i missed you chapos. lifes been super busy for me recently. december was an incredibly stressful month and i bet most of you felt the same. im now two weeks into my first semester of college with a full course load. i love you all so much, seriously, and youre in my mind & heart at all times even if i'm not contributing to the online counter.

i see a divide in the community here on the recent WSB drama and figured id chip in with my thoughts on it -- obviously i don't know everything and am just trying to apply the theory ive read to the material conditions were living in atm. would love to have a discussion about it if anyone is willing to.

here goes: we already know capitalism will be its own gravedigger. historically, declining conditions led the working class to armed revolution. i have no idea on the timeline of these events but I strongly believe that (if the human race exists) in 10 years, we will look back at 2020 as the beginning of the end of capitalism-as-we-know-it, and this week's events on wall st will be credited with helping class consciousness reaching it's critical mass. no matter how you personally feel about GME/WSB, what is happening right now is unprecedented, and what im reading from the room is that redditors are actually going to collectively pull this off -- and even if they dont, things arent going back to "normal" after this. on a massive scale people are recognizing what a joke our current system is, or are being reminded of what they already knew. right now people are actively contributing their own capital into a pool that is attempting to highlight the absurdity of the FREE MARKETS. some are doing it for different reasons, some dont know what theyre doing at all, and a lot of them are probably dangerously overextending their financial situation, but the individual causes dont really negate the consequences, and sure as hell arent slowing this snowball down. the energy behind this movement, if you will, is bonkers.

so lets play out some scenarios of how this can go down: 1) gme short squeeze is successful, no bail outs. 2) successful, govt bails out wall st 3) unsuccessful, no bail outs 4) unsuccessful, govt bails out main st. no matter which of these 4 scenarios plays out or the degree in which they do 1) regular people will have seen a glimpse of the power they wield when working together collectively 2) they will have even less trust in traditional financial institutions as well as the government 3) they will be even more prepared & far less hesitant to put skin in the game when the next 1% vs 99% opportunity arises.

now this next part will be instinctually shot down by a lot of you and I just wanna insert a disclaimer for my own sake, I know and fully support the fact that the end game for communism is the abolishment of capital and private property -- if it was possible for me to somehow skip the whole transitional phase and what im about to say, I would in a heartbeat; the lives and psychological tolls it would save outweigh any aspect of the following pipedream. However real life doesnt work like that, change will come slowly at first and it will be hard fought on all fronts. the front i have my eye on is decentralized technology, and more specifically, cryptocurrency. I'm not shilling, I expect disagreements, and I just hope you all dont decide to ban me for speaking heresy. so, clearly the decentralization of technology is great for people like us as we wouldnt have chapo.chat without it. we are no longer chained to the whims of reddit admins. the internet started out decentralized but as time went on more and more of it became controlled & centralized by capitalists. SaaS is the bane of my existence and i cant think of a better example of the ridiculous greed that the influence of capital instills. FOSS, in response to the growing SaaS industry (from my perspective at least), has exploded in recent years in regards to adoption and contribution. technology is our greatest asset in creating a better world for everyone, where one's access to knowledge and tools isnt gated behind a price tag or subscription fee. i believe that slowly and surely people will begin abandoning the old world's financial system and moving to the future's. "what does it matter?" you ask, "a new shiny version of the same system isnt gonna change anything." well no, the migration of people all over the world to decentralized money will not be the end of capitalism, however, i suspect that cryptocurrency will CONSIDERABLY lessen the avenues in which the capitalist class can oppress & exploit the working class. it will also provide us new tools for mutual aid, organizing, and direct action. in the interest of not being a shill im not gonna link details n shit, im just gonna ask that yall DYOR on some of the community driven developments, anticapitalist projects, and mutual-aid-fund-type-beats circulating in the cryptosphere.

its not the solution, and hopefully one day we wont need it at all, but i think it is a means to an end that the left should explore. at least try to think of the positives and approach the technology with creativity instead of shutting down any discussion of technology that will change the world. lets figure out how to point it in the right left direction.

PS: if you think cryptocurrency = bitcoin and dogecoin... umm i really don't know what to say. dont get involved with stuff like that. in fact, im not saying to buy any crypto at all, just look into some of the developments made since the last time you heard crypto was a giant ponzi scheme, and try to see how it could work in socialisms favor.