Took a break from writing a short story to create an in-setting card game and as of today I've spent more time working out the game than I have writing the short story
I've fallen victim to one of the classic worldbuilding blunders
I had the inverse of this where we basically quarantined a section of the kitchen and spent 8 hours over the span of a week prepping custom dishes with replacements for someone with a "severe dairy allergy". Turns out they could "make an exception" for butter, milk, cream, cheese, yogurt, and ice cream and turned down all of the custom dishes. 8 hours of work we could have spent on other things
I get that! I'm just trying to gently encourage you to start thinking a little more about how your beliefs work rather than what they're classified as. Ask yourself questions like:
How does this "party-union-state" work?
Who represents who? Do the unions represent all unionized workers and the parties represent all non-unionized workers? If this is the case, why not have all workers be unionized? If not, who makes up the parties?
How are the state and government separate from each other? How are decisions made (by majority, plurality, consensus, etc) and carried out? If the state is separate from the unions and the parties, then who makes up the state? How is that decided?
How do we get to this system from the one we have now? Do we participate in elections and change it from the inside? Do we get enough of the population unionized and threaten a general strike? Have people tried to create this system in the past? If yes, how has it worked out for them? In what ways did they succeed, and in what ways did they fail? What lessons can we learn from those successes and failures?
I'm not asking these questions because I want you to answer them all right now (though if you want to answer them feel welcome!) but rather to get you thinking about them. In case it isn't clear, I mean this in good faith! It makes me happy to see someone identifying problems with the current system and creatively trying to sort out ways to change it. I just think the effort spent in trying to label those beliefs is better spent on trying to make them a reality.
I think trying to figure out exactly what kind of ideology you support based on how you believe things should be is somewhat an inevitable part of being a new socialist (I did it too) but it's also asking the wrong questions. It's just mapping your ideas and imposing them on the world, when what you should be asking yourself is how did society evolve to get to this point and how do we move forward from the way things are.
Those sorts of questions, when combined with looking at the way things have played out in history, tend to lead you to only a handful of conclusions. You don't really need to focus on ideology itself, since that will inevitably change as you learn and grow. Ultimately, the label you choose isn't important.
Being a communist, imo, necessitates having unassailable hope and undying faith that a better future is possible. We can get cynical and doomerish over the current state of things at times, but we wouldn't be that way if we didn't feel love and hope deep within our cores
I think I'm finally going to sit down and commit to learning a language. If anyone knows for good Spanish resources (especially ones focusing on Latin American varieties) I'm open to suggestions
Semi-related, does anyone here have any experience with the Che Guevara volunteer brigade run by the Canadian network on Cuba? I'm considering signing up for 2026 if I'm able to
I have the best numbers folks! The coolest numbers. Everyone comes up to me and says "wow those numbers are beautiful!", and they are. The democrats, they try to change my numbers, turn them into 1's and 3's but I say "no no no, my numbers are perfect".
There are no thoughts in that conical brain of his. There's a single braincell pinging around in his head like the DVD logo at best. If I were to place him in front of works of art such as Goya's "Saturn Devouring His Son" or Redon's "The Cyclops" his expression would remain unchanged. The slime is indifferent to all that is and ever has been or will be. Oh, how I envy to be him.
My family's grey cat loves water too! He will beeline to the bathroom the second he hears someone get out of the shower/bath and roll around in the (drained but still wet) tub. He's a very sweet old man
This is reactionary, counterrevolutionary propaganda. We will remember this.