Welcome again to everybody. Make yourselves 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

top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 21 points 1 month ago

Reading that Luigi Mangione spend years in pain without help from his insurance but got a reply within an hour after he posed as an investor is wild

  • source
  • [–] 20 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    I cannot express how much I hate the new Colombian government.

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 15 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    I will say, I've been to Colombia before and the people have been nothing but wonderful to me. Any time I told them I was from Palestina they would immediately go on tirades about isntreal.

    I heavily suspect the US meddled in their elections

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • load more comments (1 reply)
  • [–] 20 points 1 month ago

    Wherever there are people being exploited, you will find sympathy for communism. Wherever there are people doing the exploiting, you will find sympathy for anti-communism.

    The USSR showed the world how fragile the thrones of the exploiting classes can be when you apply the right kind of science to the process of smashing them and the exploiting classes have been punishing the world since for daring to have political literacy.

  • source
  • [–] 19 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

    We don't usually think about this but literacy is underrated af.

    I think it's amazing that we can read the thoughts of someone who died decades ago, and then learn from their mistakes, and their successes. Or read their fears and hopes for the future.

    On a related note, knowing English is amazing as well. There is a lot of old books in English or translated to English.

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • load more comments (2 replies)
    [–] 18 points 1 month ago

    Very interesting car decoration in China!

  • source
  • [–] 17 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    has to be some sort of insane lib gymnastics to be celebrating a literal ISIS buffoon sentencing Assad and his family to death in Syria 😅

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] [S] 16 points 1 month ago

    sorry for the delay, I forgor

  • source
  • [–] 15 points 1 month ago (4 children)

    Saw The Odyssey, it was a decent movie. Good cinematography. Later learned parts of it were filmed in occupied Western Sahara, which sucks. Saw some commie meme pages using Polyphemus for some image with some people commenting how Marx failed to consider Polyphemus' possible anti-imperialist tendencies. Except Marx did mention Polyphemus multiple times lol. Read Marx.

    Anyway I try not to fall back on doomerism regarding the climate. Situation is getting pretty bad. Record after record is getting shattered. The sea is insanely warm. El Niño still has to happen later this year. It will have no real effect over here but I fear for elsewhere in the world. The only thing the news worries about is loss of profit for companies. There is almost no water flowing through the rivers but it's only bad because ships can't go through it now. No mention of our wildlife and plants whatsoever.

  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    Lara of Psychic militancy and Jared of MAKC had a good little rant about The Odyssey. Its kinda fucked up how white people have appropriated Greek culture while at the same time europeans kinda see Greeks as border line barbarians.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 12 points 1 month ago

    I'm a big nerd for Roman and Greek eras and their mythology and wars so Troy was a film I watched often as a kid. For The Odyssey I checked back with the movie, also because I kept seeing right wing chuds using that movie to slander The Odyssey's diversity, and I noticed how many Nordic looking people were in the movie lol. Like, I have been to Greece and these people do not look Greek at all. Same with the Roman Empire basically. Take one look at Mediterranean people to see what they would have looked like.

    The Odyssey itself isn't particularly Greek either but I guess that's what you get if you have a Hollywood cast.

  • source
  • parent
  • load more comments (1 reply)
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 15 points 1 month ago* (3 children)

    Today I learned Margaret Thatcher fell after meeting Deng.

    Source

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 14 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    So yesterday I discovered MathML. It's a pretty neat way to display math on the web like LaTeX does on PDFs.

    This one is a fraction:

    <math>
      <mfrac>
        <mn>1</mn>
        <mn>3</mn>
      </mfrac>
    </math>
    

    This makes me wonder whether Lenin and Marx would write their stuff with html (or latex) if they lived today lol

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 14 points 1 month ago (12 children)

    I hope you all have a nice week :D

  • source
  • hideshow 12 child comments
  • load more comments (10 replies)
    [–] 13 points 1 month ago

    This is from a Cuban Telegram that I follow. I really like how they define a revolution. Hope you like it:

    • “Revolution is a sense of the historic moment;
    • it is changing everything that must be changed;
    • it is full equality and freedom;
    • it is being treated and treating others as human beings;
    • it is emancipating ourselves by our own efforts;
    • it is challenging powerful dominant forces within and outside the social and national spheres;
    • it is defending the values in which one believes at the cost of any sacrifice;
    • it is modesty, selflessness, altruism, solidarity, and heroism; it is fighting with boldness, intelligence, and realism;
    • it is never lying or violating ethical principles;
    • it is a deep conviction that no force in the world is capable of crushing the power of truth and ideas.
    • Revolution is unity;
    • it is independence;
    • it is fighting for our dreams of justice for Cuba and for the world, which is the foundation of our patriotism, our socialism, and our internationalism.”

    Original:

    spoiler


    «Revolución es sentido del momento histórico; es cambiar todo lo que debe ser cambiado; es igualdad y libertad plenas; es ser tratado y tratar a los demás como seres humanos; es emanciparnos por nosotros mismos y con nuestros propios esfuerzos; es desafiar poderosas fuerzas dominantes dentro y fuera del ámbito social y nacional; es defender valores en los que se cree al precio de cualquier sacrificio; es modestia, desinterés, altruismo, solidaridad y heroísmo; es luchar con audacia, inteligencia y realismo; es no mentir jamás ni violar principios éticos; es convicción profunda de que no existe fuerza en el mundo capaz de aplastar la fuerza de la verdad y las ideas. Revolución es unidad, es independencia, es luchar por nuestros sueños de justicia para Cuba y para el mundo, que es la base de nuestro patriotismo, nuestro socialismo y nuestro internacionalismo».

  • source
  • [–] 13 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    A fire broke out in eastern Belgium. It is the worst fire in Belgian history.

    You try not to doom scroll but you open the news and the apocalypse is there.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 12 points 1 month ago*

    Watching the eclipse is pretty cool. And we get a meteor shower afterwards. We are so tiny in this universe.

  • source
  • [–] 12 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    🫵 You WILL have hope, comrade.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 12 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    why do companies make their employees sit through boring ass finance meetings that put people to sleep

    i'm in receiving; none of this corpo babble is relevant to me

    they call it "transparency" as they brag about increased profits to people paid stagnant wages

    lmao fuck offffff

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 8 points 1 month ago

    I have been a semi-unwilling participant in a stellantis training course for some new jeep they were doing, with questions at the end.

    Made me never want to work corporate in my life.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 11 points 1 month ago (9 children)

    Farmers are holding The Netherlands hostage. They emit too much nitrogen fucking up nature and slowing down houses being build, among other things like messing with our water supplies and poisoning their surroundings.

    It has been going on for years and everytime the government plans to do things, they block highways or cities or threaten and intimidate people. Meanwhile most of the livestock they have gets sold to foreign lands for meat and in total it is not even 1% of the total Dutch export. Basically nothing, while costing this country a lot.

    Cops don't do anything because the farmers mainly drive their big tractors and for some reason cops are rendered useless then. The farmers dump asbestos on highways or destroy houses or whatever they feel like doing.

    Today they are protesting by blocking a highway and already two people died by crashing into them.

  • source
  • hideshow 9 child comments
  • load more comments (9 replies)
    [–] 11 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Belgian defence minister during one of the five heatwaves this summer told people to just live a little, relax at the pool and have a BBQ with some beer. Outrage happened.

    As the summer drags on and the reports of thousands of extra people dying (more than during covid) and currently the largest wildfire the country has ever seen, I can't help but wonder what will happen to him.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    The posadist in me just hopes aliens come to us one day and bring communism

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 9 points 1 month ago

    I imagine aliens would engage in a "don't intervene" approach to a primitive civilization like ours. Maybe use us as a thesis for historical materialism, secretly introducing key innovations and observe how our society evolves due that.

  • source
  • parent
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 child)

    Watching track and field is so refreshing as a sport. Truly great athletes, no dumb ass toxic masculine football cavemen shit.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [+] 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)
  • [–] 9 points 1 month ago

    I think the fascination with serial killers in american culture is probably a coping mechanism. The people who are most obsessed with serial killers are probably scratching the itch in their mind screaming "the entire society is built on murder" but they just can't quite bring it together.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 9 points 1 month ago*

    A lot of the things you mentioned serve as a way to keep the status quo in place, hence why they are not frowned upon. This extends to animal abuse as well. We abuse and kill trillions of animals on a yearly basis for our palate pleasure, often in horrific ways. But put a thousand pigs with the cognitive ability of a 4 year old in a gas chamber and nobody cares. Put a dog in a gas chamber and you'll be killed yourself by an angry mob. It's the hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance to serve the status quo. Animal abuse is highly normal in this society even though we say it is not.

    You can also see this in serial killers as well. Serial killers who kill pretty, young white women are highlighted. Serial killers who kill black or trans or gay people or sex workers are often ignored for a very long time or mever found at all. Because this society deems it normal not to care about these victims.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 8 points 1 month ago*

    There’s nothing anomalous about them. And then it becomes odd to say when a serial killer “blended” in that they must of “manipulated” people. Like maybe they’re not good at “manipulating”, rather they’re just good at what society demands of people and fulfills that role well?

    I agree. The manipulation capability of serial killers gets dramatically overrated/mythologized. It's more that they take advantage of obvious vulnerabilities and power imbalances in a pathologically anti-social system that barely deserves to be called a society. And their lack of empathy combined with murderous desires (which is far more easily formed/nurtured within such a violent system) makes it relatively easy for them to decide that taking advantage of these things is a good plan. Some of them are the ones in uniform.

    Hell, I recall a story of one serial killer case that a journalist managed to solve like decades(? not certain of the timeline offhand) later and it turned out they had been a cop.

  • source
  • parent
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 11 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    A farmer was on the news. He was showing his onion harvest. It was half of his entire warehouse which is usually full. He voiced his support for the farmers protests today. He said there is no problem and that nature has been better than ever. Seconds later he was complaining about drought.

    My guy, look around. Please. Wake up.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 10 points 1 month ago (4 children)
  • load more comments (3 replies)
    [–] 10 points 1 month ago

    Have a good week, everyone! Even when times are frustrating, it helps to look to the future to see what we can change along the way.

    As always, communism will win.

  • source
  • [–] 9 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    About 2700 hectares of land is currently on fire here in Belgium. Largest Belgian fire ever. Nearby villages are being evacuated.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 9 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Normalize calling people from Europe EU-nicks.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 9 points 1 month ago (2 children)
  • [–] 9 points 1 month ago

    This makes me sad because the book is good fun and I really enjoyed it. But yeah, liberal brain worm assuming that they can have a book devoid of politics. The politics they have just reify the gramcian common sense about the world, and thus they can claim it is not political. This is especially true of his target audience who are mostly western "science nerds" and the like.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 9 points 1 month ago

    He's full of it, cause I read The Martian and it definitely has a line at/near the end that is promoting working together toward a common good (which the movie leaves out and exchanges for a bootstraps individualist line). With how aware of ideology I am these days, it was very obvious to me when I read the book vs. watching the movie, what they were doing, replacing even a mildly collectivist message with an individualist one.

    I could easily believe Weir wasn't consciously writing it out that way in the book, but it doesn't change the fact that works of fiction have ideological messaging in them either way. You can't avoid it by pretending you're "just an entertainer". You'll still insert bits of stuff you picked up from others, and bits of stuff you believe in, into what you write.

    People who say this stuff about "preachy works vs. works without commentary" are some of the more oblivious to propaganda (or they are lying). Preachy works aren't more ideological; they are less covert about what ideology they are promoting and are sometimes more pointed in promoting it than unconsciously written works. That's the difference. But Andy Weir is a Yankee white dude, so it's easy for him to think that the dominant ideology is "common sense" rather than ideology, since it benefits him.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 9 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    /s I love Mormons. I love that they can be openly transphobic and anti-disabled people to my face and face no consequences.

    I'm tired.

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • load more comments (2 replies)
    [–] 9 points 1 month ago

    My hometown has always had a reputation of crime but after years of living in a bigger city I figured I am used to more stuff now. In the city we had a heavy police force as it was a place for the libs to showboat their influence. I returned home now and it seems that police has just abandoned this place. Saw multiple gangs just dealing drugs outside in broad daylight. They set up some drive thru thing even. Was walking through my old hood when some random kid came up to chat, all the while five meters away from us people were shooting dope. Decline of industry has not been kind to us.

  • source
  • load more comments
    view more: next ›