Well at least theres a party with some principles left.

I would need primary source evidence for this, but if there aren’t primary sources then it’s obviously false.

However, if there are, I still disagree with the interpretation. I doubt it was some realpolitik scheme (entirely) to do this. It was more likely that if china did not engage the Japanese now, China would be conquered by the pen, rather than by the gun. Han Suyin (biographer of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai) talks in an interview about how Chiang was often very apprehensive about fighting japan. In all seriousness Chiang needed to be captured and have his head put to a chopping block for him to agree to the chinese united front. So, again assuming the basic information presented is true, it is more likely that Stalin encouraged the fight now. Also remember that the Japanese and Soviets were engaged in broader border skirmishes. Considering the value of the siberian (for some reason this said liberian, i hate auto correct) troops during the great patriotic war, Japan not being able to invade the previously take far Easterm areas was extremely important for the people of the world.

I think a good comparison to make here would be the industrialization under the French Ancien regime and the late Qing dynasty. Or more specifically the lack there of. With mass automation, the capitalist system would fail and collapse for numerous reasons. Ergo, in order to preserve itself, the system would delay the transfer to automation the best it could and also put in quotas and such to prevent automation from becoming the dominant economic factor.

This actually is parallelled in the doctor who episode KABLAM, where an entire moon is dedicated to what is basically and amazon warehouse. A quota of 10% of workers had to be real people, despite the fact that automation was much better. However, the workers were paid pittances and treated horribly, because why wouldn’t they be? (What’s the funniest thing is that the writers think this is…good? Like, the whole system is effed up and the writers are all like “oh wow isn’t this so cool guys.” It’s hilarious.)

I think this is a false equivalence. Trauma is a…(sorry, im not a mental health expert) primal thing(?). As in, trauma is a part of your flight/fight/freeze/fawn response. The things that cause fear and despair and such that impact your survival can be passed down to your offspring to help them survive. But superiority and racism are something that’s taught. There is a somewhat basic impulse (possibly) to be secure and to be wary of other “tribes” but it’s not something passed down into offspring’s subconscious, but something taught at a higher level.

I don’t think we should forget that the woman who avenged Che Guevara was the daughter of a nazi

I love statistics.

Also thx for the explanation

Where’s this coming from? (I’m probably just blind, sorry)

Mm, I think this is fair

One small thing I want to respond to, it wasn’t just european classics. Dream of the Red Chamber is a Chinese classic (one of the classic novels). And now thinking about it I’ve also read Natsume Soseki’s kokoro. Although I think that too I had issues with the more subliminal/metaphorical messaging in that book, even though I enjoyed it quite a lot. What I’m saying is that I wasnt just trying to read the western classics. But western classics should have some merit to them, as for example Xi Jinping has credited Faust as one of the many books he has read and enjoyed in his life. But of course I’ll diversify as much as I can (that I can find in languages I can actually read).

You’re very correct in what you say about artistic geniuses and what not. This isn’t even just the case in art. For example, Nobel prize winner Richard Feynmann (probably misspelling that) was genuinely a good physicist and science communicator. But he had this myth built up around him and his personality, where he made being a physicist look easy and like you should always be the smartest and most confident person in the world, and that you shouldn’t care what the world thinks of you. But after he died, they pulled out boxes upon boxes of research and papers and such that he used and studied because being a physicist is genuinely very hard work, which you aren’t gifted with overnight.

Well of course not, how would you go to the bathroom? (/s)

But I think it’s less “comraderly education” and more just an improvement of human psyche. Without alienation, without dependence on addiction, with better access to mental health services, etc. People will be less neurotic and anti-social. Also without the rat race and need for money then people will have no material reason for people to be paranoid and fighting for resources.

Of course culture will be naturally improved over time and that will help too, but I think the material basis here is equally if not more important

So what is the definition of art then? At what point can a doodle be considered art?

is it possible youre on the autism spectrum

Maybe? Idk, I might but I’m unsure if it’s that or adhd or just general cptsd issues.

But otherwise I think you’re understanding me well, but English is my first language. It’s more just specifically Haikus that I find clunky in English, and I’ve heard they’re more natural in Japanese.

Sorry, I’m starting to realize I’ve phrased things poorly.

It’s not necessarily what is big and what isn’t. Trust me, I dont mind not enjoying what a lot of people are into while liking my niche.

It’s more like, I do really enjoy certain works, but I dont think I enjoy them the “right way” (for lack of a better term). For instance, I really like Neon Genesis Evangelion, but I feel as though a lot of the philosophy gets stuck halfway in my head. Like i pick up on some the literal things, and I think I can feel what the creator is trying to say, but I myself can express it. And I think I fail to enjoy those concepts and more enjoy the cerebral feeling of it and others like it, like Slay the Princess.

I should’ve also emphasized my lack of ability to enjoy poetry. I’ve enjoyed something in basically every other medium, but for some reason poetry doesn’t click at all for me. I’ve always failed to find the rhythm with it and while others will gush with happiness about them I’ve just…haven’t had the same experience (especially with Haiku. I’ve tried, but Haiku I just can’t write nor really understand very well. Constraints are good but I think English doesn’t work well with the restrictions).

And on the modern art stuff, I understand the CIA supported it and such, but I still do like it. And that same abstractionism is found other places too. Avant-garde art is a thing in china and the Avant-garde movement in Russia/the early Soviet union produced what I think are good works too. One of my favorite is El Lizzitsky’s “Beat the whites with the red wedge.” I also do like Picasso’s work, and he certainly was no cia stooge. Hell, I even like “who’s afraid of red yellow and blue.” If strictly for the reason that it did inspire fear and anger in people.

I don’t like Blake Shelton. Sorry, I worded that poorly

How about this. If some of Yoko Ono’s/John Lennon’s more…abstract work came on while I was eating dinner somewhere, I wouldn’t enjoy it. However I still respect it greatly because they’re trying. Maybe they’re failing, idk, but I still really do respect art such as that or, say, house of leaves more than I do Blake Shelton’s work or the divergent series. In contrast, I would probably not be bothered by Blake shelton’s music coming on at a resteraunt/bar, even if I have 0 respect for him because it’s still just decent music. I just have no respect because I think he (and other artists like him, ie Pitbull) doesn’t actively try to do something new or express themselves in some unique way. More just catching onto a hot trend and talking about the lowest common denominator of guns besr God trucks waman etc.

Couple things:

1.Was soviet information just like, wrong, or did Valentina’s mission just make the enthusiasm for sending a woman to space nonexistent at NASA? Because the US didn’t send a woman to space until the 1980s

2.this guy is fine, I guess. I’m always wary about his “fun facts” about the soviet union though, between the fact that he once called it an “evil empire” and has continuously praised el Salvador, both for their prison programs and crypto crap.

Damn the liberals really got to this one. Sorry comrade ):

I’m not sure how you expect to secure proletarian class interests without police. What, inframaterialism?

Are they actually defending rapists and pedophiles or are they pointing out that fascists like Miloni have a tendency to label certain people (lgbtq people, Muslims, etc.) pedophiles and rapists and ergo that synonym-ity might prove extremely dangerous for obvious reasons?

One little thing, isn’t second thought a member of the CPUSA. At least I thought he was, but its been a while so maybe that changed

Deeply unserious organization. That or they’re feds.

Sorry forgot to add this to the post:

I mainly dislike BE because of his “beef” with bayarea415, his “enlightened anti-campism” and his tendency to get into and escalate internet fights for very little reason (see the bayarea415 thing). So I think a lot of leftists give him a lot more slack than others would get for similar behavior

Mostly yeah

One other part is what i want to take away from this, but I suppose I should give some context on the book he’s talking about. Thomas Carlyle’s work on the French revolution isnt pure aristocracy and is critical of the ancien regime, but its also heavily against the Jacobins. Edmund Burke type stuff if you follow.

However twain (with some supporting evidence and life experience) takes away an entirely different conclusion from what the prose supports.

Firstly, I find this a very relatable phenomenon. When I watched “Kraut and Tea”'s (may he forever burn in the sun’s light) tale of two borders, I didn’t take away the Whig histiography and such that kraut supported but instead the idea that no matter what changed politically, if the ruling class is still extracting value from the people then the situation doesn’t improve. This was before I was a marxist as well. So I do intensly relate to his experience.

But secondly, and I believe more importantly, is that multiple people can look at the same exact evidence and come to different conclusions. Thats…obvious when you say it out loud, yes, but I think some people have issues putting that to practice. I often see people asking for the best evidence to convince people that marxism-leninism is the correct ideology. However, it is just possible that the same evidence that convinces us will not convince them, especially in isolation. It is very rarely one thing or another that radicalizes someone, even if it seems that way to us.

It’s also a very succinct explanation as to how we can use the works of historians who are conservatives or even have conservative spins, even if we don’t particularly want to. (Note I was thinking of a better example from a genuine historian but I cannot remember his name. If I find whom I’m talking about I’ll edit it in, for now this will have to do). For example, TIK history does a lot of military history on the second world war, and is infamously…a goddamn lunatic anarcho capitalist. However to my knowledge his actual military history is good and doesn’t fall for the usual order 227 enemy at the gates type bull crap, so as long as he’s not talking about soldiers buying ammo from their own wallets then he’s decent. And consequently while he takes one idea from his studies on the war, we take another from the same evidence and some extra help from both our experience and other writers. (Again, if i can find the historian that I was originally going to talk about I’ll put him here, for now TIK is an ad hoc solution)

Again, I know it sounds obvious, but I think it’s important to think about the next time you see a liberal simp over South korea despite probably knowing similar things about the state that you do. (This isn’t to say don’t correct them and present evidence, obviously, just that to understand why they’re still the way they are even after you present it). Of course class analysis does this too but it can sometimes be too abstract to understand for some people, so a more succinct quote from a good writer also helps in explanations.