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Socialism |OT| The Dawn of a Red Era

What tendency/ideology do you best align with?

  • Anarchism

    Votes: 125 12.0%

  • Marxism

    Votes: 86 8.2%

  • Marxism-Leninism

    Votes: 79 7.6%

  • Left Communism

    Votes: 19 1.8%

  • Democratic Socialism

    Votes: 423 40.6%

  • Social Democracy

    Votes: 238 22.8%

  • Other

    Votes: 73 7.0%
  • Total voters
    1,043
Reader mode
Mr.Mike

Mr.Mike

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,677
sphagnum said:
But what does it mean?
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I'd guess it has something to do with the Virgin Lands campaign and Khrushchev's whole corn thing.

Since the 1940s, Khrushchev had advocated the cultivation of corn (maize) in the Soviet Union.[157] He established a corn institute in Ukraine and ordered thousands of acres to be planted with corn in the Virgin Lands.[158] In February 1955, Khrushchev gave a speech in which he advocated an Iowa-style corn belt in the Soviet Union, and a Soviet delegation visited the U.S. state that summer. While their intent was to visit only small farms, the delegation chief was approached by farmer and corn salesman Roswell Garst, who persuaded him to insist on visiting Garst's large farm.[158] The Iowan visited the Soviet Union in September, where he became great friends with Khrushchev, and Garst sold the USSR 5,000 short tons (4,500 t) of seed corn.[159] Garst warned the Soviets to grow the corn in the southern part of the country, and to ensure there were sufficient stocks of fertilizer, insecticides, and herbicides.[160] This, however, was not done, as Khrushchev sought to plant corn even in Siberia, and without the necessary chemicals. While Khrushchev warned against those who "would have us plant the whole planet with corn", he displayed a great passion for corn, so much so that when he visited a Latvian kolkhoz, he stated that some in his audience were probably wondering, "Will Khrushchev say something about corn or won't he?"[160] He did, rebuking the farmers for not planting more corn.[160] The corn experiment was not a great success, and he later wrote that overenthusiastic officials, wanting to please him, had overplanted without laying the proper groundwork, and "as a result corn was discredited as a silage crop—and so was I".[160]
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Which is to say you could always use more sphagnum.
 
OP
OP
sphagnum

sphagnum

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
16,058
That's a way better reason than the real reason so I'm adopting that for the future.

I picked this name about a decade ago for a different forum because it was the first thing that came up when I did a random search on Wikipedia
 

Deleted member 22490

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
9,237
Meet Mariah Parker, the Georgia Politician Who Was Sworn In on a Copy of Malcom X's Autobiography

Twenty-six-year-old Mariah Parker went viral this week after being sworn in as an Athens-Clarke county commissioner in Georgia on Tuesday, June 5. The new commissioner is black, openly queer, a PhD candidate in linguistics, a rapper, and dedicated to transformative politics for communities of color. She's also a viral star thanks to an unconventional choice she made during her swearing-in.

Images of the new District 2 commissioner being sworn in on the steps of Athens City Hall using a copy of The Autobiography of Malcolm X instead of the Bible were quickly disseminated via social media. They're stunning, showing a millennial black woman with an Afro that might make Angela Davis proud taking the oath of office with her right fist raised high. Her mother stands next to her, holding the radical book and beaming as her daughter is sworn in to represent District 2, a district described by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution as "an economically struggling swath of east Athens that lacks some of the same amenities that other parts of town enjoyed."
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codUbEO.jpg
 

Deleted member 721

User-requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,416
About that commie dude i posted in the thread earlier, his position:
It began with my post on social media, in which I expressed my full and enthusiastic support of former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick in his fight against racial injustice, white supremacy and police brutality. After revealing a picture of myself in uniform with the hashtag #VeteransForKaepernick, I was met by solidarity from my fellow soldiers, as well as harsh blowback from my chain of command.

To this day, I stand by my convictions, despite the efforts of ranking officers to pressure me into silence. I believe that standing up for the exploited and the oppressed is the most honorable thing we can do as people. No job should hinder or repress this pursuit, which is why I decided to resign my commission as an officer in the United States Army. My conditional resignation was denied by the secretary of the Army. Instead, the military forced me into either submitting an unconditional resignation or appearing before a board of inquiry—an adversarial trial in which a jury of senior officers would determine my fate. Rather than submit to the antics of what amounts to a show trial at best, I tendered my unconditional resignation. Passing judgment on me one last time, the military determined the character of my service to be "other than honorable." Despite the brass prolonging my time in service, I have come to the conclusion that leaving the military altogether, whatever the circumstances, is the only moral way forward. During this ordeal, I have learned that I am far from alone in my feelings of disillusionment and betrayal within the rank and file of the U.S. military.

As a teenager, I believed the United States military was a force of good for the world. I thought that I signed up to fight for freedom and democracy, to protect my loved ones and my country from harm. My experiences showed me otherwise.

After bearing witness to the senseless destruction in Afghanistan during my combat deployment to Khost Province in the summer of 2011, I knew that our wars must be stopped. I was assigned to my platoon as an assistant machine-gunner. I took part in missions where human beings were killed, captured and terrorized. However, the horror wrought by the U.S. military's overseas ventures is not limited to combat engagements alone. Some nights, we barely did anything at all but walk through a village. As such, the longer I was there, the more it became apparent that the mere presence of an occupying force was a form of violence. My actions overseas did not help or protect anybody. I felt like I was little more than a bully, surrounded by the most well-armed and technologically advanced military in history, in one of the poorest countries in the world. I saw many of my fellow soldiers all too eager to carry out violence for the sake of violence. There is no honor in such bloodlust; quite the contrary. I saw firsthand how U.S. foreign policy sought to carry out the subjugation of poor, brown people in order to steal natural resources, expand American hegemony and extinguish the self-determination of any group that dare oppose the empire. Idealistic and without a coherent worldview yet, I thought that perhaps pursuing an officer's commission would allow me to change things and help put a stop to the madness. I was wrong.

It soon dawned on me how pervasive the military-industrial complex is. I studied, examined my own experiences and began to grasp more completely the horrors and impact of U.S. imperialism. Learning that over a million people have lost their lives since 9/11—the vast majority being innocent civilians—began to haunt me. Seeing that up to a trillion dollars a year were being diverted from education, health care and infrastructure in the U.S. to support our 800 military bases around the world began to feel increasingly maddening.

[...]
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The rest on the link: https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-west-point-soldier-who-called-it-as-he-saw-it/
 
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sphagnum

sphagnum

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
16,058
I know basically nothing about contemporary Ethiopia so that thread on the other side about their PM offering to end their border dispute with Eritrea made me poke around on Wikipedia a bit. Sounds like their ruling party is a complete hodgepodge ideologically (a "revolutionary democratic" post-ML-Hoxhaist party with Maoist influences due to their focus on the peasantry and a "romantic attachment" to Lenin?) but they're basically another state capitalist organization in the middle of a liberalization/privatization drive.

Anyone else have more familiarity with the situation post-Derg there?
 
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sphagnum

sphagnum

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
16,058
The current PM sounds pretty liberal - releasing political prisoners, trying to end the border dispute, privatizing a bunch of stuff, etc. Wonder if the old guard will try to take him out then.
 
House_Of_Lightning

House_Of_Lightning

Self-requested ban
Banned
Oct 29, 2017
5,048
IIRC someone threw a grenade at him the other day while he was giving a speech.

He's part of the same ruling political party but a reformer from within. We'll see how that goes.
 
Funky Dude Sparks

Funky Dude Sparks

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,319
The people who are calling for civility do not quite understand how the president

We are long past nipping in the bud

The whole goddamn forest is infested and must be burnt

fuck civility
 
Funky Dude Sparks

Funky Dude Sparks

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,319
It is such a goddamn shame we have rely on liberals and/or dems to make america tolerable to live in

We can't rely on either

something has got to give and I'm ready to vote third party (or bernie sanders)
 
IBLiSTRiGGER

IBLiSTRiGGER

Member
Jun 7, 2018
428
Los Angeles, CA
me: why should i vote for bloomberg. he's a racist 78 year old billionaire mega capitalist whose idea of 'school reform' is 'well who needs public schools when you have all these charter schools, am i right guys', turned the nypd into his own personal cia to spy on innocent muslim citizens, and says trickle down economics is 100% real and 100% not a cover for 'liquidate the poor'.

liberals: any dem that can beat trump will do

me: how is he any different from the gop. please help me understand.

liberals:

liberals: you fucking trump supporter you goddamn bernie bro SO YOU LIKE CHILDREN TRAPPED IN CAGES HUH I BET YOU'RE NOT EVEN REALLY A GIRL-

i'm tired comrades. i don't want 2020 to ever come.
 

Deleted member 721

User-requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,416
IBLiSTRiGGER said:
me: why should i vote for bloomberg. he's a racist 78 year old billionaire mega capitalist whose idea of 'school reform' is 'well who needs public schools when you have all these charter schools, am i right guys', turned the nypd into his own personal cia to spy on innocent muslim citizens, and says trickle down economics is 100% real and 100% not a cover for 'liquidate the poor'.

liberals: any dem that can beat trump will do

me: how is he any different from the gop. please help me understand.

liberals:

liberals: you fucking trump supporter you goddamn bernie bro SO YOU LIKE CHILDREN TRAPPED IN CAGES HUH I BET YOU'RE NOT EVEN REALLY A GIRL-

i'm tired comrades. i don't want 2020 to ever come.
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Political debate, activism and news are exausting, don't feel bad for taking a time or stopping.

Mental health in First place :thumbsup:
 
Bonen no Max'd

Bonen no Max'd

Member
Oct 25, 2017
523
I think the US is about to elect its fourth (?) self-identified socialist to Congress? iirc SPUSA had two and then there's Bernie, though I might have missed a rando Farmer-Labor congressman or senator
 
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sphagnum

sphagnum

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
16,058
Pretty happy about Alexandria though! Hope she and the other young socialists getting elected are a sign of what's to come.

Shy said:
:(
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I mean I get why NOI is has such a deep history with parts of the black community but Farrakhan's still a shithead. The world would be a better place if Malcolm was still around.
 

Deffers

Banned
Mar 4, 2018
2,402
It's this weird situation. Between the Supreme Court ruling and all the socialists we're getting working towards stuff, it really does feel like America could go either way in that classic dichotomy of socialism or barbarism.
 
Mezentine

Mezentine

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,978
We could go either way, but forces are definitely more entrenched on the conservative side, and I always count on people voting to fuck up anything good we accomplish. I don't actually know what "winning" in any meaningful sense looks like anymore, I just hope that slowly we grind our way to a better future.
 
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sphagnum

sphagnum

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
16,058
Take it with a grain of salt but there's a guy on r/socialism claiming to be familiar with Alexandria and that she's "one of us". She hasn't commented publicly on workers owning the MoP but he knows she supports it because of his "personal knowledge of her praxis".
 
Mezentine

Mezentine

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,978
sphagnum said:
Take it with a grain of salt but there's a guy on r/socialism claiming to be familiar with Alexandria and that she's "one of us". She hasn't commented publicly on workers owning the MoP but he knows she supports it because of his "personal knowledge of her praxis".
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It definitely wouldn't surprise me based on what brief exposure I've had to her
 
Shy

Shy

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
18,520
Deffers said:
It's this weird situation. Between the Supreme Court ruling and all the socialists we're getting working towards stuff, it really does feel like America could go either way in that classic dichotomy of socialism or barbarism.
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It's going towards the latter, i feel. :(
Mezentine said:
We could go either way, but forces are definitely more entrenched on the conservative side, and I always count on people voting to fuck up anything good we accomplish. I don't actually know what "winning" in any meaningful sense looks like anymore, I just hope that slowly we grind our way to a better future.
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I think our winning is just holding back their bullshit, at this point.
 
Bonen no Max'd

Bonen no Max'd

Member
Oct 25, 2017
523
sphagnum said:
Take it with a grain of salt but there's a guy on r/socialism claiming to be familiar with Alexandria and that she's "one of us". She hasn't commented publicly on workers owning the MoP but he knows she supports it because of his "personal knowledge of her praxis".
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She's gonna bust out the n-word
nationalize
sorry i'm reformist trash
 
OP
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sphagnum

sphagnum

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
16,058
At this rate the 2020 Democratic Party platform is going to be:

1. Ban cars
2. Kill all birds (particularly sparrows)
3. Free corn
 
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