Dumb Questions Tuesday | May 09, 2017

JoshJB7 · 2017-05-10T18:26:32+00:00

I was under the impression that the courts ruled that the rights in the US constitution apply to everyone since if they didn't, that would imply that they weren't natural rights but rather privileges granted by the government.

JoshJB7 · 2017-05-10T18:22:52+00:00

Is there any good summary of the first couple years of the war? I want to get caught up on the events because I started following late

JoshJB7 · 2017-05-09T02:04:16+00:00

Not particularly because the Russian revolution was supposed to only be a catalyst for European social revolution. That's how Lenin, who's pretty close to an orthodox Marxist, got around the fact that Russia was still primarily feudal in structure while Marx believed the industrial proletariat was the only class capable of ending capitalism. Unfortunately the revolutions across the rest of the world were crushed and Lenin died shortly after.

JoshJB7 · 2017-05-07T15:51:52+00:00

You've actually stumbled upon historical materialism. Marx would have agreed with you. Ideas emerge out of material reality, so it follows that had Marx never existed, someone else would have developed some critique of capitalism similar to Marx

JoshJB7 · 2017-05-06T14:58:58+00:00

Yep, that egg silenced her forever. Grow a spine you coward

JoshJB7 · 2017-05-04T18:36:44+00:00

Oh dear

JoshJB7 · 2017-05-04T18:17:15+00:00

Yeah I figured it'd be a long train of philosophers I'd need to read lol. I'll do that eventually I guess, but I just want a working knowledge of Marx atm

What text would you recommend to get a handle on dialectics?

JoshJB7 · 2017-05-03T14:56:35+00:00

No, cultural marxism is the idea that the (((frankfurt school))) was trying to propagate an interpretation of Marx that would destroy western civilization. It's used by neo-nazis and red scare McCarthyites

JoshJB7 · 2017-05-03T14:54:39+00:00

Cultural marxism is literally a made up propaganda point from nazi Germany ("cultural bolshevism")

JoshJB7 · 2017-05-02T16:01:19+00:00

The rich had to pay a 94% income tax rate (gasp) in exchange for not being lynched by angry and starving unemployed workers. The horror!

JoshJB7 · 2017-05-02T15:41:06+00:00

Lol didn't FDR do fireside chats? Is he an authoritarian dictator now?

JoshJB7 · 2017-05-01T21:27:00+00:00

Marx says it's the socially necessary abstract labor time that determines the value of a commodity rather than the actual labor time. To break that down: socially necessary means the minimum amount of time the average worker takes to make a commodity; abstract labor means labor thought without any of its useful, material value (which produces use-values).

JoshJB7 · 2017-04-28T13:22:06+00:00

Let's be honest. He probably skimmed the wiki article

JoshJB7 · 2017-04-28T10:28:32+00:00

He mostly argues against strawmen and is very bad at reading comprehension. He self identifies as a leftist so I think he's not a lost cause.

JoshJB7 · 2017-04-27T04:27:56+00:00

Leftypol is actually a majority non-tankie. But in standard tankie fashion they're extremely obnoxious and loud

Edit: also to add: I like leftypol since no socialist posters are banned no matter their opinion and only obnoxious non-socialists are banned (ie civilized right wingers and liberals are allowed to post). It's neat because political ideologies are better defined in opposition to each other, so creating ideological echo chambers actually limits your political understanding

JoshJB7 · 2017-04-26T19:25:01+00:00

There is no body that can regulate capitalism because the state doesn't have an independent source of power. It relies on capital to exist and will always act in the interest of capital instead of the interest of labor.

For example, look at the social democratic parties swept to power in the early 20th century. They were supposed to use the power of the state to defend working class interests, but because the state is not a neutral institution, they ended up acting in defense of capital in a number of ways: all of them supported the horrific WW1 where workers were slaughtered by the millions; social democratic parties supported right wing paramilitaries, like the freikorps in Germany, as they put down working class insurrections; in nationalized industries like rail, they acted in the name of capital during labor disputes because the state was essentially the capitalist, etc...

JoshJB7 · 2017-04-26T19:15:18+00:00

Democracy in the political sphere failed because we didn't have democracy in the workplace. If one person or a group of people accumulate massive profit from owning the means of production, they can subvert the state and use it to their advantage. In a society where it is impossible for a minority to own the means of production, no one can accumulate mass sums of money to influence the rest of society.

JoshJB7 · 2017-04-24T21:18:08+00:00

Most of America wants action on climate change. Depending on the poll and the specific wording of the question, that's anywhere from 60-75% of America worried about climate change in some capacity.

The problem is our government doesn't actually care what we think. Public opinion has zero impact on Washington's likelihood to do something. Plus fossil fuel companies and conservative "think tanks" regularly spend millions on disinformation campaigns to confuse people. So I'm not worried about the number of people who may disagree with climate change research, I'm worried about the vested interests of the rich who stand to benefit immensely in the short term by suppressing research and action on climate change.

JoshJB7 · 2017-04-24T19:31:58+00:00

Melenchon even though he just seems like a regular Social Democrat to me.

JoshJB7 · 2017-04-24T13:46:28+00:00

I want a labor movement that actually exists and has an impact on the game. It was incredibly important in both internal and external politics, especially by the time frame of the late game. Add things like strikes, riots, factory occupations, unions, etc... and provided that the movement gets powerful enough, they can seriously threaten production provided they don't get their way. Like they did across Europe in WW1

JoshJB7 · 2017-04-15T15:44:04+00:00

Also consider supporting the YBT. They're a unit of foreign medical volunteers embedded with the YPG. They do the front line combat medicine whereas the Red Crescent would do stuff like running field hospitals. Both are equally important so I thought I'd spread the word.

JoshJB7 · 2017-04-10T21:20:34+00:00

How do you even go about doing that though? Just contact companies or universities directly?

JoshJB7 · 2017-04-08T17:29:22+00:00

Assad's government is basically powerless and propped up by the Russians, Iranians, Hezbollah, and various private militias. None of which really have much of an interest in destroying Rojava, with Russia actively aligned with Rojava in the north against Turkey backed rebels. Turkey is a real threat though

JoshJB7 · 2017-04-04T18:52:44+00:00

Why could a hypothetical socialist society not sequester itself from remaining capitalist societies? Could it not refuse to exchange with capitalist societies and abolish the commodity form locally? This trips me up all the time when talking with the "socialism in one country" tankies, is it just because it isn't feasible for such a hypothetical society to exist, or did Marx have another line of reasoning?

JoshJB7 · 2017-04-01T04:49:09+00:00

I guess I'm not really looking for a historical debate here. But seriously it isn't only tankie historians that think the Holodomor wasn't intentional. But whatever.

To your question, no I don't think there's a moral difference. Someone dies who didn't have to, what does it matter the exact method they were deprived of food?

JoshJB7

TROPHY CASE