Truly a Manhattan Project for our times, can we truly bare the awful responsibility resting on our thighs?
If it’s on Biden then it’s going to get real spooky real fast (like, David Koresh believed that it was the end of days and the armies of the antichrist were upon him and his followers, and that’s BEFORE the internet existed to radicalize potentially millions of people). If it’s on Trump it will get spun into either: it was a dangerous cult that needed to be destroyed or they were actually “ANTIFA” “communists” “BLM” who also needed to be destroyed. Republicans are really good at throwing their own under the bus when it’s beneficial to their narrative and power. That’s why I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw minor social reforms in a second trump presidency just to maintain power and be a palette cleanser/distraction.
Why the fuck would they engage in a pursuit over a helmet (or a seatbelt in a car)? It’s not like you’re trying to catch a wanted murderer or kidnapper or something, it’s a personal safety violation. You tell them to stop, they say no, and then you say, “ah well, nevertheless.” At most they could’ve just mailed him a ticket! But nope, that boy isn’t following our orders, time to make an example out of another one of them. This is why you have purges, not because of “Muh crazy Stalinist power trips!” But because even IF we get our revolution, these ghouls don’t just vanish into thin air, they will stick around and they WILL cause trouble.
My dads the former. Used to be a hardcore republican, then chilled out on that, and in 2020 he voted Green Party. Lifelong anti cop and I watched him argue with a cop over a bogus speeding ticket lol. Pro union but wary of the big unions of being too in bed with the corporations they’re supposed to fight. Pro education but wary of those who see themselves as above manual labor because of a degree. I dunno, I used to dislike my dad but he’s grown a lot and now I really respect and love him. Give him the body of a 20 year old and the soul he has now and he’d be body slamming cops lol.
Me: Haha oooh that’s chilly little monkeys!
Eugenicist: Well you see based on skull shape and skin tone...
Bunch of joyless freaks, those Reddiors, who need to get tossed into a pool. This photo is cute and shows our relation with the other great apes at a primal level. That’s it. It’s a cute photo. Cut gorilla(?) baby and a cute human baby both reacting to the shock of a stethoscope and going, “fuck dudes that’s some cold metal on mah nips!”
That’s a very astute observation, but many rural Americans of the working class type work in manufacturing or some other non-agricultural capacity. I completely agree that the problem with rural Americans is that they see themselves as a propertied class, but that stems more from the settler mythos of going into the wild and carving out a slice of civilization. It’s the issue of blending land ownership, hard and dangerous work, and a strong sense of individualism that has led to this mentality which makes it so hard to combat. It’s a mix of finding self worth and desperation in the worst possible way. Mind you, it’s not bad to take pride in working with your hands (I’m college educated and I love working with my hands) and it’s not wrong to have a strong sense of self, and it’s not wrong to want your own little corner of the world, but it is wrong when all of that surpasses a basic sense of empathy and reason like we’re seeing with the pandemic. That is collective narcissism and sociopathy on display and it leads to nowhere good. That’s what I find so hard to combat. It almost becomes a psychological and spiritual issue at that point which is really tricky. It’s like combatting addiction, sure, take away the addictive substance but you don’t get to the root of the problem. We can collectivize and unionize every workplace in the country, but how do we deal with the root problem of uniquely American selfishness??
It’s all one big coping mechanism for life under capitalism. I have a job that, if a machine decided to not work right anymore, would smoosh me Loony Tunes style and I’d either be a crippled husk waiting for death or I’d be, Yknow, dead. I can’t dwell on that otherwise I can’t do my job, which means I can’t pay for stuff which means I’m SOL. These people cope by saying that “yes its dangerous, so what’s one more danger in my life? I’ll just keep on keeping on until something gets me.” Sadly, if you told them, “It doesn’t have to be this way,” and you explain how, they would recoil at the very notion. Rural America should be a hotbed of communist action, but it’s not, and I sincerely do not know how to turn the tide. America is a failed state that just doesn’t know it yet.
Nuclear weapons are a tricky issue. On the one hand I completely agree, they are arguably the worst thing humans have ever created and should have never existed in the first place. On the other hand they have, ironically and very thinly, prevented a major conflict between superpowers since WWII. Without Soviet nukes or Chinese nukes we would have gone to war with them or be at war with them now. As for weaker countries, they are THE ace in the hole for self defense. I agree, they’re an abomination and shouldn’t exist, but disarmament is likely nigh to impossible because even if the nuclear powers disarm, you know that they’ll all keep a very secret cache of the damned things. A couple American silos hidden in plain sight, a few Russian subs prowling the northern seas just waiting for the order, Chinese bombers at a moments notice, all for the tit-for-tat if one does The Thing to the other. Even smaller nuclear powers might keep a few handy “just in case” and make it a closely guarded state secret. I would love to have a nuclear free world, but the genie is out of the bottle and we won’t put it back until there is a world government. And even then I could see the technological know how being kept around just in case. That’s the beauty of being on the left, we are very idealistic, but also very rooted in harsh reality and truly use nuance to approach issues. So, all that being said and I said a lot and I’m sorry, continue to focus on the ideal while being able to see the harsh reality. Cheers comrade.
Man, if I could go to a tuition free trade school right now I probably would. Did college, turns out I’m not cut out for kissing ass to get a low end job just so I can say, “I work in news media.” But I don’t mind being a hard worker and doing hard physical work, and I don’t mind getting dirty so I’d probably be a mechanic. Shit...even without tuition free trade school I might look into this and I hate car culture! Then again I don’t hate cars per se, I just hate the American culture around them and how some guys talk about cars.
October 1 to January 1 is my favorite time of the year, but it also brings me down when I reflect on it. I get that something like Halloween is “special” but at the same time, having families with their kids walking around, having fun, getting treats from their neighbors shouldn’t be a one time thing/year from 5-9pm. Having extended family/friend dinners (in an ideal scenario, I get that some people have awful family members) shouldn’t be a twice a year thing. Same goes for cookouts on Memorial Day, July fourth and Labor Day. I get it, holidays are supposed to be special and treated differently, but it’s the fact that we’re all convinced that these are rarities as opposed to the norm really bums me out. And we all know why they’re rarities and it’s because the system as a whole sucks.
Personal theory is that we aren’t taught how to handle conflict and confrontation in a healthy way. I worked in education for about a year and a half and I saw it first hand that kids are not taught healthy ways of communication and confrontation. It’s either “oh just let them play with you, be nice!” or it’s “just find some other friends to play with!” until it boils over into a slap fight. I always tried to get kids to explain why they didn’t want to play and try to work through it because it’s a growing experience for everyone involved. Most educators are too busy, too burnt out to usually do that though. Hell, after a while I got burnt out trying to give my all and eventually left. I will say this, ghosting is inconsiderate, but for women and other vulnerable romantic groups I can see why they’d rather completely disengage than maintain contact which brings us to another discussion about consent and communication and when to recognize you’re becoming threatening. Again, this would be great to start teaching at a young age in the scope of friendship but we’re back to educators being burnt out, busy and hounded by administrators and parents (e.g. these kids need to be crammed full of temporary information for testing so we get funds and, my child doesn’t need you to raise them even though I have no intention of raising them save for maybe feeding and clothing them because I can barely keep body and soul together...and the ugly cycle repeats, so yeah, ultimately it does kinda come back to the massive social failures linked to capitalism.)
One of my favorite sayings at work. Or a variation on it: the pooch has been thoroughly screwed (usually followed by, “I’ll go page for maintenance.”)
I hear these horrendous stories about dads and their dogshit politics and I’m so glad that my dad has come around on certain things. He’s still very much a pro-life Catholic but he said he liked a lot of what Bernie had to offer. Also, “it’s kinda sad about the Romanov kids, but hey, if my wife and kids starved to death I’d probably do the same thing” lol
I’ve been working six days a week for the past...what is it now, four months? With less than a handful of actual weekends. All because the Big Three have to convince themselves that our economy isn’t teetering on the brink of total collapse. If the UAW had any balls they’d call for an automotive industry general strike even in non union shops. So yeah, I’m fucking tired, and it’s not a fucking privilege. Most of us are tired because we’re being worked to the bone, not because of whatever bullshit these people care about.
Chapo.Chat needs to be what the old sub was, but with various extensions to hobbies or interests through a left lens. It cannot fall into the online drama of left disunity because that’s stupid as fuck. It cannot become just a meme board. It should be like how the old sub was, but better. And we need our own Blackwolf Feed community.
If I was single and most of my family was in the ground, then maybe. I don’t like hot and humid weather...at all and that would be the clincher.
As of right now? No, unless I felt it was ultimately necessary for the safety of myself and my SO like, “Forced repatriation or prison camp,” levels of bad. And at that point I’d hope we’d have the foresight to jump ship to Canada or something.
Still, love to visit Cuba someday!
Massive surveillance state, serf mentality, racism and the desire for an ethnostate (which, at this point fuck it, y’all can have Utah and are never allowed to leave. Good luck. We’ll be back in 20 years to find your bloated corses in a Chik fil a or some stupid shit).
100% agree. The government (Air Force, NORAD, whatever) probably knew that the passengers were attempting to take control, rolled the dice and said fuck it, shoot it down to be safe. That’s 100 people versus an additional 1000 dead. Make them out to be heroes, threaten the shit out of anyone involved in the order and you have some top tier propaganda for the war to come. Well never know for sure, but Flight 93 was probably shot down.
I’d be down for Independent Michigan, hell, I identify more with being a Michigander than an American anyway.
Right wing groups make me go turbo Stalin in a matter of seconds. I have coworkers who I’d turn over in a matter of seconds if I thought they’d be a threat to minority groups and comrades. Fuck em. These are people I talk with, laugh with on a daily basis for the sake of appearances, but I do not value them as individuals. As humans I would grant them every comfort and kindness provided they said they were wrong and that we are better off controlling our labor. But the moment they are willing to take up arms to hurt queer folks, black folks, immigrants and any other targeted group then nope, stony lonesome if you’re lucky. That’s the funny thing, I don’t care if you agree or disagree about certain things, but it’s your actions that speak volumes. It’s the bona fides. You can grumble all you want, it’s when that grumbling turns into hurt. And I cannot abide by that. And I’d sell the bastards out with a smile on my face and a song in my heart.