• 4 Posts
  • 427 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 29th, 2023

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  • OurToothbrush@lemmy.mltoMemes@lemmy.mlPaperwork.
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    3 hours ago

    One of the most basic economic arguments of Marx’s Capital is that 1) firms compete for higher profit margins 2) it is easiest to reduce wages in order to increase margins 3) you only have to pay workers enough that they’re able to, as a whole, maintain your workforce (the available workforce in general can shrink though, especially as automation shrinks the needed size of the workforce)

    Throw in some accumulation by disposession theory(the need to proletarianize the population, separating them from ownership of their own means of subsistence) in order for capitalism to function, and you have good old social murder, the end result of a system designed for efficient accumulation without consideration for human suffering outside the practical consideration of stability.

    Socialism, which is designed to manage the needs of a population through democratic processes, does not have this issue, except in the context of fighting capitalism where accumulation needs to be prioritized to some extent, in order to defend their social project from covert and overt hostility by existing capitalist powers.

    I’ve cited Capital, you only really need the first dozen or so chapters to understand the primary argument. Marx provides detailed figures to cite his arguments. I would also suggest reading about accumulation by dispossession/primitive accumulation, social murder, and siege socialism.



  • OurToothbrush@lemmy.mltoMemes@lemmy.mlPaperwork.
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    4 days ago

    It is because they care about the population more than they care about profits, both for moral reasons and because the whole mandate of socialism is prioritizing democracy (and therefore the needs of your constituency) over capitalism


  • OurToothbrush@lemmy.mltoMemes@lemmy.mlPaperwork.
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    4 days ago

    Let us take medicine as an example:

    Higher doctor to patient ratio, better life expectancy for countries income level. Doctors in Cuba go door to door for routine checkups.

    Cuba life expectancy is comparable to US life expectancy and has a hard time acquiring sterile needles due to the blockade if that gives you an idea




  • Telling me that I’m not a Socialist because I’m not a registered member of a Socialist organization doesn’t encourage me to join any organization. It encourages me to dump you and find an actual mutual ally.

    “Saying I’m only sympathetic to abolition if I’m not doing abolitionist work doesn’t make me want to do abolitionist work”

    Okay what will then, do you want a headpat or a handjob or what?

    The dumped metaphor is great because in this metaphor you weren’t dating to begin with. You were just admiring.

    But seriously if someone questioning your commitment when you aren’t committed makes you react with fleeing somewhere else that is on you.

    Stop saying stupid exclusionary things about your left-wing allies if you want to actually have a movement capable of change.

    If you’re not in the movement you are not a socialist. The movement is a real, organized thing, not just vibes.







  • OurToothbrush@lemmy.mltoMemes@lemmy.mlHard to swallow pills
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    26 days ago

    Sure, if you know literally nothing about the military industrial complex and government capture and its role in creating war, and you want to buy into the propaganda that the US only attacks when it feels threatened.

    When countries are threatened and dropping bombs relieves that threat instead of increases it, then they do.

    Settler-brained-as-fuck idea about how conflict works


  • OurToothbrush@lemmy.mltoMemes@lemmy.mlHard to swallow pills
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    26 days ago

    Who decides what speech threatens the government? The government.

    Uhuh. In other words, governments restrict speech that they think threatens them.

    I can say fuck Joe Biden, fuck Donald Trump, and fuck every member of Congress and the Supreme Court. Can you point me towards someone living in China who’s comfortable openly saying “fuck Xi Jinping?”

    First off, how many Chinese people have you actually talked to? You know there are Chinese people on the internet that you can talk to, right? And foreign exchange students? You can even visit the country if you want.

    And yes, you’re free to say things that don’t actually threaten the US, like saying fuck Trump or Fuck Biden. You’re allowed to be as ineffectual as you’d like. Compare your statements to all the black lives matter organizers who’ve been found to commit suicide by bullets to the back of the head or public hanging from trees.


  • OurToothbrush@lemmy.mltoMemes@lemmy.mlHard to swallow pills
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    26 days ago

    The mere suggestion that the state is illegitimate in China would have gotten me disappeared.

    China has a smaller surveillance state than the US, so I doubt it. Also yeah, the US hasn’t faced serious coup attempts in the last 50 years.

    So it makes you wonder if ruling with an iron fist and crushing dissidents has some merit after all.

    Their execution or imprisonment stats must be much higher than the US! Wait. I’m just hearing… oh dear.


  • OurToothbrush@lemmy.mltoMemes@lemmy.mlHard to swallow pills
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    26 days ago

    I mean- yeah, the birdcage model has been supplanted by majority public ownership at this point, the same incentives that create the military industrial complex don’t exist- if you’d like, i would recommend reading “Economy and Class Structure of German Fascism” which can be a handy reference point for the US military complex.



  • OurToothbrush@lemmy.mltoMemes@lemmy.mlHard to swallow pills
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    26 days ago

    A million Uyghurs, whose only apparent crime is being Muslim, have been sent to labor camps and undergone forced sterilization.

    Do you know the sources of these claims? Because you’re repeating stuff that was first spread around by a German Christian nationalist (a euphemism) employed by a cia front group, which had already been debunked, and could be debunked by anyone looking at his methodology who is able to read mandarin.

    Why is this myth pushed so hard by western countries which slaughter Muslims by the millions, and are engaged in genocide against a majority Muslim population as we speak?

    Why do Muslim delegations visiting uniformly support the way China has treated its minority Muslim populations? Before you say sectarianism, investigate and realize that the delegations were intentionally multi-sectarian.

    Tiananmen Square started out as people peacefully protesting government corruption, and ended in the state murdering them.

    How violently do you think the US would have responded to US protestors trying to overthrow the government when they start burning and lynching to death unarmed soldiers? You can still find photos online of mutilated PLA soldiers corpses from june 2nd. 300 or so dead, including the soldiers that were killed, seems pretty light. Oh wait, the US military would never show up to a protest not armed to the teeth, silly me.


  • OurToothbrush@lemmy.mltoMemes@lemmy.mlHard to swallow pills
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    26 days ago

    You do understand that free speech that doesn’t threaten the government is tolerated everywhere, right? Us having more free speech here is just a function of the US government feeling more secure in its power, you can still find examples of free speech being punished in the US when it has threatened its power.