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[–] 73 points 10 months ago (8 children)

“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.”

― Antonio Gramsci (misattributed)

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  • [–] 16 points 10 months ago (7 children)

    Yep. Am American, sad about what a seemingly good idea got warped into over 250yrs. Fuck this joint, but there will most certainly be real monsters created in the void until things stabilize.

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  • [–] 19 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    We have always lived in slums and holes in the wall. We will know how to accommodate ourselves for a time. For, you must not forget, we can also build. It is we the workers who built these palaces and cities here in Spain and in America and everywhere. We, the workers, can build others to take their place. And better ones! We are not in the least afraid of ruins. We are going to inherit the earth; there is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie may blast and burn its own world before it finally leaves the stage of history. We are not afraid of ruins. We who ploughed the prairies and built the cities can build again, only better next time. We carry a new world, here in our hearts. The world is growing this minute.

    —Buenaventura Durruti, interview with Pierre van Paassen (1936-07-24)

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago* (1 child)

    Well said. Maybe there's a chance we can pull out of this nosedive.

    The opening in the window for that is now barely wide enough to slip a sheet of paper into.

    But hey, crowbars have done more, with less. Let's see what happens.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    Maybe there’s a chance we can pull out of this nosedive.

    Though please don't send the descendants back to Europe and Africa.

    The opening in the window for that is now barely wide enough to slip a sheet of paper into.

    Yep, like James Corbett (of The Corbett Report fame) said recently, some are sad the door's only a crack open, and he's hopping excited, YES, THE DOOR IS A CRACK OPEN! It having never been so in the decades he's been doing this.

    Now is the time.

    Crowbar o'clock! :D

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  • [–] 12 points 10 months ago* (1 child)

    No offense but when was the US ever a good idea?

    I mean, the land was already occupied... And now suddenly you talk about monsters? They have always been there.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago

    None taken. I mean the idea of a representational democracy. People were there, and there's still more than enough land to go around.

    In an alternate timeline, we could have negotiated for the land with the native Americans, invited then to join the US, or let them keep their sovereignty but within bounds of their choosing, while always allowing them to become citizens if they or their descendents desired. We all could have won.

    Slavery? We didn't need it, if growth at all costs wasn't our insignia. The land provided/provides more than enough, if we take care of it.

    But this is all fantasy, destroyed by greed, and laziness. Doing it the right way would have been hard work. And we know how fucking lazy pieces of shit like musk, trump, Epstein, et al actually are.

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  • [–] 52 points 10 months ago (13 children)

    It's interesting to live through the death of a modern empire. Given how much access there is to history it really surprises me that no lesson is learned and no graceful transition is opted for.

    Instead they follow the same route as all the empires of old, increasing violence and desperation practically guaranteeing hatred and reprisal when they are crippled and broken.

    Of course all the elite will be dead by then so I suppose material analysis wins again as the correct lens to analyse history through.

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    “The rich experience of history teaches that up to now not a single class has voluntarily made way for another class. There is no such precedent in world history. The Communists have learned this lesson of history. Communists would welcome the voluntary departure of the bourgeoisie. But such a turn of affairs is improbable; that is what experience teaches. That is why the Communists want to be prepared for the worst and call upon the working class to be vigilant, to be prepared for battle.” - Stalin

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    graceful transition

    Where do we opt for that when voting?

    ;D

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    The proles of the usa are not and have never been in charge. While I don't advocate complete disengagement from 'representative' politics it is important to understand it as a distracting machine to give legitimacy to the bourgeois rulers.

    If you want to change things your power base must be significant and, critically, it must exist outside the machinery of state.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 child)

    being the only dinosaur left unscarred from ww2 meant none of these family-of-sociopaths were ever forced to recognize we're kind of in this mess together. needing to completely rebuild your infrastructure from 0 kind forces a bit of empathy into everyone i think.

    with how purposefully fractured the US is (long long history of this, many towns across the country are de facto company towns for the local real estate baron), this will only happen if the country has another Great Depression era. which is very much a possibility given the US's ever growing sovereign-debt crisis and a completely gutted internal manufacturing capacity/capability.

    if/when the US finally defaults and USD crumbles as world reserve currency (which is already happening, countries are just trying to gtfo as sustainably as they can without crashing their own house of cards)...shit goes from bad to worse real fucking quick.

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  • [+] -7 points 10 months ago (6 children)

    no graceful transition is opted for

    transition to what, exactly? i think people might have vastly different opinions about this, so it's not easy to just go to a new thing

    Instead they follow the same route as all the empires of old, increasing violence and desperation practically guaranteeing hatred and reprisal when they are crippled and broken.

    When you are about to die yourself, do you just let it happen or do you struggle and try to fight against it?

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  • [–] 18 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    Fighting back against fascism is great, but fighting for a slightly more benevolent form of fascism won't get you anywhere. You really think the Dems will abolish ice if they get Trump out if office?

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago

    You really think the Dems will abolish ice if they get Trump out if office?

    United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE")

    Formed: March 1, 2003; 22 years ago

    They had a couple opportunities to already, and didn't.

    It didn't start with Trump, does not likely end with Trump, did not end with Dems.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    I don't think personification of nation states is a useful model when reasoning about how they behave.

    Examples of transitions would be building up the independence and economies of previously oppressed states claimed in dominion, in order to build an economic bloc that can be relied on. Meanwhile winding back spending on military and force projection.

    Nobody would ever do this, I just wish people could learn how to avoid the same mistakes as every previous empire.

    At least life will almost certainly improve for south Americans.

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  • [–] 40 points 10 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 14 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Now Is The Time of Monsters

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  • [–] 26 points 10 months ago

    I dunno if glee is the right emotion. America is going to lash out hard in it's death throes and cause a lot more pain and destruction. There's also no guarantee that what comes next will be any better; if anything, I'm expecting powerful corporations to carve up her corpse.

    The rest of the world can breathe a sigh of relief when it's done, but an animal becomes most dangerous when it's backed into a corner.

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  • [–] 10 points 10 months ago*

    AmeriKKKan KKKracKKKers can't even see a cool anti-America meme without having a western fragility crashout in the comments, lmao.

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  • [–] 31 points 10 months ago*

    just die already. I'm not even a socialist, I just want that nation of criminals and pedophiles to stop trying to replicate it's corruption everywhere.

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