thepeoplesinging

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1
I would like some help understanding the Labor Theory of Value (lemmygrad.ml)
 

I promise I'm not a wrecker, I just have trouble finding Marxist sources for these things that aren't big books on top of what I'm already reading. I think I understand that it says the exchange value of a product is proportionate to the labor time used to create it. Am I getting that correct? More labor-intensive commodities, or products requiring more specialized tools to make would cost more. And I know I've heard the criticism before. Heard it pretty much all my life. "Is a cookie still worth its labor if it's burnt? Is a pie worth the labor if it's a shit pie?" I have heard people say that Marx addresses such criticisms in Capital, but I haven't gotten around to those tomes yet. Could someone explain to me how they are addressed and maybe straighten out other things I may have gotten wrong?

We need more media with lower-class characters (proletarian, lumpen, even petit-bourgeois, tbh) in c/genzedong@lemmygrad.ml
[–] thepeoplesinging@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I mean, stories that are meant to emulate the old romances would follow nobles simply because that's the medium. But I definitely agree that more stories set current day need working class (or just not owning class) protagonists. I think revolutionary stories in the style of epics would be amazing, but unfortunately I have met with difficulty writing such a thing.

Trump accuses Ukraine of starting the current conflict in c/worldnews@lemmygrad.ml
[–] thepeoplesinging@lemmygrad.ml 19 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

In school they taught us that the Soviet Union was buddies with Nazi Germany until the Nazis betrayed them partway through the war, at which point they reluctantly joined the Allies who reluctantly accepted them. I have seen on here and Hexbear that this is not an accurate history.

What capitalism actually looks like for most of the world in c/memes@lemmygrad.ml
[–] thepeoplesinging@lemmygrad.ml 17 points 1 month ago

This made my heart drop. However marginalized or trod upon I may be, I am still part of the rich. I don't make my living just by owning things, so I got that going for me; but my whole lifestyle sits on the backs of those folks. I knew it was bad, but this picture was just a gut-punch. If these people need to march on us to be liberated, so may it be.

1
Questions from a Real History N00b (lemmygrad.ml)
 

My parents had Copaganda The Show on in the room, and a Chinese character talked about how her parents were doctors during the cultural revolution, but were accused of using bourgeois science and were sentenced to reeducation. I don't know enough about the cultural revolution to know anything about that, so I googled. Naturally I found myself on Wikipedia (blech) where they talked about a variety of "bourgeois pseudoscience" ranging from phrenology and eugenics to psychology and sociology. These latter two were specific to the PRC. Of course I know better than to automatically believe NATOpedia, especially on topics like these, but I don't know any better places to look for accurate information, particularly in English. So I have a few questions.

  1. Where can I go to find these answers? I am aware of ProleWiki, but a lot of the pages I've seen have been more summary and less in-depth talks about these things.

  2. Is psychology and potentially psychiatry still considered bourgeois science? I have a variety of psychiatric disorders, and I would be upset if my communist utopia did not see fit to help me deal with them. I have heard of anti-psychiatry, and some random dude claiming it is popular on the left? Not jumping to believe them, but instead asking people who have a better chance of actually knowing.

  3. Is there any truth that the PRC did take these actions? Do they still? If I were to move to China, would I be unable to get psychiatric meds?

[C.W Eugenics] State Department official appointed undersecretary has previously called for mass-sterilization in c/us_news@lemmygrad.ml
[–] thepeoplesinging@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Ooh, eugenics is one of those things that get me so riled up. Usually people are better at decorating their words so they don't sound quite like this, but he's so mask-off. There's nothing I can really add because he said all the things wrong with his argument, just he and his people think those are positive qualities of it. "Lack higher reasoning and moral faculties" so this guy by contrast has high moral faculties? Maybe I'm just falling into the trap by getting worked up, but this guy is fucked.

A third of people think asexuality can be cured with conversion therapy. in c/worldnews@lemmygrad.ml
[–] thepeoplesinging@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 1 month ago

It doesn't even need to be private, though. You could be public about your asexuality and people still shouldn't make a big deal about it. You aren't into sex? Cool, I don't like coffee.