I'm half way through the blowback season on Korea... It's so intense.

I want nothing but success and prosperity for the Korean people and the oppressed peoples of all nations. Death to the USA

Is it cringe?

I don't really play video games that much anymore, like at all, but I was thinking about getting this one. Is it mega lib coded? If I'm going to play a game for the first time in forever I want to make sure it'll at least be worth playing through.

The events of the last two weeks have been the most unintelligible

Yeah, in the last couple of weeks, staying on top of what's been going on has definitely been difficult. We appreciate the write ups.

Thanks to @rainpizza@lemmygrad.ml and @Malkhodr@lemmygrad.ml too. These mega threads have been one of my main methods of trying to stay on top of news. Thanks for helping us stay informed.

Let me know your thoughts. The ideas written like this are easier to read.

It's written well, is legible, and is easy to read. Thanks for doing these write ups o7

I know this is a meme post but I'm going to leave these here for anyone who wants to read up on philosophy, specifically Dialectical-Materialism.

Georges Politzers' book Elementary Principles of Philosophy

Sean Sayers' article Materialism, Realism, and the Theory of Reflection

Note on EPoP: When my local group of comrades read EPoP together, many of us found Politzers' arguments against religion in parts 1 & 2 to be too overly antagonistic to include in the mass community education program we're developing (even though we agreed with the logic of Politzers' arguments and his conclusions). Use this information as you see fit.

"i ain’t reading all that"

Whelp, can't help you with that buddy ¯_(ツ)_/¯

"What is this mind fuckery doublethought where..."

Well, I explain it in the reply I made to you, but you didn't read it...

"Is it being so afraid of people becoming antisemitic"

No. But if you want me to touch upon antisemitism, I will.

Firstly, it is not my responsibility to center the defense of Jewish people from the antisemitism that results from a fascist, Jewish-Supremacist, and Settler-Colonial project that widely uses the ideology of Islamophobia to justify its genocidal agenda. An agenda and justification that greatly benefits those who fall within the category of Jewishness in much the same way as the US agenda of settler-colonialism, justified by white-supremacy, greatly benefits those who fall within the category of whiteness. In fact, there is much to be said about the relationship between Jewish supremacy and "whiteness" inside Israel's Settler-Colonial project itself but that is beyond the point of this response. If we are to center anyone it should be the victims of Israel and the victims of US Imperialism. With this said, it is of the upmost importance, as communists and workers, to not fall into the trap of the antisemitic explanation. This is especially the case for explanations of US foreign policy.

In order to understand why there exists an antisemitic explanation that we must not fall into, we must first ask ourselves, "whose interests does it serve to not understand the motivations of US foreign policy?" The answer to this question is of course, the capitalist's interest.

Statements such as, "Israel is the senior partner of the US," "The US government is controlled by Israel," and "The US only joined the war on Iran because of Israel" are incorrect and are not grounded in a material understanding of the world. Furthermore, the logical progression of these statements leads us to the same idealist worldview that is held by the reactionaries who have always blamed a Jewish conspiracy for the crimes of Capitalism.

The antisemitic explanations for US foreign affairs clean the blood from the hands of the capitalist class; obfuscates the role of the capitalist class in government and society, to the extent that the capitalists seem to play no role in US affairs; and scapegoats the crimes of Capitalist-Imperialism onto the backs of a small ethnic minority, independent of their connection to Israel.

The US is motivated by its own interests. We should be able to identify the motivations behind US foreign policy while also understanding how the claim of, "Israeli control of the US," only serves to obfuscate the role of Capitalist-Imperialism in the exploitation and oppression of workers and the people of this world.

"you’re just going to ... fucking empower [antisemitism] by telling people to ignore the obvious"

Not once, have I advocated for people to ignore the influence of Israel on US foreign affairs.

In fact, if you want to learn more about the US backing of Israel and also about christian zionism, check out comprehensive49's write up, Israel: US Backing and Christian Zionism. They have multiple great write ups on Israel that you can find here.

"Israel is running US foreign policy"

It's not.

"[The US's war of Aggression on Iran,] there is very little to gain for the US from it"

The US has sooo much to gain from the destruction of Iran, both regionally and globally.

"The US is wasting their entire global interceptor supply to save Israel from retaliation."

The settler-colonial project that is Israel is incredibly important to the US, the hegemon of capitalism-imperialism. See the video of Joe Biden saying if Israel didn't exist then the US would have to invent an Israel. Also, the vast majority of Iranian missiles are not being fired upon Israel but instead the US bases scattered around the SWANA region, outside of Israel. So, most of the interceptors are being used intercept Iranian missiles being fired on US bases.

I go much further into these points, beyond the one sentence responses I gave here, in my long reply to leeeroooyjeeenkiiins comment below. The reason why I'm not fully explaining here, in my response to you, is because I don't want to rewrite or edit my reply to LeroyJenkins because ultimately, it would be the same contents. AND that's too much work.

The actions of "Israel" is that of a sovereign Settler-Colonial project that acts within its own interests. The US is the world hegemon of Capitalism-Imperialism and its actions are determined by its interests in participating in the global process of capital accumulation. These interests are set forth by the historical process of the development of capital into a global political and economic system.

The stability of the zionist entity's settler colonial project, like that of the early US settler-colonial project, is dependent upon

1. The destabilization of its neighboring region. and
2. The expansion of its territorial borders to include more land for settlement.

The interests of Israel are often encompassed within the interests of global capital (The US being the world hegemon of global capital). This is much the case because the destabilization of Southwest Asia and North Africa allows for the greater penetration of capital into regions that are often seen, from the Imperial Capitalist Class's perspective, as being more impermeable and whose political and economic conditions as being unfavorable for the profitable extraction of materials and the exploitation of labor. Through the process of Israel struggling to attain stability for itself through the practice of settler-colonialism, they are creating conditions that are favorable for Capitalism-Imperialism i.e. favorable for the US regime.

Here we can see how the US and Israel can share material interests. This I am sure we don't disagree on. I hope so far that I haven't given off an air of arrogance in the way I'm setting up my point, I'm just trying to lay a groundwork.

"Israel also literally acts like it’s the senior partner in the relationship. It does whatever the fuck it wants and the U.S. supports it literally unconditionally."

The zionist entity doesn't need to be told to genocide Gaza, bomb its neighbors, and annex territory, just as the US doesn't need to be told to help with the destabilization of Israel's neighbors, the SWANA region as a whole, and the attack on Iran. This is the case because both share material interests and these actions change geopolitical-economic conditions in a way that favor the achievement of said interests for both of them.

In reference to the relationship between the US and Israel, I said it's "ridiculous to say that the zionist entity is the real shot caller." In other words, I am saying that the US is in control of itself and has a greater control of its own power and how that power is being projected into SWANA. This is not a denial of Israel's attempts to sway US policy. Instead, we can see Israel's attempts of swaying US policy, through examples like blackmail, as proof of the US's sovereignty over its own interests and power, for if this wasn't the case than why would Israel being trying to gain leverage over the US in the first place.

"I don’t think the U.S. is the entity choosing to shred the perceived prestige of its military and the legitimacy of its hegemony for a war Israel started."

For the reasons stated above the US and Israel both share the interest of seeing Iran destroyed. Iran, it's existence; resistance; and support of resistance groups throughout the region is a threat to the zionist entity's settler-colonial project. For this reason, Israel wants the destruction of Iran. Iran, its sovereignty and control of its own material resources; its unwillingness to allow western penetration into its own domestic markets; its control over strategic geography that can be leveraged against global capital (Stright of Hormuz); and the fact that, through its exercise of its sovereignty, it acts against the interests of global capital in such a way that makes it a buttress of the formation of a more multipolar world. A multipolar world that would necessitate the reduction of the US's hegemonic control and power of the global order of capitalism-imperialism. It's here that we can see that the US's war on Iran isn't just some war Israel started but is in fact a war carried out by the US for real and material purposes in order to achieve real and material interests.

As far as the US's military prestige and legitimacy being shredded, in my opinion, it is the result of several things.

1. First and foremost, the resistance of the Iranian people in waging this anti-imperialist struggle against the US and Israeli regimes. For it is their struggle alone which acts as the rock that the US's prestige and legitimacy is being dashed upon.
2. The tactics of Iranian resistance and the difference, particularly in the industrial capacity of Iran, that separates Iran from the US's other previous engagements.
3. The US vastly underestimating the sheer extent and ways by which Iran is resisting against its acts of aggression.
4. The decades of neoliberalism and its impacts on the US military's capacity to wage war, especially a war with an industrialized nation that has had decades of experience learning from the ways in which the US has invaded its neighbors in the region.

Edit: Formatting Markdown

I'm not saying that blackmail of individual government officials can't have an influence on the decisions made by those individuals. But I am saying that the imperialist drive of capital accumulation dictates the material conditions that create said choices in the first place and have a far larger impact on the way Capital-Imperialism functions as compared to blackmail on elites who will never be held accountable for their actions.

Both have an influence, but one much more than the other.

This reminds me of a snippet of an article I read that was published in Peace, Bread, and Land

War is usually the tool of the financial capital fraction of the bourgeoisie. The financiers have indeed been calling for a new war, a shot in the arm for the flagging economy, and a redivision of the imperial spoils. however, at this unipolar stage, there is little redivision to be had. There are no obvious prospects for new financial colonies except for the anti-imperialist states like Iran and other regional hegemons that resist U.S./NATO/IMF capital. The empire is, very likely, contracting or about to contract unless a new war is pursued with relative speed.

I can't imagine how the US's own department heads can't see the zionist entity as being a tool of US imperial hegemony used to destabilize the SWANA region in order to inject capital more easily and in conditions more favorable to finance capital. Instead, Kent blames the zionist entity for puppeteering the whole of US foreign policy, going so far as to point the finger at them for being the reason behind the US entering Iraq. Of course, the US and Isn'treal share material interests in the destabilizing of the region, but it's ridiculous to say that the zionist entity is the real shot caller. That would be saying that the tail wags the dog. I don't know, I guess I'm surprised by what I perceive to be a lack of class consciousness of a high-ranking US statesman.

Maybe Kent's interests in US policy only extends to those that support the short-term interests of the domestic, industrial faction of capitalists? I wonder what his thoughts are on Trump's sanctions since they're examples of US policy that theoretically favor the local monopoly-capital of the US at the cost of the internationalist, monopoly-finance capital. In any way, Kent stepping down from the position is just an opportunity for the US to insert someone who is more class conscious, is more willing to bat for US policy, and will fall in line with the status quo no matter what imperialist vassal state is benefiting from the US's attempts of capital accumulation.

Hell yeeaaah. Thank you.

This is the first time I've seen Anna's Library... It's amazing, they even have digital copies of new books! I know how I'm going to spend my weekend. Thanks for this

Hey Cowbee, do you have a free/cheaper source for Boer's Socialism is Power book? The epub and physical copies are $110 minimum.

See my name for my motivations for asking.