#pleasure leftists

[snekdood]

bitches be like. i hate vegans so much that i’ve decided i like killing animals and its fine and i dont feel bad and animals dont have feelings and its fine and im cool subversive and different and edgy and like to post fucked up stuff to make vegans uncomfortable bc im just so cool

[neuromangler]

Pleasure.

[cupidhaseul]

can not believe my mom just texted me, had me thinking she was going to talk about something serious then what she had to say was that i had to stop insulting the usa near my sister bc she has started to hate the usa a little bit too much for her taste

[defleftist]

This is in fact a core tenet of my personal life philosophy. People deserve beauty, joy, and pleasure in their lives.

hedonism is good actually rich people just suck at it

[yuri-for-businesswomen]

i hate the normalisation of porn i hate it i hate it i hate it stop injecting porn references in shows and songs and conversations stop saying „sex workers who perform in front of the camera“ its all about who can take the most degradation and penetration thats all it is its not sensual its not intimate its dehumanising its reducing people to flesh and once again sorting in who gets fucked and who gets to fuck no its not normal to watch strangers have sex no its definitely not normal to watch strangers crying and sobbing and being choked and hit and spat on and get off on that WHAT THE FUCKKKK

sex should not be an industry sex should not be commodified if you want to film yourself and your partner for your own pleasure its whatever but how can you defend watching that online shit especially if you cant watch the same video over and over porn consumers just like sex buyers insist on constantly having fresh meat a never ending stream of dick in anything that moves (or doesnt anymore) the whole INDUSTRY is based on manipulating grooming trafficking forcing because otherwise the hungry hungry hippo that are porn consumers who have unlearned how to masturbate without getting off on video footage of what might as well be rape on tape in many cases would run out of material! oh no! its all so fucking sick and has nothing to do with sex and everything to do with profit and grooming and normalising fetish and kink and violent sex and there are people calling themselves leftist defending this shit WHAT TJE FUCKKK AND FOR WHAT FOR WHAT

[owl-liberation-now]

as a leftist, being continually proven right about the origins and continuing rise of fascism while all the adults in the room ignore us gives me zero pleasure at all. "told you so" doesn't cut it. you fuckers should have listened during brexit instead of devil's advocating and trying to parse the semantics of what really constitutes true fascism. you should have listened at the EU demos in 2020 when they set fire to migrant housing instead of sending your shit memes about triggered snowflakes. you should have listened during almost 15 years of continuous conservative rule. you should have listened when we said the quote-unquote moderate liberal candidate was a scab who'd do nothing to address things, and even continue to stoke the fire of authoritarianism and demonise and repeal the rights of the most vulnerable. there are race riots in the streets and the BBC are calling them protesters instead of fascists. I'm fucking done Mike.

[transmutationisms]

In a different ask about Mark Fisher, you mentioned that he “…had some reactionary tendencies that you can see in, for example, the way he talked about 'depressive anhedonia' and what that reveals about his attitude toward pleasure. many such cases on the academic left.” Can you elaborate on this and why do you think it is so prevalent on the academic left?

i guess the more accurate way i would rephrase myself is that this is an attitude common to the overculture and consequently to academia, but that i find to be particularly hypocritical when it comes from people styling themselves as 'leftists'—broadly speaking there's a real fear that 'excessive' pleasure or leisure (this is often conflated with the procurement of luxury consumer goods) is morally corrupting, distracts from or hinders political action, arrests personal growth, &c. often this idea of a coddled, pampered, pleasure-ridden younger generation is explicitly counterposed to a reactionary fantasy of past generations of 'hard workers' who performed physical labour or didn't have ipads or whatever the issue du jour is. it's bad analysis because it blames the nebulous idea of 'too much enjoyment' for what are actually real and pressing political issues: for example, whose labour made the ipad and under what conditions?

there's a huge & critical difference between saying that the procurement of luxury consumer goods for global northerners is predicated on imperial exploitation of the global south, and saying that the goods are simply 'bad', metaphysically, because they make life too enjoyable and people too soft. it comes out of a tendency among academics to a) ignore, minimise, or just not think about imperialism in their attempts to critique capitalism and b) treat the superstructural effects (culture, ideology, psychological experience) as though they are the causal factors, leading to sloppy lazy 'moral degeneracy' theorising that does nothing to liberate anyone and instead just thinks itself into a pit of condescending despair.

[drdemonprince]

I very much appreciate the practical financial advice you’ve shared. It’s definitely something I’ve struggled with, because the moral standpoint seems to be put on a burlap sack and live in a cave to avoid contributing to suffering. But realistically, if I’m not earning and saving, I’m pushing the burden of the financial shortfall onto my loved ones who will not be willing to watch me suffer without at least providing shelter and food. I feel an obligation to give back to them as well, which has led me to pursue jobs that give me as much income as possible with the most manageable workload for my disability. It’s an uncomfortable place to be, but I have to agree that I think it’s far more in the interest of empire for the most radical thinkers of society to be stuck in poverty than to be safe and able to provide to each other. I’m trying to be grateful and give back instead of beating myself for being lucky, essentially. A tricky topic - Thank you for grappling with it!

My pleasure! As one person said in the notes, dying of starvation is not praxis! We leftists gotta get over our fucking inherited puritanical compulsion toward suffering.

[hero-israel]

A rant that I just can't post on main but think you might appreciate:

If the left had sided with the Jewish people and mourned our dead with us, even if it couldn't prevent the massacre itself, dayeinu

If the left had extended measured sympathy even if it had not been righteously angry and grieved on our behalf, dayeinu

If the left had just remained silent even if it did not extend measured solidarity, dayeinu

If the left had denied the atrocities against us and throughout Jewish history, even though they could have just remained silent, dayeinu

If the left had engaged in some sick quiet pleasure at our dead for having deserved it, even though they could have just looked away and pretended it wasn't real, dayeinu

If the left had cheered our deaths loudly even though they could have kept that within antisemitic enclaves, dayeinu

If the left had radicalized a generation of activists against us, even though they could have kept it to just being bold talk like they do with everything else, dayeinu

If the left had kept their radical "advocacy" to being in words and marches even though they could have stuck with ugly beliefs, dayeinu

If the left had contented itself with property destruction and defacement rather than escalating to physically attacking Jews in public, dayeinu.

But unfortunately, now we are facing the radicalization of a generation into physically violent antisemitism, where attacks and rockets launched at Israeli Jews are being justified because they're in Israel and physical attacks on diaspora Jews are being justified because *something something* Israel, Holocaust inversion and genocidal rhetoric is rampant, and angry mobs are threatening Jewish students on campus.

I'd love to say that there are going to be a lot of extremely ashamed leftists in the future, but I'm sure they'll just deny it the same way they casually deny the Holocaust and Soviet pogroms now.

Not much to add to this one. You have a way with words, though I'm sorry it's necessary in these circumstances.

[max1461]

Kind of funny and incongruous that I'm a leftist because like, on a personal level one of my major personality traits is that I have a kind of "collector's instinct", and I get a lot of pleasure simply out of the fact of owning certain items. Like I love to Have A Cool Thing, it is one of my great joys in life. And yet philosophically like half the project of this blog (in my head, at least) has been to deconstruct the notion of private property and figure out exactly what its role is society is and could be. When like. I definitely have the disposition to simply take "ownership" as an unexamined primitive.

Except I'm too inquisitive and intellectually honest to do that. Too based, too levelheaded. I do hope they let me be an antique collector under communism though. That's something I aspire to.

[leftistfeminista]

Feminist activists carried out a protest starting from Providencia: Un Sitio de Memoria para Antofagasta, the former detention site for political prisoners under Pinochet. The object was to raise awareness about the abuses women endured as well as their heroic resistance and defiance. It is necessary to put a human face on what women endured. To overcome the silence. The Junta claimed it was "terrorizing Marxist terrorists". Leftist women were dehumanized as a dangerous threat to society who deserved their rough treatment.

The protest performance memorializes and reenacts what women political prisoners endured. Communist Party women leaders were considered the trophy prizes of the Junta regime. After being worn down by daily beatings and torture, she was stripped. Her bra and panties hung on display to show off the intimate symbols of her conquest. But she herself was the even bigger spoil of political warfare. She was paraded around the prison yard in front of all her comrades. Torn from the embrace of her sister-comrades, she was bound, chained, and presented like a trussed-up human gift, a macabre reward for a high-ranking Junta officer. She was delivered like a wrapped up Valentine's day gift to be enjoyed. Forcing defiant militants to become intimately submissive was the tool to make them politically compliant. The Left was to be broken by breaking its women leaders.

"No abortes" is written over the protester's belly as a grim reminder of the final goal of the repeated abuse. Political prisoners who became pregnant from their violations were denied abortions under Pinochet's draconian laws. The Junta answer to Marxist women's attempt to seize the means of production was to seize their means of reproduction. Misogynists saw the bodies of women political enemies as just a battleground to wage war on. In the neoliberal calculus, leftist women enemies were now a net benefit to the Junta, their bodies providing pleasure and babies for Junta officers.

The Junta Fascists sought the complete destruction of the dignity of political women who threatened it. Making a mockery and spectacle of Communist women leaders who had once been dangerous. Intense relentless humiliation was used to mentally break her so she would no longer think of herself as a political agent. To transform her from a threat to a source of pleasure and amusement to the powerful men of the regime. In the political war against radical egalitarianism, the women of the cause were to be reduced to complete subjugation and slavery, the polar opposite of the equality they fought for. It is precisely because of the immense strength of Marxist women that the total power of the capitalist military state was needed to drag her down into abject weakness.

We must never forget how women have had to pay for their political convictions in such an intimate, personal, violating way. The ways in which misogynist fascists attack the ideas of women through our bodies.

[milfstalin]

By 1965, the PKI had three million party members – adding a million members in the year. It had emerged as a serious political force in Indonesia, despite the anti-communist military’s attempts to squelch its growth. Membership in its mass organizations went up to 18 million. A strange incident – the killing of three generals in Jakarta – set off a massive campaign, helped along by the CIA and Australian intelligence, to excise the communists from Indonesia. Mass murder was the order of the day. The worst killings were in East Java and in Bali. Colonel Sarwo Edhie’s forces, for instance, trained militia squads to kill communists. ‘We gave them two or three days’ training,’ Sarwo Edhie told journalist John Hughes, ‘then sent them out to kill the communists.’ In East Java, one eyewitness recounted, the prisoners were forced to dig a grave, then ‘one by one, they were beaten with bamboo clubs, their throats slit, and they were pushed into the mass grave’. By the end of the massacre, a million Indonesian men and women of the left were sent to these graves. Many millions more were isolated, without work and friends. Aidit was arrested by Colonel Yasir Hadibroto, brought to Boyolali (in Central Java) and executed. He was 42. There was no way for the world communist movement to protect their Indonesian comrades. The USSR’s reaction was tepid. The Chinese called it a ‘heinous and diabolical’ crime. But neither the USSR nor China could do anything. The United Nations stayed silent. The PKI had decided to take a path that was without the guns. Its cadre could not defend themselves. They were not able to fight the military and the anti-communist gangs. It was a bloodbath.

Red Star Over the Third World Vijay Prashad, November 2017

The fourth way that anticommunist extermination programs shaped the world is that they deformed the world socialist movement. Many of the global left-wing groups that did survive the twentieth century decided that they had to employ violence and jealously guard power or face annihilation. When they saw the mass murders taking place in these countries, it changed them. Maybe US citizens weren’t paying close attention to what happened in Guatemala, or Indonesia. But other leftists around the world definitely were watching. When the world’s largest Communist Party without an army or dictatorial control of a country was massacred, one by one, with no consequences for the murderers, many people around the world drew lessons from this, with serious consequences. This was another very difficult question I had to ask my interview subjects, especially the leftists from Southeast Asia and Latin America. When we would get to discussing the old debates between peaceful and armed revolution; between hardline Marxism and democratic socialism, I would ask: “Who was right?” In Guatemala, was it Árbenz or Che who had the right approach? Or in Indonesia, when Mao warned Aidit that the PKI should arm themselves, and they did not? In Chile, was it the young revolutionaries in the MIR who were right in those college debates, or the more disciplined, moderate Chilean Communist Party? Most of the people I spoke with who were politically involved back then believed fervently in a nonviolent approach, in gradual, peaceful, democratic change. They often had no love for the systems set up by people like Mao. But they knew that their side had lost the debate, because so many of their friends were dead. They often admitted, without hesitation or pleasure, that the hardliners had been right. Aidit’s unarmed party didn’t survive. Allende’s democratic socialism was not allowed, regardless of the détente between the Soviets and Washington. Looking at it this way, the major losers of the twentieth century were those who believed too sincerely in the existence a liberal international order, those who trusted too much in democracy, or too much in what the United States said it supported, rather than what it really supported—what the rich countries said, rather than what they did. That group was annihilated.

The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade & The Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World Vincent Bevins, 2020

[radfemsiren]

Sorry I keep sending you asks about it but I saw another post on the snark subreddit saying there are not big youtubers covering what happened wuth Cody Ko and it just hit me. They're right. All those big pro social justice leftist dudes are not talking about it. It makes me think they know if one of them goes down, they all go down so they cut all ties and pretend they never knew him. This is some sort of male solidarity where they won't say anything against him publicly but they have to protect each other. But since their reputation and all audience friend content is more important they won't address this.

Exactly ! If it was a conservative chud theyd be talking about this for months… they will never look inward at their own community. The commentary community is a boys club, and they will never speak about issues that threaten it. It took forever for them the even mention the Gus Johnson situation. No one ever spoke about Noel Miller defending Andrew Tate. They’re is def some stuff in the background going on that they’re hiding from the audience for no one to condemn Cody Ko like this.

Also don’t feel bad about sending YouTuber drama asks because that topic is def a guilty pleasure of mine lol!

[problemnyatic]

Yeah you've divorced yourself form the idea of biblical sins, but have you also done the work of unlearning the idea that doing wrong, making a mistake, or causing harm renders someone an inherently bad or evil person unless they repent or are punished? You call yourself a prison abolitionist but do you still think that a given person may deserve more or less comfort, pleasure, safety , or autonomy in their life based on their actions? Yeah you've decided to be a progressive leftist now, but have you actually put in the work to genuinely unlearn the christian-borne ideals that linger in your worldview, regardless of where they come from or whether you consider yourself christian?

[just-antithings]

I can’t stress this enough

(Young) queers/leftists, please stop mentioning “porn addiction”. It isn’t recognized as an addiction and the person who called it that is a discredited researcher who is also a terf

Overconsumption and compulsive or obsessive behaviors are a thing, but porn doesn’t change the brain’s chemistry the way gambling, online gaming or substance/alcohol abuse does. You don’t have to feel afraid of feeling pleasure from watching porn, that’s what it’s there for!

It’s okay if you want to take a step back from watching “too much” porn, but in itself porn isn’t harmful nor does it lead to more sexual violence

Calling it an addiction is a tactic to shame queer people, it’s used in conversion therapy and primarily attacks queer/trans people and sex workers. We are already seen as sexual deviants, we don’t need our own people to repeat the “queer/trans people are grooming our children with sexual deviancy!” moral panic

👆👆👆👆

[damphexagon]

Fellow Leftists of Tumbler Dot Com ...

I come to you all with a confession, head bowed, filled with shame. I just don't know if I can go on if I don't get this off my chest. So here goes ... I like Kamala Harris. There, I said it. The thing is, I expected this year's election to be another thing to be crushed by. Even the last one that the lesser-of-two-evils candidate won a Pyrrhic victory in sucked shit. I'd emotionally steeled myself for an unwinnable rematch between Ancient Braindead Republican and Trump, followed by 4 years of degradation of civil rights, new mass deportations, worsening environmental destruction, and so forth. And now that... appears to maybe not be going to happen. I know people are not willing to like Harris, because a vote for her is not a vote for The Revolution. Pretty much by definition, you cannot vote a revolution -- after all, a system will never give you the tools you need to dismantle it. But it is a vote for something better, and not in the same way a vote for Biden was for something (only) better than a vote for Trump. You have a woman of color, the youngest serious candidate since Obama, who has promoted and voted for progressive policies for years, not just as something she adopted out of nowhere to get elected (to inevitably abandon immediately after). Within the constraints of what a two-party election can offer, this is what we've wanted. I know the big one for a lot of people right now is the U.S. supporting and financing Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people, which is a great tragedy and a national disgrace that should be ended immediately. What I don't get though is why it's making people hate the candidate that most opposes it. Trump is all in, and Biden weirdly maybe even moreso. On the other hand, you have a candidate who refused to attend what basically amounted to a party for Netanyahu, and instead met with him to tell him, from the sounds of the press release at least, get your shit sorted out for a withdrawal from Gaza. When picking a Vice-Presidential candidate, she could've picked the "moderate" Zionist who would've swung a must-win state and most likely won the election, but instead she went with the pro-labor pro-education progressive unknown. To me, that says a lot, about policies but also about personal integrity. I know some would like something more forceful and explicit, but you do need to keep in mind who the average USAmerican voter is and remember that winning does matter. And she is winning. Not by a lot, but steadily by a little more every single day for the past weeks. So I guess what I'm saying is... can you just let me, us, be happy? Maybe just a little bit? I know things are still bad in many ways and regardless of the results of this election the United States is likely to remain a force of destruction in the world. No election result is a substitute for revolutionary action. But as far as elections go, this is more than we could've hoped for in any election since 2016, except the DNC is on board instead of running interference. It's not a guarantee, but things from Medicare For All to the Green New Deal to an actual end of the Israeli genocide of Palestine are more likely now than they have been in a long time. And if nothing else, can't we at the very least take pleasure in Trump's impotent tantrums and visible suffering? I thought we could all at least agree on that. Let me have this. Harris/Walz 2024.