Build Peace

Survival shouldn't depend on working. There is more than enough to meet everyone's needs.

Lebanon is being destroyed. My homeland is being destroyed. Israel has destroyed nearly 38,000 Lebanese homes, almost 1,100 every day for 35 days. Israel has targeted 120 ambulances and medical facilities, killed at least 91 health personnel and wounded 208. Israel has killed 7 journalists and 3 UN peacekeepers. Israel has bombed all bridges. Detonating schools. Towns and villages flattened. Israel has killed over 2,200 and displaced more than 1.3 million people, including 400,000 children. This not only violates the Geneva Conventions, but violates the whole of international law with absolutely no consequences. How many more Lebanese need to be murdered? How many more children need to be killed? How many more journalists and health workers have to be killed? How many more people have to be displaced? How many more hospitals and schools have to be bombed? Before we force Israel to stop?

@democracynow We must also face USAID's predatory overall mission-- in USAID's own words: "U.S. foreign assistance has always had the twofold purpose of furthering America's foreign policy interests in expanding democracy and free markets [capitalism],...."

“There are estimates that show that up to 14 million people will die over the next five years alone, unnecessarily, due to the cuts to USAID,” says whistleblower Nicholas Enrich, who worked at the agency under four administrations. “And we're already starting to see the impacts. In fact, 750,000 people have already died, most of those children, according to conservative estimates.”

Feds echo NSPM-7 in response to Kimberly-Clark warehouse arsonist, saying he threatened "capitalism" and "our way of life" kenklippenstein.com/p/luigi-inspir…

@agent_of_change Absolutely, and also learning to probe and question these classics as needed.... We can see Marx, Lenin, etc not as high priests with infallible wisdom, but as brilliant (but sometimes fallible) thinkers....

“Communists should cultivate the habit of reading Marxist classics and understanding their principles as part of their daily lives... People should read widely and choose good books, drawing wisdom and nourishment from them... It is necessary to build a learning society where all people engage in lifelong learning.” hard agree

BREAKING: 🇨🇳 President of China, Xi Jinping: “A certain country, obsessed with maintaining its hegemony, has done everything possible to cripple emerging markets and developing nations. Whoever progresses rapidly becomes a target of containment; whoever catches up becomes a threat. But all of this is futile. The world we live in today is a community with a shared future. People do not want a new Cold War; they want a world of lasting peace and universal security."

Remember, Donald Trump is not the disease of our politics. Only the worst symptom. Yes, let's defeat Trump. And let's defeat the system that allows corporations and special interests to buy and sell politicians in a way that leaves it rigged against the rest of us.

As Lebanese, we don't want your condemnations. We've seen what your condemnations have done to Gaza. Condemnations won’t stop Israel from killing our people. If you really wanted to, you would just stop supplying Israel with weapons. It is that simple. Did you do that for Gaza? The answer is no! Condemnations won’t stop Israel from occupying our country. If you really wanted to, you would simply impose sanctions on Israel. It is that simple. Did you do that for Gaza? The answer is no! Condemnations won’t stop Israel propaganda. If you really wanted to, you would simply end censorship and stopped Israel propaganda. It is that simple. Did you do that for Gaza? The answer is no! Condemnations only benefit you, as you pretend to stand with us to gain the trust of our people in the West, to win their votes and get re-elected. We don't want your condemnations, we want your actions. Stop your hypocrisy. Stop exploiting and causing suffering to our people for your own interests. You have taught us that human rights and international law begin and end at the borders of Israel's interests.

Standing up for peoples’ rights does not mean you hate anyone. In fact, it requires that you LOVE everyone.

@equalityAlec That makes sense! I was disturbed at how laser focused she is on discrediting CVI programs, but I agree with your strategy about which audience to work on pushing....

I typically don't focus on far-right lunatics. I think most thinking people can see what Fox News and Newsmax and various fascist podcasters are up to. She's very much in that category, and much worse than most given her appalling celebration of genocide. Her propaganda is very important, but it's not geared at the segment of the population I'm trying to reach. I don't know if this is the right approach, but I explain in the book why I focus on liberal institutions like Democrats, establishment liberal news, punditry, academia, philanthropy, etc. I think the work I do on that kind of propaganda is useful as well for addressing the even more crude and cynical stuff of people like her or Bari Weiss.

The trope that associates violent profiteering by elites and their henchmen with being “tough on crime” was pushed by both right wing and liberal media organizations for decades. It is one of the great achievements of modern propaganda to associate cruelty and domination and violence with “safety.” Trump saying today that the pope is “WEAK on crime” is extremely funny, but as with much of what Trump does, he also helps expose how baseless and cynical the liberal establishment has become. The major newspapers and tv channels of the United States have been filled with such unquestioned statements about nearly every evidence-based progressive attempt to reduce inequality and make our society less cruel and more safe. As I explained in Copaganda:

@yungmedusa One of the most glaring examples: Mission Impossible Final Reckoning (2025). A genocidal AI entity threatens to nuke all human life. Instead of nations cooperating to disarm their nukes, humanity needs Tom Cruise to swim naked to the ocean floor, hang off an airplane wing, etc...

the idea that we can all be saved by a few heroes is propaganda to make you wait to be given your liberation. the pervasiveness of the hero/savior/martyr complex in individualist culture is essential for de-radicalizing ppl & disconnecting us from the power of collective action.

In 2004, photographs from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq became public. American soldiers had been systematically abusing, humiliating, and torturing Iraqi detainees. The photographs showed prisoners in stress positions, on leashes, in forced sexual poses, with injuries. Some detainees had died in custody. The American response, at the official level, was to prosecute a handful of low-ranking soldiers. Lynndie England. Charles Graner. A few others. The architects of the policy, the lawyers who wrote the "torture memos" defining waterboarding and stress positions as legally permissible, the officials who approved "enhanced interrogation" as official doctrine, and the senior military commanders who oversaw facilities where these practices were standard, faced no criminal accountability. John Yoo, who wrote the memo legally authorizing torture, is a tenured professor at UC Berkeley School of Law. He teaches law. At Berkeley. Jay Bybee, who co-authored the torture memos, was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, where he served as a federal judge. He judged people. For crimes. Think about the message that sends. Not to Americans, who largely moved on within a news cycle. To the people in the region. To the Iraqis who were in that prison. To the Arab and Muslim world watching a country that had invaded their region on false pretenses, occupied and destabilized it, and then when photographs of systematic torture emerged, promoted the people responsible and prosecuted the people who took the photographs. Chelsea Manning, who leaked evidence of war crimes including the killing of civilians and journalists, went to prison. The people who exposed the crimes were punished. The people who enabled the crimes were promoted. This is not a system that malfunctioned. This is a system that functioned exactly as designed.

When states criminalize pacifism during wartime, every conscientious objector everywhere becomes a target. @sheliazhenko’s trial on May 13 is a moment for the global peace movement to show up! worldbeyondwar.org/tortured-for-s…

They're catching on

No… capitalism didn’t slash poverty to 10% Socialist movements within capitalism achieved: Minimum wage The National Health Service Unemployment benefits Worker safety laws The weekend Pensions Free education Paid holidays Sick pay Maternity leave Trade union rights Child labour laws Public housing All of which reduced poverty that socialists had to fight tooth and nail for against the capitalist classes to achieve

僕はけんかっ早いし、思ったことは何でも口にしてしまうが、戦争はまったく望まない。平和を求める人間がなんで人畜無害のヒツジみたいでいなきゃならないんだ？攻撃的な平和主義者もいるんだよ。どんなに攻撃的でも絶対に人を殺したりしない。ヘラヘラしながら虐殺を黙認するよりよほどマシだ。

僕が子どもの頃、大人達は誰もが反戦だった。侵略戦争とか自衛戦争とか関係ない。もうあんな悲惨な体験は懲り懲りだという気持ちが強かったのだろう。ところがそういう人達が鬼籍に入り、戦争を経験したことのない想像力の欠如した連中が「戦争も仕方なくね？」みたいなことを言い出した。戦争の悲惨さを語り継がなければならない。それは僕らの役目だ。

For far too long, politicians both Democrat and Republican have made it harder for working class Ohioans to survive. Both rural and urban communities are disproportionately impacted by the cost of living crisis, endless war drive, and growing climate catastrophe. For our class to thrive, capitalism must end. Let's fight for socialism.