I…didn’t know that. I was more than willing to defend Tom Nook for his “loan” with 0 interest, no deadline and no pressure or need to pay, but I’m impressed he still makes cash somehow and just donates it, while maintaining his “slimy businessman” reputation like some sort of furry The Boss…
See also: Japanese-American intermnent camps during WWII. 100,000+ American citizens stripped of any and all rights they had, thrown in prison without trial, all because of who their ancestors were.
Or the crack epidemic being caused by the CIA, and then the subsequent murder of Gary Webb who exposed it.
It’s surreal that “if we take away the thing making people grovel for their lives, then how are we going to make them grovel for their lives?” is an honest to god argument that more than half of the us population finds compelling
“If we end hunger, then how will we be able to threaten people with the specter of starvation?”
“If we guarantee housing, then how will we be able to exploit them under the threat of homelessness?”
“If we guarantee healthcare, then how can we keep the workforce slaving away at shit jobs for a pittance so that they can have health insurance?”
I know I’m That Guy™ , but it is possible to advocate for social reform without sweeping under the rug the very real tragedies and human rights violations that have existed under communist regimes
I get that this doesn’t fit your edgelord communist aesthetic but it costs $0 to reblog this and let your followers know you aren’t advocating to repeat the mistakes of the past
so I understand that this post is coming from a place, but communists are constantly accused of advocating for and defending regimes of the past to the point where any post uttering anything remotely to do with communism turns the thread into a whirling shitstorm about how communists are x apologists with 0 discussion about the topic at hand. and i can tell you that politely informing them that you aren’t a “tankie” or whatever doesn’t fucking work. communists are consistently the ones explaining their individual relationships with past regimes and acknowledging the horrors that occurred, the problem is that people don’t want communists to speak frankly and objectively
(what is most often deemed “sweeping under the rug”)
about these horrors. they want them to self-flagellate and distance themselves from the movement.
so when i see posts like this that purposely lump all communists in with “fringe” communists that are like often actual fascists, its like… hello?? this very broad association came from where exactly?
A really cool and nuanced conversation for learning what was and wasn’t anti communist propaganda
As a very leftist person from an actual post-communist country, as opposed to a trendy American millenial, let me say straight away that communism is a noble idea in theory, that I understand where modern Western communists are coming from and that I don’t expect anyone to self-flagellate. Having said that, I must stress three things:
1) While the communist movement in the 19th and 20th century was driven by noble ideals and great intellectuals, once the actual revolution happened these ideals were instantly twisted and warped in the service of the party machine, while the intellectuals were either imprisoned, killed or swallowed by the party. This is more or less what happens in all revolutions and it will happen again if you start a revolution.
2) Communist regimes have inflicted indescribable suffering on my people and many peoples of Eastern Europe and Asia. Untold lives were destroyed and ended, people tortured and disappeared and beaten into submission. All we got at the end of it was a number of ineffective, gray, economically underdeveloped and cruel regimes which collapsed in quick succession because of their economic insufficiency. Workers’ protests in Poland began in 1980, but they were brutally subdued and a military dictatorship introduced for ten years to prolong the failing regime artificially. In case of China, the regime stayed communist only in name, while in practice adopting aggressive capitalist strategies to enrich the ruling class mainly. And we all know about North Korea.
3) To a person from a post-communist regime hearing Western people talk about giving communism another chance etc. is like listetning to people saying: “Mussolini had the right idea, let’s give that fascism another go”. This insults my people, all post-communist peoples and insults the memory of the millions killed and destroyed by communist regimes around the world. Please, think about this and stop advocating murderous regimes just because they’re trendy. Please understand that the “fringe communists” you’re talking about were in fact the mainstream in actual communist regimes and would be again, you would be drowned out and removed.
Nobody who knows shit about social revolutions actually wants one. Nobody.
Some elements of communism as a political system are good. Almost all of it is noble. But put it into state-wide top-down practice and millions of people suffer and die, and they do so with horrifying reliability. Starved, displaced, imprisoned, tortured, disappeared, murdered. Millions. Those weren’t oopsies. Those weren’t a few bad apples. That’s fucking history, and it’s happened too many times to be a series of isolated, unconnected events.
Capitalism as practiced is a brutal, dysfunctional system that grinds people down into nothing. We need to find another way of doing things. But we also need to be very clear-eyed about communism’s record. Out of - yes - respect for the countless dead if nothing else.
If y’all want another hideously brutal example that too many people don’t know anything about: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge. Learn about it.
Side note: a lot of what this is really about has to do with the many many many downsides of very fast and very radical social reform, and expecting people to just kind of spontaneously becomedifferent people in order to fit into your shiny new utopian system. And what happens when they don’t? What do you do with the people who won’t behave? This is a question that every society has to answer, and the higher the expectations and the greater the sense of social paranoia, the more horrible the answer becomes.
Right or left, authoritarianism is authoritarianism.
Vegans of tumblr, listen up. Harvesting agave in the quantities required so you dont have to eat honey is killing mexican long-nosed bats. They feed off the nectar and pollinate the plants. They need the agave. You want to help the environment? Go back to honey. Your liver and thyroid will thank you, as well. Agave is 90% fructose, which can cause a host of issues. Bye.
Beekeeper here! Just wanted to say that the fact that vegans won’t eat honey is very silly. Harvesting honey does not hurt bees. The invention of modern moveable-frame hives means we can remove a selected frame, extract the honey and return it without killing a single bee.
If we destroyed the colony to harvest honey there would be no bees for next year, and beekeepers are incredibly careful to keep their bees healthy and thriving. We take *excess* honey that they don’t need, and it stops the hive from becoming honey-bound, meaning that there’s so much honey the Queen has nowhere to lay eggs. And if the winter is harsher than expected and the remaining honey store runs low, we feed the bees plenty to make sure they survive. We also make sure that pests are controlled, bees are treated for disease, and the hive is weatherproof and in good repair, all things that wild bees struggle with.
Keeping bees in properly managed hives where they don’t starve or die from preventable disease is much better for them than being left to fend for themselves, and they’re far too important to be left alone.
All the fruits and vegetables that vegans *do* eat couldn’t exist without bees, and the hives which pollinate those crops also produce excess honey which the beekeepers can sell to help keep themselves and their hives going.
TLDR: BUY THE HONEY, HELP THE BEES.
Also, if you have a beehive infestation, have the hive relocated instead of destroyed! No harm comes out of the hive going somewhere else!
Japan’s complete lack of understanding of declining birth rates in relation to its work culture reminds me a lot of how America has an assumption that millennials are killing industries when the truth is they are more frugal because of a lack of funds.
Both come from a conservative mindset that neglects the impact that a toxic work culture can have on society.
A 80+ hour work week in order to maintain financial stability isn’t exactly a solid ground to date people and eventually build a family from a healthy relationship.
A workforce comprised of 20 somethings that make between 20-40k a year in entry positions isn’t a good ground to build a reliable consumer base when a huge chunk of that is going to rent, utilities, car payments, and student loans.
This is a fascinating connection, you should write a paper on this
I am convinced that, in general, people want to have families. Many, if not most, would be happy to raise children. But in order to have children and raise them, especially to do so well, people need happy, stable relationships, financial security and time to devote to - you know - actually raising the child. You need both money and time to do that.
If people are not given the time and means to be able to create social connections and strong relationships, to devote to parenthood and family, then they are not going to do it. How can they?
I mean from an even more simplistic point these both represent the failures of the current capitalist class to learn from simple past lessons. - labor power needs time and resources/money to recuperate to do the things that allow them to be productive at work and to reproduce the next class of workers
Gamer guy: isn’t it weird that the richer a video game company gets the lower quality their products become? Like, every studio that made good high quality games when they were small now makes shitty boring soulless games only made to appeal to the lowest common denominator? I think feminism is causing this.
for everyone who’s excited about obsidian dragging bethesda this isn’t just about how fucking trash garbage 76 is, this is about how obsidian was shafted by bethesda when fallout new vegas came out.
heres the thing, obsidian used to work on a weird kind of business model where they would make games on a budget for certain companies and if they met a certain review quota they would get a bonus.
new vegas missed the quota by 1 point.
1 point because bethesda didn’t give them enough money to make one of, if not the best game in the franchise, and rushed them continuously through production
this isn’t new drama
this is obsidian finally getting its vindication after bethesda robbed them and almost sent them into financial ruin
There’s a special class of “science weapons” that will have special, ridiculous effects, like a shrink ray
There’s a full character creator even though it’s first-person only (you’ll see your character in the inventory, and if you leave the game idling long)
Your companions don’t have separate inventories. Taking companions with you just gives you more inventory space to work with yourself
If companions really dislike the decisions you make, they’ll leave and go back to the ship. You can persuade them to see things your way
No romancing companions. They considered it, but decided against it.
Companions each have a special attack (one named Felix does a double drop kick) but you can also equip them with whatever weapons you want
Hacking and lockpicking don’t have minigames, and are simply based on your attributes
There are six skills (strength, intelligence etc.) and for every 20 points you put into one (up until 100) you’ll gain a new perk
As in the creators’ past games, you can play as a “dumb” character with stupid dialogue options. Your companions react appropriately.
They’re still not sure if it will be possible to play through the game completely pacifist (but you’ll almost definitely have to at least kill some robots)
Robots aren’t sentient, but your ship’s AI seems to have a strange degree of personality
Tim Cain wants you to know there are a lot of drugs, but he’s not going to pressure you to take them
Hey, I'm The_Rockers. I like to make stuff, vague as that may be, but haven't had much time to do it as of late. I'm into Metal Gear, Overwatch, Dark Souls, The Adventure Zone, and probably some other stuff I forgot about. I try to post as often as I can, but I have a sideblog (comrade-gritty) for most of the funny stuff.
