news

I don't think so? I think the situation is still relatively okay and I'm optimistic about the future of the Resistance. The massive damage done to Israel isn't suddenly reversed because a bad thing, even a very bad thing, happens. That's simply not how material conditions develop. It's a race to the bottom; as Israel internally decays, it must take increasingly brazen and risky actions to survive. The South Africa model is being followed to its inevitable conclusion. Destabilize surrounding countries in the hopes that everybody else will fall before you do. It won't work, but ideologically, there's no other way for Israel to go.

What happens next will be defined by Iran and Russia's response. The ball is in their court. If there has been no strategic developments or recalculations within the next few months or so then we can infer a lot of things from that.

You can have hope, or you can say that actually, the Resistance never had a chance anyway and swear that you'll never predict any good event ever happening ever again: the internal emotional state of internet commenters doesn't matter to anybody actually fighting against Israel. You're obviously allowed to have strong emotions about it, it would be kinda weird if you didn't, but your opinion of events cannot influence them. My goal here remains the same; to observe and understand how anti-imperialists act, and respond to actions, by a decaying neoliberal hegemon. I'll be here as long as there are anti-imperialists in this world, which means I'll be here indefinitely, because there will always be those who oppose the ruling order. Regardless of what happens in the Middle East, as communists, we (including myself) should aim to do at least a little better than defeatism. It's why I admire @xiaohongshu@hexbear.net; they might be rather pessimistic on the whole, but they don't just show up and bleat about how it's all hopeless and there's no way for China or Iran or Russia to win, they are reading and studying to understand the geopolitical situation and what avenues exist for imperialism to be defeated if China is willing to do X, Y, or Z. To take a section from this essay I recently summarized and posted:

The Demiurge Does Not Exist; or, the Problem With Pessimism:

This is a frequent problem in political media, or media in general: simply depicting a problem is not enough. Portraying or pointing to the inequalities and abuses of capitalism has to come with the practical solutions to these problems, otherwise it is an exercise in despair – an informed despair, yet despair nonetheless.

This is critique as exposure, shining a light on the problems as opposed to demonstrating the fallibility of these problems. Something missing from documentaries and books [like war exposes] is the premise that despite the overwhelming power of the U.S Empire, it is inevitable that it will fall. The brilliance of a work like Marx’s Capital is that it demonstrates the sheer power of capitalism, its ability to extract immense quantities of wealth and social control, while simultaneously showing the power of labour, the protagonist who will break its chains and bring in the next necessary stage in human development.

...

The power of capitalism, the appearance of an all-powerful Demiurge, is undone when we are able to recognise the world as changing over time; this is the Hegelian and Marxist notion of “History”, a dynamic process based on interconnected and material struggles, rather than “history”, a collection of isolated events with no underlying logic.

Without an understanding of how quantitative changes turn into qualitative changes, it is easy to see small wins as isolated, without their transformative potential in aggregate. A lack of process thinking creates “Messianism”, the belief that the world should be changed in one fell swoop; this binary logic is endemic to Western thought and a major factor in the pessimism seen among the Left. A combination of intense pessimism towards the construction of socialism in the short-term, and an intense utopian optimism that the revolution should arrive “all-at-once”, is a fundamental issue that prevents a grounded understanding.

Sorry to reveal my inner LOTR nerd, but quite possibly my single favourite quote in all of media is Aragorn's words after losing Gandalf in Moria:

“‘We must do without hope,’ he said. ‘At least we may yet be avenged. Let us gird ourselves and weep no more! Come! We have a long road, and much to do.'”

I'm now imagining Assad with a long white beard and wizard hat, which isn't a happy thought. Nasrallah fits that look better.