Late Stage Capitalism
A place for for news, discussion, memes, and links criticizing capitalism and advancing viewpoints that challenge liberal capitalist ideology. That means any support for any liberal capitalist political party (like the Democrats) is strictly prohibited.
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Introduction to Socialism (external links)
Marxism-Leninism Study Guide: Basic Course
Marxism-Leninism Study Guide: Advanced Course
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And, this is crucial, I really need the non voters to listen to this:
We can all influence how popular a policy is
The popularity of a policy does not at all influence whether a dem advances it.
Exactly. People tend to be a bit myopic on the left. They struggle to look beyond their distaste for specific parts of specific people to see the ideal strategy for change.
Republicans get this in spades. Your campaign rhetoric is virtually irrelevant after the primaries beyond its value in securing votes. Securing state and local government control is critical if you want to protect (or disenfranchise) a specific voting bloc.
We're so busy eating our own for not being good enough that we just end up losing.
I'm aggressively progressive - I support reparations, reducing funding of police in favor of mental health care, free health care for all, UBI, etc - but holy shit does the left have no clue how to achieve their goals.
UBI is cool, but I recently watched some videos by Hazel Thayer that advocate for Universal Basic Services instead. Basically, if you give people UBI that covers the cost of rent, you're putting money in landlords' pockets. And I hate landlords! Guaranteeing free social housing for everyone would fix that problem. We should have basic housing, basic food, basic medicine, basic education, basic clothes, basic electricity.
UBI is cool because it's easy to implement in policy overnight. It would take one single bill to do it. But UBS is a recipe for a better society, with less wealth going to capitalists.
Valid argument and probably correct. You've certainly nailed the appeal of UBI vs UBS.
The only thing I'd consider "better" about UBI is some amount of discretionary spending and choice
I might be be happy living in a shoebox apartment in NYC and keeping extra money for food or entertainment, while you might prefer a nicer apartment with simple food and your existing library of books.