#281
CHICAGO – Following news that Donald “Chelsea” Trump had “proclaimed” May 1st to be “Loyalty Day”, History majors and long-time labour activists across the imperialist United States of Amerikkka have taken the occasion to remind everyone that “Loyalty Day” is a long-time reactionary tradition of the imperialist bourgeoisie in that country, and as such Trump has actually done nothing that any of his predecessors have not done to overshadow and degitimise annual celebrations of the Marxist-Leninist holiday.

Reassured of the legitimacy of “Loyalty Day” in the eyes of the Democratic Party, the DSA, a small Stalinist entryist group within the larger Democratic Party plan to take to the streets to celebrate “Loyalty Day” in the loudest and most loyal way possible.

“I’m so glad to live in America, with its socialist police force, and not in anti-democratic Venezuela!” explained local white Chicago resident and DSA member Sean McGruder, as he handed out flyers inviting other members of the labour aristocracy to the DSA’s May 1st celebration. “God bless America!”

“May 1st is as American as July 4th or Labor Day,” concurred his friend Michael Del Franco, “We’re loyal to the US constitution, which is the real revolutionary tool of the working class to achieve political power.”

Not all were convinced by the DSA’s rhetoric, however. Local professor and known spoilsport Alfonso Casal said some things about “McCarthyism” and “wer hat uns verraten” to an assembled crowd of decidedly un-democratic socialists:

“I would call the DSA reformists, but they’d probably correct me and say that they aren’t interested in reforms, but democratic reforms. I would charge the DSA with the murder of Rosa Luxemburg, but they would probably respond by pointing out that Rosa Luxemburg was murdered by a democratically-elected government.”

For our part, the US wing of Worker’s Spatula will also be celebrating Loyalty Day. What follows is a statement endorsed by all our US correspondents, editors, and rabble-rousers:

We’ve never felt so loyal. Loyal to our accelerationist president. Loyal to a decreasing rate of profit, loyal to the increasing immiseration of the workers, which signals the gradual re-proletarianisation of the oppressor settler-colonialist Yankee nation’s labour aristocracy, and/or the coming rising up of the oppressed Afro-American people.

We predict a revolution in the US by the end of Trump’s second term.

After all, there’s no chance of the Democrats winning in 2020 if they put Jeb Bush up as their candidate again.

#282

spectralmarx posted:

It took communists three minutes to align with gun owners. Or less.



"align with"

#283
i went to a meeting of the delaware DSA. very few people. it was completely disorganized. the main guy was drinking heavily. the place was gross, but w/e. they felt like the national org provided them no support and nothing but criticism. they decided member drives and supporting other orgs and other orgs' planned events wasn't for them. they've chosen to make a video supporting just generally (no specifics) revising the delaware tax code since the top bracket is 6% for $60k and up. hadn't considered DE is on par with florida for trying to attract retirees. hadn't thought about corporate tax code (there's a reason why so many CC companies and financial orgs are all based in ND and DE, and lots of Pharma here, too). they expected it to take most of the month of may to make this one video between 5 people. they credited themselves with making the difference in DE-08 recently with their single facebook-targetted-video-ad. the head guy literally "makes the website." they didn't know May Day is today, or what that is.

what i actually got out of it was when they started talking about how Philly DSA supports all these other orgs' events, has 800 members, call each other comrades and watch videos from the soviet union while chilling together. focused on "the big issues" as opposed to "niche things where we can make a difference" like single payer and fight for 15.

they also mentioned Network Delaware which sounds pretty cool, too---they started up in Jan 17 and have done a whole bunch of free workshops and speaker series on all of sorts of super-relevant worker-oriented topics. and they're based in the inner-city wilmington and look like they're majority POC. as opposed to this whitebread 5-member center-right org scared of people who call themselves communist because "communism just doesn't work. i know a guy who lived in ukraine in the 80s."

they also mentioned they wanted to get an economist to join a group to understand things better. i didn't suggest a reading series or anything. had given up by that point.

these people need mentorship, direction, energy. Delaware is small, but in a prime location to access rural PA, rural MD, rural DE, with plenty of union representation as well. it would be ideal IMO for sattellite support of e.g. energized Philly orgs.

bleargh. "grow where you're planted" :-(
#284

Belphegor posted:

How are we supposed to compete with someone like Ivan Thorne,dark triad man?

IVAN THRONE is the bestselling author of The Nine Laws. He is a powerful speaker, business manager and seasoned veteran of the financial industry with over thirty years of study in the classical Japanese military fighting arts


this guy sounds exactly like the general from the south park movie it is uncanny and hilarious

#285
i don't know if that's actually the real way he talks but the possibility that he purposely chose that voice as an affectation to further his efforts to get that incel dollar by hawking "brutal honesty and ruthless mentoring for a dark world" while looking like a 80s movie villain is equally funny so idc
#286
I recently met with some finnish maoists through our learning circle and they seemed most coherent about orgasminatonal structure so im inclined to join the group (not a party as they are advocating vast boycotts against anything related to parliamentary decision-making). dont even consider myself a maoist but its the only growing and coherent org in my city. cool as heck
#287
matt finish maoists or gloss finish maoists?
#288
greasy hippies so glossy as the cheap tourist chic red star pin
#289
i was looking through the PSL publication section and noticed that most of the book prices are using that capitalist marketing trick where the second half of the price is 90+ (like 19.95, 9.95, etc) to make it seem cheaper. is this just an oversight or what's the deal?
#290
where is the line between "oh that's a vulture-like tradition" and "that's just kinda what's seen as normal, let's have people think we're normal"

honest question
#291
One way to locate that line, if you're alive, is to put the tradition on your brain and estimate its weight. If the weight is equal to or greater than the weight of a nightmare, it's probably only seen as normal because it's handed down from a dead generation. I'd have to agree with Synergy that actually buying books, instead of hunting them down in the secret pdf subforum, is an absurd clinging to the routines of the past.
#292

sunny posted:

i went to a meeting of the delaware DSA. very few people. it was completely disorganized. the main guy was drinking heavily. the place was gross, but w/e. they felt like the national org provided them no support and nothing but criticism. they decided member drives and supporting other orgs and other orgs' planned events wasn't for them. they've chosen to make a video supporting just generally (no specifics) revising the delaware tax code since the top bracket is 6% for $60k and up. hadn't considered DE is on par with florida for trying to attract retirees. hadn't thought about corporate tax code (there's a reason why so many CC companies and financial orgs are all based in ND and DE, and lots of Pharma here, too). they expected it to take most of the month of may to make this one video between 5 people. they credited themselves with making the difference in DE-08 recently with their single facebook-targetted-video-ad. the head guy literally "makes the website." they didn't know May Day is today, or what that is.

what i actually got out of it was when they started talking about how Philly DSA supports all these other orgs' events, has 800 members, call each other comrades and watch videos from the soviet union while chilling together. focused on "the big issues" as opposed to "niche things where we can make a difference" like single payer and fight for 15.

they also mentioned Network Delaware which sounds pretty cool, too---they started up in Jan 17 and have done a whole bunch of free workshops and speaker series on all of sorts of super-relevant worker-oriented topics. and they're based in the inner-city wilmington and look like they're majority POC. as opposed to this whitebread 5-member center-right org scared of people who call themselves communist because "communism just doesn't work. i know a guy who lived in ukraine in the 80s."

they also mentioned they wanted to get an economist to join a group to understand things better. i didn't suggest a reading series or anything. had given up by that point.

these people need mentorship, direction, energy. Delaware is small, but in a prime location to access rural PA, rural MD, rural DE, with plenty of union representation as well. it would be ideal IMO for sattellite support of e.g. energized Philly orgs.

bleargh. "grow where you're planted" :-(



#293
small wonder
#294
http://www.hamptoninstitution.org/redneck-revolt-interview.html#.WRRZWMtOlnG

Redneck revolt interview, I remember someone talking about going to one of their meetups
#295
they have the nazis worried

#296
[account deactivated]
#297

xipe posted:

they have the nazis worried



Good points, John and Matthew-John.

#298
change my name to Gay, and of The Jew
#299
and I shall be, JewGaidenX
#300
Ginga Okama Densetsu would be a good crew name
#301

glomper_stomper posted:

honestly, the redneck revolt chapter in AR totally botched their attempt to hold a rally because they don't understand that publicity attracts attention despite their worthless reassurances that they didn't want to cause trouble. if anyone's gonna be serious about beating back the klan and the league of the south, they better be prepared to stir some shit and prepare for a show of force. the people in power in harrison don't really have any patience for the klan even if it has pockets of local support.

also they went at it alone, so they clammed up when after a couple weeks of heat from the klan.

hopefully i'll get a chance to meet with them and talk about it. idk

EDIT: antifa-style streetfighting and showdowns are becoming increasingly worthless and routinized. sometimes they're legit community defense, sometimes they're political theater. the thing about the latter is that you have to be in a position to break the enemy in front of its supporters, and completely demoralize them; it's very contingent on actually winning psychological and propaganda victories



Do any of you have a particular political ideology? If so, what led you to it? If not, why?

Overwhelmingly, our members are anti-capitalist libertarians, or anarchists.

#302
wwp group here is doing a marxism 101 series and im doing the philosophy part, mostly to challenge myself to read politzer (readpolitzer.org). my presentation is today and i think it will go alright but literally no one is showing up because leafleting and leaving a piece of paper that says 'come to a lecture' in a coffee shop has been scientifically demonstrated to be totally ineffective.
#303
the presentation went ok. a lot more people than i expected (15) showed up. i need to deepen my understanding, i fumbled a question about hegel cos i didnt put him in my notes.
#304
the correct answer to any hegel question is "I don't think I should attempt an answer. I'm not a Hegel guy, cause, yknow," then make a jerking-off motion. not helpful but it will get laughs
#305
i heard this is a good intro to hegel, but the person who said so is a huge asshole so for all i know it's actually a bad intro to a dumb jerk
#306
forgive my failure of aufhebung but isn't that "intro" an index of 30 lectures
#307
62, going by individual files

maybe it makes it more palatable to call them "podcasts"?

Edited by Constantignoble ()

#308
listen to my 62 podcasts on hegel
#309
what was the hegel question?
#310
[account deactivated]
#311
EVERY MORNING I WAKE UP AND OPEN PALM SLAM A BOOK ONTO MY DESK. ITS THE LOGIC OF SCIENCE AND RIGHT THEN AND THERE I START DOING THE DIALECTICAL MOVEMENTS ALONGSIDE WITH THE MAIN CHARACTER, HEGEL. I DO EVERY MOVEMENT AND I DO EVERY MOVEMENT HARD. MAKIN WHOOSHING SOUNDS WHEN I SLAM DOWN SOME ABSOLUTE NEGATION OR EVEN WHEN I MESS UP DIALECTIC. NOT MANY CAN SAY THEY ATTAINED ABSOLUTE KNOWING. I CAN. I SAY IT AND I SAY IT OUTLOUD EVERYDAY TO PEOPLE IN MY COLLEGE CLASS AND ALL THEY DO IS PROVE PEOPLE IN COLLEGE CLASS CAN STILL BE IMMATURE JEKRS. AND IVE LEARNED ALL THE ELEMENTS OF PHILOSOPHY OF RIGHT AND IVE LEARNED HOW TO MAKE MYSELF AND MY APARTMENT LESS LONELY BY SHOUTING EM ALL. 2 HOURS INCLUDING WIND DOWN EVERY MORNIng
#312
the only time i've ever used hegel was in a formation on conspiracy theory as the newest form of idealist thought and explaining idealism with the "all that is good is necessary and all that is necessary is good" quote
#313

glomper_stomper posted:

every time i'm in a meeting and someone mentions hegel i tell them to shut the fuck up. if you go into hegel you're just going to waste time that could be spent reading some actual fucking marxists, putting that shit into practice, and testing whether these theories actually hold up in the course of organizing. it's no use trying to process this continental idealist bullshit.

fuck hegel.



if the conversation turns to hegel when you're trying to organize then yeah, you've probably veered out of a productive discussion. but if you're hosting a talk specifically on philosophy and its historical dimensions then it's more germane, i think.

certainly marx thought there was worth in ol gwf, however muddled. i'm given to understand that one of the Logics would be a more practical starting point than phenomenology, though, and the latter is apparently the exclusive focus of those Bernstein lectures (that said, i listened to the first one yesterday and enjoyed it)

#314
none of us will ever face practical circumstances more vital and demanding than lenin did in 1915 when he rigorously studied hegel so these kinds of objections mostly seem vapid and self-important to me.
#315
It's easier to study when other people cover your costs. I read when i was homeless but it wasn't hegel.
#316

blinkandwheeze posted:

none of us will ever face practical circumstances more vital and demanding than lenin did in 1915 when he rigorously studied hegel so these kinds of objections mostly seem vapid and self-important to me.

i dont actually object to hegel, but i always thought that story said more about lenin than

#317
[account deactivated]
#318
seems like a model of intellectual ambition in demanding circumstance worth aspiring to
#319
lenin studied hegel so you dont have to
#320

glomper_stomper posted:

every time i'm in a meeting and someone mentions hegel i tell them to shut the fuck up. if you go into hegel you're just going to waste time that could be spent reading some actual fucking marxists, putting that shit into practice, and testing whether these theories actually hold up in the course of organizing. it's no use trying to process this continental idealist bullshit.

fuck hegel.

as someone who has read a big chunk of Hegel this is really good advice cuz the actual important shit is reiterated in easier language by actual Marxists.