“We are not the same”

The socioeconomic policies of Assad jr. represented by the austerity measures and the espousal of neoliberalism is what led, to a great extent, to the uprising in the first place. I don’t have book recommendations, but I did find two interesting articles from a Marxist/leftist POV that discuss this exact matter, and which include a rich bibliography and citations that you can look through.

https://aljumhuriya.net/en/2017/09/21/socio-economic-roots-syrias-uprising/

https://www.rosalux.de/en/publication/id/39149/syria-the-social-origins-of-the-uprising

Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism by V.I. Lenin, and

An Introduction To Marxist Economic Theory by Ernest Mandel.

Although I’ve read lots of excerpts and essays in ML literature, it happens that I never touched some of the most basic and influential works, especially in economics and political economy. I find Ernest Mandel’s introduction to be quite accessible and comprehensible. My goal is to take on Das Kapital eventually.

It is still considered complicity in violating humanitarian law.

If it only takes an hour to convince someone of a world-changing idea then we’d have an abundance of revolutions that come and go. I mosly found “success” by directing questions to my interlocutor, so I would be in control more or less of where the discussion is heading while maintaining the other person’s introspective and critical spirit. The goal is for them to leave the discussion with something to think deeply about.

If he’s wealthy then he has a lot of assets which can serve as a guarantee for the creditor.

I’ve read Mason & Dixon in the past, and I am currently in the midst of reading Gravity’s Rainbow. The most consistent theme in GR has been paranoia and schizoid tendency, present with many characters. There’s also a lot of mention of Theys and Thems.

I have a friend who uses it religiously, and I found out they would sometimes sneak pictures of people around them, including me. Totally uncool behavior!

Disinformation on my racism app?? I find it hard to believe!

You’re welcome!

Just gonna leave this here

I’m sure that Gorillas are by nature chill and peaceful, but put in a life or death situation may require them to defend themselves, no? They do have the mass.

Do you think they would be able to defeat it with their bare fists?

You thought Lemmy’s co-founder and main developer is a bot? Lmao

Despite the importance of the UN in international law, it is in no real way a superordinate authority, and therefore there is no monopoly of legitimate coercion and hence interpretation internationally. The only bodies able to provide the necessary coercion for international law are the subjects of that law themselves, the states. Given the extraordinary disparities of power between those states, and given that the real content of the legal regulation will be the struggle between them, it is no wonder that materially effective international law, as opposed to the high phrases and noble interpretations of the idealists, has favoured the stronger states and their clients.

International law is a relationship and a process: it is not a fixed set of rules but a way of deciding the rules . And the coercion of at least one of the players, or its threat, is necessary as the medium by which particular contents will actualise the broader content of competitive struggle within the legal form.

– China Miéville, Between Equal Rights, p.151.

Azazeel by Youssef Ziedan. It’s a tale set in 5th-century Egypt and the Levant, following a coptic monk’s journey amidst the theological controversies of the early Christian curch. Apart from the protagonist (and his devilish visitor) I think all the characters are historically real as well as for the events. It’s a very interesting period during which Christians, Jews and Atheists coexisted, although perturbently.

Failing my studies as I am simultaneously naked.

People use AI for making “art” not because of their lack of ability to create art per se, but they use it rather as a way to cut costs in their commercial projects and skip contracting real artists. This is why it’s malicious. I wouldn’t care if somoeone uses it for pure, private leisure.

I am reading Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. Progress isn’t as smooth as with M&D but there is enough time for me to get used to the style and prose.

Real socialism, it is argued, would be controlled by the workers themselves through direct participation instead of being run by Leninists, Stalinists, Castroites, or other ill-willed, power-hungry, bureaucratic, cabals of evil men who betray revolutions. Unfortunately, this ‘pure socialism’ view is ahistorical and nonfalsifiable; it cannot be tested against the actualities of history. It compares an ideal against an imperfect reality, and the reality comes off a poor second. It imagines what socialism would be like in a world far better than this one, where no strong state structure or security force is required, where none of the value produced by workers needs to be expropriated to rebuild society and defend it from invasion and internal sabotage.

– Michael Parenti, “Blackshirts and Reds”