Welcome again to everybody. Make yourself at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.
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☭ Theory discussion group on /c/theory@lemmygrad.ml
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I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Another Trump assassination attempt, the cartel is going apeshit, and a racial slur at the BAFTA’s. I slept through quite a day.
another what😭? can they fucking aim correctly is my question. secondly, can someone refer me to good sources about mexico and guadelajara?
It was just a chud with a gun who got shot trying to sneak into mar-a-lago.
From Ireland!
Ireland once again being the most based country in Western Europe
https://lemmygrad.ml/post/10715293?scrollToComments=true
https://lemmygrad.ml/post/10795711?scrollToComments=true
Judas fucking Priest, why‽ Why does Hexbear have so many worthless fuckwads on it trying to start fights with me? If I wanted pinheads whinging at me because they decided that I was blinking my eyes the wrong way, I would have stayed on Fedbook, Reddit or 4shit!
I am honestly tempted to simply stop sharing my content there; I’m tired of dealing with this shit.
I genuinely think there was an influx of brain-stewed rad-libshits that have been well-cooked by state department propaganda and narratives. Our one thread BadEmpanada’s take on China was fuckin’ more atrocious than ever at first before level-heads prevailed.
I don’t like to bring it up but when others do I feel a need to say it. There is something rotten in hexbear.
One thing it makes me think of is, like… I think one of the most important lessons I learned from my time on Twitter, which is probably a lesson some of these people have yet to learn, is to just say less on matters I don’t know enough about. Twitter kinda pushed me materially to learn that lesson because if I mouthed off too ignorantly, I could get steamrolled and humiliated, which wasn’t exactly fun. On top of that, reading up on “no investigation, no right to speak” hit home for me the importance of understanding rather than trying to invent narrative out of thin air.
In particular, the comment with the person who admitted at the end to have had a fried brain and misread is what made me think of it. Had that person taken a moment to process and consider before reacting, they probably wouldn’t have said what they did in the first place.
Another important lesson has been internalizing how context can be more important than universalized principles. I think this is something I’ve internalized largely as a result of having to contend with “critical support” of nations and peoples whose cause is overall just, but whose cultural beliefs or practices are not something I seem to be very aligned with. So how this relates: with the second comment you linked, they appear to be trying to force universal principle over context and in the process, are dismissing important history just to insist on some pet peeve about phrasing. It seems to me that it is the same kind of thinking that would have an atheist “leftist” rejecting Iran because of its religiosity, while ignoring the importance of its anti-imperialism and self-determination; in this case, rejecting the whole of a historical piece because a single aspect of it steps outside what they deem okay.
no investigation no right to speajk -jow biden
seems like a top drug lord got captured in guadalajara.
edit: the drug lord got whacked
Things are going to be hectic here.
Stay safe, afaik he was the last of the big capos remaining, seems like we are in for a period of struggle between a lot of factions.
I hope you are wrong but failing that I hope you and everyone can stay safe.
After quitting my job I have decided to walk the Camino to Santiago from my house. It will take me probably three months, maybe more if I do some side quests.
Afterwards I will write my version of the Motorcycle Diaries.
This is an excellent idea. Everyone should do a Haj whether it is to Mecca or just hitting the road with nothing but what they can carry. There is something zen and psychically purifying about making miles. I loved life on the road but my back loves nights in a bed.
I wonder if there’s any major difference (psychologically, biology, etc) in showering vs bathing everyday. Because presumably humans evolved to bathe (in rivers and such) rather than shower. But idk I’m not a paleontologist
Edit: anthropologist. I dont…why did I say paleontologist?
My ancestors preferred waterfalls.
what temperature does brachiosaurus prefer when bathing. real shit
Psychologically, taking a bath each morning leaves me extremely relaxed.
PSA you should also remind Canadians of their genocidal settlers status
And dont leave the aussies out of this either.
Hey Canadians,
You’re no different from Statesians. Stop pretending. Your harboring of nazis and genocide of indigenous peoples in fact makes you very similar to them.
- silly question but are you pinoy :3 .? heh :3
- the way canadians are so dedicated to Enshrining the Victims Of Gommunism, the way they proudly hosted flagrant ukrainian nazis, the way they ignore the fact that their brutal oppression of their natives was equally as sick and deplorable as their Impolite USAmerican counterparts–that sort of blithe deflection and pretense is the most insufferable part. also fuck the canadian propaganda of heated rivalry, death to justin trudeau
silly question but are you pinoy :3 .? heh :3
Yes, but unfortunately I live in the US. I should actually start studying filipino (I only know a couple words) and maybe chinese if I ever decide to travel to China.
In a hilarious series of events, the victims of communism memorial no longer contains the names of any people. None of them could be confirmed to be not a Nazi.
ya i know!! kkklanada might as well have just saved themselves the extra metal and just changed the name to “Fascists We Would Have Preferred To Survive Over Red Menace”
What do you mean by the propaganda of heated rivalry?
im exaggerating and mostly joking but i recall its both funded by canada gov (so im predisposed to be wary of it) and it seems to adopt a homonationalist lens in regards to russia. bear in mind i did not watch it for myself idgaf but i have heard avout the plot from people ik (some who r fans) + osmosis basically. as with all things western on the topic of russia it is very russia critical, which is like, usually fine except it’s always unilateral and absolute about the topic when it comes from west which is steeped in russophobia already.
i mean ya, russia is like, famously bad on the topic of lgbtqia. im not saying thats good at all, though similarly to projects like burkina faso thats why i have critical support for them, but i also have seen some writeups for how it has this continuing pervasive anti-russia lens during the runtime, and it’s like, i’m never really going to trust very anti russia plot points from west which continually fails to prove it no longer believes russia is ethnic communist degenerates.
it kind of seems like homonationalism: it has a major focus on russia failures with queer people, i think theres a clip where hes talking to yankees and they insinuate gay sex illegal over in russia (it’s not, ‘lgbtqia propaganda’ isnt which is like, okay, still bad, but im not trusting anti-other-state homophobia position from a yankee) and like, okay. this would be okay at best if not a little clumsy, but then you add in how almost every other russian character apart from ilya and his gf is dickhead and things get weird.
ilya’s big arc with his identity ends with him rejecting his national identity, and the family of his that remains in russia are evil people. his dad at the least is irredeemable jackass and his mom is desd and his brother sucks. the only other pretty nice russian character is his gf who apparently speaks eng and may have dual citizenship. you can see why my skepticism doubles.
overall, it’s a pretty anti russia story, which like, okay, again that would be more acceptable from russian creator, but it’s not, i know it’s canadian product. and i respond to it same way i would respond to usa funding movie about queer chinese girl going to states and completely disavowing her cultural identity because of glorious freedoms. there is room to improve but im not taking the fucking canadians gov word on it bc i know their ulterior motives.
is it that serious? no. not really. its not as bad a piece of propaganda as like call of duty where killing arabs on screen is fantasy teens grow up to fulfill in us army.
but west continues to fund the far right militia in ukraine and uses them as vessel for NATO expansion, which canada has had a big role in, all while not examining homophobia locally in terrorist states of usa and canada, and my contempt for it is kind of enhanced becausw canada gets away w its soft power bullshit since people think its Nicer than USA, and it continues to be very russophobic so no i dont give heated rivalry benefit of doubt
ETA: rereading chinawatcherwatcher comment and actually finally taking in that ilyas dad is evil abusive man who was in high role in russian gov WHILE HAVING DEMENTIA completely convinces me. already people chomp for russia regime change but like, i have no doubts this show is sowing it further however subtly
i watched it and had pretty mixed feelings about it all around. as far as the russophobia is concerned though, i actually thought everything to do with ilya’s (the russian main character) family had much worse implications than anything else. the issues for queer people in russia are at least believable, but the ancillary stuff was not: ilya’s father was both an important figure in the government, and also suffering from dementia at the same time, for multiple years (i mean, really???). and ilya’s brother was a coked up exploitative asshole trying to milk ilya for everything that he was worth. that stuff really stuck out to me as russophobic, because what kind of government except a totally inept and fake one would keep on a prominent figure with dementia? this despite all the issues in the past with western gov leaders having dementia (biden, reagan, possibly even bush, etc).
oh yeah. ive heard a lot about the family itself bc ilyas dad is jackass who we are meant to hate, mother dies cuz her relationship w him is bad and she khs, brother is mooch who then goes on to hate on him when he comes out or whatever or refuses to send money back. so it’s like, kind of cartoonish evil but i didnt say cuz i didnt see the arcs, in general if that’s what the russian rep is like, almost unilaterally dickish except for ilya who chooses to leave russia and then goes on to hate on it (i think he says he doesnt want the passport wtf doe she mean) that’s pretty bad. aladdin levels of ‘subtle’ racism
didnt know he had dementia though so funny bruh. incompetent senile oriental despots!
the only other russian representation in the show is a woman who is his longstanding “deep friends with benefits,” but she’s played off as being more worldly and therefore less russian: she speaks english fluently, she travels to see him in various US/canadian cities, etc etc. otherwise yes, all of the other russians in the show are definitely cartoonishly evil lol
like at best ik western people are going to consume this and its going to feed their already very negative and lacking understanding of russia (slava ukraini is a phrase so many non ukrainian people seem to repeat uncritically) which, alone, wouldnt be the problem since someone seeing something thats criticizing something worthwhile (homophobia) and then interpreting that wrongly/extending it disproportionately and untruthfully is stupid silly and their problem but the most uncharitable writeups ive seen have basically reported on peculiar stereotyping in the show which if u understand russophobia as a permitted orientalism just makes it like. weird and possibly dehumanizing for group that people have come back around to being called asiatic hordes in recent years
again, idgaf, honestly, the show not important for all the words i spend on it, but like, tjats just my critical take. and any canayank jerkoff content already pisses me off to be honest
how could i forget. fuck every canayank that pretends they are any different from usamerikkka
Soon
god please let this happen it’d be so fucking funny
but muh
!
Christians will complain about how lgbtqia+ is so confusing while having 100+ different denominations that are supposed to be just following the teachings of one guy
REAL IDENTITY: yeah i’m poly and a panromantic asexual, i’m also agender and go by they/xem/fang
FAKE IDENTITY: i’m a Jehovah’s Witness
ULTRA FAKE IDENTITY: i’m a Mormon
every time i pass this comment i must add one more gender/sexual identity or pronoun, it’s a toll
Wild to think my entire lineage can be traced back to some lizard crawling out of the ocean
I think it was a type of fish that came out of the ocean.
Fizzard
this should have been 2010s slang
There was probably a type of lizard that swam in the ocean back there too.
twas me
Carnival is over, now the Brazilian year of 2026 is finally allowed to begin. Under socialism, January will be fully deleted.
i am getting so much usamerican medal win slop on my feed for figure skating. a cute girl put me on to some russian figure skating and so i’m now inoculated against any interest in witnessing the Wholesome Yankee Patriotism for alyssa liu
this is a bit angry and hateful but i dont know, i think i really enjoy sporting events but i hate being reminded of usamerican patriots in all their forms
Been musing on the problems of “temptation” and “corruption” philosophy again. Was thinking how “absolute power corrupts absolutely” (and other sayings like it) are the kind of nonsense adage that causes regular conscientious people to fear trying to have a share of the power, while the least conscientious are not moved by at all because they don’t give a fuck about being “corrupt”.
It also obfuscates cause and effect by hiding the problems with a given power structure behind human temptation and subsequent “fall from grace”; if a particular system consistently produces people in power who do awful shit and face no consequences, one would think that suggests there’s something wrong with the system, but to the empty-headed corruption worldview, they can just brush that aside and say the problem is that it was working just fine but it got corrupted by bad people. And this is in fact one way people defend capitalism when they are upset with how it operates but don’t want to go as far as anti-capitalism.
I would go as far as linking it to the story of Adam and Eve that some people internalize as foundational to their worldview. In that story, it’s never God’s fault for putting Adam and Eve in a position where they could very easily do something that would monstrously offend him and cause him to cast them out. It’s always their fault for stepping outside the rails and doing the thing they weren’t supposed to. So in a way, if the system is presenting opportunities for people to “sin” and if there are “devils” about tempting them, well perhaps that’s just like the Garden of Eden, and God’s “testing” them, you know? In this way, a system that is fundamentally abhorrent gets turned upside down and presented as a good thing (and I have heard arguments not far off from this from some Christians in years past, who would excuse the suffering in the world by saying it’s because people need to be tested somehow or something along those lines).
Power does not corrupt. The corrupt seek power. They do not change when they get power they simply have no need to keep up the pretense that they are not corrupt. It is not surprising that the corrupt are not stopped from gaining power under capitalism because the fundamental basis of capitalism is that humans are inherently greedy and selfish. Corruption is rewarded and expected. There is no major criminal corruption cases in western nations because corruption is legalized.
the adam and eve bit is really well said. The idea of “original sin” is propaganda to make us all feel complicit as if we would do the same evils if we were given the opportunity.
your connection of this liberal idealist but ‘secular’ appearing belief to christian culture of sin is really striking to me, i heavily agree with that.
If you have not read it, Jones Manoel’s Western Marxism is a good read.
People who say “power corrupts absolutely” are telling on themselves. As for your other points, I do agree that our late stage capitalist culture relies on “sinful” activity to turn a profit while demonizing individual choices.
It’s disgusting
As a cis white male comrade, I’m trying to find resources to help others like me embrace Marxism-Leninism or at least some sort of leftist positions. But I know from experience that working through your privileged position and understanding the intricacies of class structure is something cis white men are generally horrible at.
It’s made even harder with grifters like Jackson Hinkle who shepherd potential leftists into some weird brocialist cult.
A good starting point is to connect current hardships and global events people experience and challenge their positions in an amicable and “human” way. This may sound generic, but talking to people and “meet them where they’re at” works in the long run.
With yourself, apply the ML approach of self criticism on tactics and how to improve your reach towards people. Name the problems, actions to take and course correction, avoiding making things personal and individualistic.
Reading and listening to Castro and Guevara helped a lot for me, it could help you too.
Yeah both of them are great resources for this issue because both of them were born into privileged circumstances
