view the rest of the comments
news
Welcome to c/news! We aim to foster a book-club type environment for discussion and critical analysis of the news. Our policy objectives are:
-
To learn about and discuss meaningful news, analysis and perspectives from around the world, with a focus on news outside the Anglosphere and beyond what is normally seen in corporate media (e.g. anti-imperialist, anti-Zionist, Marxist, Indigenous, LGBTQ, people of colour).
-
To encourage community members to contribute commentary and for others to thoughtfully engage with this material.
-
To support healthy and good faith discussion as comrades, sharpening our analytical skills and helping one another better understand geopolitics.
We ask community members to appreciate the uncertainty inherent in critical analysis of current events, the need to constantly learn, and take part in the community with humility. None of us are the One True Leftist, not even you, the reader.
Newcomm and Newsmega Rules:
The Hexbear Code of Conduct and Terms of Service apply here.
-
Link titles: Please use informative link titles. Overly editorialized titles, particularly if they link to opinion pieces, may get your post removed.
-
Content warnings: Posts on the newscomm and top-level replies on the newsmega should use content warnings appropriately. Please be thoughtful about wording and triggers when describing awful things in post titles.
-
Fake news: No fake news posts ever, including April 1st. Deliberate fake news posting is a bannable offense. If you mistakenly post fake news the mod team may ask you to delete/modify the post or we may delete it ourselves.
-
Link sources: All posts must include a link to their source. Screenshots are fine IF you include the link in the post body. If you are citing a Twitter post as news, please include the Xcancel.com (or another Nitter instance) or at least strip out identifier information from the twitter link. There is also a Firefox extension that can redirect Twitter links to a Nitter instance, such as Libredirect or archive them as you would any other reactionary source.
-
Archive sites: We highly encourage use of non-paywalled archive sites (i.e. archive.is, web.archive.org, ghostarchive.org) so that links are widely accessible to the community and so that reactionary sources don’t derive data/ad revenue from Hexbear users. If you see a link without an archive link, please archive it yourself and add it to the thread, ask the OP to fix it, or report to mods. Including text of articles in threads is welcome.
-
Low effort material: Avoid memes/jokes/shitposts in newscomm posts and top-level replies to the newsmega. This kind of content is OK in post replies and in newsmega sub-threads. We encourage the community to balance their contribution of low effort material with effort posts, links to real news/analysis, and meaningful engagement with material posted in the community.
-
American politics: Discussion and effort posts on the (potential) material impacts of American electoral politics is welcome, but the never-ending circus of American Politics© Brought to You by Mountain Dew™ is not welcome. This refers to polling, pundit reactions, electoral horse races, rumors of who might run, etc.
-
Electoralism: Please try to avoid struggle sessions about the value of voting/taking part in the electoral system in the West. c/electoralism is right over there.
-
AI Slop: Don't post AI generated content. Posts about AI race/chip wars/data centers are fine.
I don't want to give us too much credit cause we definitely do suck but: I do think its worth remembering that polls show a significant majority of Americans support a permanent ceasefire. This is just another example of democracy being a dog and pony show while the empire carries on doing whatever the hell it wants.
i mean we'll see in the election results, no matter how much the americans pontificate about how theyre good on the inside actually and that its just the evil politicians guiding them astray, if more than 50% of them vote for the nazi parties two wings we know that those polls were wrong
They doubtlessly will, but I think this just reinforces the fact that in every epoch, the ideas of the ruling class are the ideas of the working class. The same pattern holds for masking: certainly less than 10% of Americans mask, and even in California only about 15% are up to date with vaccines. America is the most brainwashed country in the world.
That being said, I don't mean to excuse the settler brainworms that just naturally come as a consequence of most Americans being labor aristocrats at best, and active Imperialist agents at worst.
im not willing to give the americans the out of being brainwashed, i imagine if youve been on this site for a while youve probably already heard the critiques at least once, i agree the ideas of the ruling class of america are the ideas of the working class, but also that the working class of america are the junior party of the ruling class of the world, and their class position makes it beneficial for them to behave like they do, and the consumption the propaganda they consume is a subconcious effort to reaffirm that they arent the bad guys. This has never been clearer to me in the wake of gaza, seeing how these people choose to not see something and not believe something because it would shatter their self image if they were to accept it.
No one believes they are the bad guys. IDK how to break people out of that cognitive self-defense.
Also there's a sort of doomerism that comes with realizing you live in a country like this. It is easy to feel powerless & despair so why not push those feelings down and try to ignore it? I get the logic. It's wrong, but I don't believe people in this position can't be converted to the left. We have to try reaching people. We can’t give up.
I think the logic of trying to push those feelings down is actually one of a couple "correct" things to do. Its easier to not fight against the bullys. Like in school when people see the kid being picked on they don't intervene even if they feel bad because then the attention would be on them. Its actually a good individual survival strategy.
I also agree that those people can be reached and that we shouldnt give up. However many years down the line I just want honesty from the westerners that come around to communism or whatever that before they were cowards at best, evildooers at worst.
Relevant essay about brainwashing versus licensing in the imperial core
https://redsails.org/masses-elites-and-rebels/
The voter turnout will be telling. Do people stay home this time?
I know several people who have said that this is the first election they aren't voting in. Idk if it's going to matter, but these are dem voters in a swing state.
My enemy is not the American ruling class, I genuinely hate the American people
what passes for "culture" in American media is disgusting and worships freedom as atomization, "freedom" is not having any obligations to anyone and no community to "hold you back" from climbing to the top and dominating everyone else
Ouch. What did I ever do to you?
supporting a ceasefire does not at all mean you're pro-palestine. most EU countries voted for the UN deal months and months before all while supporting israel. plenty of zionists want a conditional deal where israel's hostages are returned and palestine's colonial subjugation and apartheid continue, just not as overtly.
found a poll from this week that 60% of americans support continuing military aid to israel. and you can't assume the 40% against it are against it on principled grounds, many of them are simply isolationists who don't want their taxpayer money going to other countries
I just want to comment that polls don't mean that much since the people they're polling are fed lies.
I don't necessarily disagree entirely, but you should give Masses, Elites, and Rebels a read. Sorry for the necro post.
I don't disagree and like I said in my post: we do indeed suck. I just want to push back slightly because looking at the numbers I think reality bears out more that Americans are deeply confused and propagandized. Its fair to say that a lot of people have arrived at the right conclusion for all the wrong reasons and I'm all down with throwing out a "death to amerikkka" as we feel it...but I also think the more important takeaway to have in this situation is that the feelings of the American public are essentially immaterial here. The empire doesn't care.