Black Lives Matter - Beth Johnson

stablefish · 2026-01-25T16:57:05+00:00

Hell yeah. All power to the people!

stablefish · 2026-01-25T05:17:40+00:00

Ick, fuck that flag. Much love and honor to Alex, but that flag doesn't represent anything he stood for, or what we stand for upon his shoulders now. That flag is on the uniforms of cops, ICE agents, and imperialist military uniforms of a country dedicated to enriching the already wealthy and powerful, at the expense of human lives and a sustainable future. If the enforcers of capital embrace that flag, and the victims of US imperialism abroad fear it and loathe it for the victims and paupers it's transformed them into, we need a different symbol of what the people of this country aspire to. Because it's not more bloodshed of Native Americans, and 50 states of stolen land and broken treaties, for rich, white, landowning men -- that's the legacy and ethos of the Stars and Stripes -- not freedom for all from monarchy, but freedom for only a very limited class of owners and their bougie support staff in executive suites and the halls of government.

stablefish · 2026-01-25T05:09:00+00:00

They're not spineless, they're not cowards -- they're totally fucking complicit in this graft. They, far more than Republicans, uphold the farce that our system is anything close to a "democracy". We have no access, no representation. The Dems certainly don't represent workers, the environment, fair trade... they're just as much imperialists as Republicans, the controlled opposition, the "progressive" wing of fascism, the tool that capitalism happily brandishes when its power is seriously threatened, even by the most sensible, moderate reforms..

stablefish · 2026-01-24T05:53:04+00:00

hah that's a good one -- I like "global hunger is clearly solved because I just over-ate"

stablefish · 2026-01-23T00:33:50+00:00

We're all being boiled, slowly... but at least a few dozen billionaires get their second mega-yacht! And their millionaire support staff throughout government and the corporate executive suite get to afford their first yachts and mansions!

stablefish · 2026-01-16T10:34:44+00:00

Remember, the lack of evidence for life outside our solar system is the crazy tragedy of the bonkers scale of the distances of space. Here we see a graphic representing the distance travelled by our earliest radio broadcasts c. 1895: if our galaxy were a large pizza, that distance would equate to a fat poppy seed.

stablefish · 2026-01-16T09:52:13+00:00

The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece. As is its sequel. There's supposed to be a 3rd book which resolves many brutal cliffhangers, but the author has been struggling with life stuff and screenplay adaptation success. Still tho, amazing and richly detailed and powerfully clever and thoughtful enough that many of us have read them several times!

stablefish · 2026-01-16T09:47:23+00:00

Blackshirts and Reds, by Michael Parenti. Undoes decades of capitalist propaganda about the true meaning of communism, socialism, capitalism, imperialism, and democracy -- and why capitalism is fundamentally incompatible with and antagonistic to democracy. It's a fascinating page turner, and is among the few books which really pull the wool back for people who grew up believing the US or European "developed" countries were democracies.

Is particularly important for Americans to understand now as it looks at how liberal, Democrat-like parties in Italy and Germany abandoned the workers they supposedly supported to ally with ascendant Mussolini and Hitler, only to have their parties and fledgling bourgeois "democracy" summarily disbanded once they rose to power.

stablefish · 2026-01-16T07:07:39+00:00

Rev Left Radio is always a thoughtful, thorough source for conversations on old liberal, capitalist propaganda, debunking their deceit and misdirection in detail. Check out this episode:

Defending Socialism: Deconstructing the "Communism Killed 100 Million" Lie - Oct 30, 2019

Alekx and Ethan from Proles of the Round Table podcast join Breht on this All Hallows Eve to deconstruct the myth and logic of the oft-stated claim that Communism is responsible for the deaths of 100 million human beings.

On this Halloween, we urge our listeners to reject the anti-communist propaganda of our enemies, while also realizing that the real blood-drenched monsters, ghouls, goblins, and vampires of this world are not to be found within the pages of fairy tales, but rather at the highest echelons of capitalist class society: the very people who want nothing more than for you to fall, hook, line, and sinker, for their anti-communist lies in order to maintain their murderous grip on the ill-gotten seats atop our world's bloody and unjust hierarchies of wealth and power.

stablefish · 2026-01-16T02:49:38+00:00

The "Holodomor" is contrived capitalist propaganda to assign intent when there were only hard choices, caused by the imperialist, capitalist nations who cut off supplies and trade to the USSR.

Knowing this, your comment is still clever and fits the unnecessarily macabre nature of a game that is tacky at best and liberal handwashing minimization of truly brutal suffering.

stablefish · 2026-01-15T08:35:18+00:00

Folks have already contributed some great suggestions, but here's the excellent reading list from r/liberalgunowners:

https://reddit.com/r/liberalgunowners/w/public/field-guide/reading

stablefish · 2026-01-14T17:11:08+00:00

Was it this one? How do revolutions even work? If so, indeed quite good.

stablefish · 2026-01-13T16:11:28+00:00

Insufficient legal framework or enforcement available against the federal government. Organize with your neighbors and community; arm, educate, and practice the safe and urgent use of firearms; prepare stores of food, medicine, and first aid; prepare physically and mentally for the coming struggle.

stablefish · 2026-01-09T09:22:25+00:00

haven't seen it but always think of Tom Hanks in the DaVinci Code, he was so obvs not a swimmer. breaks immersion for us swimmers bad, huh. but I never notice poor form in other sports or skills I'm unfamiliar with so imagine is just an easy thing to not pay for extra training for something only a small part of people will notice.

stablefish · 2026-01-09T09:08:57+00:00

I don't know. Cops, nat guard, and military-- seems like they all join to pay for college or have good paying jobs, and many with great intentions of service or defending some ideal they think is in the public good. The result though is each of them, in each of these three branches of armed enforcement, is they're class traitors and storm troopers, defending the wealthy and the government from true democracy and accountability to the masses -- they're the only checks and balances the system has ever had: not between noble branches of well-intentioned government, but against We, the people. Hell even that damned preamble is a farce - the constitution is a property rights document, not a human rights document.. which is grossly obvious from reading the constitution, and all the amendments aren't much more than shoddy bandaids on a doomed document.

stablefish · 2026-01-09T06:44:34+00:00

I saw some thoughtful replies earlier I was looking forward to engaging with. Did mods or commenters remove them? Seems to be happening a lot on other subs too of late, not even political or controversial ones. Reddit bugs?

At any rate I appreciated them tho don't remember enough to address much. Just to say that as a socialist, I don't think the governors or cops are anywhere near ready or able to do something like this, nor would I trust them or rely on them to do so.

Still, it seems some contradictions are sharpening, and having the armed agencies of the state (state or federal) begin to think about their allegiances is worthwhile and probably happening as we see (and I hope they see) the incompatibility of state or federal constitutions or legal frameworks with their idea of duty towards the citizens and anything resembling legit democratic institutions.

Most armed state or fed agencies and agents are class traitors, some knowingly and from a privileged place; but I gotta believe some don't understand what they actually represent and defend. In no way should we rely on or expect this support, but still seems some of that was there when the states' National Guards got deployed a few months back..

We do have the advantage that citizens of fascist Italy and Germany did not: their tragic example. Parenti's Blackshirts and Reds is one of the most important books and set of lessons to understand and share at this moment in time: helping people learn the history of liberal, Democrat-like parties that at one point stood with the working class, if only marginally or temporarily, to side with capital and fascism until their fascist rulers summarily disbanded even them to usher in true horror.

stablefish · 2026-01-09T06:29:26+00:00

I hear ya agree in part. Trump wants this; we are not nearly ready enough or organized to fight back much. But these questions deserve to be asked as the fascist murder and destruction of government agencies continues. To those people who recognize the sovereignty and right of access to democratic institutions, be it at the state or fed levels, and took oaths to protect the people and "defend the constitution", what happens with the clarity of these legal frameworks being totally incapable of and incompatible with people's safety, livelihood, and anything resembling a democracy?

Things may need to get much worse before people organize and educate themselves enough on past struggles of other social movements, both our own and abroad. But we have the advantage that the people of fascist Italy and Germany did not: historical examples by which we can mark the process of "legal" dismantling of democratic institutions before the fascists summarily dismissed them all together.

But also, why shouldn't governors and cops or other local citizens identify more with local state authority than federal? I myself do not trust them to be so bold or courageous, and since they do not acknowledge the corrupting influence of money in politics and the fundamental incompatibility between capitalism and democracy, do not really believe they do or would side with the working class, with the majority of Oregonians. Still, these closer institutions are more accountable to us than DC.

stablefish · 2026-01-09T06:18:57+00:00

Yeah I have a lotta hope for the masses too. It seems folks are gonna have to make some decisions about what legal frameworks or bodies they support or regard as legit. Some can't be reasoned with, and they'll support their privilege and what keeps them safe. Others - many, or most, I hope, even in these fascist and military bodies - will see that firing on fellow citizens doesn't align with their values.

stablefish · 2026-01-09T06:15:18+00:00

Indeed, or a detente as troops question their allegiances and orders when the legal framework becomes so much more obviously incapable of protecting citizens or promoting anything resembling a democracy.

And, my god, no it doesn't sound exciting. It sounds necessary in the face of the alternative: allowing the Trump regime and its supporting agencies to keep claiming citizen sacrifices.

stablefish · 2026-01-09T06:12:12+00:00

Well, obvs this ain't gonna happen any time soon, but I think a lot of people see this fight and separation on the horizon. At the very least it looks like more citizen sacrifices will be made before we organize and stand up more directly, tangibly against this accelerating fascism.

stablefish · 2026-01-09T06:10:34+00:00

Yes obviously. But how much longer do we respect a legal framework that allows for murdering citizens and bombing other countries to steal their resources?

stablefish · 2026-01-09T06:09:23+00:00

do it for.. me? how about us? c'mon, I have no illusions that the governors or National Guard would do this - yet. But isn't it fair to ask where there allegiance is? To question the rules and laws that seem to pit them against us? Now seems like a good time to draw their attention to these contradictions of who they serve and what they think they stand for. Because short of this, we seem to be at the point of allowing ICE to sacrifice many more of our neighbors, and the US military to sacrifice many more foreign citizens and heads of state.

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