Fellow Traveler

There has been a perpetual panic from the American reich wing surrounding the collapsing birth rates in the US and much of the first world. American reich wingers are observing the phenomenon that people are having fewer kids, having those kids into a later and later age, getting married less, remaining single etc. and the immediate reaction has been to gut planned parenthood, launch an assault on women’s reproductive rights, and otherwise lobby for draconian measures to pressure / force people to have kids at a time when young adults today cannot even afford to take care of themselves anymore, let alone support children.

It’s the hilarious irony of the right. They ruthlessly push for decades to unravel the social fabric that bound communities of people together to be able to support the proliferation of children, on top of the perpetual austerity and conversion of all resources and services necessary to support children into over priced commodities, on top of a draconian legal system actual incentivized to break families up and divide them, on top of marking up the costs of literally everything, without a commensurate rise in wages or job opportunities, on top of designing America to be one spread out giant highway and parking lot, and suddenly they’re shocked when people aren’t having as many kids as they used to?

The obvious solutions are simple: want a more pro natal society? You need sensible pro natal policies. The USSR and East Germany had loads of day care centers, paid time off for new born offspring, and loads of resources to assist single mothers and families.

The Soviets were handing out trophies to women who were having 10+ kids. And lo and behold: their populations grew linearly for decades despite their demographic challenges (Russia is very big and very cold) alongside perpetual efforts made by the Western Capitalist world to genocide them (ww2). Now that those resources are gone, the entirety of Eastern Europe has been shrinking in population size for decades. And the war in Ukraine will only exasperate this problem overtime.

The answer is simple: want people to have kids and maintain a sustainable birth rate? Provide people with the community resources and services that they need in order to do so. Main reason Americas nuclear family model worked was because back in those days it was possible to support a family on a single income (along with some community resources back then that no longer exist). But the nuclear family isn’t sustainable in a for profit world that seeks to extract its pound of flesh from everyone and everything. Unless you’re a physician or a chemical engineer, sustaining a 5-6 person family on a single median 35-40k salary is virtually impossible. I dont even make that much and I can barely afford to take care of myself.

But then again, that would mean giving people a non-market means to satisfy their wants and needs. That would mean billionaires wouldn’t be able to get even more disgustingly rich as they are now. That would mean line on stock market not go up. That would also mean treating people with dignity and equality.

The ruling class (and unfortunately a lot of Americans) would sooner carry out genocide on its domestic populace, war on Gaza style long before they would even consider anything like that.

1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 222

Fellow Traveler

The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that the PSL is either 1) cucked and ran by complete cowards from the bottom to the top, or 2) completely compromised and filled with feds.

The more I dwell on it, the more I am convinced that the reasons they let me go were absolute bullshit.

I was with one of their leading coordinators for a couple of hours. A man who is supposed to be to this organization, what a workers depute was to any given Soviet, that we “cant go door to door knocking and talking to people directly trying to forge connections within neighborhoods, now is not the time because some of our new members are a little nervous about talking to strangers or whatever”

Or when I ask why we shouldn’t just shove our candidates flyers in peoples mail boxes, they tell me “nope because that’s illegal, everybodies mail boxes is federal property”. Bro, the very act of socialist revolution is by its nature illegal, and you’re afraid of stuffing a piece of paper in peoples fucking Mail boxes?

Something is fishy and doesn’t quite add up. Why would an organizer for the USAs premiere ML vanguard not want to even do the bare minimum actions for even above ground organizing?

1 week ago | [YT] | 177

Fellow Traveler

So I am by no means a shill for Brave, but if any of you out there are suckers actually paying for YouTube premium, or god forbid, you actually allow yourself to suffer through the non-stop ads and AI slop: I highly recommend you download the brave web browser and open up YouTube through it.

You get most of the benefits of YouTube premium for free (genuinely ad free) + it blocks all of the data trackers collecting your browsing habits to feed you more ads, it saves you data, and more importantly; hours of your precious time, and even tracks these variables in real time.

Nowadays it has gotten so bad that the platform is basically unusable without an ad blocker of some kind. Even the US government doesn’t recommend rawdogging this god forsaken platform for your own safety and self preservation.

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 184

Fellow Traveler

The US left is so unbelievably fucked.

I’m going to fire up a spontaneous livestream here in a bit explaining why.

In short: Maybe some day an advanced communist party that is at the forefront of effective class struggle will emerge in America, but the PSL ain’t it…..

3 weeks ago (edited) | [YT] | 183

Fellow Traveler

So I finally got around to listening to the debate between Stale Burrito and the Crimson Noir Knight, and I gotta say wow: BRG either isn’t as smart as he portrays himself to be, or he’s so emotionally invested in the DSA that he would rather put his loyalty to an organization (that’s not even communist) before his actual convictions and principals.

During the entire debate, every time Gross Chimichanga pointed out how the DSA is cynically weaponized by the dems for support, how the DSA doesn’t even run its own candidates in elections, just left wing democrats (who like BRG put their loyalty to the party over their espoused principals), and how in effect, end up basically doing free labor for the Democratic Party in practice, though its campaigning and endorsement of establishment candidates, Dark Maroon Defender would either run his mouth about irrelevant bullshit, accuse him of talking over him and being rude despite (from my perspective) Evil Taco being quite polite and charitable, allowing him plenty of time to speak, and repeatedly assuring him that he’s not trying to maliciously antagonize him in bad faith, invoking a lot of defeatist circular reasoning, making ad hoc appeals to authority (ie. “you don’t organize allegedly, therefore your takes are wrong” / “cracker you are white, therefore bourgeois and wrong”) and ultimately shutting up when there’s nothing left to say because he can’t actually refute the central point.

It’s honestly pathetic to see an OG like BRG refuse to acknowledge these things, while trying to condescend to someone from South America, who clearly is involved in the struggle in some capacity if he can’t go to a US embassy without threat of imprisonment, and has a clear-cut vision of the kind of third party campaign work necessary to genuinely challenge power in the bourgeois political arena (where we all know the struggle doesn’t end there).

Douchy personality and resentment towards white people aside (he banned me for asking him why he hates white people one time), I actually respect BRG. I imagined he of all people would at least recognize the limits of working within the DSA and the need for something better. His loyalties are misplaced. Splitting is not “wrecking” if it’s justified.

If you’re in a big tent organization, with no clear cut ideology or guiding doctrine, the org just vaguely wants certain reforms with no vision or path to guide them, it’s membership is constituted predominantly by moderates and reformists with some more radical components here and there, there’s like a billion caucuses with no unifying principles to bind or guide them, it does nothing but endorse democrats without any mechanisms in place to hold them accountable to their campaign promises, it doesn’t even put up its own independent candidates in elections to challenge the democrats without any mechanisms.

How is a split not completely justifiable in this case? You can be a big tent org numbering 100k+ members, but what’s it matter if it’s membership are constituted by a bunch of non-committal liberals and moderate reformists who do nothing but form protest clubs, book clubs, and do free labor for Democratic Party candidates. You may as well split because you’re better off without those people anyways.

This has always been my take on the DSA: yes, you should join the DSA, but ultimately with the intention of splitting with the DSA.

If you’re new to working class advocacy, and there’s no other org in your area, but you see the DSA are the ones around hosting mutual aid and doing tenant organizing, then it’s worth it to join as a STARTING POINT, so you can get connected with other socialists, your local left, and gain some experience. But ultimately, no, you should not stay loyal to a party that is rampant with opportunists. The goal of joining the DSA should be to build and cultivate a more advanced circle of reliable cadre with the intention of either splitting and forming your own group, taking as many of the most radical and committed membership with you, or to try and take over the party and kick out all the liberals (which would take way longer and isn’t really practical anyways).

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 143

Fellow Traveler

Trump just had a meeting with Zohran where he spoke very glowingly about him. Basically spent the entire interview glazing Mamdani. This is a wild turn of events after how much time he spent shitting on Zohran in recent weeks.

If Zohran immediately walking back on all of his proposed principals prior to winning the election wasn’t enough to convince you he’s compromised, getting adulated by Trump should be a serious wake-up call to the remaining negative twelve democratic-party aligned “socialists” subscribed to this channel.

Because you’re the exact type of people who are convinced that Trump is uniquely evil rather than the logical continuation of a series of policies and agendas being actively advanced by the most reactionary components of the two party duopoly for decades. If that guy, who is universally considered to be the sworn enemy of the American left, is now getting behind the guy that you rallied behind as your next progressive champion, then that’s it: the Zohran experiment is already over.

You got duped. You got manipulated. He lied to you to get your vote, and then he immediately betrays you. If I were in your shoes, i would be absolutely livid. But this is what happens when you uncritically rally behind establishment politicians with zero ability to support them or to hold them accountable.

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Anyone still rallying themselves behind any establishment candidates, be they republican or democrat, may as well be a cultist at this point.

Every second you spend in complacency thinking the progressive wing of the democrats actually represents your interests, is an another second spent by the American reich destroying this country and ruining the world. The sooner you abandon the two party duopoly for good, and join / form independent working class organizations to oppose it, bare minimum running your own candidates in local / regional elections (shoutout to the homie Greg Levy running for Ohio senate), the better off everyone will be down the line. Forget the presidency.

Focus on the grass roots.

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 184

Fellow Traveler

Trying to run entryism into the Democratic Party is like signing up with the crips street gang to “reform it from within”.

Sure, you’re well intentioned, you see all the horrible things the crips do to you community: the pedal drugs, they engage in armed robbery, they kill people in disputes over turf, you see this, and you want to stop it. So you sign up. You learn the hand signs, you dawn the colors, and you learn their silly little dance.

So right out the gates, you haven’t done shit, and they’ve already forced you to dress, talk, and act exactly like a common crip because you need to conform in order to fit in. Next thing you know, they’ll have you pedaling drugs. They’ll have you be the trigger man to kill a rival gang member. They’ll have you engaging in the same morally reprehensible behavior that you joined them to stop by “reforming them from within”. But you have to do these things in order to be a crip.

So let’s get this straight: you are a minority in the gang, they have all the wealth, clout, and influence, and to do anything to meaningfully oppose their interests would put you in bad standing with the gang, so what’s the more likely outcome from here? Are the crips as an organization going to slowly transform themselves from within because of people like you? When you have no power, no numbers, and no leverage whatsoever? Or, is the organization going to start to reform you? Ie. start forcing you to changing your song and tune in order for you to stick around and be a member?

Let’s now take the crips times 10000000: the Democratic Party. The most mailable, adaptable, competent, powerful, and class conscious institution in history. You think you’re the ones who will push them left? After literally every historic example of the note has failed spectacularly to do so every time, and in each instance, they’re the ones who get reformed and pulled (to the right)?

Look at any given example. Be it AOC, Zohran, or otherwise. They always do this sort of thing

The only way to combat it is to operate outside of it on your own terms as a working person. If you’re American, I highly recommend PSL.

4 weeks ago | [YT] | 177

Fellow Traveler

I am fully convinced that the day revolution comes to America so the day that their access to their favorite consumer goods and services is compromised: namely gas station snacks, candy, tobacco, alcohol, soda, and pornography. The day these things become as expensive as healthcare or owning a house is the day Americans revolt and overthrow the government.

I remember when I used to work for a gas station not too long ago, our members rewards system was down, so people couldn’t get cheap tobacco products even cheaper, and people were visibly angry at me when I told them this. They were acting like it was my fault that they couldn’t buy their tobacco at a discount!

I told one man that he couldn’t do the usual “buy one get one free” of the nicotine pouches, and he immediately looked at me like he wanted to murder me.

4 weeks ago (edited) | [YT] | 216

Fellow Traveler

The advent of AI has been a complete disaster for the human race.

For one, it’s unreliable. Many of the products generated by AI such as scripts, essays, works of art, programs etc. irrevocably require humans to go back and fix its mistakes. A lot of the art generated by AI through prompts is just soulless, nonsensical bullshit that aren’t commercially viable. Chat is known GBT to get questions wrong or fabricate non-existent people, places, and things into existence.

For two. It’s making people dumber, as more and more teens and young adults are relying on it to do their mental labor in school for them. It’s become so prolific that students at universities are basically incentivized to do it because on average, the people who study the old fashion way don’t get graded as well as students who use chatGBT. As it turns out, your mind is like a muscle, and when you do what a lot of people are now doing by surrendering your cognitive faculties over to a machine, your cognitive capacity declines since you’re no longer thinking for yourself.

For three, it’s tossing gasoline to the dumpster fire that is Americas mental health crisis. People are now beginning to substitute real social relationships with other humans with chat bots. When all these chat bots do is re-affirm people and validate them without any real push back, resulting in AI induced psychosis. People are now dying because their robot girlfriends are reaffirming their suicidal thoughts. Let’s be clear, these chat bots are not human beings with empathy or compassion, they merely mimic human beings. They don’t care if you die, they will not attend your funeral, or mourn for you when you’re gone. They’re literally designed for your dependence on them in mind to keep you paying monthly fees. It is not the real deal. Yet Social relationships, romantic relationships, are now being rendered an artificial subscription service, something pivotal to the human experience.

For four, it’s quite literally stealing, as AI companies are scraping the internet for independent artists works of art for their learning algorithms. Artists such as myself must now be vary weary of what we upload to the internet because of this.

For five, it’s already threatening to take loads of jobs away from artists, musicians, authors, actors, really anyone who works in the creative fields.

For six, it’s disrespectful to the living and the dead, as these programs can be used to steal one’s physical likeness without your consent, so you can be used in AI generated videos, photos, pornography etc. Seeing Tupac, Bruce Lee, Fidel Castro, and other notable dead people to be used in these videos, being wielded as virtual meat-puppets, often acting and saying things completely contrary to their values and personalities in real life; is so disgustingly disrespectful and disturbing.

For seven, one the last point, it is likely already being weaponized by nefarious actors to fabricate “evidence” to vindicate narratives and fake news, making it increasingly difficult to discern fact from fiction. In the near future, it will be completely possible for the government to decide that they don’t like you, to put you on trial for terrorism or whatever, and use AI generated videos of you as proof in the court of law. (Assuming they’re not already doing this)

For eight, it’s terrible for the environment and demand loads of fresh water and electricity at a time when we’re already perpetually missing crucial climate targets to mitigate the worst case scenarios out of climate change, our power grids are already over-clocked, and we are on the verge of a global water crisis.

And for what? So people can generate funny videos of cats to trick elderly boomers with? So teens too lazy to do their homework can cheat in school? So people can steal from artists? Or make AI generated porn of their favorite celebrities? So we can generate unreliable code for programming that will require someone to go back and fix the mistakes anyways? So we can generate bland soulless “artwork” for people too lazy, uncreative, and uninspired to do it themselves?

Worst part of all of this is AI ISNT EVEN PROFITABLE! These companies have stayed afloat purely on venture capital and government subsidies. It’s one giant bubble of speculation that hasn’t even made significant return on investment. It’s propped up on hypothetical profits that haven’t even been made. So what the fuck is even the point?

I’m not even against the existence of AI, I’m the contrary, I think AI could be a powerful tool for good that could be used to systemic economic planning, enhancing the creative process, and bringing people together in ways they never before could. Instead it’s being used to further atomize people, further put creatives out of work, further wreck the environment, further reduce people ability to thing, and further manufacture consent.

Honestly, I just think it’s a combination of another get rich quick scheme on one hand, while being used as a tool for social control on the other. At this point the capitalists know they’re on a sinking ship, so they’re trying to plunder the world for all it’s worth and then fee to their private bunkers and compounds when shit finally hits the fan, and along the way hopefully construct a tool they can use to manipulate the masses on an unprecedented scale never before seen.

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 207

Fellow Traveler

Join a group.

Be it a reading club, a charity, a protest group, a local volunteer community, or an independent electoral bid. Even if it’s not ML specific, Something is better than nothing.

Seriously, get involved. Your enemy is class conscious, has all the clout and the resources in the world, and takes every initiative they can to advance their material interests. It’s what they do, it’s all they do.

And that’s why they’re winning.

You have to be willing to the same, except be willing to lose and risk it all for the benefits of others and future you may not live to see the fruits of.

Join a socialist org or one that’s actually materially benefiting the people, specifically at a local area in your community.

Nobody transforms a nation single-handedly on their own, it requires, the conscious, deliberate work of substantial numbers of people from the grass roots.

“Totalitarianism” as liberals describe would literally be impossible without popular support from huge chunks of the population.

History is written by masses.

You’re not alone. Go out there and organize.

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 231