BilboBaggins [he/him]

"Cosplay is my passion."

OK here we go...

In the 60s and 70s, LotR was way more closely associated with hippies than anything on the right. When I was a kid in the 80s and 90s, religious right wingers would lump it in with the satanic panic (I wasn't allowed to read it). All this fashy love for LotR is after the movies came out, and I don't think it's a coincidence.

I bet you dollars to donuts the fash who like LotR don't even read the books. The movies - in particular the last 2 - overly emphasize the "WE MUST DEFEND THE WEST FROM THE EVIL HORDES" aspect. I'm not saying that's not there in the books but the movies over-emphasize it quite a bit. I actually rewatched the trilogy for the first time in a decade recently and was surprised how uncomfortable the last 2 movies made me. The movies do feel like they're coded with fash dogwhistles in a way the books are not. I would say the "vibe" of the first movie is more aligned with all 3 books way better than the last 2 movies are.

I also thinks it's as simple as the story is very "European" and so the "RETVRN TO TRADITION" crowd loves it just for that aspect alone, especially the movies.

But also as Ulysses said, I think there are aspects of the story like the elves that I don't think Tolkien had any ill intent, but is definitely easy for fascists to dovetail into their own worldview.

I understand this is a pretty weak defense but I think it's important to recognize before the movies came out the books had a very broad base of fans and the notion that it was the darling of the right (Meloni excluded I guess) isn't really accurate. At the same time I can acknowledge even the books have problematic aspects.

I actually plan on re-reading the trilogy this winter for the first time as a leftist. I'm curious to see how I'll feel about it then.

That's all true but I'm not sure I see the connection to Fischer Price

You're forgetting the third option: "by criticizing Biden and the democrats, the left is actually pushing people to Trump. So it's our fault"

"Elon I drew you"

:my-hero:

Caffeine-Free Diet Coke, Elon is a real sicko.

You also forgot the CIA and State Dept funded "protests" in Cuba in July 2021. The one that got drowned out by the counter-protests. And then when they tried again a few months later to hype up another protests, basically no one showed up.

In the US as well I've started to see right wingers talk about how the vaccines are killing people now backed by about as much evidence as they have for cultural Marxist kindergarten teachers brainwashing kids into believing they are trans.

the last in a long series of famines in that part of the world

Sorry I don't remember where I heard it, but my understanding is that Russia in the 19th century experienced 5 major famines that together killed about 40 million people.

Yes, even as lib as r/AskHistorians is, the actual historians there who comment on it say it wasn't a genocide and Stalin never specifically tried to wipe out Ukrainians.

Couple months late on my response, but it was Kyle on the General Intellect Unit podcast who said it, sorry I don't recall the exact episode. There's also Towards a New Socialism that came out in the early 90s that has some solid math behind it.

the demise of applied Marxism in the Socialist Calculation Debate of the 1920s.

The calculation debate was going on before computers were invented and the Soviets were doing their economic planning with pen and paper. Even without computers, Soviet central planning worked out pretty well and things only got messed up as Corn Man introduced more market-based approaches.

Regardless, the calculation debate was settled decades ago. Computers ended up being the game changers. Cybersyn worked pretty well even using tech that was a little outdated at the time (US pressured IBM not to sell them the good computers Allende wanted). Socialists have been able to prove the superiority of central planning mathematically since at least the 80s. The debate is over, there is no debate. We won.

Feels like Ukraine is using the "American Youth Pastor" model of PR. Just take something that's currently popular and try and turn it around to male it about Jesus/Ukraine.

Article says it's allowing business to pay for higher-up search results; while not great it's not like you're gonna get a "punch the monkey" banner in iTunes.

IMO a custom security-focused ROM on a Pixel is the best for privacy and security. But then I'll take an iPhone over everything else (Samsung, Moto, stock Android Pixel, Pinephone) after that. At least iPhone with iCloud disabled.

I'm imaging a scenario where the US insists on recognizing Taiwan as a country and they're like "no no please don't, we're really not".

There's not much that makes me happier than seeing the global south poke a finger in the eye of colonizer nations.

GOOD post

Then what is the outcome? That their product becomes cheaper!

Yup. "Innovation" is what we're told is the secret sauce as to why capitalism is the greatest economic system ever. A capitalist innovates and implements some better process or equipment because even if it eventually causes the rate of profit to remain unchanged, before that happens the capitalist is able to make super-profits. But as capitalism moves to ever-increasing degrees of monopoly, that innovation advantage completely dries up.