Self evident to whom? We are ruled by ghouls who care more about profit than people’s lives. Shouldn’t it be “self-evident” to Biden that committing genocide is bad? Shouldn’t it be “self-evident” that corporations shouldn’t be getting away after poisoning millions of people? Shouldn’t it be “self evident” that if people work all day their wages should be enough to allow them to live decently?

These things may obviously be good, but it won’t be done until we have a system that puts people over profit.

Technocracy is stupid, and just serves tech elites. Thankfully, there is a scientific political system out there called Scientific Socialism. It ruthlessly criticizes the world to find the best way to advance the interests of the great masses of people. It analyses the movement of history and society to make it develope smoothly. It studies its own struggle to make it be more effectively. However, it is not against democracy, but rather in favor of a truer democracy of the working class. Liberal democracy is simply the ruling class making up differences and fighting each other for show. In China they have a far better democracy without such fighting, and instead have tons of dialogue and study.

You forgot Latin America, all those commies.

I don’t totally agree with Badempanada, and all of his takes are hot, but he had a bit of a point about even leftists seeing a western life as more valuable than hundreds of Palestinians. Now, I support Aaron and think it was a relatively good thing to do with his terrible options, but everyone in Gaza deserves just as much praise.

What matters is if capital controls the government. The state can manage the economy in the interests of the capitalists or the workers. It can manage it to a greater or lesser extent. State run companies would make it a greater extent, but its socialist or capitalist character is in who controls the government and where the surplus goes.

That would be great, but it implies Mexico is any good. They have terrible border policy too, trying to keep darker people from getting in to Mexico and by proxy the US. It’s just another settler state.

I know some people who run them, and basically most decent non-profits run on (tax deductible) donations, grants, volunteers, and overworked staff. The rest are mostly just tax avoidance or outright malicious. For example, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is mostly just a way for Gates to promote neoliberalism and IP law, while getting function control over the whole pharmaceutical industry (Source: the Qanon Anonymous podcast episode 255). Either way they are by no means anti-capitalist. The best ones just promote capital valorization by providing for people’s needs that are not provided by paychecks. The worst are also tools of the bourgeoisie.

How charitable of you to assume that academics are trying to change anything when they look at society’s problems

Christians were the first communists, and today regardless of religious affiliation communists tend to be better at upholding Christian values than the average “Christian.” I don’t even know why I bother with you at this point.

He was always talking about how the rich can’t get into heaven and the poor deserve more. It’s important to note that this is the only time he openly got angry at anyone, and also as someone in this thread pointed out, he fashioned a whole whip to do it, which took time.

Hopefully divestment from the US is part of the plan for socialism by 2050.

You’re the one reducing possibilities. Your dichotomy is between staying a territory and becoming a state. While being a state is nominally better than being outright occupied subjects, prior to colonization they were better off, and you suggest decolonization and not being colonized aren’t options.