mastodon
4.6.5
communist, writer, history dork, video games industry man.
latest blogposts in the pins.
linkpost: Report: How developers react to AI-scented blog posts (https://links.posting.haus/shaare/xLXyiw)
Readers really despise and distrust articles that seem shaped by AI. They not only stop reading, but also block and punish the author. Non-native English speakers get little mercy. Readers overwhelmingly prefer imperfect-yet-authentic writing over LLMified prose.
Good!
generally speaking i'm not in favor of buying any microsoft products these days if i can avoid it but the good news is that their remaster of Halo: CE looks so disgusting and awful i won't need to worry about that
linkpost: A Marxist Analysis of 20th Century U.S. Capitalism | Red Pen (https://links.posting.haus/shaare/9JBsjQ)
I've become very interested in the way that American Capitalism managed to make so much progress -- genuine, real progress -- in the 20th century and then stalled out so dramatically in the early 21st. This is a great video analyzing the rise of American power (which dovetails with American worker power in the early 20th century) and how the process of dismantling that worker…
learned about this awesome new blog that basically does a bunch of really well-reasoned marxist analysis posts and also a lot of Kpop album reviews. massive respect https://voiceoftheproletariat.substack.com
linkpost: Beware Those Who "Condemn Both Sides" - by 박지훈 ☭ (https://links.posting.haus/shaare/F2h6uw)
> To condemn an anti-imperialist state that is actively improving the Global South and other oppressed peoples’ material conditions is to condemn internationalism itself. This is akin to tying a weight around your ankle before running from a predator. Iran has done more for Palestine and Sudan than any “nonviolent protest” ever could.
linkpost: No Kings Protests and the Failed Efforts to Drown Out Palestine | Robert Inkalesh (https://links.posting.haus/shaare/DOHfRQ)
> [The No Kings website] then goes on to cite the anti-China protests in Hong Kong, where demonstrators used yellow umbrellas and yellow ribbons used to represent resistance to Russia in Ukraine, as its two specific examples to align the movement with. Both of these examples are in line with the US foreign policy interests shared between the Democratic an…
between Zero Company and Galactic Racer, the only part of me still holding onto Star Wars fandom is doing so for the games
i know i'm a designated car-hater already so this might be out of character but truly everything about the car dealership model is fucking insane. i got quoted $900 for a part that online on the DEALER'S OWN WEBSITE they were selling for $500. i had to be like "You have it for cheaper online is there a reason for the discrepancy :)" and get transferred four times before they sold it for the price online.
linkpost: Siege socialism or barbarism: why we must stand with Cuba | Morning Star (https://links.posting.haus/shaare/nvWGcw)
> Rosa Luxemburg coined the phrase “socialism or barbarism” in 1916, in the middle of the first world war, as a general statement about humanity’s choices. In the Caribbean in 2026, it is a concrete question on the table.
Carlos J. Martinez knocking it out of the park here. Viva communist Cuba.
linkpost: ‘Intersectionality’ scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw thinks it’s time for everyone to talk back | Sierra Lyons (The 19th) (https://links.posting.haus/shaare/hAfMNg)
> When sexual harassment allegations against Thomas by Anita Hill, a Black woman, came to light, Crenshaw found herself watching what she called an intersectional failure unfold.
Reading Kimberlé Crenshaw's work in college was one of the first eye-opening experiences I had about structural racism in the United States. …
linkpost: Game Dad Club (https://links.posting.haus/shaare/D0tCng)
> What the heck's a Game Dad?
> A cheap little handheld games console that plays every game you grew up with and all the ones you never got the chance to play. It has a proper D-pad and buttons and a good bright screen, and sometimes it has one or two analog joysticks as well.
Love this terminology and will be using it from here on out. Game Dad.
linkpost: The Phantom Limb and Fictive Kinship in Wartime Russia (https://links.posting.haus/shaare/uY1ihQ)
> This is what makes the Russia case still valuable for a global left: the trace of the desire for collective social reproduction is still damp, still excavatable. It has not yet fossilized.
No one is ever fully lost to the cause, if you can figure out how to leverage them.
linkpost: An Interview with the Workers' Front of Ukraine | Lefteast (https://links.posting.haus/shaare/ZGfDww)
> Our relationship to the Soviet Union is simple. The USSR was the first country to build socialism, and we believe that we should analyze the Soviet experience in order to prevent the restoration of capitalism in the future, as it happened in the Soviet Union. Therefore, there is no reason to idealize or, on the contrary, try to abandon the Soviet legacy, as many “leftists” li…
linkpost: Do trans people have Second Amendment rights? Wyoming says maybe not. (https://links.posting.haus/shaare/EkTz5Q)
> The legal right to defend oneself has always proved far more fragile when exercised by the very people who most need protection.
The on-paper legality of carrying arms is irrelevant compared to the social legality of carrying arms, which will always be illegal for the targeted classes. We live under a dictatorship of capital, and capital has strong reasons to di…
really noticing how many pieces of USSR-made media are contextualized as "anti-war" in their US critical analysis when they're actually very clearly just saying "well yes fighting fascists is fucking awful but the other option is capitulating to fascists" (Come And See is a perfect example)
linkpost: The truth comes out, eventually. | Dan Ross, Communist Party of Britain (https://links.posting.haus/shaare/5m2k0A)
> The US, then as now, remains committed to undermining and destroying Chinese socialism, and has relied heavily upon thinly veiled, CIA-sponsored bodies like Radio Free Asia, National Endowment for Democracy, and the fanatical anti-communist and fantasist Adrian Zenz, with the sole objective of bringing about the fall and disintegration of China, much as happened …
linkpost: No, Artificial Intelligence Is Not Conscious - The Atlantic (Ted Chiang) (https://links.posting.haus/shaare/9E2XjQ)
> To put it another way: An observation doesn’t become a convincing piece of evidence because of any specific detail in what’s observed; the context in which that observation takes place is also essential.
Ted Chiang, once again, gets it.
linkpost: De-Google your life | OpenAltFinder (https://openaltfinder.com/collections/de-google-your-life)
A curated collection of open source and privacy-focused alternatives to Google's products. Replace Gmail, Google Drive, Maps, Android, and more with tools that respect your data and give you greater control over your digital life.
Now that I'm a de-googling guy I think this'll be quite useful.
question for the various lefties: Is there any good reporting/analysis on tech sector labor laws in China and how the CPC addresses industrial abuses? I'm thinking of stuff like '996' or generally 'bad working conditions'.
Most of the stuff I have seen on the English-language internet is extremely USA-biased, but this is something that I assume there is better reporting on... somewhere.
