I was talking with two friends yesterday. Apparently they always supported Palestinians, but once they saw Hamas soldiers screaming Allah Ackbar and kidnapping civilian women, they are of the opinion that they're not better than Israelis. "It's just two Nazi Germanies fighting against eachother." Was a banger I heard during that discussion. Another banger: "You don't see Ukranians murder and kidnap civilians, do you? They are respectful of POW."

I tried my best arguing; to no avail. Whatever I said, I was countered with smth like, "well i support them too, but this kind of force is totally unjustified". So in short I failed the argument.

Bruh the right will never cease to disappoint.. Now imagine what all these right wing militants will do once asked to hand back their weapons to the Ukranian government after the war. They'll definitely just comply and be good citizens. For sure.

I personally believe it was and still is a totally valid strategy of China to use Capitalism as a means to bring about prosperity to its people, for it is impossible and irresponsible to build Socialism on poverty.

The strategy Mao implemented was formulated with the, at the time, current material conditions kept in mind. Deng did exactly the same for his time. "A very poor population, the lack of an industrial base and the lack of a large urban population" were the driving forces behind the "Reform and Opening Up" policy. These conditions were brought about by the policies made by Mao. That doesn't mean Mao's policies were 'bad': the average life expectency went up from 35 in the 1950s to 70 in the late 70s. But the average citizen still lived on less than 1$ a day.

^This is taken from Prolewiki's Deng Xiaoping article

So reforms are undertaken by attempting to improve certain aspects, but will inevitably have contradictions accompanying them, which the next reform will address in turn. And such is China's approach. Capitalism brought about fast industrialization which lead to wealth, but has also brought about pollution issues amongst others, which China is addressing now (reduction of reliance on coal, banning it in Beijing altogether, tho not completely eliminated, massive reforestation projects and becoming the global leader in green-technology)

^This is taken from leohezhao.medium.com "The Long Game and Its Contradictions" a generally great article imo.

What I don't know at all is if there was anything like a rivalry between Deng and Mao? I ran out of time so if anyone can shed light on that i'd be happy. Nevertheless I'm certain Mao would have been happy with the results of Deng's reforms.

I rly wouldn't be too optimistic.. His views got nothing to do with communism and he already was in cabinet like 3 times. I wouldn't be surprised if he never followed through with these promises. Maybe he'll go the Orbán route? Fico prolly won't be worse than Matovič tho. But who knows.. This is liberal politics at its finest after all.

Omg.. look at how many views he's getting QwQ He's literally downplaying fascism. This dude's inhumane to the core and will talk about how commies terrorized humanity. Meanwhile us Communists are the ones unifying the people while the right is actively working to drive wedges between them.

The one thing that stood out to me was patriotism at first. Just cuz I hate patriots and nationalists here in the west. But in a socialist country being a patriot makes way more sense out the gate. So all in all, I'm digging these values. Does anyone know who formulated them?

I don't know u, but i wish nothing but the best to you! It's totally cool to not be political or to try to structure your life around something not political, totally ur choice. Who am I to judge that? I don't think personally anyone has the right to do so. I found for instance that, committing to communism at heart and starting to organize, really gave me some porpuse as I suddenly started learning a lot and found some really cool and likeminded ppl. Well but that doesn't rly solve a lot of the mental issues i'm facing, therefore I also need to go see a psychologist. But ultimately I can also understand why one would choose to limit the political aspect of ones life, especially since it does take a lot of ones time and energy. Still, hope to see u 'round.

Edit: Also, that is a pretty sick pfp o.O

Oh yeah. They worked out some weird pyramid-theory right? I have heard about it in conversation a week ago, but haven't had time to look into it. I agree with a comrade of mine tho; simply making everyone the imperialists doesn't help u at all in analyzing the world.

My father's family are a bunch of monarchists. Literally confused as heck. They're like, 'At least our leaders would fight at the frontlines in war!' and stuff like that.

Btw, those ppl fled Czechoslovakia in '87, cuz my grandpa's a notorious conspiracy theorist. To this day he's pissed about the government having broken into his home afterwards and confiscating all his stuff including his conspiracy-theory-book collection. They believe my gramps can cure wounds by hovering with his hands above them..

So yeah, not the most sensible ppl in the world.

Thanks for this; I shall use this knowledge next time I speak to them. Tho honestly I think my energy is better spent elsewhere.

I was thinking about this video for some time now. Wonderful, old, quaint custom my ass. I'm sure all those collected pennies add up to a decent sum of money, couldn't that be used for idk at least feeding the homeless or smth? Also what's that mayor even wearing? The brits really went ahead and saved every deeply shameful tradition they ever had.

Lol is that even possible? If so, I'd be definitely interested. Searching for it on the web doesn't yield any useful results. Maybe someone can find a website for this store:

https://www.youngpioneertours.com/...

I certainly couldn't find anything.

Doesn't Cuba hold elections every 2 years or so? Even though they're a one party state, which is not regarded as democratic by the west because of what it considers to be the norm in this regard, I'd say the Cuban system is pretty enticing. I imagine it would make socialism extremely hard to pull through, if the party could just be voted out after a few years. Also we know Capitalism is an inhumane system based on exploitation of both humans as well as animals and our planet in general, so banning a party that wants to defend such a system makes sense to me.

Obviously I am a proponant of democracy and I'd love to see a socialist country make their system work better than Cuba has in regard to allowing other political parties, but I don't see that happening, as long as the west under the leadership of the US, is so keen on squashing every bit of communism there is. I'm keen on hearing what others think abt this opinion though.

I finished "How to Be a Good Communist" by Liu Shaoqi recently. Rly rly great book, can't recommend it enough. I'm digging the message of always thinking about what is best for the party and the revolution first and foremost. He also explained that waging discussions with comrades from a place of compassion, by correcting false notions and helping eachother in furthering your understanding of Marxism, is really important for keeping out revisionists, etc. Lots more was discussed.

And now I'm reading "Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and Overthrow of Communism" and I have to say, it's so refreshing to finally read literature again you can comprehend without rereading sentences every few seconds, ngl.

Thanks for this post. Always wanted to understand what was rly going on between the Anarchists and Bolsheviks. At first I was actually heavily sympathetic towards them as I didn't grasp just how much of a significant difference there is, and I simply considered them 'slightly confused allies' or so. Never got around to read anything on the matter though, as there's enough books I gotta read first. Looking forward to the next post.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. About Malema himself, whom I haven't heard about up until now, there is a book called "The coming revolution: Julius Malema and the fight for economic freedom" (https://libgen.is/...)

I'm sorry but all I can find in terms of articles are those made by some bourgeois newsletters. Found an article from "biznews.com". You can imagine what kind of take they had. I can link to it here if you wanna read about what he said and are willing to forego the loss in braincells. The first part of the article is decent as in it vaguely states what he said: (https://www.biznews.com/...)

That being said, here's a cool video by "African Diaspora News Channel": (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3HxvSkMMZc)

And here a 3 month old video of an Interview with him by a channel called "Economic Freedom Fighters": (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X4ynX6rNSI)

When it comes to my opinion: Down with the US and its disgusting empire! I do not personally like Putin or his state at all, but they are just a symptom of the US' imperialism. For South Africa to be forced by the west to take a stance here by arresting Putin, is just outrageous and the usual western intervention in the politics of nations that they're exploiting. When it comes to supporting the US or Russia, I'm taking the latter, as the US would be weakened, the global south would get better deals with Russia and China and thus the power of Socialism globally would grow. So in the end I think Malema is right in his speech.

Also, I like his beret, so extra points there o.O

Well, I kinda get your point.. Though in all honesty I couldn't blame children for being born there. I'd argue there are civilians.

I'm supportive of Hamas' and Palestine's fight for liberation though, just to clarify.

I love rap. Communist rappers especially are simply spitting truth. Aside from that, music from generally communist countries or as you put it revolutionary/socialist music is usually really good. But I also listen to plenty non-political music like, Indie-Pop, Folk, some not too aggressive Metal, Rock, ..whatever "bluegrass" is supposed to be? idk for me it'd be easier giving you artists and songs I listen to xD

I'm for a de-illegalization of drugs persoanlly. Y'know cuz for blackmarkets to make sense, the product has to be illegal. Regulation is key. And in addition to that I'd advocate for a humane school system that amongst other things educates people on drugs in general. I think that's what it comes down to, personally. Although I am not sure how other marxists in general view this topic. I think for most people, taking drugs is a way to escape the harsh reality of capitalism. Would that system be overthrown, there wouldn't be a reason for us to get drunk really. At least that's how I see it.

Soo many ppl are landlords. Honestly as long as it's possible and encouraged, ppl will be landlords and it's hard to do anything about it. You cannot change the fact that ure profiteering off of it cuz it appears as though ure still quite young and thus bound to them. This may be a stretch but remember we in the west are all living off of the suffering of the global south. Just being ashamed won't do much. I guess the best one can do is better oneself as a person and a communist and also organize as to help move towards a future where the right to have a roof over ones head is considered a given. And at the end, I think it's commendable that you're even aware of your parent's wrongdoings. There's ppl i know who are the children of entrepreneurs and are just so oblivious. To them it's the most natural thing that they got everything handed on a silver tablet, on the backs of their worker's hard work.