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Cowbee

@[email protected]

Actually, this town has more than enough room for the two of us

He/him or they/them, doesn’t matter too much

Marxist-Leninist ☭

Interested in Marxism-Leninism, but don’t know where to start? Check out my Read Theory, Darn it! introductory reading list!

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Cowbee ,
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Why would that help in any way?

Cowbee ,
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Life would be impossible, too.

What games are you playing lately?

It’s been a while since I last posted but after a while I decided to come back and post! Anyways, what have you all been playing lately? I’ve gotten into Fallout 4 (sucks that they got rid of the mods and 99.9% of creation club) and Nba 2k26, I know that it’s the same game every year but I buy it once every 5 years and ...

Cowbee ,
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Modded New Vegas (VNV), with my spouse! It's been a while since I last played it.

Cowbee ,
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Go for it! Mods have never been better.

Cowbee ,
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Not without due criticism, but probably the best Statesian org at present, especially if they are the most active in your area.

Cowbee ,
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If anyone can find a .epub for this, please let me know! I prefer that format, and couldn't find it through my usual means.

Cowbee ,
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Thanks! A bit better than the main link, but it would still be nice to find a .epub.

Cowbee ,
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I might take up making one myself down the line, but that wouldn't be in time for this reading group.

Cowbee ,
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Oh, fantastic! Thank you so much, comrade!

@muad_dibber@lemmygrad.ml avatar muad_dibber here's that .epub you wanted!

Cowbee ,
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What games work on switch, but not linux?

Cowbee ,
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Makes sense!

Not being taken seriously, mocked for my views and people not believing a word I say.

I don't want to complain too much since in all honesty this isn't even remotely a serious enough topic. As I've gotten more and more educated in ML and adjascent knowledge, I've tried explaining to people my views, why they make sense and how they apply to the urrent world we live in. I push back when people claim outrageous ...

Cowbee ,
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Focus on people that are more likely to be swayed. Radicalized workers that haven't yet engaged with theory are best. Also focus on your own education and practice, so that you can better convey your points!

Cowbee ,
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Have a good week, everyone! Stay safe, keep up with your habits.

As always, communism will win.

Cowbee ,
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You've got this, comrade!

Cowbee ,
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You too, Oppo!

Cowbee ,
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Wrapping up the section on materialism in Maurice Cornforth's Materialism and the Dialectical Method. An excellent work for beginners, and I enjoy it more than Politzer's work thus far. If the section on dialectics holds true, then it will be my go-to recommendation for newcomers to dialectical materialism.

Cowbee ,
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He's too funny, lmao

Why do the elites do everything they do to accumulate wealth?

Hello dear Comrades, I have a question that's haunting my mind for the last couple of weeks. I'm gonna try to keep it short: why do the elites/oligarchs/big capitalists (so not the petty bourgeois) keep doing everything that they do (i.e. both financial games and trickeries and unspeakable atrocities) in order to accumulate even ...

Cowbee , (edited )
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Capitalism is kind of like a control system that selects for accumulation and profit. The ones at the top are those that have been filtered for, and have the most. If they fail, they are filtered out. This is why Marx many times explained how capital itself is above individual capitalists. I recommend reading Marx on Capital as a Real God by Ian Paul Wright, for a bit of a funky explanation of this.

The processes of capitalism demand reproduction on an expanded scale. Simple reproduction on the basis of capitalist development isn't really sustainable, they are propelled forwards. In other words, grow or die, at economic scale. Individual megafirms, the ones with the elites at the top, have to continue growing and swelling until they burst, because they are not the masters of capital. That doesn't make them guiltless, but more like priests of capital, as Roderic Day puts it.

Cowbee , (edited )
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Yep, and very funky too!

Cowbee ,
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No problem! Each individual will have their own reasons for being in the position they are, but as a class obey the laws of capital.

Cowbee ,
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Incredible, lmao

Cowbee ,
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What specifically are you looking for?

Cowbee ,
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Cowbee ,
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No problem!

Cowbee ,
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Cowbee ,
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Excellent progress on one of the larger contradictions the CPC must tackle as time goes on in constructing a prosperous socialist society for all.

Cowbee ,
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Point to how the west dominates English media, and that that's what LLMs in English are trained on, therefore they will always take a mainstream western stance. This is very prone to manipulation, as a consequence.

Cowbee ,
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It does create a good lever to cause them to rethink why they believe the west would never lie to them, I believe. Fair point though.

Cowbee ,
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It's certainly possible, but we aren't capable of really knowing what it would look like as the conditions for its existence aren't there.

🇰🇵 The floods of 2024 severely affected this area of ​​Sinuiju. A year and a half later, the flooded land has been raised, drained, and transformed into a large agricultural platform.

The floods of 2024 severely affected this area of ​​Sinuiju. A year and a half later, the flooded land has been raised, drained, and transformed into a large agricultural platform with greenhouses and permanent infrastructure. ...

Cowbee ,
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The strength of the juche idea.

Cowbee ,
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I recommend just using YouTube anonymously anyways.

Cowbee ,
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We should not let our guard down, no, but we do need to maintain revolutionary optimism.

Cowbee ,
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You too Oppo!

Cowbee ,
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I think one thing that helps is studying more yourself, and only speaking on subjects you're confident in your own understanding. For example:

if communism is so great why did it fail everywhere

By what metrics? Socialist China is rising rapidly, and socialist countries do better than peer countries when it comes to quality of life metrics like life expectancy, despite increased international strain. I also recommend reading about some of the problems with the USSR and how it was dissolved, so you can prove that it wasn't simply because they were socialist.

Communist were just authoritarian

Ask them to define this! What tends to help is highlighting how the communists, when in power, asserted the authority of the working classes. This is in stark contrast to capitalist systems, where capitalists assert authority.

China is just as bad as the US

Again, how? China has much higher approval rates, engages in win-win economic cooperation instead of naked imperialism, only has a couple overseas millitary bases while the US Empire has hundreds, and maintains a defensive millitary instead of offensive. Plenty to show!

People often focus on argument before becoming confident in study. The rest, like learning how to engage and reach people, comes with practice and time.

Cowbee ,
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Lemmy.ml's version is a lot funnier.

Cowbee ,
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I understand, comrade! For China, it's pretty important to clarify that public ownership is the principle aspect of the economy, and the working classes control the state. Looking into that more can help in explaining it.

Cowbee ,
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Cowbee ,
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Yep, half of talking with liberals is clarifying terms.

Cowbee ,
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No problem!

Cowbee ,
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No problem!

Cowbee ,
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Depends on the subject, but my favorites are Jason Hickel's 2 posts on approval rates and whether they are reliable, as well as Roland Boer's 2 books Socialism with Chinese Characteristics: A Guide for Foreigners and Socialism in Power: The History and Theory of Socialist Governance.

Here's a sample comment from my Lemmy.ml account:

It's absolutely true. Public ownership is the principle aspect of the economy in the PRC, and the working classes control the state. For example, when looking at publicly owned industries, we can see the following:

https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/aae6fda1-3505-4a15-be13-3e08815699c0.webp

Even checking Wikipedia, data from 2022 shows that the overwhelming majority of the top companies are publicly owned SOEs. This is China's strategy, they've been honest about it from the beginning. The private sector is about half cooperatives like Huawei or farming cooperarives and sole proprietorships, with the other half being small and medium firms. As these grow, they are folded into the public sector gradually. This is China's Socialist Market Economy.

As for the state being run by the working classes, this is also pretty straightforward. Public ownership is the principle aspect of the economy, and the CPC, a working class party, dominates the state. At a democratic level, local elections are direct, while higher levels are elected by lower rungs. At the top, constant opinion gathering and polling occurs, gathering public opinion, driving gradual change. This system is better elaborated on in Professor Roland Boer's Socialism in Power: On the History and Theory of Socialist Governance, and we can see the class breakdown of the top of the government itself:

https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/d7c1cd1d-82dd-4d42-b18c-29e05b6ec753.jpeg

Overall, this system has resulted in over 90% of the population approving the government, which is shown to be consistent and accurate. If you want to learn more, while not nearly as in-depth due to time limits as Roland Boer's work (and mostly focused on the Xi Jinping era), Red Pen's A Summary of Xi Jinping's Governance of China can be a good primer! There's also This is how China's economic model works: Explaining Socialism with Chinese Characteristics by Geopolitical Economy Report.

Socialism is not the absence of private property, but the transition between capitalism and communism, indicated by public ownership as principle. Collectivization of production and distribution is a gradual process, and to dogmatically apply this to secondary and small industry before markets naturally centralize them and prepare them for public ownership isn't necessary.

Only major thing I need is a source backing the breakdown of the CPC beyond just an image.

Cowbee ,
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No problem!

Cowbee ,
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Yep, have to explain why using the correct definition has value.

Cowbee ,
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I have an hour for lunch, so I eat in 5-10 minutes and spend the rest reading, haha. Won't work for everyone, and sometimes I do only get 15 or so good minutes in. Alternatively, study in the morning, pleasure reading at night still, so I'd read after gym in the morning.

Cowbee ,
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Politzer makes a few errors regarding internal contradiction and autodynamism. Still solid overall, but I'm seeing if anything does what it does without making the errors.

Cowbee ,
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Really want a .epub of it, might have to make one lol

Cowbee ,
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Good to hear!

What's even the point of the current US offensive on Iran?

I'm usually a "Sane Trump Theory" supporter, but I see no outcome where the US achieves strategic gains in this one. Even with successful leadership assassination and significant damage to Iran's current nuclear capabilities, it'll just be kicking the can down the road and galvanising even more the Iranian people against the US. ...

Cowbee ,
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Ah, interesting! I was curious why the timeframe was so specific, but this helps fill in that gap, thanks comrade!