Stop being afraid of hearing your own voice. Your main purpose as a communist is to be an educator. So speak up and educate.
Practice public speaking.
Stop leaving your politics at the door whenever you enter public spaces.
Study theory, history, language, personal, and technical skills to help mold yourself into a better revolutionary.
Learn to be fearless in taking up responsibility.
Practice self discipline. Cut out needless distractions that take up too much time.
Link up with comrades across the web, organize, and dedicate yourselves to spreading communist thought on the internet superhighway.
Build the party. Serve the people. Lead the charge.
Support popular movements, domestic and foreign.
Don’t blindly fear failure. Failure is your greatest teacher. You pick yourself back up and try something different.
The butterflies in your stomach isn’t fear, it’s excitement and determination. It’s your body preparing itself for whatever obstacle you face. Never let a butterfly be the reason for your complacency.
Complacency is the enemy of study. You must be tireless in your learning and teaching.
Guard against conceit. You think your methods are better than the ones from a different ideology? Go outside and prove it.
Most importantly: the struggle will always continue. No matter what concessions are granted. No matter what small victories are won. No matter how more bearable a bad situation becomes. Struggle under capitalism and imperialism will continue to exist. It is your responsibility to recognize that struggle. Once recognized, participate. Once you participate, win.
Ask your parents for a 10pm curfew instead of 8pm.
Oh, ask them for the iPhone x too.
Eat your vegetables
Pick up an actual history book, talk to people who lived in Soviet countries, and actually learn about the horrible ideology you support.
Well I mean I did, but I think you should have a look too
Nostalgia is a very biased thing to use.
Either way: communism/stalinism/leninusm/maoism/marxism suck, they are awful ideologies and anyone who espouses support for them is a naive fool.
You: “refer to people who lived in the ussr and ask em what they thought about it”
Me: *gives you screenshots of 4 different articles stating how much most Russians loved and missed the ussr*
You: “Nope that’s bias that doesn’t count.”
🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
How many of them are people who lived under communist regimes and aren’t people in their twenties, who never lived under the communist regimes? Is that number shown?
Again: you’re a naive fool if you think communism is a good alternative to social democracy and capitalism.
How many of them are people who lived under communist regimes and aren’t
people in their twenties, who never lived under the communist regimes?
Is that number shown?
see this is funny because we actually do have that number [link]:
The groups that miss the Soviet Union most deeply, according to the
survey, are pensioners (85 percent), people who say they can’t afford
adequate food and clothing (79 percent), those between 40 and 55 years
of age (67 percent), and women (63 percent).
“Only 25 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 24 say they’re sorry the Soviet Union disappeared,” Mr. Volkov adds.
in other words, if you were to only count people who actually lived during the soviet era, the poll shows even more support for the proposition that the soviet era was preferable to the capitalist era. i gather from the context here that you had assumed the opposite would be true. are you willing to re-evaluate your beliefs in the face of this evidence?
see like this is always really interesting to me- anti-communists always go on about how “you need to LISTEN to people who lived in communist countries!” but then when it’s pointed out that the majority of people who have lived in marxist-leninist countries view it as, at the very least, preferable to capitalism, suddenly you pull a 180 and decide that actually, you don’t need to listen to people who lived in communist countries. maybe you’ll try the same goalpost-moving tactic with age, and declare that actually, being older and actually living during the soviet era makes people less reliable.
are you willing to listen to your own advice, and actually listen to what people who have lived in socialist countries have to say about how socialism and capitalism compare?
Interesting that it went down from 75% to 60%. Whether that’s because of… well, deaths of the elderly (I actually feel bad for saying that), or because of changes in mind, that’s still interesting.
Although your own source admits something at the end:
But all that doesn’t necessarily mean that people literally want to be back in the USSR.
“Our survey found that only 16 percent of respondents would like to see the Soviet Union restored just as it was,” says Volkov. “This nostalgia is a complicated sentiment, probably explained more by reactions to present conditions than any real desire to return to the past.”
Just because you miss something doesn’t mean you want it back.
So looks I don’t have to do anything because my point is technically correct.
except the point that was being debated wasn’t whether the Soviet Union should be restored “just as it was”, and no one ever argued that it should. the point that was being debated was your claim that communists need to “talk to people who lived in Soviet countries” with the implicit claim that the majority of people who lived in soviet counties would have an overwhelmingly negative opinion of the socialist era, to the degree that it would be an indictment of not just the soviet/maxist-leninist model, but communism as a whole.
but whoops, looks like you were demonstrably provably wrong, the majority of people who lived in Soviet countries view socialism more favorably than capitalism. but instead of acknowledging that your point was incorrect, you’re just brazenly lying about what your point was, so that you can pat yourself on the back and declare yourself correct even after being incontrovertibly proven incorrect. “ah, perhaps people who lived in soviet countries view socialism more favorably than capitalism, but do they want to literally resurrect lenins corpse??? no. checkmate commies.”
here’s a tip: grow up, take the L, and admit you were wrong.
Nope.
lmao
No, I’m serious. Here’s why.
1) All of the examples above show an obvious cognitive dissonance called “Rosy Retrospection”, where a person views the past as being better than the present. Like the term “The good old days”.
While the Soviet had stability, as all centralized authoritarian regimes do, they ignore many things about life in the Soviet union, such as:
A severe deficit of goods and services because the state controlled everything from food to housing.
Serious preferential treatment for those who were members of the Communist party vs those who weren’t. This meant cronyism, nepotism and corruption.
All forms of media were controlled by the state and had to follow party lines. No freedom of expression.
No rights for LGBT people.
Fear of the KGB, who monitored virtually every aspect of Soviet life.
So it was stable, but the reasons WHY it was stable are not positive. And these are admitted facts.
2) Even if some people in the former Soviet union look upon the past fondly, as old people are wont to do, looking at life in current socialist states shows a very different tale. Look at Venezuela:
So, again, you’re a naive fool if you think communism is a good alternative to social democracy and capitalism.
Venezuela is a social democracy you idiot, they don’t even claim to be communist. trying to use them as an example to show the supposed superiority of social democracy to communism is ludicrous, you’ve just shot yourself in the foot and demonstrated the inadaquacy of social democracy at ending bourgeoisie rule.
the claim that Zimbabwe “only recently ousted a Marxist president” also falls flat, Mugabe only flirted with Marxism decades ago.
the point which was being debated was whether the impression of people who lived through the soviet model viewed it as better or worse than capitalism. and the answer is that they found socialism better. trying to dismiss that as just ~Rosy Retrospection~ is childish of you, especially so soon after you admonished communists to listen to people who lived in soviet countries, when you are demonstrably unwilling to do the same.
is it possible to list bad things about the USSR? yeah, no shit dude. but claiming that people in the USSR are simply “ignoring” these things is ridiculous- they lived through them. the actual explanation is that most of those problems persisted after the transition away from socialism, because most of those problems are orthogonal to socialism, and remained after the switch to capitalism- OR they were replaced by worse problems- for example homelessness skyrocketed after housing was switched from public to private. people who have lived through the soviet period have said they prefer socialism to capitalism isn’t that they’ve forgotten the problems of the socialist era, and it’s insulting for you to claim they have, it’s that they remember the far worse problems which appeared when capitalism was re-implemented. bringing up “cronyism, nepotism and corruption” is also ludicrous- you realize that those things are far more prevalent in post-soviet russia, right? and are more prevalent in capitalism in general? if you think the preferential treatment given to party members is bad, oh boy, wait till you hear about the preferential treatment given to the bourgeoisie today.
no one is claiming that the USSR was without serious issues, but demonstrably, provably, capitalism has been worse for russia than socialism was, according to the people who lived through it.
but maybe you’d like something a little more concrete? how about life expectancy?
huh, that’s interesting 🤔
now, i’m sure like a lot of anti-communists, you’ll try to argue that the only reason for the massive drop in life expectancy was because of the political turmoil of the transition to capitalism- but guess what also caused a lot of political turmoil? the revolution which established socialism, and mysteriously life expectancy not only didn’t drop, but actually grew after the transition to socialism [link]. similar increases in life expectancy after the implementation of socialism occurred in china [link] and cuba [link].
you can keep making excuses and hiding your head in the sand, but the facts are unmistakable- even with all the flaws of the marxist-leninist model, it was still demonstrably better than capitalism, which suggests that a better, improved model of revolutionary communism could achieve better, more permanent improvements in well being, while avoiding the pitfalls of the past. and indeed, this is exactly what we are seeing in Rojava, where they are implementing democratic confederalism, a synthesis between marxist-leninist and anarchist political concepts, which shows every sign of having the capacity to liberate humanity from class oppression while correcting the errors of the ML model.
please, i’m begging of you, actually do some research into the history of communism, and develop an actual nuanced view on the subject, instead of just regurgitating cold-war talking points.
Nah. I stand by my conviction: communism sucks and is a blight on humanity, and anyone who supports it is a naive fool.
And you can also try and be a tool like all of the others who say that Venezuela and Zimbabwe aren’t socialist or marxist, but the fact is that they are, and do and did practice socialist programs. And it’s demonstrably proven that they don’t work.
This discussion is finished.
if socialist programs “don’t work” then how do you explain their success in Bolivia? [link] [link] how do you explain the aforementioned increases in life expectancy in the wake of communist revolutions? how do you explain that the majority of the people who actually experienced socialism have said it was preferable to capitalism?
you can’t, and that’s why you’ve declared “this discussion is finished”- because you know you’ve lost, and you’re trying to end the discussion to avoid admitting that.
Why am I doing this? Okay, here we go.
Were Russian Jews a part of this polling? Russian gypsies? No. Because they are all fucking dead. You CAN NOT glorify the Soviet Union. To many, the hammer and sickle is just as horrifying as the swastika.
When are we going to grow the fuck up and realized things are nuanced? That these ideologies of the past have no place. I don’t want the government running my grocery store, but I sure as fuck want them to destroy ADM and be involved in the food supply. I want more human centered government. I want more socialism and less class warfare (which is mostly perpetrated by the rich).
What we need now is more democratic forms of government. That’s the key. They sure as shit didn’t have that in the Soviet Union. We sure as shit never really had it here in the US.
It is happening again…
Just got word that my new Twin Peaks tarot cards have finally shipped. Get ready for some more free one card tarot readings soon. (Probably around January 8th after I get my end of month crap done.)
I clicked through a few of these videos. He talks in generalities. I am guilty of this in my own podcast, mostly because I don’t want to push one paradigm over another. He does some pretty good overviews of general concepts, but also makes some flubs. His definition of a grimoire is NOT the standard definition. In the classic sense, a grimoire is a list of spirits and how to communicate with them. The Lesser Key of Solomon is the most referenced grimoire. A grimoire is not simply your magical journal.
That all being said, he seems like a decent guy, and he goes to Gen Con so he gets points for that.
If you want to watch a youtube show featuring the hardest working magician on the internet, check out @billybrujo. The man knows his shit.
Something I forgot to add. You will never understand magick by studying magick. You only understand by doing. I recommend you change your plans. Start small. Do a sigil. Learn a banishing ritual. Make an ancestor altar.
Magick works and you will improve your life by doing it.
I clicked through a few of these videos. He talks in generalities. I am guilty of this in my own podcast, mostly because I don’t want to push one paradigm over another. He does some pretty good overviews of general concepts, but also makes some flubs. His definition of a grimoire is NOT the standard definition. In the classic sense, a grimoire is a list of spirits and how to communicate with them. The Lesser Key of Solomon is the most referenced grimoire. A grimoire is not simply your magical journal.
That all being said, he seems like a decent guy, and he goes to Gen Con so he gets points for that.
If you want to watch a youtube show featuring the hardest working magician on the internet, check out @billybrujo. The man knows his shit.
Gave the ancestors some fresh water and now I’m off to bed. I leave you with the wisdom Gordon White and Miguel Conner gave me today. “You have inside you an immortal shard of God. You are unstoppable.”
Never haggle with a wizard. Never, ever haggle with the old wise woman at the edge of the village. Don’t haggle with the witch of the woods. Be grateful you got some magick.
Sorry my friend. Magick, the good stuff, always has risks. You’ve already set one foot on the path and you just may get swept away. A good magus knows how to ride it like a wave. I was just reminded today of keeping up my spiritual self defense. Never doubt for a minute there are spirits out there that do not have your best interests at heart.
The second point, don’t look for a teacher, look for a group. Join a group of magicians that treats eveyone equal and looks out for one another. A group that understands that newbies have something to contribute. It’s a hard thing to find. Don’t worry, you can start your own.
In its entirety for the first time. I think I make my views on this pretty clear.
You who are waiting for me, take me to yourselves.
And do not pursue me from your vision.
And do not make your sound hate me, nor your hearing.
Do not be ignorant of me at any place or any time.
Be on guard!
Do not be ignorant of me.
For I am the first and the last.
I am the honored and the scorned,
I am the harlot and the holy one.
I am the wife and the virgin.
I am the mother and the daughter.
I am the members of my mother.
I am the barren one and the one with many children.
I am she whose marriage is multiple, and I have not taken a husband.
I am the midwife and she who does not give birth.
I am the comforting of my labor pains.
I am the bride and the bridegroom.
It is my husband who begot me.
I am the mother of my father and the sister of my husband.
And he is my offspring.
I am the servant of him who prepared me and I am the lord of my offspring.
But he is the one who begot me before time on a day of birth and he is my offspring in time, and my power is from him.
I am the staff of his power in his youth and he is the rod of my old age.
And whatever he wills happens to me.
I am the incomprehensible silence and the much-remembered thought.
I am the voice of many sounds and the utterance of many forms.
I am the utterance of my name.
Why, you who hate me, do you love me
And hate those who love me?
You who deny me, confess me,
And you who confess me, deny me.
You who speak the truth about me, tell lies about me,
And you who have told lies about me, speak the truth about me.
You who know me, become ignorant of me; and may those who have been ignorant of me come to know me.
For I am knowledge and ignorance.
I am shame and boldness.
I am unashamed, I am ashamed.
I am strength and I am fear.
I am war and peace.
Give heed to me.
I am the disgraced and the exalted one.
These are the words of Thunder, Perfect Mind, written sometime in the early centuries of the Common Era, when ancient philosophy, and paganism, and mystery religions, and Christianity, created a stew of belief called Gnosticism. Who is this woman that contains multitudes? Surely, to encompass such a dichotomy of being, these are the claims of a goddess. But who?
The statement, “I am” echoes the ancient hymns sung to Isis. For the Gnostics, Isis was analogous to the principle of Sophia, the representation of wisdom, and in her way, a manifestation of YHVH’s wife Asherah. And so we have, almost two millennia before Gardner, a universal feminine divine.
Here’s an illustration which originally came from a private art collection from the New Forest area, not far from the Gardnerian village of Burley, in southern England.
The paper is watermarked and showing the date 1793, though it would take an expert to date the illustration.
For me this is a strange work, what with clear links to CLAVIS INFERNI and the demon kings, and something akin to the Ravenna monster. There’s the Ouroboros surrounding the seal of the demon king URIEUS, with IHVH written in reverse at the bottom of the page, and in the magical script of ‘Passing the River’.
I’m far from an expert so any input would definitely be welcome.
I have two more pieces that came from the same collection which I’ll put up next.
