I always find it so hilarious that neoliberals will simultaneously build their lives and world views around hypothetical technological solutions that will resolve resource/logistical realities like magic and then turn around and say that the problem with Communism is that its too utopian or idealistic.

I personally know like several guys here in the US that would enter into a relationship with an obviously evil demon if that demon had a cartoonishly artificial set of booba.

I mean to be fair…some of us are into obviously evil demons for their personality…

The allegory gets dicey when you consider the distinction between Capitalism and Feudalism but: the story begins with the revolution against the Farmer Mr. Jones who obviously is a symbolic stand-in for the ruling class. The story ends with the pigs under napoleon playing cards and drinking with the local human farmers from the surrounding areas and the other animals watching them and finding human and pig being literally and figuratively indistinguishable from one another. The essence of the story is a cautionary tale about how revolutionary politics can end with the same systems of oppression and class being replicated and reinstated. Orwell I think was pretty explicit in his critique of the USSR and Stalin, but the entire reason why Napoleon and the Pigs in Animal farm are the villains is that they ultimately betray the spirit of the revolution and choose to enrich themselves and effectively become no different than the ruling class they overthrew.

Like I get parents being scared of having disabled kids for the financial strain if nothing else, but like afaik most autistics can be self sufficient and independent with the right developmental help.

It’s basically been a long running joke in my family that back in my father and grandfather’s day we didn’t have people with autism. We just had engineers.

He was yet another in the long line of people accurately identifying the abuses of capitalism but attributing them to communism.

I don’t know if that’s really fair characterization? I know Orwell in pop culture has essentially been a CIA op but having read Animal Farm I think its more accurate to say that he was accurately identifying the abuses of capitalism and claiming that communism under Stalin had essentially become a mirror image of them.

Now obviously that’s a take I know many on this site would heavily push back on but still…what I know of Orwell strikes me more as being the quintessential “westsplainer”. IE: the equivalent of modern day leftist thinkers in the west who denounce China for being not real communism and/or doing the thing wrong.

social credit score

My favorite bit about the social credit score is to point out we essentially have the exact same thing here in the west also…we just don’t have the social part of it. In practice your credit score still typically defines where you can live and what resources you have available.

He should have been the one to fill his dark soul with LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHTTTTTTTTT!!!

Said it before many many times: I genuinely unironically think every good leftist should go out and borrow or pirate a copy of Peter Thiel’s zero to one because it’s a shockingly honest glimpse into how the ultra rich actually think. He directly engages with and actually concedes that many critiques of capitalism are essentially correct, like how markets inherently bend towards monopoly in order to maximize profit. Rightwing media figures are generally just cheerleaders but the people they work for at the highest level know how this game actually works.

My dad passed away about 10 years ago due to complications from a long term chronic illness. I’ve had to do a lot of unpacking and work in that time especially following my own divorce. A pretty common trend you see among kids who have had parents that needed the kind of long term care and medical impact my dad had is it’s not really until after they pass that you can sort of separate them as a person from the disease and the impact it had on your lives. We also have some weird overlaps with children of narcissistic parenting because we usually wind up not having all our needs met growing up. Lots of codependency issues.

Tldr; I had a great dad and I love and miss him, for all his failings. Honestly: just imagine if Hank Hill was a marine turned chef and you can kinda get the picture. Simple man who couldn’t even understand me half the time but loved me unconditionally every second we were together even while he was trying to keep his own shit together.

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Oh God that tracks. Seriously absolutely demonic shit.

Comrades…I can’t…I just can’t. When I heard that they gave trump a “golden pager” I assumed it was some kind of statement that they had a direct 1:1 line of communication or some shit. My jaw hit the fucking floor when my coworker pulled the image up. What disgusts me so much about it is there’s actually real artistic thought and visual symbolism behind this “art” representing one of the most grotesque pieces of state sponsored terrorism in recent memory. The Tree trunk clearly represents not only the explosion of the pagers Mossad used but also, along with the pager at the center (the gold being an on the nose representation of Trump) is a twisted symbol of the seed they have planted together for what is to come in the region.

This is straight up comic book, captain planet, final fantasy insanity villain level shit. I fucking can’t.

Also added benefit: they can fucking FLY!!! For real though this is a good response. I would fuck with people so hard if I was transplanted into a ravens body. I’d just perch near random people and be like “Deeeeath comes for you…sqwuaaaack!” and fly away.

As with all things comics: it depends on the writer. Some writers do approach him as a genocidal mutant supremacist who sees humanity as inferior beings…but thats frankly boring and shallow. The more interesting take on magneto is that he’s basically a pragmatic fatalist. His experiences in the Holocaust and the nature of mutation and evolutionary history have convinced him that coexistence simply isn’t possible. Tragic though it may be, a genocidal war that ends with one survivor is unavoidable and inevitable.

To this point…he’s had several solutions he’s been open to. He’s seen killing them all as the most likely outcome but he’s also considered complete peaceful separation or even co-existsnce.

Hey now, that’s just insulting to ghost kind. Biden was clearly a lich. Very different.

I’m sure when they point out this obvious hypocrisy and inconsistency in a quipy Sorkinesque matter this will all be resolved very nicely, complete with a John Williams theme in the credits I’m sure!

Yeah…I worry I made it sound like I don’t believe people like that actually exist and/or that they don’t deserve romance/intimacy which absolutely wasn’t my point. Those books are worth reading and I don’t mean to judge people for liking what they like…I was just saying that if your legit idea of a curl up and reread something on a rainy day book is one of those…eh…really glad to have you in the vanguard but maybe we’re not a romantic match.

Yeah, I like this take a lot. Honestly even if their favorite book was something like Capitalist Realism or the Shock Doctrine I’d probably be like “ok that’s cool you’ve also read that comrade…but really what’s your actual favorite”. I have read and gotten a lot out of both those, but my actual favorite book is a sappy scifi time travel romance novel.

This is basically my take as well. Its one of those imperfect solutions to a clearly busted system. If the US was a healthy functioning democracy term limits would probably be bad but between gerrymandering, legalized bribery, and corporate media consolidation about the only reason we don’t have presidents for life at this point is the term limit.