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Weydemeyer

@ Weydemeyer @lemmy.ml

Posts
18
Comments
112
Joined
3 mo. ago

  • 1 out of 3 Gen Zs in America like communism! Let's go Gen Z!!

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  • I think the full text of the report regarding this is enlightening:

    The survey also took Americans’ temperature about about capitalism, socialism, and even communism. Most Americans have favorable views of capitalism (59 percent) and unfavorable views of socialism (57 percent) and especially communism (86 percent).

    Some groups stand out with greater support for socialism than capitalism. For instance, more Democrats have positive views of socialism (67 percent) than capitalism (50 percent). Strong liberals lead the way with 82 percent having favorable views of socialism compared to 28 percent who feel positive toward capitalism. Among Americans under 30, 62 percent feel favorable toward socialism, and 50 percent feel favorable toward capitalism.

    Only 14 percent of Americans have favorable views of communism, while 86 percent have unfavorable views. Some groups like communism more than others. The percentages of Americans who feel favorable toward communism are as follows:

    34 percent under 30.

    29 percent of strong liberals.

    28 percent of residents in big cities.

    26 percent of African Americans.

    I pasted the whole thing here because there's a lot of interesting nuggets in there. On the surface, 59% having a favorable view of capitalism and 86% viewing communism unfavorably seems bad. But when you get into the details, I think it's very positive for us. Fully 98% of age 65+ folks see communism unfavorably; the results are incredibly skewed by age (which I know, it's not a substitute for class but it's useful from an informational standpoint). That point about Democrats not just seeing socialism more favorably than capitalism but seeing it that way by a huge margin is encouraging to me. As material conditions worsen I think those people will be the easiest to push in our direction - I know we have issues with Democratic voters, but I think it's reasonable to assume a very large number of them would be more inclined to support socialism or communism over outright fascism under certain conditions. Lastly, those points about big city residents and African Americans. Those results are not split by age. So given the shape of the curve of views of communism, I think it's reasonable two assume that younger people in those two age groups view communism favorably by well over 34%.

    I appreciate that Cato asked about communism and not just socialism. Having a favorable view of socialism will include a lot of people who just like AOC and universal healthcare. Not that those are bad things in themselves, but saying you like communism is much less ambiguous.

  • What show do you find relaxing even tho its weird it makes you feel that way?

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  • The old Top Gear with Clarkson, Hammond, and May. I feel weird watching it because Clarkson especially has become such an insufferable reactionary, and old shows really go hard on climate change skepticism. But when it's at it's best, I find watch three friends having a fun trip together to be very relaxing.

  • More than half of US families are one paycheck away from homelessness.

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  • I certainly don't disagree, but I think it's very useful to highlight how this has changed (IMO) in recent decades. I think there was a time when the boomer generation was earning relatively good incomes that allowed them to live comfortably and accumulate wealth (mainly in houses and the stock market). I think this arrangement between capital and the (predominantly white) working class created a situation where even those workers without much wealth could be "bought off" and swear allegiance to capitalism. This wasn't sustainable of course, as the postwar industrial boom and then the gains from neoliberalism were never sustainable. Couple that with the fall of the Eastern Bloc and with it the "threat of a good example", and I would say that this arrangement lasted as late as the GFC at most. I think this helps explain how older people today - even if they are solidly working class - might still be hostile to anything they think is "socialism" while younger generations do not share those opinions, it seems.

  • More than half of US families are one paycheck away from homelessness.

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  • I was reading Michael Roberts’ blog the other day, and he pointed out something similar. The official calculations for inflation significantly understate it for various reasons. However, if you look at actual labor hours needed to cover the essentials of life, and you use the median income amount from 1950 (for the US), then that number comes out about $102k per year. Said another way, for a standard of living based on real life, to have the standard of the median American in 1950, you would need to earn over $100k today. But if you take that 1950 median income and just adjust it for official inflation, you only get to like $42k.

  • Denmark’s Army Chief Says He’s Ready to Defend Greenland | Danish forces are moving to the island to show NATO—and Trump—that they’re serious about security.

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  • I think this is often the case with Trump. However, when this does happen, at some point along the way there’s usually hints dropped about what kind of “deal” could be made (like agreeing to buy a bunch of US military equipment). But with Greenland, there has been no indication at all that Trump is interested in budging from full ownership of the island.

  • Doomers take note

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  • “Sadness is a weapon of bourgeoisie” -Iosef Lilianovich Dros

  • I have the absolute worst reason for dual booting Linux and Windows

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  • Thanks - I've seen Winboat mentioned several times in the comments, I'm going to try that first.

  • Trump tells Cuba to 'make a deal, before it is too late'

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  • All Cuba has ever wanted, for decades, is for the US leave it alone and be allowed to trade with the rest of the world. Cuba has no means to fight back, so of course Trump and Rubio will pick on them.

  • Trump tells Cuba to 'make a deal, before it is too late'

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  • This is Rubio, I think. Toppling Cuba has been his #1 goal his entire political career.

  • Cuba defiant after Trump says island to receive no more Venezuelan oil or money

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  • There really are little to no economic concessions Cuba can make, given the status of the blockade on the country. If the “deal” was just to let Trump build his own hotels on the island or something, Cuba might even accept that. Given this and who is in Trump’s cabinet, I think it’s reasonable to assume the only “deal” on the table is to accept being governed as US colony with Rubio as the viceroy.

    As brutal as cutting off oil from Venezuela will be, the Cuban people got through the Special Period, I think they will survive Trump.

  • I have the absolute worst reason for dual booting Linux and Windows

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  • I haven’t heard of WinBoat before, I will check that out thank you.

  • I have the absolute worst reason for dual booting Linux and Windows

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  • It’s been a few years since I tried making my Zune work on Linux, I should give it another try, thanks.

  • I have the absolute worst reason for dual booting Linux and Windows

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  • It really is a great little device. I believe there has to be a market out there for a Linux device similar to it, something just for music / radio / podcasts.

  • "Basement with Supplies", Soviet poster, 1973

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  • Respectfully, the two things you are trying to compare are not really comparable in any meaningful way.

    Edit: If I am being as generous as possible, I suppose you could stretch the definition of “colonialism” to include Tsarist Russia and Siberia (not sure I would agree, but let’s call it that). But even then, by the time you get to the USSR I don’t see how you could call it that, as opposed to the USSR literally just developing part of the Union.

  • Shots fired...good thing Storm Troppers can't hit anything

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  • These comparisons feel like people trying to compare Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth and asking which was the better athlete.

  • we need more users

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  • The source data shows that while active users are down, the number of posts and comments are near all-time highs. While you need new users to help counteract churn, I think the higher post/comments count points to what I think a lot of people feel here: that quality seems to keep getting better and better.

    Regarding how to bring more people in, I personally like how different lemmy servers have slightly different characteristics but each seems to appeal to larger groups. I see a future where there’s probably a small-ish number of large servers that cover broad groups of people.

  • Why did you decide to join Lemmy?

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  • Because once the news broke of the Ellisons buying US TikTok (and their transparent reasons for doing so), it became clear to me that for the free and open internet, “winter is coming”.

    Oct 7th and the global outpouring of support for Palestinians (and trashing of the reputation of Israel) was a huge wake-up call to the ruling classes. I think until then, they were largely content with controlling the narratives via traditional media spaces. The aftermath of Oct 7 taught them that social media and the internet cannot be ignored and in fact must controlled. It’s not like anyone under 65 is watching Fox News or CNN, and not many reading the NYT. All of the actions we have seen in the last 2 years - making sure Facebook / Google / Twitter / Reddit and now TikTok have tightly controlled messaging, requiring IDs and verification, etc - are pointing towards a future where free expression online is severely limited. I don’t want to be a part of that.

    And I do believe that it’s important to get out there and discuss things that are important to me with others (Palestinian and indigenous liberation, communism, online privacy). I’m not happy to just retreat into my own bubble. That is ultimately the reason I joined (I was of course already included to using the fediverse as I’ve long appreciated FOSS and decentralized systems and non-commercialized things in general).

  • Greenlandic parties in joint statement: We do not want to be Americans. We are not Americans, we are not Danes, we are Greenlanders.

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  • It should be possible for a people to say “We would like our autonomy” and expect other nations to say in response, “Understood, and we will ally with you to defend such a notion.”

    It should. But then again, the people of Gaza wanted to not be genocided and the world stood by and let it happen. While I fully agree with your sentiment, the specifics of the world right now might require a less than ideal approach.

    Europe should say that, of course. But their weak talk so far suggests they probably won’t defend Greenlanders even if they are a part of Denmark; and if so if Greenland were independent at the moment there’s no reason to think that would somehow give them more of a spine.

    I understand and agree with the sentiment that Greenland is a colonized place that should be independent. I also understand that telling colonized people “not right now” and “it’s too dangerous” are the lines the colonizers always use. But that might actually be the case in this moment. The reality is that the US/Israel axis is acting as if the world is theirs. It feels like we really are in 1939, only the US/Israel axis has far more relative power than the Germany/Italy axis ever did.

  • Greenland: Vance warns Europe to take Trump 'seriously'

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  • They know just how bad it will look and how unpopular it will be if they just take Greenland by force. They’re trying to convince the Danes to sell it under duress to give it a veneer of legitimacy.