ReadFanon

Can I offer you some Belgian chocolate [CW: disfigurement, discussions of racism] in these trying times?

I challenged this notion with a lib the other day.

The watermelon originated in Africa. That doesn't mean that the vile caricaturised depictions of black people eating watermelons is somehow not inherently racist.

You can also look to the origin and continuing usage of the swastika, especially in Asian cultures, as another example here - you aren't going to tell me that the right-angled unicode swastika being used by westerners on the internet isn't done in service of fascism 99% of the time.

And on that matter, don't let erm-ackshually dorks tell you that the 90 degree swastika wasn't used by Nazis and isn't representative of them. One of the most famous depictions of the Nazi swastika is a right angled one:

https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1214749781387436032/pu/vid/450x360/o0Nxlts0lffM8lUv.mp4

That's the site where my man Yavok delivered the ol' Yoburg Slammer to a bunch diamond-encrusted audience members

Some people swear by reading two+ books at once. I marvel at people who can do that. It might work for you though.

My recommendation is to set up focus mode or whatever it is on your phone. It's best not to have notifications distracting you.

I'd also recommend not reading on your phone but using an ebook reader or the physical book instead. Use your phone for pulling up definitions, Wikipedia entries, articles etc. that will help you to better understand what's going on in the theory, as needed.

Highlight passages which speak to you, which are of particular interest, which are the important parts of the book if you were to make a short summary, and especially which you don't understand or feel like you could understand better.

Revise the highlighted passages each chapter to help consolidate your learnings and to see if further on in the chapter you now understand the highlighted parts make sense to you (and thus can be deleted) or if you need to do some research, post a question to social media or a reading group etc.

If you find that you're highlighting more than a few passages because you don't understand them in a chapter then that's a red flag. Either the theory is too "deep" in conversations with prior texts (this is something that happens with philosophy) and you probably need to read what came before it in order to really grasp what's being discussed in this book or you might need to read the prior work(s) of the author.

I would recommend engaging in some extra processes to help reinforce the learning. This might mean talking to someone (it can even be a pet!) about your learning. Having a friend who is open to hearing about your learnings is really valuable here - giving them updates on each chapter is great for keeping motivation up and for reinforcing learning. You might want to draft a mini essay or summary of the theory. It doesn't have to be perfect or make sense because you aren't going to submit it anywhere but the act of typing out the learnings can really enrich your learning experience and consolidate the learnings.

I'm a savage when it comes to books. I will underline passages and write notes in the margins. I'd recommend it. Or you can put sticky notes in your books if you prefer to. You can even get transparent sticky notes to place over pages and write on.

I'd also recommend reading groups, podcasts, lectures etc. to enrich your learning.

The man who spent money to buy an enamelled NATO flag pin is exhorting the world to balkanize:

Brazil
Russia
India
China

...imagine my shock.

Frankly I'm a tad surprised that he forgot to mention South Africa but I suppose even this dork has at least a tenuous grasp on not going over the top.

It helps because it signals to the DNC that they will not simply automatically win by default with their shittiest, most rightwing nominees because the other option is slightly worse on a couple of fronts.

It shows that people do not see them as a viable alternative to the GOP unless they actually become an alternative to the GOP.

There's a reason why Trump won last time and it's this attitude of entitlement that you've embodied which is at the core of this.

If you're so set upon preventing another Trump presidency then recent history is a lesson for you, or at least it should have been, and attempting to browbeat people into voting for detestable DNC nominees is a failed strategy when you should be pushing the DNC for compromise with people further to the left of you rather than demanding that people further to the left of you capitulate simply because you feel that they ought to because you have a false sense of moral righteousness.

You want my vote for the democratic nominee? Then uphold the values of bourgeois electoralism and earn it.

Not voting for Biden means that Biden is one vote further away from being president.

Now it's your turn.

Not voting for the furthest right party is the same thing as voting for the furthest right party 🤓🤓

From a pragmatic point, what good does voting for Biden do?

Does ranked voting in other countries undermine their two-party system though?

I'm sorry but the math on this doesn't check out.

You're saying that we must join coalitions whose intent is to change the system or we must vote for the Democratic nominee, otherwise we are supporting the GOP?

If not voting for the Democratic nominee is support for the GOP then how isn't joining a coalition to undermine DNC power support for the GOP?

I don't understand this logic.