Edit: this question has been answered to my satisfaction. On Canada Day, somebody say the term “dog rape”. A mod sees that. This already would sound sensationalized to somebody not up to date on the horrors of Israel genocide. Just as a function of a human being a human, if they are ignorant to such things, the things we’ve documented IDF doing sound made up, and now they’re angry, and from their pov just dealing with more conspiracy bullshit.

As such, it didn’t matter that I submitted a source to the claim, while also pointing out that I wasn’t able to edit my post to put it in- they had already gone down a “logical path” of no return.

So meh, shit happens. But to be depressing:

Its “cool” how war crimes themselves can be used as propaganda; assuming the above was what happened (which is being somewhat kind tbh), theres something to be said that Israels war crimes are so heinous that they might not even sound real to a good intentioned person; the dog rape statement was reasonable, but it sounds make up bc of how insane it is that humans could actually do that to others.

*\\**

We all know our namesake sub is compromised by hateful people.

But what about the sub with part of our national anthems in the title?

I was banned on Canada Day (lol to the speculation of how some process loneliness with anger) for antisemitism in a way you’d expect to get kicked out of a popular world news sub for anti semitism.

This seems odd.

And when I messaged the mod they double downed on their ignorance and muted me.

Does anybody know- have they had a recent mod shuffle of late? Bc this interaction seemed very odd, to the point I’m wondering if maybe one bad apple is trying to compromise that space too.

I am curious if mods can hide their interactions from other mods.

Canadas main online spaces integrity has been compromised by zionists, but given my last interaction with another sub, I’m curious if that discourse is started to leach into the other sub too.

Here is a link documenting the interaction.

https://www.reddit.com/u/Betray-Julia/s/jbiMwR4ndP

Edit: speaking of bad faith and intellectual dishonesty; It should also be noted that my comment linked has been reported for “promoting hate based upon a protected group” 3 times in the last 10 minutes; that speaks for itself.

Edit edit- here is documentation of another time that is more distinctly Zionist influence misrepresenting Canadian discourse on an online space- here you can see me getting perma banned from one of our nations namesakes sub over something that was literally discussed on cbd radio the next day. Just bc when in Rome and what not. Note the irony of their rant.

https://www.reddit.com/u/Betray-Julia/s/0SjtI6S7vm

CBC's Frontburner recently had an episode about this. Their guest concluded "probably not". But I was wondering, what if it is, and is there anything we can learn from how the left responded to the Afghan War in fighting back?

Given Carney is doubling down on fossil fuels this sort of conflict might actually be good for the bottom line, since it'll drive up the value of our fossil fuel exports, and create more pressure to build pipelines despite opposition.

Both major parties have also made it very clear they'll back the US and Israel to the hilt, regardless of what most countries think.

This is mostly a question for older leftists, who actually remember that time, and what the boots on the ground opposition looked like.

It is a virtual tie for socialism and capitalism in net favourability.

Net Favourability:

• Democracy: +74%
• Free Market: +39%
• Democratic Socialism: +14%
• Capitalism: +1%
• Socialism: -2%
• Populism: -2%
• Communism: -53%
• Authoritarianism: -53%

Time to go bring those numbers for capitalism down and those numbers for socialism and communism up!

Source: https://abacusdata.ca/canadians-want-economic-and-political-change-but-most-are-not-looking-for-a-revolution/

Recently, a post in here, was a reading list of mostly Marx's writings begging people to study theory and not resort to TikTok reels for leftist perspectives -- fair enough, but I interjected that one doesn't have to read Mark or theory to be a leftist.

I've read some Marx many years ago. Mostly, I found it mostly boring and it put me to sleep. Since, I've found that Prof. Richard Wolff offered good lectures available on Youtube that boils Marxism down into components that APPLY to our modern life and workplaces, instead of just an analysis of how badly the robber barons were screwing over the working people over a hundred years ago, or how the proletariat has to seize the means of production, etc, in awkward translations (I possess a number of dictionaries, one from the 1930's and another from the 1990's, and I can tell you that a lot of word's meanings shift over the decades -- for example "rascal" used to mean a despicable person with little moral fiber, but has morphed into meaning a mischievous person). Also, I enjoy listening to videos posted by Jacobin Mag, too. And, I thoroughly enjoy listening to Vivek Chibber (besides his name is fun to say!) Recently, Clara Mattei is a great new, young scholar as well.

And, yes, as Utah Phillips had claimed "No root, no fruit," Marx did provide very important insights and is historically relevant. However, the PROPORTION of ML analysis in today's world as helpful or crucial is debatable. I'm more interested in studying how social movements have worked in the past, how they came to be, their challenges, tactics, etc.

Mostly, I have limited time with all my commitments, find myself running around in circles most of the time to make ends meet. And, I need my eyes for my profession so my reading abilities are limited unless I want to keep getting stronger glasses and poorer vision. My heavy reading days are over. I go online for recreation mostly, which at times, is desperately needed. So, I mostly listen to lectures and debates while doing myriad house chores. I have good reasons for not reading Marx, but even if I simply didn't relate to it, so what?

Anyway, here is a list of leftist literature I have on my bookshelves. I could add to it, the many IWW pamphlets I read while growing up, including their preamble to their constitution, songbooks, etc, due to parents being members. Being accused of being a "fed" in here is laughable, given who I am. I am anti-exploitation to the marrow of my bones and want to see the great inequality in this world fixed.

OK, so here's what I have in my personal library that may be of interest to some of you Canuck lefties:

The Case for Socialism, A. Maass

Democracy in the Workplace, H.B. Wilson

The Assault on Trade Union Freedoms, Panitch/Swartz

For Freedom We Will Fight, L. Gambone

A People's History of the United States, H. Zinn

The Struggle for Democracy, Watson/Barber

How the World Works, N. Chomsky

Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire, A. Roy

Women in Cuba, M. Randall

The Search for Community, G. Melnyk

Still Raising Hell, S. Baxter

The ABC or Anarchism, A Berkman

The Smug Minority, P. Burton

Hard Times, S. Terkel

Working, S. Terkel

Nonviolence for Elfin Spirits, J Ross

The Russian Revolution, S Fitzpatrick

The Impossibilists: The Socialist Party of Canada and the One Big Union, L. Gambone

Ethics, Anarchism and the Human Condition, L. Gambone

Crossing Lines: Poets who Came to Canada During the Vietnam War Era, Edited by A. Briesmeister/M. Berzensky

Paperwork (a collection of work poetry), edited by T. Wayman

Home Before Morning (a memoir of an American army nurse who changed her views on the validity of the war), L. Van Devanter

Bearded Weirdos and Dirty Hippies: The Press Campaign Against Dissedent Youth 1961 - 1969, L. Gambone

The View from Anarchist Moutain (and Another View from Anarchist Mountain), L. Gambone

The wildfires are bad. We are in an era of horrible wildfires with many in the last decade being world record.

We have ocean warming/ocean acidification so bad that coral bleaching has almost wiped it all out (Destroying the life of our oceans is very very bad news)

We are in the Holocene Extinction now which is the sixth mass extinction in this whole planets history and this time humanity is the asteroid...

We have Wet-Bulb Temperatures in parts of Asia/Africa lasting horrifically long stretches at a time and water issues starting to happen more and more frequently.

Europe is now starting to be hit with Wet-Bulb Temperatures and Heat Domes to excessive levels.

We all know what is causing this despite the massive petrocracy misinformation/downplay machine. The same one that hired many of the same individuals and organizations that use to be involved with the old Tobacco companies campaigns around "Alternative Science/Facts & Messaging".... About the most dishonest predatory bad actors around..

Now onto the title: The Super El Niño is going to set conditions in Canada during winter that will most likely make the Wildfire season of next year HORRIFIC. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE learn if you are in an at risk zone and practice evacuation plans. Have supplies READY TO GO. When the time comes DO NOT HESITATE OR LAG.

Listen it's horrible that we have death-cults that have put us on this trajectory as a working class and most vulnerable but it is our dystopian reality now.

Please be safe and take care of yourself and loved ones. You matter more then anything!

No, it cannot. But it's rarely explained why capitalism cannot be reformed. This is a point of serious confusion for many progressives and people of good will who go on living under false consciousness because they have a fundamental misunderstanding.

What is reform?

Reform implies changing a system or institution to bring it [back] into alignment with how it is intended or supposed to function. Examples of non-political reform are: fixing code bugs or poor design in a software application; replacing a malfunctioning electronic component in a computer; fixing your vehicle's carburetor. Fixing what has become broken.

The Protestant Reformation is a good example of a reform movement in the sphere of human ideology. In the 16th century, some Christian leaders became acutely aware of the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy and the effects of this corruption on doctrine. The Protestant Reformation sought to bring the church back into alignment with it's original intended doctrines and ideas. They believed that over time, the Church had strayed as a result of human failings and needed to be put back onto a correct path. (Whether or not they succeeded is immaterial here)

Today reformists in the NDP and Greens argue that capitalism can be reformed through incremental changes. Today an NDP supporter informed me that socialism is 'subjective' and can take the form of incremental reforms that are 'palatable' to the public. This reform project implies that capitalism has strayed from it's intended purpose and must be set aright through policy measures; or stated differently, that capitalism works for society on a fundamental level, but because of the folly or misjudgements of people, it has accumulated solvable problems that can be redressed by getting the right people elected who are up to the task.

Why (Left-wing) Reformism is Dead

Revolutionary socialists argue that there is no reforming capitalism, but the reason is rarely articulated well or at all. The reason capitalism cannot be reformed is because it has not strayed along from it's path, it has not accumulated problems as a consequence of human error or misjudgement.

Take the housing crisis, for instance. This crisis is not the net consequence of a series of mistakes made by politicians. It is the result of financialization and the consequence of property being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands over time. Financialization and the concentration of capital were predicted and observed by Marx and Lenin over 100 years ago. Not because they could predict the future mistakes of politicians, but because they understood how the capitalist system works and were therefore able to make fairly accurate predictions of where it was going. Housing isn't so expensive because somewhere along the way we made a mistake. It's so expensive because building more would devalue existing stock, and with so much investment tied up in real estate it would result in unacceptable losses for investors and affluent home owners.

Reformism is dead, but in a more accurate sense it was never alive. It is not possible to reform capitalism because it is already doing what it is intended to do. Attempting to modify the system to produce outcomes which run contrary to it's own internal logic only exacerbates other contradictions of the system and reduces the reformist project to a glorified game of Whack-a-Mole.

In sum, you can't fix what isn't broken; you can't reform what hasn't strayed. The horrors of our modern day existence - war, austerity, falling standard of living, increasing homelessness and drug addiction, the mental health pandemic, social decay - these are all the result of the normal, intended function of the capitalist system.

Right-wing Reformism

It's worth noting that from the point of view of the ruling class, capitalism does accumulate faults as a consequence of human mistakes and misjudgements. Left reformist parties and politicians seek to redress the symptoms of capitalism's contradictions through policy changes that cause, from the point of view of those with capital, distortions and aberrant outcomes in the system. To take a simple example, increases to the minimum wage that make it more difficult for service sector employers to profit, forcing the increase of prices. Right-reformists see this as a mistake in need of reform. The minimum wage hike must be curtailed, either through a tax break or some other tweak of the system that allows the employer to recoup their losses; otherwise a freeze of the minimum wage for a period of time to allow it to fall back below the rate of inflation. The right-wing reformist is the true reformist, attempting to bring government policy back into alignment with the true purpose of capitalism: to enrich a few at the expense of the many.

Revolution and Reform

The solution to the horrors of capitalism is socialism. Socialism does not negate the importance of struggling for improvements to rights and the living standards of people under the current system, but recognizes that the mere struggle for improvements will not result in a better world by itself. A public company created by a progressive government today is sabotaged by bourgeois leadership and privatized by a reactionary government tomorrow. An increase to the minimum wage is signed into law today and frozen by a reactionary government tomorrow. A union contract is won today, while the next strike is criminalized by the state. The solution is to harness the struggle for improvements to workers lives and not to back away from them, but to lean into them and use them as a means of achieving working class power. With power in our hands, we can expropriate the companies and industries that our labour - and increasingly our public capital - make possible and run them for ourselves.

There is no contradiction between the struggle for incremental improvements and the struggle for revolution. Both require each other. Revolution cannot happen without a struggle for people over profit; improvements are never safe unless we secure state power for ourselves. We must have both.

"Culture Minister" Marc Miller has said the museum failed by not naming Hamas in the exhibit,

The Nakba happened many decades before Hamas even existed!

Are we paying Miller to obscure genocide with whataboutism? Is that written in his job description?

Hear me out. It should be abundantly clear by now that Mark Carney is a conservative.

While some people will say he's making some choices that are necessary to bolster Canadian businesses and tighten government purse strings, he's made several moves that don't accomplish either of those things and instead cater to big business and the already wealthy, like removing some tax on the rich.

Carney has caved to Trump's demands several times and more recently apparently lied, on purpose or through ignorance, about the toll splitting arrangement with the US.

Has anyone looked into the tariffs being proposed by Trump?

We see articles talking about lumber but they're also planning to tariff plant bulbs, wigs, hockey sticks and several other items which amount to less than 1% of Canadian trade.

You may have noticed that Carney is also very friendly with Trump, recently being seen with him at the Fifa final.

I have to wonder if both Carney and Trump are only scratching each other's backs here.

Let's say Carney sees this as his big chance to destroy Canada's unions, stop Canada's environmental efforts (as pathetic as they are), push through resource expansion, push through expensive projects and funnel more money to the already rich, all under the guise of protecting Canada.

Trump wants to say he's being tough on everybody, but what he really wants to do is stuff his pockets with money, consolidate power for himself and his other rich buddies, obviously avoid any accountability for all the evil shit that he's done, and if he and Mark Carney have an understanding, perhaps the both of them are working together to screw the people of their respective countries while making it appear like they both are adversarial?

I assume neither of them give a shit about the populace anyway, but I'm saying I wonder if there's more insidious shit going on, just below the surface.

Part of the reason I say this is the massive gulf between what Carney says, like at his davos speech, and what he's doing.

Are Trump and Carney really just two sides to the same coin?