Seriously, did not expect this much easily comparable shit coming out of the mouths of elites. It's the same exact rhetoric used by conservatives and other anti-communist mouthpieces today.

I never disagreed that Amerika was Rome 2.0., but wow did I not know the extent of it. First tragedy, then farce.

Polybius and Cicero really be out here saying "we should take the best of both capitalism AND socialism" in the years of our lord ~200-40 B.C.

But Jesus fucking Christ the Genzedong/genhoxha discord is giving me huge reddit vibes. I understand that it has a more direct connection to the subreddit proper so it makes sense... but I don't even want to call some of these people comrades. Lemmygrad seems pretty good at formenting actual discussion even if I roll my eyes at the occasional back-handed comment. The discorders are seemingly ready to leap at each others' throats over the mildest criticisms, including going so far as to extrapolate the absolute worst conclusions they can imagine without allowing the other person a chance to elaborate. Also, for such a seemingly thorough vetting process, there definitely exists a clique of people with nothing but disdain for AES and definitely people with no idea what they're talking about making super inflammatory and frankly ridiculous statements/accusations.

It just feels so damn memey and I'm probably gonna leave. I see no worthwhile conversation happening on there, just 30-character twitter-style epic lib pwning with a refusal to engage in good faith with other communists. Like I said, not trying to shit on them or anything, just frustrated. If owning other communists online is your thing, more power to you I guess. Shit just makes me feel dirty sometimes and like I don't belong.

Idk if this kind of post isn't allowed as it's literally bad mouthing another community, I'm just pretty upset about the experience.

Good deconstruction of neoliberalism as well as UK history that better conceptualizes it.

Like a lot of critics, I often found myself falling into the same rhetorical pitfall of categoriizing neoliberalism as not that dissimilar from classical liberalism, akin to Hoover's economic policies in the U.S., but there are meaningful differences that often get swept under the rug that only benefit libertarians and proponents of said classical liberals in their obfuscation. Kay does a brilliant job at underlining the differences here.

BBC report: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-62967381

A better source’s report: https://english.alaraby.co.uk/news/khamenei-aide-visits-mahsa-aminis-family-media

Tudeh (communist) Party of Iran statement: https://www.tudehpartyiran.org/en/2022/09/20/statement-of-the-tudeh-party-of-iran-down-with-the-dictator-there-is-no-end-to-the-regimes-murderous-thuggery/

A woman was seemingly murdered by the IRI’s religious police after being taken into custody for not wearing her hijab “properly”. Iranian officials deny this and claim she died of a heart attack. Looks like no one is buying this line.

Danny Haiphong thinks a color revolution is underway because of Iran’s pivot to the east. I haven’t seen this sort of line taken by anyone else yet, but I’m more keen to trust the Tudeh Party than a non-Iranian, as much as Haiphong is usually right. From my understanding and their own statements, Tudeh is not clamoring for some relationship with the West and are very aware of and against NATO, EU and U.S. imperialism. I doubt they’d be in favor of these protests if they thought they were spearheaded by western NGOs.

Lots of protests all over the country. Many chants recorded such as “long live socialism, long live communism” and “death to the dictator, down with Khamenei”. Complicating matters is that the murdered woman was Kurdish-Iranian and fittingly a lot of the protests began in heavily Kurdish regions of Iran. This is not to dismiss the plight of Kurdish people or their capacity for revolutionary struggle, but Kurds have been insidiously used and abused by the West to forment ethnic tensions in Iraq, Turkey, Syria and elsewhere before, and western media outlets are seemingly attempting to continue that legacy by drawing a clear divide by Iranian Kurds and non-Kurds.

There is a fog of reporting currently, with a lot of protest info being relayed to western media by Chatham House, a British think tank known recently as having been pushing a lot of anti-Russia stuff. U.S. officials also immediately “demanded accountability” of Iran and claimed the act was “unforgiveable”.

Any MENA comrades have thoughts? Do you think this could be a revolutionary moment, or a cynical attempt by NGOs to weaken Iran after they’ve closened to China?

I know very little about this subject. I had someone I know tell me a few months ago that for socialism to be sustainable, and to solve the climate crisis, U.S.ians are going to need to give up almost all A/C. They pointed out the fact that Amerikans are crybabies and even most of Western Europe does not use A/C.

However, with Greece and Spain recently having caught on fire and with heat waves devouring the nations, as well as stories regarding people in hotter regions in the U.S. dying from heat stroke in their own homes because they couldn't afford their electricity bills, this read as sort of Maoist-lite, petty-bourgeois radicalism to me shifting blame on individuals when there are so many systemic industries contributing astronomically to the worsening climate. I was wondering, is A/C usage so detrimental as to necessitate its destruction? Should not the focus be on larger, more destructive industries and actually increasing the availability and affordability of A/C to hotter regions? Should scientific focus be moreso on creating a green A/C?

Like I said, almost no knowledge. Feel free to roast my ass (pun slightly intended).

As have I. I found a really elucidating peer-reviewed article written by some Chinese comrades regarding what they believe China can learn from Belarusian "Market Socialism". It goes over their economy, foreign policy and increased standards of living for the Belarusian people. I'm curious what comrades think.

I'm certainly more in the ideological camp of traditional Marxist-Leninists wrt economic matters, but it's neat to see that perhaps Belarus hasn't wholesale abandoned their socialist project, even if there are facets communists may disagree with.

So difficult to find sympathetic fiction online. Currently looking at a book called The Sympathizer by a Vietnamese author about a pro-Vietnamese double agent living in Amerika, seems interesting. Every other search result is anti-communist piss splattered over pages and sold as "gripping, realistic, startlingly accurate".

Even if it's bad writing or whatever, I'm curious if any of y'all know some explicitly or implicitly communist fiction worth checking out.