White collar criminals in capitalist countries are only concerned when they fuck with the bourgeoisie. Then they know the state will go after them in full force.

This woman seriously need to learn about European colonialism…

There was this belief, in Russian socialist circles (which does not come only from Trotsky, but also from Plekhanov, and some other Bolsheviks and Mensheviks), of Russia being a backward country that needed the aid of more advanced countries, which would do their own revolutions and then would help the Soviet Union to develop and cure it of its backwardness. This is because Russia wasn’t fully industrialized and had this very big mass of peasants who wanted to stick to their old ways of life.

Just look at which companies the Norwegian sovereign fund invest on. Not to mention Norwegian mining companies abroad.

I don’t know much about Diego Ruzzarin (which is a shame, since he is a Brazilian). I only saw a podcast where he said he was student of Armesilla and when I searched more about the latter, I instantly hated him. So in the end I never gave Diego too much attention.

I see the contradictions within the US are going to inevitably lead to revolutionary period. However I don’t share your optimism. The revolution can only win or resist if there’s an organized class councious proletarian organization. If the reactionaries win but there’s no such org still fighting clandestinely, what we can hope is the repetition of Germans in the WWII… A fascist imperialist regime with no opposition. So, while I am hopeful, I am not optimistic about what is going on.

I don’t know, but I smell a revolutionary period brewing… If orgs are able to take advantage of it. But even if it’s bad for the US, the global south would really benefit from a civil war in the US. A temporary benefit, though, as if the reactionary side wins, we can expect the US doubling on war and imperialism, as they wouldn’t have an opposition.

I am sure there are economic criticisms we can make of them like the economy not being great and not being diverse enough, but given they are under brutal sanctions it is hard to really expect much. The claim that not achieving wealth or diversity is proof a country is not socialist is also the same argument Maoists use against Cuba, but it’s just a bad argument because diversifying is hard without a lot of money and external investments which sanctioned countries don’t have access to.

Venezuela did diversify. For example, its communes developed agricultural cooperatives in order to achieve food self-sufficiency. However more complex industries like pharmaceuticals, green energy, automobiles, etc can’t be built overnight. We are not talking about 19th century standards of industry, 21st century industry is infinitely more complex. Venezuela didn’t have an opportunity to absorb Western tech like China did.

I never bought into this far right shit, but I used to access content that was meant as right wing propaganda. I used to browse 9gag a lot, just to have some laughs. But then I started thinking the memes were becoming less funny and more racist, until I stopped going there and instead went to Reddit. Suddenly I discovered socialist subreddits and got hooked into the theory.

You too, my friend!

My main disagreement with Trotskysts are related to their view of AES states and global south liberation struggles. They have a very narrow (and utopic, IMO) view of what a socialist transition should look like. Anything that deviates from that very narrow view is seen as the enemy and as a “Stalinist” degeneration.

This has been very problematic in many of the past liberation struggles, like in Vietnam, where they acted to sabotage or undermine socialist or workers’ parties aligned with the USSR. Or even in countries like Brazil today, they spend a lot of their energy trying to critique and undermine other socialist parties (including, surprisingly, other Trotskyst parties) instead of simply working together to build a workers’ movement.

So basically they are a bunch of people against everything and everyone, be them more advanced revolutionary parties, or more backward reformist parties. I could summarize the movement as a ultra left deviation of Marxism.

This scares me. I showed my little daughter a video of Lions, a pet robot, and she fell in love with it. I wonder how people are building tech so we basically start interacting with artificial friends, pets and lovers. And because of it we start living even more isolated than we already are (online) and dependent on products offered by tech giants which are just simulating affection and taking advantage of our loneliness, stress etc.

After China surpasses and start leading in most critical tech industries, the US economy and dollar dominance will simply fall apart (as it may be happening with the AI bubble right now). Why trading for dollars when you can simply import every critical tech, with superior performance and cheaper cost, from Chinese markets?

It makes sense why the US is becoming desperate and willing to wage wars and implement trading chaos to try to disrupt supply chains in order to slow down Chinese progress. But all this effort will lead to nothing as China is always one step ahead of the US.

Wow, that’s a lot of effort

Most multilateral institutions which are led by Western powers do serve imperialism.

Also, keep an eye on think tanks and NGOs. Ford Foundation and Open Society are known for co-opting left agendas for something pro system. The RAND corporation and the Atlas network are think tanks to spread Western narratives and right wing propaganda. To a lesser extent, don’t trust human rights NGOs and pro democracy, like OID. They usually have Western donors and act on their interests.

I’d really like to moderate the technology community. The only problem is my availability, as it is really difficult for me to be available every day to read through all posts/comments. Even reading theory has been challenging.

Yes, this scenario is a possibility. I just hope it does not become reality.

This makes Venezuela the 4th

They are just using excuses to justify a fascist takeover. They are using this narrative of China being authoritarian to then justify their own authoritarianism. They don’t want immigrants, they want third world slaves.

Most of the Chinese growth wasn’t done by immigrants, it was done by their own workforce. Immigrants were invited to China and treated with privilege, earning the best salaries, and occupying the best positions. This is partly true even today, when China does not need to bring too many talents with technical expertise, since their industries and universities are already top tier. Immigrants still earn top salaries in international schools.

On the other hand, it’s not like immigrants in the US have been treated fairly. There’s a lot of propaganda of the US way of life prior to the 90s, and they like to maintain the narrative to blame (illegal) immigrants for taking over low income jobs and sometimes working similarly to slaves. The blame, however, will never be assigned to the endless profit seeking attitude of US capitalists. China forced no Western company to relocate their industrial plants to China or other countries.