Welcome again to everybody. Make yourself at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.
☭ Matrix homeserver and space
☭ Theory discussion group on /c/theory@lemmygrad.ml
☭ Find theory on ProleWiki, marxists.org, Anna’s Archive
At least ten homeless people died in the last four months in my city. This coincides with the closing of several shelters by the new city government.
I know touch starved is a term, but I wonder if sincerity starved has ever been used as a term lol. Like you spend too much time in environments that bury sincerity under riffing and irony. I guess when people fear rejection and they’re isolated, it feels less scary to joke than to be sincere and risk being rejected for it.
Anyway, in the spirit of sincerity, I appreciate all the people who make this place possible. The routine of the general thread alone is a nice little stabilizing force in a world full of uncertainty.
I started my reading journey again! I read a good bit of S:U&S by Engels and a surprisingly long preface for On War by Clauswitz.
Have a great week, everyone! One foot in front of the other, keep advancing in your goals.
As always, communism will win.
Thank you so much, wind dog (that is what your profile picture is)!
King’s Day in The Netherlands. Because we live in medieval times and are still a monarchy. Mostly an excuse for a day off and to get wasted. I never had anything with the monarchy even before my communism days. Probably because I am from the southern part of the country and we have our own different culture compared to most of the rest of the country above the big rivers.
It’s also the start of my last week at my job and I can’t wait until it’s over.
Forgot you live you in Holland. I hate the idea of a monarchy, honestly. The only people I see supporting them are monarchists who will never do anything to restore monarchy in the countries they live in (if they do not have them anymore) or attempt to “increase the power” of the monarchy (if they do still have them), so they just end up being conservative chumps who have a weird feudal fascination.
https://lemmygrad.ml/post/11443822
I have to wonder if I should have retitled this thread. It’s been six hours and so far it has no upvotes (excluding mine). It’s hard to say if the topic sounds too technical, it sounds too much like praise for the German Reich, or it’s just boring. Either way, going this long without interest is not a great sign; the score is likely to stay low.
Sigh… oh well. As long as I don’t get into any trouble with somebody over this, I can tolerate a low score, since these topics are as much for me as for anyone else. If it starts a fight then that’s when I’ll regret making it.
I believe the topic is just kinda niche and boring for most. Military tactics is not exactly the most exciting for people especially with paratroopers not being in the front of mind when thinking about wars and it seems more like a “huh, that’s neat” that could be put into a short form content rather than a “holy fuck, that’s new to me” 5 minute read.
I hope you all have a nice week :D
You too Oppo!
You too comrade!
long live!
I hope you have a nice week too! ((づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ
Thank you, comrade. I will be reading Hoxha!
I do not have a xiaohongshu account, so I will just assume that you said bird without any context and you cannot prove it (joking).
bird
Turtle
🫵 You WILL have hope, comrade.
Thank you very much (though it was not directed towards me), I need the hope after reading Hoxha… oh my satan he is bad. I barely got into the introduction before seeing some awful “anti-revisionist” nonsense.
I’m not super pissy about this but I wish when people downvoted something they’d comment why they did that.
I mean sometimes it’s just obvious [i.e, if someone comes in and is like “Stalin ate my grandma with a comically big spoon so Ukraine should nuke Moscow” I’m not mad if you don’t reply to that], and I don’t mean literally every single person, but if there’s no negative/critical comments on a post receiving down votes it’s just not very helpful. Also it’s just good to hear opposing perspectives tbh.
In all seriousness I agree, and I think hexbear getting rid of down votes was a good idea.
voting systems for posts is an inherently garbage idea tbh
discourages responses & encourages echo chambers
The reddit design is inherently worse, in most ways, than the forums it replaced imo. I understand why lemmy copied it, but kinda wish there was a way to just go back to old-fashioned forums.
The irony in this getting down voted it a little funny to me
But honestly i think it’s fine, I don’t think there’s a good way to solve it really
I just downvoted your comment.
FAQ
What does this mean?
The amount of karma (points) on your comment and Reddit account has decreased by one. Why did you do this?
There are several reasons I may deem a comment to be unworthy of positive or neutral karma. These include, but are not limited to:
Rudeness towards other Redditors, Spreading incorrect information, Sarcasm not correctly flagged with a /s.Am I banned from the Reddit?
No - not yet. But you should refrain from making comments like this in the future. Otherwise I will be forced to issue an additional downvote, which may put your commenting and posting privileges in jeopardy. I don’t believe my comment deserved a downvote. Can you un-downvote it?
Sure, mistakes happen. But only in exceedingly rare circumstances will I undo a downvote. If you would like to issue an appeal, shoot me a private message explaining what I got wrong. I tend to respond to Reddit PMs within several minutes. Do note, however, that over 99.9% of downvote appeals are rejected, and yours is likely no exception.
How can I prevent this from happening in the future?
Accept the downvote and move on. But learn from this mistake: your behavior will not be tolerated on Reddit.com. I will continue to issue downvotes until you improve your conduct. Remember: Reddit is privilege, not a right
I genuinely got flashbanged by this since I haven’t been on that side of reddit in years
So I’ve heard that another reason for Maduro’s kidnapping is because he opposed the Albanian mafia, which is backed by Jared Kushner, and traded with Türkiye instead.
The source I get this info from is an FBI whistleblower and has liberal tendencies—not the Dem kind—so I naturally question its legitimacy. I’m sure they don’t mean the “Sun Cartel” thing the US pulled out of their asses, but there has been a massive leak about Türkiye-Venezuela drug trade during the pandemic under the guise of medical supplements.
I will be glad if a comrade clears the waters for me.
As for accusation of drug trade, we need data to actually prove if what the “FBI whistleblower” is true or false. As far as I can tell, it is false even by their own data. You can check this two articles from Misionverdad explaining the current scenario.
- Debunking the great farce of the Venezuelan “narco-state”
- Venezuela outside the narco-map: Washington shoots where there are no drugs
- Cocaine smuggling routes by sea, land, and air. The vast majority do not involve Venezuela (Photo: The New York Times)
I’m pretty sure there are some tensions over Venezuela not letting the US poison their people, but there are some serious claims about Türkiye trafficking drugs to Venezuela.
Idk if Maduro has to do with anything—I don’t think so—but since Venezuela is more of a demsoc experiment I’m pretty sure there are some bad actors that does the drug trade in the Venezuelan government or parliament.
These two are the only articles from Türkiye in English that I could find. I can send more in Turkish though.
Venezuela is more of a demsoc experiment
ooof. this is a line from a c/thingsutrassay post. Venezuela is a Revolutionary Socialist nation.
Democratic socialism is when a capitalist dictatorship uses electoral politics to divert a percentage of the profits from imperialism to social spending in order to stave off proletarian revolution. It is a canard to tell people real socialism is on the way you just have to keep your head down and keep voting.
I know the lines can be a bit blurry on these definitions, but I’ve always understood democratic socialism as bringing about and constructing socialism through bourgeois elections and democratic reforms to the system. This is what’s happening in Venezuela. It’s not an ultra position to criticize the limitations of this, but it would be to dismiss it entirely as not real socialism.
The Bolivarian Revolution was violent. There were multiple coup attempts and lots of fighting before Chavez was elected President. They made a new constitution. It was not “reform.” Yes he won a election in the bourgeois system but his mandate was to break he system not fix it.
Its not full throated civil war like other socialist revolutions were but calling it “demsoc” is not correct.
I agree that calling it “demsoc” by your definition is incorrect, but my argument is that your definition of democratic socialism is not correct.
The Bolivarian Revolution was violent. There were multiple coup attempts and lots of fighting before Chavez was elected President. They made a new constitution. It was not “reform.”
Whether violence occurred is not relevant to the question. Many countries write new constitutions each time a new ruling party comes to power. These do not signify that a socialist revolution has occurred.
The primary question we should be asking is “has the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie been overthrown and replaced by a dictatorship of the proletariat?” In the case of Venezuela, the answer is “no”. Because of this, the capitalist class still weilds significant political power in Venezuela.
Both Marx and Lenin argued that it is not enough for the vanguard to simply take hold of the bourgeois state, but that they must “break up and smash the ready-made state machinery” and replace it with “the proletariat organized as the ruling class”.
“Democratic socialism” is a marketing term just like “Nationalist Socialism.” Its a concept that has no basis in material reality. You cannot vote your way to socialism so “Democratic socialism” is just a name for something that is not indicative of what it really is. Like “Pineapple” they are nothing like an apple and don’t grow on a Pine tree.
“has the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie been overthrown and replaced by a dictatorship of the proletariat?”
The ruling class of Venezuela is the working class. If the bourgeoisie had a dictatorship in Venezuela they would be in government but they are not so they have been overthrown. The bourgeoisie still have significant power inside China too but in both cases the Vanguard of the working class keep them subservient. In Venezuela the Vanguard Party has decided to not implement dictatorship. That does not mean they are democratic socialists they are doing Socialism with Bolivarian Characteristics. It is something different to democratic socialism.
Both Marx and Lenin argued that it is not enough for the vanguard to simply take hold of the bourgeois state, but that they must “break up and smash the ready-made state machinery” and replace it with “the proletariat organized as the ruling class”.
Lenin said “smash the machinery” but he was talking about a totally different state apparatus.
Marx said the working class “cannot just take hold of the existing machinery.” The state apparatus of the constitution of 1999 is drastically different from the system under the republic. they did not just “take hold” they built a new system with a few concepts that are similar to the old system. While it isn’t as big a change as Russia or China they were changing from (semi) feudal government systems to socialist systems where Venezuela was transition from a republic to a socialist system.
Isn’t that more of a socdem thing though? Also, I don’t think Bolivarian Revolution will be effective as long as they let ghouls like Guaido and Machado loose.
Fuck I got them mixed up again didn’t I?
It is very easy to confuse the two when the separation line is too blurred. But my take is socdems are center-right and what you write before, while demsocs are center-left and believe they can topple the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie by partaking in bourgeois democracy—Chile under the Allende government was a good example.
There is a lot of slander and malicious lies thrown at Venezuela with the sole aim to disrupt solidarity. The USA and its vassals use the same unfalsifiable doctrine that was exposed by Michael Parenti. Lots of that malicious slander was shared even in leftist news media. Knowing that, it is important to avoid believing in anonymous “whistleblowers” without any way or data to backup their claims.
Anyway, check the articles that I shared. As for my sources, they use the International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR 2025) from the DEA and the UNODC(United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime). In both sources, they show maps and known drug routes.
One example of claims that have evidence backing it up is Ecuadorian president Noboa and his family company -> https://www.occrp.org/en/project/the-crime-messenger/cocaine-and-bananas-how-balkan-traffickers-used-fruit-shipments-from-the-ecuadorian-presidents-family-firm-to-smuggle-drugs
While Đorđević’s group dealt with loading the cocaine at the source, Croatian prosecution files reveal that a different Balkan drug gang took responsibility for offloading the drugs from the Noboa Trading containers once they arrived in Croatia.
That group was allegedly led by Petar Ćosić, who is currently on trial in Croatia for organizing and leading a criminal organization, aggravated murder, and smuggling hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Ecuador, including some inside Noboa banana containers. (Ćosić did not respond to a request for comment sent to his lawyer.)
Here in this investigation, they show company links, logistics and the medium(bananas) of the drug trade. In this case, this even fits well with the UNODC and DEA reports.
I read all of the articles. The Venezuela and Ecuador ones are good to keep for defending Venezuela. As for the Parenti ono, “Blackshirts and Reds” is one of the books that enlightened me about propaganda.
Now, the claims about Türkiye-Venezuela drug traffic is coming from Sedat Peker, an ex-crime boss who was very close to the Turkish government before Erdoğan pulled his plug. He is no saint, but is exposure about the govt can be taken as a confession. Considering the history of Türkiye and the Erdoğan govt, the drug trade made by the last prime minister Binali Yıldırım’s son sounds plausible.
I’ve heard the claim about Maduro’s kidnapping is actually from a YouTube stream in Turkish. Idk if the subtitle auto translation works in this video. If not, I will try to help.
I think I get Russia’s strategy [war of attrition to deplete western arms and Ukranian manpower] but even with that I had assumed we were going to see a larger push into Ukraine as spring began
From what i can see – and various commentators on both the Ukrainian and Russian sides agree – the push has already begun. The pattern looks almost identical to what happened in previous years: a lull of around two months in February and March, followed by a slow-rolling offensive that starts gradually in the mid to late spring, picks up speed in the summer and peaks in early to mid autumn.
Of course it’s not 100% guaranteed that this pattern will hold, the Russian General Staff may always change things up, but so far the pattern has been that each year the progress made is greater than the previous year, with lower losses for the Russian side than the previous year and higher losses for the Ukrainian side, which reflects the increasingly dire attrition of Ukrainian manpower and other resources. It is also a function of Ukraine’s loss of its most heavily fortified areas and after each Russian offensive being forced to fall back to defensive lines that are less fortified than the last, having had less time and resources to build them up.
Right now Russia is basically on the doorstep of the final fortified agglomeration in the Donbass around the cities of Slavyansk* and Kramatorsk, they are advancing westward toward the Dnieper in the Zaporozhye region, and they are widening the buffer zone in the Sumy and Kharkov regions. Could they suddenly decide that they want to go faster? Sure. But i wouldn’t bet on it. It wouldn’t be consistent with what we have observed so far from the Russian side.
*Historical “fun fact”: Slavyansk and Kramatorsk were among some of the main cities, alongside Donetsk, Lugansk, Mariupol, Kharkov and Odessa, where the 2014 “Russian Spring” uprising against the Maidan Nazi coup first began. All except for Donetsk and Lugansk were eventually crushed by the new Nazi regime’s forces when Russia refused to step in and defend them the way they defended the people of Crimea that same year. Therefore, in the eyes of many Russian people, it is symbolically important that they be liberated at some point.
I’ve been working on this pamphlet for the last couple weeks
I also got an e-ink reader and I love it so far. So much easier than dragging around a big book. I also find it comfortable to hold, so I can change seating positions more when I read. Reading PDFs or long webpages on a computer has always been a bit exhausting for me so it’s nice to get it on another type of display
Is There Something Happening in Syria ? Have you Guys Noticed the Amount of Pro-Jolani/Anti-Assad Twitter Post Lately ?
I never get jolani-posts in my social media feeds. I’ve been getting a dump of ukrop-slop lately. It seems to happen in waves. Just as the pro zionist slop fades I get a few East Turkestan posts then it goes to Pahlavist slop. This is the first major wave of ukrop-slop since at least June 25, seems to coincide with the fall of orban and the 90 billion euro loan being approved.
How did he do that
What the hell is that app jfc.
The children will speculate upon the Feastables I suppose
I cant wait for the kalshi x step collab…. introduce them to gambling before they have the motor skills to play gachas and get into gambling from there, hell, give it to babies as a sound board for their amusement. passing a baby an ipad with Step open, with the most saturated UI, watching them press buttons and lose all my money betting on random bullshit
