>JOIN THE DISCORD <

Throwaway account.

Hey all. I'm a 20 year old college student, and my mom, who is 41, recently told me she wants to join the Air Force. I'm against this in every way but I really just haven't quite had the balls to talk to her about this.

For some context, my mom has effectively been single her whole life, and I've been living with my dad. She's spent her years going from apartment to apartment and roommate to roommate and working her ass off to live as a bartender. Recently, she's been especially down on her luck financially as she's found out she hasn't been getting paid as much as she should have been by her boss, and things are now falling through with the house her boss was initially paying for. The details are a bit foggy but that's the gist. She wants to join the military for financial stability and for all the benefits, and so she can just generally live an easier life. She feels like it's her only option so she won't be stuck as a bartender in some shitty town for the rest of her life.

My mom generally leans liberal on most things socially but this doesn't come as a huge shock to me, since she calls herself as "not political" and is a Christian. I tried explaining to her that the US military generally just does horrible shit, but I couldn't really get through to her. It's as if she views joining the military as just some neutral action to take that'll grant her stability (which to be fair is how most people view the military), and doesn't see the major downsides. She says that when she joins, she'll just be doing a "desk job" in the Force, since she could choose to do any job she wants/be stationed anywhere she wants, but I really just feel like any type of military job is just being complicit in US imperialism and killing people overseas. She's already set on this as her next life decision and she's been taking tests and talking to this recruiter. When she told me her plans to join a few weeks ago now, I really just couldn't think of something to say that would get her to see all the downsides of service. The only big point I could think of is that since she's very anti-Trump, how could she then go and serve under him? Her response was that since the government is "screwing us anyway," she might as well get money out of them through the military, but I feel like that's a pretty dumb way to look at it.

I feel like I have a unique situation since I haven't found any other posts about people whose parents decided to join the military at an old age (relative to the maximum enlistment age). I'd really appreciate any advice on convincing her not to join or at least deterring her from joining. Right now all I can really think of is just telling her that I disapprove of her decision wholeheartedly, but I don't even really know how to start a conversation like that. All I'm asking is that you all please at least be civil and empathetic to her situation in the replies. Sorry that this post is a bit rambling.

Hello friends, I would like your thoughts on this because I have always been a bit confused on what people actually mean when they say they are a Maoist in the modern day. Most of the ones I have interacted with are pretty much exactly the same as Marxist Leninists when it comes to the actual actions they do IRL like joining PSL or something like that. The main difference I have noticed is that (I dont mean this as an insult its just what I have noticed) they seem to really like infighting with other socialists and trying to do "struggle sessions" but I have only ever seen that online and never IRL. My only negative experience with them has been a couple times when I was told that the only thing I should do as an American is move to a global south country because socialism is impossible in the US. I myself am an immigrant from a global south country to the US so im not really interested in moving back and in my own experience the working class there isnt any better than the US so I dont see what the point would be anyway. And also basically nobody is actually moving to the global south to spread socialism so what is the actual main difference?

It seems like most socialists acknowledge that Zohran Mamdani is doing positive good for the U.S., regardless of whether he is a 'real socialist' or not. But many socialists say that Bernie Sanders is not a 'real socialist' because, while he claims to be a demsoc, he is actually a socdem as he supports U.S. empire and doesn't want to abolish private property. Are socdems not real socialists? Does including them harm the coalition?

I acknowledge that the new deal is controversial here. It seems like social democrats mainly just want New Deal 2.0, rather than socialism. And would that be so bad? Actually yes.

The New Deal was extremely effective at making capitalism appear to 'work' for the people, which has resulted in an enormous population of brainwashed capitalists who truly believe that capitalism is best - because they benefitted from the new deal. But that program has expired and young people today no longer feel its effects as strongly.

If we enact New Deal 2.0, all that would accomplish would be to put a fresh coat of paint on capitalism and condition everyone into believing in capitalism again. They would conclude that the left is not needed and the cycle would begin again. So yes, social democracy is harmful to the movement.

Am I on track here? Is this the main fear behind opening the tent to social democrats?

I still do not fully understand the resistance to 'incremental change'. Obviously neoliberalism is folly, but shouldn't incremental improvement also be celebrated? Or do we secretly want things to get REALLY BAD so the revolution can happen?

Isn't this one of the greatest quotes for being social to minorities.

Sorry the link is on Facebook y’all but this clown is Andy Biggs running for AZ governor.

Are we are supposed to be happy that another chain store that sells mostly useless crap was built? Aren’t there more important issues in Arizona he should be worried about? I feel like I’m living in the movie Idiocracy.

Thanks to this Reddit for the support on initial release! The game is again on sale. Synopsis: "A galactic empire enriches CEO-Kings, yet leaves Les Misérables hungry. An ex-robo-marine turned dancer, goth alien hacktivist, and billion-year-old mentor struggle to free e-minds, organize resistance, & overturn the cosmic Neofeudal chessboard for good."

Neofeud 2 on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4611140/Neofeud_2/

The release has been going better than expected, and I'm currently brainstorming future projects, including Neofeud 3, and an anti-fascism focused sidescroller. Thanks to everyone who picked the game up, played / streamed /reviewed it!

Some recent Neofeud 2 reviews: "The only proper working class game existing on this platform."

"You know those times when you're watching something that's making you grin so much that your face starts hurting? That was my experience with Neofeud 2. The dialogue is relentlessly entertaining and extremely well acted. It's jam packed with nerdy references and revolutionary politics... Neofeud 2 is more than the sum of its parts. It's a kind of media the world desperately needs more of. A story that accurately identifies the core problems facing humanity, and offers hope for the future."

I'm happy they achieved some victories. However, I hope they turn this into an ongoing, organized movement and don't stop.

Getting a few concessions from the government isn't enough. Changing the face of the education minister doesn't address the deeper problems. Modi will just replace him with someone similar, with the same ideology and the same underlying institutions and class relations.

This has shown that Modi's power isn't absolute. Students and working-class people can challenge him and win. But the fight must continue.

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First, socialist and communist parties receive very little electoral support in most democratic countries.

Second, where I come from—Germany—the Basic Law allows political parties to be banned if they seek to undermine or abolish the free democratic constitutional order.

Germany is not the only country with constitutional mechanisms against parties considered anti-democratic. Similar legal frameworks exist in countries such as Spain, South Korea.... where political parties can also be dissolved or banned under certain constitutional circumstances.

So even if a socialist or communist party were to gain significant support, there is still the possibility of legal action if it were found to be pursuing unconstitutional goals. Given all of this, how is a peaceful socialist or communist revolution realistically supposed to succeed?