birdwing

@birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Totally⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  On the other hand, he did have a partner with whom he got children, but that might be a lavender marriage. Or maybe he was bisexual, idk.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Question for the Americans. If Canada, Venezuela, Mexico, or Greenland dropped a nuke on Washington DC, would you be angry at the bomb dropper, or would you think we had that coming?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Nice try, fed

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why there is no clock that displays time 4:20:69 ?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  In the decimal time I designed, this should be possible.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Are there any women here who felt they didn't deserve to be called women?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  A trans man doesn’t identify as a woman though.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I consider myself as a left-libertarian who supports limited government and direct democracy. Can left-libertarians support limited government?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  You might be interested in anarchist and council communism then, perhaps

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If the 2028 United States presidential election was held today, who would you vote for?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Not if a certain orange is held at gunpoint.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If the 2028 United States presidential election was held today, who would you vote for?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  The constitution didn’t prevent a felon and rapist from becoming a president. I say the constitution is dead and needs to be replaced by one in where socialism is prevalent.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If the 2028 United States presidential election was held today, who would you vote for?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Mamdani.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are some ways to fight for socialism from the comfort of your room?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  There is no establishing of any ideology without action. So I’m not gonna list stuff you can do with just sitting there. But some of them are easier than others, that is true.

  That said, here are ten points. I’m using “socialism” here in its nigh broadest sense possible, covering anything from anarchist communism to social democracy, but excepting totalitarianist forms insofar they are anti-worker.

  You don’t need to do all of these; any of them helps. And to me, anyone opposing fascism and totalitarianism, is my friend.

  1. Become a member of a socialist/pro-worker group, e.g. of a socialist party or work at a worker co-op. Alternatively and maliciously, become member of a more right-wing party, and vote more left on issues.
  2. Become a member of a trade union and strike along when necessary. Consult them for labour matters.
  3. Promote socialism, whether it’s putting up socialism-promoting posters on far-right posters, removing fascist stickers, or discussing it online (you don’t even need to call it by its name, but you need to distinguish it from the broken stuff that’s there).
  4. Support and use socialist media and products. Ironic as it sounds, you can subscribe (whether paid or not) to one, like that of Jacobin, support anarchist publishings as well. Buy from socialism-friendly/neutral countries, or if there’s no other option, from socialist states such as China, Cuba, and so on. Read works from authors like Kropotkin, give it some thought.
  5. Don’t give fascists a podium. Don’t cite them, don’t promote them, don’t read their nonsense and only keep yourself informed to the extent necessary to keep yourself and your loved ones safe. You already know.
  6. Question fascists and their “allies”. If you notice anyone in your circles being far right, and you stand strong in your convictions, and know to not be convinced by their arguments: question their thought. Don’t criticse, but question. Do this very gradually. Make them feel like you’re a hearing ear. Talk about socialism without talking about it as socialism. When they eventually might break with their fascist thought, and want pointers, gradually nudge them to the left.
  7. Only invest in socialism-friendly incentives. This applies especially if you’re wealthy and rich. Those can be certified B corporations, worker co-operatives (they have certificates rather than stocks), unionised companies, and support a socialist party. Keep in mind that it costs less to have a society with great wellbeing, than to pay for a lot of guards which may or may not be corrupt.
  8. Don’t buy from fascists. Don’t buy from (big) companies that are anti-union, anti-privacy, have a techbro for a CEO, yadda yadda - you know it. Buy local, buy small.
  9. Be armed, trained, and prepared. Know where and how to keep yourself safe and hide, seek out the vulnerable and help them. Krav Maga is something you can train at home.
  10. Direct action. Be that charity, protesting, insurrection: all is legitimate. Seek out the vulnerable and lonely, and help them. Don’t talk all about socialism to them, just help them. That will give better effect in the long end.

  And remember: whoever is not a fascist and tolerates social democrats and socialists, is your friend!

  We don’t need to constantly criticise them nor people from our ranks too harshly, when they’re there. What we need, is to focus on what we share: and to focus on defeating fasicsm.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Can socialism or communism have incentives (even without markets)?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  A gift economy is not market socialist. Let’s visualise it with a few examples, on a spectrum. I’ll add a few remarks on the politics.

  Anglo-Saxon model
  Close to “free” capitalism, in that companies experience relatively little regulation (or consequences when they behave against the general wellbeing, such as dumping sewage in rivers, and the CEOs not being held responsible). The economy is highly linked to supply and demand, but this can be very variable and thus crashes and crises will be worse for the public, and peaks as well.

  In there, hierarchy and private property play a large role; the boss ‘owns’ the machinery, through which their employees actually do the hard work to generate profit, which mostly goes to the boss. The US and to a lesser extent, the UK, are examples of this. The police and politics frequently are under the leadership of former company leaders, who earn their political power through bribery thanks to the power of companies. As such, they have an interest to repress socialism.

  Rhine model
  In there, labour union, company, and government leaders, often collectively negotiate with each other. Generally, regulation is higher, with an accent on family, friends, and social workers first taking care of the impoverished and disabled, and after that, the state. The market does play a role, but there is a relatively greater degree of social security - Germany is an archetypical example of this. These seem to mostly occur in countries that do not have a political duopoly, since groups have to negotiate more often to govern.

  Mediterranean model
  Similar to the Rhine model, although with a strong accent on care for the elderly with high pensions. I unfortunately do not know much of this one, otherwise. Italy and Spain are examples. Co-operatives and family companies tend to be very common in these.

  Nordic model The most extensively socialised form of a capitalist market economy; it has strong wellbeing and labour protections, and provides a “from the cradle to the grave” model. The Nordic countries are good examples of these.

  In good years, the state saves up the profit so that in bad years the state may be able to cover the fall; the public as thus does not experience much of financial crises. In my opinion, this is one that has worked very well; but my main criticism for this model (although much less than on other models) is that economical leadership is still in the hands of CEOs. Were these to be supervised by e.g. trade unions instead, and were labour decentrally organised, I think this model would go a long end towards democratic market socialism. And thus we enter;

  Market socialism Which functionally encompasses just that; like the Nordic model, it increases socioeconomic equality by a great extent; but the problem is that it does not change the pattern of ownership too fundamentally. Supply and demand also still influence the market, and that might be g

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Can socialism or communism have incentives (even without markets)?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Labour vouchers are different. They’re a bit of the “work an hour, you can buy something that takes an hour to work for it with it”.

  The upside they have, is that unlike money, such labour vouchers are not transferrable from person to person, nor for any means of production. Therefore, they can’t become capital. It also ensures that there’s no way to accumulate money by having a lot of money - you either work for the voucher or you can’t buy.

  The issue with such labour vouchers however, is that they still tie your worth to a sort of wage. It’s money, just by another means. So people who work 60 hours a week and burn themselves out, would have an advantage, whereas people who couldn’t work, would have issues. Sure, that could be taken into account, but essentially it retains a form of wage labour.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Can socialism or communism have incentives (even without markets)?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  There’s the principle of “give it forward” which could be used in a gift economy.

  If you want something at a bar, you don’t order for yourself, but for someone else. It fosters solidarity.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If the color of the Sun was orange, wouldn't the clouds and everything white also be orange? My friend is adamant that 30 years ago the "real" Sun was orange but got replaced with a white LED.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Good point, thanks for the addition/correction. I didn’t know A existed, you learn something new everyday :)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If the color of the Sun was orange, wouldn't the clouds and everything white also be orange? My friend is adamant that 30 years ago the "real" Sun was orange but got replaced with a white LED.⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  No, the sun’s real colour image is white, but due to our nitrogen-oxygen and ozone layer atmosphere filtering certain light, it comes out blue, iirc.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If president abductions are something that can apparently just happen how come Putin or Kim Jong Un aren't in some foreign prison right now?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  also, kim has nukes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If the protests in Iran win/topple the government what will it look like immediately afterwards? Also what would be the good or bad about installing a monarchy again?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Bad: someone being ruler purely for being born out of a specific cunt.

  The good would be that it’s slightly less theocratic, probably.

  True democracy can only come with workplace democracy - that being one in where you have no boss and can decide along in the workplace.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Does anyone think people in Minnesota should radicalize others there to socialism?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It is not socialism or (free) communism, but fascism that is radical.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is geolibertarianism left wing or right wing?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  There’s also decentralised planning.

  And we also should ask ourselves: what makes a free market? Is it a market in where cooperations are allowed to grow “too big to fail”, and have the power to seize entire societies? Or is it a regulated market in where this cannot occur?

  Or a market in where the focus lies on social ownership? Is it therefore not the freest, when one can decide for and by themselves at work?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is geolibertarianism left wing or right wing?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t know what planet you live on that you think I advocate for an authoritarian government – but I prefer worker rights within a decentral framework, à la council or anarchist communism.

  As for the American situation itself, assuming no such model, I think there’s more necessary, such as better urban planning with free, frequent, punctual and high-quality public transit and bicycle lanes. Not to mention the Supreme Court should be appointed solely through apolitical processes, not by executives. Its appointment requirements should also be determined apolitically.

  No branch should have the power to increase its own power. The state is a centralised entity with a monopoly on violence; therefore the state must be abolished, and a “power vacuum” avoided through decentralised administration.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon creates a religion⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Fake: anon has enough charisma to start a cult
  Gay: c’mon sib it’s literally in the post itself

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is geolibertarianism left wing or right wing?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Depends on what you mean by worker’s rights and free market.

  Let’s say that that’s;

  • right to holiday, parental and medical leave
  • wages linked to inflation
  • adequate safety standards
  • strong and robust unemployment protections and social assistance
  • free healthcare
  • workplace democracy

  and:

  • free travel of goods
  • free travel of people

  in short, you’re looking for a Nordic model within the EU… you can’t really advocate worker’s rights without fully committing on the left economic model, imho. The centrist ways are acceptable for getting the rich onboard to move away from the right. But not acceptable for moving the rest away from left.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If you're a parent, how do you prevent your kid from watching AI slop?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m not sure whether to be scared or impressed by that. Both, I guess.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If you're a parent, how do you prevent your kid from watching AI slop?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  This is what my parents did, it helped a lot. Media literacy is important!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Without getting into current politics can someone describe to me what an authoritarian regime looks like?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Perhaps 11?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon questions some decisions⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The USSR did most of the heavy lifting, though. But it’s true that without US military aid and intelligence, the USSR might not have fared as well in WW2.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there a point we can track down when we stopped caring about doctors, nurses, teacher, etc? And thought it was a great idea to pay atheletes millions and screw everyone else?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Might want this one: What the Fuck Happened In 1971?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If you were dropped into a pool of people's spit and prevented from getting out, would you melt to death?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Boy, I love this sidelemmy. Never change.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Two Privacy Philosophies: Firefox vs LibreWolf on AI⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If Firefox ever stopped allowing forks, would Librewolf be able to work fully independently, though? I hope so…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨On Ploughing⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Look for your local femboy hooters

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨2hot2handle⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  splaining?