Pathfinder

Inshallah

The only hope Europe has of breaking its subservience to the US is to not just make nice with Russia, but to totally embrace it. That is not likely to happen anytime soon, so Europe is just going to be America’s punching bag until they get it.

My social situation is almost eerily similar to OP’s, with a critical difference being that with one or two exceptions, my friends are either apolitical or center-right. Because we were friends since childhood, we have a whole range of shared interests and hobbies that have nothing to do with politics. Whenever there was political hostility between us, it was usually instigated by a couple shit-stirrers on the periphery of our friend group.

After a big row regarding Columbus Day / Indigenous Peoples Day a few years ago, the bulk of the friend group decided “no political discussion” and when it comes up by the shit-stirrers, just ignore it.

And honestly, this “no politics” rule has worked out pretty well. Admittedly this is easier to do when you have a majority who are apolitical or aren’t really all that interested in discussing politics. Long way of saying, I really like your suggestions to OP, certainly better and healthier than the suggestions about “burn it all down and leave”.

Radhika Desai brought up a great point regarding this on the latest Geopolitical Economy podcast: civilian shipbuilding and military shipbuilding are complementary industries. China has both, the US only has one (military). Having both allows greater innovation and technological development as people and resources can move between both. What you may learn in civilian shipbuilding will have applications in military shipbuilding (or in more Marxist terms, practice helps build knowledge and understanding). If you only having military shipbuilding capabilities, in time you may very well lag behind other nations that have both (certain when you’re talking about the scale that China is at).

I’ve read more of Lenin’s writings recently and I’ve developed an even greater appreciation for his mind. The fact that this guy who had such a good knowledge of theory was also leading a revolution? It’s like if you had Michael Jordan on the court but he also possessed Phil Jackson’s knowledge of strategy and tactics and his ability to motivate a team.

All this to say, to compare Lenin to Trump - even if it’s by some MAGA communist who has no idea what they are doing - is offensive to me on a personal level.

Literally Trotsky’s godson, but yeah Hudson is great regardless.

While I agree with the sentiments about Northern Africa and the Sahel countries as most likely, India is my “dark horse” choice. Yes, BJP and fascism is a big problem. But I think along other metrics, it appears that the conditions seem to be matching up. Recently there were those farmer protests that seemed to have a heavy communist influence that were like the largest protests in human history (I recall something like 200 million people participated in the protest). There’s quite a ways to go but I would not be surprised to see India go communist in this century.

I was just thinking the other day, should I ever happen to contract cancer the first thing I’m gonna do is see what kind of treatment is available in China. It really seems to me that in recent years China has become the global leader in cutting edge medical treatments, even if we don’t hear about it much in the west.

I was under the impression that KSA was intentionally blocking food imports which was leading to famine conditions. I am admittedly not as familiar with the war between KSA and Ansarallah as I am with what is happening in Gaza, so I am open to correction if I’m wrong.

Just read The Dispossessed instead. It describes an anarcho-communist society but is achingly beautiful literature because LeGuin is an incredible writer.

In fact, one must assume that China’s threat to US warships will be even greater than what the Houthis are able to do.

Whoa, what brilliant military insight this sage geopolitical analyst possesses. China - a nation of 1.4 billion people that has unparalleled productive capacities and is nearly America’s peer in military tech - MIGHT pose a bigger threat to US warships than a (very based) small, relatively impoverished country that was until recently the victim of a decade-long genocidal war.

No. It wouldn’t apply to, for example, African Americans; whose ancestors were brought to this country by force and can hardly be said to have benefitted from the original stealing of the land.

Settlement involves the forcible appropriation of land (and the ethnic cleansing that involves), then removing all the indigenousness of that land and making it “your own”. What this creates is a settler class that enjoys in perpetuity the fruits of that appropriation.

White people in the US are settlers. Because it was white Europeans who stole the land and committed genocide. This settlement created an entire social strata that benefitted from this appropriation. And the benefits accrue to successive generations of white people. I saw a stat somewhere that said ~25% of all wealth in the US today can be traced to the Homestead Act, which excluded black and indigenous people.

Look, I’m a settler. I’m also middle class / labor aristocrat. This is simply a material fact. But none of that means I cannot devote my life to breaking the system that allows settler colonialism, white supremacy, and capitalism to persist. The history of communism is littered with class traitors and others who recognized the privileges they had and sought their destruction.