CleverOleg

Context: Twain wrote a satirical piece in 1905 written from the perspective of King Leopold II. The satire here is that Twain's Leopold is defending his actions in the Congo Free State. The whole thing is great and I encourage everyone to give it read as a biting critique of colonialism. But in this section, Leopold is blaming the Kodak company for exposing the horrors (instead of blaming himself for the horrors). I think the connection to Gaza is self-evident:

[Studies some photographs of mutilated negroes—throws them down. Sighs] The kodak has been a sore calamity to us. The most powerful enemy that has confronted us, indeed. In the early years we had no trouble in getting the press to “expose” the tales of the mutilations as slanders, lies, inventions of busy-body American missionaries and exasperated foreigners who had found the “open door” of the Berlin-Congo charter closed against them when they innocently went out there to trade; and by the press’s help we got the Christian nations everywhere to turn an irritated and unbelieving ear to those tales and say hard things about the tellers of them. Yes, all things went harmoniously and pleasantly in those good days, and I was looked up to as the benefactor of a down-trodden and friendless people. Then all of a sudden came the crash! That is to say, the incorruptible kodak—and all the harmony went to hell! The only witness I have encountered in my long experience that I couldn’t bribe. Every Yankee missionary and every interrupted trader sent home and got one; and now—oh, well, the pictures get sneaked around everywhere, in spite of all we can do to ferret them out and suppress them. Ten thousand pulpits and ten thousand presses are saying the good word for me all the time and placidly and convincingly denying the mutilations. Then that trivial little kodak, that a child can carry in its pocket, gets up, uttering never a word, and knocks them dumb!

With the anniversary of Oct 7 coming up, I suspect it will be a topic for some friends of mine. Due to some work I’ve done on them over the past year, I think they might actually be amenable to learning more about Palestine and everything that’s happened in the last 100+ years.

Problem is, these people really have no idea what’s going on or what happened. I don’t know if they could find Palestine on a map. They literally haven’t moved beyond “Jews and Arabs have an ancient grudge and this is just the continuation of that.

What are some basic - and I mean basic videos I could send to them. I think 1948 Creation & Catastrophe is amazing but its scope is a bit narrow. There’s also that many-hour video Hasan did with historian Zach Foster that’s very good but it’s more about debunking hasbara.

CW: suffering people

I know we have quite a few comrades here… so years ago, I learned about canal boats. The whole things seems really cool and cozy to me. However, I also get the impression that it’s generally considered very boring. Have you gone on a canal boat trip before? Did you enjoy it?

It’s amazing to me that libs have deified this woman, like she has proven to be the very model of smart leadership. That she was the most qualified, deserving person to ever run for president. A quick recap of how she got where she did.

She is famous for being married to Bill Clinton. That’s it, that’s her origin story. Married to a president. Just hitched her wagon to the right person. She tried to make a name for herself by making healthcare her issue, but she got criticized pretty hard in the media because spouses of the president are supposed to make some uncontroversial issue their cause (probably some degree of sexism there but then again I’m sure most people don’t want to hear from Kamala’s dopey ass husband).

From there she was able to leverage her fame to be anointed to one of NY’s senate seats. It wasn’t a challenging contest, the Clinton connections in the party is what got her the spot.

But senators don’t have to actually lead or do things, they just vote. So that’s all she did until she ran for president in 2008 and ate shit. She got to be SoS because Obama probably didn’t feel he had any choice. This was Clinton’s first job with real responsibility, and she fucked it royally (Libya was the big one but there were others I’m sure). Then she lost another election because who could know that swing states are important to win, and had been wandering around that woods in her neighborhood ever since. Except when she surfaces in order to go on TV and suggest that anyone who spreds “Russian disinformation” should be locked up.

This is not a person who has proven to be competent at anytjing. I firmly believe that no American president or presidential candidate from the last few decades who make it past like, local village leadership in the CPC. That’s a system where you actually do have to prove your capability and get things done.

I hope a thousand years from now, when people talk about the fall of the American empire like we talk about Rome, when they get to the chapter on incompetent leadership I do hope that Hillary Clinton gets a mention.

The Popular Front that just got elected isn’t quite Neo-Trotskyite, but still.

Tbh the direction that we seem to be headed w/r/t homelessness in the US actually seems worse than the sanctuaries in 2024 Stark Trek San Francisco.

Belen Fernandez consistently has very good anti-imperialist takes.

I found this to be a good, short primer on the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. It goes into detail on how the Soviets tried to pursue collective security with the British and French, only to have them both drag their heels until it was clear to the Soviets that they had no interest in actually agreeing to collective security. Even after the Soviets telegraphed that they would instead work with the Germans if the British and French didn’t get serious, they still wouldn’t.