giannis

Developer on the web, traveler in life, with a fear of commitment to countries.

[Aris Chatzistefanou @xstefanou]

«Δεν ήρθα γιατί τους λυπάμαι. Ήρθα γιατί τους θαυμάζω». Έχουμε την τιμή ��α παρουσιάζουμε ένα απόσπασμα και φωτογραφίες από το εξαιρετικό βιβλίο του γιατρού Χρίστου Γεωργάλα από τη Γάζα. https://t.co/Sy5hQMSCp4

[Novara Media @novaramedia]

“Two billion people around the world live in food insecurity. Something as basic as food security cannot be supplied by capitalism for everybody.”

On Downstream this week, political economist @JasonHickel in conversation with @AaronBastani.

Watch the full episode on Novara's YouTube Channel.

[David Graeber Institute @Graeber_social]

Who are the real wealth creators? The bankers, the corporate lawyers, the marketeers and the CEO's?

Or the teachers, nurses, garbage collectors, plumbers, cleaners, care workers, etc.?

[giannis @bonejp]

@La_Kappa_ Πάντως στην εστίαση αυτά είναι τα ωράρια, σχεδόν από πάντα, τώρα επεκτείνεται σε όλους τους κλάδους.

[giannis @bonejp]

@HrissyD Μπορεί να είναι φραγκατοι που δε δουλεύουν, που προτείνουν να ξοδεύουν τα λεφτά τους για να σταματήσουν μια γενοκτονια

[Richard Sanders @PulaRJS]

Thank you, thank you, thank you Dr @Tanyaalih for your courage, passion and eloquence.

Watch EVERY MINUTE of this extraordinary interview about the grotesque murder of 9 siblings in Gaza.

I just don't know how she holds it together. /1

[Stergios Alexiou @stergiosale]

Ο καθηγητής του Πανεπιστημίου Θεσσαλίας κ συμμετέχων στο Στόλο της Ελευθερίας Τάκης Πολίτης δείχνει τι σημαίνει έμπρακτη αλληλεγγύη στο λαό της Γάζας. Μόνο σεβασμός για τους συμμετέχοντες στην αποστολή.

[Jason Hickel @jasonhickel]

What's striking about capitalist civilization is that it has no real direction. There's no vision for social progress, no commitment to improving human welfare or ecology. All we get is the chaos of profit-oriented production and accumulation as the world burns around us.

[giannis @bonejp]

τι να πείς... μόνο Earth Liberation Front
https://t.co/Yf33sFbJRq

[David Graeber Institute @Graeber_social]

When David Graeber explained why Corporations behave the way they do in modern Capitalism!

[giannis @bonejp]

@Nick_in_ABZ δε χρειάζεται να σκαρφιστούμε κάτι, τα νούμερα είναι τόσο τραγικά που δηλώνουν ένα δομικό πρόβλημα, και λύσεις δεν δίνονται αν τα κοιτάμε μονοδιάστατα και ότι μόνο φταίει το άτομο.

[giannis @bonejp]

@Nick_in_ABZ πάντως τα νούμερα μας λένε και πολλά για τις συνθήκες εργασίας στο δημόσιο και στη Ελλάδα, νομίζω οι συνθήκες είναι τέτοιες που βοηθανε να είναι επαπειλούμενη μια εγκυμοσύνη. δηλαδή πόσα σχολεία ή υπηρεσίες είναι βοηθητικά για μια εγκυμοσύνη;

[Furkan Gözükara @FurkanGozukara]

Piers Morgan is literally getting cooked by Mustafa Barghouti and even though it is like 100th time, he is still behaving as clueless as a baby

[giannis @bonejp]

@nntaleb But when the paper billionaires use that wealth as collateral, why not consider them as real billionaires?

[☀️👀 @zei_squirrel]

this is amazing. Nelson Mandela actually visited Gaza in 1999, and said: "Choose peace rather than confrontation, except in cases where we cannot move forward. Then, if the only alternative is violence, we will use violence."

[The Costs of War Project @CostsOfWar]

The US Department of Defense is the world's single largest consumer of oil.

War is a climate issue.

https://t.co/uZwJrupjk8

[Marc Owen Jones @marcowenjones]

The more I reflect on what happened in Amsterdam the stranger it seems. A racist team who have a reputation for hate speech come to Amsterdam during a genocide and engage in acts of racism and violence against the local population. They are accompanied by Mossad agents. All this happens under the increased success of Islamophobic Geert Wilders and the PVV. The media, not just in the Netherlands but in Europe and North America publish what looks like an Israeli press release using incendiary language about pogroms and Kristelnacht. Politicians around the world immediately and uncritically embraced this rhetoric and say nothing of pro-genocidal chants. They media mislabel on the ground journalism by Dutch photographer @iAnnetnl to minimise Israeli violence. They ignore evidence from other Dutch journalists like @OmeBender. Channels like Sky News even re-edit packages to maximise the narrative of antisemitism and minimise examples of anti-Arab racism. Dutch parliamentarians then wield propaganda by the Israeli diaspora affairs as if it constitutes evidence. Many media outlets still haven't corrected the record about what happened, from the BBC to WSJ and Sky. It's disturbing and sinister, and shouldn't be allowed to slide.

[David Graeber Institute @Graeber_social]

After the financial crash in 2008,. David Graeber made some rather interesting comments about the so called financial sector in the economy. Still very relevant today in 2024.

Have a read for yourself.

[Jason Hickel @jasonhickel]

The problem with liberalism is that it rests on a fundamental contradiction that cannot be resolved. It will always fail, it will always collapse, and this explains everything about our current moment.

Liberals try to hold two commitments at once: on the one hand, they are firmly committed to capitalism; on the other, they express support for principles like human rights, democracy, equality, freedom of speech, environment and the rule of law.  This duality is the core of liberalism.

But there's a problem. Capital accumulation requires cheapening labour and nature. This eventually comes into direct conflict with principles like rights and equality. And whenever this conflict appears, the liberal ruling class sides with capital, abandons their lofty principles, and throws workers and nature under the bus.  Every. Single. Time.

This results in flagrant displays of hypocrisy. They run on nice-sounding platforms but end up either betraying their promises or actively working against their stated values. They'll slash public services, bail out banks, imprison journalists, beat up students, expand fracking, coup democratically elected leaders in the global South, bomb liberation movements, fund a genocide - they'll even trash international law itself - anything that's needed to maintain the conditions for capital accumulation.

At most, they may try to negotiate mediocre compromises, a few social policies here and there - some abortion rights, a tiny increase in the minimum wage - but nothing that might pose any serious threat to capital accumulation. Thus the soul-crushing slowness of liberal incrementalism.  Ultimately they are unwilling to take any of the obvious steps that would actually resolve our urgent social and ecological crises.

This is why nobody trusts liberal politicians.  This is why they come across as so fantastically insincere, and even sneering.  This is why they feel so spineless and *empty*.

The center cannot hold.  Liberalism will always collapse, inevitably handing power to fascists, and this is not acceptable.  There is only one way to overcome this deadly impasse, and that is to mobilize a socialist alternative. A political movement that can unite the working-classes, overcome capitalism, deliver real economic democracy, and enable us to achieve rapid progress toward social and ecological goals.

[Jason Hickel @jasonhickel]

All the takes are correct and yet they also miss the point.

Yes, it was insane for the Democrats to think they could win by running a soulless candidate, without a shred of progressive policy vision, pursuing endorsements from neocon war-hawks everybody hates, while arming and funding a genocide, and belittling and crushing those who have enough morality to protest it.  It is enraging that the Democrats are so smug and blind to this.

But these are all just symptoms.  The deeper reality is that liberalism has failed, liberalism is dead, and people urgently need to wake up to this fact and respond accordingly. It is a defunct ideology that cannot offer any meaningful solutions to our social and ecological crises and it must be abandoned.

Democrats have proven over and over again that they cannot accept even *basic* steps like public healthcare, affordable housing, and a public job guarantee - things that would dramatically improve the material, social and political conditions of the working classes. And they cannot accept a public finance strategy that would steer production away from fossil fuels and toward green transition to give us a shot at a liveable future.

Why? Because these things run against the objectives of capital accumulation. And for liberals capital is sacrosanct. They will do whatever it takes to ensure elite accumulation, it is their only consistent commitment.  At home, they suppress and demonize progressive and socialist tendencies. Abroad, they engage in endless wars and violence to suppress input prices in the global South and prevent any possibility of sovereign economic development.

The Democrats have done all this purposefully and knowingly, for my whole life, not as some kind of "mistake" but in full consciousness that it is in the interests of capital.

And because liberalism cannot address our crises, and because it crushes socialist alternatives, it inevitably paves the way for right-wing populism.  They know this pattern, and yet they risk it every time - this election being only the most recent example. They did it in 2016, when they actively crushed the Sanders campaign and sent Trump to the White House. They do it because ultimately they (and I mean the liberal ruling class here) don't really mind if fascists take power, so long as the latter too ensure the conditions for capital accumulation. They 100% prefer this to the possibility of a socialist alternative.

So, progressives have to face reality. The dream of "converting" the Democratic party is dead. This is now a fact and it must be accepted. The only option is to build a mass-based movement that can reclaim the working classes and mobilize a political vehicle that can integrate disparate progressive struggles into a unified and formidable political force and achieve substantive transformation. This will take real work, actual organizing, but it must be done and that process must begin now.