SeeingRed [he/him]

新年快乐！Happy chinese new year everyone! Hope your year is full with good luck and good organizing.

Cell tower disguised as a tree in a historic site in china.

I know right! He is full of liberal brain worms. He’s not fundamentally a bad person, so I’ve been trying my best to counter his negative opinions, but it’s an uphill battle.

I had mentioned my passing desire to go on tour to the DPRK (since it’s not very far from where I am now). He had said that if given the choice he would rather be shot than visit North Korea. My response was “well that’s certainly a choice” hoping he would get how rediculous he sounded. Luckily my other friend pointed out that what he said was really dumb. I then had to tell them that they literally know nothing about North Korea and that they shouldn’t blindly fall for propoganda. The conversation moved on after that, but it was an odd thing to hear someone say.

Fascist being collectivist is outside my typical understanding of the term. The fact that they used it in that way is wild. I mostly heard this term in my phycology class where they referred to the west as more individualist and Asia (including non-socialist countries) more as being collectivist. The implication was that in the west individuals are more likely to put themselves(and sometimes their immediate family) before society, but in the collectivist mindset, the individual was more likely to put themselves after society. This typically applied to duties, behaviour, and sacrifice when it was discussed in the class.

This is something that I need to interrogate since I haven’t really thought about it for several years since I was a lib in university. My initial thought now is that socialist society engenders solidarity with your fellow workers, allowing you to see the benefit in helping other people. Honestly though, I shouldn’t speculate too much without further investigation.

I was near a US embassy today and there was an “Iran protest”. But it primarily consisted of brand new flags, and mass printed signs which either praised the US for having troops in their country or said “MIGA”… It didn’t make any sense.

The 12k dead line was placed unironically next to a made up low-balled death toll for Gaza as if it was comparable.

There were israel flags as well in the crowd.

Also the police seemed to keep a much more respectful distance compared to the times I was there for Palestine marches. Also no drones overhead.

The concept of geeks often felt like it was tied up with aspects of oppression. The concept of simulated ethnicity is an interesting perspective on it. This ties in with the liberal mentality that your “class” is tied up in the aspects of culture that you subscribe to and surround yourself with (e.g. the tv shows you consume and the activities you participate in define your position in the class hierarchy). It’s a false front on reality. Geeks are outcasts socially, but they still reify capitalist relations in their perceived superiority to non-geeks. Framing this as simulated ethnicity calls it out as being artificial and an attempt to benefit from the racial stereotypes without taking on the same negatives those stereotypes come with. It shows the desire to gain the perceived benefits of oppression without the actual consequences of oppression.

So instead of a straw hat it’s a helmet with a brim? Not only have the coopted a modern day epic about revolutionary liberation and tearing down oppression, but they can’t even get the symbolism correct. It’s truly sad. I see some people being excited about this as a wave of revolutions, but i haven’t been able to dig in enough to understand how many of these are just attempts at colour revolution.

I appreciate the line that states most of their business is not affected because Europe and the middle east still buy a lot of stuff. America realizing they don’t matter anymore is fun to watch.

I’m in a similar boat. I ended up getting rid of my car and a bunch of other expenses that were not bringing me joy and were a drain on me. As a result, I’ve been able to save a lot as a bulwark against the need to constantly perform. It doesn’t help though, because I still need to go to a place I don’t want to be for too many hours per day. It’s not like I could survive indefinitely if I stop working.