Proselytizing is also illegal. If people come to your church it should because of their own personal interests or for family reasons because of your heritage.

This is, I think, where Americans get their “China persecutes Christians” narrative; at least to the extent their opinions have any sort of grounding in an echo of truth. For white Evangelical Christians, proselytizing is a fundamental aspect to their religion. You must convert the non-Christians or else they face an eternity of conscious torment in hell. For that reason any restrictions on proselytizing by any government are seen as invalid and must be disobeyed.

He also knows a lot of various quotes by Marcus Aurelius.

One of these days I will write up my effort post about how the principal contradiction in white evangelical Christianity is between the reactionaries who are drawn to that particular brand of religion because it fundamentally supports white supremacy, settler colonialism, patriarchy, etc, and those who have a more solid theological understanding and recognize that their religion is constantly shrinking so they can’t afford to alienate anyone who isn’t precisely like them (while noting that this second group is usually every bit as socially reactionary as the first).

One of these days I will write up my effort post about how the principle contradiction in white evangelical Christianity is between the reactionaries who are drawn to that particular brand of religion because it fundamentally supports white supremacy and settler colonialism, and those who have a more solid theological understanding and recognize that their religion is constantly shrinking so they can’t afford to alienate anyone who isn’t precisely like them (while noting that this second group is usually every bit as socially reactionary as the first).

As someone who was raised evangelical this is actually a fantastic comparison.

This entire arrangement is really not possible under capitalism except for people above a certain fairly high income strata. I know a few people who do the “one income and multiple kids” thing, and for every single one the husband either has a high paying job or there’s a lot of family money.

Recent world events have shown how correct Stalin was in deciding what to do when you face an existential threat. The purges were unfortunate but I also believe without them I’m sure exponentially more Soviet citizens would have died.

I wish I knew more about the governmental structure of China, do you happen to have any sources you can recommend for further reading?

I would encourage you read about the Special Period. We are Cuba! by Helen Yaffe is good. As rough as things are now, Cuba is still not even close to where things were in the 90s, and the Revolution survived.

It seems like power generation and distribution seems to be the most acute problem on the island. The blockade makes upgrading their power infrastructure especially difficult. But it does seem like Russia and China and starting to maybe help take care of that.

I believe socialism in Cuba will survive (and thrive) because 1.) the people really do have that revolutionary spirit and commitment, and 2.) all you need to do is look at what happened to Russia, Ukraine, East Germany, et al when communism was murdered there. The west made them pay for daring to attempt to do something different. As bad as things are now, they will be much worse if the Revolution capitulates to the US.

Edit: I also want to add, I don’t think the US would lift the blockade even if Cuba adopted free market capitalism. I think if that was the offer, even as a principled Marxist I would have to at least consider that if I was Cuban. There is the orthodox Marxist notion that you need a capitalism phase before socialism, so you could in theory adopt a fully capitalist system and then have the revolution bide its time until the moment comes to retake the country, certainly if the blockade is causing so much pain.

BUT, that will not be enough for the US, so it’s all academic anyway. The US would want political change as well. They can’t change the political system to “democracy” because Cuba already is democratic and objectively moreso than the US. No, in addition to free market capitalism, the US would demand no communist could serve in government, the Cuban government would be staffed with unelected compradors, traitors, and gusanos; or the US would just rule over it like a viceroy. And from there, the US would rip apart the economy and hand the pieces over to gusanos and US corporations so as to “restore their lost property”; up to and including personal residences. Imagine being kicked out of your home and out on the streets because some gusano in Miami had a grandparent who lived there before the revolution. If you think this is an exaggeration, this is literally what happened to East Germany. And that was done to them by a country that ostensibly wanted to unify and heal. The US will have no such illusions about Cuba, ripping apart the carcass and making the Cuban people suffer will be the point.

Yeah I’m down with everything you said.

I actually agree with your broader point in your edit, but I just happen to think the PSL is not as bad in that area as you perceive it. Or maybe I’m sympathetic to the notion that we are trying to build communism from zero roughly 15 years ago in this country, when the conditions are currently stacked against us as they are. We just don’t have the vision and leadership right now because of this so I can’t blame PSL for that. I appreciate that PSL is at least trying. And maybe they are fumbling around a bit but I think they are moving in the right direction, and are nothing like say DSA.

Also

toothless protests escalated

I don’t know specifically what you mean but tbf if I’m at a protest and someone wants us to escalate beyond what is useful I’m gonna be suspicious that person is a fed (of course not implying you are one, just that I get the impression PSL takes opsec seriously since they definitely are a fed target).

Not that I think this is likely, but a part of me wonders if the US and France are telling “Israel” they need to wrap up a ceasefire with Hezbollah and by extension stop the genocide in Gaza, but only because they plan on majorly ramping up in Ukraine before Trump takes office.

Hard to imagine Biden ever getting tough with Israel, but I was expecting to see NATO look for an off ramp with Russia by now, not escalation.

Yeah I have to agree. I find on a personal level, I can’t really relate to the Five Heads at all. Che was hella cool but he was too charismatic and had an off the charts work ethic. I don’t know much about Sankara but he seems pretty relatable too. Sometimes I feel a twinge of sympathy for Khrushchev because I think a big part of his problem was he was totally out of his depth, and if you put me in charge of a socialist country I’d probably fuck up the bag too.

I have listened to more James Lindsay and his ilk than I care to admit. The one thing these new “anti-Marxists” make clear is that actual Marxists are not the target, it’s Democrats or anyone they think is “woke”. It’s just red baiting, simple as. They will read (or usually just quote-mine) the Manifesto and then point to ways that Joe Biden or people who just want rights for trans people are actually “Marxists”.

No. I have seen estimates that it would take at least 10 years of concerted effort to ramp up US production to that scale.

It was written by Trotsky so I don’t think the book itself was ever peer reviewed, and I don’t think Trotsky set out to write an academic book. That said, I do believe that it’s a source respected by historians. There’s also Sheila Fitzpatrick’s book on the Revolution. She’s an actual bourgeois historian but was a leading light among the “reform school”, i.e. Sovietologists that debunked the “totalitarian school” that tried to equate the USSR with Nazi Germany.

I’ll be honest, Trotsky’s massive tome (I think it’s over 900 pages) on the Revolution is actually pretty decent and is surprisingly free (for the most part) of his typical brain worms.

NATO gave away the game the other day, when they said something to the effect of “DPRK troops in Kursk means we can escalate”. It doesn’t make sense but it doesn’t have to, NATO is just trying to gin up any casus belli that they can.

I promise you, your average DPRK citizen has a far better grasp of the world outside of their own country’s borders than your average US American does.

There was significant collaboration between Zionists and the Nazi regime before WWII. A German Zionist group made arrangements with the Nazi government to relocate tens of thousands of Jews into Palestine. It was only after this that the Grand Mufti decided to engage with Hitler, because he saw what was happening and knew he had to counter. This goes against Zionist propaganda that the Mufti worked closely with Hitler in the 30s out of a desire to stamp out Judaism or whatever. He only engaged with Hitler out of self-preservation in order to prevent more immigration.