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Cake day: June 16th, 2023

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  • I would like you to explain how Captain America and Superman are reactionary.

    I mean… c’mon. Captain America is low-hanging fruit - the correlation between Captain America and actual US behavior in the world essentially writes itself.

    Superman is a far more sophisticated representation of US-style liberalism - but, just like liberalism itself, that doesn’t make Super Cheese any less of a reactionary.

    However… we can talk about the individual politics of these characters all day long - and we’d be missing the entire point of the metaphor in it’s entirety.

    The problem with the “super hero” genre is not the individual politics of the characters concerned - it’s with how they normalize and justify the concentration of power in the hands of these exalted individuals.

    In other words - the problem is fundamental.

    He doesn’t understand the core themes of superheroes,

    I think he understand them perfectly, because…

    Zack Snyder is an Objectivist



  • but student terrorist movements were largely left behind in the 70s

    The left has never left the use of force in the past - it is as available to us today, and as thoroughly justified, as it was in the 70’s… 1570s, 1870s or 2070s.

    The willingness to use force doesn’t distinguish between a left and a (supposed) “far left” - the left is not a mirror of the right, and there is no leftist equivalent to a far right (which is purely distinguished by it’s proximity to, willingness to control and/or operate the state machinery of violence).

    It’s not about spots on a silly “political compass” infographic and never has been.


  • By American standards, the Stop Cop City people are a ‘far left’ group;

    That’s not “far left.” That’s just plain old bog-standard left - whether in the US or anywhere else.

    action against Stop Cop City has been pretty brutal.

    Again… just common-or-garden variety treatment the left has always received from the forces of the status quo - nothing “far left” about it.

    There’s no such thing as a “far left” - and it’s critical that we push back on these kinds of propagandistic framing devices liberals love to use to demonize the left and provide cover for the right. I don’t think leftists realize how powerful and dangerous this basic type of propaganda can be.













  • tech has nothing to do with him being a piece of shit,

    We don’t call tech bros tech bros because they’re technical. We call them tech bros because they are pieces of shit.

    TV Tropes has the best description of them.

    A Tech Bro is someone connected with the technology and business industry; cultivating an image of intelligence mixed with money, counterculture attitude and social savvy. Whether they are actually hip, business literate, anti-authority or even intelligent in any form depends on the individual. Their goal is to charm investors into funding their project, so some degree of false presentation is necessary. Typically they are young men in their twenties and early thirties, insisting on casual clothing, shaggy hair and Perma-Stubble. Some of them are keen on partying and getting up to wacky hijinx, and are easily distracted during business meetings. Their speech is a blend of Technobabble and corporate buzzwords designed to attract investors, self-promoting at every opportunity. They see themselves as leaders, even visionaries, and they want you to know it.

    And Apartheid tech bro up there is their god.

    edit: I have to mention that I have no idea where anyone gets the idea that tech bros are in any way “countercultural” or “anti-authoritarian” - I’ve never seen a tech bro that’s anti-capitalist, which means they are as drenched in the politics of bootlicking as the rest. I guess the only difference is that they perceive themselves to be deserving of having their boots licked - despite the fact that they will happily lick the boots of Musk, Gates and the rest themselves.




  • I was going to say radicalism (as a political concept) refers to the practice of looking for the root causes of society’s ills as opposed to merely fixating on (if we’re going to be charitable about it) superficial ones as reformist and reactionary politics would have us to do, and this makes radicalism an inherently left-wing thing and something reactionaries (and most of their reformist allies) will take extreme measures to prevent - including completely handing the state and it’s repressive apparatus over to reactionaries (ie, what we call fascism today).

    But you know what? This…

    Radical is just further left than reformer.

    …is, so far, the only half-way decent response I’ve ever had to this in about five year’s time - so I’m just going to leave it as is.