Because some people think that Lemmy worldnews should conform to the same pro-US empire ideological biases and complete censorship of dissent and different perspectives as Reddit worldnews. Some people also seem to think the US can do no wrong, even when it's admitted to doing wrong.
The western world could also turn to investment in development and quality of life and do away with downturns.
Here are your answers, although likely not the ones you had in mind when you asked these questions.
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Each one, from each according to their capabilities, to each according to their need. In general most countries can be self sufficient, or at least self sufficient within regional blocs.
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I would argue that China is the greatest contributor to humanitarian aid the world has ever known, but I'll bite. The US currently exports the most food as "aid," but this comes with massive costs to the nations receiving it. US food aid is designed to do two things: provide a captive market to over-productive US agriculture, and ensure resource rich nations are dependent on US food supplies rather than their own. The countries pay for this "aid" by growing cash crops for export rather than staples to be consumed locally, or by extracting other natural resources for export and for the profit of corporations in the imperial core. Even something as simple as modernizing agriculture is essentially forbidden to countries receiving US food aid, as more productive agriculture would lessen the position of power the empire has over its neo-colonies.
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Up until now, the very real threat of US covert or overt intervention has stopped all but the bravest from ending this cycle of imperialist oppression. Now with the US and allies mired down in Ukraine, BRICS and others have jumped on the opportunity to build something new, partnerships and institutions based on mutual respect and equality amongst nations.
Not at all, I say what I mean and mean what I say.
There are some links in the study guide I linked in my other reply which go into the incredible improvements in material conditions for all Chinese peoples.
I have been feeling an awful lot like an aloe vera lately.
In any case, if you're interested in learning more, here's a great place to start.
All of these issues can be mitigated to the point where they're unproblematic, they just generally won't be or are skipped because it's deemed unprofitable. It's also funny seeing yet another sad nuclear hit piece from a gas lobbyist.
They Grayzone has also done investigative reporting into the inner workings of Wikipedia. Spoiler: it's part of the imperial propaganda machine, and that's partly by design.
These would be problems if China had a liberal economic model. Fortunately they have whole process workers democracy, and these things aren't really problems at all.
Investing in productive forces and quality of life for all makes for robustly strong economic indicators and basically no inflation problem. Cutting rentierism and in large part private profits out of the economy greatly helps these figures as well, and cuts off inflation at its source.
Let's put it this way. California took 12 years to present a HSR plan to residents, and a further 15 years have gone by since voters approved that plan. No section of the project has been completed, not even tested as far as I can tell.
The English is fine.
They are taking issue with the double standard the US has presented, both through its actions and official statements. The article quotes statements from a currently sitting Senator, and a member of a US Government adjacent think tank who was a ranking military officer. These are definitely not the private opinions of private citizens.
As I understand it's extortionate consent though. Either you "consent" to your private data being used in this way, or you can't use Zoom.
Good thing there's self hosted and E2EE alternatives.
Aaron Maté has done some great breakdowns on the whole thing.
I've always interpreted Marx's concepts of alienation as talking about mental health issues. More recently people have definitely began to link the material conditions of capitalism with mental health issues, although a specifically Marxist writing on the topic doesn't spring to mind right now. It's also clear to me, both from lived experience as well as various things I've read, that dealing with this alienation labour is almost entirely the same as dealing with common mental health issues such as depression/anxiety, loneliness, and the existential question of what the purpose of my life is.
A lib in my life cannot stop telling me that I really should read this book. I really can't be arsed to waste my time with such inept use of language and complete failure to understand basic political concepts.
What's on the next page, talking about how scientific theories are just "theories," as in untested and unproven; some stoner's shower thoughts?
It's because of what happened after. It's not the violent overthrow of the monarchy in itself, it's the fact that the French replaced their monarchy with a liberal dictatorship of capital, and the Soviets replaced their monarchy with a revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat. It just looks like plain old anti-communism to me.
An embarrassing number of things get me way too worked up, but right at the top of the list is saying healthcare shouldn't be accessible to all. To say that by phrasing your response with an absolute obscene level of racism is a whole new level. But I suppose we shouldn't expect anything less from the footsoldiers of fascism.
I'm experiencing the same thing on the latest version of Jerboa.
Germany effectively did. German libs love to say that we have "freedom of opinion" here and not freedom of speech, but even that freedom of opinion is being eroded almost by the day.
A preprinted study by James Hansen and collaborators suggests that we've all but locked in 2°C warming by 2050. They go on to calculate a likely equilibrium warming of 10°C considering current GHG levels and known feedback loops.
I know we need to take this as yet another call to action, but at the same time I think so many of us feel absolutely paralyzed by the enormity and incomprehensibility of the situation.
This is a bit dated by now, but the recent post about some failed US weapons systems reminded me about this absolute doozy of a Spanish submarine.
>Years ago, the S-80 submarine suffered a major engineering setback: It was overweight and at risk of not being able to resurface after submerging. In the latest hitch, first reported on Wednesday by the newspaper El País, it can’t fit into the port of Cartagena at the military base in southeastern Spain where the submarine will be stationed.
The article wraps up with a lame attempt to normalize spending billions on military equipment.
How should new countries be handled, where the people have clearly chosen that they would like to be their own sovereign nation, with all the rights and responsibilities that comes with?
Besides the people withing the territory agreeing that they're a new sovereign country and establishing the institutions thereof, what should the global community expect?
As things stand currently, it's simply up to the imperial core countries as to whether or not a territory is recognized as a country.
Emmy-winning producer James Gordon Meek had his home raided by the FBI. His colleagues say they haven’t seen him since.
This story is incredibly strange and unnerving. How can a relatively well known and respected journalist simply disappear for six months before other journalists finally notice and start asking questions? Meek isn't even meaningfully anti-establishment although he's pissed off the military from time to time. It looks like he's pretty tight with the military and intelligence communities. It's clear to all of us that we cannot trust bourgeois media, but this is really something else, especially with new conspiracy theories of Chinese and Russian public figures disappearing being generated seemingly on a weekly basis yet nobody publicly stated that they noticed this guy's disappearance for six months.
In memory of the destroyed project of socialism in Germany, what better way to spend October 3rd (Germany's so-called German Reunification Day) than to discuss the successes, mistakes, and lessons of the DDR.
Putting such a positive light on this topic is still beyond taboo in mainstream circles, and anti-communist mythology runs deep in Germany even today. One way we can make revolutionary inroads in any capitalist nation is to educate the working people about the successes of their socialist peers and all the tried and tested ways we can work towards making life more meaningful for all of us.
I really stepped in it last night. My partner is livid with me for suggesting Stalin wasn't the evil dictator he's made out to be in the west. For a German who grew up with anti-communism and went to some very liberal universities for political science it was too much. They said something to the effect of "this feels exactly like if you said, oh Hitler wasn't that bad, he was actually a good guy." We're in the midst of planning our wedding and they were suddenly at the point of doubting that they know who I am and if this is a relationship they want to maintain.
We have a hard time discussing politics as it is. We are still not so great at interpreting the nuances of way each other speaks, and our background knowledge is very different. So we have to figure out what we do from here.
I can't come at this from the direction of "trying to convert them." They already think I have gone into a conspiracy theory ridden and propaganda laden hole, and believe me, I ask myself the same thing every day. It really weighs heavily on me, as some of our close family members have fallen into conspiracy theory echo chambers.
We've decided we need to go back to basics and make sure our core values align, which I genuinely believe they do. They're an anti-capitalist as well, although don't have a strong idea of what to would be better, just that it shouldn't be communism.
I'm not sure where to go after we sort out what our shared values are.
There's a certain condescension I sense when it comes to the leftist sources I read, many on recommendation from GenZedong members. I'm often met with "leftists just make up all kinds of stuff to suit their narrative," or "how do you know that's a primary or reliable secondary source, it's so easy to fake anything these days." Meanwhile they go to Wikipedia and see that Stalin killed millions and signed a treaty with the Nazis, even as they understand that much of western capitalist media is propaganda as well. We can't have any useful discussion on current events at the moment because we have vastly different knowledge of what's happening, as well as entirely different analytical tools to pick it apart with.
They're also terrified I'm going to say very extreme things in front of their family (privileged petite bourgeois liberals). I try to be careful but at the same time I won't pretend to not be a communist. We have political discussions often and I'm not one to just sit those out. I'm sure my family would react poorly as well, but with the geographical distance to them it's not as present an issue in our minds.
How do you all deal with this? How do you have these discussions and share these ideas with the more soc-dem or liberal minded people in your lives?