Barx

lemmy.world got most of its users from the summer Reddit exodus. They are mostly people who care more about whether they can use their favorite Reddit app than other humans. And their admins/mods just want to be another Reddit, which is to say they socially and administratively enforce a political boundary that includes polite or socially acceptable fascism (e.g. Azov Batallion) but discludes sassy (or not) socialists. Being cringe edgelord atheists is perfectly on brand.

They've had free rein on this particular issue since Russia invaded. Reddit, like liberaps everywhere, went Azov Slava Ukraini.

DOTA 2 is the People's MOBA.

I have literally never seen a liberal care about what has been done to Yemen. I've been bringing it up in various spaces since 2016 and it is usually met with apathy. Once, someone got very angry with me for even mentioning it because it was getting in the way of their agenda. But never an empathetic response.

I think most liberals only have empathy for people overseas when their political masters have provided explicit permission.

I prioritize it enough to be healthy and have time for family, friends, and organizing, but will put up with a lot to improve my housing security.

You've got imposter syndrome. Lots of people have it. It's just our brains working against us to exaggerate our sense of inadequacy and then use this to get in the way of doing entirely reasonable and feasible things like reading some books.

For context, to be a socialist means recognizing the falsehoods of liberalism and working against them. Liberalism is hegemonic, though, so that means defenders of liberalism only need to rely on prevailing wisdom and clichés while we inevitably need to know a bunch of stuff to get through to them. Though don't be fooled by that one condescending person! If they were in any way competemt or purposeful about building socialism they would have supported you in joining their way of seeing things, not made you feel like you aren't even a leftist - assuming you weren't saying anything highly reactionary. Anyone that regularly does org work with community recognizes the liberal impulse to dunk on people that don't need dunking on and trains their members to not do that.

I've known lots of people in your boat. The only way I've ever seen them work through it is by building confidence by doing work with an org and by reading the theory that had made them insecure to not know. Not that it was easy. Some did org work and felt insecure for over a year because they didn't dedicate time to reading. But once they did, they felt better and better. I think it helps that other people they felt intimidated by didn't actually know that much, that just reading 3 books put them in a better place to understand theory than the person that made them feel less than. For example, one person's critic was a Trot that wasn't even in an org doing anything and had a series of bad takes that became obvious in hindsight.

Something that helps is by not letting org work or reading be too big of a hurdle. You don't need to run a committee or read Das Kapital right away.

Here is a doable alternative for org work: identify an org by going to an action and asking how you can help. It's okay to dip your toes in. If all you do is support other people in the org by being nice to them and helping out with logistics (taking notes, transporting materials, etc) you will still be very helpful!

Here is a doable alternative for reading theory: read 1 (1) short book over the next few months. Something like Blackshirts and Reads that is written in modern language and is low on jargon. Take some notes on key ideas in each chapter that resonated with you, or just some bullet points.

Okay my comment is getting too long so I'll wrap it up. Don't think of my comment as just saying, "go read theory", because I'm not nagging you or being flippant! I'm still suggesting reading but it is because this is a good way to break through how you are feeling. In this case, you can make the impossible feel possible by doing it in small pieces and at your own pace. And you should also forgive yourself both for your perceived inadequacy (it is valid to feel overwhelmed) and for your reticence. These are common feelings but you don't deserve them. You're already wanting to fight the good fight, there are just some barriers, and, like most people, one of them is your own brain!

Please feel free to PM me if you prefer that, I have worked with and mentored many people in your boat. Replying (or not) here is also totally cool.

In this case it's not being unserious it's just being a dishonest genocide supporter that needs to fool her constituents into thinking she isn't one.

🐕

While appointing buffoons and neocons is compatible with saying, "look at the blatant incompetence and cruelty, this will degrade the state faster", I think there is something to be said for the accelerationism of the Biden administration's approach of career ghouls that know how to pull the levers of power and keep their constituencies docile.

While Dems and the GOP should be understood as two factions in the same team, I think the most accelerationist policies are to stay the course on neoliberalism and to foment a split between the imperialist bloc and one led by China etc. Trump offers incoherence on the former while Biden offers pure commitment to neoliberalism. Trump offers ham-fisted attempts for the latter, which strengthens any anti-US bloc and makes them more comfortable earlier while Biden seeks to implement the plans of State Department ghouls, trying to build the split along a material basis, e.g. using Ukraine to peel off Europe, hightening actual mechanisms for war and direct confrontation.

It is likely paper and cardboard thst has not gone through processes to remove smelly components. Likely some phenols or as the other commenter mentioned, butyrate. Cheap recycled paper and cardboard often has these smells, especially if it gets wet.

Mutual aid is about helping each other in solidarity, to share alike among ourselves. It can look a lot like charity if you widen yiur definition of "us" to be everyone not of the ruling class, especially if those organizing it are noticeably from another community than those receiving it.

Example: at lefty actions there are often mutual aid tents or carts. These tend to be paid for by the participants and the labor is donated by them. That's more clearly a "by us for us" thing. On the other hand, I've seen lib white leftists start mutual aid groups that go to very poor black neighborhoods to provide food and clothes. It's not a bad thing to get people what they need but it does have some odd vibes and it is edging towards a charity mindset.

I would recommend making connections anywhere you are working so that you either expand your org in a way that authentically embeds in community or to join efforts with any similar orgs already in that community, or both. If you are very lucky you might even be able to merge groups. Rather than become inward-facing with current membership, you can make the current recipient communities, whatever they might be, less separate.

All I'm saying is that I've never failed as Early Yugoslavia.