On the surface it sells a false promise

Below the surface it’s telling you “just be a rentseeker. Look down upon those who work for a living.”

Like literally one of the grossest themes is the condescending tone of the rich dad towards workers like the poor dad. He literally considers being a teacher a wasted life because he’s so blinded by greed and pursuit of money (which is freedom and power).

It’s a gross hyper capitalist outlook on the world.

The only things of “educational value” in it are his discussion on assets vs liabilities which, considering likely everyone here lives under capitalism, is worth knowing and understanding, although you absolutely don’t need this book to learn that stuff.

The rest is a mixture of hopium, lies, disgusting myths about capitalism and other shit.

That seems like the most honest assessment of things. I know I tend towards a Soviet/Cuba bias, but the only possible way to see this as anything other than the US just being gigantic assholes and bullies (which is still an understatement) is if you adopt fully xenophobic, racist, whatever else views of the non-US world. That’s why there’s sort of two contradictory (but also not really) paths of domestic US propaganda.

One side focuses on like “we must secure every resource we can and kill everyone who opposes it! ‘Might makes right’, so let’s be mighty!” Hoorah, brother 😎

And the other path is “we don’t like killing people. And yeah, sure, the US has made mistakes. Maybe a lot of mistakes! But we have the right intentions and we must continue to strive towards our stated goals. Anyone who opposes us supports [list of every bad thing that the US probably also does]”

You let people take the koolaid that tastes better to them, just as long as they support the military when, say, concentration camp victims get sick of the shit and do something about it.

I guess time will tell, but I do think the amount of people in both groups is dwindling. People are moving further from “hell yeah, fuck around and find out brother” dipshit thinking to “well, we’ve made mistakes…” and some of those people are moving towards “ok, those weren’t mistakes. I was told a lie and willingly believed that my entire life. And now I’m fucking pissed because my government is actually the evil one.” I don’t want to pretend the furthest group is large, because it’s not, but I can see it growing as people are exposed to constant coverage of Palestine. It becomes harder and nearly impossible to think “this is our best ally? We support this without limitation?”

The issue with a movement towards anti-imperialism, anti-war, anti-supporting wars, etc. is it’s very en vogue right now. It’s been 23 years since that beautiful September day ( ✈️ 🏙️ ). If there’s ever another 9/11 style event, and if one doesn’t organically happen I can bet infinite money the CIA is working on something for decades now, Americans are gonna do exactly what “liberal Zionists” in Israel did on 10/7. Like a light switch go from “we can work together!” to “I am so sorry, friend. I must nuke you.”

But anyway, all that to say, people believe the story they want to make themselves feel good. They never ask why Cuba would want missiles or why the Soviets were involved or even what the Soviet Union was. They don’t ask any questions at all.

That’s probably the hardest part for me to deal with if I ever discuss these things irl. It’s like I can give them an hour long history lesson, and if I’m bothering to do so the person is probably receptive to it, so they go “oh ok.” But the next time something happens, perhaps a pipeline is blown up in Europe, “the fucking Russians!” is the immediate response. It’s as if all the bad things and lies are in the past and can be seen and acknowledged. The future is just truth and justice and everything good. And the present doesn’t exist at all. You close your eyes, and when you open them the future is still bright, and the past of death and lies is longer than ever.

“In 1962, the USSR secretly tried to install nuclear-armed missiles in Cuba. After the U.S. imposed a naval quarantine, it withdrew. Soviet leaders saw the retreat as “bordering on humiliation.” The U.S. won wide praise for deftly managing the crisis.”

Oh, is that what happened, The Hill?

Because I recall reading/learning that after Castro overthrew the US-favored assclown Batista in a popular revolution, the US via CIA and other secret orgs funded the gathering together of ex-Cuban, now American, counterrevolutionaries, who had fled in the wake of Castro and Che cracking down on those pieces of shit. Eventually this resulted in the somewhat comical Bay of Pigs failed invasion of Cuba by the US- oh I mean by the American ex-Cubans working with CIA money and backing… but not the US official sanctioning. Classic. Btw if the US gov say they’ll pay for all your shit but won’t go as far as openly claiming you if shit hits the fan you can be sure shit is about to hit the biggest fan and you are about to die.

Anyway, the US had also conveniently and brazenly placed Jupiter missiles with nuclear payloads inside Turkey within easy striking distance of the Kremlin and Moscow. A massive provocation which the US would never tolerate in a role reversal (proven immediately after!).

So the Cuba and USSR work out a plan to move nukes, secretly, to Cuba so that the next time the US decides to start fucking around they can lean back and go “oh? What do you think about these big boys?” This effectively gave Cuba full protection from further US invasions because that would result in nuclear missiles landing in the continental US. It also allowed the USSR to be on equal footing again, with a counter to the US’s Turkish nukes. Win-win.

US: “Cuba and USSR consent, yes, but didn’t you forget to ask someone else?”

The United States caught wind of the nukes and, somewhat understandably, but also in a fully hypocritical fashion simultaneously, flipped its fucking shit. They were talking about invading Cuba still anyway and I guess just sort of “tanking” any resulting nuclear fallout to send a message of strength to the Soviets/world (ie that the Americans are fucking insane and willing to die in nuclear apocalypse before allowing Soviet victory. Not the first or last time this happened!). Luckily this all did get resolved basically only because the Soviets finally blinked, probably because they knew the Americans were actually insane enough to die. Of course the promise with Kennedy, before his brains got splattered all over his wife, was that the Soviets openly withdraw their missiles and the US would also withdraw the Jupiter missiles. Pretty sure the latter did not happen… the US got a little distracted, one might say.

So, the suggestion that the USSR was the aggressor is fucking imperial propaganda. No other term for it. You can argue the Soviets made mistakes, whatever, but to frame them as the ones to cause the crisis is purely and fully a lie. Unless you’re into victim blaming (the US is).

I also don’t think the withdrawal of the Soviets, who had gotten concessions from JFK, was seen as embarrassing for the USSR more so like “holy fuck, the US is batshit insane… this is worse than we ever imagined.” After the US military and intelligence reaction to events.

Again, imperial propaganda framing absolute bloodthirst and an objectively insane reaction based on a chain of events begun by an over reaction to the overthrow of a dictator. These right wing warhawk types think that immediately smashing the “withdraw right the fuck now or we will invade you, nukes be damned!” at the first slight reaction to your actions… is good?

They still act like this btw. Eg the retaliation against “Iranian-backed” MENA region militants recently. The US is doing a fucking genocide in Palestine, bombing Yemen again, and threatening the entire region. Three military die in a place the US never belonged to begin with and immediately everyone with Col or Gen in their name is screaming to the sky about nuking Tehran.

Dogshit, batshit country

I appreciate it, although I don’t publicly “complain” much about it because my life is incredibly privileged and cushy all things considered. I’m kinda conflicted if I should talk more about it since I know, or suspect, there are tons of people currently dealing with sleep issues which ruin their lives but they don’t speak out or seek help because it’s embarrassing or they just get told “drink some coffee!” Btw, on a side note to everyone, if someone ever confides what is likely an ongoing medical issue they’re dealing with, like sleep problems, and it’s not like “oh I stayed up last night to watch the new whatever” but like “man, I haven’t slept in a week…” don’t give dismissive “help” like “have you tried drinking coffee?” Or “just sleep more!” People legitimately used to tell me that all the time… even when I was undergoing exams with doctors, coworkers and stuff were like “you should sleep more.” Bro, if I slept any more (back then) I’d be legally dead.

Well, anyway, the only reason I wrote about it here was because of the dream/nightmare stuff. People usually have a mixture of horror and interest when I tell them about my dreams, so, figured I’d share. Also snuck in a little narcolepsy PSA there. Shout out to all the sleep apnea people too. I don’t have it, but it’s much more common disruptor of sleep. It’s also much easier to treat than narcolepsy (not a doctor, but this is my understanding). So if you snore or were told you snore a lot and you’re always tired in the day no matter how much sleep… go to a doctor. Bad sleep obviously degrades life quality in every way and also leads to heart conditions and all types of bad shit. (PSA over)

CW: probably(?) incredibly scary dreams/nightmares to many people. Venture forth carefully I guess. Hard for me to gauge scary levels of my own experiences

I have (diagnosed, btw ™️) narcolepsy. It’s somewhat famous, maybe infamous?, but in my experience few people know anything about the reality of living with it. It’s treated as the “haha, guy go sleep” disease.

Well, that’s certainly part of it. The other part, before you’re diagnosed, which for almost all suffers is mid-20s and onwards (symptoms manifest and become worse and worse for people into adolescence and peak in your 30s. Lifelong, chronic) is a living nightmare, pun… intended?, of totally unregulated sleep/awake cycles. The problem with my brain, literally, is I don’t have normal sleep cycles. When I go to sleep I enter REM snap immediately. Within a couple minutes, unlike almost humans who have cycles of deep sleep and REM throughout their sleep.

So the TLDR is unmedicated I will have no sleep schedule. I will always be asleep but always awake. I would sleep (this is absolutely zero exaggeration) 10-16 hours per day, sometimes more, never less. How does one function like that? You don’t. You sleep at work, you sleep driving (…), you sleep on the toilet, while reading, everywhere.

Going from consciousness directly into dreams, btw, is the exact perfect recipe for nightmares (also cool good dreams sometimes). I used to tell people my nightmares until I saw their reactions and I stopped.

For example, I had (past tense because now I’m medicated) no less than three unique sleep paralysis demons. Oh yeah, I had sleep paralysis multiple times a day, btw. It became so normal to me that I quite literally no longer felt the impending doom often associated with it…

Demon one I guess I’ll call “my girlfriend demon.” (I’ve never named these before, but just for descriptions here). This demon would visit me mostly when I was napping or regularly sleeping. It’s impossible to explain why or how, but it always gave off a feminine energy to me, hence the “gf demon” nickname. In my dream’s eye I would feel and see, never clearly of course, the dark figure, small in height, standing at the foot of my bed usually. Sometimes off to the side in the curtains of the window. At the worst times, directly beside me. Staring at me. Encroaching upon me. Slowly suffocating me until I woke up, heart racing, sometimes punching at air and pillows.

Another demon I had was “closet guy.” Ah, classic closet guy. He’d visit me standing in or in front of my closet. Staring at me facelessly. A dark shadow, tall or maybe the same height as me. As I drifted from sleep to consciousness and back and forth he’d sometimes get closer, sometimes stay away, always filling me with dread and the feeling that can only be described as doom.

Another reoccurring hallucination (did I mention that’s a symptom?) I had was sound based rather than visual. The worst time was also the first time. Over 10 years ago now, I took a nap on my couch after an early day at work. I mean I got off early for some reason. I laid down, snap, instant nightmare realm. I heard this fucking pounding. Pounding, slamming, pounding on my door. Enough that should have burst the hinges off and whatever hell creature was behind it should’ve come in. But they never did. The pounding noise just went on and on for what felt like hours but was probably a couple mins of REM. I was in full on sleep paralysis. I tried to roll myself off the couch. I tried to move a finger, a foot, nothing worked. I knew someone or something was trying to kill me. Was it my roommate? Why was he pounding? I’m trying harder than I’ve ever tried to just move anything. To wake up. To get up. Eventually, of course, I was able to move my fingers or foot or whatever and the paralysis breaks and I’m fully awake, heart racing with no fucking clue what the fuck just happened and wondering if it was real or a dream.

On the good side of dreams, I used to have what people call lucid dreams all the time. Now, spoiler, these always devolved into absolute hellscapes. Like some monkeys paw shit. “You can dream anything you want and control it… for a while. Then everything becomes warped and more and more demonic as your control slips.” I can’t remember right now any specific dreams like this beyond like, yes, full horny mode, lots of sex dreams. Very vivid dreams. The type where the dream person is so real that they basically are just real. Even years later there’s a woman in my dreams that I could swear is real. I’ve ridden the bus with her hundreds of times, held her hand, she’s practically my girlfriend. I guess the definition of good dream is subjective though since I enjoy that dream very much… then I wake up to reality, which now days is loneliness. Hmm.

My world, which used to be like a waking dream, in the sense that I was very happy, had a gf, very in shape, etc. but was haunted by these constant nightmares and paralysis events, has now inverted. My nightmares are now my day to day life. I no longer dream. Not memorably anyway. All that’s left is the nightmare of this world, worse than any my sleeping mind could ever create.

(I’m self censoring the absolute worst nightmares (outside of paralysis) because they’re 1) based on real and horrific events that don’t need to be gone over here but did happen to me… or around me rather (spoiler: seeing people murdered) and 2) the specifics would make me too uniquely identifiable. Suffice to say, imagine you saw people, plural, murdered in front of you irl and you get to relive that nightly for years. Luckily I rarely dream anymore…)

The other day at a dinner irl someone said they liked Toby Keith because he shut down the Dixie Chicks (boomers…). I said “but Toby Keith was wrong. We invaded Iraq and killed millions of Iraqis” and I shit you not midway through my statement I got an eye roll from the original person, perhaps expected, but a third person chimed in “yeah but he wasn’t saying to kill Iraqis he was defending the troops!” I said “why do they need support? What kind of argument is that? The end result of the war he defended was millions of dead Iraqis and thousands of US soldiers, if you care so much about them.” “Yeah but it’s just like one thing. He can care about both. He just wanted to defend soldiers.” [original person again] “I like him [Toby]. He’s a patriot.”

I just kinda did the pull my lips against my teeth and think about how shitty this country is thing after that. I gave them all the information they need to see why that’s a stupid and shitty thing to say and, apparently, get incredibly worked up over to butt into a conversation over. An entire country of potential SS soldiers in waiting. I’m obviously extremely aware of this at all times, but I always hope to be a little wrong.

More slop for the most Nazified of his base

Biden supporters saying anti-Israel Americans should be fired, shot, deported

Trump hogs saying the same thing

“But you better fucking vote for Biden!”

I’m not a political cuck like that. If democrats want my vote then put up an ardent anti-Zionist, anti-NATO, anti-war hawk of some sort. Make “day one until my last day Israel won’t receive a single dollar or bomb under my admin” a campaign promise.

How sad is it my demands aren’t even “make things marginally better” they’ve now become “stop being fucking Nazis.”

Clearly that demand, which is sane and rational to any outside observer, won’t be met now or perhaps for a long time (although Israel’s days left as a country seem extremely short tbh).

Holy shit a reactionary in the wild

We must cherish this one guys

Don’t make it run away!

She definitely still just uncritically repeats shit, but yeah, my parents are somehow actually… not bad when considering the average right wing slant of the country. They’re still right wing but not like bloodthirsty right wing.

I will forever give them both credit for never forcing ideology on me past a certain age. Like 10 years old or so. I was able to actively opt out of going to church and the Boy Scouts. They definitely harassed me about “going to hell” and shit but ultimately left the choice up to me. That’s still some level of abuse and annoying, but the stories I’ve heard from others, well, my parents were saints compared to that shit.

The NLRB has been and is clearly on Capitalists’ chopping blocks since forever. Even though, somewhat ironically, its existence was meant (or has had the effect anyway) to tamp down on militant labor movements in the US. If SCOTUS eviscerates NLRB, and why wouldn’t they? Biden nor any other dem has lifted a finger to stop them so far, it will be sort of like closing the loop of labor relations in the US.

Calling it a loop or a cycle is actually rather hopeful of me. It could just be the end of linear progression. Capitalist exploitation was crazy high, militant labor movements squashed it back down, capitalists create a legalized relief valve that squishes out the most powerful parts of labor actions, unions go along with it, unions are slowly crushed, capitalists say “hey, why do we still compromise by having the NLRB?”, capitalists erase the NLRB and workers are back in working conditions like late 1800s as far as owner/worker relations.

Does militant labor action grow from there causing the formation of massive unionization efforts, general strikes, perhaps some cough coughing of billionaire owners, perhaps some sabocoughing of means of production and such? I dunno. I like to hope so, but, I don’t have any faith that people will do so. Will it be a line straight into the ground or more of a sine wave or parabola shape that is almost at the bottom of the curve? Hmm.

As always, gotta end my thoughts with “we’re fucked.”

If this is even discussed at all it will turn into some culture war bullshit when it’s very obvious the solution is provide people with what they need to live (and want to live. Barely surviving isn’t enough nor should it be the goal).

It’s funny/crazy/sad how the answer has always been “pay better wages, more paid time off, minimize and seek to end fear of loss of basic needs for life water, food, shelter.”

The US literally can’t even get to stage 0. Make sure everyone has a safe, private home. And I mean a home home not a “homeless people can stay here for 7 days then they gotta move on” situation.

We have to fight the right wing, which as always includes democrats, to even provide nutritious meals to every kid. Even then if you get them, through constant shaming, to finally allow free breakfast and lunch, they purposely seek out the cheapest possible food vendors who serve slop which is barely acceptable for a dog.

We should have free, prepared food funded by taxes for everyone in every community. Not dinky soup kitchens run by volunteers and churches and stuff, which is very nice of them to do, but it just simply shouldn’t work like that.

They act as if living is a privilege because they believe that. The mind and attitude of the average American is such a twisted, disgusting view of humanity and our responsibilities to ourselves and others.

Oh cool 3/4 of them gave full, straight into the camera face-shots.

The only militaries who behave like this are those who know, or think they know, that they’ll never face a single sliver of justice or retribution for their actions. They don’t even fear their own commanders, clearly, who in any sort of real, organized military would have them all court martialed (or whatever equivalent) and probably dismissed from the military pretty promptly.

But they all look young. At most in their 30s, but probably much younger. Today they “know” there won’t be justice for them. I wonder if there will be justice or even vengeance in the next 10, 20, 50 years?

That’s something I think about a lot. I’m not exactly young, in my mid 30s, but even I have a solid 40 years left and probably more like 50 assuming crazy shit doesn’t get me. I think about people in the US state dept around my age who are actively doing pro-genocide propaganda for a state that may not even exist in a shorter time than anyone can imagine. What happens to them in a couple decades? Maybe nothing. Probably nothing. It’s a crazy gamble in my view though for such a nothing payoff. A total selling out of their souls and their life potential in support of a doddering old man and a failed state in a slowly collapsing empire (two failed states).

I’m reminded of how indignant the Nazis were (the too few who got tried) at the Nuremberg trials. Basically their arguments hinged on some combination of “what jurisdiction do you have to try me?” and “what we did was legal in Germany!” It’s too bad the US squandered any sort of uniting lessons that could’ve been taken from those trials of men who saw themselves as untouchable but very quickly, probably faster than they could’ve imagined, found their leaders gone and no one willing to defend them.

I try to imagine standing on the trap-door device of a gallows and thinking about specific actions like taking stupid pics for instagram that led to an unsympathetic tribunal condemning me. All I can think is how utterly embarrassing that would be. You called yourself a hero while you murdered civilians by the thousands and mocked the underwear of likely dead people.

I guess in the end that’s one thing that separates people. Some of us feel shame. I don’t know that these guys know what shame is as individuals or as a state. I don’t think you can rehabilitate someone who does this. I don’t think I care to even see it tried.

Makes sense. I figured it wouldn’t be Qing since Mao/the communists broadly (and the nationalists like Kai-Shek for a time) were known for opposing and defeating the resulting warlords after the fall of the Qing.

I suppose it could just represent Mao, who stood for the incredibly poor peasant class, holding down the remaining and emergent (during the warlord period) wealthy or bourgeoisie. Forcing them to kneel in shame or something like that. The figure also appears ghostly or ethereal. Maybe like he’s resting his hand upon a now-dead ruling class. Lenin is sitting on the (I think) Tsarist statue head in a similar symbolic depiction.

Trotsky on the ground made me laugh a little. I assume this was done by a Stalin-era Soviet artist? Also who is the person Mao has his hand on? Chiang Kai-Shek? A peasant? A former warlord or fallen communist leader?

I used to watch that show when I had insomnia years ago. It was on crackle or something back then so I could watch it on my phone. It worked like 90% of the time in a few minutes my brain was stabbing itself to death from boredom. (This isn’t a joke)

I’ve been reminding people for what feels like a decade now that Jerry dated a 16 or 17 year old publicly. He admitted to it, so it’s not even alleged. He was in his 30s btw.

He also publicly defended the “Kramer” actor following his insanely racist outburst during a standup show.

He’s always been a bit of an unlikeable asshole. His Seinfeld (the show) character isn’t far off from his actual persona.

In related news, US continues to undermine all of its own attempts at presenting itself as a legitimate state.

Also, Hasanabi got in at the last possible second to avoid claims of “interviewing a terrorist.”

Address to liberals in my digital walls: Yes I’m aware right wingers are lying and doing it anyway. Also it’s not “illegal” to interview or speak to “terrorists” despite what the Nazis of reddit would prefer to believe. Providing material support to them would be a different case. Not morally, but legally.

If I put the cheese out too obviously the mouse will know what I am doing

But if I eat some cheese in the corner and, “oppsie” drop a small piece in a sticky trap area… I might just awaken to an angry mouse chirping at me.

You still haven’t given an example of wtf you’re talking about.

Who the fuck are these mysterious (assumedly) pro-Stalin, pro-USSR, etc. “tankies” who ALSO are pro-USA/pro-capitalism?

Just give a name! Find a person in history or today and type their name into your text box and hit send. Is this asking a lot?

If they use it to mean “person who doesn’t get bogged down in stupid details over the USSR (or China) just for the sake of hating a communist country” then fine. I don’t care. It just gets old seeing it used as “person left of me, which means they’re bad” by the most historically illiterate motherfuckers on the planet. The kind of fuckers who say they want socialism and then cry every time someone protests in a street. Do you see what I mean? It’s not the word, I don’t care in the end. I get like a death threat per day from random Nazis who (ironically) call me antisemitic for criticizing Israel. I’ll take tankie over that, given the choice. But it’s worth acknowledging the people calling me or us or whoever “tankie” are absolutely just the dumbest fuckers online. That’s all.