DBL [They/Her]

On a less serious note, look at that mf with a submachine gun leaping at me through the air cuz im jerking it to some porn. Let a girl do her thing geez

The image is called, Strengthen attack dynamics, resolutely wipe out pornography, gambling and drugs It’s a propaganda poster published in the People’s Republic of China in 1997 and is from a series of propaganda called Talk about civilization and create a new style propaganda posters.

I was just searching through Chineseposter.net and came across this and thought it was interesting. For me, I feel that this poster, as well as the others in the series serve as a primer to think about the ways societies with differing histories, economic modes of production, and global relations may view crime, social issues, or even what is considered impolite in public spaces (see the no spitting poster in the series). I think it’s cool to look through the site and see how the art style of posters changed over time. This series is distinct from the more modern posters and of course are different from those made in the cultural revolution, not just in style but content.

Hey, I appreciate what seems like a genuine question from you. I’m reading your message and I think that you’re talking about a couple different things. What I’m hearing from you is:

1. You’re asking if there is any value to electoralism within the US that only involves the Democratic and Republican Parties?
2. You think the US working class are worse off under republicans than democrats.
3. You think that under Trump, US foreign policy is more dangerous for those who live in the imperial periphery.
4. US propaganda has limited the potential of the US working class to revolutionize their society.

Let me know if you think I’ve incorrectly understood your message or if I’m off base. Also, I’m going to try to give my opinion on those 4 points but I’m not anyone special nor am I an expert in anything. I just study Marxist-Leninist theory and organize in my community. I most certainly have incorrect opinions about a lot of things and I have a lot to learn so take whatever I say with a grain of salt. Looking forward to yours and others’ thoughts as well.

My responses:

1. In the long run we as the working class and oppressed peoples of the world have a historical duty to overthrow the chains of capitalist-imperialism and usher in a new world utilizing the proven scientific socialist method. In the short term we must fight to secure better conditions for ourselves where we can. In the context of the US, there is no vanguard party. All working class and/or anti-colonial organizations are split into numerous different sects. If you’re asking whether or not there is value in voting for democrats as a lesser evil, then I can’t give you a straightforward answer other than they are no lesser evil for the vast majority of the world.

Personally, with regard to voting, I think that I align myself with Too Black’s position from the Black Myths Podcast which goes something like: In the abstract, I’m not against voting, even voting for the ‘lesser evil.’ If oppressed people of the US say to me that they are voting for a democrat because they believe that their material conditions will deteriorate less under a democrat government than a republican, then sure. There’s an argument to be made. But the issue is that the vast majority of people who make this argument see voting as a STRATEGY rather than a TACTIC. The vast majority who make this argument, and I believe this majority to be close to 99%, do not engage in politics at all beyond the voting booth. They do not undergo political struggle with their people. They do not physically or materially stand in solidarity with anyone. They believe that voting is a form of struggle by itself, it is not. Sure, you’re voting on election day, but what are you doing the other 1460 days? And the answer for 99% of people who argue for voting for the lesser evil is… Nothing. In this way they are not voting to do damage control while they struggle with their comrades to better their conditions themselves, they are voting to worsen the lives of themselves and their fellow people.

2. Just to put this out here first, for most white cis workers in the US, i.e. the top of the labor aristocracy, their material conditions have not changed significantly under trump. And for those white cis workers whose material conditions have changed for the worse, the majority support the policies and actions that worsen their own conditions because they believe those policies and actions hurt their perceived enemies even more. This of course doesn’t justify the suffering of people but it’s hard for me to feel empathy for white supremacist fascists voting against their own interests. For the rest of the workers, if they say that their material conditions have worsened under trump, which with all the cuts to food and medical assistance it seems like it has, I believe them. But I also believe that the austerity measures that impact the US working class are done so to benefit the capitalist class. Both the democrats and republicans are political parties organized to represent the interests of the different factions of capitalists manning the helm of world capitalist-imperialist hegemony. I think that no matter which capitalist factions run the tool of class oppression that is the state, they all want and benefit from the austerity and worsening conditions of the US working class. In short, if you look at the history of the democratic party and the policies they’ve passed and what they’ve done in power, they also want the same thing as the republicans.

3. There is no difference between Democratic and Republican foreign policy. The far right isn’t emboldened by trump. What we call ‘The Right’ just means people who support capitalism. The emboldening of the right, just like trump being voted into office, is a manifestation of the contradictions of capitalist-imperialist sharpening. Imperialism and the capitalist class, on a world scale is losing ground and being undermined by the development of the nations of the global periphery and is lashing out and trying to garner support in the face of that threat. Some of these lashes take place over the course of decades and some in the moment of a muzzle flash, the streak of a missile, or the speed of helicopters ferrying away kidnapped heads of state.

4. Ideology and the subjective experience of the individual is a material reality that is important. Both are a representation of the material conditions that one finds themselves in. The US is not just THE Imperialist hegemon of the world but is also a prison house of nation containing not only hundreds of indigenous nations but also the black nation. But the US also contains its settler population which makes up the majority of the working class. This is the basics of the domestic settler-colonial contradiction within the US. The settlers of this working class have a material interest in maintaining the settler-colonial relationship they benefit from. They also have a material interest in maintaining the Capitalist-Imperialist relationship the US has with the rest of the world because they benefit from it too. This is the economic base that holds up the ideological superstructure of the US, including the propaganda you receive. This is the real limit to revolutionary potential of the US working class. The white, settler working class of the US will never take up arms with you to fight and ‘get out’ from under the system. The majority of the US working class will not, as you put it, find its way out because they understand the situation they are in and choose the status quo because it benefits them materially. Propaganda is real. Ideological work is important. But brainwashing is not real. The revolutionary potential within the US lies with the fight for Indigenous, Black, and Trans Liberation.

I hope I answered your questions and I’m not coming across as patronizing. I’m trying to engage with you genuinely. I hope you have a good rest of your day

I organize a self defense group. I organize community run political education. I organize mutual aid. You’re defending liberals and complaining about how we (Communists and Anarchists) don’t touch enough grass. One of the most online anti-grass touching groups of people are liberals. 99% of who don’t do any form of political organizing whatsoever. The most that they do is, once every four years, go to their local school gym to drop off a piece of paper and get a sticker. And then they have the gall to call that political engagement. And then, the 1% of liberal outliers who do anything at all only go out to try to get more people to get their sticker. Newsflash, voting for your favorite capitalist appointed trans hating genicidaire isn’t a form of meaningful political engagement.

If you’re a liberal from the US reading this then just know you’re pro pedophilia. Your ideological framework and your politics mean that you’re materially anti-trans, anti-black, anti-brown, anti-woman, pro settler-colonialism both domestically and abroad, pro imperialist, and against the people of the global periphery gaining economic and political sovereignty. You’re no different than the MAGA fascists you proclaim to hate. You’re all this just so you can lick the crumbs from beneath the polished boots of your capitalist overlords, playing your part as a member of the global labor aristocracy. You’re materially a fascist hiding behind the most transparently thin veneer of false innocence while the vast majority of the population of the world looks at you and sees you for exactly what you are. A bug. Like some rendition of Kafka, you are someone who through their own beliefs and actions of dehumanizing the majority of the people of the world, have dehumanized yourself to the point of being a cockroach. But unlike the metamorphosis, you’ve chosen to live your life in denial of who you are, what you believe, and what you do. You’re a coward.

I feel that it’s almost a certainty that the US and other imperialist states are infiltrating and trying to steer all of the protests to whatever ends are most advantageous to them, or the least harmful.

It seems that the US state department is funding the electoral arm of the student movement in Serbia right now through several different organizations/NGOs. I happened to listen to a Madleton Pendleton video the other day where they went through the donor list of the student movement’s public facing org. While the information is coming from a youtuber and that means it’s not a certainty, I feel that it’s safe to assume the imperialists have their hands in as many pots as they can reach and student movements, with their lack of discipline and no ideological or party line, are easy to reach pots. We saw the color revolution in Nepal and how that ended.

Of course I’m not disparaging the protesters in Albania, France or anywhere. Their struggles are righteous and born from serious and real hardships. I hope for nothing but the best for them, genuinely, but the ruling class doesn’t need to start the fight, they just care about how it ends and they have most of the pieces on the board.

I’m half way through the blowback season on Korea… It’s so intense.

I want nothing but success and prosperity for the Korean people and the oppressed peoples of all nations. Death to the USA

I know this is a meme post but I’m going to leave these here for anyone who wants to read up on philosophy, specifically Dialectical-Materialism.

Georges Politzers’ book Elementary Principles of Philosophy

Sean Sayers’ article Materialism, Realism, and the Theory of Reflection

Note on EPoP: When my local group of comrades read EPoP together, many of us found Politzers’ arguments against religion in parts 1 & 2 to be too overly antagonistic to include in the mass community education program we’re developing (even though we agreed with the logic of Politzers’ arguments and his conclusions). Use this information as you see fit.

Hell yeeaaah. Thank you.

This is the first time I’ve seen Anna’s Library… It’s amazing, they even have digital copies of new books! I know how I’m going to spend my weekend. Thanks for this

Hey Cowbee, do you have a free/cheaper source for Boer’s Socialism is Power book? The epub and physical copies are $110 minimum.

See my name for my motivations for asking.

Thank you very much!

Would love a ping as well! I just recently got seven of my friends and I to begin developing a community run Introduction to Marxism-Leninism class using your list. We’re only using Section 0 - 4 for the intro class and if all goes well, we’ll be creating more classes with the later sections.

We just started Week 3 of our prep work. We read and take notes independently then get together in person once a week to synthesize an ‘official’ summary to use for the class once all the material is prepared.

Thank you very much for the list, it’s been very good and has been a great resource for collaborating with my local comrades.

Communist Love Song - Soltero