Yea, but the Weavers moved to Idaho because of the right-wing Christian culture of the region. They were ‘end of the world’ type conspiracy people and moved to Ruby Ridge to live like settlers away from the Government.

It’s ironic that the Government was waiting for them in Idaho.

Communism is old, and young. The principals of communal living are the oldest form of human organization. It’s also the most common form today if you count small groups like family.

But as an organizing principal for government, it’s a baby. The Communist Manifesto was published in 1848. The Bolshevik revolution was in 1917. So the whole idea of communism is < 150-200yo. Compare to capitalism at this age and it’s all slavery and settler colonialism; the most massive redistribution of wealth through theft in history.

The logic that communism is a bad system because the Soviet Union should also condemn capitalism because the Dutch East India Company.

It’s a myth that “anyone” can get wrapped up in a cult. Their are many “filters” to joining a cult. Such as unusual dress, complicated social hierarchies, and tons of jargon. And they hit you with this stuff right up front; it’s not gradual. People who are not looking for community and meaning will be repelled.

So they’re filtering people who are not in a particularly credulous mental state. People who are not in a “joining” mentality. I’m not saying that educated, sophisticated, and intelligent people are immune. This all has to do with adjustment, maturity, and emotional stability.

So anyway, to mitigate the reach of cults, society should be organized to minimize alienation and isolation, while a multitude of sources of community and meaning should be encouraged. Check on the people you care about and make sure they’re getting on. Crush capitalism.

Why not both?

Cheap plastic bowl scrapers. Like these:

I use these every time I cook. I use them every time I clean the kitchen.

If I had infinite money, I would create Medicare for All as a private company.

It’d be like shooting all the healthcare CEOs at once.

I saw a documentary about the ultra rich teenagers in the US years ago. One young girl in that film explained that maintaining friendships with “regular” people was impossible. Her reasoning was that rich people do rich people shit. And you have the choice to pay someones way, which makes for awkward obligation/ resentment. Or you could exclude them, which also causes hard feelings.

That teenage girl? Ivanka Trump.

I need windows for flight sims. My problem is not so much the software, it’s the hardware. I have a head-tracking camera, a set of pedals, a throttle, and joystick. All need separate drivers. None support Linux. My throttle is so old that it hasn’t been supported since W7 and it’s work to get it going on W10.

It’s just way easier to dual boot than to try to get all that hardware running on Linux.

Treat capitalists as you find them. Forget morality. What is advantageous and legal is automatically good. What is advantageous and illegal is a cost/benefit calculation.

In American leftism there is a definite divide between black and white.

For example second wave feminism is often thought of as Women seeking entry into the workplace, but at the same time black feminists were trying to leave the workforce and take care of their own kids.

The labor movement has an explicitly racist history. A fact that Capitalists often took advantage of by leveraging black scabs who were often ineligible for union membership. Eugne Debs identified this as a problem with the socialist movement.

I’m not saying that racism is common among today’s lefties, just that white lefties are often ignorant of black American life and especially black radical thought and activism.

If you are vexed by Bernie Sanders’ struggle with black voters, you’re probably not very familiar with this history.

It sounds like your concept of a casual relationship includes marriage.

I had to switch to Linux because it wasn’t presented with any option besides Microsoft when I learned how to computer.

I ignore videos people send to me. Back in like 2007 or something a friend discovered Youtube and sent me links for every video they enjoyed. Which would add up to hours a day. So now my policy is just to ignore. Especially crap from the socials that make you sign up/in.

Meanwhile, I’ll watch video essays from creators I respect that last 1-4 hours.

Is this not the reason the second amendment exists?

No. The second amendment exists to sell guns. All that noise about protecting from tyranny or violence is marketing to sell more guns.

Lot’s of people would like to strip social justice from leftist ideology and only view the world in a strict Marxist sense where class divisions are the only thing. They claim that a classless society will automatically solve bigotry so we don’t have to worry about that.

In reality modern racism and capitalism were born as conjoined twins and one cannot be understood without the other. Ironically, black radical thought in America has always been bifurcated and marginalized from other Marxists largely over the issue of racial capitalism. This in part explains black voter’s skepticism shown toward politicians like Sanders.

Every time I meet someone who opposes illegal immigration but claims to support legal immigration I ask one question. If the law changed so that all immigration was legal, you’d be fine with it, right?

Nobody so far has been fine with it. I conclude that the question of legality is a dodge for people who are embarrassed about their actual motives.

You can’t be an atheist without calling out religions for the hate, war, and genocide that they cause.

Yes you can! Atheism is not an ideology. You’re talking about anti-theists and plenty of us non-believers don’t wanna be associated with those people.

Growing up rural gives one a healthy respect for animals. I once knew a banty rooster who was known to have killed 2 snakes and a hawk going after his hens. I saw that rooster chase grown men and I did not laugh. I would have run from that feathery violence too.

Philosophers are always the first targets of anti-intellectuals. People genuinely believe that studding what’s true about the world is a waste of time.

You can tell that this is a prejudice because the same people who think you shouldn’t get paid for having useless knowledge will still hire economists.