It's not a slur any more than calling someone a Nazi is a slur. In both cases, the fascists chose the term for themselves and use it to self-identify. Leftists likewise use the terms with all the derision they deserve. Simple as. If I call a Nazi a Nazi, it's not a slur just because I think Nazis are evil and disgusting and are in need of redacting. So too with Zionists.

If someone is using the term to describe themselves, but they (correctly) think that settler-colonialism is wrong and that the state of Israel is a genocidal ethnostate, then they are misusing the term, according to both the vast majority of Zionists as well as the people who oppose Zionism. As always, what is antisemitic is the equating of Zionism with Judaism, it is not antisemitic or saying a "slur" to accurately use the term Zionist as an epithet. It's disgusting but unsurprising how the Zionists keep harping on this to try to make themselves out to be the ones being persecuted.

Different tactics work on different people. I was swayed from liberalism to communism much more by long form argumentation, stuff I had to read and really think about and examine, before concluding that my liberal beliefs were the garbage they were. Just saying "bad thing bad" to me would have made me roll my eyes and think you didn't have any valid arguments. And to be honest, current me doesn't blame past me for thinking that. Maybe that works on some people, but again, that's why there are different tactics. Yours is no more valid than VILenin's, and were it me on the other side, yours would be less valid than his by far. That's not me calling you anti-intellectual, but neither should you act like using reasoned argumentation is too high brow to influence anyone who isn't already a committed pro-Palestinian communist.

because again everyone understands that genocide is bad.

Clearly they don't understand that it's bad enough, seeing as this whole conversation is centered around the "calculus of deciding that a genocide is an acceptable trade-off." Many people who do recognize genocide is bad, still think "well, it's a complicated situation" or they have fallen for the both-sides lie and think that the Palestinians would be genociding Israelis if the zionists weren't doing it first. These are the kinds of lies that would be good to disabuse them of. Which is something we can do in numerous cases, since it has happened, and one effective way of doing that is to used reasoned argumentation with healthy rhetoric. Which is what VILenin was talking about. Coming in and saying "Nah, it's useless" or "that tactic doesn't work, but my short pithy one does" is weird and unhelpful. I'm not sure why you insist on putting down what he came up with.

The only way I will ever watch this would be during hextube/tankietube movie night. Even an attempt to watch this alone (or worse, in the company of liberal family) would just result in me seething and then rage-quitting the attempt. But if I have y'all to point and laugh at it, and seethe along with me, it might actually be kind of fun.

edit: or what Magician said. I didn't know that was a thing.

This trick ain't gonna work for everyone for the fourth time, it didn't even work for the second.

I think the trick will work just fine, and that it has been working just fine. Maybe not for everyone, but it's not meant to work for everyone. Look at how well they sold their proxy war in Ukraine back when they still wanted to. You're right that "anyone who is informed by analysis" will see through it immediately, but they're not the ones the propaganda drive is meant to ~~convince~~ reassure. I think it's pretty clear that most people in the west, even including a high percentage of those with real power, are informed much more by ideology and the prevailing paradigm in their circles than any kind of analytical or even honest reckoning of what's really happening. Or am I misunderstanding you?

The USA could (and possibly will) carpet bomb Tehran and the nation at large, reduce its state and people to a state of complete abjection.

Could it realistically do even that? It's one of the few countries with hypersonic missiles, superior to US tech. It manufactures drones (many of which Russia buys and use to great success in Ukraine) that could cheaply render enemy air bases and strips unusable making the touted air superiority of the US moot. Even the US knows they would get their asses handed to them if they ever attempted to militarily fuck with Iran. From my understanding, the only actual advantage that the US has over Iran is nukes.

we could potentially feed the country for free.

We could right now. Not potentially, but completely and easily. With the amount of food that is intentionally just destroyed to maintain profits, we could do it. That's not to mention all the food that even makes onto the market and gets distributed but is thrown out at grocery stores and restaurants because it didn't sell fast enough, then tossed into dumpsters with bleach poured on it so unhoused people can't even dumpster dive for subsistence. The amount of food is not the issue, not at all. As always, it's the system and the greed of capitalists that perpetuate it that is the problem.

That said, I don't mean to detract from anything in your comment because it's accurate and you're right.

Vendors I think have the ability to deny customers for whatever reason they want and vice versa. If you're a buyer and your vendor refuses to use PGP, you should find another vendor. If you're a vendor and your buyer refuses to use PGP you should simply block them and not vend to them. I'm also getting the impression that this wasn't common practice on Incognito, but years ago back when I, um, read about this stuff, it was never a majority but it wasn't uncommon for vendors to state up front they only vend to people who will use PGP. Sometimes vendors would give a discount to people who did. I'm sure a lot of vendors right now are wishing they had followed that very common sense policy.

Catching a ban for merely upvoting comments critical of the US empire on reddit had a major chilling effect on me 3 years ago (back when I actually still frequented that shithole of a site) to the point that I always think twice about who and what I engage with on most sites, let alone specifically what I say. At least here, I figure if it's not bad enough to be removed by mods for fedposting, it's probably not going to get me added to any more lists than I and everyone else here are already on.

Considering how well it fits with the information we already know about the forced conscription by kidnapping, and other incidents of "deserters" being shot, I don't see any reason to doubt it. I'd honestly be surprised if it were not the case that such blocker groups exist to keep people from escaping the meat grinder.

It's loading pretty quick and smoothly for me still if that matters. Personally, I'd go with not interrupting the high rate of commenting right now. I'm sure it will slow down a bit sometime between now and the usual Sunday thread change time.

I hate that Joe Rogan and Silicon Valley techbros ruined the reputation of DMT which really is profound.

The only thing your position is really advocating is the useless deaths of vast numbers of Ukrainians (and Russians, for that matter). [emphasis mine]

They never admit it, but the fact that Russian deaths will continue is one of if not the main reason these NATO dronies are fine with sacrificing the lives of all those Ukrainians they pretend to care about. Spoiler warning: they don't actually care about Ukrainians. But they'll still couch it in terms as if they're "supporting Ukraine." Such "Ukraine supporters" are either completely, pathetically fooled by obvious NATO propaganda or they are just bloodthirsty bigots (or both, which is most often the case).