labour time

I’ve just published a new essay on my website, an argument against fetishising power, in favour of a grounded, revolutionary optimism. I’d welcome any and all feedback, this is my first large piece I’ve written post-university, hope you guys enjoy. reportofanimals.com/2024/11/05/the…

@AcademicAgent_X ? x.com/richimedhurst/…

Starmer is killing it. Slay king.

Mr. Hegseth! Our leaders have been, and still are, among the people. But your leaders? On Epstein's island!

@FungibleWorker @primarycatdad I wrote an essay about this a while back :)

I’m a full blown conspiracy theorizer at this point but one important thing I use to restrain my paranoid imagination is I try to not commit the real main theoretical error of conspiracism, which is to think there’s no organic history outside of the orchestration of events.

@ChrisCWright1 @NinaFarnia @norabf Chomsky was a pseudo-leftist who constantly criticised Marxism, admitted he didn’t understand it, and didn’t advocate for any actually-existing socialist projects. He also regularly hung out with a billionaire pedophile, calling him his best friend. Shut the fuck up.

A great example of the pointless pretentiousness of left academia. Here’s what matters: fighting the imperial states. Protesting them, and getting leftists in power. That’s all. Academics love to talk and talk, because that’s how they get status, but it’s mostly unnecessary. As for Rockhill, he thinks Chomsky is a pseudo-leftist, so that shows how (un)intelligent he is.

Excellent analysis of the stakes by Gabriel Rockhill.

I'm going to explain this in detail for people aren't familiar with it. It's going to sound somewhat unbelievable because it's some of the most stone cold Sun Tsu Machiavelli shit of all time, but Sinwar openly described it in these terms. First, put yourself in his shoes. Gaza is an open air concentration camp, and there's no indication this will ever change. The Israelis are gobbling up increasing amounts of Palestine outside of Gaza. They're also normalizing relations with the Sunni Arab states to an unprecedented degree. The Abraham Accords were signed in 2020, and Israeli relations with the entire Sunni world are on an upward trajectory. The only faction within the region that could possibly come to your rescue is the Shia. The Iranians have huge military potential, but their strategy is to keep themselves at a distance while slowly attriting the Israeli axis with proxy forces, and this is having mixed results. The Iranians are under severe economic pressure and have no interest in a wider war. It looks unlikely that they'll be able to change the picture for the Palestinians if this continues. So what do you do? First, you need to understand the mindset of all the factions involved: Israel, the US, Hezbollah, Iran, the Gulf monarchies, Egypt, Ansar Allah, and so on. The Israelis are almost as dissatisfied with the present situation as you are. While they're achieving diplomatic success, their goal is to fully ethnically cleanse Gaza and the rest of Palestine, and start gobbling up territory in Lebanon and Syria to drive towards a future Greater Israel. Even if their position is gradually improving with the Sunni states, ultimately they're nowhere close to their long term goals, and have serious regional enemies in the form of Hezbollah and Iran. And they have the largest military in the world at their disposal if they need it. Sinwar's strategic decision was to force a "great battle," a "flood for Al-Aqsa." His calculus was that if Hamas initiated a massive, open attack on Israel, the Israelis would use it as a casus belli to implement their strategic goals with regard to Palestine. With relations still not fully normalized with the Arab states, this would heighten the contradictions within the Middle East and lead to a massive regional war. As the Israelis would be forced to go for broke, they'd attempt to also resolve their goals in Lebanon, which would of course suck in Hezbollah, and in turn suck in Iran. Perhaps the most crucial second-order effect without which this plan could have failed is the reaction of Ansar Allah. Their actions in the Red Sea and decision to regularly lob missiles and drones at Israeli territory kept the situation from cooling off. If they hadn't been willing to take on the US Navy solo, the plan might have failed. It's taken until this latest outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Iran to get the Iranians to fully break with their strategy of caution and de-escalation. Sinwar understood the US/Israeli relationship. The Israeli ability to wield the US military like a tool ensured that a direct American attack on Iran was inevitable, forcing the Iranians to adjust their posture. This plan required a willingness to make enormous sacrifices. Gaza has been destroyed, Hezbollah is severely degraded, and the Iranians are now under existential threat. But much of the public worldwide is rapidly coming to grips with the true nature of the US/Israeli relationship. Support for Israel around the world is at a 70 year low. Tel Aviv has been hammered with hundreds of ballistic missiles in four separate True Promise operations, and there are active blockades in both the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. The US has openly abandoned its Gulf allies, paving the way for a total collapse of the geopolitical picture as it stood in October of 2023. The Israeli position is more tenuous than it's been in decades. The most mind boggling thing is that Sinwar set all of this in motion and then took up a rifle and went out to meet the IDF head on. Once Al-Aqsa flood began, the situation, which would pull in dozens of countries, was beyond his control.

The saving grace here is that this will force the issue of Israeli control over this country to a head much faster than any of us anticipated. Sinwar fully vindicated.

@NiaFrome Why Sheinbaum? (honest question)

mine goes heraclitus-epicurus-machiavelli-spinoza-hegel-marx-engels-lenin-stalin-mao-deng-xi-sheinbaum

@ImmaKrazyKat @JeanGreige Why would you let western-funded, CIA backdoors into your infrastructure? A sovereign internet (like China) is the sensible way to go in the face of imperialist aggression

@JeanGreige A lot of people judge, but if ANY OTHER COUNTRY had the same history as North Korea, it would've collapsed a long time ago. Many states collapsed for much less. It's just a shame they can't access our internet due to ideological orthodoxy. But still.

In 50 years I think we’re going to see a thriving North Korea

Padrino López, Minister of Defense: The Bolivarian National Armed Forces strongly condemn the cowardly kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro Moros, Constitutional President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, our Commander-in-Chief, and his wife, First Lady Dr. Cilia Flores de Maduro; an act perpetrated yesterday, Saturday, January 3, after the cold-blooded murder of a large part of his security team, soldiers, and innocent citizens Likewise, in accordance with the decision of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice dated January 3, 2026, by which Ms. Delcy Eloína Rodríguez Gómez, Executive Vice President of the Republic, was appointed to assume, in an acting capacity, all the powers, duties, and faculties of President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela; and in strict compliance with the provisions of our Constitution, the Organic Law on States of Emergency, and the Organic Law on National Security; we fully support the Decree of a State of External Disturbance throughout the national territory, previously signed. In this same vein, the Bolivarian Government will guarantee the governability of the country, and our institution will continue to employ all its available capabilities for military defense, the maintenance of internal order, and the preservation of peace Therefore, we activate, throughout the entire national geographic space and in perfect popular-military-police fusion, the Full Operational Readiness, in order to integrate the elements of National Power in the mission to confront imperial aggression, forming a single combat bloc to ensure the freedom, independence, and sovereignty of the Nation. The FANB is the United Liberation Army of the 21st Century! Chávez lives!... The Homeland continues! Independence and Socialist Homeland!... We will live and we will triumph! The Sun of Venezuela rises in the Essequibo! Independence or nothing!... Always loyal... Never traitors! Caracas, January 4, 2026

"This book is not advancing a simplistic argument that the intelligentsia has been remote-controlled by the CIA. Examining the material reality of intellectual production dialectically, it foregrounds all the various types of agency at work." WPPWM, p. 41 monthlyreview.org/9781685901349/

there's something so funny about the imperialist running dogs in anglo media often in the same breath complaining about an imagined 'stalinist' threat or explicitly whinging about tankies while both referring to someone as Comrade Gamma and demanding we respect their authority

@WASJAPPIN I am not sure why this debate is so speculative when we know that the CIA promoted anti-communist left wing intellectuals. This is a matter of documented fact.

@TannerFBoyle1 apologies if already covered, still going through the backlog

@TannerFBoyle1 1. What do you think is the endgame for the UAP psyop? Do you think it will be a Project Bluebook type mass disclosure, or a more subtle eroding of people’s psyches in discerning the truth? 2. One for Emily: is there a particular reason why Tunbridge Wells has so many cults?

Gnomechat is soliciting questions from listeners! Do you have any questions you'd like Bradley, Emily, Reid, or Tanner to answer? Drop them in the thread and we'll tackle the ones that pique our interest. 👇

@TannerFBoyle1 @BoltzmannBooty @sinklord @KlonnyPin_Gosch @bidetmarxman

@TannerFBoyle1 @BoltzmannBooty @sinklord

for the noided out there: Seems like Spielberg is helping seed the “UAP Disclosure” psyop, as well the “demons are real” narrative with this focus on aliens possessing people.

@SxLongshadow I don’t know if I am going crazy, but I thought this was an apt sponsor for someone interviewing a CIA cutout