inhuman monsters

Fuck off with the dehumanizing rhetoric. You want an unending cycle of violence? This is how you perpetuate it. How do you think Israel came to be the way it is?

Would you have preferred they use a euphemism like “enhanced interrogation?”

The necessary prerequisite to this is to organize.

Corporations have used social media to colonize and profit from our attention spans, including those of children. Our mental capacity and attention spans are limited, especially children’s. When the advertisers have had their fill, how much is left for learning?

I know the phrase is ambiguous but from context they clearly meant actual metal.

If you’re going to do business with someone it’s completely reasonable that they set their own terms. Elon Musk does not have the right to force his business on a country that does not want to do business with him, no matter the reason. South Africa’s BEE regulations are intended to re-balance the scales after decades of brutal apartheid and oppression. People like Elon Musk notice the loss of privileges they once enjoyed and interpret it as an infringement on their rights equivalent to or worse than historically oppressed (because disadvantaged does not do justice to what they suffered) groups.

And let’s be very clear, if he wants to do business in South Africa he should comply with the regulations and grant a 30% ownership stake to historically oppressed groups. He is not compelled to do so just as South Africa is not compelled to grant him a license.

People generally have a sex drive, then develop an instinctual drive to protect their children after they are born. Of course, contraception allows us to sate our sex drive without it resulting in children, so you can choose to opt out of the evolutionary process before you develop an instinctual drive to raise children in the first place. Most people still have that instinct ready to kick in for a child that is not their own if such a situation arises, which is still evolutionarily advantageous for the group as a whole, even if it’s not for the individual.

Of course in rare cases some people lack that instinct entirely, but that’s the exception not the rule.

This is nothing more than a feeling that you have, and has no basis in fact. All the worst atrocities committed in the name of communism throughout history cannot possibly compare in scale or cruelty to the actions of even a single fascist state.

In addition to the difference in scale there is a difference in motive. Communists have noble goals, but atrocities result from threat-induced paranoia and selfish opportunists co-opting revolutionary fervor. The atrocities of fascism are pure evil in both motive and action. Fascists seek to eliminate those that they deem inferior, and they carry this out with unimaginable cruelty and glee.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Europe is sliding into fascism too, just not as quickly. Regulating capitalism treats the symptoms and not the disease, and so it can only ever bring temporary relief. The problems we are experiencing now are not the product of a broken system, they are the inevitable result of capitalist economics, no matter how restrained.

The handle @trad_west and templarpilled on the left side suggests whoever made the original image likely disagrees.

This fact perfectly dismantles the idea of meritocracy, which is why the “lottery curse” lie is pushed by the wealthy. The lottery selects specifically for people who are prone to gambling and poor choices, and yet the majority do just fine with their winnings, because the truth is that wealth protects you from the consequences of your choices.

If I did that where I live a mob of MAGA hats would descend on my home within a week, if my neighbor doesn’t shoot me first.

That’s 10 too many, and just one example of Democratic complicity in this fascist takeover. One of the DNC’s most influential strategists, James Carville, has recommended that Democrats “roll over and play dead,” and the majority seem to be taking that advice to heart.

I started to make a long effort post detailing Putin’s rise to - and subsequent consolidation of - power, but then I came to my senses and realized it would be pointless. If I went through with it, you would just do what you’ve been doing already, dismiss all sources I provide as false and biased propaganda while engaging in ridiculous whataboutism. I decided it would be a poor use of my time, is this really how you want to be spending yours?

Putin is a dictator in the same way that Trump is trying to be. He consolidated power under his office, removing term limits and checks, and manipulates the democratic process in his favor (often with blatant ballot stuffing and crushing opposition).

The US political system, as corrupt as it is, isn’t quite to that point yet, though unfortunately that might be changing soon.

Edit: Removed mention of Xi because I’m not as familiar with the topic and don’t want to spread misinformation.

You forgot to mention that it’s watered down. That’s what the emulsifier is for, to make the oils in the cheese mix well with the added water. The concept is fine - for some applications - if it were only that, but this is hyper-processed American food we’re talking about here. Gotta pad out that ingredient list:

CHEDDAR CHEESE (CULTURED MILK, SALT, ENZYMES), SKIM MILK, MILKFAT, MILK PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, WHEY, CALCIUM PHOSPHATE, SODIUM PHOSPHATE, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF MODIFIED FOOD STARCH, SALT, LACTIC ACID, MILK, SORBIC ACID AS A PRESERVATIVE, OLEORESIN PAPRIKA (COLOR), ENZYMES, CHEESE CULTURE, ANNATTO (COLOR).

The above is the standard Kraft singles ingredient list, and at a glance is the shortest one I saw on their website.

The strategies I’m referring to are best summed up as populism, yes. The left vs right terminology originally referred to those who opposed or supported monarchy, respectively. In Weimar Germany those who opposed the political establishment in favor of working class movements were considered socialist, irrespective of their other beliefs.

What I’m saying is that as capital S Socialism gained popularity among the working class, fascist movements appropriated the Socialists populist methods, taking advantage of the work that Socialists had already done in organizing working class opposition to the political establishment. The majority were not ideologues, they simply knew the status quo was not serving them and were looking for explanations, which at one point only Socialists were providing (though arguably not very effectively). That’s when fascism emerged to provide an alternative explanation; one which was not a threat to the wealthy and powerful, and played into the deep-rooted prejudices of the time.

Fascism emerged as an appropriation of revolutionary left strategies in service of right-wing ideology. That’s why the Nazis adopted the name “national socialists.” At the time the word socialist was used to refer to pretty much any populist working class movement. Blaming communists for fascism is a bit like seeing one of those spiders that mimics ants and blaming the ants.

Alright, I understand your position. Personally, I disagree with it because it’s unrealistic to expect perfection from everyone who fights for a cause. I feel that it’s important to have some baseline tolerance for hypocrisy because it’s counterproductive to police your allies on every small thing.

I agree that tailored suits should not be a precondition for success, and choosing not to wear them in congress is absolutely a statement to that end, but I’m not going to discount AOC as a potential ally because she chose not to fight that particular battle. In the same vein, I’m also not going to allow John Fetterman’s choice to fight that particular battle convince me that he’s a working class ally in more important ways.

When you allow yourself to get hung up on the appearance of hypocrisy you make yourself vulnerable to exactly the type of manipulation that Fetterman engages in. Look past the surface and consider the bigger picture. You don’t have to be someone who works within the system, I’m not that type of person either, but don’t write people off for choosing that path. Everyone has a part to play.

They’re supporting a system that exists to pass a bunch of money around at the top.

By… wearing a suit? You’re gonna have to go into more detail here to get your point across.

I’m glad we’re at least on the same page here.

I’d like to get there, but I’m really not sure that we are yet.

I don’t keep up with Fetterman, but isn’t he also an ally of the working class?

Fetterman ran as a progressive and presented himself as an unpretentious ally of blue-collar workers, then after getting elected he made a hard right turn starting with support for Israel’s genocide and eventually going back on every progressive stance he ever held, even claiming he never held them to begin with. He’s now just a conservative - registered Democrat. A turn-coat who claims “I didn’t leave the left, the left left me.” Many such cases these days, unfortunately.

If you’re arguing that AOC is the same, I really don’t see it. I don’t agree with everything she does, of course, but for someone working within the system she’s as radical as it gets.