I strongly suspect the prison- and factory-like conditions :foucalt-madness: of schools contribute to violent norm-enforcing behavior. The strict hierarchical division between the authoritative “knowledge giver” and the supposedly empty-minded “receptacle of knowledge” as well.
Freir’s Pedagogy if the Oppressed may tangentially be relevant to this topic, although I don’t remember specifics.
Scientifically, broadly speaking. I can’t speak specifically because I’m not an expert in child sociology and I don’t know how a theoretical future state might handle things, nor how people might behave in a future state.
But look to initiatives taken in current socialist states (well, most states, really). A problem comes to light, experts are called in, a plan is discussed then voted on then enacted. After some amount of time the results are assessed and any needed adjustments can be made.
I feel like my comment is so vague as to not be saying anything. But the gist I’m trying to get at is that a key component of scientific socialism as a methodology is constant analysis, constant dialectical engagement with the real world, a process of synthesizing theory and practice into praxis, moving abstract notions into concrete results. Universalities are a starting point that get honed down by specificities.
Not to deter anyone from voicing lived experiences, nor silence discussion. Both are essential to developing theories that can be tested. There’s a limit to how far we can get with conjecture about a future world, but the ideas may help us think about how to engage currently.
Words are symbols for meaning, they don’t possess anything in and of themselves. There are certainly times where it’s useful or interesting to dissect and examine the relationships between signifiers, concepts, and reality, but it’s almost never effective as an offensive tactic. Pushing against semantic drift requires massive social power, of which the little power we have is better spent elsewhere.
The symbols that we use to represent concepts are effectively arbitrary (although not random nor devoid of historical residue and material tensions) and a general term may become specific, or split into multiple more specific terms, as concepts grow more complex.
Antisemitism currently signifies hatred and oppression of Jewish people in the vast majority of people’s minds and has for a long time. This hatred and oppression is a material reality that holds a unique place historically and exists regardless of the symbol used to represent it. Not only that, the zionist entity benefits from its exacerbation, since it helps provide an influx of people for its settler colonial project.
We could argue for a regeneralization of the term, spend countless hours arguing about using a different symbol or whatever, and in the mean time the material currents will flow unabated.
Interestingly, the zionist entity also seems to be pushing for a generalization of the term-- although from the angle of what actions qualify as antisemitism-- attempting to reduce concepts of anti-zionism and antisemitism to the same term. In this case it’s the bad-faith semantic dancing that’s characteristic of fascism.
Permanent acceleration
The world isn’t ready for a nick land Trotsky synthesis
I’d guess it’s because it captured the demand for english-language isekai at a mid reading level, and snowballed with hype around new releases, which quickly got rolled into the movie franchise as well. For 15 years there was a new release almost every year, between the books and the movies, so you couldn’t really avoid hearing buzz about it. If it was just one book without regular injections of hype into the public consciousness, it’d probably be largely forgotten.
Kids don’t care so much about prose and they’re usually too naive to pick up on political subtexts, at least consciously. As a kid I liked them for the escapist fantasy and the simple narrative.
Thanks for sharing!
Honestly diving deeper into mao and Chinese history has been an incredibly enlightening experience.
Guerilla History is halfway through a four-part series (plus a precursor episode on GH or revleft) on China which is a great resource for anyone curious.
Lotta western leftists seem to learn class analysis 101 without deconstructing their liberal moralism
Anyone worried about this: read any historic class analysis; read about past revolutionary movements and the diverse material interests that comprised them. Also stop obsessing about the moral purity of entertainers, there’s so many more important things to do.
I don’t vote for racists sorry
Welp if Biden wasn’t going to lose, he sure is now lmao
To me it makes me think of the intellectualization of revolutionary theory to the degree that it’s no longer revolutionary, merely a means by which academics can advance their careers. I get that impression with a lot of western Marxian/critical theory from the last few decades tbh (although that doesn’t mean the works don’t contain interesting ideas).
A quote from Marx that I like:
The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.
Yet some academics remain content to idly interpret while benefitting from the spoils of imperialism and colonialism.
Oooorrr it’s just a comic by an anti-communist trying to point out a perceived hypocrisy so they don’t have to engage with the ideas lmao
How can one possibly solve this issue?
Century of humiliation
Long enough for future generations to forget what it means to be a settler
In the mean time carve out pockets of power with other non-settlers and do what we can wrt international solidarity.
Search “beginner Russian comprehensible input” and find something that suits you. Tons of free and cheap resources
Gotta read history in tandem with theory. We don’t have time to reinvent the wheel for every movement. Learning about the nitty gritty details of past experiments is one of the first steps towards building our own experiments. I think a lot of the problems on the left stem from consuming abstract theory without understanding the material conditions from which the theory was refined.
:michael-laugh:
The implication that Reagan is god is sus lmao
Unless you’re a gnostic ig, that actually kinda checks out
The line between medicine and drug is largely arbitrary.
Start with the basics of diet, exercise, water, sleep, social interaction. They’re consistent and have very low harm potential. It’s also shocking how much each of them contributed to a sense of well being, or how much a lack of any one of them can cause a downward spiral.
Supplements and vitamins also aren’t super risky, although they aren’t well regulated and many do nothing in their pill form. One or some of the vitamin Bs seem important for me personally, although I’m not 100% certain and I don’t know which one(s) and to what degree. But I’ll drink a monster energy regularly because they have 200-400% dv. Omegas from fish oils may also be good. L-tyrosine and things like it are commonly discussed in nootropics boards, I can’t vouch for them personally.
As far as medications, it’s unlikely you’ll find an easy and risk-free solution, unfortunately. Even well-studied prescription medications aren’t guaranteed to work for your specific needs and have potential to make things worse, which is why in an ideal world everyone would have access to a medical professional that can oversee their use. And often the ones that work aren’t immediately obvious, but demonstrate marginal improvement over the longer term. In fact euphoria and hypomania (which in the moment feel like “oh my god this drug is working”) may be signs the drug isn’t a good fit. Very difficult to gauge on your own.
Online prescription mills are fairly painless if you have a good idea that a specific medication might work for you. I used them to get on a specific antidepressant after doing my own research.
Kanna and St John’s wort both have SSRI compounds I believe. Be careful, just because something’s a legal plant doesn’t mean it can’t interact negatively or have harmful effects. But these are probably the closest to what you’re asking.
Kratom is legal and can boost mood but has high addictive potential. In my experience not worth it except to get off more addictive substances.
Dex/dxm/dextromethorphan is an active ingredient in some cough suppressants that has antidepressive potential. Can be purchased with no additives at some pharmacies and online. Tripping on this isn’t fun at all in my opinion, I’d rather do salvia, but small doses seem to have some mood improving effects that last a few days
Stay away from diphenhydramine (I mention it because it’s often spoken of in the same context as Dex). Its use has been linked to dementia.
Psychedelics can help deconstruct old assumptions and mental structures that may be contributing to your depression. I’d describe the experience as rediscovering the magic of existence. Many of them also have antidepressant qualities-- a sort of afterglow that may last a week or a month. Microdosing is said to tap into the afterglow without tripping. LSD and shrooms are fairly well-studied. Mescaline acts similarly and may be easier to find. Morning glory seeds are legal and contain LSA which is similar to LSD. Salvia acts differently than any of these, often leading to bad trips, but is generally legal. None of these are addictive, but may be risky for people with certain mental illnesses.
There are a variety of legal and grey market stims that can improve mood, but they may have harmful effects and addictive potential. You’ll find a bunch of them if you browse nootropics boards, but keep in mind anonymous comments are not scientific and may undersell risk and negative effects. Nootropics boards will also discuss other supposedly cognitive enhancing substances. Lions mane is a common one. Some are natural supplements or things your body already produces (though this doesn’t guarantee they’re safe or pure). Many are addictive, many are probably snake oil. Search a drug/supplement on pubmed before trying it.
Adjacent to nootropics and more dangerous is research chemicals. Half of them are attempts to make “legal” but identical/similar analogues to illegal drugs. Some are novel. Almost none of them have been studied and purity is never guaranteed. I Honestly don’t recommend unless you’re at a point where it doesn’t matter. At one point for me it was “find a happy chemical or commit suicide” and I think that’s the only level this kind of experimentation is truly justified. But well-studied psychedelics are preferable.
It’s a signifier for a politico-economic concept, so yes. Third world is a similar signifier that also doesn’t really align with its original nor intuitive meanings. Semiotics is weird like that.
Either one can be used to signify countries from which resources and labor are extracted by the Global North or something along those lines. Do they find themselves richer or poorer due to global trade?
For example, Australia, in this context, wouldn’t be considered global south despite being in the southern hemisphere. Unless it was harshly colonized and became a resource trough for the USA and Europe, then its politico-economic position would change even though it obviously didn’t change geographically.
Because being the agender I generally feel inside is effort I’d rather spend elsewhere I guess. Gender is performative. I’d rather not perform at all, but there’s no such thing as not performing, an unperformance. So I passively perform the identity put upon me, feeling powerless to step outside of my experience nor how society experiences me.
Heteronormativity doesn’t make sense to me. To my subrational mind, everyone possesses an ungendered essence, which is filtered through and expressed by social and physical constructs like gender and whatnot. Merely signs or signifiers for the essence that is the person with whom a connection might be made.
Rationally I don’t think these conceptions are particularly true, but they kind of describe how I subconsciously understand the world.
Fr like half of modern drugs were invented or refined by militaries lmao