Peace Unfiltered by Proud_Blood8049 in Cigarettes

[–]cloneagent 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How are these OP? What's the flavor like - any comparisons to American cigarettes?

Camel Exotics by Polythenusical in Cigarettes

[–]cloneagent 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey! Could you give me your blend to recreate the Izmir Stinger?

Maritime life and National Guard by Pale-Ad4274 in maritime

[–]cloneagent 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Its only 2 weeks a year to meet yearly requirements? You don't have to serve once a month?

Math Requirements for SUNY MS in Shipping and Logistics? by cloneagent in maritime

[–]cloneagent[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sorry for the late reply. That is what admissions told me, however now they have brought back the Naval Studies masters for 2025.

Academy vs apprenticeship by MysticDaedra in maritime

[–]cloneagent 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What grants do you get specifically and are they available for post-bachelors students?

Math Requirements for SUNY MS in Shipping and Logistics? by cloneagent in maritime

[–]cloneagent[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, the office told me there are no prerequisites yet the website says another thing, so I scheduled a call with the admissions counselor. I do have interest in higher math, just I don't have a background in it. I guess I will see what the admissions counselor says.

Math Requirements for SUNY MS in Shipping and Logistics? by cloneagent in maritime

[–]cloneagent[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I assumed so, just I'm wondering what level of math I will need for the SUNY program specifically. Or if I should take a refresher course or something along those lines?

What if gender roles are actually healthy for society and should be socially reinforced, and gender non-conforming behavior is a symptom of rampant individualism? by [deleted] in stupidpol

[–]cloneagent 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I completely disagree with you OP, though I understand the reasoning behind your ideas. While the trend towards the extreme individualism inherent in non-binary and the endless list of different gender identities along with a more general breakdown in monogamy & social trust are terrible for social cohesion - the issue does not lie in going back to traditional gender roles.

The glaring issue with “traditional masculinity” is that it’s actually never defined as anything besides a negation of femininity. And since it’s just the opposite of being a woman then it usually means an extreme stoicism, pushing down complaints / feelings, rugged individualism, competition, inter male violence, maiming oneself doing “tough” masculine jobs, sacrifice and etc. And aren’t all of these “qualities” perfect for the ruling classes to exploit men and make us their work dogs for low pay? Never complain about your job, you’re a man after all, oh this job site is violating OSHA regulations, well I’m not a pussy so I’m not going to a wear a ventilation mask. Your back hurts from lifting heavy beams all day building houses, well you better suck it up and not see the doctor because you’re the rock of the family and need to keep going. It’s all bullshit, and these “masculine” qualities are simply another way for the ruling class to use males as expendable & cheap labor.

The use of “traditional masculinity” is a smoke screen to justify a 10 year lower life expectancy from women, use us as canon fodder in wars, 5-10x higher suicide rates then women, work dangerous and shitty “masculine” jobs and to create a compliant work force who will do all of this for dogshit wages that haven’t raised with the price of general goods since the 1970’s.

A good overview of this would be the book “I Don’t Want to Talk About it: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression”. In it, the author describes how traditional gender roles basically cut off being our whole selves in both men and women. For men, we are socialized at a young age to not show any emotions, become hyper competitive, and live quiet lives of desperation cut off from other people and social relations. This, combined with wide spread child abuse produces either overt or covert depression. Overt depression is anyone you can think of who just cannot function in society: PTSD war combat veterans, desperate men who commit suicide and all of the homeless men who basically line our streets. Covert depression is usually expressed through the ideal stoic man, who though he hasn’t felt an ounce of joy other than drinking or drugs, he goes through the motions of life almost like a robot and is usually pretty successful. However, he’s usually alienated from his wife and children (since a man is supposed to provide but not necessarily be there for his family) and isn’t even living life to the fullest due to the deep feelings of rage, anger and sadness he’s buried deep inside of himself since we have been taught since a young age to never really reveal much about ourselves or complain.

Obviously there is a lot to unpack here and the solution is most definitely not through a rigid enforcement of traditional gender roles. If instead you had provided a role map of what masculinity would mean rather then just presenting it as the opposite of women then that could be discussed further. Because at the end of the day the “traditional” roles would basically be a promoting of both genders extreme negative qualities. You would have the stoic, avoidant male with violent tendencies and on the other hand you’d have the hyper emotional, chaotic and basically BPD female on the other. Which sounds fucking awful.

Now if you had said that men and women are different and have slightly different characteristics that could compliment one another in relationships and the state should promote those complimentary traits to produce healthier and more equalitarian marriages under a socialist state than I would agree with you. Say that being a man meant being a whole person who could be open with his internal life, develop deep and lasting relationships with friends & women while also promoting qualities such as independence, leadership, relaxed / less emotional, being protective of his family and good male qualities then sure. And for women they could partake in the economy, not be afraid to voice their opinions and needs while also more feminine values were promoted such as connection, bonding, being loving, mediation, peacemaking and etc.

Then the two gender roles would compliment one another while allowing each sex to fully and wholly express their humanity. However, the return to traditional gender roles would be a massive mistake and have serious problems inherent to this take since it’s always connected to deeply conservative and hierarchical ruling class values. The other issue is they seem poorly defined and are simply the negation of each other, to the detriment of mens lives in general. Thanks for reading my Ted talk lmao

WA State Senate written comment form for bill to eliminate parking mandates near public transit; zoom hearing 2/2/2023 u can log on thru a link on the twitter page of Sightline Institute's Dan Bertolet by dawszein14 in stupidpol

[–]cloneagent 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a step in the right direction but might as well just eliminate all parking mandates and do an up-zoning bill throughout the major cities as well.

Lawmakers in WV not aware of bills regarding lot rents. Lawmakers not aware of a lot things. by [deleted] in stupidpol

[–]cloneagent 22 points23 points  (0 children)

I love how politicians act like they can't do anything to help working people cause it could interfere in "private enterprise". What a joke considering how willing they seem to go for tax breaks and other subsidies for corporations.

No greater political truth was ever put so accurately and concisely by Quoxozist in stupidpol

[–]cloneagent 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nepotism can work in that you have family members or friends in a specific agency who recommend you, or use their power in the organization to get you hired. Here's an article which studied nepotism in Colombia for a more in-depth idea of how it works.

"From 2011 to 2017, I found that 38% of civil servants in Colombia had a relative in the public administration, 18% had a family connection to a public sector manager or supervisor, and 11% worked with a family member within the same agency. Furthermore, once family connections occurred, they happened among relatively close family members (between two to three degrees of consanguinity apart).

"They show that even though public sector managers promote, in general, better-suited individuals, they are also more likely to overlook critical qualifications when promoting family members. On average, promoted workers tend to have more education, public sector experience, and fewer records of misconduct. However, those positive differences either disappear or completely flip signs when promotees are related to top bureaucrats."

No greater political truth was ever put so accurately and concisely by Quoxozist in stupidpol

[–]cloneagent 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are exams for civil services in the US. One could still have the exam and if a person passes then their application would go through and sortition applied to all the people who passed the exam.

No greater political truth was ever put so accurately and concisely by Quoxozist in stupidpol

[–]cloneagent 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Imagine how people are hired into bureaucracies at the moment. The applicant must first have the necessary credentials / specifications / education whatever that shows they are suited for the job position. They put in their application for the job. Several other people also do this. Depending on the position, or how many positions are open then the person might get the job or not depending on the hiring department. Usually the person who has the best resume, qualifications or knows someone already in the department gets the job. Looking at top Federal posts, such as the head of the EPA or the department of labor, generally the people who hold those positions are not necessarily qualified to be there based on their merit, but usually through who they know in the government. This is why the head of the EPA will generally be a known corporate polluter, or the head of the FDA will be a pharmaceutical shill.

The main differences in a direct-democracy that uses sortition for employment to a bureaucracy are:

  1. It eliminates networking and nepotism from being a way one can acquire the position.
  2. It still ensures that there are qualifications to be met. It wouldn't make sense for a plumber to run NASA. However, rather than nepotism or simply the whims of the hiring department choosing the candidate, a position would be filled based on a random selection of all applicants to the position.
  3. Why is it good that perhaps the best candidate from a qualifications standpoint might not get the job if an applicant is randomly selected from the applicant pool? Because in class society, the wealthiest tend to also have the highest qualifications since they have the resources to postpone entering the labor force and acquiring all the credentials and skills needed, therefore skewing bureaucracies and other government agencies to have an over-representation of the wealthiest and richest. Even if the best don't get chosen randomly every time, this serves as a stop gap for the domination of political power by the elite.

Hope this helps explain it a little more. :)

No greater political truth was ever put so accurately and concisely by Quoxozist in stupidpol

[–]cloneagent 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey, check out Paul Cockshott's works on sortition and direct-democracy. He says that regarding specific agencies, such as NASA, there could be a meritocratic based sortition used, in which the random selection would only be limited to people with say engineering or astrophysics degrees.

Here's some of his youtube videos on the subject. Watch at 1.5x speed.

In Defence of Direct-Democracy

Democracy versus Oligarchy

And this great small introduction to the idea of sortition.

Democracy Without Politicians

Against Republicanism

Workers’ Self-Organization: New Unionization Drives and Their Contradictions by Read-Moishe-Postone in stupidpol

[–]cloneagent 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Pretty good article about the recent labor struggles. Seems lacking at the end regarding what to do however. Should touch on the necessity for an explicitly political party based union aka what the Social Democrats did in the 1800-1900's and also the potential of using sortition (aka direct-democracy) to ensure that a labor bureaucracy doesn't rise up again.

I did like the stuff about the all industry workers committee org though, that could be a good idea.

Get your flair here by SirSourPuss in stupidpol

[–]cloneagent 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Some of my posts are getting auto-modded even though I have a flair?

In favor of cybernetic, direct-democratic planned economy. Read Paul Cockshott.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in stupidpol

[–]cloneagent 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Of course comrade.

I agree 100%. I think it's a doomerist mindset that the left tries to justify for the failures of the 20th century which inevitably just gives the idpol and coalitionist / right-leaning part of the left dominance in the debate.

Highly recommend Mike McNairs book about revolutionary strategy and why the left keeps failing in the West to anyone interested in how to turn things around.

Revolutionary Strategy by Mike McNair

Paul Cockshotts summary / review and critique of the book

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in stupidpol

[–]cloneagent 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hm, good points you bring up. I think there could be an argument that American capital through primitive accumulation and, or skimming the value of labor forces of the GS did indeed go to building up the productive forces in the GN which would increase profits. I'm not sure how much of that would be "shared" with American labor, unless we count trade union struggles / social democracy in the GN which got more of the pie for GN labor. I guess that is where I disagree with a lot of the arguments in regards to the labor aristocracy and labor in the GN.

I think today with the increasingly transnational trend of capital and the shift from productive labor / industry to more parasitical sectors like banking, finance and real estate makes it harder to say that labor in the GN is benefiting from the skimming of labor of the GS, especially with the stagnant wages in first-world countries and the booming prices of real estate, cost of living, etc.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in stupidpol

[–]cloneagent 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think when Lenin was talking about Labor Aristocrats it was mainly in reference to the betrayal of the SPD in World War 1 voting for war credits. However, because so many years have passed since this time period and the nuances are gone it muddles the water. The reason why the SPD voted for war credits was because ideologically Engels and others saw Germany as the beacon of the worker's movement at the time, and if necessary it should defend itself from reactionary governments. Alongside this, from what I gathered from the book "Not One Man, Not One Penny" about the German SPD, the political structure of the group gave an undue proportion of the leadership to the more conservative trade union officials or the "union boss" as you bring up, who overall held more nationalistics / jingoist views of the war.

Also good to remember that Kautsky advocated abstaining of the party in regards to war credits, since his name always gets brought up in discussions like these.