It’s crazy to think about the change central europe went through these past summers. We had breathable air, real rain at least twice a week.

We get lucky if it drizzles 5min twice a month, but you only smell the dust that has been lifted from the ground.

what have you been reading on the mini ereader?

What kind did you get? I’ve got one that’s about the size of the tablet and while I do really like it at home it is fairly cumbersome to take out with me

Thanks Cowbee. Enjoy your mini eReader. Have a great week as well.

Class is the ontological driver of Identity inequality. You cannot end inequality between ethnicities, cultures, genders, sexualities, religions, etc, without first confronting Classism.

We do need to be aware of identity power dynamics within our organizations so as to not perpetuate those inequalities but we should not be investing energy battling the bourgeoisie on their chosen field.

I guess it depends on how he said it tbh. There are a lot of “marxists” that want ignore identity politics completely and put it all the way after the revolution.

Well, I am not for class reductionism, but I do think that both class and intersectional struggles are necessary.

They really doing the flopped BSW strategy - my euro leftist is cooked 💔

“identity politics” can mean a few different things. But overall, these are not separate things under capitalism. Capitalism creates, for example, racial categories by which to designate a particular subclass of human in a given society, one that can be hyperexploited, mistreated, and scapegoated for problems, driving a false consciousness. And that racial oppression is a real, existing thing that takes on its own life and forms, stoked or suppressed as needed for the liberal order. Saying, “stop talking about racial oppression so much” ignores an extremely important material reality of capitalist society, really an essential aspect, and the point of doing a class analysis is to explain how we can come together for mutual liberation from these oppressions. For example, the liberation of women was essential to most socialist revolutions, the oppression of women also being intrinsically tied to capitalist oppression, typically to make them marginalized unpaid workers whose role is the reproduction of labor, the creation and maintenance of the reserve army of labor and the other workers, generally designated male. This also made women more precarious overall and paid worse than men for the same job, fulfilling a similar role for hyperexpoitation as race.

A leftist who says, “it’s about class not identity” is not well-versed in basic Marxist analysis or history. They are forwarding a wrong and counterrevolutionary line. They should always say, “yes and” to describe both class antagonism and marginalizationa related to identity politics as both emerging from capitalism. Class conflict isn’t even always the primary contradiction in a nation, such as in Palestine where it is settler colonialism (and internationally, imperialism). One should always be able to recognize the real existence of marginalization and its function in the service of capital, spreading a coherent, united approach towards contradictions.

Now, there is a common and liberal form of identity politics that is mostly just a self-serving form of tokenization. Like the 3rd generation gusano that says, “how dare you tell me Castro did good things, he took my family’s slave plantation farm!” These are cynical weapons that are themselves inherently racist, sexist, transphobic, etc etc by flattening a ethnic group, gender, etc into just one experience that somehow, through the magic of liberalism, ends up justifying fascism, genocide, war, imperialism… We do have to push back against this.

For a minute there when I first read this I thought you were saying that the fan owned club was established by a literal angry man lol

The football team?

(I know nothing about football and probably hate it now due to my stupid father so excuse me for my ignorance)

My dream is to visit socialist football clubs from all over Europe, and they are on my list

Nothing gets my hope up more than when I put complete faith in strangers and they pull through even when they’re not required to do so. I will never hate humanity. I will never lose faith in humankind’s potential for goodness. 💙 😭

What is this, Disney Star Wars where they explicitly say the word “hope” in every show or movie just to hammer home that theme?

This is why I don’t buy Steam games that are still in Early Access.

The first few seasons of GoT were good. I just memory holed the last 2 seasons. I don’t regret the investment even if it was a let down.

That’s why I prefer tv shows with only one season, where the entire story line is being completed in one season so later seasons can’t ruin it. And even if the ending does suck, at least you didn’t get invested in the show for years.

Yeah, fuck GOT, they ruined Stannis

As a fan of the books, the answer is to make peace with Winds of Winter never coming out and enjoy ASOIAF for what it is 🫠

Infinity Train taught me this lesson. On top of going of the rails it can also just get canned. No thanks.

I’m still going to read Sword Art Online because I want to have stuff to talk about with my friend, but otherwise, yeah.

what’s going on? out of the loop

i have never been inclined to give wikipedia money tbh. extremely astroturfed and controlled website that wins hearts on western internet for its ‘objectivity’ (read: milquetoast, pro-west narrative pervading almost everything, especially the biggest pages) and i disdain it out of hand for that. however i’ve also heard whisperings about the true necessity of the funding they ask for and the union busting mentioned below certainly solidifies the case of them as fucking idiots.

Its a dealbreaker for me, but try poking around other members to see where they’re at, maybe there is someone salvageable.

At this conjuction of time, any org that sees China as imperialist is a joke and has to be considered reactionary.

Yeah thats a red flag… and not the good kind. Write a speech denouncing them for falling into idealism and imperialist propaganda.

Depends. I’d think like this:

• Is it a big party, with some marxist and some soc-dems etc.? Try to find like-minded comrades and use it as a way to agitate for and educate about marxist politics (if that is possible within the structure)
• Is it a small cadre party? If so you might want to skip out
• Is it a specific issue group? See if you can work in a positive way about the specific issue and discuss the topic amicably if it shows up. BUT this depens a lot on the situation!

If you are unsure, discuss with a comrade you know, write a journal, and go with your gut feeling, and don’t attach yourself too much to something you are skeptical of.

You too, Oppo!

You too Oppo

You too, comrade! •ɷ•

You too Oppo!

frankly, I want to run either a small business or be in a co-op

or maybe be self-employed

i don’t currently know what opportunities there are for me in those fields though

I wish gatekeeping what is and isn’t art were a dead horse. It’s boring & fruitless.

Architecture is a core of Iranian art, dating back literally thousands of years

Reminds me, I remember a commie once pointing out that the Star Spangled Banner song doesn’t even sound that good and I still think about it to this day. It has kind of a goofy history too: https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/star-spangled-banner

Some highlights:

After the hours of bombardment and the fear that the British could overtake the fort and head to Baltimore, Key awoke to a proud display of American patriotism and a symbol that they were not going to stop fighting. That morning he wrote notes for a future poem about this event. Later that week, he finished the poem “Defence of Fort M’Henry.” On September 20, the Baltimore Patriot published “Defence of Fort M’Henry.” Francis Scott Key’s brother-in-law set the poem to music, and the combined poem and music were published under the name “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

In 1929, “House Resolution 14” was presented to Congress to name “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the official national anthem to the United States. There were many objections to this resolution.

One objection was that the tune of the “Star-Spangled Banner” was taken from the song “To Anacreon to Heaven.” This song was the theme for the Society of Anacreon, which was active between 1766-1791. The Society of Anacreon was a gentleman’s club that meet monthly to listen to music of questionable tastes and to socialize. Ralph Tomlinson wrote the lyrics and John Stafford Smith composed the melody in 1788 and 1780 respectively. The song alluded to alcohol consumption and love in the last line of the first stanza, “I’ll instruct you like me to entwine the myrtle of Venus with Bacchus’s wine.” Even though only the tune was used, some members still saw it risqué that the two songs could be intertwined.

If you look it up, the Society of Anacreon, was a club in London. So a song with lyrics that are about a fight with the British, uses a tune taken from a British song lol. Classic colonizer maneuver.

I liked the Serapis flag better.

They fixed the genocidal last emperor of China. The limiting factor is how much time and energy you have to work on them. Sometimes you can make good headway with something like “Everything you know about communism you’ve heard from capitalists. That’s like learning about sexuality and gender from an evangelical anti-abortionist trad wife”