/leftypol/ - Leftist Politically Incorrect

Give me countries I can move to. I can't stand this capitalist hellhole which was once a regional power, now ruined by the West through decades of propaganda. The country is SE Asian.

I noticed a recent interaction that got me in the mood for a little rambling.

In the /prc/ China general there was someone who posted this link, https://twitter.com/CindyXiaodanYu/status/1597247427781984257?cxt=HHwWgoDQ9dWEyKosAAAA, to a video of protesters in China arguing with someone in a way that could be construed as coming from a pro-communist but anti-CPC tendency. The anonymous arguer says that the protests are sponsored by foreign agents and is replied to saying "what foreign agents?? Marx? Engels? Did foreign agents allow the fire to occur in the tower block? We can't even access the western internet we have no rights!"

Really, it's inconsequential. A group of random men with a megaphone, it's worthless to argue about. What is more important here is the behavior of the person who posted it. The post read "MAOIST WRECKERS BEHIND CHINA PROTESTS," and has the ban message from an admin saying "(astroturf IP) (potentially sussy amogus IP)," and in the replies are these messages which have also been linked to similar sussy IPs and banned -

It's unbelievable that in le West we need to remind "our comrades" that Marx literally advocated for building productive forces. It's in the fucking Communist Manifesto, btw.(I can see you ban evading buddy)

Glory to Mao. Glory to Mao Zedong thought. Glory to the Maoists of China and May they take over once more. Glory to the communes, glory to the red brigade. Down with the revisionists.(ban evading astroturf)

Notice the switching between differing tenancies wrapped in absurd flavored, cultish rhetoric. There are only two possibilities for what this person is; either a "glowie" or an anonymous hobbyist troll, and in that second possibility we could consider it a piece of art that draws to attention a potent astroturfing tactic that we've seen used before - the creating of cultist fringe tendencies within the communist movement that from a new reader gives off an air of insanity, of cultish frothing, spewing terms from marxist theory six per sentence whilst creating internal divisions within the communist community to generate internal battles between groups of people who, even though having differing opinions on what is "good or bad," still agree on the materialist analysis of what is going on in the real world.

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How much of a problem is the paywalling of science and engineering journals? Academics often complain of the ignorance of the general public but they also make sure the put all information in paywalled journals which only academics have institutional access to, otherwise you have to pay $$$ to access them. And yes theres scihub/libgen, but those don't even have most of articles/pdfs in question.

A prime example of this is software engineering where the IEEE/ACM make up all kinds of standards and techniques and studies of how effective things are, but 95% of working software engineers ignore them because they don't want to gamble money on an article which may or may not be useful.

Here's an example: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9938446

the IEEE recently updated their standard for software architecture documentation. Would be nice to know what it is, especially given most developers/architects probably aren't even aware that there is an official standard, but you literally have to pay $88 to access it. Even members who already pay like $300/year, have to pay…. $71. The only other solution is to wait for someone with access (i.e. an academic at a university) to write a book which explains/cites that standard.

Are they really surprised then that the only people who read this stuff are grad students, totally disconnected from the actual practice and practitioners of the field?

I'm sure similar examples can be found in most fields, academics can't complain that the public is ignorant of their field while simultaneously putting all relevant knowledge in paywalled journals which people without institutional access would have to pay out the nose to access.

Thousands of trade unionists protest in South Korea against government's attempts to force striking truckers back to work
The marchers, mostly members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, accused President Yoon Suk Yeol’s conservative government of ignoring what they described as the drivers’ harsh work conditions and financial struggles, worsened further by rising fuel costs. On Tuesday the government issued an order for 2,500 drivers of cement lorries to return to work, saying that their walkout is affecting the national economy, though it wasn’t immediately clear how many drivers returned to work following the order as their union vowed to continue the strike.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/thousands-trade-unionists-protest-south-korea-government-attempts-force-striking

Train strikes: RMT union rejects offer to stop Christmas walkouts
Industrial action is currently due to take place across four 48-hour periods: 13-14 December, 16-17 December, 3-4 January and 6-7 January. Industry sources have said that if the strikes are to be called off, this needs to happen by the end of Monday to avoid disruption for passengers. The RDG - which represents the 14 train operators - set out a number of proposed changes to working practices which it said would help to fund a pay rise for staff of 4% this year, backdated to the beginning of the financial year, followed by another 4% next year.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-63853669

Varoufakis Takes His Faltering MeRA25 Party’s Push to Italy
His leftest MeRA25 party got only 3.44 percent of the vote in 2019 elections and has since seen three of its nine lawmakers leave, but leader Yanis Varoufakis has now opened an offshoot in Italy as he tries to persuade people to support his rebellious movement which has had trouble gaining traction. “If ever there was a moment it is now,” the economist told POLITICO in an interview to mark the Italian launch of his pan-European political party.
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Thread for news and discussions of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, its material conditions, the status and health of its socialist tradition, disproving common myths about it, etc.

Archive of the previous DPRK thread:
https://leftypol.org/leftypol_archive/res/12395.htmldprkDPRK

The real problem with mainstream American socialists and progressives is their fixation on the notion that making America socialist essentially means making America look "more like Europe."

For instance, how many times have you heard from others in your local DSA chapter that:
>"america needs to do city planning more like europe"
>"america needs to do healthcare more like europe"
>"america needs to do universities more like europe"
>"america needs to do food more like europe"
>"america needs to do funerals more like europe"
>"america needs to do fashion more like europe"
>"america needs to do religion more like europe"
>"america needs to do architecture more like europe"
>"america needs to do seggz more like europe"
Etc., etc., etc.?

First off, when DemSocs and SocDems talk about "making America look more like Europe" the "Europe" they're talking about specifically refers to northwestern European countries like the UK, France, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, etc. I'm pretty sure no one wants America looking like post-Soviet Moldova or Albania.
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/PITDDTOT/ Political Ideas That Don't Deserve There Own Thread

Making a general for random political ideas. I guess like a shower thoughts thread.

I had an idea but I don't want to make a whole thread for it. Not going to put it in the OP because I don't want to make a whole thread for it.

This thread is for the discussion of cybersocialism, the planning of the socialist economy by computerized means, including discussions of related topics and creators. Drama belongs in /isg/

Reading
Towards a New Socialism by Paul Cockshott and Allin Cottrell: http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/~cottrell/socialism_book/
Brain of the Firm by Stafford Beer
Cybernetic Revolutionaries by Eden Medina
Cybernetics: Or the Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine and The Human Use of Human Beings (1st edition) by Norbert Wiener
Economic cybernetics by Nikolay Veduta
People's Republic of Walmart by Leigh Phillips and Michal Rozworski
Red Plenty by Francis Spufford
Economics in kind, Total socialisation and A system of socialisation by Otto Neurath (Incommensurability, Ecology, and Planning: Neurath in the Socialist Calculation Debate by Thomas Uebel provides a summary)

Active writers/creators
Sorted by last name
>Paul Cockshott
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…Or is this just a meme? I've heard a lot about him, and I've read some Gramsci, but the "a lot" that I've heard just seems like trolling. Part of my asking is that I'm trying to use Bordiga in a paper, and finding this 'opportunism bad' material will be integral.