Instead of: Of course they’re going to say they like their government, otherwise they’ll be punished

Say: I am a western chauvinist who thinks people in the global south lack agency

He is a beast on the tennis courts, makes sense.

Most definitely, I didn’t mean to imply that this was itself an instance focused on socialism. Just that it tends to avoid the pitfalls of US-centric Reddit culture in a way I find welcoming and easy to adhere to as it matches my values, which happen to underpin my Marxism. As a (mostly) lurker with limited time, browsing local and reading comments is pretty great for me after a hard day of work.

For context, I naively joined Lemmy.world when making my initial Lemmy account. Moved here within a month or two, lol, cause it was too much like Reddit.

Another thing I like about Lemmy.ml - being a general purpose instance it has a lot going on in terms of topics, and stays federated with instances that I may want to engage with for the purposes of casual conversation or to occasionally discuss politics when I have the time (like today, while recovering from an illness). I appreciate you and all the other admins and community mods here for keeping it this way.

“but they (AES states) don’t have elections”

You show them the rich political structures of Cuba, Vietnam, China, etc. that have multiple legislative and executive organs with elected representatives (e.g., in Cuba, members of the municipal, provincial, and national assemblies, are all elected directly by the people last I checked) with large groups of citizens such as workers councils and trade unions helping craft policy and nominate delegates. Just because they don’t always directly elect the president or head of state doesn’t negate their robust democratic processes…

“but they’re only allowed to vote for one party”

You show them the other parties in AES countries that have representatives in the aforementioned assemblies, but which must align with the principles of the socialist state based on their constitutions, as well as the counter example of the US and other western liberal states where any party with power only serves capital and not the people…

“but they can’t criticize their government”

You show them plenty of examples of citizens criticizing their government without reprisal, as well as statistics on their overall satisfaction with the job their government is doing, and how they only crack down on people trying to commit fraud, foment violence against the government, or otherwise exploit others…

“ahah, see, they ARE authoritarian because they didn’t let them do that and executed/imprisoned them, they’re political prisoners!!!”

No, dipshit, they’re just protecting everyone else from the asshole bourgeoisie in their country. Isn’t that supposed to be what you’re all about?

(just an example of some of the conversations I’ve had with my ‘leftist’ friends here in the good old USA, one of whom was actually Cuban American, lol)

Thank you for this, it’s a breath of fresh air. The rest of Lemmy (minus the explicitly socialist instances) has basically been Reddit-lite ever since June 2023, and it’s getting worse in some ways. I didn’t want to be a part of that even though I was also leaving Reddit at that time (but had been highly disillusioned with the platform and barely posted at that point), and found a good home here. I love it.

It won’t hurt them though, not when they get that bailout money from public funds so that only we have to suffer the consequences of their actions.

What can we realistically expect from this group?

It would be great if they could at least sanction Israel and the US in addition to what some of these states are already doing unilaterally, but short of blocking any further shipping of arms (many of these countries are positioned on or near key straits in the region, I guess) what else can they do other than direct conflict or more performative decrees from the same neoliberal-dominated institutions that are currently failing us?

Nice image! I was caught off-guard last night and just got a blurry pic from my phone.

Just watched a speech from Ibrahim Traore for the first time earlier today. It was very powerful. The four Sahel states are showing great fortitude and bravery as they stand up to NATO imperialism and the collaborators (i.e., traitors) in ECOWAS. Seeing the Burkinabe PM speak at the recent Sandinista celebration was fantastic too!

Thanks for helping me learn more about the other Sahel states and their united efforts.

100% spot on, sadly. The level of misogyny and other types of bigotry was the most surprising, when taken relative to the university environment in general.

Rod Farva level of stupid.

I have an Astell & Kern SR25 MKII DAP (digital audio player) and I use it quite frequently. The sound quality far surpasses what my phone can produce when connected to any of my speakers or headphones.

It plays FLAC files and any other audio file type you can think of. And it acts as an offline music library when needed (64 GB of memory plus a 1TB microSD).

The better the headphones/speakers I use, the more it outshines anything coming out of my other electronic devices. I use it almost every day.

In addition to the great suggestions others have already provided, check out Emma Goldman’s writings if you haven’t already. They might appeal to you and she has some interesting takes.

Here’s a good starting point: http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/goldman/GoldmanCW.html

Aww, lovely cat! I bet that white chest and belly fur is just the softest stuff ever!

Very interesting articles - both the phys.org one and journal submission it describes. I appreciate the research group’s use of solvent-free and one-pot reactions wherever possible, it really shows their commitment to finding the most sustainable overall process.

The aromatization steps using palladium (0) are of course standard processes used by the oil refining industry, but I wonder if there are other methods (maybe using sulfur?) that don’t involve the use of rare metals…probably wouldn’t have the same atom economy as using catalytic Pd though, I am just curious rather than criticizing their choice.

I first saw her Tiny Desk performance and became an instant fan. This album is under the radar in the US but is one of the top 10 I’ve heard over the past 2 years. Great choice, gon.

Seems like I read this same headline a few times each year. Soon, rampant heat illness/stroke is going to make the recent pandemic look like a tiny blip when it comes to human mortality data.