CW: troubling thoughts about global crisis
Figured I would add a content warning bc would not want to read this on a bad day lol
I actually feel crazy sometimes. How am I supposed to accept what marxism tells me the ruling class is willing to do to maintain power and reconcile it with the technology they have without denialism and not feel like a conspiracy theorist. I will see new tech like ai and, especially when the tech is hyped up, wonder what the bourgeois want it for. What might they be developing it to do? They aren't blind, they know what is to come when the earth gets too hot and they aren't doing anything to prevent it. Which leads me to believe they are more focused on insuring their survival which of course implies the automation of our labor, likely through ai which would explain their interest in it.
I think I have a strong pattern seeking brain and I want to connect all the dots yk? Tie everything in to one grand understanding. I know that this is likely impossible, many of the things that are done and invested in are likely just solely for the sake of profit. Not everything is a calculated malice. But some of it definitely is, some, likely many, of the ruling class are very conscious of their class position and intend to maintain it through whatever means necessary. I find this internal struggle difficult to manage. I know that my desire for a grand theory is rooted in terror because my response for fear has always been an attempt at understanding and so I am distrustful of this want. Yet, my fear is not unfounded, it is certain that I and all people of all oppressed classes are in danger and it is certain who is responsible. So I am at an impasse. It seems I have three options.
I can
- feed my fear by giving into conspiracy, let myself find temporary comfort in a constructed reality that validates my inaction
- give into denialism and pretend someone will do something and everything will be ok
- live the rest of my life in a constant state of dread for the famine and slaughter that is already inevitable
I hate y'all for what you did to me (affectionate)
I am actively choosing option 3 daily and will continue to do so because it is the only choice that empowers action but I constantly worry about falling into either of the 2 other thought patterns accidentally or without my notice. Do y'all stress about this as well?
0.000% of Communism has been built. Evil child-murdering billionaires still rule the world with a shit-eating grin. All he has managed to do is make himself sad. He is starting to suspect Kras Mazov fucked him over personally with his socio-economic theory. It has, however, made him into a very, very smart boy with something like a university degree in Truth. Instead of building Communism, he now builds a precise model of this grotesque, duplicitous world.
feels like a conspiracy theory
I've had libs tell me my talk of the ruling class/bourgeoisie is conspiratorial...so for libs it's 100% true. Anything that deviates from the end of history is sacrilege to a liberal.
"of course they meet in rooms, where the hell else are they gonna meet?" lol
The horrible thing is that leftism is all about a conspiracy, a conspiracy of capitalists to secure their capital at all costs.
Lots of people think leftist is about seeing conspiracies, but I would argue Leftism is a lot more realising common class interests exist, and conspiracy stems from that. Classes (to begin with) don't really "conspire" so much as just, naturally work toward the same things (and by consequence, then conspire).
As well as just being a good realisation, I think it helps dispel myths to non-leftists. It also leads into one of the fundamental failures, which is how the Capitalists have freedom and time to conspire, and workers do not.
Fidel was a hottie. Justin should be proud that his dad was hot and cool.
its a great time to be a conspirator when the word conspiracy is synonymous with delusion
The word has become so perverted that it's striking and almost funny to hear it used in its original, mundane context, like "charged with three counts of conspiracy to rob a taco stand".
fascism is when the conspiracy theories are based on fictitious recounting of mundane events to blame unrelated phenomena on a minority group/social class.
communism is when the conspiracy theories are based on factual events simply told from the perspectives of the social classes which suffered from them the most.
liberalism is when you're the one creating the conspiracies.
Sometimes it does feel that way when you're being bombarded by some bourgeois media propaganda trying to convince you that your eyes don't see, your ears don't hear and your brain can't think for itself. But then you see the proof of what communists have been saying, day after day, somehow still not convincing enough people but pushing more and more of them into the right direction.
It's an uphill battle and will always be as long as the ruling class owns the media, education, and all the other subtle ways that public opinion can be manipulated to serve the status quo. But it's one that we ought to keep fighting and get as much of the working class as we can to question the system and dare to imagine that capitalism is not the end of history.
Sometimes it does feel that way when you're being bombarded by some bourgeois media propaganda trying to convince you that your eyes don't see, your ears don't hear and your brain can't think for itself.
This is especially true of anti-Chinese propaganda & the state of the world economy.
The bourgeois media ALWAYS claims that the economy is doing great, despite the clear evidence to the contrary.
bourgeois media propaganda trying to convince you that your eyes don't see, your ears don't hear and your brain can't think for itself.
I am very afraid of how ai will affect this. If the ruling class is able to fully construct an automated or self-perpetuating and convincing false reality I think we are fucked. We should probably put thought into damaging data centers. Investment into augmented reality is also concerning but I don't think the american working class is foolish enough to tie their own blindfold. Right?
I suppose this doesn't need said to a comrade. We both already know better than to drool over tech treats lol. I'm just venting I think. Humanity will prevail I'm sure, I'm just highly impatient about it.
At least for the moment, AI tends to produce pretty shitty stuff that is easily debunkable, but then again people will believe anything and not care when they are revealed months later..
In any case we should absolutely wreck some data centers lol
The llms and treat printers can only make their propaganda faster, not stronger. And declining material conditions will pierce right through their false reality just like they do now
You have to remember that the ruling class are defined by their relation to capital. They are still a collection of individuals, whose goals are aligned do to their ownership of the means of production. Just in the same way the working class is defined in relationship to the ruling class and their lack of control of the means of production.
What does the ruling class want with AI? They want profits. The AI vendors want profits for their designs. The venture capitalists want a return on their investments. The managerial class want to cut labor costs and prove to their executive bosses they can "innovate" while making the company "lean". Those executives want to see the profits of their companies go up, by what ever means they can.
I think its dangerous to imagine that every ruling class figure is putting on a play for us. There are going to be true believers, who are blind to the limitations the demands of capital put on them. Even if they fail, the Capitalist system ensures they never experience consequences for their short sightedness. This only reinforces their worldview and allows them to try again.
Not everyone in the ruling class agrees with what needs to be done with their collective ownership of the means of production. They are all in competition with each other in some capacity. None of them have a long view of the world. They're all trying to be a middle man providing solutions to capitalism's failings or turning existing things into services to sell back to other capitalists.
They genuinely believe they are supporting the best system ever created. They genuinely think that working people are to stupid to understand how great the system is. It is because they believe and are told the same mythology about Capitalism, except they are the rule, not the exception. They never experience the system from the outside, or from a lower cast. So to them the myths are facts and truths.
They don't have a collective vision for the world. That's antithetical to their worldview. They are a disorganized group of self propagandized lords. They are all driven by the same social relations of capital, which gives them the appearance of collective operations, but the reality is most of them are simply coming to the same conclusion about how to preserve their hord. Or they hire consulting firms that provide them these conclusions for a fee.
I mean just look at the current scandal around these algorithmic rental pricing services. These are bourgeoisie selling other bourgeois a service to fix rental prices. The people who created the service had to know what they were doing. The early adopters had to know what it was doing. But countless midsized to small size landlords were to fucking stupid, lazy, and greedy to know they were engaging in rent fixing, and actually needed the service to do the rent calculus because they, again, are to dumb to do it themselves.
Do not do these people the service of believing they are as smart, cunning, and calculated as they would lead you to believe.
We're only two generations away from implementing the block shape sorting IQ test from idiocracy.
disinformation and wrong information are still kinds of information
There's also the problem of not knowing how to engage with information-information. E.g. people think they know everything because Google will spit out an answer to all their questions. They don't necessarily know what's missing or what to do with the data even if the search result is 'correct'. This includes people who can find academic research to prove their point without understanding the limits of any given study. Then there are those who don't know how to determine what's even worth reading.
I feel this as well. My partner thinks that ai will be the great equalizer, making a post-scarcity world, but all I can think of is how the bourgeois will use it to hurt and control us. Especially here in burger land, where our government refuses to do anything about it.
The set of technology that is currently referred to as "AI" (not a technical term, but a marketing team) is interesting but not particularly remarkable as it exists today. I don't see it doing either of those things, quite frankly.
That said, burgerland is obviously happy to go full techno libertarian if such a technology were invented, and it remains a concern.
live the rest of my life in a constant state of dread for the famine and slaughter that is already inevitable
I mean this is in the most gentle and comradely way possible, but this incomplete. Because what you're really seeing as the third option is:
live the rest of my life in a constant state of dread for the famine and slaughter that is inevitably going to happen to me
Because the sad fact is, that shit's already happening to people across the globe, and at some level probably even in your own back yard to indigenous peoples. That's the shit we try not to think about even though it's what fuels this nightmare machine we're living in. Many of us are just as much in denial as Libs are, and I cannot emphasize how much that be can epitomized in the "Back to Normal" rhetoric. Normal is currently an extra 5% Social Murder a day compared to pre-2019 levels. And that's a conservative estimate. Normal is our dreams of what we thought our life was going to be under Capitalism as a freaking wage slave. And when the Conglomeration Nation had to shut down for a few months over a viral infestation, instead of looking for the opportunity to deal the final blow, most of us were looking for reasons to get back to our fur lined chains and get back to work.
That's what I stress about. I read probably more history than theory, but because of that I often look at the lives of revolutionaries and martyrs, who were just Normal People. I look at what they were willing to sacrifice to fight for their comrades, in order build something greater than this nightmare we live in, and I wonder if I'm ever gonna be able to step the fuck up. Or, if I'm just gonna let them do all the shit to my friends and family that I've been ignoring across the globe so I can pretend we're not in a Class War.
I'm actually a lot less worried about what will happen to me. Being in the imperial core and as priveleged as I am... I'm as secure as I can be for someone working class. I'm lucky in that regard. If greenhouse gas production ceased right now for good I might actually be fine. But I will have to watch an incomprehensable suffering because hundreds of millions of graves have already been dug with plastic shovels. I know that I will live my life asking why I didn't do more even if I am to do everything I can. That is if I don't eat bullets. This somehow felt overdramatic or self agrandizing to write out. I'm no saint and obviously I'm scared for my own life as well, starvation is of course horrifying, but I don't think my dread can be narrowed down to just this. I think its the total powerlessness to prevent this genocide (even if everyone did everything they could) and the collective lack of political will and power to mitigate it that eats at me. I know that people will eventually be disillusioned but every day that they aren't more people are sentenced to a cruel miserable death.
I'm gonna read more memoirs from revolutionaries. See what they did. I don't know if I've internalized this reality enough to abandon my current way of life and give myself wholly to a revolutionary cause. I have so far been able to see through the illusion of our society but have maintained it outwardly. The coercion to abide by this illusion is hard to resist even when you are aware of it. I don't know how much longer I can keep pretending a comfortable future exists.
To put a much less doomer spin on things, I very much recommend learning about Lucio Urtubia.
Nope because it actually makes more sense to me than the “mainstream” pov of how the world works.
To the working class it doesn’t sound like a conspiracy theory because they experienced it everyday on their own personhood.
More than that, it's the only thing that makes any sense, really. Mainstream views are incoherent even without comparison.
They are. But those with stakes in the maintenance of the empire, will explain away or overlook the contradictions.
Capitalism is a conspiracy theory that requires zero conspiracy. It can function identically through class interest alone.
The concept of a "conspiracy theory" (and the belief in it being supposedly wrong) was invented by the cia to discredit those who realized what the cia was doing
Cranky "conspiracy theories" were seeded by the cia as well, to discredit the real truthfinders via association
Sounds like you need to
and
But seriously, find a better balance by putting the fear into some kind of regular praxis. Doing something—anything—can alleviate the constant worry while also making you less likely to seek out the content that pushes us all into that state of dread.
I've been attempting to find a way to act but I'm quite rural and in the American south so there is 0 party presence here. I'm sure I will find something eventually but the isolation is truly killer. I know my writing is probably alarming but I'm mostly mentally ok, nothing I don't think I can't handle with care and I am in therapy. I've just learned quite a lot recently and got understandably concerned. Re-evaluating my priorities and such. Spending time with the people who care about me despite how surreal it can sometimes feel. I'm gonna keep working on finding ways to contribute in any way I can.
