After a ProPublica investigation revealed how Microsoft’s “digital escort” tech support service could expose sensitive government data to cyberattacks, the company says China-based engineers will no longer provide assistance on DOD cloud services.
Il primo bombardamento di Roma avvenne il 19 luglio 1943, durante la seconda guerra mondiale, ad opera di bombardieri statunitensi delle forze aeree alleate del Mediterraneo. Il quartiere San Lorenzo fu duramente colpito dalle bombe.
Pio XII in visita alla Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano il 13 agosto 1943, in occasione del secondo bombardamento di Roma
Dopo un triennio di ipotesi intorno all'inserimento della capitale italiana nel novero degli obiettivi aerei alleati, San Lorenzo fu il quartiere più colpito dal primo bombardamento degli Alleati mai effettuato su Roma, insieme al Tiburtino, al Prenestino, al Casilino, al Labicano, al Tuscolano e al Nomentano. Le 4.000 bombe (circa 1.060 tonnellate) sganciate sulla città provocarono circa 3.000 morti e 11.000 feriti, di cui 1.500 morti e 4.000 feriti nel solo quartiere di San Lorenzo.
Al termine del bombardamento papa Pio XII si recò a visitare le zone colpite, benedicendo le vittime sul Piazzale del Verano.
Tra i soccorritori morti (morirono ventiquattro vigili del fuoco) anche il comandante dei carabinieri generale Azolino Hazon, accorso sul posto.
Germany has been described as an analogue country in a digital world. Meanwhile, Estonia has digitized all of its government services, including applying for divorce. How has Estonia become Europe's digital leader?
Normally I use NewPipe on android. It's an alternative YouTube app that can play videos in the background, doesn't have ads and allows me to download videos and music.
I had the YouTube app disabled with adb on this phone for all the time I've had it. For backup there's always the browser YouTube page.
I must have done something wrong and accidentally clicked install on the YouTube app again, so it activated and was back to normal on this phone.
Holy hell is that app a terrible advertising machine. Every time I click on a YouTube video now I get sent straight to it and it always plays ads and also has text ads all over the GUI so I can't even read the channel info etc while I wait for the ads to go away.
I don't know how people deal with that it would completely make me want to stop using YouTube.
Please do yourself a favor and install NewPipe or ReVanced (I think that's the name of basically the same app but with sponsorblock additionally). Both are on f-droid.org app store as well. Less important because you can manually use NewPipe but you could also disable the YT app with adb so it disappears from your phone.
Forti mura grigie costruite sulla base del criterio di resistenza. Dove domina la forma di montanti parabolici ed interconnessi, traforati per permettere alla luce di passare attraverso.
Im trying to reinstall cachyos using the iso on the usb like ive done in the past but the iso and the ventoy usb its on dont show up as options, theres only cachyos (alresdy installed) and snapshots as the options
I guess it doesnt detect a nonventoy (used impression) usb with the iso written to it either? A bit confused I dont mind limine but It not being able to boot from a recovery usb is a bit of an issue
NVM it did end up working off impressions and not ventoy? I think it ended up detecting my ssd which also has ventoy installed in the boot manager too, the name wasnt there before, odd
Like limine itself has no option for it, but bios wasnt showing one for my ssd or usb either, now it is after restarting a few times
To boot from external drives, you need to open your UEFI boot menu (press F11 or something like that at boot, it differs for each manufacturer). Limine is the loader installed on your hard drive that comes with your OS, it is for loading that OS.
Yep very odd it wasn't showing my drives, now it is and ventoy works, I unplugged and plugged them while restarting a fee times, guess it was just some weird error, still doesn't show up in limine itself but im assuming that its not supposed to
Amri Wandel kaj François Lo Jacomo rekandidatis por la nova estraro de UEA, sed ne eniris la proponon de la elekta komisiono. Ambaŭ tamen en retmesaĝoj petis subtenon de la komitatanoj. La elekto do ne estos senalternativa, ĉar jam estas 11 aktivaj kandidatoj por maksimume 9 lokoj. Tamen preskaŭ certas, ke Fernando Maia iĝos la sekva prezidanto.
Remember when Microsoft was telling shareholders that the Xbox multimedia ecosystem was going to dominate living rooms everywhere, then people stopped hanging out in their living rooms?
if you can still sign in, then i recommend linking your account to moviesanywhere for the time being so you can at least access any movies purchased there in other apps.
They did. It was so awful with hardly any updates. I bought some things on it but usually when it was on major discount and connected to Movies Anywhere so I could watch it elsewhere.
I don't know why they had the same movie for sale... one with bonus features, one without... for the same price. Every other platform includes the bonus features automatically. Why separate them? Is there someone out there thinking, hmm... I like this movie, but I don't want the bonus features.
Movies Anywhere was the whole deal for me. With Microsoft connected, I used MA for its wishlist to indicate when things were on sale. Sometimes MS had a sale when other services did not! But that's it.
If you think about it: Microsoft owns XBox, that has been one of the three major consoles for decades now. They own Windows, the world's most popular operating system. They own Edge, one of the major browsers. And they still failed to create a movie and TV store and shut down their music streaming service. Which is totally insane - that shit was bundled with fucking windows and Xbox and they still made it suck so hard that it failed
Microsoft isn't popular by choice. They can't force people into shitty ecosystems if they have no reason to choose it to begin with. Microsoft was the only choice for decades, and will go down as the golden example of business monopoly.
Apple, amazon, google, all have their claws deeper in people because they make products people choose to use. They actually like the products, so the companies can slowly enshittify them and keep their users.
What was the other choice back then? I dont recall microsoft ever needing to compete for end users. Even now they barely have to put in an effort and are the most popular OS.
Those were pre-installed on end user devices and were popular in workplaces? If you have any material to share I could read about that time period that would be helpful as well.
MacOS, NextOS, BeOS, OS/2 and Solaris were all pre installed on end user devices. All except MacOS also were or became available as end user installs if you didn't want to buy it pre installed.
They weren't popular in workplaces ( except MacOS) because they all sucked in important ways compared to Windows.
There were also many alternative Office suites. MS didn't even invent the idea- they copied Borland's $99 software cost in order to compete. But again the alternatives, even if they started better, eventually fell behind Microsoft. MS was extraordinarily customer focused in those days.
Windows Powertoy apps used to come with the emails of the person who wrote it in the readme.txt. I once emailed the Microsoft developer about a feature that I thought should work but didn't ( copying across network vs local copy). I got a working beta version 3 days after emailing the developer at Microsoft.
After a ProPublica investigation revealed how Microsoft’s “digital escort” tech support service could expose sensitive government data to cyberattacks, the company says China-based engineers will no longer provide assistance on DOD cloud services.
I vote for MEPs to represent me in Europe. The same as I vote for leaders at home to represent me in my national parliament. I have never directly voted on a law.
Hey y’all, I know getting a setup that feels “right” can be a process. We all have different goals, tech preferences, etc.
I wanted to a share my blog post walking through how I finally built a setup that I can just be happy with and use. It goes over my goals, requirements, tech choices, layout, and some specific problems I’ve resolved.
Where I’ve landed of course isn’t where everyone else will, but I hope it can serve as a good reference. I’ve really benefited from the content and software folks have freely shared, and hope I can continue that and help others.
Bookmarked to read later. Lots of interesting stuff that I've heard before (Tailscale, local auth, etc.) that I really need to consider for my own homelab.
The following is an essay that first appeared in the July 24, 2025, issue of the London Review of Books (LRB), a prominent literary journal based in London, United Kingdom.
The author of the article is Adam Shatz, LRB’s U.S. editor. Shatz is also a contributor to The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, and other publications. He is a visiting professor in the Human Rights Program of Bard College in New York.
In this essay, author Adam Shatz raises important issues that deserve further discussion in light of the gruesome October 7, 2023, attack led by Hamas that targeted civilians in Israel, the genocidal war Israel unleashed in retaliation on the entire …
This is the first time Californians have seen this level of transparency about Caltrans projects. Statewide, 13 projects completed between 2018 and 2023 resulted in more than 620 home and business needing to be relocated.
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.
It’s 2025. Israeli soldiers are telling the Israeli press that they’re being ordered to massacre starving civilians trying to obtain food from aid centers. Countless doctors have been telling the world that Israeli snipers are routinely, deliberately shooting children in the head and chest throughout the Gaza Strip. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and all the leading genocide experts and human rights authorities are saying that a genocide is being perpetrated in Gaza. The New York fucking Times just published an op-ed by a Zionist genocide scholar who’s finally admitting that it’s a genocide.
There’s no way to deny what this is anymore. If you still support Israel in the year 2025, it’s not because you don’t believe Israel is committing horrific atrocities. It’s because you believe those horrific atrocities are good, and you want to see more of them.
If You're Still Supporting Israel In 2025, There's Something Wrong With You As A Person
by Caitlin Johnstone Jul 18, 2025
It’s 2025. Israeli soldiers are telling the Israeli press that they’re being ordered to massacre starving civilians trying to obtain food from aid centers. Countless doctors have been telling the world that Israeli snipers are routinely, deliberately shooting children in the head and chest throughout the Gaza Strip. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and all the leading genocide experts and human rights authorities are saying that a genocide is being perpetrated in Gaza. The New York fucking Times just published an op-ed by a Zionist genocide scholar who’s finally admitting that it’s a genocide.
There’s no way to deny what this is anymore. If you still support Israel in the year 2025, it’s not because you don’t believe Israel is committing horrific atrocities. It’s because you believe those horrific atrocities are good, and you want to see more of them.
It’s 2025. Israeli soldiers are telling the Israeli press that they’re being ordered to massacre starving civilians trying to obtain food from aid centers. Countless doctors have been telling the world that Israeli snipers are routinely, deliberately shooting children in the head and chest throughout the Gaza Strip. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and all the leading genocide experts and human rights authorities are saying that a genocide is being perpetrated in Gaza. The New York fucking Times just published an op-ed by a Zionist genocide scholar who’s finally admitting that it’s a genocide.
There’s no way to deny what this is anymore. If you still support Israel in the year 2025, it’s not because you don’t believe Israel is committing horrific atrocities. It’s because you believe those horrific atrocities are good, and you want to see more of them.
Not gonna lie, I feel like 2025 is way too generous. The only reason so many people are suddenly opposing Israel is because the overturn window has shifted and it is no longer popular to support Israel.
imo i wouldnt say it’s about popularity and more about israel just being unable to really hide what they’re doing anymore. now its at the point where your average apolitical normie is seeing babies get their limbs blown off on their tiktok feed.
they had a lot more plausible deniability before their genocide was being live streamed.
as long as leftists have known about how fucked up israel is, your average truly “apolitical” person only knew the israel propaganda painted about it. now they see thats not true and thats a good thing
'Normies' have been seeing babies limbs getting blown off since 2023. They simply chose to ignore it because the public sentiment opposed it. The average person is a literal NPC who will repeat whatever the media tells them even if the video footage gets shoved in front of their eyes. I've tried it.
Even now, if you ask them if Israel has a right to exist they will answer yes. Knowing that Israel is comparable with Nazi Germany. They would tell you that Nazi Germany has a right to exist if that is what the media told them.
i think that’s pretty pessimistic towards your average person
with how alienated capitalism keeps us all from our peers, its easy to forget that you and i are also just average people.
we’re half way into 2025. gaza videos didnt really become widespread in people’s feed til about a year ago. thats when apolitical people would have started seeing this so much. the amount of turn around in just that small period of time is a good thing and being pessimistic about it or writing people off as lemmings because they were tricked by propaganda designed specifically to trick people specifically like them isn’t helping anyone. that’s just you projecting your resentment towards people, and im not saying that as an insult. its easy to resent them. dont let your resent control you tho.
its really not as simple as that lol. you’re letting your disdain towards people personally steer your point of view.
your average person had no idea this was happening until recently and once they saw it they said it was bad.
its extremely easy to fall into your line of thinking when you don’t interact with your community and view yourself as an individual against other individuals. thats the framing capitalism has given you but its a false framing.
i can tell you for a fact; i live in a small town in georgia. 3 years ago nobody here knew shit about israel or palestinine. went to two protests in the last two months, both FULL of support for palestine. people who have passively said positive things about israel to me who didnt know better have now said they had no idea what was happening over there. that they literally didnt even know what “gaza was” until recently
sadly thats where your average person is at.
they are not as “genocide is good”.
they’re at “i heard israel was good”. sadly thats more affective than it should be.
but to just write everybody off as wrong and having these horrible opinions is just anti leftwing tbh. you will never create any sort of left wing anything if this is how you view your fellow worker. not everybody is a leftist and in fact most people think we’re fucking crazy, for the same reason they used to think israel is good. “trusted sources” on tv told them so.
this doesn't really support your point, posters in an explicitly political thread on a very niche social media platform aren't going to be representative of the average
"everybody supports genocide but like 3% of the population that identify as marxists" is an unhinged view of the world and i really hope you touch grass for everybody's sake
After years of innovation and community collaboration, we’re ending support for Clear Linux OS. Effective immediately, Intel will no longer provide security patches, updates, or maintenance for Clear Linux OS, and the Clear Linux OS GitHub repository…
After years of innovation and community collaboration, we’re ending support for Clear Linux OS. Effective immediately, Intel will no longer provide security patches, updates, or maintenance for Clear Linux OS, and the Clear Linux OS GitHub repository…
After a ProPublica investigation revealed how Microsoft’s “digital escort” tech support service could expose sensitive government data to cyberattacks, the company says China-based engineers will no longer provide assistance on DOD cloud services.
Tensions in the Philippines have recently been raised over the country's South China Sea policy, after a retired officer criticized Manila's current approach as making the country a US pawn and even
In the besieged Gaza Strip, three professions have emerged as a lifeline, their practitioners heroic in their efforts to alleviate the worst of the humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding under Israel’s constant attacks on civilians and civic infrastructure.
The rescuers, the healers, and the witnesses — civil defense responders making unimaginable sacrifices to try and save people from the rubble of bombed buildings; medical professionals fighting an impossible battle with poor supplies in hospitals; and journalists risking their lives to expose the truth — are all supporting the entire population enduring genocide and famine.
According to the Health Ministry, the Israeli military has killed at least 113 civil defense responders, around 228 journalists, and at least 1,411 medical workers since October 7, 2023.
When Israel Attacks Gaza, These People Run to Save Lives
Huda Skaik July 7 2025
In the besieged Gaza Strip, three professions have emerged as a lifeline, their practitioners heroic in their efforts to alleviate the worst of the humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding under Israel’s constant attacks on civilians and civic infrastructure.
The rescuers, the healers, and the witnesses — civil defense responders making unimaginable sacrifices to try and save people from the rubble of bombed buildings; medical professionals fighting an impossible battle with poor supplies in hospitals; and journalists risking their lives to expose the truth — are all supporting the entire population enduring genocide and famine.
According to the Health Ministry, the Israeli military has killed at least 113 civil defense responders, around 228 journalists, and at least 1,411 medical workers since October 7, 2023.
In the besieged Gaza Strip, three professions have emerged as a lifeline, their practitioners heroic in their efforts to alleviate the worst of the humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding under Israel’s constant attacks on civilians and civic infrastructure.
The rescuers, the healers, and the witnesses — civil defense responders making unimaginable sacrifices to try and save people from the rubble of bombed buildings; medical professionals fighting an impossible battle with poor supplies in hospitals; and journalists risking their lives to expose the truth — are all supporting the entire population enduring genocide and famine.
According to the Health Ministry, the Israeli military has killed at least 113 civil defense responders, around 228 journalists, and at least 1,411 medical workers since October 7, 2023.
When Israel Attacks Gaza, These People Run to Save Lives
Huda Skaik July 7 2025
In the besieged Gaza Strip, three professions have emerged as a lifeline, their practitioners heroic in their efforts to alleviate the worst of the humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding under Israel’s constant attacks on civilians and civic infrastructure.
The rescuers, the healers, and the witnesses — civil defense responders making unimaginable sacrifices to try and save people from the rubble of bombed buildings; medical professionals fighting an impossible battle with poor supplies in hospitals; and journalists risking their lives to expose the truth — are all supporting the entire population enduring genocide and famine.
According to the Health Ministry, the Israeli military has killed at least 113 civil defense responders, around 228 journalists, and at least 1,411 medical workers since October 7, 2023.
In the besieged Gaza Strip, three professions have emerged as a lifeline, their practitioners heroic in their efforts to alleviate the worst of the humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding under Israel’s constant attacks on civilians and civic infrastructure.
The rescuers, the healers, and the witnesses — civil defense responders making unimaginable sacrifices to try and save people from the rubble of bombed buildings; medical professionals fighting an impossible battle with poor supplies in hospitals; and journalists risking their lives to expose the truth — are all supporting the entire population enduring genocide and famine.
According to the Health Ministry, the Israeli military has killed at least 113 civil defense responders, around 228 journalists, and at least 1,411 medical workers since October 7, 2023.
The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday it is eliminating its research and development arm and reducing agency staff by thousands of employees.
The agency’s Office of Research and Development has long provided the scientific underpinnings for EPA’s mission to protect the environment and human health. The EPA said in May it would shift its scientific expertise and research efforts to program offices that focus on major issues like air and water.
Woah this is awesome. I imagine this could be used to make "shitty robots" with imperfect joints, backlash or other things more precise. Which could help with 3D printers as well as 3D printed robots. Or using internal strings and pulleys to control a robot arms. Especially for larger robot arms stiffness becomes a problem.
Is there an open source, easy to use software framework so people can start to play and experiment with it?
Controlling diverse robots by inferring jacobian fields with deep networks! Let's make robots understand where their bodies are! - sizhe-li/neural-jacobian-field
They really went all out haha. They also have a linked website with a video and a tutorial. The tutorial has an easier to understand explanation of what they are doing.
It seems they use simple motion flow of the video to train the neural net, but they also use some kind of volume rendering to train the AI to predict and reconstruct the 3D scene with your robot. And they use cheap depth cameras but apparently it also works without depth. And this works for basically any robot you can imagine which is really brilliant.
Looking at all those pneumatic soft robots, now I wonder if you could invert this to use for an 3D input device. Like a kind of 3D printed pneumatic joystick that simply measures the resulting air pressure at the end of internal channels when you tilt or twist or move the joystick. No wiring or assembly, just 3D print a joystick and glue it to a board.
I suspect it might even be easier (forward vs inverse kinematics).
If you could combine both (pressure sensors and pistons) you could do force feedback input devices that can be 3D printed. Which could be useful for serious applications, like controlling a vehicle and "feeling" the road, or feeling the air pressure on the wings of a plane. Or controlling an excavator and "feeling" the earth by measuring feedback in the pneumatic pressure. Currently things like that is really expensive.
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.
You don't have to agree with everything, but there's a lot of truth in this diagram. Both are serving AIPAC, both don't care about woking class, both want to collapse the US with infinite military spending,...
Capitalism is a tool to maximize profit. Whoever thought it was a good idea to let capitalism have influence on laws so that they can maximize its profit was a big fool.
What do you expect? Capitalism, a tool, has by definition no morale. Let it decide politics to increase profit and you end up with that kind of shit society we have today.
Don't blame the hammer, when you hit your thumb. Also, don't let the hammer decide where to make the biggest dent.
Can we please start again focusing on the people? Without people there is no society, and there is no market to increase profits.
Start using capitalism and free markets like a tool. Want more renewable and clean energy? Make rules and see the magic of capitalism in making the best out of it.
Instead we let capitalism decide what should be done next and suffer the consequences. It's as easy as that.
Unfortunately capitalism not only create the rules, they also decide what is news and influence societies views. And that's why OPs picture is as it is.
Capitalism is exceptional at finding ways to provide value when there is a new market. The issue comes when capital gets accumulated and concentrated in the hands of a few.
We've seen it dozens of times throughout history where a healthy merchant class with lots of opportunity for upwards mobility ends up in an oligarchy as the market becomes saturated then monopolies, duopolies, and cabals (guilds) form.
The state needs to use the "P" and "L" in PESTEL forces (Political, Economical, Social, Technological, Environmental, Legal) that businesses (from single to large multinational) to identify new markets that need investment.
An examples would be new clean renewable electricity and one way of giving preferrence to this green energy by minimally taxing profts on this energy sold in the national market or international market via grid-interconnect networks ("Gridternets" if you will) with a clear plan to increase the tax to a normalised amount slowly overtime as the green share of the market approaches 100%.
It also has to be used to more aggressively dissuade markets that are more harmful than good now. An example of this is dirty power.
Coal, Oil, and Gas have done wonders for increasing people's quality of life because they unlocked a new energy density previously unattainable. Now we have alternatives that are by every metric better; more efficient and less polluting.
Therefore, these industries need to be taxed out of existence by using a logarithmic energy carbon tax that keeps increasing year on year. Corruption needs to be rooted out like a weed as much as possible using a politically independent organ of the state to keep it healthy.
Then there's markets that are stagnant in some state of capture: crumbling infrastructure, food retailer hypermarkets, etc. Windfall suprise taxes on incumbents and grants / zero interest loans for new competitors would reignight competition in those markets and the additional tax revenue can be used to fix the crumbling infrastructure these markets rely on.
And finally, I'd like to see a strong preference for co-operatives where ownership in a free market is much more evenly distributed by making them the least taxed commercial entities with businesses that have a higher concentration of ownership are taxed more through some sort of profit tax multiplier.
It's much harder for a business to act in a pure profit motive to the detriment of society if the employees have more ownership as it allows morality to be expressed through political power within this business. These employees also then benefit from the profit share as well which gives stability and upward mobility in exchange for their labour.
There, that's three proposals that could help towards decarbonisation, investing in underfunded infrastructure, and reducing inequality.
I am not a policy expert and there's bound to be problems with each of those proposals that I haven't thought of, but we have so much more to gain by working cooperatively together to build a system that aims to better humanity as a whole by using the best tools correctly and safety.
Until we reach an energy density which unlocks technology that enables things like a resourceless economy (a la Star Trek luxury space communism), we're stuck with the tools of money and capital as the ways to transfer value.
I personally can't wait for the day where "reputation" rather than money becomes the currency of society, I am willing to work with the tools we have right now to build that future, and I have faith that others are willing to build it with me.
Teaching a bunch of lies about American exceptionalism and how imperialism is actually good isn’t what I’d call “fact based”
Stop racism in policing
Right like how democrats in nearly all major cities increased police funding and almost none passed any meaningful reform.
Expanded healthcare subsidies
But don’t remotely consider universal healthcare
Preserve democracy
Preserve the status quo which I wouldn’t call a democracy. A democracy enacts the will of the people, democrats don’t even have a democratic primary for their own party.
The list time Democrats had a filibuster-proof trifecta it was for about 2 months and they passed Obamacare. Since then Republicans have nullified about 40% of it.
Preserve the status quo which I wouldn’t call a democracy.
Except by definition it is a democracy. Like it or not, most people vote for the status quo.
Not even getting into the whole voter participaton thing here. I'm just curious does that mean you consider Trump the status quo? Because he won the popular vote in the most recent election. Because if so i agree. Trump is business as usual for the US. Just going mask off. Just surprised to see a liberal admit as much.
You've certainly whitewashed Dems quite a lot. You're fundamentally not wrong though. As bad as the Dems are, and they are very bad, MAGA is undeniably worse. If we had some other electoral system, we could safely explore other options. But we don't. We have FPTP, which makes it a binary choice between bad and worse.
And worse is just so, so much worse. That doesn't make bad good, but it's still a binary choice. You'd have to be evil or stupid to try to muddy the waters so that bad seems close enough to worse that people don't feel the urgency of choosing bad to prevent worse.
Dems can be convinced to try other election systems besides FPTP because they fundamentally believe in democracy. From my perspective, fixing things without violence is still an option with Dems. It isn't with Republicans.
I'm hoping Musk gets some momentum with his third party. Either it splits the Republican vote and slows down this freefall into fascism, or he dumps tons of resources into promoting some variety of RCV. Either way, that's a net benefit in my eyes.
Its not a lie. The legal progress towards this has come from Democrats. Yeah, it's not enough and it's been too long coming. Still, look at which states passed laws on chokeholds and which states passed laws allowing people to run over protesters, then tell me there is no difference in the parties.
You're too easily impressed with the most superficial bullshit possible. The difference you highlighted is purely symbolic on both sides. As if cops are restrained by the law in the first place. Both parties have the exact same policy on policing and your 'good guys' are almost exclusively the ones in charge of the cities that actually run those police departments. All they do is give them more funding. And to confound people like you they engage in 'liberal box checking' where they 'do something' that changes absolutely nothing structurally. And then you turn around and defend these murderers like they're the good guys. You're a boob.
Not allowing choke holds isn't superficial. Body cams aren't superficial. They cut down on police use of force and citizen complaints. They also cost money. Better trained police costs money. Sending out social workers with police on domestic calls costs money ,and makes a huge difference in the quality of policing.
The only substantial reduction in policing cost is cutting back on the drug war and most left leaning states are doing that. (Reducing numbers of police would do it but most states have similar per capita number of police as Europe).
There is no doubt we have a long way to go on police reform, but to say there has been no progress simply isn't true.
I'm sorry but you're extremely too credulous and unthinking.
I already explained why and how bans on chokeholds are superficial. Are your senses so dull that you didn't notice or are you being deliberately dishonest and lazy by not addressing it?
Body cams are even more glaring an example. It's extremely fucking common knowledge that they turn them off whenever they want. Do you think you're being strategic by ignoring that fact? Because the effect in reality is it makes you sound like an idiot. Your entire premise is undermined.
You just straight up have no idea what's happening in the world around you.
Yes, some cops are going to use chokeholds regardless of bans. Some people are going to commit murder regardless of it being illegal too. That doesn't mean we shouldn't bother having laws against murder. The fact that chokes are not reduced to zero by chokehold bans does not negate that it reduces the number of chokes used. In the same way, the fact that cops will sometimes shut off their cams does not negate the times that they don't turn off the cams and it allows victims to seek justice.
I am aware of Killilogy and Warrior Cop training. Cops receiving the wrong training is an entirely separate issue from the cost of improved training.
Finally, please refrain from personal attacks as this detracts from your arguments and violates community guidelines.
Democrats & Republicans * Bombed kids * Tortured innocent people * Increased the surveillance state * Took money from the poor and working class, and gave it to their rich friends * Spent billions on wars, while claiming that they couldn't afford to fix our healthcare or housing problems * Boasted about deporting more people than Republicans * Backed a Genocide
Voters: "Please stop bombing children", "Please stop backing a genocide", "Please stop handing out our taxes to your rich friends", "Please stop making healthcare the number one reason for bankruptcy", "Please stop sending people to torture prisons", "Please make minimum wage a livable wage"
"...less than ideal party..."
I think you might have a warped view of what "less than ideal" means
Democrats regularly raise taxes on the rich and Republicans regularly raise them. Democrats regularly push for prison reform and things like cashless bail. Republicans regularly push for harsher sentencing and reductions in per-prisoner spending. Compare a map of state minimum wages to their political alignment.
If you want Democrats to act on these things more, we have to get obstructionist Republicans out of office.
I wouldnt say a party of genocide supporters who love to kick progressives in the face and dont seem to give 2 shites what their voters want and need, and who have a wildly eroding base and 28% approval doesnt qualify as a:
good choice
But I guess if thats what you think I'm not going to change your mind.
There's only two choices under the current system and the other one is kidnapping people to put in concentration camps right now. The only chance to change the current system without open armed conflict is the Democrats.
I think its time to start looking past democrats as possible agents of change. Justice delayed is justice denied, and the AIPAC centrists are firmly in control and not about to change anything. Rallying behind them just guarantees more loss, at the cost of enabling their corruption. Their base has already left to the point that they cant win anything. They have a 28% approval rating.
Democrats still have 23 governorships, control 37% of state legislatures, and 40% of state chambers. Six of the ten most populous states have 2 Democrat senators, three have Republican senators, and one is split. The house is split 219 Republican to 212 Democrat, but the Democrats represent a much larger portion of the population.
The point is, Democrats are far from being out of the game. Nobody else comes close to having a chance of beating Republicans in an election.
I see your logic, but I wonder if Dem leadership is willing to do the things for the common voters they will need to do to get the voters back on side so they can win. So far I havent seen a willingness or urgency to change much of anything. I just see the dems collaborating with republicans on most votes. To be fair the progressive wing is also withering a bit (seems to me, anyway-- what do I know).
No, even the US has more parties than only those two. In Spain we also had a two party system a lot of years ago, but this changed when the people begone to vote also for other parties than those two, with this we have now several different parties, that makes that there have to create aliances to obtain the mayority do be able to govern, so corresponding more on the reallity of the needs of the people, out of this black and white scheme (or better bright and dark grey). In the US is needed that also enter left wing parties, which represent the basic rights of the people, which currently don't exist, because they are "anti-american communists", this is the mantra with which they create the fear in the people to vote it.
Well, Democrats are the less evil choice, but all this is peanuts compared to EU social standard, I see here in Spain often US tourists which thinks they are in the future, IN SPAIN, with the rights, services and the freedom people has. Even with the US Democrates, it's compared like the EU fifty years ago.
Don't confuse the statement with the capability to realize it. In the same moment when Netanyahu travel to the EU, in the same moment he will get arrested, but the EU can't invade Israel to capture him, less without the support from the US. But the change is on the way.
In the same moment when Netanyahu travel to the EU, in the same moment he will get arrested
No. Please don't make claims about things you don't know about. It makes it sound like you're lying deliberately.
But the change is on the way.
Maybe in your imaginary dream land that I assume you were referring to with your comment about the EU arresting Netanyahu, not in the real world though. Please try and remember we are talking about the real world.
Certainly not all EU members will arrest him, but the most will. The ICC statement is clear, the problem for some countries is the USA and beeing a NATO member (sadly) at the same time Israel is supported by the USA. This is because some countries are still hesitant, not for other reasons. The real world is this, and because more and more countries want to turn the EU sovereign respect the US. Trumps BBB and Tariffs for the EU, probably will accelerate this process in August 1, in the manner of selfdefense.
The International Criminal Court's arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu remain valid and binding on all EU member states after judges rejected Israel's appeal to withdraw them on July 16, 202512.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell emphasized that implementing the warrants "is not optional" for EU states3. However, European countries are divided on enforcement:
Countries confirming they would arrest Netanyahu: - Netherlands: "If he comes to Dutch soil, he will be arrested," said Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp4 - Ireland: Prime Minister Simon Harris stated Netanyahu would "absolutely" be arrested5 - Spain: The Foreign Ministry confirmed Spain "will comply with its commitments"5 - Belgium: Initially said it would arrest Netanyahu but later Premier Bart De Wever stated "practical considerations prevail over ethical considerations" and doubted any European country would make the arrest6
Countries refusing or hesitant: - Hungary: Prime Minister Viktor Orbán called the warrants "shameful" and invited Netanyahu with guarantees against arrest7 - Germany: Government spokesperson said it's "hard to imagine arrests could be made"1 - France: Claims Netanyahu has "immunities" from prosecution8 - Italy: Foreign Minister Tajani called Netanyahu's arrest "unfeasible"9
The warrants accuse Netanyahu of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including using starvation as a method of warfare in Gaza between October 2023 and May 202410. While all 27 EU states are legally obligated to enforce ICC warrants, political considerations have created a rift in their response3.
Don't remember the last time the Democrats had military storming our streets and black bagging US residents en masse and deporting them to war zones like South Sudan or Libya despite those people having zero ties to those countries.
This reeks of fucking shitpost right-wing propaganda.
Edit: here come all the "but the US/CIA did all this fucked up stuff to other countries under Dems, too!"
JFC, the current "president" who is GOP literally yells about wanting to deport/arrest political opponents, censor TV personalities (e.g. Colbert, Fallon, etc), openly calls to suppress political opposition in voting, openly supports ignoring the courts when they interfere with his blatantly unconstitutional actions, etc etc .
Yes, the Dems aren't fucking innocent, but to pretend they're the same as a party that's openly trying to "take back the Nazi word" is fucking insane.
since the end of ww2 the two major coup d'états in brazil happened with direct support of the department of state and the cia under dem administration (johnson was in power in 64 and obama, with hillary clinton in charge of the department of state, in 2016). we've got a story or two to tell about them. if the regular lib doesn't care about that, then the most natural thing for us is to consider both parties equally harmful and don't give a damn over internal issues of the us and a.
lmfao you americans are ignorant of your own history. do you honestly think ICE disappeared when Biden was in power? no it's because people like Harris and their bootlickers like you were fine with it when the Top Cop was doing it, they were deporting in record numbers. i guess the black sites also disappeared too, right? typical american arrogance unable to see beyond party affiliation, they are all the same demon to us non-americans, the dems are just better at hiding it. _you are the right winger__
the Democrats had military storming our streets and black bagging US residents en masse
The Posse Comitatus Act is what generally prevents military from "black bagging US residents" and leaves that job to police.
Texas was the first state to allow for the national guard to assist in immigration efforts back in 2021. Democrats did nothing to stop, delay or prevent the expansion of those powers which were further pushed and nationalized in 2025.
The other loophole is invoking the insurrection act. While Biden did not involve it it was repeatedly threatened during the Gaza war protests, however the protests never got too riotous for the Dems to risk damaging their image and the local police were perfectly capable of documenting and black bagging people for it.
The cases of Kahlil and Mahdawi where Trump attended to deport individuals participating in those protests was made possible by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. That specific bill was introduced by the Democrats, passed the Democratic majority House and Senate, Vetoed by Democratic president Truman before being overridden by the house/Senate.
You are correct that they are "not the same", but stating that the shield of your enemy is your friend, just because it isn't a sword is fucking insane.
People had literally burned down police stations and mass looting was occurring. Their police force was completely overrun. Don't act like it was remotely the same thing.
I have several friends in Minneapolis that are very progressive. There were tons of people who were legit scared during periods of that for numerous reasons. It wasn't "acceptable," but what the fuck else do you do when law and order begins to completely breakdown?
Maybe reform the law and order that regularly lets Police murder citizens because they feel like it?
You know, how the protestors demanded before their peaceful protest got beaten up in order to escalate violence to deligitimize the demands and present the violent police as necessary.
So you do think the kidnapping off the streets into unmarked vans by the military was somewhat acceptable when the democrats called for it? At least have the gut to come out and say it
They're not the same. The Dems stand back and shake their fist/wring their hands when the Repubs have power and run roughshod over them. Then when the Dems have power they allow their efforts to be thwarted by the Repubs and gesture helplessly when in fact they could just push things through themselves.
Also the DNC is a malfunctioning toilet that costs elections, implying that they think it's better to have a pro-establishment Repub in power than a Dem maverick.
The problem is that both parties are right wings, only one somewhat more extreme. Both defends the rights of big corporations, billonairs and less or nothing those of the rest of the people. Public services, labor rights and even basic rights, like health and education are a bad joke in the US and only available if you have money. Now with Trump it goes even worse.
Jacobin: Why the Twitter Files Are in Fact a Big DealOn the Left, there’s been a temptation to dismiss the revelations about Twitter’s internal censorship system that have emerged from the so-called Twitter Files project. But that would be a mistake: the news is important and the details are alarming.
Matt Taibbi: Note on New Trump-Russia DisclosuresThanks to explosive new document releases, the Russiagate hoax is now exposed, commencing a new era that will be about accountability for the guilty
Chris Hedges: Why Russiagate Won’t Go AwayThe cynical con the Democratic Party and the F.B.I. carried out to falsely portray Donald Trump as a puppet of the Kremlin worked, and continues to work, because it is what those who detest Trump want to believe.
What are your thoughts on the sand war of 1962? Motherfucker we're talking about "Russia is influencing the world into hating Iran and China" dumbfuck what the hell does this even mean
if you had taken half a second to read what i wrote instead of copy pasting from your tankie .txt file of pre made responses, you'd realize the sources are cited in wikipedia
Warmed over Judeo- Bolsherik conspiracy
look, the russian troll even went to school and knows some history of his mother land!
if you had taken half a second to read what i wrote instead of copy pasting from your tankie .txt file of pre made responses, you’d realize the sources are cited in wikipedia
And if you had taken half a second to read what I wrote, rather than copy pasting the standard reddit shitlibs insults, youd realize that you should cite those sources, not expect other people to dig for them.
But we all know you didn't actually check the sources did you? You just trust it because Wikipedia said it.
look, the russian troll even went to school and knows some history of his mother land!
You're not beating the neo-nazi accusations with this one.
Naturally, the common people don’t want war. . . but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.
I never denied that Russia has propaganda. I do deny your assumption that anyone who isn't slobbering over US boots must automatically be licking Russian boots, that anyone who doesn't do like you do and fall in lockstep behind hating whoever the people in power tell us to hate must be a traitor or spy.
Keep denouncing anyone who's antiwar for their lack of patriotism, you're making Goering proud.
I do deny your assumption that anyone who isn't slobbering over US boots must automatically be licking Russian boots
You just posted a quote from Goering in response to me suggesting that a post that decries both parties for "Hostility to Russia, Iran and China" is probably Russian propaganda.
Yes, because you're claiming that anyone who doesn't fall in line with your Orwellian "five minutes hate" is a traitor. That's the definition of bootlicking.
Thank God this image not only has the label "Venn Diagram" but also has a big red arrow pointing to the center and labeled "things the two parties have in common". I had forgotten the name of this extremely common diagram and I also had no idea how it worked.
We may have got here eventually anyway, but things are a lot worse for Americans right now because of Trump's Republicans. Let's not lose sight of that when complaining about the shit they have in common.
There's also nobody who might emerge out of the right who would bring something that will make life for everyone better. Only the Democrats have a chance of doing that and engineering a better system that might eventuallyundermine their own political hegemony. Would they without pressure? Of course not. But the right will never even be pressured to do anything like that intentionally by it's base, almost by definition basically.
And I brought up that issue specific to show that the Democrats also "will never even be pressured to do anything like that intentionally by it’s base"
Progressive social change has always occurred under the auspices of the left-most of the two major parties. That's just how it overwhelmingly is. What's not to agree with? How do you think progress will happen next time it happens?
The hallmark progressive achievements made in this country, many that still exist today (to varying degrees ofc) were a result of third party sweat, blood and tears. Literally.
I recommend reading about the social/workers rights movements of the early 1900s. The Progressive Party led by Roosevelt, The Bull Moose Party with social reformers like Jane Addams and Florence Kelly, the Socialist Party of Eugene Debs.... all of these were most prominent in fighting for and ultimately producing a cluster of social welfare, social insurance reforms, women's suffrage, workers rights/5 day work week, etc.
It was the dedication, pressure and will to not fall in line trying to change the two-party duopoly from within but to build their own coalitions, their own movements on the outside, and thus the mainstream parties were eventually forced to inscribe the populus demands into legislation.
All that to say, healthy third parties are a good thing. It builds actual pressure on your legislators. Politicians wont work on your behalf when they know you're voting for them anyway – just line their pockets with money from the bourgeois they actually legislate for. Seeking the change you wish to see via third party can and has produced tremendous gains for the working class.
You can and should support them as they align with your values, but you'll never get enough votes for them to have any chance of overthrowing the big two. It has to be changed from within, unless you're prepared to try violence.
Well, first, MAGA isn't really a qualitative change to the GOP, and is fully compatible with bourgeois rule, unlike trying to get socialism to overtake the DNC. Secondly, revolution is by far the most successful way at bringing about what those engaged with it wanted, not sure what you're talking about here.
I would have much preferred a connections Republican party over what we got.
If revolutions bring ultimately successful, examples?
I know there are some, with the obvious one being the American Civil War that ended slavery. But, wars come with an intense cost to human life, and sounds be a list resort. Precisely because most around the world have not been successful, and have lead to things like military rule.
Regardless of how you feel about the GOP, the extent it is allowed to change is the extent to which the ruling class can continue to have their interests served. The DNC is the same in this respect, neither can go against the system dominated by private ownership, but they can slide around as long as they adhere to that.
As for successful revolutions, many. Algeria, Haiti, Cuba, China, Russia, Vietnam, etc. All have delivered much better results for their people post-revolution as compared to pre-revolution. Revolution happens because it's necessary.
I really hope it gets worse and your awful cancer country goes down the shitter. All these reactions prove what many already knew, you deserve it and there's very little people to sympathise with.
The thing is that your asking tankies to be pragmatic about policy. They would rather let the Palestinian Genocide continue and works lose more rights than to do anything helpful in the near or medium term. They just aren't serious about the issues.
Its easy for the .ml types to cry and wait for a perfect policy or candidate. They aren't going hungry, nor under seige of any kind.
The thing is that your asking tankies to be pragmatic about policy.
This “pragmatism” is how we got here in the first place.
Its easy for the .ml types to cry and wait for a perfect policy or candidate.
We’re not looking for a perfect candidate under bourgeois democracy, because we know it will never happen. Previously:
The US government was never not captured by the bourgeoisie, because the US was born of a bourgeois revolution[1]. The wealthy, white, male, land-owning, largely slave-owning Founding Fathers constructed a bourgeois state with “” against the “tyranny of the majority”. It was never meant to represent the majority—the working class—and it never has, despite eventually allowing women and non-whites (at least those not disenfranchised by the carceral system) to vote. BBC: [Princeton & Northwestern] Study: US is an oligarchy, not a democracy
What in the World: A new report finds that an elite few dominate US policy, the human error behind South Korea's ferry tragedy, and Algeria's uneasy status quo election.
We’re not looking for a perfect candidate under bourgeois democracy, because we know it will never happen. Previously:
In either case you're not doing shit and you're not a serious movement. Tankies don't vote to minimize harm, nor do they vote to expand the progressive wing.
You all are effectively the ratchet democratsyou laughs at because you ultimately won't show or organize for anything. Tankies aren't serious people.
By Scott Cooper Republished from Left Voice . In 1947, Winston Churchill famously said that “democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
Schrodinger's leftists; simultaneously the reason the Democrats lost the election and the biggest obstacle to progress, but also not a serious movement.
Non.voting is the largest block going back multiple cycles. Trolls like you are concerned but not enough to show up. I'm aware of your trolling, so I won't entertain you much more
I’m aware of your trolling, so I won’t entertain you much more
In other words, you're wrong and you know it, but you're too huffy to admit it, so you're going to try to pretend like it's too below your dignity to actually respond to someone who disagrees with you. You're just so self evidently right, after all.
No I mean you are a troll. I've asked you what other actionable paths do you advocate instead. You didn't answer. Saying stop genocide denial (which no one in the thread was in denial btw) is just not a real answer. Its easy for privileged people like you to wait for perfection as you are not going cold and hungry in a siege. Your comments and modlogs confirm that you are a troll as well.
I fucking hope, but we already seen that at 1st Trump term and after Biden was elected entire EU again got back to licking US boot, including something as unbelivable as fully allowing nordstream sabotage.
It don't though, it just rises the price of energy because the gas still flows, even more than before, just from USA, Norway and yes, sill Russia, even more of it, but through middlemen. The sabotage also caused significant ecological catastrophe in the Baltic.
About the sabotage itself you have three versions available:
Truth, that USA bombed it, possibly with participation of Norway (note above paragraph, curiously the very same countries that gained the most on it, qui bono, eh?)
USA version, where Ukraine did it, despite lacking means
Official German/EU version, that is no version, because both above versions means that Germany is either vassal (ver1) or war ally (ver2) of country which attacked Germany in a biggest peacetime sabotage in German history.
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.
You literally just said that it was because of Republicans that the EU soured on the US and now you're telling me that in the EU you don't look at which party is in charge but at the US as a whole. Do you not see how these statements are contradictory?
Ok? The significance of the clip I posted was not that it was Biden saying it but what he said he would do (and very likely did). Why did that prompt you say, "FYI: in the EU we don’t play the “it was Biden vs it was Trump” game. We stop at “it was the US?”"
The reason I posted that clip was to establish the reason why I believe the US blew up the pipeline. Yes, it happens to be Biden in that clip, but you're the one who started talking about distinguishing between Trump and Biden and then about not distinguishing between Trump and Biden. I'm just talking about the US.
The only thing I can think of is that you're trying to preemptively shift the NordStream thing away from Biden and onto the US in general as a way of deflecting blame from Biden. But again, I just brought it up to establish US policy on NordStream, not specifically to bash Biden. If it's not that, then I just straight up don't understand you at all.
Why would I want to deflect blame from Biden? I’m telling you that I’m a European and I don’t care who’s in charge in the US or which president did what.
Why did you feel the need to say that you don't care about internal US politics when I didn't say shit about internal US politics?
All I did was post a clip of the US president promising that he'll stop NordStream if Russia invaded Ukraine, despite not having the legal authority to do so. Then, of course, Russia invaded Ukraine, and the NordStream pipeline mysteriously got stopped (could be anyone, really!)
because that sabotage was very convenient for every party
It certainly wasn't convenient for Russia or Germany.
You mentioned that I may want to deflect the responsibility from Biden. -> I don’t have such interests.
Again, why did you feel the need to say that you don’t care about internal US politics when I didn’t say shit about internal US politics?
Whoever did it
Yeah, could be Russia's biggest geopolitical rival that directly benefited both politically and economically by forcing Europe to buy their gas instead and which said that it would do that exact thing under those exact conditions and easily have the means to do it, or it could've been anyone, really.
I doubt that US extortion will be reversed in any future DNC election victory. Only antagonism, and resulting colapse of US, which has yet to be manifested, will result in reversal.
In seiner Stellungnahme gegenüber „t-online.de“ führte Reimer weiter aus, dass er Brosius-Gersdorf, deren Wahl vor einer Woche aufgrund mangelnder Unterstützung innerhalb der Unionsfraktion ausgesetzt worden war, als Aktivistin wahrnehme, „die über eine Neuinterpretation des Grundgesetzes ein deutsches ,Roe v. Wade‘ erreichen will“. Darin sehe er einen „Bruch mit der gesamten bisherigen Rechtsprechung des Bundesverfassungsgerichts zu Art. 2 Abs. 2 GG“. Jener Artikel besagt: „Jeder hat das Recht auf Leben und körperliche Unversehrtheit. Die Freiheit der Person ist unverletzlich. In diese Rechte darf nur auf Grund eines Gesetzes eingegriffen werden.“
Er habe den Eintrag der Juristin ergänzt, da dieser zuvor „unterbelichtet, ungenau und unbelegt“ gewesen sei, so der Leiter des Cusanuswerks, Ekkehart Reimer.
Because its in the news everywhere?? Just google "deutsch roe v wade" and you'll see so many newsarticles about it. Genuinely the minutiae of us politics, government shutdowns etc. get widespread coverage in tagesschau, spiegel, focus etc.
Because we're a vassal state, so any major changes in the upper echelons of the empire will affect us, including all the "culture wars", such as the war on trans kids, womens rights etc. that get imported.
A lot of the nazis especially in eastern europe got or still get funded by the cia because of their staunch anticommunism via gladio operations. Thats not to blame the empire for the bigotry of the average european but a lot of the fascist orgs get material support from seppoland.
Some cultural exchanges and auxiliary funding is not remotely the same as arming and connecting former SS troops to create clandestine paramilitary terror cells, like wtf are we comparing here.
So, they killed a leader of a state involved in colonialism and genocides, as opposed to actually conducting a terror attack? Sounds like you've got nothing.
Sounds like you have been living under a rock. Italy had already been a member of NATO by 1970, which already makes them complicit in things like the Lebensraum genocide in Palestine.
You claim that you are from Europe, but you are evidently very ignorant of its history.
This is hilarious. It has, apparently, been very 'defensively' committing the genocide in Palestine, and it so very 'defensively' invaded Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Vietnam, Korea, etc. /s
Only people with no knowledge of history and no knowledge of what has been happening this century think that it's a defensive alliance.
Also, what was/is it a defensive alliance of and from? Are you going to argue that it hasn't been an alliance defending colonial metropoles and settler-colonies from justice?
Read the basics at least
You should follow your own advice and learn about what it has been doing.
'We gave ourselves permission to commit genocides and do invasions, so all of this is okay, akshully'.
It has always been a force for colonialism. NATO has killed millions in its invasions, including the recent ones into Iran, Syria, Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
If you want to argue that NATO ignores 9 out of 10 conflicts and intervenes only where it’s convenient for the West, that’s a fair point
No. Reread what I have said. My issue is not that NATO does not 'intervene' where it should. My issue is that NATO is fundamentally a colonial empire. It is a perpetrator of at least one genocide that is currently ongoing, and it is the most prolific invader in the world.
but accusations of genocide are simply ridiculous
Literally Palestine.
Just to name an example of your BS, Israel attacked the UNIFIL forces because they held their defensive position in Lebanon
In what way does that contradict any of what I have said? Pissrael is de facto a part of NATO (arguing that Pissrael could have ever been as successful in its Lebensraum project without NATO is ridiculous), so that's literally an example of yet another invasion by NATO.
Both Pissraeli and USian troops have been on the ground there recently. NATO has also done stuff like the bombing of Yemen and Iran recently, as well as the completion of the invasion of Syria just within the last 12 months.
Israel collaborates with NATO
Pissrael is de facto a part of NATO.
Are NATO members also responsible for the violations of human rights in Egypt? What about those in Tunisia?
Yes. Yes.
You are clearly full of ideology and less of facts.
You are literally claiming that the invasions of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, and Afghanistan by NATO did not happen.
Going to note that you are yet to dispute any of what I have been saying with facts. You have only been throwing baseless accusations at me.
I claim you don’t know the difference between individual countries and NATO
I do. Not sure how the fact that those are individual countries/states contradicts the facts that they engage in collaborative colonialist efforts and that they are also subservient to the US - the de facto head of NATO.
and you are so full of yourself that you can’t even search where NATO actually operated and where didn’t.
I have literally pointed out a bunch of places where NATO has operated.
I stop here
You should, in fact, stop supporting and denying colonialism.
I stop here, feel free to continue telling yourself you’re right.
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.”
I recommend providing sources next time youre making the comperison between nazi terror cells doing pogroms and some revolutionary groups doing targeted assasinations of fascist politicians. Provide a source that the assassination of Aldo moro was financed or otherwise materially supported by the ussr or shut up. Because I found nothing of the sort.
Either way still not remotely comparable to what the wannabe-dirlewangers did and still do:
He says that because you weren't paying as much tribute as he would like, which is why he ordered you to increase military spending and y'all went and did it, and then had Mark Rutte kiss his ass in appreciation. 😂
Maybe you missed the part where Trump decided to “maybe” withdraw the US from NATO
So, has the US withdrawn from NATO or is it a part of NATO? Also, it would be nice if the US withdrew from NATO.
switched to a Mafia style for military protection
The rest of NATO has been a bunch of glorified provinces of the US since NATO's inception.
threatened to reduce military capacity in the EU
That would be great, actually. NATO in general should both be prevented from invading elsewhere, and be forced to answer for its already-committed crimes.
We will replace the US military shield by 2030. Google it if you don’t believe it
Glorified USian provinces in Europe will not be going independent any time soon.
I know this because I have not been living under a rock, and have actually studied some history of the past couple of centuries, and not because I am a worshipper of any of your overlords.
EDIT: How would that even make sense, considering that the US does not try to claim that the rest of NATO are its obedient subjects? Did you not think your response through before you posted it?
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.”
libs be believing dem politicans lip service when they never do anything about it, but the one time their politician says something and actually does it, they don't believe it.
No, that one belongs in the shared space too. It was Biden who literally bombed the infrastructure that made it possible for Germany to meet its energy needs without reliance on buying US oil/lng. Who froze all foreign assets that belonged to Afghanistan, essentially stealing billions of dollars that belonged to the Afghani people? Biden. Who froze all Russian assets and tried to make it illegal on a global scale to do business with "the bad guy" state? Biden. And while you may hate Russia if you're a typical propagandized westerner, that doesn't mean most of the rest of the world, particularly global south countries, do as well.
From 3 years ago:
"With Russia losing access to its foreign currency reserves, a message has been sent to all countries that they can’t count on these money stashes to actually be theirs in the event of tension. As such, it may make less and less sense for global reserve managers to hold dollars for safety, given that they could be taken away right when they’re most needed. Russia isn’t the first country to get this lesson in recent months. The Biden administration’s move to seize Afghanistan’s cash assets and prevent their access by the Taliban was another recent signal that reserves can be frozen."
That was all thanks to the Democrats during the Biden regime. Trump is putting as many nails into that coffin as he can, but we shouldn't pretend Republicans are the only ones responsible for showing the world that the dollar is dangerous and the US cannot be trusted.
Europeans may be a bit slow on the uptake, considering much of Europe is still imperial core and it's all still the global north, but just because European liberals have been struggling to let go of the propaganda that the U.S. is a benevolent force for "order" in the world doesn't mean that it is suddenly Trump alone that has irrevocably damaged U.S. soft power as well as a positive image of the U.S. in Europe.
and the nonsense of vaccines and Medicare
More examples of issues that were major in the "discourse" under Biden (and earlier). Come on.
Some people and companies are actively seeking alternatives to American products, we are talking about an European tech stack for the first time, a multi billion program just started to replace US in defence, there are funds specifically designed to attract American scientists, the EU is coming for startups too, and intense chats with Canada, China and others try to replace the US market.
And a lot of this takes longer planning than just the 6 months Trump has been in office again. You may not have been aware of it, but many were (I may not be a European, but I have been speaking with plenty of them especially since February of '22). The U.S. has been advertising the fact that its is tightening its leash on its vassals (you Europeans) for a while now, which in turn is unintentional but unconcealable admission that its empire is struggling. Those with eyes to see it, and there are many, most certainly have been watching since long before Trump. I won't argue that Trump hasn't ramped it up in terms of how blatant it is with his overt buffoonery and open fascism (as opposed to the Democrat's false pretense of not being fascist), but to say it's something that the Democrats do not share in, or haven't deeply contributed to just as Trump has, well you're burying your head in the sand.
I honestly don't mean offense by this because it is so heavily dependent on what you hear in your MSM, but you and those who think this is new are slow on the uptake when compared to Europeans who closely follow this sort of thing, and Europe on the whole considering its relationship to US imperialism is going to be slow on the uptake compared to the rest of the world. And if we're talking about the rest of the world beyond Europe already knowing these things, well let me just say: BRICS+. But honestly, if you think that even European leaders didn't take a major fucking lesson from the blowing up of Nordstream, you're... well, I guess just living under the same rock most of the population who gets their news from major outlets are living under - still doesn't change the fact that the absolute dismantling of U.S. soft power and power projection (as "defenders" or as a country with whom deals and promises will be kept) is 100% a bipartisan project.
One characteristic of the European politics is that it’s slow. Painfully slow.
The glacial pace of European politics helps prove my point. The fact that the pace is slightly quickening may or may not be because of Trump - like I said, I certainly wouldn't argue against his undeniable increasing of the already rapidly deteriorating global image of the US as being trustworthy, but the whole point is that that deterioration was already happening when he got into office. Your original position is that it was not, that the Europeans feeling that the US cannot be trusted anymore and that the image of the dollar's supremacy was waning, that all of that rests entirely on the shoulder of the Republicans when that is just demonstrably not true.
That said, you are free to think that with Biden it was all the same (or even worse).
You're shifting the goalposts a bit there, since I never claimed it was "the same" only that it was already clearly well underway, which I have maintained throughout. Yes, I am free to recognize the objective reality of the situation, just as you are free to, for whatever odd reason, push against it to mistakenly insist that Trump is some sudden and unique outlier in the collapse of US image and power projection when that has demonstrably been going on since before him and will continue after, even if he is ramping up the rate of deterioration.
As opposed to fucking what? Implying their own opinion is wrong? Implying that two mutually exclusive things are simultaneously true? The very definition of having an opinion means you think opposing opinions are wrong!
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.”
Who froze all Russian assets and tried to make it illegal on a global scale to do business with "the bad guy" state? Biden. And while you may hate Russia if you're a typical propagandized westerner, that doesn't mean most of the rest of the world, particularly global south countries, do as well.
So you condone genocide as long as it's done by "communists". got it.
People of liberated territories likely to vote in favor of joining Russia in forthcoming referenda—just like Crimeans did in 2014 [Sonja van den Ende has been reporting on the war in eastern Ukraine and has received protection from the Russian milita…
Obamacare is responsible for finding the masses in my breasts right now so I like it. I'd like it more if just everyone could go to the doctor and not have to ask, like I do, "is it covered by my insurance"
I credit Dems with making Mitt Romney’s healthcare plan worse, by removing the public option - the thing that would have actually improved the lives of poorer people. Instead, we simply shoveled some 30mil Americans right into the pockets of predatory insurance companies.
The only silver lining from that legislation was preventing them from denying care due to pre-existing conditions, and that point has been an all out battleground ever since.
Can you not see that the people who are disagreeing with you are merely suggesting that it is not as black and white as it being the democrats fault, or the republicans fault, that perhaps there’s more to it than which corporate/aipac/billionaire donor football team you like?
The donor class owns both teams by the way.
It’s the corporate dems and the corporate republicans who are holding back progress… because of legal bribery - campaign donations….
By your logic, democrats blocked 100% of Biden’s agenda while he was in office.
Biden literally accomplished nothing during his administration, and even the dumb stuff that was passed has been clawed back already.
It's not fair to say that he accomplished nothing! Bombing kids, backing a genocide, taking money from the working-class and poor, and giving it to his rich friends, helping to build out the border wall, increasing funding for the police and surveillance state...
We have to have two, to keep the masses fighting, thinking one will bring change the other can't. It takes the eye off the ball from the oligarchs, industrial war machine, the three rogue letter spy agencies, and most of all the Zionist influence. Brain-dead voters will scream across the isle at each other, "but my candidate is slightly better than your candidate!" Logic has left the room.
Except MAGA is not neoliberalism unless we think tariffs are now "free trade". I get the point that neither party will wield power against capitalism, but they still use their power differently.
Neoliberalism shouldn't be seen as a doctrine but as a stage of capitalism, in which policies are shaped by the current context, with the intention of mantaining the current status quo. Free trade made sense for imperialist core countries because its industries were much ahead than the rest of the world, thus free trade made it easier to conquer international markets. Now that China has caught up, free trade fundamentalism is no longer the correct strategy.
Well...Do they though? On that pesky genocide (sorry I forgot--lets not call it 'genocide', right, that makes dems queasy-- how about we just say some people seem to have dropped dead), Bidens pretend "push back" and "negotiations" and "red lines" and "plans to build a dock to get food in and then hand it to the Israelis just like every single other land border crossing" all show that the dem centrists are simply mercenaries paid by zionists. mercenaries who take the time to put up some theatre for their evil so people dont have to acknowledge it, but the exact same outcomes happen either way. Most of the deaths and most of the building demolitions happened under Biden. When you and I start trying to parse if it was slightly faster under Trump, aren't we missing the point?
We lost Roe under Biden, who famously never supported a womans right to choose until right before he got tapped to be VP. Strange coincidence?
Appointing Merrick Garland as AG and then pretending to be powerless while Garland proceeded to lean right and sit on his hands for 4 entire years is another example. As is cracking down on free speech. And what did Biden do in the wake of all the police murders that the defund and reallocate movement brought to his door? He said explicitly that he didnt agree with the massive movement on the left, and shut it down, actually increasing police funding as an extra "eff you" to the dem voters. Same as a republican would. Wheres this imagined difference?
And Biden famously told rooms full of rich donors at the end of Trumps term that "nothing would fundamentally change" (from Trump's first term) under him. This emncapsulates this whole discussion perfectly. Biden swearing to the rich that nothing will change, while pretending to run on change.
This is the same Biden who shut down a rail strike, and then slowly over time negotiated a tiny fraction of what the strikers wanted, and then called it a victory on their behalf-- and then had the effing gall to walk a picket line for a photo op so his surrogates could trumpet how union-friendly he was. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Same Biden who during his term bragged about being harder on immigration than Trump ever had been-- and wore it like a badge of honor that he'd "closed the southern border". jacobin.com/2024/06/biden-asyl…
Today centrist dems wont even admit there was ever any problem. So I guess you'd say we should change nothing and ignore the wildly eroding support and the poll numbers showing the democratic party has just 28% favorability?
So I guess you'd say we should change nothing and ignore the wildly eroding support and the poll numbers showing the democratic party has just 28% favorability?
My brother in Christ, you're not talking to a liberal here.
DNC is a huge problem with America as was Biden/Garland. They need/needed Trump to not fall out of a window, or be in military jail, in order for the most warmongering neocon DNC candidates to ensure warmongering. After Oct 7th, DNC's Israel first "job is to gaslight the left into supporting Israel", meant ensuring Trump's win, and today, have their elected Zionist supremacists, repeat attacks of communism on Mamdani.
On global warming, forcing a proxy war on Russia, not only enriches domestic oil companies to fund climate denial. pushing global diesel (home heating fuel same fraction) refining capacity to limit, with massive emissions from war, it also means no cooperation with Russia possible on global warming. It is simply impossible to prioritize human sustainability, if voters are made to support war, while struggling with the economic collapse directly accelerated by it, not to mention cultural divisiveness issues (not DNC/Biden fault).
The US needs either a military coup, or candidates/party that will remove citizenship and assets of Zionist oligarchy influencing US rulership. If money is speech, then money is terrorism.
Let me guess, your preferred form of government is "petty dictator killing people for not following the same exact lifestyle as he wants, but virtue signals to communism".
And why exactly isn't this other party, so different, doing anything to prevent that?
Could it be because you have only two viable parties and they're nearly identical, thus having no actual opposition that could overcome abuses by the dominant party at any given point in time? Something other countries have a lot of experience with?
LOL I guess that's the best you can come up with. So glad Trump won and is helping the demise of your banana republic, you all deserve it, no one worth saving in that afwul country. Dumbest bunch on the planet
I agreed with you about the actual issue but wtf. You do realize the United States has 340 million people and lager that whatever country you likely love in, right? There are many diverse political postions here, but you won't see them in our duopoly...
Like yeah the Dems played a roll in funding and using the police state. They want itm they love West wing TV style politics where they think they are the good guys and can't critically consider any positive future and therefore end up being shit libs at best.
The republicans actively want to kill everyone for profit.
At least 95% supports a side of the uniparty. Maybe there's a handful of real left people at best. Pragmatically it's reasonable collateral dammage. The US causes millions of deaths and misery in the world. All they are concerned about and cry over now is that they get a small taste of what they do in other places. They don't deserve sympathy. Fuck em.
When Trump terminated the USAID, Some very liberal who used to advocate for "Women and children" people came out with how No USAID means the USA will lose leverage,like We know you don't care but at least don't promote such disgusting foulplays.
The fact that there are so many dislikes proves how propagandized the average American is. "How dare you call both sides the same" Well, they ojectively are pretty much the same with few exceptions.
One side supports a criminal Nazi apologist who tried to overthrow our Democracy and hasn't given up yet. The other side brings a knife to the gun fight.
They're not even remotely the same. 40 years ago that may have been closer to true.
The DNC isn't fighting for workers. They are bringing a gun to the gunfight, they just aren't interested in using it against the GOP, as ultimately both serve capital. The US has never been a democracy for the people.
No they want to appear to regulate capital. Most of the time they don't actually want to regulate it. Yes they won't be as overt as to do the massive wealth transfers they the republicans do . But they will. Who was president in 08 ? Who continued to dump money into our military contracts despite running as anti war?
Like yeah the parties are different domestically but foreign policy wise the outcomes are usually the same.
Most right wing policies done by Democrats are necessary because of the electoral college. There is resistance from the right, and Democrats working within the unfair rules need to appease these swing state voters through compromise. Those compromises are ugly and unfair. It's not usually because they want to appease billionaires. But definitely there is corruption on both sides. Just 10x as much on the right.
😂 I mean for one, the entire presidential election was purchased by a few rich people who used disinformation tactics. Then taxes for the rich were eradicated at the expense of everyone else. That's the exact opposite of the Democrat's political ideology. I should say 1000x. I'll call it "orders of magnitude" instead.
Serving capital does not mean we're not a Democracy
If you think that you live under a democracy, i.e. that your government's decisions reflect your wishes, then you should be held accountable for the genocides and invasions that your state keeps committing.
Attempting a coup of the government and disinformation does, however.
The US suffering a coup would at worst not make anything worse, including in terms of 'democracy'.
Not much argument there, but the Overton window has everything to do with it. How do you think other Democrat socialist countries got where they were? At some point they were all pretty much in our boat. I haven't lost hope yet.
There are no "democratic socialist" countries. Democratic Socialism is a descriptor for reformist socialism, the closest we got was Salvador Allende in Chile. Socialism isn't just "social programs," socialism refers to a mode of production where public ownership is the principle aspect of the economy, ie the large firms and key industries. The Nordic countries are Social Democracies, welfare capitalism essentially.
The Nordic Countries have the large safety nets they do largely due to proximity with the USSR, who was the first to dramatically expand their safety nets. Combined with millitant labor organizing, these concessions in other countries forced the bourgeoisie's hand. The problem is that these social safety nets in the global north are funded through imperialism, vast extraction from the global south.
The Overton Window has nothing to do with it. The system is dominated by capitalists, the only way to get even a fraction of what the workers want is through millitant organizing and running our own parties like PSL, the only way to actually get socialism is through revolution.
To most, Democratic Socialism and Social Democracy mean the same thing. Since actual Socialism is usually so irrelevant it requires no clarification. Since you're an actual socialist I'm gonna doubt we have any constructive dialogue from here on out.
But for the record I don't believe violent revolution is a winning strategy. It's a failed experiment that killed millions and it won't work this time either. Neither is sitting back and hoping things work out, so I can't dock you.
No, the large majority understand the difference between democratic socialism and social democracy. The Nordics don't call themselves socialist, because they aren't.
Further, socialism is extremely relevant. The PRC is Socialist, and is the world's largest economy and industrial power. Support for collectivizing the economy is growing in the west, even if absolute numbers are still low. Socialism remains the only way to move on.
Revolution did not "kill millions of people," in all major socialist countries life expectancy increased by 50%-100%, infant mortality plumetted, and poverty dramatically reduced. Revolution has proven to be the only way to genuinely democratize the economy and establish socialism, when you try to do that within a liberal capitalist framework like in Chile, you get couped by the US Empire.
You'd do well to join an org like the aforementioned PSL, reading theory and history books are also helpful.
Well, I appreciate the complement, but I do want to point out that the longer you hold onto the idea that we can vote for a better world in a system designed to keep imperialism running for as long as possible, the longer you'll be walking around with your hands tied doing exactly what the ruling class wants you to do.
It's time to read theory, comrades! As Lenin says, "Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle." Reading theory helps us identify the core contradictions within modern society, analyze their trajectories, and gives us the tools to break free. Marxism-Leninism is broken into 3 major components, as noted by Lenin in his pamphlet The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism: | Audiobook
Dialectical and Historical Materialism
Critique of Capitalism along the lines of Marx's Law of Value
Advocacy for Revolutionary and Scientific Socialism
As such, I created the following list to take you from no knowledge whatsoever of Leftist theory, and leave you with a strong understanding of the critical fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism in an order that builds up as you read. Let's get started!
Section I: Getting Started
What the heck is Communism, anyways? For that matter, what is fascism?
Breaks down fascism and its mortal enemy, Communism, as well as their antagonistic relationship. Understanding what fascism is, where and when it rises, why it does so, and how to banish it forever is critical. Parenti also helps debunk common anti-Communist myths, from both the "left" and the right, in a quick-witted writing style. This is also an excellent time to watch the famous speech.
Section II: Historical and Dialectical Materialism
By far my favorite primer on Marxist philosophy. By understanding Dialectical and Historical Materialism first, you make it easier to understand the rest of Marxism-Leninism. Don't be intimidated!
Further reading on Dialectical and Historical Materialism, but crucially introduces the why of Scientific Socialism, explaining how Capitalism itself prepares the conditions for public ownership and planning by centralizing itself into monopolist syndicates. This is also where Engels talks about the failures of previous "Utopian" Socialists.
Section III: Political Economy
That's right, it's time for the Law of Value and a deep-dive into Imperialism. If we are to defeat Capitalism, we must learn it's mechanisms, tendencies, contradictions, and laws.
Best taken as a pair, these essays simplify the most important parts of the Law of Value. Marx is targetting those not trained in economics here, but you might want to keep a pen and some paper to follow along if you are a visual person.
Absolutely crucial and the most important work for understanding the modern era and its primary contradictions. Marxist-Leninists understand that Imperialism is the greatest contradiction in the modern era, which cascades downward into all manner of related contradictions. Knowing what dying Capitalism looks like, and how it behaves, means we can kill it.
Section IV: Revolutionary and Scientific Socialism
Can we defeat Capitalism at the ballot box? What about just defeating fascism? What about the role of the state?
If Marxists believed reforming Capitalist society was possible, we would be the first in line for it. Sadly, it isn't possible, which Luxemburg proves in this monumental writing.
Excellent refutation of revisionists and Social Democrats who think the State can be reformed, without needing to be replaced with one that is run by the workers, in their own interests.
Section V: Intersectionality and Solidarity
The revolution will not be fought by atomized individuals, but by an intersectional, international working class movement. Intersectionality is critical, because it allows different marginalized groups to work together in collective interest, unifying into a broad movement.
Critical reading on understanding misogyny, transphobia, enbyphobia, pluralphobia, and homophobia, as well as how to move beyond the base subject of "gender." Uses the foundations built up in the previous works to analyze gender theory from a Historical Materialist perspective.
De-colonialism is essential to Marxism. Without having a strong, de-colonial, internationalist stance, we have no path to victory nor a path to justice. Fanon analyzes Colonialism's dehumanizing effects, and lays out how to form a de-colonial movement, as well as its necessity.
Solidarity and intersectionality are the key to any social movement. When different social groups fight for liberation together along intersectional lines, the movements are emboldened and empowered ever-further.
Section VI: Putting it into Practice!
It's not enough to endlessly read, you must put theory to practice. That is how you can improve yourself and the movements you support. Touch grass!
Mao wrote simply and directly, targeting peasant soldiers during the Revolutionary War in China. This pair of essays equip the reader with the ability to apply the analytical tools of Dialectical Materialism to their every day practice, and better understand problems.
Congratulations, you completed your introductory reading course!
With your new understanding and knowledge of Marxism-Leninism, here is a mini What is to be Done? of your own to follow, and take with you as practical advice.
Get organized. Join a Leftist org, find solidarity with fellow comrades, and protect each other. The Dems will not save you, it is up to us to protect ourselves. The Party for Socialism and Liberation and Freedom Road Socialist Organization both organize year round, every year, because the battle for progress is a constant struggle, not a single election. See if there is a chapter near you, or start one! Or, see if there's an org you like more near you and join it.
Read theory. Don't think that you are done now! Just because you have the basics, doesn't mean you know more than you do. If you have not investigated a subject, don't speak on it! Don't speak nonsense, but listen!
Aggressively combat white supremacy, misogyny, queerphobia, and other attacks on marginalized communities. Cede no ground, let nobody be forgotten or left behind. There is strength in numbers, when one marginalized group is targeted, many more are sure to follow.
Be industrious, and self-sufficient. Take up gardening, home repair, tinkering. It is through practice that you elevate your problem-solving capabilities. Not only will you improve your skill at one subject, but your general problem-solving muscles get strengthened as well.
Learn self-defense. Get armed, if practical. Be ready to protect yourself and others. Liberals will not save us, we must save each other.
Be persistent. If you feel like a single water droplet against a mountain, think of canyons and valleys. Oh, how our efforts pile up! With consistency, every rock, boulder, even mountain, can be drilled through with nothing but steady and persistent water droplets.
"Everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent."
Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) is a national organization of revolutionaries fighting for socialism in the United States. Our home is in the working class.
I appreciate it! I do think different people respond better or worse to different tactics, some people need more harsh treatment, some need more patience. I think a broad approach is best, in my experience!
oh god i agree with cowbee wholeheartedly in a thread of discourse…
oh god oh fuck oh shit i can feel it happening… is it warm in here?
Я чувствую, как марксизм-ленинизм просачивается в мой мозг!!! ~make~ it stop...
Теперь я чувствую себя белым и пушистым… как коммунистический медведь.
—-
anyway joking aside appreciate lemmy collectively telling neolibs to shut the fuck up bc while plenty of things .ml says piss me off, they don’t piss me off nearly as much as seeing americans who haven’t ripped the bandaid off yet.
It's time to read theory, comrades! As Lenin says, "Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle." Reading theory helps us identify the core contradictions within modern society, analyze their trajectories, and gives us the tools to break free. Marxism-Leninism is broken into 3 major components, as noted by Lenin in his pamphlet The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism: | Audiobook
Dialectical and Historical Materialism
Critique of Capitalism along the lines of Marx's Law of Value
Advocacy for Revolutionary and Scientific Socialism
As such, I created the following list to take you from no knowledge whatsoever of Leftist theory, and leave you with a strong understanding of the critical fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism in an order that builds up as you read. Let's get started!
Section I: Getting Started
What the heck is Communism, anyways? For that matter, what is fascism?
Breaks down fascism and its mortal enemy, Communism, as well as their antagonistic relationship. Understanding what fascism is, where and when it rises, why it does so, and how to banish it forever is critical. Parenti also helps debunk common anti-Communist myths, from both the "left" and the right, in a quick-witted writing style. This is also an excellent time to watch the famous speech.
Section II: Historical and Dialectical Materialism
By far my favorite primer on Marxist philosophy. By understanding Dialectical and Historical Materialism first, you make it easier to understand the rest of Marxism-Leninism. Don't be intimidated!
Further reading on Dialectical and Historical Materialism, but crucially introduces the why of Scientific Socialism, explaining how Capitalism itself prepares the conditions for public ownership and planning by centralizing itself into monopolist syndicates. This is also where Engels talks about the failures of previous "Utopian" Socialists.
Section III: Political Economy
That's right, it's time for the Law of Value and a deep-dive into Imperialism. If we are to defeat Capitalism, we must learn it's mechanisms, tendencies, contradictions, and laws.
Best taken as a pair, these essays simplify the most important parts of the Law of Value. Marx is targetting those not trained in economics here, but you might want to keep a pen and some paper to follow along if you are a visual person.
Absolutely crucial and the most important work for understanding the modern era and its primary contradictions. Marxist-Leninists understand that Imperialism is the greatest contradiction in the modern era, which cascades downward into all manner of related contradictions. Knowing what dying Capitalism looks like, and how it behaves, means we can kill it.
Section IV: Revolutionary and Scientific Socialism
Can we defeat Capitalism at the ballot box? What about just defeating fascism? What about the role of the state?
If Marxists believed reforming Capitalist society was possible, we would be the first in line for it. Sadly, it isn't possible, which Luxemburg proves in this monumental writing.
Excellent refutation of revisionists and Social Democrats who think the State can be reformed, without needing to be replaced with one that is run by the workers, in their own interests.
Section V: Intersectionality and Solidarity
The revolution will not be fought by atomized individuals, but by an intersectional, international working class movement. Intersectionality is critical, because it allows different marginalized groups to work together in collective interest, unifying into a broad movement.
Critical reading on understanding misogyny, transphobia, enbyphobia, pluralphobia, and homophobia, as well as how to move beyond the base subject of "gender." Uses the foundations built up in the previous works to analyze gender theory from a Historical Materialist perspective.
De-colonialism is essential to Marxism. Without having a strong, de-colonial, internationalist stance, we have no path to victory nor a path to justice. Fanon analyzes Colonialism's dehumanizing effects, and lays out how to form a de-colonial movement, as well as its necessity.
Solidarity and intersectionality are the key to any social movement. When different social groups fight for liberation together along intersectional lines, the movements are emboldened and empowered ever-further.
Section VI: Putting it into Practice!
It's not enough to endlessly read, you must put theory to practice. That is how you can improve yourself and the movements you support. Touch grass!
Mao wrote simply and directly, targeting peasant soldiers during the Revolutionary War in China. This pair of essays equip the reader with the ability to apply the analytical tools of Dialectical Materialism to their every day practice, and better understand problems.
Congratulations, you completed your introductory reading course!
With your new understanding and knowledge of Marxism-Leninism, here is a mini What is to be Done? of your own to follow, and take with you as practical advice.
Get organized. Join a Leftist org, find solidarity with fellow comrades, and protect each other. The Dems will not save you, it is up to us to protect ourselves. The Party for Socialism and Liberation and Freedom Road Socialist Organization both organize year round, every year, because the battle for progress is a constant struggle, not a single election. See if there is a chapter near you, or start one! Or, see if there's an org you like more near you and join it.
Read theory. Don't think that you are done now! Just because you have the basics, doesn't mean you know more than you do. If you have not investigated a subject, don't speak on it! Don't speak nonsense, but listen!
Aggressively combat white supremacy, misogyny, queerphobia, and other attacks on marginalized communities. Cede no ground, let nobody be forgotten or left behind. There is strength in numbers, when one marginalized group is targeted, many more are sure to follow.
Be industrious, and self-sufficient. Take up gardening, home repair, tinkering. It is through practice that you elevate your problem-solving capabilities. Not only will you improve your skill at one subject, but your general problem-solving muscles get strengthened as well.
Learn self-defense. Get armed, if practical. Be ready to protect yourself and others. Liberals will not save us, we must save each other.
Be persistent. If you feel like a single water droplet against a mountain, think of canyons and valleys. Oh, how our efforts pile up! With consistency, every rock, boulder, even mountain, can be drilled through with nothing but steady and persistent water droplets.
"Everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent."
Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) is a national organization of revolutionaries fighting for socialism in the United States. Our home is in the working class.
Most Democrats express greater sympathy for Palestinians. That's not what I would call "committing genocide". What I see is Democrat officials expressing support, but powerless against Republicans who do not. That's not supporting genocide. We're fighting, but losing.
In early March, a leading public opinion research firm, Gallup, released results from its annual World Affairs survey, conducted February 3-16. The news for Israel is alarming to put it mildly.
Ok, I'll return your argument strategy exactly as you stated it:
"Are you in Gaza bypassing the blockade and delivering relief to the affected people right now?
If not, you are a genocide denier and had your eyes closed for all of 2025. What the fuck is wrong with you? You shameful asshole. People are dying and you don't even give a fuck. You have nothing more to say that I care about until you personally feed an affected person. Hypocrite."
Ok, I’ll return your argument strategy exactly as you stated it: [Some thing that in no way resembles anything I said]
You people really cannot behave in good faith, can you?
If not, you are a genocide denier and had your eyes closed for all of 2025. What the fuck is wrong with you? You shameful asshole. People are dying and you don’t even give a fuck. You have nothing more to say that I care about until you personally feed an affected person. Hypocrite."
Incoherent. But I guess I shouldn't expect more from a genocide apologist fuck like you.
"I have nothing more to say to you, Nazi. Literally you're a white supremacist who thinks Jews and immigrants are subhuman. If I can't drive a false narrative, you're acting in bad faith!!!"
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.”
They did. They were all pardoned by Trump. Trump would have been sent to prison if he didn't win the election. Our Democracy is working, it reflects the idiocy of over half our population who voted for everyone to jump off a cliff.
When I walk around, over half the people I talk to support Trump. The other half is actively fighting against it. That's not support. We're merely losing.
Rather, I'm arguing against "enlightened centrism". Both sides are not the same at all, there is one party clearly better than the other. Not defending the US in general. But if everyone voted Democrat our problems would be greatly improved.
If there were two parties, one to double the slaves, and another to keep the number of slaves the same, I would vote for the second party. If everyone voted for the second party, they'd eventually be able to pitch reducing the number of slaves. But they can't because half the country is Nazis. It's a dirty game but it's one worth playing, even if we use protests and other tools as well.
Rather, I'm arguing against "enlightened centrism"
Your instance has been very supportive of 'enlightened centrism' when it comes to colonialism vs anti-colonialism. Let's hope that you are, in fact, opposed to that.
However, the opposition to both of the parties is not a case of 'enlightened centrism'. They are literally both right-wing genocidal factions of rulers of NATO.
Both sides are not the same at all
In the case of USian ruling factions, the difference is just PR. And, maybe, competence in conducting genocides, invasions, and other colonialist activities.
there is one party clearly better than the other
Considering that the current administration has seemingly been making decisions that have been harmful to NATO's ability to invade the rest of the world in the long term, it seems that the party that currently holds more power is the better one.
But if everyone voted Democrat our problems would be greatly improved
How?
If there were two parties, one to double the slaves, and another to keep the number of slaves the same, I would vote for the second party
Both of the parties are for doubling the slaves and for conducting genocides. The currently dominant one seems to be less competent when it comes to achieving those goals.
But they can't because half the country is Nazis
Much more than that - almost all USians were in favour of invading Iraq, and I find it likely that not much has changed. Either way, both of those parties are at least almost completely nazi.
It's a dirty game but it's one worth playing
Why? Electoralist efforts have evidently not achieved much throughout their existence. It's time to accept reality.
I don't know what my instance believes, nor do I care.
I wouldn't argue against opposing both parties, or the US in general. I'm American and I choose to vote for the party that seems substantially better. Voting correctly is important, but not enough.
Voting Republican caused Ukraine to lose its funding. I don't side with any genocide that NATO commits but don't forget it also protects billions of people. The game is dirty and imperfect but we should still play it to survive.
Democrat policies reduce wealth inequality, which Republican ones increase it.
All Nazis are Republicans. Few to none are Democrats.
Basically none of your arguments are rooted in truth, even slightly. I doubt you will be convinced of what I'm saying.
Has voting ever produced any sort of serious effect in the US?
Voting Republican caused Ukraine to lose its funding
Meaning that the state of Ukraine will have less of a reason and less of an ability to avoid peace negotiations to stop the bloodshed. This is good.
but don't forget it also protects billions of people
It literally does the opposite. It's a colonial empire that is conducting a genocide right now and that has been invading everywhere in the world to keep billions of people in a colonial yoke. It only defends colonial metropoles and settler-colonies from justice. Furthermore, at most, it 'protects' about a billion of people, and not 'billions'.
All Nazis are Republicans. Few to none are Democrats
They are almost all nazis. Even if one cares about electoralism, almost all Dems who could voted against reduction of military support for Pissrael. It's not really arguable that at least almost all Dems are in favour of genocides and invasions - like the ones into Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Afghanistan.
Basically none of your arguments are rooted in truth, even slightly
Except for all of them. Notably, you couldn't even provide examples of non-nazi Dems, and lied about NATO protecting billions of people and keep lying about voting being important despite having nothing to show for it.
Do the world a favour, and stop defending nazis at the helm of your empire, and stop claiming that your invasions and genocides are 'protecting' anybody.
Do the world a favor and stop supporting Nazis, stop claiming that your beliefs are protecting anybody. I can't believe you think that Jews and immigrants are subhumans. I have nothing more to say to you. You're a white supremacist, plain and simple.
You're the most bad faith genocide apologist. That makes your worse and I win. Most is worse than least.
See? I can drive a false narrative too. It's easy. Just remove the gray. All black and white. 2 colors is easier than a spectrum. Keep working on those debate skills kiddo.
Nope I win the argument. Whoever gets the last word in wins the argument. Now I'm closing my eyes so you can't get the last argument. I can't hear you!!! Naaa naa na naaa.
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.”
Yes, I'm literally returning your arguments to you. I haven't said anything at all. If you take any issue with them, that would be interesting wouldn't it?
Well, I'm not the one who is supporting nazis. You, on the other hand, have been insistent that half of your governing nazis are not nazis.
I can't believe you think that Jews and immigrants are subhumans
Notably, I never said anything against either of those groups (whom both Dems and Reps have been acting against, with both of Obama's terms being the most ICE-happy time period), but it's pretty evident from your reaction that you think that being against a Lebensraum-style genocide must mean that I'm opposed to some ethnic group.
You are in favour of displacing and killing Palestinians, aren't you?
You're a white supremacist, plain and simple
This is silly and very backwards. You have literally been arguing about how the blue brand of white supremacists in your government is awesome, and how NATO - the organisation dedicated to white supremacist colonialism - is great.
EDIT: Also, what are the blue-brand white supremacists that are non-nazis that you can name?
Oh sorry. I thought we were both at the "completely mis-characterizing each other's arguments" phase. I mean, based on your replies and everything I thought that's what you were going for.
Firstly, still waiting for you to name any of the non-nazi Dems. Do you have at least five names?
Secondly, if you think that I mischaracterised your arguments, can you point to any such mischaracterisations? Have you not argued that NATO - the world's most prolific aggressor and the world's premier white supremacist polity - is somehow good? Have you not argued that voting is somehow important in the US despite having produced no results to speak of throughout its history? Have you not implied that the Lebensraum in Palestine should not be stopped and that the homes and land should not be given back to their rightful owners?
You have several grammar and spelling mistakes in your post. Since part of you is imperfect, all of you is imperfect and therefore your argument that you yourself are "good" is irrelevant. Can you name at least five good things you've done? Still waiting.
Have you not argued that tomatoes are vegetables?
If you can think of any, and I mean ANY mischaracterizations I've made about anything you've said I'm absolutely eager to hear them.
Right that’s why I'm returning your exact argument by repeating myself. It’s not my argument, I just repeated what was said to me. Whoever repeats it the most wins because I'm debating a 6th grader.
Your an Uber white supremacist 5th grader who doesn't even know how to back their claims. I'm older and less racist than you so I win the argument by default.
Again, literally just returning your serve. My beliefs do not reflect that argument. Just holding up a mirror as you're talking to me.
Ah yes, being opposed to literal European colonialism and genocides by European settler-colonists of non-white people means that one is an 'Uber white supremacist'. /s
5th grader
Given that I have a much greater grasp on, among other things, history of your empire, that would just mean that you are less well-educated than a 5th grader.
who doesn't even know how to back their claims
I have already pointed to particular cases of your empire invading and committing genocides, I have pointed out that voting has been a useless endeavour, that you can't even name 5 non-nazi Dems (despite almost none of the Dems being nazis, according to you). I keep backing my claims up with evidence, while you keep engaging in slinging baseless accusations.
Again, literally just returning your serve
Yeah, it is evident that you can't answer the relevant questions without having to explicitly admit to your white supremacist views.
You have a greater grasp? Oh my! I didn't know I was arguing with someone who has a higher IQ than me. I take it all back. You win the argument. I'm a dirty genocide supporting white supremacist. You have shown me the light and speak with wisdom far, far beyond your years. I am a changed man.
You have several grammar and spelling mistakes in your post
I avoided pointing out your grammar mistakes (like when you couldn't figure out the difference between 'All nazis are Republicans' instead of 'All Republicans are nazis') as a courtesy. But sure, what grammar/spelling mistakes do you think I have made?
Since part of you is imperfect, all of you is imperfect and therefore your argument that you yourself are "good" is irrelevant
Hahaha. Are you seriously equating me supposedly making grammar mistakes with your empire intentionally engaging in invasions, genocides, torture, colonialism, etc. against most of the world?
Can you name at least five good things you've done? Still waiting.
Firstly, if almost none of the Dems are nazis, you should have no trouble mentioning five of them. Secondly, you don't get to ask a question and then immediately go 'still waiting'. This question is obviously just a deflection by you. Thirdly, I can say that, at least, I have not been engaging in white supremacy and genocide apologia, which is more than can be said about you.
Have you not argued that tomatoes are vegetables?
No, and especially not in this conversation.
Considering that you are not giving negatory responses to the relevant questions, we can conclude that you did argue so, and that I did not mischaracterise you.
If you can think of any, and I mean ANY mischaracterizations I've made about anything you've said I'm absolutely eager to hear them.
I have not brought up you mischaracterising what I have said. You did claim that I mischaracterise you. Considering that you can't point to any such mischaracterisations, we can conclude that that was a lie.
Sorry I'm literally returning your arguments as you've made them to me, I haven't added anything in the last 4-5 replies. If you take any issue with my arguments, I'd probably look at your own to begin.
I'm literally returning your arguments as you've made them to me
You aren't, as asking me superficially similar questions doesn't actually produce the same arguments. My questions can only serve as arguments due to you making relevant accusations and denials. That and the fact that you literally tried to equate making grammar mistakes with your empire carrying out a literal genocide.
It's pretty obvious that you can't name even 5 non-nazi Dems, can't point to any good effects gained through voting in the US, can't point to any mistakes that I have made, and you are overwhelmingly likely in favour of the Lebensraum against the Palestinian people.
I keep responding to you almost sentence-by-sentence, and I have prompted you to answer a few rather simple questions.
It's pretty obvious that the issue is not me supposedly not listening, but you being unable to answer those questions without explicitly outing yourself as a white supremacist.
If there were two parties, one to double the slaves, and another to keep the number of slaves the same, I would vote for the second party.
Then you're a fucking slavery-defending piece of shit who John Brown would have rightfully shot. You don't have to support slavery at all, you know. You could even say "Slavery is wrong, full stop." And then go on to do whatever is in your power to tear down any group that advocates for that grotesque abuse and denial of even the most basic human decency. But instead you insist on carrying bucket after bucket after bucket of water for the fucking slavers who are blatantly grifting you with their detestable bullshit of "at least I'm not that bad" as they point at another fucking slaver.
You people are so brainwashed into this absurd binary thinking it is genuinely shocking to me the atrocious shit that squirts out of your mouths that you think is fucking reasonable!
think what you like, but the polls are extremely clear these last 7 months and they are just getting worse for DNC centrists. Dems cant win an election and are seen as republican-lite and weak. If you think that makes you an adult, cool story bro. So change something or be prepared to lose yet again-- will you do that?
Especially for non-Usian people, doubly especially for those on the working end of US "diplomacy" - bombs, coups and sanctions come regardless of which US administration, there is literally no difference whatsoever.
Honestly not much changed for me. I wasnt interested in travelling to the US. I am not interested in buying or selling product in the US.
However i wake up every morning to yet another stream of people being brutally murdered by the US or with US support through US allies. My country keeps hosting a drone relay station integral to US murder programs in the Middle East and everyone in politics pretends this to be okay and the US soldiers stationed here to be totally for our safety and as not being quasi occupied and serving as a logistics hub for invasions, mass murder and genocide.
Another issue i care about is child rapists not getting away with their crimes. Turns out the US administrations of two Republicans and two Democrats have been covering up a child rapist ring involving thousands of victims and probably as many perpetraitors, with a former D and a current R president among the rapists.
My country is quasi occupied by a natiom of child rapists and there is reason to believe they rape here too, as the US soldiers are knowm for that.
Who are you crediting with 'no concentration camp' here? The party that performatively cried outside of one and then ignored it when they were in power?
Are you SERIOUSLY pretending the democrats aren't complicit in 'child rapist'??
yes of course history will remember Biden as a historic, effective, deeply moral president who did the right thing when times were rough, and left behind a lasting legacy of peace and progress.
Biden couldn't stop touching and kissing clearly uncomfortable, random kids in front of hundreds of cameras. He's been accused of rape. Stop pretending we all live in your Marvel movie concept of the world.
I think that we have to look at a whole series of possibilities for bypassing the institutions that are controlled by the enemy. If we expend our energies on fighting on the "turf" they already control, we will probably not accomplish what we hope, and we may spend ourselves to the point of exhaustion. The promising thing about a strategy of separation is that it has more to do with who we are, and what we become, than it does with what the other side is doing and what we are going to do about it.
The people that created the term "cultural marxism," want you to believe this stupid both sides are essentially the same shit so you're less resistant to them dismantling the parts of government that people had to fight very hard for. Voters rights, civil rights, and civil liberties have always been under attack by this same group of people. Now you've got this dumbass propaganda telling people that since those rights have always been under attack, you might as well just assume it won't matter if they cease to exist.
Apologies for the facts and documented history you don't want to hear 🤷♀️
I know Project 2025 hasn't been brought up nonstop over the last year or anything, but if you can somehow imagine a publicly available document laying all this shit out point by point, it might help you understand where I'm coming from.
Both of them want to kill you and your friends. One is just stupid/racist enough that they're willing to do away with your labor power ASAP while the other would rather let their billionaire masters squeeze every penny out of you in debt peonage for the rest of your life (hopefully less than 65 years).
However, I'm far less interested in what they want to do to other gringos than the fact that they've been workshopping even worse than this brutality on the rest of us for centuries and y'all were okay with it. You'd continue to be okay with it if there wasn't a dang Cheeto in the white house or whatever the fuck.
Let me rephrase: one of them is willing to let me and my friends die because they're more interested in making money than providing for our needs, and one of them wants to shoot us in the fucking heads for being queer. But yeah the ones who hate us for being queer aren't actually worse than the ones who simply don't care about us
They also want to shoot you in the head for not being white. But yeah, no worse than the ones who simply don't care about your wellbeing. In fact, the latter deserves even more of your ire, for some reason
One willing to do the bad thing while the other not willing to do anything about it (and resistant towards any change) is just voting between the Uvalde school shooter and the uvalde cops that prevented parents from going in and saving their children.
Nice ahistorical analogy, but the democrats have proven very capable of literally killing people abroad for the crime of being brown and desiring autonomy, as well as turning a blind eye when cops and the national security apparatus murder people on a whim at home. So forgive me for not seeing them as polar opposites.
Meeeeee, and also all of the other non-cishets, non-whites, and non-men
You're right though, western liberals are the worst. I'm going to take your advice and become a western conservative, and will be doing my best to actively hurt people, because you think it's better when American women and gays and nonwhites die than when they don't
You must be very privileged or very ignorant to see things this way. The Democratic Party is somewhat conservative and stand firmly behind capitalism. But they aren't fascists. Not at all.
Uhhhhh yes they are lmao. They just have an insignificantly smaller out group. They consider the rest of the world fair game for death camps, torture, starvation, and everything else Republicans do, and they even agree with most of their most fascist shit (like the children in cages and the Patriot Act, which were not only not stopped but expanded with Dems at the helm).
They just think gay people and people of color are a sizeable demographic, but not sizeable enough to stop the violence against them, just kind of pretend they're the only allies.
They keep doing that because idiots keep buying it. I don't think Mussolini would have been much better if he copped black slang for his propaganda material and was ok with gay people in the military.
No, but they did tank any candidates who would've given us a hope of not having to deal with that scenario not just once but three times over so yeah definitely both fucking sides.
It was Slick Willie Clinton who changed regulation to allow misdemeanors to be treated the same as a felony for immigration purposes. Thus was born the idea of the "criminal immigrant".
They did though, through the creation and expansion of the secure communities program.. It was attempted to be walked back via the PEP after Obama earned the "deporter in chief" moniker, but yes the DNC did, has and will continue to do so.
Their style is usually more "don't make a scene" then "suns out, guns out" but the end result is ultimately the same.
My parents are lifelong Democrats. When I ask them questions about any specific policy, they are vehemently against if it involves raising taxes even slightly. Voting Democrat makes them feel better about themselves. They always ask me to fill their ballots in, I have to refuse and lecture them every time. They love CNN.
Simple English: My parents vote Democrat but don't support Democrat policies. They are staunch Libertarians who think voting Democrat makes them look good to their children. They also don't like to vote and want their children to decide for them, which is antidemocratic. They watch news outlets that spew disinformation. They're not much different from most Republicans. I suspect many other Americans are the same.
I think Americans can perceive how fucked up and corrupt their government is but they lack any theoretical analysis to determine the nature of it. So all they have is a general perception that the government doesn't work for them and that creates an inherent distrust of any government program, no matter what it does.
So an American might believe that universal healthcare is a good policy, but they also believe that in practice if such a policy were enacted it would mean that money being siphoned off by the ultra rich, with nothing fundamentally changing. They would be paying the taxes of a universal healthcare state, but the actual system would continue as-is, and they would still need to pay ridiculous prices. Thus getting double-dicked for no benefit.
The thing is this is probable. Section 8 is a massive subsidy to landlords. The ACA is a massive subsidy to insurance companies. But if you asked Americans why this keeps happening they would just spout some nonsense about R's and D's, or some particular politician, or whatever.
This cynicism spans both "blue" and "red" America. I think it's the heart of the rot in our society. It's not really a society at all in the sense that people have lost the belief that we, collectively, can work together to achieve more than what's possible working alone. When that breaks the only motive people still believe in is the extractive motive of corporations. They believe that only the rich can make things happen, and thus are creating a self-fulfilling prophecy by electing venal politicians who believe the same.
Obviously I'm generalizing here, but just an undercurrent I've observed. It's not coherent, but it is consistent across the "spectrum" of American politics. This ultra wealthy magnify this narrative since it suits them.
More than 50 interviews with Democratic leaders revealed a party struggling to decide what it believes in, what issues to prioritize and how to confront an aggressive right-wing administration.
Democrats are self-critical of their inability to take positions distinct from their Republican colleagues without splintering off conservative support? Democrats must be right-wingers.
Its almost like First-past-the-post voting artificially limits the number of viable political parties to two and should be replaced immediately.
At the very least, you would think democracy advocates in the democratic party would be falling over each other to implement such a much needed reform of our voting systems in the blue states they control. Democrats themselves admit non stop that First-past-the-post voting is a huge problem every election when they screech about the small numbers of 3rd party voters. Democrars publicly admit they know the voting system is broken, yet FPTP remains in use in the vast majority of the country.
How can you be so upset about a recurring problem and then do nothing to resolve it? There is no excuse. The democrats want to hold your vote hostage and they are using the republican party to threaten you to do it. While they may not be exactly the same as the republicans, they are a part of the problem with our country.
The democratic party must lose its monopoly on resisting the republicans. We should have a free market of ideas competing with each other. We could have multiple chances to defeat the republicans every election We may one day be free to vote how we want.
First-past-the-post voting artificially limits the number of viable political parties to two
Arguably limits viable parties to One. Quite a few states are functionally single party oligarchies, thanks to winner-take-all election results. States that split 55/45 by party affiliation will routinely have legislatures that are closer to 70/30 by representative. And control of statewide office typically means a single party veto even when the legislature is split.
How can you be so upset about a recurring problem and then do nothing to resolve it?
It's a big, systemic problem that requires a large coordinated professionalized opposition to change. And that means organized manpower, large amounts of money/resources, and an ideologically committed media apparatus to help coordinate the reform effort.
When we've got none of the above? And, even worse, an incumbent party system dedicated to resisting any kind of reform (often violently), building that kind of organization is incredibly difficult.
We should have a free market of ideas competing with each other.
I can't imagine how a more fractured and adversarial constellation of movements would benefit us.
We need a coalition that's collaborative, not a marketplace of minor opposition parties that's fighting for vote share.
The whole appeal of Ranked Choice is that candidates aren't competing with one another in a market for vote-share. They can collaborate - as Mamdani and Lander did - towards a commonly shared policy goal.
Yeah, I'm sure the Democrats will eventually move back to the left of their own accord if we just keep voting for them, keep our heads down, and try not to rock the boat.
You forgot donating more money so their analyst friends can make millions explaining how cost of living and support for genocide are not the topics to address, instead focusing on people who love Dick Cheney but think Trump is a bit too far.
Not sure ableism is the best way to spread your message, but the fact is that the largest block of eligable voters sat out because they feel that voting isn't worth it, be it for being in a state that's solidly red or blue, or because neither option makes a tangible difference on their lives. Both the DNC and GOP serve capital, not the workers, so they are going to continue to alienate the working class.
I regret using offensive language. But there is NO rational argument that there's no difference between. It's just an indefensible statement. The differences are extremely apparent. If people don't know that, it's not because its untrue, it's because they're ignorant.
For the love of god, it is night and day between Biden and Trump.
Both parties serve their corporate donors, both are anti-immigrant, both are pro-Zionist, both maintain US imperialism. They are far more similar than they are different, and neither are acceptable.
The US plans some of their invasion/regime change over the course of years if not decades.
I honestly believe that Trump was briefed on some plans to annex Greenland, Canada and Panama, and the fucking buffoon let the cat out of the bag.
I have something like 57% certainty that democrats would eventually start denouncing "fentanyl labs" in Canada and create excuses for invasion.
edit: Worth noting, by the way, that's it's a consensus that Canada is more liberal than the US. Having Canada as a 51st state would essentially be handling the Dems a huge advantage for all elections going forward... Gee golly, I wonder whether they might actually root for Don a little bit, there.
Having us as one state - jamming Quebec, BC, Ontario, etc all together would be a recipe for disaster above and beyond all the other disasters involved. It would be like, I don't know, merging New York and Georgia into one state.
The FLQ alone would instantly revive and start up their bombing campaigns again.
And be real, they would never give us status as states. We'd be Puerto Rico North at best until the violence died down in a century of terrorism and genocide.
Having us as one state - jamming Quebec, BC, Ontario, etc all together would be a recipe for disaster above and beyond all the other disasters involved. It would be like, I don’t know, merging New York and Georgia into one state. The FLQ alone would instantly revive and start up their bombing campaigns again.
The American elites are not above fostering a state of crisis and chaos. The BLM riots happened under Biden's administration. Biden had deportation camps. Look at current day USA.
These "disasters" are not the deterrent you think it is.
And be real, they would never give us status as states. We’d be Puerto Rico North at best until the violence died down in a century of terrorism and genocide.
Being "real" would be admitting that the US empire is on the verge of collapses. I think decades of continuation is possible, but unlikely. Century? Impossible (at least, for the current statu quo).
Congratulations not to be a citizen of one of the many countries that have been under the barrel of Democratic forign policy. But apparently it's fine to do it to non-white countries
The state did all this with absolute cooperation from the dems. They're co-workers working together in the same place for the same people with the same goals.
The radical aims of the New Christian Right have been obscured by the way they cultivated a shared identity of victimhood and manipulated the discourse about backlash to create a nostalgic idea of the past that they then leveraged to justify their right-wing policy goals. The Catholic-Protestant alliance constructed an imagined past that they projected into the future as their ideal vision of society. Ebin calls this strategy “prefigurative traditionalism”—a paradoxical prefiguring of a manufactured past. Using this tactic, the New Christian Right coalition disguised the radicality of its politics by framing their aims as reactionary and defensive rather than proactive and offensive.
Funny how the same prefigurative traditionalism and claims about victimhood/attacks on traditional values can be seen in far right leaders across the globe, but nobody ever seems to point out the similarities.
The Radical Mind is a groundbreaking analysis of the origins of the Christian Right, whose political victories are radically reshaping the landscape of Ameri...
If being perceived as intelligent is so important to you, how about you take a step back and perceive the conversation you're inserting yourself into? The argument you're addressing is that democrats are too similar to republicans. You're replying to someone arguing that democrats are complicit in your list of 'republicans bad' with the idiosyncrasies of republican ideological superstructure. It's a complete red herring. If you're going to respond, respond on topic. And if you're going to act stupid don't be condescending.
I wasn't being condescending, just recommending a book about the history behind the modern Republican party. Tracing the history behind how a modern Christian right movement was created should be more than enough evidence about why the two parties being equivalent is false.
idiosyncrasies of republican ideological superstructure.
That's the entire point of recommending the book, and the term "prefigurative traditionalism" is taken directly from the book I recommended, not my attempt to "sound smart."
that’s neat and all but it doesn’t respond to or subvert technocrit and his point in any real way.
he’s not making an argument about the origin of our current system, he’s claiming that the status quo is upheld equally by both democrats and republicans who work together to prevent change or radical politics from ever emerging in the american political psyche.
Funny how the same prefigurative traditionalism and claims about victimhood/attacks on traditional values can be seen in far right leaders across the globe, but nobody ever seems to point out the similarities.
i think everyone is pointing out these similarities. somewhat ironically, i think someone like technocrit is pointing out more important similarities than someone like you who is drawing an imaginary line in the sand. regardless, the whole world is talking about the rising tide of fascism and i think it says more about you than the world or global discourse that you’d posit nobody is talking about it, bc people certainly are. it’s all we’ve talked about for 5-10 years - across the entire west and more.
i think what you’re actually noticing or upset about is that nobody seems to do anything about it…
The history that led us here should be pretty convincing evidence as to why the argument both sides are equivalent or working together is false. Only one side has ever promoted voter suppression and roll backs of protections for rights, and equality, and a desire to return to "traditional values." The U.S. history behind all of this and the creation of a moral majority, which at its core is a desire to protect and enforce white male supremacy, can be traced back to the individuals that created the Heritage Foundation.
It's fair to say the strategy the Dems have used (trying to appease moderates out of fear of losing them to the right) is a bad one bc they don't seem to understand what they're actually working against, and it also plays into the false narrative of the right as somehow being a victim to a "cultural war."
My point about victimhood being shared by fascists globally, is that there seems to be more evidence of far right leaders using the same strategies and working together globally against democracy vs there being any evidence that the modern two party system is a result of Dems working with Republicans or both sides being equivalent.
But thanks so much for explaining to me what I'm awckshully noticing.
History has shown Dems to be playing the role of wolf in sheeps clothings for over a century lmao, what are you talking about? Even the "New Deal" of FDR was actually used to placate the actual demands of the labor movement, after he promised to help if they campaigned for him, and then turned around and outlawed their strikes and busted them when he got in office. From Obama promising to close GitMo but actually accelerating it and the use of drone strikes, Biden letting Roe V Wade be overturned despite Dems for decades running on codifying it, hell even Bill Clinton is resposible for the implementation of private prisons to basically make slavery legal again.
Dems are not your friends. Sure MAGA is the BBEG, but Dems are all the henchmen with different colored shirts you need to fight on the way. They enable and support the BBEG. Sure one is worse, but the other one is still trying to fuck you over too, they're not your ally. And to realize that none of the parties are here for you is a scary thought, and many people want to desperatley push it away for the safe and comfortable thought that you have a champion to fight for you and you're not alone. Well you're not alone, but its not the Dems by your side, it's the other workers. And unfortunatley that means you'll have to get your hands dirty directly, but turning away from the truth won't make it easier.
History has shown Dems to be playing the role of wolf in sheeps clothings for over a century
These are called politicians. They are humans like anyone else and they should never be placed on a pedestal or treated like they're above criticism for being on your team.
The both sides are the same argument denies the reality that voting in your best interest and gaining incremental progress for society is a better alternative than sitting by while the world burns around you.
Saving your support for an infallible leader who checks all your boxes, gains power and rescues society while somehow appeasing the majority and yet never compromising or screwing up something important, is a fantasy at best.
And to realize that none of the parties are here for you is a scary thought, and many people want to desperatley push it away for the safe and comfortable thought that you have a champion to fight for you and you’re not alone.
A government is composed of people. People are flawed. If you're looking to flawed people to create your ideal society rather than strategizing how to do the best you can with what you have in front of you/working towards an improved future, you're going to be spinning your wheels for all eternity waiting to be rescued.
Out of curiosity though, what is your ideal government/who is your ideal leader, worthy of your support? Who can you point to as an example of "that person/government that got it all right, and if we could just have a government or politicians more like them, everything would work itself out."
Edit: Surely somebody must come to mind? Bc if not this whole post kinda seems like a lot of bullshit
They are humans like anyone else and they should never be placed on a pedestal or treated like they're above criticism for being on your team.
Then stop doing that. You have to hold them on a pedestal to even consider them on your team, since their actions speak much louder than words
The both sides are the same argument denies the reality that voting in your best interest and gaining incremental progress for society is a better alternative than sitting by while the world burns around you.
You fundamentally misunderstand. What you are arguing for is sitting around while the world burns, while feeling like you did your part for merely voting. What I'm saying is that voting is not enough, especially when the people you have to vote for don't actually want to make things better, and even under their control shit gets incrementally worse, not better. So sitting around and just handing your vote to the people who aren't helping, especially when they know they'll get your vote just for being slightly better than the other guy, is actually doing less than nothing. Politicians have to earn your vote, thats the foubdation of democracy. When politicians don't have to earn your vote because you'll vote for them by default, they're not actually concerned with doing anything for the voters. That's not Democracy.
Saving your support for an infallible leader who checks all your boxes, gains power and rescues society while somehow appeasing the majority and yet never compromising or screwing up something important, is a fantasy at best.
Thats a huge straw man. Just because all options are currently fucked and not worth standing with doesn't mean you need an infalliable one to be acceptable. Just that the current ones are far below acceptable. "I don't want to eat either entrees you brought me, because they're both piles of dog shit, even if one is filled with razor blades." "Nothing's good enough for you man unless its a perfect 5 star 5 course meal and you're gonna starve unless you eat the dog shit". You see how absurd that thought process is? It comes from fear.
Not to mention that ELECTIONS AND POLITICIANS WILL NOT SAVE US. It's not about voting in just the right way, we have to go out and demand, its the only way rights have EVER been won. Voting is just scratching the surface of political activisim, but its treated like the be all end all and people use it as an excuse to not do the real work.
government is composed of people. People are flawed. If you're looking to flawed people to create your ideal society rather than strategizing how to do the best you can with what you have in front of you/working towards an improved future, you're going to be spinning your wheels for all eternity waiting to be rescued.
This one is what you're advocating for though, just voting for not only flawed people, but people working activley against you, all while sitting back like you did your part for checking a box on a ballot.
Out of curiosity though, what is your ideal government/who is your ideal leader, worthy of your support? Who can you point to as an example of "that person/government that got it all right, and if we could just have a government or politicians more like them, everything would work itself out."
Edit: Surely somebody must come to mind? Bc if not this whole post kinda seems like a lot of bullshit
Yes your post does kinda seems like a lot of bullshit, but I'm still happy to take time to explain. There isn't an example yet, we need to demand better, that's my whole point. Merely voting in politicians and trusting them to fix everything isn't going to work, there's no winning that way. I dunno what goalpost shift you are attempting, but just beacuse I'm accuratley pointing out that our current system and represntation is far from actually working for the people doesn't mean I have to have a fully flushed out and perfect example of an alternate for my critisms to be valid. That's ironically what you were trying to accuse me of about "saving support for an infalliable leader", but is actually your projection.
Pretending that your horse with the blinders on view of history is just objective reality doesnt make it so nor does it absolve you from having evidence based positions. You can't just handwave proof your ridiculous statements by saying "history is evidence enough".
Only one side has ever promoted voter suppression and roll backs of protections
Lmao this is funny as fuck. PSL and the Green party got sued to hell and back by the Dems not a fuckin year ago to prevent them from being on several state ballots, an action that was probably coordinated with Republicans since they conveniently did not have overlapping lawsuits. Democrats passed the fucking Patriot act and it's extensions, Democrats passed the 90s crime bill.
You are still pretending rhetorical and strategic differences are just fundamentally unsurmountable divisions while outright denying the reality that these two parties approve of the same policies with their actions, and rarely do Democrats expend as much energy rolling back the most reactionary policies of the Reps as they do chiding leftists or demanding donations or passing bills in support of Zionism and the MIC.
Yeah let's pretend the green party/Jill Stein doesn't intentionally promote propaganda or accept GOP bribes to split tickets. Or the fact that the European Greens recognized what Stein/the U.S. Green Party has turned into and literally begged her to drop out for the sake of democracy
They do have a right to be on the ballot even if it was just to intentionally split the vote in favor of the GOP and global oligarchs that provide their campaigns with financial support. So let's also pretend that the Democrats calling that shit out and using their establishment bank account to sue them, is the same as redrawing district lines and voter suppression tactics.
Who is the individual or government that actually passes your purity test? PSL and the American Green party?
The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) is running a socialist presidential campaign: Claudia de la Cruz and Karina Garcia call on people to "end capitalism before it ends us.
Oh, yeah, the firmly right wing belief that Republicans are working for the same policies as Dems. That's all I hear from GOP idiots, how much democrats are interchangeable with their preferred fascist and not at all pedophile communist trans terrorists.
From the tone i gather that you don't agree with me?
Have a look at the picture again. the graphic states that the 2 parties are 100% equal, except one is pro-life and one doesn't do anything against climate change.
This is anti democrat-party propaganda, well disguised as a funny picture.
Well, maybe if we had a Lefty candidate to vote for, more of us would have. But all I saw from the two main parties last time were two right-wing candidates.
Well, i'm sure you are very happy with your Trump president, and glad america now has the first concentration camp on the continent. I'm sure the democrats would have done the same thing, right?
I'm not happy, that's why I voted against him, and the politicians that enabled him. While I don't think the Democrats would have done the same thing, they would have continued building out his infrastructure (like they did last time), as well as continue bombing kids, backing a genocide, taking from the poor and working class and giving to the rich, etc etc....
You know, the things they claim to be better on, but aren't.
The republicans just funded a gestapo force which is rounding up brown people (some of them citizens) to take them to concentration camps where some and probably soon all of them are going to start dying.
Recently an 82 year old legal permanent resident originally from Chile where he fled the horror story we kick started decades ago was nabbed whilst replacing his lost green card and is now on deaths door in Gautama where we left him to die on the street whilst lying to his family so they couldn't help him.
Please tell me this is the same as life under Obama.
To hold people who actually ought to be deported whilst giving them the benefit of legal counsel and ultimately returning them to the actual countries they came from and never for political reprisals.
Oh, so there were no children in cages under Obama, now? No deportations of asylum seekers?
This kind of delusional nonsense is why nobody can stand liberals. Y'all think your carefully cultivated ignorance means things just didn't happen even if there's ample proof for them.
Obama focused on recent unauthorized border crossers and people who were actually criminals whilst allowing lawful claims of asylum, protecting dreamers and those who would face harm at home and benignly ignoring long term people contributing. During his last year they spent $6B
Trump
budgeted 200B this year alone to hire an army with the promise of imprisoning or deporting 25M people (more than actually exist)
Separated children whilst losing thousands of them to punish people for coming here with the intent that fear of losing their children might keep them out
Has armed gangs of anonymous thugs disappearing people off the streets with limited to zero due process.
States that due to an invasion we don't need to give anyone due process
Has asserted in court that we can can send them abroad to areas where we know they will be tortured and killed
Has deported people to countries they are not from
Has deported people to a torturous hell hole based on false claims of criminality
When one person was singled out as innocent he had his justice department trump up charges to pretend the original claim was real
Is building the American Auschwitz
Has claimed that children of unlawful immigrants are not citizens despite the constitution states that he is the only authority his people should follow on the law not the courts
Punishes students for speaking out by yanking visas and imprisoning them in legal limbo
Has said that getting rid of legal immigrants who don't belong here (non-whites) is the "next job"
Took out a full page ad in a major national paper calling for the lynching of black teens who turned out to be innocent
Discriminated against non-whites in both housing and employment
Has ice agents as we speak racial profiling and punishing people for being non-white see the 82 year old grandpa originally from Chile who was sent to die in Guatemala while keeping his family in the dark about his kidnapping. He a legal resident was kidnapped while at an office seeking a replacement green card for the one he had mislaid.
As only around 12M actual illegal immigrants actually exist and its impossible in any reasonable length of time to deport even that number in any sane length of time we are going to fill concentration camps with millions of people more people than we have ever incarcerated. An operation of the size they contemplate run merely as slipshod as the one he is already running will inevitably snag innumerable American citizens who shall be sent to the camps alongside their immigrant neighbors.
Many citizens and immigrants are going to die. Die of violence. Die of sickness. Die of privation.
Does ANYTHING above sound like life under Obama? But by all means keep pushing the both sides narrative.
...a system today of nonjudicial removals, where 75 percent of people removed do not see a judge before being expelled from the U.S.
Those facing nonjudicial removal have no lawyer and no chance to appeal.
The Obama administration has prioritized speed over fairness in the removal system, sacrificing individualized due process in the pursuit of record removal numbers.
ICE wasn't formed by the BBB but under Trump it has fundamentally altered its character and method of operating in a way that will inevitably destroy the lives of millions and probably kill many of them and the BBB expand its funding which was 6B in the last year before Trump V1 to 200B under Trump v2.
The RK3688 will come with eight big cores and four SMALL cores, while the RK3668 is offered in a four big cores and six SMALL cores configuration. The RK3688 also offers a 32 TOPS AI accelerator, up to 200GB/s LPDDR6 memory bandwidth, a 16Kp30 video decoder, and an 8Kp60 video encoder.
The second announcement I noticed, thanks to BG5SUN on X, is about the RK182X 3B/7B LLM/VLM co-processor.
It features a multi-core RISC-V CPU, 2.5GB or 5GB “ultra-high bandwidth” DRAM, and PCIe 2.0, USB 3.0, and Ethernet interfaces to connect to the host processor. The company indicates that INT4/FP4 7B parameter models can fit into 3.5GB of RAM. They are designed for the company’s Rockchip RK3576/RK3588 SoCs, already equipped with a 6 TOPS NPU, as well as other processors.
The Rockchip Developer Conference 2025 (RKDC!2025) is now taking place in Fuzhou, China, with some interesting announcements such as the Rockchip RK3668
Rockchip makes the processor. Similar to how Intel makes CPU's. Then other board partners buy those CPU's and put them on (usually) singleboard computers similar to a Raspberry Pi but faster and cheaper.
Yes-ish. Rockchip can choose wether it want to support its chips in Linux at all. Many of these companies just make it work and Android and anything else is just a niche market giving them a little bonus.
dblsaiko
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in reply to dblsaiko • • •I guess it doesnt detect a nonventoy (used impression) usb with the iso written to it either? A bit confused I dont mind limine but It not being able to boot from a recovery usb is a bit of an issue
NVM it did end up working off impressions and not ventoy? I think it ended up detecting my ssd which also has ventoy installed in the boot manager too, the name wasnt there before, odd
Like limine itself has no option for it, but bios wasnt showing one for my ssd or usb either, now it is after restarting a few times
dblsaiko
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