Juice

@Juice@midwest.social

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Wealth inequality seems like the only outcome in a system where capital gains are taxed less than labor⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve not read much Kropotkin, I started his book on the French Rev but got pulled into other stuff. Need to get back to it.

  I am a huge fan of Malatesta though

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨95% of Companies See ‘Zero Return’ on $30 Billion Generative AI Spend, MIT Report Finds⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Hypothesiseses

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Wealth inequality seems like the only outcome in a system where capital gains are taxed less than labor⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Read Marx

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A handful of people are slowly killing over 8 billion people, but we're expected to sit idly by and let it happen⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  What is what you thought? I’ve encountered lots of people who talk tough about violent class war. And they ain’t doing shit.

  If you’re serious, buy weapons and start a gay worker militia. You will get a bunch of members pretty quickly, and it will teach you how things actually work when you try to organize against forces that are organized against us.

  You’re right, violent means will be necessary. But that’s not the path I’m on, at least not as far as I can tell. If that’s your path, then make it meaningful, get people together and throw your collective weight around. My criticism of your methods will be based on your actual tactics and strategy, but like I said, I support the formation of armed defense militias. But I can’t form them, its not what I’m committed to, and I’d like to keep a worker defense militia separate from the political influence until they are strong enough to set their own agenda.

  But I suspect that you can’t think of anything, imagine anything, but total annihilation. After all, its easier to imagine the end of the world than an end to capitalism. So take the easy way out, dream of apocalypse, it is surely coming without all the people locked into toxic spirals of despair, which serves the billionaires. Your hopelessness and impotent threats serve the ruling class. Kill one and there will be a line of people just as depraved and psychotic to replace him.

  Or, get off your ass and start a revolution. Put up or shut up. Individual talk is meaningless. Collective action can change history. So if you thought that you are in the first group and I was in the second, then you thought correctly. But I think there’s more to you than that. Call it a difference of opinion.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A handful of people are slowly killing over 8 billion people, but we're expected to sit idly by and let it happen⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  You’re so full of shit.

  First, I’m older than you think.

  Second, organizing is not the same as yelling at empty government buildings for 3 hours on a weekend at a protest. That’s mobilizing, not organizing.

  Third, all of the anarchists in my city are in orgs and groups, fight cops and engage in mutual aid. You aren’t advocating for anarchism, you are advocating for terrorism. What has terrorism ever accomplished but make the enemy stronger? That’s why the billionaires funds terrorist orgs, because they want forever war. You aren’t an anarchist. Malatesta was an anarchist, and he said to improve yourself and get organized.

  I know dozens of old heads who are organized revolutionaries, and fight like hell on multiple fronts. You don’t sound old and wise, you sound like a 17 year old edgelord. Clueless, naive, edgy.

  The idea that getting organized is somehow toothless reformism is just patently, hilariously false. You say you want to spit roast the billionaires, but you are carrying water for them. You are their bitch.

  Do better, join an org, fight for the future

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A handful of people are slowly killing over 8 billion people, but we're expected to sit idly by and let it happen⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m not saying pacifism. What is a pacifist going to do when the ruling class uses incredible violence against us? Just like they do every day, with no warning or reason? I’m not a hand-wringing liberal, but mass murder is not a viable option. Violence creates problems that can only be responded to, and solved, with violence. And sometimes, its necessary to defend our selves, our class, our communities. I would recommend a kind of armed nonviolence such as was practiced by the Deacons of Defense and Justice (but don’t believe the liberal distortions, they were tough.) Armed defense, shoot at us and we shoot back. The revolutionary activity must be defended. But violence is a tactic, not a strategy.

  There are revolutionary socialist orgs you can join. No one here is advocating for reformism. But an individual using violence or not, can’t affect change. If you actually care to affect change you will get organized somehow. If not then you can complain online, and make sure your perspectives are never heard or boosted by anyone. Seems like a shame to me, I’d rather you were with us.

  But if you aren’t organized, you are actually part of the problem, because the default without anyone doing anything, is the billionaires use their violence against us. Sounds like you are tired of being part of the problem, but can’t see any options. Well, I’m telling you, there are options.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A handful of people are slowly killing over 8 billion people, but we're expected to sit idly by and let it happen⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  The majority of those 8 billion live in China. Belt and Road is increasing life expectancy in the third world. Life expectancy in the US is declining.

  I’m not even an uncritical China supporter, but you’re falling for a statistical trick. The billionaires fund the life expectancy studies, so they say what justifies their own rule. If you don’t want to change anything about the world, then shut up and get out of the way. But do yourself. a favor, and don’t be such a sucker

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A handful of people are slowly killing over 8 billion people, but we're expected to sit idly by and let it happen⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  start building gallows

  Just no. Join an org, get involved, learn to organize. During the French revolution the guillotine didn’t overthrow the aristocracy, they were mostly used on other peasants. What actually worked, was taking their shit.

  You are right to want justice, but building gallows is what they will do, its their twisted justice. “When education isn’t liberating it is the dream of the oppressed to become the oppressor.” We have the ability together, although difficult, to create a more just world. Destroying the material basis for their class, the ownership of the means of production, is the only thing that will can make this possible.

  Join an org, salt a union, get involved. Its messaging like this that makes the left completely unpalatable. Wanting justice is good, but we can only have it if we come together as a class to defeat the rich as a class.

  Time to take it to the next stage. “Building gallows” won’t do shit, might as well eat pudding about it. There is only one thing that has ever worked against them, and that is organization and withholding our labor power. In 1935, after the national strike wave that brought the US to its knees, we got our new deal. Next time, there will be no deal. We are taking the power and we will never give it back. And we will use it to build a better world.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨got banned on reddit for 3 days..... so hi...⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  If podcast started, insane, return to step 1

  But don’t kys the best people out here are crazy AF. You gotta be imbalanced to keep imagination, hope, feistiness, the will to do something drastically different then the awful path laid out before us.

  Mess around with gender instead. Be hot, and gay. Its these normies that I really worry about

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨*sniff* *mumbles*⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If you’re on the right you think he’s a Marxist commie, and don’t like commies.

  If you’re a commie you don’t think he’s a commie, you think he’s full of shit and uses left wing intellectual language to hide that he’s an apologist for liberal social democracy.

  If you’re an anarchist probably think he’s an avatar for a certain kind of former Soviet bloc intellectualist elitism, and he actively discourages direct action (I’ve never spoken to an anarchist about him, I might have to ask one.)

  Gender critics and feminists don’t like him because he’s more than a little chauvinistic, and a vocal critic of Judith Butler.

  If you’re apolitical you think he’s annoying and incomprehensible.

  I think he appeals to a certain sort of budding or wannabe left intellectual. Someone who doesn’t completely understand his work as a decades-long project, probably because they are still discovering it, and the political consequences of that project. Like he says things that are interesting and sort of novel because he’s a Hegelian and Hegelian analysis can be full of all kinds of cool insights. When you assemble his arguments together as a body of work though it has a much different character than some of his more interesting points taken in isolation, which takes on a different character when put together so that one can see the arc of his work. But as a moderate Hegelian he neither fits with the right Fukuyamist Hegelians or the left Marxist Hegelians, and he is critical of both groups.

  I think he understands intellectualism as a social force, and likes to bother different stripes of intellectuals. He’s controversial enough to stay relevant, and good at working the media. I think he is very intentional with all this stuff.

  But he broke Jordan Peterson when they debated, and got him out of the spotlight for like a year or two and that was pretty funny

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Black Holes⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Reality is not made of math, this is why scientists need to take philosophy of science classes. I’m a big fan of math, very cool and useful. And math allows us to make a map of reality and events, an abstraction albeit an incredibly powerful and practical one.

  But a map of terrain isn’t the terrain itself no matter how detailed and accurate it is. Views like this are what creates bad ideas like we live in a computer simulation, that terrifies and confuses people. Without people there is no math, period. Dont make science into a religion.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why is kindness often viewed as a sign of naïveté?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Its such a trope in movies and TV shows though. I call it the Khan trope. The narrative makes a huge deal about how unfathomably intelligent a villain is, and then when the villain is finally revealed they’re like comically evil with the most superficial and pathetic philosophy. I think its just hard for dumb TV writers (no offense) to write intelligent villains.

  To me a much better villain is someone who cares a great deal about something real, and is actually very intelligent and determined, but is just deeply confused about something. People like Tulsi Gabbard or Amy Coney Barret are good examples, they were raised in these weird cults and now they have no understanding of anything outside their narrow view, and have been conditioned to reject anything that contradicts their social beliefs. A lot of people think they are doing good, the people whom they love tell them all the time how proud they are, etc. But because of their intelligence and determination they just are all twisted up in knots inside a house of mirrors that they were forced into before they had the chance to question any of it.

  And yeah these people may not be super intelligent, just opportunistic and smart/determined enough and groomed to take power. But it resembles actual intelligence more than “only the strong deserve to survive heh heh heh twirls moustache villainously” that we usually get from this slop.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why is kindness often viewed as a sign of naïveté?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Abusers try to stigmatize sympathy and empathy, because as long as it is a stigma then people won’t talk to each other about their own abuse, then the abuser gets away with it. But no matter how strong and powerful an abuser is, even a fairly small number of dedicated, close-knit victims and their supporters can make the abusers lives extremely difficult, if not tip over their power completely.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Funny ⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Mormons are so funny, I legit feel bad for all the people who have been traumatized by these weirdos, but like these children are called “elders.”

  They have all these weird rules where premarital sex is totally not permissible, but they be fucking, and then be like “its not sex with a condom on” or of course soaking. Like straight faced “I’m saving myself for marriage,” and I’m like “we’ve had sex 6 times this week, Genevieve.”

  I was at a party in college and this Mormon dude who always did these awkward, overly complicated jive handshakes that felt really violating, was sitting outside upset and depressed holding a half-empty beer. He was like “its all over I’ve sacrificed everything I believe in, for what? So I can drink a beer at a party??” It was one beer he wasn’t even finished with it. Its like relax dude, I’m like 19 and spiraling into alcoholism I think you’ll be okay this one time.

  Ive heard so many horror stories, but I’ve only had good and very funny experiences with Mormons. And none of this even gets into the magic underwear or like you get your own planet in the afterlife.

  Idk how people believe in this stuff sober

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Funny ⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve never had a gay guy wake me up too damned early on a Saturday to talk about sucking dick.

  Skill issue

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨GitHub CEO delivers stark message to developers: Embrace AI or get out.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You can always count on the ceos of smaller companies that are owned by larger mega corporations to tell it to ya straight with no bias

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The curse of ‘Disco Elysium’, the greatest RPG ever made⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  “Disco Elysium is perfect but also a complete shit show” is becoming its own genre of journalism.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The actual nonsense being posted r/conservative Reddit⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I am 10000% positive that a democrat put Trumps name in Epstein’s little (actually gigantic) black book.

  After all, Epstein was a democrat

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'm doing my part⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Right, but at this point pedophilia does exist as an actual phenomenon, which the right uses to build a culture of fear and suspicion in which they can frame all their arguments credibly.

  Like people are actually worried about child abuse, for many good and bad reasons. So without addressing the fear and the underlying desire for just governance then no amount of political humanism will get through. People are, irrationally, more afraid of pedophiles than they are willing to criticize the cultural implications of the meanings of words.

  That’s not your fault, you aren’t creating or reproducing this phenomenon and I largely agree with you. I just think its time to start coming up with better criticisms than trying to poke logical holes. The right is fighting a war and we are having an intellectual debate. I’m a firm advocate for scientific intellectualism, while exploring even philosophical implications of your plans and actions. I think this is logically strong, but practically weak argument.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨the universe about to have a little minty b⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  We love neo-geocentrism

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Having a baby? Use this one weird trick!⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Hah! Good luck finding one

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Boiling hot, Ice cold, skin melting, frigid, liquid magma, hailstorm, just right for 5 seconds, dragon fire⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  4cm

  Perfectly average

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The best president who ever lived!! 😌🙏😌🙏😌🙏⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s just capitalism!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨That explains a lot⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Sounds kinda tain

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why am I getting gore on my racism app?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  My son showed me this last night, its insane. Its like one video from his feed and then two videos of people getting mauled

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sun God⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Neat! Thanks!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sun God⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I guess because of perspective, Mercury being millions of miles closer to the camera than it is to the sun, the actual proportions would have the planet being much smaller by comparison

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Stop touching your stuff!⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You say that, but what about St. Paul who is definitely in heaven and was a pathological gooner

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why would America declaring cartels terrorist organizations be a problem for Mexico?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Hah! Good one

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why would America declaring cartels terrorist organizations be a problem for Mexico?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Same, except i wasnt a lit major, just a guy who was going through the phase of “this is what intelligent people look like” while trying to educate myself. I was convinced DFW was the voice of our generation, heralding in a new era of consciousness.

  The book is conceptually pretty cool, like it is really well written and he draws together so many disparate elements to make kind of a coherent narrative.

  But the idea of making a book impossible to read on purpose is a funny joke, especially one that so many aspiring intelligentsia gush over. I can appreciate a good shaggy dog as much as the next guy, but IJ is just so far beyond the pale.

  A book should be challenging because the concepts are unique and well considered, and it draws from lots of historic and philosophical research; not because the author decided to intentionally break the flow of the narrative to make you flip to the not-optional appendix to read 32 pages of made up synopsis about a character’s avant-garde filmography.