InappropriateEmote

Lol. I wouldn't have been surprised by this kind of blatant cope a year or two ago. Those cringe lies about Russians not knowing how to fight or having inferior tech were all the rage among the NAFO losers at the time. Of course it was all projection even then, but now that Russia is so obviously and thoroughly spanking Ukraine, it's much harder to phrase the "Russian orcs are dumbdumbs who fight with shovels!" line without doing a massive self-own.

And speaking of self-owns, it's pretty funny that you insist on bringing up a completely unrelated topic where you were totally not owned by people who schooled you in an attempt to disabuse you of your willful ignorance regarding Tienanmen Square. But it looks like you won't even believe your vaunted western liberal sources when it comes to making sure you don't have to take your head out of the sand.

edit: Looks like I was a little late to reply to this one. Does anyone know if a user still sees responses to their comment if the reply was made after the parent comment was removed?

While we're at it... I know there can only be one clock as the site default, but I always thought it would be kind of cool to also have a Beijing clock and Havana clock. I'd say Pyongyang too, but it's only one zone away from Beijing.

For what it's worth, I agree with you on almost all of that. I think the main difference here is that I see the labor theory of value as being much more fundamental to Marxism than just, as you put it, one facet of it. It's very difficult to keep Marxism as a whole if you toss out the LToV, since the whole structure would begin to crumble. It may be possible for similar models to be put in its place to prevent the crumble, but I think that those models would have to be close enough to the LToV that the distinctions wouldn't really matter except to academics. (edit, fixed a word)

Eh ltv isn't really Marx's and if it were it would be one of his many significant contributions to various fields.

Marx may not have been the first theorist to come up with it, but the LToV is still foundational to most of the economic theory that did have its origin in his work. Furthermore, Marx did make contributions to the LToV itself, and in that sense it is one of his significant contributions to various fields.

It'd still be reasonable to call yourself a Marxist if you ascribe to other parts of his framework, especially in specific academic contexts. And in revolutionary contexts I doubt most non-academic revolutionaries fully understand the mechanisms laid out in Capital, so it seems inconsequential really.

A person doesn't need to fully understand evolution by natural selection to consider themselves a Darwinist (biologically speaking, obviously I'm not talking about social Darwinism here). But if they reject evolution by natural selection as the mechanism for the diversity of species, then they are not Darwinists. Similarly, you don't have to be able to explain the LToV let alone its nitty-gritty details, but if you claim that the theory is false, you probably shouldn't be calling yourself a Marxist revolutionary.

Class analysis doesn't inherently require ltv either.

Class analysis requires a mechanism for how one class exploits another economically, a mechanism that the LToV provides.

I do think ltv makes more sense than modern models, but Marx was basically using bourgeois theory to critique itself,

And that critique is what extended it beyond being merely bourgeois theory.

and arguably the same can be done using the more abstract modern models.

Maybe so. But are those models refutations of the LToV or elaborations on it? In either case, do you have examples?

Fuck yes!

but none of that is relevant to what OP asked

It's relevant to what you were saying the problem was with OP's predicament, which you were wrong about.

but that is not the case for basically every other person who takes up the sport.

It was for me. Doesn't matter if it's not the common rock-climbing experience (and I'd bet it's more common than you realize). It still shows that your reasoning for why people tend to be alone is completely vapid. The fact remains, a person can take up rock climbing and have such a hobby that never alleviates their loneliness no matter how serious they get about that activity and no matter how self-actualized they become. Your original statements to that effect are nonsense and it's unfortunate you can't seem to just accept that and try to be better about it in the future.

It so happens that Alex Honnold now often climbs with friends and has many videos where he does so, but it's because he addressed deeper issues, overcame systemic obtacles our capitalist society erects that especially impede neurodivergent people with social difficulties, and made efforts to put himself into social situations, not because he took up the hobby in the first place. His solitude was not because he was failing at "pursuing self-actualization by cultivating special interest or hobby skills" because he has been able to do that in a way to a greater degree than most humans ever will. He was also fortunate enough to eventually get so good and proficient at his solitary "hobby" as to be financially self sufficient and relatively well-off, things that make it infinitely easier to overcome the social alienation we all experience under capitalism but that hit people with social anxieties and certain personality disorders much harder (which is part of why what you said is in fact ableist). Like countless other people, he spent many years being deeply passionate about an activity, finding himself through it, but still lived an intensely solitary lifestyle. He was living out a van all by himself and without any other home, traveling to wherever he wanted to climb at that moment.

Whether that's common or not, (and I'd argue it's quite common to have many hobbies and interests but still struggle with isolation and loneliness) it puts the lie to what you said about the problem so many people have with meeting others, even having to ask how to do so or to interact in social settings, being due to their failure to self-actualize or develop interests or hobbies. It's a sweeping ableist generalization based in ignorance. And then you doubled down on it in an even more derogatory way when muslimmarxist correctly called it out. Just...

If you are doing those you tend to encounter & attract kindred spirits fairly easily.

This is wrong and bordering on victim-blaming.

doing literally anything to make yourself not the most boring person imaginable

And now you're not just bordering on it anymore. Muslimmarxist is right, this is Jordan Peterson level garbage. I have always had many hobbies and am interested in more things than I have time to even begin to explore with the kind of depth I'd like to (without cutting into the time I devote to other interests and passions). Even so, I have in the past and for extended periods had tremendous difficulty meeting people due to extreme social phobia.

Implying that people who suffer from loneliness aren't pursuing self-actualization or aren't cultivating their interests is a form of ableism. While it is possible that a lack of interests could be why someone is lonely, in most cases it has nothing to do with it. It's like saying "the reason you don't have a job is because you're lazy." Like, maybe? but just as likely not, and it serves as another thought-terminating cliche that people privileged enough to not suffer from that problem can tell themselves to avoid recognizing the deeper and more pernicious systemic issues. Just as a person can have no hobbies but still be very social and outgoing, a person can have numerous and profound passions but no friends.

In addition to that, many (even most?) hobbies can be done either socially or completely in solitary. Sometimes a hobby that a person is passionate about can even take up so much of their time and attention that they lose social skills and opportunities for social interactions. It's a little ironic that you used rock climbing as an example because I was recently watching some Alex Honold (who is probably the world's most famous rock climber at this point) interviews where he said that he developed his love of rock climbing because it was something solitary that he could go off and do on his own, being a friendless introvert who had trouble relating with people around him. Please don't reinforce the potentially harmful misconception that lonely and isolated people are that way because they just don't have enough interests, or even that developing more interests will somehow help alleviate that loneliness and isolation. Neither are remotely true.

Absolutely. Could not agree more.

But the US isn't getting everything it wants and it is in decline. It's flipping its shit as China continues to slowly eclipse it economically. Its loss of its proxy war in Ukraine (that it was so certain it was going to win) is imminent. Its iron-gripped stranglehold on South America is weakening while it's having to cannibalize its vassals in Europe just to try to maintain falling rates of profit. All of this (and more) is a clear indication of the emergence of a multipolar world that the US thought it could prevent from ever happening. Israel also can't survive without a strong US supporting it, and there is a real possibility this (inshallah!) could be its terminal crisis. These are conclusions that many communists analyzing the situation from a materialist framework have come to, and that doesn't mean they're trying to dismiss the west's complicity. Pointing these things out doesn't make the genocide that the US and Israel are perpetrating any less heinous or that that genocide will end up being any less thorough. It definitely doesn't mean that any thinking, feeling person should not be doing everything in their power to stop the genocide.

I mean, the earlier attempts google/youtube made to block adblockers by putting up a notice to turn it off, etc., were openly stated as being tested only on some users. As expected, only some users experienced that. You're just part of the more fortunate majority that isn't an unwilling guinea pig for google's attempts to force everyone to watch ads or pay premium.

Generally yes. It can vary depending on a person's specific circumstances and what kind of health issues they have and what they're trying to accomplish. But by and large, reasonable intermittent fasting (like OMAD) can be very healthy and helpful for people.

edit: I wrote quite a bit in this older thread defending it against a naysayer if you're interested.

Alternatively, if you're in California, you can commit a "crime" and get caught then thrown in prison for it. After which, if you qualify, you can fight fires and risk your life for literally pennies per hour ($2 - 5 per day) and a possible reduction to your sentence. However, if you do that, it may still be very difficult to get a regular job firefighting even once your sentence is complete:

California is Still Failing Thousands of Ex-Inmate Firefighters

What Does California Owe Its Incarcerated Firefighters? (archive of The Atlantic)