Pathfinder

Not that I think this is likely, but a part of me wonders if the US and France are telling “Israel” they need to wrap up a ceasefire with Hezbollah and by extension stop the genocide in Gaza, but only because they plan on majorly ramping up in Ukraine before Trump takes office.

Hard to imagine Biden ever getting tough with Israel, but I was expecting to see NATO look for an off ramp with Russia by now, not escalation.

Yeah I have to agree. I find on a personal level, I can’t really relate to the Five Heads at all. Che was hella cool but he was too charismatic and had an off the charts work ethic. I don’t know much about Sankara but he seems pretty relatable too. Sometimes I feel a twinge of sympathy for Khrushchev because I think a big part of his problem was he was totally out of his depth, and if you put me in charge of a socialist country I’d probably fuck up the bag too.

I have listened to more James Lindsay and his ilk than I care to admit. The one thing these new “anti-Marxists” make clear is that actual Marxists are not the target, it’s Democrats or anyone they think is “woke”. It’s just red baiting, simple as. They will read (or usually just quote-mine) the Manifesto and then point to ways that Joe Biden or people who just want rights for trans people are actually “Marxists”.

No. I have seen estimates that it would take at least 10 years of concerted effort to ramp up US production to that scale.

It was written by Trotsky so I don’t think the book itself was ever peer reviewed, and I don’t think Trotsky set out to write an academic book. That said, I do believe that it’s a source respected by historians. There’s also Sheila Fitzpatrick’s book on the Revolution. She’s an actual bourgeois historian but was a leading light among the “reform school”, i.e. Sovietologists that debunked the “totalitarian school” that tried to equate the USSR with Nazi Germany.

I’ll be honest, Trotsky’s massive tome (I think it’s over 900 pages) on the Revolution is actually pretty decent and is surprisingly free (for the most part) of his typical brain worms.

NATO gave away the game the other day, when they said something to the effect of “DPRK troops in Kursk means we can escalate”. It doesn’t make sense but it doesn’t have to, NATO is just trying to gin up any casus belli that they can.

I promise you, your average DPRK citizen has a far better grasp of the world outside of their own country’s borders than your average US American does.

There was significant collaboration between Zionists and the Nazi regime before WWII. A German Zionist group made arrangements with the Nazi government to relocate tens of thousands of Jews into Palestine. It was only after this that the Grand Mufti decided to engage with Hitler, because he saw what was happening and knew he had to counter. This goes against Zionist propaganda that the Mufti worked closely with Hitler in the 30s out of a desire to stamp out Judaism or whatever. He only engaged with Hitler out of self-preservation in order to prevent more immigration.

And should the US try something - like a naval blockade of China as I don’t think the US will attempt to ignite a direct, “hot”war - those relationships with the global south will matter a great deal. Those land connections based in the BRI will serve as lifeline for China to access the rest of Asia and point beyond in that scenario.

You have time, the most important and valuable resource any person can have. At your age my politics were entirely incoherent and it would take me about 20 years to figure things out. While I (hope to) have a lot more time left on earth, now that I’m in the 40s time does feel more dear to me. I have this feeling that I don’t have enough time. How much organizing will I actually be able to do? How much theory reading and understanding (which I genuinely enjoy) will I get to do?

I don’t have a specific answer for how to stay optimistic. But I can point out that you have your whole life ahead of you to be able to figure it out, and that’s something I think many here would love to have. I have found in my life that developing gratitude helps clear a lot of things up, fwiw.

“A Kubrick stare involves an actor looking out from under the brow line and tilting their head towards the camera. Sometimes, the actor will smile in a sinister fashion. It is often used to convey that a character has become dangerously mentally unstable… It often heralds that something "intense" will soon take place”