Yayyy everyone got a second job :D this must mean economic prosperity for the people

Oh yes, certainly. I always go with the presumption that there will be no socialist USA, it will be a different country. I just mean the land, middle North America. What is the US today

Nah you’re right. They’re already there and have been for a long time. I guess there’s no quantifiable measurement after they’ve hit fascism, y’know? So I just used that instead of saying “oogabooga BIGGER fascism” cause I mean. How much worse can it get? A lot, but also, not really that much considering what things could be. Idk

Dialectical materialism can be applied to basically anything and it takes awhile to develop it. I’m still not an expert by any means but I have certainly built a better understanding of it over the last 6 months as I’ve touched grass a lot, lot more and also re-read a lot.

It’s a pretty broad question, asking how we apply it to broader society. So I’ll just do an example I guess.

When looking at an issue, the first thing(s) I look for are the contradictions within it and the contradictory relationships it has with other things. We know literally everything is interconnected, and that everything exists in a state of contradiction until it is resolved (and then transforms into a different contradiction but blahbababa) so that’s where I usually start.

Thinking about a gas station near my home, in isolation, is just a gas station. It operates perfectly well and statically to our liberal friends or if you’re not paying attention. But taking a diamat lens to it I would say that there exist tons of contradictions and interconnected relationships that drive the success or failure and the overall conditions of that station. There exists obviously the contradiction between the workers and capital owners there, the one we all know. This contradiction, the primary one in economic life under capitalism, sets the stage for others to pop up - a worker may recognize the futility in how hard they work there, and leave certain tasks undone. Contradictions like that within the gas station build up until they are resolved by either another worker taking the task up, the worker getting fired, or people neglecting to come to that station if it’s bad enough, leading to its closure. This is not static, and is constantly developing and in relation with everything else in the material world.

Connecting the gas station to society is easy from there, you just take off the magnifying glass and look outwards. The station exists in one part of a country that operates under that same economic system. So more contradictions pop up that are not internal to the station. Perhaps the piping that flows the fuel is not properly maintained because those workers are on strike, and ceases to function. The station is now defunct due to contradictions of the economic system, due to no fault of its own other than existing under this material reality.

Everything that happens affects everything that happens. The universe is a dynamic interconnected place and using the diamat framework is immensely helpful for making sense of things.

I could give a kind of abstract math equation, which can be helpful, but for me examples usually do the trick better. The more examples you hear the easier it will be to formulate your own and yeah.

Nobody has dialectical materialism “figured out” either, btw. The best analyses require many people, many years, much PRACTICE -> THEORY -> PRACTICE etc.

Hope this made sense, and if anyone with a better understanding of this than me wants to chime in feel free.

Given the political conditions of the US at the moment, fucked as the material ones are, I’m going to say adventurist. There would not be MASS support for that kind of thing in droves large enough to spark revolution.

Now, many folks would be in support of it, and it would likely radicalize people further/spur them to action. But again, the primary contradiction in the US today is not having a communist party leading the working class. Because a majority of people aren’t in tune/don’t know who these guerillas are, it would be framed as individual terrorist activities and swept under the public eye, no matter the effectiveness.

We aren’t there yet, in my opinion. But give it time, trust.

Complex question. The stage of socialism that China is at? Or when it will fall to a revolution?

I think it’s kind of pointless to try to estimate further than the next qualitative change towards socialism (so, revolution), so I’m just going to put my answer for the revolution ETA.

And that is I have really no idea. None of us do, but if you are on the ground involved with an organization and engaging in the work as we all should be, you’ll see that things are far worse (conditions wise) than even a year ago. People are struggling and unhappy. Revolutionary tinge is growing.

This election year is going to be hell at the end, and I wouldn’t be surprised if things got significantly worse before the next inauguration. We just saw the insane SCOTUS ruling(s). Maybe something big happens in 2025 and succeeds, maybe it happens and is quashed and pushes back revolution for another few years.

The only thing that is very clear is that this cannot go on for much longer. I truthfully cannot see this country surviving status quo for another 10 years. It either will devolve into total, mask-off fascism (more than it is already, talking Nazi shit) or we will get done what needs to get done. But this will end soon.

What do you mean? If you’re talking about in a red setting or a summation after an action or something then think back to the problems that happened and how you contributed to them. Point them out to others in that summation setting.

If you are talking about on like, a personal level, do the same thing but apply it to everything you’re doing. What exactly happened, how did I contribute to it happening? What were the good/effective things I did, what were the things that hampered effectiveness or hurt someone?

Write it down if you have to, or just take note of it in your head. There’s no universal process for self-criticism. Never stop (while being healthy about it obviously). Criticize your critiques, criticize your actions, criticize your thoughts. Don’t beat yourself up but always be trying to disprove or poke holes in what you think.

No. This amounts to throwing your hands in the air and giving up. Work needs to be put in to build something of value. And not all of them are revisionist or whatever. PSL and FRSO are both good options.

Currently working at a UPS warehouse - I am a physically fit young adult and the shit is still grueling. I feel you heavy.

That was a very interesting substack.

I think, if that is true - then what does it matter? I might as well just use shit until it’s officially “gone” or whatever. I do agree it’s on the way out, btw. At least the form we have now. I’m not sure how the world is going to proceed from that.

This is a great idea - but it needs to be backed and endorsed by an organization. You’re correct that lack of organization is the number one obstacle/contradiction when it comes to boycotts being effective. That means that we probably would need to have a respected and large(ish) organization use it and set a good precedent with it before it would get big enough.

Typically I respond with the obvious “they’re not” answer - but even if they were - it’s important to realize who the real enemy is in that situation. These people are often coming from war-torn or poverty-stricken countries, primarily BECAUSE OF U.S. CAPITALISM AND IMPERIALISM. They wouldn’t even be here if they weren’t forced by horrific material conditions.

I ask the person to consider if they would want to leave everything, their family, common language, homeland, for no reason other than “my life might be a little better there” and the answer is obviously no. The immigrants they are concerned about (the poor, desperate brown ones - not the rich French or x “white” ones) are coming out of absolute desperation and taking shitty jobs that often aren’t even ones they’d be doing in the first place. They are the most exploitatable and therefore most exploited people. They have much more in common with you (the x ignorant or racist person) than you do with any of these people you see on TV. Why don’t you stop blaming them and punching down and focus that energy on uniting with others like you - working class people - and take some action instead of posting racist memes on Facebook?

Setbacks and temporary failures are not indicative of a permanent failure. The capitalists are obviously going to swing back. But ultimately the people punch harder

I think it will be no longer than 10 years at this point.

Unless the U.S. finds another way to give itself a shot in the arm and hobble along for another 25 years (which is possible, I guess) - this country is cooked. It is already so much different than even 2 years ago, just in terms of general consciousness, that if this trend continues, it will fall within our lifetime. Like others have said the contradictions are becoming ever stronger, other countries are increasingly powerful and most notably China and the global south are rapidly growing.

The U.S. will not be able to win a war without deploying nuclear weapons and obliterating the entire world along with itself. I wouldn’t put it past them to try if/when it comes to that, but the period of domination where they could fend for themselves is gone. Recruitment rates are in the shitter and again, the general population is extremely unhappy with the way things are going. Class consciousness still has a way to go, but we’re getting there. It’s not like it takes a whole country to complete the initial stages of a revolution, and more and more people are getting radicalized by the minute.

Ultimately, it’s going to take a serious world event that weakens and splits the bourgeois of this country (which is already kind of happening) and the swift action of the masses to take advantage of that when the time comes. It absolutely has to be soon, not only do I believe that it will be, but it has to be, or climate change and the US lashing out will genuinely cause hell.

In our lifetime ain’t just a saying, people. Get out there

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I wouldn’t say equally important, only because in the situation of someone doing 100% online work compared to someone doing 100% physical life work, you’d obviously prefer the latter.

However it’s important to recognize the very real benefits online communist activity has. Fuck, that’s what got me involved. That’s where I got most of my information. It’s where I learned to discuss well, it played a humongous developmental role in becoming a communist that does things irl too.

Like others have said, we need tech spaces not controlled by major corporations. We need places that don’t censor us, that we can confidently post things and organize on. Especially when things get more spicy here in the states. That is, in my opinion, a real life benefit.

We can’t expect just working online to change anything, but we sure as hell can use the crazy amount of people online and useful tools that the internet has to bolster our movement. Full solidarity with our software commies.

*I’d like to make an edit/clarification because after thinking some more, they’re about as close to being equally important as you can get in today’s age. Specifically in the west. Even in the scenario I created earlier, it’s better to have both of those people than just one, because the online-commie can absolutely assist the real-life commie in many tangible and not tangible ways. I think of the research done and articles gathered from those of us on this platform, that never could’ve happened if it were just me researching. Having a, for lack of a better term, think tank designed for us is really important for developing correct ideas and discussion.

This is pretty indisputable. At least the first part. Revolutions aren’t pretty, the empire will lash out, climate change will worsen.

But the chance for growth once the empire falls means that the best truly is yet to come.

At this rate it probably won’t lmao

Yessss I was waiting for someone to confirm that <3 get fucked empire

I wouldn’t really use the word “agrees” to be honest. It’s a great thing, undoubtedly, but I think they wouldn’t do this if they weren’t de facto forced to because they’re stretched so unimaginably thin. This country truly is on the brink.