FanonFan [comrade/them, any]

(I refuse to investigate this) is it actually doing its own crawling or is it just like a searx instance?

There’s an informative revleft episode that people might be interested in, interviewing teamsters members campaigning against the recent UPS contract

That’s a vibe.

Middle class isn’t a purely imaginary invention of bourgeois media. Middle class is whiteness. It’s petite bourgeoisie. Labor aristocrat. It’s people with more toys than they know what to do with, boats and trucks and four-wheelers and RVs. Economically they may be downwardly mobile, but they generally get pulled into fascism by nostalgic fantasies and scapegoats.

Middle class is a signifier that obscures the underlying class realities, conjuring images of hardworking families but speaking of settlers. Similar to how farmer makes us think of a simple but honest pitchfork wielder rather than the kulak bourgeoisie they are.

If labor aristocrats find leftism on their own they can be embraced, but otherwise focus should be on immigrant workers, service workers, enslaved prisoners, industrial workers, gig workers, renters, and solidarity with the global proletariat.

The elite bourgeoisie are the real enemy but their violence will be enacted by middle subclasses.

Stop fucking attributing to stupidity that which can be reasonably explained by malice (or material interests). The system working as intended is not stupidity.

Social psychology lecture at a big university talking about groupthink (defined here as when groups of experts make dumb decisions)

Examples are:

Pearl harbor

Challenger disaster

Weapons of mass destruction in Iraq

National response to covid

How does one get this far in life while maintaining such childish naivety? I’m actually jealous, reality must be so much simpler for them.

:michael-laugh:

To me it makes me think of the intellectualization of revolutionary theory to the degree that it’s no longer revolutionary, merely a means by which academics can advance their careers. I get that impression with a lot of western Marxian/critical theory from the last few decades tbh (although that doesn’t mean the works don’t contain interesting ideas).

A quote from Marx that I like:

The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.

Yet some academics remain content to idly interpret while benefitting from the spoils of imperialism and colonialism.

Oooorrr it’s just a comic by an anti-communist trying to point out a perceived hypocrisy so they don’t have to engage with the ideas lmao

Thanks for the book reference, gonna check it out

Didn’t realize that’s the same author as Riding the Wave about Sweden, which I own but haven’t gotten around to reading yet.

45% leftist

Rookie numbers. Gotta pump those numbers up ;)

Welcome. People here can be a bit overly aggressive sometimes when they see someone posting from another Lemmy instance due to the high likelihood of trolling or bad-faith engagement.

I didn’t get the impression you were engaging in bad faith so I don’t know aggression is warranted yet, even if many of us disagree with you.

Personally I can imagine a context where a person is compensated for their trouble when donating, whether that be blood or bone marrow or plasma or kidneys. But in a profit-driven system it opens up a lot of potential for hyper-exploitation of vulnerable communities. As it is, the idea that people have to sell their body parts to survive gets normalized incredibly quickly once any regulations are pulled back. Someone posted recently an ad for plasma donation with a smiling woman saying she donates plasma to pay rent. Sell yourself or be homeless, effectively.

We also have a very low opinion of the New York Times, a publication that frequently manufacturers consent for war, downplays working class struggles, etc. So the ghoulishness isn’t solely coming from the basic idea of compensation for donation, but also that it’s a bourgeois rag talking about yet another way poor people can be commodified. The same rag that tries to tell us inflation isn’t a big deal, that the economy is doing fine, actually-- why are the poors whining again?

Damn, that’s probably the only ai gen image id actually consider art lol

Morally speaking I don’t think it matters in and of itself. There’s a power imbalance that needs to be critically engaged with so it doesn’t become a problem, and there’s a small to medium influence on your material interests that may color your perspective on things if you aren’t ideologically disciplined.

Treating people well and being nice and trying not to exploit people is basic, individual morality, trying to be good.

Leftism however is about trying to understand and change society. It isn’t about lifestylism or poverty or personal purity.

Categorically speaking I wouldn’t consider you a landlord. Your material interests likely don’t align with the landlord class, assuming you still have to sell your labor to survive. Of course you (or others in your material position) might adopt an aspirational consciousness that aligns with landlord ideology-- I’ve even seen that from people with no private property whatsoever, nothing at all with which to rentseek. Temporarily embarrassed millionaire types.

Search “beginner Russian comprehensible input” and find something that suits you. Tons of free and cheap resources

Real life overflow error

https://citationsneeded.libsyn.com/ep-200-the-rise-of-the-war-on-drugs-20-this-time-its-different-we-promise

Jakarta Method talks about a few specific ones used in the third world.

Aberration in the Heartland of the Real is about McVeigh and provides some fruit for thought that’s tangentially related. Particularly interesting is federal involvement in UFO conspiracy groups.

limited hangout is the term to search for anyone interested.

Another nice thing about a dry herb vaporizer is that the byproduct is activated bud (AVB) that can be used in homemade edibles.

Tbh I’ve made spreadsheet files that crashed my laptop

Probably should have been in a database at that point but can’t be fucked to learn SQL or whatever

My favorite punk song is Bush Was Right, it goes hard!

@RMS_Azad. 5d ago

I would like to introduce Finkelstein’s Razor: a rhetorical device where one accuses their interlocutor, whether falsely or truly, of being Italian; therefore leading the audience to dismiss the argument of one’s opponent out of hand, on account of them being Italian.