Yeah its been interesting to see the development of the BRICS coalition as a counter to US trade hegemony. It makes one optimistic, but there’s still so much uncertainty. Venezuela’s economy is imploding due to some amount of mismanagement by Maduro’s admin, and not diversifying their economy like 10-15 years ago. And some very recent and concerning chatter coming from international contacts who would be fairly in the know and historically over optimistic about the tenacity of the Cuban revolution, are signalling that the Cuban government is extremely close to collapse (although we’ve been hearing the same from bourgeois media for 60 years, so its kind of hard to swallow.) Columbia is more social democratic than it has been in decades, Argentina is more exploited, Brazil is doing a wild flip from one extreme right wing president to a moderately progressive labor president. And developments on the African continent such as trans-national coalitions are reclaiming the Sahel. The US lost much of its ideological lustre it enjoyed during the cold war, but it makes up for that with naked violence. Our flagging superpower is still like historically the most powerful force in history, even as the international ruling class strips every last stick of profit out of our deeply paralyzed and ineffective political system. And our brainworms are still our #1 cultural export.

Its gonna be a crazy ass decade

Well… some capital. Don’t try to order anything from Cuba or Venezuela or Russia and expect it on your doorstep any time soon.

This is a pretty interesting exception. The reason why Cuban or Venezuelan or Russian capital isn’t very available internationally is because of embargoes. These embargoes and sanctions operate for the benefit of western imperialism, itself just another form of capitalism.

So the reason why national capital isn’t available to international capital is because international capital prevents it from being available. Compare this to many post-colonial African and south american nations. The ones that towed the line of western imperialism, who politically nurtured a national ruling class to benefit and oversee the exploitation of the vast majority of their population in order to provide cheap labor and commodities, have “open” economies. Countries that attempt to provide for the social welfare of the masses (Cuba, Venezuela) or countries who pursue their own internationalist, “imperialist” agendas counter to the western consensus (current Russia) face embargo and sanction.

This is not to deflect any and all criticism from Cuba, Venezuela or historic Soviet Russia. It is an interesting condition to think about.

No. Your intent to misunderstand drives the misunderstanding. Don’t be petulant

How complicated is it that people should try and listen and understand each other rather than intentionally misunderstanding each other? I’m not an educator and maybe my comment shouldn’t have been so sarcastic, but I stg people who probably have a lot in common, having met on the same web forum, just wanna gripe and fight and compete for nothing, when the benefit of.mutual understanding and respect is actually quite high

I really wanna read that book, maybe this year :) I almost stole it from my wife’s cousin at Thanksgiving this year

I don’t think what you’re saying contradicts me, I agree my explainer is one view, one which addresses political economies, and the GrabGrow view is another more anthropological view. Unfortunately Marx never finished his anthropological works although there are a lot of notes from the end of his life that are worth parsing.

Saying it’s this one thing, when it can be scientifically understood as either or both things, is more like orthodoxy which I try to avoid. Both views help to understand a complicated topic made of historically shifting dynamics and changing aspects.

What your explanation doesn’t address that mine does, is what is the “social power” that congeals into these forms? It takes different shapes throughout history, but can be understood coarsely as “wealth”, which is the accumulated value of human labor. My explanation better reflects the class character of the state. However if we are to try and actually affect the world for the better, as we should, we would be better equipped with both views (and likely a few others) with which to determine truth in the functioning of political economy, than one or the other alone.

So because you won’t understand, I can’t communicate? Sounds like more of a you problem

Wealth is pinned to production and currency is pinned to wealth. You fundamentally misunderstand what wealth, money, and power are and how they function in society. Alienation from society and idealism distort the nature of these subjects. You’re right to question the way these things function, but you’ll not get much further than MMT or other idealist cul du sacs. If you want to understand how wealth operates as a basis for society, they you’ll need to start to study Marx

The state is formed by the historical mode of production, its like a contradiction that is the resolution to all of the other contradictions present in market social relations. In other words the state is based on how stuff gets made, and who accumulates the value inherent in the stuff, which is in essence the congealed work that went into making that stuff.

Politics and culture is always a factor in what shape the state takes, since politics and culture are social structures and sources of power themselves, but politics is downstream from production

You have to have an advanced degree, wealth and celebrity in order to publicly proclaim something that an introspective 12 year old would yell at his friends at 4 in the morning after completing a dare that he could gulp down a whole cup of sugar without coughing or puking

This is clearly a completely natural phenomenon, like the weather !

You’re both so good at intentionally misrepresenting the other, this is actually much better than trying to discuss and understand each other.

I mean to be clear I’m from altoona and I’ve never seen pizza like this.

Coherent and good!

Well the economy is what rips you off to make companies money, so its actually one of the more honest usages I’ve seen

Don’t mention post-WW2 America First rhetoric

I didn’t make it I just have cool friends

Indeed

Chlorophyll doesn’t immediately put you to sleep! Also it burns to inhale, from what I have read.

Thank you! I can’t dance is cheeks, and they have so many good records

No this is just the liberal establishment demonstrating their aggressively “meh it won’t really affect me” attitude. If you are in a left wing organization, more people are showing up and joining and participating than in years. DSA membership increased like 25% just since the election, in an org that was losing members. Not everyone is checked out, some people are very active.

If you aren’t connected to an org, go to meetings and join one, pay dues if you can! If you don’t know where to start, just ask! Answers will probably vary by area and some people are more isolated but there’s still lots that can be done, even if you’re stuck at home.