I know what you are using. It’s capitalist propaganda and always has been. We need to stop using paradoxical terminology that was designed deliberately to confuse and terrify. What you are describing is literally known as “state capitalism.” Funny how that, like all the intentional-by-design failings of capitalism, gets rebranded as “socialism” in an effort to preserve capitalism’s entirely-gaslit reputation.

Socialism demands equality and equity, which fundamentally cannot exist in a stratified society. If there is a ruling class, they own and control the economy and nothing belongs to the people. So like I said, it’s paradoxical.

The show is only a year old, and it was genuinely great.

We’re not talking about the TV series, are we?

“Look, this only politically corrupt, which is perfectly fine. If the blacks get disenfranchised coincidentally, then that’s fine, too. It’s only a problem if someone admits that they were targeting those people on record, repeatedly. And even then it’s okay if you can get SCOTUS to weigh in.”

The US is terminally ill and morally bankrupt.

Chromatic aberration and film grain. If your game has either of those and no way to turn them off, I wish you a slow, painful death and I will probably refund it.

What is the penalty for actual, Constitutionally defined treason? Getting fired in that context does not mean merely losing your job.

“Withering away of the state” and “it’s like, how much more STATE can you get? The answer is none. None more state” are extreme opposites.

Did the state wither away? No. Then communism was not accomplished.

Stalinism was as communist as Hitler’s National Socialists were socialist. False branding is a hallmark of rightism. Their propagandized, muddied, impoverished use of language does not magically turn their little hand-carved lies into real boys.

There is no such thing as authoritarian socialism, that is a paradox. Marx and Lenin argued that the only viable path to communism as an ends, which involves the withering away of the state, required a transitionary period.

Marx proposed something akin to direct democracy — which he called dictatorship of the proletariat — while Lenin proposed the idea of a centralized, rightist vanguard party that would seize power on behalf of the people and oversee the transition. Rightist means to leftist ends. It was a gamble that did not succeed as Lenin’s illness and death, and the rise of Stalinism, remade the vanguard into a permanent new ruling class in direct conflict with Marx’s stated ethos.

Because people have been repeatedly trained since the decline of Imperialism to believe that “socialism” is “when capitalism.” When the populace is afraid of the label, the label can be used as a blunt instrument to keep them enslaved to the parasitic Capitalist rulers.

Anything from Paradox, but right now it’s Europa Univeralis V. I really like some of their grand strategy staples, even if it’s an abusive relationship where they sometimes release updates that make the games worse and annoy you into buying overpriced DLC to make the last update slightly less bad. The new Crusader Kings 3 DLC is excellent, though. I hope they do more like that.

If only John Connor had known to fight the machines through rap battle instead of weapons.

Stalin was extreme right, using leftist trappings to seize and consolidate power for himself as Lenin withered away.

Trotsky was leftist, but still a believer in the ML vanguard gamble that resulted in Stalin seizing power. Rightist means will almost always lead to rightist ends.

Tolstoy, being generally anti-state and anti-capitalist, was also leftist. His famous quote philosophically addresses the stability of any leftist movement.

There can be only one permanent revolution — a moral one; the regeneration of the inner man. How is this revolution to take place? Nobody knows how it will take place in humanity, but every man feels it clearly in himself. And yet in our world everybody thinks of changing humanity, and nobody thinks of changing himself.

The path to leftism and the methods to preserve it against rightism are very much the realm of philosophy.

The political compass is worse than an oversimplification, it’s propaganda.

The political compass is propaganda. There is no such thing as auth-left or lib-right. There is no division between social and economic axes.

The definition of the right-left spectrum is rooted in the french revolution. Rightism is about consolidating power and creating strict socio-economic hierarchies so the more-privileged can subject their will on the less-privileged, while leftism is about flattening those hierarchies to prevent anyone from subjugating others and ensuring equality and egalitarianism are maintained.

Whoever has power controls economy and vice-versa. Period. So rightism will always be authoritarian, hierarchal, and have a functionally captive economy. How benevolent this authoritarianism is toward the populace is meaningless as any liberty is an illusion provided at the pleasure of the more wealthy-powerful classes.

Liberalism arises from the willing abuse of an under-regulated economy that allows consolidation of wealth and, therefore, accumulation of power. Therefore the end result of unchecked liberalism is always rightism.

There are many forms of leftism, because leftism is about tearing down and preventing accumulation and consolidation of power. The goal is to prevent runaway snowballing of wealth or power that would allow any person or group to subjugate others, ideally in a way that is sustainable and stable. Therefore leftism is about personal liberty and freedom as long as it does not threaten to diminish or supersede the liberty or freedom of others.

The concepts cannot be separated. They travel together and influence each other directly. The political compass is merely an attempt to make “both sides” seem equivalent without addressing the actual cause-effect of wealth and power accumulation, which serves who? Rightists. Capitalists. Liberals. Those who would seek to selfishly hoard more power, privilege, comfort, and authority than everyone else at the expense of anyone else.

Yes.

This what happens when you dedicate your crop to Nurgle.

If Congress did something about it might highlight or stifle their own unethical profiteering.

Sorry, according to SCOTUS it’s too close to an election to change maps unless the change adds Republican seats and disenfranchises minorities.

The only parts of the “New London Bridge” that made it to Arizona were the exterior masonry. The Arizona bridge is a reinforced concrete structure clad in the original masonry of the 1830s bridge.

Even on sale their second-run PC releases are more expensive than what I would normally tolerate for a new full game. Then there is Stellar Blade, which is also infected with Denuvo malware. They could be doing much better.

I think the point is that the kind of people who care about that kind of thing tend to be bad people with bad opinions.