CuriousCat Archive Page 60 of 202

  1. I find it hard to believe that just about everyone has one of those disorders.

    indeed, I'm unsure whether they were being hyperbolic on purpose.

  3. How do neoliberals think trickle-down economics is supposed to make money flow down to the middle-class by cutting taxes on the rich?

    Reaganomics is predicated on the idea that the rich are the drivers of capitalism, and that, if they have more money, they will invest that money, stimulate the economy, and create jobs. this has never really happened and is pretty easy to disprove if you spend like 15 minutes crunching the numbers, but it makes a kind of truthy sense if you are already inclined to believe it.

  4. How do Alt-Righters believe that Jews have the majority of wealth and power in society, while also being communists that want to seize wealth and power to give to the undeserving?

    well, it's not internally consistent, but that's a very simple contradiction to resolve: "the Jewish Conspiracy of Cultural Marxism is already underway, they've amassed so much wealth and power, and they have to be stopped before they go any further."

  5. I have never met a left-wing man I couldn’t bait into saying incel stuff.

    try me

  6. What would happen to most intellectual properties under socialism?

    I don't think there's any one way to handle IP. personally, I would like to see something like a large-scale Creative Commons system, where creators decide how public or private they want their property to be, and what kinds of derivative works are acceptable. I don't know what the limits on that would be, but I don't imagine rights would extend beyond the creator's life, nor ever be owned by their "estate." we could hypothesize how things like "canon" would evolve under such a system, but at that point we're just writing speculative fiction.

    there are lots of possibilities! how would *you* improve intellectual property if you were making the rules?

  7. State and Revolution by Lenin is considered canonical by many, but it's also sometimes considered self-contradictory, or unrepresentative of Lenin's later thought and practice
    The April Theses, a set of 10 demands he published around a similar time, prompted another Russian Marxist to remark: "Lenin has now made himself a candidate for one European throne that has been vacant for thirty years — the throne of Bakunin! Lenin’s new words echo something old — the superannuated truths of primitive anarchism"
    Obviously that wouldn't hold after the Bolsheviks took state power
    Anyway, they're worth reading, and neither is long
    It's almost hopeful, the sense that one gets from State and Rev, you can see in it the hints of the tragedy to come, but also a truly revolutionary vision

    in response to As someone who's read some ML theory and argued with MLs online, in my experience they square it by: 1. Playing motte and bailey with "our projects have made developmental achievements" and "our projects will lead to communism" so if you criticize the lack of meaningful worker control and replication of capitalist alienation, they accuse you of wanting formerly-colonized people to be under imperialist control, starving and illiterate. 2. Dismissing evidence of state violence in their projects as made up by the CIA using conspiracy theorist reasoning. Or they uncritically accept state justifications for the violence, also using conspiracy theorist reasoning. In fact, though she doesn't go so far, much of what Sophie from Mars argues in her video Conspiracy on the Left also applies to the "nice" Marxist-Leninists. 3. The need for workers to be educated in class consciousness and for workers to be organized and coordinated for production and defense needing to take the form of an authoritarian dictatorship is just a leap in logic, undergirded by residual capitalist realism. 4. Conflating authority (a hierarchical command structure) with force (the use of organized violence to defend against counterrevolution) and so reject a critique of power that isn't strictly based on profits 5. Competing systems such as anarchism, council communism, etc, are either badjacketed with conspiracy narratives ("the Kronstadt sailors were allied with the Whites!" "The Hungarian Revolution was a fascist uprising!" "Makhno led pogroms!") or cite the short-lived nature of projects such as Free Ukraine and Catalonia and blame decentralization without articulating what specific strategic vulnerabilities were supposedly caused by decentralization (conflating correlation with causation). Again, they rely on the capitalist assumption that organization = centralized authority and don't feel much need to investigate further.

    hmm, to my understanding, "Marxist-Leninism" was Stalin's term and philosophy, which he used to justify how his authoritarian practices were in keeping with the tenets of Lenin after Lenin's death. the idea that the philosophy was espoused by Lenin himself is a new one on me. sounds revisionist, but I admit my knowledge is limited.

  8. You briefly mention Tell Me Why in that latest post about LiS3. Have you played it? If so, what are your thoughts? If no, have any plans to?

    I own it but haven't played yet. it's part of my Enormous Unplayed Steam Library that we gamers all have.

  9. cool of them to straight up ignore MAREZ, as though they haven't been going strong for almost 30 years now, operating on a radically democratic system of governance with improvements relative to areas controlled by the capitalist Mexican government in health care, education, and food sovereignty, also ELIMINATING maternal mortality and all that while democratically organizing a cooperative economy AND occasionally getting shot at by both the Mexican government and drug cartels

    in response to Different anon here - Just looked up the Korean People's Association in Manchuria, and it sounds based as possible, it had free education and collectivization without an oppressive government - but also it only lasted for two years, which doesn't really seem like a good framework for *sustainable* socialism Similarly, Burkina Faso seems great - I personally am a big fan of literacy and outlawing forced marriages - but it also only lasted for five years in this state until it got transformed by a coup, which also isn't that great of a framework either The Paris Commune is the worst in all of these examples as it lasted for less than a year until it also got dunked on by the French army Each of these states that *you used as examples* were good undoubtedly but also didn't last, with the longest lasting one lasting five years, so what I'm getting at here is that the examples that *you are using* were clearly unsuccessful in the long term and unable to really be a good framework

    most of us in capitalist nations don't know much about MAREZ, and it will generally be seen as an exceptional case. like, "if it's so good, and you can do it without overthrowing capitalism, why isn't it happening everywhere??" I don't think these arguments can progress much until we demystify where and when and how post-/non-capitalist societies have operated. until people have a concrete sense of what else is possible, it seems like the Left is grasping at straws.

  10. do you believe in freezed peach

    in response to Do you believe in free speech?

    ice climbers can rarely freeze peach, that move just isn't common in tournament and the matchup is stacked in peach's favor

  11. Does it bother you that everyone is either autistic, adhd, bipolar, nd, or ocd these days?

    does it bother me that people are getting diagnosed when before they just suffered and thought that was normal? no, I think it's pretty rad!

  14. Finish this sentence: trans women are me___.

    zmerizing

  15. Do you believe in free speech?

    in the sense that I don't believe the government can be trusted to decide which speech is valuable, yes! enthusiastically. not so much in the modern sense of "free speech absolutism" which says that every bullshit word dribbled out of a dipshit's mouth is equally deserving of our attention.

  16. I’m really happy you touched on the concept that all whites are racist because I’ve lost friends telling people that

    good riddance

  17. Met candace owens, didn't work

    in response to how to stop hating women

    Guy who has only met Candace Owens, meeting his second woman: Getting a lot of Candace Owens vibes from this...

  18. How would the best friend of a scrub best convince said scrub to stop hanging out the passenger side of said best friend's ride, catcalling people?

    in response to Any policy on scrubs (i.e. busters)?

    hmmm... have you seen Hereditary?

  19. I'm sorry, but the card says moop

    in response to Besides the reasons you already laid out for why the right feels so humiliated by libs "reaching across the aisle" after they win, do you think it's exacerbated by all the covfefe-tier jokes and mockery libs constantly hurl at them? Is that relentless mockery one of the few good things neolibs do, is it counterproductive, or just kinda irrelevant and stupid?

    I am so glad I made that typo so you could make this joke, well done

  20. As someone who's read some ML theory and argued with MLs online, in my experience they square it by:
    1. Playing motte and bailey with "our projects have made developmental achievements" and "our projects will lead to communism" so if you criticize the lack of meaningful worker control and replication of capitalist alienation, they accuse you of wanting formerly-colonized people to be under imperialist control, starving and illiterate.
    2. Dismissing evidence of state violence in their projects as made up by the CIA using conspiracy theorist reasoning. Or they uncritically accept state justifications for the violence, also using conspiracy theorist reasoning. In fact, though she doesn't go so far, much of what Sophie from Mars argues in her video Conspiracy on the Left also applies to the "nice" Marxist-Leninists.
    3. The need for workers to be educated in class consciousness and for workers to be organized and coordinated for production and defense needing to take the form of an authoritarian dictatorship is just a leap in logic, undergirded by residual capitalist realism.
    4. Conflating authority (a hierarchical command structure) with force (the use of organized violence to defend against counterrevolution) and so reject a critique of power that isn't strictly based on profits
    5. Competing systems such as anarchism, council communism, etc, are either badjacketed with conspiracy narratives ("the Kronstadt sailors were allied with the Whites!" "The Hungarian Revolution was a fascist uprising!" "Makhno led pogroms!") or cite the short-lived nature of projects such as Free Ukraine and Catalonia and blame decentralization without articulating what specific strategic vulnerabilities were supposedly caused by decentralization (conflating correlation with causation). Again, they rely on the capitalist assumption that organization = centralized authority and don't feel much need to investigate further.

    in response to What contradictions do you think lefties dwell in the most?

    so, wait, they make the same "it either turns into authoritarianism or it fails" argument capitalists make, and just say the authoritarianism is good? yikes.

    can you tell me what ML theory one should read if they want to hear the arguments from the horse's mouth? not that I doubt you, but I should probably not base my knowledge SOLELY on good CC anon posts

  21. It’s Britney, bitch

    THE LEGISLATIVE ACT OF MY PUSSY

  22. Any policy on scrubs (i.e. busters)?

    much prefer ballers

  23. So if people will be more receptive to statements that are short and quippy, but you think that “short, quippy, and right” doesn’t exist, wouldn’t the natural conclusion to your argument be that we are all doomed to drown in a sea of misinformation?

    in response to Is "short, quippy, and right" a viable response to "short, quippy, and wrong"?

    ehhh, no. you're letting conservatives control the conversation.

    people process information in all kinds of ways. "short and quippy" isn't the only one. (it is, unfortunately, one that travels *very well* over social media.) but if you can explain things in such a way that they understand something complex but *true*, even if it takes a while, then they understand it in a deeper way. in a way that makes it *harder* to be misinformed. help people think for themselves and "short, quippy, and wrong" starts to look suspicious across the board.

    conservative techniques rely on ignorance. coax people out of ignorance and a LOT of their toolbox stops working.

  24. how to stop hating women

    meet one

  25. Besides the reasons you already laid out for why the right feels so humiliated by libs "reaching across the aisle" after they win, do you think it's exacerbated by all the covfefe-tier jokes and mockery libs constantly hurl at them? Is that relentless mockery one of the few good things neolibs do, is it counterproductive, or just kinda irrelevant and stupid?

    I mean, they mock us even more relentlessly, so I feel like that point is moor

  26. Is "short, quippy, and right" a viable response to "short, quippy, and wrong"?

    Here's a sample from an upcoming video that addresses that question:

    You’ve heard [your] aunt claim the hole in the ozone layer is caused by sunspots. Now, we’ve talked about the memetic power of statements that are short, quippy, and wrong, and this is a fine example. You might feel the correct response is a statement that is short, quippy, and correct, but here’s the conundrum: the truth is “the hole in the ozone layer is caused by chlorofluorocarbons.” Not only is that a more complex sentence, it’s a more complex idea. If the ozone hole is caused by sunspots, then it’s probably been happening for billions of years, it’s not caused by humans, and we don’t have to do anything about it. It’s reassuring, and tells folks all they care to know without further questions. But the truth of how aerosols deplete ozone is more complex, not least because, even without knowing the science of it, it implies it’s a problem we should do something about.

    Ultraviolet light makes CFCs release chlorine into the stratosphere, where it bonds with ozone, converting it into oxygen and chlorine monoxide, neither of which do what ozone does to protect us from the sun. There may be people who can explain that more simply than I just did, but there’s a floor to how simple the truth can be and still be the truth. Falsehoods don’t have that. There is no limit on how simple an idea can be when it doesn’t have to conform to reality.

  28. Different anon here - Just looked up the Korean People's Association in Manchuria, and it sounds based as possible, it had free education and collectivization without an oppressive government - but also it only lasted for two years, which doesn't really seem like a good framework for *sustainable* socialism
    Similarly, Burkina Faso seems great - I personally am a big fan of literacy and outlawing forced marriages - but it also only lasted for five years in this state until it got transformed by a coup, which also isn't that great of a framework either
    The Paris Commune is the worst in all of these examples as it lasted for less than a year until it also got dunked on by the French army

    Each of these states that *you used as examples* were good undoubtedly but also didn't last, with the longest lasting one lasting five years, so what I'm getting at here is that the examples that *you are using* were clearly unsuccessful in the long term and unable to really be a good framework

    in response to *sigh* Socialism has been invalidated over and over again by history, ever since Lenin came to power in the Soviet Union. Five of the six currently existing one-party states are socialist. Socialism has only ever worked on paper without giving undue power to the state. The rhetorical problem you're running into is that for most people the axes upon which Cubans have it better are invalidated by the fact that Cuba is a *violent, bigoted dictatorship*. And yet here you are so desperate for something, *anything* to replace capitalism outright that you'll cite COVID statistics for said violent dictatorship as "proof" that the people living under it having it pretty good actually. Make no mistake, the US is a near-dystopian hellhole, but every socialist dictatorship is observably, incontrovertibly *worse*. If we can't even agree on "dictatorship *bad*" we'll all just keep talking in circles, and more broadly, leftists will never agree on anything and we'll never create meaningful change within the systems that are already in place.

    Burkina Faso didn't last BECAUSE CAPITALISTS SHOT THEIR LEADER IN THE HEAD, Jesus Christ. As happened in Chile and Nicaragua, where the US funded their overthrow. KPAM was taken down by Marxist-Leninists and imperialists. This is what happens to socialist states. Is it any wonder only the heavily-militarized ones survive?

  30. semolina pilchard climbing up the eiffel tower, elementary penguin singing hare krishna, man you should have seen them kicking edgar allen poe

    in response to Because the world is round, it turns me on

    America when I was seven momma took me to Communist Cell meetings they sold us garbanzos a handful per ticket a ticket costs a nickel and the speeches were free everybody was angelic and sentimental about the workers it was all so sincere you have no idea what a good thing the party was in 1835 Scott Nearing was a grand old man a real mensch Mother Bloor made me cry I once saw Israel Amter plain. Everybody must have been a spy.

  31. Ian, are we friends?

    probably not

  32. Should I play return to monkey island if I've never played any of the previous games, but I've seen your videos on the topic?

    you'll probably have a good time, and it gives you all the necessary context for the plot to work, but it's very much *for the fans*

  33. *sigh* Socialism has been invalidated over and over again by history, ever since Lenin came to power in the Soviet Union. Five of the six currently existing one-party states are socialist. Socialism has only ever worked on paper without giving undue power to the state. The rhetorical problem you're running into is that for most people the axes upon which Cubans have it better are invalidated by the fact that Cuba is a *violent, bigoted dictatorship*. And yet here you are so desperate for something, *anything* to replace capitalism outright that you'll cite COVID statistics for said violent dictatorship as "proof" that the people living under it having it pretty good actually. Make no mistake, the US is a near-dystopian hellhole, but every socialist dictatorship is observably, incontrovertibly *worse*. If we can't even agree on "dictatorship *bad*" we'll all just keep talking in circles, and more broadly, leftists will never agree on anything and we'll never create meaningful change within the systems that are already in place.

    in response to I promise you, US democracy is not on a pedestal for me. What I see is *you* putting Cuban socialism on a pedestal while attempting to downplay the very real horrors of *living under a dictatorship*. If you insist upon doing that, you'll never foster the kind of conversation that you want.

    feels like people are once again arguing with a fantasy Ian who says things that I do not say and do not agree with. we have never been in disagreement that dictatorship is bad. this is the primary reason I condemn Marxist-Leninism: it has this nasty tendency to result in authoritarian governments that do not, in my estimation, espouse the ideals of socialism in the slightest. moreover, disagreements over whether Marxist-Leninism, as practiced in the USSR, was a good or bad direction for socialism more or less tore the American communist movement apart with factionalism. inasmuch as I call myself a socialist, I have always stressed my belief in democratic socialism, the framing of which were expressly articulated *in opposition to the authoritarian practices of Stalin*. if you wanna talk shit on tankies, I will talk shit on tankies all day.

    here are the points on which we (or I and other people in the thread; it's hard to tell who's who) seem to disagree:

    - y'all seem to think that Cuba exists in some state of deep precarity that just isn't accurate; it is not a wealthy country, which is unsurprising when a) it is embargoed by the biggest center of trade in the world and b) a socialist economy doesn't prioritize wealth. but it has far better healthcare than the US, greater food security, and incredibly high literacy. I don't know a ton about Cuban history, but it doesn't seem like y'all do either? because the evidence you keep citing for why it's bad keeps turning out to be false after even cursory googling. and if these failings are being used to prove the failure of socialism, I feel like they should be, you know... accurate?

    - I also question why Cuba being a "violent, bigoted dictatorship" is so categorically different from the US being a violent, bigoted oligarchy. again, this is not a defense of violence, bigotry, or dictatorship; I do not want Cuba's government, and if we replaced the US government with one like Cuba's I would consider that revolution an abject failure. but in what way is Cuba *worse* than the US? how are its failings proof of the inviability of socialism?

    - for that matter, how do you argue that socialism has been "invalidated" by history? people love to make this argument by handwaving away every leftist society in history that *wasn't* a Marxist-Leninist dictatorship. you ignore Burkina Faso and the Paris Commune and the anarchists of the Spanish Civil War and the Korean People's Association in Manchuria and MAREZ and the entire history of liberation theology, because you were either not curious enough to learn about them or because they would disprove your weak argument. your criterion for "socialism" requires it to either have collapsed or be a hellhole, and it takes a lot of effort to fit every socialist state into one of those categories. you have to exaggerate the flaws of the ones that exist and memory hole the virtues of the ones were overthrew.

  34. Because the world is round, it turns me on

    mundo paparazzi mi amore chica ferdy parasol

  35. I promise you, US democracy is not on a pedestal for me. What I see is *you* putting Cuban socialism on a pedestal while attempting to downplay the very real horrors of *living under a dictatorship*. If you insist upon doing that, you'll never foster the kind of conversation that you want.

    in response to (different anon) Well I'm not a fan of the US, but at least public figures like John Oliver can talk shit about the government every week on TV without fear of death. Because as you said, *it's an intolerant, Marxist-Leninist dictatorship*. Praising them for their food insecurity statistics and COVID response is like praising Mousellini for making the trains run on time.

    I haven't put anyone on a pedestal, I've corrected false statements. I was having a conversation about the ways people defend capitalism by claiming it does things it empirically does not do, and people keep saying "it's worse in Cuba" along precisely the axes where it's better in Cuba. but it seems like YOU are having a conversation about whether Cuba is, on balance, a bad place. I don't find that conversation particularly interesting, nor am I qualified to weigh in on it.

    if you can't talk about capitalism without immediately comparing it to states you don't like, and can't here dissent on your arguments as anything but "dictatorship good," then you've made talking about capitalism impossible.

  36. One could reasonably say that Cuba is bad because of how it “doesn’t allow” dissent in that it treats the many protestors present poorly, and through this lens, complaining about Cuba’s treatment towards dissent and complaining about the reasons why there is so much protesting would not be hypocritical.

    in response to (different anon) Well I'm not a fan of the US, but at least public figures like John Oliver can talk shit about the government every week on TV without fear of death. Because as you said, *it's an intolerant, Marxist-Leninist dictatorship*. Praising them for their food insecurity statistics and COVID response is like praising Mousellini for making the trains run on time.

    do you have any details on how protestors were treated? and, in keeping with the original argument, is it markedly different from how the US treats protestors? because, if not, it's not a reason why Cubans would leave Cuba for the US.

  38. How many countries in the world would you say are meaningfully socialist? It seems to me like there's a lot of disagreement on this between leftists.

    I don't have an answer to that question. it's something I want to do a series about when I finish TARPB, because I'm curious.

  39. (different anon) Well I'm not a fan of the US, but at least public figures like John Oliver can talk shit about the government every week on TV without fear of death. Because as you said, *it's an intolerant, Marxist-Leninist dictatorship*. Praising them for their food insecurity statistics and COVID response is like praising Mousellini for making the trains run on time.

    in response to Or you know… they don’t want to live in a country where speaking against the government could get you imprisoned, and food and medicine shortages are real issues.

    OP said people leave Cuba for the US because of our better access to food and medicine, which was laughably incorrect.

    in this thread y'all have tried to argue that Cuba is bad because you can't criticize the government, AND that it's bad because it just had enormous, days-long protests against their government. pick one.

    what I'm trying to do here is get us past the mythologies of the US and of Marxist-Leninist governments to talk about what life is *actually like* in these countries. we are not as healthy, food secure, or free to criticize our government as we think. if you're arguing Cuba is a hellhole and it's beating us in *all three of these categories*, what does it say about us? and, if Cuba's *not* a hellhole, but a flawed and complex state where people live normal lives, with major drawbacks and major success compared with us, what can we learn from them? how can we get what they have without the one-party government?

    if you can't bring the concepts of "US democracy" and "Cuban dictatorship" down from their pedestals and actually *look at them*, I don't know how we can have a conversation.

  41. Do men really have it easier than women?

    duh

  42. Or you know… they don’t want to live in a country where speaking against the government could get you imprisoned, and food and medicine shortages are real issues.

    in response to If the Cuban people are so happy, then why do so many try to take the perilous (and often fatal) journey across the ocean to reach South Florida?

    then why would they come here?

    like, do you think the US has some sort of reputation for letting people speak out against the government? do you wanna ask Chelsea Manning about that? was this reputation established during the Obama "Jailed More Whistleblowers Than Any President In History" Presidency, or during the Trump "Disappearing Protesters In Unmarked Vans" Presidency? do you know how many people are food insecure in the US? 34 million. that's over 10% of the country. Cuba's food insecurity is under 2.5%. that took me 2 minutes to look up on google. are you aware that US pharmacies threw out COVID tests between surges because they weren't selling, which is why there was a shortage during Omicron? do you know how many lives that cost? are you seriously going to compare the healthcare systems of Cuba and the United States and tell me the US comes out on top? do you know what the current 7-day average for new COVID cases is in the US? 37,000. know what it is in Cuba? 3.

    I'm not even a fan of Cuba, I don't like its authoritarian history, its religious and sexual intolerance, or its Marxist-Leninist government, but, Jesus, if you want the US to look good, bark up a different tree!

  43. (different anon) I think he's talking about furries.

    in response to There are people who are self-identifying their gender now this way, so do you think that society should accommodate them?

    I think they're referring to the story conservatives recently made up that there are students in America identifying as cats and making schools put out litterboxes for them in the hallways

    I swear conservatives are the most gullible people on the planet

  44. What's wrong with tankies?

    "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."

  45. They have different meanings, but most self-described communists are Marxist-leninists.

    in response to Can you please elaborate?

    yeah but "Marxist-Leninist" wasn't a thing for the first 70ish years of communist theory, so...

  46. Thanks for the answer! I'm at like 3 hours playtime right now. Another - propably subjective - question: Should I take my own notes or is the ship computer sufficient?

    in response to Just started Outer Wilds and played for two cycles. I know, you as a decades-long adventure game player are the total opposite, but can I beat the game if I'm generally not very good at puzzles?

    that's a judgment call, I don't think I took notes but did take a few screenshots

  48. How many senses do you think we have?

    in response to Which sense would you be willing to sacrifice?

    depending on how you define them, humans have between 9 and 21 senses

  49. Can you please elaborate?

    in response to Are you a communist?

    I tend to call myself "anticapitalist" or "pinko" or "nondenominational leftist" because I haven't picked a specific -ism. I take this stuff seriously and have a lot of reading to do. I'm of the mind that capitalism is both immoral and unsustainable and must be replaced; I am still trying to figure what I'd most want to replace it with. for now, if pressed, I usually say I am "trending democratic socialist," but I'm not even 100% sure of the distinction between "socialism" and "communism."

    in summation: capitalism bad.

  50. Should society accept and accommodate self identities that are not male/female but such as identifying as a dear?

    did you just try to make a variation of The One Joke and misspell "deer"?

  51. Answer carefully, do you support only the decriminalizarion of drug use or the full on legalization of drugs?

    decrim

  53. Which sense would you be willing to sacrifice?

    I think I could get by without equilibrioception

  54. (different anon) so then can i ask your opinion of prefigurative politics as viable ways to achieve a better society?
    (er, in the event this gets answered, prefigurative politics is based around taking direct action as though your ideal society existed, and not acknowledging systems of oppression or control over you as legitimate as much as is practical, with the idea that "the future unknown socialist utopia" is discovered just by people trying it out at the small scale and working with other people trying to do the same)

    in response to More importantly, it's the best we *are* doing. People need help *now*. They don't have time to wait for leftists to devise a perfect system immune to exploitation. Mostly because there isn't and *can never be* one. Do you honestly believe that if socialism is instituted in this country that there won't be people who think they deserve more than their neighbor and are willing to corrupt the system in order to get it?

    that can mean a lot of things, some of which I support and some of which I don't!

    if we mean, for instance, building networks of mutual aid the likes we would see in a post-capitalist society, with systems of providing food and services without profit, or of mass unionization and operating businesses collectively, yes! absolutely! that's building what Lenin called "dual power," and is a major - some would say necessary - stepping stone to socialism.

    if we mean "yelling at leftists for having jobs," not so much!

    the main worry I have about this rhetoric is that a lot of people can't hear the first thing without going *real hard* on the second thing. the degree of capitalist participation that is consider "as much as is practical" is undefined, and good lord do a lot of people want to police the margins more than they want to build anything.

  55. You gotta keep ‘em separated

    uno dos tres cuatro cinco cinco seis

  56. What would it take for someone like Richard Spencer to redeem himself if he decided to turn a new leaf?

    hmm. I think, as a white person, I'm probably not the one who decides when a white nationalist is redeemed, you know? but if we're asking what he'd have to do for me to *believe* he'd turned over a new leaf: if he narc'd on the whole-ass Alt-Right and actively helped us shut them down with insider information. then I'd buy it.

  57. do you ever check CuriousCat and think that none of the questions are worth answering?

    all the time

  58. What contradictions do you think lefties dwell in the most?

    in response to This may be ARPB material, but do you think there's any real significance to the conservative tendency to vacillate on the fairness of the world? To use a conversation I'm still a little hung up on, a guy argued that a) we don't need to raise the minimum wage, because that's just for entry-level jobs and The Worthy would graduate to better jobs, because the world is fair, but also acknowledged that b) some people will just get stuck in minimum-wage jobs, because the world is not fair.

    depends on the lefty, I suppose. the popularity of Marxist-Leninism seems to have a contradictory love of "government of the proletariat" and "authoritarian dictatorship" and I'm still not sure how so many people square that circle. (in fairness, I haven't spent a lot of time with their arguments.)

  59. Have you ever tipped a cow?

    I tipped her two bucks

  60. More importantly, it's the best we *are* doing. People need help *now*. They don't have time to wait for leftists to devise a perfect system immune to exploitation. Mostly because there isn't and *can never be* one. Do you honestly believe that if socialism is instituted in this country that there won't be people who think they deserve more than their neighbor and are willing to corrupt the system in order to get it?

    in response to Let me ask you this: do the UK and Nordic countries have universal health care? What about gun control? Provisions for the poor? And have they had such for the better part of a century? If so, then they're objectively doing a better, more ethical job at governing than we are.

    it seems like you really want to have an argument with someone whose beliefs are kinda-sorta in the ballpark of mine and have decided I fit the bill well enough that you're arguing with me instead of him. if you would like to talk about my feelings about capitalism, how it can or cannot be replaced, what the evidence is for viable socialism, and what should be done until such time that viable socialism can be implemented, I am happy to talk about all those things with you! but, when you presume my position before asking for it, you don't leave me anything to do but correct your assumptions. and that seems like a poor use of my time and yours, you know?

  61. Jerry Canon?

    in response to Moooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

    Cow Jerry, I thought that was obvious

  62. Moooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

    Jerry!

  63. Are you a communist?

    kinda-sorta?

  64. Just started Outer Wilds and played for two cycles. I know, you as a decades-long adventure game player are the total opposite, but can I beat the game if I'm generally not very good at puzzles?

    I have absolutely no idea. Outer Wilds' puzzles aren't... traditional. there are no sliding blocks or inventory objects, it's mostly about accumulating information. but you do have to do a bit of lateral thinking and leaps of logic. I guess it depends on what it is about puzzles you have trouble with!

  65. You a fan of BookTube?

    I prefer them on pages

  66. This may be ARPB material, but do you think there's any real significance to the conservative tendency to vacillate on the fairness of the world? To use a conversation I'm still a little hung up on, a guy argued that a) we don't need to raise the minimum wage, because that's just for entry-level jobs and The Worthy would graduate to better jobs, because the world is fair, but also acknowledged that b) some people will just get stuck in minimum-wage jobs, because the world is not fair.

    "fair" means something different on the Right. "the worthy" getting all the wealth and power and "the unworthy" struggling for their whole life is "fair." "fairness" means everyone gets a shot to prove their worth, which is what capitalist democracy (ostensibly) provides. and, if it's cishet white men who always end up on top in a fair system, it must mean that they're the worthiest. "fair" does *not* mean everyone makes it through that system with a good outcome; an egalitarian society is prima facie unfair, because people are not created equal, and any society that treats them as such must be rigged in favor of the unworthy. this logic is also how they discount evidence that contradicts them: if anyone they don't like succeeds in their capitalist system, that is proof that the system was rigged; a "fair" system would *never* put anyone at the top except the people they respect.

    they can't articulate most of this, because it relies on a lot of bigoted notions that they don't think they believe in. they'll just make incompatible statements like "the world is fair" and "the world is not fair" and not dwell on the contradiction, because the underlying logic, the definition of "fair" they're working under, is ugly, and they don't think they're ugly people. so they just throw a mess of arguments at you and frustrated themselves and everybody else.

  67. The 90's age of Tupac Shakur, the Notorious B.I.G., N.W.A., Wu-Tang Clan, etc.

    Unless you want to go even further back to the 80s when rap first went mainstream with the likes of The Sugarhill Gang!

    in response to Do you like hip-hop from the golden age?

    hm, my golden age is more mid-to-late 90's with soulsides, living legends, and anticon

  68. If you don't mind clarifying, do you mean that they were assigned female-at-birth and then transitioned after you started dating, or the other way around?

    in response to What would you do if one of your partners came out as trans?

    I think that's as much about my personal life as I'm willing to share

  69. What's currently stopping you from identifying as an anarchist? Are there beliefs do you hold which are incompatible with anarchy?

    in response to Are you an anarchist?

    I don't know enough about anarchy

  71. Do you like hip-hop from the golden age?

    which age is the golden age

  72. What would you do if one of your partners came out as trans?

    I have a partner who came out as trans and we're still together

  73. I recommend Inside Man, really fun caper movie.

    in response to favorite spike lee joint

    I've seen it and I don't like it that much. (also it's weird that you'd tell me to start with one of the few not about race.)

  74. Looks like all of that health and education and happiness has just made the Cuban people just take to the streets they're just so happy!

    protest is healthy!

  75. favorite spike lee joint

    looking at his filmography I realize I haven't seen as many as I thought. but I'll go with Do The Right Thing

Anon commented:
Ian replied: