• SlayGuevara@lemmygrad.ml
    12·
    9 hours ago

    Currently visiting the former Soviet State known as Estonia. On my way here the universe decided that the funniest thing to do was to stick a communist in a plane full of Estonian NATO soldiers with Ukraine patches and even NAFO patches lmao (grown men btw). I had to carefully hide some stickers on my phone and stuff because I had a feeling it would not be received well.

    • rainpizza@lemmygrad.ml
      1·
      7 minutes ago

      If you still have options to travel closeby, give Minsk, Belarus, a try. This is from Stalin line Museum

  • La Dame d'Azur@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    6·
    2 days ago

    Keep waiting for the day I come into work to find half my co-workers have been deported.

    Surprised ICE hasn’t been sent here yet. We have a large African population - including Somalis, which Trump seems to be singling out for some reason.

  • Solas@lemmygrad.ml
    8·
    2 days ago

    General quick question, as someone fairly new to ML spaces (I came from reddit): what do people mean when they call others “ultras?”

    I assume, based on context clues it has to do with the broken political system in the imperial core, but I’m not 100% sure. I would appreciate any insight, and thank you in advance.

    • cfgaussian@lemmygrad.ml
      11·
      2 days ago

      Ultra is short for Ultra Left, which very broadly speaking can be considered a form of what Lenin called “Left-Wing” Communism.

      There are a lot of different kinds of ultras, and depending on who you ask you will get a different answer as to who the label applies to (Anarchists, Trotskyists, Maoists, etc.), but what generally unites them all is their idealism, their dogmatism, and their focus on ideological purity. They reject materialist analysis that doesn’t conform with their ideology and demand the skipping of stages in the development of socialism. Ultra-leftism is often associated with adventurism and hyper-militancy.

      Ultra-leftism in many ways is simply the opposite side of the same coin to which right-opportunism belongs. They are undialectical deviations from Marxism. Because of their shared lack of solid dialectical grounding, sometimes former ultra-leftists, feeling scorned or frustrated, can flip straight into becoming right deviationists (capitalist roaders), or worse. Their danger stems from the fact that both can steer revolutionary forces and socialist governments off-course and into dead ends, though they do so in different ways.

      “It should not be forgotten that Rights and “ultra-Lefts” are actually twins, that consequently both take an opportunist stand, the difference between them being that whereas the Rights do not always conceal their opportunism, the Lefts invariably camouflage their opportunism with “revolutionary” phrases.”

      The Fight Against Right and “Ultra-Left” Deviations, - J. V. Stalin

    • amemorablename@lemmygrad.ml
      12·
      2 days ago

      Ultras are the kind of people who would say that China is bad not because it is communist but because it isn’t communist enough. They want full blown communism to happen right now, which is understandable as a desire, but then they don’t want to engage with a process of transition, based in dialectical materialist theory and practice, to get there. Those who actively engage in trying to transition to communism invariably find they can’t change everything and everyone all at once, and on top of that, are surrounded by violent capitalists/imperialists who want them dead. So they have to contend with that and work out an effective strategy to move toward communism anyway. This invariably involves some compromising and negotiating along the way. Not to be confused with the kind of compromising that liberals talk of in “progressive” politics. For members of a vanguard party belonging to a socialist state, compromising is not bowing to capital or empire, but figuring out how to deal with the fact that those forces exist and develop socialism and then communism anyway. For "progressive’ liberals, compromising means giving up on anything revolutionary and satisfying yourself with minor reforms within the oppressive status quo.

      I note the distinction in part because some ultras would appear to think these are the same thing, that the compromises a socialist state makes are the same type of concessions that liberals make. But the fundamental difference is in where the power lies and who controls the means of production and distribution. That’s what you want to be looking for, primarily, not whether every policy of a socialist state exactly lines up with communist ideology at the state’s current stage of development.

      They have a tendency to show up in the western left because the west has yet to actually do a socialist state project and because decades of vilifying socialist states has put a stigma on supporting them in any way, but leaves it as moderately acceptable to support communism in the abstract, as long as communism only exists as a nebulous idea that “hasn’t truly been tried yet.” In other words, believing in an idea is something the western empire is more or less okay with, since action doesn’t necessarily follow from it. But if you start supporting the entities that are standing up to it, whether these entities are explicitly communist in intent or are just trying to be sovereign and self-determining, it gets mad fast.

    • ExotiqueMatter@lemmygrad.ml
      12·
      2 days ago

      The TL;DR is basically: Ultras, or ultra-leftists, are self-proclaimed communists who are extremely dogmatic about doing everything exactly as it was written to the letter even if it’s not possible in the given material conditions, while also ironically often not having read much theory and/or not understanding theory very well.

      Here’s what prolewiki has to say about ultras

    • Horse {they/them}@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
      6·
      2 days ago

      what ExotiqueMatter said with the addition of in some circles it is used incorrectly as a thought terminator the same way “tankie” is among anarchists/liberals
      that’s mostly among baby MLs though

  • GeoffreyKlien@lemmygrad.ml
    8·
    2 days ago

    Can anyone direct me to sources on how China’s government works. Like elections or processes of moving stuff around.

    I understand how the DPRK’s elections and processes work, but I don’t think I’ve ever looked into China.

  • SlayGuevara@lemmygrad.ml
    10·
    2 days ago

    Bought this Bohemians FC Kneecap edition jersey which is in support of Palestine and wore it to work today. It got a lot of smiles from our Palestinian members.

    • Perplexed@lemmy.ml
      13·
      19 hours ago

      In what way was that reactionary?

      Edit: Hoping for things to happen has no effect whatsoever on reality. Those events happened to me, and the lack of compassion I constantly see here does sometimes make me fantasize about stuff like this happening to people who hurt me. That’s all.

      • amemorablename@lemmygrad.ml
        2·
        14 hours ago

        I’m not a mod and can’t speak to the reason, but since you’re asking, I read the log and I will say I don’t quite understand where you’re coming from. Reads like wishing harm on others because they don’t “respect” you and you perceive this disrespect as inherently elitist. Which sounds odd to me even from the standpoint of assuming you have reason to believe that people are for sure being intentionally disrespectful in an elitist way. Disrespect can be hurtful but it’s not on its own violent oppression, nor will random events of harm coming to oppressors get them to change their ways. The oppressor’s position of oppressor is much more determined by their material conditions and being distraught won’t necessarily change their participation in it.

        Also, to this part:

        the lack of compassion I constantly see here

        I’m not sure if you mean “here” as in where you live or “here” as in lemmygrad.

        If you mean here as in lemmygrad, I would suggest bringing up specific examples, either to mods/admins in private, or publicly. Because it can’t be properly addressed if it’s not pinpointed as an issue.

        • Perplexed@lemmy.ml
          1·
          14 hours ago

          I am on welfare because of mental illness. When people dismiss the struggles of people like me, they claim I don’t deserve welfare. Do you think the stigma against us is gone? Do you even know how difficult it is to get on disability? Most people think we are just lazy and drug addicts. My material interests rest on the welfare state, and I have the right to defend myself and my interests. What is “inherently elitist” is the fact that people consider us, schizophrenics, bipolar, or autism doesn’t matter, to be lazy or blame our problems on a moral falling on our part.

          Disrespect can be hurtful but it’s not on its own violent oppression,

          It is when it threatens my ability to live.

          • amemorablename@lemmygrad.ml
            2·
            14 hours ago

            Are there people here dismissing those struggles or are you talking about elsewhere? I’m still not clear on that.

            Do you even know how difficult it is to get on disability?

            I do actually. That is, in one capitalist context (the US).

            • Perplexed@lemmy.ml
              1·
              13 hours ago

              To be honest, it’s mostly an old grudge I hold on a few users, one in particular. I should move on for sure, but they often post, and it’s always a reminder. I love lemmygrad and I keep coming back. But I just wish they knew how much they hurt me when I was at one of the lowest point in my life. As for them dismissing my problems, one person said I lacked discipline, which is not true, and it angers me every time I think about that insult. In the end, I am very scared of losing my disability benefits. Especially because, in general, a lot of people nowadays are against us and want to remove these welfare programs.

              • amemorablename@lemmygrad.ml
                7·
                13 hours ago

                It’s hard to speak on the incident without knowing in detail how it went down, but it sounds like there was a lack of understanding of the challenges you face. And to that kind of issue, all I can say is, with the executive functioning struggles I have, I know something of what it’s like for people to be kind of poor in their understanding of it, to put it nicely. My experience with that kind of thing on lemmygrad has been good overall, so it surprises me that you ran into such a thing. Over two years of therapy (and lucky I was in a position I could even get therapy) helped me a little bit with my struggles, I’d estimate most in the area of being more loving toward myself and more aware of my emotions, but there’s still a lot I struggle with.

                Anyway, not to wax on about my own problems. Point is, I can somewhat relate. Your fear is very understandable and I hope it doesn’t come to that.

                And to the conflict that happened, maybe you could consider either messaging the user privately about it and telling them how it hurt your feelings, or perhaps reach out to a mod or admin and see if they’re willing to act as a mediator to help bring it up with this user if you don’t feel you’re in a place where you want to confront it alone. Figuring out how to let the resentment go is also an option, but if you have reason to believe you think they will re-offend, so to speak, it may be worth addressing for that reason alone. If you do choose to say something, just remember to try to keep the focus on how it made you feel (as opposed to starting with an accusation) and be ready for the fact that the best you may get out of it is knowing you bravely confronted it (they may not give the response you want). It’s not healthy if we have resentments going on here that remain unresolved. It makes it harder for us to be connected and work things out. Don’t think I’m saying this like I think it’s easy though. One of my biggest failings is not confronting things sufficiently.

                Either way, take care.

  • Jeanne-Paul Marat@lemmygrad.ml
    8·
    2 days ago

    I was thinking about it recently, another reason [beyond the other 10973 ones] I have job searching is that the stakes on each side are so different. HR person makes a mistake (assuming it’s not illegal and is blatant enough that you can actually sue) it’s “oopsie, bit of a mess up on my part” cause the stakes are that they might be mildly reprimanded at most. But if the applicant messes up (both in ways that are actual mistakes and ways that are “I said one word wrong and this neurotypical-maxxer thinks I’m a basement dweller now”) it’s “sorry, we don’t think you’ll be good for this position” and the consequences are you get to stress more about finding a job and not having an income

  • Jeanne-Paul Marat@lemmygrad.ml
    15·
    3 days ago

    I finally started writing today. Like fully fledged fiction writing, that i finally found the inspiration for, and now I have to go to work. I’m genuinely angry rn I don’t wanna stop

    • PleasantPeasant@lemmygrad.ml
      4·
      2 days ago

      nice! it feels to me there is a dearth of communist fiction out there, although admittedly i have only mostly read fanfiction for a longtime so maybe there is much more original communist fiction compared to fanfic which for whatever reason seems to have a particularly high concentration of shitlib/radlib works (not to mention ive found way more outright fascist work than communist fanfics!)

      • ExotiqueMatter@lemmygrad.ml
        5·
        2 days ago

        There is a genuine lack of communist fiction. There are some anti-capitalist and anti-corporations fictions as ultra-capitalist dystopias, typically cyberpunk stuff, and the occasional post-scarcity sci-fi setting that is communist in all but name, but there is barely any explicitly communist fictions.

        I’ve been thinking for a while that we should make a list of leftist novels (and other medias), pin it somewhere, like in a dedicated community, or in the sidebar, and regularly update it with new recommendations from comrades in the community.

        It would be cool also to have more comrades writing, and have a place to post writings at. Maybe they could post short pieces in c/worldbuilding but a lemmy post wouldn’t do for longer works so it would be nice to have a dedicated place for the writers of our community to post stuff, like something similar to royalroad maybe.

        • La Dame d'Azur@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
          5·
          2 days ago

          That would be awesome and I’m down for it. I’m trying to work on the lack of explicitly pro-communist fiction myself and it’d be cool to see what other comrades are working on in this regard.

          • ExotiqueMatter@lemmygrad.ml
            5·
            2 days ago

            I’ve been working on a sci-fi setting I could tell stories in for a while. I’m still very much only doing worldbuilding and haven’t written any stories yet though. Also, I tend to be very inconsistent with continuing things I started because ADHD and all that so no definitive promises.

      • Semoan@lemmygrad.ml
        3·
        2 days ago

        it’s hard to do such fanfics when there’s not much in way of lore to build upon, especially ones concerning material and historical crises

        • PleasantPeasant@lemmygrad.ml
          3·
          2 days ago

          i dont think it’s any harder than any other fiction? surely even a little shared world building is easier than coming up with all of it on your own? it’s so bad man people dont even display class struggle of like, workers coming together to strike and how the owning class deals with that? like ultimately even with a magic system i dont think should actually be that hard to display some sort of class struggle, really my complaint boils down to not only are there very view outright socialist works there are barely even any works that show class struggle in fantasy/sci fi worlds?

    • amemorablename@lemmygrad.ml
      7·
      3 days ago

      It’s a relatable feeling. It can be hard for me to get started writing fiction sometimes, but when I do, there are times I want to ride it out even if it’s hours cause the inspiration just starts flowing.

  • Perplexed@lemmy.ml
    91·
    3 days ago

    Why was the British empire so evil? What about imperial Japan? Or the French or Roman empires? Why are citizens of empires self-centered and evil and supportive of their nation? Surely, it must be because of lead poisoning…

      • Perplexed@lemmy.ml
        51·
        3 days ago

        Sorry, comrade, but I don’t understand your comment. I was just being sarcastic towards a few users who now apparently believe the US is ideologically stubborn because of mass lead poisoning or for some weird biological reason.

          • Perplexed@lemmy.ml
            4·
            3 days ago

            Shit. I thought the silliness of pointing out lead poisoning as the source of the problem was like a “tone indicator.” I apologize for the confusion.

  • ProudCascadian@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    11·
    4 days ago

    Things are working. I found a guy who was going to a protest later, and gave him a few copies of the first chapter of BaR. I also introduced Parenti to someone I volunteered with.

    There’s this datacenter built at the Oregon Gorge and I need to take that into consideration concerning propaganda.

    • cfgaussian@lemmygrad.ml
      9·
      3 days ago

      and gave him a few copies of the first chapter of BaR

      This is a brilliant idea for disseminating propaganda! We can’t easily go around handing out whole books and most people likely wouldn’t read them if we did. But printing out a single chapter (or even part of one) and handing it out like a leaflet is much more feasible and much more likely to get someone to actually engage with the material. And hopefully if it catches their interest they will seek out the rest of the book on their own. Did you come up with the idea yourself or is it something that a group that you are involved in does on a regular basis?

      • ProudCascadian@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
        6·
        3 days ago

        Came up with it myself, not to brag. I was using this one printer and I didn’t want to print out too much. It wasn’t that it was easier to read, just that it was easier to print. I also split the pages into four using a setting on the printer that does that.

        Really, I’d take influence from some Anarchist zines (yes I know Anarchists are a bit cringe) and how they are short pamphlets, with some graphics, promoting a particular idea. They seem to know printing really well.