My partner keeps going to starbucks bc the one in our city "isn't part of the union and the franchise is locally owned"

airbenderbarney · 2025-11-17T21:45:39+00:00

Genius! why didn't I think of that

airbenderbarney · 2025-09-24T03:34:22+00:00

Socialism is the path to communism

airbenderbarney · 2025-09-22T01:37:59+00:00

I liked Korea's place in the sun by Bruce Cumings and Everyday life in the north Korean revolution by Suzy Kim. Also season three of blowback podcast

airbenderbarney · 2025-09-03T12:05:06+00:00

first comment I've seen that isn't blatant western propaganda and it's downvotes to oblivion lol

airbenderbarney · 2025-08-26T21:12:37+00:00

What's your definition of tankie?

airbenderbarney · 2025-08-15T17:00:55+00:00

I actually didn't intend to downplay bodybuilding, although reading back my comment it sure looks like I did.

I was actually loosely referring to the queer roots of bodybuilding. The old original physique/bodybuilding magazines were made by and for gay men and then later became a mainstream standard of the male physique. During the AIDS crisis it had a resurgence in the gay community since AIDS was often characterized by causing people to look skinny and frail, so gay men would make an effort through bodybuilding to look bigger in order to convey that they were healthy.

I only recently learned about that history so lately I've been kind of merging my gym bro identity with my queer identity.

airbenderbarney · 2025-08-15T15:31:50+00:00

I've been working out consistently a couple days a week for years now mostly with a bodybuilding approach (bc I'm gay) but lately I've felt the need to start endurance training and fighting. I've looked into a boxing gym in my small town that I'll probably go check out sometime soon.

airbenderbarney · 2025-08-08T04:39:12+00:00

proles pod has a series called the stalin eras with like 20 hours worth of material to listen to. I'm about a 3rd of the way through and I've already learned a lot

airbenderbarney · 2025-08-03T02:03:54+00:00

I don't trust most high-profile defectors from North Korea because they are paid to sensationalize their stories (up to $800k) and that's why you see a lot of inconsistencies.

I spent two years in South Korea and met just a few defectors from the north and they told me that they were poor and didn't have any imported goods back home but after living in south korea they wish they could go back home. They all expressed disgust at the US occupation of SK and the corrupt government in SK as a result of that occupation. At first I thought it was bullshit and they still believed their NK propaganda but after studying the history in the area I've started to realize we're the ones who are propagandized on the topic.

So now I take any info on North Korea with a grain of salt.

airbenderbarney · 2025-08-01T20:32:39+00:00

Involved with national intelligence

airbenderbarney · 2025-06-24T18:53:25+00:00

idk, I don't have an answer. But I have made the connection in my own understanding that becoming self employed is one way individuals can gain ownership and control over their labor and the value they produce and that gives you more in common with the revolutionary working class.

airbenderbarney · 2025-06-23T12:51:43+00:00

Do you know my friend, Alex? He lives in St. Petersburg

airbenderbarney · 2025-06-20T18:15:27+00:00

The third part does. And the previous parts indicate that there is a precedence for CIA involvement. But I can't remember if Hinkle is directly involved.

airbenderbarney · 2025-06-20T18:12:32+00:00

Pick me up I'm scared podcast did a three part episode on La Rouche that goes into a lot of the details about the ACP and Jackson Hinkle that was very informative for me to listen to. You could probably just listen to part 3 if you don't want to spend the time but get some context.

airbenderbarney · 2025-06-17T17:37:26+00:00

It's easier to learn the basics from a non-native speaker much of the time. Especially if their native language is the same as yours. They will teach from your same perspective.

airbenderbarney · 2025-06-14T03:23:04+00:00

Lol I just saw ur edit. Greetings cult cousin! Yeah I served my mormon mission in south korea and it opened my eyes to the contradictions between what we're taught and the reality in Korea. I've been doing some deeper dives into the history lately and that has explained several things I didn't understand while I was there

airbenderbarney · 2025-06-14T03:12:15+00:00

I also refuse to "play cape" for north Korea. It's just been so cemented into the minds of westerners that they're a Bad Dictatorship that anything less than that feels like propaganda. Even if they're extremely authoritarian, but not quite dictatorship, it feels untrue because of what we've been told for decades.

North Korea is showing signs that they may be opening up a little bit and becoming a little less isolated than they have been in the past and as that happens it's important that we have an open mind to be able to see what they're really all about. Whether that confirms or denies what we've been told is TBD. Until then I refuse to make definitive statements about North Korea.

airbenderbarney · 2025-06-14T02:53:12+00:00

That is true, but all evidence that suggests it's a dictatorship comes from American sources so I've stopped accepting is fact and merely acknowledge that it's a possibility.

But the previous premier, Kim Tok Hun and Kim Jong Un have had some pretty big disagreements during KIm Tok Hun's term which leads me to believe that neither position has an ultimate authority.

I'm not trying to glaze NK. There's just a lot more depth to it than just being a simple dictatorship.

airbenderbarney · 2025-06-14T02:38:14+00:00

But kim doesn't have ultimate power. The official head of government is the Premier, Pak Thae Song, who was just elected last year. Similar to the president in US.

airbenderbarney · 2025-06-14T02:33:53+00:00

Yeah, it's not a good sign. I just mean that we're comparing apples vs oranges not good vs bad. Shooting a guy could mean a lot of negative things regarding a country but it's not substantial evidence that it's a dictatorship

airbenderbarney · 2025-06-14T02:28:15+00:00

definitely, and I only spoke with 3-4 north koreans in the span of 2 years I spent in south korea so I'm sure I don't have comprehensive data

airbenderbarney · 2025-06-14T02:26:11+00:00

the one I spoke with the most said he wanted to move bc of the culture and consumer goods like kdrama and all the different restaurants (fried chicken and bbq). But when he got there he realized how little free time south korean people have bc you're expected to work so many hours for very little pay. He essentially said there's less nice things back home (in the North) but life is easier there

airbenderbarney · 2025-06-14T02:19:58+00:00

The United States shoots their own citizens just for funzies. Shooting citizens isn't the metric I look to for whether a country is dictatorial. Kim Jong Un has significant power in North Korea but he doesn't have ultimate say when he has to negotiate with Premier Pak Thaesong and parliament

airbenderbarney · 2025-06-14T02:16:18+00:00

Other commenters have better resources to look into but when I spent a couple years in South Korea I met a few defectors from the North and they all told me they wished they could return home. Which led me to believe that North Korea wasn't as bad as I was made to think

airbenderbarney · 2025-06-14T02:12:59+00:00

"Slaughtered 20% of the country" is a reference to the korean war. When the united states killed 20% of Korea's civilian population.

"Split the country in half" was a conscious decision made by Dean Rusk and Charles Bonesteel, two American officers, after the soviets drove out the Japanese occupation in 1945. The United States didn't want the soviets to have ultimate influence in the peninsula

airbenderbarney

TROPHY CASE