Comradeship // Freechat

Figured I could get the best recommendations here since most "breadtubers" seem to be fundamentally liberal, milquetoast socdem types. Especially interested in theory, etc. topics like that. The longer the video the better.

It only takes a minute of your time to copy your important files to a drive or the cloud. I (potentially) lost one year of progress on a book I'm writing because of my negligence.

So please don't be like me.

This may be unpopular, but I am getting tired of all the questions to enter a space or create an account, not just in the lemmygrad-sphere, but basically every leftist space on the internet.

I wanted to create an account on ProleWiki, but to do so I need to pass an exam.

FIRST SET (please answer all 8 questions)
SECOND SET (choose 5 questions to answer)

I have already answered pretty much the same questions to get on lemmygrad and matrix. If I knew I'd be asked the same things over and over, I would have saved them from the first (or second) time I typed them all out. Mind you, lemmygrad isn't the first place I visited/joined, so I have answered a similar set of questions probably 6-7 times in the past few years.

The biggest problem with the questions is that they don't work. As in, they're not going to filter out any bad actors, because people intent on joining for destructive purposes aren't going to be deterred by a few questions they can answer with a quick google search. Bad actors will also know what answers you expect to see and write those. It's a bit like when the US border control gives you the green form with the question "Are you a terrorist?" But the questions will turn away people like me who are simply tired of writing an exam just to create an account on a webpage.

I have always had problems with tests/exams as in I have a problem they exist and I literally have traumas from them lmao. The pressure, the uncertainty, the doubt... I mean there's a reason people still have anxiety dreams about missing a test or not studying long after they have left school.

By all means, have questions in the signup forms, but:

Fewer questions

Two to three questions max. You don't need theory questions, they can be googled. You don't need LGBTQ questions, that should just be a statement "Here we respect LGBTQ people and their right to exist, use pronouns people ask, don't discriminate, etc. violation of this rule will result in a ban, possibly permanent." Done.

Right kinds of questions

If you want a theory/reading question ask something like: What was the book/article/work that got you into Marxism/communism and why? or What's the most recent work of communist literature (book, article, novel, pamphlet, zine, etc.) that had an impact on you and why?

People will tell you more about themselves by actually talking about themselves rather than answering questions about theory. Not to mention it's harder to fake being a communist when you have to give your own personal understanding of something that's not a big issue. Asking about Palestine, DEI, culture war topics doesn't make sense because again they can look up what you want to hear. But if someone says the most recent work they read is the Capital or Manifesto and they think everyone should be equal then that should raise a red flag (not for being wrong, but for not being genuine).

No wrong kinds of questions

There are some questions you simply shouldn't ask as a matter of principle.

For example, you have this is number 3 of the mandatory questions for ProleWiki: "3. Have you read our principles? Comment your agreements or objections to their points."

Since a person filling this out is only requesting an account, asking for comments on the principles may come across as you simply rejecting anyone who doesn't agree or will want changes. This shouldn't be a question, but a statement: "These are our principles, joining means you agree to them." I don't know how ProleWiki is run if there are meetings where principles are modified/added/removed or if they are set in stone. If set in stone, then it definitely makes no sense to ask.

Questions that are questions, not several questions hidden as one

Asking things is easy, but whoever wrote the questions has no respect for people's time. This is just way too much work, people have things to do. The time spent answering questions could be spent writing an article for the wiki. There's an idea! Instead of answering all those questions, just have a list of topics people can write a wiki article on. That wiki article is the entry form. Simple, elegant, dare I say... beautiful?

What's there now though:

Where did you find ProleWiki from?(1) How familiar are you with it?(2) Comment what made you want to join ProleWiki(3) and what areas you are interested in contributing to.(4)

That is 4 questions.

What current of Marxist thought do you uphold? Describe as thoroughly as needed your path towards your current political perspective.

That is 2 questions, one of them an "essay question".

Have you read our principles? Comment your agreements or objections to their points.

There are ten subheadings in the principles, with more sub-subheadings. That's a question and an essay question. Q: 6 E: 2

What is your understanding of gender? Should Marxists support the LGBT community?

2 questions.

What is your position on Joseph Stalin(1) and Mao Zedong?(2) How would you describe their historical role?(3,4) Share any comments or critiques you have regarding them.(5)

5 questions.

What are your thoughts on China,(1) Vietnam,(2) Cuba,(3) DPRK(4) and Laos?(5) Do you believe any of these countries is socialist?(6) Why or why not?(7)

7 questions.

What is settler-colonialism,(1) are there any countries that still fit that description(2) and what should be done regarding them?(3) Further, what is to be done about the decolonization and liberation of indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, and immigrant groups in your country?(4)

4 questions.

What is your analysis of the situation in Palestine?(1) What do you think of the 2023 October 7 events(2) and the groups involved from both sides of the conflict?(3)

3 questions.

I count 23 regular questions and 2 essay questions. And that's only the "8" mandatory questions.

TL;DR too many questions to get an account (like ProleWiki, lemmygrad, matrix, but other leftist spaces too). ask fewer (2-3) but more poignant questions. rules about LGBTQ and other rules that aren't up for discussion shouldn't be a question but a statement to be accepted or not. answering so many questions is mentally taxing/exhausting.

Made a Lemmy account a week ago and it still hasn't been accepted. I've been desperately itching to get at some libs outside of my sporadic posting. If this has been asked a million times before, sorry; just curious on the current "traffic flow" as of now.

Everytime I'm at a demonstration with a lot of police violence like lots of Palestine demonstration I get very nervous, my heart starts racing, my knees get weak and my breath becomes short. I even get it when watching videos of police violence or when I see SWAT team busses outside of demonstrations. I'm not the only one that feels that way but others that I see at every demonstration deal with it better, I feel like. They can get in the zone better. So do you have tips?

Gotta take care of my mental health. Block anyone who uses "tankie" unironically or talks shit about how communists are le bad. Can't even have a friendship with western anarchists.

I got a new job at my college recently and I'm basically a glorified chore runner, and I love it. The pay is pretty shit and I'd probably make more working in a kitchen, but tbh, I'm literally typing this as I'm "on the clock", and I get to spend like 90% of the time doing my class work.

That's all, that's the announcement. Hope everyone is doing well.

Edit: The wosrt part of this job are the senior workers who feel the need to tell me to get off of my phone. Just now, someone told me to get off of my phone and when I got off of it they were like "haha, i'm just joking!" Like stfu bro, all passive aggressive for no reason smh...the most strenuous thing I've done today was go to the mail-room. If it's not coming out of your pocket then stfu!!!

What it says on the tin.

Like, I get it "Evil spoon man is basically as bad as Hilter and I'm a leftist with libertarian tendencies"

Fuck I hate Robert Evans

So I don’t wanna come off as depressing but the non-funny answer is when I had to leave work early bc my Mom was passing away from cancer🥺, sad answer aside onto funny answer lol, probably 2nd worst moment at work for me was when I worked Door2Door in the Southside of Chicago activating Free Gov phones and I had a gun pointed at me😂I had a gun threatened like 4-5 times throughout the job but the actual gun out spooked me, I just said in the most polite voice “I apologize and I will most certainly take you off of our list” like I get it, Door to Door people suck but it was a free phone and you could just say no. Anyways sorry for the rambling, what kinda shitty jobs have yall done and what would you say were the worst moments?

Desertion and mobilization, two sides of the same coin. Dragged into a minibus, given some rocks to throw as ‘grenade practice’ in a training center, then straight to the front.

And here’s a soundcloud track titled ‘CZCH’ - the military abbreviation for desertion.

The lyrics go:

Unit commander…

Can get fucked….

And the whole brigade…

Can get fucked…

You bunch of devils…

I’m going quietly, without being noticed

To CZCH

So I was talking with this middle-aged lady and, when it was almost over, she asked if I knew Jesus. I sounded neutral, saying he was a great person and all. And I thought she was going to do the usual proselytizing which she did at first.

And then she said that she saw Jesus three times, and she even told me the specific date when this happened. And that's when this started to get rrreeeaaalllyyy different.

It's important to point out, of course, that as I was talking to her, it became clear to me that something wasn't right. She didn't seem outright malicious or evil like she wanted to hurt me or anything. But it seems she's got some problems mentally. I'm really trying not to be ableist here, I'm trying to phrase this the best I can and trying to look at this with compassion the best I can.

A variety of people across the world, from a variety of cultures and personal beliefs, have claimed to have had some kind of extraordinary, spiritual experience. For example, there have been people who have claimed to have had seen the afterlife after having died or gotten seriously injured. The majority report having a pleasant, heaven-like experience, regardless of their beliefs, even if they are atheists, though occasionally some people have more unpleasant experiences. The fact that so many of these experiences have been reported across a variety of places, cultures, and beliefs has made scientists wonder about what's going on, but of course, a conclusive answer has not been found yet so take this all with a grain of salt.

So, why do I bring up these specific spiritual experiences? Because, from my own personal research, the way these experiences change these people tends to be different from I'm going to describe later. For instance, they tend to be more accepting of other people from different cultures and beliefs.

Anyway, given the vibe I got from this woman, I will not try to counter what they have said in this post.

So anyway, they claim that they have seen Jesus three times in one day. And that He is coming soon. (capitalized because Jesus is a widely respected figure and His pronouns are usually capitalized as such) She talks about being born again and that it's not enough to just go to church and all that.

Then she mentions the devastation brought out by Hurricane Helene. She mentions that the "secular media" (red flag) probably underreported hundreds of people dying and there was probably more deaths, and claims that much of the assistance went to "illegal aliens." (This "illegal aliens" part was when I really knew something was off.)

She pulls out her phone and shows me a YouTube channel called Last Days. It's run by a guy that's pretty similar to her. It's a super Christian guy who claims to get visions from God, only he makes videos about it. She also mentioned that he predicted that Trump would get shot in the ear, and her general attitude towards Trump was another red flag.

She claims that the U.S. government is demonic, which is actually pretty true, they don't call it the Great Satan for no reason. And she claims it started with Obama, and she generally mentioned what he did wrong was stuff like rather irrelevant internal policies. I mentioned that I agreed that Obama was bad and mentioned the suffering he brought to the people of Libya and Syria, she brushed that off.

Then she gets to the conflicts in the Middle East. She asks "You're not pro-Palestine, are you?" and I just say I'm neutral but even that seems to have scared her a bit. I mention the two-state solution and the fact that women and children are being killed in this conflict. She kind of brushes off the civilian part as "all kinds of people are dying from this" and mentions a part in the Bible where that land (Palestine) "only belongs to the Jews" and that God will punish those who "try to take their land." In general, she seems pretty pro-Israel and talks about how "the Muslims" are wanting to destroy them. (Edit: I'd like to clarify that I am pro-Palestine and support the end of Israeli colonialism. I only said I was neutral because I feared that being pro-Palestine would've made her get super angry at me.)

It was somewhere after that part that the conversation politely ended and we said goodbye. For most of it, I didn't really provide counters, I just said "uh-huh" or mentioned how I agreed with some of it. I'm just sharing what I remember, I'm pretty sure you can imagine what else she said.

So, what can we take away from this? Firstly, it should be noted that this lady isn't a threat to myself or really anybody else. She just claims to have seen Jesus, which by itself is an extraordinary claim. The "Last Days" guy, from what I've seen so far, despite his large following, doesn't seem very physically dangerous as well. If there's any danger at all, it would be from other people who share similar sentiments and attitudes but are far more organized.

As Marxists, we know that religion is the opium of the masses, the sigh of the oppressed. Under more difficult material conditions, people are more likely to be super religious. As material conditions improve, people are more likely to be more moderately religious or to even abandon religion entirely.

In addition to this, people's mental health tends to decline under worse economic conditions.

People like Donald Trump are usually not seriously supported by people who are economically secure or confident in the future. They are usually scared and suffering, feeling betrayed by the system, and looking for answers.

With wages stagnant, inflation rising, imperialism being weakened, the climate crisis intensifying, the material conditions of those in the imperial core are declining. With the left weak, at least for now, people are turning towards the right instead.

I'd say the main point of this post isn't to say "Look guys, this lady said that God said that Muslims are bad!" It's to give a glimpse of how the decline of Western imperialism is affecting the people at home, and even moreso what they're going to feel once collapse has finally, fully arrived.

Organize. Join a party. Educate your fellow humans about the truth about socialism.

Our future doesn't have to be bleak, we can fight for ourselves a brighter world.

Note to Moderators: Once again, I am really not trying to be ableist, but if you feel this post comes off like I am, even accidentally, feel free to remove this.

I don't care how much "real" power they have. If you actually believe in a meritocracy how can you defend someone getting a job because of their lineage, attending real political events and ceremonies and influencing policies that way? And let's not forget that in many cases, they ACTUALLY have institutional powers they just don't use because they don't have to, the institutions serve their interests all the same.

Sorry for the pointless rant. It just happens way too often.

It's a chud buzzword I hear often. It's something something "prioritizing diversity at the expense of quality" which makes no sense because the whole point of DEI is to make the workplace more welcoming not targeting obviously impossible and bullshit quotas. Yes DEI is handled horribly because usually the actual policies fail to help employees from marginalized groups work with the same level of proficiency required to do their job.

Good news and bad news! Notice, I want to say that I used a lot of "reactionary" starting points and immediately pivoted into the "opposite view" while masking it under class conscious ideologue. Most of this was to ascertain where he was; make sure he wasn't extremely racist or bigoted, etc. Plan to do more critical work with him in the future

I've had a talk with him and actually got somewhere with it. Apparently, despite his fierce patriotic and political display; he has never voted and doesn't plan to. His biggest issue, well, seemingly; is immigrants.

So, we had a nice talk about the reserve army of labor. He talked a lot about how they're literally "STEELIN OUR JERBS". At first, I brought up "Well, who hires and pays for illegal immigration?" to set up a layer of dissonance (just to wedge in somewhere, I suppose). Next, I pivoted that into "Why do we even have worry about immigrants when our corporations are the real ones hopping the border?". (to incite that nationalistic hog and immediately spin it into talking about how corporations have free right to go wherever but people aren't)

He brought up a lot about how "Our governor is giving free apartments, free X and X to illeeegul immigrants!!" and in response I deescalated and brought up that even if that scenario was true; billionaires and the ruling class control entire mechanisms of our economy without even putting any work into it like hard-working "illegals" do. Immigrants are the reason our economy is able to function to which I went into "Why is it that our economy is so dependent on illegal immigration, exploiting immigrants and they're the only ones to face punishment?"

He kinda mulled it over a bit, to which I then brought up that we are responsible for the most interventions in the world. He pipped in "Well, what is China doing right now?". I said, unlike China, our interventions have brought complete ruin and destruction on South America or the places we visit. He was actually intrigued by the amount of interventions we had; "I had no idea about that" etc etc. I pointed out that the reason we have so many asylum seekers is because we have systematically plowed over every stable governance that disagreed with ours.

Now, the bad news is that he keeps...KEEPS trying to relate Trump to everything. "Oh, Trump doesn't want to exploit south american countries" and it feels like if I try to be like "um, actually" he'd shut down or feel threatened. So, I rolled with it and then pointed out where he DIDN'T do things and how he affected my family. Cutting food-stamps, aid, etc.

It ended pretty much with us having a beer, talking about that and while I don't think I've "broken in" yet, I feel like I've had him internalize some alternative ideologues and that is a great, great start. I do plan to keep working on him!

Another good news is that he apparently isn't transphobic or homophobic; which is odd given his political proclivities. One of the things we ended off with. He pretty much just said "Well, I don't know how I'd feel if my kids went that way but I'd still love them the same. I just don't want "them" tryna force my kids into it" to which I responded "Children are "forced "into a lot of things. It's up to you to give them guidance and know what is best for them and let them decide on that on their own in a point of time."

Any advice from anyone? How do I wedge further from him bringing up Trump more? It seems like I've gotten him to think. A lot of the times, I'll say one thing, he'll get agitated and say "X and X" to which I usually sort of prime it with something he relates to and then immediately spin it into a class conscious angle. I did not agree with him on a single thing in relation to his xenophobia or egg that on.

Recently, the term 'incel' has been used as a straw man to justify hatred towards undesirable men, whether they are short, neurodivergent, or ugly. An incel, by definition, is someone who is involuntarily celibate. This definition has expanded over time, and today incels are associated with misogynism, extremist ideologies, and even terrorist attacks.

Today, people are extremely quick to call someone an incel if they are having trouble with women. Why do people do that? Because they don't want to admit that these so called "incels" are right about heightism, lookism, et cetera, because it's simply easier to call them incels and not adress the problem. Most importantly, because they hate them. If a short guy is talking about heightism, just call him an incel, all of the studies and arguments will instantly become invalid, because incel=bad. If a school shooting happens, just call the shooter an incel, there's no need to investigate everything that led him to do it, even if he had mental health issues, because incel=bad. A short guy asks why it is so hard for him to get a girl, he's an incel. A poorly socialized neurodivergent guy asks why it is so hard for him to get a girl, he's definitely an incel.

Most of the guys on these groups don't even know that they are incels or what an incel is, but get caught up in the crossfire and associated with incels when discussing their problems. Painting these groups as incels normalizes any hate targeted to them. They they are using this word, "Incel", to attack them. It's no wonder guys on these groups become actual misogynists and extremists, because they were bashed when they needed help. When seeking support, they fall into these pipelines.

The idea of an 'Incel' has been so much distorted that some consider them a terrorist group, a threat to women. A study done last year debunks some things associated with incels, one of the main points is violence. "We concur with Lindner that the evidence suggests that extreme inceldom looks more like suicidality than violence toward others." "The key point is that there does not seem to be compelling evidence, despite a small number of highly florid cases that received tremendous news attention, that incels are particularly prone to violence." Another study found out that, compared to non-incels, incels have a higher level of depression, anxiety and loneliness, and lower levels of life satisfaction. Incels are a non-issue being portrayed as a threat.

What's the real threat to women? Most of the violence against women is perpetrated by intimate partners, i.e., not incels. Same thing with rape, 33% of rape cases are commited by intimate partners and 39% by acquaintances, and I'm pretty sure those acquaintances are not incels too, because women get the ick when they see one and not make acquaintances with them. Alcohol is the most used in drug facilitaded in sexual assault cases, so I'm pretty sure these occur in social settings like clubs and parties, places you'll never see an incel in. A random guy behind a computer screen is not a threat to women.

as what the title says, i created a twitch channel. And i did it for fun. I'm probably going to do things like play video games. and when i get a good mic, i might do more things like politics, chatting?, etc. And i will put my twitch link in my bio.

Here in India, media is a tool of the fascists. I am ashamed to say it but the concept of journalistic standards is alien to the audience here. The media literally parrots the IOF line, to such a degree of precision that makes me think that I underestimated the sheer evil that can exist in the heart of human beings.

But India is a kind of a special case in the Global South, since its an Islamophobic Hindu fascist state and the preposterous IOF talking points slot well with the racist talking points.

But I am wondering what the situation is like everywhere else. Please fill me in.

So, essentially, we got a new neighbor about a month ago. Nothing seemed off at first; they were actually incredibly cool about my "farm", garden, compost, etc. Even our dog; whom is a huge, leaping staffy (w some boxer, obv).

I've actually been nice enough to offer them some veggies n such, as they seemed pretty decent.

Roommate walked out yesterday and the guy has a Trump sign on our front lawn. Now I'm fucking depressed. It's incredible how you can be nice, work with someone and actually seem like a decent human being until you just put the ol' "Hey, I'd see you dead" sign right on the front lawn. Fucks sake man.

My room-mate was the one who told me about it after they dumped it into the can lmao.

So! Anyone got recommendations for my own agitprop? My plan so far is to act normal; but just put increasing amounts of communist propaganda in the communal hallway, garden, outside the side door and just start ramping it like crazy. All while pretending I have no idea where it's coming from or if anything has changed. I'd like some websites where I can ethically buy some of this preferably from other communists or anarchists. If anyone would like to commission for such things, let me know!

Other ideas are open too.

Among other things, free market theories assume that the employee or the consumer has perfect knowledge, even if "unfortunately" s.he doesn't, let's help them then.

The salaries of each employee, with their bonuses, are already known, as well as their categories.
If it's displayed on a website then every employee of that category could know where to go in order to get a better pay(, yeah, i don't believe it solves the most important problems(, e.g., monopolies, surplus value, lack of democracy in the workplace, ...), but it wouldn't be worse than nowadays).
If the consultation of this website is insufficient, and it will, then an annual text summarizing the result of such research for them should be sent.

Similarly, for each product sold, a little screen underneath should indicate where's the cheapest same product ~50kms around.

I'm sure they would be glad to realize that they can put into practice their theories(, unironically for the honest ones though).

And they didn't say a thing about it.

Firstly, please excuse my bad English, but it isn't my first or second language.

I came to this community about a year ago (during the Reddit exodus). Someone on Reddit recommended Lemmy and while searching for a community I stumbled upon Lemmygrad. I don't know why, but I didn't expect there would be an active socialist forum. As an ML, it seemed like a no-brainer to join this one.

I'm mostly a so-called “lurker”, but are almost daily on here. I truly appreciate the news links, discussions, memes and more. It's a fresh air in the normal pro-right/capitalism news that I'm confronted with daily. It's even at a point that I can recognize many names around here 😅.

Furthermore, the kind and inclusive vibe is unfortunately rare in today's internet, and is something that I really miss about the old days. Fortunately, it's some that I can still experience here.

I just wanted to let you all know I sincerely appreciate the community and you all personally! Keep up the great content and the good vibes ❤️

Nothing but a ventpost. I've been touching grass and really doing heavy org shit within the empire for a while now and while some comrades are incredible and synthesize theory + human empathy perfectly, others seem to just grandstand as these "scientific beings" that really are just emotionally bankrupt and care zero about anything but "resolving the next contradiction" which is just fucking ridiculous and cult-like.

The world isn't so simple to view things in just this framework and to think that ML-ism will give us all the answers is not only stupid but anti-ML. I am struggling heavy at this point and I beg all of you who are organized to be reasonable and kind to your fellow humans. We aren't just comrades, we are friends, and if you find yourself becoming robotic or forgetting that, you're not a "consolidated communist" you're just fucking traumatized and lacking emotional availability.

I'm going to be taking a break from org work for a few months because of this and some other mental problems, but not before dealing with weird comments about individualism and disappointment and some serious reservations about continuing as a real life communist period.

Eat me up in the comments about how I'm a liberal, or let me know your thoughts otherwise.

I'm Asian The first thing whites ask me is what size my dick is

The first thing I ask whites is how racist they are

I'm gonna scale back how much time I spend online but it's pretty damn boring. I've been on sedentary lifestyle since the lock down and to put it bluntly it's starting to take its toll. I can even feel the effects of a sedentary lifestyle negatively affecting my gaming sessions.

I'm riding a bike again after giving up several times. I already know how to swim in deep waters. Any other ideas? I am looking for other hobbies outside art and gaming.