That is not healthy, and you should stop doing that.

I’ve looked through the whole thread again and I don’t know where you’re getting the idea anyone’s accusing tankies of being sellouts. Best I can guess is that you misinterpreted the comment immediately above yours as saying tankies are secretly supporting the current fascist regime, is that it?

That’s not what they’re saying, they meant that tankies (I would clarify that it’s the chronically online tankies that are like this) want other people to fight the revolution for them, and won’t lift a single finger themselves until they can be sure that victory is inevitable. This is because they see themselves as the vanguard that tells everyone else what to do and how to do it, and will be put in charge after the revolution. That’s why people call them red fascists (though I don’t like that term myself as I don’t think they should be conflated with actual fascists, it hinders understanding), they want to be in the fascists’ place so they can use the systems of power and control that they built towards a different end (changing the economic system).

A previous person I talked to on lemmy.ml not long ago illustrated this mindset well, saying that authoritarianism is only a buzzword made up by the west to demonize their enemies, that it’s just people exercising power, and that it’s good when communists do it. Here’s what I see wrong with this: the tools of a fascist state are purpose-built for oppression, and trying to use them for anything else is futile. You will be corrupted by their power. We should not be trying to take and use these tools, but dismantling them and creating our own which are purpose-built for liberation.

They don’t like electoralism, prefer to LARP revolution while doing nothing to actually lay the groundwork for one.

I only said we have to go through the process, but there’s no reason we can’t speed it up or prepare better for the consequences. I think the role of those who learn from history is to work behind the scenes to soften the blows we know are coming to those who learn the hard way, and ease the transition from one phase to the next.

In more concrete terms, maintain solidarity even with people you think are making a mistake, and prepare for the moment they are ready to do more.

The movement needs to go through this more naive phase and reflect on the results so that it can mature and adjust strategies. It’s easy to learn about history, see what finally worked in the past, and think that we should just ‘skip to the end,’ but that’s not how large groups of people operate. You can expect an individual to learn from history and do what’s most effective, but groups must always go through the entire process because the group infrastructure has to be built brick by brick.

You’ve never seen those urinals that have complementary delicious cake?

The IHRA definition of antisemitism is “if you criticize Israel you’re antisemitic,” and restrictions on boycotts are unconstitutional. These orders should have been rescinded even if Adams hadn’t been indicted on federal corruption charges.

There are ways to meet that particular need without landlords. Tenant unions buying out their apartment building and making it cooperatively owned, for example, or municipally owned public housing. The alternative to private property is public property. That kind of thing isn’t available because private property owners are the ones calling the shots, and that would undercut their parasitic lifestyle.

Transient tenants can be accommodated by collectively owned lodging. There is nothing that necessitates private ownership.

Landlords protecting their investments is always at the expense of the downtrodden. The role of landlord is one that exists solely at the expense of the downtrodden, and it is mutually exclusive with helping people.

Were there not an Israel the USA would have to invent an Israel to protect her interest in the region.

• Joe Biden, 1986

I think there are several separate cognitive abilities needed to ask questions. Curiosity (which is very common), complex communication (much less common), and advanced theory of mind (exists on a spectrum, you need not only awareness of your own mental state, or metacognition, but awareness that others have a mental state that is distinct from your own. Humans actually develop this ability slowly throughout childhood, and it goes through stages). Though there are other species with similar traits, it might well be the case that humans are the only living species in possession of all of them simultaneously.

The fact that annas archive exists despite how fucked up everything is right now gives me hope. Every time I start to feel cynical about the future I remind myself that there’s people out there working to preserve the art and culture of our modern era with all the most powerful corporations and governments working against them, and they’re succeeding.

Anyway, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

The common modern interpretation of the 2nd amendment being that gun sales and ownership must be almost completely unregulated is bullshit and not at all the way it was intended to be interpreted. It was supposed to protect the right of people to form and maintain local militias independent from the federal government, hence the “well-regulated militia” wording. The idea was that if local governments maintained their own militias consisting of private citizens it would create a collective military force capable of keeping the federal army in check. The modern emphasis on individual gun ownership with no organization has clearly not served this purpose.

That’s just the imperialists telling on themselves. They don’t consider what is Taiwan’s as Taiwan’s, but as being made exclusively for the US’ benefit.

Mmm, yummy endosperm.

Gaining power just to do nothing with it and maintain an unjust status quo is doing a bad thing, though unfortunately he did more than just that.

I didn’t intend to sound condescending, I just come across that way sometimes. I am just of the opinion that stronger protections are only a temporary fix because the capitalist economic system eventually erodes any protections you could possibly make, and I believe that is a fundamental flaw in the ideology of social democracy. Not to mention that preserving capitalism also preserves a system of exploitation that extends beyond the borders of the social democratic society and generates wealth for the in-group at the expense of the out-group.

Edit: I want to add that this isn’t just speculation, it happens repeatedly throughout history. We actually had a social democratic government in the US under FDR, and it had enormous economic and social benefits, but it ultimately failed to curtail the power of big business and was rolled back. That’s why I say - no half measures. Capitalism must be destroyed entirely or it will inevitably become the dominant power system in a society.

So you hold separately the ideal of social democracy in your head from its actual implementation you see in the real world. Maybe you should consider how the fundamentals of social democracy might just naturally lead to the problems you see with the current social democratic party.

A lot of communists online do the same thing you’re doing; not reconciling the ideal they have in their head with the actual implementation in reality. Just like how there are fundamental problems with Marxist theory that result in attempts to implement it devolving into authoritarianism (centralised state power, vangaurdism, “dictatorship of the proletariat”, cults of personality, etc.), there are fundamental problems with social democracy that result in flaws in its implementation (weak/shallow analysis of power dynamics, reliance on imperialism/colonialism in the form of unequal exchange, regulatory capture, influence of money in politics, etc.)

Generally, as long as the economic system allows wealth to be converted to political power (as in the case of social democracy), or the political system allows political power to be converted to wealth (as in the case of centralized state communism), there will be corruption that eventually snowballs into major issues that cannot be solved by working within the same system.

Now go further back. Where does the latin word nucula come from?