A high inflation regime promotes taking on debt as inflation makes it cheaper to pay off. That debt will get spent. If hyperinflation is threatened, buying inflation hedges is the “smart” move - real estate, gold, foreign assets. This similarly applies to simply not holding on to savings, as inflation devalues all money that you save at a faster rate than durable goods.
This is, literally, basic economics. And none of it is mentioned in the article.
JFC I’m sorry Argentinian comrades.
Both are a false consciousness that, as such, function to obscure class antagonism and support the capitalist order. They are a form of liberal following a slightly different set of high priests than the others, though obviously they are not separate. While many liberals laugh at, for example, Austrian School economists, they do so while incorporating the ideas from that school that fit the current canon. All it takes is laundering them through other economists.
A Marxist analysis will look at the material basis for these ideologies. They are basically the same as for liberalism - they reinforce a substantial portion of the ruling class’s interests. The obvious one is that when the ruling class is interested in cutting its own taxes or regulations, this ideology is very useful. Though it really goes much farther than this: both are cults of capital in the extreme, justifying all capitalist actions as inherently just and all transgressions against them as inherently unjust. Consequently, they can be leveraged for anything that capitalists want except for maybe government grift. If a capitalist lobbying group wants a policy change they can push a “right libertarian” that wants it, easily. If a capitalist lobbying group doesn’t want a policy that threatens their interests, they can fund, say, the Cato institute to tell you some bullshit about how it’s bad according to their economic religion. It’s not fundamentally different from how capitalists fund others members of the political class.
To the extent that it is different is that it is more extreme. It’s a wrecking ball that competes with the interests of other capitalists that benefit from various government policies. So long as there’s a “big government” means by which to increase profit, there will be a fight.
On the personal psychological level there is plenty to discuss but I think the false consciousness is the most important aspect. “Right libertarians” get to pretend to be an outsider political trend, even one opposed to the status quo, and openly recognize various problems in the capitalist system. For example, they get to be vaguely anti-war, at least rhetorically. And they usually try to wash their hands of the decisions made by Democrats and Republicans. Then they go and reinforce the dominant capitalist system. In this sense they are very similar to radlib socdems, just with a different aesthetic for what it means to be an “outsider”.
In my experience, if you can get a right libertarian to actually read socialist theory they can actually be pipelined. Nowhere near 100% rate but better than your average lib. They will be annoying the whole time, though.
The first propaganda aspect of this discourse is to make you believe that who you personally vote for as an individual matters. Emphasis and focus are the most powerful tools of propaganda. When confronted with this topic by liberals you should dismiss it and change the subject to how to actually build power (not voting lol) to oppose the 98% Hitler and the 99% Hitler.
Your vote, as in a vote by you in particular, for President doesn’t matter. You are just one person and the electoral college makes even your miniscule vote almost entirely irrelevant if you live in one of ~45 non-swing states. Also your vote is anonymous, it doesn’t even hold discursive value. Vote for Stalin. It literally won’t matter if you’re acting as one person on your own.
You can make electoralism somewhat matter if you consider it as a mass action (mobilizing and growing your organizations, forming a disciplined bloc) or as a vehicle for exposing the masses to your positions but that’s a very different thing than liberals trying to pretend that guilting you into voting for a genocidal Zionist segregationist is good political work.
You are making other good points, some that I use as well. Liberals are stuck in myopic thinking that’s handed down to them by their political class because it benefits that political class at the expense of their voters. It’s always “this particular election is what matters so vote lesser evil” rather than thinking for two minutes about what it means to be a guaranteed vote whose demands can always be ignored. In fact, they even delude themselves into the exact opposite position of pretending that is the less consistent voters that will be ignored. Guess what: campaigns are going to run based on (1) donors, (2) trying to get people likely to vote for them to just vote at all and (3) trying to get swing voters in their side. Notice how none of those things include, “listen to the requests of those who always vote for us no matter what”. That’s a waste of limited resources. I can’t emphasize enough how much contempt most politicians have for their voters.
Anyways this myopia is exactly why you get public consent for a 98% Hitler. It’s why liberals side with fascists and genocide. They’re not just morally bankrupt, ignorant cowards being duped by obvious cons, they are an actual threat to us. They’re the ones that turn you in when you do direct actions. They’re the ones building the surveillance state. Working for military contractors. Creating bad faith propaganda against your organizing projects. Always reject their bullshit in the strongest possible terms.
Tankies when an American presidential election: this is the same liberal kayfabe that’s been going on for our entire lives and the best thing we can do is point out what its true function is.
Tankies on Putin: he’s just one guy, you’re not describing a Tankies because we don’t believe in your Great Man Theory fairytales. Feel free to rephrase once you know literally anything about this topic.
On centrists: wrong again Tankies just call centrists reactionaries. Y’all are right wing.
Your only excuse for being this confidently ignorant is if you’re 12.
jQuery bby
Hegel’s relation to Marxism is that Marx and Engels were big Hegel nerds (the Young Hegelians) before they got cool and they decided to incorporate a small piece of Hegel’s thinking (the dialectic) while flipping all the rest on its head.
So it’s useful to know Hegel so you know the lineage of thought but important to know that Marx used Hegelian thought as a critical target more than anything.
There is never a counterargument and you were no exception.
Japanese carmakers were trying to go with hydrogen fuel and did a big grift on their government to get it subsidized. I think the idea was that Japan would have a national disadvantage with EV production as they don’t have the material base for batteries but they could have an advantage with hydrogen.
Those failed, or course. Now they’re a decade behind - there were only two Japanese EVs sold internationally just a few years ago.
Hell yeah
This is a classic move where the students will get absolutely nothing material but the admin gets everything they want.
If any of you are helping with encampments, make sure to spread the consciousness that merely meeting or planning something is not a material concession is literally in PR playbooks used by universities to pacify student movements.
The real war is in our hearts and trembling knees.
A lot of agricultural products have been designed for being useful for a wide range of processed foods rather than for direct consumption by the public. Or they have been designed for shelf life and appearance rather than taste or nutrition. Examples:
Jalapenos that aren’t spicy.
Watery tomatoes.
Orange juice concentrate.
Corn for corn syrup.
Old garlic / topped garlic.
A near complete absence of fresh herbs but a huge amount of dried.
Worse limes (key limes are way better but the ones crossed with lemons are ubiquitous because they have better shelf life).
An absence of seasonal produce in general, replaced by year-round bland stuff.
Dems use the threat against women’s bodies as a way to buy your vote. They don’t actually do the thing they could’ve done at points over the last several years, i.e. codify abortion rights into law at the federal level.
They also could’ve gotten RBG to resign or had literally any fight whatsoever over Garland. Instead they immediately made paper thin excuses and their voters happily clapped along. They even characterized the (milquetoast) call for RBG to resign as sexist, lol.
Y’all are a domesticated animals to your political class and the only thing you seem to be able to do is to try and get others to join you on your path to the abattoir.
I was taught that lying was wrong as a child yet Democrats keep lying to me about being a Trump supporter while being condescending.
Can you explain why lying to someone about something they already know is actually good and smart? Make sure to treat me like an idiot.
Don’t worry Dems are doing a way better job campaigning for Trump by openly supporting genocide.
You could also recognize that voting is a rigged process and is in no way the limit of political action. You can then choose to do things that are better than using bad game theory to try to get people to vote for a genocide.
And we are still right.
Inflation is just rising costs. It includes price gauging and having to pay tariffs.