blockclubchicago.org

Labor movements are growing. Don't want to be overly optimistic, but I really feel like the seeds of the vanguard are there, folks.

blockclubchicago.org

Folks asking how bad it could get, this will be an everyday occurrence. :cool-zone: time is here.

https://careers.amtrak.com/

No permits, just going to take to the streets. Thinking about starting a gofundme for my bail.

doomer Commander_Data • 2y ago • 100%

The water wars are here. City of 5 million has had no running water for months, while corpos pump groundwater to make drinks that are making USians fatter.

www.theguardian.com

Love pic of the Mexican army patrolling the reservoir.

blockclubchicago.org

We have the superior treats

Killin slave owners is good.

Killin slave owners is good.

www.arlingtoncardinal.com

Apparently happened at the 4th of July parade about an hour ago. For anyone who doesn't know Highland Park is the setting for all the John Hughes movies from the 80s, as well as Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

www.google.com

So shocked there's a white supremacist gang running around the neighborhood where all the cops live.

Bask in the glow of my :vote: virtue signal. But seriously, there were a few DSA and Bernie endorsed candidates on my ballot so why not? The coolest part, my alderperson saying "thanks for coming out, comrade" as I was leaving.

Got them to admit they were working with the proud boys. One of the hammers claimed the PBs were doing more for their communities than any other white people. Felt good to blow up their spot.

news Commander_Data • 2y ago • 0%

4chan is going to get a trans person killed and they need to be stopped

www.rollingstone.com

Seriously. How to we get that hell hole removed from the web.

chapotraphouse Commander_Data • 2y ago • 100%

Imagine buying a pedophilia pride flag.

Also, love that the ancom pin is a bestseller on etsy.

poverty_finance Commander_Data • 3y ago • 100%

Spending my spring break living solely off Too Good To Go, AMA

I don't think I've managed to get much lysine, but I'm getting food from a deli today, so hopefully it will include some cheese. Other than that it's been pretty complete, nutritionally speaking and I'll probably only spend about $35 to eat for the week.

history Commander_Data • 3y ago • 0%

Effort post, satire

So my raging lib professor made us write satirical essays and the entire two weeks we spent on the project I had to hear about how satire was so effective at bringing down terrible dictators like Mao and Stalin. So I wrote a satire that satirizes satire and free speech. Here it is. An Immodest Proposal What if I told you that something you probably have in your purse, or the center console of your car could have saved millions of lives? Something that could change history. Would you believe that a pen is the most powerful tool in shaping our world? Or that a few carefully chosen and pointed words could change the course of human events? Most people have heard the maxim the pen is mightier than the sword, but do we understand the power of that phrase? For as long as human beings have been able to transmute their thoughts into words we have used those words as a cudgel against oppressive power structures. Human history is rife with examples of the power of the pen to topple dictators, change regimes, and free oppressed peoples. For example, famous satirist Jonathan Swift penned his famous piece, "A Modest Proposal" in 1729, critiquing the plight of the Irish people whose island had been colonized by the British. By 1949 the Irish people had mostly gained their independence from the United Kingdom, save a small coastal port region which is likely to be repatriated soon. Without Swift's biting wit it's doubtful Sinn Fein and the Irish Republican Army would have had the wherewithal to campaign over 200 years for their freedom. The history of twentieth century is a perfect example of the power of words. Oppressive regimes are notorious for their censorship and suppression of any criticism and there is no better illustration of an oppressive regime than the Soviet Union. There are precious few examples of satirical pieces originating from the USSR and it shows in their very bloody history. The USSR under Stalin lost nearly ten million soldiers while defeating Adolph Hitler during World War II. Imagine if the Soviets encouraged dissent and discourse and, instead of the Red Army, had been able to wage a war of words against the Nazi Wehrmacht. Stalin, in his effort to quell any criticism of the Soviet party and of communism needlessly wasted nearly ten million souls. One may argue that the USSR achieved great things; transforming a feudal, disparate territory spread across two continents into a technological superpower in just 30 years, doubling life expectancy, putting the first human being and the first woman in space, but at what cost? The collapse of the USSR and communism in eastern Europe, and consequently, the return of free speech, has led to many years of peace and stability in the region. Another notorious communist dictator, Mao Zedong, was quoted as saying "political power grows from the barrel of a gun". While there is no doubt that Chairman Mao was successful in liberating the Chinese masses from another backward feudal society, rife with poverty and constantly under threat from the Japanese empire, it again came with a bloody price. Mao is probably best known for the institution of Chinese land reform. Thousands of landlords were either killed or dispossessed of their holdings to create a more equitable distribution of cultivatable land. And while this redistribution dramatically reduced poverty and hunger and persists to this day with China holding the top spot for percentage of homeownership in the world, one could argue that a campaign of strongly worded letters and acerbic dialogue could have accomplished the same result without resorting to violence. Conversely, liberal western countries often do promote the free exchange of ideas. For example, the United States has this tenet enshrined in its Constitution. Western newspapers are replete with pundits penning op-eds critical of both their own and other governments. It is by no accident that the bastion of free speech, the United States of America, is the leading exporter of democracy in the world. Throughout the 60s and 70s, by the power of words, the US was able to stem the expansion of socialism in Central and South America and establish stable governments which persist to this very day. This benevolent spirit continues through to the modern era, with the US joining forces with other western democracies to extoll the values of free speech and independent thought to the Middle East. Through the power of the pen, the western world has been able to transmit these unassailable values to every continent on the planet, resulting in a more equitable and just world. The power of words, and more importantly the freedom to share these words, even when they are critical of power structures, has been a positive force shaping the world we live in. Without a doubt, the values of the west have proven that to effect real political change power does not indeed flow from the barrel of a gun, but from the tip of a pen.