join_the_iww [he/him]
If I join should I use my real name or a pseudonym? I heard they had a member info leak recently
“Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well- warmed, and well-fed.” - Herman Melville
“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by mutual understanding.” - Albert Einstein
I also like this passage from Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell:
‘Poverty is not caused by men and women getting married; it’s not caused by machinery; it’s not caused by “over-production”; it’s not caused by drink or laziness; and it’s not caused by “over-population”. It’s caused by Private Monopoly. That is the present system. They have monopolized everything that it is possible to monopolize; they have got the whole earth, the minerals in the earth and the streams that water the earth. The only reason they have not monopolized the daylight and the air is that it is not possible to do it. If it were possible to construct huge gasometers and to draw together and compress within them the whole of the atmosphere, it would have been done long ago, and we should have been compelled to work for them in order to get money to buy air to breathe. And if that seemingly impossible thing were accomplished tomorrow, you would see thousands of people dying for want of air - or of the money to buy it - even as now thousands are dying for want of the other necessities of life. You would see people going about gasping for breath, and telling each other that the likes of them could not expect to have air to breathe unless they had the money to pay for it. Most of you here, for instance, would think and say so. Even as you think at present that it’s right for so few people to own the Earth, the Minerals and the Water, which are all just as necessary as is the air. In exactly the same spirit as you now say: “It’s Their Land,” “It’s Their Water,” “It’s Their Coal,” “It’s Their Iron,” so you would say “It’s Their Air,” “These are their gasometers, and what right have the likes of us to expect them to allow us to breathe for nothing?” And even while he is doing this the air monopolist will be preaching sermons on the Brotherhood of Man; he will be dispensing advice on “Christian Duty” in the Sunday magazines; he will give utterance to numerous more or less moral maxims for the guidance of the young. And meantime, all around, people will be dying for want of some of the air that he will have bottled up in his gasometers. And when you are all dragging out a miserable existence, gasping for breath or dying for want of air, if one of your number suggests smashing a hole in the side of one of the gasometers, you will all fall upon him in the name of law and order, and after doing your best to tear him limb from limb, you’ll drag him, covered with blood, in triumph to the nearest Police Station and deliver him up to “justice” in the hope of being given a few half-pounds of air for your trouble.’
Childhood: obviously didn’t really know my own ideology yet but had professional-managerial-class democrat parents who hated the Bush admin, cared about global warming, were kind of anti-consumerism, and cried in joy when Obama got elected in 08
High school (2010-2014):
- became an obnoxious YouTube comment section atheist
- became a big fan of George Carlin (who I still like) and Bill Maher (who I don’t anymore)
- liked Ron Paul & Gary Johnson in 2012
- guess I could’ve been described as a libertarian-ish democrat
- probably would’ve been an anarchist/libertarian socialist if I’d been more ideologically literate but at that time I only understood politics in terms of political parties & platform issues rather than complete philosophies
Early college (2014-15):
- started reading pop-liberal-feminist sites like Upworthy, Huffpost, and PolicyMic a lot, to the point where I felt kind of alienated by them and went through a bit of a MRA/anti-SJW phase as a reaction (although I was still a left-liberal on everything else)
- started using reddit, got really into r/politics, r/politicaldiscussion, and r/forwardsfromgrandma
2016: this was when I became radicalized. main factors were:
- finding leftist reddit (particularly r/anarchism, r/latestagecapitalism, r/shitliberalssay, r/completeanarchy, & r/socialism)
- had a good friend who was lowkey a comrade and was working on nudging me towards leftism (thank you Josh)
- reading this article, as well as this one, and then after the election this one too
- reading What’s the Matter with Kansas and Deer Hunting with Jesus, as well as The Conquest of Bread
- realizing that there are other types of feminism besides liberal feminism that aren’t so smug & alienating
- watching the Democrats completely bomb the election season, which helped me realize liberalism is a failed political project
2017: started listening to Chapo and other leftist podcasts, joined the IWW and the DSA
2018: This is when doomerism started getting to me. Contributing factors were:
- ICE concentration camp revelations
- reading this post
- started browsing r/collapse and r/aboringdystopia too much
And that’s about where I am now. trying to keep the doomerism away just like most of you probably are. I’m 1.5 years out of college, was unemployed for a few months during COVID but I’ve found a good job again. Often fantasize about buying some cheap land in the Great Lakes region and starting a solarpunk compound with some comrades.
from what I’ve seen, when rightists talk about “individualism”, they are usually using the term to connote the following two beliefs:
1: individuals have no moral obligations or social responsibilities to each other
2: societies turn out the best when people act in accordance with #1
feels kinda bad that Biden’s strategy of telling leftists “fuck off, I don’t need your vote” is probably gonna succeed
If you had the opportunity to reset your life back to when you were 8 years old with your current penis size intact, and your penis grows at a rate that is congruent with the rest of your body’s growth, resulting in you having a substantially larger penis by the time you re-reach whatever age you currently are, would you do it?
Dillinger Escape Plan
Meshuggah
Gojira
The Devil Makes Three
He is Legend
Earthless
Royal Thunder
Thank You Scientist
Gary Clark Jr.
Eluveitie
Sure, but Thailand has been an important US ally in the region for decades. It already is a US puppet state.
That’s been changing in the past 5-6 years though. John Kerry denounced the military coup in 2014 and signaled that things were going to get less friendly. And Thailand has recently been buying more of its military hardware from China instead of the US, and I also think that the US has wanted to increase its military presence (more missiles & air force bases etc) in Thailand but Thailand hasn’t been permitting it.
