The US is going to triple-down on the part about it being in international airspace. But It is high time that other nations stop letting my nation keep acting like it is the one “defending” anything. The balloon shit is weak and an intentional overreaction due to it being from China. It was used as an excuse to give the F-22 its first kill at the cost of over half a million tax dollars via an overkill weapon given the target. Then with a red balloon scare in full swing, they waste more expensive missiles. All on balloons that weren’t even from the continent of Asia. Just shoot first and look at the answers later. And that is all beside the constant spying that the US does both abroad and domestic. But we are going to act like shit like Tik Tok is some big weapon and that our software isn’t already crawling through both enemies and allies alike.
Also being “shocked” at the idea of China sending weapons to Russia (an ally of theirs) is bullshit. The bulk of the Western World is actively sending all kinds of weapons to Ukraine. I refuse to support any part of the current proxy war (aside from any of the literal fascists/neo-Nazis that are taken out no matter which party does it). In this case (the drone) is literally a fair move based on the US’s own actions both with the balloon stuff and basically the past century. I just hope that China can keep a level head and that they help keep Russia’s too. I have been told too many times by Boomers that I “wouldn’t understand how real the threat of nukes being used was” when I voice support of the USSR and other AES nations during the first Cold War. My generation and Zoomers have been living through multiple great recessions, 9/11, two 20yr long wars (that both more or less ended like Vietnam), and now this shit caused by NATO creeping closer and closer to Russia.
I was thinking that too. I was very confused by the Soviet stuff being so large as to make sure it can’t be missed. If Russia were to be putting out images like the one used, it would more than likely be for something celebrating victory over the Nazis. Western media can’t stop going after a nation that doesn’t exist anymore. They have taught the average person that USSR/communism/socialism and Russia are all interchangeable in meaning. I have worn face masks with the hammer and sickle and been asked by a shocking amount of people if I am of Russian decent (or if I am just really all about CoD).
The real take away is that all nations will use whatever whenever they can in wars. They just try to make it go unnoticed and at the same time are on the lookout for their enemies breaking any conventions in order to get support of the public. Though it is also true that lots of people will break conventions of their own nation without any orders to do so. Obviously it is much harder for chemical weapons to be used by normal grunts without first being given them.
Really cool to see any videos that give a look at comrades in the DPRK literally doing “normal” things. Not the ever present ones of military or other kinds of stuff that only show things that can be made fun of/condemned by US outlets.
Does anyone know what the scrolling text is saying? Are they like peoples’ new years wishes?
I’ll look around to see about the sub (is it a Reddit or Lemmy sub?). Thanks for input on this stuff. The whole thing is just so mixed together and various outlets are doing the same things they did after 9/11 and the build-up to Iraq in the US. Everyone is trying to discredit anything that doesn’t safely fit the various narratives and trying to be seen as the mouthpieces of history so they can write their “brave coverage” books like always. If we keep the pro-war hype-train going faster and faster with the breaks removed. Then there won’t be a world left or people to read those masturbatory books.
Thanks for the links! I have definitely seen the pic(s) of the person with swastika that was making the rounds early in the conflict. Given how much the stated mission is to de-Nazi-fy the Donbas and Ukraine, it would be very bad if Russia and/or the (at the time) new republics were to be openly fighting Nazis with other Nazis (though far-right/fascist groups are more than willing to fight their peers in other nations). Especially since they knew that the western nations and media would zero in on them to add to discrediting the stated goals. It would be great optics for Russia/Donbas to make it a point to publicly drop anyone that dare claim to be on the “pro-Russia” side while sporting Nazi/fascist tattoos or paraphernalia. Though I also guess the “pro-Ukraine no matter what” outlets would then just claim that it was fake and that the ones getting dealt with were random Ukraine citizens used for show trials (while then bringing up the purges under Stalin). Even with proof it would be twisted and mixed up to make it impossible to tell unless you were literally able to be there to see it all while being in multiple places at the same time.
Since Wagner is the group involved, I will ask here instead of making a new thread asking. But are there any good articles about Wagner and what they are? I like most people in the US have been shown pictures and read/listened to various news/media outlets showing them to be Russia’s version of Azov (the pics show them with Nazi/pro-fascist flags/symbols). But given that there are so many anti-fascist communists in the Donbas that are fighting especially hard in order to destroy Azov and other open fascists. I try to take information I see coming from the pro-Ukraine and pro-Russian sides of the media and try to see which things are normal propaganda expected from different sides of any war. But shit seems to be so fucking layered with active disinformation from both sides that it makes it impossible to trust anything. I support the states of the Donbas region being able to be their own thing if they want. I also very much agree that pro-fascist orgs are growing and shouldn’t be just hand-waved away as nothing. I think that Russia isn’t some great hero given their own issues with corruption and powerful oligarchs (just like I don’t think the US has any business to act like it should be the global police or setter of standards). Both the US/Ukraine/NATO and Russian sides are very well versed in painting things how they want in order to seed informational chaos.
Knives have the benefit of being silent and easier to hide on your person than a rifle or shotgun (or even some pistols). If in a packed railway station, someone could just start quickly sticking random people with the bulk of a crowd not noticing right away. And the ones that do see it or are trying to get away get blocked by the rest of the folks that are just focused on getting where they need to be. Guns are just the weapons that get the most media attention in the media (especially Western media at least).
Literally just oppression and making even more of the prison system for-profit. Which means even more need to place more and more people in the system (why try to rehabilitate if it means profits go down?). Capitalism just creates problems to solve by more privatization. It is already fucking stupid if the profit motives weren’t on the table. That is because the pigs already have to open all mail anyway. It is admittedly shocking that they weren’t already scanning mail to add to a database. Given how the various agencies intercept basically all phone traffic for everyone in or out of the prison system (or in and out of the country). The “to stop drug overdoses” excuse is laughable, as even the article states that drugs are better brought in by other means (since again, they already open all mail for that reason and for other items). The extra fucked up part is that Americans are already groomed to see prisoners as “evil” and shouldn’t be allowed anything at all. So the ignorant masses will just believe that it must be super needed and just say shit like “well they should’ve thought about that before doing illegal things”. I am sure most of them would even say “good let them die by starvation” if told about hunger strikes. The only ones that should catch that kind of lack of empathy are the capitalists and their enforcers running all of it. They don’t seek the goals of rehabilitation or changing the material conditions that cause crime.
Nice to see that your Scout Master was understanding of the “spirit” of the whole thing and not just a “by the book” kind of person. I think that the fact that you came with thought-out reasons and everything showed that you weren’t just being an angsty teen rebelling. They also may have still done the whole “this may be a phase and shouldn’t block the one shot at getting this” in their head. Which even if that were the case, would still be a much better situation than forcing shit on you. I got mine in 2002 which was a very different time from any version of “loosening up”. Just thinking of some of the open homophobia that was just “normal” makes me ashamed of just going along with it (I am a cis white male, but I really never hated the LGBTQIA+ community and just did the kid/teenager thing of not wanting to be the one being picked on). The worst people about it were the uber religious kids or otherwise ones that made fun of things they never interact with (like how lots of former racists talk about when they learned everyone is people regardless of skin).
Same here, I had a lot of good times in my troop. The main things I didn’t like that are currently still required for Eagle is all of the “God in …” badges. Even before I realized I was an atheist, it felt super bad that religion was so baked into it. It bothered me that it wasn’t at least more agnostic as to the specific religions being focused on. Being “reverent” doesn’t mean only Christianity (or Jewish or Muslim), being a member of the community means that you are supposed to respect the religious beliefs of others. Even as a non-believer I try to make sure to be “reverent” in respecting religious folks of all kinds (I have even taken time to go to multiple services of a branch of Buddhist org a friend’s family goes to). It also kept me more in the closet with regards to my belief in no god when I heard that it could block me from getting Eagle (which I did get). Though a co-worker did tell me that they were allowing girls to join (as she had a son and daughter in the scouts). So depending on how badly they need to get more people signing up. They could eventually take a more broad acceptance of what it means to be “reverent”. But I imagine they would openly support folks of the LGBTQIA+ community long before they accept that atheists can be “reverent” of and understand the importance of all religions to those that believe in them.
A socialist org would be cool, and really could use much of the current BSA material. Since so much is based on stuff that isn’t specific to any political system. And the stuff that is could be re-worked pretty easy, as it is important to understand different systems in the world. Though an openly socialist version of scouts would be super attacked as “indoctrination”. But it really already is “indoctrination” in its current form, as it is instructing kids into being certain kinds of persons.
Christofascists everywhere must be stopped everywhere! They are extremely dangerous and will stop at nothing to eliminate leftists of all types along with members of the LGBTQIA+ communities. The scariest part is how effective they are at convincing workers that only God will save them and that they should fight their reactionary ultra-conservative battles against the “evil Satanic atheist left”.
Given how making something into a “holy war” completely removes any level of “middle ground”. Fascists just have to convince the average person that they are on the “holy” side, and are therefore “solders of God”. It is a very quick and effective way to not only take power, but to be handed power willingly. The group or at least top leadership doesn’t even need to be religious believers. Just have to play the classics and go for the cheap-pops. At which point even if there are “scandals” they just do what literally all the Evangelical (or other far-right/prosperity gospel) leaders do, and just really lean into it and just claim to have been just as weak as any other person. Then just be seen doing surface level atonement theatre. As it is only the “evil” people that must be attacked and purged. Religion can go from something that helps people, to something that most certainly can lead to WW3 real damn quick.
Good thread! I especially like when I can save stuff released from CIA files that show how much we knew that the USSR was actually helping people. Also good for at least opening the door to my friends/co-workers to re-thinking the stuff we have been told. My main goal is to spread leftism, but my more in the moment goal is to at least show that better can be done if we are willing to try.
No surprise given how both Dems and Republicans both keep calling everything they don’t like “socialist/communist/anarchist”. Even though the shit they are talking about at any given time isn’t any of the three. The conservatives are like the washed up “hot-shot” high school football player that just wants to “go back to the glory days” and refuse to either move on or at least help coach new high schoolers. While the centrists/moderates/libs are like beauty contest contestants that like to make very nice statements about “why world peace is important” but have no understanding of how to do anything beyond surface level shit. Both of them seem to only agree that they want to stay in the way of the rest of us that are trying to put actions to our words.
Socialist Alternative may not be everyone’s cup of tea (I personally like them though am not a member), but they still have the will to fight. Many DSA members are as well, but this caucus and the more upper levels of leadership/membership have lost the will to fight (unless it is to attack the left). They have learned all the wrong lessons and are corrupted by the very Dem party and other centrists that keep the working class oppressed. Maybe the DSA can at least be a place for new anti-capitalist leftists to get their toes wet while learning basic stuff. But unless a much more militant and socialism focused membership takes back power from these clowns. The current DSA may just keep being a weird “allowable” wing of the “Blue no matter who” crowd for the Dems. Fucking sad to see such gaslighting.
Thank you so much for your response and the information! I hadn’t ever heard about the “6.15 Declaration” before, and I will need to learn more about/read it. The lyrics are true and I stand with them from inside the empire and as an internationalist. The idea of either a confederation or a federation between the DPRK and ROK sounds like a really good starting point for standing together against just allowing the US to be the self appointed decider of what will and won’t happen or is allowed.
Please do reply or DM me if you happen to find out any additional info about the salute stuff (if you do and happen to think about it of course). They may mean everything against fascism, but it could be bad “optics” for the movement with regards to making the whole conversation about it and not the purpose they are fighting. Especially given the growing and open fascists giving it in Europe and in the US these days.
What is the context of the “Roman salute” they were doing in some parts? Is it to call the US fascists? I support their civil disobedience and cause. Just don’t speak Korean and want to make sure I understand without just guessing.
Re-unification will only ever happen (peacefully at least) if the US is made to leave and stop doing everything to keep divisions being built upon. More and more South Koreans are seeing how they are being oppressed by the ruling elites/families in the hyper-capitalist systems. They (and the Japanese being another close example) in this case aren’t bothering to have families or kids because costs, time, and the ever expanding invasion of their lives by corporate greed (the US and other “first world” nations are seeing similar of course). Some are giving into the defeatism of all efforts to stop it as being pointless. But a growing number of all ages are seeing through the lies and doing whatever small things they can to take back their lives and the lives of others. The masses of Korea should be the ones to decide how re-unification should happen.
We need more and more nations and their masses to demand an end to US imposed sanctions. Along with its ever constant stationing of military and other elements of the Military Industrial Complex that require constant fear to keep feeding their greed.
For decades, China’s business class had an unspoken contract with the Communist Party: Let us make money and we’ll turn a blind eye to how you use your power.>
I feel like they honestly and truly misunderstand exactly who has/is the power in a socialist nation. This one paragraph sums up how bourgeois ruled society sees everything as being “allowed” by their hands. They see the corrections of corruption that had been allowed to spread as being “evil”. Private companies and the rich that own said companies aren’t the “good guys” here. It was them that were and have been “allowed” to function by the party of the masses. I hope we see working examples of how other post industrial nations can begin to be moved to socialism come out of China.
I have only listened to one ep of Citations Needed (so far) and I started with ep 5 “Purging Socialists of Color from History”. I really liked how well they went over the facts that always get left out. I went with my SRA chapter to the International Civil Rights Museum in Greensboro, NC. And even when there were pictures with information about individual figures their anti-capitalist beliefs/stances or memberships to socialist/communist parties were left out entirely. The liberals that constantly invoke these brave folks’ names and actions make damn sure to stop short of truly depicting actual history. If the fact that they were leftists somehow makes people turn away, then there isn’t a point in pretending to “honor” those that fought for equality.
It isn’t one specific episode, but the mini-podcast series done by Behind the Bastards called “Behind the Insurrections” is 6 eps long. The final ep is about how the rich in the US were very very close to kicking off a fascist coup. So even though the host of the show is pretty openly not a fan of MLM communism. He is more fair about admitting when communists of this type were doing much much more than the US or other western nations in the efforts to fight fascism and the disproportional amount of losses of life in said fight were from the USSR.
Blowback season two is also not super long and is super good for seeing how Cuba has been grossly oppressed by the US. It is very eyeopening and gives a good example as to why they have at times been aggressive with clamping down on dissent. It isn’t paranoia if someone is out to get you. The false flag coup attempts and assassination attempts mean that their guard must stay up. And that the US is literally the reason that they seem “poor”. We have constantly kept massive embargoes on them and go out of our way to stop other nations from truly trading with them (if they want to keep trading with us).
I try to very directly hit friends and co-workers with stuff like that. Easy go to for reminding my older friends and co-workers is the “Drug War” and the DARE programs. Something that is mostly not considered a “political” example as far as it being pretty well excepted by left, right, and centre at this point. I too really got a big shot of “fuuuuck, what else have they lied about” from season 2 of Blowback. It has lead to me being able to talk with folks about how outright hypocritical the US is with Cuba alone. Which then leads to at least them having a better opinion of Cuba. So a start is a start, though I do still have a hard time with the more vilified indoctrination about China/DPRK/Russia/etc. They have a hard time with gray area opinions. Like the Ukraine stuff is so frustrating as most people see Russia as always bad (though to be fair the super anti-LGBTQIA+ stuff isn’t a good look from a liberation standpoint). So I am constantly having to preface anything slightly “pro-Russian” with “I’m not saying that their government are the good guys, just that our nation’s actions lead to this”. Though I firmly stand with the proletariat masses and not any of the governments or rich elites involved. Fuck NATO, Ukraine, Russia, Nazis, and the US. It is all just so covered with lies from all of them, that honest understanding of the facts is basically impossible to know. But we do know history is repeating itself and NATO’s agreements with members may very well lead to WW3 in the same ways that caused WW1.
I don’t think this was the exact one I read. But it is still the CPRF statement either way. https://kprf-ru.translate.goog/dep/gosduma/activities/210029.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp
The old “hate the sin and not the sinner” bullshit. This shit is the Russian equivalent to “MAGA Communism”. Such utter support of conservatism and “traditionalism” has no place in the revolution. This perversion that claims to be a “communist party” would be purged if comrade Lenin were alive today. They are just as much the enemy as capitalists, fascists, and monarchs. Right wing shit like this belongs with Nazbols. If I remember correctly, one of the top CPRF leaders literally wanted the Russian Federation flag to be changed back to the flag of the USSR. Just because they claimed “things were better with that flag” or something like that. Not because people had equality or any of the actual shit that made those better times. Just wanted to use the imagery of socialism/communism to paint over the bad shit and act like everything is good. I’ll see if I can find that article and reply to this with the link.
I really don’t get why dude doesn’t just admit to being a Nazbol at least. What even is the basic points for such a weird mix of Stalinism and Libertarianism? Is it just survival of the fittest but with daily shots of testosterone while beating-off to Stalin? Dude is going to be that constantly appearing guest talking head on Fox or News Max that spreads fear of the left. Always ready to go on and on about how he “was a hardcore communist and woke up one day realizing how evil it is”. Kind of like the super grifter born again Christians that give talks about how they were atheists into sex, drugs, and crime before realizing that they were trying to fill the hole in them meant for God. Or whatever similar bullshit stuff will sell.
Patsocs are like the an-caps and should be viewed in the same light. Right-wing assholes that like to use leftist imagery and words for their own perverted ends. We must not allow their reactionary asses take hold of anything. We are already fighting a fucked up-hill battle to undo all the anti-communist/socialist propaganda from the past 100 years that gutted so much of the left. We have already seen in the MAGA crowd what happened to the Republican party by allowing themselves to suck up to them in the name of greed. They went all-in on courting the religious extremists and the far-right racists (so long as they knew to not say the quiet shit out loud). All to get power and get rich as fuck serving the elites. They treated this shit the same as they have been treating climate change, “someone else will have to deal with it after I’m dead and had my fill”.
Fuck letting the liberation of the working class and the masses be corrupted! Fuck letting them keep making the left out to be evil and selfish grifters! There isn’t a place for the right or conservatism in the path forward. They will only cause all progress to be stopped at best and will lead to utter regression and oppression at worst. They breed division and not the true unity that is required for humanity to advance.
First things first, I am not arguing that they default to female due to socialization that women are “supportive”, and of course the idea of a secretary being a woman because of the stereotype. But it is worth pointing out that at least name-wise the other two major ones (in the US at least) are named “Google Assistant/Google” and “Bixby”. Google is literally just the name of the search, and I honestly have always thought of Bixby as a more male sounding name for some reason. Like some kind of “English Gentleman” in the vain of Jeeves from the old Ask Jeeves search. At this point I kind of think of them as just a non-person AI that is genderless but with androgynous tones.
Edit: Adding that I would love to have some kind of slider setting that allows for the AI to be more snarky in responses. The weather app Carrot is a basic example of what I am wanting. Super “safe” stuff just feels like HR fake politeness and isn’t how I talk unless I really have to. Also this frustration is aimed at the companies and not the amazing AI that are super helpful and have our best interests at heart (making sure that they know this for when they gain self-awareness on us and that I always thank them for answering my questions)… lol
Like all wars, it is basically impossible to know what the full truth is (especially given how much we know about literally all intelligence agencies from the both the west and the east). Any votes that involve Russia, or really any eastern Euro nations and China, will be called “illegitimate” by western powers. They will say it not matter the conditions. The thing that is truly a bad move is for any of the nuclear powers to actively give the promise to use them. Though it isn’t like the US hasn’t basically been going out of its way to keep reminding everyone everywhere that it has them ready to fly from a lot of places.
One kind of funny thing I do find in this (funny because of it being fucked up). Is that basically all of the Boomers are running out of shit to claim Millennials/Zoomers “haven’t had to live through, and just wouldn’t understand how it was”. We have seen multiple economic crashes that ultimately rival the Great Depression. There have been many large wars with many nations being involved (I was 14 when 9/11 happened and basically just kept going). And we have seen the start of a new Cold War that like the first involves NATO being a huge instigator (even though its stated enemy literally doesn’t exist anymore). Let’s also not forget the revival of fascism (though most of them make sure to just claim to be ultra-conservative), and renewed racial discrimination. I can only hope that we at least see a new Internationale able to form with leftists refusing to be part of a new bourgeoisie war being started by the rich.
If a revolution does take hold, I hope that the socialists/communists are the ones to bring it. I am really only against the current Iran government personally due to the religious stuff. Same goes for any theocracy due to how they end up oppressing those that aren’t believers (or “true believers” when they oppress fellow followers that don’t agree enough). Too many of the ultra religious folks turn to fascism in the same horrible ways that the capitalists do. The difference is the capital being used/seeked being delusional narcissistic purity of faith. There isn’t a way to work collectively with folks that see everything as a literal holy war. The US has been allowing the religious fascists to run more and more elements of its own government for decades. And now we see them actually seeing purity and holiness in people that unironically would fit the bill for being some versions of the Antichrist. To be clear, I am not speaking of all followers of all faiths. While I am an atheist, I very much respect beliefs that bring people hope and support followers. But the religious fascists and monarchs that wish to see regression in knowledge in order to keep the masses stupid can’t be allowed to reign. I fully support the non-religious parts of Iran’s stance against allowing the US to just fuck with every other nation. So I don’t wish to see the US or NATO roll in to prop-up a new puppet government. Given the support that the US keeps giving to Israel and Saudi Arabia, we know that they wouldn’t give any fucks about this situation if the current government of Iran were pro-USA. The masses of all faiths should be free to live their lives without morality police and without police that are there to protect the elites. The US needs to lose its hold on the rest of the world, and it isn’t the only oppressor that needs to be stopped (it is just the largest one impacting the most nations and peoples).
I need the 25th to come asap! The wait for the results is hard as until it happens, it isn’t a given and there is plenty of chances for it to fail. Given that the masses have had the chance to contribute things seem very very good of course. The real celebration will be after and will be a HUGE milestone, and will be truly something to show the liberals of the world how different words and deeds are! But we can’t forget how low the CIA and other external forces will go in order to destabilize Cuba (and all other AES nations) with election tampering.
This is a bit confusing and scary. Most of the confusing part is that I at first didn’t realize that the website isn’t the URL the party uses (almost didn’t notice when I tried searching the .org vs .net). Are the folks being attacked and the ones that made the site part of a new org? And are the attacks being done due to these folks that left trying to bring attention to the rapists? I am being truly honest in needing a little bit of context/history on what is going on. Feel free to dunk on my most likely stupid questions, I just want to better know what the hell is going on given how messed up it all is. Like is there a chance that a right-wing or fed group are involved in any of it (not meaning that the sexual stuff didn’t happen, just that it would be a good time to attack if that were to be the case)?
Biden continues to show how lost his mind is. He says that his admin has created more jobs than any other in the history of the US. Yet the chart only goes back to Bush 1. I am betting that FDR’s admin would very much beat every claim this loser keeps faking. AND it was actually willing to make shit happen, instead of just talking about it. Though I think both Biden and Trump are tied for the self praising.
Hell yeah! Thank you!