I think a reasonable reading of the texts is that an armed proletarian militia is fundamental to Marxism-Leninism.

Marx's Demands of the Communist Party of Germany

Universal arming of the people. In future armies shall at the same time be workers’ armies so that the armed forces will not only consume, as in the past, but produce even more than it costs to maintain them.

Marx in his work on the Paris Commune

The Commune made that catchword of bourgeois revolutions – cheap government – a reality by destroying the two greatest sources of expenditure: the standing army and state functionarism" and "in the rural districts the standing army was to be replaced by a national militia

Lenin in *The Military Programme of the Proletarian Revolution *

Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

In this text, Lenin reäffirms the traditional Marxist call for a proletarian militia against some Eurocommunists who call for disarmament instead of a militia. Lenin argues that, "Socialists cannot, without ceasing to be socialists, be opposed to all war. Firstly, socialists have never been, nor can they ever be, opposed to revolutionary wars."

He points out that the police and armed forces in capitalist countries are the teeth with which the bourgeoisie bite the proles. This is shown in the use of armed forces against strikes. Lenin argues the correct response is a proletarian armed force (against the bourgeoisie) not disarmament. To disagree with this "is tantamount of complete abandonment of the class-struggle point of view, to renunciation of all thought of revolution".

"Our slogan must be: arming of the proletariat to defeat, expropriate and disarm the bourgeoisie."

"On the question of a militia, we should say: We are not in favor of a bourgeois militia; we are in favor only of a proletarian militia."

Lenin in A Proletarian Militia

He argues that the capitalists are mostly concerned to "safeguard the old instruments of oppression: the police, the bureaucracy, the standing army"

"Yet now of all times, at the present revolutionary moment, it is most urgent and essential that there be a universal arming of the people. To assert that, while we have a revolutionary army, there is no need to arm the proletariat, or that there would “not be enough” arms to go round, is mere deception and trickery. The thing is to begin organising a universal militia straight away, so that everyone should learn the use of arms even if there is “not enough” to go round, for it is not at all necessary that the people have enough weapons to arm everybody."

"This ideal has not only become a part of our programme, it has not only won a place in the history of the labour movement in the West, namely, in the experience of the Paris Commune; it has not only been evaluated, stressed, explained and recommended by Marx, but it was actually put into practice by the Russian workers in the years 1905 and 1917." (this really drives home how inseparable the idea of the people's militia was to Marxism)

Lenin in Concerning a Proletarian Militia

Comrade Lenin states that "we will not be able to maintain power unless we counter the magnificent organisation of the entire Russian bourgeoisie and the entire bourgeois intelligentsia with an equally magnificent organisation of the proletariat"

He says that "Organisation is the slogan of the moment" but that doesn't mean politely organising within the limits set by capitalist laws. It means the kind of organising that scares the bourgeoisie.

"We need revolutionary government, we need (for a certain transitional period) a state. This is what distinguishes us from the anarchists. The difference between the revolutionary Marxists and the anarchists is not only that the former stand for centralised, large-scale communist production, while the latter stand for disconnected small production. The difference between us precisely on the question of government, of the state, is that we are for, and the anarchists against, utilising revolutionary forms of the state in a revolutionary way for the struggle for socialism."

A people's militia is contrasts with armed police and army (bourgeois institutions): "We need a state, but not the kind the bourgeoisie needs, with organs of government in the shape of a police force, an army and a bureaucracy (officialdom) separate from and opposed to the people. All bourgeois revolutions merely perfected this state machine, merely transferred it from the hands of one party to those of another."

Lenin, following Marx, advocates "merging the police force, the army and the bureaucracy with the entire armed people. Following the path indicated by the experience of the Paris Commune of 1871 and the Russian Revolution of 1905, the proletariat, must organise and arm all the poor, exploited sections of the population in order that they themselves should take the organs of state power directly into their own hands, in order that they themselves should constitute these organs of state power."

Lenin saying All Coppers Are Bastards: "Prevent restoration of the police force! Do not let the local government bodies slip out of your hands! Set up a militia that will really embrace the entire people, be really universal, and be led by the proletariat!"

And some gender equality stuff in case that wasn't obvious: "What kind of militia do we need, the proletariat, all the toiling people? A genuine people’s militia, i.e., one that, first, consists of the entire population, of all adult citizens of both sexes; and, second, one that combines the functions of a people’s army with police functions, with the functions of the chief and fundamental organ of public order and public administration... St. Petersburg has a population of about two million. Of these, more than half are between the ages of 15 and 65. Take half—one million. Let us even subtract an entire fourth as physically unfit, etc., taking no part in public service at the present moment for justifiable reasons. There remain 750,000 who, serving in the militia, say one day in fifteen (and receiving their pay for this time from their employers), would form an army of 50,000. That’s the type of “state” we need!" (These numbers are, as Comrade Lenin notes, just to give a general idea.)

Arm the people with Glock 19s, a more gender-neutral gun than Glock 17s

Lenin: The Tasks of the Proletariat in Our Revolution

Stressing again the militia as the anti-police, the democratic antidote to policing: "The substitution of a people’s militia for the police is a reform that follows from the entire course of the revolution and that is now being introduced in most parts of Russia. We must explain to the people that in most of the bourgeois revolutions of the usual type, this reform was always extremely short-lived, and that the bourgeoisie—even the most democratic and republican—restored the police of the old, tsarist type, a police divorced from the people, commanded by the bourgeoisie and capable of oppressing the people in every way."

The cop point again, and some rough numbers again: "There is only one way to prevent the restoration of the police, and that is to create a people’s militia and to fuse it with the army (the standing army to be replaced by the arming of the entire people). Service in this militia should extend to all citizens of both sexes between the ages of fifteen and sixty-five without exception, if these tentatively suggested age limits may be taken as indicating the participation of adolescents and old people. Capitalists must pay their workers, servants, etc., for days devoted to public service in the militia. Unless women are brought to take an independent part not only in political life generally, but also in daily and universal public service, it is no use talking about full and stable democracy, let alone socialism. And such “police” functions as care of the sick and of homeless children, food inspection, etc., will never be satisfactorily discharged until women are on an equal footing with men, not merely nominally but in reality."

Excuse the mess.... where do you guys honestly think?

And have you ever had the kratom "wobbles" before?

Dirt owl repeatedly pecked me and bit me

I see this term thrown around. I swear to God, with my limited knowledge of the world, this makes no literal sense to me. I'm not trying to be snarky, but it sounds like China has too many friends and this is imperialism, but obviously this isn't the meaning.

So through a variety of work-related drama that really doesn't matter, my direct manager's position has opened up. I've essentially been doing the job but without the title for a fair bit of time so I decided I might as well try to get the position officially. I later found out that the position I applied for isn't actually a union position and it's kinda made me start rethinking things, as far as I'm aware it shouldn't actually affect the benefits or hours, just a non-union unit manager position.

Doesn't need to be vegan but it can be

Thought I'd check out PeerTube and see how it's going over there. Thoughts?

is the bar that low? :brow:

For me it's Coke, Flaming hot cheetohs, synders pretzel bites and anything... like... microwavable pizza esque. Like hot pockets, bagel bites, pizza rolls etc

asking because I heard a story about it on the radio when getting lunch and I thought it was the dumbest shit I've heard all day. people are paying $50k to clone their dead dogs?? bro they are like $50 at the pound just get a stray....

the researcher being interviewed relayed a story about how this woman got her pet horse cloned but, upon the clone's birth, she was like "uhh I expected you to keep it until it was at least a few years old?? i don't want a BABY clone" ngjrgthjrdgfh

Paris Hilton cloned her chihuahua into two dogs??

no one knows where they get the 'breeding' dogs?? apparently they 'rent' the dogs from breeders across the country?? and also 'rent' the egg donor dogs?? seems pretty fucked up!!!

anyways here if you're interested: https://www.viagenpets.com/

this is the specific NPR podcast I was listening to on the radio (it's the most recent 'Should You Clone Your Dog'): https://www.npr.org/podcasts/478859728/think

the researcher's article in the New Yorker which is also a good read: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/07/01/would-you-clone-your-dog

It’s possible to see dog cloning as merely an extension of what is already a bizarre and highly unnatural process. In Fort Worth, Texas, I met a clone of a dog called Eudoris. The clone’s owner, Jeff, who didn’t want his last name used, was on the phone as I approached, but Eudoris 2—or E2, as he’s known—turned to look at me. His body was shaped like a German shepherd’s, but he lacked the swayed back of the kennel-club German-shepherd lines, whose hind legs buckle in a way that people liken to frog legs. E2’s face was more vulpine, too. I made a sound of greeting to him, and he folded his ears back. Within half a minute, he had turned his rump toward me beseechingly, the universal dog body language for requesting a scratch above the tail.

The original Eudoris was a mix of a Belgian Malinois and a Dutch shepherd, and had been bred by Joshua Morton, a trainer of tactical working dogs, who felt that Eudoris was the ideal specimen. He had ViaGen clone him, and not just once. Thirty-five clones have been made from Eudoris so far. Jeff got E2 as a protection dog for his wife, who travels frequently to compete in rodeos. E2 was their second Eudoris clone. The first, E4, drowned in an irrigation ditch four months after they got him. Jeff and Morton felt that E4 was so special that they sent some of his tissue to ViaGen. Since then, Morton has used E4’s cells to clone yet another line of dogs, which he dubs the Red Squadron Myrmidons, called M1, M2, and so on. “The DNA of M1 is the same as the DNA of E1 through E-whatever,” Jeff said. “And the same as Eudoris Actual, the biological Eudoris.” Hearing his name, E2 began wagging his tail.

bro cloned his dog 35 TIMES??????????? 'drowned in an irrigation ditch four months after they got him' is doing a lot of leg work in that last paragraph.

anyways, discuss - would you clone your dog/outdoor cat after it gets mauled by a coyote or tire/horse/ferret???? why? is this not real 'All that is holy is profaned' hours???

She responded to accusations of being a Nazi by posting she's proud of "white culture" and I'd like to quit consuming her stuff.

Like in terms of climate change, political climate, wars, etc.

If you spend 5 minutes on facebook, every hog in the imperial core wants to impress their overlord by incinerating $15 on a t-shirt.

What's the best design or messaging to actually do marketing into the hog-o-sphere?

A kind user from Lemmygrad recommended me DataAnnotation, which I'm sure some of you may have heard of. I got accepted into DataAnnotation, and it's generally been going incredibly well for me. Unfortunately, however, I recently went through a moment in which any access to work or projects I had was completely wiped.

In getting in contact with the aforementioned Lemmygradder, they told me that this is not really too uncommon of an experience and it doesn't necessarily mean that termination is the likely outcome. She thinks that I'll be doing just fine, and seeing as how it's a Sunday, she told me that by some weekday such as Tuesday, things will likely be back to normal as they might just be doing a manual review of my work on the platform.

This has all been a major scare for me because I had a sense of suspicion that the reason why DataAnnotation is reviewing my work is that I've worked a lot of hours as of late. As a matter of fact, the most amount of hours I've worked in a single day within the past 10 days or so was roughly 13 and a half hours. Sounds crazy, right? Well, such a value didn't come about in the way you may think.

I've been having an incredibly inverse sleep schedule that has led me to stay up past midnight somewhat frequently. I adopted a practice in which I have told myself, "If I'm gonna stay up late, I might as well stay up late doing something productive," and this would lead me to work from around midnight to however long. Once I'm unable to keep my eyes open, I go to sleep in some early part of the morning like 6, 7, or 8 AM for instance, and I'd typically wake up in the evening and work even more.

What this means is that, for instance, if I worked 6.75 hours in that first portion where I was working after midnight and 6.75 hours in the evening after I woke up, even though all of this activity, including work, sleep, and work again, would've been spread out through nearly a whole damn 24 hours, this would mean that 13.5 hours would get recorded in a single day according to my time log on the website.

What I find so funny about this is that DataAnnotation themselves advertise "work whenever you want" and "work however much you want" as some of their strongest selling points. It's also extremely ironic that, on top of this, they require you to log your own time, as they do not track it for you. Mind you, there could be concerns for people inflating logged hours, I get it, but that isn't me.

I strived to abide by their demands and ensure that I wasn't in violation of any part of their code of conduct, and you know what? I don't believe that I was. Regardless, it's absurdly disingenuous for a company to advertise "You can work any amount of time you want at whatever time you want! 😃👍" as one of their strong pros and then turn around to get skeptical of people who take advantage of that exact fucking benefit. And no, DataAnnotation isn't transparent about any of this either. They have absolutely no coherent explanation in any form of communication that touches on what something like having an empty dashboard after previously having a dashboard full of work can mean for the worker.

I've been working so much because I have been trying so damn hard to get into this new apartment complex that I found, and that has been incredibly motivating for me to work such lengthy hours. I have been living in this really poor residence where I hardly feel safe anywhere outside of my room, so even if it could be an unlikely outcome, having any bit of fear whatsoever that I may have lost a job that's going incredibly well for me is destructive.

It makes me distraught, extremely mentally unstable, and honestly concerned to a highly intense degree regarding how much I'll be able to keep myself together. Unlike most people, due to me being black and trans, I have absolutely no family and really not too many people IRL in general to turn to in instances where I need any kind of support, be it practical support or emotional support.

I'm so thankful that this Lemmygradder recommended this job for me and that it has been going as well as it's been going, but I'm sure that many of you know, before I started working doing DataAnnotation, that I've been struggling constantly to find a job as a black trans person in Florida. I'd apply for jobs that the general public would condescendingly perceive as "unskilled labor," such as being a barista, a waiter, or a grocery store cashier, and not a single one of these places had any interest in hiring me whatsoever, despite me literally having experience in such jobs!

This horrendous scare of possibly losing my job with DataAnnotation is so damn daunting that it's bringing my mental health down to the lowest it has been in a minute, and the outcome of that will not be fucking good for me as a person who has zero support in my personal life.

All that out, as I asked in the title, because I desire at least some kind of backup plan if the worst has truly occurred, does anyone here know any WFH gigs that I can apply for as an alternative? I honestly would greatly prefer to do WFH jobs, as like I said, I'm a black trans person in Florida who has practically zero hope that I could ever get hired at an in-person job. All support in whichever way possible is greatly appreciated.

In , the , and now the the ruling parties have essentially decided to give up on this year's elections. What are they trying to avoid being blamed for? Is it more than just a global recession? Wrong answers preferred.

Does anyone know what episode of Chapo foretold the Biden presidency? I’ve only heard later references to it. I think it might have been in 2016.