darkcalling

Russia moved into the area where the control center for the site is (the still crewed one) in the first month but there was fighting with the Ukrainians. They entered into an agreement to jointly run it with the Ukrainian troops and personnel present. Russia just mainly wants to avoid NATO/Ukraine Nazis staging a false flag there (blowing it up, spreading radiation, whatever) and blaming them.

Hard to say. Given this guy has apparently lied before and started up a whole drama about not getting ammo just to fool the west/Ukrainians into continuing to attack his positions and get destroyed I wouldn't rule out this is an elaborate ruse to bait the Ukrainians into charging Russian positions thinking this is their best time. Basically an attempt to further weaken their forces and shorten the conflict by drawing out reserves.

That said, could be real too I guess but it seems more likely it's trying to bait the Ukrainians as he's done before.

Even many so-called leftist spaces casually use sexist langauge, memes, etc. It's an infection that goes deeper than racism it feels and certainly people seem less aware of it than homophobia. I continue to hope male comrades speak out when they see it rather than being silent to avoid being seen as "being a nerd" when no-one would ever accuse someone of ruining the fun for calling out homophobia, racism, etc.

And like anti-imperialism I agree that feminism is non-negotiable. You are not my comrade or worthy of being called comrade of anyone if you don't see me as human, if you see me as inferior, if you support my oppression or make excuses for it. I don't give a fuck about the excuses or your weak attempts at logic and co-existing with it.

Luckily at least in this community we don't have mods who uphold the backwards, disgusting, chauvinist idea that sexual exploitation and prostitution is good work instead of abuse and something to be abolished. Though as always there is room for improvement and I am pretty often reminded this is a male dominated space.

I believe we will move towards a sort of “crowdsourced” theory where the main theoretical line is born organically out of continuos communication and discussion until we eventually get to a point where most contradictions and disagreements are solved.

Not if the CIA or FBI have anything to say about it. Hell not if Maoists and Trots still exist. Hell not if grifters still exist and wield enormous influence that trickles into and infects even those who condemn them on the whole.

This feels kind of like thinking along anarchist lines. That if we only allow everyone to do their thing, people will just arrive at the right conclusions. Even if all institutions sabotaging Marxism magically vanished tomorrow and everyone forgot they existed and their methods, there would still be problems with this. With them existing and those who benefit from them and replicate their suppression and division, this is a pipedream. There's a reason parties adopt a party line, and that's because you'll never get 100% agreement. The point of that of course being, disagree behind closed doors, discuss, debate, but then present a united front once dem-cent process is done whether you lose or win. However you'll always have haters, power-mongers, fed-plants, and people high on their own fumes.

We need a party, a real movement and leadership within that movement to begin to write down any worthwhile theory in the west. Moreover that movement has to have some sort of success beyond just being mildly popular as CPUSA was in the 30s. Theory without practical, proven application is just spitballing hypotheticals into the void and not necessarily worth a lot.

Also I'll offer a lot of the western left is infected, deeply with idealism, western nonsense thinking, etc. I think the worthwhile theory of our era is going to come out of China and be translated. At least until the west begins to crumble and a real movement that begins notching successes forms in the west. Until that point it's largely naval-gazing. The one thing we can try and do right now is solidarity, solidarity, solidarity with other nations and peoples. Anti-imperialism is the one litmus test, wishing for the defeat of the west to which we must hold ourselves and all who would call themselves Marxists who are not in fact vulgar perverters of that term. Ukraine has been helpful in this, weeding out those still clinging to the propaganda of empire and the bourgeoisie who benefit from it.

The US may be going to straight up bloody alter sacrifice Europe to weaken China/Russia/multi-polarity and the European liberals are going to take it with cheers.

They'll later wonder why all the jobs are gone, products and goods gone, inflation out of control, economy in free-fall but I suspect as usual they'll be channeled to blame it on some minority group. Hell I wouldn't put it beyond the US to try and goad Europe into a state where it "independently chooses" to enter war against Russia directly. If it gets nuked it's not the US problem, particularly if it's the periphery of it full of their most loyal deranged types (eastern Europe).

Very worrying to know the industrial capitalists are at the controls of the military, the national-security-state, etc. While the financial capitalists like Bill Gates, Jamie Diamond, who understand China can profit them and are acting rationally in their own short-term interests in being friendly to it (though betraying their class long-term) don't have power or aren't making moves we can see to stop this slowly turning death and war machine as it gears up for a disaster.

They have higher energy than we do. I hope we can simply agree to disagree on their points where they engage in tailism, ultra-ism, and other various forms of liberalism and counter-revolutionary thought. Though these points are few, I am a stickler on some of them and I may have to have a near-cry moment if they come in and take over entirely. Hexbear/chapo is something best done in limited doses. Whereas this place is very chill and cool and I feel very safe here with all my good comrades (and friendly federal agents pretending to be comrades, lest I leave them out), they can be chaotic, unhinged, wild. Not always a bad thing but I need a space to turn it off.

If the US goes through and destroys Europe's economy by forcing them to decouple first as I mentioned they'll have European exports and perhaps even cheap or at least reasonable imports as Europe will have no one else left to turn to after being barred from business with China. So they may be counting on doing something like that to ease things over and as they occupy Europe and control it through other means, dissent can be channeled into rightist nationalists already under their thumb who scape-goat and distract or simply violently quashed. It's all time-buying stuff, the question is how much time and what can they accomplish in that because they do I assume have designs beyond buying time and hoping China cracks.

Admittedly China does have internal problems. Not to the level of the USSR but many people there are liberals or apolitical and potentially open to liberalism and counter-revolution should the economy tank and material conditions deteriorate.

Yeah, tying people with their pants down in public to objects for thought-crime or being Russian or whatever it was. Deranged shit.

The problem is as this article alludes, the defense-industrial capitalists (industrial capital) is fighting fin-capital but industrial capital has all the organs of actual state violence in their corner and pocket. Germany's capitalists not liking this doesn't matter because Germany is subordinated completely to the interests of the US and will commit economic suicide if so-ordered.

I don't see a way out for the European capitalists to regain control. The US had and still likely has Gladio type stuff that can be activated. They spy extensively on leadership (Snowden), likely have blackmail rings, extensive blackmail material (Epstein stuff and more mundane but no less illegal and scandalous stuff), plus the fact they have literally occupied these countries. They control their military commands, have loyalty from their military commanders, their intelligence officials. They are I think powerless vassals who strain as they might cannot break the leash and bonds tying them to the US. Their interests do not matter. Nothing has happened as a result of Nordstream being blown up and German capital suffering greatly as a consequence. Nothing will happen.

In the US the situation is also not good. Financial-capital does not control the military, doesn't have the friends the defense-industrial-capitalists have in military, intelligence, politics, etc.

If I were China I would not count on these capitalists having enough power to stop or meaningfully slow this machine as it turns in desperation to preserve itself.

It still has options. It still has life. It could subordinate Europe further, turn it into a cheap manufacturing hub, destroy living conditions domestically in the US, depress wages, try and bring back manufacturing in that way. I'm not saying it would be easy but it's foolish to think that they have no idea what they're doing. It won't be an easy process like globalization into China in the first place for profit was, it will be hard and done kicking and screaming but it could happen. It might accelerate the conditions for eventual revolution in the core but it would still place such a thing probably decades off and it's a do or die thing for them as if they don't do this they absolutely lose.

Jake Sullivan, Biden's advisor for example has been openly talking about these types of plans. They are not blindly walking into the trap or helplessly wringing their hands and gnashing teeth.

I do think westerners are indoctrinated enough that they can proceed with their plans. They can force Europe to decouple by forcing a military confrontation with China and involving Europe then appealing to "liberal values" for solidarity against China while they continue to do trade (albeit limited as much as they can) with China which will hurt China and Europe but spare the US. Importantly if Europeans react by say electing rightist populists, many if not most or all of those will be under the US thumb when they enter office or shortly after, they'll allow that and have them deflect by going after immigrants, minorities, etc and use that to distract the public.

They gut-punched France with the submarine deal with Australia and they just have to take it. They've done it in other sectors with encouraging countries to decouple on a limited basis and stepping in to take their place (US wine exports I think going up to China after China retaliated against Australian producers is one example).

Considering the Ukrainians have a literal public kill list (allegedly hosted by NATO) for their enemies this takes on much darker overtones with the whole FBI getting their data thing.

What a joke. He's what passes for a 'people's intellectual' in the US.

Anti-materialist, idealist, prone to believing in horrors of "the ebil atheist commies". Sees things in terms of people being misguide, wretched sinners who are fundamentally good if you just reach out to them emotionally in the right way with the right language rather than material interests, superstructure, the complexities of white supremacist empire and capital, etc being what determines interests, actions, etc. I used to look up to him until I actually sat down and listened to him and he's just so full of shit. Typical liberal intelligentsia.

And it's no shock, you can't be actually radical and black in the US and not get killed or at least silenced and deplatformed out of any notability. So yes, he's an op IMO even if he doesn't know it. He shepherds people into meaningless electoralism and pointless and easily ignored protests so he and his liberal friends can feel like they're reliving the MLK days acting out their righteousness and that's all that matters, being pious and righteous in public and senselessly believing that the powers that be will be shamed into moving one day by it.

Not realizing of course as liberals do not that MLK only succeeded because of the Soviet Union using racism and what MLK was facing as a hammer and injuring the US and global capital's struggle for dominance and power and control in various regions to the point the CIA, imperialists, smarter capitalists all commanded a lid be put on those uppity racist whites down south and to send them to practice racism in their homes and churches (and religious schools which they created in droves after integration) out of the limelight instead of in public where it hurt the larger picture. Also Malcolm X and the threat of militant (and violent) black nationalism certainly didn't hurt either yet this guy goes around calling people brother and sister and shit and think that's going to work. It puts some people on the defensive in the moment to be sure but it doesn't change anything the moment you leave and they can go back to the way they want to be.

Very relevant read that probably gives some insight into some of his flawed thought process: https://redsails.org/western-marxism-and-christianity/

And he's not even the best liberals have to offer. Maybe CodePINK's people are actually Marxists or socialists of some sort and I'm not aware but there are absolutely liberals anti-war, anti-empire who won't waste meaningful time talking up the alleged crimes of others because they know it's a distraction from the stuff the US is doing and is used to equivocate and distract and sap momentum by redirecting the conversation to how America is still better than them and learning and yada yada yada.

He's only against imperialism when proper atrocity propaganda hasn't been manufactured and disseminated is what this tweet is saying and that's worthless because these days most imperialism is preceded or accompanied by that. Look at what he says about China and the Uyghurs, look at how effective the propaganda is. Look at the propaganda on Ukraine and I doubt he challenges or would dare to challenge that or fail to call Putin the aggressor.

Supporting Cuba or Palestine is basically mainstream and meaningless for any liberal under 35 because neither of those fronts are active or moving anywhere and no amount of support or protest is going to stop US support for Israel or end the US blockade of Cuba. So token things like that for street cred are worthless. Show me the support of things that gets other liberals furious at you. Show me the Seymour Hersh type reporting and stances that debunks their atrocity propaganda. But he doesn't. He's not an effective anti-imperialist and I'm sorry to say this but there are at the moment reactionaries who are more solidly anti-imperialist in message if not sentiment right now towards the US global foreign policy than this guy and that says something not about how great reactionaries are but how awful liberals are and the limits of their discourse.

EDIT: Love how mad I've (apparently) made some people. Why not come here and reply with what I said that's wrong? No reason to waste time on this guy and his weird "love your enemies" act which is anti-Marxist.

They basically quashed the one example I gave a year ago. Anyone who disagreed with their point of view has been banned, driven away, or learned to keep quiet on them.

They're better than 99% of reddit on everything including especially imperialism but there are moments where significant parts of their user-base just kind of veer off far away from any DiaMat, principled ML views into western leftism shall we say. I don't foresee major issues but definitely there could be a few points rare to come up that absolutely blow up into shit-storms between us and them and we'll just have to agree to disagree and ask them to respect our rules. On the whole it should be nice and infuse some more life and activity into lemmygrad.