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
i forgot the word for comprador so my brain just kept saying compadre
real
in 2022 my political understanding was befitting of someone my age (read, underdveloped), but as i’ve grown and radicalized i’ve always reflected on the narrative with the ukraine war in the west and how i saw it as i would say an ‘average’ person in the west’s sphere of influence. it’s a miserable terrible war on every level, and but i feel like i can acutely describe the narrative the west used and i believed/what others believed. every day it genuinely stuns me how much the west obfuscates about the war so much so that bringing up western articles pre-2022 discussing the very through-lines that follow into this war/things the ukrainian state has openly said and done during this war is basically social suicide if you are in literally any english speaking space.
it surprises me that the palestinian narrative could somewhat break through to the general populace (yes, it’s being harshly repressed but so so many people on an individual level have broken through and now carry skepticism for the ‘mainstream’ view), but it remains that any questioning of the solidly pro-ukrainian narrative is taboo, even actors such as azov or other neo-nazi regiments. you legitimately cannot even bring up any fair criticism of ukraine without the accusation of being a war hawk that blindly supports russia, even if you express up front that you do not ‘support’ any state in this war, or say that you just want both civilian populations to not suffer. there’s something in there i want to elaborate on wrt comparisons to palestine and other more black and white conflicts and how organically people have made comparisons and how the mainstream media has overtly portrayed them as the little guy who did no wrong and bigger discussions of dehumanization and even lingering anti-russian sentiment from the ussr to now, but shit, it’s just so bleak to me how powers can just be like “okay now let’s make a big old meat grinder in someone else’s region so we can hopefully profit for ourselves :3” i genuinely can’t understand it
Well Morocco rightfully won against The Netherlands and lo and behold apart from a single incident maybe no mass riots broke out. Who would’ve thought? Right wingers absolutely seething right now grasping whatever straws they have left.
I loved Morocco while I was there.
The country elwas fucking gorgeous ngl
After the game I joined the celebrations and nothing happened. I heard a lot of honking and saw people with Moroccan flags, but other than some fireworks here and now it was calm. I wore an orange shirt and nobody cared. I did see a lot of police, which was very excessive. Some of then were covering their faces and when I asked one of them about it, he just said he didn’t want to be recognized. I asked him to clarify why he didn’t want to be recognized but he wouldn’t. On the internet I saw videos of Dutch police beating up Moroccan fans. Maybe the police are the true rioters.
Prior to the loss, I was watching in a bar, and there were Dutch and Moroccan fans watching together without any problems. One Moroccan in a Morocco jersey said he didn’t really care that much who won.
I am thirty-two-years-old today and I could hardly feel less enthusiastic.
A couple days ago I told somebody in my state that I feel lonely and she replied, ‘I hope you find ways to be less lonely.’ I can only guess that that was her way of saying that she’s still too busy to spend any time with me.
Discord is of little help. Almost everybody is either too busy to speak with me or finds it hard to connect with my interests. I tried returning to Feddit but they shadowbanned me and are obstinately ignoring my appeals.
I was so desperate for contact that I played Zombie Army Trilogy online for a few hours. It helped slightly but the other players were really quiet. I had to quit because it was making my hand smart.
I keep wishing that I never existed, but I know that some things would be worse off without me and I would piss a lot of people off if I did something to disappear prematurely.
It feels like almost nothing is getting better.
i’m sorry about that. i often get resentful whenever i’m lonely for a while but i try to just think about what i like about myself. yeah, we’re social animals, but i try to appreciate myself as a companion. or at least try to busy myself. when i was at my lowest, i would just occupy my brain with whatever to keep myself from sinking into self-hate, and i feel no shame or guilt. there’s no such thing as a bad reason to push forward. the fact of the matter is there’s just so much where you end up lonely, and i can’t force others to stay with me or whatever, but i’m not also gonna fault myself for the resulting anger, desolation, depression i may fall into. i just have to learn how to live around that. i’ve been on the receiving end of being one of the only nodes in someone’s support system and it fucking hurts and it is not fair to them, (and i’ve also been on the other side, feeling as if i had noone to rely on but a few people) but it’s also fine to be distraught when you are losing people, even if you cognitively know they have their own lives.
I keep wishing that I never existed, but I know that some things would be worse off without me and I would piss a lot of people off if I did something to disappear prematurely.
the language of ‘piss off’ makes me sad, don’t be apologetic. now, the verbiage of disappear prematurely is alarming but i’m going to hope you just meant ‘off the net’ and not something more severe. solitude is hard. solitude and isolation are also not what we were built for, not like this, but the difficult part is sometimes you just have to deal. i remember you posted once after black history month glumly and apologetically that you didn’t post enough here during this month. please stop imagining you have an obligation to anyone here, you should be posting for fun. and if the difficult part is lack of interaction, well, again, that sucks, but just know people see you and appreciate your articles, and if not that, i really hope you come to appreciate yourself on your own.
things will get better. on a global scale, surely, we inevitably move towards a better future. but our lives are short and our minds have to grapple with the fight of going day by day and it really is hard so i know that is hollow coming from someone that really doesn’t live your life. i hope things get better in your day to day life, truly. if comrades here aren’t active or you can’t talk to them, i always feel comforted by the bit that i’m slightly seen here, on such a small forum of likeminded people. and i’ve always seen your posts, and i’ve always thought you were a person with a sharp mind and a good sense of right and wrong. i don’t know if that means much, but i just hope you know that. there’s so many people you see and don’t express gratitude for early enough, but i wanted to say that. i’m certain many others feel the same. in the meantime, just try to reflect on what you do alone that makes you happy, what pasttime you might miss out on. drawing? writing? listening to music? maybe you should also try to join another lemmy instance that’s less political and small as this. i hope your day goes well, anarcho-bolshevik
My birthday was also a few days ago, I turned 31. I feel you honestly, though I’m not deprived of contact I still feel lonely most of the time, like I can’t talk to anyone about what is actually going on inside my head. On top of that life just seems to be getting harder and I need to find new ways of coping and handling it.
If you ever want to hangout or just start a conversation on Discord DM me here and I’ll share my username :)
Btw please never dissapear, your posts in Capitalism in Decay are some of the best on Lemmygrad <3
yeah…
Online interaction really doesn’t hit the spot does it. Its a bit like waving your hand over a bug bite.
Not existing is boring, permanent, and there is plenty of time for that later but while you continue to exist the possibility of things getting better is always there. Hang in there comrade.
Honestly not sure how I feel about Roger Penrose in general but I’ve started reading his Road to Reality and I really appreciate that he’s genuinely trying to educate people from the ground up and basically says anyone can do it. Even if he might…slightly overestimate the starting knowledge base of the average person. But I will say I find that very relatable as a Marxist
Edit: he also doesn’t uncritically talk about string theory like its the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ so I do also appreciate that
Did a Kennedymarch last night until this afternoon which is a hike of 50 miles (80km) in 20 hours. It was such an assault on my body lol. Can’t imagine being forced to do something like this while fleeing war or something.
My number had a picture of Kennedy on it and did luckily fade really quick.
I once visited a trophy shop that had a medal featuring the pentagram that’s in the coat of arms of Haaksbergen, which made it look like “JFK was a Satanist” conspiracy shit
It’s July 4th in the US, and mediocre fireworks are everywhere, flying nearly as freely as our cheap beer and racism. It wasn’t many at all, but I was still stunned to see grown adults wearing “patriotic” clothing. I guess it’s true what they say. When the going gets rough, double down on delusion.
Oki
What? I think you replied to the wrong post.
Oh nvm
Your sleep hygiene tonight may depend on it!
I don’t know why there isn’t more backlash in the USA about Independence Day. Even in Australia there is some controversy about Australia Day
i guess maybe for certain “left” groups, the feeling of celebrating the military defeat of the english overshadows the more rational consideration of the genocides and slavery that motivated the war to start with. obviously that consideration wouldn’t apply for australia. the us “left” also worships the military a lot more than even other western countries as far as i can tell, so it becomes even easier to do this.
Depression is fucking with me lately more so than usual and then I’ll casually run into other people online who are also western and who seem to have an even worse situation and mental state than I do. Not that it’s a competition, but like, I guess this is what decline looks like. I do not remember it seeming this bad even during the height of the pandemic, but maybe I was in different circles or I’m remembering it as less bad than it was. Either way, it certainly doesn’t seem to have improved since then.
It’s not random discontent, too. Like a repeating theme I see, is someone’s home situation is shitty and/or their job. Sometimes their health is doing poorly too, physical, mental, or both. Or other people they live with have suffering health and that’s part of the problem.
Meanwhile, in the US they’re making the poor people healthcare more means tested. And this in an already hyper individualist, hyper divided “society”. I keep wondering when “in decline” transitions to “powder keg”. Not like I want it to be one, but this shit ain’t sustainable.
Sometimes I wonder if I “have depression” or if I “am depressed” because that is the natural response to the situation. Maybe the people who aren’t depressed are just not really aware of what is going on around them, or they are high on other drugs.
Maybe there is nothing wrong with you. Also happy cake day.
Sometimes I wonder if I “have depression” or if I “am depressed” because that is the natural response to the situation. Maybe the people who aren’t depressed are just not really aware of what is going on around them, or they are high on other drugs.
Hard to say since there are surely a lot of people who are “self medicating” with one thing or another. It reminds of this Marshall Rosenberg guy who was big into this idea of unmet needs causing a lot of problems, including depression. I don’t think he knew about the “chemical imbalance” kind of depression, the research on that may have come after, but anyway, it really stuck with me thinking about unmet needs. Even though in retrospect, I think his worldview was severely lacking some dialectical and historical materialism, I do believe he had a point about unmet needs causing a lot of problems; he just wasn’t going far enough into why people rampantly had unmet needs to begin with.
Also happy cake day.
Thanks. It’s a bit funny to me that it occurs on the 4th of July. I’m pretty sure the reason for that was me feeling alone among people who were sincerely celebrating the 4th and so seeking this place out.
Good morning
This might sound cruel but self immolation is not an effective protest technique. Because when it’s over, you’re dead and nothing has changed.
Nope not cruel. Self immolation is stupid.
I’m not gonna ivory tower judge somebody who does it, but as strategy goes, we need more experienced organizers who live a long, storied life of organizing, not more martyrs. So yeah. People who are willing to risk everything for liberation are commendable, but I’d rather they do it taking out an imperialist than doing a symbolic act that takes out themself.
A while ago, a soldier from the USA did self immolation to protest against the Palestinian Genocide.
Even though he was literally screaming “Free Palestine”, the reporters said that his protest was for “unknown reasons”. The audio of the video of his self immolation was muted.
I won’t disrespect this man’s choice, but it simply wasn’t effective.
Aaron Bushnell. He did the wrong thing for the right reasons. Which is something but it isn’t something to be celebrated. Kinda like how Luigi did close to the right thing for some of the right reasons.
Does it make me a bad communist to root for the US national team? I’ve been really conflicted about this because it feels like supporting American soft power, not to mention the flag worship.
yes it does.
Why would you root for them?
I’m from the USA
That does not explain why you are supporting the team… are you willing to root for a team despite what America has and will continue to do?
Well that’s my question, is supporting a national football team in the same category as supporting the country itself?
I think only you can decide that. But isn’t the US National Anthem played? Doesn’t the flag get displayed? Would you play in the US team if you were a professional football player knowing that you are representing the nation?
Note that we aren’t going to abide by some religious dogma. I would be okay with cheering Jesse Owens at the Olympics, for example (not for the US, but for him). But the fact that the US is hosting the games does change the moral calculus a bit.
reading a non socialist book is half getting ready for the anticommunist part tbh (pachinko)
and when im interacting with a text and talking about it to a space of ppl who are intellectually honest and not anticommunists i dont like being simplistic because it’s like well there’s fair ground to criticize these events or what happened or admit there was a personal effect to individuals but also like idk. so many diaspora texts are just like And The New Regime Led By The Socialist Homegrown Army Was Evil And Stupid As Fuck (with minimal shades of nuance) and sometimes you just gotta read around it. it comes from a sincere place as an individual, sure it cheapens and misconstrues history as a whole, but its their expression and its interesting to read
tbh im also going in no spoilers and the guy saying this is also a dick. the overtones of the narrative granted are explaining how wveryone works in self interest n i feel its gonna be one of those books where the summary is “Humanity Inherently Selfish We Cant Do Fairness” which. okay. either way i have appreciated how bleak the writing has been as a piece of historical fiction about imperial japan’s effect on korea.
okay kept reading #lol i should have spared my whacking for the next few pages. his anticommunist monologue is funny as fuck bc he sucks and he knows and hes like Well yes everyones like this and its like wow. youre just so annoying and dumb. so it makes the sentiment look funnier. unless of course we get to some unironic anticiv joker mentality soon
ETA: okay, her writing is basically just humans so complex as individuals and prone to quarrel because selfishness begets selfishness and i’ll just make peace with that. #expected
Another comment that triggers me (what are you saying about the children in the story? Your comment is hard to understand).
the child in question is a korean immigrant who lives in a ghetto of japan during the war period. he is about twelve or so in the period i describe. his older brother attempts to assimilate and submits to the model minority myth in the midst of blatant dehumanization from authority and mockery and isolation from his peers, but his younger brother is willing to physically fight his peers that are racist to him. (he is a child at the time so it’s fine because he’s not the one initiating the fight/bullying them, he’s retaliating against their bullying)
