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| FIRST SET
| | = Introduction = |
| 1. I found it through lemmygrad. Later I joined the discord server. I am interested in contributing as much as I can, namely about my country (Portugal) and History in general.
| | Hi, I'm xkyfal, but you can call me xky. I am a Portuguese CS student and my main interests are programming, lifting, History and Marxism (ofc). |
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| 2. I am a Marxist-Leninist. Franky, my political journey wasn't very complex, since I was lucky enough to encounter Marxism from a young age (14). However, I guess one could say I was first a liberal by default (as most are in capitalist society), then a socdem temporarily (before reading theory) and then after reading some theory I became a Marxist-Leninist.
| | = What I plan to contribute to = |
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| 3. As Imperialism is the primary contradiction in the global south, actively impoverishing it and suppressing the development of productive forces, I very much agree with Prolewiki's principles. A lot of so-called communists erroneously disagree with the idea that smashing Imperialism comes first, but as Parenti says, they're only communists in name. Defeating Imperialism will massively benefit the third world, while triggering a chain reaction all over the Imperial Core, causing the deterioration of material conditions there and thereby the intensification of class struggle.
| | * Fitness |
| | | * History |
| 4. Gender, as opposed to biological sex, is a social construct that aims to play a game of "divide and conquer" with all of mankind. It is based on the idealistic notion that one's traits are pre-defined, therefore independent of one's experiences and idealistic. Lastly, yes, Marxists should absolutely support the LGBT community and recognize their oppression both throughout History as a whole and in the modern day.
| | * Theory |
| | | * Software Development |
| 5. Both Stalin and Mao were great revolutionaries of their time and for both of them, I like to follow the 75% good 25% bad approach. My main criticisms of Stalin were the excess deaths during the ethnic deportations in WW2 (they could've been handled better imo) and the Soviet approach to the Greek Civil War, although understandable since they were still suffering from WW2. My knowledge about Mao is a bit reduced when compared to Stalin (I'm planning to read about the Chinese revolution soon), but I believe some of his policies in the Great Leap Forward, such as the production of steel in rural areas, and the Cultural Revolution (although most brutality was led by the Gang of Four, which Mao ended up condemning later on) led to excess deaths and should be criticized. Regardless of the criticisms, both leaders were (and are) widely loved by the people and deserve the title of "great revolutionary".
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| 6. All of those countries are Socialist. In the case of China and Vietnam, some anticommunists (and sadly some on the left too) love to point out that they have billionaires and private property, therefore they can't be Socialist. This not only shows a lack of understanding of those societies but also a lack of understanding of Dialectical and Historical Materialism as well. It's unrealistic (and idealistic) to believe that the instant abolition of all features from the old Capitalist mode of production right after a revolution is possible, both because of the overwhelmingly Capitalist world inherently hostile to any attempts at Socialism we live in, and the level of productive force development required to achieve a higher stage of Socialism that hasn't been met yet.
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| Lastly, while we should hold some criticisms of former and AES, such as allowing corruption in local governments to rise during the Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao eras for example, we should also recognize that the transition from Capitalism to Socialism requires a lot of attention and understanding of the material conditions of said society.
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| 7. Settler colonialism is a system predicated on the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the native population of one territory in order to create space for another (foreign) population. Countries that fit this criteria are: the Zionist Entity (against Palestinians), the USA (against native Americans), Australia (against the aboriginal people), etc. To put an end to this inherently terrorist order, we must unconditionally support every single resistance group that fights against it and support the creation of a new nation-state of equal rights. History teaches us that the settlers that actively benefit from the settler-colonialist terrorist order usually emigrate back to their countries of origin, however cracking down on some more reactionary elements might still be necessary.
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| 8. My analysis is that of unconditional support to Hamas, the PFLP, Ansarallah and any resistance group actively fighting for Palestinian liberation. Liberals, in their usual ignorant fashion, pretend that the war began on October 7 (even if it did, the Flood of Al-Aqsa would still be justified), ignoring the last 100 years of ethnic cleansing and genocide; they pretend that Netanyahu is the sole culprit of all the crimes committed by the Zionist Entity since October 7 2023, while simultaneously ignoring the fact that the latter is inherently violent regardless of the helmsman. To add context to the previous sentence, the first settlers arrived when Palestine was still under Ottoman rule (before 1918) and immediately began buying plots of land though the JNF, Jewish National Fund, from absentee landlords and kicking out the natives through Hagana, the military wing of the Jewish Agency, the embryonic government of Jews in Mandatory Palestine.
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| Lastly, since settlers aren't civilians, as they're inherently violent and perpetrators of the crime of living and maintaining stolen land, the events of October 7, also known as the Flood of Al-Aqsa, are completely justified and constitute self-defense from the Palestinian side.
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| SECOND SET:
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| 1: Dialectical Materialism is the philosophical outlook of the Communist party. It mixes two different, although flawed when isolated, concepts: Dialectics and Materialism. Dialectics holds that all phenomena in Nature are under constant development, connected and interdependent from each other; that in order to truly understand a phenomenon, one must understand its origins, its development and its relation to the environment that surrounds it. According to Dialectics, large and noticeable changes (qualitative changes) occur spontaneously through the gradual accumulation of quantitative changes. The conversion from quantitative to qualitative changes happens through the disclosing of contradictions (union of opposites, as Lenin puts it) inherent in Nature. An example of this is class struggle, where the antagonistic relation between bourgeoisie-proletariat would constitute a contradiction and an attempt at disclosing this contradiction would place one on the path to Communism.
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| Lastly, Materialism states that matter (everything that upon interaction produces sensation) precedes consciousness, and that the latter is a reflection of the material world, therefore proving the existence of objective reality, and that there are no 'things in-themselves'; that science can and will eventually find a way to explain all existing phenomena.
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| Lastly, Materialism explains the appearance of revolutionary ideas with the deterioration of material conditions
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| 2: National liberation is a system of beliefs that every single Communist should hold, as defeating settler-colonialism and Imperialism are a critical task for every single Communist on the planet. No country is poor, they're just overexploited.
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| 5: My country, Portugal, was once very close to a successful socialist revolution (Carnation Revolution), however, due to many mistakes from the party, overall lack of support and many other reasons that are still unknown (including the possibility of CIA intervention), it ultimately descended into neoliberal chaos. As the material conditions within the imperial Core deteriorate further, I believe our communist party (PCP) will soon experience some degree of growth (sadly, along with the most virulent of reactionaries) and could really use some party programs outside of the parliament, such as theory-reading programs for members and disillusioned workers and being more vocal about the inherent contradictions of Capitalism both inside and outside the parliament. If PCP were to seize power, officially placing Portugal in the AES category, I believe it'd be important to nationalise many otherwise private firms, such as media, banks, etc.; quit NATO and the EU and pivot towards China. Whether this would be possible or not, I highly doubt it, since we have CIA outposts right at our doorstep.
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| 6: Marxism is different from all other anti-capitalist movements and it is no surprise that it is the only relevant one today outside of the internet. Contrary to all other movements, such as Utopian Socialism or Anarchism, who both denounce Capitalism and its horrors (albeit idealistically), Marxism criticises and exposes Capitalism for what it truly is: The dictatorship of the bourgeoisie; a system that emerged after the small bourgeoisie overthrew the feudal lords, where the former control all aspects of production (the primary task of society) and utilizes the State, an organ of class rule, to oppress the proletariat. Marxism also doesn't fall in the common misconception of compromise between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, that many social democrats seem to adore: Such thing is fundamentally impossible, since both classes have inherently opposing interests: The Capitalist wants to further expand his reach and to extract as much value from the worker while the worker wants to be paid as much as possible and socialize production.
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| 8: Outside of the main heads of Marxism, I've only read two books: Blackshirts and Reds (Michael Parenti) and the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Ilan Pappe), but I plan to read many more. In Blackshirts and Reds, Parenti talks discusses the origins of Fascism, who were its main allies and enemies, highlights issues in the former Eastern Bloc, the results of the fall of Socialism (shock therapies, mass poverty and so on) and some considerations for the future. As for Ilan Pappe's book, it's a great way to understand the History of Palestine and how the Zionist entity came into fruition.
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| OPTIONAL:
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| 1. Not really...
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| 2. Python, Rust, a bit of C++ and a bit of web development (js, ts and a few web frameworks).
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