this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2026
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I've worked 13 hours straight and had to organize a push to get us fed dinner.

There's a good chance I'm stuck here for 2 more hours, meaning I get 0 time to do anything except sleep and do this again.

I want to quit so badly, but I'm basically forced to be here because this job market is such shit that it took a year to get this job. And I consider myself lucky to have this.

There's a thread on lemmygrad from someone that's also exhausted around the discourse about the American "left". Yes we suck, yes we are privileged compared to a lot of people, yes our organizing is tame and not effective, yes my material conditions mean I'm not doing adventurism and neither are my comrades.

BUT don't claim we're not trying. I know people working two jobs. I technically have 2 jobs and am maybe able to get back on my feet financially in a few months. We still do what we can and it's not enough but we're not at that point. Yeah that's privileged if you call being scared shitless of being homeless and being abused by literally every other human here...

I'm tired

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[–] Grownbravy@hexbear.net 53 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Being an american is like being a fish in a bowl while the house it on fire.

[–] Red_October@hexbear.net 31 points 1 month ago

Damn. That was really fucking good. Can I steal this or is it communal property?

[–] Red_October@hexbear.net 52 points 1 month ago

There’s a fantastic quote from Black Communism, “If my neighbor wants to lynch me, that’s his problem. If my neighbor has the power to lynch me, that’s my problem.”

Privilege between the poor dispensed by the parasite class has been a tactic to drive the lower class against itself since the times of knights and peasants. Best way to equality is to destroy the parasite class and redistribute its resources. Again and again until the world proletariat are unified.

Which includes destroying their propaganda centers and lack of health resources that drive lynching behavior!

[–] Jabril@hexbear.net 49 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Trust, as someone who has spent a lot of time working for local wages in the global south, there is still a big difference. Making $3 usd an hour in brutal heat for 15 hours a day 6-7 days a week with almost none of the luxury goods, recreational options or other comforts an average American has access to

[–] Le_Wokisme@hexbear.net 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

with almost none of the luxury goods, recreational options or other comforts an average American has access to

a bunch of us don't have those either.

[–] Jabril@hexbear.net 28 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Eh, I live in the states now and do work with unhoused people and people in poverty and plenty still drink alcohol, eat treats, watch slop on their big TVs and smart phones, eat out and more. Of course some people don't but it's a marginal amount. I've literally watched football on a big screen TV in a tent in a homeless encampment in the US

[–] Le_Wokisme@hexbear.net 19 points 1 month ago (5 children)

i remember fox news being shocked that poor people had refrigerators

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[–] microfiche@hexbear.net 9 points 1 month ago (3 children)

That's a good way to take someone's obvious stress at their situation and shit on it.

[–] lib1@hexbear.net 43 points 1 month ago (8 children)

Is the comparison not invited by the discussion of privilege? Who else are they meant to be privileged over as an oppressed worker in the imperial core?

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[–] save_vs_death@hexbear.net 19 points 1 month ago

In 2010 the dumbest people you'll ever know were bringing up arguments about how men can't be more privileged than women because the queen of England has it a lot better than a bum on the streets. They were wrong because "privilege", as a term, means something specific.

[–] Jabril@hexbear.net 17 points 1 month ago

I didn't say anything implying they should feel bad or that their feelings are invalid or anything of the sort, just saying that although one might not feel privileged in America, it is all relative and no American would trade with the equivalent level of workers from global South

[–] KnilAdlez@hexbear.net 46 points 1 month ago

Here's the thing, and I think about this a lot, you are privileged. You make more money that the global south, you have access to more niceties, etc, etc. but you are still suffering. Your excess value is still being stolen from you left right and center. Their cause is your cause and vis versa. We must remember: We are all oppressed by the bourgeois, and none of us are free until all of us are free. Just try to move forward everyday.

[–] demerit@lemmygrad.ml 44 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

One of the worst thing liberalism has done is individualizing concepts such as privilege. Its about structures, the individual matters basically nothing in it. Thats why reverse racism isnt a thing. Why female gaze doesnt exist. And why there is no such thing as heterophobia.

[–] TraschcanOfIdeology@hexbear.net 24 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Truly. Many individual men have it worse than many women, and many indivitual white people have it worse than many black people. It isn't evidence that the patriarchy or racism don't exist and don't favor the demographic they're meant to uplift.

Solidarity isn't about everyone sharing in the same oppression. It's understanding that there are privileges and oppressions that we don't participate in, but that we fight for the emancipation of everyone from all of them.

I'm begging y'all to read any intersectional feminism text and internalize it.

[–] MayoPete@hexbear.net 12 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Anything you recommend in particular and something I could read on a phone during break today? 🤞today is a shorter day

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[–] DaMummy@hexbear.net 33 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Have you tried tweeting at your congressman? Maybe writing a strongly worded letter will help. Perhaps you're ready to start a petition? You could also start planning the next nationwide one-day protest 3 months from now.

[–] MayoPete@hexbear.net 27 points 1 month ago

Are you me from 15 years ago?

[–] MayoPete@hexbear.net 17 points 1 month ago

Still working

[–] LeninWeave@hexbear.net 30 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

I love my AmeriKKKan comrades who also hate AmeriKKKa. When I complain about the AmeriKKKan "left" I try to put "left" in quotes because I'm talking about the radlib-in-denial chauvinists who look for every excuse to preserve the nationalism they claim not to have.

Also, wow that sucks really bad (the 15 hour shift). I'm sorry to hear that. The job market, too. Death to America.

[–] MayoPete@hexbear.net 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

There's a very mid burger place near me that just put up one of those massive Amerikkka flags and I have to see it on my morning commute. Fuck nationalism and especially fuck anyone who thinks there's anything "great" about this place pineapple-surf

[–] LeninWeave@hexbear.net 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Fuck nationalism and especially fuck anyone who thinks there's anything "great" about this place

Based and Comradepilled. mao-clap

[–] PowerLurker@hexbear.net 13 points 1 month ago

I love my AmeriKKKan comrades who also hate AmeriKKKa.

im-doing-my-part

[–] Alaskaball@hexbear.net 29 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I've worked 13 hours straight and had to organize a push to get us fed dinner.

There's a good chance I'm stuck here for 2 more hours, meaning I get 0 time to do anything except sleep and do this again.

Oh shit same here, just finished a 15 hour shift. Thankfully I got 7 hours left before my next shift at the hopes and dreams crushing factory.

[–] MayoPete@hexbear.net 23 points 1 month ago

Those dreams ain't gonna crush themselves

[–] la_tasalana_intissari_mata@hexbear.net 25 points 1 month ago (2 children)

if you're not feeling your privilege, it means you're not feeling the horrors imposed on the rest of the world, you're scared shitless of being homeless yes, but are you stressed out over the U.S. NATO and israel coming in and bringing back slavery to your streets on top of that? we have comrades from Mexico, Lebanon, Palestine, Cuba, Venezuela and a dozen other countries that can wake up tomorrow as a part of the 80 civilians killed by a U.S. special operation, can wake up in the next Libya. And the whole anti-immigration bullshit, a white cis American leftist man doesn't have to worry about ICE coming in and sending him to a concentration camp.Yes, you fear falling into health debt and college debt, but not IMF debt.

And as far I've seen the western leftists who are actually doing something are a minority of a minority, I consider Hexbear to be one of the best leftist forums in the entire global north and goddamn some of you people can not be trusted, to not call out anyone here, in other forums or "leftists online" I saw many willing to completely ignore the genocide and saying vote for Kamalla Harris, the western left most of us see is "I condom hamas I condom maduro I condom china I condom regime I donate 5 dollar to rich man Hasan Piker".

And your biggest privilege is the size of your success, if a communist revolution happens in the USA, it wouldn't be bombed by the U.S., it wouldn't have an embargo imposed on it by the U.S., it wouldn't have its leaders assassinated by the U.S., stuff the rest of the world has to consider, the USSR at its size still got completely destroyed by U.S. interference, how would a revolution in Ghana survive?

[–] blunder@hexbear.net 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I strongly agree with most of what you are saying but I would gently push back on this point:

if a communist revolution happens in the USA, it wouldn't be bombed by the U.S., it wouldn't have an embargo imposed on it by the U.S., it wouldn't have its leaders assassinated by the U.S.

The American left is as weak as it is because the US has spent the last century bombing, economically disenfranchising, imprisoning, and assassinating every left-aligned or not-white-supremacist-aligned movement. Immediate examples that come to mind are Malcolm X, MLK, Fred Hampton, Eugene Debs, the bombings in Tulsa and Philadelphia, the Homestead strike, and the leadership of BLM after Ferguson.

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[–] la_tasalana_intissari_mata@hexbear.net 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Also

BUT don't claim we're not trying.

https://hexbear.net/comment/6805346

We'll do that when you stop claiming china isn't trying.

[–] MayoPete@hexbear.net 8 points 1 month ago (5 children)

One dude is not equivalent to arguably the world's strongest economic superpower. They could say "no more Labubus" and shut off half our economy with sanctions overnight. I pick up a gun and become Swiss cheese before stepping foot in wherever I am trying to adventure. Don't be silly.

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[–] doubledealer@hexbear.net 19 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Hang in there comrade.

Yeah, we don't have to worry about bombs dropping on our heads, but we're one injury away from ruin or looking over our shoulder for one snapped coworker or student with a military grade rifle. We have no real safety net besides what we can stitch together ourselves. Don't be afraid to ask for aid. The best thing those of us in the heart of empire can do is help ourselves and help each other. Being ready to act, and having those around us also ready to act is more important than acting prematurely.

[–] Le_Wokisme@hexbear.net 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah, we don't have to worry about bombs dropping on our heads,

that's less true historically than you'd think at first glance, especially for black people.

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[–] PowerLurker@hexbear.net 18 points 1 month ago (2 children)

when you say "eternal death to the KKKomprador WeSStern Left" this is who you're being mean to btw

(yes i know i suck and so does my country but im trying ovah heeyah okay???? bawllin-sad)

[–] LeninWeave@hexbear.net 12 points 1 month ago

"eternal death to the KKKomprador WeSStern Left"

Thanks for this, this is amazing. I'm going to steal this for next time I need it (probably when some european org - likely Die Linke - does something massively chauvinistic).

[–] MayoPete@hexbear.net 8 points 1 month ago

Can we get burning donkey and elephant emojis?

[–] SexMachineStalin@hexbear.net 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I've worked 13 hours straight

That alone is illegal as hell outside the Shaytan al-Akbar because of maximum work and rest period laws.

In a bitter irony, when I lived in the ameriKKKa, I had a job from 2011-13 which paid $8.50 an hour and until recently, was my highest-paying job ever - I also had the worst fucking living conditions ever despite this.

I only had to work a 12-hour shift once because we happened to have an urgent, large workload but was promised an extra R750 in addition to mandatory overtime pay. Of course the work period including overtime in a day is capped to 12 hours.

[–] SickSemper@hexbear.net 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (9 children)

“I’m a man but I certainly don’t feel privileged” “I may be white but I don’t feel privileged”

it’s not about your feeling, it’s about reality. You’re not in the cobalt mines, or the sweatshops, or in Yemen or Gaza or Caracas or Tehran or Beirut or Vietnam or Cambodia or Laos or the innumerable places made unliveable by American imperialism. You can live a hard life as an American, plenty of people do. But the difference is being within the belly of the beast vs being on the receiving end of its hellfire. You can have a bad time with both, but one is more likely to kill you.

The gall to post this “not all imperial citizens” nonsense after we’ve killed dozens of innocents in Venezuela. I’m sure they worked hard, went to bed tired, and didn’t have enough hours in the day. The difference in our situations is the bombs and drones

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[–] GrouchyGrouse@hexbear.net 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yes, it is crushing to the soul. It is crushing in ways that are distinct from other’s experiences. Right now people are agitated and shit is wild out there, and that reflects back in our spaces here too. Hang in there. Is your life materially better than others? Yeah probably, but you aren’t empowered by that difference. We cannot act ethically within capitalism to change this imbalance. If you don’t take what you can get to keep yourself going it doesn’t get kicked downstream. It goes right back to the bosses! By design.

There is a line I always come back to: “we are trapped in the belly of this horrible machine, and the machine is bleeding to death.” It is taxing on the soul to be here and witness this. This is the nature of capitalism. None of this does good things. Not even for the victors. Look at how wealth has twisted Musk into a caricature and filled his body with hormones and stimulants and all kinds of horseshit. Look at that weirdo infusing himself with his son’s blood. You can’t look at that and say “yeah, this is sustainable, this is working out for them.”

[–] CrawlMarks@hexbear.net 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I have a mixed emotion about it. Like, I have had a Playstation in my life. Did having a Playstation make my life appreciably better? Probably not. Like, yeah, It was fun. In a hypothetical world would I have enjoyed like throwing mud at a wall in a bar with my friends more? Probably. Those people I see playing that game in tik tok seem to enjoy it more than most any video game I have played. I am sure there are some luxuries that are actually worth it. I just can't in my head picture it.

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[–] microfiche@hexbear.net 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I empathize. I'm rowing in the same boat. It takes from us all, at the end of the day. Some ways alike, some ways not so much, but suffering and stress are still just that.

hugz.

[–] MayoPete@hexbear.net 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)
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[–] BountifulEggnog@hexbear.net 10 points 1 month ago

If I wasn't a depressed failure removed I would have been. Managed to blow that.

[–] CloutAtlas@hexbear.net 8 points 1 month ago

It will get better, comrade. Sure as the sun will rise in the east, communism will win.

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