I'm a latecomer to helldivers 2 so i've been plugging away at that - my fav enemies are probably the bots, which are described as "mindless, bloodthirsty robots, coded for nothing but murder and socialist violence" 
my grandmother used to buy me premium bonds when i was little, dunno if something similar exists where you are but essentially it's like putting some money aside in a lottery fund where you might win something, but even if not, you still have the original deposit however many years later when you withdraw it
It's cringe how so many cities have grifted billions in aid of "let's build some window dressing for the olympics/the world cup/the millennium, and it will totally be used afterwards so actually it's like a public investment" only for all of it to just be pointless landlord shit that could have just been affordable housing or public parks
i have a shed, but it's full of bikes, garden equipment and spiders
I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it. It was the chief.
burying the lede a little there - fission plants have existed for like 80 years; fusion-fission is the important part
alternatively, you could interpret there being a lot of overlap between right-wing audiences and almost none for left-wing ones - leftists famously hate each other more than anyone else
it requires fewer tons of CO2 to tell you that 757 * 128 = 3042
My roommates mum (we're in the UK) came over for christmas eve, and she was chatting with my mum about how she has prayed every night this year for donald trump.
she believes that all the space rockets that go up visit the sun to collect 'plasma' and that all the vaccines are microchips, so y'know, top minds and all
Socialism was popular amongst the public in the interwar period; hyperinflation, post-WW1 destruction etc were contributing factors.
The nazi party was originally the DAP (German Workers' Party; a socialist party), which Hitler was tasked with infiltrating when he was an officer in the army.
He was eventually discharged, but maintained his position in the party and saw it as a tool to achieve ulterior goals.
After he became party leader, he took them in a more nationalist direction but maintained the essence of socialism in the party, hence NSDAP (National-socialist German Workers' Party), else he might risk a calamitous exodus of the party membership leaving them a fringe element.
Certain key members like Röhm, leader of the Sturmabteilung, were socialists, though more like what you might call patsocs nowadays, until they too were ousted on the Night of the Long Knives.
There are historical photographs of Nazi rallies where supporters hung banners saying "Marxism must die for Germany to rise again"
TL;DR, it was originally a socialist party; Hitler co-opted it for his own means and gradually purged the left-wing elements and consolidated power until it was a fully fascist entity.
Required reading on the topic is chapter one of Michael Parenti's "Blackshirts and Reds"; it covers other aspects such as how capitalists flooded the nazis with resources to aid their rise to power.
I don't mean to call anyone out - I despise conflict, especially of the sectarian variety.
I wrote the following in response to someone's assertion that all anarchism is, amounts solely to fighting in the streets, but it is a more general response to how I feel about the community in general - vis-a-vis Marxist-Leninists in particular. Since this comm. is fairly quiet, I figured I'd put it here as I spent a lot of time writing it and it would be a shame if no one saw it. 😑
I am becoming more and more convinced that the ML crowds that are the loudest proponents of 'read history' and 'read theory' do absolutely neither.
Anarchism is one of the prestige forms of socialism - it was half of the First International, and, just like Marxism, was disseminated and adopted throughout the world during the 19th and 20th centuries.
- Even during Marx's time, one of the most informative experiences of the era was that of the Paris Commune - heavily contributed to by anarchists.
- The Russian revolution was not undertaken solely by a cadre of intellectual vanguardists - it was facilitated by the formation of the proletariat and peasantry into trade unions, factory committees and worker's soviets - at this time, Lenin et al weren't even in the country due to exile.
- Even Lenin on his deathbed spoke of 'witnessing the resurrection of the tsarist bureaucracy to which the Bolsheviks had only given a Soviet veneer'; after the civil war rejecting the popular demand for socialism via worker-control and disbanding organisations like parties, committees and soviets - not to mention utilising force when necessary such as at Kronstadt. This is not a blunt stab at the Bolsheviks - it is important to note the Marxist Contradiction: That the Bolshevik state was established to achieve socialism and to represent the interests of the proletariat - yet, at the opportunistic post-Civil War moment to do so, they declined, instead favouring the opposite.
- Mao himself read anarchist theory and was inspired by it - beyond being a passing interest as a young man, it likely fed the basis of his later departures from Marxist-Leninism and criticisms of state bureaucracy.
- In Korea, anarchists established the Korean People's Association - an autonomous confederation of 2 million people, operating on a mutual aid based economy.
- It would be folly to discount entirely the efforts of the Spanish anarchists in establishing 'actually existing socialism' in Catalonia and Andalusia - money was abolished, productivity increased, and thousands took up arms in horizontal armies to fight the fascists. Putting aside issues of ideological supremacy, these are real, material impacts that in some cases have lasting effects - even today the municipality of Marinaleda maintains a system of mutual aid, collective ownership and autonomy.
- In Cuba, anarchists lent their support to the revolution wholeheartedly - joining the guerilla groups fighting Batista directly.
- Edit: Of course, how could I forget the Zapatistas? They currently control a sizeable territory in Mexico, and have been directly addressing the needs of their largely rural and underprivileged citizens for over 25 years.
etc.
In many of these cases, anarchists have repeatedly facilitated revolution, and even established instances of real, tangible socialism. That they did not survive suppression and encirclement is not proof of their lack of capacity for success - if such a thing was true, the Soviet Union would never have been established (on the basis of historical revolutionary suppression and exile) nor should there be Marxist-Leninists left now that it has been dismantled.
The assertion that anarchist movements are prone to corruption and co-option by reactionaries is also flawed - the same applies to Marxist-Leninist parties too. There is no shortage of ML parties in various countries extolling reactionary views today, and the conditions that led to the dismantling of the USSR can be seen as exactly this phenomenon - the undermining of public trust in the party by propaganda and the infiltration of the party itself by opportunists and yes-men for the purpose of usurping it.
How can Marxist-Leninists say with confidence that their method is the only scientific application of Marxism; lambasting others for their perceived vulnerabilities to Western capital; when not even their prestige test-case itself was immune? How can we be expected to fall in line with the logic "The Marxist-Leninist state was undermined and dismantled. The solution is Marxist-Leninism."
Finally, why is it that calls for 'Left Unity' apply solely to Marxist-Leninism - that we should overlook our differences in their favour in the interest of the bigger picture, yet you will find nothing in kind from them?
I have spent years carrying water for ML ideologies - for the USSR, for China, etc. - against my personal beliefs and better judgment in the interest of internationalism and anti-imperialism. The least I expect, is to be treated like a communistic equal, fighting in the same struggle.
Instead, our communities are filled with Marxist-Leninists quotebombing dissenters with Lenin and stamping on anarchists at every possible opportunity - only occasionally moderating themselves with a token "I have many anarchist friends, but..." or "I support left unity, but..."
Put aside your wretched egos for once in your lives. Consider the fundamentals of our theory and praxis - that material conditions around the world and throughout history are not uniform. There may indeed be cases where Marxist-Leninism is the most effective - I claim that in earnest.
Will you be able to acknowledge the possibility of cases where anarchism is the most viable? Especially when anarchism spans such a range of approaches and theories - from syndicalism to mutualism to synthesism.
You need to be aware, that for many people, the barrier to the adoption of Marxist-Leninism is not simply the influence of Western propaganda, or the the lack of 'reading theory' - it is our diametric opposition to hierarchy in any form. That does not preclude our contributions to your causes - it means that they are done voluntarily.
The truest demonstration of Left Unity for me, will be when I don't feel like an outsider, as a communist within the communist community.
:left-unity-2:
view more: next ›
Jehuty (ZOE) when I'm feeling like a big codpiece
Tsugumori (KOS) when it's time to fight alien zombie parasites
RAY (MGS) when I fancy a swim