Author Topic: Laissez-faire Politics Thread - Praxis? I didn't play Deus Ex, sorry. (Read 225899 times)

team filler · « **Reply #1080 on:** October 09, 2019, 10:47:10 PM »

an 8 ball game

curly · « **Reply #1081 on:** October 09, 2019, 11:39:03 PM »

Quote

Professor Otto Ranke realized in 1938 that there was a medicine out there that was highly popular in the German civilian population. This was Pervatin methamphetamine, and he read some of the reports ... [that] concluded that methamphetamine reduces the fear level, if given in high dosages, and also reduces the need to sleep. ... So he started doing tests in 1938 and in 1939 on young medical officers in Berlin. ... [And] he came to the conclusion that meth is the perfect drug for soldiers, and he suggested this to his superiors. He said, "We should distribute meth officially among the troops."

team filler · « **Reply #1082 on:** October 09, 2019, 11:44:02 PM »

curly · « **Reply #1083 on:** October 10, 2019, 05:04:44 PM »

https://nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/professional-managerial-chasm/

Really liked this piece. Most clear-headed analysis of the current situation on the left I've read.

shosta · « **Reply #1084 on:** October 10, 2019, 05:48:54 PM »

That's the good shit.

VomKriege · « **Reply #1085 on:** October 10, 2019, 06:17:28 PM »

Quote from: curly on October 10, 2019, 05:04:44 PM

https://nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/professional-managerial-chasm/

Really liked this piece. Most clear-headed analysis of the current situation on the left I've read.

Ok but it doesn't tell me who is right ?

curly · « **Reply #1086 on:** October 10, 2019, 06:18:24 PM »

Tulsi obviously

shosta · « **Reply #1087 on:** October 10, 2019, 06:20:57 PM »

Quote from: VomKriege on October 10, 2019, 06:17:28 PM

Ok but it doesn't tell me who is right ?

Quote

As the class from which both Sanders and Warren draw their activist support has gradually caved in, it has set in motion not one but two efforts to find a path out of the wreckage. The Sanders effort seems willing to go farther, understanding that he cannot actually make good on his goals through the ordinary legislative process. Warren is poised on the margin. She clearly recognizes the rising discontent of the PMC and its increasing resonance with working-class grievances, and seeks to respond in meaningful ways. But her campaign remains more thoroughly in the rehabilitative mode: putting democracy back on its feet, cleaning up the system, and putatively giving her decomposing social base the chance to recompose itself. A Warren victory would be cleansing, marking a return; a Sanders victory would open a new chapter—though a vaguely defined one. But in contradistinction to all these pretenders to socialism, a Tulsi victory would be most revolutionary of all.

VomKriege · « **Reply #1088 on:** October 10, 2019, 06:22:38 PM »

Screw this noise, I'm voting Pence.

Tripon · « **Reply #1089 on:** October 11, 2019, 03:27:16 PM »

https://twitter.com/TribTowerViews/status/1182738630785134592
https://twitter.com/dillonliam/status/1182686899334369280

Gotta love how people get mad when government proposes to actually make some people lives marginally better. A dude complains how much homeless are literally walking the streets and gets mad when the city of L.A. proposes to take them off the street.

shosta · « **Reply #1090 on:** October 11, 2019, 05:06:04 PM »

https://twitter.com/atheist_cvnt/status/1181410473788370944

team filler · « **Reply #1091 on:** October 12, 2019, 04:06:18 PM »

https://twitter.com/venanalysis/status/1182651763914088448

team filler · « **Reply #1092 on:** October 12, 2019, 06:24:15 PM »

BIONIC · « **Reply #1093 on:** October 13, 2019, 01:17:12 AM »

If nothing else, you gotta respect his dedication to his craft

Crash Dummy · « **Reply #1094 on:** October 14, 2019, 09:21:10 AM »

https://twitter.com/thewastedworld/status/1183724308750692354

shosta · « **Reply #1095 on:** October 15, 2019, 12:59:22 PM »

IMF response will probably be to just let them default on their debt.

EchoRin · « **Reply #1096 on:** October 15, 2019, 01:42:31 PM »

Quote from: filler on October 12, 2019, 06:24:15 PM

(Image removed from quote.)

How many of those are not Trudeau? I'm guessing the Nazi one and the hunk on the chair one?

shosta · « **Reply #1097 on:** October 15, 2019, 07:48:15 PM »

https://twitter.com/getfiscal/status/1184244746358870017

curly · « **Reply #1098 on:** October 16, 2019, 12:13:57 AM »

https://twitter.com/commoonist/status/1184277184904597505

benjipwns · « **Reply #1099 on:** October 16, 2019, 04:18:06 AM »

I'm discovering that some people on Twitter who identify in their profiles as anarchists but only ever tweet about electoral politics may in fact just be democratic socialists. Or simply Democratic Party members.

Imagine their embarrassment when they find out!

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I always intended on posting this in here. You saw no edits elsewhere.

[close]

curly · « **Reply #1100 on:** October 16, 2019, 05:44:52 PM »

https://twitter.com/turing_police/status/1184584114298654725

curly · « **Reply #1101 on:** October 16, 2019, 06:10:25 PM »

shosta · « **Reply #1102 on:** October 16, 2019, 06:15:45 PM »

curly, can I get summary before I spend 24 minutes listening to this? I will anyway, just want to know what I'm getting into.

curly · « **Reply #1103 on:** October 16, 2019, 06:22:07 PM »

The antagonistic class conflict portions of Marxism do not reflect the current state of things (not to say that exploitation doesn't exist), which necessitates an anti-capitalism coalition that is more than a monolithic working class.

toku · « **Reply #1104 on:** October 16, 2019, 07:33:40 PM »

https://twitter.com/turtlekiosk/status/1184512512198356994

OnlyRegret · « **Reply #1105 on:** October 17, 2019, 12:55:24 AM »

wtf im a socialist now?

https://twitter.com/OfficialSPGB/status/1184109900261146626

https://twitter.com/OfficialSPGB/status/1184213118861369346

OnlyRegret · « **Reply #1106 on:** October 17, 2019, 01:03:18 AM »

https://twitter.com/OfficialSPGB/status/947889329321455616

https://twitter.com/OfficialSPGB/status/975687071338827777

Joe Molotov · « **Reply #1107 on:** October 17, 2019, 01:09:48 AM »

All these smooth-brain tweeters getting btfo by actual socialism, you love to see it.

shosta · « **Reply #1108 on:** October 18, 2019, 05:43:21 PM »

https://twitter.com/dickophrenic/status/1185251900897267713

https://twitter.com/dickophrenic/status/1185253330173485057

https://twitter.com/HarrisonCLee/status/1185279852741644290

Great Rumbler · « **Reply #1109 on:** October 18, 2019, 06:09:58 PM »

benji come get your people

shosta · « **Reply #1110 on:** October 18, 2019, 06:21:34 PM »

Apparently this is a somewhat well known cult in Austin. Texas... here I come.

team filler · « **Reply #1111 on:** October 19, 2019, 01:05:08 PM »

https://twitter.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1185587520156962816

shosta · « **Reply #1112 on:** October 19, 2019, 01:09:38 PM »

The IMF's board is decided by financial contribution

the only takeover happening anytime soon is a corporate one.

shosta · « **Reply #1113 on:** October 19, 2019, 01:36:02 PM »

Not that Nintex tier fanfiction or Bernie worship is the way to do it but I think there's always space for left criticism of the progressive vision. And I think it's worth being skeptical of institutional change from within. Look at what Trump has done to the CFPB during his tenure, or, yeah, what Senate progressives consistently have to sacrifice to their party.

Tripon · « **Reply #1114 on:** October 19, 2019, 01:45:57 PM »

https://twitter.com/JohnDelaney/status/1185606122520092672

Is this Praxis?

team filler · « **Reply #1115 on:** October 19, 2019, 01:52:44 PM »

shosta · « **Reply #1116 on:** October 19, 2019, 03:16:30 PM »

Since Argentina and Ecuador are shaking off the yoke of global finance capital, let's see what's happening next door in the free market paradise of Chile.

Quote

Chile has declared a state of emergency following riots that have engulfed the capital city of Santiago in recent days, Bloomberg reported.

Soldiers and military vehicles patrolled the streets Saturday to restore order as authorities assessed the damage from what has been described as the worst rioting in the city in decades.

More than 150 police officers have been hurt, 19 subway stations burned, and buses were set on fire and stores looted among the chaos which saw law enforcement unleash tear gas on the rioters.

also they set a power company's hq on fire

toku · « **Reply #1117 on:** October 19, 2019, 03:51:17 PM »

https://twitter.com/FoldableHuman/status/1185462476613111808

team filler · « **Reply #1118 on:** October 19, 2019, 07:08:29 PM »

team filler · « **Reply #1119 on:** October 19, 2019, 08:01:31 PM »

https://twitter.com/OnThisDayBA/status/1185676293381206016

curly · « **Reply #1120 on:** October 19, 2019, 11:15:47 PM »

Quote from: shosta on October 18, 2019, 06:21:34 PM

Apparently this is a somewhat well known cult in Austin. Texas... here I come.

you've exposed your antirevolutionary character, shosta

Quote

On October 12, a contingent of anti-revisionist combatants confronted a public meeting of the Kansas City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Online propaganda from the DSA and their supporters has tried to portray the event as a brutal attack on the elderly, but in reality, a DSA member who attacked a woman combatant was repelled, taking multiple blows that left him bloodied and sent to the hospital.

Only two local DSA chapter leaders and two other members who were helping to set up for the event were present when the militant activists blocked the door to the venue and made their way inside.

Upon entry, a speech was read by one of the revolutionaries detailing the rotten nature of DSA’s practices locally and nationally, as well as how the struggle against fascism must include confronting social-fascism, as revisionism is the enemy of genuine socialism.

The charges made against DSA were that nationally they have had police union organizers in elected positions of leadership, that they act as foot soldiers for the imperialist Democratic Party, and that they are a revisionist formation that is aiming to corral the working class under the wing of the bourgeoisie in the name of socialism by encouraging participation in the bourgeois electoral farce.

During the speech, propaganda materials and the projector were confiscated by the revolutionaries, DSA leadership making no attempt to stop them. “Revolution’s not for play, down with the DSA!” and “DSA will never win, social democracy is fascism’s twin!” were chanted as the event supplies were taken.

It was at this point that a local activist, Carl, who has been kicked out of another organization for defending sexual abusers and is known for trying to publicly expose the identities of communists, rushed at the combatants attempting to reclaim his propaganda yelling, “This is a safe space!”

He threw the first punch, targeting one of the woman revolutionaries, but was immediately beaten back by the combatants, while one DSA leader tried to defend him. The brawl broke out again when Carl grabbed another revolutionary and tackled him to the ground. The revolutionaries rallied and freed their comrade, and Carl was left bloodied along with the remnants of his propaganda strewn on the floor.

Greg Mueller, another of the local DSA leaders, called the director of the space to rush to the scene, while Kansas/Missouri Dream Alliance (KSMODA), who were holding a DACA clinic next door called the police, showing their bourgeois character.

KCDSA, Carl, and his wife Brianna, have subsequently crafted an online counterpropaganda effort to blur the real contradictions that led to this action, painting the actions against Carl as as “attacking the elderly” and referring to him as a “disabled veteran.” KCDSA traffics in identity opportunism when convenient to their cause.

Before the skirmish, the revolutionaries had made it clear that the reason for their disruption and confiscation of materials was due to the social-fascist nature of DSA. Carl targeted a woman revolutionary and the other revolutionaries responded accordingly. The primary contradiction was between communists and revisionists, and necessary force was used to repel the man who had singled out a woman to attack.

The local branch in Kansas City (KCDSA) has misled the masses into think that the fight for socialism amounts to little more than hosting book clubs, film screenings, and ineffectual rallies. KCSDA has served as a magnet for cast-off activists and protest hoppers, as well as doing the leg work of local Democratic candidates.

The DSA acts as a conveyor belt for bringing bourgeois ideology to the masses and attempts to organize them behind the party of capitalism with a leftist veneer. The historical antifascism that they gathered to celebrate was not organized through “left unity” or by revisionists like themselves, but by genuine Communist Parties that took up arms against fascists and correctly identified social democracy as social-fascism and combatted it ideologically, politically, and militarily. A real antifascist day of unity cannot include revisionists. Democratic socialism, like all forms of revisionism, poses the utmost danger to the struggle for revolution.

When revisionists are wounded, as they were last weekend in Kansas City, even observers who are otherwise critical of the DSA may cringe, appalled by the violence that took place. And yet many of these observers, for all of their nonviolent protests and online comments, have not managed to deal any serious blows to the revisionism which has clamped down on socialist revolution in the US for most of the past century, which has kept workers exploited, nations oppressed, and the masses downtrodden.

To those who side with the bourgeoisie, the images of blood from last Saturday are disturbing, but to revolutionaries, what happened is fine. Revisionism will not magically disappear on its own. It caters to the least oppressed among the masses and seeks to dupe the rest by parading counterfeit socialism. Saturday’s bloodshed stains this charade; its forgery slowly unmasked as revolutionaries wage a merciless struggle against revisionism and opportunism.

Tripon · « **Reply #1121 on:** October 20, 2019, 01:17:18 AM »

https://twitter.com/benjancewicz/status/1185663349696225282

OnlyRegret · « **Reply #1122 on:** October 20, 2019, 03:25:42 AM »

damn, the blur
but the most pressing thing is the authenticity, is it an ice axe and was it the real trotsky thumper?

Crash Dummy · « **Reply #1123 on:** October 20, 2019, 06:02:14 AM »

Quote from: Esch on October 18, 2019, 01:32:15 PM

Listened to the Zizek Chapo and it was kind of boring. He reiterated a lot t of his recent tirades on game of thrones, Greta thunberg, Trump etc. And then of course made the point multiple times that the left needs to shoot for Trump voters and Bernie Sanders is the only one that can do that.

If they weren't cowards they'd have let Don have a full episode on the labor aristocracy and settler colonialism, with Amber on the episode.

i hate so much my cunt face i don't watch my videos

shosta · « **Reply #1124 on:** October 20, 2019, 12:24:15 PM »

https://twitter.com/MattBruenig/status/1185589194023952385

team filler · « **Reply #1125 on:** October 20, 2019, 06:46:02 PM »

https://twitter.com/isgoodrum/status/1185776869611732993

Tripon · « **Reply #1126 on:** October 20, 2019, 06:54:30 PM »

https://twitter.com/HeerJeet/status/1185745507903250432
https://twitter.com/JakeMGrumbach/status/1185765146611707904

Tankies are amazing.

shosta · « **Reply #1127 on:** October 20, 2019, 07:16:01 PM »

Quote from: Esch on October 10, 2019, 06:44:40 PM

Old article, but I thought it was good and made me want to read Zak Cope more.

https://monthlyreview.org/2015/07/01/imperialism-and-the-transformation-of-values-into-prices/

I'm going to pick this book up. You should, too.

https://monthlyreview.org/product/value-chains/

Recommendations by John Smith (Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century), Prabhat and Utsa Patnaik, and karakand's favorite, Jason Hickel

shosta · « **Reply #1128 on:** October 20, 2019, 07:48:17 PM »

So... this year the "Nobel" Prize in Economics went to some economists who pioneered quick, randomized trials of small scale interventions in impoverished areas (like treating intestinal parasites in Kenyan children to improve school attendance) in order to find the most effective policies. When I heard this on NPR I almost lost my shit. This article explains how fucked up this is a lot better than I could: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/impoverished-economics-unpacking-economics-nobel-prize/

summary:
- the academic establishment prioritizes "poverty alleviation" over institutional analysis and systemic change
- fetishizes a specific methodological practice which has limited utility to economics at large
- awards a group of economists for what ultimately amounts to a technical tweak while we're in the middle of broad systemic crises and total theoretical failure of macroeconomics

this kind of thing always reminds me of Chomsky's "buying the experts" part of propaganda, where academic institutions are funded by the ruling class and consequently pump out nothing but ideological materiel for it.

Tripon · « **Reply #1129 on:** October 20, 2019, 09:54:52 PM »

https://twitter.com/WSJ/status/1186029344944250888

shosta · « **Reply #1130 on:** October 20, 2019, 09:56:34 PM »

FACT CHECK: only labor can produce value.

team filler · « **Reply #1131 on:** October 21, 2019, 01:04:29 AM »

team filler · « **Reply #1132 on:** October 21, 2019, 04:26:09 AM »

https://twitter.com/Zinvor/status/1186080609891954689

team filler · « **Reply #1133 on:** October 22, 2019, 12:31:19 AM »

https://twitter.com/cooly_roc/status/1186259257391538176

Crash Dummy · « **Reply #1134 on:** October 22, 2019, 08:24:36 AM »

policy brief on AI in the EU: https://www.ecfr.eu/page/-/machine_politics_europe_and_the_ai_revolution.pdf

team filler · « **Reply #1135 on:** October 23, 2019, 04:19:49 PM »

https://twitter.com/Slasher/status/1186861461026623488

team filler · « **Reply #1136 on:** October 23, 2019, 10:41:59 PM »

https://twitter.com/StopAntisemites/status/1183921919105687552

team filler · « **Reply #1137 on:** October 23, 2019, 11:47:17 PM »

https://twitter.com/RzstProgramming/status/1187171439431966720

shosta · « **Reply #1138 on:** October 24, 2019, 01:22:34 AM »

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3034258/shenzhen-turning-its-back-hong-kong-housing-model-favour

"CCP isn't really socialist!"

team filler · « **Reply #1139 on:** October 24, 2019, 03:27:40 PM »

https://fox59.com/2019/10/24/125-parking-meters-spray-painted-filled-with-expanding-foam-in-downtown-bloomington

Quote

Until those get here, parking enforcement asks people to use the ParkMobile phone app to pay for parking. Officers said they will not ticket people who park at meters that do not use the parking app.

News:

Author Topic: Laissez-faire Politics Thread - Praxis? I didn't play Deus Ex, sorry. (Read 225899 times)