ComradeRat [he/him, they/them]
Idk if this is true or not, but if it’s not true it should be imo
way too much ‘common knowledge’ of science, history, politics in the west (i’ve never lived outside it so idk what its like outside) is based on what people see on tv/fiction/twitter/etcetc, which is made 1. by people without expertise in the subject 2. by people aiming to entertain (and profit) more than to inform.
This creates extremely distorted views of history. It communicates outright wrong or fabricated information mixed (without distinction) with truths for extra confusion. It communicates idealist ways of thinking about history, as great man theory abounds because of literary requirements for characters and a compelling narrative. And then such media usually portrays knowledge of history as more complete/settled than it actually is, because long descriptions of theories and countertheories make sales plummet
Precisely how much worse must be the conditions of the average liberal before they convert, then? There is no bottom to the conditions of the working class, and there is no ceiling to exploitation. Things are ok in many places but they’re becoming bad in a lot of the Western world, even in America, for average middle-class families.
An insightful question. A comparison of the conditions of the western working class (as we’ve observed in our lives and studies) to those of the English proletariat in Engels’ and Marx’s time would be illustrative as to “how much worse must be the conditions” before the liberals stop liberalling so successfully among the workers.
Mostly from Engels, Conditions of the Working Class in England. I’ll type up some highlights in addition to the full images.
Living conditions: Literally bailing the river water out of your dwelling every morning
20 people to a 2room+attic+basement residence. 120 people to a sometimes nonfunctional privy. Ireland was even more crowded.
food in stores: Old, rancid, rotting meat. Rotting vegetables. Mouldy cheese.
Soap-refuse mixed in with sugar. Dirt and sheep fat mixed with cocoa.
From Capital; cobwebs, cockroaches, sand and alum in bread.
Vagrants, tramps, homeless, beggars and the like Poor rounded up and thrown into workhouses with conditions similar to or worse than prisons. Families broken up. Hard labour (harder than regular wage labour) but useless (so as not to distort the market). No visitors, gifts, leaving, etc without permission from the inspector.
Some choice examples of conditions in the workhouses include children being locked in dark rooms with corpses as a punishment for bedwetting
Such punishments were common, and the rooms crowded, cold, filthy, and the punished youths often stripped naked
As for treatment of the old and the dead?
As for working conditions, I’ll just post one screenshot from working class bc this is getting long
jumping on the “also autistic, this describes my experience” bandwagon
doesn’t invalidate his previous work, but damn that sucks
This is what Howard Adams (a metis man, also a marxist) says about Riel in his book about the Metis A Tortured People.
I don’t have much more to add other than to note that in discussions of the 1885 Rebellions I’ve read (Loyal Till Death, Cree Narrative Memory and Clearing the Plains) economic stuff has basically never come up wrt Riel, neither has the working class. His focus seems to have been political rights for metis and recognition of their claims on land. He was also racist towards “full natives”, which is part of why (despite what wikipedia says) the Cree didn’t join his war (they did however loot a few towns bc they were hungry).
Ironluck is real
I already have full infinity so it wont be used, buts its neat to have
picard isn’t nearly cool enough to do that (he is a loser bureaucratified careerist elitist shitstain). He would be too afraid of the damage to his career
Kirk otoh would personally punch every head of state in the face before arming the dispossessed with laser pistols (as he does in
spoiler
“The Cloud Minders”)