#revolutionary defeatism

[argyrocratie]

We saw the “Action Week” (or rather the non-public session of the “Anti-War Congress”, and even originally the international meeting as we expected it) not as D-Day, but as a moment in the process of strengthening, developing and consolidating the defeatist revolutionary community, which is not to be built, but is already historically pre-existing, emerging from the fertile soil of class societies and the need to abolish them. A process that includes the exchange of texts and critiques, discussions, the organization of concrete actions, the continuity of the community, and so on… in short, the very opposite of what the left and far left of capital has accustomed us to in its conferences and congresses… A ruthless critique of “conferentism” and “congressism” is more necessary and fundamental than ever…

What we hoped for (and continue to promote) is the building of stronger relationships within the camp of revolutionary defeatism and, if possible, achieving a certain level of programmatic centralization while retaining a certain decentralization of actions.

Unfortunately (or more prosaically, hic et nunc!), we cannot interpret the “defeatist” practices of so-called “Left Communism” groups as being aimed at this objective.

Based on the activities of certain groups, we get rather the impression that their aim is not to build a genuine community of struggle (centralized programmatically, but not necessarily practically), but to build a “party”, and a mass party furthermore. By way of example, we can see in the activity of the “No War but the Class War” collectives and platform an attempt to create a kind of “minimum program” to which as many people as possible can adhere without exacerbating the particularisms of those various elements; in this way, we can consider them as nothing less than recruitment offices. We can see in these practices certain concessions to those who are programmatically unclear, so that they can bring the mass dimension to their activities. For our part, we want to do exactly the opposite.

Of course, we didn’t expect all the groups invited to the “Action Week” to be on the same programmatic level, and we’re well aware that some organizations’ critique of capitalism is not developed and deepened in the same way. But our hope was to enable them, through discussion and common practice, to reach a higher, more dialectical and therefore more radical level of understanding of the reality of the world based on exploitation, and thus to open up the possibility of a common struggle.

Another thing we cannot endorse is the effort of so-called “Left Communism” groups to prefer so-called “theoretical” discussions to discussions about the real, practical struggle of the defeatist revolutionary movement. Their methodological approach is certainly based on the assumption that we should first agree on the origin of the war – which for most of them seems to be the decadence of capitalism, before discussing anything else.

For us, there should be no separation between a so-called “theoretical” discussion and a “practical” one. What we’re interested in is a discussion of how we can concretely struggle against capitalist war and peace, and what we can practically do about it. And within such a discussion, theoretical and programmatic questions will necessarily arise and be addressed. In short, we prefer to go from practice to theory, whereas for all these groups, it seems to be the other way round."

-Tridni valka, "[AW2024] Report from Prague"

[estradiolivia]

liberals like to act like Lenin is some sort of Russian nationalist who likes expansionism and would support the Ukraine War but lets remember Lenin came to prominence during World War I in which he was quite strongly was against Russia as a revolutionary strategy.

[xelidonia]

I'm obsessed with this line from Touga. "It's wrong of me to flirt with you since you're my equal (for now)." It's so insidious. It's got the same vibes as those guys who claim that being attracted to a muscular women is gay

[anonymous-gambito]

Need a new RGU iteration so that Utena honors her first duel tradition this time by bringing a baseball bat and swinging it at saionji

[moongothic]

I just

Where the fuck is the Cross Guild plotline going

Like Crocodile and Mihawk allowed Buggy to do his thing until now because getting rid of him wasn't nececary, but we've gotten to the point where Buggy has straight up riled up his men who are all behind him, not Crocodile and Mihawk, to go get One Piece, and while the two could easily wipe the floor with them, it just seems like it'd be a waste of everyone's time

I just can not imagine the two being at all willing to go along with Buggy on the quest for One Piece, not in a million years, since the other two's interests are literally the opposite, but with the way the men are riled up it's not like they'd be able to unconvince them to follow Crocodile instead

But also Buggy does have that ship ready

And didn't they imply the three remaining Seraphim have been sent to Empteebluffs???

What if the Seraphim do show up and it's up to the only two capable fighters in Cross Guild to deal with them and Buggy just flees with whatever crew he can muster while no one is looking because god knows it's his last chance???

But even if Crocodile and Mihawk abusing Buggy until he grew a spine was a required event to get Buggy to join the race for One Piece, it'd still be strange for Oda to make Cross Guild A Thing if it only gets disbanded soon after without anything else coming from it?? (Like if they get disbanded immidiately then why did they need to be established to begin with, if Crocodile and Mihawk have somewhere else to be/end up in some other situation then surely Oda could've skipped the Cross Guild-part)

So are Croco and Mihawk just going to go along with Buggy's plans because they can't be bothered to put up a fight (and if they're stuck on the ship with him and Buggy's crew it will be like two (three if you include Daz) against hundreds- again, the two could easily kill them all, but is it worth the effort???)

I just. Where the fuck is this plot thread going man

[beesonjupiter]

i don't want to admit it but taynew are kind of growing on me in cherry magic..

i'm only 5 minutes in episode 9, so there's still plenty that can go wrong, but they're growing on me..

jan and sing can do no wrong, i love them so much i love them with all i have. do they have a series together? gmmtv give them a series

[mariocki]

Play for Today: Come the Revolution (BBC, 1977)

"You see, heavy irony is good, so long as it's so heavy we know it's irony."

"Right, we'll change it for Sunday."

"Medical inspection bit, solid fun. And the RSM bit, especially the wig joke: that's universal."

"Oh! We thought that was corny."

"No!"

"We couldn't think of anything else."

"Corny's very useful to us. It gets straight through to the people. They like corn, recognise it."

[jessica-problems]

I think they would hate each other and fuck about it.

[hauntingblue]

Robin is going to meet luffy's father before luffy 💀💀

[prussianmemes]

i think wasting an afternoon recording voice lines for ghetto smosh spinoff "sovok smosh" with anton and ivan was not the best choice looking at how hard it is to make sure you're not being too esoteric.

the plotline of an outbreak of fraternal nations tweaking on imf loans is also frankly retarded.

[lord-squiggletits]

I know I’ve posted about this before but like I actually don’t think that Megatron’s actions in the Functionist Universe make him a hero at all, at least not from a meta perspective. Because all he did was go to an alternate universe and get a free do-over card where he got to live out his fantasy of doing a revolution “properly” and even become a medic like he always wanted to. The only person he lost that was actually from this universe was Terminus-- the other Impactor and Orion were just that, alternate universe versions that Megatron had no real connection to besides “they’re alternate universe versions of guys I was friends/complicated rivals with.” The problem he solved came from a DIFFERENT UNIVERSE ENTIRELY and did nothing to make up anything from his own universe that he actually fucked up and wronged the people in.

If the Functionist Universe didn’t exist (and it only existed due to one guy fucking around with time travel) then Megatron’s actions as a “good guy” would have literally just been killing the DJD, and even that is SUPER lukewarm because 1. Megatron’s hesitation to do battle directly endangered the rest of the crew (people he was responsible for) and 2. He literally made the DJD and then discarded them (especially Tarn) like trash, like they were just rabid dogs he had forgotten to put down until they came threatening his soul-searching journey and his crew.

[scamallach-1]

I’m still here forever forward to say: focus on the root. Focus on the root. Settler-colonialism will fall and even though it will not be due to “Americans”, it will happen because of the decolonial movements of indigenous peoples globally who are uniting and because of all those who whole-heartedly believe in them, fight for them and their righteous cause, fight and success.

Focus on the root. Focus only on the root. Dig your heels in. Be like the bulldozer of Al Aqsa Flood. Dig your heels in for humanity, regardless of who you are, and for indigenous decolonization globally.

[badtzbot]

i have to say the relationship that smoker has with the asl brothers is fucking hilarious. luffy pissed him off so badly one singular time that he followed the guy halfway into the grand line and then also into the new world just to track him down. he had to accept help from his crew in defeating crocodile and luffy did it via becoming a water balloon. and then tashigi, who he's responsible for, cried about it. he hates luffy and luffy calls him smokey and doesn't gaf. ace.... do i even have to say anything. they did it nasty sloppy style. ace annoyed the fuck out of him and you KNOW it. smoker tried to confront him in alabasta and luffy SMASHED ALL THREE OF THEM THROUGH A WALL. and then luffy escaped because ace played diversion! and smoker can't even Actually do anything because ace is a wb pirate and he canNOT afford to anger them. and sabo. i just know when smoker met sabo in movie stampede he was already like fuck me why is the ra here and then sabo was like "luffys my little brother" and smoker just wanted to straight up kill himself. he was like FUCK ME theres ANOTHER ONE OF THEM ????? and then he has to fucking work with the guy for the greater good. again.

and the rest of the family too. he can't even yell at garp because he's one of the few superior officers smoker respects. smoker's life is just a constant aneurysm and you KNOW it's bad when the one he, a marine, has the least beef with is the fucking LEADER OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY. smoker i hope your blood pressure goes down because between this and the cigars you're gonna die before you reach 40

[jennaflare]

So Disco Elysium is the only game you've ever really liked

I get it! It's a phenomenal game with superb art and writing, and its themes are consistent and deeply explored. It sets a high bar for video games. But there are other really, really fantastic games out there. This is a list that is 100% my own taste of things that aren't necessarily similar, other than the fact that they're really fucking good. (A lot of these are on sale for the Steam Summer Sale until July 11 2024!)

In Stars and Time

In Stars and Time is a time loop game where you play as Siffrin, the rogue of a party at the end of their quest to save the day by defeating the King, who is freezing everybody in time! But something is wrong: every time you die, you loop back to the day before you fight the King. You're the only one who remembers the loops, so it's up to you to figure out why it's happening, and how to break out.

In Stars and Time is a heart-wrenching dive into mental health, friendship, and love. It's about feeling alone, and how awful it is when the people who love you don't notice (and how awful it is when they do). It's about falling deeper and deeper into your worst self and your worst tendencies, and how to come back from it.

The creator also did one of my favorite Disco Elysium comics ever, which is only tangentially relevant but worth mentioning.

Roadwarden

In Roadwarden, you play as the titular Roadwarden for an undeveloped and "wild" part of the kingdom. Monsters roam the forests and roads, and it's your job to keep people safe. On paper, anyway. Your real mission is to find out what is of value in the area, and how to take it from its people. How well you perform this task is up to you. It's an oldschool text-based RPG, and I take a lot of notes by hand when I play.

Roadwarden explores exploitation and industrialization by making you look in the face of your potential victims. You can only learn what your bosses want you to report on by getting close to the residents, after all. There are mysteries to be solved, secrets to be gathered, and hearts to win.

The Longing

The Longing is an adventure-idle game where you play as the solitary servant of a sleeping king. Your task is to wait for him, for four hundred days. Time in the game passes in realtime (for the most part). There are caves to explore, books to be read, and drawings to make.

The Longing is about loneliness and depression. It's about whether or not you decide to stay in that hole, and if you do, what you do with yourself while you're there. Maybe you'll wander. Maybe you'll stare at a wall. Maybe you'll just sleep until it's all over.

Papers, Please

Papers, Please casts you as a newly hired customs officer in a country that is rapidly tightening its borders as its fascist government tightens its fist. This game is stressful. Sometimes you intend to help out the revolutionaries when they asked, but then you got so stressed out trying to make your quota so you can feed your family and pay your bills that you didn't notice the name of the person they were hoping to contact while going through their papers. Sometimes someone puts a bomb in front of you and expects you to defuse it. Sometimes someone suggests you steal people's passports so you can get your family out, and with the horror you see daily, the idea tempts you more than you'd like.

Papers, Please is all about hard choices and testing your moral fortitude. Everything you do has consequences. Being a good person in this game is hardly ever rewarded, but not in a way that feels overly cynical. Papers, Please asks you what kind of person you want to be and what you're willing to sacrifice to get there.

The Return of the Obra Dinn

From the creator of Papers, Please, The Return of the Obra Dinn is a game where you play as an insurance investigator for the East India Trading Company. The ship the Obra Dinn has just floated back into port, its entire crew missing or dead. It's your job to figure out what happened aboard the vessel. For insurance reasons.

I don't know how to go into the themes of this too deeply without giving away too much, but the mechanics of the game itself make the game worth playing. You have a magic stopwatch that allows you to go back to the moment of a person's death, allowing you to try and figure out who (or what) killed them, and how. And the soundtrack is extremely good.

Outer Wilds

In Outer Wilds you play as an unnamed alien, and it's your first day going to space! Your planet's space program is pretty new still, so there's still lots to explore and discover on the planets within your system. There are ancient ruins from a mysterious race that once lived in your system, long before your species began to record history. Why were they here? Where did they go? How are they connected to the weird thing that keeps happening to you?

The fun of Outer Wilds is in the discovery and answering your own questions. The game never tells you where to go, and it never outright tells you anything. There are clues scattered through the system, and it's up to you to put them together and figure out your next steps. It's about the way that life always goes on, no matter what, even when it seems like the end of everything, forever. I'd recommend NOT reading anything else about this game. Just go play it. Seriously, the less you know, the more fun this is.

If on a Winter's Night, Four Travelers

In If on a Winter's Night, Four Travelers, you explore the circumstances of the deaths of four individuals.

This is a short one that took me about two and a half hours to play. If for no other reason, play it for the stunning pixel art. The game explores sexism, racism, and homophobia in the Victorian era and leans heavily into horror themes. Best of all: it's completely free!

Pentiment

Pentiment takes you to the 16th century, where you take the role of Andreas Maler, a journeyman artist working on his masterwork in the scriptorium of an abbey. When someone is murdered, Andreas takes responsibility for finding the culprit.

The game is set over 20~ years and you get to watch how Andreas' actions affect the village in various ways (who's alive the next time you come by, have people gotten married and had children...). It's an exploration of how the past affects the future, and what parts of that past we choose to keep or discard. It has beautiful art, and fans of both Disco and Pentiment often compare them.

Other games you might wanna check out

Night in the Woods, Dredge, Oxenfree, A House of Many Doors, Inscryption, Slay the Princess, Citizen Sleeper, Chants of Sennar, Loop Hero, The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, The Pale Beyond, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, Elsinore, Her Story, Before Your Eyes, Pathologic (not delved into above because the venn diagram of Pathologic fans and Disco fans is basically a circle)

[apas-95]

one thing avatar 2 does actually portray pretty well is that capitalist militaries are not actually very good at warfare and warfighting, in the strictest sense.

they excel in slaughter, a process the bourgeoisie have perfected into industrial science. their marauding 'peacekeepers' act as slaughterhouse hands in the operation of their very well-oiled machine, never themselves in much more danger from a called-in airstrike than from meat-processing machinery. in a rare tragedy they might lose an arm or leg, and certainly might have some psychological issues if they quit, but their job is to kill, not to fight.

this is something revolutionaries have taken great notice of regarding the process of actually defeating these apparently all-powerful militaries: it's actually really easy to escape a slaughterhouse if you shoot the people operating it

[needanaccount2readarcaneposts]

like you guys know warwick is supposed to be a metaphor, right?

and by 'you guys' I am talking to the writers of Arcane S2 (2024), who appear to have forgotten this.

like warwick, in a strictly plot sense, is something that is done to vander. but warwick, in a narrative sense, is supposed to be a metaphor. you understand that, right?

it's a metaphor for the monster within the man?

the hound of the underground?

the way suffering breeds cruelty breeds monsters - the uncaged wrath of zaun?

the sins of his past come back to haunt him?

the violence he tried to leave behind, but never could?

"i knew you still had it in you."?

Sometimes, as he fed in dark alleys on stray gangers, the flash of knives would remind him of an old blade covered in blood. Blood passing from the blade to his hands. From his hands, to everything he touched. Sometimes, he remembered the girl again. And still there was blood. It had always been there, he realized, his entire life, and nothing he did could wash it off. He'd left so many scars that even if he didn't remember his past, the city would. When he peered into the eyes of Zaun's criminals - the gang bosses, murderers, and thieves - he saw himself.

that's the warwick we should have gotten in S2. vander the grey, not vander the unproblematically whitewashed. vander the revolutionary who brought his gauntlets to that bridge to fight for a future; the base violence necessary for change. vander with blood on his hands, just as much as the partner he scapegoated for it; tried to bury in the pilt along with his own guilt; not just vander who felt aw shucks real sorry about the attempted murder that one time. vander the complex. vander who sold out zaun's resistance to ease his own shame. vander the reckoning with his own complicity; his own violence; his own original sin. vander whose murkiness helps vi unpack her black and white worldview, and let go of the rose-tinted past to which she clings; understand jinx, even understand silco; understand that it's not just about Individual Bad People doing Individual Bad Things to Individual Good People, and Individual Good People who have to defeat the Individual Bad People, but that this is something far bigger and far older than any of them, a whole rotten system of misery and oppression that turns people into monsters. that the thing that turned vander into a monster, METAPHORICALLY, happened long before he met singed.

vander the monster, as well as vander the man.

instead, we got whatever this shit is: