I just remembered this amazing book:
Why Not Socialism by Gerald A. Cohen.

Super nice and easy read, fantastic introduction. It has been years and years since I read it but I highly recommend it as an introduction.

They have been on Mastodon for many years already. As for why it takes so long to leave Twitter I guess it’s the same reason as everyone else - giving up on reaching the people there seems like a big loss to some.

Yeah, I think it’s reasonably run and invite-only now, so the ban should probably be lifted. @Skavau@piefed.social , something to consider? :)

Yeah, they are looking for “early twitter”, without reflecting too much on why “early twitter” that they loved turned into what it is today. I think many are forgetting that it took a turn for the worse long before Musk bought it.

Thanks!

Fucked up. Sometimes it’s hard to understand who these peers in juries are.

Don’t censor words when talking about rape on this platform. Those who wish to avoid seeing this content will set up filters to avoid it, and by messing with the word you are exposing them to this content rather than protecting them from it. :)

I’m a bit sceptical of people who are too into “socialism as a government type” - they tend to develop fundamentalist ideas about what the perfect society should look like, and which means are justified in order to get there. Usually all means will be. To me socialism is at its best as a critique, allowing us to understand what’s going on in the world and how to fight it piece by piece instead of trying to construct some ideal society based on a feeble understanding of reality.

I guess what is considered easy is very subjective. I seriously think Marx’ Manifesto of the Communist Party is not a bad place to start. It’s everything Capital is not: short, easy to read, somewhat superficial.

I’d say the historical analysis is at the core of marxism as much as the economic one, and it’s summarized perfectly right from the start:

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.

Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.

Make sure to take a second to reflect on this and the Soviet Union and the failure of Marxist-Leninism. It was not the end of history, but another common ruin. Which brings me to the biggest problem of studying socialist theory: The line between theory and propaganda is often blurred. The Manifesto of the Communist Party itself, thought-provoking as it is, is a pamphlet made for wide circulation, and more propaganda than academic work. Marx’ understanding of history revolves around how proletarian revolts such as the Soviet Union go wrong and end up reproducing existing power structures. Yet many of today’s self-proclaimed Marxists are somehow blind to this and end up tricking themselves with all sorts of mind games.

That’s why I think it’s important to start with Marx himself. Understand his view of history and his criticism of the economy, and reflect on what it means for what you see in history since it was written. It still holds, though the theory itself has become weaponized in the very historical and economical dynamics he is describing. If you understand this independently you’re less likely to become a sucker who falls for propaganda.

And of course, Marx wasn’t a god, and he didn’t get it all right. I personally think the main problem is his understanding of history as having an “end” (a teleological account) - Marx believed every class revolt would lead us slightly closer to a classless society, and that eventually we would get there. This builds on Hegel, who had a similar understanding of history rooted in religion rather than communism. I think this is plain wrong - things very well might just get worse, and there is no end of history. But that’s me.

Of course one shouldn’t focus only on Marx, but I feel like he’s important enough that it’s worth taking him seriously. And with all the stupid takes people have on his work, I think it’s a good idea to go straight to the source.

Gives me a nice flashback to this interaction, which caused me to be banned from !europe@feddit.org for the following (since deleted) comment, which I backed up with reliable sources in the part of the thread that remains online:

insufficient avenues for engagement beyond voting.

Funny what banning protests does to a country.

The reason given was that I “derailed the conversation”, though I’d argue the following discussion was extremely on-topic for a post about how young people in Germany “feel disillusioned with politics” and consider there to be “insufficient avenues for engagement”.

Funny what banning discussion does to an instance, I guess.

Oh well, /rant

We pretty much all agree the US sucks here, you’re trying to argue the mass murdering mess of the USSR somehow didn’t also suck. Whataboutism won’t help you.

You’re being distracted from actually doing something.

A constant stream of awful bullshit, right to your screen. The feeling of doing something by shouting into the abyss.

Trump doesn’t care if you see pictures of him raping children or learn about all his corruption unless it is transformed into actual political action. Taking to the street, organizing, running for office, supporting those who do.

Everything is a distraction from action.

For real. Whenever I eat (Italian) pizza normally around a bunch of freaks using knife and fork I just silently rejoice about my superior cultural capital.

And if OP is American, chances are those people don’t even know how to use a knife and fork properly.

It’s an exaggeration at least, but it’s true that the regime friendly billionaire class has a lot of influence over some extremely popular media channels. The firings and changes made in Washington Post and more recently CBS are interesting case studies.

And of course many newsrooms make questionable decisions even if they are not fascist. I have little to no respect left for the New York Times, but I still believe they’re independent enough and have enough talented staff to produce important journalism.

ProPublica is the bees knees.

I think this is getting to the core of how Trump has been so successful. Every important story is drowned out by an endless flood of shit. Good journalism still exists, but it has gotten almost impossible to find as news channels rush to cover the latest distraction Trump is up to. The real stories drown in the bullshit.

Long story short I think it’s possible to pay attention and nevertheless miss out on important stories, due to the fundamental flaws of the information ecosystem. It’s really only necessary to write one story about something like this, but whatever Trump is up to gets a new story every hour.

Mojeek is the only usable engine I know of that’s European and truly independent at the moment. But the results are not nearly as good as in Qwant.

SearXNG also runs on Google and Bing in the backend, and I can never seem to find an instance that works reliably.

I think the Qwant/Ecosia index focuses primarily on the French (and German?) speaking web to begin with, but I’m hopefull it will get good in all languages eventually.

Yeah, “from a guy with a dead worm in his brain” would make for a better question.

If course the main problem remains the arbitrary execution of innocent people in the streets, not the bad form by which these executions are performed.

Go back to the original European name - Vinland/Vineland/Wineland. Though that might have been in Canada, technically.

Better yet, find some pre-Columbian name for the land that was used by the actual locals. I’m sure there’s plenty of alternatives, and some of the most beautiful state names in the US came about that way. Maybe some Native American name for the Mississippi river could be a good starting point.

A piece of American optimism:

America has been awful since the start, in one way or another. It was never going to change because the majority population was either comfortable enough, or scared enough of the minorities that they would accept a certain discomfort as long as their fellow man had it somehow worse.

Right now nobody is having a good time over there. We’re approaching a breaking point. And that’s scary, but it’s also an opportunity to build a better world on the ashes of the old. We are on the verge of huge changes.

Change is no guarantee for improvement. Americans should not only protest the regime, but start preparing to rebuild. Get smart. Read your own history, especially the parts you’re not proud of. If you don’t know or fully understand those parts you will never manage to build wide alliances. Read postwar history, read about the French revolution and it’s messy aftermath. Read Arendt, read Rawls, read Steinbeck and Locke. Prepare yourself to grasp this historic moment. You have an opportunity unlike anything since the 18th century to change America for the better. Don’t waste it doomscrolling. Don’t think you know enough already. Prepare yourself to be the kind of person who is needed once the regime falls.

You’re not powerless—on the contrary, it’s an historic opportunity. And in power there is hope.

European optimism:

After the events of the last few weeks I think a lot more people are fed up with this fascist bullshit, and it seems even Eurosceptics now believe we need to stand together in solidarity across the continent. It’s a new European moment, and the American hegemony has been broken. I’m feeling genuinely optimistic.

The protests in Minnesota also fill me with joy.* I sincerely believe things are beginning to crack. Trump, Putin, and Netanyahu are all in extremely fragile positions, and dictators have famously poor life expectancy. Change is gradual, then sudden, and the destinies of these despots are intertwined. The darkest hour is just before the dawn.

* I wrote this before they ended in more killings. It’s hard to see joy in it now, but I see equal amounts of hope.

Oh yes, nothing indicating america is worse than anywhere else!!! Stop pointing fingers!!

Get your shit in order. Some of us are at least trying to provide free education and healthcare.