Did you win? Sounds like you probably did if he got so about it. On the other hand, just because one of them throws a hissy fit at the drop of a hat or gets physically threatening doesn't mean they failed to get their way.

I knew and had to spend a lot of time with a former small business owner who lost her ~100 employee business and ended up living the worst nightmare of any capitalist: being a wage worker. Having to exist on the other side of the class divide and get exploited rather than do the exploitation went a long way in humbling her I think, though it happened a decade before I met her. But she still remained one of the most petulant people, totally unable to admit to having any fault or being wrong in any way and was always just so childish for the most asinine reasons. (Though to be fair I've also known life long proles with similar issues).

Small business owners really do put the "petty" in the term petty bourgeoisie.

That's really interesting and not a perspective I see voiced around here much. It's always the TrueAnon/Hasan rules: have nukes and if you're ever accused of having nukes get them immediately. Which tbh always made good sense to me. But I realize podcasters and streamers aren't necessisarily the most geopolitically astute.

All of the reasons listed above for not having them, despite everything that has happened, seem like really good points though. Then again, if Iran had developed nukes and demonstrated them a decade ago or more, it would be a completely different situation now that (I would imagine) would probably not bear much resemblance to how things panned out in this timeline.

Common China W.

Forgive my ignorance but how much energy does that produce vs how much Cuba needs? Is that a significant amount on a national scale or is it just a tiny drop in the bucket, and can they produce right away? More to the point, how far will this go to alleviate Cuba's US-caused energy crisis? (It's great no matter what).

Whenever I dare look at the .world (and co) modlog, I know there's a decent chance I'll see one of your removed comments there. But every time that's the case, it's always an excellent, sensible comment, the deletion of which always a testament to the vacuous dipshittery and hypocrisy of the liberal lemmy instances. It's like always so clearly just that they can't argue against it without blatantly abandoning the pretense that they're any different than the maga conservatives or outright fascists they love to claim they oppose.

So anyway, your name and pfp are very appropriate. Thank you for your service of frequently wading through those brainworm-infested waters and spraying some dewormer around. It may seem like a drop in the bucket but I'm sure some of it gets through here and there.

I feel like Trump operates on the assumption that no one will react to counteract whatever strategy he implements.

Well, when his greatest domestic opposition is the democratic party, it's been a correct and winning assumption. The logic becomes "What's anyone gonna do, impeach me again?" On top of that, when most of the vassals fall immediately in to line when he says so, being good dogs for the US, and the strategy keeps working even with foreign policy, there's not much incentive to do otherwise. Fortunately China is not the Democrats nor are they Europe.

Remember how she carries a bottle of hot sauce with her wherever she goes? Especially if that hotdog comment was said when she was campaigning, it was only because she thought it would make her more appealing to the lowly, unwashed masses. "See, I'm just like all you dirty poors!"

I think AssortedBiscuits answered your question in the first couple sentences of their comment:

Most Westerners already hate communists and carry the grudge against the USSR. Anarchists don't really deviate too much from some generic Westerner.

It's really not any deeper than that. There's no need or reason to single out anarchists from any other average westerner when analyzing the source of animosity for the USSR because the answer is going to be the same whether you're talking about chuds, liberals, or anarchists. Even the non-western anarchists who hold a grudge against the USSR, the answer is probably still the same just because of the prevalence of western cultural hegemony all over the world. In your edit, you specify:

I'm curious about what information sources - mentors, friends, books, TV, cultural osmosis, conveys that information to people. Where do individuals encounter this information and how does it become important to them.

But the answer to that is the same information sources you yourself were probably exposed to early on. It's all the same shit we're steeped in, the ubiquity of anti-communism throughout western culture. Animal Farm and 1984 were required reading for me in junior high and high school respectively. The class discussions around these books were centered around teaching us that the USSR was corrupt, oppressive, and that these communist ideals that may sound like good ideas will always and invariably lead to "authoritarianism" and "totalitarian dictatorships" like the Soviet Union. Everyone absorbs that shit young, even the people who might later go on to question the truth of what they were taught, like anarchists.

You say

Newly minted Anarchists have to learn to hate Lenin and Stalin and whoever else they have a grudge against.

But no they don't. Not as newly-minted anarchists anyway. That brainworm software was already installed long ago before they became anarchists. A major part of becoming a leftist is going through a process of uninstalling all that brainworm malware. Anarchists who still hate the Soviet Union are people who have been successful at uninstalling much of the brainworm malware, it's just that they haven't completed the process by uninstalling the anti-Soviet or anti-"tankie" worms... yet. And I say all this as someone who long considered themself an anarchist.

This is a bit tangential, but actually the original actor (or one of the earliest major ones) who played Ronald McDonald is now a vegan and hates what he did for the McDonalds corporation. Even refers to it as fascist food.

"I want to apologize for participating in helping to brainwash North America's young people into doing something that I know now to be contrary to the purpose of life."

https://geoffreygiuliano.com/portfolio/facist-food-confessions-of-a-corperate-clown/

Meanwhile, what is it that actually makes it to the front page of that shithole copaganda site?

According to some in here (even hexbears?!? blech), the genocide perpetrator you know is always better than the one you don't, so yeah, you'd better for the one you already know is committing a genocide to reduce harm. That's just facts and logic.

I'm not sure where the lines are in these definitions, or how much the difference really matters but I'm hoping he will be remembered not just as an enabler but as a direct accomplice, which he is. He could have chosen to stop it at any point, instead he has goaded it on and knowingly, unhesitatingly provided the material means to perpetrate it.

TIL far left is when you parrot the US State Dept line, shit on AES countries, and use the terms "tankie" and "authoritarianism" unironically.