Welcome again to everybody. Make yourselves at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.
☭ Matrix homeserver and space
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I hate myself. I went to reddit again just for short while and I hate myself so much, fuck that disgusting cesspool.
it happens. I remember when I got the permaban I was really mad and was all “fuck that place” but then I also found myself going back to look a few times a day. Don’t beat yourself up about it.
Tried to make that xi-peel emoji but with Traoré and Sankara. It’s kind of hard to get the effect of peeling paper.
This looks like Sankara is hiding behind a Traore cardboard cut out which is a bit funnier I think.
I can’t unsee that now lol
Diagonal Traore should be a meme :D
reading things out of order of very regimented reading guides sometimes throws me for a loop. i went back to reading from a guide and picking only those sources after reading external works, and i have difficulty identifying is this something i’m getting right? is it just rephrased? is this a simplification that is confusing me because it’s reducing something i already otherwise know?
i find that i skipped the basic of diamat and contradiction itself, (save for cowbee’s post that they themselves called oversimplified) so i still am due to read something more whole. i didn’t think thiswould be as large of a problem as it seems to be for me, since i figured if i knew the basics (avoid idealism and the conception that there are solid immutable “ideas” separate from the material world, imagine all matter and existence as dynamic(? also wrong i’m pretty sure)) it would minimize error to a passable degree. this is because i thought a vulgar understanding of philosophy was preferable to a vulgar understanding of economy, which i should prioritize, and also because, rather sorrily, i felt weary of rereading a lot of the summaries to what felt like little to no benefit. (i’ll pick up mao’s on contradiction soon when i regain motivation)
since i’m now so out of order, i’m attempting once MORE to read “Wage Labour and Capital”. i’ve tried multiple times since it comes recommended i feel almost everywhere, and yet i’ve never been able to progress well or ever feel like i’m fostering an understanding.
to add, over the last few days i had a renewed energy and was propelled mostly through organic interest in one off posts to read Marx on Capital as a Real God and then lenin’s “Marx’s Economic Doctrine”, and yet now that i’m back at wage labour and capital i find myself lost, unsure if it’s repeating concepts that were sufficiently explained in other works i already read. i feel frustrated by this text almost always, which is odd because i really don’t know why that is. maybe marx’s style of writing in specific? i’m disappointed in myself and wish i could just go into my brain and rotate gears until i feel i’m fine
People tend to recommend comrades to read Lenin first because he is easier to read. Don’t worry, you aren’t the first to struggle with Marx’s writing style.
One of the main things you’ll notice – especially on technical works like The Capital – is that Marx writes with “lenses”, then he takes a “lens” and expands it even more with other “lenses”.
He takes an object and it can be a natural-form or a value-form. Then he expands value-forms into use-values and exchange-values. Then he combines the two into the commodity-form. Then he takes the exchange-value, finds the common thing shared by all commodities – namely labour-time – then he discovers the Value. So on, and so forth.
Marx doesn’t let any concept stay “static” so to speak. They play with each other, contradict, expand etc.
It’s how he applies dialectics. It’s accurate, but it’s a pain in the ass to read.
It’s gets easier though. Especially when you get used to dialectics.
Comrade, I’ll state that understanding dialectical materialism is critical for understanding Marxist economics. There’s good reason I put diamat so early on, and it’s because philosophy is the way we think about and view the world. Without a proper understanding of how to view the world, learning economics allows is to let our bourgeois preconceptions cloud our judgement. If you’re frustrated, I suggest going through the guide I wrote in the order it was intended. You can also wait for Edie to do the weekly reading list for it over on Hexbear.
sigh, i figured TT /nay
i really hoped my even rudimentary understanding and simplifications (and on their face rejections of ideals and metaphysics, but it would obviously be extremely important to rigorously understand and Identify what Is Idealist or Metaphysical) would suffice as a basis, really praying that i knew somewhat enough not to completely poison my understanding, but i’ll revisit those segments of the reading guide once more TT i really have been getting in my own way
It’s an easy mistake! Don’t beat yourself up!
- It is necessary to make up one’s mind what one wants to study. Sometimes a person wants to study, but does not know what. Things go well at a collective farm or a factory because there is a plan. So does self-education if there is a plan, if the man does not skip from book to book — if he does not jump from history to literature and from literature to physics
remembered krupskaya said this ermmmm… was making a fool of myself for no damn reason
Nah, you’re learning through experience! Seeing theory affirm your own suspicions and provide new clarity and insight helps the points actually stick!
thank you :) the encouragement is much dearer than you can imagine :)
No problem!
Read Carlo Cafiero’s summarized capital, george politzer’s “elementary principles of philosophy” and “introducing marx:a graphic guide” by Rius before you read Marx, Engels, Lenin and all that. Otherwise you wont really understand what theyre saying at all. Those 3 books are a good little pre-Marx reading list.
i will note those recommendations down :3 thank you
Qu’avez vous fait? (guess the reference)
That is beautiful.
(Brazil Elections)
Vote counting has started.
Tel Aviv upset
Speaking of election season…
Serbian voters go absolutely wild for the opportunity to vote.
Even tho I doubt that elections matter, I am still happy for Brazil. I always have the feeling that whoever wins any election ends up being the most hostile to socialism and minorities, but I was fortunately wrong here.
Genuinely how it feels using Chinese open source Ai guilt free:
Is there a particular one you are using right now if you could recommend? I am currently using some AI for a project but I try not to use most of the ones from the West. Currently, I am doing fine with DeepSeek but I wonder if there are others?
Oh I just use deepseek to. My work doesn’t really involve anything ai can actually be used for so I mainly just use it to store random ideas or search of specific surface level things [and searching through things that aren’t in my language]
Ah okay. My project isn’t super serious but I am also a little out of my field (long story and some poor life choices but that’s for another day). DeepSeek has been helpful with reorganizing some jumbled notes and helping me get a base understanding so far.
I pasted a copy of this topic to Feddit’s r/NativeAmerican subcommunity, but some reason people were downvoting it, and after three hours of no replies I simply deleted my topic.
I can hardly guess what was motivating the downvotes. Was my thread too lengthy? The La rendición de Granada thumbnail off-putting? The topic a tad too Eurocentric? Maybe I would have known if I left it up a little longer but I doubt it.
Though after looking through a few threads there (like this reaction to an artist who mistook Hawaiians for Native Americans) I think that maybe I shouldn’t have bothered them at all. It’s just too depressing for me — not that Native Americans have no reasons to be angry, but I can only handle so much negativity before it becomes unhealthy.
It’s an interesting topic and the anti-Muslim crusades definitely enforce capitalist white supremacy later on.
On another note, you might be interested in Andres Resendez’s work which sheds light on how the Spaniards genocided the Indigenous peoples of South and North America and that it wasn’t simply “smallpox and disease.”
Populations can rebound dramatically after a pandemic in the span of a few years even
Many Indigenous nations didn’t.
Because they were largely genocided.
I have an deep emergency on my hands but it’s good to make that point.
The Indigenous population of the various societies dying was not “accidental.”
I have a bad feeling about the protests and elections in Serbia. Am I right and is it a colour revolution or it is valid?
I’m afraid we can only wait and see.
I’m not sure that the protests are a colour revolution solely because the protesters reject the independence of Kosovo. America would never let a puppet movement deride the separatist movement the West has spent decades trying to get off the ground.
From my very little knowledge and research, likely its another color revolution but the outgoing party is not something to be mourned. They were pro-eu but also “maybe we shouldn’t completely cut Russia off.” So if it is a color coup its just the EU shooting itself in the leg and undermining the idea of “democracy.”
I need help to find a video.
I think it was an interview in English with a Palestinian leader. At one point the interaction went roughly like this:
Interviewer (I think he was British): So why not stop and negotiate?
Palestinian: Stop what?
Interviewer: Stop the fight. Stop the death and war.
Palestinian: Well, people usually fight for some reason and people stop fighting for some reason.
Are you thinking of this clip of Ghassan Kanafi?
Yes, it’s this one. Thanks comrade
So is Abdul El-Sayed being positioned for a presidential run in the future?
Are the American elite going to try to use an Arab version of Barrack Obama to ultimately suppress support for Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, etc.
I personally don’t think so, the islamophobia is too high in the west for that to be the strategy they’ll just push some white man.
Even if he wasn’t a muslim, the man is just an unapologetic asshole in every interview he gives. Maybe his chud adjacent persona would work if he was running as a republican but lib voters would be turned off by him no matter what.
That is true, I find him to be significantly less charismatic than Obama
Hey, do the peeps here know how to get actually accurate news on the Russia-Ukraine War? All I can find is a bunch of Western cope about how Ukraine is winning.
https://maratkhairullin.substack.com/ and https://substack.com/@zinderneufog for regular updates about the situation on the ground
Thnx
You, comrade, get a point for giving me a source (what you can use it for is secret).
I usually check Alexander Mercouris. He’s pretty pro-russian but so is reality. He tries to be evidence based in his assessment. He is british and a liberal but still manages to be a half decent human and not half bad at reporting. But I always listen at 2x speed because he talks so bloody slow.
I appreciate the extra resource (their liberalness is unfortunate, but sources are sources).
Military Summit channel on YouTube
Is that the right name? I see one that is similar but different (Military Summary is the name)
Sorry I’m a little overstimulated today so my mind doesn’t work the way it should. It’s Military Summary
It is ok! Thanks so much for the source :>
No problem!
I go with most of my news needs to aljazeera. When it’s playing on the TV in the background occasionally they usually have quite decent coverage on this.
Thanks!
The Greater Eurasia Podcast is pretty good for having lots of expert guests on to talk about it and geopolitics at large, but you do still need to remain a bit critical; Glenn Diesen has lots of different types of guests on and some of them have more to learn from than others lol. Imperfect but I still tune in regularly.
I appreciate the source (though I am not a major fan of podcasts, and yeah, I should be careful if I ever decide to see the one you recommended).
If you come across this website in search results, it may be bullshitting you to one degree or another: https://www.gameslearningsociety.org/is-call-of-duty-sold-in-china/
This is an article about call of duty in China and it goes from talking about the game to suddenly:
Is cod popular in Korea?
Fish species that are most consumed in Winter are the Alaska pollock and cod, whereas the hairtail and mackerel fish are generally consumed during the summer. Delicacies such as Flat fish are a cultural dish within South Korea where a majority consumes it as sashimi, sharing its food culture with Japan.
Comical lack of oversight and has no sources on any of the information.
(I stumbled onto this while trying to find information on whether CoD is sold in China and in what form.)
unfortunately, these AI websites predate chatgpt’s popularity and have come to dominate search results since. at least they all have the same sort of layout for now so it’s easy to spot them
Have a good week, comrades! Even when times get stressful, you can still bear through it as all problems can be.
As always, communism will win.
Thank you so much for the study guide.
No problem, I hope it helps!
Thanks Cowbee. Hope your week goes well! We will stand strong against apathy.
i think i was good at sloganeering and vulgar explanations that somewhat reach into the ‘correct direction’ for my friends.
at best, i definitely still was going counter to the worst anti-communist narratives and promoting somewhat correct narratives about AES or the real world (in things like historical description of AES like DPRK or USSR or PRC, at least helping them think of and follow regular logic regarding their operations rather than idealist or nonsensical capitalist propaganda).
my prayer is right direction, even if wrong, is okay, and course correction obviously will always be possible(?) i really just hope the foundation isn’t too rotten by my own oversights and holes in knowledge, though maybe i’m fretting for no reason, especially if it’s only reliant on what i give them so i could always go back and fix things.
i’m trying my very best not to feel super discouraged and anxious about poisoning others by my wrongness, and just assuring myself that a little in the right, and rare to find direction, is still meaningful especially for us for whom everything is so insular. it is just frustrating, so many of these days i hate having to feel as if i’ve restarted or know nothing and must begin again, even though it’s unequivocally true. but i have to hope that whatever minimal and odd progress i made was still progress with that friend, you know?
i rushed into getting my friend to understand and empathize with AES because that is what helped me best (combatting myths about AES so i could even entertain evil Stalinism). i won’t be mean to myself about that. i will focus on learning more myself. all is not lost, and that was still progress, however minimal, however childish i was then (forgivably so. and i have time and time ahead of me)
