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Bulletins and News Discussion from October 14th to October 20th, 2024 - Paper Tigers

Image is a frame taken from this video of Iranian missiles raining down on Israel without interception due to a weak and depleted air defense system after a year of war and genocide.

Mao, 1956:

Now U.S. imperialism is quite powerful, but in reality it isn't. It is very weak politically because it is divorced from the masses of the people and is disliked by everybody and by the American people too. In appearance it is very powerful but in reality it is nothing to be afraid of, it is a paper tiger. Outwardly a tiger, it is made of paper, unable to withstand the wind and the rain. I believe the United States is nothing but a paper tiger.

When we say U.S. imperialism is a paper tiger, we are speaking in terms of strategy. Regarding it as a whole, we must despise it. But regarding each part, we must take it seriously. It has claws and fangs. We have to destroy it piecemeal. For instance, if it has ten fangs, knock off one the first time, and there will be nine left, knock off another, and there will be eight left. When all the fangs are gone, it will still have claws. If we deal with it step by step and in earnest, we will certainly succeed in the end.

Strategically, we must utterly despise U.S. imperialism. Tactically, we must take it seriously. In struggling against it, we must take each battle, each encounter, seriously. At present, the United States is powerful, but when looked at in a broader perspective, as a whole and from a long-term viewpoint, it has no popular support, its policies are disliked by the people, because it oppresses and exploits them. For this reason, the tiger is doomed. Therefore, it is nothing to be afraid of and can be despised. But today the United States still has strength, turning out more than 100 million tons of steel a year and hitting out everywhere. That is why we must continue to wage struggles against it, fight it with all our might and wrest one position after another from it. And that takes time.

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1.8K comments

  • Every little detail I hear about Sinwar's life and death makes it feel straight out of Shōnen Jump. A man born in a refugee camp that outlives him. A man who went from emiseration to a college degree. A man who became fluent in his oppressors language in captivity. A man who went from indefinite imprisonment to leading the resistance. A man who projects a Samsonian level of indomitability. They have to keep making excuses that 'he's in another country', 'he's underground' for why they just can't kill him for years, but you can find him walking down the street in Gaza and just pull him aside for an interview.

    He's still above ground fighting, a year into the entire region being carpet-bombed with the expressed intent to kill him specifically. He gets hit with tanks, missiles, dronefire, he's still fighting with a severed hand–he's 61 years old! Even when he's bleeding out in a dusty-old chair exposed to the elements, the surveillance drone pilots are still instinctively dodging the pieces of rebar he's chucking at the damned thing in a final 'fuck you' to his oppressors with his one good hand.

    They have to finish him off with a sniper round. They can't touch this man. They can't be near this man. He's the bogeyman. It feels intrinsically embarrassing to even make the comparison–it makes me feel like my analysis is fundamentally juvenile, but I just cannot shut it out of my mind, it keeps coming back to me the more I think about it–this man went out like Gojo Satoru. A life and a death that can only be rivaled by Che Guevara's in terms of it feeling straight out of fiction. What a guy.

    • His death in the chair reminds me of another time the fascists tried killing him. Sitting in the rubble of your own home daring them to try again. Only took the most over equipped military ever years more to kill one old man. What a badass.

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