- 11 Posts
- 520 Comments
CONTENT WARNING: STATE ABUSE RESULTING IN DEATH
I’ve been in a labor protest in South Korea where they blasted us with water cannons filled with pepper spray. There were a few people that died that day because it…
(WARNING: KINDA GRAPHIC WRITTEN CONTENT!!!)
spoiler
knocked people down on the concrete, busting their heads open and the stuff got in their brain.
(WARNING: KINDA GRAPHIC WRITTEN CONTENT!!!)
So I was lucky to just get off with my body feeling like it was on fire for a few hours.
Well, I’m no expert on decolonization and can only speak for the US, so while I can’t give a full layout of what will be needed, there are a few things I can almost (70-80% certainty) guarantee will be needed in the US.
The US will need to dissolve completely. By that I mean:
- The flag completely replaced. Each stripe represents stolen land (the thirteen colonies). Each star is also stolen land (each state).
- The state borders completely redrawn to better reflect the historical lands held by indigenous peoples. This must be decided by indigenous peoples and not whites or anyone else. If colonized peoples decide it to be so, this may mean regions within the US become completely separate and sovereign nations. Also, since many historical lands spread across Canada and Mexico, the borders of those areas may need redrawing once liberation is achieved, though I am neither Canadian nor Mexican and have essentially no authoritative knowledge on how that might happen.
- The newly formed government(s) must include and be agreed upon by native peoples.
- Economic reparations to colonized peoples is a must, and can be financed by assets seized from the bourgeoisie during revolution. This must also include formal apologies and recognition of the sins of colonizers in history texts, courses, and within new documentation for the newly established government(s).
I realize there is likely more, but I am not knowledgeable enough to speak beyond this so far, and I may be wrong on even the points I addressed (so please correct me if you find error, I won’t be offended). If comrades have more to add, do so please!
As for other things I’ve learned from talking with indigenous and colonized people, I can also add:
- Contrary to rightist fearmongering, “land back” doesn’t mean the deportation of whites back to Europe. That is largely a narrative driven by right wingers to instill fear into whites that they might lose their homes and livelihood or whatever if land back were achieved. However, I haven’t met any indigenous communist who seriously thought displacing millions of people was a good idea. Instead, whites will need to get used to “not being on top” of others, will need to get used to not getting special treatment when dealing with government and the authorities, with education, with employment, and everything else they get preference in.
- This also (mostly) applies to the non-indigenous victims of colonization, blacks won’t be deported or displaced, and in fact will achieve further liberation through the dissolution and replacement of white supremacist institutions like (everything basically) the prison system, the policing system, education system, etc.
There is certainly more to it, but again, I am not a final authority on this. These are just a few points I personally have a good deal of confidence (maybe 70-80% confidence) in. Comrades, if I am wrong about something, please let me know, and definitely add more to this incomplete list.
The disturbing sides of yoga don’t stem from yoga itself, but the people using it. Nationalists will always seek to misappropriate cultural artifacts of “their people’s history”. This is why Indian nationalists use yoga to justify supremacist actions, why Nazis use Viking imagery, Buddhism misappropriated by Tibet, etc etc.
So we shouldn’t shun or dismiss a practice just because nationalists use it for evil. If we do that, then that becomes a victory for the rightists as they can further point to it being “exclusively theirs”. Culture is meant to be shared and enjoyed by all, including guests, so long as everyone is respectful.
When rightists use culture artifacts to justify the suppression of others, they do not respect even their own culture any longer.
When studying the history of yoga, you won’t find original yogis, or even the disciples/students suggesting the elimination of other cultures. What you’ll find is people suggesting that by exercising control and discipline over your mind and body, you will come closer to and possibly achieve enlightenment and experience divinity.
That may be the case, but it doesn’t help the US cause. That is like the US is saying “we aren’t Nazis, we just support them” or “we aren’t terrorists, we just support them”.
Also this is an indicator that the US narrative on Ukraine is slipping publicly. They couldn’t hold the narrative that Russia did it, so now the blame is starting to go inward. It is closer to home now.
When reading it I only saw it state that the US had intelligence that Ukrainian special forces were planning to don fake identities, grab a boat, and blast the pipeline without informing Zelensky so he could have reason to deny it when accused.
I didn’t see references to non-state actors of any kind.
Art is a skill anyone can learn with practice and determination, while also having low barriers to entry and the capacity for great fulfillment. This makes it dangerous and in contradiction with the interests of the elite, since workers tired of working for their bosses can learn to create art and sustain themselves on various platforms.
So of course they’d target that early on. It is no coincidence that coding is another task these AI are taking, as workers who know how to code have a lot of power, hence their often bloated incomes. Unfortunately in the case of AI making a lot of coding tasks easier, the power is not being more evenly spread between workers that code and workers that don’t, but rather being taken away from the coding workers by the elite altogether increasing their own power while taking another option of reprieve from the working class.
EDIT: spelling
… because I couldn’t control my life, and embarrassingly yet honestly I couldn’t dominate the attention and emotions of the women around me.
I feel this. That was me in middle school. I was bullied, had no friends, and my parents couldn’t provide on an emotional level. I felt as though I deserved to be liked by the girls I liked if I was nice. That whole “nice guy syndrome” thing applied to me. I wasn’t angry at individual women, but at the time I was angry with women as a whole. “Why would they like the assholes that treat me like shit, and would treat them like shit, when I want nothing more than to shower them in affection?” I would think to myself. Throughout all of middle school I was going down the incel rabbit hole.
Luckily, I number of changes happened in the summer between middle and high school and I was able to escape that, though it took a bit before I could start exploring feminism in depth.
Parents were neglectful, busy and horribly depressed themselves. Attention and love was a commodity I was willing to destroy people for.
Again, true here as well. I couldn’t hold a conversation about anything with my parents. They had zero interest in anything I liked and made sure I knew it. If I asked about “adult things” like how much something costs, for example the electricity bill, I’d be told it was none of my business (which also crippled my ability to manage finances and caused several problems throughout my adulthood). They provided food, water, electricity, a roof. That was all.
So then I get to middle school, no friends, stupid hormones going nuts with only “abstinence” being taught in my household and schools, and a serious interest in BDSM themes. I say the themes because at the time I didn’t know the acronym, only that as my hormones went wild it wasn’t fantasies of sex that took me, but rather of submitting myself to someone I cared about. It took until something like 8th grade to even know what the word virgin meant.
So then comes my craving for women’s attention because I was denied it at home, and patriarchy was teaching me that to have value, to not be bullied, I need to “have” (possession, again patriarchy talk) a girlfriend. My step-dad had a very domineering way of parenting, and so that was all I had to work with. I became a stalker, thinking that maybe if these women give me a chance and spend time with me, they’ll have to like me because I am nice.
Obviously, stalking isn’t nice. I did apologize later, and the women I hurt said they forgave me. I made sure never to bother them again, and ended contact. One apologetic message, one reply. Don’t need to re-traumatize them by having my face in their friends lists or whatever.
When it comes to feminist praxis, I’ve found myself stuck on what to do as a man. I believe I have found the answer, or at least the beginning of one… we gotta evolve and destroy the shackles that bind us from actualizing ourselves and others, the shackles that bind us from complete empathy and genuine love.
I agree, and the beautiful thing is that feminist praxis, much like vegan praxis, you can make a massive difference even if you focus on living the feminist ideals. As communists, we (should) already strive for much of the organizing that will liberate women and other oppressed peoples from exploitation in the wider system. Communists already want things like zero wage gap, equal vacations, equal political representation, etc and organize to do it. A Communist march is a feminist march is a black liberation march is a Pride march is a… the list goes on. But feminist praxis involves a cultural change, and cultural change happens when groups of individuals change. So by changing yourself, you are creating a larger group of changing people, which shifts the culture. Call out bigotry and hate for what it is, and make patriarch’s uncomfortable. Force them to change and adapt to a culture that is leaving them behind.
The best thing we men can do is learn to love. To really love. Not obsess like middle school bleepingblorp, but love. When we do that, everyone around us will know.
TRIGGER WARNING: REFERENCES TO A SLUR (partially censored), ACTS OF SELF HARM, AND ABUSE
Comrade,
I am actually also in the process of reading that book and am at about the same point you are as of this comment! My next chapter is “Work: What’s Love Got To Do With It”.
I’ve also been finding this book extremely insightful, catching myself nodding many times going, “Wow… that is me… never met Bell and she sees right through me…”. I am very excited about this idea and definitely look forward to growing alongside other comrades who understand first hand what it is like to grow up and live as a man under patriarchy, while aware of both the harm we have endured, then the harm we have caused (and often continue to cause) as a result of the harm we have received. “Hurt people hurt people” they say.
There is a massive derth in helpful materials for men to learn how to understand then improve our behaviors. This is the first book that actually addresses why my dad, step-dad, and now me are (or were in the case of my dad and step-dad who both died depressed and angry) all, with the exception of anger and rage interspersed , emotionless husks. Most dads and step-dads I’ve met, whether my own or my friends’ fathers, we all this way. Many of my men teachers were this way too, and many others wore the “teacher happy mask” instead.
From my mother’s use of my father figure’s violence as a threat, to their emotional disconnect from the world, my father’s abuse and neglect, my school peers constant pressures to “not be a b***h” and macho culture, and me being naturally reserved why I prefer to have women friends (much less toxic). It explains so much as to why my gut reaction to things is usually anger driven.
My inability to manage my own rage has ended up with me involuntarily hospitalized from acts of self harm a number of times, to the tune of about $15,000.00 USD per incident in medical costs. Patriarchy is fucking real comrades.
This book has so far explained more than years of intermittent (and unreliable) therapy have, at least from a feminist perspective on systemic issues. Read it, comrades. Women and LGBTQ+ too.
And thank you comrades who have made it this far in my rant/review/whatever else this comment qualifies as. While reading this I’ve been hoping to find people to talk about this with, and I look forward to finally be a part of a like minded support network to help each other grow and explore our personal experiences.
TRIGGER WARNING: REFERENCES TO A SLUR (partially censored), ACTS OF SELF HARM, AND ABUSE
EDIT: Updated trigger warning, typos
I mean, the US and UK were both supplying and arming Nazis all the way up to the war, and many such companies continued to do so even while their countries were at war with them.
Ford was building military vehicles for them all throughout the war through a subsidiary using Russian slaves, then after the war concluded Ford sued the US government for damages to its German war factories and won.
GM also build war machines for the Third Reich.
Several banks including JP Morgan were financing the Nazis throughout the war as well.
Nestle supplied food.
DOW Chemical supplied “raw materials”.
Coca-cola, through Fanta, supplied sugar and sugary drinks.
Woolworth sold… well a lot of things since they are a retail chain. When discovery of the Nazi concentration camps became public a lot of US citizens protested against Woolworth to have them remove their stores from Germany. Woolworth’s response? Fire all their Jewish workers.
MGM provided film services. Kodak sold the Nazis photo equipment.
GE worked very closely with Krupp in order to help build the Nazi gas chambers using Jewish slave labor to build them.
Alcoa sold the Nazis aluminum and had a global monopoly on it.
IBM owned subsidiary Dehomag, a company which provided key services in tracking “undesirables” and their families.
Shell, a UK oil company, produced oil products in Hamburg and Geilenburgh. Standard Oil also provided massive quantities of petrol products.
Random House Publishing and their parent company, Bertelsmann A.G., published Nazi propaganda, including a book called Sterilization and Euthanasia: A Contribution to Applied Christian Ethics.
Well, they may have successfully created a rift between Russia and Europe, and Ukraine may even join NATO after they are in a state of peace (can’t join while at war). BUT…
The US reaction to the Russian invasion has caused many nations to reconsider their relation to the West and act on their considerations. The BRICS expansion and introduction of a new monetary trade system will decouple the economies of numerous nations globally away from the US.
European reaction to Russia has pushed Russia into a closer relationship with China, and since many AES states are also included the BRICS expansion this means Russia and the Russian people will adopt a more friendly attitude toward those governments… and their ideology. It will improve revolutionary conditions in Russia thus bringing them just that much closer to the re-establish of communism.
This will also relate to other non-AES states involved in the BRICS expansion. It will be an easier prospect for nations that are already “pink” to go full red with less reliance on the US and closer relations with AES states. Full capitalist or monarchist states could also be pushed closer as well, even if it takes many more catalysts before they go even pink. One step at a time.
Meanwhile, the economies of the US and Europe will suffer when their access to those markets becomes a bit more restricted or expensive. It won’t be cutting off all trade, sure. But with the West having less leverage in trade, BRICS participants can more readily enforce tariffs and other costs the US and West at large could once bully off the negotiations table. The prices of goods, including many imported agricultural goods, will increase as the capitalist class transfers the oppression they would’ve otherwise inflicted on their “trade partners” instead inward, driving up prices while continuing to stagnate (or even lower!) wages. Also many jobs which were reliant on that trade will vanish.
That will increase revolutionary conditions here in the West by creating increased anger and frustration at the status quo. There will be more protests and thus opportunities for us commies to go and inform protest participants, who are clearly pissed and in an ideal place to learn about what Marxism and Marxist action can do for them and the communities they represent.
At this point, the results of the war don’t matter so long as NATO doesn’t do the dumb and attack Russia directly. Nobody gains from a “Russian victory” really. Remember, Russia is still a very capitalist state, and Putin is still one of the wealthiest oligarchs there, and regularly imprisons LGBTQ+ people, as well as Communists. We aren’t rooting for a “Russian Victory” but rather a “NATO defeat”.
We are getting our NATO defeat. The few countries which have joined or might join NATO as a result of this war are only signing themselves up for problems.
Now the next step will be more crucial, because after the whimpering NATO dogs crawl away from this war with only words but no material gains, they’ll be looking at China next. NATO will do what it can to coax China into attacking Taiwan, or coaxing Taiwan into attacking China then turning around and blaming China. Even if the US government realizes they can’t win against China either and thus decide not to attack directly, the capitalists may use this as an excuse to attack other AES states in alignment with China. In those cases, the fortress must hold and we must do everything we can to support the peoples who have thrown off imperialist shackles.
TRANSLATION:
I moved to Korea last year in order to learn Korean. During this time I’ve had a great life, made a lot of great friends, and have had a few fantastic teachers.
But soon I’ll be returning to Canada so I met with a former teacher to eat Pyongyang cold noodles and talk.
When talking about going on walks I wanted to say “it feels good” but because I forgot the phrase (Translator’s note for context: 마음에 들어요 = it enters the heart when translated literally, but is used to indicate you like something) and instead said “가슴이 좋아요” (Translator’s note for context: 가슴이 좋아요 = “Chest is good” when translated literally, but Koreans often are referring to breasts when saying “가슴”. Thus, depending on context, this phrase could mean “chest is good” such as if you are trying to tell a doctor your chest is fine, “breasts/the breasts are good”, for example if you are objectifying women with other men, or “your breasts are good/nice” if you are trying to tell a woman what you think of her breasts. In the case of the OP’s teacher, she understood it as the last case.) … but I seriously didn’t know the special meaning behind “가슴이 좋아요”!
My teacher laughed and said thank you so I was confused. After she explained I was super embarrassed… oh why am I like this (Translator’s note for context: ㅠㅠ is how Koreans often create a crying emoji in text)
EDIT: typo
I’m not sure it would be, after all we can access all kinds of websites located outside our respective borders pretty easily and without delay. As long as we pay enough to handle the traffic Lemmygrad usually sees and allow for elasticity to account for higher traffic times and surges of refugees like what happened during the GenZedong shutdown, should be fine for the most part.
EDIT: My content above was responding to what you said prior to the edit, in which you stated there would be a latency issue.
RESPONSE TO YOUR EDIT: $136/month is something I could afford just on my own. If Lemmygrad introduced a donation system then per active member it’d just be a few USD per month per member
They don’t need to put GPS trackers on cars anymore. Phones are more accurate and don’t require physical contact with the phone nor person. The government can simply order companies to provide the tracking data directly, and companies are compelled to comply. If the company doesn’t have the data, they can instead request the IMEI. With the IMEI governments can use various technologies provided by defense engineering firms to intercept cell information and track you that way. Using the second method I just described, they can also intercept and monitor all signals sent to and from your device in real time, which means all texts, calls, internet usage, every single bit. Ofc some of this can be overcome with good encryption, but tracking data and most metadata will still be intact.
I can’t make guarantees about PSL, though it is safe to assume they have a spook or two.
CPUSA on the other hand, I can 100% promise with 100% certainty they are, or at least have been in very very recent times, heavily infiltrated by US intelligence entities.
In a less enlightened time bleepingblorp was military intelligence and now has a degree in Strategic Studies and Defense Analysis, and many of my professors were active duty intelligence while simultaneously teaching. The CPUSA is used by intelligence as a textbook example of how to disrupt and infiltrate an org, and was feature in some of my course material as such, particularly in my “Insurgency and Counterinsurgency” course.
I’ve been out of that world for a while now, so depending on how good the CPUSA has been about cleaning out their ranks of the filth and spotting saboteurs, my knowledge may be outdated now. I hope for the sake of other US comrades in there that it is indeed outdated.
Oh don’t get me wrong, most ideas are still good to go, like for example the Zine would be excellent for our current situation. However hosted services can become risky if we aren’t careful. For instance, hosted email. Imagine, some ML parties decide they want to use Lemmygrad email services to conduct email communications. The Imperial Core decides to increase its defense posture against communist movements and opts to seize the email servers. Now, the Imperial Core has all the identities, communications, and massive amounts of sensitive data regarding plans and uses it for mass arrests, raids, and so on.
One concern would be where these places are hosted. In many cases, yeah sure you’re privacy against bourgeois interests can be guaranteed… at least until they order the FBI or other similar Imperial thugs to raid the server farms supporting the infrastructure, both eliminating the service while allowing digital forensics teams to parse the metadata and learn identities.
My biggest desire is for Lemmygrad as a whole to migrate infra to a well established AES state capable of defending itself from cyber attacks and espionage, like China. Already as it stands I am nervous about my current profile here since I know I make privacy mistakes using this profile every day, and it is my current understanding that Lemmygrad is hosted in the Imperial Core.
If I am wrong about this, please correct me.
- @bleepingblorp to
- •
- 10M
- •
- @bleepingblorp to
- •
- 1Y
- •
- @bleepingblorp to
- •
- 1Y
- •
The certain US military leaders will regret it too