CuriousCat Archive Page 48 of 202

  3. Not everyone knows everything. People who are not familiar with this part of history are going to see two posts: 1) A detailed argument about why the Hungarian Revolution was reactionary and not socialist and 2) You ignoring the substance of that argument to call the person a Tankie. I'm not saying their right. I'm just saying it should be very easy for you to explain why they are wrong.

    in response to Can you disprove their arguments though?

    if every thing they said was correct it would still be morally reprehensible. invading a foreign nation because you don't approve of a potential new government because it's in your better interest for it to stay the way it is is imperialism. declaring yourself world police is wrong even when the country doing it calls itself communist.

    "The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

  4. Can you disprove their arguments though?

    in response to The Hungarian Revolution was a reactionary protest trying to stage a coup on the government in favor of a non-socialist economy (read the 16 demands of the Hungarian revolutionaries, particular #7). The leader of the rebellion Imre Nagy wanted Hungary to leave the Warsaw Pact. The Soviets had every right to bring down the protests by force; the protestors had stormed the headquarters of the Hungarian Workers' Party and summarily executed 23 AVH officers (Hungary's secret police at the time) before there was any violence from the state or the Soviets. FFS the rebels even cut out the hammer-and-sickle from the Hungarian flag. Had the revolutionaries gotten their way, Hungary's economy would have been run by reformists, and we all know how that turned out for the Soviet Union under Gorbachev. I haven't done as much reading about the Prague Spring but it seems that its leader Alexander Dubcek was also a reformist who wanted to liberalize the economy.

    do you really need me to explain what's wrong with that argument?

  5. the Barbie movie this year??

    in response to You gonna watch the Mario movie?

    much more likely

  6. You gonna watch the Mario movie?

    eventually, I guess

  8. The Hungarian Revolution was a reactionary protest trying to stage a coup on the government in favor of a non-socialist economy (read the 16 demands of the Hungarian revolutionaries, particular #7). The leader of the rebellion Imre Nagy wanted Hungary to leave the Warsaw Pact. The Soviets had every right to bring down the protests by force; the protestors had stormed the headquarters of the Hungarian Workers' Party and summarily executed 23 AVH officers (Hungary's secret police at the time) before there was any violence from the state or the Soviets. FFS the rebels even cut out the hammer-and-sickle from the Hungarian flag. Had the revolutionaries gotten their way, Hungary's economy would have been run by reformists, and we all know how that turned out for the Soviet Union under Gorbachev. I haven't done as much reading about the Prague Spring but it seems that its leader Alexander Dubcek was also a reformist who wanted to liberalize the economy.

    in response to When did the Soviet Union quash socialist rebellions in other countries that did not embrace ML ideology?

  9. also, does tim schafer look like jack black or is brutal legend just confusing me

    both

  10. what you think about french protests atm ?

    the French know how to strike

  11. Here's a question I hope is far less serious/depressing: what's the last nice thing you decided to treat yourself to?

    I got a burrito yesterday

  12. Do you have any tips for how to deal with being an american and trying to learn about stuff that goes on in places like china and cuba? there are many times when it's a bit difficult to determine what's
    1. just propaganda spread by america to make "the evil communists" sound bad
    2. partially true but being misrepresented
    3. just flat out true as reported
    4. true but unreported upon by mainstream media because it makes america's "enemies" sound too good
    5. false but getting spread around anyways because sometimes online leftists get a bit trigger happy when they hear stuff that makes places that aren't america sound good

    like i know that in general there's already a lot of trouble these days with getting reliable news, but i feel like it's just impossible a lot of the time with these places.

    I'm afraid I don't. this is why I turn things into research projects, because there's so much conflicting info that you need to become at least a hobbyist in the subject to recognize bullshit.

  13. What are your thoughts on Greg Lobanov's 2018 game Wandersong?

    very charming, but too long

  14. thoughts on psychonauts? i know you're a fan of schafer's adventure games, but i don't know if you've played his other stuff

    I played Psychonauts when it came to Mac in one of the earliest Humble Bundles but the build was really unstable and the conspiracy level was basically unplayable. I enjoyed it, though it was jank as fuck.

  15. What's your favorite Spnic the Hedgehog video game? I know you've said that you mostly like Sonic in an abstract sense these days, but I'm interested in which one you liked best when you played more! :)

    Sonic 3 & Knuckles is the best of the classics. more recently, I really enjoyed Mania.

  16. What were the effects on the communist movement? Weren't most socialist countries (like Cuba for instance) on friendly terms with the USSR? Many American socialists were supportive (even if critically) of the USSR as well. Maybe the most influential socialist party in American history, The Black Panther Party, had Marxist-Leninist tendencies well into the 70's. That doesn't mean that they all supported the USSR's actions in Hungary but your comment makes it sound like there was a wide scale disillusionment with the USSR and socialism broadly. Is there some other, unnamed, effect on communism that you are referring to?

    in response to Are you seriously suggesting the American communist movement (which generously has NEVER been more than 1% of America's population) was entirely responsible for the 40 hour work week and ending child labor, and not liberalism or even just socialism?

    as I said: factionalism. the divide between Marxist-Leninists and democratic socialists. a lot of the organizing of the early 20th century ended due to the combination of in-group fighting and the demonization of socialists during the Red Scare. large organizations split into smaller and smaller groups unable to work together because they did not agree on what kind of world they should build.

  17. Ever see the movie The Spectacular Now? Thoughts?

    features a Phase One Brie Larson. I'm a bigger fan of Phase Two but I do feel the world has forgotten the strengths she showed in Phase One.

  19. They also made aid conditional on adopting the Marxist-Leninist model. The Cuban Revolution was initially not a communist one, though communists were involved early on. It was only after the provisional government tried to nationalize industries from foreign companies and the US locked them out of trade that they had to turn to the USSR, who more or less turned them into the Soviet Union's sugar plantation. Likewise, the Stalinists dicked over anarchist and non-Stalinist Marxist factions in the Spanish Civil War, allowing the nationalists to ultimately prevail.

    in response to When did the Soviet Union quash socialist rebellions in other countries that did not embrace ML ideology?

  20. When did the Soviet Union quash socialist rebellions in other countries that did not embrace ML ideology?

    in response to Are you seriously suggesting the American communist movement (which generously has NEVER been more than 1% of America's population) was entirely responsible for the 40 hour work week and ending child labor, and not liberalism or even just socialism?

    the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the Prague Spring Uprising of 1968, both of which saw the USSR sending tanks to violently put down communist uprisings that rejected Stalinism. it's because of these acts that we call Marxist-Leninists who defend these actions "tankies."

  21. No brother... You have taken my analogy literally. What I mean is, that you are in fact responsible for the morale of your group. If it is acceptable for a group to openly show weakness, then it logically follows that they will be weak. Do you want your people to be weak or strong?

    in response to The ship is life friend. Your tribe your friends your people. You can't be weak.

    you are in a group. you are not solely responsible for the group's morale. if you are struggling, your group is there to take over your duties. morale is good when people are supported by their friends and community, not when everyone is miserable and putting on a front. we are stronger as an actual community, not a bunch of lonely people suffering in silence while pretending that suffering benefits everyone else. if your group won't let you be weak, then you will never be strong, and you should find a different ship.

  22. Are you seriously suggesting the American communist movement (which generously has NEVER been more than 1% of America's population) was entirely responsible for the 40 hour work week and ending child labor, and not liberalism or even just socialism?

    in response to If arguments over whether to follow in Stalin’s footsteps was enough to derail the American communist movement, then perhaps the movement was never that strong to begin with. Stalinism itself isn’t to blame for it.

    drawing a distinction between communism and socialism in this context is moving the goalposts. leftist, anticapitalist organizing drove the labor movement which is directly responsible for much of what we consider worker's rights today. that movement later devolved into factionalism due to the split between Marxist-Leninists and democratic socialists, i.e. the defenders of Stalinism and the critics of it.

    believe it or not, the only existing communist state turning to authoritarian practices and quashing socialist rebellions in other countries that did not embrace Marxist-Leninism had a substantive effect on communist movements the world over.

  23. The ship is life friend. Your tribe your friends your people. You can't be weak.

    in response to Imagine if you are a captain of a ship, and you tell your crew things like ohh I don't know if I can do this because my mental health my trauma my whatever. Naturally they would be like what the fuck is this guy, right? This is what happens when you tell men to be more "vulnerable" and "open up".

    just to get this straight: you feel you need to captain your own life and that all your friends and people are your subordinates who take commands from you?

    what determines who is captain and who is crew?

  24. I actually did mean operating system! Some people find Macs to be better for editing. As a follow-up question, what do you think about Linux? Have you ever used it before?

    in response to What operating system do you use to edit?

    ah! my desktop is a Mac, laptop is Windows. been mostly using the laptop these days because the desktop is old and slower. but it doesn't overheat or crash when exporting large videos, so I should probably upgrade the desktop and switch back...

    I generally prefer OSX for editing and reliability, but got sick of so many games and useful programs not running on it.

  26. what about an up and coming basketballer who has really strong fundamentals

    in response to Are you for religious fundamentalism?

    could you put this in Smash terms so I can understand the metaphor?

  28. Why are markets inherently undemocratic?

    when you vote with your dollar people with more dollars get more votes

  29. What operating system do you use to edit?

    Windows?

    assuming you meant program, it's Premiere

  30. If arguments over whether to follow in Stalin’s footsteps was enough to derail the American communist movement, then perhaps the movement was never that strong to begin with. Stalinism itself isn’t to blame for it.

    in response to Imagine liberating Europe from fascism and developing your country to world power status while advancing socialism into the first successful workers' state, and history views you as an evil dictator (inb4 "MuH HoLoDoMoR", which was never proven to be deliberate and would have been an incredibly ineffective way of preserving sovereignty over Ukraine).

    I dunno, fam, that movement got you the 40-hour work week and ended child labor, I think it was KINDA strong

  32. Do you like Kirk or Picard?

    Jean-Luc

  33. Where is the line between Butts being Funny and Butts being Hot

    nonexistent

  34. Do you still have any COVID symptoms?

    headaches are lingering

  35. Are you for religious fundamentalism?

    I'm not for any fundamentalism

  36. Is pornography good and healthy for public consumption?

    as a category, I think it is probably good and healthy, or at least neither bad nor unhealthy. the most common KIND of porn produced by the American porn industry... less so.

  37. Bikes Good?

    hella

  38. Is The Lighthouse a horror film, a psychological thriller, a survival film, or a character study film?

    yeah

  39. Thoughts on the indictment of former president of the United States who shall not be named? (I ask you to answer seriously because we remember how that turned out to Netanyahu in my country)

    I think it's good

  40. I am an anti-feminist.

    you should work on that

  41. Sure a person can change gender, but sex changing?

    change? in MY sex?
    it's more likely than you think!

  42. Why do conservatives claim (and believe) that it's trans people's fault when one trans person commits a mass shooting? I think conservatives are bad, but when a conservative commits. a mass shooting, and there's no evidence that the shooting was ideologically motivated, I would refrain from blaming conservatism as a whole.

    well, the order of operations is opposite to what you're thinking. they don't believe trans people are dangerous because one committed a shooting, they already believed trans people are dangerous and this is supporting evidence. conservatives murdering people isn't applicable because, to their minds, conservatives AREN'T dangerous.

    (also when a conservative commits a mass shooting it is almost always ideologically motivated.)

  45. tbh I think you aren't left enough, like you only take the parts of leftism that preserve your own ego but rarely the inconvenient parts

    which parts are those?

  47. Imagine if you are a captain of a ship, and you tell your crew things like ohh I don't know if I can do this because my mental health my trauma my whatever. Naturally they would be like what the fuck is this guy, right? This is what happens when you tell men to be more "vulnerable" and "open up".

    is it your contention that every man has mental health and trauma, and the only way they are able to function is by shoving it down so they can "captain the ship?" if so, a) what is "the ship" in this metaphor and b) is that a problem you think we should address maybe?

  49. According to the Hurun Global Rich List 2022,China housed the most billionaires worldwide in 2022. In detail, China topped the list with a billionaire population of 1,133 people.

    in response to But wasn't Stalinist Russia the closest any nation or society has gotten to full-on communism? After Stalin died the economy liberalized a little with the Khruschev thaw and then became capitalist under Gorbachev's policies. I'm not saying you can't criticize the Stalin era but you gotta treat it with a little respect, you know what I mean?

    is your contention that China is less Communist than the USSR because it still produces wealthy people?

  50. Thoughts on AI chatbots? *such as Bing Ai, ChatGPt etc

    the possibilities are fascinating, the most likely applications are depressing

  51. What does intimacy mean to you, from a leftist perspective?

    you've asked this several times and I don't know what to make of the question

  53. Who is the the most beautiful of them all?

    it's you

  55. Your favorite Ralph Fiennes role? And how would you rate his American/transatlantic accent(s) in some of his movies?

    his vaguely Mid-Atlantic accent in Quiz Show is quite good! not sure what to make of his Generic American accent. it always sounds a little weird.

    I like him most when he's having fun, so Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit, In Bruges, and maybe Strange Days are favs.

  57. Jenna Ortega, Mia Goth or Anya Taylor Joy?

    F: Anya
    M: Jenna
    K: Mia

  58. Your thoughts on cars? (vehicles not movie franchise)

    '85 volkswagen vanagon

  59. favorite power ballad

    more than words

  60. Get verbed, nounboy!

    Ian Dansking

  61. What's your honest opinion of Che Guevara?

    looks great on a bath towel

  64. Salma *Hayek

    in response to Who is she

    no, she wasn't part of the Austrian School

  65. But wasn't Stalinist Russia the closest any nation or society has gotten to full-on communism? After Stalin died the economy liberalized a little with the Khruschev thaw and then became capitalist under Gorbachev's policies. I'm not saying you can't criticize the Stalin era but you gotta treat it with a little respect, you know what I mean?

    in response to Was Hannah Arendt full of shit for equating the Soviet Union to Nazi Germany?

    no I don't. what makes Stalinist Russia more "full-on communism" than Cuba, China, Laos, Vietnam?

  67. the research shows that men treat women worse when women are abundant and better when they're scarce

    what research

  68. Was Hannah Arendt full of shit for equating the Soviet Union to Nazi Germany?

    she didn't equate them, exactly, but described both as totalitarian. I haven't gone far enough into the book too decide whether I agree with her. but, like... Stalinist Russia was not a chill place.

  69. Who is she

    in response to boobs!

    ...Salma Hayak?

  71. Were the Nazis religious?

    they found elements of religion useful but also literally claimed they transcended religion

  72. When Hitler served in the army during WW1, many of his comrades were Jewish, including commander Hugo Gutmann, who awarded him the Iron Cross. So why did Hitler hate the Jews?

    because he was an asshole

    there's no great "why" to Hitler, antisemitism was rampant in Germany at the time and he was a big adherent

  73. MAREZ isn't a country, it's an autonomous region, like Wales is to the UK

    in response to Which current socialist country would you live in?

    well yeah, anarchists aren't big on nation states

  74. boobs!

    in response to boo!

  75. Which current socialist country would you live in?

    I would live in MAREZ

Anon commented:
Ian replied: