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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!

———————
Common Right Wing Talking Points Debunks
——————–

Check out the /edu/ thread at
https://leftypol.org/edu/res/5576.html

Also see the relevant leftybooru tag
https://lefty.booru.org/index.php?page=post&s=list&tags=debunk
Add topics into the tag list to further narrow down your search!


———————
Introduction to Marxism Reading List - Thanks to the /read/ matrix room (https://app.element.io/#/group/+leftyread:matrix.org)
——————–

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

——————–
Marx and Engles Reading List
——————–

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/

——————–
Lenin Reading List - By Moo (aka Zizekposter)
——————–

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

——————–
MLM Reading List
——————–

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

——————–
Leftcom Reading Lists
——————–

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

——————–
Bookchin Reading Lists - based off of posts by Gorm1918 (pbuh)
——————–

'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

——————–
Links to Resources and Libraries:
——————–

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.
R: 5 / I: 0 (sticky)

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.
R: 70 / I: 17

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!
R: 93 / I: 18

Israel 'at war' as Hamas gunmen launch surprise attack from Gaza Thread Pt. III

Continued from >>477700

Updates 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.
R: 499 / I: 113

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
R: 5 / I: 0

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.
R: 43 / I: 3

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)
R: 5 / I: 0

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
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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?
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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.”
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ISIS claims responsibility for attack on Moscow concert hall

Dozens dead after gunmen open fire at Moscow concert hall, building set on fire

News 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
R: 115 / I: 50

FIRE General Thread

Let's get a general thread about FIRE (Finance, Insurance, Real Estate). Include topics about crypto as well.
R: 0 / I: 0

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.
R: 604 / I: 111 (full)

Israel 'at war' as Hamas gunmen launch surprise attack from Gaza Thread Pt. II

Continued from >>475181

Updates 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.
R: 8 / I: 2

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?
R: 17 / I: 3

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.
R: 14 / I: 2

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.
R: 101 / I: 3

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.
R: 6 / I: 0

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.
R: 434 / I: 70

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.
R: 8 / I: 0

Workers Struggles: The Americas

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/03/12/degd-m12.html

Latin 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.
R: 10 / I: 2

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.
R: 499 / I: 141

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.
R: 17 / I: 1

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/
R: 51 / I: 6

MUH BANKERS

>all wars are bankers wars
And 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?
R: 5 / I: 2

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 ?
R: 57 / I: 6

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.
R: 13 / I: 1

>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.
R: 15 / I: 0

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.
R: 10 / I: 1

Free Assange

Less than 2 hours until Assanges extradition hearing

This 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
R: 7 / I: 1

>"""rules-based international order"""
>there are no rules
>it's not based

Who comes up with this shit??
R: 31 / I: 3

Shots Fired

Who's next?

Sometimes a two-word OP is all you need to get the point across. Especially on an image board.
R: 5 / I: 1

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.pdf



The 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:
R: 13 / I: 0

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
R: 19 / I: 1

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
R: 16 / I: 3

Less work equals stronger economy

The Soviets should have reduced the work-day
to 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.
R: 5 / I: 0

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.
R: 17 / I: 5

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.
R: 26 / I: 4

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/
R: 69 / I: 6

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.
R: 20 / I: 6

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?
R: 39 / I: 3

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 ?
R: 52 / I: 12

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.
R: 37 / I: 5

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.
R: 55 / I: 12

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.
R: 78 / I: 13

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.
R: 119 / I: 27

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?
R: 10 / I: 2

>Edward Said
>Frantz Fanon
>Michel Foucault
The fathers of Soycialism who ruined leftism in the west. there collective faggotry spearing to generations of leftists.
R: 5 / I: 3

<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
R: 52 / I: 7

<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?
R: 12 / I: 0

>why are the Yemeni people so based???
>oh

Vaxxies BTFO eternally
https://thecradle.co/articles-id/3091
R: 274 / I: 94

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.
R: 56 / I: 6

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…
R: 20 / I: 2

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.
R: 40 / I: 2

papers please

https://farside.link/invidious/watch?v=vTzVSNfaGvs

This 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)
R: 4 / I: 0

Venezuela building up troops on Guyana border, satellite images show

Aerial evidence follows months of President Nicolás Maduro ramping up claim to Essequibo region

Venezuela 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
R: 40 / I: 18

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.
R: 153 / I: 19

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
R: 51 / I: 11

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
R: 4 / I: 0

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.
R: 1 / I: 0

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
R: 16 / I: 0

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.
R: 89 / I: 6

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?
R: 45 / I: 4

personal liberties relative to devellopment

Prologue
Noam 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.
R: 16 / I: 3

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
R: 50 / I: 3

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?
R: 70 / I: 14

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
R: 26 / I: 0

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 ?
R: 2 / I: 0

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.
R: 18 / I: 5

>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
R: 3 / I: 0

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.
R: 617 / I: 219 (full)

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/
R: 7 / I: 1

Mississippi

God damn

Families 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
R: 14 / I: 3

John Pilger died

John Pilger died age 84

One of the most based anti-imperialist investigative journalists and docu film-makers has left us.

REST IN POWER comrade
R: 320 / I: 113

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.
R: 11 / I: 4

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).
R: 35 / I: 4

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.
R: 19 / I: 2

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.
R: 29 / I: 7

Marxist Eugenics

If a society isn't eugenic

Then 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.
R: 48 / I: 3

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.
R: 12 / I: 1

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.
R: 4 / I: 2

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
R: 50 / I: 4

Chinese Finance

China Set to Tighten Hold on Crackdown - Hit Finance Sector
never 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 ?
R: 76 / I: 15

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.
R: 101 / I: 42

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?
R: 4 / I: 0

The truth

Anarchist? More like nothing to show for it!!!
R: 23 / I: 4

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!
R: 20 / I: 1

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?
R: 0 / I: 0

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.
R: 2 / I: 0

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
R: 5 / I: 1

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.
R: 167 / I: 43

/SEA/ - Southeast Asia General

5th Edition: Real succdem hour edition

Discuss 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
R: 8 / I: 1

unesco does censorship ?

Online "disinformation" : UNESCO unveils action plan to censor social media platforms

https://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 ?
R: 3 / I: 1

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 ?
R: 152 / I: 52

Be honest…

Has your life gotten materially better or worse since this faggot supposedly got elected.?
R: 14 / I: 1

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.
R: 28 / I: 1

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.
R: 5 / I: 1

KISSINGER DEAD

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-30/henry-kissinger-dies-aged-100/103171512

HENRY 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.
R: 2 / I: 0

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 ?
R: 5 / I: 0

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 ?
R: 1 / I: 0

<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."
R: 342 / I: 308

/webm/ thread

This thread is for posting any form of /lefty/ videos files ranging from .webm or .mp4, or other
The last thread hit the bump limit, so post new or old videos here.
Link to the last thread here: >>201250
R: 4 / I: 0

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.
R: 29 / I: 7

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/
R: 6 / I: 0

AI Politics and Economics

1 Regulating Ai
Most 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.
R: 7 / I: 0

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
R: 103 / I: 27

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?
R: 51 / I: 39

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?
R: 5 / I: 0

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
R: 7 / I: 1

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 UK
You 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 ?
R: 2 / I: 1

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 details
https://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.
R: 109 / I: 20

>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
R: 12 / I: 1

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 ?
R: 2 / I: 0

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
R: 146 / I: 28

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.
R: 14 / I: 6

What's Your Line (vol. 2)

Hey leftychoods

Let'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
R: 4 / I: 0

In which onion forum can secret intelligence exchanges be seen?

War always hurts civilians, fuck wars.
R: 11 / I: 1

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.
R: 5 / I: 1

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 ?
R: 40 / I: 77

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.
R: 55 / I: 20

>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/?
R: 2 / I: 0

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?
R: 26 / I: 25

Protests of 1968

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_of_1968

Was 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?
R: 77 / I: 65

Vitalistic Space Communism

<Capitalism has already been superceded

Some 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.
R: 2 / I: 1

>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
R: 1 / I: 0

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
R: 60 / I: 6

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.
R: 59 / I: 9

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.
R: 33 / I: 7

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.
R: 11 / I: 2

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?
R: 35 / I: 23

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?
R: 19 / I: 3

Cluster B society and Pathocracy: what are the political implications
>Inb4: dats not real
Shut up fag. This shit perfectly summarizes orgfag mods
R: 16 / I: 12

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:
R: 21 / I: 2

>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?
R: 5 / I: 0

hyper privacy violation

https://farside.link/invidious/watch?v=dOwhImVwjlY

Klaus 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.
R: 52 / I: 15

Russia is only winning cause stupid nazoid vatniks are cheating bastards!!

If those ruZZians played fair, Ukraine would have won by now.
R: 61 / I: 4

<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
R: 8 / I: 3

<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
R: 111 / I: 15

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/
R: 17 / I: 0

Haz Retardation Appreciation General
/HRAG/

Post your best highlights from the most insightful midwit in Amerikwa
R: 42 / I: 10

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
R: 8 / I: 10

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.
R: 31 / I: 9

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?
R: 16 / I: 2

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 ?
R: 49 / I: 4

News 09/19/23

Azerbaijani forces strike Armenian-controlled Karabakh, raising risk of new Caucasus war
Azerbaijan 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
R: 26 / I: 3

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)?
R: 8 / I: 1

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 ?
R: 3 / I: 0

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.
R: 14 / I: 1

>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
R: 14 / I: 5

What can the left learn from 'compliance and behavior experts' (salesmen, marketers, recruiters, advertisers, etc)?
R: 1 / I: 0

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.
R: 13 / I: 2

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.
R: 17 / I: 15

U.S. soldier facing disciplinary action flees into North Korea

U.S. soldier facing disciplinary action flees into North Korea


It 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?
R: 164 / I: 45

What are the political implications of the world's first presidential mugshot? What will happen if he's convicted?
R: 0 / I: 0

woke is false consciousness

https://farside.link/invidious/watch?v=I0i0mnhobNs

Norman Finkelstein gave a pretty decent interview where he succinctly summed up the woke left.
R: 2 / I: 0

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.
R: 8 / I: 1

>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?
R: 1 / I: 1

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
R: 2 / I: 0

In terms of the landscape of knowledge, information, and ideology, is pic related, along with kayfabe, a more apt metaphor than the matrix.
R: 2 / I: 0

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.
R: 0 / I: 0

>"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.
R: 4 / I: 0

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
R: 6 / I: 0

cybersoc without id

Here is an article about Bill Gates sounding like a comic-book villain
https://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 ?
R: 3 / I: 0

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.
R: 216 / I: 23

/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/
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Which burger dark horse outsider presidential candidate are you stanning this election cycle, and why is it pic related?
R: 9 / I: 1

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.
R: 8 / I: 1

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 ?
R: 11 / I: 8

<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
R: 5 / I: 1

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/
R: 15 / I: 1

News 08/21/23

More than 20 detained by Sudanese Military Intelligence in communist party raid
The 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
R: 5 / I: 1

How would the world be different today if the USSR had been successful at creating a laboring race of chimp-human hybrids?
R: 9 / I: 3

<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.
R: 5 / I: 0

>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
R: 8 / I: 1

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!
R: 1 / I: 0

Prigozhin ded

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin listed in Russian plane crash with no survivors

MOSCOW, 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.
R: 23 / I: 23

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?
R: 58 / I: 24

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
R: 11 / I: 3

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.
R: 13 / I: 1

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!
R: 0 / I: 0

It's hilarious that so many leftists honestly believe their credibility somehow remains intact after they fell for and perpetuated the flu psyop.
R: 10 / I: 4

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?
R: 7 / I: 0

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.
R: 8 / I: 1

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
R: 7 / I: 1

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?
R: 17 / I: 17

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?
R: 8 / I: 1

News 8/12/23

Social Organizations Mobilize in Argentina After Murder of Facundo Morales
Social 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/
R: 8 / I: 0

Neo-McCarthism 2.0

It seems that the US is trying too stir up a which-hunt against peace activists

The 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.
R: 5 / I: 0  

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?
R: 5 / I: 4  

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/
R: 18 / I: 9

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
R: 7 / I: 0

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?
R: 76 / I: 14

statecraft and censorship

Lets make this a pro and contra

Against 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.
R: 26 / I: 17

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
R: 12 / I: 3

News 8/4/23

Four SDF fighters killed in Turkish drone attack in Qamishlo
On 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
R: 27 / I: 20

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.
R: 4 / I: 2

How to stay irrelevant

>Purity spiraling

Purity 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
R: 51 / I: 19

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.
R: 14 / I: 1

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.
R: 22 / I: 19

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.
R: 16 / I: 8

Oc thread

Post all your oc. I did some, I did a bit.
R: 11 / I: 5

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.
R: 4 / I: 5

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.
R: 9 / I: 5

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
R: 3 / I: 0

Radical environmentalism

Are there any radical environmentalist anti capitalist forums, threads, or private chats you know of?
R: 7 / I: 5

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.
R: 49 / I: 13

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
R: 84 / I: 21

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 ?
R: 3 / I: 0

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 ?
R: 71 / I: 14

Opinions on the Unabomber and specially his manifesto
R: 37 / I: 3

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 society

Tips, Career Advice what not
R: 2 / I: 3

I'm thinking Was Lenin the last great Aryan king?

Considering he's buried in a Ziqqurat (stone kurgan)
R: 21 / I: 6

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?
R: 11 / I: 5

News 7/6/23

Strike by 1,400 National Steel Car workers in Canada continues as strikers report health benefit cut-off
The 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
R: 7 / I: 3

News 7/1/23

France protests: Funeral held for teen shot by police as 1,300 arrested overnight
There 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
R: 25 / I: 2

Nancy's detransitioning

Nancy is no longer a trans woman, because evil leftist commies rejected her
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6dHCDKzabw


Should we be ashamed?
R: 17 / I: 0

Are there any good social networks?

Twitter always sucked but used to be diverse. Now it's an enormous right-wing circle-jerk

Facebook 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
R: 15 / I: 5

News 06/20/2023

Turkish drone attack in Tirbespiyê kills three, including co-chair of Qamishlo Canton
Turkey 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
R: 1 / I: 0

Is homeownership keeping whites from becoming revolutionary. Is white identity politics the real idpol poisoning the left?
R: 2 / I: 1

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 children
HALL 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
R: 3 / I: 0

fuck wvobbly that fucking snake. anti-vol polemic? I'll show you fucking anti-vol polemic you limp-wristed lib
R: 17 / I: 36

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!
R: 22 / I: 8

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.
R: 79 / I: 22

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 actualized

both 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
R: 80 / I: 11

<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.
R: 15 / I: 8

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
R: 8 / I: 0

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 ?
R: 12 / I: 1

nuclear race

https://odysee.com/@Geopop:4/the-nuclear-energy-race-oliver-stone:5

Is 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 ?
R: 6 / I: 1

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
R: 10 / I: 2

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 ?
R: 21 / I: 7

Atlanta City Council - Stop Cop City

https://tv.leftypol.org/r/HappeningsviaKlash

This is the city council public comment part of the cop city bullshit.
R: 20 / I: 2

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.
R: 285 / I: 33

Russian Thread

Please come back Rusanon Comrades! Save us from the polyp and lolbert raids.

Я вас категорически приветствую.

- A westoid who misses you.
R: 9 / I: 2

The Wolff is in

New Global Capitalism update
Sempai talks about how the world is moving on from the US dollar.

https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=WcI4XQA5nzA

EVERYBODY GET IN HERE
R: 16 / I: 3

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?
R: 1 / I: 0

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
R: 56 / I: 10

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.
R: 4 / I: 0

News 5/24/23

Cambodian land activists arrested for allegedly inciting farmers to hate the rich
IN 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
R: 34 / I: 2

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




—–
I think AI development will have three phases:
—–

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.

—-
Predictions :
—-

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.

—-
Geopolitical trends:
—-

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.

—-
How to be safe:
—-
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.

—-
Class dynamics
—-
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
R: 4 / I: 0

BDS movement

Here is an article that attacks the BDS movement in Israel, apparently from a socialist position.
https://socialist.net/boycott-divest-sanction-internationalist-solidarity-vs-international-pressure/

The Boycott and Divest movement is on the surface a organization that is doing political lobbying via consumer-boycotts. But on closer inspections it probably is intended more for raising awareness and creating political capital on behalf of the Palestinian cause, and the consumer boycott part is a means not an end.

The article basically argues that you can't have both a struggle for socialism and support the BDS movement. Which to me sounds like somebody trying to divide forces who share many common goals.

The article even says BDS would actually help the Zionists which i can't believe because the Zionist are relentlessly attacking BDS. They wouldn't be doing that if it benefited them.

IMHO from a socialist perspective BDS won't do much to generate socialism but it certainly doesn't seem to hinder it either. And since socialists share many of the same goals with regards to the Palestinian cause, it seems pointless to attack the BDS movement.

Are they ultras doing a purity spiral ?
Am i wrong for being suspicious about this ?
R: 11 / I: 0

McCarthy demands work requirements on ‘all the programs’ including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and SNAP
https://www.rawstory.com/mccarthy-demands-work-requirements-on-all-the-programs-including-social-security-medicare-medicaid-and-snap/
What are the political implications of the end of the Republican party?
R: 16 / I: 0

law of id

Lets discuss logic and the law of identity.

Here are the contenders
A=A
A≈A
A≠A

Which one is it ?
R: 14 / I: 1

News 05/08/23

Bolivian general Prado Salmon who captured Che Guevara dies
Bolivian general Gary Prado Salmon, who captured communist revolutionary icon Ernesto “Che” Guevara in 1967, died on Saturday aged 84, his son revealed on social media. “He was accompanied by his wife and children,” wrote Gary Prado Arauz on Facebook. … Prado Salmon was left paralysed after being accidentally shot in the spine in 1981. He retired from the military in 1988.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/8/prado-salmon-bolivian-general-who-captured-che-guevara-dies
https://archive.is/ukot6

Conservatives prevail in key vote for new Chile constitution
A far-right party led in the vote count Sunday night after Chileans cast ballots for a 50-member commission that is to draft a new coonstitution after voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposed charter last year that was considered one of the world’s most progressive. It was a major defeat for Chile’s center-left president, Gabriel Boric, with the vote also widely viewed as a referendum on his government, which currently has an approval rating of around 30%.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/conervatives-prevail-key-vote-new-chile-constitution-99159928

Paramilitaries threaten to kill judges of Colombia’s war crimes tribunal
Alleged members of Colombia’s largest paramilitary organization AGC threatened to kill judges of the war crimes tribunal. According to the Special Jurisdiction of Peace (JEP), magistrate Alejandro Ramelli and his assistant Hugo Escobar were threatened with death. In a WhatsApp message sent to Ramelli, the AGC allegedly declared the two magistrates a “military objective” for “digging up a past that is already buried.”
https://colombiareports.com/paramilitaries-threaten-to-kill-judges-of-colombias-war-crimes-tribunal/

Fire deep in gold mine in southern Peru kills 27 workers
A fire broke out deep in a gold mine in southern Peru and killed at least 27 workers during an overnight shift, Peruvian authorities reported. The Yanaquihua mining company said in a statement that 175 workers had been safely evacuated after the accident, which happened late Friday or early Saturday. It said the 27 dead worked for a contractor that specializes in mining.
https://apnews.com/article/peru-mine-accident-dead-d0c26237a3aa074c863761ace2c7f45c

Israel demolishes Palestinian West Bank school
The European Union Delegation to the Palestinians, on its official Twitter account, said it was "appalled" by the school's demolition, which it said would affect 60 Palestinian children. The demolition was "illegal under international law" and would "only increase the suffering of the Palestinian population and further escalate an already tense environment," the EU delegation said. … "We got ready to come to school and when we arrived we didn't find the school," student Mohammed Ibrahim told Reuters. "We want a school today! We want to study, if they (Israeli forces) will keep demolishing, we will keep building." Witnesses also said the contents of the building had been confiscated.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-demolishes-palestinian-west-bank-school-2023-05-07/

Turkey elections: Protesters throw stones at Istanbul mayor's campaign bus
Video footage showed stones being thrown at the bus’s windows, forcing Imamoglu, who was speaking from the roof, to go inside for cover. The bus was later forced to drive off. Images shared by Imamoglu's press team showed the bus windows shattered by the stones. The mayor tweeted that he had spoken to at least nine people who were wounded during the incident. Images on social media appeared to show a child with a bloodied face as a result of the attack.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/turkey-elections-protesters-throw-stones-istanbul-mayor-imamoglu-campaign-bus

Ambulance workers in South East set to strike over pay
AMBULANCE workers in south-east England will go on strike tomorrow as Unite escalates its industrial action in a long-running dispute over pay. Unite’s members employed at South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust and South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Trust will strike from 12pm until 10pm.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/ambulance-workers-south-east-set-strike-over-pay

Paris police under fire over neo-Nazi rally
The rally Saturday by far-right extremists dressed in black came as authorities clamp down on protesters banging saucepans against the government, with new restrictions put in place Monday to shield President Emmanuel Macron from the noise. The march on Saturday through an upmarket Left Bank district of Paris saw several hundred men from far-right groups march with flags and chant slogans to commemorate the death of a far-right activist, Sebastien Deyzieu, in 1994.
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230508-paris-police-under-fire-over-neo-nazi-rally
https://archive.is/NRZ51

Australian government pledges $10 billion in budget to ease cost of living
Australia’s center-left Labor government said on Monday it would include 14.6 billion Australian dollars ($9.84 billion) over four years in the federal budget for cost of living relief for families and businesses, which it promised would not stoke inflation.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/08/australia-government-pledges-10-billion-budget-to-ease-cost-of-living.html

'Worrying': Vietnam and Laos Hit Record-High Temps Amid Ongoing Heatwave
All-time highs were recorded Saturday in Vietnam and Laos. The mercury hit 44.2°C (111.6°F) in Vietnam's northern district of Tuong Duong, marking the country's hottest temperature on record, according to climatologist and weather historian Maximiliano Herrera. "This is a worrying record in the context of climate change and global warming," environmental scientist Nguyen Ngoc Huy said from the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi. "I believe this record will be repeated many times. It confirms that extreme climate models are being proven to be true."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/vietnam-laos-record-high-temps-asia-heatwave-spring-2023
R: 75 / I: 6

RESTRICT

The burger government is trying to ban the internet again.

https://readingjunkie.com/2023/03/29/restrict-act-biden-administrations-plans-to-end-all-internet-freedom/

This is probably an order of magnitude more invasive than anything that China has done.
R: 6 / I: 1

howto counter bias from censorship?

In the west censorship is becoming worse, and the question is how do you negate the bias that can be introduced by censorship ?

Lets assume we want to rule out that we get our perception of reality manipulated by the removal of information. Negating the manipulation efforts of the censor becomes a high priority, because we have to assume that this is done to obfuscate predators from our view that seek to harm us.

The major problem is that the normal method of evaluating claims on the basis of evidence will fail once there is an actor that is capable of controlling what evidence is available. It is very easy to create an extremely distorted perception of reality if evidence can be selectively withheld. It's lying by omission.

The question becomes how can this be counteracted ?

One could analyze the bias on the basis of what gets censored and what isn't and apply a proportional counter-bias. Treating it like a geometry problem. So if the censor applies a +3 bias in one direction, you apply a -3 bias into the opposite direction to cancel it out. Of course biases usually aren't very consistent, they vary in direction and the distance, and that will increase your error rate, because you'll never be able to cancel it out exactly.

From a logical perspective if evidence can be censored there can't be a burden of evidence. You can't demand evidence while blocking the ability to provide evidence. Forgoing the confirmation by evidence does work to an extend, because all the true claims that had their evidence censored, will pass "the test". But there is of course a problem because you might have many false positives where false claims pass "the test" as well. The calculation here is that the censored information is usually the most importing thing to know, and that can be worth the false positives. It's not as bad as it seems at first because not all evidence gets censored and you can still refute most false claims, but some false information will slip through.

We have to accept that if we want an accurate understanding of reality then the only choice is to overcome censorship. Until that is achieved, the accuracy of our reality perception will suffer regardless what we do, because there is no substitute for accurate and complete information.

I'm asking if anybody has other tactics to help with this problem.
R: 17 / I: 0

sanctions vs markets

I think that sanctions might end market economics.

There is a weak argument and a strong argument for this.

The weak version is that by putting sanctions on countries you prevent the people in these countries from participating in the free-market(TM). This argument only works if you uphold markets as an ideological end in it self.

The strong version of this argument is that the way sanctions are used now could be transformed into something else later. Currently sanctions are a kind of economic weapon, nominally used for political ends , but there are of course people getting rich off the sanctions battles. So it's reasonable to assume that this could sneak into regular business praxis. If there is a way to get rich, there's always ruthless people willing to walk it.

It's a very handy tool to knock out competition either abroad or at home, it can be used to disrupt supply chains of competitors or locking out competitors out entirely. The cost for it is paying the media to manufacture consent and bribing the power-brokers in decision-making positions.

I think that it might also be possible to scale it down and use it against smaller entities than nation states, perhaps big corporate players might also be viable targets. I'm not sure how much this can be scaled down.

I'm imagining that once this gains momentum the power-brokers with the sanctions levers and the media manufacturing consent machine will be able to run some kind of protection racket and become able to accumulate large amounts of wealth without actually engaging in market exchange. And eventually entrench them self's as formal gate keepers for all economic activity. I don't know how to call this perhaps "degenerated post capitalism".
R: 5 / I: 0

Central Bank Digital Currency

Cockshott made a video about central Bank digital currencies.
https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=8a6QxEJNUQ8

He has an unusual take on it, he says that they would lessen the neo-liberal character of the economy and too-big-to-fail for privatized banks would come undone, and there wouldn't be a problem with letting privatized banks go bankrupt if they become insolvent.

He says that it will change the balance of forces within the upper classes:
a strengthening of state versus private finance
a slowdown of financialisation like it was from 1945-1970, lowering money creation.
Industrial capital will become more important relative to the banks
there will be less rent-seeking.

He also says that it would reduce tax-evasion and hinder organized crime, i didn't understand the reasoning for that tho.

I'm kinda wonder about the privacy aspect.
R: 15 / I: 2

neofeudalizing tendences

Here is a interesting video with Jodi Dean
https://invidious.baczek.me/watch?v=RkAfrcN5hpw
there are a few rambling bits in the first 10 mins but after that it gets concise and worth while

<One of the reasons why Marx's analysis is so powerful, is that the proletariat are strong, they aren't a bunch of victims, they are the producing class, they have the power to overturn the system. But now, in the northern economies, the majority of workers are a bunch of servants, while they still have the strength to bring the system to a halt, it doesn't seem like we are creating a power full future.


<What happens is a declining rate of profit, the capitalists laws of motion turn into their opposite, and the Capitalists as a class turn to politically motivated upward redistribution of wealth, taking not making.


She brings up an interesting point about changes in the economic system. That many see as having certain similarities to feudalism.

<Capitalists are becoming a kind of mediator, all these gig-work platforms are not the employers they are middle men that break the relations of production between workers and employers, that's different, that's not like industrialists owning a factory and hiring labor. This logic of separation has a Neo-feudal quality.


Is she right about this ? are these mediator separation layers, and the breaking of processes into little pieces the harbinger of a feudalization tendency.
R: 2 / I: 0

Happy may day

Poem by an Unknown Proletarian
<We have fed you all, for a thousand years
<And you hail us still unfed,
<Though there’s never a dime of all your wealth
<But marks the worker’s dead.
<We have yielded our best to give you rest
<And you lie on crimson wool.
<Then if blood be the price of all your wealth,
<Good God! We have paid it in full.

happy may day fuckers
R: 8 / I: 1

News 4/29/23

Belfast trade union rally: Plea for politicians to return to government
Members of trade unions in Northern Ireland marched from Writer's Square to City Hall in a call for better workers rights, pay and conditions. Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), spoke at the event. He said Northern Ireland's politicians need to get back into government.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-65435890

Ministers set to impose NHS pay deal on staff despite opposition of unions
Both the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the Unite unions continue to oppose the deal offered to NHS workers, after protracted negotiations that have led to strikes and hampered attempts to shorten waiting lists. All 12 unions involved in the talks will gather on Tuesday to vote on whether to accept an improved deal covering the last two years.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/apr/29/ministers-impose-nhs-pay-deal-doctors-nurses-srikes-unions

Greenpeace Activists Scale Belgian LNG Terminal to Demand End to US Imports
Expressing solidarity with people in frontline communities where the fossil fuel industry has for decades polluted the air and water and exposed millions of people to public safety risks, nearly two dozen campaigners with Greenpeace Belgium on Saturday entered the liquefied natural gas terminal of energy infrastructure company Fluxys in Zeebrugge, to demand an end to European imports of LNG from the United States.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/greenpeace-belgium-lng-protest

German police union boss calls for crackdown on growing climate protests
Police representatives, members of the judiciary and politicians in Germany are calling for harsher penalties for climate activists, including preventive detention and longer prison terms, in an effort to halt their disruptive protests. This week has seen the most intense protests yet by the campaign group Letzte Generation (Last Generation), with hundreds of its members blocking scores of roads during rush hour in Berlin.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/27/german-police-call-for-tougher-response-to-growing-climate-protests-letzte-generation

Italian Oil Giant Earned $550 Million Reneging on Pakistan LNG, Nonprofit Says
Eni SpA earned about $550 million by canceling and then reselling contracted liquefied natural gas promised to Pakistan over the last two years, which exacerbated the Asian nation’s energy shortage, according to an analysis by two nonprofit groups. The Italian energy major failed to deliver a number of scheduled shipments between late 2021 and early 2023 under a contract to supply one LNG cargo a month, according to Sourcematerial, an investigative nonprofit, and Recommon, an Italian environmental group. During that time, Eni’s LNG ships stopped going to Pakistan and headed to Turkey instead, they said in the joint report.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-28/eni-made-550-million-from-cancellation-of-pakistan-lng-contracts?leadSource=uverify%20wall

Two unions de-recognised for supporting farmers’ protest, buying books from CPI(M)
The assistant general secretary of the National Federation of Postal Employees, which is the largest federation with eight postal employees unions, told The Hindu that the order will be challenged organisationally. “This organisation has a history of agitating against the British rule,” PK Muraleedharan said. “Now, this attempt to cancel recognition is to end all trade union activities in the sector.” In response to the Union government’s order, the National Federation of Postal Employees said that a donation was made to the Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers to support the farmers’ protest. The trade union added that it contributes to the fund every year.
https://scroll.in/latest/1048193/centre-de-recognises-two-postal-unions-for-supporting-farmers-protest-buying-books-from-cpi-m

150,000 Brazilian Educators Strike & Demand More From Their Unions
On Wednesday, in Rio de Janeiro, thousands of educators, members of the National Education Workers Alliance (CNTE), went on strike as part of a nationwide strike that mobilized over 150,000 educators and school employees from various unions throughout the country. In Rio de Janeiro, hundreds of teachers and school support employees gathered on the steps of Rio City Hall with signs and banners reading “Stop Paying Us the Lowest Salary in Brazil.” Others carried signs that read, “Claudio Castro Pay Us the Minimum Wage!” denouncing Claudio Castro, the Bolsonaro-aligned governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro.
https://paydayreport.com/150000-brazilian-educators-strike-demand-more-from-their-unions/

President Lula Demarcates Six Indigenous Territories
"Today we demarcated six indigenous territories, an important step. Do not stop organizing and demanding. The government exists to serve the interests of the people," Lula said on social networks. The President made the announcement on the occasion of the closing of the 19th edition of the "Terra Livre" (free land) camp, an annual meeting that gathered thousands of indigenous people from all over the country this week.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/President-Lula-Demarcates-Six-Indigenous-Territories-20230428-0017.html

Peru sends military to Chile border to block undocumented migrants
Some 700 Peruvian soldiers and police officers will reinforce its southern border with Chile to prevent the entry of undocumented migrants, Peruvian authorities said on Friday, amid diplomatic tensions between the two countries over the issue. Hundreds of migrants are stranded at the border, including mostly undocumented Venezuelans, according to the Peruvian police. The migrants say they are seeking to enter Peru to continue their journey back home
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/peru-sends-military-chile-border-block-undocumented-migrants-2023-04-28/

EFF takes Andries Tatane clean-up campaign to Soweto
Scores of EFF members rolled up their sleeves, armed with grass cutters, large black bags and shovels. They received some help with equipment from the Joburg Municipality’s, PIKITUP waste management company. EFF leader, Julius Malema says people must be educated about the benefits of a clean environment. “If people just come and clean without doing consciousness around the area it is a futile exercise but it is work the EFF must never get tired of doing and we want to make this fashionable and we are now taking it into councils to be a resolution of councils where councillors physically at least once a week engage in a service delivery programme that gives them direct interaction with the masses of our people.”
https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/eff-takes-andries-tatane-clean-up-campaign-to-soweto/

After killings, calls to protect S. Africa’s whistleblowers
An accountant working on a high-profile corruption case was killed along with his son by unknown gunmen while traveling on one of South Africa’s main highways. A government health department employee who warned of illegal dealings worth nearly $50 million was shot 12 times in the driveway of her home.
https://apnews.com/article/south-africa-whistleblowers-corruption-killed-03d4e5aa116b2acd9562b50c25289491
R: 4 / I: 0

American slavery

This one's wild, and I'm a bit embarrassed I hadn't heard of it at all 'til now - I guess I don't follow the news much anymore. This happened in 2021, but without checking I'm guessing the case is ongoing:

24 charged with forcing migrants into 'modern-day slavery'

"For years, migrant workers who paid for help entering the U.S. ended up forced to perform farm labor for little to no pay, federal authorities say, cowing to threats of deportation and violence by armed overseers while they lived in dirty, cramped trailers with little food or clean water.

Some who had been promised up to $12 an hour to work on farms in rural South Georgia were instead ordered to dig up onions with their bare hands and got paid only 20 cents per filled bucket as men with guns kept them in check, according to court records. At least two of them died, and another was raped repeatedly.

In a case federal prosecutors bluntly likened to modern slavery, a grand jury indicted 24 people in U.S. District Court on dozens of criminal counts including forced labor, mail fraud, witness tampering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Arraignments in the case have been scheduled for Dec. 21 and Jan. 6 at the federal courthouse in Waycross, near the Georgia-Florida state line.

Authorities said an investigation that began three years ago broke up a criminal enterprise that earned $200 million by exploiting the H-2A work visa program to bring workers from Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras into the U.S.

The laborers were forced to pay illegal fees for transportation, food and housing, according to the indictment, while their travel and identification documents were withheld, preventing them from leaving and seeking help.

U.S. Attorney David Estes of the Southern District of Georgia said in a statement the case had freed "more than 100 individuals from the shackles of modern-day slavery and will hold accountable those who put them in chains."

A federal grand jury in Waycross indicted the two dozen defendants in October. It was made public only after a judge unsealed the document in late November.

Since at least 2015, the indictment says, the defendants used H-2A visa applications to bring dozens of migrant workers into the U.S. as agricultural workers. The federal program requires that workers be paid a fair wage — often $10 to $12 an hour — and reimbursed for expenses involving travel to and from the U.S., food and lodging.

Instead, prosecutors said, the defendants kept most of the money the workers were owed. They laundered their profits by using cash to buy land, homes and more than a dozen vehicles, as well as purchasing a restaurant and night club. Millions got laundered through casinos, according to the indictment."

https://archive.is/wip/3ul4L

Fucking nuts, isn't it?
R: 4 / I: 1

Vivek Chibber

https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=EQ5gLuk06TU
https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=rLNSzxzEbKU

Vivek has a good critique of intellectual left-liberal pseudo radicals, i recommend watching his stuff for that.

He also has a theory of self-stabilizing class-rule, i disagree with that.

The reason why capitalism remained stable is because of imperialism, when the workers in the imperial core went on strike, the imperial bourgeoisie could weather the strike by using imperial surplus to keep their power apparatus afloat. And when the workers in the periphery struggled for independence the imperial bourgeoisie used the imperial force apparatus to crush their independence struggle. Workers divided by things like geo-graphic distance and language barriers, never managed to sync up their struggles to knock out both pillars of imperial rule at the same time.

At the moment we are seeing a revival of the periphery succeeding more often in loosening the imperial grip and sometimes even freeing it self from it. These periphery struggles are mixed some of them are socialist in direction but many also are bourgeois independence struggles. If this continues the imperial bourgeoisie will loose enough power that workers in the imperial core will once again become able to strike for concessions. Once the imperial power-structure is weakened enough it will become possible for some countries to go full socialism.

I still recommend Vivek even-though i disagree with him on that one point where he thinks class-rule has self-stabilizing properties, because everything else he says is spot on.
R: 29 / I: 7

Anti-nuclear shills vs climate

Climate change is creating a need for energy generation that emits very small quantities of carbon dioxide gas.

A few types of renewable energy exist but they are limited in various ways:
-Water-power is very powerful but is limited to the terrain that has flowing water.
-Wind and Solar are not limited by terrain, but they are intermittent and require a vast mass of machines that collect low density energy in the environment.

The obvious technology to substitute renewable energy is of course nuclear power, because the extra ordinary high energy density of nuclear energy complements the low energy density of renewables. It is very safe and mature tech, extremely cost efficient, highly scalable and can produce absolutely stunning quantities of energy. All the serious scientists are in favor of expanding the use of this technology, to cover about 40-60% of energy needs.

However the fossil fuel industry is trying to politically kill nuclear-power and for that they deploy scientifically illiterate useful idiots in the environmentalist movement to attack nuclear power with religious fervor in order to socially discredit nuclear power. The fossil fuel industry is aware of the limitations of renewables and they would like THEIR product to be the substitute for renewables instead of nuclear. They instruct their pseudo-green shills to trick people into pursuing a renewable-only strategy that is destined to fail, in the hopes of creating future societies with inadequate energy-supply desperate enough to re-embrace fossil fuels.

They do all the usual manipulative tricks like using misleading statistics, and planting lies into popular media but their favorite narrative trick is:
Making it seem as if nuclear-power and renewable-power were in competition rather than complementary. They seek to distract people from asking the question: "Would it not be easier to just replace fossil fuel with nuclear and add renewables on top, so we can have a nice environment without getting poor ?"

You can try to enlighten people with factual data about objective reality, which to some degree works and convinces a number of people , but it's not as effective as the "dark-arts of psychological magic" that the other side uses. They even managed to put a wrinkle into the brains of some environmentalists that makes them support restarting coal-fired power-plants under the banner of a green-energy-transition. How does that trick work and can we use it too?
R: 12 / I: 1

News 4/22/23

Sudan ‘resistance’ activists mobilise as crisis escalates
The efforts came from Sudan’s “resistance committees”, neighbourhood groups that have spearheaded Sudan’s pro-democracy movement since 2019. “Every coordination committee did a scan of working hospitals. Even the hospitals that were not working before the war, we made them operate by bringing doctors, fuel and [getting them] electricity,” said Ahmed Ismat, the spokesperson for one of the groups from south Khartoum, the capital.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/22/sudan-resistance-activists-mobilise-as-crisis-escalates
https://archive.is/i2Wp4

Foreign states start evacuations from Sudan as battle rages
The army said early on Saturday it would provide safe pathways to evacuate nationals from the United States, Britain, France and China, while Saudi Arabia and Jordan were already evacuating via Port Sudan on the Red Sea. It said airports in Khartoum and Darfur's biggest city Nyala were problematic.
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/sudan-army-okays-foreign-evacuation-khartoum-battle-rages-2023-04-22/

Iranian women taunt hardline police chief over latest attempt at hijab enforcement
Those who are caught for the first time are sent a "warning text message as to the consequences" of their actions. On the second offence, their vehicles would be confiscated and they would face a lawsuit. However, with an economic crisis still gripping the country, and with more women refusing to wear headscarves in public since 2022's anti-government protests, many in Iran find the government's concern with women's clothing infuriating. Morteza, a taxi driver in his mid-30s, told Middle East Eye that he stood squarely opposed to the dress code enforcement in Iran. "I have received a warning message from the police too. But I won't listen to such bullshit," he said.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/iranian-women-police-hijab-enforcement-taunt-radan

Many detained in police attack on vigil by Saturday Mothers
Turkish police have once again prevented the weekly vigil by Saturday Mothers in Istanbul and detained seventeen members of the initiative, including the co-chair of the Human Rights Association (IHD), Eren Keskin, and the spokesperson of the IHD Prison Commission, Nuray Çevirmen, and Hanım Tosun, wife of Fehmi Tosun, a Kurd who "disappeared" in Istanbul in 1995.
https://anfenglishmobile.com/human-rights/many-detained-in-police-attack-on-vigil-by-saturday-mothers-66774

Firefighters donate fire engine to Palestine
FIREFIGHTERS have donated a fire engine to their colleagues in Palestine for the third time in a year. It is the latest act of solidarity by the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) in a relationship that has also seen hundreds of Palestinian firefighters trained in Scotland and firefighting kits sent to Nablus, Jericho, Ramallah, East Jerusalem and Hebron.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/firefighters-donate-fire-engine-palestine

Berlin airport cancels all departures on Monday due to strike
Germany's Verdi union called for a one-day strike of air security staff at Berlin airport on Monday as part of an ongoing wage dispute, prompting the airport to cancel all passenger departures that day. The walkout is due to start at 3:30 a.m. local time (0130 GMT) on Monday and will end at midnight (2200 GMT), the union said.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/germanys-verdi-union-sets-strike-berlin-airport-monday-2023-04-22/

French cops confiscate cookware
Video posted to social media shows police officers opening backpacks and ordering protesters to ditch their cookware. When one complains such restrictions are illegal, the officer retrieves a piece of paper from his car, presumably bearing the brand-new edict forbidding “entertainment devices.” Demonstrators were also reportedly forbidden from bringing small flutes anywhere near the school where Macron was to speak.
https://www.rt.com/news/575145-french-cops-confiscate-pans-macron/
https://archive.is/ms3kf

US cannot stockpile arms to defend Taiwan on our military bases, asserts Philippines
The Philippines has announced that it will not allow US and its military forces to stockpile weapons that could be used to defend Taiwan on bases it has access to under the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) signed in 2014. Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo told the Senate members during a hearing that Washington will not be permitted to conduct activities that were not agreed upon in the 2014 deal, according to South China Morning Post.
https://www.wionews.com/world/us-cannot-stockpile-arms-to-defend-taiwan-on-our-military-bases-asserts-philippines-584470
https://archive.is/OtB6m

Guatemala orders arrest of lawyers for imprisoned journalist
A Guatemalan judge on Thursday ordered the arrest of three lawyers defending jailed journalist José Rubén Zamora. The announcement by prosecutors was the latest in a case that has drawn concerns about press freedom in Guatemala. Zamora is the director of El Periódico, a newspaper that has published critical articles about alleged corruption under President Alejandro Giammattei.
https://apnews.com/article/guatemala-corruption-press-freedom-giammattei-73f58f28559e1aae625bc2be7b5691c3

Costa Rica Police Strike Over Days Off Reduction
Groups of off-duty officers blocked streets in several cities, including San Jose. Other dozens of agents held a demonstration outside the house of Chaves, who seeks to have 9,500 officers on the streets at all times for six months while the special operation lasts. To develop such an operation, the Chaves administration plans to create 700 new police positions and change the schedules of current officers, who used to enjoy six days of rest for every six days at work but now must work six and rest four.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Costa-Rica-Police-Strike-Over-Days-Off-Reduction--20230421-0006.html
R: 3 / I: 0

>be half mongol slavs
>tyrannical violent chauvinistic regime
>rules by terror
>free tortures and all kind of atrocities
>insanely corrupt
>poor
>controlled by jews
>oppress' minorities
>persecutes the church
>kills all dissenters
>eliminates ukrainians
>cannot live without war
>relies on gibs from western allies
>unlimited manpower
>shoots whoever try to surrender or retreat
>human wave tactics

>be the soviet union they say it was

>be ukraine
R: 40 / I: 2

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.
R: 46 / I: 17 (sage)

There Has Been No Greater Hindrance To Socialism Than Marxist-Leninists.

This is just a undeniable fact. The amount of dogma and fanaticism in MLism is unparalleled compare to any other ideology. It truly is like a religion.

They have religious leaders which have done absolutely nothing wrong and every time you point out anything bad about them or the actions of ML states, even when it is many times self admittently true, they will find any excuse they can get to protect their deities.

Here are some examples of real conversations I have had with Leninists:

"Why did Mao do these stupid economic decisions which lead to tens of millions dying?"

ML: "Well that was because he was tricked by a evil pseudoscientist. Also the CIA faked the numbers!"



"Why do you worship Stalin so much when the prophet Lenin himself before his death wrote about how bad he was and how he should be removed as general secretary?"

ML: "Lenin didn't really know how good Stalin actually was at everything. Also the letter is probably fake and written by the CIA (founded in 1947) in collaboration with the traitor Trotsky to destabilize Stalin's regime."

"Okay, what about Nikita Khrushchev denouncing Stalin in the secret speech, as being dictatorial and not aligning with ML principals? After that spending his entire life undoing his work."

ML: "You see the cracks of the USSR were already beginning to show. Khrushchev is considered by many a revisionist and his hate for Stalin was purely driven out of personal spite."



"You say that ML countries can't be imperialist, but what about wars like the one waged by COMMUNIST China against COMMUNIST Vietnam?"

ML: "China was just mistakenly tricked into supporting the CIA backed Pol Pot and so needed to support his genocidal regime."

These are just some of the conversations I remember that made the dogma and fanaticism really stick out to me. Even as a libertarian aligned leftist I always believed in some degree of leftist unity, but now I realize that cooperation between the two sides is impossible and even if it was, it would be counterproductive because MLism is the reason socialism hasn't already been achieved.

I guess we will have to wait another 100 years, assuming capitalism hasn't killed our planet with climate change already, until socialism's reputation isn't irreversibly linked to this genocidal ideology.
R: 14 / I: 8

An Analysis of Classes in Burger Society

>I thought it might be useful to sketch out some of the actual divisions in class in burgerland and the west. Tried to be as detailed yet concise as possible. Generally, I find a lot of the terminology that gets tossed around as vague. Hence this

1. Ruling class

A) Traditional ruling bourgeoisie in military manufacturing, banking, transport, and energy, along with industrial manufacturing and large retail.

B) Communicative bourgeoisie - controlling media and communications platforms, often intermeshed with finance.

C) Finance capitalists, large landlords, people involved with stock and credit markets

D) State bureacrats and technocrats. People who make a living in employment for the state.

2. Middle classes

A) Petty bourgeoisie - small landlords, traditionally self employed, small business owners.

B) Technical elite - skilled workers in information technology

C) Professional managerial class - overlaps a bit with the tech elite and state bureacrats, people who are employed to maintain the conditions under which production occurs, both at a workplace level (managers, hr) and social level (marketers, advertising, media workers, and social cause grifters).

3. Working class

Itself divided between service workers, trade and skilled workers, and other typically mindless jobs assembling or delivering some final product. Includes many gig and part time workers.

1. Lumpen

Bludgeon of the ruling class against the working and middle classes. Serves a cautionary function (if you don't work hard you'll become homeless) and is used as a terroristic social force that provides additional stress on everyday people. A bit of a pandora let out by late stage capitalist decadence.

>Remaining questions -


Out of these class forces, what sort of coalition could be built to overcome the dominance of the ruling class, to build a better system?

How might rapid changes in technology shift class relations in the west?
R: 6 / I: 1

<Capitalism has already been superceded

Some 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.

<Tldr anti egalitarian socialism is the way
R: 367 / I: 36

Was Marx wrong about gun control.

Realistically how do you reconcile lack of gun control in the school shooter era?
These kind of incidents can't go one forever without some kind of push back. Can gun rights preserved without having to live with school shootings?
R: 9 / I: 3

World Crisis

Cockshott released a video about the coming world crisis.
https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=WiqxGdY5_V4

Highly recommended.
R: 100 / I: 16

Is the DPRK monarchic ?

It has recently come to light that fellow comrades have swallowed lies about the DPRK from the imperialist propaganda
Let this be a correction

<Founded on 9 September 1948, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is a nation governing the northern half of the Korean peninsula. It has a population of around 25M and has an estimated total GDP of $40 billion. You will have likely heard about something else it has that being their “wild & crazy” leader named Kim Jong-Un. But just who is Kim Jong-Un and why has the Kim family stayed in power since the DPRK’s founding?


<To begin we must first look at the definition of a monarchy: “A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restricted and largely symbolic (constitutional monarchy), to fully autocratic (absolute monarchy), and can expand across the domains of the executive, legislative, and judicial.”

The Korean Peninsula

<Breaking this down we will start with the term of a monarch. A life of power is not something that has ever been afforded to any leaders of the DPRK. The supreme leader of the DPRK, according to their constitution, is the Chairman of the State Affairs Commission, which is held currently by Kim Jong-Un. The Chairman is elected to a term the same as that of the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) which, according to their constitution, is five years. Therefore, straight away this debunks the claim of a monarchical regime within the DPRK, because a monarchy cannot exist with the institution of the SPA having control over the electoral process of choosing a Chairman. However, let us dig a little deeper just to be sure.


<The SPA is the primary state organ, which is directly elected by the DPRK’s populace. There are currently three different Parties represented within the SPA, and one organisation. During an election to the SPA: “A candidate is decided in a mass meeting led by the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland, which also organises the political parties in the DPRK. Citizens run under these parties, or they can run as independents. They are chosen by the people, not by the ‘Party’.” This means that after these mass meetings, the candidate to be put on the ballot for each constituency is chosen, and that is why only one name per constituency appears because they have already been chosen within their constituency. The elections afterwards act to double-check the people’s choice to see if the mass meetings are corrupted or incorrect, which could explain why the elections have such high approval ratings by their citizens. This also shows that manipulation by the state about the people voting yes to a candidate out of fear is incorrect, and the high yes/no ratio is an expression of the truly democratic mass meetings.


<Supreme People’s Assembly


<However, the SPA is only the legislative body of the state, and with this title, Kim Jong-Un simply cannot be defined as a monarch. So now we must move to the work of the Cabinet, which is the administrative and executive body of the DPRK, and on which Kim Jong-Un does not hold a position. For the record, if he did hold a position on this, it is an office that has a term length the same as that of the SPA. The Cabinet is also fully accountable to the democratically and directly elected SPA.


<The judiciary, on the other hand, is in the hands of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Court, which again Kim Jong-Un has no role in, and is chosen by, and accountable to, the democratically elected representatives on the SPA. It is untrue to claim these elections are immune to corruption, but as we can see the people have dominant control over all aspects of governance, which means that the ability to corrupt the system is greatly lessened.


<Looking at the other titles held by Kim Jong-Un, we see that he is Chairman of the Workers Party of Korea (WPK) and Supreme Commander of the DPRK Armed Forces (Marshal rank). The WPK is the largest of the ruling parties in the DPRK and enjoys mass support and a majority in the SPA. This affords Kim Jong-Un mass sway over the policy of the WPK, and therefore the nation as a whole. However, this sway works both ways and the final decision comes down to the people on who to elect to the WPK, and Kim Jong-Un himself. This is not much different to some of the more liberal democracies in Western Europe, where the leader of a party holds the most sway, and therefore the leader of the majority party is the most influential.


<Moving on to the military, of which Kim Jong-Un is the Supreme Commander of the DPRK Armed Forces. This role came with his position as Chairman of the WPK. This gives him responsibilities that are no different from any other head of state, indeed it could be argued that he is less powerful than some, as he is not the face of the government (that is the role of the Premier, at the time of writing this role belongs to Kim Tok-hun).


The definition of a monarchy continues; “The succession of monarchs is in most cases hereditary, often building dynastic periods.” so to explain this in the context of the DPRK we must look at its past leaders.
Kim Il-Sung

<Kim Il-Sung was the first Head of State of the DPRK and its founding father. He occupied the positions of President of the Republic, Premier of the Republic, Secretary-General of the WPK and Supreme Commander of the People’s Army of Korea (generalissimo rank). As we can see, Kim Il-Sung had much more power than Kim Jong-Un, and therefore direct of the same role in government (monarch) does not exist in the DPRK. We have already established the of power from the heavily detailed Constitution.


<Kim Il-Sung had the position of President of the Republic, which was more of a ceremonial role, that was abolished after his death and given to him ‘eternally’ and symbolically. However, he was the face of the government in being Premier, which was neither passed down to Kim Jong-Il nor Kim Jong-Un after him. The other positions have been covered in the context of Kim Jong-Un.


<The next Head of State was Kim Jong-Il, and he held the positions of Chairman of the DPRK National Defence Committee, General Secretary of the WPK and Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army (rank of Generalissimo). This shows that he had noticeably less power than his predecessor, and therefore that power is not automatically to a clear cut successor and is instead dispersed among multiple people after the death of each leader so far.


<But there is one clear pattern – the leaders are from the same direct bloodline. Now explaining this is where nuance and context are vital and, uncoincidentally, where Western media often abandons all such nuance and context. The Juche Idea created by Kim Il-Sung as the ideology of the WPK, and later DPRK, says that “man is master of the revolution”, however, only with proper leadership can the creative potential of the masses be directed properly towards the revolutionary goal.


<For more context on the history of the Kim family, Kim Sung-Joo, later named Kim Il-Sung, was a revolutionary and a national hero, who led the Korean people against the Japanese and American imperialists and won himself masses of support from the entirety of the Korean people. He guided the ship of state, at the will of the people, until he died in 1994.


<He had a son named Kim Jong-Il who had, for many years prior, been embarking on a political career in his own right and had won positions across government for his dedication and impressive competence for leadership. He only came to power four years after the death of his father, who he never publicly referred to as such and always called him “leader”. On top of all this Kim Jong-Il came to power in a time of great crisis in the DPRK as the socialist camp had collapsed and those few who remained were scrambling to survive. Furthermore, the North Koreans found themselves under a new economic offensive by the American imperialists in terms of new sanctions. This would have led people to observe the young Kim in the context of both his impressive credentials and in light of him being the son of the great leader as being the natural candidate to fend off this new assault. This is natural as in all democracies to people look to who they think of as the best leader and is irrespective of the parental connection between the two. It would be a lie however to deny any correlation.


<Finally comes Kim Jong-Un who built himself an impressive portfolio of roles and like Kim Jong-Il (his father) he did not come to power immediately after his death. This was because their constitution does not allow for a monarchy, and instead, it places power in the hands of the Korean people to decide. After all of this, I would argue that it is clear that the DPRK is not a monarchy and only a dictatorship in one sense – it is a Dictatorship of the Proletariat. While criticism can, and should, still be made to developing Socialist countries, it is the nature and character of criticism that is more often the problem. If it is a regurgitation of a supposed “fact”, allegation, or rumour, with no independent investigation made, it is more often than not blind belief in what capitalist media sources are proclaiming. The dehumanisation of those in the East – to view them as something of an “other” and not equal to us in the West is a common trope in the media. But no more is it applied as blatantly as with its view of the DPRK as a “rogue state” with its “tyrannical” and “warmongering” leader.


<We, as Communists, must do all we can to combat this misinformation campaign by the West to show the truth of socialist democracy, not only in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, but in all governments around the world wherever the red flag flies high.


Source
https://challenge-magazine.org/2022/02/03/is-north-korea-a-monarchy/
R: 0 / I: 0

crossover scheme proposal.

How based would it potentially be if leftyfags somehow got the Tariq Nasheed to read Dugin and On Contradiction, and Frantz Fanon?
R: 6 / I: 3

Does anyone live in Chicago? It was a complete shithole in the 2000s. Filled with drunks and crackheads and such. I can only imagine it's gotten much worse. Here's how the cycle goes
>Bureacratic opportunists come into power
>City goes to shit
>Smart people move out
>Only literal 90eyeq retards are left in city
>They vote for grifting faggot leftoids
>City continues to go to shit
>Becomes Detroit
>Property value crashes
>Gentrifying whiteoids and real estate speculators move in
>Slight increase in police presence so that faggot homo furdaddies can buy Starbucks without stepping into literal human feces
>Repeat

At one point, Chicago and cities like it had tons of industrial jobs, which kept working people there. But, due to shifts in the economy, I imagine the only people who live there are either lumpenized and maldeveloped or part of the professional managerial/financial grift class. The latter can live in gated communities and vote Democrat to make themselves feel like 'decent human beings'(tm). The former are just braindead.

Basically a blueprint for how communities/societies die.
R: 5 / I: 3

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.
R: 3 / I: 2

Visited leftypol accidentally thinking it was this site, whole place just looks like a Twitteroid hivemind but more "sophisticated". Why is leftypol such a shithole but this place seemingly rational?
R: 18 / I: 5

<Why is China so incredibly based?

Virtually everything they do in practice makes the faggot western left seethe. How can we bring this energy to America and Europe? We need socialism that castrates faggot pedos, bullies trawnies to suicide, executes drug dealers, and sends fatties to the labor camps.

Are you a NEET? Minus 50 social credit points.
Masturbate too much? Sorry, no high speed internet for you.
Didn't visit you grandma? Shame on you, not report to the reeducation program.
Don't want to have kids? Why are you supporting invasive bourgeois ideology.

<Chinese socialism is the final solution to the western left(tm).
R: 27 / I: 2

>multipolarity is not a political position - something you are for or against. It is an emerging state of reality in geopolitics and economics, characterized in part by the collapse of US hegemony.

Discuss
R: 6 / I: 0

Leading 'conservative' thinker, Michael Anton, warms up to socialism

>It has become increasingly common to hear those on what we may call the conventional right claim that the main threat facing the historic American nation and the American way of life is “socialism.” These warnings have grown with the rise of the so-called Great Reset, ostensibly a broad effort to reduce inequality, cool the planet (i.e., “address climate change”), and cure various social ills, all by decreasing alleged overconsumption. In other words, its mission is to persuade people, at least in the developed West, to accept lower standards of living in order to create a more just and equitable world. Since the conservative mind, not unreasonably, associates lower standards of living with socialism, many conservatives naturally intuit that the Great Reset must somehow be socialist.


>I believe this fear is at least partly misplaced and that the warnings it gives rise to, however well-meaning, are counterproductive because they deflect attention from the truer, greater threat: specifically, the cabal of bankers, techies, corporate executives, politicians, senior bureaucrats, academics, and pundits who coalesce around the World Economic Forum and seek to change, reduce, restrict, and homogenize the Western way of life—but only for ordinary people. Their own way of life, along with the wealth and power that define it, they seek to entrench, augment, deepen, and extend.


>This is why a strict or literal definition of socialism—public or government ownership and control of the means of production in order to equalize incomes and wealth across the population—is inapt to our situation. The Great Reset quietly but unmistakably redefines socialism to allow and even promote wealth and power concentration in certain hands. In the decisive sense, then, the West’s present economic system—really, its overarching regime—is the opposite of socialistic.


What follows is a fairly long and detailed summary of Marxism along with a comparison and contrast (mostly contrast) to today's system.

Interesting read
https://compactmag.com/article/why-the-great-reset-is-not-socialism
R: 18 / I: 0

has anyone here lived in a socialist state i.e. Cuba, China, DPRK, Laos, Vietnam, Venezuela? What was your experience?
R: 611 / I: 87 (full)

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.
R: 16 / I: 4

frog retirment struggle

The strikes are massive and the political opposition to macron's pension-rape has doubled from 26% to 46% in just a few months.

Macron has undemocratically bypassed the french parliament by using article 49.3 of the french constitution, to box this through. However it's now possible to oust him with a no-confidence motion.

There's a very strong possibility that this is Macrons political suicide, and it's very unlikely that this pension-rape will stand. The French imperial bourgeoisie has recently lost a lot of power in their African pseudo-colonies. The president of the Congo Felix Tshisedkedi recently flat out told Macron to shut-up his "imperial paternalism" during a political conference. And that means they can't fight against the french proles at home and fight to maintain imperial dominance in Africa at the same time.

I don't know enough about the political realities in France to make predictions about the ramifications, but seems that the imperial bourgeoisie in France is going to get a serious haircut.

Video source for the op-pic
https://nitter.net/L_insoumission/status/1636462337245736961
R: 5 / I: 2

Building Networks

This might not be worthy of its own thread, but once you've built a solid support base within one workplace/neighborhood/whatever, how do you build connections with other activists while simultaneously avoiding feds as best as possible(I am pessimistic on how possible that is, but that is a gut feeling rather than something that I have strong logic on, and will accept criticism)? If anyone has insight, it'd do a great service.
R: 0 / I: 0

ICC being dismanteled ?

The international criminal court has long had a questionable reputation for having a colonial bias because it almost exclusively has convicted war-criminals from Africa, and virtually non from western countries.

However i think there might be a conspiracy to erode it's legitimacy entirely before destroying it.

I think it started around 2018 when there were attempts to convict war-criminals from the US. It is important to know that the US is not a signatory to the various international treaties that could give the ICC jurisdiction over the US and it citizens.

Attempting to expand the reach of the jurisdiction of a criminal court is very risky because if it fails, it will damage the courts legitimacy within it's existing jurisdictions. And what happened in this case was that the US approved a law that would enable the US to invade the Netherlands in case they arrested US citizens to put them on trial in The Hague.

And recently they have done a similar thing again, but this time picked a fight with a different superpower, that is equally unlikely to yield because it too is not a signatory to international treaties that grant the ICC jurisdiction. They issued a arrest warrant against the Russian head of state, that got denied by the deputy head of the Security Council of the Russian Federation. Basically they threatened to destroy the ICC with hyper-sonic missiles if they tried to affect any arrests.

But this time the consequences went beyond military saber-rattling and legitimacy damage for the ICC, this time a number of countries have exited the international treaties, effectively rescinding the ICC jurisdiction, because they don't want the obligation to arrest the Russian head of state. Motivated by business interests and fear from retaliation of the Russian federation if they tried to go through with it.

I think that this goes beyond abusing a legal court for political goals, i think this is also about destroying an institution that over time could grow out of it's colonial legacy and become a truly international institution with the power to impose the legal discipline of international law on anybody, including the most powerful people.
R: 53 / I: 2

Money as the universal commodity ?

During marx's time money based on precious metals like gold or silver were the universal commodity, against which all other commodities were measured.

After money was detached from metal, the only real universal commodity money was the dollar because that was the only one against which all other commodities were measured. And you could say many of the big currencies that were easily converted into dollars had some of that universality rub off on them. By the way i count precious metal derived money as fiat money as well.

After the US began expanding sanctions at some point they crossed the line where the dollar can't be considered as the universal commodity against which all other commodities are measured anymore.

Precious metals are still universal in the sense that every economy will exchange for it, but you can't really use it to buy stuff. Shops don't have scales for measuring the weight of metal anymore, and won't accept pieces of metal as payments. That means that it's not really money.

There are a select few crypto moneys that appear to have the ambition to become a universal commodity, but they are very far away from realizing that.

So where does that leave universal commodity money ?
Does that still exist ?
R: 27 / I: 4

Why does the left have such a massive issue with protecting itself against Cluster B (BPD, NPD, ASPD) types worming their way into orgs and up the ladder? Why do in particular, BPD's gravitate to the left?
It's very likely that several Actually Existing Socialist leaders with Cluster B (*CoughCeausescuCough*) and I've watched with my own eyes, BPDs and Narcissists wreck orgs i've been involved in and watched them time and time again wreck movements and orgs across multiple countries.
Every time I've watched this happen, nobody has called out their unhinged behaviour and pulled them into line, instead, half the org usually does the "You go! show them!" when the person starts dolling out the unhinged accusations or wrecking while the other half just plays along for whatever reason.
I mean, just look at all the Nu-Gender theory Idpol shit which is pretty much Borderline Personality Disorder the movement, yet the Baizuo lets these people pretty much set the "purity requirement" for the modern left despite their positions being completely schizo, slippery sloping by the day and incoherent.
It's a clear weakness of the left that organisational discipline doesn't seem to kick in against these types and that people seem terrified of calling them out. How can the left learn to better deal with the personality disordered? Especially the Borderlines that run rife through our movement?
R: 56 / I: 5

Socialism with bullshitter characteristics

I've just finished watching the Caleb & Haz discourse here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5uUuB6Slqk about "muh third worldists and US socialist patriotism" (which was basically a covert response to the recent Caleb vs. Unruhe drama on Twitter), and came to a revelation.

Caleb emphasizes (generally, but in this exchange as well) how just like China had its "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics" so will the USA in the foreseeable future have its "Socialism with Amurrican Characteristics [SWAC]." So it made me wonder… what would SWAC look like? And then I had a revelation. It would be how like their current advocates are, meaning Caleb and Haz: bullshitters making shit work by bullshitting.

If you aren't familiar with this take I'll give you a crash course:
>Caleb Maupin
>well read on communist history
<literal booklet when it comes to Marxist economics and philosophy
>tries to start an IRL movement
<is indistinguishable from a fucking Bob Avakian-type cult

>Haz

>well read on non-Marxist philosophy
<literal booklet when it comes to Marxist economics and world history
>tries to start an online movement
<is indistinguishable from a fucking Bob Avakian-type cult – but on fbi.gov/Reddit/Twitter/Twitch

And the realization dawned on me. These two people are legit representatives of American culture as such, they are the products of it, since no one can escape his concrete environmental upbringing and such. So when these two speak about the future SWAC they already hint at us what it will be like: pure bullshit, trumped up with ego and drive, or, in other words: 70% bravado, 20% improvisation, 10% saving face.

Think about it. Caleb's whole focus on SWAC emphasizes two characteristics:
>individualism (freeze peach, rights, humanism, etc.)
all of which are antithetical to communism, which is to say a form collectivism, and the points of Marx & Engels
>and market socialism
even if as meant to be as a transitional period, although he says that communism is achievable "a thousand years in the future"

Meanwhile, Haz:
>We Already Live in Socialism (TM)
>incel platform that does socialist content
>bitcoin is communist praxis
>etc.

So to sum up: these two are bullshitters, without a doubt. (I could go on with the examples, trust me…) But is this any different from the general US culture at hand? I doubt it. US "culture" is exactly this: loudmouth, "pragmatist," under-read, self-confident (etc.) fools saying whatever and believing it 100%.

So whatever SWAC will be, it will have this main defining feature: bullshitting.
R: 7 / I: 0

Reminder that doctors are class enemies. They are the reason healthcare is so expensive in the US.

http://freenation.org/a/f12l3.html
R: 41 / I: 8

Communism

Why are real communists so based?
R: 3 / I: 2

Based congressman Matt Gaetz blasts ghoulish DOD bureaucrat over training African coup leaders. At this point, I think it's clear which party is the lesser of two evils, and it's not the party of finger snapping bosswomen and their simps.
R: 140 / I: 15

Etymological propaganda and its influence on the Left

Democracy: Governance by lot with citizen participation in major decision-making
"Representative democracy": an Orwellian word inversion used basically to describe the Roman oligarchic system of governance with fake appeals to populism peddled by Jefferson, Madison, and especially Andrew Jackson

Were leftists of the late 19th and early 20th century aware that this word inversion had taken place? Did any of them have an inkling that elections were a naturally oligarchic institution? I am curious about the effect this historical revision of the democratic mode of governance had on socialist strategies, tactics, and institutions. I know Marx had an education in the Greek classics, so at least he was aware… Right?
R: 12 / I: 2

Ant colonies - worker dictatoships?

Serious question. I've read recently that the dynamics of the ant population, ie how many different types of ants should be produced, is actually determined by worker ants in a colony.
This implies that the queen is actually a mean of reproduction controlled by the worker ants, through feeding patterns, pheromones or whatever other mechanisms. Is there a detailed research on this?
R: 13 / I: 5

BIDEN FAMILY HOME ADDRESSES.PDF Download NOW!!!

BIDEN FAMILY HOME ADDRESSES.PDF

Download NOW!!! Nuclear war is threating us because these officials refuse to engage in diplomacy with Russia anymore. It is your country, it is your cities, do you want to be blasted to oblivion because of these wicked men and women? NOW is the time to do something about it before it is forever too late!!!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Cf-zeiPsLetGTFLbX3iUl3TKU5SE1sUQ/view?usp=sharing
R: 25 / I: 3

Are there good arguments for why communists should or should not become entrepeneurs, landlords or investors?
What should the few bourgoisie who find themselves sympathetic to communism be directing their efforts towards?
R: 3 / I: 0

He's back

Your lord and master has been reinstated on Twitter.
https://www.twitter.com/eugenicskun

Bow and scrape, plebs.

I suppose this is also a good place to make a "Eugene general" to discuss your Lord and Master's received wisdom and awe in His magnificance. You are in the light of the new knowledge of the 21st century.

So you can check out my website and comment on my writings:

http://eugeneseffortposts.royalwebhosting.net

Since you all like talking about transhumanists all the time, I wrote an article about that on the website, and also a podcast on the incel thing which I linked before. As you can expect, sexual politics has always been a proxy for eugenics, and when push comes to shove it always comes out in these arguments.
R: 12 / I: 0

<centrally planned capitalism

Is this the solution to the problems that historical socialism faced. If so, to what end should capitalism be planned? How (or by whom) should this be decided and upon what administrative, legislative, or judicial basis?
R: 1 / I: 0

We are well aware that trade unionism is in dire straits right now. The trade unions have all just gotten a terrifying kick to the teeth with the events of last December, and even the supposedly "strong" UFT has people admitting that they feel like its power is gone. How do we assist in the creation of new unions to replace the old corporate ones?
R: 60 / I: 12

>Super crazy idea
Instead of sperging out abt history and philosophy (dats dialectical materialist n sheeit, muh eugenics), why not just focus on appealing to actually existing people to unite against the actually existing ruling class? This might be a better foci for any proper left.
R: 1 / I: 0

Wolff-sempai

It's that time again comrades. A new Global Capitalism Update has dropped

=EVERYBODY GET IN HERE=
R: 1 / I: 0

>Chimp in state of nature never jerks off, but in captivity he does, wat does this mean? In state of nature he’s too busy, to put plainly. He is concerned with mastering space: solving problem of life in and under trees, mastering what tools he can, mastering social relations in the jockeying for power and status. Deprived of this drive to development and self-increase he devolves to pointless masturbation, in captivity, where he senses he is in owned space and therefore the futility of all his efforts and all his actions. The onanism of modern society is connected with its supposed “hyper-sexualization” and its infertility. It’s not really hyper-sexualization, but the devolution of the spirit to the lassitude of a diffuse and weak sexuality.

>Among your instincts you will find the longing for strong friendships, that the modern evil tries to snuff out. And they have good reason to try this, because every great thing in the past was done through strong friendships between two men, or brotherhoods of men, and this includes all great political things, all acts of political freedom and power. The modern zoo wants you instead to be a weak and isolated "individual".


He's kinda right
R: 72 / I: 11

value theory

Lets discuss value theory.

Marx says the source of all economic value is because human labor is universal.

Marx says human ability to imagine and plan ahead is the source of universality, what Marx originally meant by that is somewhat unclear to me. I think this argument was tailored at countering a bourgeois retort that equated human workers with beasts of burden like horses.
Cockshott has IMHO improved Marx's justification by tying it to the universality of human labor-power. Humans can do just about any work task you can come up with.

I want to go one step further and say that human universality also rests on the ability of producing new humans. This gets important later.

The reasons why this argument exists is because the bourgeoisie tries to argue that economy value comes from capital. For example machine capital or land capital.

Today nobody seriously tries to argue that land produces profits, because the landed aristocracy isn't powerful enough anymore to command mental-labor for intellectual class-war in the realm of economic theory. But some still argue that machine capital is not just tools for enhancing worker productivity, but a source of profits in it self.

Some go as far as saying that capitalists can replace human labor with machines.

I think it's possible to build a machine that's as universal as humans are. So the Scifi stories that have anthropomorphized humanoid androids are basically correct in their assumptions.

However i want to emphasize that the humanoid robots that exist are nowhere near scifi level of sophistication.
It took about 4 decades to get the movement from barely able to walk automatic-legs, to the level of mobility we would consider athletic.
During that time perception of and navigation through, an environment, has greatly improved as well.
However all of this still has to be considered low hanging fruit, because all of these robots are still following the concept of animated puppetry. The Boston dynamics robots are on a much longer leash and have some autonomy (at least that's what they claim in their marketing material)

From an economic theory perspective: if a capitalist bought those robots, they would count as embodied labor power ( design-labor, manufacturing-labor and maintenance-labor). So a capitalist deploying these can only make super-profits (taking profits from other capitalists). They can't make profits through direct exploitation of these bots, because they are after-all just embodied labor of human workers. So at this level of technology robots are merely a means for capitalists to compete against other capitalists. Which probably means that economic incentives are tilted towards military applications.

The robots aren't able to generate economic surplus until they can reproduce them selves. Basically the robots do work to produce new replacement bots and do extra work beyond bot manufacturing and that counts as surplus, and that might be a potential source for capitalist profits. Mind you that those robots would also need the artificial mental capacity that allows them to design them selves. Those would have to be fairly intelligent and the practicality of enslavement is doubtful. Capitalist profits arise through money circulation. Making robots interact with money is orders of magnitude harder and slower than just using regular computer networking technology for directing them via instructions. So it's doubtful whether money will ever command robot-labor.

All that said the most prominent reason why capitalists won't be able to replace workers with robots is because capitalism won't be around for long enough to see the beginning of self-reproducing robots that are capable of producing economic surplus, that could be a source of profit. (Since it took decades to figure out full mobility and impressive but still limited navigation)
R: 65 / I: 17

Some clarification is necessary with regards to the Russo-Ukrainian War.
When Lenin quoted Clausewitz in saying "war is politics by other means", he should have appended "in capitalism" to it. Capitalism may generate crises that result in wars, but war is not about economic interest, nor is war merely a different expression of politics.
War is a political failure, appearing as one party (oftentimes the weaker one) using force to "negotiate" and to achieve their goals. War is ultimately a pseudo-politics that relies on morally blackmailing others to pick a side. It is pseudo-politics because politics is not about morality or justice, despite any such motivations, but is about freedom and power.
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend" applies in capitalist politics, opportunistically taking positions based on political clout. Of course a socialist movement should take advantage of divisions among the ruling class, but it should also point out the rotten and unprincipled positions that members of the ruling class tend to take in this context (bourgeois pacifism, bourgeois defeatism, et cetera).
Socialist politics is the class struggle, the struggle to organize the working class to seize political power without national boundaries; all other activity ought to be subordinate to this goal. Socialists ought not cede to capitalist politics by taking sides on capitalist wars.
We are constantly being manipulated by capitalist politics, making it difficult for us to imagine an alternative. Therefore, our first step should be to ask how we can organize workers independent of capitalist policy.
R: 3 / I: 1

Biden is responsible for the Train car derailments in Ohio

This mother fucker is at least partially resposible (ofc along with the CEOs and board of directors) of for the derailment of those trains and cars in Ohio. He needs to get the same treatment Bush Jr got over the invasion of Iraq. What a fucking joke and the Media is totally silent over the whole thing. I hope this bastard gets cancer in his asshole.
R: 12 / I: 0

Was ending apartheid a mistake?

Ya, I get it.
>Racial equality, social justice, blah blah blah
But here's the thing, by virtually every single other metric, quality of life has gotten drastically worse in South Africa. I can't help but think that ending apartheid was a massive mistake and that we are currently witnessing the inevitable consequence of putting incompetent people in charge of a country.

If you have one that's mildly coherent, I'm open to alternative explanations for why ending apartheid has ushered in the exact opposite of an abundant, harmonious society.
R: 1 / I: 1

Deep State

Ben Norton is doing a Series on the Deep State.

The first episode is about the JFK assassination.
https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=5N5bs1IGLQo
R: 10 / I: 6

John Fetterman is cool because he's the cognitive deficiency candidate. Mr. Oz has smarts, but he only knows how to use them for evil. He made his bones terrorizing the brains of innocent old insane dementia people, scamming them with fraudulent weight loss products. Fetterman may be dumb but he knows how to stack bricks and smear mortar on the bricks for 16 hours a day in the hot Pennsylvanian sun. That is a deed Mr. Oz has never known once in his privileged life.
R: 5 / I: 1

All U.S. extremist mass killings in 2022 linked to far right, report says
https://web.archive.org/web/20230224021503/https://www.axios.com/2023/02/23/mass-killings-extremism-adl-report-2022
When will the public wake up to this existential threat?
R: 479 / I: 124

South Asia and Desi General

A general thread for all South Asian related discussion.
R: 134 / I: 15

Falling rate of profit

Before Karl Marx wrote the political economy of capital, he was studying energy conservation laws. The tendency for the falling rate of profit is partially an expression of that.

Capitalist ideologues that are pretending that capitalism can go on for ever are basically peddling the same scam ass free energy perpetual motion devices.

In Marxist theory, the falling rate of profit is caused by the capitalist system changing the material conditions until it can no longer reproduce its existence.

Capitalism is not a perfect machine that will continue working until the profit-rate reaches zero. It will likely stall out some time before that. In this context perfect capitalism has perfect market-competition between capitalists, and all the capitalists are reinvesting 100% of their profits into new/upgraded means of production. No surplus goes into prestige projects, ruling class luxury, wars and means of political domination. All those expenses will make the system stall out earlier than the theoretical ideal of capitalism.

Marx also said that the mode of production changes once the old mode of production can no longer advance the productive forces.
That is also something that arises from statistical mechanics of thermo dynamics. In simple words low entropy increasing systems are statistically less likely to exist than systems that increase more entropy. The productive forces are really good at increasing entropy and the more advanced the better they become at increasing entropy. War is also very good at increasing entropy, so if you value peace, you value investing in developing the productive forces. It is not possible to choose a low entry path, like for example going back to agrarian society, because it will anger the gods of entropy.

Should we say it's a cooling rate of profit ?
R: 228 / I: 62

WTF is the left

Ok, I've never really heard anyone here explain what the left is (except the one dude with the asinine and convoluted definition about 'how the left doesn't exist because people don't perceive the left or it doesn't do the same thing as 100 years ago).

I've obviously used this place as a bit of a platform to rant against muhleft or the left (tm), and I genuinely appreciate the latitude the mods have given me to do that - since I feel like critique of the left has always been a tradition within the broader termed left. (Bolshevik split with the Mensheviks, the anti-revisionists broke from the USSR, in the west the 60s new left broke from the old, etc).

In some ways, the fake and ghey left is an example of a section of the broader left trying to distinguish themselves from the rest, albeit on a misguided cultural footing within the lap of finance capital.

But, this still an open question: what is the left.

I always find myself returning to the Marx quote - the free development of each is the free development of all.

This presents a sort of paradox, since development (on the individual and collective level) itself is never free. It always has an expense. Moreover, often development occurs faster through episodes of adversity, challenge, and even necessity.

At the same time you have a situation in which something is to lacking of freedom, has very little optionality or autonomy, it becomes stunted or dies, or it develops accordingly as cattle.

So you have these two (four really) qualities you wanted to maximize: collective and individual liberty and development. Of course, you cant completely 'max out' one without sacrificing stats in the others, but you can arrange a society in which all are raised a great bit.

This begins to provide an teleological orientation for the left - toward the maximizing of personal and social liberty and development.

This, of course, raises the question: development, what means.

To this I would argue the natural response - the expansion of personal and collective capability and achievement (against, something that requires both liberty and challenge to attain, with a special focus on liberty/freedom).

This, I'd argue, answers the sort of shared defining goal the left proper ought seek.

>Inb4: anti-capitalism, socialism>communism, some variation thereof


1) ok, to what end..? to what end? and to what end x3? What is the actual goal beyond 'ending exploitation, class oppression yadda yadda.' (Refer back to Marx quote)

2) Regarding communism as such, let's be real - command economy socialism wasn't as glorious as it looked on the propaganda posters or as outline by the chairman of the CP of that particular country.

Sure it solved many many problems, but it came with it own sets of other problems and expenses. As it turns out, centrally planning how much lettuce to grow isn't the very best idea - at least not at the time.

But - and this is important - it's a different time. Technology has developed quite a bit, to the point where literally planning how much lettuce to grow is actually far more feasible and productive than leaving it to private or contracted peasants.

That itself raises a whole other can of worms on political economy. But suffice to say, while the left proper is certainly dead is some sense, we ought to still be able to agree on a definitional kernel of wtf the left means.
R: 1 / I: 0

gl0wie d0x

Canadian glowuyghur is also a pedophile. This is important news I must share with the entire internet. Please like and upv0te
R: 0 / I: 0

Zionazis be like

Syria got hit by the most severe earth quake in recent history. And most of the world send disaster relieve aid, even the western sanctions got lifted a tiny little bit.

Except for Israel they just fucking bombed Damascus.
R: 44 / I: 9

lol

Any questions?

https://leftypol.org/leftypol/res/1366208.html
saved: https://archive.md/0wMAN

I mean, seriously, any questions left at this point?
R: 7 / I: 0

Is it reasonable to make a distinct between different types of capital at this stage of capitalism:

For example, we're all aware of:

Productive capital
Finance capital

But might we add onto this

Social control capital
Sales and business services (tertiary paper pusher) capital
Communication capital
Innovative capital (related to break out technologies)
Bureacratic or State Capital

Obviously these categories overlap to some degree, and they all operate together within a single system. Meanwhile, each might inculcate its own distinct cultural ideological features and indicate a direction of society.
>Pic unrelated
R: 15 / I: 2

>Thought experiment:

Let's assume there are two societies. Within both these societies, the only thing produced is apples, which represents the sum product of labor. Also, for simplicity sake, let's assume each society only has 10 people.

In society A, a total of 10 apples are produced in a given period. They are divided equally, with each person getting 1 apple each. (This, of course, represents a society without class division or exploitation).

In society B, let's assume that 100 apples are produced during the same period of time. However, they are divided unequally. 1 person receives 82 apples, whilst the 9 other people each receive 2 apples. Obviously, this society has steep inequality, yet each member is twice as materially supplied compared to those in the first

Which society is preferable given this info?

Society A, which is egalitarian? Or society b, which is sharply divided but in which the lowest members each receive twice as much in absolute material terms?

We could say that, obviously society B, since it provides for its lowest members twice as much. Or perhaps it's society A, in which all people are poorer in absolute terms, yet doesn't have class divisions and antagonisms, comparison anxiety (so long as they aren't comparing themselves in society B) and social animosity owing to inequality.

What say you?
R: 26 / I: 4

What is leftypols true opinon on blockchain?

I think hat block chain has huge benefit to mankind and how we can allocate resources in society but even crypto like bitcoin itself I think needs to be defended. Bitcoin and decentralized networks of finance, whether you believe it or not is Important IMO. Even if it flies in the face of our own ideals. It is a step forward for people. Think about how many people have never even entertained the ideals of decentralization before bitcoin and blockchain? Now its fresh in the ears of millions of people who may not have ever known such a formation was possible.

There's many powerful interests that want to see block chain destroyed or controlled by their influence. (The same people who we want to fight against)

And this is why I think we should be defending crypto at the end of the day.
R: 55 / I: 4

Forced vaccinations

What is leftychan opinion on forced vaccinations? I'm on the fence about it. On one hand I don't think workers should be loosing their jobs. On the other hand I think it's kind of selfish and stupid to be a fucking child about getting the poke when your inaction effects the lives of every one around you possibly with death.

Curious
R: 1 / I: 0

Interactions of the /pol/ kind

Thread for screencapping /pol/'s idiocy. It doesn't strictly have to come from 4/pol. You can be on any boards and smell their bullshit from miles away.
R: 10 / I: 2

What the DPRK thinks of Same-sex marraige

(Pic- Kim Il Sung University who released below publication)

2016.12.10.

Deformation in the spiritual and cultural life, this is the means by which the capitalist state and the capitalist class attempt to turn the working masses into modern-day slaves.

The bourgeoisie is spreading reactionary ideology, culture, and rotten bourgeois lifestyle in order to paralyze the working masses' consciousness of independence, make people obey the capitalist system of exploitation, and further degenerate into slaves to money. Thus, in a capitalist society, a perverted hobby of pursuing animalistic "pleasures" that has no relation to people's healthy demands has arisen, paralyzing people's bodies and minds.

Comrade Kim Jong- il , the great leader , taught:

“Even in the countries where capitalism is said to be the most developed, the number of illiterate and mentally handicapped is increasing day by day, and many people are degenerating into vulgar humans who pursue only momentary comfort and pleasure without any ideas or aspirations . ” 》 Supplemental Edition Vol. 12, p. 422)

In the United States, where normal human thinking is completely paralyzed and intelligence and civilization are deformed, the issue of same-sex marriage, which cannot be imagined in human society, is an important topic of discussion every presidential election.

In the United States, the issue of same-sex marriage has been a major topic of discussion during the presidential election since 2004 and has been raised as a political issue. Following the 2008 presidential election in 2012, the views of the presidential candidates against same-sex marriage became a concern of the electors. In the United States, voters generally refer to candidates who support same-sex marriage as innovative and those who oppose it as conservatives.

During the 2012 presidential election in the United States, then-President Democrat Obama expressed his support for same-sex marriage, while Republican candidate Romney opposed same-sex marriage. Obama also expressed his view that same-sex marriage was recognized during the 2008 presidential election.

In 2014, in the name of the President, Obama approved a proposal to ban discrimination against homosexuals when they were employed as state officials or company employees, and requested the National Assembly to consider the bill. Obama is the first incumbent president to support same-sex marriage in the United States. So, gay marriage and same-sex marriage are now a normal thing in the United States.

Former US President Clinton's Anhae Hillary, who is about to run for president in 2016, is also trying to change her old stance against same-sex marriage. Hillary was opposed to same-sex marriage when she ran for president in 2008, but now stands in support of it. Her husband, Clinton, also said that she regrets opposing same-sex marriage during the presidential race and presidency today.

One of the issues focused on in a poll conducted in 2015 ahead of the 2016 U.S. presidential election was also related to same-sex marriage. However, the most interesting thing is that only 37% of the respondents said that they dislike a gay president, in other words, that they are reluctant to a homosexual president. So, more than 60% of the rest are saying that it is okay for a homosexual to become president, but this is the truth of American society, where mentally disabled people who have lost their human intelligence gather. In a poll conducted in 2006, more than a decade ago, 53% of respondents said they were reluctant to have a homosexual president. In the last 10 years, the number has decreased by more than 15%. It is a vivid fact that shows the reality of capitalist society, including the United States, which is getting more and more rotten with the passage of time.

In general, in a capitalist society, homosexuals who want to marry are called "gays."

Same-sex marriage is a late-century phenomenon that can only exist in a rotten capitalist society that pursues “endless freedom,” and is a product of the mental and moral corruption of capitalism that has reached its extreme. It is not difficult for anyone to guess what will happen to human society if same-sex marriage, like the stinky stench and foul-smelling capitalist filth, is pervasive in society. Since such perverted same-sex marriage has become a hot topic for candidates running for the presidential election, called the head of state, the United States is, as everyone says, an upside-down world, a rotten end-of-life society.

Same-sex marriage in the United States started with the Stonewall Struggle in New York in June 1969. At that time, New York police officers unexpectedly attacked the Stonewall Inn, a gathering place for homosexuals. There was a large-scale protest struggle by homosexuals to protest this, and it quickly spread throughout the United States as it exploded with the homosexuals' "rage" that had accumulated over the decades. However, even after that, homosexuality and same-sex marriage became illegal in the United States.

In 1972, the U.S. Federal Court of Justice recognized the Minnesota State Court's ruling that did not allow same-sex marriage. In 1973, the state of Maryland passed the first law in the United States to include a ban on same-sex marriage. Also, in 1996, the Federal Parliament approved the Federal Marriage Act, which stipulated that "marriage is the union between one man and one woman, that is, the union of the opposite sex".

Homosexuality has been consistently permitted in the United States since 1977, when a homosexual named Harvey Milk was elected as a member of the Sia Franciscan Congress and the first homosexual civil servants were created in the United States.

Massachusetts was the first state in the United States to recognize same-sex marriage. In 2003, the Massachusetts State Court in the eastern United States issued a lenient ruling on same-sex marriage, and in 2004 officially legalized same-sex marriage.

On June 26, 2013, 10 years later, the Supreme Court of the United States of America ruled that the Federal Marriage Protection Act, which stipulated that marriage was only a union between a man and a woman, was in violation of the Constitution. In addition, a California law that strongly advocated a ban on same-sex marriage was also found to be a violation of the Constitution. However, the decision on whether all states should recognize same-sex marriage has been withheld.

In June 2012, six states in the United States recognized same-sex marriage, but in June 2014, there were 17 states, and the number continued to grow. Today, 55% of Americans in the United States are demanding that same-sex marriage be legally approved.

On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Federal Court of Justice approved same-sex marriage in all U.S. states with the vote of five out of nine justices. This effectively legalizes same-sex marriage across the United States. In accordance with this decision, 11 of the 13 states that had previously banned same-sex marriage began to issue marriage licenses necessary for same-sex marriage.

Currently, more and more countries are allowing same-sex marriage in capitalist countries. For example, in 2013 the UK allowed same-sex marriage, making it the 10th country in Europe to allow same-sex marriage. If you look at the countries that allow same-sex marriage in Europe, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and France are the examples. In France, on May 29, 2013, the first same-sex wedding (male) was held in the country's history.

Even with this one fact of same-sex marriage, we can see the true face of a capitalist society where human rationality has been completely wiped out.

Capitalism is the shame of human society, and its destruction is inevitable.

https://www-ryongnamsan-edu-kp.translate.goog/univ/ko/research/articles/08419be897405321542838d77f855226?_x_tr_sch=http&_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp
R: 3 / I: 0

How do I become a better socialist? Having dealt with the American healthcare system for the past 3 years, I can't even begin to bring myself to defending capitalism anymore. It doesn't create a better product or service; It just makes for a more conniving business strategy and if, by chance, that creates a better product… All the better for THEIR bottom line.

Had enough; What do I have to do to bring about a socialist utopia?
R: 15 / I: 1

new class struggle tactic

<PARIS—To fight President Emmanuel Macron’s pension overhaul, France’s most militant labor union is pursuing a radical strategy: cutting electricity to his political supporters and the wealthy while handing out discounted power and gas to the public.

<During a nationwide strike last week, members of the far-left CGT union who work in the energy sector cut power to the office of a lawmaker from Mr. Macron’s party for more than three hours. On Monday, CGT energy workers in Marseille manipulated electricity and gas meters to cut bills for bakers who were protesting in the French port city against high energy prices. CGT’s leadership called such moves a “Robin Hood” operation and said they would continue as the country prepares for another national protest on Tuesday.


<“Strikes are good, but they’re no longer enough,” said Sébastien Menesplier, head of the CGT’s energy division. “We have to take actions that are visible and impact those who are supporting the government.”

Philippe Martinez, the CGT’s national leader, this week proposed cutting power to billionaires and singled out Vincent Bolloré, a French tycoon who owns a host of businesses, including CNews, a right-leaning 24-hour news channel. “They can put themselves into the position of millions of people who face energy poverty,” Mr. Martinez said.

sauce
https://archive.is/5Xjzg

A new class struggle tactic just dropped.
Is this going to work ?
R: 2 / I: 4

Soviet Architecture is ugly AF CMV

Seriously look at what Narva was in 1938 vs post WW2.
Baltoid lapdogs are right about that at least.
R: 296 / I: 28

Leftist Unpopular Opinion

What is your Leftist unpopular opinion leftypol?

Mine:
>The West is not responsible for every shitty thing that happens in Developing countries, most developing nations just have completely nonfunctional institutions and many suffer from simply having no sense of national identity or cohesion.
>Also "Muh British lines are bad" isn't an excuse, that's practically just arguing that non-ethnostates/Tribal Kingdoms can't work for Africa, South East Asia etc.
R: 67 / I: 12

What if I told you that capitalism being superceded by another mode of production is inevitable, and hence it's only the finer details of culture, politics, and social issues that are actually up for debate.
R: 0 / I: 0

porkies turn to organ snatching

The privatized prison complex in the US now appears to be considering going into organ trafficking.

In this scheme the police hunts poor people, then the prison extract organs from them in exchange for their early release.

When future revolutionaries overthrow this system, they will have done nothing wrong.
R: 22 / I: 2

On Taiwan

If socialism is anti-imperialism, why do some of you support the dismantling and reunification of a free, democratic republic such as Taiwan?
R: 8 / I: 0

cloud capital

Yanis Varoufakis went to Cuba and gave a speech about a new non-alignment movement.
https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=6MfuGSlDRsc

He brought up a newto me concept of cloud-capital as a means of behavioral modification.
He said we should differentiate it to means of production.
(He speaks about this at 18:00 minutes)

Is he right about this ?

Should we add the new category of
<means of behavioral modification
to Marxist theory ?

he also says that
<who controls cloud capital controls surplus value
So has the situation changed since Marx said: "Seize the means of production" ?
Should socialists seek to seize the means of behavioral modification in addition-to/instead-off the means of production ?

To be honest I'm not entirely convinced behavioral modification technology should exist.
In my imagination that's a whip for the mind, but I'm open to counter arguments.
R: 2 / I: 0

What do you think of forced labor and lack of variety?

For one, I believe that it is very based for prisoners to be working in chicken factories and making bricks. This is forced labor in my opinion, but instead of free people doing these menial jobs, the prisoners do it as punishment. This stimulates more production.

Secondly, I read the bit from Cockshott where he states that cheap labor doesn't bring about automation as fast, I agree. I have noticed that when I watch factory videos, there are many, many jobs that could be automated but aren't. Anyhow, I would like that problem to be solved because my goals are the same as yours: A healthy, happy, clean world. I also agree with labor unions most of the time. I am genuinely interested in socialism, although it seems flawed in the sense that it reduces personal responsibility to the point where workers just don't care.

Thirdly, I would like to ask something about you guys as I have my own views on economics, I don't subscribe to a political philosophy, but I am economically right, socially left, how do we (according to you) overcome the lack of variety that former socialist countries had?

Fourthly, please don't be mean, I am just interested, and no I won't read Marx, it's too boring.
R: 43 / I: 6

definition of fascism

The standard Marxist definition of fascism comes from Georgi Dimitrov writings The class character of fascism, and he defines it as:
<The open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic and most imperialist elements of finance capital.

source
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/dimitrov/works/1935/08_02.htm#s2

But somehow today there is a lot of effort being put into redefine fascism into something else.
Even some Marxist spaces often can't properly define the class character of fascism.

Why is that ?
R: 0 / I: 0

They accomplished so little and somehow all ended up as functionaries of the bourgeois state. Why is this?
R: 7 / I: 2

>what new year's resolutions should the left make?
Comrades. The year of the rabbit (or cat) is here. What are some resolutions or changes the left ought to make to usher in a glorious, prosperous, and harmonious socialism?
R: 22 / I: 4

>What are the political implications of the pareto principle both in the left and in the wider world.
Does fact that 80% of impact/results stem from 20% of agents explain the inherent inequality of the world. Is this necessarily a bad thing, or is it just a thing that is devoid of value but should simply be accounted for?
R: 50 / I: 10

If leftists want to send a real message to capitalists we need to vote Trump. The liberals are fucking hysterical and a threat to our democracy, I mean they're fucking calling Trump a fascist and a reactionary, fucking hysterical libtards. Trump 2024.
R: 6 / I: 0

US is banning methal ciggarettes

I for one think this is based and red pilled.
The whole of the tabacoo industry should be shut down exc ept for flavored tabbaco that people smoke from hookas.
R: 21 / I: 3

What is the materialist explanation for why Europeans are such cucked pussies?
>Omg daddy govt plz make fast bikies stop
I have an evolutionary theory. All the non pussy European men somehow found their way to the Americas between 1500 and 1940, leaving just dapper dependant fags on the continent. Political implications?