Cowbee

@Cowbee@lemmy.ml

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bunch of lads⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Mind elaborating?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bunch of lads⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  That isn’t the case, though. Communists don’t worship the Russian Federation, PRC, or the DPRK, and often do criticize them. The difference, is that communist critique is usually better informed both from a theoretical perspective, as we understand communist theory and history better, and from a practical perspective due to this study.

  My comment was quite literally defending the DPRK against allegations of maintaining a pedophile sex ring for state officials, on the basis of said allegations being baseless and extraordinary evidence of the propaganda industry against the DPRK. This is often framed as dogmatic, uncritical support, or “worship” as you call it, but as we can both see I spent a good deal of time researching the topic of propaganda on the DPRK, its place in the world, and what it’s actually like. Thus, by many standards, this makes me a “tankie,” though I disagree with the notion that my analysis is dogmatic, unjustified, or otherwise akin to “worship.”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bunch of lads⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  What do you mean by that? I live in the US, what could I possibly do to support the DPRK? And what does that have to do with the legitimacy of what I said, and the fact that there’s no credible evidence of Kippumjo?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Would the United States actually risk a Tiananmen Square incident?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Fair enough.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Would the United States actually risk a Tiananmen Square incident?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  The solution is working class organizing, with well-trained and disciplined people’s millitias. Pacifism gets people killed, as does adventurism. The only way out of the death spiral is revolution.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Would the United States actually risk a Tiananmen Square incident?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s a sarcastic reference to communists correctly pointing out that the deaths on June 4th, 1989 were in and around Beijing, not on Tian’anmen square itself.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Would the United States actually risk a Tiananmen Square incident?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes, there’s a chance he’d still be alive today if he did so.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bunch of lads⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Do you have credible evidence of this happening, though?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bunch of lads⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Per your link:

  The Kippumjo (Korean: 기쁨조; translated as Pleasure Squad, Pleasure Brigade, or Pleasure Group), sometimes spelled Kippeumjo (also Gippumjo or Gippeumjo), is an unconfirmed collection of groups of approximately 2,000 women and girls reportedly maintained by the leader of North Korea for the purpose of providing entertainment, including that of a sexual nature, for high-ranking Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) officials and their families, as well as, occasionally, distinguished guests.

  The problem with reporting on the DPRK is that information is extremely limited on what is actually going on there. Most reports come from defectors, and said defectors are notoriously dubious in their accounts, something the WikiPedia page on Media Coverage of North Korea spells out quite clearly. These defectors are also held in confined cells for around 6 months before being released to the public in the ROK, in… unkind conditions, and pressured into divulging information. Additionally, defectors are paid for giving testemonials, and these testimonials are paid more the more severe they are. From the Wiki page:

  Felix Abt, a Swiss businessman who lived in the DPRK, argues that defectors are inherently biased. He says that 70 percent of defectors in South Korea are unemployed, and selling sensationalist stories is a way for them to make a living.

  Side note: there is a great documentary on the treatment of DPRK defectors titled Loyal Citizens of Pyongyang in Seoul, which interviews DPRK defectors and laywers legally defending them, if you’re curious.

  Because of these issues, there is a long history of what we consider legitimate news sources of reporting and then walking back stories. Even the famous “120 dogs” execution ended up to have been a fabrication originating in a Chinese satirical column, reported entirely seriously and later walked back by some news outlets. The famous “unicorn lair” story ended up being a misunderstanding:

  In fact, the report is a propaganda piece likely geared at shoring up the rule of Kim Jong Eun, North Korea’s young and relatively new leader, said Sung-Yoon Lee, a professor of Korean studies at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Most likely, North Koreans don’t take the report literally, Lee told LiveScience.

  “It’s more symbolic,” Lee said, adding, “My take is North Koreans don’t believe all of that, but they bring certain symbolic value to celebrating your own identify, maybe even notions of cultural exceptionalism and superiority. It boosts morale.”

  These aren’t tabloids, these are mainstream news sources. NBC News reported the 120 dogs story. Same with USA Today. The frequently reported concept of “state-mandated haircut styles”, as an example, also ended up being bogus sensationalism. People have made entire videos going over this long-running sensationalist misinformation, why it exists, and debunking some of the more absurd articles. As for Radio Free Asia, it is US-government founded and funded. There is good reason to be skeptical of reports sourced entirely from RFA about geopolitical enemies of the US Empire.

  Sadly, some people end up using outlandish media stories as an “acceptable outlet” for racism. By accepting uncritically narratives about “barbaric Koreans” pushing trains, eating rats, etc, it serves as a “get out of jail free” card for racists to freely agree with narratives devoid of real evidence.

  It’s important to recognize that a large part of why the DPRK appears to be insular is because of UN-imposed sanctions, helmed by the US Empire. It is difficult to get accurate information on the DPRK, but not impossible; Russia, China, and Cuba all have frequent interactions and student exchanges, trade such as in the Rason special economic zone, etc, and there are videos released onto the broader internet from this.

  In fact, many citizens who flee the DPRK actually seek to return, and are denied by the ROK. Even BBC is reporting on a high-profile case where a 95 year old veteran wishes to be buried in his homeland, sparking protests by pro-reunification activists in the ROK to help him go home in his final years.

  Finally, it’s more unlikely than ever that the DPRK will collapse. The economy was estimated by the Bank of Korea (an ROK bank) to have grown by 3.7% in 2024, thanks to increased trade with Russia. The harshest period for the DPRK, the Arduous March, was in the 90s, and the government did not collapse then. That was the era of mass statvation thanks to the dissolution of the USSR and horrible weather disaster that made the already difficult agricultural climate of northern Korea even worse. Nowadays food is far more stable and the economy is growing, collapse is highly unlikely.

  What I think is more likely is that these trends will continue. As the US Empire’s influence wanes, the DPRK will increase trade and interaction with the world, increasing accurate information and helping grow their economy, perhaps even enabling some form of reunification with the ROK. The US Empire leaving the peninsula is the number 1 most important task for reunification, so this is increasingly likely as the US Empire becomes untenable.

  Nodutdol, an anti-imperialist group of Korean expats, released a toolkit on better understanding the situation in Korea. This is more like homework, though.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do .ml users get a bad rep?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Gotcha.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do .ml users get a bad rep?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Awesome, thanks! I hope they’re useful for you!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do .ml users get a bad rep?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  What is a “proper communist country?” The people on Lemmy.ml by and large agree with what the broad majoroty of practicing communist parties believe, including groups like the Black Panther Party.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do .ml users get a bad rep?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It is true though, users should be able to pick up on that the instance that makes copying communist theory a part of the sign up process might have communists.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do .ml users get a bad rep?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Not a single person says the Russian Federation is socialism. You’re confusing people critically supporting its movements against the US Empire with people believing it to be socialist. They do have rising socialist sympathies among the populace, but that doesn’t make them socialist.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do .ml users get a bad rep?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  To be fair, Lemmy.ml does as well, it forces you to copy a section of The Principles of Communism before joining.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do .ml users get a bad rep?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Technically it’s Engels, in The Principles of Communism, last I checked.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Don’t know what you mean by the concept of base and superstructure being “insane.” It’s a general observation that the way we produce shapes our culture, which reinforces the way we produce.

  You’re also fundamentally entirely wrong about communism. Communism isn’t when you have a bunch of tools in a pile and everyone can walk up to it and use it, then throw it back into the pile, or anything, it’s a fully collectively owned and planned industrial economy. The tragedy of the commons doesn’t apply to, say, the post office, as an example.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The 1930s famine in the Soviet Union wasn’t anything intentional, but was the result of adverse weather conditions combined with kulaks destroying grain and livestock rather than let their property be collectivized and benefit the workers they exploited for centuries. Tragic, yes, evil? No, if anything the kulaks have a better claim to that.

  I don’t know if you know this, but the USSR dissolved 3 decades ago. Putin isn’t a communist, nor is the Russo-Ukrainian War a genocide, but a war. The extermination of Palestine at the hands of Israel is a genocide. Really confused why you’re bringing up Putin unless your point is that Russians are intrinsically evil, when we are specifically talking about the Soviet Union.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Thr Nazis murdered KPD members and other union organizers, that was how they came into power. They also massacred Jewish people, disabled people, queer people, etc. They came into power as an answer to “Judeo-Bolshevism,” they didn’t simply want power for the sake of power, but to protect private capital.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You’re equating famines that were a combination of mismanagement and weather disasters in undeveloped countries with the deliberate and intentional industrialized mass murder machine that was the Holocaust. Clear false equivalence. Further, famine was common in Russia, China, etc pre-socialism, and were eradicated once the communists successfully developed industrialized agriculture. The Nazis on the other hand had extermination as their goal.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Just to clarify, are you calling me a fascist/14 yo/etc? I’m a communist, I organize in real life, I’ve read more than wikipedia, and I’m a working adult. None of what I said that OP is quoting is particularly out of the norm for the Marxist understanding of base and superstructure, and it was all in good faith that I responded, I even clarified more over here. OP seems to be anti-union, anti-safety net, etc and came into a months old comment chain, and I still gave them a clear and coherent overview without copying and pasting dozens of Marx and Engels quotes to make my point.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  No, this is just Double Genocide Theory, and is a form of Holocaust trivialization. The Nazis brutally oppressed the working class and created a system of industrialized mass murder, the communists oppressed the capitalists and doubled life expectancies, tripled literacy rates, provided free and high quality eduaction and healthcare, and far more.

  The idea that the Soviets were anywhere close to as evil as the Nazis requires erasing the Holocaust, and equating the suffering of the small portion of society as the capitalists and Tsarists to the large working class in Germany, both groups were victims in their respective countries but clearly the brutality of the Tsarists and capitalists against the working class is what earned the revolution in the first place.

  I recommend reading Blackshirts and Reds.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The base is the mode of production and the relations to it, and the superstructure arises from it and reinforces it. This doesn’t mean the superstructure doesn’t exist, or that you can have a base without a superstructure, what it means is that the superstructure is secondary to the base and comes from it.

  As an example, feudalism as the base, and monarchist divine right to rule as superstructure, as well as the church. Agrarian production with large lords to be paid rent to was the form of the base, while the superstructure arose from that base and formed kingdoms and justifications for said base. They could not exist without each other, but the base was the driving factor.

  As another, we can see capitalism and liberalism. The ideas of private property rights, bootstraps mentality, and the idea that everyone has an equal chance at success are the ways the system justifies itself, even though that isn’t how it works in practice.

  This is a very old concept, not one I invented. There’s even a page on Wikipedia for it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Self starter⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  We do not exist in a world with technology sufficient to entirely eliminate labor. Even highly automated industry like in the PRC, labor-power is still paramount for production. A transition to socialism can allow us to better direct production consciously, rather than letting the eldritch god capital decide everything based on profitability, but we will not be able to eliminate labor, only center it, rather than capital.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You’re extremely confused, I’m not blaming “low information voters” of any sort. Electoralism is not a valid path for leftism. I’m not using a money excuse, either, though your erasure of money’s influence on media is also oversimplified. You haven’t taken any steps back, you’ve invented a caricature of “the left” in your head and are acting like you’re the only one to see things as they really are. It’s very silly.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  There have never been left presidents in the US. Mamdani is not the leader of the revolution. You’re very confused about what’s going on, and you’re out of touch with why Trump won. It wasn’t “memes,” it isn’t some masterful play, nor are liberals left wing.

  You need to take a step back and familiarize yourself more with what’s going on. Try to take a materialist outlook, not an idealist outlook.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  No, lol. The Left is fine on the internet. You can touch grass and organize, and do online agitprop. Mamdani won because people are being radicalized.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The Left is fighting an uphill battle. Capitalism is the status quo, and the US relies on imperialism using its vast financial capital and massive number of millitary bases to keep goods relatively cheap, but this is crumbling. Change works as quantitative buildup until significant, qualitative change. Orgs like PSL are growing rapidly. They are still small, but the rate of growth is large. Time is on the Left’s side.

  Just look at Palestine, as an example. 5 years ago, the vast majority of the US was Zionist. Now, the majority oppose the genocide. Mamdani winning the primary in NYC shows that more overtly left-leaning individuals are valued over right-wingers like Cuomo. Change works on trends. History doesn’t reset every day, eventually water droplets bore through stone.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The Left does both. The purpose of real life stikes and protests is because its proof that Leftist organizations have the logistical capacity to plan, demonstrate, and act in a cohesive and unified manner. Organizing is more important than meme sharing. Memes, agitprop, etc are very useful recruitment tools, so they should not be ignored, but it’s more important to actually put in the work of organizing effectively once recruited.

  Sharing memes without actually organizing is just an outlet for people to express frustration, but organizing is an actual necessary and important step in toppling the existing system and replacing it with a better one, as the hard work on organizing has already been laid out.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨RIP America⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Deeply unserious managers of empire continue to self-cannibalize their own productivity in an effort to go even more all-in on financial capital, all while the global south is doing its best to pivot towards more favorable relations with countries like China. When the US Empire runs out of countries to exploit, and financial capital ceases to be profitable, it will have no developed industrial base nor a strong scientifically trained worker base to pull itself back up. The US is cooked, this is just speedrunning the demise of the empire in a faster and harder fashion.

  The good news is that the worse this gets, the more favorable the conditions for organizing become, and the more vulnerable to revolution the state becomes. We can legitimately take advantage of this, and gain mastery over capital, rather than the inverse. We can re-industrialize, become socialist, and begin the long and difficult but necessary path towards legitimate progress. It won’t be easy, but it will be doable.