I was convinced for years through cultural osmosis and conditioning that the tankman was ran over and crushed on camera beneath the tanks but the video just cut out and didn't show that out of "respect" or whatever. Imagine my shock as a baby leftists when I found out that literally nothing happened, that the line of tanks was pulling back from an active combat zone where tanks were set on fire and PLA troops were lynched strung up on light posts-- and they still stopped for this single person, let him climb up on the tank, talk to him, and let him go. And this shit is somehow so horrifying according to US propaganda that it justifies the dehumanization of a billion people, and if you rightfully say "hey wait a minute doesn't this just make them look good" without missing a beat the line changes with zero evidence to "well that guy was secretly arrested and killed later!"

Obviously it's been clear that if the same situation were in the west that person would have gotten mowed down by automatic gunfire before even getting close to the tanks. But it's good(?) to have an actual, objective example to point to when the hogs start posting completely horse shit again.

SRA trying to prove how normal they are to the liberals by committing acts of terrorism at the behest of the CIA.

You know what, point to them sure. NOW they might actually vote for you and you can tell mom and dad you're a socialist without getting yelled at.

Oh wait no, they'll probably end up stuffed inside a steel drum. Damn, really felt like capital was gonna not liquidate us after this time.

I'm beginning to get the impression that maybe gun rights aren't necessarily as helpful to the revolution given an organized vanguard party can acquire them during a revolutionary moment and distribute it to well trained people with the right trigger discipline and experience while anarchists will just waste anyone with a shaved head coming too close to the hierloom tomatoes they planted on the university soccer field, get mad that tankies are mad at them, and then join the Freikorps to bash the heckin redfasc.

Here's my thoughts on this, not specifically meant as a response to anyone so please take this in good faith--

This is why we have dialectical materialism to avoid falling into the circular saw blade of "ideological dogma." Slavoj drops the ball consistently but he was right when he basically argued that ideology is a fucking lobster trap used by people that don't give a fuck about nuance to paraylize and divide opposition. The working man is, typically, a far more conscience person than the type of people that rise to the top of capital by how it incentivizes those that lack it. It's pedantic and frustrating rules to a game that only one side thinks they are playing while the other blatantly doesn't give a fuck and is more a force pursuing openings and opportunities than anything else. That's why liberals lose their minds over rules based order and telling teacher when faced with reactionary forces until they get frustrated enough to just give up and concede in a game they can't win.

What I'm saying comrades is, yes, there are western forces at play here. Yes, they have a goal and are working to accelerate the conflict. But the move isn't to concede the game because you are locked into absolutes and dogma. When the Yankee fucks up, AS THEY OFTEN DO, and create an opening for a genuine revolutionary moment you grab it with both hands and don't let it go. If our comrades in Iran see an opening to assert themselves in the material conditions the Great Satan creates while they stumble their way through a doomed color revolution, then I applaud them regardless of what "ideology" organized the inciting unrest.

In other words, it's not a matter of "is it a genuine revolution or a color revolution." It's both, with different material interests taking shape in the country as unrest accelerates. What the Yankee never seems to understand, as is increasingly apparent in the homeland, is that revolutionary action is an inevitable reaction to state crisis. When you turn up the heat, water turns to steam. And as America puts Iran to the torch, it's natural the a militant working class will emerge from those conditions. It's just most times America has seen to it to actively dismantle those forces as they arise in a country they meddle in or before they begin their subversion.

But America is getting weak, and sloppy. So who knows if they'll get that chance this time.

Honestly there's a lot you can fault GRRM for but one thing he consistently gets right is portraying monarchy not as glamorous nobility but miserable, neurotic, inbred perverts who are constantly miserable from the consequences of their own actions and need to embody an entire nation.

Nearly every major destructive war or battle that isn't against the white walkers (clearly at this point analogous to climate change) or Danni's adventurist white savior liberation wars are the result of some courtly drama bullshit that ends in the death of thousands on both sides. There's monsters in both armies, but also many many otherwise good people that just have no choice but to follow the word of their noble. Even Ned Stark's sense of "honor" that got him killed wasn't remotely in the interest of the realm and it's people but nerdy liberal rules based order technicality on who should get to be the king.

I maintain, ASOFI only makes sense if it ends in the abolition of the monarchy or some sort of Revolutionary War / Magna Carta style power sharing agreement between the unlanded capitalists and merchants following an apocalyptic loss of life and power for the Great Houses. I'm talking Iron Bank / faceless men gunboat diplomacy or French Revolution.

Liberalism: Cigarettes shouldn't be banned because it would be authoritarian and interfer with individuals right to choose!

Me, a Marxist: Cigarettes shouldn't be banned because, materially, they make me look cool and I never feel less alienated from labor than sharing time at work in the smoke pit talking shit about management.

Makes me really want to take my ideas for world building a ttrpg setting a bit more seriously, where inbred monarchists explicitly reviled and are almost solely responsible for an apocalyptic calamity destructive enough that each faction has enacted a revolution of some sort of is actively working towards it.

Surprise surprise, it's explicately Marxist where magic isn't consecrated by ancient bloodlines or esoteric race science but comes from ones connection with the land and their fellow man as a sort of natural resource that can be managed sustainably to bring about a post scarcity age of magic where all people's lives are improved. But monarchies, as well as theocracies, functioned psychically as a sump for magic to extract and concentrate it from the people that work the land to the elites who viciously pursue further ruthless exploitation to empower themselves.

Main hallmarks include definitely-not-revolutionary-France, a fantasy year 30 years war, a democratic caliphate that successfully conquers and integrates "not Italy", and an orc not-Karl Marx. (Orcs being one of the few "races" in the setting descending from people warped into cute wooly boarlike pigfolk as, essentially, explicately a consequence of pursuing a magical religious war at the behest of an unjust monarchy rather than-- y'know-- being green "incert racist stereotype here.")

Oh and dwarf Soviets naturally, with the "dwarves" being entirely a false rumor for mundane humans basically of normal height appearing universally strong and stocky from factory work, quality food, excellent healthcare, and extremely inventive because of universal education. Essentially, finding creative ways to take established reactionary high fantasy tropes and filter them through a materialist lense.

"We looked at the data and science tells us that in the 30 years since the end of the Soviet Union post-Soviet states are some of the most MISERABLE ON EARTH! Clearly the legacy of communism is what's haunting these countries, it's just that bad no matter how much capitalist exploitation we cram in!"

Agreed. Fundamentals are there but it lacks the Carcosa / Delta Green vibes to make the morbid reality go down smoother.

Forget my comment, this too.

It seems like everyone must make a choice: the fuck pit or the cuck pit? What do you choose?

You're absolutely right. I mean, obviously you're right. We have the bend of history, science, morals, and most importantly self interest at our backs. The core, singular rationale for fascisms rise in the face of the collapsing neoliberal order comes down to a lot of people think it's a zero some game. There's only so many spots in the fuck pit and anyone that doesn't fight tooth and nail to preserve every assurance that them and their children and children's children remain there by any means necessary are dooming themselves to the cuck pit.

I really don't think I can put it more plainly than that. For some people it's because they can't imagine a world of abundance without artificial scarcity, because it's such a core myth and main justification for neoliberal economics that there's "not enough to go around" so even people who otherwise only stand to gain in building communism might never be able to square the circle that with modern science we live in a world of plenty when free of hyperexploitation. Others? Probably just get off to the idea that they can be the lucky winners, and that means someone has to be the loser. Sick shit.

But the good news is that if we can change how we talk about things like scarcity and destroy the myth of "supply and demand" (more than it already destroys itself day by day with corporate price gouging) we can hopefully raise a generation more resilient to this sickness. That's the future I hope I can build with everyone.

"Anarchist" moment.

It's, with no exaggeration, exactly the same motivation as aristocratic noble failsons wanting to become a knight. Do you have any idea how many fucking people it takes to support a pilot? The mechanics, the weathermen, the intelligence agents, the logistics, practically every job in the Air Force not a pilot might as well be squires helping their knighted lord suit up his armor and carry his sword.

It gives them a sense of thrill and superiority that no one else can afford, qualifying to become a pilot and getting selected for training through inter-generational contacts and referrals. Its obviously the number one top position everyone wants in the military these days, just from the "cool factor" of flying a supersonic multi-million-dollar fighter jet entrusted to one specific pilot. They think of themselves as the most noble position in the military that everyone else must wait before they are graced with their glory. They bravely charge into battle in a fighter jet like a mounted soldier, except instead of cutting down peasant levy with no armor its dropping napalm bombs on civilians from the air with no fear of reprisal.

The idea of the hot shot rebel pilot was made, originally, because aviation was seen as disruptive to the traditional military nobility like the cavalry or the admiralty. So it was mostly poor, brave volunteers that didn't fit with the standard bourgeoisie militarists. They were basically allowed to pioneer the technology because it was seen as too dangerous by the bluebloods, and a great way of killing off the people that didn't come from that classist structure so they don't rise through the ranks. After WW2 though when the technology was proven, sure as shit all the bluebloods flooded into the space and muscled out the original culture that was originally made up of mostly working class farmboys. They immediately coopted the aesthetics, merged it with their aristocratic bullshit, and they've been coasting off that stolen legacy and Top Gun ever since.

"I started a new war today."

"Confrontation with capital or another struggle within capitalism for global dominance."

"Conflict between capital...."

Take a look at any political meme page and you'll see it already has, it just somehow also convinced otherwise ostensibly normal people to post a huge amount of their porn on their platform which I'm convinced is what's keeping it afloat at this point.

Wouldn't want to offend those brave Ukrainian fighters.

I was, briefly, involved with the Air Force before educating myself on Marxism and was in a rare fortunate position where I could refuse further involvement and simply walk away without having really contributed to the imperial agenda or caused any immiseration.

I say this only to preface that while, shit yeah, Reddit is an op utilized by these intelligence groups within the government you also should know and remember that your average Air Force officer or NCO is a redditor of the HIGHEST ORDER. You will not find such terminally online militant atheist liberal rules based order Mueller Report fanboy Mass Effect Wiki contributors outside the hollowed halls of your nearest MENSA chapter as you will in the officers club of any Air Force Base. Especially pilots. They truly are the modern "knights of the air" down to having all the weird online neuroticism you would expect from an American aristocracy because they are all from money or intergenerational military bluebloods.

These people are nerds, folks, and sickos. And when your time comes even if they turn red they will STILL be worthy of locker shoving. I think that's important to remember.

As good as Lemmy is I do have to wonder sometimes if the inability for a separate leftist reddit-like community to exist and grow without embarrassing levels of wrecking is an inherent disadvantage of the format itself. It's like it's engineered in a lab for the most egoist, dogshit takes to bubble to the top and something Lemmygrad has only narrowly avoided by making people take a no-shit purity test to filtered out the worst of it.

That gonna stop me and my ADHD brain from checking this habitually? Oh fuck no. But it's reassuring to know it's a problem of the format itself and not the movement.

ゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴゴ

I'm getting the feeling that this isn't going to be an oopsie poopsie western liberal incompetence situation but a deliberate false flag. One of many the US has caused in the lead up to this conflict.

This is meant to be a direct threat to Russia while accusing them of... Destroying their own pipeline? You know the one they get an immense amount of funding from while Europe is in an energy crisis but could just like... Shut off if they wanted for a much more clean and clear political flex if they were really behind this?

All this is an overt attempt at escalation with the US and EU lying to the world's face confident that no one can call them on it because of how ostricized Russia is to the "global community" i.e. the liberal order they already control with impunity. They can afford to blatantly do this shit even when it's obvious because theyre convinced no one under their influence can call them on it, and it makes a convenient excuse to blame the coming industrial collapse on Russia this winter. They see the writing on the wall of the blowback from their own actions and are already myth making to make sure every media outlet is prime to label every death or dollar lost from the energy crisis as another form of "Russian aggression." Y'know, not the result of the collapse of the unipolar imperialist order. THAT would be a bad sign for investors! The ship is still afloat, it's still a sound vessel, if only RUSSIA would stop trying to pump it full of water!