Besides posting on chapo, what is something you may do often or occasionally that you think/know is pretty lib?
I use to have a hard time saying no to cashiers who'd ask me to round up my total to donate to some terrible organization the store owned or partnered with. Not only are most non-profits complete shit, but doing it this way the store is the one doing the write off too, kinda a double whammy. I stopped doing this for the most part, but occasionally my mouth speaks before I think and I say "sure."
The other thing is buying girl scout cookies sometimes. I just assume this org is bad, i've never really looked into it, but if they are even remotely like the boy scouts, they are for sure bad.
And the last one is probably shopping at the salvation army, which has a horrible track record, has donated to anti-LGBTQA+ orgs, has a horrible labor track record and more. But like, I almost never buy brand new clothes and random household items anymore because it's both so much less expensive this way and the textile industry is one of the worst polluters out there plus they also have horrible labor practices. But in my mind at least, buying second hand is much better to reuse stuff instead of contributing more to those industries.
what do you got?
:haram: turn in your lefty credentials. everything you consume must be done so with many critiques, especially completely unnecessary ones even if they are right
the girl scouts aren't nearly as fucked up as the boy scouts. they explicitly allow and support trans girls, and have rejected money from transphobic donors. it's basically a liberal institution, but generally i think organizations that get kids involved in their communities are good.
The "we ❤️ cyber" sign along with the "learn 2 code" message is fun. Girl Scouts is just Boyscouts with 20% better pr.
well that is good to hear, that is for sure much better. I probably shouldn't have just assumed it was totally bad but partly why i did is because of how insanely bad the boy scouts are and i've always sorta considered them the same in a way.
i mean yes. if humans live long enough to see things improve into the next centuries, you and i will be seen as monsters, or at best hostages of a system we are too cowardly to change
for sure, we should always be striving to not live in a capitalist society
I don't think this is true. We don't see 19C workers as monsters because they were unable to destroy capitalism. We're all victims and hopefully one day can call ourselves survivors of capitalism. Even arriving at the point of radicalisation that recognises the necessity of change and holding on to that insight in the face of our individual weakness and collective alienation is something that is valuable and requires a reasonable deal of inner strength
I probably was too binary that way but I always feel cognitive dissonance whenever I buy things I don't need or consume pretty much anything, but of course there isn't much of a choice. I think we all feel this way, like we're not doing enough. I know some people on this site really do their best to avoid supporting the worst offenders of capitalism, and then there are people like me whose only distinction from the lumpenprolateriat is knowing that my money will be used to keep people oppressed.
Don't worry, I have played the epic hidden indie gem, a game known to few as 'Undertale', therefore I am an Indie connoisseur.
"Support small business" my man says in his thread literally about minor liberalism.
Thermonuclear take: "ACAB" is in part an extension of the western myth of the rugged individual who doesn't need anyone to protect them. Every single example of AES has decided that the police, in the context of enforcing socialist laws, is necessary.
Most AES countries are still in the capitalist mode of production, and police are required to enforce things like private property until that can truly be transcended (something that is still a bit of a ways off, for various reasons). The police and other law enforcement entities will naturally be reformed until they're no longer needed.
ACAB is just a bumper sticker. It's a good one, and one I largely agree with, but it's not really a serious political analysis. Actually analyzing thing y going to be a lot more complex than "acab" or "ac(except AES cops)ab".
ACAB is just a bumper sticker. It’s a good one, and one I largely agree with, but it’s not really a serious political analysis. Actually analyzing thing y going to be a lot more complex than “acab” or “ac(except AES cops)ab”.
I agree with this 110%. It just bothers me that some fellow leftists reflexively fall back on this when it comes time to do some serious analysis.
My take has always been that even under perfect socialism, there will still be some types of crime. I'm talking things like crimes of passion, rape, child molestation, etc. While the abolition of capitalism will reduce some of these crimes, I doubt that they can be eliminated.
I think most leftists agree that even under perfect socialism, we'll still need a group of people who are trained to enforce the law, using force as a last resort if necessary.
even under perfect socialism, there will still be some types of crime
This is correct -- socialism won't turn people into saints. I also think there's a "locks keep honest people honest" effect, where we'd see a bump in some crimes if we eliminated police entirely in a socialist state. I'm thinking things like petty theft, property destruction, and probably bar fight style assaults. Intuitively, you try more when you can get away with more, and this tracks with studies showing that the likelihood of getting caught (as opposed to the severity of punishment) is a primer deterrent of crime.
Of course, police in a socialist state should look far different, as should the property relations that define crimes like "property destruction." But fundamentally, having some organized way of handling unacceptable behavior makes a lot of sense.
I think that they can be near-eliminated, especially when we can avoid mental illness and trauma that often results from poverty and poor material conditions as well as deliver high quality mental healthcare to everyone, starting at an early age if necessary. By the time we get there though, the nature of law enforcement will have changed enough to resemble something else entirely
ACAB to me at least, has always meant abolish all cops, destroy the systems that allow them to exist, and then rebuild. If that rebuilding requires the organizing of a cop like force, so be it. Just make sure that the people always have the ability to tear down that organization should they ever overstep their bounds.
ACAB because cops are the enforcers of the capitalist state and its rule, they dont exist at all to help people.
When socialism overthrows the state and, if possible, needs to enforce socialist laws, and such workers governement "enforcers" or such wouldn't any longer fit our understanding/definition of "police" as it is today - as it's always been sorely a tool to protect private property and wage war on minority groups. A socialist revolition abolishing private property and ending oppression has no need for police as it's always been known.
The police exists to defend existing hierarchies and will always tend to side with conservative currents so all cops are indeed bastards. But we would still need policing of some kind in the free society of the future. This is a real dilemma of police abolition.
One suggestion is to have a voluntary people's militia where members have "real" jobs as well and where it is expected of every citizen that they volunteer at least one in a while. The problem with that is that not everyone can go and do police work. Most people could man a speed gun but other things from driving an emergency vehicle safely to breaking up fighting drunks takes training and experience that you can't expect volunteers to have.
Another solution would be to keep a professional police force but to go the ultimate lib checks and balances route with body cams, harsh punishments for infractions of good behaviour, awareness training, targeted recruitment of minorities etc. It would all be a bandaid on s structural issue though and real world examples shows that this approach can only do so much.
The free society of the future could also shift focus in training and recruiting police from being interior troops to being more like social workers and tone down the gun and uniform part of the job to discourage chuddy types from joining.
yeah i wish cops were not automatically a first responder to every single 911 call. Does depend on where you live, but in the vast majority of places in the US, especially outside big cities, a 911 call means at least one cop shows up and that can be insanely problematic
big oof. I use to think I loved driving a stick shift till I finally got an automatic and then I realized, no, i don't like having to use my ebrake on a steep hill at a red light cause the massive SUV behind me decided a half foot from my bumper is a good place to be.
I like the freedom a car allows but that would all change if we literally had any form of decent public transit. None of the jobs i've had in the last 4 years had even a bus stop within 2 miles of it. And typically too far to ride my bike and not have to leave two hours early before work to get there.
I use to do that but i've found some rather secluded walking or hiking trails that I use instead, plus it's better for me. Obviously this isn't really as practical depending on where you live. But I reallllly appreciate being able to sorta just go on auto pilot sometimes and have a distraction like driving can provide. But I got T-boned a couple years ago and haven't really enjoyed driving like I use to.
I feel like I'm quite reactionary when it comes to China. I admit I need to spend some time educating myself on Chinese history and politics, but I have a few other books I wanna read before I get there. Btw if anyone has good article or book recs on China I'd appreciate it.
idk anything about how you consume news but the best thing you can ever do is stop paying attention to western news about China, especially if you saw it on reddit or from some of the big MSNs
Yeah nowadays I am absolutely very skeptical of western media coverage of China. I think that many years of being a liberal and not being skeptical of that media is the main reason why I tend to be reactionary with regards to China
it's absurd how like 5 people are pushing mainstream news stories China constantly and they are all different shades of insane
good article or book recs on China
https://hexbear.net/post/66458
What I'm getting here is that stealing from the Salvation Army is both the moral and practical thing to do.
Yeah you know what i shoul steal from them too, never even occurred to me
That doesn't go for a tip. Anything left is considered payment for the meal first.
Just don't dine and dash, shoplift instead.
Big no. Libs are the absolute fucking worst at tipping big. They do the math all properly and shit, and even will occasionally hash out "how good the service was" with whoever they are at the table with, sometimes developing involuntary mid atlantic accents.
The reason everyone else tips like shit is either 1) they are literally fucking broke or 2) they are not from the U.S., as tipping is thought of as garish and weird in lots of other countries, especially ones that have fucking health care and social safety nets and shit.
Any good non broke leftists tips out the wazoo. Like what are you doing to deserve being served at a restaurant anyway, acting like you're in a superbowl commercial set at a dinner party and all your teeth are all straight and white and shit. gtfo
People who put 5 dollars on the table and remove them over the course of eating if they didn't have their half cup of water refilled twice
I sometimes like philosophy in art even though I've read enough Marx to know why it's false. Deep liberal cut.
