Mental Health
Stop commodifying yourself!
PeaceLaborMay 1 year ago • 100%
Yeah, I'm still posting content on YT 😁
Mental Health
Stop commodifying yourself!
PeaceLaborMay 1 year ago • 100%
Hey, sorry it took me so long to respond. Well, I only spam once a week on my YT and a few times a week on TT. There are a few people watching ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I used to have a PeerTube, but I can't keep up with it.
Hello, comrades, Wow, it's been two years since I've come here. So much is happening all over the world. I'm so overwhelmed with everything. We've been trying to create something cohesive here locally, we fought a battle to unionize, we've organized with some local activists, and we failed, and we connected with some great people. I wish I had the capacity to keep up with everything, but I just don't. I am also very much in need of support and community. I was not able to keep up with posting videos on PeerTube. I'm kinda keeping up with YouTube and TikTok somewhat, and if anyone is interested in supporting a Marxist-Leninist from Kazakhstan who is neurodivergent and not good at keeping in touch with individuals, I would be glad to connect somehow. I can drop the links to my YouTube and TikTok, if anyone is using them.
World News
Almaty on January 8-10
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
Thank you.
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Personal observations.
We have been experiencing a rapid spread of peaceful protests in Kazakhstan - starting in Zhanauzen over gas prices (which increased 100%), quickly spreading in the West of the country. Almaty protests started yesterday. The military (Rapid Action Force) were dispersed to stop the peaceful protests. The calls from the protestors quickly took on an anti-government sentiment. The people started fighting back since the Rapid Action Force started using smoke bombs against them. Some representatives of the military allegedly joined the people. Now the city of Almaty is quiet. Transport doesn't operate, no social media except Twitter works. Many people cannot go to work. Many roads are blocked. The president declared the resignation of the government cabinet. The state of emergency has been issued for two weeks.
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Read the poem here: https://write.as/peace-labor-may/stay-stay
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Haven't posted a poem on PeerTube in a while. Poetry helped me deal with frustration and desperation for twenty years. Read the poem here: https://write.as/peace-labor-may/peace
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PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
No worries, comrade.
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
I started my channel on BreadTube because I didn't know where else to do so at the time ¯_(ツ)_/¯ The clique-isness in online "leftist" circles is so annoying.
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feminism
Egocentrism and patriarchal legacy (The Origins of Family, Private Property and the State)
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
Do you have any recommendations for more current ethnographic studies? I found Fromm's recounting of the Çatalhöyük findings to be enlightening.
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VideosPeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
A lot of Soviet movies I grew up with, our comedies were HILARIOUS: Приключения Шурика (Операция Ы, Кавказская пленница, и т.д.), 12 Стульев, Джентльмены удачи, Иван Васильевич меняет профессию). My favourite Soviet drama as of late is Свой среди чужих, чужой среди своих, it's soo good 😭 I also enjoy early-ish J-horror (mid 90s-early 00s), the classics: Ringu, Ju-on, Dark Water, Tomie, etc. We watch quite a few European kinda art house-ish movies (mostly, horror). For the 90s nostalgia, we watch the X-files, lol.
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
Yes, it's so hard to find good shows and movies. I watch a lot of "old" stuff because of this.
AsklemmyPeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
I always read all of the comments first. I very rarely comment myself, because very often, what I have to say has already been said. The power of the collective!
watch.breadtube.tv
watch.breadtube.tv
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 96%
watch.breadtube.tv
Read the poem here: https://write.as/peace-labor-may/when-sadness-encompasses-you
Communism
To become a communist in the west, you must struggle with uncomfortable beliefs you own
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
Why not deride christianity, lol? I was born far, far, from the imperialist core, and this rotten ideology of defeatism, individualism, the just world hypothesis, the myth of meritocracy, etc. has freaking wrecked my life. It had seeped into the collective unconscious in the lands that used to be united by the people's power of the Soviets, and it had ruined many a life even before the collapse of USSR (Parenti gives a pretty good analysis of this in, I think, the second chapter of Blackshirts and Reds). I am a good example - I used to be my own freaking big brother. It's dialectical materialism that has set my mind free. It's comrades Lenin, Stalin, Mao, who were humans, just like me, who have helped me begin understanding the world. And I, by no means, blame "the rotten West" of all our woes, but Marx damn it, what we used to have in these lands - and what we could have achieved!..
Communism
So, has anyone been keeping up with the drama on Twitter over the role of patriotism, ML, and decolonization?
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
Also, does anyone else notice how patriotism is revered, in some cases, almost fetishized by some? I've always had a hard time understanding what patriotism even is, before I came across Lenin's and Stalin's statements on self-determination and national struggle. I can understand a love for one's land and people. But how can a modern person even feel connected to the land and the people in conditions of such alienation? It appears to me, almost as if modern day "developed" world's patriotism is fueled by individualistic and opportunistic (if not outright egocentric) view of the world, a religious division into "us vs them", and a banal desire to feel a sense of belonging (which, by itself, is not at all strange) - which may stem from not only a lack of understanding of history, but a profound disconnect with self.
Communism
So, has anyone been keeping up with the drama on Twitter over the role of patriotism, ML, and decolonization?
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
Hey, this is an aside, but thank you so much for recommending An Indigenous People's History of the United States. I found it a few weeks ago thanks to your posts!
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 90%
How do you define support? Have you looked into dialectical materialism? One can support *an entity and still see the contradictions, and still strive for the resolution of these contradictions. This is said a lot - communism is not a religion. It is not a static set of rules and principles. It is a science, and it aims to resolve the contradictions of capitalism through materialist means. We should not succumb to the black and white dichotomy that monotheism has been instilling into us.
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Read the text here: https://write.as/peace-labor-may/why-dont-people-like-you
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Read the text here: https://write.as/peace-labor-may/militant-altruism
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Read the text here: https://write.as/peace-labor-may/the-fox-woman
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A more poetic take on the question of the rich. Read the text here: https://write.as/peace-labor-may/the-rich
Mental Health
Stop believing capitalist lies: Human Value
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
Thank you!
watch.breadtube.tv
Read the text here: https://write.as/peace-labor-may/everything-changes-constantly-continuously-nothing-is-ever-the-same
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
Thanks!
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
You're welcome, thanks for reading!
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
It's PeerTube, a decentralised, federated alternative to YouTube.
watch.breadtube.tv
Read the text here: https://write.as/peace-labor-may/a7hthyixn9f9xumr
Late Stage Capitalism
Mega rant about individualism
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
Yes, anyone can. It's PeerTube, a decentralised, federated alternative to YouTube.
Late Stage Capitalism
Mega rant about individualism
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
I appreciate it! :)
Late Stage Capitalism
Mega rant about individualism
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
Thanks! Yeah, Breadtube is my "main".
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
Erich Fromm's Psychoanalysis and Zen Buddhism. Maxine Hong Kingston's The Warrior Woman. Just finished Audre Lorde's Zami: A New Spelling of My Name and moved on to her essays. Still am tackling Fromm's The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness. Picking up Lenin's assorted writings every now and then.
Late Stage Capitalism
Mega rant about individualism
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
😂 It's a gnomio, he is a part of my secret police.
watch.breadtube.tv
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
Hehe
Science
A recent study shows that you can literally buy happiness by paying others to do tasks you don't enjoy doing thus freeing you up to spend your time the way you like.m (Direct PDF link)
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
If we come from a capitalist perspective, perhaps, we'll see opportunism. If we help ourselves and those around us see through the pseudo darwinist propaganda of "inherent competitiveness and greed" of humans, we'll be able to keep developing and implementing education that is aimed at self-realisation of human potential; and we'll most likely see a decline in "laziness" and self-service. Speaking of anecdotal evidence, do you see yourself willing to give freely to those close to you, and what do you expect in return? I personally want to give to my fellow humans, and I have known many individuals who are alike.
Science
A recent study shows that you can literally buy happiness by paying others to do tasks you don't enjoy doing thus freeing you up to spend your time the way you like.m (Direct PDF link)
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
Yes, and what about building a society in which everyone contributes according to ability and receives according to needs?
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I've been thinking about a community dedicated to "casual" communism for a while now. Here are a few of my thoughts on the matter. Let me know what you think!
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
Interesting. I've had this poster saved for future reference, heh. I think we come from very different perspectives on this issue. I think ostracism from either side should not take place on an individual basis - individual representatives of marginalized groups should not be isolated from a movement, and their struggles should be acknowledged as a part of the collective struggle. "Identity politics" is a tactic that distracts our attention from our main goals of the universal liberation. Commodification of everything is absolutely happening; and we must address this through education - informal, if that's all we have. We do have to be careful not to push folks away. Also, I do not see any necessity in moralising people's sexual preferences. Monogamy is not in any form advanced or a sign of a highly developed society.
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
I'm going to offer a few of my personal thoughts, not based on anything in particular. It appears to me that you are pathologizing sexuality, not only homosexuality or queerness, all of it. Human sexual desire is based on seeking out pleasure. Humans like to experience pleasure, and are going to be seeking it out, no matter what the status quo is. "Unusual" sexual relationships must have existed always. There are traces of it everywhere - I am not just talking about the Hellenistic stereotypes; but the fact that people like sex, and have always looked for it; and human sexuality is often fluid - you may develop intimate relationships with whoever. Gender is questioned nowadays, and for a good reason - have you ever loved a friend, and have you ever had sex with someone you don't care about? Love and sex have been perverted by monotheism, desire to control and manipulate (yes, some "traditional" values were a necessity at the time of their emergence, but what necessitates prejudice now?). Childhood trauma and religious upbringing may lead certain individuals to develop "unhealthy" sexual preferences (due to the taboo; the forbidden fruit effect). But the question is, what is "inherently" harmful about homosexual relationships? The statistics may be skewed because we have many, MANY victims of trauma and abuse go without help and develop their own coping mechanisms that may or may not be connected to sexuality. The expression argument you offered seem to fall in the same category - people may develop fetishes due to various factors (religious trauma included). I don't think you realise how much harm monotheistic religious indoctrination has brought upon the entire world. Religion goes hand in hand with patriarchy and "religious ethics" go very well with capitalist propaganda of the myth of meritocracy and the just world hypothesis. I am also noticing you going the "good old days" route; and seeing religion favourably. Monotheistic religions HAVE SMASHED people's bonds with each other and nature. Religion has contributed LARGELY to the perversion of human desire. F. Engels' The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State gives a curious glimpse at the possible lack of "traditional" family in the past (the anthropological data has dated, of course; I'm not sure what the modern finds can point to). Overall, the fight for ALL of the oppressed people has to be our goal; yes, the performative imperialist pretence at diversity and inclusivity is a spectacle to divide us further; but we must cast aside individual views of ethics and strive for liberation of all.
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A little reminder for you, comrades.
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Read the text here: https://write.as/peace-labor-may/the-agreeable-woman
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
Sure.
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
Please join. The splace is not meant for too much discussion of the aspects that may be controversial. We would like to keep the space open as long as we are not bombarded with bad tankie jokes (good ones are ok).
Dear comrades, the vision for this room is to provide a safe space for communists to vent their frustrations. There are plenty of mental health support groups, but the ones for those with class consciousness are lacking. To talk about burnout, reactions to propaganda and agitation, mental health issues through a lens of class antagonism are some of the goals of this space. P. S. We are also considering starting a forum here on Lemmy dedicated to mental health support for communists. Let us know what you think!
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
I only use it jokingly and when among good comrades.
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
Indeed. Guilt and shame for no reason are what I have been experiencing for years. Feeling guilty and ashamed for existing is what monotheistic religions perpetuate, and what I have actively been fighting against.
peervideo.club
Hello, there, comrades! I made a new, more casual PeerTube channel (some of you might have seen some of these videos), and would love it if you joined me there. I don't want to spam too much with "advertising" every video, so this is my invitation from me to you! Have a great one!
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
Thank you for your input and formatting suggestions!
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The time has come for us to talk about human aggressiveness. If you do not appreciate the gnomes, they'll take you you-know-where because you are the enemy of gnomes. Read the text here: https://write.as/peace-labor-may/is-aggressiveness-inherent-to-humans
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Breaking out of the cycle of shame and guilt, beginning to practice mutual aid - what have I personally gained from learning leftist ideology? Read the text here: https://write.as/peace-labor-may/the-more-i-learn-about-capitalism-and-communism-the-easier-it-is-for-me-to
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Finally, I am finishing my talking about the just world hypothesis! Just kidding! I will keep talking about it. Read the text here: https://write.as/peace-labor-may/just-world-hypothesis
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
Thanks! My second shot of the vaccine is coming soon ಥ‿ಥ
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
Not any time soon, our cases are rising daily ಥ_ಥ
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
Kazakhstan:)
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
Thank you for a great reminder, comrade!
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
The mountains. The trees planted by our great grandparents. The endless steppes. Squirrels that are fat and brave because everyone loves them and feeds them. Fresh produce, local and from our neighbors.
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Let me present you with a few of my ponderings on the myth of meritocracy. If you do not appreciate my choice of gifs and emojis, I proclaim you the enemy of the people. Read the text here: https://write.as/peace-labor-may/meritocracy
I assert that addressing mental health issues, specifically, for communists, is essential due to the following three reasons: Healthier individual = healthier community; Healthier mindset = more effective communal work; The results will be of benefit despite the change (or lack thereof) of socio-economic circumstances. Let me decipher the simplistic axioms I have provided above. Firstly, an individual suffering from an «ailment of the soul» often times is further isolated and alienated from their community, for various reasons. Some of the main ones being: stigmatization of «non-normative» behaviors, reactions and perceptions; limited socialization of particular neuro types; lack of opportunities for affected individuals to partake fully in development and realization of their potential. There are many more reasons why an affected individual may be experiencing a greater level of alienation from one’s community. If you look at an activist community, focus on direct action and/or participation in socially important tasks can be of more difficulty to an individual suffering from a mental health ailment. Some examples of possible outcomes: due to one’s depression, an individual may not be able to partake in many efforts, despite their desires; they may be unable to find motivation to start something of benefit not only to others, but to themselves. Another simple example: an individual suffering from anxiety, may avoid certain situations in which their anxiety is triggered; thus seriously lacking in participation as well. Despite these hypothetical comrades' desires and drives, they cannot simply «will» their conditions away; medication may not be available to them, or they may choose to not medicate due to multitude of reasons. Exclusion of such individuals lead to an impairment of a community, lacking in human resources; more responsibility taken by the rest of the community, with possible burnout of the «healthier» ones. Secondly, even if the individual’s mental health condition is not severe, if left unattended, it may lead to a development of a particular mindset, or attitude, that may not be conductive to effective work of the community. If, for example, an individual feels limited in certain capacity, but overcomes said limitations by overexerting oneself, by «getting over» one’s struggles, they may face unwanted consequences, such as a sense that others should also «overcome» and/or suffer in silence; or a sense of bitterness and resentment because they may feel that their efforts go unnoticed; or repress and/or suppress their emotions and later on be caught up in the tangles of one’s unconsciousness influencing their decisions, perhaps skewing their objective perception of reality. These aforementioned consequences are not exclusive to those suffering from a pronounced mental health issue, and may affect a great portion of a community. Thirdly, mental health support can lead to great long-term benefits despite the outcomes of the activist movement. Even if members of an activist group do not promote their cause to the desired extent, if they practice mutual mental health support, they may reap the fruits of this labor rather soon - the benefits of being cared for are obvious and lead to an acceleration of one’s development in nearly all areas of life. And it is not as costly as one can imagine - the time dedicated to listening empathically to another individual’s struggles; the time spent helping another gain perspective on one’s experiences; the efforts to understand and objectively analyze another’s circumstances: none of this is ever in vain and can impact the community in surprisingly positive ways. These are, I believe, the most immediate and most apparent advantages of providing mental health support within any group of like-minded individuals, and can lead to progress not only in the lives of the affected ones, but in the life of the movement and community overall. There are certainly risks and responsibilities that come with such efforts. None of the participants of such efforts should ever take them lightly, and realize as early as possible, that we are limited in our capacity to understand and help others. We must not succumb to the idealist view of mutual mental health aid, where everyone agrees and gives each other pats all day long. We must remember the ultimate goals of the movement, and not water them down to spare another one’s mental state. We must also never view ourselves in any way or form as «guides» or «the wise ones» in the scenarios where one may show one’s vulnerability. Cameraderie and compassion, along with objectivity and reliance on empirical data, must guide us in our communal strive for the improvement of our conditions.
PeaceLaborMay 3 years ago • 100%
Also, the so called inclusivity campaigns aren't promoting the rights of the oppressed per se; they more often than not appear to be a theatrical attempt to lure in more confused support for the status quo. The divine right for a self-centred existence - well said 😂
PeaceLaborMay 4 years ago • 100%
Apple products.
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In this video, I am going over the basics of equality of outcome, equality of opportunity and luck egalitarianism. Please let me know what your thoughts on equality are.
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Read the text here: https://write.as/peace-labor-may/a-faceless-enemy
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Read the text here: https://write.as/peace-labor-may/speaking-into-the-void
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There are mishaps in the sound at times. I tried rerecording a couple of times, but couldn't quite capture the mood. I ordered a simple mic; hopefully, there will be an improvement in the sound quality in my videos soon. Read the text here: https://write.as/peace-labor-may/the-art-of-fire
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I am trying something new, comrades! I'm calling it leftist ASMR. Let me know what you think. Read the text here: https://write.as/peace-labor-may/bitterness-has-settled-itself-rather-comfortably-in-our-midst-nowadays
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You can read the script for the video here: https://write.as/peace-labor-may/propaganda-has-gotten-quite-a-reputation-and-in-many-peoples-minds-is
Hello, there, dear comrades! I am not fond of the aforementioned source myself, but... What are your thoughts on Medium.com from a perspective of a poster? Would you find it worthwhile to post your writing there? What are some of the platforms you'd use instead? Thanks!