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Jorge

@ jorge @lemmygrad.ml

Posts
2
Comments
58
Joined
1 yr. ago

Brazilian Catholic. Autistic. I was a far-right theocrat until about 2009, when I started a gradual leftward conversion. I now sympathize with Marxism-Leninism, but am still getting up to speed with feminism and gender equality. Please have patience with this newbie.

Católico brasileiro. Autista. Eu era um teocrata de extrema-direita até aproximadamente 2009, quando iniciei uma gradual conversão à esquerda. Hoje simpatizo com o marxismo-leninismo, mas ainda estou me informando sobre feminismo e igualdade de gênero. Por favor tenham paciência com este novato.

  • Protestation

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  • Civil liberties and women rights are much better in Iran than Saudi Arabia, yet the former is in US-declared "axis of evil" while the latter is a close US ally.

    The US has practiced about 200 military interventions just in the last three decades. It killed two millions in Korea, a million in Vietnam, another million in Indonesia, another in the Middle East. It promoted a coup in Iran, which had a secular, progressive, patriotic government, for the crime of nationalizing petroleum, and installed a subservient authoritarian absolute monarch, which was later overthrown -- by islamic revolutionaries. The US caused the problem of theocracy in Iran by illegally overthowing the secular government, now you think more US violence will solve it?

    The US also promoted coups all over Latin America to overthrow democratic governments and install subservient brutal military dictatorships.

    Putin has problems, but he is not remotely in the same category of evil as the US regime.

  • (゜O゜;

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  • Don't you mean its descendants?

  • Protestation

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  • World "police"? The real police is at least supposed to fight actual crime. The US is the world warlord.

  • Protestation

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  • You give no concrete argument and no evidence. You are just outraged that we dare think different from the capitalist press. Media corporations are not God. They do not even reflect the diversity of views in academia. Universities have some marxists (leninists or trots), anarchists etc., while all the capitalist press is different styles of imperialism.

  • Democratic Party Scrambles to fix image

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  • False. China has lower inequality and simultaneously far greater economic growth and more innovation.

    And Putin is bad, but not remotely as harmful to world peace as the US regime. The US (both parties) has been involved in literally 200 military interventions just in the last few decades.

    Democracy is not when a black woman is chosen as the Nurembeg-deserving war criminal in chief.

  • Democratic Party Scrambles to fix image

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  • Are you trolling? Technically there exist other parties, but USian election rules (especially FPTP) are mathematically proven to cause such a huge spoiler effect that, even when a big fraction of voters hate both viable parties, electing a single third-party congressman is very unlikely, and electing a third-party president is nearly impossible.

    It is like saying that the Earth is not round, because, strictly speaking, it is slightly bulged.

  • Mark Twain - Travel is fatal to prejudice.

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  • Here in Brazil, cariocas -- people from the city of Rio de Janeiro -- have a bad reputation, but I actually had pleasant encounters with people when I stayed in the city for more than a month. I do not know if this is analogous to international tourism, but wanted to share this anecdote.

  • China tells US to ‘cancel all unilateral tariffs’ if it wants talks

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  • What about the hypothesis that in reality Trump wants to "decouple" from China to enhance is military capability in a war on China?

    I mean, it is clear to me that the US has little chance to compete on economic/innovation merit, yet it still has a considerable chance militarily... for now. The psychopaths running the US probably know they can only hope to compete via violence, and in a few years even that opportunity will be lost.

    I am afraid of WW3. I really hope the US is so blinded by its own neoliberal koolaid that they continue to bet China is about to collapse, as Gordon Chang has been predicting since 2001.

  • There are 2 types of people who hate on Democrats

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  • Fascism is liberalism's plan B, as confirmed by History and by liberal theory itself.

    Historically, look at Latin America (I am Brazilian). All over Latin America, when people elected leftist (not even communist) governments within the institutions of liberal democracy, the elite (with US support) staged a coup and installed a military dictatorship, effectively saying: no, the people are not allowed to choose socialism. So we hereby abolish democracy.

    And Jacobin covers the justification for this under liberal theory itself:

    So, important liberal thinkers insisted as early as John Locke, you can’t tax the rich without their consent. If you do so, you give the victims of these policies a good reason to rebel and use violence against the usurpers. Liberal politics thus had a dictatorial option inscribed in it from the very beginning. And so it became a dogma to assume that the main task of politics is to protect property, and its principal sin to inveigh against it. But of course, that is a very narrow definition of what politics can or should do. And we suffer from that confinement to this day. In a typical Western democracy, you can do many things — as long as you refrain from infringing on private property. [1]

    In short: liberal theory itself gives absolute priority to private property (over the means of production). If it conflicts with democracy, democracy is tossed out the window.

    I always clarify "over the means of production" when attacking private property. There is this widespread confusion that communist thugs are going to invade your house and confiscate your bike. AFAIK, communists don't do that.

    Fun fact: in 1989 Brazilian elections, neoliberal Collor terrorized the people saying that Lula would confiscate everyone's savings. With infamous support from Rede Globo (massive right-wing biased media corporation), Collor won, then quickly moved to confiscate everyone's savings. Lula was elected in 2002, 2006 and 2022, and did nothing of the sort. Sadly, Lula is not communist, but social democrat.

    1: https://jacobin.com/2022/08/nazi-germany-national-socialism-hypercaptialism-social-darwinism-liberalism

  • Happy birthday, Lenin!

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  • Context. If you look at the terrible Allied violence in WWII, without context, you easily conclude the Allies were the villains.

    Also, of course, there is widespread capitalist propaganda.

  • Happy birthday, Lenin!

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  • Would you say that communists should not concentrate our energies attempting to prevent liberal democracy from turning into fascism? Like supporting social-democratic parties to keep fascists away. My understanding is that liberal "democracy" has some temporary advantages over fascism, but is not worth much energy.

    Fascism is more acutely violent, but also temporary. Hitler initiated a war against much of the World, which he could not win. He was also incompetent. Out of insane hubris, he bypassed his generals and military strategists, because he was the chosen genius. Allegedly he didn't have a real strategy to defeat the British Empire. He wanted to win the war by winning battle after battle. Thus he was defeated (largely by the Red Army), and "only" some 80 million lives were lost.

    Liberal "democracy", on the other hand, kills ten million people every few years, for centuries.

    Fascism is brutal, crass, and visibly hateful. Liberal "democracy" is sophisticated, less acutely violent, and is falsely compassionate, but is also more competent at preserving itself and making victims.

  • Happy birthday, Lenin!

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  • Hi comrade! I am new here. Anyway, what you said is confirmed by History and by liberal theory itself.

    Historically, look at Latin America (I am Brazilian). All over Latin America, when people elected leftist (not even communist) governments within the institutions of liberal democracy, the elite (with US support) staged a coup and installed a military dictatorship, effectively saying: no, the people are not allowed to choose socialism. They chose socialism, so we hereby abolish democracy.

    And Jacobin covers the justification for this under liberal theory itself:

    So, important liberal thinkers insisted as early as John Locke, you can’t tax the rich without their consent. If you do so, you give the victims of these policies a good reason to rebel and use violence against the usurpers. Liberal politics thus had a dictatorial option inscribed in it from the very beginning. And so it became a dogma to assume that the main task of politics is to protect property, and its principal sin to inveigh against it. But of course, that is a very narrow definition of what politics can or should do. And we suffer from that confinement to this day. In a typical Western democracy, you can do many things — as long as you refrain from infringing on private property. [1]

    In short: liberal theory itself gives absolute priority to private property (over the means of production). If it conflicts with democracy, then democracy is tossed out the window. Fascism is liberalism's plan B.

    I always clarify "over the means of production" when attacking private property. There is this widespread confusion that communist thugs are going to invade your house and confiscate your bike. AFAIK, communists don't do that.

    Fun fact: in 1989 Brazilian elections, neoliberal Collor terrorized the people saying that Lula would confiscate everyone's savings. With infamous support from Rede Globo (massive right-wing biased media corporation), Collor won, then quickly moved to confiscate everyone's savings. Lula was elected in 2002, 2006 and 2022, and did nothing of the sort. Sadly, Lula is not communist, but social democrat.

    1: https://jacobin.com/2022/08/nazi-germany-national-socialism-hypercaptialism-social-darwinism-liberalism

  • Struggle sessions

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  • Is this about my comment, or am I being egocentric? In case it is about my comment, I post here some clarifications I made there:

    I messed up. I misunderstood Hexbear, wrote a confusing comment, unintentionally offended you, then reacted badly to your angry replies, many of which misrepresented what I wanted to say. Now with hindsight, I ask you to read this:

    1. I did not mean to accuse hexbearites of being bad like New Atheists. I wanted to use the antisocial behavior of New Atheists (fruitless anti-religious intolerance) as an anti-example. In my experience, leftists discern between “theocrat” and “religious comrade". I felt this thread was an outlier. But then I worded my comment in an confusing way, appearing to conflate you with New Atheists.
    2. The accusation of loving war crimes in the Middle East is for foaming lunatic New Atheists like Sam Harris, not Hexbearites.
    3. I meant that anti-religious bashing is easily misrepresented by right wing propaganda. I explicitly said that the “atheist elites” narrative is disinformation. Cubans practice their religions in peace, just not theocracy.
    4. I did not mean all “true” Christians are Catholics or whatever.

    I am a newbie and autistic (actual diagnosis). I care a lot for detail and took offense with misrepresentations. And I am still getting up to speed with the LGBT movement.

    Today I realized this analogy. When Rede Globo (massive right-wing media corporation) sheds tears for “democracy”, I wish them go pound sand. They supported the military dictatorship for decades, and still distort reality in favor of capitalism, NATO, and Israel. Becoming softer is not enough. I would forgive them if they actually switched sides.

    So I can relate to trans people who look at the historical crimes of organized religion (such as the Catholic Church), and who suffer religious hate even today, saying they will only respect the Catholic Church if she actually switches sides. Malcom X said: stop sweet talking!

  • China now faces 245% Trump tariff

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  • According to the IMF, the US has 15% of the world PPP GDP, versus China's 20%.

  • Wtf Russia?!

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  • Holy Christ, comrade! It reminds of when Frederick Barbarossa fell from his horse, drowned, and that changed the course of the Third Crusade, or so I've heard. Not saying that was a bad thing; I'm saying random events can change World History.

    My point is, should the CIA murder Putin or he simply gets a stroke (or multiple) like Lenin, and gets replaced by some pro-US puppet, world future could change from beautiful communism to a century of barbarism.

    Not that I like Putin (ultra conservative capitalist who persecutes the Russian Left), but the World could be severely fucked if this bastard falls off a bike, hits his head on the curb and dies.

    Or maybe thats Great Man Theory. I am weak on dialectical materialism. I am a newbie on communism and have much to study.

  • Please introduce me to Marxism (and Marxist Lemmy)

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  • Thank you. I now read the correct post, and layer will read the article by Jones Manoel.

  • Please introduce me to Marxism (and Marxist Lemmy)

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  • Hi! This is the OP, now with a lemmygrad account. I thank you for your recommendations but I think the following URL is wrong:

    https://hexbear.net/comment/5624975

    It is a thread about Android restrictions for banking apps.

  • Please introduce me to Marxism (and Marxist Lemmy)

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  • Thank you! This is the original poster, now with a lemmygrad account. I looked at all reading recommendations and I think I will start with your crash course. Your commitment to privacy and software freedom (being a Lemmy dev) are big positive signs to me. The working class cannot organise when Big Brother is always watching and advertisers (including political propagandists like Cambridge Analytica) use AI to individually manipulate us.

  • Please introduce me to Marxism (and Marxist Lemmy)

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  • Hi. This is me (the original poster) on my new Lemmygrad account. I thank you for providing your viewpoint. However I still believe liberation theology is useful at least for:

    • Inspiring my individual and familiar decisions
    • Communicating with fellow Christians. A significant majority of Brazil is Christian, especially the workers.