Welcome again to everybody! Make yourself at home. I can probably write anything here and nobody will notice. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is our weekly discussion thread!
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Banged my toe against a staircase by accident. It is now swollen with a purple bruise. Also waited for the bus for half an hour in a blizzard. The bus was crowded to hell and back, and only had one payment terminal - next to the driver.
And what everyday problems do you encounter that could be solved under socialism?
the everyday problem of having to work a meaningless job to further enrich a few fucks for eight-ish hours a day 👍
Thots and prairs 4 yr toe smdh gone 2 soon 😔🙏✨️💯🥺🦶💥⚱️🪦
Thank you for your kindness
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More for personal reasons (vegetarian, though it does upset my stomach) - the prevalence of gelatin pisses me off to no end. Let me eat my yogurt in peace! Pectin does the same shit, but sometimes they throw gelatin in there for shits and giggles I guess.
Same, why tf do they need gelatin in altoids? The sugar free ones don’t have it, why the sugar ones?
Gelatin is used as a thickening and stabilizing agent. It is incredibly useful in food preparation, but the sugar free altoids were made to be purposefully vegan, so they forwent the gelatin.
I’d expect there to be at least less colouring additives, since those are only added for marketability and are useless at best, dangerous at worst
Not having to think about the potential risk of “self deletion” thoughts brought about due to the following reasons:
Being forced to undertake an absurd amount of debt for a college degree. I am in a deadly game of begging with my school’s financial aid office for a certain scholarship that would save me tens of thousands of dollars, but because of clever accounting and zero empathy, the school has “appropriated” the funds the government sent me, and is refusing to budge.
Not having to focus on my life being a job and a grind. The concept of a “dream job” that won’t pay for a barebones subsistence living is draconian and dystopian. I do not wish to work for a mega conglomerate as a mid level corporate manager; I would rather help Satan manage Hell.
My medication which costs 3 pounds in the UK, 2.50USD in China, is free in Cuba, and so on, has now been increased to $303.99 per 30 day supply because the company that produces it in the United States has finally cornered their final competitor and have assumed a de facto monopoly on a vital medication, with the blessing of the US government. Because of my insurance, the cost has been lowered graciously to 24 dollars, as opposed to when it was a 6 dollar co-pay before.
My utilities are exponentially increasing month after month despite me living without electricity, gas, and water. The corporations that control my utilizes keep raising rates for the simple reason that they can. Compared to a few years ago, my rates have gone up by approximately 200-350%.
My hobbies have become disproportionally expensive compared to my income. It’s not like I’m skydiving or scuba diving, but even the simple hobbies I partake in have become unaffordable. I can no longer relax or have fun in my spare time.
I am unable to relax or not feel constant stress and anxiety from an impending existential threat that is always looming over my head. The reasons which are brought about by the capitalist system of the country I live in.
Me and my partner are facing persecution, denied medical access, and threats to our lives because of my partner being trans, our sexualities, and our relationship being interracial. I might have to leave the “homeland” I’ve grown up in and known for all my life, and abandon ship if I do not wish to end up as a victim of an impending “Jewish Question” scenario. I have no love for the country or community in which I live, and I find it disgustingly backwards, fascistic, fanatically religious, and underdeveloped; but leaving is still a terrifying thought, and the life of an immigrant or refugee is an extremely difficult and commonly awful one.
I feel like the word ‘Woke’ is just an excuse for Fascist and conservative Hiding their Bigoted views when they see anything they dont like
You only think that because it’s only fascists and conservatives who use ‘woke’ as a derogatory term because they feel silenced now that people say they can’t say racist and bigoted things.
yes, AFAIK it was originally used by black people in Amerika, roughly meaning to “wake up” to the reality of systemic racism
This is indeed the origin of woke but I will say there is plenty of derogatory things that I would say about what we colloquially call “woke,” it is entirely a CIA founded, owned and operated Compatible Left facet that has furthered their work towards kneecapping the Western Left, fueling fascism and distracting people from true radicalization with red herrings. I have even used “woke” or “wokeism” derogatorily here and never (IIRC) encountered pushback.
I wish everyone could just agree to call this toxic movement one thing and the genuine and necessary struggle for intersectional justice another. Because absolutely, using woke or similar words in a bad way paints one out to be a conservative or fascist. I guess if we’re going back to its Black origins perhaps “fake woke” would be the way to go, as I have seen it called, and it implies there is still true “wokeness” which is a good thing.
That being said, “woke” was voted the most hated word of 2022 for good reason. Our job as communists can’t be to say how we wished things were but to read the room, and revise a new course of action.
Now I’m sleepless, too. 🤕
~A True Classic~
A YouTube link was detected in your comment. Here are links to the same video on Invidious, which is a YouTube frontend that protects your privacy:
just like any other vague right wing buzzwords (“the elites” “them” “deep state” or whatever) the easy way to make sense out of them is to understand that they are just replacements for “the jews”.
when they complain about “woke hollywood” what they are actually ranting about is what they perceive as the jewish/cultural marxist influence on hollywood
petition to add a Unicode character for Yellow Parenti™
The admins could always make a custom font and swap out a useless unicode character like U+1F5FD or U+1F5FE with Yellow Parenti.
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Luckily, there is no unicode character for a swastika or anything of that sort
🙃 <— what about this one?
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Those appear to be in the CJK Unified Ideographs block (CJK = Chinese, Japanese, Korean) which means they’re probably meant to be joined with other characters, not used on their own
Just found a YouTube channel called “Memeology 101.” There are no memes. It’s 100% a conservative propaganda channel.
following the tradition of channels such as “Real Life Lore”, which is actually just Imperialist Propaganda Hour™
not surprised that a conservative channel has “memeology” in its name
It’s quite apt actually
For some reason lately I’ve been fretting over something in particular that I said several years ago. I wrote ‘Third Reich analogies are shit and they should not be necessary to get a point across.’ I kind of regret saying that; I feel like it was too harsh and I only said it because I was angry at the time.
While I agree that Reich analogies can be a crude way of getting a point across (being rhetorical shortcuts) and I prefer that nobody overuse them (like the right does), I don’t want anybody to scorn lower‐class people for using them against their oppressors either. In general, I believe that the ways in which we respond to our oppression should preferably not be controlled; that can only make an unpleasant situation worse, and anyway, we have legitimate grievances.
At one point in 2020 I became acquainted with a communist on Twitter who compared the U.S. police force to the Wehrmacht. I found that inaccurate, personally, but given how the police oppress us I didn’t bother nitpicking. In fact, it was a nice opportunity for me to share examples of antisemitic neofascists in the police force.
What pisses me off is when somebody equates the oppressed (e.g., Palestinians, lower‐class communists) with the Reich instead. That is when the analogies go from being mildly questionable to enraging and make me regret the very phenomenon of Godwin’s law. On the other hand, that is probably a slight overreaction on my part.
What do you think? Am I being too hard on myself?
I know I’ve said a lot of cringey stuff over the years. I was a lib until quite recently. From my perspective you’re being too hard on yourself. We all have our moments, and we all learn over time and through mistakes and as new evidence is presented.
Oddly enough I also try to avoid third reich analogies. Not because I don’t think they’re appropriate, but because fascism broadly and naziism specifically are intentionally misrepresented in mainstream history and media. The analogies I often want to make are based on a historical materialist and diamat understanding of the third reich, but that’s missed by anyone who hasn’t taken the time to learn that history. To most people Nazis were a flash in the pan sparked by a particularly charismatic leader (great man theory), with a little bit of “mass formation psychosis” thrown in for flavour.
The comment you linked was in response to the tweet, so I think you’re fine. Everyone overgeneralizes at some point
The comment was fire too!
You are indeed overanalyzing.
That being said, the only country that deserves 3rd Reich comparisons is the United States, which learned from the mistakes of Nazi Germany and is racing to perfect the fascist mode.
i feel like what a lot of people miss when it comes to “third reich” comparison is that no one actually knows or understands the intricacies of the nazi political system, how it worked, its objectives and whatnot.
It’s just an archetype. the idea of the third reich entered the collective psyche as a general and vague idea of “evil government”.
Look at any popular media featuring an evil empire, for example star wars: the enemy is always nothing but a reskin of the nazis. Because that’s what we imagine “evil” looks like, and thus why both left and right call each other literally Hitler - it’s such a vague idea that it can be applied to anything from concentration camps to 15 minutes cities.
anyone trying to draw serious comparisons with a government that existed 80 years ago just doesn’t know what they are talking about and is just trying to ride the rethorical power of words like “gestapo” “hitler” or “nazi germany”. Any self-respecting communist should be able to argue without resorting to that.
it’s kind of like calling someone who did property damage “vandal”. Whoever uses that term is hardly familiar with the vandal tribe and the vandalic kingdom, it’s just an archetype that has been used for so long that the original meaning is no longer relevant
A while back, Reddit removed the option to filter comments by top, hot and controversial etc. That totally coincidentally comes in handy with all these topics about Russia and Ukraine, where controversial opinions (read: anti-western) are now impossible to find in between all the Slava Ukraini people.
Are you sure? I just went back to check and all the posts I tested still had the option to sort available. Maybe it’s a subreddit specific change?
Weird. In the app I don’t have that function anywhere.
Edit: figured it out, the option was just hidden lol. Away with the tinfoil hat.
The fact that it’s harder to find the option, though. That’s not an accident. It’ll be calculated to drive clicks, at least, and to manipulate the messages, at worst.
Update on my current life predicament: (There are also positives I find in my daily life, which give me the strength to keep going and fighting with all my will, but things are getting increasingly out of hand.)
Being forced to undertake an absurd amount of debt for a college degree. I am in a deadly game of begging with my school’s financial aid office for a certain scholarship that would save me tens of thousands of dollars, but because of clever accounting and zero empathy, the school has “appropriated” the funds the government sent me, and is refusing to budge.
Having to focus on my life being a job and a grind. The concept of a “dream job” that won’t pay for a barebones subsistence living is draconian and dystopian. I do not wish to work for a mega conglomerate as a mid level corporate manager; I would rather help Satan manage Hell.
My medication which costs 3 pounds in the UK, 2.50USD in China, is free in Cuba, and so on, has now been increased to $303.99 per 30 day supply because the company that produces it in the United States has finally cornered their final competitor and have assumed a de facto monopoly on a vital medication, with the blessing of the US government. Because of my insurance, the cost has been lowered graciously to 24 dollars, as opposed to when it was a 6 dollar co-pay before.
My utilities are exponentially increasing month after month despite me living practically without electricity, gas, and water. The corporations that control my utilizes keep raising rates for the simple reason that they can. Compared to a few years ago, my rates have gone up by approximately 200-350%.
My hobbies have become disproportionally expensive compared to my income. It’s not like I’m skydiving or scuba diving, but even the simple hobbies I partake in have become unaffordable. I can no longer relax or have fun in my spare time.
I am unable to relax or not feel constant stress and anxiety from an impending existential threat that is always looming over my head. The reasons which are brought about by the capitalist system of the country I live in.
Me and my partner are facing persecution, denied medical access, and threats to our lives because of my partner being trans, our sexualities, and our relationship being interracial. I might have to leave the “homeland” I’ve grown up in and known for all my life, and abandon ship if I do not wish to end up as a victim of an impending “Jewish Question” scenario. I have no love for the country or community in which I live, and I find it disgustingly backwards, fascistic, fanatically religious, and underdeveloped; but leaving is still a terrifying thought, and the life of an immigrant or refugee is an extremely difficult and commonly awful one.
I don’t have anything useful to add but I hope things get better soon 😔
Thank you mate. It’s getting tough but I’m pulling through. I just hope things can change for the better. It saddens me that I am in pain and struggling as I am, and there are countless more who are suffering worse fates each day. Which makes things feel even more hopeless in the US, in the belly of the imperial beast, and I don’t know if I will ever live to see any meaningful leftist change, but all I can do is keep pushing forward. It just feels like a losing battle sometimes.
It feels shameful to want to abandon ship, but I have nowhere to go so I might as well keep trying here. It’s just terrifying to think that I might live my life and end up accomplishing nothing but being a cog in the corporate imperial machine.
If the US wants to invade Mexico they just have to remember one thing: The only one to ever lead successful invasion of the US was a Mexican.
Also a big % of their labour force is latin american, cant imagine that they would stay quiet.
wait what
Pancho Villa led an operation into the US during the Revolution to take Columbus. Intended as a provocation to make them fight the government army led by Carranza, and also kinda out of spite. After the battle the americans came into Mexico, achieved nothing, the people destroyed an airplane by throwing rocks at them and when the soldiers went back north of the frontier they gave themselves a medal for not achieving their only goal of killing Pancho Villa. It was certainly a very weird episode of Mexico-US history.
If the french actually scale the protests into a socialist revolution I’ll stop disrespecting them and the french language.
State election day today in The Netherlands. Deputies of the state will in turn elect officials to the First Chamber (not to be confused with Second Chamber aka Parliament) who approve laws made by Parliament.
Can’t vote myself as I live in Belgium and there isn’t a marxist party anyway. At least the voting help suggested that I vote for one of the left leaning parties, so it’s nice to confirm I’m actually left wing.
You know, in retrospect it seems quite incredible that we are somehow conditioned to think parliamentary systems such as what you describe are “democracy”.
You supposedly elect some people, who in turn supposedly elect some other people, who approve (or don’t) laws made by a whole third other group of people. And if any of those groups just so happen to be, oh I dunno, fascists who want to put you in camps - well tough, should’ve voooted harder!
Mind boggling.
Dutch democracy is so supreme that the current government (which is the same as the previous four governments) hasn’t completed a single term in 10+ years. Each government had to resign because of scandals, and everytime the same people got back in power.
And now the country is facing several gigantic crises.
And then they turn around and call the likes of Cuba “authoritarian” and “inefficient”
So France is having their weekly protest again. What was Macron thinking lmao
“the worker’s will totally love this very much”
perhaps Macron is secretly a communist and is accelerating the process of decline on purpose while sending all the bourgeois military equipment to Ukraine so Russia can conveniently blow it up
So a former PM of Australia rightfully calls out the recent 368 billion dollar submarine deal as stupid and aggressive, and anyone sharing his sentiments are getting called Sisipee bots lmao.
368 billion dollars for the privelege of being front line cannon fodder, a potential strike target and to subsidise their masters’ invasion budgets. Such a great deal when their own citizens are also going through what they call a “cost of living crisis”.
One of Belgium’s largest supermarkets is changing their business model to franchise, selling of all their stores to the highest bidder, basically adopting the Dutch model of supermarkets. All their employees are now striking because they rightfully oppose this. If it will be anything like the Dutch model we will soon see supermarkets where only 16-20 year olds work for the lowest pay possible and a lot of people who have been working at the company for decades now are worried that they will lose their job.
Just saw some posts on reddit about the Putin visit to Mariupol
Imagine believing, for even a moment, that assassinting the leader of one of the most powerful countries on Earth would end the conflict. This is exactly the level of delusion I was hoping to see, just a peak at the insanity under the surface of “rational” minds.
