Chana [none/use name]

Neoliberal playbook.

Thank you, DPRK

But that’s a superior position for Iran. The Taliban weren’t bombing US assets in neighboring countries to any significant degree.

I’m not sure that Iran thinks the imperialists are acting in good faith. There are other reasons to go through these motions.

“How do you create an echo chamber? People are slightly rude to be when I support genocide.”

My hot take was that the US and Israel wouldn’t honor the ceasefire. I deserve praise and possibly money for my incredible analytical skills.

The straits are not okay

I’m kind of tired of reading studies. My biased guess would have been that cannabis impacts people differently, ranging from helping many, doing nothing for many, and being a detriment to many. Is their “no evidence” a lack of any effect (same variance in outcome vs placebo/control) or a lack of constant effect?

Right I was excited to see cool steel bike news on hexbear

Re: Marxism, finance itself is not productive in the capitalist political economical sense. It is, at best, more of a necessary element to “grease the wheels” and should be a subordinate feature as it is actually more of a cost than anything. It weighs on production even as it is necessary under capitalist anarchic production to get certain things going. One of the greatest detriments to those in the imperial core is the extent to which finance weighs upon the average person (even as they also benefit from imperialism!). It is the bulk of the reason why housing is so expensive, for example. That’s 50-80% of a common person’s paycheck right there and it didn’t produce anything, it just creates a speculation and investment “market” with deep layering of financial nonsense. College tuition is similar. There are similar rent seeking and leech industries like medical insurance that similarly drive up the burden. A burgerlander might get paid $80k/year for some job but then need to go into $200k medical debt. When countries keep these costs down they achieve more with less. Euros keep medical insurance at bay with various strategies. China handles all of these things fairly proactively except for the misstep with real estate that is now being fixed (at great cost!).

So short answer is “no but sometimes it’s necessary under capitalism”.

Wanting Iran to have even greater deterrence would be a good take if it came from an anti-imperialist perspective. Instead, this is a very odd tut-tutting from people trying to blame Iran for not pushing back “enough” against the exact people who live in imperialist countries and support imperialism itself, including against Iran. The goal is to create deserving victims.

The vast majority of the US is proletarian. But it is shielded from the (in isolation, correct) predictions about the nature of the proletariat through imperialism, both because imperialism itself brings undue spoils (like a federal government that can fund anything it wants when it chooses to) and because the imperial apparatus itself turns inwards with great intensity, creating, for example, globally powerful propaganda that is applied nowhere more strongly than in the US itself.

Regarding production and the proletariat, one most remember that commodities are very broadly defined. The US has a very large gdp even if you cut out the financial nonsense. It “produces” a lot in capitalist terms even though industrially it is hollowing itself out. Though it’s actually finance and related sectors that actually weaken the US proletariat in the sense of their ability to make material demands based on disrupting production. It’s not because the US doesn’t make anything, it’s because large sectors actually make money through the destruction of industry, from offshoring, from big tech bubbles searching for financialized monopoly.

With that said, if the US proletariat united and acted in concert they could accomplish incredible things. Their limitation is their consciousness, shaped by all these aforementioned relations.

Karl may be complaining about the fact that they asked a question about transphobic framings that was easily googled and of course now Karl’s a victim because some people (none with a hexbears instance username) assumed bad faith or pushed back on the transphobia itself, where Karl repeatedly personally answered responses directed at the question the post asked as if they were directed at this Karl.

I think Karl writes like a teenager and should be seeking support and validation outside of internet forums that correctly support trans people if Karl is this fragile.

And your reward: a nice layoff

Two comments down from mine just says “no”, lol.

Another suggests that a local coop is better than a megacorp product made in China, which is something I would argue with a bit, but at least engages with the question.

Others assume this is “consumer activism”, the takeaway being to not care about this. Several other comments have this vein but are much more dismissive. Of course, the question here was not only about organizing a mass boycott, and so these replies miss a lot of the point, and so far I have yet to meet a single communist that thinks individual moral questions are completely irrelevant as a consumer/worker role. Unless hexbears are now going to ignore a person being an American cop, imperialist soldier, or Lockheed Martin marketer. Or ignore that a person buys nakedly abusive products for their hobby when they absolutely don’t need to.

Best to treat each other with respect and be minimally consistent with one’s positions.

Psh yes buy Chinese stuff friend, ignore these nerds. There isn’t any good reason not to. Anyone advocating against it is basically saying, “pay more to imperialist middle men”. It’s not a movement or anything but it’s a win-win for your wallet and slightly decreasing the profits of imperialist middle men.

Get one at a local bike shop that’s willing to repair it or verify that a local bike shop can support whatever you buy. Or plan on fixing it yourself when the electronics inevitably have an issue.

There are many good brands and many okay brands but the biggest difference in overall experience will be what happens when it breaks and how often it breaks.

I prefer regular bikes but e-bikes have their place if you want to move heavy stuff (including kids) or want to get around but aren’t physically able to use a regular bike to do so.

“Vote so some unelected geriatrics that are universally full of shit can be appointed by MY war criminal”

The Americans systematically destroyed civilian infrastructure in Iraq after a decade of sanctions that killed millions of children and drained the country. Electricity, water, water treatment, desalination. Then they invaded and occupied. They did destroy schools, hospitals, and universities as well, part of ground assaults, though the more common thing was to occupy them and use them as structures for combat.

The main difference is that this is not yet an invasion and they didn’t have all their assets lined up to do maximum damage immediately. They are, instead, lobbing bombs from afar and still taking losses fairly often. So we see news about high profile individual targets of which there are a handful per week.