Well over $100k in the higher cost of living states, too. And as the article states, that’s typically about double what the median salary is for a single person in most states.

I’d like to point out that AES states - while maybe they didn’t have all the same quality or quantity of consumer goods - were able to able to to provide a comfortable life for everyone without all the predatory that US workers currently have. And don’t take my word for it, take it from the neoliberal queen herself, Angela Merkel. When asked about life in the former GDR, she described it as “almost comfortable”. Now before you mention that “almost” is an important qualifier, note that the context of her quote was her trying to criticize the former GDR but she grudgingly conceded the comment above.

Death to America and viva la revolucion!

Was just thinking about this since I’m wearing my Cuba WBC cap around town (from the most recent WBC when Cuba was actually “allowed” to be in charge of their own team).

Had always been a boxers enjoyer, until a friend made a devastating insult:

“You wear boxers? What are you, like 80 years old?”

Completely bodied and no way to recover. So I decided to try out boxer briefs. I always hated that constricting feeling on my thighs, so I avoided them. Decided to buy a slightly loose, larger size and I’m liking it.

Never really been a huge fan of Christmas. Something has always bugged me about it, but I've never been quite able to figure out what.

I've thought about all the reasons people - especially leftists - don't like Christmas. Like, the consumerism aspect can be annoying. But tbh I don't know anyone who actually is focused on spending money on people. I really only see people I know worry about gift-giving because they want to give something meaningful, myself included. It can be stressful and overall I kinda wish gift-giving wasn't a part of Christmas, but it doesn't really bother me. Stores obviously push you to buy stuff but really, when isn't that the case under capitalism?

There are other aspects of Christmas I really don't like - the music and how long the season drags out in particular. But those are admittedly just "me" things. There are a lot of people who like that part of Christmas, and I'm firmly in the "let people enjoy things" camp. So while these aspects might bug me personally, there is something else - something social - that feels off with Christmas.

But then a couple weeks ago, I was watching another "Christmas special" kids show that emphasized "Christmas is special time with the people we love" message, and I started thinking through something: I think what bothers me about Christmas is that it seems there is this massive social effort to resuscitate a sense of social belonging that capitalism itself has killed.

In order to survive, capitalism has completely and totally obliterated our social fabric and has turned us all into individualistic atoms. It had to do this. The social fabric is what allows us to experience not only common humanity, but common struggle. We are social creatures and we need some sort of social connection. But social connections are a threat to capitalism, so it must be destroyed. We need to be mobile workers who move away from the family and social connections we form. We spend all our time working so we can't form social bonds. The single family residence is considered the only way to live if you have the means. Unionizing or even just viewing our co-workers as group that should collectively act has been demolished.

So capitalism rips apart our social fabric in order to reproduce itself. But... we are social creatures. We all know something is missing. So to help assuage that angst, capitalism has "invented" modern Christmas. Modern Christmas involves telling people that for one day or one season, yes everything is totally fine. Having social connections is good. Of course, we are not actually given anything that helps improve our social connections. But our rulers deem that for a few weeks, we can have the vibes of a functioning social life, as a treat. They take the corpse of a healthy social fabric and prop it up and pretend it's alive, a la Weekend at Bernie's.

That's really the point of the Hallmark movies. That the point of the news highlighting feel-good stories about the holidays. Of every TV show having a "Christmas special" once a season that emphasizes that caring about others is what matters. I mean, of course those things are good. But it's an effort to create something artificial in place of something real.

Christmas is capitalism's social MacGuffin. We supposed to think about our loved ones this one time of year because it's Christmas and that's what Christmas is. But Christmas I think is just what's evolved into our release valve. Put all our energy in making one day matter so we don't think about the other 364 where we are alienated from each other. It's why every time we hear platitudes about "Christmas is a special time of the year" in the media, it rings hollow.

I played DE for the first time a year ago. I played it pretty “straight” because I wanted to learn as much about the world of Revachol and it’s history as possible (I avoided most spoilers but I had some vague notions there was some sort of communist revolution in the past). So on my skills, I loaded up on Psyche and Intellect with a focus on Encyclopedia and Visual Calculus. I didn’t do a lot of drugs or drink, either.

So for my second play through, I’m looking for a different experience. I’m thinking about loading up on Physique and Motorics - Physique in particular. I’ve heard Shivers and Half Light can be fun. I kept Interfacing, Hand Eye Coordination, etc pretty low so I might want to try it with higher levels there.

But I wanted to ask you all and get your thoughts and suggestions.

Also, I’m torn if I should try the Moralist vision quest or go back to the Communist one. I didn’t have quite enough Communism points to get the “best” ending (didn’t internalize The Suicide of Kras Mazov) so I kinda want another shot. But the moralist one does seem kinda interesting and apparently you learn more about the Pale.

Anyway would love to hear your ideas.

While I’m generally skeptical of boycotts, BDS scares the shit out of Israel. Because I do believe if BDS becomes a global movement it really could change things. I’ll start with the list from bdsmovement.net and then add to the list as people list other companies to boycott in the comments:

Hewlett-Packard (computer hardware)

Siemens (tech conglomerate)

AXA (banking & insurance)

Puma (clothing)

Israeli fruits and vegetables (usually labeled)

SodaStream (idk that garbage home soda)

Ahava (cosmetics)

Sabra (hummus)

And you know who I also don’t condemn?

The IRA

The Viet Minh

John Brown

Haitian slaves who revolted

Native American fighters

Black Panthers

National Liberation Front (Algeria)

Nelson Mandela

The 26th of July Movement

Every one of them were called “terrorists” or something equivalent at some point. Now think about who’s on the opposite of this list. Apartied South Africa, slavers, settlers, Zionists, the US government… There is only one moral and just side to be on and it’s not even a discussion.

Who wants in? We can talk about what is was like to write a letter to your grandma or having no other way to ask someone out other than by calling them on the phone. Or checking out movies at Blockbuster or whatever your national equivalent was (we usually checked out videos at the grocery store, actually).

We’re cool because we can actually remember the USSR and “East” Germany. Although not as cool, I can remember when homophobia and transphobia was so much more widely accepted and the “default” position for most Americans. Not as cool.

Take a moment to consider all the resources used in the United States regarding automotive transportation since 1945. Think about all that metal that’s used on something that becomes obsolete and junked after only a decade or two. Think of all the labor involved in manufacturing them. And think of all the time individuals must spend on long commutes where they can’t do anything other than drive (because our time is a resource too). Think about how many more automobiles are needed than trains and buses. And then think about all the oil that’s needed to run those cars.

Now think about how little resources are needed for public transportation vehicles. How they last a lot longer, are more fuel efficient, and allow you to spend your time doing other things. It’s truly amazing how wasteful automobiles are. The automobile is the product of the free market and “individualism” run amok. A socialist country run by central planning wouldn’t dream of creating a society that’s based around the car because it’s so needlessly inefficient.

Let’s expand this a little further. The modern capitalist culture around cars is largely a post-WW2 invention. Look at a map of where you live. Try to figure out what your metro area looked like in 1945 and what it looks like now. I know for my hometown, the post-1945 part is several times larger than what was there before. And that all was built around automotive infrastructure. It boggles the mind the resources involved in that. All the concrete used for highways. All the land paved over for parking lots. All the inefficient single-family homes and strip malls. It’s hard to wrap your head around how much resources were used to build that.

Now think about the alternative: how few resources would be used in building housing for need with space efficiency in mind. How you need so much fewer roads and how you can connect cities with rail instead of highways. Think about how much less commercial areas you need under socialism. The later is just so much more efficient.

But in the debate of free markets versus central planning, all this seems to get skipped over in favor of “but socialism means no bananas in the winter” or “how will I be able to get the exact color iPhone case I want if it’s all centrally planned?” But the sheer waste of capitalism is overlooked because there was profit made the whole time. People never consider how those resources could have been better used.

I think if you took the US post-WW2 and made it socialist with central planning, we’d truly be living in a post-scarcity society by now. Even acknowledging how much of a “boost” the capitalist US economy gets from imperialism and environmental destruction, with socialism and just the resources within the US, we’d have so much that our society would have no choice but to massively reduce work hours. How wasteful capitalism is gets ignored because the waste is dealt with by a willing buyer and willing seller at a market clearing price (ignoring overproduction, I mean). The anti-communists don’t want to think about in terms of finite resources, and how those resources are used.

Idk, just something to think about.