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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: July 3rd, 2023

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  • I agree with this. The only real socialist org of significant size in my area is DSA. I’ve met more MLs from organizing within the DSA than from outside. I think it’s worth working with them even part-time or short-term for the purpose of building connections. In places with no other orgs, DSA will be the place to find like-minded comrades or will be a good start to leading you to them.

    Even if you don’t fit the org, the networking is worth it.


  • I’ve had 3 between work and home. X1 carbon gen 2 and gen 9. Both were used and generally great to use. The gen 9 died after 2 years, pretty sure it was the cpu. Not too impressed by that since the gen 2 is still chugging along. Sounds like this may be a known Intel chip quality issue? I’d recommend anything before gen 9, though I loved that laptop. $700-800 to replace the mobo, which is the downside of the x1 as you can only really service the battery and hard drive.

    Got a P series last year for work and its excellent, but heavy. Great if it is staying at a desk, but I prefer the x1 for lightweight and portability.



  • We live in the same town and I happen to know people who rent from him and who work for his merch company (they successfully unionized recently). He owns at least 3 properties in a town where those houses sell for $500,000+. I don’t remember if he inherited those through family or not and those are the only residential properties he owns that I am aware of.

    His union busting was with DFTBA (Don’t forget to be awesome). You won’t find any of this in the news or Wikipedia because it’s local stuff, low-profile, and he’s treated like he’s some saint by locals. I could drop the address of his house and the rentals he has on the same block.

    My main point is that of course these are his takes on economics, he benefits from the system.


  • MeowZedongtoMemes@lemmy.mlall of it apparently
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    20 days ago

    Only due to collective interests and a shallow understanding of each. When you really get down to it, Marxism and anarchism are opposites.

    • Historical materialism vs rejection of this (idealism)

    • Society is built upon what came before vs society is built anew

    • Centralization vs decentralization

    • Organization at a large scale (collective ownership of the means of production organized across the whole economy) vs organization at a small scale (isolated, individual, and direct ownership of the means of production with collective collaboration)

    Sure, both agree that they want a stateless society, but communists and anarchists don’t even agree on what the state is, meaning that while they can be strategic allies, their ultimate goals and approaches are completely different and opposed.




  • Advertising isn’t inherently negative

    Advertising is capitalist propaganda meant to shape the way you think. How you think about things, your life, your community, your sense of self, and your worth. It is a form of manipulation meant to squeeze every penny out of you. It is meant to warp your mind into that of a consumer, to convince you that capitalism is the best way of organizing an economy and that if you don’t have the shiniest new toy, this is a personal and moral failure.

    If you think, “that’s nonsense, they are just trying to sell me something,” consider this: if before every movie, show, and news broadcast there was an ad saying, “Our government in the best government. Be happy you live here. This is as good as it gets. Do not fret the bad parts of our society, just appreciate that you live in the best country in the world (or else),” would you consider this to be negative?

    The central premise of most advertising is the deeply capitalist idea that your identity and worth as a person is primarily determined, not by who you are and what you do, but by what you own and by the commodities you buy. An inherent part of advertisement is a lack of respect for the audience. You and your time are viewed as commodities themselves!

    Propaganda in itself is not negative, but it definitely can be. Advertisements are often composed of lying propaganda. They make false claims and normalize lies in our media, they normalize the acceptance of lies by numbing the population to these tactics. They make you look and feel foolish for calling out their lies and this extends throughout society.

    Who are you going to believe, the boring science hippies who want you to read their papers or the suave, sexy commercial that promises to make your life better?

    All of this ties into our society, culture, and how we behave as a people. If you don’t think it extends beyond taking our money from us, then how do you explain all the body dysmorphia that begins at a young age and extends throughout our lives? I’m too fat, too bald, too short, too sweaty, I’m too tan, my vitiligo is unattractive, my hair is too frizzy and too thin, my glasses are unattractive, I need to treat my wrinkles, fix my nose, remove the bags under my eyes, and cover up my unseemly stretch marks. These dysmorphic feelings all stem from you being treated like a commodity. They permeate our society and media.

    Advertisements don’t just tell you how you should look, they also tell you what you should eat, what medications you should take, what car you should drive, how your home should look, where you should be traveling, what type of work you should be doing, how rich you should be, and more.

    The reason Westerners are the most propagandized people in the world is not due to the decaying education systems, the misrepresentation of history, or the lies told by politicians, but because of how ingrained advertisements are within our societies.

    But don’t take it from me alone, entire books have been written on this subject and it’s a problem with roots back to the beginning of the 1900s and the World Wars.






  • MeowZedongtoScience Memes@mander.xyzLab anxiety
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    1 month ago

    “I forgot to add the sample and lyophilized pure water for 40 hours.”

    “Someone deviated from the SOP while doing dishes and now there is unidentified black material in my sample.”

    “I accidentally dropped and broke a vial, losing several weeks worth of work done by myself and others. Recovery and repurification was not possible.”

    “My boss changed their mind partway through the study, so it was abandoned.”