askchapo

My uncle asked me for a primer on socialism. I was thinking maybe Socialism Made Easy or Socialism: Utopian and Scientific. Anything that might be better?

For context my whole family are through and through vote blue liberals. It's sad to say but most of them didn't even like/vote for Bernie during the primary cycles. They aren't really hardcore anticommunists though and have always been good on unions and labor generally, moreso the problem is really anti-Trump/pro-Dem brainworms. Maybe there's something more modern to share that I don't know of.

Is there even a difference? Cat i found for size comparison👍

What are the methods you've found to make the most amount of money with the least effort? In Germany it seems that draining the government of funding is a great way to get rich. More specifically, getting paid to present shitty video game prototypes. This one managed to gather up 176.776€:

Any other ideas? My dream job is to one day become a perma-NEET. But first I gotta find a way.

Especially in the modern context in the year of our lord 2024. Is it relevant? What do I need to know about it ?

EDIT : Thanks everyone for this really informative thread.

Assuming that its accomplishments include moving manufacturing back into the US and securing the border, what good could come of a populist movement? The interests of the American labor aristocracy would just be consolidated with Imperialism to an even greater extent, and any conflict against China would see no resistance from organized labor because of the incestuous relation of the MIC and organized labor. Any anti-war movement would have no power at all, there would be no positive argument for stopping the conflict when it keeps everyone employed as contrast to the current state of unemployment and precarious work.

Potential benefits include the cessation of the export of capital, less capacity for the US to project power across the world, and less state repression of anti-imperialist movements. But I can't help but think that if the US pulled its production out of Asia, South America, Africa, and the Pacific, it would redo Gladio/Bloodstone to prop up fascists to hold down anti-imperialist movements, or create a dozen Israels to keep a way to quickly kill nascent revolutions. Am I wrong?

I'll give mine to get the ball rolling.

There was a user that, before getting banned, declared that every single living human being alive on Earth right now should not exist because no one had the benefit of a pre-conception device on hand to somehow determine each individual's consent to exist before they started to exist.

I don't know if that take would make David Benatar blush, make David Benatar cackle with glee, or if that was posted by David Benatar himself.

How did it go? What did you learn?

I have a good friend who is generally good politically, not one of us but not bad. A socdem who is aware enough to know NATO is bad and Palestine deserves justice etc.

They’re very strong on feminism, advanced. More than me by far and I value their pov on feminism. A lot.

But they have Islamophobe brainworms. Mostly surrounding sexual violence in Europe by Muslims. They have a suite of rage bait statistics or anecdotes of sexual violence by Muslim men in Europe.

“See this isolated and context-free statistic which shows really the problem is Islam and the cultural values of these immigrants.”

The discussion for them becomes rooted in feminism.

“Why should women pay the price for all the sexual violence Muslim men bring with them? Honor killings are 100% Muslim!”

“X% of rapes are by muslims when they are only Y% of the population.”

“Why are all the immigrants men? We should ban the male refugees from these places, but as a good pro-refugee progressive we should allow the women and children in because they aren’t a problem.”

It’s tempting to try and fight this on data but I think that would kind of be conceding the deeper clash of civilizations argument in some way?

It’s also tempting to fight this on the grounds of material circumstances and point out that gender equality largely follows economic development but then that’s really just entirely conceding to the world view that Islamic immigration is an affliction upon European women for several generations until they assimilate.

I think a core problem here is that I am completely disconnected and unaware of what feminism looks like in the Muslim worlds and so I can’t speak to or challenge the underlying Islamophobia.

Of course there are issues with patriarchy in the Islamic world and when my friend points to the veil in Iran being enforced by the religious police and it’s impossible for me to deny that and I completely agree with them (while disagreeing with them insofar as I totally accept many Muslim women choose to wear it but then it becomes a complex go-nowhere discussion about peer pressure and bikinis) but then there’s this bridge from that true fact to the assertion that Islamic men are a threat to European women which is just like woah man wtf.

How do I approach this? Where’s my Muslim-world feminist perspective at? What are some considered debunks or analyses of the use of isolated statistics on sexual violence?

Like the best internet gotcha would be a statistical analysis that simply debunks the sexual violence statistics and that would be helpful but I believe there’s a deeper Islamophobia and sense of western cultural supremacy, clash of civilizations, thesis that they don’t explicitly acknowledge and I sense that feminism is being abused to ennoble that.

And on the flip side, I’m a male. I’m very unlikely to be a victim of sexual violence at this point in my life. I’m not going to be a victim of an honor killing. Do I have privilege I need to check here?

Overall I think the best would be for me to discover and learn feminist theory and female perspectives from Muslim / Arabic / Palestinian / Iranian / Afghan / Pakistani authors, both in the “Muslim world” and from those living in the west.

Maybe it would also be useful to look at how panic about black men raping women was used and is used to justify racial oppression as a consciousness raising exercise?

Considered feminist critiques of Islam?

Considered feminist critiques of Islamophobia in Europe?

Hows every bear doing tonight?

Yes, yes I know we're already kind of there, but I mean without the current infighting and clash between finance vampires and industrial vampires and other gridlock factors.

Fascism burns itself out fast with the constant need to purge and loot until nothing is left, so I know even 20 years of unmitigated fascism is a stretch. Still, what do you think a "they get absolutely everything they want, fire all US government employees and replace them at the low echelon with Billy Bob, the middle echelon with James Holden Bloodfeast III, and their favorite Youtubers at the top echelon" complete and total MAGA victory might look like?

Try to hold it together and stretch your sense of disbelief that the hogs get the feed they've been squealing for, from mere reappropriated resources (the way nazis murdered and looted and redistributed to their favorite failfamilies) or even something surreal like the incel supporters actually getting government issued slaves while destroying all other safety nets entirely, if you dare. After all, Dr. Professor Lobster Esquire PhD MD says that's the price of civilization, bucko.

Let's be generous and assume no outright nuclear war, just so there's something to actually visualize other than a more actually historically accurate version of the Fallouterino treats.

What about Beanwas?

im half white and half indigenous american. I ended up looking like a Sicilian or a spainard or something.

i find im often fetizhed by white women who like "tall and dark" or "exotic"

any other mixed dudes with the same experience?

its like... no im not an 'exotic' white guy ot whatever it is you have in your head, im me and im 2 ethnicitys.

if not somebody should create one!!

like a Firefox for dating.

if our communist comrades made it, we could slip in commie propaganda and sex positive stuff too. and you could still make money off of generic ads in the app that like, sex toy makers purchase, or cheap ads for like Democracy Now! etc.

I mean actual proper research, not CIA propaganda. I want to learn what truly was censored, both when it comes to politics and culture like books or film, and actual material reasons why.

Preferably stuff that destroys the typical Western bullshit about no freeze peach lol, I want to put it against Western censhorship and propaganda.

I get pretty frustrated when someone walks slower than me and keeps lurching back and forth so I can't overtake. Idk why, might miss bus maybe.

I don't say or do anything, though sometimes I nip onto the road or between some tight terrain to overtake

World

• MintPress News
• The Grayzone
• Geopolitical Economy Report
• World Socialist Website
• Al Mayadeen
• Monthly Review
• ZNetwork
• Uncaptured Media
• Marxist Left Review
• Pearls and Irritations
• In Defense of Communism
• teleSUR English
• ProleWiki
• Consortium News
• Caitlin Johnstone
• The Tricontinental
• CovertAction Magazine
• People's World
• Working Class History
• History is a Weapon

US

• Jacobin
• The Intercept
• Liberation News
• Democracy Now!
• Accuracy.org
• Seymour Hersh

UK

England

• Declassified UK
• Novara Media
• Morning Star

Wales

• Nation.Cymru

Palestine

• Electronic Intifada
• Palestine Chronicle
• Mondoweiss
• Oct 7 Factcheck
• +972 Mag

​Canada

• The Maple
• Breach Media
• PressProgress
• The Canada Files
• Canadian Dimension
• Ricochet
• The Tyee
• Canadian Anti-Hate Network
• People's Voice
• Communist Party of Canada
• New Democratic Party
• Policy Options
• Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada

Haiti

• Haiti Liberté

Australia

• Red Flag
• Independent Australia
• The Guardian
• Green Left
• Solidarity Online
• Australian Communist Party

I think that was his name. He just popped up on my YouTube recommended videos with an hour long video replying to a Hakim video about Ukraine. Not sure if it's countering or adding onto.

The only people who pop up on my recommended list tend to be pretty cool because my algorithm has got me pretty figured out (it's how I discovered Hakim and other leftist video essayists in the first place, and recently revolutionaryth0t who I think has good potential), so normally I'd just give him a chance but that's a long video to watch for a new content creator, and if he sucks I don't want to discover by going through all his videos in case the algorithm thinks that means I like him lol.

Has the algorithm kept up its good streak or messed up this time? I don't mind watching if he's a lib, as long as he has more good takes than bad takes, or is otherwise educating and entertaining enough (like I'd categorize Wisecrack or Some More News, or lots of non-political channels).

I feel like I've actually encountered some Libs IRL and in other online spaces who at least sounded more intelligent. Every one that wanders in here just insists that their right, cites Wikipedia, and tries to troll people like a 14 year old who stole their moms laptop.

You think we'd occasionally get a somewhat more articulate one there but I've yet yo see it.

just being in the midwest, thats what i mostly date, and theyre nothing special.

Theyre just people like any other woman.

I recently acquired a whiteboard and so far I like using it as a way to help me focus when developing ideas I have, but the random markers that came with it are second hand and at this point suck. Does anyone have any recommendations for good markers or should I just grab expo markers or something?

I genuinely feel like America bombing the hell out of so many countries in Africa just naturally would endear those countries to anyone except America and their Western vassals, but apparently a lot of twitter users can't seem to comprehend that.

Is whatever debt these countries incur worse than the IMF? Are the consequences anywhere near as bad?

I usually like to start from the position that the leaders of these countries know what they're doing (something Western twitter users don't), so I personally doubt it's anywhere near as bad as people claim, and no matter how bad it is, I don't believe for a moment it could be as bad as the IMF.