to influence other countries)).
don’t worry, I’m sure all large private manufacturers will limit their production to save electricity and gas for households, even if it decreases their profits
We laugh but companies actually proposed cutting working from home to ‘save us from higher energy costs wink wink’. That’s their solution it seems.
I’m not sure which is worse, this or letting / making employees cover work costs, such as heating, internet, lighting, physical space, furniture, etc. Some places are shutting their buildings for the winter to save on heating. Don’t ask whether they’re passing on those savings to the workers who will be paying instead.
blech
To put this in perspective, a 3k euro salary per year is barely above minimum wage in Latin American countries.
Any good articles on the heat wave in China that aren’t from Western sources?
Edit: my original intent was asking for science articles but I missed a word, so thank you for the responses.
Still at work but here’s a Baidu news search…
There’s a heat wave in China?
Yep, Chinese cities keep breaking heat records this summer. Their heat wave has been going on since July with almost no colder periods. Even at night it could be as hot as 26C in some cities.
Might be NSFW.
I took cider vingear for a bit too long and now I have purplish skin bumps on my stomach, on my left leg, and my arms.
There’s also some small amount of blood that gets on toilet paper when I wipe (softly of course). My poop is still brown, though a lighter color.
It seems like I got lower GI bleeding. I really hope it isn’t serious and that it’ll heal…
Might want to visit a proctologist just in case.
Unfortunately I don’t have money and my mom doesn’t want to send me to another doctor.
I guess this is it…
Hope you survive. Best of luck!
It sucks to have to contend with the idea that I might die in some weeks because I made a mistake; I didn’t even get to do anything political!
U.S Healthcare is shitty too.
I’m sure someone will figure out how to save you.
Probably. At very least there is emergency services. I have a fear of calling them though, probably because of the association of feeling weak.
good luck, friend
There’s also some small amount of blood that gets on toilet paper when I wipe (softly of course).
I don’t know how to tell you that sometimes you can hurt your asshole by shitting and this doesn’t mean you have a hemorrhage but fucked up stools.
“Small amount of blood when I wipe” sounds like an anal fissure. If your asshole hurts, that’s how you know your intestines are fine
Agreed. I feel much better.
Nobody said fucked up digestion was easy. Get yourself some of that cream they put on babies’ butts and wet wipes (or a bidet). It’s a very embarrassing thing to happen but doctors will tell you it happens and you should “drink more water and eat more fiber”.
Time to get ready for another day of work in 45c (113f) weather on the roof of a 6 story building. Absolutely awful conditions. I’m dreading it
Stay hydrated!
That sounds disgustingly hot, especially if it’s humid
fortunately it’s not humid, but it’s still brutal with no shade. 1 more day left
well, at least it’ll be over soon
I promise I’ll work on Element soon
!!! Are you talking about the Element I think you mean?
GenZedong’s nuclear program is going swimmingly…
yep zirconium
I had a funny observation the other day, which I wanted to share, but which doesn’t really require its own thread.
If you take a gander at the loudest anti-Russian (and coincidentally pro-NATO) politicians of late, there’s a bit of a trend: Analena Baerbock, Liz Truss, Tikhanovskaya, that one Latvian lady whose name escapes me. They all look almost exactly the same. Same haircut style, same dress style, etc.
This of course makes sense, given how they all rose to prominence. But at the same time, it’s all so blatantly manufactured, one can only be amazed at the apparent support they enjoy domestically.
I’m not looking forward to living through the coming water wars. Shits gonna be way worse than any oil inspired conflict.
2bn people living with water scarcity already and it’s getting worse every year. I’m a bit exhausted thinking about this.
Been driving my mum around and she’s lamenting the stories about a “list of artists that are deemed undesirable due to opposing the Ukraine war”. The list, mind you, does indeed float around, and does seem to contain artists that spoke out openly against the SMO. But mum called it a “return to 1937”. I’m just baffled by the logic. What did they all expect?
