I identify differently depending on the context.
When around comrades, I will identify as a Marxist-Leninist, as this is the most precise definition of what I hold to. I generally don't use this other than around comrades because no one else has any idea of what it means.
If I'm around people who at least sort of know what Marxism is, I'll call myself a Marxist. But in my experience this is pretty rare. Or this is what I will default to around people who I know are leftist broadly. I feel like "Marxist" is accurate enough where getting into the details of M-L isn't really necessary.
But when I'm around most normies, I will identify as a socialist. I think it's accurate enough to convey to people who do not have a very developed political understanding what I hold to. "Socialist" at the same time conveys a commitment to radical change well beyond the current Republican/Democrat paradigm, while not, for example, putting my job in jeopardy if I call myself a socialist to co-workers.
So the obvious question is why I don't call myself a communist very often IRL, even though I am one. I have before and used it a bit interchangably with M-L among comrades, but I don't use it around people I don't know well and know they are down with it. What I have found with the people in my broader social circle is such a huge lack of political understanding that calling myself a communist only shuts people down. When it comes to Americans, I think it's easy to overestimate their political understanding. I used to think most Americans just think communism is when "everyone is equal". What I've found is worse than that: it's more like people just have this vague notion that "communism = evil". They have no idea what it's about other than decades of propaganda that just equates communism as the ideology of our enemies and those who want to destroy America. So to most Americans, a communist is just someone who is "very bad person" who wants to destroy America (I mean, death to Amerikkka of course, but it's so much more than that). My own parents just think that communism means atheism and can't explain it more than that.
I totally understand the idea that we shouldn't shy away from calling ourselves communists. We need to normalize the idea because communism specifically is what's needed to save the planet. But idk, at this time and place in the US it feels like trying to do this just closes more doors than it opens, at least with the politically ignorant (most people).
My understanding is that Israel, as a nation, has completely shut down economically. No one is working, everyone is in bunkers and safe rooms. IF this is true, this is the most unsustainable aspect of the war. It cannot continue for much longer. Israel, as a much a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie as any western nation, will either have to sue for peace or force people out of the bunkers and back to work under fire.
David Harvey defines capitalism as “value in motion”. Motion is the process of producing something, selling it, then taking the proceeds and investing it in more production. Marx explicitly proves this at the end of volume 2 of Capital but really, the idea that capitalism must always be in motion and always be expanding saturates his works. Motion is the beating heart of capitalism. It’s not that a country can’t survive because there’s no economic activity. Under other economic systems yes, but the lack motion in capitalism will kill it.
In the US, we were always going to just let COVID rip. One reason is because neoliberalism has hollowed out the state’s ability to respond to crises. But just as much as that, capitalists cannot let everyone just stay home, even if the state reimbursed their losses.
I don’t think can go on for many more days, much less weeks. I expect we’ll hear stories about how Israelis need to “get back to work” to show Iran they’re not scared or whatever. But even Israelis are not above the whims of capital.