Welcome again to everybody! Make yourself at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our cult, here is our weekly discussion thread.
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It’s the last week of semester 2 at my university. I have a research paper due Friday which I’m worried about, maybe he’ll grant an extension but who knows… Next week is the start of finals; today in History class my professor is going to talk about Mao (with regards to modernity in China) so that should be “fun.” This class specifically is making me grow resentful, I fear. I don’t wake up enthusiastic for school anymore, I’m just angry. That could also be due to it being the end of the semester but I doubt it, maybe if this class had gone a bit differently I wouldn’t be as pissy. Also, I’m still reeling from the death of my childhood dog (she died November 23) so thats been messing with me a bunch. I don’t mean to complain, in all honestly I am and will be fine, I’m just tired.
Thank you, comrade. She was a 16 year old pug, the sassiest little thing ever. I’m lucky to have been able to spend so much of my life with her.
Thanks, comrade. It’s tough right now, to me she was family, but I’ll be okay. Right now I just have to go through the process.
I appreciate it, I’m okay. Grief is weird and I don’t think I’ll ever get over but I’ll learn to live with it, if that makes sense.
Belgium has a femicide problem. Every two weeks a woman gets killed. And of course the government doesn't seem to do anything about it.
Your pictures always make me envy those who live in a country with actual nature instead of a nation wide farm area.
Can you tell us anything about the statue and it's significance/meaning?
Almost 1/3 of the population in Flanders would vote extreme right Vlaams Belang according to today's poll 🫠🫠🫠 we really are going to see openly fascist European governments soon.
We have a housing crisis, energy crisis, sky high inflation, increasing poverty but no, IMMIGRATION is supposedly the biggest concern of the Flemish people...
Can't wait to read the declassified CIA documents on supporting far right extremists win in Europe
No they suddenly got in power coincidentally at the same time. No CIA medling in our free, democratic West™.
They did it in the 40s, 50s, 60s, etc... No reason to think they've stopped.
The CIA only does bad things 50 years ago, anything now is just conspiracy theories /s
Our party is focussing hard on the upcoming elections next year and even though I see the importance of it, I don't feel the urge to invest too much energy in parliamentary politics. And that's mainly what we seem to do right now.
It sucks, because it's really hurting my motivation right now.
What does your party usually do? Mutual aid, theory groups, etc.?
Main focus is non parliamentary things. We try to influence people in the workplaces by having our members set up groups at their place of work. We often stand at factory gates in the early mornings to talk to the workers starting their shifts. We operate in local action groups who tackle local problems. We run several different free healthcare clinics. We do exchange projects with for example Cuba and Palestine.
There's lots of things we do, but I feel like they are not the main focus right now. I get why, elections can be important. But I feel less inclined to tell people to just VOTE!!!
Sounds like you're doing well. Do you have any way to influence the leadership (national or local) wrt the focus on electoralism?
I do but I don't think they will abandon the current strategy, especially with the far right gaining nearly 1/3 of all the votes at the moment. It's important to steal as many of their voters I guess.
I will probably try to organize a more underground group for when shit hits the fan (which, looking at the state of things, will probably happen).
The mood of the Soviet Union today is a mood of tremendous struggle and incredible conquest in which individual values and problems pale before the brightness of one great problem whose solution is told off by the ever-rising curve of production, the opening of steel mills, the successful mastery of tractor plants, machine building works, textile factories. It is a mood in which a newly literate servant girl will hail the rain running into her leaky shoes if that rain means harvest. Harvest somewhere far off on farms she never sees.
Anna Louise Strong, This Soviet World (Chapter VII) [Emphasis added]
This probably goes harder in context of the book. I'll work my hardest to get it done, because this thing is soo good.
So what are the odds of Venezuela invading Guyana and becoming the next hot topic for our Western leaders?
Very high, guyana compradores are in talks with the US to set up military bases there.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/12/the-drums-of-war-are-growing-louder-in-south-america.html
The us general is drooling at the prospects of taking over this region.
There is a lot of jungle in the region right? I feel like Venezuela would truggle in a long drawn out conflict if guyana received a lot of arms and weapons and they just hide in the jungle
Almost the entire country is jungle and based on history, Venezuela will be in for a tough fight indeed.
And like if Venezuela where it successfully invade and annex 85% of the country what would the rest be left with how would they rebuild
laughing so hard at the modlog rn, 2 months ban for defending biden, deserved tbh
I'm dismayed seeing how many western leftists and so called communists are immediately against Venezuela and their rightful defense against the long burning issue of Esequibo. They are drunk on showing how righteous and oppossed to captialism and colonialism they are but as soon as things heat up in actual anti-imperialist and anti-colonial projects they immediately fall in line with the US State Department interests. I have no faith in any of that. ¡Chavez vive, la lucha sigue!
I've rarely seen morality attached to the criticism - it's a stupid move inviting the great Satan to intervene and violently overthrowing the Bolivarian Revolution. Also AFAIK the native population of Esequibo doesn't want to be Venezuelan.
So Marinka was liberated last week, Avdiivka will also be liberated soon, Pissinger died, GTA VI trailer just dropped, new Godzilla/King Kong trailer dropped, yeah things are going pretty good this week, hope it continues for the rest of the month.
Seriously been thinking about dropping out of university and going for the one of the trades recently. Most likely would try to be an electrician. Probably a mistake but fuck im losing it here so idk
Well there's good money to be made in trades. But money isn't everything of course. What would YOU like to do?
I'm also seriously considering doing some sort of trade either as a job or as a side thing, because sitting at an office is wearing me down I think.
What would YOU like to do?
Million dollar question isnt it… idk one big reason I’ve been thinking about it is I want to do something useful for society instead of bullshit in an office. Im currently in city planning and having to listen to a bunch of neoliberal shit from my professors is making me realize I’d have to be working for city councils who will be an insane pain to work with and im not sure it’s worth it. At least with a trade I actually know that I’m contributing to the local community in some fashion…
Have you read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance? I read it a long time ago, before having any political awareness so I can't remember whether it's liberal. But I remember it helped me think through some of what you're going through after I'd gone the other way (started with manual work, then went to uni). Iirc the argument is to work with your hands.
I probably did the opposite of what the book suggests. But I found a way to do white collar work and have a 'craft'. I think the craft thing is important. To me, at least, as it feel like I'm doing something for me, loosely speaking.
I'm still glad I did the manual jobs and I still do a bit now and again, depending on the job and ol' employment situation. But it dragged on me in the end. Even though I loved working with my hands and seeing the fruits of my work and even enjoyed seeing other people be happy with the result, most of the job was doing things that objectively made the world worse (or will do, in the long run) and I got constantly fucked over by employers. (Not that that's unique to blue collar industries.)
I don't envy you your decision. It's not an easy one. It tortured me and I wasn't overly well because of it for a long time. I think I made the right choice now but on bad days and nostalgic days I wish I went the other way. I hope you don't suffer with the choice.
A similar book is Crawford's The case for working with your hands: why office work is bad for us and fixing things feels good.
Before you make your decision, you might want to read some of David Harvey's work. I'm thinking Rebel Cities and 'On the Deep Relevance of a Certain Footnote in Marx's Capital'. The (short) article explains how he used Capital when he sat on a city planning panel in Korea (South, I assume). You'd have to think about how to do it; but there's a way of staying in urban planning and making a difference (eventually). It's whether you can stomach doing the neoliberal thing for the rest of the time and for however long it takes for you to become an authority.
How long do you have left of your course?
Have you read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
No
How long do you have left of your course?
Depends on how many hours I take a semester. I had ~40 hours left, but I’m doing really bad this semester so there’s a solid chance I will only pass a couple of my classes, could even fail those, so im not sure. About a year if i take summer classes if I had to guess.
Thank you so much for all the reading suggestions, and the kind words. I will try to read thru them ASAP, because if I decide to switch I need to transfer to the local community college that offers trade education within the next couple weeks (luckily I am a fast reader!)
In that case, if you go for something by Harvey, try the article first. The book is good and relevant but it's more of a Marxist approach to geography. Or a way of explaining Marxism through geography. Depending on your perspective. The Crawford book, especially, will get you pumped for switching to trade school. Or rebuilding a vehicle.
Remember as well that there's a route back to the office if you go to trade school now. Some big companies will even pay you to take a degree later if you have the talent and motivation for it (which you do if you got into uni in the first place, even if you've gone through a rough patch with some current modules). It may depend on your location, though.
Hope all this helps.
