Mossadegh, Arbenz, Goulart.

There are only a handful of additional modern examples that fulfill the criteria of democratically elected AND successfully overthrown.

What a time to be alive.

A longing for the Good Old Days™ of old-style forums and pre-enshittification Reddit?

Nah, I’m 30. It’s just a relief to be on a community where the majority of the commenters aren’t literal children.

Probably less about skill, per se, and more about interest. But the (still very low) barrier to entry probably does weed out a few kids.

Thank you! And don’t feel bad! I’ve had decades to make coping mechanisms, insurance that covers mental healthcare (for now, at least), and a very supportive family. It sucks to slog through, but these depressive episodes are only temporary. I’ll survive.

I hope I continue to entertain in the months and years to come! 🙏

Many of us still follow the situation closely, three years into the war.

Yes, but also I’m depressed too.

Still, it would be nice to focus on my own mental health without having to juggle awareness of a dozen new atrocities every fucking month. Like, one or two per month was my mental limit.

Ramen. Spaghetti (sauce optional). Rice. Oatmeal.

As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

Subbed. I used to love Men’s Lib on Reddit.

Explanation: The Nazis were, formally, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. Some people take this to mean that the Nazis were, in some meaningful way, ‘left’ or socialist.

The truth is that they were neither. The name was made to appeal to the working-class by feigning interest in workers’ issues, but the Nazis drew overwhelmingly from, and addressed the pet issues of, the disaffected middle class. While there were less capitalist-friendly factions in the party (notably, the working-class SA and the Strasserists), they were not what we would recognize as left-wing, instead representing a distinctly reactionary take on opposition to capitalism more in-line with Catholic conservatives expressing resentment of the bourgeoisie in the 19th century.

Those less-capitalist-friendly factions were suppressed in favor of Hitler’s alliance with land magnates and capitalists in 1934, and so became moot in any case.

I miss the days when the world only fell apart with soul-crushing disasters like, once every two months.

That’s 8x better, or something, idk, I’m not good with math.

Today in “The Global South™ has no independent moral agency and is wholly dependent on the whims of the Global North™…”

Not strictly speaking - market economies, even under predominantly capitalist systems, still include a large number of workers’ coops and sole-proprietor firms. Markets predate capitalism, and markets will likely post-date it too.

Capitalism is in reference to systems of limited-liability stock corporations which allow extremely fluid (and divided) ownership of capital by an investor class.

1. Coffee as a luxury is uh, pretty fucking far. Do you know how cheap store-brand coffee is? The only way you’re dropping below that for the price of drinking is literal tap water - which, even in places where it’s safe, often has a distinct taste (source: grew up in a town where the tap water tasted of iron - city said it was fine, but it instilled a reluctance to drink from the tap).

2. Lacking goods and services regarded as ordinary is a form of suffering - running water in a home is not a necessity either, but most would regard being without it as a form of suffering. Running water is a luxury - and one which we can easily provide.

3. Disabled folk are often receiving benefits on the basis of being disabled, ie that they cannot reasonably and consistently earn more than that in their lifetime. If your view is that disabled folk should lack luxuries entirely because they dared to be born disabled, that’s fucked up.

Automatic upvote for She-Ra.

Thank you! It does genuinely brighten my day to hear these comments

Hope you’re doing alright!

Mostly I am. It’s just a underlying current in my thoughts that’s hard to shake. It doesn’t rule my life or anything, it just… comes by intermittently.

Thank you!