archomrade

@archomrade@midwest.social

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archomrade ,

If only israel had prior knowledge, they could have taken defensive action

archomrade ,

Lol, OK so what if this messaging was the state department's way of undercutting anti-israel sentiment so that they could protect their interests in the middle east from domestic opposition?

archomrade ,

"Look at me - we are the nazis now"

archomrade ,

It looks like they sorted every metro area in the US by percentage increase, which yields a whole bunch of individual metro areas with oddball markets

This is the entire reason why people critique nationalized metrics on economic trends: they intentionally disregard figures that fall outside the norm so that they can apply a fed policy for the entire country, favoring the overall economic performance instead of addressing the localized economic shortfalls. It's like a doctor trying to diagnose constipation by reading someone's vitals; none of the experience of the patient can be seen on the metrics they're using until it's literally killing them. "You say you haven't shit for 8 days but your BP is 120/80 so you must be fine".

Like, sometimes those metrics overlook really important possibilities, like unemployment not accounting for people who need multiple jobs, or total job market numbers not accounting for ghost positions and high turnover. CPI is used for setting fed interest rates, and it tosses out specific categories because the prices move too fast to gauge the effect of interest rates on those prices. They're not trying to measure how well people are surviving, they're measuring how economic output is adjusting to the supply of cash. That's why they have CPI-U, it adds those categories back in so that they get a better picture of how people are experiencing the market. Notice, though, that even real wages doesn't have any way of reflecting anything about where those wages come from; whether people are taking on extra jobs or if their work hours are increasing without extra pay, or if a transient spike in COL depleted your savings and you're right on the edge of instability. Those numbers tell an extremely narrow story about the state of the economy, and if there are a bunch of people who are telling you 'this number isn't reflective of my experience' then maybe you need to take a more granular approach to the data.

It's exhausting watching this from the left, because depending on who is in office the chosen metrics for assessing the economy change. For 2016-2020 the metric was stock indexes and GDP, for 2020-present it seems to be CPI and unemployment. Neither party likes talking about high-interest credit, or job security, or retirement savings, or healthcare costs or realestate affordability, and that's infuriating. There are a growing number of ways people fall through the cracks of economic instability and the averages are designed to throw those out as exceptions. You lose your job and fall into drug addiction? Sorry, that's not the 'average' American. You get into a car accident and can't pay your medical bills? Sorry about that but that's not relevant to the bigger picture. All we can see is 'you should feel good/bad about the economy for these abstracted reasons', and then you get partisan fanboys yelling at you that you're wrong if your experience doesn't align with that national picture. It's even more frustrating when the same people are are telling you things are great are simultaneously acknowledging that things should be a lot better.

'You're just trying to make people feel bad about the state of things' - jesus can you just fuck off with that constant condescension? People feel shit about the economy because things are shit for a lot of people. More than a quarter of the country has less than $1000 in savings, maybe people are scared they're a single accident away from homelessness and your national metrics simply don't show that. My parents are talking about EOL plans and I'm realizing I don't make enough to support them. How does CPI account for that? It fucking doesn't.

"Things are relatively better through this narrow view of the world" - well why the fuck should I care if i'm not in that picture?

archomrade ,

The broader problem with adhering to those metrics as a gauge for economic output is that it assumes things across the board move up or down together within a reasonable margin, when you and I both know that certain groups fair way better than the average, a big portion of economic growth not even reflected in wages at all, and some are falling off the bottom of the graph entirely. Taking an average wage doesn't tell you anything about the long-term stability of individuals. A greater and greater number of people are having to rent because they're being priced out of home ownership, and even if that isn't reflected in rent prices now it still means that asset-backed capital is being held by a smaller and smaller number of people. That doesn't mean much to CPI but it means everything to upward mobility and generational wealth transfer.

I'm not even trying to paint a bleak picture in service of saying it's all Biden's fault, it's been the default economic schema for decades. I'm saying its disingenuous to point to those metrics when you know they aren't the ones that of the most concern to individuals who see no future for themselves and their families. It's not all Biden's fault, but he's currently the one enacting those policies that have slowly degraded economic mobility for 80 years. "But you're wages are marginally higher!" doesn't mean much when the cost of home ownership has been outpacing median income since the 1970s..

Things being marginally better for the average American under Biden doesn't mean anything when the average American has been almost completely left behind over the course of 50+ years.

archomrade ,

strengthen unions, bring domestic manufacturing back, and make corporations pay their fair share.

That's what I mean though, those things aren't the problem. They fit within that neoliberal economic picture really well but it doesn't address the declining state of middle class' economic stability. We've been operating under the assumption that when our productive output is high, everyone benefits (which is why bringing manufacturing stateside is valuable), but over the last couple decades those jobs have had a steep decline in quality (it used to be that a manufacturing job could support a family of 5, but that's just not the case anymore) due to automation and the relative productivity of capital against the productivity of an individual worker. We'd have to continue consuming well beyond a sustainable level in order to produce enough manufacturing jobs for everyone, and those jobs just aren't as good as they used to be. Even union protections are ultimately just a finger in the dam, when fewer and fewer jobs are needed for higher and higher output. And none of that picture addresses home ownership and generational wealth transfer.

Things are as good as they can be without fundamentally challenging the neoliberal economic hegemony, but that's exactly the problem with the picture. Those metrics suit that way of thinking but they simply don't address the reasons why the American public is struggling.

I'm just so sick of seeing these accomplishments paraded around as if they address the problems normal people are actually facing. You're going to be chanting "things are really great actually!" as we all get chased out of the country by a nationalist movement driven by economic disenfranchisement. We can't keep doing this.

archomrade ,

I could get on board with some militant union organizing and class solidarity. But that's about as likely to be successful under our current government as a class revolution: police are armed to the gills and even a union-friendly administration isn't going to tolerate the kind of union action that we'd need to make a noticeable dent in our economic organization. Even a pretty light rail strike was quickly intervened on (I'm aware of the concessions won with the administrations assistance after the fact, you don't need to elaborate on it for me). The reason why that example isn't a good sign is that the kind of damage a strike like that threatens is kind of fundamental to all potential strikes in the future... That a union strike like that with real leverage couldn't even be tolerated for a moment is.... well it's not encouraging. Can you imagine something like an energy strike, or a roadworker strike in the form and style of the Pullman or Homestead Steel? An entire city's industry shut down by armed union workers? God forbid a general strike...

Idk. And I also really doubt that a new-deal economy would work today... Capital just isn't as reliant on labor as it used to be. It's my ardent belief that we're already way overproducing 'goods' (I like the marxist term 'treats' to describe most of what we produce now); how would unions help reverse that kind of overproduction and over-consumption? How do unions dissolve the kind of wealth that's accumulated around old-money industry and redirect it? The free market has distorted the capital landscape so much that the kind of action we need isn't achievable without an external pressure.... Unions work well to redistribute resources between industry and labor but aren't able to pump the breaks or redirect it elsewhere.

I think our economic options are just... really really bleak. And it's happening as we're entering into another cold-war style conflict with China.... Yea. I'm of the opinion that things will get way, way worse before they get noticeably better.

archomrade ,

This is... this is really antisemitic.... right? And Islamophobic...?

This is definitely some nazi shit

archomrade ,

I'm so curious about those two downvotes

archomrade ,

Weird, I'm getting the same argument from those who think liberals are too lazy to push their candidate away from indefensible foreign policy

archomrade ,

Unfortunately there are no non-warmonger candidates in r or d and voting third party is a vote for trump so I guess we're all fucked amiright

archomrade OP ,

Supporting a candidate that's supporting a genocide so that more genocide doesn't happen under someone else... idk, that certainly does sound like compromise? I was told compromise was something adults were supposed to do, why does it sound like you're offended by this meme?

Lmao, all I did was challenge the 'anti-fascist' label of the project, are y'all really so attached to your benevolent self-image that you cannot conceive of yourselves without that label? You're tolerating a bad thing in service of preventing a terrible thing, you can still feel good about that if you want I wont stop you

archomrade OP ,

https://midwest.social/pictrs/image/f0e93d0c-8785-46dd-a98b-2b2ef830e24f.jpeg

archomrade OP ,

probably easier just to block me, honestly.

archomrade OP ,

I think trying to rank which one is worse distracts from the substance of the issue, which is that the electoral system doesn't provide an option that doesn't involve genocide.

They shouldn't be comfortable with sitting on their ass and casting their vote 5 months out, if they felt as bad as they claim they should be protesting their government that refuses to stop running cover for a genocidal religious ethno-state.

archomrade OP ,

The anti-fascist label is the correct label to describe a political movement that is against fascists. That is self-evident.

Lmao the anti-fascist label does not have room in it to tolerate material support of genocide, or to justify that tolerance because you need to include those people who support it to serve your other goals.

You're free to call it an 'anti-maga-fascist' coalition if you want. That seems less likely to confuse people who would like to actually act against fascism in all its forms and features, not just the ones that are most immediate to yourself.

archomrade OP ,

Fair enough, I just don't see other midwest.social users doing the same kind of agitation I'm doing. Pretty sure I stand alone here.

archomrade OP ,

actually admitting to purposefully agitating people

Lol, bud, i've been screaming that I am. Literally every conversation i have with mozz ends up debating the merits of political agitation.

I don't blame you for not seeing that if you've blocked me, though I've been told blocking doesn't actually hide activity, so maybe you should have seen it? Either way, I think it's funny that admitting to agitation is 'bold' to you, since agitation is the basis for all protest in the history of the US.

archomrade OP ,

Does your coalition include Biden? Does it include democratic politicians that are obstructing justice against Israeli war crimes?
Do you have any justification for Biden to not be more forcefully condemning Israeli fascism other than 'he needs the votes of people who support Israeli fascism'?

Hate to break it to you, bud, but if the extent of your anti-fascist organizing is signing onto the democratic voting rolls then you're not an anti-fascist revolutionary, you're just a anti-republican liberal. Which isn't the worst thing you can be! No shame in shitting on republicans, they're literal neo-nazis. But a part of being an anti-fascist is opposing all fascism, not just the fascism that's most immediate to you.

archomrade ,

I got the se a couple months ago, unfortunately it doesn't use klipper without modding it with a rpi as far as I know

archomrade ,

Yea, I don't think the se runs it out of the box but I've heard an rpi can be used

archomrade OP ,

You specifically should know better.

archomrade OP ,

That doesn’t in any capacity excuse 8 months and counting of the Democrats funding and supporting Israel’s crimes

Yup

but it does make it a little weird for someone who cares deeply about the Palestinian people to single out the Democrats as the problem that needs to be addressed, in order to help the Palestinians

Not when democrats are supposed to be the ones fighting for justice and they aren't.

archomrade OP ,

ITT:

  • The US supports israel because of bribes
  • The US supports Israel because it's an important military platform to launch from in the region

Which is more likely: Democrats are resisting cutting support for Israel because they're financing their political campaigns, OR, there are legitimate imperial reasons why Israel is an important strategic ally in the region.

Either way, democrats have decided it's worth turning a blind eye to a genocide that's happening with their material support.

archomrade OP ,

We have 2 far right fascist parties in America. That simple.

Disagree. Trump represents real fascism in the US, but US international policy under both parties has repeatedly supported fascism and authoritarianism abroad.

Democrats have enjoyed the aesthetics of egalitarianism domestically while contributing to the problem of authoritarianism abroad in service of their global ambitions, and that is the contradiction i'm pointing to.

Both sides are not the same, but they share important similarities that should absolutely be opposed.

archomrade OP ,

Recasting your opponents’ views as other ones that make less sense and are easier to argue against, consistently, as a way of muddling the discourse, instead of being honest about what you’re saying and what you are disagreeing with and why, and just letting your point of view speak for itself whether or not I personally would agree with it
Consistently posting a drumbeat of memes in support of your viewpoint (within that same dishonest framing)

I'm reflecting the bad-faith recasting I see in some other memes here, no more no less. I'm happy peacefully existing without creating any memes at all, but when I see a misrepresentation of my view in a dumb meme by a user that I'll leave nameless (they can't defend themselves here right now anyway), I feel an urgent need to lob that turd back at them. I think .world has successfully sheltered themselves from a world-view that challenges a particular self-image, a world-view I happen to share, and I feel an honest need to make my existence known.

At this point I don't care what the response is, but if my silly memes are enough to warrant suspicion of being a troll then fuck it. I find the very serious democratic pandering around here childish, so i'll continue matching it with my own childish representations.

But the message you’re sending doesn’t match the outcome you say you want. I think that’s why you are getting these maybe unfair accusations.

At this point I simply do not care. If the only thing that comes out of these memes is a string of activity in the modlog I'd consider that to be a point well-made.

archomrade OP ,

I think this might be the third (or maybe fourth?) time i've responded to this question from you, but since you keep asking it I will continue answering it for others (since I think you either don't care what I think, you keep forgetting somehow, or you're not asking it for the benefit of your own understanding)

What would you want to do?

First I will make it known: go and vote for harm reduction. If you personally feel incapable of voting for Biden for reasons relating to Israel I think that's valid, but still go vote for every other position at the very least. If your concern for politics starts and ends with federal election day then you are then free to check-out. The following applies for every other day except election day itself.

but

Putting pressure on democrats^1^ is broadly the only way to stir action (in my opinion). So long as the electoral status-quo denies any platform for meaningful dissent then the only way remaining is to focus your energy outside of that electoral system. I do not think campaigning for a third party is a worthwhile effort (because electoral pressures still limit what even a third party can do, and because our capitalistic system effectively kneecaps any actual short-term successes). I think engendering dissatisfaction with democrats is the most effective strategy, not only because it would push them to move their platform to keep their coalition, but it also increases the body of people willing to spend effort outside of elections for direct action. At least in online spaces, the only effective strategy is agitation.

There is a spectrum of agitation that I think is effective, I won't pretend to be the expert, but I think democratic apologia is generally unhelpful because it provides a feeling of reassurance that the limited involvement liberals have is sufficient to drive progress. Continual progress requires continual pressure, and giving a pat on the back because some policy or other is 'more than nothing' provides reason to feel good about what's been done and gets in the way of higher aspirations. (If you didn't catch it, this is a bit of a dig at you. I don't think modest progress is anything to celebrate about when the bigger issues are still looming). There's also a bit of self-selection here, because this obviously doesn't work for a bunch of people (and as I continue beating that drum more people start muting me). But the people who happen to agree that more progress is needed are likely to push back against attempts at solidifying that partisan consensus, and that's valuable.

The existence of Trump simultaneously complicates things and makes things easier, because on the one hand the threat of his existence is real (i do not deny that threat), but it also raises the urgency for action. Targeting agitation at the people who exist in the overlap between extreme concern over the rise of fascism and people who broadly agree that change is needed is the sweet spot. I don't feel bad about hammering on that sweet spot, I think it's created enough friction for some with more modest political leanings to find more ways to engage. There's an honest concern that Biden cannot win on a pro-israel platform, so that's the most urgent issue that needs addressing (it also makes the message clear so it can be addressed: address this issue or risk losing needed support). A more broadly anti-Democrat message would be more likely to inspire apathy, not action. If the Israel-Palestine conflict did not exist then a different one would be the target (you constantly point to this as evidence of bad-faith argumentation, but there's a well of policy that needs changing so of course there'd be something else to push on).

Hopefully that answers your question. Maybe i'll make this a copypasta for future questions along a similar line.

1: I mean democrats broadly, not just democrats in power. pressure on political actors involves engendering discontent among their base, otherwise agitation is ineffectual

archomrade OP ,

There's a lot of overlap between us, I think the primary disagreement is over efficacy of agitation (and the form of).

archomrade OP ,

Acknowledging there is a distinction to be made between the parties is important if you want to be taken seriously.

There's a distinction to be made between convenient support of fascism abroad as a matter of suiting your interests and leveling that fascism against your own people. I don't shy away from that distinction, and it doesn't negate the critique being leveled against democrats that pardon themselves for that fascistic activity simply because they have a more pleasant appearance domestically.

archomrade OP ,

Meme's are piss. They're irreverent and mirthful and reductive by nature.

When there aren't any rules against pissing in the pool, the only way to get someone to stop pissing on you might just be to piss on them back.

Sure, I could leave the pool, but that pisser will just pick someone else to piss on, until there's noone left except the people who enjoy that guy's piss (or maybe just tolerate it)

archomrade OP ,

Look, I realize this is going to be unpopular, but idk if this attitude is really helping you here:

Democratic party leaders turn a blind eye toward Israel committing genocide, and then democratic voters tolerate democratic party leaders turning a blind eye toward Israel committing genocide.

Democrats (the politicians) are effectively unaccountable to voters, even if it's because of a FPTP system you have no control over. At some point they're gonna do something so egregious that you have to step in and do something, but so far I don't think enough people have reached that point.

archomrade OP ,

Yea, I get it. I'm in too deep with being a relentless prick that I can't really turn it off, and honestly the more resistance I run into the more blinded by indignant fury I feel. I'll acknowledge there's an emotional dimension to this that may defy logic.

It seems like supporting a third party, or targeting the Democrats with specific demands about what you or your coalition wants, or directly supporting a non electoral solution which could produce good things - all of those would be way better than just kneecapping the Democrats to the voters based on (perfectly valid in this case) criticisms of their positions.

In order for any IRL direct action to have the legs to be meaningful, there needs to be enough discontent for people to join that cause to begin with. For what it's worth, i feel pretty confident i've been very clear about what i'm critiquing, and what response would be acceptable to stop agitation. Taking it directly to democratic leadership happens everywhere but here, so that's why it seems like i'm just making noise for the hell of it. The more direct action happens in other forums, via other means. But creating a demand within the base validates those voices that are speaking to leadership, too. They both need doing, but only one happens here.

I also think i've made my perspective on the 1932 German elections clear elsewhere, so I'll let those other comments to speak for themselves. Having a loyal coalition is not enough, we have to accomplish more if we're interested in more than just kicking the can.

I feel somewhat comforted by this being a pretty small space filled with otherwise perfectly motivated democratic voters, I don't think i'm doing a noticeable amount of damage to democrats (in terms of how people end up voting in november). Nothing I can say is going to make people feel less motivated by trump's fascistic rhetoric, so I imagine the most i imagine myself really doing is pushing a handful of people into further-left political spaces. If people vote in november but are furious about having to do it, that might be the best-case scenario. People deciding it's completely pointless would be worst-case, but I'm sure that if that was happening I'd have already been kicked out, or at the very least it would be limited to a pretty small group.

Even if it's ineffectual it's at least a little cathartic.

archomrade OP ,

Maybe that's true, it seems right anyway.

I just don't think that'll happen all on its own for a variety of reasons, I think a lot of people have to decide they're upset enough to do something all at the same time.

More people than I think is reasonable are comfortable with politics as something like a performance you make on social media and then pick the least terrible flavor on election day, and idk how else to push those people into the real world of organizing without making it too uncomfortable to hide behind that performance.

archomrade OP ,

There's the fascism you conduct and there's the fascism you support.

Fascism isn't a tool to be used when convenient for you. Fascism is bad.

Well yea, I agree. Maybe we need like a rating system of fascism? Or maybe subtypes? Maybe Trump is fascism full-fat and democrats are fascism-lite? Even hell has 7 circles.

If you tell a Democrat they're the same as Hitler I'm gonna guess they aren't gonna take the point seriously. Just a guess.

archomrade OP ,

Just out of curiosity, what was the misrepresentation this time?

archomrade OP ,

I honestly did not know there were alternate British spellings of those words. All I know is my spellcheck was flagging them, and i only know the American spelling.

The broader point remains.

archomrade OP ,

Lmao, alright I guess

archomrade OP ,

It's as high-quality of a meme as it's responding to, chum :)

Back and forth, forever ))<>((

archomrade OP ,

))<>((

<3

archomrade OP ,

We all have to take care of ourselves sometimes.

archomrade OP ,

Lmao, no, criticism is fine (if there was any in this comment), it's the paranoid obsession with me being a 'russian troll' and tagging me around the fediverse that's harassment. He's had a bunch of comments removed for it already, that's not an unfounded accusation.

archomrade OP ,

I don't even take issue with voting for Biden at this point, I just find 'we are an anti-fascist coalition' to be the most self-valorizing shitlib statement i've ever seen, especially when everyone here insists they don't support Israel's war crimes and think we shouldn't be defending them.

They don't get to larp unopposed as anti-fascist revolutionaries when they've quietly accepted the choice they've been given 5 months out from election day, at least not while I still haven't been banned for mocking them relentlessly. They should feel miserable about the shit choice like everyone else does.

archomrade OP ,

People have been banned for being propagandists. One even admitted to it. I can’t imagine you’d ever admit that what you’re doing is not on the level, so unfortunately people are left to base their opinions on observations.

I'll make the debate easy for you: I am doing agitative-propaganda. My goal is to agitate liberals into taking action against the genocide their party is supporting. My memes are intended as a counter-balance to those other liberal-propaganizing memes that seek to rationalize, normalize, and dismiss the political problems electoralism simply cannot address.

Please pass this comment along as evidence for my community ban, on some level it would be a relief to not have to deal with the self-valorizing liberal propaganda that seems to be the norm.

archomrade ,

This is the entire issue for me.

Privatizing what is otherwise public content, and then privatizing the models that are trained on that content and making me pay for having it regurgitated back at me.

I think AI would be really cool, IF:

-it wasn't being shoved into every goddamn thing
-it wasn't being used as justification to cut jobs
-it was a open source project and wasn't being gatekept by capitalist interests

archomrade ,

Right because that changes the ethics of us doing it?

archomrade ,

https://midwest.social/pictrs/image/02fd27e8-d020-480c-b91b-3ded13970e08.jpeg

archomrade ,

In the same way 'would you rather' is meant to force a decision between two unacceptable choices, the trolly problem is meant to highlight the morality of refusing to choose (and ensuring the worse decision).

The third rail is just redundant.

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