• 45 Posts
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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: April 1st, 2022

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  • and am not so sure direct democracy is a good idea at all, anymore.

    Personally, in an ideal world (and it’s feasible to test on a small scale like an organization election), I would advocate a certain kind of mass conditional democracy where everyone has the right to vote but must answer some very basic objective questions to verify they understand (e.g.) the candidate positions and election basics. The answers can all be found in an educational pamphlet published collectively with candidate approval prior to the election. The goal is to allow as many voters as possible, so long as they can demonstrate a basic awareness of the situation.


  • comfy@lemmy.mltochapotraphouse@hexbear.netLearn.
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    3 days ago

    This attitude annoys me. I understand why it’s pragmatic for the PRC to be non-interventionist, but to state this idealistic poetry shows a lack of understanding that capitalism is a global system with global consequences. We probably don’t have 100 years to screw around fighting our fascists at home without help, and Chinese citizens will feel global warming and environmental devastation about as harshly as we will.

    Imagine if the CPC said this about Korea or Vietnam.


  • are actually very well defined

    Eh, I can’t quite agree with “very well defined”. Even Nazism isn’t really internally coherent, it’s surprisingly nonsensical, let alone all the variants of fascism straying so far from classical fascism.

    But that’s me nitpicking academically. Fascist organizations are crystal clear about their association, beliefs and what they want. When they heil or wear neo-Nazi symbols in a political context, there’s no longer any need to doubt.

    It is a concerted effort to redefine or undefine them so there is no longer a word to describe them.

    Absolutely. Nazis have been made very aware that most communities reject them on sight and so wolf-whistling and pathetic attempts of plausible deniability are used to pretend they’re just ‘regular’ patriotic nationalists (see: Musk salute, and this related salute overseas a few weeks earlier). But even then, these are paper thin attempts. “You’re the real nazis!” “Oh everyone’s a nazi these days!” “Actually they were a specific party at a specific place at a specific time!”, you just gotta laugh.







  • but nobody can win without being slick and two-faced

    And don’t forget ‘rich’, or more importantly, supported by the rich. A national-scale campaign requires resources that a typical organization can’t gather, and to win without such a campaign is miraculous in most systems.

    So, you’re assuming we’re all American here.

    Nah, like you said it applies to most democracies, even if America is an extreme example of these universal trends.



  • People who self-identify as Nazis, as well as those knowingly in neo-Nazi organizations, are therefore perfectly valid targets of assassination. Historically, Nazi killers are seen as national heroes, so don’t give me that ‘winning people over to your side of history’ junk.

    When it is strategically effective to shoot a Nazi, and it often is, then I advocate you do so without hesitation. Where it is not strategically effective, I advocate the myriad of nonviolent techniques put in use by antifascists. These are preferred, not because of some silly claims that Nazis should not be harmed, but because they’re safer and more sustainable than individual actions.

    Listen closely to what a Nazi wants, yes even the ‘cosplay Nazis’, and think about whether their life is more important than stopping their goal of mass extermination.


  • comfy@lemmy.mltoAsklemmy@lemmy.mldeleted
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    5 days ago

    I don’t know what the culture is where you are, but I don’t give people money for friendly gifts. If anything, that just implies our relationship is transactional and shallow, rather than a community who care about each other more than money.

    What I do is return the favor by giving them free things later, just like they did. Like buying them a drink at a pub.