i think the COINTELPRO boogeyman is actually wildly overstated. the feds begin to intervene when there's an actual threat to the established order. they started infiltrating and subverting green anarchists and the animal rights movement once they were already breaking into factory farms and spiking trees. right now the obstacle to an organized left in the imperial core is more elemental than that: it's that most people who identify as communists get most of their social interactions from the internet. like if we unironically refer to a website where we're too scared to post pics of our faces as a community, or if our biggest reason not to go to the gym is we think someone will make fun of us, that's gonna make it way harder to get organized with each other than agent smith lurking in our gamer chat app.
like the state is a problem we'll have to contend with, and should be considered sooner rather than later, but it's not the most immediate one.
i'm not even saying we should all be posting selfies here, i think there's some pretty good reasons not to have all your personal shit online. what i'm saying is that, given that fact, we can't meaningfully organize or even properly socialize as human beings over the internet.
I practice opsec here, and online generally, because of everyone BUT the government. now, some of that is definitely my privilege showing. no question.
But I'm way more worried about getting harassed or stalked or even just taken to task for shitty views I used to have before I learned better.
I think it is a little of both. I know that if there was an organized leftist group in my arra, that I would want to be part of it, with the understanding that while I would be learning theory, someone else would at least help me figure out the praxis part. Here in $DeepRedState, the whole idea is so overwhelming that I wouldn't even know where to start. Considering how chud the local pigs are, I'm even nervous about bumper stickers or other outright leftist signalling.
People say talk to neighbors or whatever, but I'm deeply, almost agoraphobically introverted. Also, many of them have thin blue line flags, chud bumper stickers, or other decor that tells me I probably wouldn't be welcome. My brain to mouth filter ain't great, so the last thing indeed is to get shot cuz I laughed at an antivax, anti-gay, racist asshat.
I would love to be part of a leftist movement. However, I am not capable of organizing said movement. Give me a vanguard to follow and I'll be there.
Absolutly. People forget how many governments with vast survaillance infrastructure completly fell apart in the 20/21th century. How US intelligence couldn't even stop the Taliban from organizing an effective resistance. How we don't life in a time were marxists are exiled like Marx himself or almost all Bolsheviks, their books not prohibited ect. The establishment was always against us, but material conditions ultimatly trump the superstructure.
The left in the last few decades struggled with an effective message that is actually attractive and believable to most workers. Mostly because many leftists are still soccdems and social democracy only partially worked because the special conditions created by WWII. Today it always fails because it doesn't understand capitalism. The radical left on the other hand gets bogged down in foreign policy and history discourse and sometimes puts idpol in the center of the message, all of which usually fail to appeal to the average worker.
On the other hand: Clearly it must be open to minorities and not bigoted. The message must be "Lets fight for our common class interest together", not "White-Cis-hetero-Workers only".
for whatever it's worth, the technology is typically worse than claimed and the people using it are generally incompetent.
as a software engineer, I'm very afraid of technology NOT working, but for any claims that require technology to work as intended, I'll believe it when I see it.
there isn't a platform on earth that's capable of processing exobytes of unstructured, mostly encrypted data.
you'll notice that in the vast majority of fugutive cases this year (of which there have been several high profile ones), the state was able to use technology to a scary degree to assist the investigation and subsequent piecing together of information, but they still relied on a tip line and tips from human beings.
also, unlike the DHS, which is filled with "true believers" and hard-core reactionaries, the NSA is mostly a bunch of apathetic nerds.
all of that said, it is still a cause for concern. but I actually also do think it gets talked about a lot.
I'm just idly thinking:
But I am wondering how functional security monitoring of the state actually is. Sure there is advanced tech and all, but with hundreds of millions of people- that's a lot to keep track of. Even with advanced tech, like you said, that's a lot of data.
In addition, the state has been doing a good job of hollowing itself out to private firms. How well are these firms communicating with one another? Can the people running these firms be trusted to follow through on their investigations? How many of these contracts are favors to the friends of politicians?
deleted by creator
i think the COINTELPRO boogeyman is actually wildly overstated. the feds begin to intervene when there's an actual threat to the established order. they started infiltrating and subverting green anarchists and the animal rights movement once they were already breaking into factory farms and spiking trees. right now the obstacle to an organized left in the imperial core is more elemental than that: it's that most people who identify as communists get most of their social interactions from the internet. like if we unironically refer to a website where we're too scared to post pics of our faces as a community, or if our biggest reason not to go to the gym is we think someone will make fun of us, that's gonna make it way harder to get organized with each other than agent smith lurking in our gamer chat app.
like the state is a problem we'll have to contend with, and should be considered sooner rather than later, but it's not the most immediate one.
deleted by creator
i'm not even saying we should all be posting selfies here, i think there's some pretty good reasons not to have all your personal shit online. what i'm saying is that, given that fact, we can't meaningfully organize or even properly socialize as human beings over the internet.
deleted by creator
I practice opsec here, and online generally, because of everyone BUT the government. now, some of that is definitely my privilege showing. no question.
But I'm way more worried about getting harassed or stalked or even just taken to task for shitty views I used to have before I learned better.
deleted by creator
I think it is a little of both. I know that if there was an organized leftist group in my arra, that I would want to be part of it, with the understanding that while I would be learning theory, someone else would at least help me figure out the praxis part. Here in $DeepRedState, the whole idea is so overwhelming that I wouldn't even know where to start. Considering how chud the local pigs are, I'm even nervous about bumper stickers or other outright leftist signalling.
People say talk to neighbors or whatever, but I'm deeply, almost agoraphobically introverted. Also, many of them have thin blue line flags, chud bumper stickers, or other decor that tells me I probably wouldn't be welcome. My brain to mouth filter ain't great, so the last thing indeed is to get shot cuz I laughed at an antivax, anti-gay, racist asshat.
I would love to be part of a leftist movement. However, I am not capable of organizing said movement. Give me a vanguard to follow and I'll be there.
don't underestimate the degree to which infighting hurts us. for all that we joke about it, it's a serious problem.
deleted by creator
Absolutly. People forget how many governments with vast survaillance infrastructure completly fell apart in the 20/21th century. How US intelligence couldn't even stop the Taliban from organizing an effective resistance. How we don't life in a time were marxists are exiled like Marx himself or almost all Bolsheviks, their books not prohibited ect. The establishment was always against us, but material conditions ultimatly trump the superstructure.
The left in the last few decades struggled with an effective message that is actually attractive and believable to most workers. Mostly because many leftists are still soccdems and social democracy only partially worked because the special conditions created by WWII. Today it always fails because it doesn't understand capitalism. The radical left on the other hand gets bogged down in foreign policy and history discourse and sometimes puts idpol in the center of the message, all of which usually fail to appeal to the average worker.
On the other hand: Clearly it must be open to minorities and not bigoted. The message must be "Lets fight for our common class interest together", not "White-Cis-hetero-Workers only".
Because their goal was to keep the war going, not to actually win it.
Fun fact - no one has ever been injure by tree spiking.
for whatever it's worth, the technology is typically worse than claimed and the people using it are generally incompetent.
as a software engineer, I'm very afraid of technology NOT working, but for any claims that require technology to work as intended, I'll believe it when I see it.
there isn't a platform on earth that's capable of processing exobytes of unstructured, mostly encrypted data.
you'll notice that in the vast majority of fugutive cases this year (of which there have been several high profile ones), the state was able to use technology to a scary degree to assist the investigation and subsequent piecing together of information, but they still relied on a tip line and tips from human beings.
also, unlike the DHS, which is filled with "true believers" and hard-core reactionaries, the NSA is mostly a bunch of apathetic nerds.
all of that said, it is still a cause for concern. but I actually also do think it gets talked about a lot.
I'm just idly thinking: But I am wondering how functional security monitoring of the state actually is. Sure there is advanced tech and all, but with hundreds of millions of people- that's a lot to keep track of. Even with advanced tech, like you said, that's a lot of data.
In addition, the state has been doing a good job of hollowing itself out to private firms. How well are these firms communicating with one another? Can the people running these firms be trusted to follow through on their investigations? How many of these contracts are favors to the friends of politicians?
Well, if we want to look at real-world cases, the feds didn't seem to have much trouble assassinating BLM leaders.
that wasn't because of tech though. the feds have been assassinating people since the three letter agencies were first formed.
I always thought that was more likely local shithead cops with the tacit approval of the feds
:I-was-saying: