why is this happening.

Join and make it less lib. It’s that easy.

The only way you’d make it more lib is if you think you’re more lib than DSA 😳 👀

To those of you requesting I move my posts proselytizing people about joining an organization over to /strugglesession I have but one thing to say:

Join an organization

To those who repeat the line “I believe in democratic centralism so I won’t join” I say: so do I. If that’s such a sticking point for you to not join DSA, which organization practicing democratic centralism are you currently a part of?

Do you think Lenin or Mao woke up one day with a perfectly structured organization laying at their feet comprised of only those who held similar beliefs to them? Of course they didn’t. They crafted and cultivated these organizations and revolutionary mindsets for decades before seeing the fruits of their labor. If you aren’t organizing you are not only not a revolutionary, you are a counterrevolutionary. Are you waiting for a perfect movement to be waiting at the foot of your bed one morning instead of putting in the labor to craft one you see as suitably revolutionary? Not to even scold you, but factually your absence from organization based on personal ideology favors only the capitalist and harms only your comrades.

The fact there’s multiple dark reds and NO dark greens...

Since my last three Roma effort posts have been heavy, I wanted to do an educational but lighthearted one for International Romani Day. This one is going to be a very basic opening to Roma culture, as I doubt many here know much about it.

DISCLAIMER: Roma may be all racially similar, but there are many ‘groups’ of Roma with rather unique cultures. This primarily focuses on my experiences within Balkan Roma groups and some more well known groups such as the Kalderash of Eastern Europe.

Anyways, backstory: Roma are a group that came from India originally and made its way through Central Asia, Middle East, North Africa, and sometimes East Africa, then Europe. We are everywhere, from America, to Europe, to Brazil, to Palestine, and even Japan and China. (And China is one of the very few countries who was very nice to those of us who went there in the 1900s).

Language:

Romani is a complex language. It stems from Hindi and has many similarities, but we have gathered many loan words throughout various countries. But I can hardly think of another language with such confusing grammar half the time. It also doesn’t help that there are like a hundred dialects. So, for example:

Gadze, Gadje, Guyshe, Godtra, Gaja, Gayja, Gosha.

All those are ways to spell the EXACT same word but in various dialects. So it’s obvious why the language can seem similar, but it’s not always easy to communicate with other dialects. It also is hardly ever taught in written form because so many of us are illiterate. Older generations are more and more often not teaching the younger generation how to speak it. It’s a dying language.

Religion:

There is no set religion for Roma. Some are Muslim, Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant. Even a few Jewish Roma exist. Islam is common in the Balkans and Protestant is very common in Northern/West Europe and America. A lot of Evangelicals specifically target Roma in North Europe actually to recruit.

In my experience, Roma are not THAT religious. Culture tends to always supersede religious rules or obligations for us. For example, almost everyone in my family who is Muslim drinks alcohol because that’s just the culture.

However, we practice many holidays. For example, many French Roma will go to Sara E Kali’s (A Romani saint) pilgrimage — submerging her statue into water. Many think of this is a tradition we brought from India as it resembles Durga Puja in Hinduism. Many Balkan Roma celebrate Ederlezi — Feast of Saint George.

As for witchcraft, well, it depends on the group. Some Roma do read fortune (via tarot cards, coffee fortunes, or tea leaves). I linked some articles about it here before.

Dancing/Singing:

Sometimes stereotypes are true, and the stereotype that Roma love to dance is true. We love to dance! We have various forms too. Kocek is very popular in Balkans, here is a more common dance among Eastern European Roma that some call shuffling, we invented Flamenco (NOT UP FOR DEBATE!), and here is a video discussing Roma dancing cultural traditions .

Djelem, Djelem is what some may say is our “anthem”. It’s a beautiful song. Esma Redzepova was a lovely, famous, and passionate singer. She recently passed away. She has a fantastic voice. Here is a more modern band, Mahala Rai Banda (I love their songs!). And here is a Romani rap group, Roma Sijam. And here is a new Roma girl group, Pretty Loud, who have been singing about Roma rights — especially for women. You should definitely support them.

Anyways, anytime you listen to Balkan music, it’s probably 99% inspired by us. European music would be nothing without us. We also brought the clarinet to Europe.

Clothing:

Another thing that will vary from country to country. Women tend to wear long skirts, married women tend to cover their hair, and hats are common among men. Our skirts can be very intricate , sometimes our attire resembles Indian lehengas, and we wear lots of gold jewelry even gold teeth.

Not sure what else to add, that's really a very basic start to it all. May do a part 2 sometime, but feel free to ask any questions if you have them.

April 8th is International Romani Day. There's a lot I could say, but mostly just want to say thank you all for being a community where I don't have to be afraid to say I'm Gypsy. You'd be surprised how not all European leftists even care about us! So I appreciate you all. So thank you all, please continue to stay educated on our issues, and never be afraid to ask me any questions if you have any.

:heart-sickle:

No racism going on inside Asia and especially in Asian inmigrants in murica wanting to be part of a far-right party that wants to put a pedo in a high charge.

You may not like it, but this is what peak leadership looks like

CW FOR MENTIONS OF CHILD ABUSE [MENTAL, SEXUAL, AND PHYSICAL] AND CHILD DEATH

Wanted to make a post about the Troubled Teen Industry/#BreakingCodeSilence. The topic is gaining more discussion lately after celebrities like Paris Hilton spoke up, but many people still don’t know about it. American leftists must learn about this industry and advocate against it when possible.

I am not going to specify which one for internet safety reasons, but I have been sent to one of these so-called “therapeutic boarding schools” when I was younger. Therapeutic is a joke of a word to use here: there is hardly any therapy that isn’t just berating yourself and others around you. I'd be willing to explain more about my own situation if anyone is curious.

Who gets sent to places like these? It depends. Some of the girls there were suffering from drug addiction, misbehaviour at school, underage sex, being obviously Autistic, not obeying their parents rules 100%, or speaking out about being abused. Kids have been sent to these places for such miniscule things that I would hardly recommend a child see a therapist for let alone be sent away and locked up.

To start, I want to tell you how many children are kidnapped in the middle of the night. Parents hire escorts/transporters, and they come into the child’s room at 3am, and say, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.” The hard way meaning restrained and handcuffed. They take you from your house and either drive you to the middle of nowhere or take you on a plane to the middle of nowhere. It’s a terrifying experience.

Most kids start out in wilderness programs. Advertised as a way for the child to detox from the outside world and reconnect with themselves and nature. You’re in the middle of nowhere as a child and that is scary enough regardless of how you are treated there. And most programs treat the kids badly. Kids are sleep deprived, barely given enough food, and sometimes only get to bathe once every week or so. There’s been quite a few kids who have died in these programs. I have not so much experience with wilderness, but it’s something I would never recommend.

And when kids think they’re going home once their wilderness program ends, they actually get sent to RTC/TBS (residential treatment centers/therapeutic boarding school). Hardly anyone just goes to wilderness. And this is where things get worse. Every program has its own unique horrors, but almost all of them have extremely cruel rules, forced child labour, allegations of sexual abuse, unsafe restraintment, solitary confinement, and untrained staff. Some programs have you sit and stare at a wall all day long. If you start to slouch, you have to stare for more hours. If you dare look away for even a second, you get points taken away. Points is the only way you can “advance” to the next levels to hopefully graduate the program eventually. Some programs make it so you are not allowed to talk to anyone for weeks on end. Some programs have solitary confinement. You have no privacy as you can never be alone. Not even while showering. If you act up (which can mean just looking out a window), you face the risk of being pinned down and restrained by adults twice your size. There have been many kids who died from these restraint practices which are known to be dangerous. Staff is hardly ever trained or licensed to be working in these types of places.

There are seminars that some programs do. This “therapy” tends to entirely revolve around making you believe everything in the world is your fault. Your parents aren’t at fault for anything. You are the problem. You have to take responsibility. You are a bad kid who is manipulative and will die once you leave the school. You have to write to your parents about how you are a horrible person and confess to everything bad you’ve ever done. You have to tell the girls around you how they are bad, manipulative, deserve to be raped, and will die once they leave this school too. That is no exaggeration. Those are things I have had to say to other girls around me. No child should hear that, and no person should carry the guilt for being forced to victim blame their peers.

Anyways, I could go on forever about the abuse in these programs. If you want to hear from more survivors, you can listen to the podcast Inside The Program. Or watch Paris Hilton’s documentary on Youtube. Or listen to TrueAnon’s 100th episode on the TTI, Brat Camp .

But you know what it all comes down to, in the end? Capitalism. These programs are expensive. It varies but usually like $3000-5000 per month, and you must stay for at least a year. One really popular program is $11,000 per month. I’ve known people whose parents went into debt to keep their kid locked up and abused because the programs are so good at brainwashing and convincing parents their kids will die if they leave. The staff isn’t always paid very well either, so most of the money ends up going to the people who own these schools. They rely on kids being punished so often that they keep you locked away to get your parents’ money. And they get you there in the first place by providing kickback money to Wilderness programs to convince the parents that you MUST go to one of these programs. And both of them give kickback money to therapists to recommend any of this shit in the first place.

Here’s some insight on the money aspect:

“A research brief from the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute estimated the industry pulled in $328 million in revenue in 2015 alone and accounted for 6,400 jobs. Alaska spent more than $31 million in Medicaid funding over six years sending 511 kids to Utah. Nevada spent even more — $35 million since 2014 — sending 761 youths here, according to its Medicaid data. The St. George school had received more than $13 million in government money from six states until it closed last year after a riot.”

Yeah, so not only is America’s health insurance system terrible in every other manner, but also your tax dollars are going towards sending kids to be abused instead of providing everyone universal healthcare and good mental health services.

Politics is involved too of course. The founder of WWASP schools donates thousands of dollars to the republican party each year. Utah has had politicians be involved in these facilities. Many of these facilities don’t get inspected as often as they are meant to. Police are often aware that they should return runaways back to facilities no matter what abuse the kids say is happening there. Doctors around the facilities know to not listen to abuse allegations — and that’s for rare instances when these places actually let the kids have medical care.

Many of these programs that get shut down just get reopened under different names and “different leadership.” Usually the exact same people are still involved just behind-the-scenes. For example, Arizona Boys Ranch had a kid die there. It was the second death there, but this one got huge media Attention. 5 former staff members were indicted on child abuse and manslaughter charges, and 17 staff were put on a child abuse registry. All that happened was they changed their name right after.

And another child died there in 2020.

Anyways there’s so much more to add about all the behind the scenes stuff that goes on in this industry, more on the history, and more of the people who are involved that you probably know (like Dr. Phil). Will make a part 2 eventually o7

I will move to Arizona, pretend to be a republican, run for the senate, and then reveal myself as a militant Third World Maoist once elected.

:mao-clap: .

edit: Since this took off, I would like to state that the imperial core must be destroyed for the rest of the world to live.

I have read my Soviet history, I have read articles about it, I have watched YouTube videos, and I have even read Trotsky but I still have no idea what being a Trotskyist is supposed to mean. It seems to me like one of Trotsky's main ideas is Permanent Revolution but what the Fuck does that mean from a practical standpoint? Does that mean being a Trotskyist means you want to gain power so you can start a global war against the bourgeoisie? It seems like whenever someone calls themselves a Trotskyist what they are really saying is they are a Communist but Stalin is bad so we need a new name. :trot-shining:

It still has to do the obligatory "of course the USSR's politics were totalitarian and evil and the US's politics are open and free" bullshit, but kudos to this guy for calling Biden the leader of a nation in rapid decline on March 6th.

This following on reflections today I've been thinking/posting about all day. With the in-progress major realignment of the Democrats and Republicans the conditions for the emergence of a genuine American fascism are now possible save for the existence of an organized left. Arguably, this can be taken up by the existence of a "phantom" organized left in the form of AntiFa and Soros type conspiracy theorizing and scaremongering.

Essentially, the Republicans, as representing the factional interest of the provincial "national bourgeoisie" are, by some nightmarish convergence of factors, becoming the primary voice for genuine working-class interests. They are achieving this through appeals to several sentiments:

• Anti-Intellectualism
• Performative Anti-Elitism
• Anti-Cosmopolitanism
• Anti-Free Trade Protectionism and Autarky
• Single-Issue Cultural Grievances
• Ultra-nationalistic patriotism
• Appeal to "traditional values"
• The accelerating spread of conspiratorial thinking

Trump overperformed in non-white demographics. Arguably the single most important takeaway from this election is that identity is no longer a highly deterministic factor in partisan affiliation and voting behavior. Already-incoherent political beliefs of the average American is making individual non-white voters fixate on single issues and emotional impulses, and in the absence of a heavily class-based economic appeal to the working class (which the Democrats have now definitively and explicitly rejected to exploit), this is causing the non-college-educated to respond favorably to the sentimental appeals of the Republicans. Trump overperformed with African-Americans and Latinos by between 3-5 points. His share of the LGBT vote doubled from 2016. Clearly, these people care about something more than him being an obvious and overt racist and bigot. Clearly, they are gravitating to him because he is voicing their legitimate grievances that no other politician has been.

Trump's proto-fascism actually holds back the emergence of a genuine American fascism in two key aspects. Firstly, despite being a demagogue Trump is personally ideologically incoherent. He most just says what immediately comes to his mind or thinks will play well to the crowd. You can't imagine Trump writing a manifesto like Gentile or Hitler. Secondly, Trump's nativist populism is overly inward-looking. It is about closing off the frontier from invaders, not expanding them indefinitely. It lacks the inherent fascist drive toward self-annihilation.

But what does embody the fascist drive toward self-annihilation within the Republican Party? Bush-era neoconservatism, and the ideological paradigm that led us to invade Iraq. Trump's administration in practice degenerated into a bog-standard neoconservative administration, but without the overt drive to outright invade other countries and "spread democracy". He has largely continued to rely on Obama-style tactics centering air power, covert operations, and backing color revolutionaries. Again, this is in large part due to the personality of Trump himself. He is averse to actually starting wars he could possibly lose. He is anti-imperialist, at least purely at the rhetorical level. He is ideologically incoherent. His foreign policy has actually weakened empire abroad, despite laying the foundations for a new cold war with China, and the Democrats have laid the foundations to include Russia in that cold war.

The stage is now set for some post-Trump figure to emerge. Someone who synthesizes the populist appeals outlined above that derive from Trump, with Bush-era neoconservative ideology and foreign policy. Because the Republicans, in this realignment, are becoming an otherwise incoherent coalition of big business interests (chiefly in the fossil fuel and defense manufacturing sectors), petty bourgeoisie, rural reactionaries, and genuine working-class people who have had their lives destroyed by neoliberal free trade and are now turning to Trump and what he represents if they are not retreating from politics altogether. They are becoming a party of the class-collaborationism that is inherent to fascisms.

It may not have worked in KY tonight or ever but I bet it’ll work next time

1. Who on Earth is gonna change their mind about voting for Biden on the day of the election because they saw a Shaun tweet?????

2. The U.S. isn't some small insignificant country -- they affect the whole world (indirectly and directly), everyone has a right to speak on U.S. politics, especially if they're educated on the topic.

https://twitter.com/thelindsayellis/status/1323527419853037574

Also, for the unfamiliar, both of these people are considered "breadtube" YouTubers.

I’ve seen a fair few threads asking about the New Zealand Labour Party and it’s leader Jacinda Ardern, given its historic win last night. Here’s a brief explainer for why she isn’t the second coming of Lenin (or even Michael Joseph Savage).

Ardern is our equivalent of Obama, or Biden, or Buttigieg. She’s very good at saying nothing and sounding meaningful about it. She talks about compassion and will even say that capitalism has failed, but when push comes to shove she walks the same neoliberal path that the Labour Party started down in 1984.

This should not come as a surprise to anyone. She worked as a senior policy advisor under war criminal Tony Blair after the Iraq war. Ardern is our version of Justin Trudeau. Foreigners swoon over her, but she’s a neoliberal through and through.

Here’s an article from our local left media outlet mocking this perception foreigners have of her.

International readers who are vaguely interested in New Zealand’s politics probably don’t actually care all that much that most of what was announced yesterday was heavily contested from many different and diverse perspectives. Going by much of that overseas coverage, it appears that what they’re really interested in reading about is an avatar for a better world, one that they wish they lived in. New Zealand, the country so fantastical that some people don’t even believe it really exists, is a beautiful dream for many people in countries like the USA and Britain that are governed by grotesque oafs.

While Labour has done alright in terms of handling the attack on the mosque in Christchurch, we can’t ignore the county’s racist refugee policy that would make Donald Trump and Australia blush.

Let’s get into the weeds. Prior to COVID, Labour’s budgets were perfunctory and third-way budget, not ‘transformational’ like they try to paint it.

Here’s what NZ socialist Morgan Godfrey has to say about the budget:

Labour's current conservatism reaches its peak in the unintentionally funny Budget Responsibility Rules (BRRs). Under the BRRs the government commits to paying down debt and keeping core Crown spending within certain limits. The Oxford English Dictionary will probably define “neoliberalism” as “the Budget Responsibility Rules” in its next edition. What’s striking, though, is not even English made a commitment like the BRRs, probably recognising they risked constraining any reformist agenda in a hypothetical fifth term. Remind me, who's on the left again?

Ardern’s Labour Government refused to deliver a capital gains tax in the midst of a housing crisis, after setting up a tax working group to recommend that very tax. Furthermore, she can’t even blame it on coalition partners, as she went on to rule out a capital gains tax in her political lifetime. So her recent outright victory in the 2020 election will do nothing for even marginally leftwards movement here, since the restrictions are self imposed.

Look to the attitudes of the unions that survived the 1984 Labour Government. On the eve of the recent budget delivery, all primary and secondary school teachers walked off the job in a mega strike.

This is a government that’s tied its own hands and refused to take on debt to rebuild infrastructure despite credit agencies saying it could comfortably borrow much more. Post COVID, the Government continues to underspend, especially on climate change compared to its peers.

Despite unemployment only looking to return to current levels by 2025, Labour has ignored the recommendations of the welfare working group they themselves commissioned, to immediately and significantly increase the amount paid to beneficiaries. In contrast, the Australian Liberals, their right wing party, doubled welfare payment amounts due to COVID.

The cherry on top is that our welfare agency regularly trawls through beneficiaries’ private text messages for nudes to make sure they aren’t fucking anyone. How’s that for compassion?

While Ardern is more than happy to front up to the cameras when facing crises from external sources, like pandemics, volcanoes, and terrorism, she’s notorious for hiding away when it’s the government’s actions that caused the crises.

Take for example land theft of the native Māori peoples. Faced with a land occupation, she staunchly refused to visit, despite multiple invitations.

Or when the state got filmed trying to take a newborn Māori baby from its mother in the birthing ward, leading outcry, Ardern, along with the Minister for Children, refused to watch the video, or read the resulting report of mothers’ experiences at the hands of the state.

This all leads to the left asking, if she’s going to govern like National, what’s even the point of Jacinda Ardern and the NZ Labour Party?

For years now I've been able to laugh off my grandparents, FOX News and brainwashed Republicans in general.

But my roommate's interaction with her parents changed things for me.

Her parents told her that they were scared. They were scared because something serious was underway in America, that a revolution was happening that threatened to destroy the entire country and that it was serious. They told her that Marxists were on the brink of pulling Biden to the Left, and that they were legitimately danger.

I usually laugh this off, but something struck me: they weren't angry, or grumpy, or bone-headed, like I usually imagine Republicans. They were legitimately afraid, and perceived themselves to truly be descending into a national emergency, one that FOX News has completely manufactured.

I used to laugh off people that said FOX is paving the way to Fascism, or Drumpf = Hitler. But I've come to comprehend that fear, not anger, was the driving motivator in Nazi Germany, and now understand that FOX is pumping sheer terror into the American public at levels only possible in modern society.

I don't really think FOX is a laughing matter anymore, because I begin to understand how an American public this afraid could condone Nazi Germany level atrocities under the impression that they were saving themselves.