just plain capitalism. it's a lot easier to see without all the Reaganite bullshit getting pushed next to a weakening USSR.

this is as raw as it gets in "peace times," peace in the Western definition where we aren't technically fighting Russia and we're just using a bunch of proxy forces and/or economic policy.

It's all uneven, too, so it would be bold to claim this is progressive or regressive or even neither. Some countries are on their way to knocking down capitalism, others are coming with a more Third World nationalist type of approach (think Non-Aligned Movement). Of course the liberals are dominant in the West, they aren't really doing much and their failures are openining up the gates of hell. Unfortunately some of the "socialist" movements we see are more of the socially conservative, or even National Bolshevik, types, so we have the international fascists alongside the national communists - don't ask me how that makes sense...

Yeah, just expect all those contradictions Marx warned about back in the 1800s, when all the middle classes of Europe were celebrating their new economic success after the brutality of the initial industrialization, to come back. Just like the end of the 1800s leading into the end of World War I.

We just have to remember the US invasion of Iraq (2003) and the Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022) are just the typical markers of something fucked up to come. A little bit of rivalry and jealousy among the different capitalists goes a long way.

For what people like us, Communists and other leftists of the more revolutionary edge, we just have to stay disciplined and get some work done while we're ahead. There could be a civil war in Germany tomorrow for all we know lol. It's just business as usual, no different from the 1840s, 1870s, 1910s, 1960s, etc

You mean to tell me that Israel, with all those billions of dollars, couldn't see with their own eyes people flying in to their territory with guns? There is no convoluted middle east history, at least not any more than anywhere else on this planet. There is no excuse to kill anyone in violation of international law, especially when the politicians guiding that policy see the enemy as less than human and makes reference to genocidial intent in doing so. If you want to talk about history, the history that is so convoluted and confusing to you, just start in 1947-1948. That should make it a lot easier for you to understand.

Every event in 'Israeli' history can be checked. They never acted in genuine self-defense. They always had ulterior motives, to drive their force as an imperialist proxy with a massive budget, extremist ideology, and settler-colonialism. There is no blame game. Palestinians have fought against occupation. Israel is the one occupying. Now this rougue state is claiming, implicitly, that they lay claim to a Greater Israel project that threatened the entire Middle East and North Africa region. Rather than occupying territory in war, they occupy territory in aims of extermination of the native population. If they were an occupying force in war, they would be required to ensure every citizen has access to food, water, security, and other necessities of life. Instead, they occupy territories and kill or displace the population there. Either it's not a war or this rogue entity is incapable of conducting itself without constantly committing war crimes.

idk about that. For instance, a lot of users like the concept of the "PMC" (Professional Managerial Class) that many well-read Marxists would scoff at. I just like Lemmygrad because I know the communities better. Hexbear feels more like shitposts.

I understand what an analogy is. But you know (and I know) that we don't make analogies at random. There's a specific reason you chose Bin Laden and Hitler to make the analogy. Even comparing Bin Laden and Hitler is dishonest and lacks appropriate context.

I'd say Raisi's death celebration is more akin to celebrating the death of someone like Omar Torrijos (Panama), and I'm not speaking of similarity of death itself or the conditons that created the death. I'm talking about their respective policies.

Death happens everyday and you chose to make the specific comparisons you did. It wasn't an accident, no one forced it into your brain. You did that.

It's not the fact that they celebrated his death that is most important. It's the fact that the people celebrating have no coherent understanding of who he was. All they know is "Media told me Iran bad. Iran bad means Iranian dying is bad man dying. Funny meme death of people I don't see as human."

You can tell based on responses they haven't read even a single article in full about anything even tangentially related to the man.

If you ever have the misfortune of using X (formerly Twitter), you'll see dozens of them everyday, embarrassingly, through hidden replies and replies with no likes, talking about vatniks and Putler and Russian bots

and you know the worst part of it all? Shit like this culminates in some [CW: violence]

Reportedly, due to COVID era downturn, difficulty receiving a US visa, and a bunch of middle- to upper-middle class Chinese who believe they won't be as rich in the future. It's partially true, just overexaggerated due to a boost in anti-Asian, mostly sinophobic from trade war and COVID panic, sentiment along with stronger anti-immigrant policy.

The numbers are going up and there are far more campuses involved, iirc.

Colorado, Arizona, Louisiana, South Carolina, Oregon from what I can see. Check the latest NYTimes article. And yes, there are already mass arrests being made at these more recent campus protests. They are taking this very seriously.

I really thought Israel was gone in 2022 and was going to accept a silent death. Look how wrong I was to assume.....

It's a real dissapointment living in a time where it's bad to criticize the Ukrainian "national hero symbols" (AKA Nazi collaboration symbols). I actually read first hand accounts from World War II Jewish populations, even ones written by anti-"Stalinist" authors that lived in regions where there were alleged local Soviet politicians with antisemitic leanings. You know what they had to say? The nationalists were known to hide from the Soviets, but they treated their encounters with the Germans like a game. All that energy to kill young Communists and round up Jews, but every time they "hid" from the Germans they always ended up fighting together against the Soviets.

You know who else unified their nation and to this day has to be credited for a national identity and unity? Benito Mussolini among Italians. I never thought I'd have to explain how that incompetent yet genocidal maniac is a bad image, but we have this Meloni gal as Prime Minister right now.

Why should I be ashamed to say Communists put these criminals to death and should be glorified for it? But no, supporting NATO with Mussolini-loving Meloni, never-denazified-Germany, and their unofficial recruits in Ukraine is more important to our beloved "Western Values" (Hiterlite-coded lingo for pan-European neo-fascist values in my opinion) than defending the legacy of the people who saved Europe from barbarism.

He doesn't pose any real opposite to American capitalism nor to the Israeli settler-colonialist regime. His connections are suspicious and he is able to rapidly co-opt any anti-Zionist or anti-West position with large, seemingly artificial boosts to his social media content.

To me it doesn't matter if he's an "op", he simply poses no value to any leftist space. Just a conservative who purposefully distorts left-wing ideas and rots away genuine grassroots organizing efforts with empty statements and shady personal connections.

The argument was that Netanyahu was a favorable candidate in Israel for the purpose of an emerging multipolar world. Call that anti-west, pro-west, anti-Israel, pro-Israel, etc. as you please. I don't believe a single word coming from Hinkle. that's my view