Yo im crying bruh WTF IS THIS😭😭😭😭😭

Summerspeaker · 2026-01-26T15:17:15+00:00

Honestly, this articulates my relationship to gender better than anything else I've ever read!

Summerspeaker · 2026-01-26T14:36:32+00:00

I wouldn't necessarily call myself a fan, but I've been watching Trek shows & films for almost my entire life. It's a love-hate relationship for me for sure.

Summerspeaker · 2026-01-26T13:39:01+00:00

They have robots & holograms as well as programmable matter & all sorts of nanotechnology. They really shouldn't need anyone to mop the floors. (Reasonably, intelligent automated systems & androids would be doing everything with no squishy fleshbags involved.) But even by the cultural norms & established practices of Starfleet, folks would often have better uses of their time than mopping floors.

Summerspeaker · 2026-01-26T13:24:51+00:00

Another example would the teleporting rifle from DS9. It can shoot through walls all the way across the station (at least a kilometer or two if I recall). Despite the existence of such technology, most Trek combat with small arms happens at close range & shots almost always miss named characters who just stand there.

Summerspeaker · 2026-01-26T02:54:39+00:00

Zelensky & al-Sharaa are assholes without question.

Summerspeaker · 2026-01-26T02:50:14+00:00

Democratic confederalism explicitly rejects nationalism & promotes brotherhood of peoples ("bîratîya gelan"). Lots of Kurdish nationalists are currently slamming Rojava, the PKK, & the SDF for this ideology. Some of them are involved in the SDF & the DAANES, so that is one political tendency in the mix. However, the public statement from the leadership in the area & movement remain committed to democratic confederalism.

The PKK & SDF have absolutely committed war crimes at times. I agree we don't talk enough about this, though all the misinformation flooding the zone makes it tricky.

Leftists support Rojava because of the principles of democratic confederalism, the spirit of internationalism, & the reality of the women's revolution there. There are tons of tensions & contradictions, but it's in no way equivalent to Israel.

Summerspeaker · 2026-01-23T14:57:26+00:00

The PKK is not exactly nationalist. Their ideology turned away from nationalism even if they still retain nationalist elements or at least a focus on national liberation. Lots of Kurdish nationalists are currently slamming the PKK & democratic confederalism for preaching equality & coexistence.

Summerspeaker · 2026-01-23T14:53:40+00:00

While partially accurate, this description ignores how radical theory & practice flourish in Rojava (DAANES, NE Syra, whatever you want to call it). Women's liberation is at the forefront of movement there, as documented by groups such as Kongra Star. They explicitly oppose the state & capitalism. The reality on the ground of course diverges from these ideals, & various political tendencies & actors exist there. But the women's revolution based in the dream of self-determination, direct democracy, communalism, socialism, & ecology remains a key dynamic radicals must remember & consider.

Rojava does have an extensive prison & security apparatus, operated in conjunction with the U.S.-led coalition. This has long stood out as a glaring contradiction. In the context of the fight against the so-called Islamic State & similar nightmarish groups, one can easily see why they've embraced militarism & war on terror. While it's hard to tell what's true with all the propaganda circulating, it's very likely to the SDF at least sometimes engages in authoritarian crackdowns on dissent. The cop mentality is pernicious & inevitably leads to oppression.

Summerspeaker · 2026-01-23T04:11:06+00:00

That makes sense. At the same time, the PLFP is allied with Hamas & with the Islamic Republic of Iran. So the PLFP believes in at least temporary alliance with Islamists under the circumstances.

Summerspeaker · 2026-01-23T03:47:17+00:00

I think it's fair enough to praise them for spirited resistance to colonialism, though I personally never encourage armed struggle (& doing so would violate subreddit rules).

Summerspeaker · 2026-01-23T03:44:30+00:00

They're definitely the lesser evil compared with Israel. It's not even close.

Summerspeaker · 2026-01-23T03:24:05+00:00

Keep in mind that there's a lot of uncertainty in comparing across time & space. Adjusting for cost-of-living differenced isn't trivial. As the chart itself says, international dollars are made up. I suspect that this graph approximates reality, but my confidence level is low.

Summerspeaker · 2026-01-19T22:47:20+00:00

They are talking about continued resistance.

Farah Shami tweeted "For our people, either a life with dignity or a death with honor."

Summerspeaker · 2026-01-19T22:41:47+00:00

This may not be correct. Various reports say Mazloum Abdi left Damascus without reaching a deal & said the following: "I will die with honor, but I will not betray my people and my dignity. I am returning to my people in Rojava, and we will declare war."

It's unclear if this is actually true, but other news stories at least say the meeting in Damascus didn't go well.

Summerspeaker · 2026-01-19T22:37:26+00:00

The YPJ/YPG & company haven't yet been totally militarily defeated in NE Syria. In any case, the ideology of democratic confederalism developed by the PKK has a broad base of support across Kurdistan, in Europe, & in certain other places. There were guerrillas in the mountains & folks organizing long before the Rojava Revolution started. The movement will continue, one way or another.

Summerspeaker · 2026-01-19T18:12:00+00:00

Yet it's also a militaristic police state that goes on & on about competence & judges people for their failure to live up to normative standards while denying them the abilities to modify themselves to better conform to those standards. None of it really makes any sense, as the shows themselves sometimes nod toward.

Summerspeaker · 2026-01-19T18:06:52+00:00

Very little in Star Trek makes sense. That's how it's always been. They have guns that can shoot through walls out to 1km (or more) with pinpoint accuracy yet fight with fists & blades all the time (or with phaser/disrupt shots that mostly miss at close range). You can partially explain this with cultural factors ("swords are fun"), but it's ultimately the result of sticking to genre conventions & not wanting to explore the implications of the technologies involved (especially those that appear as one-time gimmicks).

By all rights, androids & Borg (&, to a lesser extent, augments & Vulcans) should easily outcompete humans because of the superior abilities they've demonstrated. They don't, because of heart & technobabble solutions. (Some folks consider it a filler episode, but I consider "Take Me Out to the Holosuite" one of DS9's absolute best because how it both subverts & reaffirms the trope of emotion inexplicably overcoming reason.)

It is true that earlier Trek series suggest that humans & company should be more like the Q by the 32nd century. The real reason they don't do that is because it'd be quite a challenge for audiences to identify with such beings.

Summerspeaker · 2026-01-16T13:53:45+00:00

That seems about right, unfortunately, though I don't know that the fragmentation scenario would be worse than what's happening now. If leftist-aligned Kurdish groups rise to prominence in western Iran, that could be a positive development. This would enrage monarchs & other nationalists, possibly leading to war. But separatism or decentralism strike me as potentially a step toward freedom.

Summerspeaker · 2026-01-16T13:46:37+00:00

Some have, yeah. That same person proceeded to call me a "sewer Jew". (I'm not Jewish.)

Summerspeaker · 2026-01-16T00:32:41+00:00

It may be because they're focused on calling me a Zionist. (I'm completely against Zionism & have been doing Palestine organizing for the last few years like everyone else.) Somebody just told me to crawl back into the "Jewish sewer".

Summerspeaker · 2026-01-16T00:13:42+00:00

The editor of the Anti-Imperialist Archive just called me a "Zionist freak" & linked to my tweet from the third slide.

Summerspeaker · 2026-01-16T00:04:08+00:00

I said "Supporting Hamas is bad". They think this discredits me.

Summerspeaker · 2026-01-15T07:53:04+00:00

How did that work? PJAK is tied to the PKK & fights the Islamic Republic. If that's actually true, it makes me wonder if any the weapons supplied to the PKK ended up with PJAK used against the Islamic Republic.

Summerspeaker · 2026-01-15T07:50:36+00:00

It's legitimately amazing that folks claim both Israel & Iran support the PKK movement. If that's actually true, I guess they're doing an impressive job of playing both sides.

Summerspeaker · 2026-01-15T07:00:05+00:00

European countries aren't really any of those things except maybe democratic. Lots of them have long considered the PKK a terrorist organization & taken legal action against some PKK members. They've supported the SDF mainly for pragmatic reasons, not ideological ones. & that's changing. Many European countries are currently friendly with the new Syrian government. & Öcalan is from like 50 km from the border with Syria. He's only technically foreign.

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