Notices by xj9 (xj9@social.sunshinegardens.org)

@fuckwork (as an aside, i hope i'm not coming across as argumentative. i actually just like to discuss political philosophy.)

@fuckwork i understand the desire to have a "more scientific" way to grapple with socio-political problems, but this is also a narrow conception of science. grappling with complex problems through logic and analysis is valid even if you can't create a falsifiable experiment. social sciences broadly fall under this category and tend to use statistical models and other tools to extract interesting features from historical data and try to draw conclusions from there. its a less "hard" method, but you can't experimentally verify the way cultures evolve over time or how international conflicts play out depending on different factors. there are too many variables and the events can't be repeated. it just comes with the territory.

imo one of the many issues with marx is his incomplete understanding of the periphery. his racist and frankly backwards conceptions about the world led him to be overly optimistic about his own people and disregard their relationship to colonization and empire. for example, the french commune failed to overthrow the ruling class and left much of their colonial empire intact. this lack of data is part of why ML fails to correctly predict the evolution of empire. some philosophers may see more clearly, but they are still blinded by the same system that blinds their kin.

@fleeky i appreciate it. i took a lot of damage living up north, but i'm really happy to be back under the sun.

@fuckwork utopia is an ideal and materialists are not idealists. i think you might have some things crossed in there (as do many so-called utopian socialists). the point of analyzing the world in this way is to find patterns that betray the actual nature of the system we live under.

whether you are actually able to do something about the status quo is a different question. you can be right about something without having the ability to use it to your advantage. there's a reason why propaganda is so necessary, our oppression starts in our own minds. we are much easier to defeat if we are fractured and disillusioned before the struggle even begins.

it kind of sounds like you're referencing A Nihilist Understanding of Social War which i do think makes some interesting points, but I really don't see why people always turn this into some kind of anti-communist talking point. yes and is way more effective and gains you some (at least temporary) allies in our quest to over throw the capitalist world order.

@fleeky yeah the place i was living was pretty racist/xenophobic, but i got out! it was never a problem with friends, but idk trauma is weird.

@fleeky english is fine, i'm just making myself comfortable. i got bullied a lot for speaking spanish in the place i used to live. i'm trying to self-censor less in that respect.

“i do suck at this which is why i use AI” then you will never learn, you will never improve, you will only be dependent on wildly wasteful illusions to produce mediocrity at best