synth cabin prospector

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[Double Down News @DoubleDownNews]

Everything That's Wrong with Liberal Centrism in Under 3 mins

As told by the late great David Graeber

[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.

[Maria @real1maria]

"The world has visited many terrible things on the Palestinian people, none more shameful than robbing them of their basic humanity" — Anthony Bourdain, 2014

[smarty pants (she/ her) @dopegirlfresh]

this is important because we are supposed to “support sustainability” with our $. the thing is, though, it’s not sustainable. the cost of human life and the toll on the planet are not worth the fucking batteries or the pat on the back/ moral grandstanding of “going green.”

[Hamilton Nolan @hamiltonnolan]

The lead story in the New York Times today is about college students who are upset that there are pro-Palestinian protests on their campuses.

[Science girl @sciencegirl]

This is what happens to salt when you vibrate it at different frequencies

[katie honan @katie_honan]

did @NYCSchools send out any email or notice to families and staff ahead of today's rain?

[How-Sen @HowSenChong]

Someone made a map of Toronto’s streetcar routes from 1945.

This is what we used to have. Then we tore up most of the tracks so corporations could get rich selling cars, oil, and rubber tires instead.

https://t.co/GJzrnb9zSG

[Hayden @the_transit_guy]

I just think that a city of 700,000 people deserves a main train station that’s far bigger than this with a lot more frequent and fast rail connections.

[Carolyn Petit @carolynmichelle]

This Richard Linklater answer, man. https://t.co/dYKIHlEFCB

[synth cabin prospector @tinyravebackpak]

@JohnnyDoc8 @BigMeanInternet Why do people keep listing dry, non-perishable goods that could be shipped via sailboat (and were for centuries), and keep missing the point that the modern appetite for *perishable refrigerated produce that must be shipped internationally in <2 weeks* is unsustainable

[synth cabin prospector @tinyravebackpak]

@fivemack @walshrac @BigMeanInternet Wheat in Roman times didn’t need to be refrigerated at 57 degrees (known in supply chain industry as “banana”) in under 2 weeks. Just cuz “international commerce” happened in Roman times doesn’t make all forms of modern commerce “sustainable”

[synth cabin prospector @tinyravebackpak]

@CamCanCatan @JosephRMolnar @BigMeanInternet I can still get coffee, tea, and chocolate via a wind-powered ocean liner from the 1700s. Guava and bananas, not so much. Maybe we just rethink internationally shipped *perishables*

[synth cabin prospector @tinyravebackpak]

@JosephRMolnar @BigMeanInternet Coffee and tea don’t need to be shipped in refrigerated containers on tight timelines. They can be shipped with much lower carbon footprint, logistics, cost, etc. which is why they were big commodities in 1700s, whereas international bananas are a 20th century thing

[andi (twocents.com) @Nexuist]

gonna be crazy when my kids grow up learning the majority of boomer political positions can be explained away as a generational fluke caused by toxic fumes rotting away their brain to make them more selfish + aggressive

[Luke Savage @LukewSavage]

There's nothing more emblematically Obama than a Netflix show that waxes mournfully about the gig economy not paying living wages without mentioning how many people from the upper ranks of his own administration literally helped create it.