South African here. The first thing you need to understand about my country is that it is still controlled by white monopoly capitalists. Even though we got political freedom in 1994, nothing was done to reclaim ownership over the economy, and as MLs we know that's where the real power is.

As a result the ANC, under the influence of WMC, has consistently been drifting right. The current president, Cyril Ramaphosa, is a businessman with a net worth of R6.4 billion ($450 million) and he is on the board of the British platinum mine monopoly Lonmin, who famously massacred 36 workers on strike in 2012. So you can imagine the policies he's been implementing since the start of his presidency in 2019. Austerity and privatization has been the rule of the day.

The economic situation is unlikely to change as a result of this election. Even though the ANC is all but confirmed to lose their majority on Wednesday, this only means that they will be forced into a coalition government. Who they choose is what will ultimately determine what the next couple of years will look like. Their options are the EFF, the DA, and MK.

The ideal scenario is if they enter a coalition with the EFF, for obvious reasons. They're a Marxist-Leninist party who want to implement sweeping reforms like nationalisation, land reform, decolonisation etc. While they might not be able to implement reforms in a coalition, the country's consciousness will be shifted to the left.

If they enter into a coalition with the DA (Democratic Alliance) we will have 5 more years of austerity. The DA is a right wing party, comparable to the US Democratic Party, and they have no intention of improving South Africa. Their plans for the country amount to inviting foreign investment and relaxing labour laws (yay). There is a danger this could happen because they are the official opposition party at around 25% of the vote

The MK party is a bit of a wildcard. They were only founded 6 months ago, but they have former president Jacob Zuma as the face of the party. He was an immensely popular figure, even though he also continued austerity and was mega corrupt. The thing is MK party is not just Jacob Zuma, and their manifesto is weirdly progressive. Very much pro land reform, nationalisation and decolonisatiom, but very backward on social issues like LGBTQ+, women's rights and traditional leadership. I genuinely don't know what will happen if the ANC picks them as coalition partner.

There is also a fourth scenario where the DA gets enough votes to enter into coalition with smaller right wing parties, but that's unlikely to happen.

In conclusion, we're not going to see an outright win for the EFF, so not much will change as a result of this election. The South African consciousness is shifting to the left though, especially among the black youth, so I'm still very optimistic for the future. The EFF is a strong party, and I'm sure they'll be able to seize opportunities as they come.

Reporting in from South Africa. Revolution is still a while off, most likely, but anti-colonialism is pretty big. The biggest left party (Economic Freedom Fighters) are mostly focused on getting reforms, which isn't ideal, but it might work due to the way South Africa has developed. Unfortunately political consciousness is nowhere near what's needed for a revolution though, so that's unlikely for that to happen soon.

Hoping I'm wrong, though.

How many protestors dissapeared in Hong Kong after being arrested for bullshit reasons?

No antifa

I tend to agree with your conclusion, but I'm gonna run with the argument. If JT is a capitalist selling the idea of liberation, does this mean his videos were somehow more proletarian or revolutionary before he employed people? He still "sold" the idea of liberation, he just didn't engage in labour exploitation to do it.

Besides, I think you're missing the point of the post. JT was explaining why it's neccesary for Second Thought to generate revenue, and like another commenter said, that would still be neccessary even if the channel was a coop.

Also, we don't have any information on how the business is structured or what the workplace's democracy looks like. After all, the only thing that really determines if it's labour exploitation or not is what happens with the surplus value the ~~company~~ workers generate. If it goes to JT, sure, he's a capitalist, but we don't have that kind of information, so I'm not willing to make that judgement (yet).

Fair enough. There's no account of Jesus being homophobic in the Gospels, but the Church, excluding a minority of LGBTQ+ affirming denominations, is very much a homophobic institution. I've heard Christians justify or condemn practically every act known to man using Jesus' words, so depending on who you listen to, he very well might have been a homophobe.

I seem to be in the minority here but I absolute LOVE drinking. Everything from the taste (beer is my preferred drink), to the atmosphere in bars/clubs, to, of course, being drunk. I'm not a heavy drinker, I have no family history of alcoholism, and I rarely get properly drunk, so I'm not really concerned about addiction or any adverse health effects.

To me it's just a great way to relax with friends, and a way to reduce my self-consciousness so I can more fully enjoy dancing and hanging out with total strangers.

IMO, it's much better than weed for the sole reason that weed (for me) makes it impossible to hold a conversation with someone because I either drift off in the middle of a thought or I become so lazy I have 0 interest in doing anything but sitting blank-minded on a couch.

"Unshakeably principled as a communist and anti-imperialist", nowhere was it mentioned he was a perfect human, especially on social issues. What is your point exactly? No-one on this instance is saying that Stalin was jesus, and even Jesus was a homophobe

You're doing God's work, comrade

I'm in love

No, that's not normal. Do your hands hurt when handling other tools like your smartphone, keyboard, scissors, etc?

Very refreshing to see a sober perspective on the EFF. There are plenty of good things about them, but ultimately they're still servants of capital so I can't see them escaping the problems that plague the ANC. It's worth it to remember that the ANC also campaigned on a platform of nationalisation and job creation up until 1994, but when push came to shove they capitulated to neoliberal reforms. I don't have much faith the same won't happen to the EFF, but as you said, alteast they're good at making the racists scared :)