Hồ Chí Minh (1890-1969) was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary who led the resistance against French colonialism, and subsequently against the US invasion, until his death from heart failure six years before the liberation of Vietnam.(PW)
Welcome again to everybody. Make yourself at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.
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Visited a book store in the city today because I have been on a reading streak and I want to keep it up.
There was a whole table dedicated to anarchist books so I figured they are anarchist leaning. That’s okay with me. I usually shop at our commie store but I can spice things up I guess.
What confused me, though, was that the table also had books on Navalny for some reason. I know we make fun of anarchist takes sometimes but this just genuinely confused me. They know he was a far right racist piece of shit, right?
Anyway I got some books. Testaments by Atwood, Walden by Thoreau and Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto.
A song I listen to, Nunarput by Nuuk Posse, got deleted from Spotify and there seem to be no other copies online. Gotta love streaming services.
Now I want to listen to it.
Oh my god it’s actually raining
Yay.
It stopped raining like 5 minutes later keep dancing
Did you dance?
Didn’t even have time for that. Maybe I should still do it to keep it up.
This weeks EI roundup is really good.
¿El que?
Americans are something else, out of all the places you could’ve suicide bombed, you chose a goddamn fertility clinic?
Wait, what? I’m out of the loop.
Let’s see…
There were the shootings at the museum in D.C…
The shootings at the CIA center…
And now… this? Where did this take place?
Palm springs
Palm Springs, Florida
Edit: Wait, no, California
Uhhh turns out the DC museum shooter was a PSL member at least in 2017. Im kinda anxious about the fallout that’ll come from this. Even if it turns out that he wasn’t a member in good standing/ he was kicked out of the party, that connection will undoubtedly be used to go after PSL and anyone tangentially related. Kinda anxious…
I don’t see how it would reasonably be used against PSL unless there were documented party organizing of the act (unlikely: if the manifesto published by Klippenstein is indeed the shooter’s, he seems to have been acting alone and in no way affiliated with any particular party or group).
Of course, they could try to unreasonably go after PSL, but I’m not sure that’s much different than what socialist/communist types have been facing in the US for decades. Lest we forget the Black Panther Party got vilified over such “horrible” acts as trying to feed schoolchildren. It has long been a grim tightrope for communists in the US, and going back even more than that, liberation efforts in general, marked by the state using misinformation, harassment, intimidation, infiltration, imprisonment, and assassination.
Those in the capitalist west in general should take the usual precautions with regards to the law and be prepared for the possibility that it will be used against you anyway. It can be understandably scary, but it is a marathon struggle going back a long time, don’t forget that.
“Of course, they could try to unreasonably go after PSL, but I’m not sure that’s much different than what socialist/communist types have been facing in the US for decades.”
No.
Stop.
This is bad thinking.
It may not necessarily be different in quality, but it will be different in quantity which can eventually result in a full-on qualitative change to the repression.
A Third Red Scare.
That is why we should be careful, to be clear.
Sorry, I don’t mean to be mean, but I think people should take this possibility seriously. They could literally bake a speech for Trump where he outlines several “incidents” (along with false flags thrown in) regarding the socialist or communist movements in America. He could give it on TV to a national audience and really bring on a Red Scare.
I don’t think you’re being mean, but I think you’re wrong here and generally misunderstand what I said. If anything is “bad thinking”, it’s being anxious about things that are out of your control and having no action to take against them; I have chronic anxiety, I grapple with this shit on a regular basis, and trying to justify unproven anxieties is not helpful.
As I said:
Those in the capitalist west in general should take the usual precautions with regards to the law and be prepared for the possibility that it will be used against you anyway.
What more is there to say? I’m encouraging people to be prepared, which is far more important than looping on fretting about what could happen.
My general point in what you quoted is simply that the history of repression of communists is not going to start tomorrow or something. This shit has been ongoing for decades and communists in the US already have to walk on eggshells as watered down mostly electoral groups. As it is, there isn’t that much for them to repress via another Red Scare. The west already sucks pretty hard on the communist front, if we’re being real with ourselves. Furthermore, the Red Scare didn’t end. It’s still so embedded there are politically illiterate people who call democrats like Biden a communist.
Could it get worse? Yeah, that’s generally how the world works, is things can get worse. They can also get better. The action we take, especially in an organized fashion, is a significant part of that. If you want to focus on the possibility of Trump cracking down even more, then start thinking about what an organized response to that would look like.
Doesn’t matter. If we can prevent it from getting worse, then we should take measures to do so.
??? Yeah, that’s what I said, to think about action and be prepared rather than wallowing in anxiety and you reply as if you’re arguing with me.
Oh fair.
Yes, I misread what you said in a hurry.
Alright, gotcha, but I think the anxiety is fine so long as it’s not paralyzing, is all I’ll say.
I’m not saying we should “wallow” in it, but I think the danger is real, and we should move accordingly. It’s okay to “retreat,” as Lenin said.
Yes, I misread what you said in a hurry.
but I think the anxiety is fine so long as it’s not paralyzing, is all I’ll say.
I think fixating on defending anxiety on the internet, while implying the situation is bad enough that it’s a kind of crisis warranting anxiety, is contradictory and it shows in your haste here. If it’s really that bad, there are far better things to be doing than meta-arguing about it on the internet. If it’s not that bad, it can be addressed with a calm mind and a clear head instead. People’s feelings are their feelings, no one is going to take them away. But it is one thing to take a situation seriously and it is another thing to be stuck in high cortisol for extended periods of time long past when it was supposed to drop normally; that is what prolonged anxiety is, it is not simply motivation or something.
As my therapist has probably explained to me multiple times, in a literal in-the-moment crisis, anxiety serves a purpose. The fight/flight/freeze style response kicks in and you act before reflecting. Outside of crisis, it is a drain on one’s health for them to be stuck in that mode with high cortisol levels. So, to reiterate, if it’s at the point of actual crisis, the last priority is arguing on the internet. If it’s not, take a breather and then tackle it with a clear head.
That said, if you read this and decide you still want to insist on anxiety in some way, then please leave me alone about it. I’m never going to agree that anxiety is a healthy response outside of actual crisis. It is a crippling and exhausting thing to deal with that I’m trying to unlearn for years now and I don’t want to hear more rationalizations that I’ve dealt with in my own head for much of my life.
Just distance yourself as a party honestly. No need to bring unwanted drama.
American fascists are gonna come for PSL eventually I think its probably better to tie the struggle against american fascism to the the struggle against zionist fascism. The alternative is that the fascists get to come up with a pretext for cracking down on PSL and other communists.
Reposted:
I would encourage others to join an org, even the PSL… but think twice about joining that last one.
Not that you should never join the organization; far from it.
But right now may not be safe…
A Reddit link was detected in your comment. Here are links to the same location on alternative frontends that protect your privacy.
I would encourage others to join an org, even the PSL… but think twice about joining that last one.
Not that you should never join the organization; far from it.
But right now may not be safe.
The amount of people simping for Nick from The Handmaid’s Tale is disturbing. An attractive nazi is still a nazi. The man is a literal fascist. For fuck’s sake.
Yeah, he’s no Syril Karn from Andor, who, at least, realizes his dumbassery in the end… before succumbing to some of his baser instincts and attacking Cass in the end… before realizing that his life was kinda empty and meaningless or whatever… before getting gunned down by a bourgeois democrat.
¯_(ツ)_/¯
At this point I’m seriously contemplating doing a rain dance or something. My plants need water. Please rinse off the thick layer of pollen from everything. Please.
You have a farm?!
Shit, I want to start one!
Do it. Rain dances are an S tier spiritual/magical ritual. Even if it doesn’t work it’s pretty fun. Just remember to do lots of jumps, spins, and arm flinging. Oh and being high helps.
Back in my occultist days the only thing that ever really felt like it worked was weather manipulation.
Rain dances are underrated and have a bad rap, ngl
Seeing the grass along the roads slowly die is rather sad
sadge
PSL? Communist Party of the Russian Federation? Greece’s Communist Party?
Whom’st? Where’st? Why’st?
Pick one and, if you win, I will award you with a cute dog picture.
There are some clues in the image. 😜
The Communist Party of the Russian Federation.
Correct!
D’awwwww
Oho
You know, even with all the crazy xenophobia happening in the US, my mexican middle class circle is still eager to migrate to the US. The american dream propaganda is so deeply internalized that it’s frankly very sad to see.
Oh my fucking god yea. I was talking to a person in their mid-to-late 20s who was going on a date with a US Marine who for whatever reason was going to be in Southeast Asia. And they don’t even get a visceral reaction when knowing the person is US military, but what’s more they said it might be an opportunity to get a green card.
So I just stated what is happening to people to even people who are getting green cards in the US. And they don’t want to listen, and Americans said it was ok and still act like it’s just Trump. How fucking stupid can you be? You want to move to a county where almost everyone is barely getting by, nobody owns a home, your chance of getting killed just because you’re not white is so fucking high it’s not even funny, and he county is literally doing gestapo shit so blatantly now it’s literally unignorable. But apparently it can be ignored, I honestly believe if you still move to the US, you get what’s coming to you. You literally cannot be this fucking stupid and ignorant. If you want to stay in an echo chamber and not listen to people because you grew up watching Hollywood or whatever, nobody can help you.
(Sorry for ranting comrades)
The “American dream” propagandists are working overtime in Facebook, Twitter and other social media to sell the “beautiful” life of working in the US with a TN visa. Due to “el aspiracionismo” fallacy, lots of people are still falling to those lies of “success”.
Reminds me of this one time, when I still used reddit, ran into somebody who was talking about being an immigrant and something about how they’d managed to succeed. I think I had tried to give them some socialist style commentary and it turned out that they were a landlord of a kind, and I was pretty blunt with them about the ridiculousness of their “success” being to become an exploiter.
I guess I think of it because some people who are migrants can technically succeed, if we consider the “American dream” to be “become the oppressor.” But that’s nothing to be proud of and few can do that even if they all had so little of a conscience to try.
Earlier for today I was going to talk about the Georgian uprising on Texel, one of Europe’s last WWII battles, but I had a dentist appointment and I spent the little free time that I had goofing around with Sid Meier’s Civilization IV instead of studying for my thread. It’s May 21st in most time zones now so it is too late to make topic for the eightieth anniversary. Oh well.
…sadge…
The seventh semester of my undergrad is almost half way through and I am already exasperated. My brain is unable to function well lol
I hope everyone else is having a good spring! It rained earlier today.
I hope you have a great spring aswell
You have to send me an animal video now does are the rules
Cool dog
We had a huge protest in the Hague yesterday with 100.000 people protesting against the Dutch government’s stance on Israel. I was there as well. It got sort of coopted by liberals though with some political parties that were silent or supported the genocide taking part. But this protest shows that the people support the Palestinian people. But I feel like this protest was kind of wasted. 100.000 people could’ve shut the city down. We could’ve squatted the parliament building, but instead we were walking around the city and the government probably won’t listen to us. Although there is more pressure on them now, which is good.
what kind of rhetoric did the liberals politicians who participated use? im curious how about the tactics, because i imagine we’ll see more of it across europe soon
I think a lot of people who were present don’t think that Palestine needs to be free, but just think that Israel went too far. Some people who shouted from the river to the sea, were literally heckled.
sounds about right
For the first time since migrating I sort of miss home. Belgian people are really hard to connect to and they seem to be stuck in a perpetual state of misery for large parts of their lives. And that can be exhausting. I went home to celebrate my football team becoming champions yesterday and I realized I really miss dicking around with the people over there.
I wouldn’t mind doing it all again or even migrating elsewhere again though. It has been an interesting experience. But I increasingly wonder what I’m doing here exactly. I will never be Belgian. I will never really belong here. And I will never be able to get used to whatever mentality prevails here. And I’m a white European too. Can’t imagine how much more difficult it must be for non European migrants.
Anyway, tomorrow there will be a big strike again for the fifth month in a row. I am at a point where I wonder what the next step will be if nothing changes.
What’s different in the mentality between southern Dutch and Belgian people? I thought that southern Dutch and Belgian culture was the same.
Sucks to hear tho. Is there a Dutch immigrant community you can connect to?
Congrats on you team becoming champions btw. I wish it was us.
Well we’re both Catholic and there is some overlap in cultural stuff in that. We both live a more ‘bourgondisch’ compared to Northern Netherlands. But we Brabanders are still Dutch so we still have that directness in us. The main difference is, is that everyone is really closed up here it seems. You very rarely get personal questions anywhere. I’ve worked in several different places and I rarely talk to my coworkers about my weekend for example. It’s difficult to become friends with Flemish people let alone find a friend group to get into.
Most of my friends here are Dutch lol. They experience the same issues so it’s not like I am unlikeable or something. Belgian people have explained it to me as Belgian people getting ‘stuck to their local church tower’ in that all of their friend groups and most of their lives get decided by where they are born and they are hesitant to break free from that, so it’s very hard for people at a later stage to come into existing social groups.
Maybe it’s the same for people coming to The Netherlands as well, idk. It’s not like The Netherlands is perfect or something. But in my experience at least the Belgians are far more reserved than I am used to as a Dutch person.
Also, hierarchy is much more respected here. Where at home I would regularly chat with the ceo’s of the places I worked at, that is not done here. At my first job here I just walked into our CEO’s office to ask him a question and he seemed mortified lol. And I think that results in some rigid social structures as well where a lot of people seem sort of helpless or incapable of finding solutions themselves if an authority figure is not present. Idk you have to experience working here to understand it I guess. Some sort of ‘we’ve done this for ages now and we can’t change it’ mentality, even if things get outdated.
Also, Belgian men, for the life of them, cannot seems to save themselves if their lives depended on it lol. Very rarely I see a Belgian guy with actual strong, independent opinions, who is able to cook, clean, whatever. There is like this insane passiveness surrounding a lot of them and I often find myself wondering if there is anything going on in their mind.
Now, this all sounds very negative of course and I don’t want to be disrespectful or anything but sometimes you just need to vent lol.
Yeah this just sounds like capitalism’s effect on community not unique to your situation or location. Individualistic tendencies and competition kill community.
Making friends is hard. I’ve lived in a few places and if I have been able to plug into a local community it has always been as somebody’s +1. Even if there is generally openness and welcome to the new community there is always a bit of hostility from several members.
If you don’t move away from your family and childhood friend group, many of them will move away from your hometown. The ones that remain will bring their new connections into your community changing it’s fabric and sometimes causing unbrigable rifts. People will have drama and there is no accountability to resolve those differences for the good of the community. The elders who would traditionally mediate these sort of rifts are just as consumed with individualism and factionalism so the feuds never are resolved.
Interesting, thought that Belgians would be more open
