Bruh I know what the imperial core is.

Yes trump would be replaced, that much is obvious as there is a league of even shadier mfers behind him, but whether his replacement would have the charisma to actually succeed in getting enough people energised to suceed is a different question entirely.

Yes there is a global rise in the far-right and yes it is in large part due to the decay of brief prosperity for the imperial core countries due to the failure of neoliberal policies, in many ways failure that is created by inherent contradictions within capitalism as described by Marx, but this rise is also tied together by strong charismatic leaders who are able to seize the moment in ways the left can’t counter because we cannot offer the simplicity of lies.

So to avoid the pendulum swinging to the right, keeping those individuals out of power is our only option and is a shared want between us and the establishment.

I see no reason not to seize the opportunity and utilize electoralism to our advantage, even in the absence of meaningful change, a rightoid passing legislation means a press environment even worse than typical neoliberal press, and that makes it that much harder to organise, to do mutual aid, talk about theory or spread solidarity.

Wanted to snag one but apparently they’re all in the US, shame

I fully agree. I’d be the first to defend the rat as a victim of the system, but fucking hell he didn’t risk losing his job or death by just looking the other way, doing what you need to do to survive isn’t an excuse to outright aid the bastards and that same logic definitely extends to xitter employees etc. who’d have every other tech company fight for them if they left.

I’m starting to think The Matrix had the right idea. Until someone is “awake” they can easily turn into an agent of the system, a dedicated defender of it, and as such we can’t think of them as friends.

Fuck DeJoy, what a little piss baby. Postal workers deserve better.

At this stage though I can’t really condemn it, I’ve seen class consciousness only evaporate more and more over the course of my lifetime across the general populus, while concentrating in a few unions, which isn’t bad of course as it gets workers better material conditions, but it’s a far cry from a revolutionary movement. At this stage I feel all that’s left is individual actions, though perhaps I’m dooming.

I think prolewiki is a bit overly critical there, nobody thinks tagging a wall like some teenager is going to spread class consciousness enough to lead to anything, though a good art piece or slogan may make people stop and think, we’d be overwhelmingly closer to any kind of lefty utopia if the guy shooting trump didn’t miss.

In case anyone is curious like I was, the original artist of this portrait of Mike Pondsmith - creator of the Cyberpunk TTRPG - is Lauren Tamaki, it was originally for The Atlantic article “The Role-Playing Game That Predicted The Future” written by Darryn King from December 2020, her other portraits are available here: http://laurentamaki.com/portrait-gallery

Netherlands? North Louisiana? No such luck sadly

This. I wish I lived during a time where we moved past these archaic systems and prejudices.

Politics and economics are things that have the most negative direct impact on my life, it took me 15 years to immigrate to somewhere somewhat better and 10 of those were also spent fighting for healthcare while fighting landlords, shitty bosses and other assorted bastards while under assault from right-wingers day in day out in all mainstream media, always on the edge of deportation and death, so much time wasted in my early 20s.

Coming to terms with death being in all likelihood the very near future when you’ve just had a taste of life for the first time is an indescribable feeling.

Otherwise I have zero regrets, I’ve unironically never made any bad decisions even in hindsight and I make far more privileged people than myself jealous with what I’ve managed to make of my situation, including maybe the guy who downvoted this and the person above?

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I’m not losing an identity, I’m gaining one by rejecting the one my birthplace wanted to force on me and everyone who can should do the same rather than allow themselves to be brainwashed by governments into nationalist fervor and pride in what piece of land they happened to be born in.

And if that happens to be - by choice - a cultural identity of that birthplace, that’s okay too, so long as that is an independent choice, and not brainwashing done by “culture” and pressure from lunatics like you.

I’m switching to a language that is more useful because more people speak it, especially where I currently live, there are no further implications to language than that.

I didn’t say anything about “especially minorities”, in fact I specifically carved out the exception that people suffering persecution are not able to escape their identities as defined by their ethnicity or any other innate characteristic above, I fucking know, I’m transgender. I would like to not be defined by that because I’m also a person, but whether I like it or not, sometimes I am, and therefore can’t escape it, not yet.

It’s pretty clear that I’m not saying that gay people shouldn’t have pride or that black Americans shouldn’t know their history and have solidarity towards each other, yet you keep trying to paint me as racist using minorities as your motte, but really you’re the one who’s racist if you think people being individuals free to choose their own path without being defined by or hurt because of their ethnicity isn’t the goal.

I don’t know if you’re being dense on purpose or what, I’ve explained it every which way I can think of, but I don’t think you’re acting in good faith, I thought you were a misguided liberal, but I think you’re outright a genuine fascist and genuinely believe everyone belongs with their ethnicity and nationality categorized by culture etc. because you sound like fucking Mussolini, especially with that “modern world” dogwhistle.

Either way, Blocked.

I am literally not being assimilated by the majority of any kind, I don’t know where you’re getting this from? Just because I don’t identify with being Russian doesn’t mean I identify with being British.

All of those things are just nation states created in bloody battles, borders carved onto maps and now recorded in papers for use by violence monopolists. I identify with no nationality or national identity of any kind, I am my own person and i will mish and mash cultural artifacts as I find them to my liking.

I understand that there are many people who cannot escape their ethnic identity due to systemic racism and I am firmly anti-racist for that very reason amongst many more, but even then, it’s their material circumstances that create identity, not voodoo spooks of “heritage” or “culture” or any other irrational nonsense, all of that is aesthetics that should be appropriated when useful to sway to the cause, nothing more.

No gods, no masters. We must cooperate because it benefits us, not because of borders or what food you eat or anything else.

If anything, shame on you: talking down my experience because it doesn’t fit the current westerner conception of progressive thinking. Your motivation comes from a good place I’m sure, but it’s not nice to shout down others with different viewpoints or experiences.

Holy fuck

People don’t care for the truth, all the fact checking libs did was for naught and the only real duty of the press at this point is to make cash money

I can’t argue against what something “sounds like”, only what is, and the fact here is that culture and identity formed as a member of an ethnic group or someone born in a nation-state is all fundamentally about nationalist pride and connections with others under a nationalist context, it’s all about judging people based on where they’re from and categorising on assumptions, just because someone isn’t beating their chest about revanchist urges to reclaim lost territory from past centuries doesn’t mean they don’t think along the same lines and that’s the real majority, and me thinking in different terms to that already makes me an outlier from not just my birthplace, but every group. As pompous as it sounds this is a sincere belief.

It’s a good thing, imo. People shouldn’t grasp at things like which nation-states they were born in and allegiance to them, such things only create a docile nationalist populace that empower warmongers like Putin etc.

Just because I was born Russian doesn’t mean I have to be a bloodlusting orc beating my chest in jingoist fervor, that culture is just some shit I saw, it has no power over me, and no effect on me, I’m wholly independent from it. This is of course - a good thing.

People should craft their own identities, choose their own families and make connections based on reason and material circumstances or love. Not anything superficial like borders or language.

It’s quite unfortunate that neurotypicals seems to struggle with being independent thinkers so much and instead resort to religion/fascism for identity because a flag says they must be one way or a computer tells them or their social circle etc. So many of them do things and they don’t even know why, they play games others were into, as if thats somehow a reason, they want what others want, etc.

Now thats if anything - is sad, and i wonder how we fix this and force them to craft their own identities.

We need diversity of perspectives, of views, of ways of life and priorities. Languages are tools, and yes we should preserve them and their history and evolution for what it tells us, but it’s not surprising that in the long-term, people simply drift towards the most useful tool.

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It’s not sad to me.

Who cares, it’s just sounds common on a piece of land I happened to be born on. To care about heritage/nation/state and most of all the creepy cult of “culture” and it’s ensuing framework of bioessentialism, transphobia, homophobia, hard r racism and the sheer anti-intellectualism that comes through the simplicity of stereotypes, it’s all stupid jingoist nationalist shit that doesn’t matter, it’s all run by the rich to fuck the poor.

Be your own person, carve your own path, don’t live or die for ‘the man’, make your allies based on reason and material circumstances, not spooks of crumbling empires.

Live, love and die for your reasons, and fight those who try to make it any other way for you or others. Don’t expect a sermon and don’t long for one. That’s real nihilsm for ya.

I always speak English with all my friends who also speak (and are by origin) Russian because we live in England and find it easier since it’s the language we use more. Plus everything else is in English so it’s just extra effort to find words to talk about it in Russian, like translating a movie quote instead of just quoting it.

It’s not there to upset you by being “global”, it’s a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.

What does that even matter anymore really? Only corpos worth slaving for are global, with a good WFH gig you’ll have colleagues from all over the globe and you ain’t gonna be speaking Swedish to 'em. Globalization means countries also want to be open to other nationalities. Sure it’s good to learn other languages, and I like it, but most everywhere knowing good English will open more doors than good of any other language, provided that you have at least a basic utilitarian grasp of the majority spoken language of where you live