Welcome again to everybody. Make yourself at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.
☭ Matrix homeserver and space
☭ Theory reading group on hiatus, will move to Lemmygrad next year
☭ Find theory on ProleWiki, marxists.org, Anna's Archive, libgen
what does this dog mean?
It's a NAFO symbol for some reason
E: I guess feds took some random meme and slapped it onto their shitty propaganda
The ongoing genocide and some people's denial of it has taught me that some people are never going to recognize something as a genocide unless 1) they are literally experiencing it themselves or 2) an institution that they trust tells them to believe something is one.
Granted, I was watching firsthand account info come in early, among other things, so that made it easier for me to discern and I guess some have probably not seen that part. But still, the confidence with which some people are in denial about it is enough to stagger me. I think some of it is just good ole western chauvinism liberal arrogance because it's one thing to be uninformed and skeptical, it's another thing to confidently believe to the contrary; to be a denier. And I'm not talking about from the sort of person who would tend to be a neo-nazi or the like, but somebody who obviously means well and yet is so stubbornly wrong about something so important.
I think some of it is just good ole western chauvinism liberal arrogance
Another part of it is that most westerners alive today have spent their whole lives saying and being told that all that bad stuff happened in the past and that everyone's more civilised now. Slavery, colonialism, genocide, these aren't core aspects of capitalism, they're things that people used to do before 'everyone' suddenly realised that they're wrong.
So when looking for 'an institution that they trust', the list is very short because (a) believing the institution means revaluating everything and (b) they've also been told not to trust many institutions or any institution that requires point (a) to happen. It's easier to take names off the list than add them.
Good points.
Is there any other source for thi??
MAGA is dead. Trump and Elon just burned out their entire base over night, they underestimated how badly the white supremacists would react to the idea of allowing in more immigrants.
The consequence of MAGA being elected with a mandate is they feel like they don't need to march in lock step anymore. They think they've won, permanently, so now all the contradictions within MAGA are coming out.
what do you think about this comment?
Absolutely nobody can argue with 400 million people out of poverty in 40 years.
Of course it's revisionist, though. Even official ideology says it is.
And at this point, it's also clearly state capitalism. The vast majority of goods and services are produced and distributed for profit via the market. Having a decent chunk of this done by commercially-oriented state owned firms doesn't make it socialist.
I don't blame them for having done this- it's almost impossible to survive, let alone thrive, in the capitalist world-system as a socialist state.
But a country with a higher gini coefficient than the US, absolutely rampant consumer culture, rampant labour exploitation, ruling classes composed of investor-bureaucrats, state enterprise executives, and straight capitalists, a huge speculative bubble real estate market (which has paid for local government budgets in recent years), and urban middle classes fixated on entrepreneurship and making money....none of these things are socialist.
OK, so maybe they had to crank up the capital accumulation machine for now so they can build real socialism later? Sounds great, except you're now placing your faith in the millionaire and billionaire capitalists at the top of the party to just dissolve themselves in favour of the working class some day. Good luck.
what do you think about this comment?
The comment identifies several features of SWCC that warrant close analysis. But the criticisms are very abstract, which may distort things.
I assume the comment is about China? I think to unpack the challenges that China is facing and it's successes and failures on the road to socialism, the criticism needs to be more specific. Otherwise, the risk is making conclusions that don't follow from the argument. For example:
Sounds great, except you’re now placing your faith in the millionaire and billionaire capitalists at the top of the party to just dissolve themselves in favour of the working class some day. Good luck.
The conclusion suggests the CPC isn't aware of the issues and doesn't have a plan for them. That might be the case. But it might not. We need to know more to say for sure.
Starting with such an abstract view of the country misses any safeguards, contingency plans, restraints, even faults, etc. Is it faith in rich capitalists or faith in a socialist system of socialist checks and balances?
Additionally, the level of abstraction kind of obscures the what, the why, and the how. Consider the following:
I don’t blame them for having done this- it’s almost impossible to survive, let alone thrive, in the capitalist world-system as a socialist state.
What does it mean to be a socialist state in a majority capitalist world? What has China done to navigate that world and control it's domestic capital? Why and how?
I also think I'd frame it the other way – I'd start from a more positive position, that China's officials deserve praise for building socialism. They haven't simply survived. Many other paths would have meant simple survival for the 'state'. It just seems a bit strange to frame China's development potentially deserving blame and as doing the bare minimum that it took to survive. Again, I think this stems from the level of abstraction.
Abstraction is useful but it follows from concrete analysis of detail. Otherwise, I agree that China's rise is unconventional and I look forward to seeing how it deals with the latest contradictions.
"Revisionism" refers to changing the fundamentals of ML, China did not do so.
"State Capitalism" literally is early socialism, if done under the DotP. And the CPC considers China in the early stage of Socialism.
In the Netherlands we have a famous nonstop radio program of the 2000 best songs of all time from christmas to the beginning of the new year, voted by the public. I like listening to it, but I'm always bothered by how little diversity there is in the list. It's all mostly old rock, and there's almost no people of colour in it. Most of the songs are in english as well and just a few in dutch. We have a large north African population in the Netherlands so where is Cheb Khaled? And we have a large Turkish population so where is Tarkan? And there's not enough hiphop. Kendrick and De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig need to have more songs in there.
But at least Hind's Hall by Macklemore got in, at place 822, and it's being played tonight between 10 and 11 o'clock local time. You can listen at nporadio2.nl
They censored the webcam lobby lol. Pathetic.
I try to get people like Hef or Fresku or Winne & Feis in there every year but it doesn't work. It's a white people's list.
They also didn't introduce the song or talk about it at the end. They simply let it play and ignored it. The dj is Moroxcan so I expected more of him.
Ngl the MAGA split is hilarious.
Should I feel guilty for refusing to donate to Wikipedia?
The regular contributors tend to be jerks and the quality of content is notoriously variable, but the main reason that I keep ignoring their begging is that I suspect that Wikipedia already receives substantial donations from government agencies, since they've meddled in it before. There is no way that they'd let it go without a fight. So I think that the Wikimedia Foundation is only begging for donations so that government agencies don't have to bail it out.
not at all; it's primarily used to spread imperialist propaganda and IMO it's done far more harm than good
I had forgotten just how severe the government interference was. (Somewhat odd, too, given Wales's propertarianism.)
In 2020, it was discovered that the Scots language Wikipedia was almost solely edited and managed by a 19-year-old US citizen who did not speak a word of Scots from the time he was 12. He also used his administrative powers to block others from correcting his vandalism.[18]
Holy cow, that is almost upsetting to me since I think that Scots is a very interesting language.
a group of committed Wikipedia editors on the English instancce have been promoting a skewed version of the history of the Holocaust that is touted by right-wing Polish nationalists, whitewashes the role of Polish society in the Holocaust, and bolsters stereotypes about Jews.
This is a sad reminder that my work on informing others about Fascism remains necessary, as very few people in general talk about the Polish anticommunists' collaboration with the Fascist empires. I can understand why many of us are uncomfortable approaching a topic where the subject is simultaneously a victim as well as a victimizer (like the Jewish Kapos), but this sort of evasion is motivated by something less innocent than that.
Wikipedia blocks the IP addresses of VPNs and other proxies, preventing users from mainland China from editing. [...] Wikipedia often deletes articles about topics outside of the West. For example, Chinese Wikipedia deleted an article about the Xuzhou urban expressway while keeping an article about a 200-meter-long street in Hong Kong.
The hypocrisy is almost palpable.
The Wikimedia Foundation collects over $100 million per year even though only $10 million is needed to keep Wikipedia running. It raises money by lying that Wikipedia needs more money to avoid shutting down.[10]
Okay, now I definitely don't feel guilty about ignoring their begging. These paskudnyaks are almost as disgusting as common scammers.
I always assumed they asked for donations so aggressively as an act of propaganda, to reinforce the idea that it's a 'grassroots' outfit. I wonder how much of that $100 million is from ordinary people.
To noone's surprise, after the GDF yt channel made much coverage around Israel and its influence over the US, you constantly see antisemitic conspiracy theories being pushed in the comments, unopposed. So fucking disappointing, you would think he would at least engage a little bit with BadEmpanada's critique but no
I am new around here, just wanted to say hello!
Welcome!
Thank you so much!
welcome to lemmygrad! enjoy your stay :D
Thank you! I love this place already.
Hello
Hello, Oppo!
You have to send me a animal video now does are the rules
Alright, here it is:
An Arab travel youtuber I follow posted a picture with Jolani in Syria on Instagram and the comments are all Iraqis flaming him for posing with a murderer of Iraqis lol
The PFLP Telegram channel has been banned in Spain, so much for freeze peach
The holidays got me feeling lonely again. I try not to dwell on it too much and keep doing things I enjoy, but they feel empty without someone to share them with.
Same 😔
I can't be the only one who gets pissed when people go "muh why isn't china launching all their nukes at israel!!!! So disappointing!"
China could do more for Palestinians. The fact that they continue to trade with Isn'treal is disappointing. However, those who strongly criticize China don't understand that Chinese policy is a manifestation of the desires of its population. The CPC won't do anything that is not supported by a large majority. They have a non interventionist policy because that's what their population wants. China isn't the one enabling Isn'treal to carry out its genocide and it really isn't their responsibility to put themselves at risk to stop it.
Merry christmas to those who celebrate
Somehow celebrating christmas with family has made me feel more lonely
i feel the same honestly :(
"oagh. get a new computer :D" -King Harkinian, in Youtube video "YoutubePoop-The King has a new computer"
new laptop arrived yesterday, a lenovo because they're pretty ok. i set up the linux on it and it feels good. almost like my older hp 250 g2 but beefed up to hell and back
I have been trying to stop drinking for a while now, and I was going fairly steady on. But on Christmas eve, I fell to the overbearing peer pressure and felt like shit all Christmas. I've grown to hate how ingrained alcohol is to this holiday in so many places, you can't get away from it unless you have the restraint of a saint.
I specially struggle with the social pressure and anxiety, if you dont pick up a drink people start treating you like a weird bug. Also doesn't help that being sober makes you realize how boring and shallow the people around you are, which leads me to either drink or leave reunions early.
Yeah, It's a loss either way, if I drink, I feel bad and depressed, but if I don't drink, realizing that most of the company I frequent are boring as hell makes me feel bad and depressed. It's sobering (pun intended).
You've got almost a whole year to prepare for next christmas. You got this.
This is a Dengist community in favor of Bashar al-Assad with no information that can lead to the arrest of Hillary Clinton, our fellow liberal and queen. This community is not ironic. We are Marxists-Leninists.
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