I've recently learned that American Zoomers love to learn about politics, science, and history through YouTube videos. Kurzgesagt, CGP Grey, and many other capitalist funded trash

I've told a friend about France receiving billions in payments from "former colonies" for their "independence" every year and their first instinct was to search up a YouTube video in front of me to learn more while I was trying to Google for a primary source of the hard financial data and agreements signed

People were lecturing me about how Putin thinks and will act based on videos they've seen from CGP Grey (like Rules for Rulers LOL). As if a man like Putin can be so easily understood and predicted from a dumb tech bro who watched an 8 minute cartoon yt video, especially given the context that he is the leader of such an enormous country like Russia

  • RATMachinespirit [he/him,they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    How do you cope with them mindlessly accepting propaganda? I had to cut out my only leftist friend after they brainlessly read gulag archipelago and actually believed it? Like, it took them over.

    • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
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      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Mine are like, the kind that wouldn't get banned here and also we're trying to get day to day shit done. I doubt most of these Anarchists ever read any theory beyond punk lyrics. We're just doing mutual aide and have immediate concerns. My frustration actually comes from being in a pretty good position to take the next step beyond what amounts to charity and turn it into organization and the anarchist bent feels to me that it's wasting an opportunity to use a pretty solidly organized base around more structured and strategies actions along with taking on somewhat of a political leadership role to enact the next step instead of being stuck in a comfortable cycle where we build illegal housing and feed the ever growing homeless population instead of taking the next step with the good will we have and turning it into more permanently based actions. Individualism and decentralization by principle is leading to people freezing to death.

      Edit: rant aside that acrually isn't answer things, I don't ever get counter arguments and am understoodnto really known what I'm talking about, but if someone feels a thingnisnwronf you aren't gonna be the one person to change their mind unless they're in a position to be that receptive which is rare as hell. Not gonna go full ban worthy here, but i am not concerned whatsoever by anarchist sectarianism at all.

      • RATMachinespirit [he/him,they/them]
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        edit-2
        2 years ago

        Oh, I get you. Praxis unification theory over not being brain dead (or phrase that differently however fits being kind to people who never read anything).

        It sounds y’all get shit done. Which is awesome.

        I guess, I just become enraged when I encounter borderline moronic takes premised on people with no historical knowledge whatsoever criticizing AES. It forces me to avoid them or become a problem.

        • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
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          edit-2
          2 years ago

          Yeah, tht shit sucks. It's good to have in mind, that it's a pretty hard thing to change but also you don't need people to be totally on the trolley for them to do the necessary good to end this nightmare. Most people in the imperial core fighting that imperial core will just do the same damage regardless because the average person has like, no control over foreign policy.

          Sometimes being ruthless is also a ruthless acceptance of aide. Be materialist and remember your end goal and your means needed to achieve them. Be tactical, be tactful. Do what you need to do to achieve what needs to be achieved. I'll use an anarchist as much as I'd use a lib if they can serve the overall ends of achieving communism, but the anarchists will carry with us WAY further than the rest, so even if they're insufferable about it, they're still anti capitalist you gotta use every tool in the box as brutally as possible.

          • RATMachinespirit [he/him,they/them]
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            2 years ago

            Sometimes being ruthless is also a ruthless acceptance of aide. Be materialist and remember your end goal and your means needed to achieve them.

            Legitimately good shit right here. Perspective I needed. Too caught up in: why does the anti capitalist have bad takes. Not enough emphasis on: any one quilling to fight the imperialist state has use value regardless of overall value.

            Thanks for helping me find a modicum of greater perspective.

            • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
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              2 years ago

              No problem. I think "get over yourself" needs to be a tagine here cause it seems to be a huge issue for everyone.

            • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
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              2 years ago

              I guess I can also add for everyone: realistically, the few of us who manage anything in a revolutionary capacity will end out dead or in jail, if anyone does make headway they will be distorted or turned into a manner. If Stalin is said in the same breath by most as Hitler, what chance do you think you have? The rest will hopefully do what little they can in their own lives. Our revolution isn't even in its infancy, or even it's conception, we're in clothed foreplay at best, so just like, a lot of this anarchist ML stuff is things we wish mattered.

              • RATMachinespirit [he/him,they/them]
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                2 years ago

                Again, good shit.

                Semi-serious here: if stalin and Hitler are in the same breath, a life well-lived joins at least one of them and therefore both. Poorly phrased? Undoubtedly. I hope the point is at least semi-coherent.

                • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
                  ·
                  2 years ago

                  No, don't be Stalin and Hitler breathed.omly be Stalin breathed. This is how drsgons teach theory.

                  • RATMachinespirit [he/him,they/them]
                    ·
                    2 years ago

                    Uh, leaving the hard to understand breathing discourse aside: my point was that killing a ton of people is orally neutral. The moral content comes from whether they deserved it or not.

                    Within the context of earlier comments: Stalin and Hitler both killed many. Stalin killed the guilty and Hitler killed the innocent. The former is good and the latter is bad, yet a fucking idiot who is simply against killing equites the two as equals.