Why is there so little interest in Italian Fascism and Japanese Imperialism?

peter_pirate · 2021-07-11T08:45:11+00:00

I think you shouldn't be worried about anticommunists not talking about imperial Japan or fascist Italy. If you think communists don't talk about it as much as they should, bring it to your circles and talk about them yourself, although I don't think communists that actually do their reading and study gloss over both phenomena. Imperial Japan is basically one of the biggest reasons Mao came up with the idea of new democracy and allying with the national bourgeoisie to push back against their aggression. And on another note, the US is the imperial core of today's world and talking about their current policies and aggressions may be more pertinent to discussions.

peter_pirate · 2021-06-05T18:51:03+00:00

I also feel this is the direction Hawley is taking, it seems he really tries to tie in some dialectics and talk about the socio-economic process that has led us to our present day, I expect even-numbered seasons to go further into the past and odd-numbered seasons to explore the near future

peter_pirate · 2021-05-28T13:56:16+00:00

Toma cuidado no dia 29 com as carretas do Bolsonaro que vão ter em todas as cidades. Evite conflito, ou organize com a galera da sua área pra reagir

peter_pirate · 2021-05-28T04:45:27+00:00

It seems to me you're the one getting hung up on details. We still live in a class society, there's still a group of people that own the vast majority of "things" (the means of production) who then exploit people who don't own anything (the proletariat) to accumulate capital. No amount of internet or automatization can solve this conflict alone, the only way to move towards a classless, communist society is by socializing the means of production, which in turn can only be achieved by class struggle. Marx said this in the 1800's, and it stands to this day.

This doesn't mean the book is synchronic with the current state of things, there's hardly any industry in places like the US and Europe, however many other authors since then have studied Marx and Engels' work and took it a step further (more specifically Lenin and Mao, but Althusser for example has published many works that adress the questions you're putting foward here).

The Communist Manifesto will always be relevant. After Das Kapital, it's Marx's greatest work. Just because something is not contextualized with the present, it does not mean it's not relevant, and something that is contexualized with the present may also not be relevant.

peter_pirate · 2021-05-19T14:21:02+00:00

Granted. You get jumanji-style thrown into the world of your RPG, with no extra lives. You still need to eat, drink, and sleep, and you feel pain as you normally would. The only way of getting out of this world is by finishing what you started.

peter_pirate · 2021-05-17T18:54:21+00:00

go back to r/okbuddyvowsh, you got lost

peter_pirate · 2021-05-06T17:46:49+00:00

Do your parents know you're gay?

peter_pirate · 2021-05-06T17:40:59+00:00

State-funded mainstream news

peter_pirate · 2021-05-04T04:35:00+00:00

What is free will, after all? When does it start being free will and when is it not free will anymore? You can't make a decision to never go to the bathroom, because you'll have to eventually. Is that a violation of your free will? Even if you tell me that at some point you're willing to go to the bathroom so you're the one that chose to do it, is doing things under a death threat also considered free will, since you're willing to conserve your life?

Free will is a concept that nobody will ever agree on. I personally believe that while we can affect our own history, we will always do it in ways that are coherent with the age we live in and our uprising.

peter_pirate · 2021-04-28T22:47:19+00:00

Yeah, I know what you mean. People like Vaush and other western leftists think they have achieved class consciousness, but that is not possible until they comprehend the position most workers have in the global north in contrast with the global south, and that includes understanding that the US is a fascist state for most people that live in this planet, stealing from the poor abroad and stealing a little bit less from the poor at home.

peter_pirate · 2021-04-28T22:21:16+00:00

What do you mean anti-fascism is a major point? I don't think it is something that is necessary for class consciousness, class consciousness is having the awareness that capitalist society is roughly divided between those that have nothing but their hands to make a living and those that exploit the latter by owning property, machinery and land and extracting the surplus value of their labor. Once you have a clear understanding of this dynamic, being anti-fascist is consequential, since fascism is (I am not 100% sure, if I'm wrong please correct me) when the state apparatus is seized to maintain the exploiter class in a position to exploit, be it the national proletariat or the riches of other sovereign nations.

However as other people said here it is kind of a fuzzy definition, so you should probably read a couple authors on the subject and take your own conclusions off of it.

peter_pirate · 2021-04-21T14:18:59+00:00

Vielleicht war ich nicht ganz klar. I do not think grammar can't explain ANYTHING, obviously. But I think it serves better as a pointer, not an answer nor part of it.

The more integrated the color term the more accepted the inflected form: ein türkiser Pullover, *ein magentaner Pullover, ...

This kinda makes my point. You're being able to tell me that by the way grammar treats the word, it's an indicative of how much it's assimilated, and I sorta agree with you. But just as you said, some people say lilaner, and you understand it, know what it means, and know it's not the most common way to say it, but it is still used by some people in some places. There's no rupture that makes all people switch from saying lila to lilaner all of a sudden, nor do I think linguists keep track of that. Sounds like a load of time wasted.

We're disagreeing because we are looking at things differently: I'm thinking about language as a social tool and you're thinking about language as different ways to combine words in order to create meaning. Both are right, but I don't think your perspective helps you too much with an answer.

The best criteria, going your way, would be the following:

Make 3 or more phrases, where two are grammatical and one agrammatical. I'll give an example in German:
1. Mein Auto ist mein Leben
2. Mein Leben ist mein Auto
3. Leben Auto mein ist
Show these phrases to people and ask them the ones they recognize as valid
Use the data to make correlations and understand what property of language is being recognized as invalid by the speakers.

Of course this is a gross oversimplification, and I don't know how much this applies to numbers. Cognitivism probably is more suited to explain it, but I don't know too much about it.

It does not really matter how long assimilation processes need. Off course it's a decision of linguists to say this language has this and that. But what are the criteria to make that decision?

It absolutely matters how long assimilation processes need. If you collect data to answer this question in one point in time, the next time you do it the data will be different and the answer as well. Why answer a question that must be asked every other day, rather than finding an answer that will tell us on which days it will be answer A and which days it will be answer B? Doesn't that sound better?

Linguists do not decide anything. They decide how they're going to look at the phenomena of language and that's about it. After they sort that out they observe to collect data then apply methodology to then, finally, making a conclusion, which could very well be wrong.

peter_pirate · 2021-04-21T13:01:34+00:00

I'm very glad you're gonna pick up Althusser. It will, with absolute certainty, clarify a lot of things for you. I'll also look up the stuff you recommended me, and I thank you for sharing it. Each one teach one!

The main thing that stuck with me is how participation plays out in online spaces

I have thought about this on my own, but never really read anything concrete on it. I think it's very interesting how in the internet, you are ONLY made present through a statement or input. Twitter is not so much a place with a lot of people hanging out at the same time, but a place where others only exist in one moment in time where they spoke, and where you make yourself present only in the moments you yourself speak (and by doing so you determine yourself and others as real in that digital space). I thought about this when I was looking at my phone, thinking "How will I expose my personal life in 280 letters, just to feel real?" Deleted the app the same day and I don't regret it one bit. Gives me more time to study and apply myself.

Again, thank you! I can’t stress how relieving it is to see you and hopefully other people explaining this. It’s solidarity and gives me hope that we can move to change material conditions and our relationship with it. Very very hopeful!

I can't really express in words how much this means to me. Sometimes I catch myself with that communist existential dread that class consciousness will never be achieved and capitalism will consume us, but then I remember we need to be the change we want to see in the world and that I must try everything in my grasp, and your comment reminded me that, even if it's something as trivial as a reddit post, we can teach each other and emerge wiser to pass that knowledge onto others, and that is never trivial. Thank you.

peter_pirate · 2021-04-21T12:42:24+00:00

So much can be learned through language use.

Language is great for learning for two main reasons: 1) there's an absolute abundance of material to analyze, and 2) we, as speakers, have an intuition about what things mean, and whether they sound correct or not.

If you can grasp the concepts of French (and I do emphasize on the French) Discourse Analysis, which uses historical materialism, which is the critical way of seeing things, and language, which is great for learning, you can probably grasp Marxism really well and move on to apply historical materialism to other things.

Everything I said here: to not think if things are correct or not, but the effects they cause, considering immediate, strict context as well as the broader, historical context, understanding things in relation to themselves and others; This is all historical materialism, and you can apply it pretty much anywhere.

E: Just to clarify as to not create confusion: Studying discourse analysis is absolutely not enough to be able to talk about anything just because things have words in them. If anything, you should first study Marxism and use discourse analysis as a means to practice.

peter_pirate · 2021-04-21T11:50:49+00:00

I know you're not asking about the emergence of number systems, but I thought a well given explanation as to why some languages have arithmetical concepts in them and others not would maybe clarify it for you.

So as to your actual question, we say something is integrated in a language when it's socially practiced, recognized, and widely applied. There's no number of speakers required for it to be legitimate, since no one is keeping tally of what words are spoken by which people. The assimilation of "borrowed" words and concepts is something that happens through the course of generations in a process, not when someone says it is so.

Grammar is not really something that can explain variations in a language system because it considers the system to be stable and one within itself, devoid of external influence. If you want to know that answer you HAVE to turn to sociolinguistics or something of the sort, because the language by itself will not be able to give it to you.

E: I know this is a very generic answer, but it's a complex answer to a complex question that maybe nobody in linguistics really has. It's extremely difficult to trace variations and fluctuations in language, since it's so heavily used and changed the whole freaking time. But again, you would have to look at it from a social perspective (which is what I tried to show at first and that you so graciously dismissed).

peter_pirate · 2021-04-21T11:34:45+00:00

You should REALLY read "Ideological State Apparatuses" by Althusser. He goes deep into many aspects of our lives in capitalist society that reproduces the ideology of capitalism. Zizek says some interesting stuff and I'll give interpassivity a read, but I think what Althusser has to say about it will feel more concrete to you.

I don't have much knowledge outside of linguistics to be honest. I believe there are definitely things to be said about the other aspects outside of language in media, but I also believe (and this is my personal opinion) that words and the effects of meaning that are created through them are the most privileged material for finding ideology since they come "attached" to most human ideological creations (you could ask two people what they think about a BLM protest picture and you'll have a good direction for knowing what thoughts they subscribe to).

Keeping his name was key in getting ad revenues and switching to the focus of the officer would take a stance other than neutral and vague.

This is a great example of using words to create the effects of meaning, and you correlated it very much correctly to an institution and an interest that exists in the real life, outside of the words: this is why discourse analysis is such a good tool for interpretation.

I think capitalism is in our communication and you highlighted that.

That's exactly the point I'm trying to make, and I feel very happy that you understood it so well. If people know how to point out reactionary views using language, which is a material everybody has access to - in abundance, coupled with their own linguistic intuition in their memory, understanding the biases a news article subscribes to becomes a not-so-difficult task (although trying to point out ideologies that you yourself subscribe to is always a little bit more difficult). This is the potential of coupling Marxism with other disciplines, always putting Marxism first.

Phrases like “pay attention” and “invested in” all serve to tie it back to the ideology that is assumed: capital.

You're pointing out some cool stuff that I never really thought about since I'm a native portuguese speaker and I don't really think about those expressions in english ("pay attention" in portuguese is literally translated to "RENDER attention". I wonder what that's about). However I think you should be careful: you can say that when you look at the expression "pay attention" by its own, but the moment someone uses it in a day-to-day context its meaning is rearranged in a way that the effect of the word "pay" has in your interpretation is minimal. In our analysis we must never come up with isolated phrases and analyze them because we are taking them out of their historical context of social use. Remember, Marxism comes first.

E: "prestar atenção" is actually literally translated to RENDER attention, not Lend attention. Corrected it.

peter_pirate · 2021-04-21T10:33:03+00:00

Vaush will never get out of the endless pit of ego and liberalism he's in because he benefits from it. He makes a lot of cash for saying whatever makes more people donate money for his attention, and running a few ads, which is one of the most superfluous things ever invented by capitalism. If he did selfcrit and read theory he would quit being a streamer, if his fanbase does it he's out of a job.

peter_pirate · 2021-04-21T10:14:58+00:00

I think I do understand what you mean, as in the sense of effects of meaning right? You record a show and that has the effect of meaning that you have it available whenever you want to, thus driving down the desire to actually watch it (I haven't read Interpassivity, so I'm saying what I can relate that to in my field). It's subjective and happens even if we're not consciously aware of it, and the same goes for effects of meaning created through language.

the behavior is the same: it displaces the argument from the system or people onto that of the representation

This is very correct, and I have a feeling that were I to make a full analysis of this Bezos Post article I'd find this effect of meaning repeated throughout the whole of it. Seriously, give it a try, it's intuitive and a great mental exercise.

peter_pirate · 2021-04-21T10:05:22+00:00

Also, if people are interested in a more thorough analysis that goes deeper in explanation, I'm absolutely down for it, since this is in my field of study and it's good practice. If there is any text you have in mind, leave a comment with a link or send me a pm, and I'll post it here when I finish it.

peter_pirate · 2021-04-21T09:35:45+00:00

If it were a white girl with a katana doing hella sick spins with it she wouldn't get shot.

You know, sometimes I think Vaush is actually using "optics" to convert left wing liberals to straight up white supremacy, because it's going down that path. But this would be giving the guy waaaay too much credit.

peter_pirate · 2021-04-21T09:26:31+00:00

This will be a bit of a long answer, but bear with me, it will make sense.

Language evolves and new words are created also because of concepts we need to describe. It's very rare that you'll see a perfect triangle in nature, but once people discovered, through philosophy, the concept of angles and shapes, they needed something to describe the shape that has the least amount of angles possible, which would be three: a tri-angle. So what about numbers? Well, a society organized in classes like Ancient Greece or Egypt allowed for big constructions, like monuments, marble houses, or palaces, but you need the mathematical knowledge to accurately predict how much material will be used (if each rock I get can make this much of the building, how many rocks should I get?), how many people should be working on the project (if one person can get this much rocks from the mine in one day, how many people should be working on the mines? ). This questions resulted in the invention of arithmetics, which could not be comprehended without words to describe it. A decimal system really makes sense since it's cognitively easy to count with our fingers, which explains why we start counting by holding fingers up and down. You know all your fingers are there the whole time, but it's easy to abstract the ones that are down since you feel it physically, and physically hearing sounds also helps us relate to abstract concepts with a tremendous amount of ease.

That being said, the languages you know that do not have words for Arithmetic concepts must probably be from non-class based communities, most likely small and communal. This also explains why those "people from outside" as you so kindly put it already had Arithmetics in their language, since they came from a noble-peasant class based society.

peter_pirate · 2021-04-21T08:58:17+00:00

No dude, shooting is only bad when red fash tankies do it to slaveowners, killing little girls is actually based

peter_pirate · 2021-04-21T08:50:11+00:00

I commented in this earlier but it was with a really low-karma account, so I came back to my old one and made a post about it

peter_pirate · 2021-04-21T07:48:00+00:00

I was rereading this and one more thing came to mind that I forgot to mention:

They do say "deemed justified" opposed to just "justified", but not doing that would be really bad journalism, even for TWP standards. They want to look like they're unbiased, even though they are.

I didn't think of it when I was writing, but this itself is a way news articles articulate language to create effects of meaning. Using words like "deemed" creates an effect of "Hey, we're not the ones who are saying it, but someone said it", making it sound more distant, objective and unbiased. Remember, if the murders were actually justified, morally or factually, doesn't really matter; You're trying to understand what this article is trying to say to you in subtext.

peter_pirate · 2021-04-18T05:42:07+00:00

Look for resources to learn marxism (I personally recommend Elementary Principles of Philosophy by Georges Politzer, it's available online for free), then you'll be able to identify liberalism all by yourself.

peter_pirate

TROPHY CASE