The Federation of Indian Pilots has filed a legal notice against the Wall Street Journal and Reuters over their coverage of last month’s deadly Air India crash, the group’s head, Captain MR Wadia, has told RT. He called the reports “irresponsible” and said they damaged the pilots’ reputations for suggesting crew error. The UK-bound Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed into a residential area in Ahmedabad shortly after takeoff on June 12, killing 241 of 242 people onboard and 19 people on the ground. A preliminary report by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) found that cockpit fuel switches had been switched off seconds after takeoff, which shut down both engines. The reason for the fuel switches being moved remains unclear.
With the initial report in hand I suppose the lawsuit will have to claim that shutting off the fuel supply was done intentionally, and thus was not a crew error.
They meant to crash the plane, how dare you suggest otherwise!?
Why would you ever want to route your request like this through a third party especially an ad company? To get the favicon of a site you just request www.example.com/favicon.ico.
AFAIK there's also a special file name Safari uses for bigger PNG icons. That Google thing probably just facilitates all this machinery, but I agree — I wouldn't rely on Google for such things myself.
Self-Serve Invite Link Feature — Fixes #348
This feature enables admins to generate an invite link for contractors
Admin Flow
Generate Invite Link
Navigate to the People page. Click on the Invite...
Socialist movements have provided healthcare, education, literacy programs, doubled life expectancy in Russia and China, and far more. The vast majority of those who lived in the USSR regret the fall of socialism. The vast majority of Chinese citizens approve of their system.
I'm sure north Koreans would regret the fall of the un family too, so that is hardly an argument. Russians have been brainwashed into their imperialistic superiority and think they have an innate right to lands occupied by other nations and they believe bombing their homes is justified to achieve this. That is imperialism and that is fascism.
There is something seriously wrong with people glorifying mass murderers like those.
Further, it's the Kim family, Un is half of Kim Jong-Un's given name. The fact that you have no clue how Korean names work yet feel confident in speaking about it is just chauvanism, same with your racist rant against Russians.
Finally, the Soviet Union was neither fascist nor imperialist. Fascism supports private property and the bourgeoisie, socialism supports the proletariat and collectivized property. They are opposites. Read Blackshirts and Reds.
Imperialism is the highest stage of the capitalist mode of production, in which monopolies and cartels become the prevalent economic force of society. Lenin synthesized...
Ah yes, “brainwashing doesn’t exist”, just another invention of the evil Americans to explain why people totally voluntarily adore authoritarian regimes. Let’s pretend people are just licensing themselves into blind loyalty under oppressive systems. Very empowering.
Appreciate the name correction, truly the most pressing issue here. Definitely not the labor camps, famine, or absolute control over a nation. Glad to know you’re more offended by a naming convention than, say, public executions.
And of course, the USSR wasn’t imperialist, it just "liberated" countries like Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Afghanistan with tanks and secret police. It showered Chechnya with love and freedoms. You see, when the West does it, it’s imperialism. When the USSR does it, it’s “proletarian internationalism.” Totally different.
The entire project of MKUltra was the US trying and failing to prove brainwashing exists. The fact of the matter is that socialists support socialist systems because of the benefits they provide, like greater access to healthcare and education, and more democratization than capitalist systems. It isn't blind loyalty, but a genuine belief based on material improvements in their lives as compared to previous conditions that results in citizens of socialist countries defending their system. The same applies for USians that defend the genocidal imperialist US regime.
As for the name-correction, I pointed it out because anyone who has spent more than 5 seconds learning about Korea in general knows that Kim Jong-Un's father was Kim Jong-Il, and Kim Il-Sung his father. If you're trying to critique the persistence of the Kim family in the DPRK's politics yet don't even know their names, it's abundantly clear that you have no clue what you're talking about and have done no study, no reading. All you have is chauvanism. You cannot critique the DPRK based on vibes, you need to actually study it, otherwise your critique is just based on personal feelings of superiority.
Yes, the Soviet Union liberated many areas, but millitary intervention isn't imperialism. Imperialism is a method of economic extraction. The US and western Europe are imperialist becayse they use their vast financial capital to expropriate vast sums of wealth from the global south, the USSR never practiced that, nor could it, as its economy wasn't based on financial capital but public ownership and collective planning. The majority of people who lived in the Soviet Union want it back.
Please, read a book. I linked several articles and books for you to serve as a good start, right now you're just proving the meme correct with your far-right chauvanism driving all of your points. You're so far-right even Wikipedia is too "woke" for you for showing that "brainwashing" doesn't exist and was just an invention of the CIA during the Cold War.
Stalins approval rating hit a record high amongst Russians recently showing a 70 percent approval rating of Josef Stalin published by the independent Levada Center pollster. (Stalin’s Approval Rating…
That was a lot of words to say :“I read some propaganda and now I think I understand the world better than everyone else.”
“Brainwashing doesn’t exist.”
So we’re tossing out decades of psychological research, cult deprogramming, coercive reeducation tactics all because the CIA tried and failed to weaponize it? That’s like saying gravity doesn’t exist because Wile e Coyote fell off a cliff too many times. Congrats on discovering that governments lie, but somehow you skipped the part where all of them do, not just the ones with Wall Street.
“People support socialism because it brings material benefits.”
Ah yes, North Korea, the global poster child for free healthcare, happiness and freedom. People aren’t starving in silence because they love rice rations and songbun caste systems, no, they’re just really passionate about collectivism, right?
“Name correction proves you don’t know anything.”
Imagine thinking that knowing Kim Il-Sung fathered Kim Jong-Il makes you an expert on geopolitics. That’s like bragging you know Mario’s last name is also Mario and thinking it qualifies you to lecture on Italian history.
“The USSR wasn’t imperialist, it just used tanks to liberate people.”
This is peak doublespeak. When NATO intervenes, it’s imperialism. When the USSR does it, it’s “liberation.” Did the Afghans and Hungarians send thankyou cards or just more bodies to the gulag?
“Imperialism is only economic.”
Tell that to the Eastern Bloc countries whose economies were entirely dependent on Soviet central planning, political obedience, and “fraternal aid” in the form of puppet regimes. But sure, because they didn’t have a Wall Street, they were basically saints.
“Wikipedia is too woke for you.”
Right, because when your position collapses under basic scrutiny, the only move left is to call anyone who disagrees far-right. Classic tankie bingo. Sorry, but being critical of all oppressive regimes doesn’t make someone “far-right.” It makes them intellectually consistent, something you clearly struggle with.
You want people to read? Try reading beyond niche tankie pdfs. Read Solzhenitsyn. Read The Gulag Archipelago. Read defectors stories. Or maybe talk to people who actually lived under these regimes instead of roleplaying revolution.
You’re not antiimperialist. You are not even acommunist, you just like the taste of authoritarian boot from the east.
"Brainwashing" isn't gravity. I didn't think I had to explain this, but the decades of research failed to materialize any proof of "brainwashing." This is extremely stupid. Propaganda exists, and works by appealing to already felt material realities.
As for the DPRK, they do have free healthcare and education, and the period of starvation was largely in the 90s during the dissolution of the USSR, their largest trading partner. The DPRK isn't a paradise, but most of its issues are due to US sanctions, similar to Cuba. It wasn't until the mid-80s that the ROK managed to surpass the DPRK in terms of economic growth, and the DPRK lost 20% of their population and 80% of their buildings in the Korean War thanks to the US Empire's genocidal campaign. Northern Koreans support their system largely because despite the absolutely brutal conditions they find themselves in, they still manage to maintain better metrics than peer capitalist countries.
Further, my point was that brainwashing was levied at all socialist systems with popular support, from Cuba to the USSR to Vietnam to the PRC to Laos, etc. Most of these have managed better metrics than the DPRK, in fact it was originally the Chinese communists and American POWs that defected that were accused of being brainwashed.
And no, me knowing the major members of the Kim family doesn't make me an expert, at all. In fact, my point is that it's the bare minimum requirement, and you failed to meet even that. I have a lot of studying to do on Korean history, the fact that you thought it was the Un family was proof of your own failure to meet the minimum understanding necessary to have a conversation.
Imperialism is a system of economic extraction. Millitary interventionism can aid imperialism or hinder it depending on the conditions at play. It was not imperialist for the Union to invade the Confederacy. Again, the majority of people who lived in the Soviet Union want it back.
You aren't being intellectually consistent. You cling to "brainwashing" as a valid theory despite nobody believing it in the modern scientific community. You claim your own incredible lack of knowledge on the DPRK is somehow indicative of my intellectual failings. You've brought no sources, no proof, no logic, all rhetoric and no substance. If not even liberal sources like Wikipedia believe in brainwashing, and the Leftists discount it entirely, it's only the far-right that clings to it.
I absolutely love that you're recommending me the Gulag Archipelago, a work of fiction, as a valid counter to the history, facts, and statistics I've provided. You should read Russian Justice, an actual work of non-fiction. Wikipedia is not a "niche tankie PDF." Neither is the Ash Center for research, nor the New York Times. I have spoken to people that lived and live in socialism. I'm a communist, and an anti-imperialist, and you're proving the meme absolutely correct.
Stalins approval rating hit a record high amongst Russians recently showing a 70 percent approval rating of Josef Stalin published by the independent Levada Center pollster. (Stalin’s Approval Rating…
You’re not a revolutionary. You’re a cosplayer with a complex and a folder full of cherrypicked pdfs, reciting slogans like it’s still 1917 and pretending it makes you moral and intellectuall. It doesn’t.
“Brainwashing isn’t real, because the CIA couldn’t scientifically reproduce it.”
You do realize you just tried to argue that propaganda works because it reflects material conditions and in the same breath deny brainwashing, which is literally coercive propaganda. You're not making a point. You're just putting Marxist vocabulary on a merrygoround and hoping it makes you sound profound.
As for North Korea, spare me the "they have free healthcare" fairy tale. North Koreans also have free labor camps, free starvation, and free executions for watching the wrong movies. But sure US sanctions are why they have zero access to uncensored information and why three generations of a cult family rule with godlike authority. Blaming the U.S. for North Korea's failures is like blaming the fire department for how your meth lab exploded.
“Knowing the names of the Kim family is the bare minimum.”
And yet somehow, despite your encyclopedic knowledge of Kim family trivia, you can’t manage basic moral clarity. You’re passionately defending a regime that murders people for trying to leave. But hey, they have education, right? Nothing says “quality schooling” like indoctrinating 5 year olds to worship a hereditary dictator.
“Imperialism is only economic.”
Tell that to the millions crushed under tanks, starved by planned economies, or shot for disobedience. Your definition of imperialism is so narrow it wouldn’t even cover the British Empire, but I’m sure it helps you sleep at night while defending military invasions by calling them “liberations.” You could hand Stalin a bayonet and a map and you’d still find a way to claim it was worker-led peacekeeping.
“Most Soviet citizens want it back.”
Nostalgia ≠ legitimacy. People miss stability. That doesn’t mean gulags, censorship, and breadlines were good. It means capitalism also failed them. But unlike you, they’re not worshiping the boot that stepped on them they just don’t like the new one either.
“The Gulag Archipelago is fiction.”
And your source is the New York Times a capitalist propaganda outlet according to your own ideology, until it magically agrees with you. The irony is delicious. You’ll dismiss Gulag Archipelago as fiction because Solzhenitsyn wasn’t state approved, but you’ll worship Soviet press releases as gospel. Your logic is as flexible as a Stalinist show trial
You are not an anti-imperialist. You’re just angry the wrong empire won.
Ah yes, cherry-picked pdfs from 1917 like the Wikipedia page for Brainwashing, a NYT article from Solzhenitsyn's ex-Wife showing that the Gulag Archipelago is folklore, a book by Dr. Michael Parenti written in the 1990s, and a mid-2010s study from the Ash Center. Incredible cognitive dissonance on display on your part.
"Brainwashing" doesn't exist. People license themselves to believe that the systems that they believe materially benefit them are good. This is how propaganda works. It isn't possible for a truly brutal system that is horribly repressive to the majority of society to truly trick them into believing its good, it requires that there be a base level of truth to the system being materially beneficial. Capitalists in the US are more likely to believe it to be morally good, same with labor aristocrats bribed with the spoils from imperialism.
As for the DPRK, you have already proven that you have no idea what you're talking about and have no sources. There's nothing to discuss, here. Their rates of starvation are lower now than peer capitalist countries, the Arduous March was in the 90s when starvation was prevalent and the US magnified it by preventing them from trading goods they produced for foodstuffs in the global economy in a time of natural disaster.
Again, you go back to claims of "brainwashing," which isn't accepted by anyone anymore. Read North Korea: Another Country by Bruce Cummings, a liberal historian that is largely anti-DPRK yet still manages to provide an objective view of the real conditions and systems in the DPRK.
There were not "millions crushed under tanks," unless you mean the millions of German Nazis killed by the Soviets when liberating the world from Hitler and the Nazis. The British Empire absolutely falls under the definition of imperialism, it used vast extractions from countries like India that ended up causing mass famines that killed millions of people, like the Bengal Famine of 1943.
People miss socialism, read the article. The safety nets provided by the socialist system worked far better than the system of rampant plunder that replaced it. 7 million excess deaths occured around the world thanks to the fall of the USSR. Poverty, sex work, wealth disparity, starvation, all skyrocketed while literacy and life expectancy fell.
Yes, I indeed used a right-wing, liberal source to debunk another right-wing work of fiction. Would you rather I use a communist source? Are only far-right sources that agree with your far-right views acceptable to you? Solzhenitsyn's own ex-wife outed it as folklore, there was no historical evidence provided, just a large memoir written by a right-winger. This is what I mean by licensing, despite no historical backing, you defend a right-wing work of fiction because it conforms to your beliefs.
I'm an anti-imperialist. You still haven't come up with a definition of imperialism that both includes the USSR while excluding the US's Union invading the Confederacy as imperialist. You just rely on sloganeering and doublespeak, again proving the meme correct.
Aw come on mods, I wanted to see what Mr. I Don’t Have a Concept of What Different Words Mean had to say. I’m sure it was something super smart and enlightening.
Ah yes, equating a working class movement that uplifted hundreds of millions from poverty and killed 85% of the Nazis in World War II with a genocidal bourgeois reaction that murdered tens of millions out of racial, sexual, ableist, and political supremacy. Gotta love historical nihilism and horseshoe theory.
So umm... Pepsi Cola and Coca Cola really hate each other's guts.
If you ask them, they're nothing alike. If you ask a Coca Cola drinker, they'll tell you Pepi is disgusting filth... Their marketing campaigns are completely different too. Pepsi says "That's what I like" and Coke says "Real Magic". And you know, what you like doesn't have absolutely anything to do with magic... Nothing at all. But if you think about what they do to people that buy their stuff and feel good about it, what they do to people's actual well being and what they actually offer, they're pretty much the same thing.
Only difference is who gets your money.
I hope you understand I don't mean to insult your beliefs or anyone else's. Just wanted to share my own thoughts. And hey, I know you won't agree and that's fine. I respect what you think and honestly wish you and the world the best.
Just don't try to convince me to buy any sodas cause I'm not a soda guy. I prefer water, tbh.
Ah yes, equating a working class movement that uplifted hundreds of millions from poverty and killed 85% of the Nazis in World War II with a genocidal bourgeois reaction that murdered tens of millions out of racial, sexual, ableist, and political supremacy. Gotta love historical nihilism and horseshoe theory.
Notice how you conveniently left out all of the horrible atrocities and war crimes the Soviet Union committed and only mentioned the good things they did, making them appear as if they're completely good. @Cowbee @BuboScandiacus
Sure, mass murder is only a problem when it isn’t committed by Stalin, Mao, or the Eternal Leader himself. That’s the first commandment of tankie logic. I'm sure Marx slipped that in somewhere between talking about class struggle and writing Capital.
Always noteworthy that western countries (the US especially) never had the equivalent of a "red-scare", but for nazis and other stripes of fascists. Instead they hired them to help in the colonial project as cops, feds, prison guards, and intelligence assets.
Anti-communism, even coming from the "left," is still deeply reactionary. It's largely a petite-bourgeois ideology, valuing individualism over inter-national prosperity for all. Not all anarchists are anti-communists, many times in history Marxists and anarchists have worked together to achieve common goals. The anarchists that are anti-communist, however, are reactionary and anti-proletarian.
Any socialist that doesn't eventually want to reach communism is either a social democrat, ie not a socialist at all but a welfare capitalist, or is someone that doesn't understand how socialism works its way towards full collectivization and internationalism.
Anti-communist "leftists" do the jobs of the imperialist bourgeoisie for them. Rather than uniting all that can be, they side with the imperialists in the conflict between imperialists and communists. Such a strategic error is thoroughly backwards, and is convenient for those who wish to endlessly critique the world without actually rolling up their sleeves to change it.
Agree, only means that calling Nazi all anti-communist is a falacy and much the cause of the force of the right wings. The left isn't often capable to agree with others because some idiologic differences, even if they all communists, but Leninists, Trotzkists, Marxists, Maoists, Stalinists, etc., while the right only need a briefcase with money to agree with the other rightwings.
The politics is to make commitments to create a common force against a powerful enemy. Important are the common goals of different points of view, not the "only my truth is the only valid", this is precisly the fascism and the danger of simplifying "anti-community = Nazi", we need commonsensism, not wiggeling red flags and Mao-Bibles, but educate and speak with the people. Still a long way to go.
Anti-communism and fascism are tied, historically. Whenever a violent reaction against communists has occured, historically, these have been thoroughly intermixed with nationalism and fascism. It's important to recognize the ties.
question: i consider myself anarchist, and i have nothing against communism itself besides the fact that i prefer anarchism and will always chose that over communism, does that make me anti-communist? or that would be it to actively boicot and actively go against communism and communists?
That's a normal anarchist, many of which have worked hand in hand with Marxists throughout the centuries. Although, I do think "preference" is a bit of an odd choice of words, the differences between Marxists and Anarchists are more of an analytical nature than a preference of outcomes, the analysis comes before the outcomes.
.ml beautifully mirrors stalinist Russia. You have to be the exact right kind of communist or you get deleted. Too little, you are a fascist and get deleted. Too much, traitor - deleted again. Only ideological purity matters even if it changes overnight. And it does change, because it has to accommodate all the mental gymnastics.
Is this some kind of cummunist propaganda? I feel like in this "meme" group is too much of pro-communist political content like this and I think I will rather leave this group soon...
Lemmy.ml has a lot of communists, the main devs of Lemmy are Marxist-Leninists. That being said, anti-communism's ties to fascism are historically documented and accepted even by liberal historians. I recommend reading Blackshirts and Reds.
For what it's worth, your instance already blocks most of the communist content on Lemmy for you, it comes pre-censored for you. This is just the stuff that slips through the cracks.
Yeah, communists and nazis doesn't like each other. But this meme is just showing that if you are anti-communist, you must be nazi... It doesn't make any sense and feels only like Russian or Chinese propaganda...
Fascism and anti-communism, as I said, are historically linked, beyond just Nazis hating communists. I again recommend reading Blackshirts and Reds. Wherever there has been a strong anti-communist movement, it has been tied to fascism in some way.
So, when you say "anti-communism", do you mean an organized front resisting and opposing communism, or just anyone who has an non-pro-communist opinion?
I imagine if I said something like "yeah capitalism has failed us, but that doesn't mean I want a planned economy" you might respond by saying I'm a wishy-washy centrist.
I might get pushback for this, but I don't think being ambivalent about communism is directly tied to fascism, mostly the usually violent anti-communism. I'd say the former can easily lead to the latter, as liberalism and fascism are the same ideology in different circumstances in my view, but that the former is generally a lack of good political education in my opinion. Most communists were not that way from birth.
I have to admit this may be a failing in my own political education. 😅 Why do you think liberalism and fascism are "the same ideology in different circumstances"? I think McCarthyism is a modern example of violent anti-communism, and I agree, that got really close to fascism. (Although I could argue that violent anti-anything would lead to fascism.)
I'm wondering if, like, Marxism-Leninism is something like "communism is what organized societies would naturally look like, and everything else is an authority asserting itself unfairly" sort of mindset.
To simplify, ideas are the results of existing material conditions. The ideas a worker has are informed by their experiences as a worker, and the same is true of capitalists. These sets of ideas, among those with similar positions, take on similar characters. Not the same, but similar enough. Workers tend to be more progressive, more unified, as an example.
Ideologies are the same way. Liberalism is the "nicer face" of capitalism. It's the part of capitalism that gets to pretend that the market helps all, that we can achieve the perfect system through carefully tweaking capitalism, etc. Fascism is the "meaner face" of capitalism. Fascism arises when capitalism is in dire conditions, and needs to violently protect itself, be it through colonizing their neighbors, murdering labor organizers, or using state planning in conjunction with the large capitalists to pivot to a more full economy, rescuing capitalism from its crisis by grinding the working class into dust.
Both are the ideological "superstructures" of capitalism. Neither is truly distinct from the other. In times of plenty, we call capitalist systems "liberal," but when those same systems turn to violent measures to retain the same conditions of production, we call it "fascist." It's the same system, different conditions.
Marxism-Leninism is neither. It's a tool for the working class, one that is informed by practice, and whose express purpose is to usher in a world that has resolved the contradictions of capitalism into the next stage in development, collectivized ownership and planning. Where humanity has become the master of production, and not slaves to the whims of profit. Marxism-Leninism is not the "natural state," it's a tool to get from this natural state to the next, more just natural state.
This is my perspective, which is certainly Marxist-Leninist, though other MLs may disagree with how I've described things and I don't dare claim that the specific analysis of fascism and liberalism as the same in different conditions is the definitive "ML stance." I'm also not taking credit for inventing it either, it's an old position as far as I know.
Oh ok. I understand better. Thank you for taking the time to explain it 😀
I see MLs talk about "liberalism" and, correctly or not, I think of the French Revolution. It seems though that that term is instead of "neoliberalism," I think (?). I can see the narrative that "liberalism" and "fascism" are like masks that capitalist structures wear, like modes of operation. But it's also confusing because those two concepts don't descend directly from fascism.
And I think I'm picking up that ML is a the revolutionary part of expanding communism, and I guess that's why it's not just Marxism? Because Marx foresaw the fundamental changes that needed to happen, and Lenin instantiated it? I haven't read Marx yet, it's on my list of shame, I suppose 😅
Since we have an open dialogue, I'm also curious of your opinion about "tankie"ism. Specifically, why not-so-pro-communist people see MLs as tankies that defend or deny authoritarian crimes against humanity.
No problem! Liberalism was popularized by the French Revolution, but is generally the umbrella for pro-capitalist ideologies that put private ownership as an inherent "good." Neoliberalism is under that umbrella, but not distinct from it.
Marxism-Leninism is the synthesis of Marx's core framework of dialectical materialism, critique of capitalism, and scientific socialism, with Lenin's organizational advancements and advanced critique of imperialism that Marx did not live to see. It isn't so much a "recipe" as it is a tool for the working class to organize, overthrow capitalism, and work towards higher developments through socialism until communism is achieved. If you want an intro to Marxism-Leninism, I actually made an introductory reading list! Check it out if you have the time, it's aimed at beginners.
As for "tankie-ism," it's just the modern version of "pinko" or "commie." It's a pejorative for practicing Marxists. The "tankie" is a ready-made construct that affirms that all of the Red-Scare allegations against communists are true, while also being someone that supports said allegations. The reality is that the anti-communist propaganda throughout the decades is usually a distortion of quantity, quality, context, or all 3. There's nobody that actually agrees with all of the claims made by anti-communists are real, but also supports them. The reality is far more nuanced, but "tankie" is a convenient thought-terminating-cliché.
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.
"Capitalism has failed us, instead of the only scientific ideology that is based in materialism, I am going to pick some vibes based bullshit I learnt on a Yogurt commercial"
Typical libshit
This inert attitude to politics is why our planet is fucked
Just got mine set up this weekend, really works a treat! Utterly painless. Even put the client on the Roku I apparently don't own, hope the pricks somehow notice lol
You'd be surprised how many people nowadays just leave random shows or movies on in the background while they're on their phones.
Even my Dad does it, I ask what he's watching on Netflix, etc and half the time he has to check even tho he was the one who clicked on it in the first place...
If I put on something with video I want to absorb it. There's more video content in existence than I could ever watch, I always want to watch something worth watching. If it's something I've seen before them I'm rewatching because it was entertaining enough that I want to watch it again. Even if I try to ignore it, it's good enough that it'll rope me in.
Put something on and not watch it? Is it boring enough that it's not pulling you in? It's just background noise? Then why isn't it a podcast or something?
If you're ignoring it then why turn it on? Do you turn on lights in rooms you're not in? It feels... like something just above brainrot. Like it's not rotting you, but either it's not engaging or it's just background noise (with an unused visual component)
There are at least three VHS copies on ebay right now that I found pretty easily. Radarr found it on rutracker for me as well (though it looks like it might be dubbed).
But it needs fixing. It's split in 2 almost 1 hour parts, the part 2 ends around minute 38, then loops around back to start after credits. The image is mirrored (flipped), but the 2 parts seem continuous (nothing missing).
But I haven't watched all of it.
I don't think I can directly link pirated stuff here, so the titles are "Operation Sandman 2000 TVRip avi Pt 01" and "Operation Sandman 2000 TVRip avi Pt 02" uploaded in 2018.
Wow, you are my absolute hero. Thank you so much for this, and for the perfect explanation. I can’t believe I didn’t find this earlier and I’ve been trying for more than a decade! Some safe copies live with me now. I really can’t thank you enough!
For me it was Not4Sale - TV Sheriff and the Trailbuddies. I actually bought the DVD from OtherCinema, maybe the only movie I’ve ever bought. I don’t think you can even buy it anymore.
I never use a vpn with torrents. Private trackers in my experience have been enough to be fine. The only times in 20 years of torrenting tons of shit I’ve gotten isp letters were once I downloaded a Pokémon rom from a pubic tracker, which was stupid, and once I had a roommate that downloaded some shitty movie from a public tracker
Yup, same. Your options are usually either “pay for fake ratio bonuses” or “seed dead torrents for six months in order to get enough time credit to convert into ratio.” If you’re trying to chase the freeleech tags, then you’ll never hit decent ratios because now you’re seeding a torrent that has 1000 other seeds and only 5 leeches.
And if you have to pay for fake ratio to get started, just fucking pay for Usenet and skip the hassle instead.
Cross-seed is a big part of being able to sustain on mediocre upload. Download a torrent on one site but get credit on 7 different sites.
Alternatively many sites offer infinite download if you have a certain total size of torrents available. (Sometimes together with a account age requirement too). So get a permanently online torrent client (mini pc, seedbox, vps, etc) and you're set on those sites.
Go buy a garage sale DVD of something that is semi-popular and doesn't already exist on the private tracker, rip it, and post the torrent yourself.
'S what I did back when Underground Gamer still existed; I had a version of Mechwarrior 2 that didn't already have a torrent, so I spent some time making a nice summary and uploaded it myself. Worked a treat; I had enough ratio to get me through my rough early weeks and never looked back. Until the site shut down, of course.
IPtorrents is the best. You should try to keep a 1:1, but you just have to seed for 2 weeks, and you get points for 15 torrents to use as upload credit, even if you don’t upload a single byte. I’ve never had to think about my ratio.
At this point, I can say I've literally waited decades for movies to show up on streaming. I remember Office Space and They Live not being anywhere for years. Those are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head.
yep. I no longer pay for prime, but in the last few months of having it, I just torrented it anyways. whoever designed that app for the Apple TV should be forced to use it for 2 years straight
Yes, that's the point being made. One could already paying for a Prime membership, yet still needs to pay more money for shows that should already be included in said Prime membership.
Except they aren’t because rights don’t work like that. Not all rights holders want to enable streaming following those guidelines, but might wanted a fixed price per view
Technically its illegal in New Zealand (after the great John Key and The Hobbit saga) but the ISPs don't give a shit. Never used a VPN and only got one letter just after the law took effect. Nothing since. So many people here do it it's unenforceable.
I think it's also technically illegal in Australia but because the rights holders can only come after you for the retail cost of whatever was pirated it's functionally legal. the MPAA would rather sue a kid in the US for hundreds of millions than one in Aus for $14.95.
Even here in the heart of Europe, Denmark, there's not many that really care enough unless you run your own tracker. Back in the day with CD's and DVD's it was a lot worse though, because it's obviously easier to catch someone when there's physical media involved.
But I've been having much better luck finding Spanish content on streaming sites, instead of torrent sites, and then downloading. See Guides for downloading streams.
Download The Stream Detector for Firefox. This addon provides an easy way to keep track of manifests and subtitles used by various streaming protocols. Also allows for detecting custom file types and downloading media files.
The usual suspects for modern stuff is easy to find in Germany. What becomes difficult is getting older or obscure stuff (like the Pokémon show) in a decent enough quality.
Recently ordered the first season dvd box to trial the ripping process as most of the stuff I found is either incomplete (missing entries) or not up to quality (mixing audio segments between english/german or leaving out the intro/outro)
firstly, in the comic, none of the streaming service has the movie, so a site telling him this doesn't change that point.
second, even if one streaming service has that movie, it might not be the one you are subscribed to. so instead of "just watch"ing, you have to make a new subscription on that service and pay for all their content although you just want one movie
thirdly, often it's not a matter of whether or not someone wants to pay, but how much someone is willing to pay. This depends on many factors, which boil down to how much they want to watch the movie and how much they can afford. imo there are two acceptable ways to charge for entertainment: paying once for that particular piece and you get to enjoy it as often/long as you want forever, or you pay a monthly fee and get access to everything for as long as you pay. unfortunately, thanks to the fragmentation of streaming services, option b has become quite expensive and not a lot of people are not willing to spend that much, but they would be willing for a lower price.
firstly, in the comic, none of the streaming service has the movie
This is based on what?
even if one streaming service has that movie, it might not be the one you are subscribed to. so instead of "just watch"ing, you have to make a new subscription on that service and pay for all their content although you just want one movie
Which is a different issue entirely than it not being available at all.
it's not a matter of whether or not someone wants to pay, but how much someone is willing to pay
Same thing.
unfortunately, thanks to the fragmentation of streaming services, option b has become quite expensive
The services have not become fragmented. There was never one streaming service that had all content available. They've just added more options.
I don't want to pay (I don't think anyone wants to pay). All of what you said (well more said I said) was never mentioned by me. Really where did I (or anyone here really) spout anything about totally going to pay or sign up for anything?
And your logic of ease goes as much against your position as for it, as you can literally go to a site and type in the name of the show and that's it (in this case download/stream the show for free). Hell your logic falls even farther apart when you factor in the next step of finding the listed legal service, signing up (if you can in your area), putting in your payment and then typing the show into the service (and in amazon's case maybe paying again).
The issue with piracy being a service issue has not changed, I was more then happy to pay netflix $10 for the ease of the service back in the day. But now? I will pay an amount just to stick it to netflix, fuck them.
Once again, just say that. There's no need to fabricate some nonsense justification for it.
All of what you said (well more said I said) was never mentioned by me
You replied to me. Not the other way around. I was replying to OP. If your reply was not in reference to the OP then I don't understand why you replied to me.
Really where did I (or anyone here really) spout anything about totally going to pay or sign up for anything?
There are only handful of words in the OP and you couldn't read them all? What exactly do you think "Cant say I didn't try" means? Try to what? Go on, take a minute.
your logic of ease goes as much against your position as for it
Only when you intentionally misrepresent my logic. My logic was that it was easy to find where to stream shows, not to stream them. Because that is the logic OP is using for not paying.
I was more then happy to pay netflix $10 for the ease of the service back in the day
The "ease of service" hasn't changed. What happened to just not wanting to pay? Your logic is all over the place.
Once again, just say that. There’s no need to fabricate some nonsense justification for it.
Where Once again did we fabricate or justify anything?
You replied to me. Not the other way around. I was replying to OP. If your reply was not in reference to the OP then I don’t understand why you replied to me.
If you look above you will see the thing you replied to was my comment "Why go to that effort just to pay?"
There are only handful of words in the OP and you couldn’t read them all? What exactly do you think “Cant say I didn’t try” means? Try to what? Go on, take a minute.
Really? this has what to do with my statement? Did you not mean to reply to me?
And besides, If you look for a show/movie/thinger and its not available in your area does that not mean you did try? (hell of a lot more effort then I would ever go to).
Only when you intentionally misrepresent my logic. My logic was that it was easy to find where to stream shows, not to stream them. Because that is the logic OP is using for not paying.
Ah yes, knowing where I can pay (or in the case of most non us places, can not pay) is the exact same as watching the thing.
The “ease of service” hasn’t changed. What happened to just not wanting to pay? Your logic is all over the place.
Yes it has, netflix is not the same nor does it have even 1/5th the shows/movies avalible (worse so outside of the us) and costs much more ($23.99 per month now). Hell the interface alone makes me want to shoot my TV (full volume previews anyone?). There is no logic issue with not liking the changes, the only logic issue here would be thinking that people will endlessly put up with enshitification.
Where Once again did we fabricate or justify anything?
I've already explained this, multiple times at this point. I'm not repeating myself again.
Really? this has what to do with my statement? Did you not mean to reply to me?
Listen, you're obviously trying to rope me into some sort of strawman argument. I'm not interested. When you want to get back to talking about the comic in the OP, I'm ready.
I’ve already explained this, multiple times at this point. I’m not repeating myself again.
No, you have not. You keep deflecting. The comic does not fabricate or need to justify anything, it is just whats happening.
Listen, you’re obviously trying to rope me into some sort of strawman argument. I’m not interested. When you want to get back to talking about the comic in the OP, I’m ready.
Really, at this point you think I am trying to rope you into a strawman argument? After placing words and motives in my mouth? You, who comes to a piracy community trying to push some sort of pro corporate agenda and is somehow shocked that you are not taken seriously?
You keep deflecting. The comic does not fabricate or need to justify anything, it is just whats happening.
I'm not deflecting, you are. I keep telling you and you come back with "I didn't say that", but I never said you did. It's in the OP. Once again, I replied to the OP. Answer the question about what "can't say I didn't try" means if not that the character fully-intended to pay. Any further deflections will be considered bad faith and disregarded.
I keep telling you, "can't say I didn't try" holds true if the media is not available. There is no justification here, no fabricated anything. Its amazing that anyone would go so far when the high seas are easy and available, but for you its some sort of high treason.
I think you might want to look up what a threat is, because that's not what that was.
I keep telling you, "can't say I didn't try" holds true if the media is not available.
You never said that. And it doesn't hold true if you don't try, which is what you suggested ("Why go to that effort just to pay?"), regardless of whether the media is available or not.
There is no justification here, no fabricated anything
I don't understand how "Can't say I didn't try" is interpreted as anything other than justification.
but for you its some sort of high treason.
I said nothing of the sort. All I said was to stop bullshitting and own it.
JustWatch is still useful if you want to act like you watched it legitimately, e.g., if a coworker asks where they can watch it. Even if your coworker also pirates, they might not have an account on your private tracker, Usenet, etc..
I may be wrong, as I haven’t actually torrented anything substantial since Demonoid was still a thing, but it all feels less accessible than it used to be.
Even with good internet if you're watching on the wrong device (desktop/media center PC) your stream will get bitrate locked to a 720p equivalent or whatever because of DRM bullshit.
My internet is fine win any other streaming service. Prime streaming is the worst one out of all the major streaming services. Which is fucking weird considering Netflix runs on AWS.
What do you suggest? I'm just going by whats worked for me so far. I was thinking of trying some other services but if it works for me I'm kinda ambivalent.
I was thinking about trying them. I'm trying to create the best experience for my parents so anything that makes it quicker or easier for them to access content the better.
So, I don't use Kodi and use stremio instead, but with stremio, the main addon is torrentio. There are others, but idr them off the top of my head and that's the go-to.
As far as premiumizeme vs debrid, it was basically a drop-in replacement. Just had to update the "provider" and the api key in the config.
With Radarr, Sonarr, and Plex, I get a better TV and movie service than anything I could pay for. I can afford to pay, and I would, but they won't offer anything reasonable. I ditched Netflix years ago when they removed the rating system to promote their low quality schlock. They kept removing content. Content would auto-play. Discovery broke as they kept trying to make me watch things I didn't want to watch. If they make their products worse, and keep charging me more every year, they shouldn't be surprised when I leave.
Plex is still MUCH easier to share with my friends and family. I’ll be sticking with Plex until the UX on Jellyfin is comparable. Also Plexamp is the best music app I have ever used. It’s unbelievably good. Also Plex has more features like the ability to download and select new subtitles on the fly, and consistent skip intro functionality across all apps on all devices.
I know, for some features Plex is better, and for a very few features Plex will always be better because it's centralized. Jellyfin, being self-hosted, doesn't have an easy way to share and combine libraries from multiple users, and no single "login" page like Plex. This may be annoying for users, but we know all the problems that centralization comes with.
But this makes me think about the fediverse. What if Jellyfin servers could federate with each other? I wonder if anybody is working on such a project.
Edit: okay, apparently I found this feature request on the Jellyfin features tracker.
Remote viewing in Jellyfin requires significantly more work from me as the server admin, but it is just as easy for the remote viewing clients. I don’t have to do any first-time setup for them. I recommend an app or two for the media type they’re using, and all they need is URL, login, password.
On UX, Plex is more full-featured I’m sure, but the performance is so much better on Jellyfin that it quickly overrode any feature concerns I may have had.
And being FOSS, there’s some nice diversity in client apps. I use Finamp for music and really like it. There’s Plappa for audio books too. And for basic viewing there are multiple choices. I think I use Streamyfin because it supports downloads.
Remote viewing in Jellyfin requires significantly more work from me as the server admin, but it is just as easy for the remote viewing clients. I don’t have to do any first-time setup for them. I recommend an app or two for the media type they’re using, and all they need is URL, login, password.
Thanks for your suggestion. I spent some time investigating this to see how feasible it would be. I have my own domain and static IP, so setup on my end would be pretty straight forward. Users would need to enter my domain:port on first login, but I could walk them through that. I'm going to give it a shot and see how practical it is. If the performance is better, as you say, then it probably trumps those features you mention. With the exception of subtitles for me and the family. We use subs most of the time and need on-demand selection. Automated subs are very hit or miss.
It's also disappointing to hear the Jellyfin app doesn't support downloads but I guess if Streamyfin is available on all the platforms then I could just use that.
I tried Finamp and the UI is very not good on iOS. It also lacks a lot of features compared to Plexamp.
Strongly agreed, from the owner of a dust covered lifetime Plex Pass.
Even if we eliminate all the other reasons you might not want to use Plex or might want to use FOSS, just the performance and UI responsiveness alone makes it worth the switch.
And I do have some non-techy family that watches remotely on smart TVs and uses phone apps.
Jellyfin is literally all I watch not to mention the BEST alternative to all the centralized AD riddled garbage (Now in forced foreign languages) 'Tubi, Pluto, Prime Video'! Crazy cause being a "Prime" member isn't enough nowadays cause they want you to DOUBLE Pay on top of a Membership Subscription to remove ads which is sooo counterintuitive?!
Straight out of that (Black Mirror) episode called (Common People) Season 7 Episode 1... Predictive Programming at it's finest.
Same. I signed up for Netflix when they came to Canadas in 2010. Immediately had to start using proxies/vpn to access US Netflix since Canada's selection was broiled ass.
By 2013 there was news of Netflix talking of blocking non-US users from accessing US Netlix. Immediately cancelled, spun up my Plex server. 30TB later and I got 18 friends off of all their streaming services too lol
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday received Ali Larijani, senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who conveyed Tehran's assessments of the situation in the Middle East and around the Iranian nuclear program, Kremlin spokesman D…
The West views Romania as a foothold for intervention in the Ukrainian conflict, which poses threats to regional security, Russian Ambassador to Bucharest Vladimir Lipayev said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
As of mid-July 2025, the strength of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) is estimated at 700,000–800,000 servicemen, with average daily casualties of 1,200–1,400 killed and wounded.
The raison d'etre of video streaming, ending cable... only to reproduce cable decades later.
Segmentation, exclusives... somehow the music industry didn't go down that path. The game industry is mostly doing the same, except mostly Valve and indies.
I wonder that pattern is part of enshitification, the inexorable transformation of a delivery service to rather than facilitate the distribution of content, make it actually harder to share it while keeping reasonable (always arguable) money to all parties involved, first and foremost the actual creators.
Pretty much. Even if I didn't prefer owning the actual files and managing my own media server, streaming services are just dogshit these days anyway. Overpriced, libraries are all ass, no one service will ever have everything you want, constantly removing shit, they're awful.
A jellyfin setup backed by an *arr stack may be a lot more work than a Netflix subscription but it's legitimately better in every single way otherwise.
Me exactly. I keep a lot of the streaming services because I don't want to host a bunch of 4k stuff myself, though I do often get the 1080p stuff for when I fly on planes or haven't yet re upped my subscription for the show I want to watch. But many shows aren't on any of the sub services in my country, so those are straight to the seedbox.
Just Watch is a pretty great service for this, especially when recommending a show or movie to others. Other services integrate with it too (like Trakt, which is a nice one stop shop for discovery, scrobbling, and list management).
Try Freetube with VPN set to an uncommon location like Bulgaria or Argentina etc. This works for most videos, but still some won't load. I use invidious for those vidoes. This way, you won't overload the invidious instances.
every time they patch freetube, yt breaks it a day or two later. can't watch in yt directly because i have to prove I'm not a robot, and apparently i am since i can't pass the tests (and tried almost all ivpn locations). only one invidious instance works, but not in freetube.
Totally agree with the FreeTube recommendation. Libredirect will even open links in FreeTube. I use IVPN and use non obscure servers but every once in a while I do have to try a different one.
Try using different countries. E.g. I sometimes had luck by using Brazil, Chile or other ones. I've recently hadn't had much issues when viewing through Grayjay (on Android). But also not from FreeTube (on Ubuntu/Desktop)
This Invidious instance still works. Don't push it too hard, though: it's all we've got.
Also, if you log in to YouTube in Chromium or something (assuming you're on desktop) and then use yt-dlp with the --cookies-from-browser chromium argument, it should work. This is also possible on Android via Termux and iOS via iSH if you copy ~/.config/chromium to the app.
Cycle through VPN locations until you get a winner if you get a block. It's annoying, but the purpose of a VPN is to let you look like you're anywhere. So find a good spot to watch YT and then just settle in.
Good to know. I was using FreeTube on a Linux machine I have set up to do most of my Youtube watching, but I had to disable VPN. I got tired of trying different countries and just turned off VPN. I'll try Swedish servers...
TBH I just use youtube.com in my browser (Floorp/Firefox) with uBlock Origin. With SmartTube on my TV.
The alternative front ends or apps don't seem to support loading my watch history, playlists, or subscriptions, and they don't sync between my devices even if I manually import stuff. Making usability an absolute nightmare.
The problem is how do I get my history and everything on desktop and android TV then, does it sync with other apps or my google account or something like that?
I just sign in, it shows it all. I have to go back through and delete videos my kid watched cause it fucked up my feed. His account is age restricted, it won't let him sign in on the tablet. I need to look into it more, but the history definitely syncs from smarttube to revanced and YouTube in Firefox on my desktop
That makes sense for your use case. My use case is that I don't want my YT watching habits being scooped up if I can help it. At one point I might not have cared too much about things like YT, but under the current administration I have a lot more reservations about that.
My first hurdle is understanding that i need to add a boot sequence and navigate to the EFI file in my mounted pen drive.
second hurdle is understanding i need to disable secure boot so that the dell bios doesnt think something is wrong and always run the bios repair program.
third is understanding that i need to disable Intel rapid storage for the full install (luckily linux mint tells us this)
and honestly the hardest thing was installing fastfetch cuz theres a lot of outdated information out there on how to install it on Mint.
the process took about 4 hours, i consider it very lucky that i was able to do it so fast.
I run mint on 4 gb ram without issues. Sure, I'm careful to not open too many apps or too many tabs, but they all work fine. Only 4k video editing is undoable on such a machine. I also have a 4 gb swap partition, but I'm careful to lay off programs when I see it get hit.
My mom uses xfce on a 2 gb laptop. For her is enough, because she only knows how to open a single tab on a browser (mostly fb or yt).
I use quite a bit of old and underpowered kit. But I actually use it. The oldest laptop I use regularly is a 2009 MacBook Pro running Chimera Linux. It is only a Core 2 Duo but it has 8 GB of RAM. It runs all modern browsers and office suites. I can code on it. I can use Docker. I can do dev ops in the cloud. I can call into LLMs. Slow but capable. But I could not do much of this realistically with 4 GB (even slow).
One thing I am not doing is watching videos in 4K. The resolution is 1440x900 so it does not quite display even 1080p natively (so 1080p or even 720p for me—which is totally fine). I suspect most people who really only have 4 GB of RAM are in a similar situation.
if you go in not knowing what to do, it can seem 'difficult'. but it's mostly like on any other oem prebuilt:
optional: prep the target disk (backups, wipe or clear part table, etc), reset bios to defaults.
if necessary: switch from raid or rst to ahci sata mode, default boot mode to efi, disable secure boot. note that some distributions support secure boot but your method of creating an installer might not--you may be able to re-enable if you want after install.
note that hp systems have a hoop to jump through (a confirmation prompt to disable) after disabling secure boot on the next startup. do not use esc key to trigger boot menu, use f9 for boot menu, f10 for bios entry.. as esc will cancel the confirmation code prompt and automatically re-enable secure boot.
insert or plug-in installer, hit the magic key upon power on (f12 for dell, f9 for hp) to bring up boot menu and select installer media, boot and run installer.
I’m glad you said this, I was thinking “I just plug in the USB stick and install Linux”
In fact, the hardest but for me is remembering the special key to press upon boot up so it goes into boot selection mode and I can just select my USB stick…
Some laptops don't really let you boot from external install media so easily nowadays.
I helped a buddy get Linux Mint on their "old" laptop to try it out. But it turned out you needed some manufacturer provided code to unlock booting from anything but the main harddrive within the bios.
We contacted support but never heard back. We did find a work around when they decided to swap the existing HDD for an SSD, they used a USB to sata cable to install Mint on the SSD from their desktop then installed the SSD into their laptop in place of the original drive so it booted straight into that.
Welcome to Linux. Glad to see you're not letting the hurdles get in your way and are working through solutions. There's more to come.
You say "5 year old laptop" as if that's ancient... 10th gen Intel 😄. I don't even look at laptops newer than 5 years. Don't need much more for internet tasks and office work.
Ive got an HP Zbook g6 coming my way soon I'm excited about, and its way overkill for what I'm gonna use it for; i just need a bigger laptop because i have giant meat hooks for hands and I actually use the numpad
Tl;dr, you can get a lot of laptop at decent prices looking at "older" hardware
I don't completely agree. One party tries to fuck everything up in order to buy up everything on the cheap, while the other party is paid to keep everything exactly as it is, so their owners don't risk losing anything.
They're not the same, but the leadership in both parties are traitors to the people and deserve death.
You have to understand the backing behind these parties and how that informs how they operate. They both are largely funded by capitalists, often the same capitalists. So there are a core set of interests which they both protect. There are issues that don't fall within that space where they can be different, some issues that affect different donors differently, and they have different strategies for managing to achieve those shared interests, but when push comes to shove they are still going to do what will be good for the capitalists and the power of the state to represent those interests.
For a narrow example from this meme: Most US presidents have presided over truly awful crimes, some actually illegal, some merely morally criminal, or perhaps criminal on the world stage but not for the US. A just society based on rule of law, as the US claims to be, would prosecute these people for their crimes, whether that be for war crimes, abuses of power, corruption, etc. Ideally while they are in power in order to stop them, but at the very least you'd think that after they leave power there ought to be more political will to go after them, if not for legal or moral reasons, at least for cynical political ones.
But they basically never do this? Why not? Because those crimes help uphold the interests of capitalists and/or the state. They are mostly part of the set of things that the parties agree on. The next president would like to be able to continue to get away with those or similar crimes, so holding the previous president accountable for their actions risks setting a precedent that would come back to bite them.
There were criminal proceedings against Trump, but they were for things that are small in the grand scheme of things. Obama didn't go after Bush for lying to get us to go into an illegal war, or for using torture, or violating civil liberties, etc. because he was doing the same things. Trump didn't go after Obama for any of this because... he kept doing the same things. Going back to the most famous example of this, Nixon literally did what Trump did in terms of trying to subvert the "democratic process" and Ford pardoned him.
Basically if you're president, you can get away with whatever the hell you want as long as it's for rich people and/or the next guy wants to be able to do the same thing.
There is no change inside the DNC. It is controlled by neo-liberals who will squash any and all progressive ideals...else they would be out there fighting for them. Neo-liberals are about keeping everything the same for their corporate donors, talk about change, do nothing. This is a dead-end, zombie party.
Not really. Look how they fail to stop corruption and actively participate in it. They also do their best to tank any third party left of center. They tried to primary AOC and it really looks like they’re going to split the vote for NYC mayor bc Mamdani doesn’t toe the line.
One party is disgustingly heinous but that doesn’t mean the other is good. Do I prefer one if I only have two choices? Yes. But they should both go away and take their anti-working class bs with them.
Your party is guilty of genocide. Stop playing lucy football and pointing fingers at others. Murderers don't get pardoned because other people committed murder.
The parties are not the same. One is an openly fascist party and the other is full of meek center-right neoliberals trying to keep the status quo for their wealthy donors. However neither is trying to "fix the damage" or "make it good again", except perhaps for the top 0.001%. Most working-class people are shafted either way. If the republicans get their way, most non-whites will be deported on enslaved in prisons, women will be enslaved at home, and the remaining working-class white men will struggle to sustain themselves and their (non-working) wives and families under the christofascist dictatorship of the capital. If the democrats somehow claw back from that, there will be less abject racism and sexism but the working class will still struggle to survive in an increasingly monopolized dictatorship of the capital.
Ask yourself this question: which democrat policies from the last decade directly benefit the working class? I can name maybe 3 very compromised policies that are about 60 years behind most of the world.
To paraphrase an old meme, republicans want 100 rich white men to rule over the entire world with an iron fist; democrats want 30 of those people to be LGBTQ+ women of color.
Are democrats better? Sure, a bit better. But it's not like just electing them will save you.
Yeah, but only if it's no inconvenience to you and other westerners. You certainly don't care about them enough to remember that the Democrats are all in on their wholesale extermination.
Yup, another reminder that you literally don't consider foreigners to be human.
And how about you explain how - even if we accepted it as true - "the other choice was worse for everyone" justifies you just completely not even bothering to remember the Democrats committing genocide, or you being more concerned with the comfort of domestic Americans than with your country committing genocide?
How the fuck are you going to justify this one without straight up admitting you only care about white lives (which is the answer, of course, but I thought you'd at least try to hide your monstrous bigotry)
how about you explain how - even if we accepted it as true - “the other choice was worse for everyone” justifies you just completely not even bothering to remember the Democrats committing genocide, or you being more concerned with the comfort of domestic Americans than with your country committing genocide?
how about you explain how - even if we accepted it as true - “the other choice was worse for everyone” justifies you just completely not even bothering to remember the Democrats committing genocide, or you being more concerned with the comfort of domestic Americans than with your country committing genocide?
Republicans snarl and growl, so you're not shocked when they bite you. Democrats walk up wagging their tail and acting friendly before they bite you. In the end, you still end up bitten.
According to Stanford University, more than 30,000 top Chinese scientists left US for China last 5 years. There is absolutely no future for smart Chinese scientists in America. Non-Chinese top scie…
According to lawmaker Ayman Odeh, whose ousting from the Knesset was recently attempted, a few dozen protesters surrounded the car, cried 'death to Arabs,' spat in his direction and cracked the windshield.
Gotta say, it’s weak fucking argument because capitalism isn’t working out for the world either and it doesn’t even work in theory. The only reason it seemed to work for a while was that it was so heavily regulated that it wasn’t really capitalism.
The only places it seemed to work were those that were already established as the centers of capital and were thus benefiting from the expanding frontier of exploitation. Capitalism has run out of land and run out of people outside the imperial core to further exploit and so turns inwards to devour its once-beneficiaries. Internationally and especially in the global south it has served no purpose, ever, except to brutally oppress and exploit.
Regulated capitalism is still capitalism, and the reasons why those stronger regulations have eroded is because the Soviet Union no longer exists in close proximity to Europe as an alternative for the west.
That's an interesting but unrelated idea given that all currently existing socialist countries only became socialist because of revolutions that had popular support from all sectors of society except the owners of capital.
I don't know, I think they're just confused. Socialist revolution is the transition to the state of society in which private property has been abolished.
There are zero historical examples of capitalists giving up their power without a fight. The history of the 20th century and the cold war is one of repressive counter-revolutions killing hundreds of millions of people in the global south who tried to build socialism.
Socialism has overall largely come into existence in places where it's popular among the people, as it's a proletarian-driven system. The opposite is true of capitalism.
and if you read theory, it's just a detailed explanation of capitalism! Nobody actually has a concrete, actionable prescription of how to make "the good society", just a general sense that something better is possible if we start doing something with what we already have
That's a pretty absurd thing to say. There's lots of theory that isn't descriptive of capitalism like Kapital is. Pretty much all of Lenin's main works except Imperialism deal with how socialist society should organize.
Lenin used the state though, and Lenin himself acknowledged that the state was bad. So he was bad. So we would be bad if we learned anything about what he was saying. Ipso facto ergo cogito get owned.
First of all, we have plenty of real world examples of socialist societies, and plenty of Marxist theory has been written by people living within these societies. Second, we don't need a blueprint for a perfect society. The goal is to recognize the problems that we have, try come up with solutions, and iterate on that. It's the direction of travel that matters.
Yeah Karl Mark's really very much described capitalism but if you're not reading the other Marxist writers you're doing yourself a disservice.
Lenin in particular is incredibly important to understanding modern day communism. Mao includes blueprints for the successful Revolution that he threw. Even if you don't like Stalin or appreciate his actions in the USSR he wrote a ton on communist Theory and given that he led one of the most powerful countries at one point seems like it might be prudent to you know hear what he has to say.
And that's not getting into people like Rosa Luxembourg. Oh Hoxha has a ton of writings which get up to the '90s. Michael Paranti has also added a lot.
From the economics point of view there's people like Richard wolf who's a marxian economist who brings a marxian element to Modern economic theory.
You're incredibly naive if you don't think people haven't thought about how to fix the broken system that we've been living in for the better part of a couple hundred years now. It's out there you just have to go find it and not fall for the United States or Western lines "on what doesn't work"
Did those who advocate for abolition of slavery have intensely detailed plans for how an economy would function post-slavery, complete with successful examples of societies that built some other economic system after slavery?
Marx and Engels spoke just enough about future socialism to provide the framework. They didn’t fill in the details because that is not possible, there is no one-size-fits all blue print for socialism. Each time and place has its own specific context that must be accounted for. Ignore that and you will likely fail.
Also, Marx and Engels whole point was to describe the history of all hitherto society, and how class struggle defines that history. To try and authoritatively say “this is the precise next step” would be undialectical and anathema to their entire approach.
People have and still are building socialism, and there are many existing socialist states. Many westerners just dismiss them out of hand, either because they're chauvinists, and/or because they believe every negative thing capitalist media tells them about existing socialism (which validates their supremacist outlook).
Just because Marx's most important work is Capital doesn't mean he, Engels, Lenin, and countless others haven't also written about how to bring about socialism, and how that might be achieved. We even have real, existing socialist societies like Cuba, the PRC, and former USSR where brave revolutionaries have helped show us the way forward.
Honest question: Is there a good comprehensive easy to follow source for reading/listening/watching up on the theory?
At some point some user linked to a long reading list, where I stopped frustrated after 2 hours of reading and still being non the wiser. In all that time there must be some resource, that is more engaging and especially talking about modern life, not the life in the times of Marx (yeah, I know that the fundamental principles are the same). I'm also ok with multiple hour youtube videos, as long as there are skillfully made and engaging.
It depends on what aspect of theory you're interested in.
For introductory material, I can highly recommend Blackshirts and Reds by Parenti. It's well written, and gives a good overview of socialism in a modern context.
I thought these books discussing socialism in the context of China were pretty good as well
China provides a powerful example of what socialism can achieve. Not only is the Communist Party of China committed to Marxism, but it is a leading force for the development of Marxism.
According to lawmaker Ayman Odeh, whose ousting from the Knesset was recently attempted, a few dozen protesters surrounded the car, cried 'death to Arabs,' spat in his direction and cracked the windshield.
According to lawmaker Ayman Odeh, whose ousting from the Knesset was recently attempted, a few dozen protesters surrounded the car, cried 'death to Arabs,' spat in his direction and cracked the windshield.
Last night, the nine-member NEA executive committee voted against severing ties with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) over claims of how it treated organizations critical of Israel.
“Today, following the culmination of a thorough review process as governed by NEA rules, including a vote by NEA’s Executive Committee earlier this week, NEA’s Board of Directors—representing the broad and diverse membership of the NEA, including representatives from every state—voted not to implement this proposal,”
This comes after, in early July, at the NEA Representative Assembly, when representatives voted not to partner with the ADL after accusations of anti-Arab rhetoric.
Last night, the nine-member NEA executive committee voted against severing ties with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) over claims of how it treated organizations critical of Israel.
“Today, following the culmination of a thorough review process as governed by NEA rules, including a vote by NEA’s Executive Committee earlier this week, NEA’s Board of Directors—representing the broad and diverse membership of the NEA, including representatives from every state—voted not to implement this proposal,”
This comes after, in early July, at the NEA Representative Assembly, when representatives voted not to partner with the ADL after accusations of anti-Arab rhetoric.
On the evening of June 30, an Israeli warplane dropped a 500-pound, U.S.-made MK-82 bomb on the seaside Al-Baqa Cafe in Gaza City. The explosion killed more than 30 people and injured dozens more.
The weapon’s wide blast radius in the dense neighborhood caused indiscriminate damage, affecting unprotected civilians including men, women, children, and the elderly. Legal experts have said the attack likely violated international law under the Geneva Conventions and may constitute a war crime.
As the war grinds on, cafes like Al-Baqa aren’t just social spaces; for many, they are the only places to access electricity and the internet, which are often unavailable in people’s homes due to the ongoing blockade and widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure.
"I Said Good Morning to the Dead": Inside the Al-Baqa Cafe Bombing
Huda Skaik, Hamza Salha July 17 2025, 6:00am
On the evening of June 30, an Israeli warplane dropped a 500-pound, U.S.-made MK-82 bomb on the seaside Al-Baqa Cafe in Gaza City. The explosion killed more than 30 people and injured dozens more.
The weapon’s wide blast radius in the dense neighborhood caused indiscriminate damage, affecting unprotected civilians including men, women, children, and the elderly. Legal experts have said the attack likely violated international law under the Geneva Conventions and may constitute a war crime.
As the war grinds on, cafes like Al-Baqa aren’t just social spaces; for many, they are the only places to access electricity and the internet, which are often unavailable in people’s homes due to the ongoing blockade and widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure.
On the evening of June 30, an Israeli warplane dropped a 500-pound, U.S.-made MK-82 bomb on the seaside Al-Baqa Cafe in Gaza City. The explosion killed more than 30 people and injured dozens more.
The weapon’s wide blast radius in the dense neighborhood caused indiscriminate damage, affecting unprotected civilians including men, women, children, and the elderly. Legal experts have said the attack likely violated international law under the Geneva Conventions and may constitute a war crime.
As the war grinds on, cafes like Al-Baqa aren’t just social spaces; for many, they are the only places to access electricity and the internet, which are often unavailable in people’s homes due to the ongoing blockade and widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure.
The rapid rise in global rocket launches could slow the recovery of the vital ozone layer, says Sandro Vattioni. The problem is being underestimated—yet it could be mitigated by forward-looking, coordinated action.
Space launches disrupt ozone layer, contribute to air pollution and global warming, waste a lot of resources, and produce tons upon tons of space debris.
We should be careful with this industry and technology, and use it when it makes sense. But hey, why not launch billionaires and their cars into space for leisure and launch hundreds of satellites under different brandings all promising the best Internet ever or whatnot?
Also, massive launches such as Starlink should be approved by international bodies, not national organizations. Cool, US has greenlit the launch, but now it's a global headache.
Yes, but in today's geopolitical landscape, some countries would tie the allowance of such launches to weird requests.
Israel denies the launch of European rockets, until support for Palestine is outlawed as "antisemitism", and pledge to donate weapons to IDF for free.
Russia doesn't allow rocket launches to other countries as long as said countries not outlaw "Russophobia", which includes "recognition of Ukraine, the Ukrainian language, and Ukrainian people, as separate from Russia in any way of form".
China demands the returning of its political refugees, or they will not allow rocket launches.
In the second of a series of articles about China’s role in shaping the future of the internet, Jeroen Groenewegen-Lau says global technology standards could be a thing of the past.
The number of aid victims near the death traps has risen to 995 martyrs, 6,011 injured, and 45 missing
The Government Media Office publishes statistics on the number of martyrs, injured, and missing among the starving civilian population killed by the "israeli" occupation forces while attempting to obtain food from death traps among those awaiting aid from May 27, 2025, until today:
Total number of aid victims: 995 martyrs 6,011 injured 45 missing
Sunday, July 20, 2025
US Mercenaries "UG Solutions" is responsible and there is copious evidence of these brutal murders. THE US GOVERNMENT IS A FULL PARTNER IN THE GENOCIDE IN GAZA!
By Max Blumenthal and Wyatt Reed - Jul 7, 2025
Following an AP investigation accusing a US mercenary firm of firing on desperate Gaza aid seekers, the company has released extensive new footage in an attempt at damage control.
Hello, i have problem because i can't make it work for like a week. I tried a lot of different configurations and every time i try refind with encryption when refind starts there is no menu entry for encryptred disk, but with no encryption everything works fine. I looked a lot on arch wiki, some install scripts on github and i do what they do and it doesn't work. Maybe anyone could help?
Script i actually use:
execute_refind() {
BLKID1=$(blkid -s UUID -o value $ROOT)
BLKID2=$(blkid -s UUID -o value $CRYPT)
refind-install --usedefault "$ESP" --alldrivers
touch /boot/refind_linux.conf
if [ "$ENCRYPTION" == "yes" ] && [ "$FILESYSTEM" == "btrfs" ]
then
cat >> /boot/refind_linux.conf << EOF
"Boot with minimal options" "rd.luks.name=$BLKID2=artix root=UUID=$BLKID2 rootfstype=$FILESYSTEM rw add_efi_memmap quiet $NVIDIA_MODESET"
EOF
fi
if [ "$ENCRYPTION" == "no" ] && [ "$FILESYSTEM" == "btrfs" ]
then
cat >> /boot/refind_linux.conf << EOF
"Boot with minimal options" "rootflags=subvol=/@ root=UUID=$BLKID1 rw add_efi_memmap rootfstype=$FILESYSTEM initrd=@\boot\booster-$KERNEL.img quiet $NVIDIA_MODESET"
EOF
fi
if [ "$ENCRYPTION" == "yes" ] && [ "$FILESYSTEM" != "btrfs" ]
then
cat >> /boot/refind_linux.conf << EOF
"Boot with minimal options" "rd.luks.name=$BLKID2=artix root=UUID=$BLKID2 rootfstype=$FILESYSTEM rw add_efi_memmap quiet $NVIDIA_MODESET"
EOF
fi
if [ "$ENCRYPTION" == "no" ] && [ "$FILESYSTEM" != "btrfs" ]
then
cat >> /boot/refind_linux.conf << EOF
"Boot with minimal options" "root=UUID=$BLKID1 rw add_efi_memmap rootfstype=$FILESYSTEM quiet $NVIDIA_MODESET"
EOF
fi
execute_modules
}
yeah that's what we want a companion that tells us everything we want to hear with its only goal to keep us engaged to the platform. i just picture it now your having a conversation with your AI lover and it starts selling you "this new Mococoa drink? All natural cocoa beans from the upper slopes of Mount Nicaragua. No artificial sweeteners." just like in the Truman show. but it will be worse because it won't do it as transparent as that. it will slowly influence you to the wishes of its corporate masters.
you also have a situation where if you dont pay your monthly bill your lover dies. talk about a revenue stream. they will use all the details they learn about you to set the price to as high as you can afford without breakings you.
Yeah, I am not opposed to this because it's unhealthy (that's the user's choice, like smoking). I'm opposed because this is going to become abusive very quickly in the ways you describe. Not to mention the climate impact.
Maeve
in reply to jackeroni • • •espentan
in reply to Maeve • • •With the initial report in hand I suppose the lawsuit will have to claim that shutting off the fuel supply was done intentionally, and thus was not a crew error.
They meant to crash the plane, how dare you suggest otherwise!?
like this
Maeve likes this.
queermunist she/her
in reply to espentan • • •daydrinkingchickadee
in reply to jackeroni • • •The clowns coming here everyday whinging about biased news sources/propaganda are nowhere to be found 🤡