All of their freedom. They are an explicitly authoritarian country run by what they refer to as a “dictatorship of the treeletariat” wherein the trees own the means to production (water) and solely decide how it is distributed. No more tanks, just trees.

I’ve been using TizenTube since this issue came up and it’s gotten the job done. Not sure if it will be a good long term alternative.

Anyways, I don’t see anything special here. Just standard western nationalism-exceptionalism if that makes sense.

I think it’s more than that.

Symbols associated with colonial projects can bring up a lot of generational trauma in countries that were on the receiving end of the atrocities performed by past colonizers. This is something that is easy to overlook for outsiders from countries without that history.

The effects of Imperial Japan on the East Asian countries were significant, particularly for China. Remember, WWII began in the 1920s for China and arguably half of the fighting for the entire war occurred in China along with war crimes and atrocities or imperialism that were never repaired and are largely overlooked in the West. Some countries in the region managed to eject imperial Japan just to have the Western Allies bring the same Japanese officers right back to run their new colonial projects after “liberating” the East.

The hard feelings toward Japan are deeply rooted in a bloody and violent history of subjugation that has never seen apologies or reparations made. While US POWs can say they too experienced trauma from imperial Japan, it’s nothing compared to what the people of East Asia experienced every day in their homes. The trauma has a different, deeper nature and this is easy to overlook from an outside perspective when viewing the original post.

Are you saying we should be tolerant of judgements placed upon large groups of people divided along arbitrary lines? Does the accuracy and universality of those judgements about each group hold up to the test of scrutiny and are they even based upon concrete evidence? If those judgements are accurate and universally true across those groups, should we be passing judgement upon each group for their differences? Is this a universal application of empathy?

Should we be tolerant of intolerance? I think not.

They’ve migrated north too, but mostly just big box hardware or sporting stores.

I hope you find the same blessings in your own life and work, comrade!

I think online spaces are good for learning, blowing off steam, and potentially getting a wider spectrum of views, but I wouldn’t say it’s a replacement for joining an organization. Reading and discussing theory is important, but the final step of learning is putting it into practice, which requires real-world application of theory.

I can’t speak to organizations that tend not to respond to people seeking membership (looking at you PSL), but if there are any other organizations in your local area that you can get involved with, even if they are socialist, but not explicitly ML, I would encourage you to get involved.

Even if your views don’t fully align with what the organization states on its surface, you’ll probably find there is a range of beliefs within those orgs and you may even find some other MLs. Give them a shot and see what work they are actually doing before you pass judgement. An org that perfectly matches your views but that does little work toward changing material conditions is less useful than an org that feels slightly misaligned but actually makes an impact. Even a social democratic group will have some crossover with socialists that may lead you to meet the people you seek. It’s easier to join an org when you know members than a cold-call email.

Sorry, I went on a bit of a tangent after this, but I’ll leave it here in case it helps you or someone else. I hope this helps and you are able to find some comrades to work with locally! It took me well over a year to be convinced the group I joined was the correct choice and despite that, I’m still reaching out to other organizations and making connections to collaborate on projects.

An important part of being a socialist is learning to work with left allies across a range of beliefs. Not that you should never draw lines, but if you refuse to work with anyone but MLs, you will never get anything done. Hell, no socialist movement ever would have had success if they were unwilling to collaborate across ideologies.

This is often an opportunity to discuss beliefs and I think you’ll find that if you approach these relationships from a desire to reach a common goal with some ideological flexibility, the people you work with will naturally gravitate toward what works with time. Being an ML isn’t about being dogmatic, it’s about recognizing how our material reality shapes our lives and how we can use the lessons of history to make better decisions. Not everyone is at the same point and has the same beliefs. Some of the most effective organizers I know do not consider themselves Marxists, but tend toward Marxists approaches over time as they are convinced of their efficacy. Sometimes that means trying things I don’t have much faith in before moving to what I actually think will work. You could view it as wasted time and energy, but I view it as a chance for people to learn. Not everyone is willing to be a theoryhead and there are a lot of barriers to getting people to adopt a Marxist approach throughout most of the world. Not everyone involved in the revolutions we’ve seen succeed was a part of the vanguard party.

Our goal as MLs isn’t to convert everyone to our ideology, but to help lead people towards approaches to changing our world that are effective and practical. Even the best-read ML will have a lot to learn from someone who has a lot of practical organizing experience, but rejects Marxism. We need to not only learn history and theory, but how to work with people in reality, not just some theoretical party that always agrees on everything. Dogmatism is rooted in idealism. There is no reality where everyone is ideologically aligned and perfectly consistent.

Concrete evidence that the evil tankies love censorship and live in echo chambers like bats.

It’s just a fairly unique design, it’s like telling apart a Nazi eagle or an American eagle

Different design, similar goals. Amerikkka is just catchier than Amerinazis.

These photos are the same.

The US prefers to bomb people who struggle to fight back. They know China would pose a serious challenge and that’s too great a risk to take head-on. Just look at how quickly they gave up against Yemen, and they aren’t even close to the same level of military power as China.

Rather than engage with China directly, they will attempt to attack indirectly as they did with the Soviet Union. China can attack the US mainland, Venezuela would struggle to do so.

New Horseshoe Theory about to drop!

Not a big fan of lotteries at this scale. I propose an alternative, voucher-based system where everyone gets one voucher per year. One voucher = one punch.

Yeah, these are all critiques i’ve had of these protests, I just never thought of them as supporting ICE. When you put it in the context of false solidarity or lacking solidarity, that makes sense.

Thank you!

they’re a protest against the very idea of solidarity against ICE

Maybe it’s that I’m tired or maybe I haven’t paid enough attention, but could you explain this for me?

This is fake. I read he used a giant spoon. Stop spreading pRoPaGaNdA.

Democracy doesn’t work for you.

Please go engage with a leftist organization in real life. You’ll quickly see how wrong this is. Arguing on the Internet is rarely productive and it’s obvious you haven’t engaged with leftist literature. If you want to make these sweeping accusations, do yourself a favor and go see the reality of the situation.

Most of the people you are arguing against have been involved in both liberal and socialist organizations. They aren’t pulling their information from nowhere.

You might be getting closer with that, but this still doesn’t account for the deaths caused by the fallout of decisions under feudal or capitalist systems before switching to communism that took years to repair or deaths caused by imperialist meddling (sanctions, wars, coups).

I was sort of excited for a new, big sci fi movie even if it was going to be mid, but once I saw him, I lost interest.

Hamas prefers Zoom

TIL

bidets are the next step in the historical material process of ass cleaning. live in ass feudalism if you like, but don’t get jealous when ass communism happens and you aren’t invited because youve left your ass in the dark ages

Also true and correct. Every tagline is a winner here.

I would bring an aquarium net, place every shit I take in a bag, and personally deliver it to the person making this policy. The flow of my shit would stop when their shit stopped. No promises that the bag would be closable or made of plastic.

Follow this up with HR complaints to make a paper trail and a letter from a labor-friendly lawyer, I think this policy wouldn’t last long.