Communists that focus on voting are delusional (in my opinion) but like all reformists they view the existing government as the mechanism to make widespread change.

The only state in my country that has a communist party in power has been consistently leading national rankings in education and health, so I guess they’re doing something right.

Who has the oldest artifacts in the Americas? Or Australia?

You are an amazing person, but I find it funny how in the US even the communists have guns.

Users can engage in regulated quantities of vague and pointless criticism of the ongoing genocide, as a treat.

I only use my phone for phone calls and messaging and the occasional web browsing.

Why not use a feature phone, then? Cheaper, more repairable, and the Nokia ones will also last longer.

Look man I like Xiaomi but their UI is a meme.

Android is supposed to be a (mostly) open-source OS. Users shouldn’t have to worry about Google.

The amount of trade is not the only thing that matters. Russia exports food, fertiliser and oil. Trade with Europe / US is mostly in luxuries. If forced to choose between them, China will likely choose the first.

(More likely they won’t be forced to choose because they control multiple key supply chains, and can sink the economy of any country except maybe the USA.)

It’s even more stark for my country. No trade with the west means we lose a lot of export revenue, and our growth slows. No trade with Russia means famine and fuel shortages. It’s not even a choice.

The problem with small independent media is that they can be shut down by just filing twenty different frivolous cases against them in different parts of the country. You need someone with deep pockets - a major labour union, say, or a trust, backing them.

This looks horrible.

Oh no, I understood what you meant. But I feel that OP’s approach is correct. They used the words correctly, so that those who already know the meanings can understand what they are saying. Some people did not know what ‘capitalism’ meant, so they critiqued the meme based on their own understandings. Then OP was able to explain to them the correct meaning.

Returning to my analogy, let us say someone is teaching that 2 + 2 = 4. They can say, ‘you already know that 1 + 1 = 2, now multiply both sides by 2’. If a student does not know that 1 + 1 = 2, they can then explain it.

A meme can have only so much text. If they had to derive everything from first principles each time, we would get nowhere.

One plus one is two, not three or twenty six. If a bunch of people go around thinking that one plus one is three, that has no effect on reality. Such people must be educated as necessary, yes, but we should not avoid speaking the truth out of fear of confusing them.

India (red)

1. One man owns several major media outlets and is trying to buy up more.

2. If a newspaper publishes something the current ruling party (state or union) does not like, they paint a pretty big target on their back. They might lose government ads. They might be harassed investigated for any tiny infarction. They will likely not be invited to press conferences or given interviews.

The overall result is that most media try not to rock the boat too much. One field our media is relatively good at is world news, since we aren’t in any of the major geopolitical ‘blocs’, and foreign ownership of media outlets is banned.

Societies aren’t different because they have different technology with the same economic system. It feels like you’re saying indigenous societies wouldn’t have been able to industrialise without changing their political system radically

Societies with different technologies would tend to have very different social and economic systems. Indigenous societies that industrialise do end up changing their political systems because of this.

Drag doesn’t buy the distinction you’re making between indigenous communism and industrialised communism.

Industrialised communism does not exist, at least yet, but any industrial society will necessarily need to organise itself in a very different way from a primitive society (whether communist or not).

Language changes over time, and technical words are often misunderstood. It is definitely unfortunate, but I don’t think it is some sort of conspiracy.

The solution to ignorance is education, not humouring the ignorant. People need to have a basic understanding of the world around them if they are to improve it in any manner. Unfortunately, that involves learning some technical terms. Yes, some people will be confused, but realising that you are confused is the first step in learning something new.

It depends on your definition of ‘deGoogle’. You can disable the Google apps on most Android phones. They’ll take up storage space, but won’t run.

If you’re getting a second-hand phone and want to completely deGoogle it, you can check if (1) the bootloader is unlockable and (2) custom ROMs are available online (e.g. Lineage OS compatible devices). In general, Xiaomi, Motorola and Pixel devices have unlockable bootloaders, but not all their models have custom ROMs.

Nagato Yuki moment

Definitely ask your principal for a recommendation.

Dust can also block connections. I remember a 64 GB RAM system becoming 128 GB when it was cleaned (two sticks; one was clogged).