That’s an ignorant response. Do you even understand what I mean when I say exploitation? This is literally Econ 101 stuff. Exploitation in our current economic system means that working people who must sell their labor in order to pay for basic necessities are not compensated for the full value of their labor.

Now frankly if the working people in question were able to work reasonable hours and if they had access to all the resources they need to live a happy and fulfilling lives, I wouldn’t have a serious issue with exploitation. However, that’s just not how our economy works. Sick and dying people are taken for all they have because they literally have no other options. Working people are forced to sell their labor because if they don’t they generally won’t be able to house and feed themselves or their family. People are literally dying in the street because they can’t pay the egregious rents landlords are charging.

All of that pain and suffering is what makes profit seeking and wealth hoarding morally objectionable behavior. We literally have super yachts trolling on by waterfronts where people are forced to live in tent cities. These disgusting displays of gluttony should make anyone with a heart realize how morally bankrupt the wealthy truly are. Do you have no heart?

The irony is I think the victims of these people as a whole would be far more generous with them if they had to choose a fair punishment. Like I’d be perfectly happy if these rich assholes had their wealth appropriated, they were sentenced to a few years in a prison actually meant to rehabilitate them, and then they could be released and allowed to work normal jobs. However there are no avenues available to people to make that happen so some might feel violent retribution is there only outlet.

There’s one simple trick they can do if they don’t want to feel afraid. Give up their wealth. Gift whatever stock and excess wealth they have to the employees or whoever it is they exploited. If they do that they have no reason to fear retribution.

Also, the media cheered the killing of terrorists. Get off your hypocritical high fucking horse. Clearly there is a line where killing is deemed acceptable.

Hey now that’s state sanctioned violence which is legitimate for… reasons…

There was plenty of organic separatism in much of Eastern Ukraine after Maidan. The support they received from Russia doesn’t invalidate that fact.

Israel is being the very opposite of a force for stability in the region, which isn’t going to help the Petro-Dollar.

Israel being a destabilizing force gives the US leverage over the oil rich nations of the region. That’s why Israel is important for the petrodollar. I’m also not sure the US currently has a way to maintain its global economic dominance without the petrodollar. That’s in part why I think you see the US doubling down on support for Israel even in a context where doing so is increasingly risky.

I kind of suspect things were always too big and complex for one person to address but the rampant individualism of our society obscures that history.

I think you’re confusing two different tendencies.

Small parties that do not have a social base can become insular. If they do not realize that their limitations are set by external factors they can turn inwards and become cult like. You see that a lot in Maoist groups in western countries where there is no peasant class their brand of politics can mobilize.

On the other hand successful socialist parties that come to take power end up having to defend it from various reactionary forces, both external and internal. Being put on the defensive causes these parties to seek resiliency through centralized decision making.

That said, I don’t think either of these tendencies are unique to Marxist parties. Also, Marxism is meant to be scientific so learning from past experiences is key to avoiding the mistakes of other Marxists.

“I trust the United States government and so should you!” -Alphane Moon

How’s that relevant? Do you have counter evidence for any of the points I made or are you just desperately trying to prove you’re not a dupe?

I do check out RFE/RL and its sister outlets from time to time. It’s pretty obvious that their agenda aligns 1 for 1 with American foreign policy objectives. To be fair though, the US wouldn’t fund RFE/RL if it didn’t effectively dupe people into believing it was an unbiased source.

I think you mean it’s designed to prevent partisan interference. RFE/RL’s purpose is to support US foreign policy which makes it inherently political. It is undeniably a propaganda outlet and therefore comparable in function to RT. You may trust American propaganda over Russian propaganda but that doesn’t mean the former is not propaganda.

What an absurd response. This is akin to saying RT isn’t Russian state propaganda.

The FT is actually a tad bit more reliable than more mainstream outlets like WaPo or the NYT. It’s targeted towards people in finance who want more matter of fact reporting and fewer opinion pieces.

I think you underestimate just how many people are in China and how much development actually needs to happen in order to meet their needs. The urbanization rate of China is still lower than most developed nations despite the massive amounts of construction they’ve done in recent years.

Why would I lie and why does what I said make you so angry?

I doubt the person you’re replying to would disagree that the advent of capitalism is in fact what brought liberal democracy into existence. The point though is that such progress is unsustainable under a capitalist system and that it will result in various crises, war, and fascism. Therefore we do need to find a way to move past capitalism if we want even the possibility of creating a better world.

Growth isn’t a problem when it’s sustainable. However, there are natural limits to how far and how fast technological development and resource extraction will allow us to grow the economy.

Additionally, competition within capitalism forces the wealthy to seek out any and all means of growth. If they do not they actually risk all of their wealth becoming devalued. This drives innovation but it also is the driver of imperialism, exploitation, environmental degradation, all of which grow the economy.

When growth because less attainable due to various natural constrains, the wealthy start to cannibalize the systems that keep society stable. Again, they can’t help themselves. If they don’t their class position is threatened as some other capital owner beats them to the limited profits that come from privatization and austerity.

This usually results in mass unrest across all the various classes in society. That includes some of the middle classes who also rely on exploitation to maintain their standard of living. In response to threat of social unrest, the wealthy usually align themselves with right wing authoritarians that claim to be able to bring order to the chaos and renew growth through imperial expansion. This kind of politics is often supported by some of the downwardly mobile middle classes. That’s how we get fascism.

How could you possibly come to think that Marx’s works are censored in China? Marxism is literally taught in schools there.

Don’t worry, Biden just imposed tariffs on Chinese EVs so they can rest easy now.