Oops!
I feel kind of silly. I spent 12-13 years knowing internally that I am a woman. I regularly "pretended" to be a woman online as a kid and teenager. I have always preferred my "feminine" features and appreciated the "feminine" side of my personality far more than the "masculine". I used the nonbinary label as a shield, protecting myself from the truth for years.
I got out of a really rough, codependent relationship in 2023. I was told a lot of really horrible things about myself that I know now aren't true, but believed at the time. A lot of things that had me examining my supposed manhood and the more toxic parts thereof. I "came out" as cis. I created the Men's Liberation community here (and proceeded to not take an active role there due to depression and... well, this.)
I read a lot about masculinity and manhood, and began using my 'maleness' as a means to get better, as a means to do better, to be better. It would allow me to more critically examine the ways I was socialized and more adequately deconstruct them. It did, for a time.
In the midst of my stint with manhood, I met a couple of people who knew the truth. Before we had even spoken to each other beyond base pleasantries, they would talk about me using she/her pronouns. After we got to talking, I felt like I could be queer again, be me again. I have found my people and my home, and in doing so I have managed to find myself again.
I am a woman. I start HRT within the week. I am so, so excited. I am a woman.
Navalny, the guy who called Muslims cockroaches?
Navalny, the guy who was already imprisoned and posed literally no threat to Russia from behind bars? That Navalny?
You're worse than QAnon types.
Reactionary, old, prole-hating pervert is intercepted by the state before he can do a terrorism and is rehabilitated with no lasting harm done to his person.
Long live Ingsoc, Glory to Oceania! The thought police are here... for you.
I like to look at the DPRK and try to find these mysterious PRISON CAMPS I've heard so much about.
Mostly just awe-inspiring nature and beautiful architecture. Most google reviews for places in the DPRK are malding libs who've never left Nowhere, Minnesota owning the Koreans. Funny in its sadness.
New RuZZian invention: the blood clot gun, from the same designers of the sonic weaponry that caused Havana syndrome!
Nasser, Qasim, Hussein, Gadaffi, Mossadegh, Árbenz. None of them communists, but all had something in common: nationalization of local industry as policy. All were also demonized, hated, and most even directly murdered by U.S. intelligence.
Empire fears the communist movement because nationalization has proven inherent to its implementation. Nationalization is the greatest fear of empire, though, as it rips production (and profit) from the stranglehold of foreign exploiters and brings it that much closer to the native toilers.
Hell, I'll take a revisionist Russia. Glad to hear they never abandoned socialism, at least.
1991 who?
It's like being a monarchist who works in retail. They think they'll be king when their revolution happens, completely oblivious to their predetermined role as serf.
"Literally everybody on the internet has a 1.4 terabyte folder full of child and animal sexual abuse material. Right, guys?"
I wonder if date r*pists justify spiking drinks by assuming everyone else in the bar is also drugging someone. I'd bet they do.
Let's hope they did.
Israel gets to play the pretend game, after all. Why shouldn't Iran?
I was once an anarcho-communist, a Trotskyist sympathizer, a Maoist, a generic "communist", on and on. It is a learning process, and we are all growing.
Don't let others' opinions on your beliefs shape them necessarily. Be cognizant of differing views, but I suggest trusting yourself first and foremost. Trust your own research, trust your own ideas, trust your own thinking skills, and don't let people confuse or confound you.
U.S.'s "National Public Radio".
Don't let the name fool you, they receive more private funding than public funding. They even got mad at Musk for slapping a "U.S. government-affiliated media" label on their Twitter account, crying, "no, in fact, we're almost 99% privately owned!" and ditching the platform.
I have liked a couple of their programs, but even their best program cannot escape the confines of the liberal braincage.
Oh, during Bush's presidency, they banned the word torture from being used in any of their pieces detailing his administration, claiming it was a loaded and biased term to describe waterboarding. So.
There is but one gamma male. Dr. David Banner—physician, scientist—searching for a way to tap into the hidden strengths that all humans have. Then an accidental overdose of gamma radiation alters his body chemistry. And now, when David Banner grows angry or outraged, a startling metamorphosis occurs. The creature is driven by rage and pursued by an investigative reporter.
The creature is wanted for a murder he didn't commit. David Banner is believed to be dead. And he must let the world think that he is dead until he can find a way to control the raging spirit that dwells within him.
I've done it before. It's not a bad idea. Thanks!
Even if the supplements don't do much, it'll make me feel less bad about missing the sun so much and placebo can do its work.
I used to like winter. I used to be depressed year-round.
Hate winter, now. Midwest blows. Convinced I have seasonal affective disorder. Convinced you're abnormal if you live in the midwest and don't have it.
I was going on walks, working out. Now I don't wanna leave the house, ever. Winter blows.
How we doing, Amerikan Maoists? [History of the Red Guard cult]
TW for all sorts of fucked up shit
>“They gaslighted individuals with mental illness, they bullied people by harassing them, they crashed meetings they were not invited to (Tafadar and Khalil had attempted to crash gender struggle sessions, demanding that everyone surrender their phones for a search and seizure, like a hostage type of move), they threatened people with violence, and abused their leadership or popularity status as a way to avoid criticisms.”
I really recommend reading this, especially to Amerikan comrades and all comrades who feel ideologically inclined towards "Marxism-Leninism-Maoism [principally Maoism]".
>...a member of RGA’s Revolutionary Student Front is confronted by other members for consistent creepy, sexist, and manipulative behavior. Jared argues for him to remain a member through undergoing “rectification” through physical violence, a method that will become a feature of the cult. Carlos agrees to rectification, not believing he will actually be assaulted. He is beaten, after which he flees the state.
It really only continues to get worse.
>“Without letters our comrade has no contact with the outside world and he continues to not receive letters from the majority of his comrades. The consistent lack of initiative has forced the PPSC to take further action against the negligible support provided to our comrade. From now on a fine of 20 dollars will be given to those who have a personal relationship with our imprisoned comrade but fail to send out at least 1 letter monthly. The 20 dollars will go in a collection to support our imprisoned comrade’s wife and child."
It gets far, far worse.
This is by far the most interesting, detailed, and horrifying exposé I've seen regarding the Red Guards. In reading it, I believe there may be valuable insight on how to prevent ourselves from getting swept up in the political games of narcissistic opportunists. It is also crucial to be able to differentiate democratic centralism from "democratic centralism", lest any of us find ourselves stuck in a situation like this.
How we doing, Amerikan Maoists? [History of the Red Guard cult]
>“They gaslighted individuals with mental illness, they bullied people by harassing them, they crashed meetings they were not invited to (Tafadar and Khalil had attempted to crash gender struggle sessions, demanding that everyone surrender their phones for a search and seizure, like a hostage type of move), they threatened people with violence, and abused their leadership or popularity status as a way to avoid criticisms.”
I really recommend reading this, especially to Amerikan comrades and all comrades who feel ideologically inclined towards "Marxism-Leninism-Maoism [principally Maoism]".
>...a member of RGA’s Revolutionary Student Front is confronted by other members for consistent creepy, sexist, and manipulative behavior. Jared argues for him to remain a member through undergoing “rectification” through physical violence, a method that will become a feature of the cult. Carlos agrees to rectification, not believing he will actually be assaulted. He is beaten, after which he flees the state.
It really only continues to get worse.
>“Without letters our comrade has no contact with the outside world and he continues to not receive letters from the majority of his comrades. The consistent lack of initiative has forced the PPSC to take further action against the negligible support provided to our comrade. From now on a fine of 20 dollars will be given to those who have a personal relationship with our imprisoned comrade but fail to send out at least 1 letter monthly. The 20 dollars will go in a collection to support our imprisoned comrade’s wife and child.”
It gets far, far worse.
This is by far the most interesting, detailed, and horrifying exposé I've seen regarding the Red Guards. In reading it, I believe there may be valuable insight on how to prevent ourselves from getting swept up in the political games of narcissistic opportunists. It is also crucical to be able to differentiate democratic centralism from "democratic centralism", lest any of us find ourselves stuck in something like this.
Television announcement comes shortly after incumbent Ali Bongo is declared president for a third term.
cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1550739
> "Gabon military officers claim power, say election lacked credibility > Television announcement comes shortly after state election body announces incumbent Ali Bongo had won a third term as president. > > A group of senior military officers has gone on national television in Gabon saying they have seized power because elections held over the weekend were not credible. > > The officers, appearing on Gabon24 in the early hours of Wednesday morning, said they had cancelled the elections, dissolved all state institutions and closed the country’s borders. > > They said they represented all security and defence forces of Gabon. > > The announcement came shortly after the state election body said President Ali Bongo Ondimba had won a third term in office in Saturday’s disputed elections. > > “In the name of the Gabonese people … we have decided to defend the peace by putting an end to the current regime,” the officers said. > > The Gabonese Election Centre said Bongo had secured 64.27 percent of the vote compared with 30.77 percent for his main challenger Albert Ondo Ossa, after a process beset by delays. > > Further Context: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/08/26/gabon-will-ali-bongo-ondimba-rule-for-another-five-years_6108971_4.html
Television announcement comes shortly after incumbent Ali Bongo is declared president for a third term.
"Gabon military officers claim power, say election lacked credibility Television announcement comes shortly after state election body announces incumbent Ali Bongo had won a third term as president.
A group of senior military officers has gone on national television in Gabon saying they have seized power because elections held over the weekend were not credible.
The officers, appearing on Gabon24 in the early hours of Wednesday morning, said they had cancelled the elections, dissolved all state institutions and closed the country’s borders.
They said they represented all security and defence forces of Gabon.
The announcement came shortly after the state election body said President Ali Bongo Ondimba had won a third term in office in Saturday’s disputed elections.
“In the name of the Gabonese people … we have decided to defend the peace by putting an end to the current regime,” the officers said.
The Gabonese Election Centre said Bongo had secured 64.27 percent of the vote compared with 30.77 percent for his main challenger Albert Ondo Ossa, after a process beset by delays.
Further Context: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/08/26/gabon-will-ali-bongo-ondimba-rule-for-another-five-years_6108971_4.html
Just weird times we live in. I didn't not expect this from CGTN necessarily, I guess I'm still pleasantly surprised.
We don't have to tail the fascist "Rage Against the War Machine". We're more popular than you think, the media just doesn't want us to know it.
Photo credit: ANSWER Coalition On March 18, the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, thousands
https://www.codepink.org/march18
Nationwide protests shot off on the 18th and 19th. Did you see any coverage?
The revolution will not be televised. RATWM is a fascist maneuvering and nothing more, attempting to recoup some of the brewing anti-war sentiment back into supporting capitalism and by extension imperialism. Libertarians, pedo "communists", and outright fascists? We don't fucking need them and I find it frustrating when people seem to think we do.
RATWM was televised because it was backed by money. Dirty, bloody money coming from the likes of the Paul political dynasty. Their pathetic little gathering was not the revolutionary moment some people seemed to imply it was. It was a farce. The people will rise up and they won't need ghoulish demagogues to pay them to.
Psyop memes are taking over social media, in particular across post-ironic meme pages, where anti-establishment currents are supercharged
> Psyop memes are taking over social media, in particular across post-ironic meme pages, where anti-establishment currents are supercharged. In the mainstream, HBO Max’s new Velma cartoon has prompted conspiracy theories that it’s a right-wing psyop, while Fox News is convinced that the M&M girlies are a Chinese psyop meant to pedal candy-coated femininity. It’s not that we’re all collectively losing our minds, although it certainly feels that way. It’s more a reaction to our increased awareness of the propaganda and subversion that we are all exposed to every day. As the late Robert Anton Wilson said all the way back in 1980: “Anyone in the United States today who isn’t paranoid must be crazy.”
I like this article.
By Stephen Sefton [Stephen Sefton has served as a community worker in Nicaragua for 28 years. Since 2008, he has coordinated the web site Tortilla con Sal which follows events in Nicaragua and the region.] (This article was first published by Tortilla con Sal on October 23, 2022.) In Nicaragua...
The Prime Minister of Poland has called an emergency meeting following the explosion.
Oh. No.
Update: Russia denies striking Poland https://www.rt.com/russia/566589-russia-no-strikes-on-poland/
Hope they fucking melt it down and construct a statue of Stalin stepping on Bandera's throat. Get shit on, Ukronazis.
Seriously, did not expect this much easily comparable shit coming out of the mouths of elites. It's the same exact rhetoric used by conservatives and other anti-communist mouthpieces today.
I never disagreed that Amerika was Rome 2.0., but wow did I not know the extent of it. First tragedy, then farce.
Polybius and Cicero really be out here saying "we should take the best of both capitalism AND socialism" in the years of our lord ~200-40 B.C.
Not trying to bad-talk another community...
But Jesus fucking Christ the Genzedong/genhoxha discord is giving me huge reddit vibes. I understand that it has a more direct connection to the subreddit proper so it makes sense... but I don't even want to call some of these people comrades. Lemmygrad seems pretty good at formenting actual discussion even if I roll my eyes at the occasional back-handed comment. The discorders are seemingly ready to leap at each others' throats over the mildest criticisms, including going so far as to extrapolate the absolute worst conclusions they can imagine without allowing the other person a chance to elaborate. Also, for such a seemingly thorough vetting process, there definitely exists a clique of people with nothing but disdain for AES and definitely people with no idea what they're talking about making super inflammatory and frankly ridiculous statements/accusations.
It just feels so damn memey and I'm probably gonna leave. I see no worthwhile conversation happening on there, just 30-character twitter-style epic lib pwning with a refusal to engage in good faith with other communists. Like I said, not trying to shit on them or anything, just frustrated. If owning other communists online is your thing, more power to you I guess. Shit just makes me feel dirty sometimes and like I don't belong.
Idk if this kind of post isn't allowed as it's literally bad mouthing another community, I'm just pretty upset about the experience.
Good deconstruction of neoliberalism as well as UK history that better conceptualizes it.
Like a lot of critics, I often found myself falling into the same rhetorical pitfall of categoriizing neoliberalism as not that dissimilar from classical liberalism, akin to Hoover's economic policies in the U.S., but there are meaningful differences that often get swept under the rug that only benefit libertarians and proponents of said classical liberals in their obfuscation. Kay does a brilliant job at underlining the differences here.
BBC report: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-62967381
A better source’s report: https://english.alaraby.co.uk/news/khamenei-aide-visits-mahsa-aminis-family-media
Tudeh (communist) Party of Iran statement: https://www.tudehpartyiran.org/en/2022/09/20/statement-of-the-tudeh-party-of-iran-down-with-the-dictator-there-is-no-end-to-the-regimes-murderous-thuggery/
A woman was seemingly murdered by the IRI’s religious police after being taken into custody for not wearing her hijab “properly”. Iranian officials deny this and claim she died of a heart attack. Looks like no one is buying this line.
Danny Haiphong thinks a color revolution is underway because of Iran’s pivot to the east. I haven’t seen this sort of line taken by anyone else yet, but I’m more keen to trust the Tudeh Party than a non-Iranian, as much as Haiphong is usually right. From my understanding and their own statements, Tudeh is not clamoring for some relationship with the West and are very aware of and against NATO, EU and U.S. imperialism. I doubt they’d be in favor of these protests if they thought they were spearheaded by western NGOs.
Lots of protests all over the country. Many chants recorded such as “long live socialism, long live communism” and “death to the dictator, down with Khamenei”. Complicating matters is that the murdered woman was Kurdish-Iranian and fittingly a lot of the protests began in heavily Kurdish regions of Iran. This is not to dismiss the plight of Kurdish people or their capacity for revolutionary struggle, but Kurds have been insidiously used and abused by the West to forment ethnic tensions in Iraq, Turkey, Syria and elsewhere before, and western media outlets are seemingly attempting to continue that legacy by drawing a clear divide by Iranian Kurds and non-Kurds.
There is a fog of reporting currently, with a lot of protest info being relayed to western media by Chatham House, a British think tank known recently as having been pushing a lot of anti-Russia stuff. U.S. officials also immediately “demanded accountability” of Iran and claimed the act was “unforgiveable”.
Any MENA comrades have thoughts? Do you think this could be a revolutionary moment, or a cynical attempt by NGOs to weaken Iran after they’ve closened to China?
On "degrowth"...
I know very little about this subject. I had someone I know tell me a few months ago that for socialism to be sustainable, and to solve the climate crisis, U.S.ians are going to need to give up almost all A/C. They pointed out the fact that Amerikans are crybabies and even most of Western Europe does not use A/C.
However, with Greece and Spain recently having caught on fire and with heat waves devouring the nations, as well as stories regarding people in hotter regions in the U.S. dying from heat stroke in their own homes because they couldn't afford their electricity bills, this read as sort of Maoist-lite, petty-bourgeois radicalism to me shifting blame on individuals when there are so many systemic industries contributing astronomically to the worsening climate. I was wondering, is A/C usage so detrimental as to necessitate its destruction? Should not the focus be on larger, more destructive industries and actually increasing the availability and affordability of A/C to hotter regions? Should scientific focus be moreso on creating a green A/C?
Like I said, almost no knowledge. Feel free to roast my ass (pun slightly intended).
<p>Since Lukashenko came to power, Belarus has embarked on the road of market socialism, in which privatization has been halted, and the dominant position of state-owned economic components in the national economy has been established; a vertically managed and eff...
As have I. I found a really elucidating peer-reviewed article written by some Chinese comrades regarding what they believe China can learn from Belarusian "Market Socialism". It goes over their economy, foreign policy and increased standards of living for the Belarusian people. I'm curious what comrades think.
I'm certainly more in the ideological camp of traditional Marxist-Leninists wrt economic matters, but it's neat to see that perhaps Belarus hasn't wholesale abandoned their socialist project, even if there are facets communists may disagree with.
So difficult to find sympathetic fiction online. Currently looking at a book called The Sympathizer by a Vietnamese author about a pro-Vietnamese double agent living in Amerika, seems interesting. Every other search result is anti-communist piss splattered over pages and sold as "gripping, realistic, startlingly accurate".
Even if it's bad writing or whatever, I'm curious if any of y'all know some explicitly or implicitly communist fiction worth checking out.