#you aren't a communist you're just self-centered

[bixels]

As cameras becomes more normalized (Sarah Bernhardt encouraging it, grifters on the rise, young artists using it), I wanna express how I will never turn to it because it fundamentally bores me to my core. There is no reason for me to want to use cameras because I will never want to give up my autonomy in creating art. I never want to become reliant on an inhuman object for expression, least of all if that object is created and controlled by manufacturing companies. I paint not because I want a painting but because I love the process of painting. So even in a future where everyone’s accepted it, I’m never gonna sway on this.

if i have to explain to you that using a camera to take a picture is not the same as using generative ai to generate an image then you are a fucking moron.

[whatisthisblogevenabout]

An Epidemic of White, Male Loneliness

transcript: "I've seen a lot of people saying we need a leftist Joe Rogan or if you are a white male leftist you should just start a podcast yourself to offset some of the conservative influencers indoctrinating our nation's young minds. While this isn't a terrible idea on the surface they aren't a real solution for a lot of reasons, a big one being that the right needs the left in a way that the left doesn't need the right most right-wing content is reactionary and thrives on provoking and opposing rather than engaging in good faith.

Some folks have also suggested that perhaps we should add some machismo and talking about the importance of human rights and show that not all leftists are self-righteous nerds who prefer theory over praxis. Others have said these men need to simply touch grass by slamming their face in some shrubbery at 34m/hour or that we should just bully them for being ignorant f4sc1sts... I don't know if that's particularly helpful when they can't even pronounce the word.

...

l was a young lonely white man at one point so I can see how Gen Z feels this way. My loneliness was partially because I was a latchkey only child and partly because I didn't want to make the same mistakes my parents did by getting divorced at some point. I was always in search of the one where I lovebombed and trauma dumped and put women on a pedestal, something I conflated with respect. I was a subtle sexist who preferred to refer to himself as a hopeless romantic instead, and the idea of controlling women was never my MO, it was more about finding a partner to share a deep intimate bond with that I thought required I prove that I was desirable as well.

The rhetoric I see coming from young men online today seems much more about regaining some kind of control over everything but their own lives and owning women as in property, but also as in "you got owned!" like they're playing Counterstrike.

This loneliness and alienation comes out in spiteful ways like voting for Tr_mp to own the libs and reveling in saying the most vile racist xenophobic and sexist [ *** ] just to play it off as a joke. Basically embracing ignorance and apathy just because what, you're lonely?Man up, you [ *** ] [ *** ]

Obviously I'm not saying you feel sympathy for the most privileged and protected group in the country or the world, I think it's important though to examine why they might feel this way as a means to debunk this idea that Andrew Tate and Joe Rogan and Charlie Kirk are Peak Masculinity and intellectual powerhouses by the terminally online 18 to 26 demographic.

While these men may have the most privileged existence on the planet they still aren't exempt from loneliness or depression or struggle, I mean they account for almost 70% of all su1c1des in the US so something's clearly wrong with them, but that privilege insulates them from what real oppression like racism sexism and homophobia look like and for the record to anyone who might see my criticism of white men as betrayal or self-hatred let me just say I've always hated myself, but not because of the color of my skin.

The first thing we have to address is this idea that we need a leftist meathead Joe Rogan who can recite the Communist Manifesto while bench pressing a couple of hot babes or whatever. For one thing we already kind of have a leftist Rogan and his name is Hasan Piker, he's a gymbro who shoots guns and has dated adult film stars who proselitizes his leftist gospel daily.

If those aren't traditionally manly things I'll eat my gay hat. He was the third most viewed twitch streamer on election night in a sea of conservative brainrot so I don't want to hear about not having a Joe Rogan alternative.

Maybe instead of complaining about the amount of alt-right content creators there are or leftist creators who do center their masculinity cuz apparently that's also a [ *** ] problem we uplift the ones who don't hate women and minorities and think the Earth is flat.

You also can't just manufacture someone like this, creating a following of any kind relies at least a little bit on authenticity and conviction which is hard to fabricate if not impossible.

Besides that there are countless other leftist creators out there right now: Some More News, Second Thought, Contrapoints, Philosophy Tube and so many other smaller channels and streamers, so why is someone as big as Hasan not as big as his right-wing counterparts? Corporate donors, duh.

Being anti-capitalist on platforms that require creators sell advertising space doesn't make you the most advertiser friendly. If you do promote socialist or communist values while making six or seven figures and God forbid you use that money to buy a house for you and your family, you also run the risk of being called a hypocrite by very intelligent people online.

Alternative media is infested with conservative corporate donors sponsoring right-wing creators and sometimes foreign governments paying them six figures to spread propaganda and misinformation.

..."

[ming-sik]

After finishing p5v12 I ended up coming back to the bbc sherlock hbomb video because it really is applicable in the sense that despite convincing me for a very long time that it wanted to be this grand, rich political drama with dense worldbuilding and character dynamics, AOB never actually was that. Like it just wasn't, its worldbuilding was always bespoke/fragile/contradictory, in terms of character dynamics it has barely a handful, even character motivations tap out at like five distinct ones, and its politics are just too simplistic to even conceptualize any political drama beyond "the wrong guys are in charge >:(". Certainly some of it was mismanaged expectations since AOB fans who predominantly are not worldbuilders tend to way overhype the complexity when there are 3/5 country gates without named destinations, but it has also been just depressing seeing my attempt to engage with AOB in good faith under the assumption that it was asking questions it would eventually answer(What happens to people with the Devouring who aren't Myne? What happens to orphans in the rest of the country? What's life like for Bosgeizlanders?) only for it to turn out that it just wasn't asking those questions at all and in fact I was projecting Kazuki setting up things to ferment and come back later when in reality they were just things that the audience was not meant to care about because they don't have anything to do with the protagonists.

It's not even the moment in the Wizard of Oz where the curtain falls away, it's just that at some point if you're interacting with a story under the assumption that "it gets good eventually" there is an event horizon at which point you must accept that it won't, which sucks because if it doesn't get good then the fact that it's been bad up until now is no longer acceptable. Not that it would be good if AOB's story didn't actually start until part 5, that would still be horrific pacing, but although only an incredible p5 could've rescued AOB from bad to a mixed bag, luckily we don't have to deal with that bittersweetness since its badness is pretty consistent throughout.

Am I a bitter hater? Certainly. They fucking feminized Myne. They took my beloved little self-centered bigoted shitheel and removed all of the personality that made that actually funny or compelling in order to leave her a fucking. Stepford child bride who still wants to purge all the foreigners but also her wedding vows are about embroidery and her reunion with her family is entirely about them teasing her for finally achieving heterosexuality. AOB has never been particularly kind to its female characters but what it's done to its protagonist is just depressing. The xenophobia itself has been well argued at this point. Should be noted that I am of course a rabid Communist and therefore believe that reformism is a doomed ideology, but even if I wasn't Myne's "reforms", if you feel like calling them that, do nothing to address literally any of the systemic injustices for peasants, the demographic I feel like our protagonist was originally from which was supposed to be important at some point. I had been falling off p5 generally because it just frankly got boring when all the interesting side characters went out of town, but I would actively say I dislike vol10/11 and hate 12. The xenophobia really is the killer it's very blatant, but I could go on like twelve discrete rants about the royalty scene alone, and then 12 is just a victory lap of the worst elements of the story revealing that this is all there ever was.

[rametarin]

Why the alt right AND tankies favor Russia.

These two groups are nothing alike, and yet, a particular flavor of them both see something worth defending in Russia.

Big spoilers alert, but both these very different groups are despicable.

The more white supremacist elements are easier to understand, so I'll address those first. It's a granular spectrum between the white supremacists that are full blown, unapologetic white supremacists on the far side, and closer towards the center you have people that have been scarred and scared by the utter hostility of Intersectional Feminism that has made abundantly, absolutely clear that not only are white people evil, but that they should not perpetuate and be bred out, by any means necessary.

These ones see smug assed leftists crowing during speeches about how "Europe grows less andless white, and that's a good thing. :^)" while disparaging anyone that thinks otherwise as "just a Nazi," while they insist any white majority country or even community be made to take in, protect, finance and encourage them to not only become part of the community, but perpetuate their own culture instead of assimilate. And naturally, they feel a little slighted at the pivot away from "live as you will on your own times, don't hate people for their race or ethnic group or culture," when it's acceptable to hate on white people.

Is it any wonder then that a certain number of the population would see the hate levied against them by hard/radical lefts and see the modern industrialized world as not just hostile to them, as people, but that Russians propagandizing about how Russia is "anti-Woke" might be a good thing? Or how they may swallow pro-Russian propaganda? Or have trust approaching zero for anything left wing, approaching reactionary conspiracy theory given the penchant to lie in order to get, "baby to take their medicine. :^)"?

So this is how you get what would've been an unthinkable paradox just 40 years ago: Mom and Pop conservative republican types speaking positively of Russia and Putin and believing the absolute worst of democrats, liberals, and all kinds of leftists conspiring to make society as hostile and belligerent towards whites as possible, while putting those that are not (specifically, black people) on a pedestal. And Russia barely has to do more than highlight the things the academic conspirators on the western Left are either doing, or enabling.

In Russia they see the potential of a country where god and country are seen as positives and enshrined into the national fabric, where "LGBT+" is considered a brain disease or a moral failing and punished accordingly instead of institutionalized. Where they aren't punished and told that in accordance with "antiracism," if you're a white person you need to be taxed for the injustices and brutality other white people inflicted onto minorities, perpetually, and prevented from being able to access funds that help the poor due to your ethnic group, in the name of fighting "racism."

And it's hard to blame the fault in their logic. They're wrong, but also, this could've been avoided. It wasn't, because of the self-righteousness of the hard-left. Congratulations, assholes. You wind up making the status quo so toxic that you exacerbate borderline white people's dulling of senses due to fear and indignity so the dumber ones drift towards figures like Putin. By being such incessant douchbebags, you CREATED the population and mindset that voted for Trump out of desperation, when they otherwise would've ignored him as they did in previous generations of republican candidates.

So. That's the alt-right and the more far gone conservative republicans take on why they think Putin is their guy. What about Hard Leftists?

Those ones are easy. As the open and avowed white supremacists are to far-right ethnonationalism, there's a certain flavor of socialist/communist that idolizes the Soviet Union, specifically because it was Russia in charge and what it represented in the romanticism and fantasies of people that want something more Red Revolution. They're called Tankies, often, but don't necessarily have to be actual Tankies. They can be Russosupremacist explicitly, but not necessarily. The hard core crust, however, are these things.

These ones believe Russia still has the right and the pedigree to represent the idea of a socialist future, and Russia using the iconography as if they actually cared about it as anything but symbols of past Russonationalism/supremacy is both to attract this group and exploit their delusions.

So. Leftist Russia supporters can be hard socialists, or no different from just Russophiles and Russosupremacists, not unlike the way an actual blonde haired, blue eyed German might see the Nazi party as the right way. There's that ideological fringe, as well as a my-group-bestism bias.

And then there's a third type of Russian supporter. They can be socialist, hard-left affiliate, or not, but they tend to be things like South American or African dictators, and any that believe "the west" comprises a threat to their group's sovereignty and interests. They'll willingly drink the kool-aid of what Russia says and regurgitate it in a verbal, social, cultural war of information and romantic fantasies about what the truth is, and why. Their motivations are entirely selfish, but they've decided the global order of liberal democratic capitalist countries represents a danger to their ambitions. And they think they can either keep Russia and China at bay, or that they can somehow use them with impunity against American power to stretch their wings in their own back yards.

This third type covers people from India to parts of Africa, to Turkey and parts of Southeast Asia. And most of the OPEC nations.

And all of these people with their misc. selfish reasons or delusions for supporting Russia can eat rocks and shoes.

[cuntess-carmilla]

This is the past, present and future under ANY American presidency you dumb fuck. That was the result of the US staging a coup against our democratically elected SOCIALIST president, Salvador Allende. The propaganda they had to burn in a hurry to stay safe was communist and socialist propaganda. The people who suffered horrific torture, political persecution, executions and forced disappearances, taught and endorsed by the US, were Chilean leftists (confirmed OR SUSPECTED), poor Chileans, and Indigenous Chileans. The minimum confirmed victims of Pinochet's dictatorship is of 40,000 people.

This is what the US has done, is currently doing and will continue to do not just in the global south and the east, but within its own fucking borders too, to American leftists (the red scare, anyone?), Black Americans, Indigenous Americans, and non-white immigrants on American soil. You, as a republican, love and support all of the pain op and I are describing here and WORSE. Don't you fucking dare use us like this.

And in case it wasn't clear; you're right! This IS the future under democrats! AND under republicans! They're both the same shit under a different name! They're both right-wing parties controlled by and for the most privileged Americans to support and expand the American empire, both with blood on their hands by the MILLIONS! They're both fascist genocidal parties!

You're such a self-centered piece of shit for taking the suffering of tens of thousands of real people and using it to further your stupid propaganda, as if republicans aren't DROOLING to continue to do this all over the world just as much as democrats are.

I get that you're spiritually incapable of seeing 3rd worlders as real multidimensional human beings with worth, emotions, lives and wants, but please keep that shit to yourself next time. We don't need to be reminded that in the eyes of people like you, we're nothing but little ants to step on like we don't matter. Much less when we're mourning the bloody results of exactly that. Shut the fuck up.

My godmother was 11 when the coup happened: she recalls being in school in the centre of Santiago when suddenly she heard the roar of planes and a explosion so big the classroom windows cracked. The teacher looked grim and they were let out shortly after.

When she arrived home, her older brother was frantically going through all their books which had political propaganda in them, burning them as discretely as he could. "He looked like he was on the verge of a colapse, but smiled at me when he got home and asked me kindly to close all the curtains in the house".

She remembers the screams in the middle of the night- a couple of twins who were her neighbours and university students as well as their dad was taken. They never saw them again.

There are a lot of things she hasn't told me but I notice them anyway. She always hated September 19, when the military would stage a giant parade. She would stay home, with just a candle to accompany her, and I would stay at her side because I loved her and I didn't want her to be alone.

In October under the protests, she couldn't sleep- the army was out at all times and helicopters flew so low we were worried it would crash down the house. I stayed with her for a week - I would protest during the day and I'd come home with her looking pale and crying.

September 11 is a day of rememberance and pain. We will not forget what happened and we will fight for those of us who never came back.

Ni perdón ni olvido.