TheBucklessProphet

It's more accurate to say that the British prevented either themselves (through inaction) or China (by treaty/law) from having any practical control. If you'd bother to read the wiki article OP linked you'd know. China should have had jurisdication, but Britain techincally had (imperialist) jurisdication. The result was a no-man's land until Britain finally gave up.

EDIT: missed a word

What the fuck are you talking about? In actual reality it was a product of capitalism. Specifically British imperialist capitalism in China. It took until the mid 80’s (40 years after the Communists came to power) for the British to allow China to have control over the area and it was turned in to a park less than a decade later, clearly indicating that the Communists were in no way interested in continuing the existence of the dystopian walled city.

Is there a Charlie Cinematic Universe now? lol

For real, who seriously had the thought “you know what, we need another adaptation of that one book from decades ago. We could try adapting some of that guy’s other work, but why bother? I know we tried the goofy, fun spin and the dark, gritty spin, but I’m sure we missed an angle on that one kid’s book.”

More importantly how did the guy who had that thought not get kicked out of the pitch meeting immediately?

“Who controls the past now controls the future. Who controls the present now controls the past.” - “Testify”, Rage Against the Machine (also Orwell in 1984, but I wanted to mention the RATM song since it slaps so hard)

I thought I replied to this message, but it doesn't appear to have posted.

I'm thrilled that the worker's got sick time and credit where it's due to anyone in the admin who helped make that happen. It doesn't change the fact that the admin, with the help of AOC and others in Congress broke a strike. That's a terrible, dangerous, anti-worker precedent to set, and shame on anyone who voted for it and Biden for signing it.

If I ask someone for $20 bucks for lunch and they kick me in the shin before giving me the money, am I supposed to be thankful and forget the fact that they just kicked me in the shin? Congress kicked workers in the proverbial, collective shin by blocking them from their right to strike.

Here's a decent article from Jacobin written by an RWU representative making exactly that point: https://jacobin.com/2023/04/railroad-workers-united-aoc-strike-vote-rank-and-file

And here's a decent rundown of the situation from a decent socialist source (even if it is Trot): https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/04/19/jaco-a19.html

Saying that these places are socialist isn’t gonna work because these people don’t know what that word means either.

True. Exactly why these people need to shut up until they read more (or any) theory lol

Anyway, you can argue that these countries are communist because they’re working to build communism, the same way that a communist party is communist.

Indeed, good point. I do think it ought to be an educational priority to get people to understand and more commonly use this definition of "communist" as opposed to the "classless, moneyless" definition.

True, fair points. When I see the "real communism has never been tried" type statements, my head tends to get stuck on the definition being used by the person making the statement (i.e. as the classless, moneyless society). I do, however, recognize and stand behind the definition you're pointing out.

The quotes you've provided illustrate perfectly the value of reading theory.

What I want to see is for her and anyone else calling themselves a socialist to work to be a socialist power outside of the Democratic Party. The DNC is rotted to the core by the money and influence of the capitalist class in a way that, if not irreversible, is hopeless in the short to medium term. Just look at all of the explicitly capitalist Democratic leaders, including younger ones like Buttigieg.

If you want to pursue socialism, the DNC is the wrong place to do it. Hell, looking at history I think putting eggs in the electoralism bucket is fundamentally flawed. Look at the failed German revolution that helped make room for the ascension of the Nazis thanks to “socialists” making extreme compromises and undercutting socialist revolutionaries to instead work within bourgeois political parties.

I think part of the problem is that most people (including self-professed socialists and communists) don’t read any theory.

AES isn’t communism, that’s kind of the point. Socialism is the next stage on the road to the theorized end stage that is communism. Communism will never sustainably be the organization of society 5 minutes (or even 5 years or probably 5 decades) after the revolution. That shit takes time and a lot of work, and AES systems were/are the attempts at doing the necessary work to reorganize society and eliminate the bourgeoise and their influence through socialist (as opposed to capitalist) proletarianization.

For anyone who wasn’t previously convinced that AOC was a simple Dem operative rather than the socialist she was masquerading as, here you go. No serious socialist would back the reelection of an old white dinosaur who broke the rail strike’s back the way Biden did. The fact that DSA didn’t revoke her membership after that is a black mark on them as an organization.

Try working out to the Gimp version. I imagine the experience will be significantly different lol