RE4 was good. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about it sans all the campiness, but removing all the creep shit and sexism was pretty fresh

on the outside

on the inside

There’s an art/science to relating to progressive liberals, and a lot of times I just try to get people to talk about their own observations and thoughts. I’m very much a proponent and practitioner of critical pedagogy.

But when people come to the meeting I am chairing, in a group I helped organize, and then hypervigilant police every word I use for how it wont relate to their white affluent neighborhood, like even if I am convinced that they are legit there in good faith, it can be really disruptive to say the least.

Like, I learned leftism from a bunch of grumpy Trot union organizers, i’m a worker who came to this shit, sorry I don’t conform to the public university masters in social sciences dissertation review style guide

Just as I learn to spell it, I get surrounded by progressive liberals who (CW: gross)

whenever I use it in a sentence

Strangah!

There is no way somebody this dumb can spell boogiewargziee

You can marinate it in veggie broth, but also, breading and frying with mostly of corn starch makes all the difference. Like just dusting tofu in corn starch and frying it is a game changer. It crisps up so nice. From.there you can play around with spices and marinades

I don’t really think these markets are completely neutral.

Like maybe I’d get behind a good Bernie-crat type campaign for the opportunities to engage in mass consciousnes. but the concrete basis for a moderate social democrat, or the left of that, to carry out any manner of social reform by taxing billionaires, does not exist. Maybe we can argue that its closer than its ever been, and who knows what’ll happen in the next few years as consciousness among certain layers of workers is further left than its ever been. The USA has moved left on Palestine and I think we will move left on other issues like climate and energy reform, immigration, and maybe even certain threads of anti imperialism, such as reducing military spending.

But defeating socdems and reformers in polls is a way that the right and center demonstrate their own viability and claim that social reforms are unpopular with the vast majority of Americans. Like I wonder how much of these polls, and now predictive markets (seriously how compromised is a friggin casino, this is like free publicity for them and a potential honeypot) are just to like lure her and her supporters into running a presidential campaign that could end up discrediting democratic socialism as a viable political direction.

And sure this is all electoralism and to some extent just bourgie wonkishness, or maybe I’m paranoid, but the source for this is particularly compromised and unreliable from my perspective. Like having her winning the presidency before she’s even announced. The media just keeps saying she would win, except the media is more corrupted by centralized reactionary political capital than it has ever been.

I will screenshot it, but only to print it, frame it, put it by my bed, and have it be the last thing I fall asleep to and the first thing I wake up to

Holy shit I thought I was the only one who used “Wimp Lo” like this.

western imperialism

Imperialism is international capitalism. I’m sure this is well understood but its important to start by defining it. The USA is the seat, the core of global capital since WW2. But prior to that, the seat of imperialism was the UK, basically where capitalism was first fully developed.

After WW1, the Ottoman empire was busted up and split into various countries. It was clear that the middle east was extremely mineral rich, and British capital wanted to control it. Its easier to exploit many geographically divided states, as they can be made to compete with each other. But given their closeness and shared interest, they can not become united. Something has to destabilize the region, and the imperial powers can’t get their hands dirty with direct colonial control.

The Zionist nationalist movement, led by Lord Baron Lionel Walter Rothschild, was well established and well connected within the UK ruling capitalists. Enter the Balfour declaration. The UK had already identified a strip of land on the Mediterranean, that could function as the base for imperialism in the region, under the guise of an independent but westerns friendly nation. For the next 40 yeats, the UK and their allies aided Zionists to settle in the region of Palestine which already had a fairly large Jewish minority.

WW2 and the holocaust gave the impetus to create “a nation for the Jewish people.” In 1957, the Naqba and the establishment of the nation of Israel. The UK however was decimated after WW2, whereas the USA had drastically increased industrial capacity before and during the war. They also gutted the power of the legal unions established 13 years earlier. When the USA took up the mantle of the center of global capital, they also took on the existing imperialist projects, such as ensuring a destabilized and exploitable middle east, with a major part of that project being to ensure the existence and continuity of Israel as a destabilizing base for global capitalist imperialism.

A lot of the political realities you describe are downstream of the persistence of this project.

There are a ton of debates constantly happening inside the org, and lots of public-facing internal stuff getting published all the time. Practically every caucus publishes stuff on their website, and more independent outlets like Geese magazine and Cosmonaut (oh shit Cosmo publishong a criticism of Geese on the front page, cant wait to read it) also offer tons of great insights, without having to like join a caucus or even be a DSA member.

I’m not a Seattle comrade, hell, most of the people I know from the Sawant campaign moved away from Seattle since then. But I have been in some discussions about her with Seattle comrades.

Seattle DSA did not endorse her, and wrt Sawant, at least Sawant never wavered in her support for Palestine, unlike Wilson. I understand her endorsement survey form was incredibly weak, esp wrt support for BDS.

Interestingly, from what I understand, Seattle DSA had to send out a memo to their members threatening disciplinary action after coordinated campaigns by Wilson, and then Sawant, tried to do entryism to gain the chapter’s endorsement. I actually have a copy of an email from Wilson’s husband, who used member lists form Seattle Transit Union, which KW served as director, to encourage STU members to join DSA in order to vote for endorsing her. Gotta love politics. MUG organized hard against endorsing her.

Even so, Seattle comrades I have been in touch with who were opposed to SDSA endorsement, still critically supported her and voted for her.

Then again, there is always

It’s a shame, I think there’s a much more interesting analysis to be had, but instead just deranged hand-wringing.

Its so bad I might actually start a substack.

We created a fork of woke 2.0 called Wonk, that our team of volunteer contributors are super excited about! Check it out!

Thank you!

Under capitalism what is good and makes sense to the workers is bad and makes no sense to the capitalists. Our interests are fundamentally opposed. I’m all for electoral campaigns as a tactic, since it builds engagement and develops consciousness. But the strategy is to build for power, which means a mass movement and a worker’s party.

Okay, I’ll edit out what I can’t verify with hard evidence and try a self post!

Hey recent quitter here too, keep it up! Its been nice having a working brain again, after 2-3 months I feel pretty good! Keep in mind it might take a while to return to baseline, but you’ll get there. I was a daily, almost constant smoker from before covid until several years after, with a few remissions or whatever. I’m really hoping it sticks this time!

Working out can help, flood your system with some natural dopamine and work out excess frustrations. But honestly, you might just need to rest, if possible. The first few days can be very unpleasant. You’ll get your appetite back and start having crazy ass dreams. Get plenty of sleep if you can! Try some brain teaser puzzles or read, working out your brain will help it find a new baseline, and maybe distract you.

Try to limit booze or other substances, IMO a hangover can like lower my willpower to where I decide I have to run to the dispensary. At least until you’re through the woods. Maybe try to schedule a therapy sesh if possible, or hang out with a sober friend, go see a movie.

If you wanna talk, feel free to DM me