KurtVonnegut [comrade/them]

I’m not even sure MLK ever explicitly considered himself a socialist.

Well then.

“I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic.” - Martin Luther King Jr.

“Today, capitalism has out-lived its usefulness.” - Martin Luther King Jr.

“Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country.” - Martin Luther King Jr.

“We must see now that the evils of racism, economic exploitation and militarism are all tied together.” - Martin Luther King Jr.

“The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and evils of racism.” - Martin Luther King Jr.

“If America does not use her vast resources of wealth to end poverty and make it possible for all of God’s children to have the basic necessities of life, she too will go to hell.” - Martin Luther King Jr.

(from https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/01/21/11-most-anti-capitalist-quotes-martin-luther-king-jr)

It says a lot about the education system wherever you come from that you never learned MLK was a socialist. He HATED capitalism! Hated it! Also, the scientist Albert Einstein was a prominent socialist who wrote a famous article, “Why socialism?” explaining in detail why he was a socialist. Einstein and MLK believed in the same anti-capitalist struggle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Socialism%3F

I was answering his question, not trying to be hostile. I did not insult him at all. Just voicing my opinion.

Where is this imperial core you keep mentioning?

Probably start with where all the giant battleships come from: https://www.businessinsider.com/magnitude-of-us-naval-dominance-2013-11

Why does the USA need all those battleships if they’re not doing imperialism? Are they just cosmetic battleships? Just for shits and giggles?

… Do you think workers in a car factory don’t get paid until someone actually buys the car they helped build? All the devs have already been paid!

one of these states is an authoritarian piece of shit, and it’s definitely not Taiwan.

Tell that to the indigenous people of Taiwan. I bet they’d love to hear about how they genocide was “non-authoritarian”.

I think it is important to take a critical look at past tragedies

Those who care more about past tragedies than current tragedies don’t care at all. They’re just looking for some excuse to feel self-righteous.

Lib - “Markets make everything cheaper, which is good.”

Leftist - “But if there is a labor market, won’t that make labor cheaper?”

Lib - “Yes, and that is good.”

Leftist - “How is that good?”

Lib - “It leads to more profits.”

Leftist - “But why is it good to have more profits?”

Lib - “Because a good country is when corporations make profits, and the more profits the corporations make, the gooder the country is.”

Markets have brought more people out of poverty than anything.

Yes, just like the Irish people who were “helped” by the free market in the 1840s. Or the Indian people who were “helped” by the free market in the late 1800s. You might be interested in this book by the late, great Mike Davis which completely refutes your ideas with hard evidence that the free market can be used (and has been used) as a tool of genocide: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/7859

You should e-mail that to the presidents of Cuba, Venezuela, and China, to show them the error of their communist ways.

Gob, go run to the opioid store and buy mommy one fentanyl.

If you are more angry against some poor people addicted to opioids than you are against the billionaire oligarchs who made their money off of addicting millions of people to opioids… you might have a severe case of myopia.

Tech-wise Russia has nothing to offer

Oh no, their Twitter and Facebook exports are too low. They’ll have to scrape by on checks notes one of the world’s largest supplies of oil, precious metals, and other natural resources. Surely, the Russian economy will collapse any second now!

“I am not debating you.”

“Here, now let me debate you.”

This is “both sides are bad” bullshit, a destructive force from apathetic people. Don’t listen to this shit. Vote every year, twice a year!

Biden has been in office for almost four years. Abortion was banned under his watch. He could have prevented it by expanding the supreme court - he chose not to. He chose to let thousands of women suffer and die.

Student loan forgiveness was promised by Biden - a promise he failed to deliver. Again, expanding the supreme court could have prevented this.

Biden has done absolutely nothing to stand up to the military-industrial complex. He pulled out of Afghanistan, then almost immediately began sending billions in “lethal aid” to Ukraine.

Biden has upheld the deportation laws at the Mexican border that Trump put in place. He is actively choosing to do that!

I don’t understand how any rational person can look at Biden and say he’s doing anything even slightly left-wing. He is not. Objective reality shows is that both sides (Democrats and Republicans) ARE the same because they are DOING the same thing. Ideology says they are different. Reality says they are the same. If you believe they are different, you are valuing ideology over reality.

IDK man. You’re basically saying “Why are you stuck on that environmentalist shit? It doesn’t matter to me. Go worry about climate change somewhere else, stop bothering me.”

My brother in christ. Climate change will affect you whether you want it to or not. Capitalism will affect you whether you want it to or not. You can’t just be “out” of it. You can’t not take a side in whether the earth gets destroyed or not (environmentalism) or whether 90% of the world’s population is plunged into neo-feudal slavery. You’re either with the slave-owners or against them. You gotta pick a side!

“Tankies are bad.”

Do you believe that that because you genuinely believe that capitalist nations like the United States and Russia are doing good things for the world, while “tankie” countries like Cuba and China are doing bad things for the world? Or do you believe that because you have been tricked by 100 years of racist propaganda that says socialists like Fidel Castro, Albert Einstein, and Martin Luther King were subhuman scum?