Cowbee [he/him]

No you did not.

Why didn’t you reply to my comment if you wanted a response? You didn’t even @ me when namedropping, like you’re hiding.

Your first source is an opinion piece saying African countries need to be wary of taking on debt they can’t pay back, without offering numbers. No evidence of debt entrapment, just loans.

Your second source just talks about the lack of transparency of one specific loan.

Neither proves China to be intentionally sinking African countries into debt, which is why I asked for sources.

Meanwhile, China has been waiving loans, and many loans are interest free as a part of the Belt and Road Initiative.

The US and other Western countries have stolen trillions from African Countries.

You need to meaningfully prove your statements, otherwise you’re just a western chauvanist.

Because historically the revolutionary forces (the one toppling the bourgeoisie) are extremely shitty governors (just continuing mass murdering & plundering which kinda makes sense if you think how & what they have been through).

Historically this is false 👍

The best way is reading the text I linked over it, which includes proof, analysis, and far more information than I can put in a single comment.

However, the extreme shorthand, is that competition results in monopoly, and monopoly seeks new international sources of raw materials and labor that is cheaper, using predatory loans and exporting industrial Capital directly.

The US, for example, has huge influence over the IMF, and makes the bulk of its value by producing in the Global South and lobbying to keep wages low.

That sure is a lot of stuff to read and i bet its dry lecture.

It isn’t, haha. Pretty easy to read!

To be honest, i won’t start looking into them, so thus far you have me. Maybe it’s ignorant but Lenin, for me, goes in the same pot as Stalin and Mao and the baddest of them all from Austria.

Bold claims for someone who refuses to even look at the text, let alone read it. Additionally, equating the Communists to the Nazis is in fact Nazi Apologia.

I don’t know if there are good ideas in their writings/ methods/ ideologies…what i know is that these are people who abused their power. They ordered people killed or at least restrained who wouldn’t comply to them…so i don’t know if their works and deeds are a thing to build upon.

Do you know that? You evidently don’t read, so where do your ideas come from? Imagination?

I not very educated on the matter but i’d think that “Post-growth” in capitalism maybe is a solution or at least a way to a solution?

What on Earth is “post-growth Capitalism?” Where did you pull that from, and why do you already think it capable of being a solution?

Capitalism sucks, yeah. They steal from you, yeah. Thing is that this happens in every system as long as humans are involved. So maybe we as a hole have to go through somekind of capitalistic-cataclysm, which i don’t want for me or my kids, but has to happen none the less to come up with something neither Marx & Co. or capitalists envisioned as of yet.

How, exactly, are people “stolen from” in Socialism? You don’t know what you’re talking about, but you sure do have strong opinions about it.

So you consider North Korea or Eritrea to be better then the US? Seriously?

Within the context of the world? Yes.

Can you proof China is not debt traping poor countries?

So you don’t have any proof, you just said it because if the US is bad, other countries must be bad. That’s western-chauvanism at its finest.

It is very easy to call the US the worst country, when you ignore the bad other countries commit.

It’d be nice if you could provide any proof for your claims.

Excellent thread. Even suggesting Lenin has good ideas can get you immediate ire, because what he wrote is accurate and practicible.

For real, especially trying to get across Lenin’s analysis of Imperialism, or the necessity of Revolution, both of which are far touchier subjects than “Marx good” on the Fediverse.

Marx has been blunted and made tame and by those who haven’t read him.

This meme isn’t saying Socialism will not prevail. Rather, it’s saying that even though Socialists can’t individually beat Capitalism right now, as Capitalism decays Socialists increase in number and Capitalists weaken in strength, making Socialist victory more probable over time.

Thanks for the insight!

Good to hear! I’m almost through Marxism and the National Question, so Mao’s texts are next before Org theory. Anything else you recommend adding to my reading list? I plan on reading Fanon, Feinberg, Losurdo, and other authors.

China is currently debt trapping most of Africa. They pretty much appointed the current dictator of Zimbawe for example.

Do you have evidence of this “debt-trapping?”

The way I look at good and bad is on a scale. Whenever a country makes the life for the average human better in terms of material well being, but also political freedom, that is a good thing. Whenever they make those things worse then it is bad.

Then China must be the best country in the world in your opinion, as it has largely eliminated poverty for the largest population on the planet.

A huge reason the US is the country doing so many bad things, is that nearly nobody else can. Any large scale war between two countries in recent times had the US being the agressor or the US intervening massivly. Iraq was done after invading Kuwait and Russia despute having nukes and a resilient economy is not liking it either.

Why do you believe the US does bad things? Like, what’s the driving factor?

So we have to look at what countries choose to do with the power they have and the US is not the worst in that metric.

The US is absolutely the worst in that metric, and it isn’t close. It’s the single greatest parasite on the Global South, they produce very little and expropriate the bulk of Value created by the Global South. It isn’t close.

The Communist Manifesto isn’t what I’m talking about. The CM is a worker pamphlet, not an explanation of Marxism. The Principles of Communism is a much better introductory work, and for Marx himself, Wage Labor and Capital as well as Value, Price and Profit are excellent texts describing Capitalism. I would also add Socialism: Utopian and Scientific for an introduction to Historical Materialism, and the failures of Utopian Socialists like the Owenites.

Lenin is absolutely worth reading, he was the leader of the first genuine Marxist state, and his contributions to Marxist theory are critical. Specifically, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism furthers Marx’s analysis into the modern era of Monopoly Capitalism, aka Imperialism, which Marx was only alive to see the very beginnings of before he passed away.

Yep! Still working my way through this reading list, and am org-shopping right now.

Those commenters have no idea what they are talking about. You are always stronger aligned with your fellow workers.

Gotcha. They seem to only have a Maoist lean though, they describe themselves as Marxist-Leninist, but adopt concepts like the Mass Line. Plus, they use Linux apparently, which is neat

Don’t unions really restrict your salary growth in fields where there’s actual potential for it?

Nope.

I’m in software engineering and I reckon a whole bunch of people would be unhappy if their salary was in a direct relationship with their years of experience.

Why would increasing your bargaining power lower your wages?

Syndicalism is nice, but without a solid analysis of Imperialism it risks taking on a Nationalist character if you’re in the Imperial Core. Additionally, if you’re in a de-industrialized nation like the United States, worker organization is more difficult along union lines, which is partially why Unions have historically struggled in the United States in recent years.

100% agree on reading theory and joining an org, just wanted to add some caveats.

Read Marx, especially if you don’t think you need to.

The point of the meme is that as Capitalism deteriorates, and it must deteriorate, more Workers become aligned with Leftists and at some point there will be a shift from quantitative to qualitative, ie at some level there will be a dramatic change, like the boiling point of water.