Why Capitalism Loves Doomers — Second Thought
Removed by mod- cross-posted to:
- videos@lemmy.ml
Removed by mod
Why Capitalism Loves Doomers — Second Thought
Removed by mod- cross-posted to:
- videos@lemmy.ml
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/20004321
We all get the big sad sometimes. But you know what? Doomerism doesn't solve anything - it's a gift to the ruling class. Let's talk about that.
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No one has been able to provide me any good reason to be optimistic living in the west. I don’t care about all the feel-good platitudes. Anything less of an Iranian missile striking DC makes me chuckle, not because I place all my faith outside the imperial core, but because the majority of people in the imperial core will simply choose genocide as their “collective resistance” agenda
Yes, settlers tend toward fascism as things heat up. But there's the potential for indigenous movements to grow in response to fascist oppression, as more people who previously were numbed by the gains of imperialism are marginalized. I single out indigenous movements because they have always gotten a completely raw deal and settler states have, by definition, no business cutting them a piece of the pie; that contradiction affords some space for the rest of the marginalized people to coalesce.
The entire historical process doesn't happen in one fell swoop, there are stages and plenty of time for enough people to form a resistance which is absolutely invaluable for the anti-imperialist projects in the periphery to exploit. I'll always remember that when the Weather Underground visited the Viet Minh, the request the Viet Minh had of them was to build a mass movement instead of focusing on grandiose acts of adventurism. The fact that the only hope for avoiding certain doom lies outside of the imperial core doesn't mean we have nothing to do but wait for the bombs to land.
when the Weather Underground visited the Viet Minh
know where I can read about it? google results are fucked by the weather report people
https://youtu.be/I-pdWG8YkZ8?t=2471
https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=6A775861A0B03CFD1C546148B89AD1CB
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
I deleted my earlier comment but no, fuck it, this shit is stupid. I'm sick of this patronizing nonsense. Call me a fucking doomer because for the last four and a half years I've been begging, BEGGING, all of you to make your stupid fucking orgs accessible to me and to people who don't want to be/can't be infected by Covid and NONE will do it. NO ONE. Your pride marches aren't accessible, your organization isn't accessible, your demonstrations aren't accessible, your recreation isn't accessible! None of you give a single shit about solidarity with the lowest among you! So yeah, I'm a fucking doomer! I'll stop when you all stop dooming me!!
That part where he proposes that doomerism is the final defense mechanism of liberalism, which is defeated by a realization that we can be one part in a collective movement for revolution, I think I've read that exact reasoning here before? I wonder if he lurks here outside of just the AMAs.
that we can be one part in a collective movement for revolution
Very similar energy to this, in our contemporary experience of there not being a collective movement and a lot of hammers waiting to hammer down the tall nails:
Show
Sort of off topic but I love that ASIP moment. Aged like fine wine especially in 2024.
He's done AMAs here twice in the past. No clue if he lurks regularly though.
which is defeated by a realization that we can be one part in a collective movement for revolution
no different than liberals hearing and seeing you
I really dislike the focus on doomerism, mainly just in the sense that like. It just reminds me sort of like. Those self help books that are like "Think positive and manifest your wishes!" that kind of stuff. I don't think doomerism is really the problem. If anything it's just lack of pathways to meaningful action.
In another way it also just feels dismissive on things people are dealing with. It's a good thing movements aren't built off just based on how people are feeling, but on actual action being done. But maybe I shouldn't speak considering I struggle with things like suicide thoughts a lot on a daily basis.
I also hate how JT talked about despair and equated it to liberalism when despair is a complex emotion that stems from a variety of things like trauma. Also I hate that he brought up "continue to mope and whine and wallow in self pity". I hate that phrase so much.
Wild that you’re comparing revolutionary optimism to self help books. I’ll have to let Fred Hampton, Mao Zedong and Ho Chi Minh know.
“The most immediate antidote to nihilism is revolutionary optimism. Revolutionary optimism isn’t rooted in a blind hope that change will come at some unknown point in the future. It is cultivated by the acknowledgement that only through participation in the struggle to liberate the people can the lives of the people be transformed. Revolutionary optimism is bolstered by a deep curiosity in and knowledge of the history of class struggle. Social change is treated as a science, one with distinct properties and elements that are both inevitable and profoundly dependent upon the actions taken by the people.”
https://www.blackagendareport.com/combat-nihilism-revolutionary-optimism-age-us-imperial-decline
I'll just go revolutionary optimize my suicide thoughts away then. I'll just go revolutionary optimize my grief away from my mom dying last year. I'll just go revolutionary optimize my dad drinking himself to death.
It is cultivated by the acknowledgement that only through participation in the struggle to liberate the people can the lives of the people be transformed.
Yea I don't have the means to participate right now! To cultivate such a thing! I hate this fixation on revolutionary optimism because it's ignores what getting in the way of people in participating and feels more like emotional policing or something. But it ignores why is someone a doomer? Are they depressed? Are they dealing with shit? How can those bridges be crossed? Why aren't they taking action? What are the road blocks getting in the way. And the reason I compare it to self help is because of how others like you ignore what I just said!
Besides like, someone can be doomer and still take action. Like there were times when I was very suicidal where I managed to help some people. It's as if emotions don't have to dictate action.
Man fuck you. You don't deserve to use these words. Let me tell you a little something about direct action and what participation in a struggle of liberation looks like.
My wife works in this little crappy Chuck E Cheese knockoff arcade downtown- pretty much the worst place to be all things considered, but we don't have any other choice for income and it pays well enough of any minimum wage job we've ever had. She's been there for a year and has never once taken off her N95 indoors or around other people for any of her eight hour shifts (and her combined three hour commute to and from the building). She has been the only one to do so. When she describes to her coworkers, the wonderful working class of the United States, that she does it to protect me, an immunocompromised person in her family, and when she describes the dangers, shows them the data we have surrounding current Covid trends, they will all say "yeah wow that's bad"- and then we offer them a mask from our personal supply of N95s and they go "no thanks" without hesitation, every time. They have mandatory "safety meetings" every few months and we've brought Covid and masking up at every one of them in addition to casual conversations with her coworkers. There is no plan to change policy. There is no plan for them to bother themselves for the sake of others, or even themselves, at any level of the social ladder, institutional or interpersonal. One of her coworkers talked about driving to Seattle a few weeks ago for a concert with someone who tested positive for Covid, but that they weren't worried because "it was probably a false positive". One of her coworkers complains that she started a couple weeks ago and has been sick twice. My wife has been sick that much the entire year she's worked there, because she wears a high-quality and well-fitting respirator at all times.
Last year we wanted to go to an event nearby and asked the organizers of what was planned to be about 40-50 people if they would require masks because I was an immunocompromised person and wanted the best chances to avoid infection as much as possible while still being able to participate. In their messages they sounded sympathetic, assuring me that they would and that those who saw what I said would wear them for me that weekend. We were two of maybe four people in masks there. They didn't do anything for us, and people who said they would mask were not wearing them. So we left.
But go on and fucking tell me what Fred Hampton and Ho Chi Minh think, bitch. You want me to be optimistic about this? Tell me what the fuck you've done!
I get the sentiment in this vid but the country I'm in is completely fucked with the trajectory the world is going with climate change. We're gonna be collateral for a bunch of maniacs playing with forces they don't understand and thats after decades of exploitation by said maniacs. Even the best case scenarios have shit looking bleak. I don't wanna bring anyone else here to despair and I will do what I can because we're fighters at heart but its hard not look at shit and think "communism or barbarism..... Barbarism is gonna be the choice."
Lotta lib comments here so I’ll reiterate again: REVOLUTIONARY OPTIMISM IS ESSENTIAL!
Really funny that people here are bashing JT’s video considering the positive work he does educating and encouraging people to join orgs and be active.
Hey quick question are any of these orgs still enforcing masks? Making them accessible to the most vulnerable among us while a virus that is disabling & killing hundreds a day is still spreading? No? Wow, funny, that.
You're supposed to just be positive otherwise it's funny that you have hesitation or reservations for any reason.
But you know what?
Very few things that are good ever come after that opener. Usually it's some
The only exception I can immediately think of is
I've only noticed in leftists the tendency to subject others to patronizing lectures that are clearly more about fighting their own inner demons than anything that coherently exists as a tendency.
I'll say more if I need to.
I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
