Chapotraphouse

I'd say so. It was an easy read, I only felt that it was a tad long. It took longer than I expected to get through it compared to the other books I am reading.

And I don’t think a revolutionary party can rise as any potential Lenin like leader would be preemptively murked by the military in the dark of night.

Yes, this exactly. Just took me 3 times as many words and an extra 40 minutes to say it.

Their fear is justified. They know they’re living in a fantasy world propped up by an unjust system based on exploitation doomed to failure. They know we’ll eat them and undo as much damage as possible in the end. Monarchy has proven that. Capitalism is just monarchy with cognitive dissonance. That’s why we’ve been seeing the massive increase in surveillance for the past twenty years. They can smell their shit coming back around.

Thank both of you for the insight. I guess fear is fear. But I see a very real difference in this fear. One is the fear of repercussions for being a bad person. A guilty fear. Or overblown fear, fear of the imaginary. Fear of things that are not actually a major threat to you and you are in fact quite safe. Self induced fear.

Contrasting with the fear of the real. Fearing actually existing oppression and violence. Fear that any one financial set-back could make me homeless. Fear that my human rights are being taken away (because they've already taken some away and are working on taking more away). Fear that I'll be snatched off the street in an unmarked van or otherwise arrested for attending a peaceful protest or posting the wrong thing in a private discord channel, because that is actually happening. Fear that I'll end up in one of that many concentration/labor camps that they already have built and are building. Etc.

I guess I don't really care if they are scared of monsters under their beds or spooky shadows. I wish their fears were more justified. That they actually had something to be afraid of. I yearn for the days that their fear of a potential future revolution that might take away their profits and yachts, becomes fear of a currently ongoing revolution, and they are scared because revolutionaries have already raided 2 of the mansions/bunkers/private islands nearest to them.

Megapixel juche upload my belovéd

Yeah, same, I was born after the dissolution so I too came up in the era of War on Terror and "National Security" and Cold War Counterintelligence systems replaced by Counterterrorism. Dealt with my fair share of washed up Cold Warriors harassing innocent kids because they'd lost the power and authority to do much more or go after adults who matter.

But I know enough about the Cold War period to know what was a return to prewar paradigms that's now being lost yet again and what was a brief blip of throwing a tarp over old Cold War toys and continuing to use stuff no one has any clue how to replace in peacetime.

There’s no time for half measures. Deploy the robots with morose Japanese teenagers trapped in them. Call the Hyrulian Parabrigade. Beat your plough into a Free Parking sign. We’re doing it live.