rambling_lunatic
@rambling_lunatic@sh.itjust.works
- Comment on Capitalism is an unrealistic death cult. 2 weeks ago:
COVID-19 has drawn much of this discussion into the public sphere. Whereas it’s generally seen as poor taste to refer to groups of people as infections, diseases, and plagues – for good reason – this seems to be forgiven when the group being referred to is non-specific. Hand waving at humanity in general, as if being vague is ethical bulletproofing, gets a pass. It is relatively common today to find another viral tweet with tens of thousands of likes gesturing towards the clearing waters of Venetian canals, or the wandering deer of Japan navigating neon-lit city centres and declaring that the Earth is healing itself; the smog-cleared skies of California receive a probing enquiry – perhaps we were the real virus all along?
Strange as though it may seem, musings of this kind have become more and more common as the weeks have gone by and the evidence of nature ‘reclaiming’ previously populated areas has begun to accumulate. Suffice it to say, there is more than a little of the eco-fascist ideology floating around in the assumptions of that question; when somebody asks if humanity is the ‘real virus’, they set up a system in which the Earth is a being and humanity a problem that needs to be solved. The solution being proposed is rarely stated outright, but it doesn’t have to be because it’s implicit in the question; you cure a virus by getting rid of it. Beneath the surface level wonder at seeing a wild boar shuffle across Italian cobblestones, there is a lurking belief that maybe the world would be better off without us. Or, more commonly, the world would be better off without some of us, with who that some is being left as a blank to be filled in by the subconscious of the questioner. Unquestionably, whoever that somebody is, will be someone else.
[…]
The language of the eco-fascist claims that human beings are the problem, and that with their self-isolation – that is, their removal from the system – has come ecological recovery. Such individualised and atomised analysis prevents the ever-important systematic approach; the real problem is capitalism, and it is with the interruptions and staggerings of capitalism that recovery has come along. Deeply embedded in the language of the right wing, the misattribution of the worst elements of capitalism to the mere existence of human beings exists as a dual weapon.
Firstly, it allows them to turn their vitriol upon individuals… Secondly, it allows them to imply a connection between the two; to link the existence of capitalism to the existence of individuals and bind them together ideologically; to present capitalism as human and therefore inevitable and inescapable.
Fraser, J. (2020). Eco-Fascism: The Rhetoric of the Virus. Organise Magazine. Archived at theanarchistlibrary.org/…/jay-fraser-eco-fascism-….
- Comment on How to move a sofa 5 weeks ago:
It is good when people help each other. It warms a truck when a community sticks by each other.
Shit like this is why I love the punk scene. The punk scene is like the idealized small American town, for you may one day be asked to help someone you barely know and do it without a second thought. Why wouldn’t you help someone who needs it. You know damn well that when the time comes and you too need help, it will be found.
I have pulled on my network of comrades to make sure someone got a phone. This was done for the price of food and fellowship.
- Comment on The Dangers of Socialism they warned us about... 5 weeks ago:
Cuba is still pretty crap I’m afraid. Like with the USSR, you’re not exactly fairly electing your foreman or your governor. Emma Goldman would call it state-capitalist.
The reason the old Marxist parties called themselves social-democrats, before they sold themselves out so bad that the name changed meaning, was because it was conceived that socialism would involve democracy in every facet of social life rather than just electing a parliament.
The Leninists and reformists have failed to bring about this dream, but it is a fair dream to strive towards. Class society and the state (including alleged democracies) restrain people’s control over their own lives and turn us into mere order-takers content with scraps. The struggle for more than mere scraps and the struggle for self-management and autonomy are in truth the same struggle, which is the struggle for that dream.
- Comment on Badge of Honor 1 month ago:
Beans
- Comment on Badge of Honor 1 month ago:
Out of the loop, what is Tesseract?
- Comment on [deleted] 2 months ago:
Why not both?
- Comment on DOGE cut 20% of APHIS the agency that protects U.S. agriculture and now the screwworm parasite that wipes out livestock has returned to the U.S 3 months ago:
Did Hispanic farmhands vote for Republicans? They’re the ones that are gonna be directly at risk of getting screwworms in their injuries. If the bosses scale down operations, they’re gonna be the ones who lose their jobs.
Do the 12% of farmers in Tennessee who are black also deserve to get fucked?
You do not defeat right-wing populists with snobbery. You defeat it by offering a compelling left-wing alternative that addresses the economic issues which bigotry is peddled as an alleged solution to.
- Comment on DOGE cut 20% of APHIS the agency that protects U.S. agriculture and now the screwworm parasite that wipes out livestock has returned to the U.S 3 months ago:
Are the folks employed by the owners, the ones who are personally at risk of getting screwworms in their wounds and at risk of losing their jobs so bosses can keep up profits, entitled welfare queens? They’re poor workers like you.
And what of the black farmers in Tennessee? They overwhelmingly vote for the Democrats. Do they also deserve parasites in their cattle?
- Comment on DOGE cut 20% of APHIS the agency that protects U.S. agriculture and now the screwworm parasite that wipes out livestock has returned to the U.S 3 months ago:
If you utterly dismiss farmers as incorrigibly stupid rather than trying to talk with them, they will never change. If you leave agricultural workers to the wolves while the fascists pretend to have their backs, will they support you or the fascists?
Did you know most of the majority-black counties in the USA are rural areas in the South that vote overwhelmingly for Democrats? Are they also ejeets that deserve to get their cows screwed?
What about the people who get screwworms in their injuries? That’s gonna be the poor bastards who get employed to work with the livestock. Who works in shitty underpaid farm labour? Poor whites, black people, immigrants. People who have few other choices.
Snobbery against rural areas is just classism. It’s how Republicans could get such a grip on them in the first place. Go ahead and only struggle amongst educated people in the cities and scratch your head when when your country stays fascist. Watch the rural-urban divide get wider.
- Comment on Nope 3 months ago:
Part of the point is that the Emperor is also not perfect. He got too full of himself which led to his deification against his will. He was also literally an imperialist and an authoritarian.
As I interpret the lore his intentions were largely noble but his hubris and refusal to acknowledge the existence of the Chaos gods led to the disillusionment of many of his kids/generals, thus leading to the Horus Heresy and the shitty state of the 41st millennium.
- Comment on That kid was the WORST 3 months ago:
Unironically think they would be proud. I clawed my way out of the depression pit and am working on the plans I had since I was younger.
- Comment on [deleted] 3 months ago:
“The further onwards, the scarier”
~ Russian Proverb
- Comment on Some folks might call me a dreamer 4 months ago:
Artemis II happened recently, despite all the cuts :)
- Comment on Anon is bored of it all 5 months ago:
Cruises are cool. The problem is that modern cruises are ecologically ass and only reasonably affordable to the rich.
- Comment on I am machine 5 months ago:
Desire is a production-process, and we are all machines that desire.
- Comment on Meirl 5 months ago:
Defensive driving is for pedestrians too
- Comment on big facts 6 months ago:
Missa times acceleration
- Comment on Anon doesn't like AI 11 months ago:
Anon learns about the tendency of the rate of profit to fall
- Comment on Lots to unpack ha ha! 1 year ago:
“Graham says the post was intended humanize [sic] the badge.”
By dehumanizing those that the badge fucks over, huh?
- Comment on Anon updates GNU/linux 1 year ago:
I’m sorry to inform you that when I was in high school I had classmates ask me if I was hacking when opening up the command line. We don’t have snitches though and the people here have the ability to listen to explanations.
- Comment on Political Views 1 year ago:
- Comment on How Coldplay actually sounds 1 year ago:
Lord of War is unironically one of my favourite movies of all time
- Comment on Can a Russian pls confirm 1 year ago:
Не твоё дело (literally translated to “not your business/deal”)
- Comment on Every Time I Post 1 year ago:
In every joke there is a bit of joke ~ My grandfather
- Comment on Something something far-left 1 year ago:
Is it Gen Z or the Boomers?
- Comment on Oh the 20s... 1 year ago:
Screaming twenties
- Comment on Infinite Monkey Theorem 1 year ago:
He was an ape
- Comment on Banaynays 1 year ago:
Peanut butter jelly time
- Comment on Dunning-Kruger 1 year ago:
Very cool. Thanks!
- Comment on Dunning-Kruger 1 year ago:
I’m a bit uninformed on this; it seems fascinating. Do these things happen due to something unusual during the growth of a fetus? What’s the name for this phenomenon?