America created the conditions for Putin in the first place…

America demanded the conditions

Yep, you got it. There is absolutely no relevant history leading up to this moment. In fact, history ended in the early 90s.

I’ve been out of the loop for a week. What new terrible thing is happening?

My mom has the same heritage, but her internalized shame isn’t as bad as your mom’s. I try to explain that the things she doesn’t like are largely a consequence of capitalism being imposed on the former USSR, but it doesn’t really stick.

When I was 5 my mom took me to a Russian-Jewish family’s apartment (right off the boat, refugees of rising antisemitism in the collapsing USSR) so they could start teaching me Russian. My mom doesn’t speak it, but at that time she wasnt thoroughly alienated and wasn’t ready to fully abandon our ancestors (I guess), thank god. Years later this family started talking to me about how Gorbachev fucked everything up and they hate him.

Being close with some of the cold war’s victims made me highly skeptical of American hegemony, even if I didn’t have a coherent critique. Fortunately, I did find the Communist Manifesto in my school library and was willing to read it because I knew Soviets. Still, it’s taken decades to understand the world around me. I’m still working on it.

I bought Capital today.

Yes, and it’s been hugely expensive to work around these nonsense restrictions. I’m not exaggerating when I say there’s already been years of setbacks in the expansion of ems/fire UAS programs.

For those who haven’t had the pleasure of studying Joe Sims thought, he’s explicitly opposed to the idea of a dictatorship of the proletariat, because it’s a dictatorship. How do you combat a bourgeois dictatorship? Vote for dems.

Yes, he still calls himself a communist.

I didn’t understand a goddamn word Vedder had said.

Back in the 90s I was regularly buying newly released Pearl Jam albums and loving them. I couldn’t tell you any of the lyrics, even the radio hits. Whatever the hell Eddie Vedder wanted to say will be a secret he takes to his grave.

I don’t know. Maybe it shows where the bathroom is for the top officers and a Russian saboteur was able to leave an upper decker in there.

I feel like if this were real you would keep it secret. Maybe they already used the info to do something funny so now they’re just doing some humiliation.

Sums up a lot of food related drama on this site.

hate the trotskyists not the trotsky ™

You can also cook a really tasty steak with a little knowledge and practice. They’re also a meme, but that’s not gonna stop me from enjoying food.

The most acceptable form of liberal racism.

Debates between a bunch of people who don’t even think they have an Ideology definitely enhances American democracy.

Will there be a workers vanguard party or are we just talking about having 2 capitalist parties?

The unexamined racism directed at Russians is truly amazing.