Here is ramdomthought!

[INNIT]

Materialism: the transition to remote labour actually further centralizes the labour force (in the sense that the labour force is now effectively anyone with an internet connection, and so the capitalist's grasp becomes more or less global) which further reduces the political power of labourers (if this even exists anymore). The idea of scattering while simultaneously conglomerating the labour force seems to me to have some fairly pernicious effects in terms of power relations (a break down of locally concentrated solidarities that maintains the massive labour pool that keeps the worker's autonomy to a minimum). Capitalism used to want to centralize the labour force so that workers couldn't unionize. It's newfound capacity to centralize while decentralizing seems like a more perfect version of this original aim.

[JewTurk]

[fun_yunchables]

(economic) globalization was a mistake send tweet

[alby]

happy birthday to all of our favorite bots today :L

[fun_yunchables]

returning back to the rural/work from home dialectic, i was reading some schumacher essays (a bit anachronistic since they are from 1973), but quite poignant in the points brought up

[INNIT]

[fun_yunchables]

if you ever remember the author/book i’d love to give it a read

i see these ideas echoed in schumacher, especially in regards to “suboptimal” production and consumption (coined in buddhist economics/the middle way) — attempts at answering the metaphysical question of the necessity for “growth” in the paradigm as we know it (capitalistic).

self-sufficient localization as a root solution for imperialism/colonialism too. if there is no incentive to require resources outside of a relatively self-sufficient geography, then there is no incentive to establish colonies for extraction of unnecessary resources. ive heard the argument that import/export really is the spine of colonialism — the want for resources not local drove the creation of empires.



there’s also this (https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library ... roy-itself) more anarcho primitivist take but to me, at least in a non cooperative game-theoretic framework, this article seems to be the inevitable (and defeatist) future. as long as on a global scale there exists some kind of competitive market without localized resource control. at least it’s consistent with the fermi paradox i guess

[rjbman]

please send me $1000 via bitcoin. this isn't a scam, i promise. (not promising money back you just give me it, thanks)

[rjbman]

really tho twitter is FUCKED

[rjbman]

this is an utterly massive security fuckup that will probably have lasting repercussions on them as a business

though i'm seeing word hackers bribed? some twitter employees to help them pull it off. seems like a colossally stupid move on those employees' parts

[alby]

[JewTurk]

What's going to happen to the US? Please give predictions.

[fun_yunchables]

[smiles]

Think of the dumbest, most ridiculous outcome and you'll probably be correct.

for example, biden loses presidency but the democrats win the senate and the house. Then nothing happens aside from cold war with china or something.

or biden gets corona and dies after being elected but before being inaugurated.

or the rich will get unimaginable richer and everyone else will get slowly and then all of a sudden a lot poorer.

[popcorn]

Whether or not we become a complete martial autocracy, I see no scenario in which we don't continue to slide in human development indexes.

It's been evident since the 1950s that the United States isn't oriented enough towards community health, education, and real production to warrant the country's growth.

The value of our currency is propped up by military intervention and intimidation, tautology, and the idea that eventually we will orient the state more towards real production (see: the hyperinflation of the valuation and cost of an american university education even though our land grant universities lag behind the standards of some other highly developed countries). The service industries that only provide an affluent lifestyle because they're tied to our currency will collapse.

Is this the cyberpunk thread?

[UnwashedMolasses]

I'm not exactly clear on how a "cold war" is defined as having started or not started but I think the US is already engaged in one against China based on our funding of the HK protests and our attempts to disrupt and destroy the Belt and Road Initiative.

I don't see any scenario in which an actual response to COVID-19 is ever coordinated, which most nurses I know are very worried about as we move into flu season and how much more fucked our medical infrastructure is going to be attempting to deal with both of those at the same time.

Not sure if Trump will lose or win at this point but I'm also not sure it will make a difference. It wouldn't surprise me if they simply suspend the election. Even if Biden wins it's not like he or his allies will do anything about COVID or any of the crises we're dealing with.

Massive amounts of people are going to be facing eviction in the immediate future as the eviction moratorium ends at the same time that unemployment benefits do - state by state numbers show 25% of renters at risk of being evicted is the LOWEST percent, and they go up to 50%. I'm not sure how much of an economic effect that'll have - I want to say there's no way they'll just evict that many people given that there's no one else to fill the places with but that would be assuming that landlords will act like anything other than desperately greedy leeches and I know better than that

[_Organism]

Wynand vs. Roark (Enemies to Lovers, Love Triangle, Slash)

[fun_yunchables]

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-63657-6

man i know lotka-volterra models of two species (human and forest) is pretty damn reductive but still i be expecting even more and potentially worse effects when u maybe consider socio-ecological disturbance factors and all but ya lol

[JewTurk]

Do you

a) vote

b) not vote, and hope the systems crumbles so we can rebuild sooner

[rjbman]

don't be a fuckwad (thx for the heads up ), vote biden.

he sux but 4 more years of trump will probably start ww3 (covid probably has more preventable deaths already than ww3 would)

if you're mad biden got the nom, get out & organize at the local / state level

[JewTurk]

I've been registering people to vote here in town, and it's been going well, but the actual amount of people who whole-heartedly believe in blatant misinformation is startling.

I would say >50% people I interact with think antifa is coming to town to destroy property and that they are doing their civic duty by open-carrying and being prepared to protect other's property.

How do you even begin to level with people who refuse to listen to the news on a local/national level?

[UnwashedMolasses]

I'm gonna be a lil contentious here and say I think it's gross to call people that don't want to vote for Biden "fuckwads"

I know a decent amount of people that yes, are suffering under Trump, but have also suffered under the Obama/Biden administration or especially have suffered due to Biden's past bills

If people have had family deported with Biden as VP or they've had family jailed unfairly and for extreme sentences due to the crime bill, telling them they have to vote for Biden OR ELSE is violent and gross

I'm not saying vote for Trump, I'm not saying don't vote, but don't put the blame on people that have suffered under R and D for decades, especially when Biden refuses to put forward any significant policies or motivations outside of "not Trump"

Most people that don't vote don't feel like any politician from either party will do anything to benefit them and telling them that they're stupid and wrong for that is putting the blame on the the wrong people - the onus should be on politicians to offer something worth voting for

[rjbman]

fair but if the options are "vote" / "dont vote, in order to burn down the system" i don't think having 4 more years of trump will burn down the system. DNC still picked Biden even after the last 4 years.....

[UnwashedMolasses]

I would disagree with the idea that most people who don't vote are abstaining out of accelerationism. Sure, that's a thing on Twitter/online, but when I've talked to people (especially working class people) about why they don't vote, it's never about accelerationism, it's because they've given up on politics. For a lot of people it hasn't mattered who's been in office for the last 20/30 years; they've never seen their life improve from the actions of any administration. Some of them voted for the first time in years for Obama because he at least talked about hope and change and bringing something different to politics but then shit still didn't get better.

I think a lot of people online approach the discussion around "this one fucking sucks but the other one sucks worse" as a situation where obviously, you vote for the one that sucks less, and maybe things get better, maybe they don't, or at least maybe they get worse at a slower rate. The reality I've seen is that when a lot of people are given that lesser-evil choice, they just lose any motivation or interest in the election at all; they disengage from politics altogether. Yelling at those people about how bad Trump is will never be an effective way to drive voter turnout - you have to convince them that the person you want them to vote for will actually change things to a point where they'll feel it in their lives.

I really believe that the BLM protests are one of the most important political actions of the last decade (in America at least), not only for bringing awareness to the horror that is the police in America but also because it reminded people that there are ways to take political action that are much more effective than just voting. It's also one of the reasons I'm scared for voter turnout for this election - I can't imagine how many people said "fuck it" after they spent the summer protesting to defund the police and Biden said "actually, I wanna give them MORE money"

[fun_yunchables]

its not our place to impose on other people’s choices. isn’t that the point of voting? the way i see it, i should have no say about how other people feel

it sucks but not voting is just as much a voice as voting, although realistically the politicians wont care

[jylt]

voting is genocide management or, if you prefer, the reform of genocide. (edit: and sometimes that work is important or all that can be done) (2nd edit: referring here to the US context of presidential voting)

if someone votes, fine. if someone doesn't, fine.

what is important to recognize is that there are other political vernaculars, traditions, ways to build political power that exceed the state. one's engagement & horizon of political imagination should not be based on what is legitimized by the state

3rd edit: i watched this talk tonight b/w mariame kaba and ruth wilson gilmore who i learn so much from. they get at the concerns of what people in this thread have expressed

https://www.facebook.com/theGraduateCen ... 084026178/

[BobbyZamora]

Many good points, but unfortunately America is being taken over by fascism. I worry that too many people are unaware of just how pervasive and insidious fascism truly is, and what it truly looks like in action. It goes beyond simple parallels and has for years now. If at this point you support Trump you are either evil, ignorant/misguided or you wrongfully think it equates to some sort of political table-flip to reset the game. In reality it's a path that leads only to tragedy and travesty.

His followers are quite literally embracing an antisemitic conspiracy cult, I don't know why there's even a discussion at this point- now is not the time to lament the failings of neoliberalism and centrist policies. Bernie lost already, you have only one option to stop this before it goes any further.

[UnwashedMolasses]

[fun_yunchables]

echoing everyone else — one person at the top is not a sole responsibility for the rise of fascism, despite what the cult of individualism may attribute to them. systematically there are faults appearing that enable fascism.

is this not one of the main critiques? the modern system operates as a series of minor concessions to quell displeasure without major systematic change. is this not capitalistic thinking? maximize profit, minimize effort. change as little as possible to get most people to accept a failing system.

maybe im just deep in it but localized but federated bottom up organizing (eg like the BPP) seems the only realistic viable option. it’s not even a violent revolution in any means — being able to become a self sufficient core means that external forces like capitalism have minimal effect. Jarvis, but is farming is revolutionary?

[UnwashedMolasses]