GenZedong

“Secret reports recently revealed by National Public Radio (NPR) have exposed the torturous reality of immigration detention in the United States. Among the revelations were gross medical negligence, unsanitary conditions, rampant racism and frequent, unprovoked, brutality against detainees. Silky Shah, Executive Director of Detention Watch Network, joined The Freedom Side to discuss the reports, the brutal conditions inside immigration detention centers, the connections to the broader US prison system and what needs to change in immigration detention policy.”

Article here

So I got into BadEmpanada a while back when I was going through a Latin America phase (I have actually stayed there for a short time so I thought I'd better understand the politics).

I appreciated and still do admit that he has made some very good quality videos on LatAm related issues, most specifically: the Shining Path maoist cult, Fujimori's dictatorship, and Castillo's arrest. They seemed to be objective, well-researched, and aligned with what I had seen and heard first-hand.

So then I signed up for his Patreon on logged onto his Discord (mind you at this point I had not watched any of his videos relating to China, but if I had checked, I would have very quickly found out that had some pretty disgusting views).

Fast forward to a couple days ago and I came across his video commenting on BayArea415's decision to remove his videos and basically go AWOL. There were LOTS of red flags. Below I will list the very easily refutable points he made in the video, and, finally, point out exactly why he, himself, is a hypocrite and a fraud.

1. First of all, he calls BayArea415 a LARPer, and says that he was not under any real threat. He cites "plenty of westerners supporting China on Youtube" without being completely anonymous, and gives no examples. The fact is that most of the popular pro-China westerners are based in China, or at least outside the US: Nathan Rich (China), Daniel Dumbrill (China), Andy Boreham (China), Barrett (China), Brian Berletic (Thailand), Cyrus Janssen (Canada, also, not a leftist). Not to mention, none of them go in depth into a Marxist analysis as BayArea415 did, let alone come out openly as a radical communist. This is a recipe for getting tons and tons of hate, which BayArea451 well knew and for which he was absolutely right to go anonymous.

2. He then ridicules BayArea415 for actually being a foreclosure lawyer, as if this is something hypocritical and anti-leftist. As far as I understand he was defending the people who've had their houses be foreclosed.

3. Next, he claims that BayArea415 was "literally begging the Chinese government to give him a job" as a journalist at CGTN. Okay, so state-owned media doesn't mean that you get employed directly by the government. State-owned companies are still autonomous organizations that have majority stake by the central government. You go through a normal interview process just like any other job, and as for a foreigner, there would be little difference from getting a job anywhere else.

4. He claims that BayArea415 was not doing anything revolutionary or "threatening" to the bourgeoisie class because he supports "capitalist China". The joke literally writes itself. If you get so much street-cred for sh*tting on Youtubers who simp for China, then that's probably because you are the one touting a set of views that are based in appeasing the ignorant masses as opposed to going against the current despite the constant barrage hate and vitriol. I'm not even sure how anyone who calls themself a socialist could possibly assume the recipient of the wrath of the entire US empire is a capitalist nation... but let's not get into that argument here.

5. Next -- and this is the most inexplicable part -- he says that the fact that BayArea415 disappeared from the public eye after getting doxxed just means that "it shows he values his corporate lawyer job more than his activism." Bro... some people need to work for a living! People have families to support and are integrated into their social community. Not everyone can go live the high life as a white guy in an underdeveloped country earning USD and Australian dollars!

Finally, as I said, I will now disclose proof as to why BadEmpanada himself is a LARPer, a hypocrite, and a fraud.

Back when I was still following him, I was watching one of his livestreams when I noticed he was charging $15 (USD) to answer a question from the audience. This is pretty steep, so I questioned him in the comments. Before long, I found myself banned from the stream. I went into the discord to ask about it. Here's his response:

There you have it: "My streams are a joke that only exist to milk money. If you don't want to be milked don't watch."

Below is the full context of the conversation. You can see some of his fanboys awkwardly sticking up for him. A very toxic community to say the least.

Final thoughts: It's not worth any more of my time to give this loser any more thought, but I felt I had to get this out there. As someone who has spent time in Latin America, I know that its absolutely depressing seeing the amount of poverty and neglect in most places, and for the same reason becomes even more intolerable to live there as a (foreign) socialist. Imagine living the good life in the nice center part of town, while millions are toiling away in the slums and outskirts, just scraping by. This is apparently what the man is doing. There is some mental derangement that must be associated with such a lifestyle, especially if you intend to be someone who lives by your values to any extent at all. The depravity becomes all the more salient the more the person in question believes himself to be righteous and principled.

I don't want to know what he is doing with that $15 per question, that's for sure.

P.S. - BadEmpanada's video bashing BayArea415 is first one that comes up on YouTube when you search "bayarea415". So basically he's now being used as a tool for western bourgeois media psyop narratives to invalidate real leftist voices. Nice job buddy.

The tweet translated:

Today is the anniversary of the massacre of students and workers who fought for freedom, rights and democracy in China, but were suppressed with violence and repression. China's repression of dissidents unfortunately continues in high gear.

This dude is the new leader for "Enhedslisten"(Unity List), the only "socialist"(They have recently been pro NATO until an alternative arises) party with enough mandates to receive government positions, they are fairly popular.

Denmark is so cucked.

The tweet: https://twitter.com/pelledragsted/status/1665355639307096064

News article about him becoming "ordfører" for Enhedslisten: https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/politik/live-enhedslisten-praesenterer-ny-politisk-ordfoerer (Danish)

To start off, thank you for this community to give me some comradeship through my toughest of time and I feel like that is also good enough sometimes. I know a lot of people might not know me. Maybe some do. I know a lot of people might not like me for not being political anymore or share the same ideas. But I really just want to live and stop worrying about politics too much. I have sometimes good take and sometime dogshit horrible takes. I understand we are all just trying to fight for a peaceful world and a beautiful world. I need to say goodbye because I feel like I no longer going to be active on lemmygrad entirely anymore and it been a blip on and off randomly for months on end here me checking on update and sometimes giving horrible takes. I will have to admit that sometimes I do lack knowledge and need to read more books lol. Because I originally not from the West, this community have given me an opportunities to not feel alienated and I can relate to a lot of things this community said. Anyways, I don't know what else or what more to say... I know a lot of people might hate me for this because it might seen that I have given up on the cause, but I really need to focus on my life.

P.S. Also thanks @Eat_Yo_Vegetables69 for the sick ass pfp, it been nice knowing you comrade!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.basedcount.com/post/113726

I couldn't find any tools to check this, so I built one myself.

This is a little site I built: the Defederation Investigator defed.xyz. With it, you can get a comprehensive view of which instances have blocked yours, as well as which ones you are federated with.

The tool is open source and available on GitHub. Hopefully someone will find it useful, enjoy.

Lots of big instances have de-federated from Lemmygrad already

Welcome again to everybody! Make yourself at home. Today's picture depicts astronauts on the Tiangong space station, guaranteed 100% free of Nazis. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is our weekly discussion thread!

We have a Matrix homeserver at genzedong.xyz. See this thread for information about our Matrix space.

Short reading list for new MLs here. To find theory, try marxists.org, Anna's Archive, libgen, or Sci-Hub (for scientific articles). If an article is unavailable, try the Wayback Machine.

"A leader in an armed faction in northwestern Iraq said he believes that the strategic objective of the operation was to “change the rules of engagement with the Russians in Syria.”

The Russian air force operates in eastern Syria to support Syrian forces fighting ISIS. This has put Russian planes in close proximity to US drones flying out of the Al-Tanf base on the Syria-Iraq border, which is occupied by US forces and allied proxy militias known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

According to Iraqi sources, “the Americans will also try to cut off the Iranian supply route towards Syria and Lebanon, through Iraqi territory (...). This is all we know so far.”

US and allied proxy forces occupy all border crossings between Syria and Iraq except at Al-Bukamal. Israeli officials claim the crossing is part of a “land bridge” used by Iran to move personnel and advanced weapons into Syria to confront Israel.

Despite the recent US troop movements, a leader in the Coordination Framework, a coalition of Shia forces opposed to the US presence in Iraq, said: “The faction leaders recently discussed information about the American moves, and received an Iranian message that what the Americans are doing - whatever it is - is not a cause for concern.”

On 20 August, US Central Command (CENTCOM) denied it was making any changes in the mission of the US Army in northern Syria or Iraq, including attempting to cut off the Iraq-Syria border crossing at Al-Bukamal.

CENTCOM claimed it was moving troops on the Syrian-Iraqi border, but only “in order for the outgoing unit to redeploy and the incoming personnel to assume responsibility,” as part of “a relief in place and transfer of authority.”

US troops have illegally occupied parts of northeast and east Syria since partnering with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in 2015 to fight ISIS. Once the organization was defeated, US forces remained in Syria, denying the government in Damascus access to the country’s most important oil and grain-producing regions. This gives the US government leverage against the Syrian government moving forward, helping the US enforce harsh economic sanctions and hinder post-war reconstruction in the areas under government control.

US planners initially supported ISIS and other Al-Qaeda-affiliated extremist groups in Syria starting in 2011. Russian and Syrian officials allege that the US continues to support ISIS in Syria. The organization no longer holds territory but has intensified its guerrilla attacks on the Syrian army in recent weeks, killing large numbers of Syrian soldiers."

Video: US occupation forces moving a lot of gear

What's behind the US military surge in West Asia?

"In order to counter an emerging multipolar order and its impact on West Asia, it appears that Washington’s agenda is now set on doubling down on its pre-existing regional objectives. With the advent of the Chinese-brokered rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the heat has been on the US government to accomplish what the Biden administration views as a crowning achievement in the region: Israeli-Saudi normalization.

Short of this, to maintain the dominance of the collective west over the region, the immediate hurdle is overcoming the influences of Iran and Russia. This is why the occupation of roughly a third of Syrian territory by the US and its proxies, along with the imposition of deadly sanctions on Damascus, has become crucial in undermining the strength of its adversaries.

By keeping Syria divided and weakening the government of President Bashar al-Assad, the US is able to prevent the restoration of the Syrian state that now falls firmly under the Russian and Iranian spheres of influence.

Moreover, the recent tentative agreement between Washington and Tehran, which aimed to unlock billions in frozen Iranian assets in exchange for the release of five American prisoners, holds the potential to pave a path toward the revival of discussions to reinstate the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

While the US’s ability to secure a renewed nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic could hypothetically create a conducive environment for Saudi-Israeli normalization, the looming specter of a potential Republican victory in the 2024 US elections may cast uncertainty over this prospect.

The use of sanctions, along with hostile intelligence measures and the deployment of troops closer to the Persian Gulf, all signal a US intent to prevent a further diminishment of their role in the region. In the wake of the Ukraine conflict, the White House's capacity to exert its once-dominant presence in West Asia has encountered challenges, potentially prompting the current assertive stance by the US. "

Which we should see as an excellent radicalization and growth opportunity!

It can be exhausting explaining ourselves again and again, always met with the same accusations and assumptions born from the mythos spun by our enemies.

However, we must remember these people are people, and many people change their minds given enough information, delivered with firm respect. For every belligerent person who appears like they wouldn't change their mind for anything, there are 10 people quietly lurking who are more on-the-fence. Even those who regurgitate insults and contempt may change their mind when the stars align!

These people are not our enemies, they are victims to the greatest campaign of dishonesty in human history! It is our duty to draw out the poison and deliver the medicine!

I know many comrades here have very difficult lives and do not have the patience or energy to deal with such people. Please do not exhaust yourself interacting with liberals, and allow comrades with more energy to deal with them.

Radicalizing online is not the end-all be-all, but at this point in the psychological war for those within the Anglosphere, every victory is invaluable!!!

From this article, ya know, maybe i should make a community dedicated for anti-communists arts that accidently make Communist look badass

“Brian Berletic of the New Atlas discusses the U.S.'s fake diplomacy with China and how it is part of its long record of war provocations rather than a true attempt at restoring relations on the right path.”

You don't need to watch the video. Tom Scott/None of the interview subjects ever point out how fucked this is, but basically the story is rich sadists would put coins in boiling water and then throw them at poor children to watch them endure injury for small amounts of money as a form of entertainment.

When Danny Haiphong shared this on twitter his replies were flooded with NAFO losers and imperialist apologists. Danny did an amazing job and yet so many refuse to listen, they’d rather post vulgar memes and reaction images in his replies, tagging and therefore sending NAFO after him. While they aren’t a real threat they are incredibly annoying and exhausting to deal with.

Danny Haiphong is an inspiration and I hope one day I can be like him.

!traaaaaaannnnnnnnnns@hexbear.net

Rules, mods, and stuff will be hashed out soon, but we'd love to have you in the meantime :)

This graph probably brings up a lot of questions, so I'll clarify some of the details here.

Yes, this bar graph shows wages in figures of present-day won. It's not specified by the graph itself, but looking at the figures you can see that these numbers do not match up with Korean wage and currency reforms. Most notably, in 2014 with the election of Kim Jong-Un there was a widespread wage reform, where wages were multiplied by a factor of 10 (and prices following suit, of course) in order to crack down on markets. We know from Minju Choson articles and the book A Capitalist In North Korea that wages during the Kim Jong-Il period were generally less than 10,000KPW a month, so the 50,000 KPW figure doesn't match up for the years 2006-2010. Korean "inflation" (Not really inflation, because socialist countries don't really have inflation, but whatever) doesn't match up with these graphs, so assuming these as "inflation"-adjusted wages is a safe bet.

You can see from the bottom right that this data is based on a collection of defector testimonies. Keep in mind that defectors are generally coming from the poorest, more mountainous provinces of the DPRK such as Ryanggang and North Hamgyong. As a result, we have a bit of noise in the data we need to look at critically.

Industrial wages for Ryanggang and North Hamgyong actually aren't significantly lower than other provinces; in fact, due to the prevalence of heavy industry and coal mining, the highest paid professions in the DPRK (excluding members of the intelligentsia), industrial wages in Chongjin might actually be higher. However, since defectors usually come from the poorest backgrounds of even these poor provinces, these wages do not accurately reflect the average wages of even these provinces, as it does not account for the high number of steelworkers and even intelligentsia in industrial hubs like Chongjin and Hamhung.

Be wary of the official/unofficial wage split as well, because as I mentioned before defectors are often from the poorest provinces of the DPRK. These provinces were the ones that were hit the hardest by the Arduous March due to their unfavorable terrain, and as a result state grain distribution systems are weakest in these areas. As a result, the poverty of these provinces along with their proximity to the Sino-Korean border leads to the black markets here being the most prevalent. Remember that Korea has a strong industry and in comparison to Cuba, where the black markets are often full of consumer goods, Korean markets are mostly food. Add this to the fact that defectors are unlikely to be working in higher-paying professions and you get an unrealistic inflation in the prevalence of unofficial earnings. Keep in mind that this data is also quite old and Kim jong-Un has been cracking down quite hard on markets.

All that being said, with the proper context this graph shows that the DPRK is in fact increasing real wages for state workers.

wtf I thought we were doing a bit