Welcome again to everybody. Make yourself at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.

On Sunday last week, Damascus fell to Salafi terrorists and other imperialist-aligned forces. Regardless of the flaws of the ousted government, this is a horrible situation for the Syrian proletariat as well as for the people of Palestine, Lebanon and others. We can only hope for the perseverance of the Syrian workers and the remaining anti-colonial resistance.

Matrix homeserver and space
Theory reading group on hiatus, will move to Lemmygrad next year
Find theory on ProleWiki, marxists.org, Anna’s Archive, libgen

  • fire86743
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    5 hours ago

    I have a very, very, very strong feeling that the complaints about how Gen Alpha is “ruined by screens, entitlement, permissive parenting” is nothing but nonsense that is not very different at all from how previous generations were complained about. They even complained about “today’s youth” in ancient Greece, Egypt, and Sumer!

    It’s an outdated mindset that I sadly see all around me, even among many progressives.

    • DankZedong A
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      4 hours ago

      Idk I guess you could make a point about screens. I read the other day about how there is an increase of children with eyesight problems probably caused by sitting too close to a screen from a young age. Also, some of the content for kids is literal brainrot lol.

      But I guess that then just boils down to what content they consume and not just screens in general.

  • RedFortress
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    6 hours ago

    I hate how many Arabs are celebrating what’s happening in Syria, and I’m not even talking about just Moroccans. This makes it hard to not want to just give up on them. It’s like they haven’t got a single clue, they just gobble up everything they’re being told by media just like before. The Arabs are so weak that a completely different culture in Iran are spearheading their own resistance.

    • cfgaussian
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      5 hours ago

      At the end of the day they are not that different from westerners. People everywhere regardless of their religion, nationality or ethnicity are susceptible to being propagandized by their media and their ruling class establishment institutions. All that differs is the material circumstances, and these compel more people in the global south than in the imperial core to wake up and actually realize what is happening.

    • Makan
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      6 hours ago

      Many Arabs are not celebrating, I can attest to this.

      Well, I’m Turk, so maybe it’s just only what I see.

  • DankZedong A
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    18 hours ago

    It’s a cool experience to see so many union members dressed in red going to Brussels today. A big wave of red just cramming into a train, proper working class people✊🏼

    • Makan
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      6 hours ago

      never underestimate labor unions

      Too much of the left does.

  • DankZedong A
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    1 day ago

    Tomorrow I will join a general strike in Brussels against the government. Excited to see what will happen. Might be a good networking opportunity.

  • redtea
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    1 day ago

    Anyone know how I can find my own DMs on here?

    Edit: Found them— bell icon, messages, all.

  • DankZedong A
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    2 days ago

    Some criminals allegedly targeted a shop in the city of The Hague with explosives and they managed to explode an entire block of appartments instead. Multiple people died.

    An 8 year old boy survived but lost his parents and sister in the explosion. The boy is of Chinese origin and the Dutch Chinese community stepped in to help raise money for him.

    People find a way to be racist about this. Maybe some people are beyond redemption.

    • redtea
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      1 day ago

      What the absolute fuck is going on in Europe? This sounds like a farfetched heist movie!

      • DankZedong A
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        21 hours ago

        The Netherlands and Belgium are major drug trafficking hubs, mostly due to hosting Europe’s biggest ports. Drug gangs doing hits on eachother is not unheard of. In my city for example you often have grenade attacks on houses. But it’s not entirely sure this is drug related.

        • redtea
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          14 hours ago

          Maybe I’m just missing it but I must wonder why that doesn’t make the international news so much. Must be a bit scary to live there.

          • rainpizza
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            9 hours ago

            Probably it doesn’t make it to the news because it will ruin Europe’s image of being the dream place(very different to my homr country Mexico where news about cartel fights are hears everywhere in the world). Same as what happens with the “American dream” being promoted to latin americans.

            • redtea
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              6 hours ago

              That does explain things, unfortunately.

  • KrupskayaPraxis
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    1 day ago

    I have a socialist classmate who believes that money doesn’t give you power, but ideology does. When I talked about capital he said that capital doesn’t equal power either, and that capitalists power can’t be just because of capital. He also said another time that HTS didn’t win because of capitalist reasons but because of their islamic ideology. I disagree with him, and you?

    He’s kinda a debate bro type of socialist btw, who doesn’t go to demonstrations or is part of a party.

    • DankZedong A
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      1 day ago

      Not sure what his point is really. Like money, or capital, or possession of something in general, gives you power. Especially in a system that is designed around money, or capital, or possessions.

      Also not sure what he means with the HTS thing. Like, they won because they are a US proxy and managed to get aid through one of the most powerful military forces in the world. Not sure what them being Muslims has to do with that. Allah didn’t guide them to victory.

      Does he ever elaborate on his claims? Or is he just trying to sound interesting?

      • DankZedong A
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        1 day ago

        Because you can be a capitalist at heart but if you don’t own any capital what power do you have?

          • Che's Motorcycle
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            1 day ago

            You can be the biggest bootlicker at work, the bosses can even like you, but you can still get fired. The “ideas” at play here don’t matter, since the capital owners will do what they need to expand their capital - and their ability to do so is because of their ownership/control of capital.

      • redtea
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        1 day ago

        Could have meant that the struggle was ideological rather than (just) over capital simpliciter. There’s a point to be made there. Marx and Engels argued that people do things other than for economic reasons. I’m unsure if that’s quite what’s happening here, though.

  • coolusername@lemmy.ml
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    3 days ago

    — 🇮🇷 🇮🇷 🇸🇾 Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC ‘Khatam al-Anbiyaa’ Headquarters: ‘Bashar al-Assad did not request Iranian help – in fact he actively prevented us from coming and helping’

    General Mohammad Jafar Asadi, deputy commander of Khatam al-Anbiyaa HQ:

    – Bashar al-Assad said to one of our (Iranian) officials in a meeting: ‘My soldiers have truly become either smugglers or thieves, they only defend those who offer them bribes and privileges. They could not defend me, and when I wanted to protect at least Damascus, I realized that they were not able to protect Damascus either.’

    – Bashar al-Assad did not allow us (the IRGC) to go help the Syrian Arab Army, although he asked us for assistance in the past, but this time he not only did not ask, but he was worried about us arriving, and said that ‘if you come, Israel will probably attack us’.

    – Turkey is a part of NATO, and we should not see or accept the presence of this country and its influence anywhere outside of America and Europe. Turkey is a part of them, and with this attitude, it serves America. America is active behind the scenes.

    – It seems that the factions present in Syria will clash with each other based on their own different interests. Maybe separating Syria is Turkey’s desire, because they have been coveting a part of Syria for a long time.

    @Middle_East_Spectator

  • Anarcho-Bolshevik
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    3 days ago

    Tonight I received a fortune that says, ‘YOUR SENSE OF HUMOR IS A JOY TO ALL.’

    • -6-6-6-
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      3 days ago

      My fortune cookie from a week ago was “Laugh at yourself, it feels good sometimes.”

    • rainpizza
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      2 days ago

      It is horrible. Those videos are flooding plenty of Telegram channels.

      From doctors, minorities to scientists being assassinated, it is as if I am seeing news of a new Pol Pot.

    • multitotal
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      3 days ago

      And I had a person respond to me here saying they hope HTS kills all the Kurds in Syria…

      • rainpizza
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        2 days ago

        Don’t do it comrade. Seeing those videos will deteriorate your mental health and may provoke you gloom. That’s what is happening to me.

  • fire86743
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    3 days ago

    The more I read about Soviet politics under Khrushchev and beyond, the more I see how cringeworthy and cancerous it was.

    • DankZedong A
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      3 days ago

      I mean it’s hard to disagree. There are very few working class (read: poor) people who not only manage to have enough free time to write but to have the network to get published too.

      I recently read a book on poverty written by a man who has gone through poverty himself. He only managed to get such a book published because he managed to get a university degree and a government job. He could be just a talented writer while working in a factory but he would have a much harder time getting published without the network he build over time.

  • DankZedong A
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    4 days ago

    So you mean to tell me that a dude that has planned a hit for days in advance managed to get caught in a McDonalds because an employee ‘recognized’ him while still carrying all the stuff of the murder?