I was just thinking the other day, should I ever happen to contract cancer the first thing I’m gonna do is see what kind of treatment is available in China. It really seems to me that in recent years China has become the global leader in cutting edge medical treatments, even if we don’t hear about it much in the west.

Just read The Dispossessed instead. It describes an anarcho-communist society but is achingly beautiful literature because LeGuin is an incredible writer.

No. It wouldn’t apply to, for example, African Americans; whose ancestors were brought to this country by force and can hardly be said to have benefitted from the original stealing of the land.

Settlement involves the forcible appropriation of land (and the ethnic cleansing that involves), then removing all the indigenousness of that land and making it “your own”. What this creates is a settler class that enjoys in perpetuity the fruits of that appropriation.

White people in the US are settlers. Because it was white Europeans who stole the land and committed genocide. This settlement created an entire social strata that benefitted from this appropriation. And the benefits accrue to successive generations of white people. I saw a stat somewhere that said ~25% of all wealth in the US today can be traced to the Homestead Act, which excluded black and indigenous people.

Look, I’m a settler. I’m also middle class / labor aristocrat. This is simply a material fact. But none of that means I cannot devote my life to breaking the system that allows settler colonialism, white supremacy, and capitalism to persist. The history of communism is littered with class traitors and others who recognized the privileges they had and sought their destruction.

More or less someone who takes land away from an indigenous population and treats it as their own, OR the descendants of those who did so long as there is a material benefit received by the settler’s descendants.

But of course this definition leaves gray areas; even situation is different as the material situation is different.

I think this is a reasonable take. And while I’m not going to pretend like this situation doesn’t present a problem for the Iran-Hezbollah supply line, I think that a fractured Syria probably means those supply lines can still be maintained. The Zionist entity will probably try and control as much of the Syria/Lebanon border as possible, but I think that will only serve to align more domestic Syrian forces against them.

I think determining who is a settler is like our Marxist definitions of class - it’s not meant to categorize every single person into a category, its only meant to describe a group that doesn’t have firm boundaries. White people in the US are settlers. The fact that who is “white” has a very fuzzy and fluid definition doesn’t take away from being able to identify a group (white people) and classify them as settlers.

By any definition, I’m white. I’m a settler. That doesn’t mean I should just take myself out of the game and stop organizing. But that does mean I should be aware of my own privilege and be careful to check my own assumptions and thought. And when my non-white comrades call me out on something, I am 100% going to really take what they say to heart.

Any person celebrating this verdict is a white supremacist, guaranteed

Recent world events have shown how correct Stalin was in deciding what to do when you face an existential threat. The purges were unfortunate but I also believe without them I’m sure exponentially more Soviet citizens would have died.

Not that I think this is likely, but a part of me wonders if the US and France are telling “Israel” they need to wrap up a ceasefire with Hezbollah and by extension stop the genocide in Gaza, but only because they plan on majorly ramping up in Ukraine before Trump takes office.

Hard to imagine Biden ever getting tough with Israel, but I was expecting to see NATO look for an off ramp with Russia by now, not escalation.

No. I have seen estimates that it would take at least 10 years of concerted effort to ramp up US production to that scale.

And should the US try something - like a naval blockade of China as I don’t think the US will attempt to ignite a direct, “hot”war - those relationships with the global south will matter a great deal. Those land connections based in the BRI will serve as lifeline for China to access the rest of Asia and point beyond in that scenario.

“A Kubrick stare involves an actor looking out from under the brow line and tilting their head towards the camera. Sometimes, the actor will smile in a sinister fashion. It is often used to convey that a character has become dangerously mentally unstable… It often heralds that something “intense” will soon take place”

It really is that simple.

So I’ve been debating whether to buy a “Free Palestine” shirt or a “From the river to the sea” shirt. I think I’ve settled on the former. Of course, my heart is with the later, I think it’s the better and more correct message.

But, I’ve been asking myself, what’s the purpose of even wearing it? I’m hoping that it will be useful to find likeminded people and maybe even engage strangers who want to understand what’s going better (I’ve been shocked by just how many people out there will admit they don’t know the first thing about Palestine, but if you seem like someone who knows things they will listen). As much as I love the “from the river to sea” chant, I think its message is completely lost on anyone not familiar with what’s going on there. I think it will just get ignored because those words have no meaning to 98% of Americans. But “free Palestine” is a simple message that tells people “hey this is something I care about and I might know a thing or two about it.”

Probably overthinking it but w/e.

Probably noting deeper than “you root against America and NATO, the Taliban is America’s enemy. Q.E.D. you support the Taliban.

This was maybe the first video in over a year that I couldn’t bring myself to watch. Hell is empty and all the devils are here.

They know the French won’t do anything about it, either.