Welcome again to everybody. Make yourself at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.

On Sunday last week, Damascus fell to Salafi terrorists and other imperialist-aligned forces. Regardless of the flaws of the ousted government, this is a horrible situation for the Syrian proletariat as well as for the people of Palestine, Lebanon and others. We can only hope for the perseverance of the Syrian workers and the remaining anti-colonial resistance.

☭ Matrix homeserver and space
 ☭ Theory reading group on hiatus, will move to Lemmygrad next year
☭ Find theory on ProleWiki, marxists.org, Anna’s Archive, libgen

  • coolusername@lemmy.ml
    8·
    1 day ago

    — 🇮🇷 🇮🇷 🇸🇾 Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC ‘Khatam al-Anbiyaa’ Headquarters: ‘Bashar al-Assad did not request Iranian help – in fact he actively prevented us from coming and helping’

    General Mohammad Jafar Asadi, deputy commander of Khatam al-Anbiyaa HQ:

    – Bashar al-Assad said to one of our (Iranian) officials in a meeting: ‘My soldiers have truly become either smugglers or thieves, they only defend those who offer them bribes and privileges. They could not defend me, and when I wanted to protect at least Damascus, I realized that they were not able to protect Damascus either.’

    – Bashar al-Assad did not allow us (the IRGC) to go help the Syrian Arab Army, although he asked us for assistance in the past, but this time he not only did not ask, but he was worried about us arriving, and said that ‘if you come, Israel will probably attack us’.

    – Turkey is a part of NATO, and we should not see or accept the presence of this country and its influence anywhere outside of America and Europe. Turkey is a part of them, and with this attitude, it serves America. America is active behind the scenes.

    – It seems that the factions present in Syria will clash with each other based on their own different interests. Maybe separating Syria is Turkey’s desire, because they have been coveting a part of Syria for a long time.

    @Middle_East_Spectator

  • fire86743@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    6·
    1 day ago

    The more I read about Soviet politics under Khrushchev and beyond, the more I see how cringeworthy and cancerous it was.

    • DankZedong @lemmygrad.ml
      7·
      23 hours ago

      I mean it’s hard to disagree. There are very few working class (read: poor) people who not only manage to have enough free time to write but to have the network to get published too.

      I recently read a book on poverty written by a man who has gone through poverty himself. He only managed to get such a book published because he managed to get a university degree and a government job. He could be just a talented writer while working in a factory but he would have a much harder time getting published without the network he build over time.

  • DankZedong @lemmygrad.ml
    15·
    2 days ago

    So you mean to tell me that a dude that has planned a hit for days in advance managed to get caught in a McDonalds because an employee ‘recognized’ him while still carrying all the stuff of the murder?

  • DankZedong @lemmygrad.ml
    20·
    3 days ago

    I am sick again. I feel like getting a job in which I see hundreds of people each week has not been great for my immune system. Bird watching while getting wind blasted yesterday probably didn’t help either.

    Anyway, I will join the general strike this friday against the new plans of our new regime. It’s my first ever general strike so curious to see what it is like. I have joined smaller strikes at picket lines of specific companies to talk to the workers for our party but that’s on a much smaller scale.

  • Kirbywithwhip1987@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    12·
    3 days ago

    Remember, Lion of Damascus will return one day, he is alive and well in Moscow unlike Gaddafi, the only question is when! 🇸🇾

    • Nathan Bolshevik@lemmygrad.ml
      5·
      2 days ago

      At this point, I sure hope Russia and/or China start supplying nukes to Iran and any country that faces the threat of annihilation at the hands of empire (like Iraq, Libya, and now Syria) should be looking to acquire nukes as soon as possible.

    • ☭CommieWolf☆@lemmygrad.ml
      17·
      3 days ago

      No chance, they’re likely not going to hold an election until they’ve made sure to destroy any remaining sympathy for the previous government.

  • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
    81·
    3 days ago

    Arcane season 2 is so shit. I’m on S2E4 and unlikely to watch another minute. The only clear message so far is

    spoiler

    cops are good, actually.

    Everything else is a sequence of ten-second adverts for what might happen next—what’s that another clip after another after another? When is the story supposed to start? Did somebody forget to write actual scenes and a storyline? Who tf decided that the way to make interminably long fight scenes interesting was to break them up and show you several at once?

    Now I’ve seen a spoiler for the ending and not only do I not care, it’s confirmed that I’m making the right decision by ducking out so soon. It’s like a board room had all the elements of S1 on a wall, asked what was good, and deleted all those elements. Can’t have the poor rooting for the good and relatable characters. They must reject what they know and cheer for the cops or else.

    If S2 was a standalone thing, it would just be a forgettable look-at-that-nice-artwork-but-I’m bored-now and I’d have soon turned it off without a second thought. But what a disappointment after the first season!

    If anyone can enlighten me as to how they went from S1-writing to S2-writing, I’d love to hear it. 1/10 would not recommend.

    EDIT: I saw @bennieandthez@lemmygrad.ml already answered my question elsewhere: https://redsails.org/the-swerve/

    • amemorablename@lemmygrad.ml
      3·
      2 days ago

      I tried to start watching S2 cause of watching S1, for the heck of it, but couldn’t get far. S1 felt very contrived as storytelling goes. Great animations and illustrations, but everything else, I could never relate to the hype.

      In particular, the whole thing with

      spoiler

      powder falling into the hands of the baddie bad was so contrived it was painful to watch.

      Edit: Also, that essay is a good read, thanks for sharing it.