This point is unironically what ultimately made me start learning about communism. When I still had basically no understanding of politics I brought up how there's more than enough food to feed everyone to a friend and he said "well if we did feed everyone that would be communism" as a dumb gotcha
We can, but we can't, because we don't. If we do, it wouldn't be what we do, so we shouldn't.
- capitalist koan, apparently
That's hilarious. The right has made communism such a dirty word that he thought that was a winning argument.
Most of my political education was spurred by having these
moments at things liberals and right wingers say
The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the soul of Bobby Hill the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
One snippet of my radicalization came from a partner of mine who worked at Peet's Coffee years ago. He told me that every night when the pastries were thrown away, the manager instructed the workers to pour bleach all over them so houseless folks couldn't eat them. At the time I couldn't believe it
I hope the employees just said "yes, okay" and then didn't do it. they're not going to check
I hope so too, I know my partner wouldn't have and quit shortly after. So sickening.
We need to start normalizing food banks. I haven't gone yet, but I volunteered at one in my town and it was the coolest, they had a ton of organic food and people could pick and choose what they wanted instead of just having a sack of potatoes and beets thrown at them. I feel like if people were able to utilize food banks there would be more incentive/ability to buy local, too
I have no idea but I really do want to understand where it comes from. That should be my next neuro/psych rabbit hole
Yeah, dehumanization and lack of empathy are huge. I just can't get my head around how someone can look at another human and say, "Fuck you I'd rather you eat bleach and die than eat this old scone that I'm throwing in the trash". That level of contempt for another human just feels like pure evil to me and I fail to understand at all how someone can be driven to go to lengths like that.
Also: I'm not very good at speaking Spanish but I can understand decently. I've tried learning a few times but never have anyone to speak with
I looked up the meme though and it's definitely the same one. Rat boy came from this scene of The SimpsonsAwh that's super nice of you! I'm v shy but mayyyybe I'll take you up on that
Are you a native Spanish speaker?
Manufactured scarcity has never been as blatant as NFTs imo. So many companies openly bragging about how they've finally figured out how to restrict digital products, as if that's a good thing. If Marx weren't already dead, reading tweets from cryptobros surely would've killed him.
It did make the issues of landowners very clear to a lot of people I think when the land to be owned was made up. Not really much different than the real world, but real world land isn't made up and also people need it to survive.
NFTs were a horrible and stupid thing, but I think it did make clear to people who didn't realize it before how bad capitalism is.
Yeah all the talking points irl landlords use to justify their existence fall apart spectacularly when applied to digital land. It makes it obvious how they're parasites plain and simple.
We have many sickos
Here's just a few that we have liberated from the Onion cartoonist Kelly
spoiler
Under capitalism, Bobby Hill is superimposed on Dr Manhattan to say a lot about society. Under communism, Dr. Manhattan will be superimposed on Bobby Hill waxing passionate soliloquies about the gentility of the laborer.
is a common method to achieve 
"
