Lol I have so many conversations like this. Someone was saying a bunch of people got laid off at their job during covid and they almost lost their house. I said something like “it’s a shame that they didn’t just temporarily decrease everyone’s hours so you all still had work. I mean, the work was going to come back eventually”.

And they of course agreed

If you are elected into a position where you can enact change, those who elected you have expectations of you based on the policy you supported during the election.

If, then, you turn around and do something completely different your actions no longer reflect the will of those who elected you, and you are not behaving in a representative manner and thus in an undemocratic way.

So ignoring anything specific to the American system, class interests, etc., it is a losing battle to try and be anything different from the status quo and getting elected by aligning yourself with the status quo.

A communist who gets elected by siding with a fascist is no longer a communist. A liberal cannot be a liberal if they denounce capitalism and side with socialists. They are fundamentally different ideas of who the political economy is designed for, completely contradictory ideas about hierarchy, property rights, human rights, and even what constitutes truth (liberal ideas are often utopian, like the “rational economic man”, and socialist/communist ideas are often based in the reality of the current and past material conditions, like believing people need homes and food, and a wealthy society should be able to provide these for itself, so people get homes and food. In contrast a liberal society would let the “market” provide these things in whatever way is profitable.

I mean, private ownership by those who don’t do the work or consume the product, yet get to make the decisions is to blame, yes. And that is capitalism by definition so… Capitalism is to blame…

The only identity politics I want to see is us against the ruling elite. Everything else is sparkling fascism.

I’m not siding with you, but I’d like to take your idea and make it… Useful.

Anytime someone engages in civil disobedience (like a protest) it is crucial that the correct people are targeted.

For example: if you want to stop your school from investing in Israel you target the administration (President, VP, investment managers etc.) and specifically those who make the decisions. This could be protesting at fundraisers so that it deeply affects the image of the school and those in charge, and serves as a threat of reduced funding.

You wouldn’t, for example, go into the classroom during a lecture and yell about Israel, making the lives of the students and professors worse. Why? Because the source of power and social change is the students, staff, and faculty, at the school. And annoying them creates more enemies rather than allies.

Always do a “power analysis” to know who to talk to and bring on your side, and who you need to disrupt in order to make the change. Otherwise we ignore class solidarity (yes, soak up the pun) and are doomed to fail

Yeah maybe, they do have the fastest gaming processors, and most efficient workstation processors if you use the x3d for workstations.

I hope not. I’ll likely be buying a bit of an upgrade in the next 6 months…

I was thinking this too. However, Amd still has a much lower market share than Intel so I suspect they will use this to claw back as much as they can. If they manage to get into the 40-60% range, then I would expect them to start playing with raising prices.

Alternatively they may release certain models at inflated prices to test the waters with increased pricing.

This is an armchair analysis of course so take it with a grain of salt

Within any job, there is what your role is on paper, and what you actually do over the course of a work day. Often times what you actually do is much more than “expected”. Work to rule means that you stick explicitly to what your role is, and the way the company expects you to perform your duties. Or rather, what they expect on paper.

An example: Unionized employees will often “work to rule” as one of the first steps aimed at putting pressure on an employer to negotiate. It’s an entirely legal thing to do, and serves to exemplify the disconnect between on paper job expectations (what you are paid for), and real expectations.

Thus, working as per your contract/job description with minimal deviation, will minimize how much you are exploited by ensuring you only do the work out are paid for.

The undiagnosed mental condition could be it tbh. I found it hard to learn anything I didn’t find really interesting (among other things). Boom, ADHD diagnosis in my thirties

Yeah, operating dangerously close to “work to rule” most days is a great way to minimize exploitation.

You are few to choose

The grown men are free to choose to make little girls cry, and little girls are free to choose to cry. What don’t you understand tankie?!?!

Yeah, and it’s fully legal for them to take any money you have and claim it’s related to drug money (even if you’re a citizen). You can always get it back if you fight for it but…

Don’t bring things with you that you don’t want taken from you (unless you have to).

Two questions: do you want to be able to play the guitar?

If yes:

Can you turn the guitar sideways and take a picture so we can see the space between the strings and the fret board?

Do that and I’ll send you a link to a tab that is super easy but still a recognizable song. Then you can build from there.

I like how the reactionary communities post shit that isn’t thought out. Then you got a couple of… Left communities where they post thought out essays. Too long to read but probably mostly true

I for one think we should continue with the way things are. Obviously the people who own companies like Tesla and Amazon are better than us. We should be happy to have a job tbh. Seriously, why would I want to be burdened with decisions like whether or not I get healthcare, or whether or not food and education is accessible. We are better off letting the market decide. If education was so important, wouldn’t the market find a way to make money off of it?

I think if you focus on your friends, neighbours, hobbies, etc. You can find peace within the enshittification. But I think it’s a bad idea to ignore the shit. Get mad about it. You should be mad. It’s bullshit. But what then? We can wallow in the shit by ourselves, or we can find groups of people with similar interests. Who knows what happens after.

And by similar interests I mean this as an example: Are you pissed about genocide? Good! You should be! Others are too. Find them, and do something about it. You’ll build relationships that will at least help carry you through the shit.

In terms of ROI this is genius

According to this community absolutely yes, but no in reality.

Just as an aside to add a fact to your statement: Marxism is a process that has been used to critique capitalism, as anyone who is intellectually honest should do. For example: if someone says "socialism doesn’t work " someone who is a Marxist might ask “okay, historically is this true?” And they would see that several socialist experiments have struggled. Then, as anyone who cares to understand would ask, they might say “okay then what happened to cause this?”. And in many cases you will see that Western Imperialism has sought to destroy these movements through various methods including assassinations, and funding groups like the Mujahideen.

Damn. Well, then someone left might say 'well that’s Capitalisms fault". At which point it might be justified to call them a tankie. Someone else might conclude" hmm, Capitalist states do not want socialist states to succeed, therefore a socialist state should expect aggressive action from capitalist states. Thus, ONE of the problems with past socialist experiments has been their inability to withstand these external threats." Someone who doesn’t critique anything might say “SEE COMMUNISM NEVER WORKS!”

TLDR; One of the key aspects of Marxism/Socialism/Communism is the criticism of past, current, and future political economic systems (capitalism, feudalism, socialism etc). Anyone who ignores this hasn’t read much, and should consider whether what they are consuming is state propaganda.

Good parents teaching their kids what happens when you tell the truth to authority.