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Essay:DefaultSociety

2026-09-22T22:38:21Z

CriticalResist:

{{infobox essay|title=DefaultSociety|name=The Myth of the Default Society|author=Yogthos|date=2026-08-10|excerpt=You look at a picture of a busy street in a strange country, and your glance travels from person to person. It notices their dress, the surrounding architecture, the poses they assume. And you might ask yourself if you could live in this place. This is a natural, basic reflex we all have. Each of us has conceived some particular kind of life as worthy of desire, and this conception has been moulded by the customs and traditions of our youth. We take our individual conceptions and transfer them upon those who live by other standards and have different ideals from our own. We imagine that they must be unhappy because they lack the comforts and conveniences which we have come to regard as necessities, or that they cannot be free because their daily life is not governed by the same social understandings and traditions as where we happen to live. But in this moment of judgment, few people are reflective. They do not turn the question back upon themselves and inquire what is the source of their own moral and aesthetic standards.

To understand what is really happening, it is necessary to strip away all ornament and look at the facts of human life without any preconceptions. Every civilization begins with the basic fact that we are animals living on a rock in space, with certain needs which are very much the same in all times and places. A certain amount of food is required for our bodies to work properly, and this is measured in terms of calories and protein. We need shelter from the weather so as not to die of cold at night. We need physical and psychological safety as we go about our lives. Above all, we need some means of production so that we can meet our fundamental needs. A society must produce food and goods that its citizens need, which, in turn, require agriculture, manufacture, mining, and all the other industries our modern world depends on. This is the material basis upon which everything else is built up. It must be secured first because nothing else can exist without it. Everything else, such as our laws, our art, and our religion, is an ornament which we have built upon this foundation.}}

= The Myth of the Default Society =

=== How Material Conditions Engineer the Human Mind ===
You look at a picture of a busy street in a strange country, and your glance travels from person to person. It notices their dress, the surrounding architecture, the poses they assume. And you might ask yourself if you could live in this place. This is a natural, basic reflex we all have. Each of us has conceived some particular kind of life as worthy of desire, and this conception has been moulded by the customs and traditions of our youth. We take our individual conceptions and transfer them upon those who live by other standards and have different ideals from our own. We imagine that they must be unhappy because they lack the comforts and conveniences which we have come to regard as necessities, or that they cannot be free because their daily life is not governed by the same social understandings and traditions as where we happen to live. But in this moment of judgment, few people are reflective. They do not turn the question back upon themselves and inquire what is the source of their own moral and aesthetic standards.

To understand what is really happening, it is necessary to strip away all ornament and look at the facts of human life without any preconceptions. Every civilization begins with the basic fact that we are animals living on a rock in space, with certain needs which are very much the same in all times and places. A certain amount of food is required for our bodies to work properly, and this is measured in terms of calories and protein. We need shelter from the weather so as not to die of cold at night. We need physical and psychological safety as we go about our lives. Above all, we need some means of production so that we can meet our fundamental needs. A society must produce food and goods that its citizens need, which, in turn, require agriculture, manufacture, mining, and all the other industries our modern world depends on. This is the material basis upon which everything else is built up. It must be secured first because nothing else can exist without it. Everything else, such as our laws, our art, and our religion, is an ornament which we have built upon this foundation.

=== How Economic Systems Shape Cultural Values ===
Each type of society represents a different solution to the same underlying problem of securing a comfortable life for the individual by means of co-operation, and any society that is unable to meet this challenge is doomed to fail. The way in which a community organizes its productive forces and distributes its collective goods stems from its material conditions, and forms the basis for its core social structure. An agrarian population living on seasonal crops and mutual aid will construct a different social contract from that of a hyper-financialized urban service economy. Therefore, the day-to-day work of keeping alive within a particular set of circumstances becomes the arbiter of culture.

Each type of economic system must, then, produce a different set of cultural values, since the method of daily life shapes the outlook and ideals of a community. If you take an economic system such as that of the DPRK, where labour is organized in publicly owned industrial concerns and agricultural co-operatives, the material basis of society is social ownership of the means of production, which dictates the psychological gravity of the culture. A citizen of a capitalist society looking in may think people have no incentive in the absence of an individual profit motive. And in doing so, they’d be projecting their own conditioning onto a foreign system because their worldview cannot separate labor from the threat of personal financial ruin. But, in truth, the basic desire for construction, for overcoming difficulties, and for personal achievement exists under any socioeconomic system. The element of competition does not disappear under socialist organization. It merely takes a different form because such a society provides different outlets from our own. It manifests through co-operatives competing with each other for the biggest yield and state design bureaus vying to produce the best tractor. The essential difference is that it operates as a positive-sum game since the economic structure is collectively owned. The purpose is different because victory means social improvement rather than mere individual gain. When one design bureau has a success, it does not keep its methods secret, nor does it wish ruin upon other design bureaus. New techniques are shared so that competition serves as a test of methods under pressure, with the best methods becoming integrated across the entire system. The success of one unit means strength for the whole system and an increase in the general level of efficiency. A culture formed in such an environment will inevitably take an outlook in which individual progress is bound up with that of the whole nation. In such a culture, solidarity and collective duty are elevated to virtues.

Now, let us look back at the society built on the idea of private ownership. The capitalist system demands atomization and generates cut-throat competition where the object is market dominance rather than human progress, and every success must come at somebody else’s expense. If a company invents a new method, its first job is to hide the details and get a patent to prevent others from using it. Its whole existence depends upon being the only possessor of a given secret because that alone gives it power to fix prices. Consequently, you have a situation where many companies burn massive amounts of human labor and resources in secrecy, endlessly reinventing the wheel because sharing knowledge would destroy their profit margins. In such a system, enormous waste is camouflaged as innovation while being praised on the grounds that it rewards initiative. And the culture that forms around it is one of paranoia, rugged self-reliance, and ruthless personal ambition. Thus, the economic engine shapes the moral framework that determines what a particular community regards as a virtue. Our values are a product of our material conditions. They are forged by the mechanics of who owns what and how the labor is organized.

The economic organization of a community thus actively creates the very desires which it proceeds to satisfy. Our conception of happiness is formed by the social norms and institutions around us. A person growing up in a liberal society is inclined towards an individualist view, seeing themselves as something separate from and pitted against the whole. Yet, someone who grew up in a socialist system would have different metrics for success that do not look like a suburban house and a bloated stock portfolio. After all, being social animals means that we are wired to find fulfillment in how effectively we integrate into the rest of our social group, leading us to adopt a world view compatible with others around us. Social training not only affects the form of our desires but also determines the limits of our imagination.

We are naturally social beings and must, therefore, have friends, family, and community, lest we wither from spiritual starvation. Our non-negotiable psychological needs are just as rigid as our need for physical safety and shelter. But how a society satisfies these mental needs is as wildly varied as global cuisine. While you must eat a certain amount of calories to live, a dish of noodles in Pyongyang answers the same biological purpose as a hamburger in San Antonio. The mental need for belonging is much the same thing. The need for human companionship is basic and overmastering, but the particular ways in which your companionships take shape are of the most diverse kinds. The particular forms of expressing loyalty and the boundaries of your friendships are largely authored by the specific culture you inhabit.

=== The Social Scaffolding of the Mind ===
So, then, if social structures are a result of the way our society is organized upon the material base, and our worldview is, in turn, a product of economic relations, how then do these economic necessities get wired into our psychology? French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, who spent his career studying how social structures get inside us, coined the term habitus to describe the hidden scaffolding in our heads. It represents a durable set of views and dispositions that shape the way we perceive the world, and it is something people rarely choose for themselves. We tend to absorb our understanding of reality by osmosis through countless microscopic interactions from the moment we are born. Kids see which child gets a smile and who gets ignored. They learn what actions lead to respect, such as doing well at school or sport, and what causes rejection, like dressing the wrong way. Upbringing, therefore, ends up sculpting expectations in our adult life, providing a standard by which ordinary things are judged, and from which ordinary desires and aspirations spring. Your conception of a good life grows out of the social structure in which you were born, a particular scaffolding of family, class, and culture that made you who you are. Schools, media, and everyday norms convince you that the social arrangement you live in is natural and inevitable which is what Gramsci referred to as cultural hegemony, the idea that a ruling class makes its worldview feel like common sense. Our understanding of the world is, thus, built upon a whole scaffolding of expectations, tastes, and gut feelings we absorb from our surroundings.

Beliefs accrete piecemeal over many years and, much like the deposits of epochs in a rock formation, form an increasingly rigid system. Every fresh belief that a person acquires must somehow be fitted with the existing mass of beliefs so that it does not cause any serious upheaval. When a new idea contradicts the existing foundation, it is typically rejected. This is a perfectly rational attitude since we cannot restructure our entire mental edifice each time we run across some new fact. And so, the longer we live, the more entrenched and impervious our ideological foundation becomes since new ideas have ever more existing ones to contend with. Each additional year makes our subconscious more resistant to any opposing force. Over time, the edifice becomes so solidified that its structure begins to pass as truth itself. The rules of one’s own society are repeated in daily rituals and become so deeply ingrained that we start to forget they are mere human conventions.

The orthodoxy of our beliefs is imbibed from relatives and acquaintances before we even begin to think. If you were educated in a Western liberal democracy, your individualism has been ingrained almost from infancy by the pervasive cultural atmosphere you were immersed in. You have learned, as soon as you could understand anything, that you are the hero of your own drama and that your wants and desires are what really matter. You have internalized a conception of freedom in which marking a ballot every few years is held to embody political liberty to the exclusion of more direct forms of collective action and social power. The elementary logic of capitalist relations was taught to you at the dinner table and through the media before you even mastered long division. The principles of private property, wage-earning, and economic competition have been presented to you not as a particular form of social organization but as a natural law. In all probability, you have accepted them uncritically, having had no alternative outlook to use as a point of reference.

Hence, people tend to suffer from a spectacular failure of imagination, seeing other cultures through the distorting medium of their preconceptions. Someone who grew up in the West might only see a tyranny when looking at a culture which has strong communal bonds and tight family obligations, viewing them as suffocating restrictions at odds with the individual liberty they hold so dear. One might not even feel the need to argue this point because the answer feels instinctive and self-evident. A person asks themselves whether they could be happy in such a culture, and their prior conditioning says they would not. But in doing so, they fail to notice that their answer is dictated by a set of social norms they’ve grown accustomed to, having been taught that individual initiative and personal success are supreme virtues. Therefore, a culture dominated by different values such as social duty and family responsibilities, being at odds with their innermost convictions, feels wrong and oppressive.

Such a view results from a lack of perspective, since it fails to account for the fact that people living within each system are organized by their culture and institutions, each producing a different view of the world. To people living in a collectivist system, an individualist and competitive society may seem a dreary social desert and a monument to loneliness. They may honestly ask how you manage to exist in such isolation, living in a culture which invariably prioritizes individual success over community health. Both perspectives spring from reactions that are products of the compromises within each respective system, because every social structure solves one set of problems at the expense of creating another. A judgment of another society based on that which is familiar in our own will necessarily be incoherent because it will employ quite irrelevant criteria.

=== The Pragmatism of Conformity ===
Of course, no society is monolithic in nature, and while the machinery of socialization is extraordinarily efficient in producing uniformity of opinion, it can never be perfectly efficient. There are always individuals who, for one reason or another, do not fully endorse the orthodoxy of their time and place. Yet, the mainstream prevails for a reason. Society, by means of social censure, economic pressure, and legal pressure, compels the majority of the people to conform to an agreed-upon set of rules. The whole system depends upon a very important condition, however, which is that society should be able to provide the bare necessities of life for the critical mass of the population. When the social basis affords security and stability through adequate housing, sufficient nourishment, and necessary social relations to stay sane, the human mind can adapt to almost any ideological programming. Most humans are fundamentally pragmatic creatures and take the line of least resistance.

As long as conformity affords a secure basis for some measure of comfort and security, there is no impetus to question the status quo because having views at variance with orthodox opinion makes one an outcast. There is a certain psychological tax to having views that differ from the common sense of those around us. The possibility of casual conversation becomes diminished because you find yourself talking past each other when you converse with others. Every mundane social interaction becomes a puzzle requiring you to use a mental filter, being careful about what you say. Whenever a political question arises, your subconscious process must engage in internal censorship to carefully measure out how much of your actual perspective you can safely share before the room turns on you. As a rule, people do not enjoy being told that their life goals are artificial, or that their moral high ground is just a byproduct of their local economic engine. Thus, having a different outlook from those around you becomes an exceedingly uncomfortable existence, making one feel like a perpetual outsider trying to blend in. Unless you learn to put a mask on, you risk becoming someone to be avoided and excluded from social interactions.

There is enormous evolutionary pressure to conform because, throughout much of human history, to be cast out by one’s own tribe meant a rapid and violent death. One was helpless against wild beasts or starvation, and so human cognitive faculties are adapted to the need for cooperation. Survival meant tribal solidarity, common food, common shelter, and common defense. So the natural selection within any social environment heavily favors people who go along with the program since such people are the ones who are more likely to grow up and leave offspring. The logic of the thing is quite obvious. By adopting the accepted beliefs of the community, an individual protects their social status and ensures themselves of continued food, water, and freedom from persecution. On the contrary, by challenging fundamental beliefs one exposes themselves to the heaviest penalties, endangering not only their own welfare but also that of their family. And so, it should be no surprise that, in most cases, the unconscious is satisfied with a comfortable path of least social friction, believing whatever will allow one to live comfortably within their community.

People will continue to defend their system with passion, taking ridiculous pride in its most absurd manifestations, even long after their society stops being able to meet the needs of its citizens. The superstructure of ideology is safeguarded by the instinct of habit, for our brains are prediction engines that construct hypotheses about the world, allowing us to go about our daily business in order to meet our needs. And so, we crave security and predictability as much as oxygen in our lungs. You may find your job loathsome and wake up every morning dreading the tedious journey to work where an officious superior makes you feel small. But if you know exactly what drudgery is expected of you and get a wage sufficient to pay your bills, you stay put. The daily unhappiness is a known quantity, a familiar strain which you have learned to bear. To leave means to enter into the world of the unknown. It is to forego the power of knowing what the next day may bring, and to run the risk of making your situation still worse. So, one grows accustomed to a routine and learns to live with the humiliations of one’s position. Certain colleagues may be avoided, or one may simply cease to notice their daily abuses. Add dependents to this situation and the trap is made doubly sure. With children to be supported on your salary, to take a chance on an unknown future seems a massive failure in parental duty. Change means to forego the illusion of power, and to face the unexpected and the uncertain head-on.

=== Systemic Failure and the Breaking Point of Ideology ===
A similar dynamic plays out at a broader societal scale, which is why most people choose to confine themselves to the daily routines and swallow most humiliations as long as they can have stability in return. They invent psychological and moral subtleties to make injustice appear natural and the status quo desirable. They do this for the sake of their own peace of mind and that of their families. But there is a limit to such silent submission. There comes a breaking point where material facts override the official view of how the social system works. At such moments the discrepancy between theory and practice becomes intolerable because the ideological narrative becomes completely unmoored from physical reality.

That the ideas in people’s heads eventually have to square with the reality of their daily lives is the essence of materialist dialectic. People have a natural tendency to believe that they live in a fair society where hard work leads to prosperity, seeing their own society as a natural default for reasons we’ve just discussed. This belief can be internalized, used in judging one’s fellow citizens, made the basis of social policy, and set as the criterion of achievement in general. It can even be maintained long after the fundamentals of a social order start to break down due to factors such as technical progress or change in the climate. In such situations, the working majority might find themselves unable to afford the necessities of life. Then the good story rubs against the facts. The friction between the ideology and the material world becomes violently untenable. These kinds of disruptions act as selection pressures that force societies to adapt or perish.

When a system fails to give basic stability and opportunity for individual development, confidence is sapped little by little. People quietly drop out of the economic and social mainstream, becoming deeply disillusioned with the core beliefs of their society. They play by the rules, try to hold down jobs, avoid debt, and save for old age. Yet they find it more and more difficult to buy groceries every week and pay their rent each month. The myth of failure, which personalizes disaster as the result of laziness or vice, ceases to be plausible when you see yourself work hard, yet barely make ends meet. A disillusionment with the system gradually replaces the former confidence, and a hole opens up in the framework of accepted beliefs. When it has thus been learned that the dominant ideology is a myth that no longer squares with your lived experience, the way opens up to a consideration of other views and different philosophies of existence which might better serve as working hypotheses to illuminate the miserable conditions you are actually experiencing. You find yourself increasingly willing to entertain ideas that you would have readily dismissed at a different time.

Of course, these sorts of transformations don’t happen overnight. It is a dialectical process where the quantity of hardships steadily accumulates, eventually marking a change in the quality of the whole nation. For years the breakdown remains hidden as one individual drops out here and another there, and their misfortunes are attributed to some personal causes. But should economic pressure continue to widen the circle of insecurity, then more and more people are driven to the wall, and their numbers grow imperceptibly until at last the whole system has reached a critical state. And suddenly the collective faith is shattered along with the social cohesion which it ensured.

Social failure of this kind can be observed firsthand in many Western countries today. The historic levels of political polarization tearing these societies apart aren’t happening because people have suddenly forgotten how to live together. They are a direct result of a large segment of the population experiencing conditions which it cannot endure. Holding down a job no longer saves people from suffering when having a job does not guarantee a home or basic safety. And while the personal cost of dissent may be high, the cost of starvation is yet higher.

And so, it is only when the dominant worldview starts to actively contradict the daily material experience of the masses that the calculus of conformity begins to flip. When it ceases to be true that by repeating the official dogmas a man can obtain food, shelter, and security, the existing social contract collapses and conventional beliefs cease to be a satisfactory way of life. The fear of being ostracized evaporates since there is no more social status or physical comfort to be gained from trying to fit in. And thus the views that have been rejected as heretical become practical. Those who were once marginalized for holding them become the focus and leaders of a new movement based upon observable fact instead of crumbling dogma.

=== Beyond the Regional Custom ===
We tend to take our current social arrangement for granted, but most objects of our daily desires do not constitute necessities of human nature. Goals such as having a well-situated job or living in a posh neighborhood are products of a certain time and place. They are not universal values, but rather outcomes of the present economic and social arrangements, which are a local ordinance arrived at step by step to meet the problem of keeping large populations alive and working together. Of course, the knowledge that your desires are contingent does not make them disappear. They remain as strong as ever, but their tyranny is mitigated by the knowledge that they are not universal and that other equally good desires are possible. You will be able to imagine a different life from your own in another age or country. You will no longer take your own way of living for the model to which all others should conform, but will regard other societies as equally wise as your own in finding ways of solving the problems of human existence.

Our present social organization is not the pinnacle of human evolution. It is only one out of many possible arrangements of resources and division of labour for satisfying the basic needs of food, shelter, and security. These needs are always essential to any group of human beings, and one particular arrangement by which they are achieved is not naturally better or more important than any other. Consequently, judgment of another community based primarily on its resemblance to or difference from one’s own becomes an inane preoccupation. It is a mirroring of oneself by which you grade the reflection you obtain rather than the answers to common human needs achieved by different means.

To judge whether a social system is sound, one must put aside the ideological scorecard and look at plain facts. Look at the results as shown in statistics of diet and housing. Look at the way in which the productive forces are made to serve the basic physical and mental needs of the population. Look at the degree of trustworthiness and helpfulness towards each other displayed by the members of the society, as opposed to their disposition to prey upon each other or to become demoralized through lack of social cohesion. These are practical working metrics we can use to judge the health of a society. Everything else, including political names and cultural traditions, is merely a regional custom. Humanity has created countless different types of societies throughout history, all based upon the same human nature but differing widely from each other. Our present mechanism, with its special institutions, is what happens to exist at the moment, not an immutable necessity or an ideal towards which other societies must be tending.
[[Category:Essays]]
[[Category:Essays by Yogthos]]

Essay:TheToolsetOfReality

2026-09-22T22:38:14Z

CriticalResist:

{{infobox essay|title=TheToolsetOfReality|author=Yogthos|date=2026-08-10|excerpt=Many hear the term Dialectical Materialism (or “Diamat”) and think it means entering a world of arcane mysticism or obscure Germanic language. In reality it is simply an analytical toolkit used to analyze and comprehend how the world functions, a worldview which is largely the work of Karl Marx but whose name was coined by Joseph Dietzgen in his description of the method Marxists use for examining reality and connecting high philosophy with rigorous utility. This essay is an introduction to a way of thinking which sees the world as a dynamic interconnected system rather than as a collection of static discrete objects.|name=The Toolset of Reality}}

= The Toolset of Reality =

=== A Practical Introduction to Material Dialectics ===
Many hear the term Dialectical Materialism (or “Diamat”) and think it means entering a world of arcane mysticism or obscure Germanic language. In reality it is simply an analytical toolkit used to analyze and comprehend how the world functions, a worldview which is largely the work of Karl Marx but whose name was coined by Joseph Dietzgen in his description of the method Marxists use for examining reality and connecting high philosophy with rigorous utility. This essay is an introduction to a way of thinking which sees the world as a dynamic interconnected system rather than as a collection of static discrete objects.

=== The Logic of Motion and Dynamic Systems ===
Most of us are taught to regard the world as a static collection of objects: a tree, a smartphone, or a government. Dialectics tells us to reject a simplistic idea of a static world, and instead see these things as evolving processes always in a state of becoming. Consider the staticity and completeness we associate with an object like a smartphone; we think of it simply as an inert thing that is unchanging. But dialectical analysis shows it to be merely a temporary snapshot of many intersecting flows, including raw materials (lithium from Chile or cobalt from the Congo) and labor involving thousands of hours of human work and engineering skill poured into its design. It functions as a node in a global network of satellites and server farms. If you interrupt any of these flows, the nature of the object changes. A smartphone cut off from power, deprived of software updates, or disconnected from global data is redefined by its new inactive state; it becomes merely a dead piece of glass and plastic. Its claim to “quality” as an instrument for communication depends entirely on its ongoing connection with external material processes, and when the interaction ceases, the thing can no longer serve its intended purpose and thus becomes qualitatively transformed. A broader principle, thus, is that every entity in our world exists merely as a temporary snapshot of the relations of forces acting upon it.

A dialectical view suggests that any change of one part in a system, in turn, affects all the others. To see this relation, consider how a classical mechanical watch functions: it is a wholly active mechanism where each component exists within a state of dynamic tension and where every gear is kinetically connected to its successor so that motion cannot be a local or trivial phenomenon but must instead constitute a systemic event. Should one solitary cog cease turning, the whole does not merely decelerate; it stops functioning as an instrument of time-keeping, since the “time” registered by the watch is derived from the collective motion of all. In like manner, the material reality of our world, composed of linked cogs in the form of production, technology, and labor, is such that a disruption in the flow of one singular commodity will produce ripples through the whole global economy. A disruption in any single flow, such as the supply of silicon wafers necessary for modern electronics, sends prices skyrocketing, political alliances shifting, and social organizations into reconfiguration.

=== Stocks, Flows, and the Laws of Contradiction ===
To understand the temporal action of these shifting systems, we must employ two precise Marxist principles. The first is productive forces, which can be viewed as flows, and the second is relations of production, which represent the stocks. Productive forces refer to the tools we create, the technology we construct, and the labor power we utilize. This is a flow which is always accelerating, while relations of production constitute the skeleton of the system; they explain how we organize our societies and how the ownership of the instruments (means of production) and the distribution of wealth or surplus value are arranged. The relationship between these two forces is the very metabolism of history: the productive forces are the energy winding the spring, while the relations are the specific arrangement of gears attempting to contain and distribute that force. This metabolism obeys three main laws: the first is the unity and conflict of opposites, the second is the transformation from quantity to quality, and the third is the negation of the negation.

Every dynamic system is composed of forces in a state of tension which together form a unified whole. The law of contradiction, or the incessant conflict between opposing forces, is what drives change forward, while the “unity of opposites” signifies that conflicting elements within any system are interdependent and give each other meaning. A good example is the relation between capitalists and laborers. The former, whose starting point is the private ownership of productive instruments focused on profit, creates as its polar opposite the latter’s struggle for equitable compensation and a just share of wealth. This is a conflict that is more than merely superficial or subjective. Indeed, the very essence of all dialectic lies in that a thesis (or premise) necessarily creates its antithesis in order, in the end, through their union, to produce a synthesis.

Consider a mundane case. Two brothers are racing bicycles, one with a newer and swifter machine than the other’s older and slower model, so that there is created a conflict in which the brother of superior speed enjoys his advantage (the thesis), while his companion suffers the resentment of his inferior vehicle (the antithesis). Their quarrel leads to arguments, whose resolution forms the synthesis. For example, they may share the faster bicycle or purchase a new one; this latter situation being born of their discord and providing an ephemeral solution which contains within itself its own future contradictions in order that the cycle of change shall be maintained.

=== The Transformation of Quantity into Quality ===
The principle that quantity changes into quality tells us that gradual, invisible buildups accumulate to produce dramatic changes that constitute a qualitative shift. Mechanically, this is accomplished through interactions between stocks and flows. Stocks act as reservoirs or buffers in systems, changing slowly via flows which, while individually trivial in appearance, alter the power balance of internal feedback loops within the system. A large stock can absorb changes for an extended period, leading to an era of pseudo-stability in quantitative growth before the qualitative shift appears suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere, or at least from some corner where it was not expected. In our example of the brothers, the stock may be emotional resentment that builds over time. So it is with the brother riding the inferior bicycle, who may exhibit no visible change in demeanor as loss succeeds upon loss, until that internalized resentment finally breaks forth in the qualitative leap of a sudden, seemingly unprovoked fist fight.

Once a critical point is reached, the system shifts its state. A great leap occurs because of an abrupt change in stock that determines what feedback loop controls it, usually shifting from a stable balancing loop to a growing reinforcing one. Just as slowly heated water stays liquid until it suddenly boils, or genetic mutations accumulate until at last a new species appears, so too do social systems behave; the rise of inequality and the exploitation of labor build up pressure which passes some system limit, resulting in great leaps such as revolutions.

Hence, systems often seem stable on the surface, only to undergo rapid and surprising transformation. Economic crashes and major geopolitical events such as wars occur in this way. So long as the stock of the system can absorb the change, the movement toward a phase shift remains hidden, for the existing relationships within the system are able to handle the shifting flows without disruption, and those who look only at the external function of the system cannot perceive it. But once the buffer of the stock is exhausted, change occurs rapidly—suddenly and all at once.

Consider, for instance, the 2008 financial collapse, which, in its time, seemed like a sudden and unexpected “Black Swan” event to people around the world. Yet dialectical analysis shows it to be an inevitable phase transition: years of subprime debt accumulation (the flow) built up within global financial markets (the stock), for a while hidden by the system’s balancing loops such as rising home prices and complex insurance hedges. Eventually, when the quantity of toxic debt passed a critical point beyond which it could no longer be absorbed by the existing relations of production, the behavior of the system changed instantly from stable growth to a runaway reinforcing loop of defaults, bank runs, and panic. What seemed like sudden disaster was in fact an inevitable qualitative explosion resulting from a decade of hidden quantitative accumulation.

=== The Negation of the Negation and the Spiral of Progress ===
The final rule, known as the negation of the negation, describes an ascending pattern resulting from some initial thesis being opposed by its antithesis, leading to a still further new proposition—the synthesis—which embodies elements derived from both the original terms but is not merely a return to an existing state. Such an advance contains new contradictions of its own. The evolution of transportation illustrates this recursive nature admirably: animal power negated human muscle power (the thesis), and steam engines during the Industrial Revolution negated beast propulsion (the antithesis) to produce a synthesis more advanced than either of the preceding stages. The internal combustion engine represents a still further advance beyond both these limits, retaining qualities inherited from earlier phases, while future advances like electric cars and magnetic levitation are destined to continually push this process upward on a spiral toward greater sophistication.

The push towards increased complexity is not merely a social preference, but an existential necessity. All dynamic systems are situated within energy gradients which force them to evolve; in physical terms, if a system ceases its motion it attains a state of thermodynamic equilibrium—effectively death. We may recall this from the mechanical watch example, where the apparatus functions as a “clock” only when the mainspring is wound. Winding creates a gradient of potential energy which is released by uncoiling and dissipated through the gears to drive the hands, but once the spring has fully unwound, that energy is gone, and the system ceases its motion. Without external input, such as a new winding, the watch cannot fulfill its function, remaining merely an assembly of parts rather than a dynamic process.

The laws of thermodynamics are the fundamental engine of reality; entropy always increases, and every system must constantly reorganize itself to capture and use available energy efficiently. This is as true for a biological organism as it is for a global economy. Thus, any social or economic status is ephemeral. Our world is in a perpetual state of motion, and living systems must constantly expend energy to maintain their coherence against the pull of entropy.

When a certain set of social relations can no longer adequately channel the flow of productive forces, its supply of energy, there is a system-wide “clogging” or loss of order which leads to those crises and collapses spoken of before. Evolution, as I have said, is the process where these problems are overcome by the constant reconfiguration needed to harness the productive energy within the system. A rejection of the old form is necessary to tap into a more advanced “metabolism” of the world’s resources. Seen thusly, the transition from one mode of production to another is an entropic necessity, for we construct more complex social structures because they are the only means by which we may utilize the increasingly potent energy gradients produced by our technological progress.

=== The Primacy of Substance ===
The second element of the toolkit is materialism, which asks whether the idea or matter comes first. While Hegel argued for idealistic priority, where ideas are the primary sources of which reality (the physical world) is a manifestation or distinct stage in the development of the Absolute Idea, the materialist believes that substance, atoms, or energy are first, with ideas being secondary results of our cerebral processes. Much as a bee has no perfect “idea” of the hexagon, but has been shaped by evolution to work with wax in such ways as to fulfill the requirements for survival, a human mind is likewise shaped by the environment we live in; our society is a product of our material conditions.

To confront the distinction between Idealism and Materialism more effectively, we should look beyond mere riddles to one of modern philosophy’s most significant debates: that concerning human consciousness. Many people, including some scientists, hold an idealistic position, arguing that man possesses in his mind an ineffable “spirit” or unique internal experience known as qualia, incapable of being accounted for solely on material grounds. They argue that the ‘redness’ and other qualities by means whereof we perceive a rose’s beauty, likewise that subtle essence which is love, exist in an intangible realm beyond science ever to measure or map.

The weight of materialist analysis rejects this mystical dichotomy altogether, declaring that our thoughts, our perceptions, and indeed even the most “private” of internal experiences, are not magical intrusions from another dimension but rather direct products of our material reality. Every sensation which we call a subjective feeling is merely an emergent phenomenon that stems from the physical substrate. Thus, when you feel the “redness” (or whatever) of any rose, it must be because light waves are striking your retina to produce electrical impulses which travel through a nerve fiber of the optic nerve into an area of the brain known as the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus, and finally to the visual cortex.

There is no secret observer within the brain that stands apart from its material processes. From a monistic viewpoint, consciousness and mind are but an aspect of cerebral activity, so much so that they are identical with it in every conceivable sense. And if by mechanical injury or chemical disturbance you alter even slightly and temporarily that material state, there is an immediate change of subjective experience, proving consciousness to be not a primary source but merely one among many secondary effects. By linking the mind with matter, we realize our thoughts are no more arbitrary or divinely inspired than any other biological function—such as digestion, growth, and reproduction—which have helped us in moving through this material world of time-space, changing it to suit ourselves.

Marx famously turned Hegel on his head by arguing that ideas emerge from our engagement with the material world. The dialectical spiral of the development of a hammer shows this, for it was not in a vacuum but through observation and interaction—of stone smashing nut—that mankind’s first crude tool emerged. Human concepts were altered by these conditions to produce an implement which would alter the material circumstances under which life is lived. This permits the further development of more complex ideas. This perspective rejects any notion that we can change society merely through “better” or different thoughts and values, for they are reflections (or superstructures) upon economic conditions, such as jobs, food, housing, etc. We must first alter the material way in which humans live in order to transform human consciousness.

This progression, which follows a cyclical pattern or alternation between negations, began when primitive man first used an unwrought stone to crack nuts. This was a simple beginning: a solution to immediate problems using natural objects. Yet it had its limits; for while the stone afforded a grip or balance to those who wielded it, there was always a conflict between accuracy and nature’s irregularity. Then man shaped the stone, attaching a wooden handle thereto. This was a negation of primitive naturalism which produced a new physical reality—the hammer—altering human possibilities at their very foundation rather than merely improving upon an unwrought object.

When this new implement joined the material substrate, it did more than split nuts. It enabled shelter building and novel material working, expanding that “world of ideas” in which the process becomes truly recursive. The hammer was supplemented by the forge, superseding the previous stage with greater complexity and power, and paving the way for the world we find ourselves in today with its digital tools. The physical mallet was supplanted and replaced again, yet it retained its old functions, for it is in this way that evolution proceeds. The industrial worker operating a machine press negated the craftsman, and is now being negated in turn by AI-driven automation that renders the human operator obsolete. Each step acts as a “winding of the spring,” giving more energy to a system which creates an environment of greater material complexity and pushes our brains to develop correspondingly sophisticated conceptual frameworks. We do not think ourselves out of one world; we build forges in it until the forge builds us another way of thinking. That new thought-world then becomes a new environment which again shapes its inhabitants toward more advanced mental processes, and so on ad infinitum.

In the social sciences, historical materialism establishes a distinction between the economic base and the ideological superstructure. The former acts as the mechanical engine or foundation of society, consisting of productive forces (tools and labor) and the relations of production (who owns them and how work is organized). This is contrasted with the latter, the “cabin” built upon this base, which contains the cultural, political, and legal institutions that arise from it. While the superstructure can influence its foundation, the economic base plays the primary definitional role, as seen throughout history. In feudalism, where land ownership (agriculture) formed the base, religious ideas of “divine right” existed to justify the power exercised by the church and nobility. Consequently, the rise of capitalism, with its industrialization and wage labor, necessitated a new superstructure: liberalism. This new ideology emphasized individual freedom and free markets, serving both the interests of the new merchant class and the realities of factory production.

Ideology, whether conscious or unconscious, is the scaffolding upon which societies construct their collective consciousness. Far from being merely an aggregation of personal opinions and attitudes, it represents a unifying force permeating every aspect of life—from political institutions to artistic expression. Like a genetic code guiding the growth of an organic entity, it shapes prevailing societal norms and provides for collective decision-making. It acts as the very framework within which “social organisms” are directed, often to a degree surpassing the individual wills of their members; even those who consciously dissent from prevailing narratives find themselves influenced by them. For ideology forms not just an abstract principle, but the fabric one must navigate for social life to be possible. Yet it is never static, driven as it is by the constant dialectic between individual thought and collective belief. When the material base of society is transformed, as when industrial capitalism gave rise through social unrest to the Russian Revolution, new ideas emerge to challenge established norms, providing a vision for an alternative order (such as communism) that is more compatible with the new material reality.

Finally, it is necessary to issue a cautionary word regarding mechanical materialism, which is the erroneous idea that the base changes itself or spontaneously transforms the superstructure. The substitution of renewable energy for fossil fuels does not automatically “fix” our culture, nor will a shift toward automated production instantly resolve social conflicts, despite providing the new foundation upon which such change acts. We must actively combat old habits of thought inherited from past ages, which are so tenacious that they often persist long after their material justification has vanished. For this reason, history’s progress requires active and deliberate engagement, not merely passive observation or contemplation.

As Marx astutely pointed out, the aim is not merely to analyze and understand reality from a distance, but to engage with it so that it may be changed. When we regard society as an object for action instead of contemplation, politics becomes an expression of the underlying material contradictions, whose discovery gives us the power to do more than merely observe and hope. We cease hoping for change and begin acting on those material conditions which determine our whole world, so that instead of merely changing the score, we radically alter the foundations for human thought, feeling, and action alike.
[[Category:Essays]]
[[Category:Essays by Yogthos]]

Category:Essays by Yogthos

2026-09-22T22:37:52Z

CriticalResist: CriticalResist moved page Category:Essays by yogthos to Category:Essays by Yogthos without leaving a redirect

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[[Category:Essays by author]]

Essay:The Dialectics of Domination

2026-09-22T22:28:47Z

CriticalResist:

{{Infobox essay|title=The Dialectics of Domination|author=Yogthos|date=2026-09-23|excerpt=To understand why liberalism is inherently right-wing, it is necessary to discard the views which liberals hold about themselves, and look at the material basis of their ideology}}

To understand why liberalism is inherently right-wing, it is necessary to discard the views which liberals hold about themselves, and look at the material basis of their ideology. Liberalism professes to be a timeless philosophy embodying lofty ideals such as individual liberty, democratic rights, and the rule of law. But a materialist is not interested in what an ideology says about itself; one must ask what relations of production it supports, whose class interests it serves, and what part it plays in the historical development of society. So considered, liberalism can only be seen as the ideological superstructure of capitalism. It exists to justify private property relations by cloaking them under the guise of human liberty. It began as a progressive force, facilitating the transformation of the material basis of society and releasing the productive forces from their feudal fetters. But today it has turned into a reactionary force, acting as the political and philosophical panoply of a ruling class compelled to increase the sum of social violence in order to safeguard its monopoly of wealth. The productive forces once promoted by capitalism have formed a contradiction with its system of private ownership of the means of production. The progressive negation of the moribund capitalist order is not to be found in perfection of liberalism, but in transcendence towards a socialist stage of development.

== Liberalism as the Ideology of Capital ==
Liberalism is the political expression of a certain type of economic system, namely, one based upon wage-labour and the ownership by a few of the instruments and materials which others must use. Beneath all the rhetoric about freedom and equality lies a hard fact that the workers are cut off from the land and raw materials without which they cannot subsist. As a result, their productive powers become a commodity to be sold to those who own the capital and machinery, and those owners, in turn, get to enjoy an unmerited proportion of the product. This condition has come about through historical processes such as the enclosure of land and the creation of laws which prevented people from working except for wages.

The liberal worldview presents the individual as an abstraction rather than as the product of a community of humans in which exchange-value mediates social relations. Legally equal, the worker and the capitalist meet in the labour market to negotiate a transaction which is formally fair. But behind such formalism the capitalist remains dominant since the worker, cut off from the means of production, must sell labour-power to survive. The capitalist, owning those means, can replace any individual worker by drawing on the reserve army of labour, the pool of unemployed and underemployed workers that is created by the normal workings of capital accumulation. Competition for jobs amongst the workers leads to further downward pressure on wages and disciplines those lucky enough to be employed. Thus, the legal equality of the contracting parties hides the structural imbalance between them.

Similarly, the liberal state itself should not be seen as an impartial arbiter standing above class conflicts. As Marx and Engels state, it “is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.” Its institutions secure the co-operation of all sections of the capitalist class, but do not aim at securing an amicable adjustment of the conflict between capital and labour. Its constitutional safeguards of life, liberty, and property are grounded in guarantees of the sanctity of private ownership necessary for the smooth functioning of capitalist accumulation. The right to property, in practice, is the right of the rich not to share their wealth. Therefore, any democracy which liberalism establishes must necessarily operate within the existing structure of property relations. Periodic elections and parliamentary debate exist to absorb discontent, but the political system can never allow the question of the ownership of the means of production to be raised in a meaningful way. By making the rights of property untouchable and removing them from the sphere of public debate, liberalism reveals its true class character. In material terms, it represents the liberty of capital to exploit labour, and for a minority to enrich itself at the expense of the majority.

Of course, this same liberalism was once a revolutionary force at a time when feudalism, with its fiefs and serfdom, had become an obstacle to further development of the productive forces. The bourgeoisie needed the national market, a supply of labour-power, and the abolition of the parasitical privileges of the aristocracy and the Church. Liberalism provided the ideological weapons for their movement by promoting concepts of natural rights, popular sovereignty, and the conception of the free individual. By abolishing feudalism, the bourgeois revolutions in England and France opened the way for an enormous development of productive power.

The progressive element of liberalism was not destined to survive in the long term because capitalist production, once freed from feudal restraints, quickly found itself faced by its own internal contradiction. Production was becoming increasingly socialized in factories and other large enterprises while appropriation remained private. Factory work breaks down commodity production into steps, with each worker performing a specialized task within a process that depends on the co-operation of many hands across the factory floor. And factories, in turn, require inputs of raw materials to operate the machinery which are sourced on the markets linking that factory to producers and consumers across the globe, making production a collective and even international affair. Yet the means of production themselves, along with the product, belong to individual capitalists who decide what shall be produced, where capital shall be invested, and how the surplus value created by the wage-earners shall be distributed. This contradiction forms the basis of the class struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The business owners seek to increase profit by driving down wages and prolonging the working day, while the proletariat seeks to increase its wages and shorten its hours. These opposing interests come into conflict at every point of labour organization and economic policy.

Liberalism, as an ideology, itself represents a unity of opposites with its democratic form and its capitalist content existing in a dynamic equilibrium. While it proclaims freedom for all, the wage system compels workers to sell their labour-power to whichever capitalist will purchase it. It proclaims democracy, but the actual power of capital turns the state into an executive committee of the ruling class. Both the bourgeoisie and the proletariat are bound together in one social whole, each determining the existence of the other. Thus, the class struggle becomes the primary motive power that drives the development of a capitalist society. As the productive forces develop, the labour force becomes more concentrated and better organized. The contradiction sharpens in turn, and liberalism is forced to strain itself more and more to mitigate and justify the actual state of labour relations.

Capitalist accumulation proceeds quantitatively as capital becomes concentrated and centralized, leading to recurring crises of overproduction that gradually transform liberalism from a progressive force into a mask of reaction. Each subsequent crisis further impoverishes the workers and bankrupts small capitalists who are forced to let go of some of their remaining assets to weather it. Large capitalists, who are in a much better position to weather the economic downturn, end up scooping up these assets, which leads to further capital accumulation. The concentration of capital in fewer hands and the thinning out of competition create the conditions for a growing dependence of wage-earners upon big business and the dissolution of the petty bourgeoisie. These factors combine to produce a qualitative change in the character of the whole social order. A liberal society that could once afford the appearance of openness can no longer do so. As class conflict grows, its parliamentary machinery becomes increasingly ineffective, and the State transitions to open repression. This trajectory is now unmistakable in the United States, where the state increasingly deploys mass surveillance, militarized policing, and persecution of dissent against any elements that challenge the existing property order.

When the workers organizing around their own class interests threaten to break through the confines of bourgeois parliamentarism, the accumulation of their class pressure imposes upon the bourgeoisie the necessity for a change not only of degree but of kind. The pressure grows until the bourgeoisie can no longer govern by consent and democratic illusion, but must abandon the friendly face of political liberalism to reveal the mailed fist beneath. This is the point where liberal democracy transitions into its fascist phase of development. Fascism can be seen as liberalism turned inside out, revealing the coercive core that was always present beneath its democratic facade used to obfuscate the economic basis of class rule. What gets discarded is the superstructure of parliamentary democracy, which becomes a hindrance to the security of the ruling class once they can no longer control it. As Adolf Hitler himself told the German industrialists, “private enterprise cannot be maintained in the age of democracy; it is conceivable only if the people have a sound idea of authority and personality.” Thus, in order to save capitalism in times of crisis, liberalism must abandon its democratic facade.

And so, the class which formerly allied itself with the masses to destroy feudalism now finds them to be the enemy within. The feast given by the City of London to Cromwell to celebrate his crushing of the radicals at Burford serves as the perfect example of this recurrent spectacle. Every time a capitalist regime has been seriously menaced from below, the liberal state has passed into an increasingly repressive, and finally fascist, form. The Weimar Republic's metamorphosis into Nazism, the Pinochet coup in Chile, and the neoliberal regimes of today discarding their democratic facade as they confront mass movements such as the MAS in Bolivia all belong to a single dialectic.

== Socialism as the Negation of Capitalist Relations ==
History, however, does not end with the bankruptcy of liberalism because capitalism itself produces its own grave-diggers. When capitalism did away with the relations of domination between lords and serfs, the market became a new tyrant. Capital collects the wage-earners in factories to increase the productivity of labour through science and machinery, and thereby transforms the proletariat into a class capable of administering production for itself. All these factors lead to the possibility of a new type of system which represents the socialist stage of development.

At this point we need to clearly define what socialism actually refers to in a Marxist sense. Socialism means that the producers of wealth begin to take into their own hands the control of the existing productive forces. It sets in motion the abolition of private ownership of the means of production, a process that can only be completed through the full development of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The goal of the socialist movement is to make production subordinate to human need rather than profit by re-establishing collective control of social life on a higher material basis than that of primitive communism.

But such a new arrangement cannot arrive fully formed because socialism arises from the existing capitalist relations. Thus, it must necessarily proceed through stages which contain within themselves the residues of the old order alongside the seeds of the new. Here we must grasp the essential distinction between socialism and communism, and the role of what Marx and Lenin called the dictatorship of the proletariat. The term does not refer to a policy or a strategy involving the establishment of a particular form of government. Rather, it covers the whole of the transition period to communism. Such a transitional stage is not simply one possible path to be decided upon under certain conditions because it is not a matter of choice. It cannot be abandoned, any more than the class struggle can be abandoned, except in words and at the cost of enormous confusion.

To grasp this properly we must first recognize that State power is the political expression of a single ruling class, and as such it is fundamentally rooted in class dictatorship. Bourgeois democracy is the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie while a proletarian democracy is also the dictatorship of a different class. In modern liberal society, State power is held in an absolute way by the capital owning class, who do not share it with any other. From this follows a consequence which is that the only possible historical alternative is an equally absolute hold on State power by the proletariat, the class of wage-labourers formerly exploited by capital. Just as the bourgeoisie cannot share State power, neither can the proletariat share it with other classes.

State power is expressed through the State apparatus in the form of the standing army, the police, the legal system, and the bureaucracy which all serve the interests of the ruling class. Therefore, the working class must tear down the existing machinery of the State, which is the embodiment of the old power structures in order to replace it with one serving its own interests.

Hence, the dictatorship of the proletariat is not a road of transition to socialism, it is nothing other than socialism itself. Communism is the long-term objective, whose achievement stretches over a very long historical period, and to which socialism is only the means. Seizing control of the State power is the prerequisite first step on this road. If this position is lost, then construction of socialism becomes impossible, at least in so far as socialism represents a revolutionary break with capitalism.

The proletarian dictatorship is itself a contradictory stage since, even though the working class holds State power, existing socioeconomic relations have not yet been abolished, meaning that the old capitalist relations persist within the new socialist framework. This should not be seen as a failure of the revolution, but rather as its necessary form where the contradiction between the new State power and the old economic relations acts as the engine of further development. The proletarian rule exists precisely to resolve this contradiction, abolishing the remnants of capitalist production in order to create the conditions for a classless society.

In the dialectical spiral, liberalism represents the thesis acting as the ideological expression of capitalism in its ascendant and dominant phases. The proletarian revolution, the seizure of State power and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, is the antithesis. But this antithesis itself necessarily produces its own contradictions between the political power of the working class and the economic relations which still bear the mark of the old order. The synthesis is achieved through the long and difficult process of abolishing class distinctions and transforming the material conditions of production.

== The Logic of Reaction ==
With this conceptual framework in place, we can fully understand the present role of liberalism within modern capitalist societies. Liberalism helped to destroy feudalism and to create capitalism along with its formal political democracy. This task accomplished, the liberal ideology ceases to have any progressive content. It exists to justify an outworn system of exploitation with its rhetoric of freedom and democracy serving to obscure the reality of the material relations. What it means in practice is the right of a few to grow rich at the expense of all the rest and of the earth’s finite resources. Every reference to free markets or individual rights is a defense of the status quo in property and power.

This analysis explains why liberalism is invariably compelled to associate itself with fascism against socialism. Capitalist society is organized through conflicting forces; bourgeoisie and proletariat depend upon each other, but are also in conflict with each other. While the proletariat is weak and disunited, the bourgeoisie can maintain its class rule by means of liberal democracy, distributing small reforms to maintain the fiction of democratic rule. But as the class struggle grows acute and socialist doctrine starts to spread among the workers, the property order itself becomes threatened. At that point, the bourgeoisie is faced with the choice of sacrificing its class rule or abandoning the facade of democratic machinery, which becomes intolerable. Power is then handed over to fascist groups to stamp out opposition and repeal economic safeguards for wage-earners.

History shows the process all too clearly. When the quantity of class pressure reaches a certain threshold, it leads to a qualitative change in the nature of the state, transforming what was liberal democracy into a fascist dictatorship. Ishay Landa has demonstrated that the Nazi regime was in no sense anti-capitalist. It sold off state assets, destroyed trade unions, and won the enthusiastic support of major industrialists. In fact, Hitler looked up to the British Empire as a model of ruthless imperialism, and remarked that “no nation ever prepared better for economic conquest even with the sword. or later maintained it more ruthlessly, than the British” The concentration camps had their models in the British camps for Boer civilians and the genocidal dispossession of Indigenous peoples from colonized territories. Mass detention and racial extermination, far from having been invented by German fascists, were a direct continuation of liberal colonial practice. Fascism is the logical terminus of liberal capitalism when it can no longer maintain its democratic pretense.

This dialectic is accelerating today all across the western world. Neoliberalism, the contemporary form of economic liberalism, has now dismantled most of the social democratic compromises of postwar capitalism, having abolished welfare protections, privatised public goods, and deregulated finance. Workers are exposed to market shocks while austerity imposes misery on many in order to concentrate the wealth in ever fewer hands. The liberal state constantly seeks to extend its security apparatus by using mass surveillance to spy on citizens, by criminalizing dissent, and by prosecuting whistleblowers like Julian Assange for exposing state crimes. The political centre in the West presents itself as the moderate choice between the extremes of left and right. In reality, it defends the status quo of capitalist relations. All the while, the far right is groomed as a backup plan, ready to step in should the status quo start to tilt toward genuine socialism. Hence, the liberal centre and the fascist right should be viewed as divisions of labour within the camp of capital rather than being opposites.

Liberalism belongs firmly on the right, for it is the ideology of a class system based on exploitation. It peddles abstract notions of freedom and democracy as universal goods, while enshrining in law the right to private property. The tangible result is that economic power remains concentrated in the hands of capitalists, who use it to dominate political life. As the crises of capitalism grow more severe, so does the tension within capitalist societies, leading them to abandon their democratic facade to reveal the true face of class dictatorship. The antidote to fascism is the abolition of the capitalist relations for whose preservation liberalism works, an abolition that can only be achieved through the seizure of State power by the exploited class, which is the very antithesis of liberal governance. Today, the fight is for nothing less than the dictatorship of the proletariat, and through it, for a socialist society in which the workers control the means of production.
[[Category:Essays]]
[[Category:Essays by Yogthos]]

ProleWiki:Donate/Financial

2026-09-20T20:08:27Z

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|-
|2025-03-04
|Payments made on the credit card (hosting, domains and fees)
|'''Expense'''
|– 381.48 BRL
|3,809.57 BRL
|-
|2025-03-04
|Invested in fixed income: CDB BMG
|Investment
|– 2,001.13 BRL
|4,191.05 BRL
|-
|2025-02-18
|Redeemed fixed income: CDB POS DI LIQ. BANCO INTER SA
|Investment
|1,816.10 BRL
|6,192.18 BRL
|-
|2025-02-12
|Donations received through PayPal (2 receipts)
|Donation
|0.18 BRL
|4,376.08 BRL
|-
|2025-02-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|143.60 BRL
|4,375.90 BRL
|-
|2025-01-08
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|1,226.09 BRL
|4,232.30 BRL
|-
|2025-01-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|154.52 BRL
|3,006.21 BRL
|-
|2024-12-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|152.42 BRL
|2,851.69 BRL
|-
|2024-11-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|147.62 BRL
|2,699.27 BRL
|-
|2024-10-07
|Payments made on the credit card (subscriptions and fees)
|'''Expense'''
|– 179.16 BRL
|2,551.65 BRL
|-
|2024-10-07
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|153.24 BRL
|2,730.81 BRL
|-
|2024-09-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|157.16 BRL
|2,577.57 BRL
|-
|2024-08-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|158.52 BRL
|2,420.41 BRL
|-
|2024-07-08
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|150.84 BRL
|2,261.89 BRL
|-
|2024-06-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|145.76 BRL
|2,111.05 BRL
|-
|2024-06-03
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|242.48 BRL
|1,965.29 BRL
|-
|2024-05-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|128.48 BRL
|1,722.81 BRL
|-
|2024-05-02
|Currency exchange for the international hosting payment
|'''Expense'''
|– 949.79 BRL
|1,594.33 BRL
|-
|2024-05-02
|Bank fee on the international hosting payment
|'''Expense'''
|– 50.00 BRL
|2,544.12 BRL
|-
|2024-05-02
|Tax on the international hosting payment (IOF)
|'''Expense'''
|– 10.45 BRL
|2,594.12 BRL
|-
|2024-04-08
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|148.82 BRL
|2,604.57 BRL
|-
|2024-03-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|146.44 BRL
|2,455.75 BRL
|-
|2024-02-15
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|231.10 BRL
|2,309.31 BRL
|-
|2024-02-14
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|247.63 BRL
|2,078.21 BRL
|-
|2024-02-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|145.88 BRL
|1,830.58 BRL
|-
|2024-01-15
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|22.00 BRL
|1,684.70 BRL
|-
|2024-01-08
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|145.86 BRL
|1,662.70 BRL
|-
|2024-01-03
|Invested in fixed income: CDB POS DI LIQ. BANCO INTER SA
|Investment
|– 1,500.00 BRL
|1,516.84 BRL
|-
|2023-12-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|144.62 BRL
|3,016.84 BRL
|-
|2023-11-21
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|45.64 BRL
|2,872.22 BRL
|-
|2023-11-16
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|112.42 BRL
|2,826.58 BRL
|-
|2023-11-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|143.48 BRL
|2,714.16 BRL
|-
|2023-10-18
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|45.95 BRL
|2,570.68 BRL
|-
|2023-10-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|151.42 BRL
|2,524.73 BRL
|-
|2023-09-30
|Payments made on the credit card
|'''Expense'''
|– 80.90 BRL
|2,373.31 BRL
|-
|2023-09-25
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|228.83 BRL
|2,454.21 BRL
|-
|2023-09-11
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|46.13 BRL
|2,225.38 BRL
|-
|2023-09-08
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|145.83 BRL
|2,179.25 BRL
|-
|2023-09-07
|Buffer plan (plus fees and taxes)
|'''Expense'''
|– 32.24 BRL
|2,033.42 BRL
|-
|2023-08-14
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|46.23 BRL
|2,065.66 BRL
|-
|2023-08-07
|Buffer plan (plus fees and taxes)
|'''Expense'''
|– 32.09 BRL
|2,019.43 BRL
|-
|2023-08-07
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|146.11 BRL
|2,051.52 BRL
|-
|2023-08-04
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|483.18 BRL
|1,905.41 BRL
|-
|2023-08-03
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|46.29 BRL
|1,422.23 BRL
|-
|2023-07-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|188.30 BRL
|1,375.94 BRL
|-
|2023-06-12
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|46.24 BRL
|1,187.64 BRL
|-
|2023-06-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|166.59 BRL
|1,141.40 BRL
|-
|2023-05-19
|Credit card cashback
|Other
|3.07 BRL
|974.81 BRL
|-
|2023-05-14
|Payments made on the credit card (charges not detailed in the statement)
|'''Expense'''
|– 52.23 BRL
|971.74 BRL
|-
|2023-05-11
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|46.61 BRL
|1,023.97 BRL
|-
|2023-05-08
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|168.07 BRL
|977.36 BRL
|-
|2023-05-04
|Payments made on the credit card (charges not detailed in the statement)
|'''Expense'''
|– 272.50 BRL
|809.29 BRL
|-
|2023-05-04
|VPS hosting fee for the year of 2024 (Terrahost), US$183.50, plus international banking fees
|'''Expense'''
|– 970.90 BRL
|1,081.79 BRL
|-
|2023-04-24
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|48.30 BRL
|2,052.69 BRL
|-
|2023-04-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|168.83 BRL
|2,004.39 BRL
|-
|2023-04-05
|Invested in fixed income: CDB BANCO INTER SA
|Investment
|– 1,000.00 BRL
|1,835.56 BRL
|-
|2023-04-03
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|47.34 BRL
|2,835.56 BRL
|-
|2023-03-22
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|206.75 BRL
|2,788.22 BRL
|-
|2023-03-15
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|241.63 BRL
|2,581.47 BRL
|-
|2023-03-14
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|471.39 BRL
|2,339.84 BRL
|-
|2023-03-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|242.39 BRL
|1,868.45 BRL
|-
|2023-02-28
|Invested in fixed income: CDB BANCO INTER SA
|Investment
|– 1,500.00 BRL
|1,626.06 BRL
|-
|2023-02-27
|Donations received through Stripe (3 receipts)
|Donation
|1,440.48 BRL
|3,126.06 BRL
|-
|2023-02-24
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|146.06 BRL
|1,685.58 BRL
|-
|2023-02-23
|Donations received through PayPal (6 receipts)
|Donation
|0.54 BRL
|1,539.52 BRL
|-
|2023-02-22
|Funds transferred to the bank account (Pix)
|Transfer
|229.12 BRL
|1,538.98 BRL
|-
|2023-02-21
|Funds transferred to the bank account (Pix)
|Transfer
|631.86 BRL
|1,309.86 BRL
|-
|2023-02-18
|Funds transferred to the bank account (Pix, initial deposit)
|Transfer
|678.00 BRL
|678.00 BRL
|-
|2022-09-20
|Bank account opened
|—
|—
|0.00 BRL
|-
|June 2022
|Donation through Patreon from comrade [[Comrade:Jucheguevara|Jucheguevara]] and one patreon (minus fees and taxes)
|Donation
| $12.76 USD
|—
|-
|2022-05-22
|Domain transfer to Namecheap
|'''Expense'''
|– $11.16
|—
|-
|2022-05-16
|VPS hosting fee for the year of 2023 (Terrahost) plus international banking fees
|'''Expense'''
|– $151.00
|—
|-
|2022-05-07
|Donation from comrade [[Comrade:Tydu|Tydu]]
|Donation
| 1.0091173 XMR (~$208.96 USD)
|—
|-
|May 2022
|Donation through Patreon from comrade [[Comrade:Jucheguevara|Jucheguevara]] and one patreon (minus fees and taxes)
|Donation
| $12.76 USD
|—
|-
|April 2022
|Donation through Patreon from comrade [[Comrade:Jucheguevara|Jucheguevara]] and one patreon (minus fees and taxes)
|Donation
| $12.76 USD
|—
|-
|March 2022
|Donation through Patreon from comrade [[Comrade:Jucheguevara|Jucheguevara]] and one patreon (minus fees and taxes)
|Donation
| $12.76 USD
|—
|-
|February 2022
|Donation through Patreon from comrade [[Comrade:Jucheguevara|Jucheguevara]] and one patreon (minus fees and taxes)
|Donation
| $12.76 USD
|—
|-
|January 2022
|Donation through Patreon from comrades [[Comrade:CriticalResist|CriticalResist]] and [[Comrade:Jucheguevara|Jucheguevara]] and one patreon (minus fees and taxes)
|Donation
| $16.37 USD
|—
|-
|December 2021
|Donation through Patreon from comrades [[Comrade:CriticalResist|CriticalResist]] and [[Comrade:Jucheguevara|Jucheguevara]] and one patreon (minus fees and taxes)
|Donation
| $16.36 USD
|—
|-
|2021-11-16
|VPS hosting fee for the year of 2022 (HostGator Brasil)
|'''Expense'''
| – $252.00 USD ($1,385.47 BRL)
|—
|-
|2021-11-16
|Donation from comrade [[Comrade:CriticalResist|CriticalResist]] through [[#PayPal|PayPal]] for the VPS hosting fee
|Donation
| $63.00 USD ($346.47 BRL)
|—
|-
|2021-11-15
|Donation from comrade [[Comrade:Jucheguevara|Jucheguevara]] through [[#PayPal|PayPal]] for the VPS hosting fee
|Donation
| $84.62 USD ($465.37 BRL)
|—
|-
|2021-11-15
|Donation from [[Comrade:FelipeForte|comrade Forte]] for the VPS hosting fee
|Donation
| $62.73 USD ($345.00 BRL)
|—
|-
|November 2021
|Donation through Patreon from comrades [[Comrade:CriticalResist|CriticalResist]] and [[Comrade:Jucheguevara|Jucheguevara]] and one patreon (minus fees and taxes)
|Donation
| $16.45 USD
|—
|-
|October 2021
|Donation through Patreon from comrades [[Comrade:CriticalResist|CriticalResist]] and [[Comrade:Jucheguevara|Jucheguevara]] and one patreon (minus fees and taxes)
|Donation
| $16.46 USD
|—
|-
|September 2021
|Donation through Patreon from comrades [[Comrade:CriticalResist|CriticalResist]] and [[Comrade:Jucheguevara|Jucheguevara]] and one patreon (minus fees and taxes)
|Donation
| $16.55 USD
|—
|- style="background-color: #ffdede;"
|2021-08-02
|Fee for the renewal of the ''prolewiki.org'' domain for one year (HostGator Brasil)
|'''Expense'''
| – $14.28 USD ($77.98 BRL)
|—
|-
|August 2021
|Donation through Patreon from comrade [[Comrade:CriticalResist|CriticalResist]] minus Patreon fees and taxes
|Donation
| $3.81 USD
|—
|-
|July 2021
|Donation through Patreon from comrade [[Comrade:CriticalResist|CriticalResist]] minus Patreon fees and taxes
|Donation
| $3.81 USD
|—
|-
|June 2021
|Donation through Patreon from comrade [[Comrade:CriticalResist|CriticalResist]] minus Patreon fees and taxes
|Donation
| $3.90 USD
|—
|-
|May 2021
|Donation through Patreon from comrade [[Comrade:CriticalResist|CriticalResist]] minus Patreon fees and taxes
|Donation
| $3.86 USD
|—
|-
|April 2021
|Donation through Patreon from comrade [[Comrade:CriticalResist|CriticalResist]] minus Patreon fees and taxes
|Donation
| $3.70 USD
|—
|-
|March 2021
|Donation through Patreon from comrade [[Comrade:CriticalResist|CriticalResist]] minus Patreon fees and taxes
|Donation
| $3.82 USD
|—
|- style="background-color: #ffdede;"
|2020-11-21
|VPS upgrade for ''prolewiki.org'' for one year (HostGator Brasil).
|'''Expense'''
| – $159.46 USD ($857.92 BRL)
|—
|-
|2020-11-20
|Bitcoin donation from comrade [[User:Jucheguevara|Jucheguevara]]
|Donation
|$160.78 USD (0.00861082 BTC)
|—
|- style="background-color: #ffdede;"
|2020-09-28
|Fee for the ''prolewiki.org'' domain for one year (HostGator Brasil)
|'''Expense'''
| – $27.10 USD ($153.42 BRL)
|—
</noinclude>
|}<noinclude><small>Rows dated before 20 September 2022 (when the bank account was opened) show a dash in the Balance column: there was no bank account yet, and those donations and expenses went through other channels. From the account's opening onwards every row is an actual account movement, and the Balance column is the running account balance right after that movement, so every amount added or subtracted above also moves the balance below it. Donations are recorded as they landed in the account, net of fees and taxes, including amounts routed through PayPal, Stripe and Patreon payouts. Funds moved into fixed income investments leave the account balance but remain with ProleWiki.</small></noinclude>

ProleWiki:Donate/Financial

2026-09-20T20:08:17Z

CriticalResist: monthly income readjusted

<templatestyles src="ProleWiki:Donate/Financial/styles.css" />
=== Balance (USD; last updated September 20th 2026) ===
{{FinanceTable
|bank=6739.19
|exchange_rate=0.19|patreon=~40|liberapay=0|monthly_expenses=18.13}}
(exchange rates may be outdated)

=== Financial record ===
{| class="wikitable financial-record"
|-
! width="15%" |Date
!Item Description
! width="15%" |Item Type
! width="15%" |Amount
! width="15%" |Balance
|-
|2026-09-08
|Payments made on the credit card (subscriptions and fees)
|'''Expense'''
|– 43.02 BRL
|6,739.19 BRL
|-
|2026-09-08
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|203.54 BRL
|6,782.21 BRL
|-
|2026-08-13
|Partial redemption of fixed income: CRA BRF E390S2
|Investment
|1,684.36 BRL
|6,578.67 BRL
|-
|2026-08-07
|Payments made on the credit card (subscriptions and fees)
|'''Expense'''
|– 36.70 BRL
|4,894.31 BRL
|-
|2026-08-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|115.31 BRL
|4,931.01 BRL
|-
|2026-07-07
|Payments made on the credit card (subscriptions and fees)
|'''Expense'''
|– 37.18 BRL
|4,815.70 BRL
|-
|2026-07-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|118.87 BRL
|4,852.88 BRL
|-
|2026-06-08
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|118.07 BRL
|4,734.01 BRL
|-
|2026-06-08
|Payments made on the credit card (subscriptions and fees)
|'''Expense'''
|– 35.27 BRL
|4,615.94 BRL
|-
|2026-05-18
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|50.30 BRL
|4,651.21 BRL
|-
|2026-05-07
|Payments made on the credit card (subscriptions and fees)
|'''Expense'''
|– 36.37 BRL
|4,600.91 BRL
|-
|2026-05-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|561.34 BRL
|4,637.28 BRL
|-
|2026-04-15
|Fixed income earnings: CRA BRF E390S2 coupon
|Investment
|80.71 BRL
|4,075.94 BRL
|-
|2026-04-08
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|462.64 BRL
|3,995.23 BRL
|-
|2026-04-07
|Payments made on the credit card (hosting, domains and fees)
|'''Expense'''
|– 863.57 BRL
|3,532.59 BRL
|-
|2026-04-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|118.30 BRL
|4,396.16 BRL
|-
|2026-03-09
|Payments made on the credit card (hosting, domains and fees)
|'''Expense'''
|– 2,117.49 BRL
|4,277.86 BRL
|-
|2026-03-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|177.58 BRL
|6,395.35 BRL
|-
|2026-03-02
|Redeemed fixed income: CDB PRE 252 TBE
|Investment
|2,250.50 BRL
|6,217.77 BRL
|-
|2026-02-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|175.11 BRL
|3,967.27 BRL
|-
|2026-02-03
|Invested in fixed income: CDB CREDITO BANCO INTER SA
|Investment
|– 1,500.00 BRL
|3,792.16 BRL
|-
|2026-01-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|181.34 BRL
|5,292.16 BRL
|-
|2025-12-24
|Redeemed fixed income: CDB POS DI LIQ. BANCO INTER SA
|Investment
|1,836.02 BRL
|5,110.82 BRL
<noinclude>
|-
|2025-12-08
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|130.62 BRL
|3,274.80 BRL
|-
|2025-11-29
|Donation from Lucas (last name omitted)
|Donation
|25.00 BRL
|3,144.18 BRL
|-
|2025-11-17
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|148.38 BRL
|3,119.18 BRL
|-
|2025-11-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|133.03 BRL
|2,970.80 BRL
|-
|2025-10-15
|Fixed income earnings: CRA BRF E390S2 coupon
|Investment
|78.06 BRL
|2,837.77 BRL
|-
|2025-10-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|75.93 BRL
|2,759.71 BRL<noinclude>
|-
|2025-09-08
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|76.81 BRL
|2,683.78 BRL
|-
|2025-08-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|77.20 BRL
|2,606.97 BRL
|-
|2025-07-07
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|75.84 BRL
|2,529.77 BRL
|-
|2025-07-05
|Invested in fixed income: CRA BRF E390S2
|Investment
|– 2,125.13 BRL
|2,453.93 BRL
|-
|2025-06-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|98.65 BRL
|4,579.06 BRL
|-
|2025-05-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|100.10 BRL
|4,480.41 BRL
|-
|2025-04-07
|Payments made on the credit card (hosting, domains and fees)
|'''Expense'''
|– 883.08 BRL
|4,380.31 BRL
|-
|2025-04-07
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|97.77 BRL
|5,263.39 BRL
|-
|2025-03-26
|Redeemed fixed income: CDB POS DI LIQ. BANCO INTER SA
|Investment
|1,209.36 BRL
|5,165.62 BRL
|-
|2025-03-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|146.69 BRL
|3,956.26 BRL
|-
|2025-03-04
|Payments made on the credit card (hosting, domains and fees)
|'''Expense'''
|– 381.48 BRL
|3,809.57 BRL
|-
|2025-03-04
|Invested in fixed income: CDB BMG
|Investment
|– 2,001.13 BRL
|4,191.05 BRL
|-
|2025-02-18
|Redeemed fixed income: CDB POS DI LIQ. BANCO INTER SA
|Investment
|1,816.10 BRL
|6,192.18 BRL
|-
|2025-02-12
|Donations received through PayPal (2 receipts)
|Donation
|0.18 BRL
|4,376.08 BRL
|-
|2025-02-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|143.60 BRL
|4,375.90 BRL
|-
|2025-01-08
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|1,226.09 BRL
|4,232.30 BRL
|-
|2025-01-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|154.52 BRL
|3,006.21 BRL
|-
|2024-12-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|152.42 BRL
|2,851.69 BRL
|-
|2024-11-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|147.62 BRL
|2,699.27 BRL
|-
|2024-10-07
|Payments made on the credit card (subscriptions and fees)
|'''Expense'''
|– 179.16 BRL
|2,551.65 BRL
|-
|2024-10-07
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|153.24 BRL
|2,730.81 BRL
|-
|2024-09-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|157.16 BRL
|2,577.57 BRL
|-
|2024-08-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|158.52 BRL
|2,420.41 BRL
|-
|2024-07-08
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|150.84 BRL
|2,261.89 BRL
|-
|2024-06-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|145.76 BRL
|2,111.05 BRL
|-
|2024-06-03
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|242.48 BRL
|1,965.29 BRL
|-
|2024-05-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|128.48 BRL
|1,722.81 BRL
|-
|2024-05-02
|Currency exchange for the international hosting payment
|'''Expense'''
|– 949.79 BRL
|1,594.33 BRL
|-
|2024-05-02
|Bank fee on the international hosting payment
|'''Expense'''
|– 50.00 BRL
|2,544.12 BRL
|-
|2024-05-02
|Tax on the international hosting payment (IOF)
|'''Expense'''
|– 10.45 BRL
|2,594.12 BRL
|-
|2024-04-08
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|148.82 BRL
|2,604.57 BRL
|-
|2024-03-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|146.44 BRL
|2,455.75 BRL
|-
|2024-02-15
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|231.10 BRL
|2,309.31 BRL
|-
|2024-02-14
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|247.63 BRL
|2,078.21 BRL
|-
|2024-02-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|145.88 BRL
|1,830.58 BRL
|-
|2024-01-15
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|22.00 BRL
|1,684.70 BRL
|-
|2024-01-08
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|145.86 BRL
|1,662.70 BRL
|-
|2024-01-03
|Invested in fixed income: CDB POS DI LIQ. BANCO INTER SA
|Investment
|– 1,500.00 BRL
|1,516.84 BRL
|-
|2023-12-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|144.62 BRL
|3,016.84 BRL
|-
|2023-11-21
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|45.64 BRL
|2,872.22 BRL
|-
|2023-11-16
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|112.42 BRL
|2,826.58 BRL
|-
|2023-11-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|143.48 BRL
|2,714.16 BRL
|-
|2023-10-18
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|45.95 BRL
|2,570.68 BRL
|-
|2023-10-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|151.42 BRL
|2,524.73 BRL
|-
|2023-09-30
|Payments made on the credit card
|'''Expense'''
|– 80.90 BRL
|2,373.31 BRL
|-
|2023-09-25
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|228.83 BRL
|2,454.21 BRL
|-
|2023-09-11
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|46.13 BRL
|2,225.38 BRL
|-
|2023-09-08
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|145.83 BRL
|2,179.25 BRL
|-
|2023-09-07
|Buffer plan (plus fees and taxes)
|'''Expense'''
|– 32.24 BRL
|2,033.42 BRL
|-
|2023-08-14
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|46.23 BRL
|2,065.66 BRL
|-
|2023-08-07
|Buffer plan (plus fees and taxes)
|'''Expense'''
|– 32.09 BRL
|2,019.43 BRL
|-
|2023-08-07
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|146.11 BRL
|2,051.52 BRL
|-
|2023-08-04
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|483.18 BRL
|1,905.41 BRL
|-
|2023-08-03
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|46.29 BRL
|1,422.23 BRL
|-
|2023-07-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|188.30 BRL
|1,375.94 BRL
|-
|2023-06-12
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|46.24 BRL
|1,187.64 BRL
|-
|2023-06-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|166.59 BRL
|1,141.40 BRL
|-
|2023-05-19
|Credit card cashback
|Other
|3.07 BRL
|974.81 BRL
|-
|2023-05-14
|Payments made on the credit card (charges not detailed in the statement)
|'''Expense'''
|– 52.23 BRL
|971.74 BRL
|-
|2023-05-11
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|46.61 BRL
|1,023.97 BRL
|-
|2023-05-08
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|168.07 BRL
|977.36 BRL
|-
|2023-05-04
|Payments made on the credit card (charges not detailed in the statement)
|'''Expense'''
|– 272.50 BRL
|809.29 BRL
|-
|2023-05-04
|VPS hosting fee for the year of 2024 (Terrahost), US$183.50, plus international banking fees
|'''Expense'''
|– 970.90 BRL
|1,081.79 BRL
|-
|2023-04-24
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|48.30 BRL
|2,052.69 BRL
|-
|2023-04-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|168.83 BRL
|2,004.39 BRL
|-
|2023-04-05
|Invested in fixed income: CDB BANCO INTER SA
|Investment
|– 1,000.00 BRL
|1,835.56 BRL
|-
|2023-04-03
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|47.34 BRL
|2,835.56 BRL
|-
|2023-03-22
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|206.75 BRL
|2,788.22 BRL
|-
|2023-03-15
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|241.63 BRL
|2,581.47 BRL
|-
|2023-03-14
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|471.39 BRL
|2,339.84 BRL
|-
|2023-03-06
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|242.39 BRL
|1,868.45 BRL
|-
|2023-02-28
|Invested in fixed income: CDB BANCO INTER SA
|Investment
|– 1,500.00 BRL
|1,626.06 BRL
|-
|2023-02-27
|Donations received through Stripe (3 receipts)
|Donation
|1,440.48 BRL
|3,126.06 BRL
|-
|2023-02-24
|Donations received through PayPal
|Donation
|146.06 BRL
|1,685.58 BRL
|-
|2023-02-23
|Donations received through PayPal (6 receipts)
|Donation
|0.54 BRL
|1,539.52 BRL
|-
|2023-02-22
|Funds transferred to the bank account (Pix)
|Transfer
|229.12 BRL
|1,538.98 BRL
|-
|2023-02-21
|Funds transferred to the bank account (Pix)
|Transfer
|631.86 BRL
|1,309.86 BRL
|-
|2023-02-18
|Funds transferred to the bank account (Pix, initial deposit)
|Transfer
|678.00 BRL
|678.00 BRL
|-
|2022-09-20
|Bank account opened
|—
|—
|0.00 BRL
|-
|June 2022
|Donation through Patreon from comrade [[Comrade:Jucheguevara|Jucheguevara]] and one patreon (minus fees and taxes)
|Donation
| $12.76 USD
|—
|-
|2022-05-22
|Domain transfer to Namecheap
|'''Expense'''
|– $11.16
|—
|-
|2022-05-16
|VPS hosting fee for the year of 2023 (Terrahost) plus international banking fees
|'''Expense'''
|– $151.00
|—
|-
|2022-05-07
|Donation from comrade [[Comrade:Tydu|Tydu]]
|Donation
| 1.0091173 XMR (~$208.96 USD)
|—
|-
|May 2022
|Donation through Patreon from comrade [[Comrade:Jucheguevara|Jucheguevara]] and one patreon (minus fees and taxes)
|Donation
| $12.76 USD
|—
|-
|April 2022
|Donation through Patreon from comrade [[Comrade:Jucheguevara|Jucheguevara]] and one patreon (minus fees and taxes)
|Donation
| $12.76 USD
|—
|-
|March 2022
|Donation through Patreon from comrade [[Comrade:Jucheguevara|Jucheguevara]] and one patreon (minus fees and taxes)
|Donation
| $12.76 USD
|—
|-
|February 2022
|Donation through Patreon from comrade [[Comrade:Jucheguevara|Jucheguevara]] and one patreon (minus fees and taxes)
|Donation
| $12.76 USD
|—
|-
|January 2022
|Donation through Patreon from comrades [[Comrade:CriticalResist|CriticalResist]] and [[Comrade:Jucheguevara|Jucheguevara]] and one patreon (minus fees and taxes)
|Donation
| $16.37 USD
|—
|-
|December 2021
|Donation through Patreon from comrades [[Comrade:CriticalResist|CriticalResist]] and [[Comrade:Jucheguevara|Jucheguevara]] and one patreon (minus fees and taxes)
|Donation
| $16.36 USD
|—
|-
|2021-11-16
|VPS hosting fee for the year of 2022 (HostGator Brasil)
|'''Expense'''
| – $252.00 USD ($1,385.47 BRL)
|—
|-
|2021-11-16
|Donation from comrade [[Comrade:CriticalResist|CriticalResist]] through [[#PayPal|PayPal]] for the VPS hosting fee
|Donation
| $63.00 USD ($346.47 BRL)
|—
|-
|2021-11-15
|Donation from comrade [[Comrade:Jucheguevara|Jucheguevara]] through [[#PayPal|PayPal]] for the VPS hosting fee
|Donation
| $84.62 USD ($465.37 BRL)
|—
|-
|2021-11-15
|Donation from [[Comrade:FelipeForte|comrade Forte]] for the VPS hosting fee
|Donation
| $62.73 USD ($345.00 BRL)
|—
|-
|November 2021
|Donation through Patreon from comrades [[Comrade:CriticalResist|CriticalResist]] and [[Comrade:Jucheguevara|Jucheguevara]] and one patreon (minus fees and taxes)
|Donation
| $16.45 USD
|—
|-
|October 2021
|Donation through Patreon from comrades [[Comrade:CriticalResist|CriticalResist]] and [[Comrade:Jucheguevara|Jucheguevara]] and one patreon (minus fees and taxes)
|Donation
| $16.46 USD
|—
|-
|September 2021
|Donation through Patreon from comrades [[Comrade:CriticalResist|CriticalResist]] and [[Comrade:Jucheguevara|Jucheguevara]] and one patreon (minus fees and taxes)
|Donation
| $16.55 USD
|—
|- style="background-color: #ffdede;"
|2021-08-02
|Fee for the renewal of the ''prolewiki.org'' domain for one year (HostGator Brasil)
|'''Expense'''
| – $14.28 USD ($77.98 BRL)
|—
|-
|August 2021
|Donation through Patreon from comrade [[Comrade:CriticalResist|CriticalResist]] minus Patreon fees and taxes
|Donation
| $3.81 USD
|—
|-
|July 2021
|Donation through Patreon from comrade [[Comrade:CriticalResist|CriticalResist]] minus Patreon fees and taxes
|Donation
| $3.81 USD
|—
|-
|June 2021
|Donation through Patreon from comrade [[Comrade:CriticalResist|CriticalResist]] minus Patreon fees and taxes
|Donation
| $3.90 USD
|—
|-
|May 2021
|Donation through Patreon from comrade [[Comrade:CriticalResist|CriticalResist]] minus Patreon fees and taxes
|Donation
| $3.86 USD
|—
|-
|April 2021
|Donation through Patreon from comrade [[Comrade:CriticalResist|CriticalResist]] minus Patreon fees and taxes
|Donation
| $3.70 USD
|—
|-
|March 2021
|Donation through Patreon from comrade [[Comrade:CriticalResist|CriticalResist]] minus Patreon fees and taxes
|Donation
| $3.82 USD
|—
|- style="background-color: #ffdede;"
|2020-11-21
|VPS upgrade for ''prolewiki.org'' for one year (HostGator Brasil).
|'''Expense'''
| – $159.46 USD ($857.92 BRL)
|—
|-
|2020-11-20
|Bitcoin donation from comrade [[User:Jucheguevara|Jucheguevara]]
|Donation
|$160.78 USD (0.00861082 BTC)
|—
|- style="background-color: #ffdede;"
|2020-09-28
|Fee for the ''prolewiki.org'' domain for one year (HostGator Brasil)
|'''Expense'''
| – $27.10 USD ($153.42 BRL)
|—
</noinclude>
|}<noinclude><small>Rows dated before 20 September 2022 (when the bank account was opened) show a dash in the Balance column: there was no bank account yet, and those donations and expenses went through other channels. From the account's opening onwards every row is an actual account movement, and the Balance column is the running account balance right after that movement, so every amount added or subtracted above also moves the balance below it. Donations are recorded as they landed in the account, net of fees and taxes, including amounts routed through PayPal, Stripe and Patreon payouts. Funds moved into fixed income investments leave the account balance but remain with ProleWiki.</small></noinclude>

ProleWiki:Main page

2026-09-18T12:57:13Z

CriticalResist:

__NOTOC__
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<div class="frame-container col-12 header-part">Welcome to<span class="header-pics">[[File:Prolewiki logo forward.png|x65px|frameless]]<span class="homepage-logo">[[File:Wordmark.svg|x65px|frameless]]</span></span>The proletarian encyclopedia</div>
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Slavery in the United States

2026-09-16T19:14:49Z

CriticalResist: demonym

[[File:Washington and enslaved Africans.png|thumb|335x335px|Painting of George Washington and enslaved Africans on his estate.]]'''Slavery in the United States''' largely took the form of [[chattel slavery]], which was inherited from its colonial predecessor. The practice was prevalent in the [[United States of America|United States]] from its independence in 1776 until the end of the [[Civil war|Civil War]] in 1865. Primarily employed in the South, enslaved [[Afro-Americans]] were the backbone of the [[plantation economy]] in the US. Throughout this period, enslaved African Americans were collectively reduced to commodities which could be bought and sold for the benefit of White slave owners and had the same legal rights as farm animals.<ref>[https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/national-expansion-and-reform-1815-1880/pre-civil-war-african-american-slavery/ Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery]</ref><ref>[https://njsbf.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Theme-One-Background-Info-1.pdf What is Chattel Slavery and how did it dehumanize Black People?]</ref><ref>{{Citation|author=Robert E. Shalhope|year=1971|title=Race, Class, Slavery, and the Antebellum Southern Mind|title-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2206546|publisher=Southern Historical Association}}</ref> After the abolition of chattel slavery in the aftermath of the [[Statesian Civil War]] and [[Reconstruction era|Reconstruction]], many of chattel slavery's socioeconomic relationships endured through the developments of the [[Jim Crow economy]] and sharecropping.<ref>[https://eji.org/news/history-racial-injustice-sharecropping/ Sharecropping]</ref><ref>[https://wfpc.sanford.duke.edu/north-carolina/durham-food-history/sharecropping-black-land-acquisition-and-white-supremacy-1868-1900/ Sharecropping, Black Land Acquisition, and White Supremacy]</ref><ref>{{Citation|author=Ralph Shlomowitz|year=1979|title=The Origins of Southern Sharecropping|title-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3742755|publisher=Duke University Press}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|author=Wesley Allen Riddle|year=1995-96|title=The Origins of Black Sharecropping|title-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26475959|publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press}}</ref>

Prior to the formation of the United States the region had already developed and institutionalized a strict racial caste network built on White racial supremacy over African people. After the independence of the thirteen colonies, abolitionist legislation was gradually implemented in northern states where dependence on slave labor was minimal. As abolitionist movements arose in the aftermath of the Statesian Revolution, supporters of slavery were granted concessions through the three-fifths compromise; a constitutional clause which made southern political power disproportionate in the US House of Representatives and Electoral College by counting African-Americans as 3/5ths of a person on the US Census.<ref>[https://perspectivesofchange.hms.harvard.edu/node/87#:~:text=The%20Three%2DFifths%20Compromise%20was,for%20legislative%20representation%20and%20taxation. The Three-Fifths Compromise]</ref><ref>[https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=163 The Three Fifths Compromise]</ref><ref>[https://www.thoughtco.com/three-fifths-compromise-4588466 The History of the Three Fifths Compromise]</ref> Despite the Jefferson administration's ban on the importation of slaves, it's enforcement was sporadic and ineffective and smuggling was common practice.<ref>[https://www.perlego.com/book/919800/opposing-the-slavers-the-royal-navys-campaign-against-the-atlantic-slave-trade-pdf Opposing the Slavers: The Royal Navy's Campaign Against the Atlantic Slave Trade]</ref>

Contrary to a commonly held belief of the time that the peculiar institution would die down, the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney and the subsequent mechanization of the seed separation process led to the dramatic rise in the cotton productivity and demand for slaves. As a result of this new growing labor demand, enslaved Africans were often sold and transported from the Upper South to Deep South plantations. Coinciding with US territorial expansion, planter elites made efforts to expand slavery into new territories, resulting in the formation of the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] in 1854. Tensions between the north and south continued as the Republicans gradually obtained political power in northern states and pushed for limiting slavery's expansion while the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] and its [[Southern Aristocracy]] supporters saw the Republicans as a threat to chattel slavery. In the midst of developing tensions between the two camps, religious denominations split over the issue of slavery into regional organizations of the North and South.

The elevation of [[Abraham Lincoln]] into the Presidency in 1860 on the platform of halting the expansion of slavery was the catalyst for the development of the [[Confederate States of America (1861–1865)|Confederate States of America]], starting with the succession of [[South Carolina]] which broke off from the Union before Lincoln's confirmation. At the inception of the Confederacy, 1/3rd of its inhabitants were enslaved Africans<ref name=":0">{{Citation|author=Harry L. Watson|year=1985|title=Conflict and Collaboration: Yeomen, Slaveholders, and Politics in the Antebellum South|title-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4285456|publisher=Taylor & Francis, Ltd}}</ref> and the states of [[Mississippi]] and South Carolina held a solid Afro-American majority.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=United States Census Bureau|title=1860 Census: Population of the United States|url=https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1864/dec/1860a.html}}</ref><ref>[https://raogk.org/census-records/1860-census/ 1860 Census: Population of the United States]</ref> In response to the siege of Fort Sumter by South Carolina militias, the Lincoln Administration called for a seventy-five thousand man militia to suppress the Confederate States. Wartime developments like the Emancipation Proclamation gradually ended chattel slavery in most of the south.<ref>{{Citation|author=Henry Epps|year=2012|title=A Concise Chronicle History of the African-American People Experience in America|title-url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Concise_Chronicle_History_of_the_Afric/qUTrAwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Those+20,000+slaves+were+freed+immediately+by+the+Emancipation+Proclamation.&pg=PA109&printsec=frontcover|publisher=Lulu.com}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=visitthecapitol.gov|title=President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, freed all slaves in Confederate-controlled territory|url=https://www.visitthecapitol.gov/artifact/president-lincolns-emancipation-proclamation-january-1-1863-freed-all-slaves-confederate}}</ref> Chattel slavery would persist in Kentucky until December 1865 as a result of the ratification of the 13th amendment<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Equal Justice Initiative|title=Kentucky Refuses to Ratify Abolition of Slavery|url=https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/feb/24#:~:text=On%20February%2024%2C%201865%2C%20the,except%20as%20punishment%20for%20crime.|quote=Kentucky legislators continued to oppose all efforts to abolish slavery in the coming years, and on February 24, 1865, the Kentucky General Assembly rejected the Thirteenth Amendment. Prominent politicians and other public figures harshly criticized President Lincoln and members of Congress, and the Kentucky legislature expressed their disapproval of the amendment's adoption by politically siding with the former Confederacy throughout the post-Civil War era. Kentucky did not officially adopt the Thirteenth Amendment until 1976.}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|author=Karen Nikos-Rose|newspaper=UCDAVIS|title=Juneteenth Marks End of a Sustained Slavery That Lasted Beyond Emancipation Proclamation|date=2020-07-19|url=https://www.ucdavis.edu/curiosity/news/juneteenth-marks-end-sustained-slavery-lasted-beyond-emancipation-proclamation#:~:text=Downs%20agreed.,of%20which%20came%20months%20later.%E2%80%9D|quote=Downs agreed. “In fact,” he added, “slavery did not end in Kentucky and Delaware until December 1865 when enough states ratified the 13th Amendment. Thus the day of June 19, 1865, was an important day in the end of slavery, but in a spectrum of other important days, some of which came months later.”}}</ref>, which despite abolishing chattel slavery in the US it also served as a legal pretext to forced labor in prisons.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Constitution Annotated|title=Thirteenth Amendment|url=https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-13/|quote=Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|author=Jaron Browne|year=2007|title=Rooted in Slavery: Prison Labor Exploitation|title-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41555136|publisher=Reimagine!}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|author=Kim Gilmore|year=2000|title=Slavery and Prison — Understanding the Connections|title-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29767242|publisher=Social Justice/Global Options}}</ref>

== Modern Slavery ==
Today, it is estimated that 800,000 imprisoned Statesians produce slightly over $2 billion of goods and services annually. If maintenance of their own prisons is included, the figure skyrockets to $9 billion. In seven states, all formerly part of the Confederate States of America, prisoners are paid nothing for their labor, amounting to a direct continuation of slave labor. In the remaining states with prison labor, inmates are paid as low as several pennies per hour of work. In one case, an inmate made $450 for an entire year's worth of work. These pay rates are so middling that they make it nearly impossible to build up savings or to pay off financial court sentences, and are in essence a form of wage slavery that is nearly indistinguishable from uncompensated slave labor.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Dani Anguiano|newspaper=The Guardian|title=US prison workers produce $11bn worth of goods and services a year for pittance|date=2022-06-15|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/15/us-prison-workers-low-wages-exploited|retrieved=2026-09-16}}</ref>

UNICOR, a government-owned corporation that operates in over half of US states and whose earnings are generated solely through prison labor, generates close to $500 million of revenue every year. 50% of that revenue is via the [[United States Department of Defense|US Department of Defense]]. As of 2012, UNICOR is also permitted to sell its products to private companies.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Federal Bureau of Prisons|title=Program Details|url=https://www.bop.gov/inmates/custody_and_care/unicor_about.jsp|quote=2026-09-16}}</ref> UNICOR is a mandatory source for federal agencies, meaning UNICOR gets priority when an agency requires a specific product or service.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Whizy Kim|newspaper=Refinery29|title=White Supremacists Attacked The Capitol. Now, Prison Labor Will Clean Up The Mess|date=2021-01-08|url=https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2021/01/10255564/prison-labor-furniture-capitol-attack|retrieved=2026-09-16}}</ref>
== Justification of Slavery ==
[[Peasantry|Yeoman farmers]], who typically did not own slave labor, made up the majority of whites in southern society. They generally believed in and sided with the institution of slavery but also occasionally challenged the goals of the planter elite; especially on the western frontier of the U.S where they advocated for the gradual abolition of slavery. In efforts to justify the existence of the peculiar institution, southern aristocrats often sponsored white supremacist campaigns in both media and academia. With the three-fifths compromise, giving elite whites political power in congress, white elite planters also consolidated power, by making loans to those in need, hiring poor whites for work, as well as using resources to transport crops of yeoman farmers to the market. Even if some yeoman farmers didn't participate in the institution of slavery, they had major incentives not to end it because white settler colonial elites had made white society dependent upon themselves. White settler-colonialism, and its justification for the institution for slavery, was a political and economic move, to coerce, and influence those in slavery, and those who didn't contribute to slavery as much as actual slave owners, to disprove the evils, and horrors of slavery and to justify its evil to end it. The white settler elite created the idea of white supremacy to uphold white society together under elitist control. The idea that all whites were equal and superior towards black African slaves, was not in question due to the lower, and poor white farmers, who either did or did not support the idea of white supremacy, not having any benefits to opposing the idea of it, since the elite white farmers did in fact keep the yeoman poor farmers alive, and sustainable.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Citation|author=David Brown|year=2013|title=A Vagabond's Tale: Poor Whites, Herrenvolk Democracy, and the Value of Whiteness in the Late Antebellum South|title-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23799245|publisher=Southern Historical Association}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|author=Eugene D. Genovese|year=1975|title=Yeomen Farmers in a Slaveholders' Democracy|title-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3741274|publisher=Duke University Press}}</ref> Two justifying phrases include those that explain slavery, as a <nowiki>''</nowiki>necessary evil<nowiki>''</nowiki> or a <nowiki>''</nowiki>positive good<nowiki>''</nowiki>. [[John C. Calhoun]] noted that:<blockquote><nowiki>''</nowiki>I hold that in the present state of civilization, where two races of different origin, and distinguished by color, and other physical differences, as well as intellectual, are brought together, the relation now existing in the slaveholding States between the two, is, instead of an evil, a good - positive good... There never has yet existed a wealthy and civilized society in which one portion of the community did not, in point of fact, live on the labor of the other. Broad and general as is this assertion, it is fully borne out by history... I fearlessly assert that the existing relation between the two races in the South, against which these blind fanatics are waging war, forms the most solid and durable foundation on which to rear free and stable political institutions.<nowiki>''</nowiki></blockquote>Explaining the <nowiki>''inherent'', and ''moral'', as well as, ''necessary''</nowiki>, domination of the white race over the black, race bound southern society together. The planter elite and forged a unbreakable tie with the lower white classes and established a stronghold on southern culture.

== References ==
[[Category:Slavery]] [[Category:United States of America]]

Authoritarian capitalism

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'''"Authoritarian capitalism"''' is a quasi-[[Liberalism|liberal]] and [[Idealism|idealist]] term to defend [[capitalism]]. Much like the concept of [[Authoritarianism|"authoritarianism"]], it is used as a pretext to defend capitalism as a [[Democracy|democratic]] system and a better alternative to socialism.

So, according to the liberal definition, authoritarian capitalism translates to [[fascism]]. However, as under capitalism, a small minority controls the wealth and has concentrated the political power into its hands, capitalism in inherently "authoritarian" and represses the [[Proletariat|working class]].
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Category:History of socialist countries (Library)

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Essay:DefaultSociety

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Essay:TheToolsetOfReality

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Essay:DefaultSociety

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{{infobox essay|title=DefaultSociety|author=Yogthos|date=2026-08-10|excerpt=You look at a picture of a busy street in a strange country, and your glance travels from person to person. It notices their dress, the surrounding architecture, the poses they assume. And you might ask yourself if you could live in this place. This is a natural, basic reflex we all have. Each of us has conceived some particular kind of life as worthy of desire, and this conception has been moulded by the customs and traditions of our youth. We take our individual conceptions and transfer them upon those who live by other standards and have different ideals from our own. We imagine that they must be unhappy because they lack the comforts and conveniences which we have come to regard as necessities, or that they cannot be free because their daily life is not governed by the same social understandings and traditions as where we happen to live. But in this moment of judgment, few people are reflective. They do not turn the question back upon themselves and inquire what is the source of their own moral and aesthetic standards.

To understand what is really happening, it is necessary to strip away all ornament and look at the facts of human life without any preconceptions. Every civilization begins with the basic fact that we are animals living on a rock in space, with certain needs which are very much the same in all times and places. A certain amount of food is required for our bodies to work properly, and this is measured in terms of calories and protein. We need shelter from the weather so as not to die of cold at night. We need physical and psychological safety as we go about our lives. Above all, we need some means of production so that we can meet our fundamental needs. A society must produce food and goods that its citizens need, which, in turn, require agriculture, manufacture, mining, and all the other industries our modern world depends on. This is the material basis upon which everything else is built up. It must be secured first because nothing else can exist without it. Everything else, such as our laws, our art, and our religion, is an ornament which we have built upon this foundation.}}

= The Myth of the Default Society =

=== How Material Conditions Engineer the Human Mind ===
You look at a picture of a busy street in a strange country, and your glance travels from person to person. It notices their dress, the surrounding architecture, the poses they assume. And you might ask yourself if you could live in this place. This is a natural, basic reflex we all have. Each of us has conceived some particular kind of life as worthy of desire, and this conception has been moulded by the customs and traditions of our youth. We take our individual conceptions and transfer them upon those who live by other standards and have different ideals from our own. We imagine that they must be unhappy because they lack the comforts and conveniences which we have come to regard as necessities, or that they cannot be free because their daily life is not governed by the same social understandings and traditions as where we happen to live. But in this moment of judgment, few people are reflective. They do not turn the question back upon themselves and inquire what is the source of their own moral and aesthetic standards.

To understand what is really happening, it is necessary to strip away all ornament and look at the facts of human life without any preconceptions. Every civilization begins with the basic fact that we are animals living on a rock in space, with certain needs which are very much the same in all times and places. A certain amount of food is required for our bodies to work properly, and this is measured in terms of calories and protein. We need shelter from the weather so as not to die of cold at night. We need physical and psychological safety as we go about our lives. Above all, we need some means of production so that we can meet our fundamental needs. A society must produce food and goods that its citizens need, which, in turn, require agriculture, manufacture, mining, and all the other industries our modern world depends on. This is the material basis upon which everything else is built up. It must be secured first because nothing else can exist without it. Everything else, such as our laws, our art, and our religion, is an ornament which we have built upon this foundation.

=== How Economic Systems Shape Cultural Values ===
Each type of society represents a different solution to the same underlying problem of securing a comfortable life for the individual by means of co-operation, and any society that is unable to meet this challenge is doomed to fail. The way in which a community organizes its productive forces and distributes its collective goods stems from its material conditions, and forms the basis for its core social structure. An agrarian population living on seasonal crops and mutual aid will construct a different social contract from that of a hyper-financialized urban service economy. Therefore, the day-to-day work of keeping alive within a particular set of circumstances becomes the arbiter of culture.

Each type of economic system must, then, produce a different set of cultural values, since the method of daily life shapes the outlook and ideals of a community. If you take an economic system such as that of the DPRK, where labour is organized in publicly owned industrial concerns and agricultural co-operatives, the material basis of society is social ownership of the means of production, which dictates the psychological gravity of the culture. A citizen of a capitalist society looking in may think people have no incentive in the absence of an individual profit motive. And in doing so, they’d be projecting their own conditioning onto a foreign system because their worldview cannot separate labor from the threat of personal financial ruin. But, in truth, the basic desire for construction, for overcoming difficulties, and for personal achievement exists under any socioeconomic system. The element of competition does not disappear under socialist organization. It merely takes a different form because such a society provides different outlets from our own. It manifests through co-operatives competing with each other for the biggest yield and state design bureaus vying to produce the best tractor. The essential difference is that it operates as a positive-sum game since the economic structure is collectively owned. The purpose is different because victory means social improvement rather than mere individual gain. When one design bureau has a success, it does not keep its methods secret, nor does it wish ruin upon other design bureaus. New techniques are shared so that competition serves as a test of methods under pressure, with the best methods becoming integrated across the entire system. The success of one unit means strength for the whole system and an increase in the general level of efficiency. A culture formed in such an environment will inevitably take an outlook in which individual progress is bound up with that of the whole nation. In such a culture, solidarity and collective duty are elevated to virtues.

Now, let us look back at the society built on the idea of private ownership. The capitalist system demands atomization and generates cut-throat competition where the object is market dominance rather than human progress, and every success must come at somebody else’s expense. If a company invents a new method, its first job is to hide the details and get a patent to prevent others from using it. Its whole existence depends upon being the only possessor of a given secret because that alone gives it power to fix prices. Consequently, you have a situation where many companies burn massive amounts of human labor and resources in secrecy, endlessly reinventing the wheel because sharing knowledge would destroy their profit margins. In such a system, enormous waste is camouflaged as innovation while being praised on the grounds that it rewards initiative. And the culture that forms around it is one of paranoia, rugged self-reliance, and ruthless personal ambition. Thus, the economic engine shapes the moral framework that determines what a particular community regards as a virtue. Our values are a product of our material conditions. They are forged by the mechanics of who owns what and how the labor is organized.

The economic organization of a community thus actively creates the very desires which it proceeds to satisfy. Our conception of happiness is formed by the social norms and institutions around us. A person growing up in a liberal society is inclined towards an individualist view, seeing themselves as something separate from and pitted against the whole. Yet, someone who grew up in a socialist system would have different metrics for success that do not look like a suburban house and a bloated stock portfolio. After all, being social animals means that we are wired to find fulfillment in how effectively we integrate into the rest of our social group, leading us to adopt a world view compatible with others around us. Social training not only affects the form of our desires but also determines the limits of our imagination.

We are naturally social beings and must, therefore, have friends, family, and community, lest we wither from spiritual starvation. Our non-negotiable psychological needs are just as rigid as our need for physical safety and shelter. But how a society satisfies these mental needs is as wildly varied as global cuisine. While you must eat a certain amount of calories to live, a dish of noodles in Pyongyang answers the same biological purpose as a hamburger in San Antonio. The mental need for belonging is much the same thing. The need for human companionship is basic and overmastering, but the particular ways in which your companionships take shape are of the most diverse kinds. The particular forms of expressing loyalty and the boundaries of your friendships are largely authored by the specific culture you inhabit.

=== The Social Scaffolding of the Mind ===
So, then, if social structures are a result of the way our society is organized upon the material base, and our worldview is, in turn, a product of economic relations, how then do these economic necessities get wired into our psychology? French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, who spent his career studying how social structures get inside us, coined the term habitus to describe the hidden scaffolding in our heads. It represents a durable set of views and dispositions that shape the way we perceive the world, and it is something people rarely choose for themselves. We tend to absorb our understanding of reality by osmosis through countless microscopic interactions from the moment we are born. Kids see which child gets a smile and who gets ignored. They learn what actions lead to respect, such as doing well at school or sport, and what causes rejection, like dressing the wrong way. Upbringing, therefore, ends up sculpting expectations in our adult life, providing a standard by which ordinary things are judged, and from which ordinary desires and aspirations spring. Your conception of a good life grows out of the social structure in which you were born, a particular scaffolding of family, class, and culture that made you who you are. Schools, media, and everyday norms convince you that the social arrangement you live in is natural and inevitable which is what Gramsci referred to as cultural hegemony, the idea that a ruling class makes its worldview feel like common sense. Our understanding of the world is, thus, built upon a whole scaffolding of expectations, tastes, and gut feelings we absorb from our surroundings.

Beliefs accrete piecemeal over many years and, much like the deposits of epochs in a rock formation, form an increasingly rigid system. Every fresh belief that a person acquires must somehow be fitted with the existing mass of beliefs so that it does not cause any serious upheaval. When a new idea contradicts the existing foundation, it is typically rejected. This is a perfectly rational attitude since we cannot restructure our entire mental edifice each time we run across some new fact. And so, the longer we live, the more entrenched and impervious our ideological foundation becomes since new ideas have ever more existing ones to contend with. Each additional year makes our subconscious more resistant to any opposing force. Over time, the edifice becomes so solidified that its structure begins to pass as truth itself. The rules of one’s own society are repeated in daily rituals and become so deeply ingrained that we start to forget they are mere human conventions.

The orthodoxy of our beliefs is imbibed from relatives and acquaintances before we even begin to think. If you were educated in a Western liberal democracy, your individualism has been ingrained almost from infancy by the pervasive cultural atmosphere you were immersed in. You have learned, as soon as you could understand anything, that you are the hero of your own drama and that your wants and desires are what really matter. You have internalized a conception of freedom in which marking a ballot every few years is held to embody political liberty to the exclusion of more direct forms of collective action and social power. The elementary logic of capitalist relations was taught to you at the dinner table and through the media before you even mastered long division. The principles of private property, wage-earning, and economic competition have been presented to you not as a particular form of social organization but as a natural law. In all probability, you have accepted them uncritically, having had no alternative outlook to use as a point of reference.

Hence, people tend to suffer from a spectacular failure of imagination, seeing other cultures through the distorting medium of their preconceptions. Someone who grew up in the West might only see a tyranny when looking at a culture which has strong communal bonds and tight family obligations, viewing them as suffocating restrictions at odds with the individual liberty they hold so dear. One might not even feel the need to argue this point because the answer feels instinctive and self-evident. A person asks themselves whether they could be happy in such a culture, and their prior conditioning says they would not. But in doing so, they fail to notice that their answer is dictated by a set of social norms they’ve grown accustomed to, having been taught that individual initiative and personal success are supreme virtues. Therefore, a culture dominated by different values such as social duty and family responsibilities, being at odds with their innermost convictions, feels wrong and oppressive.

Such a view results from a lack of perspective, since it fails to account for the fact that people living within each system are organized by their culture and institutions, each producing a different view of the world. To people living in a collectivist system, an individualist and competitive society may seem a dreary social desert and a monument to loneliness. They may honestly ask how you manage to exist in such isolation, living in a culture which invariably prioritizes individual success over community health. Both perspectives spring from reactions that are products of the compromises within each respective system, because every social structure solves one set of problems at the expense of creating another. A judgment of another society based on that which is familiar in our own will necessarily be incoherent because it will employ quite irrelevant criteria.

=== The Pragmatism of Conformity ===
Of course, no society is monolithic in nature, and while the machinery of socialization is extraordinarily efficient in producing uniformity of opinion, it can never be perfectly efficient. There are always individuals who, for one reason or another, do not fully endorse the orthodoxy of their time and place. Yet, the mainstream prevails for a reason. Society, by means of social censure, economic pressure, and legal pressure, compels the majority of the people to conform to an agreed-upon set of rules. The whole system depends upon a very important condition, however, which is that society should be able to provide the bare necessities of life for the critical mass of the population. When the social basis affords security and stability through adequate housing, sufficient nourishment, and necessary social relations to stay sane, the human mind can adapt to almost any ideological programming. Most humans are fundamentally pragmatic creatures and take the line of least resistance.

As long as conformity affords a secure basis for some measure of comfort and security, there is no impetus to question the status quo because having views at variance with orthodox opinion makes one an outcast. There is a certain psychological tax to having views that differ from the common sense of those around us. The possibility of casual conversation becomes diminished because you find yourself talking past each other when you converse with others. Every mundane social interaction becomes a puzzle requiring you to use a mental filter, being careful about what you say. Whenever a political question arises, your subconscious process must engage in internal censorship to carefully measure out how much of your actual perspective you can safely share before the room turns on you. As a rule, people do not enjoy being told that their life goals are artificial, or that their moral high ground is just a byproduct of their local economic engine. Thus, having a different outlook from those around you becomes an exceedingly uncomfortable existence, making one feel like a perpetual outsider trying to blend in. Unless you learn to put a mask on, you risk becoming someone to be avoided and excluded from social interactions.

There is enormous evolutionary pressure to conform because, throughout much of human history, to be cast out by one’s own tribe meant a rapid and violent death. One was helpless against wild beasts or starvation, and so human cognitive faculties are adapted to the need for cooperation. Survival meant tribal solidarity, common food, common shelter, and common defense. So the natural selection within any social environment heavily favors people who go along with the program since such people are the ones who are more likely to grow up and leave offspring. The logic of the thing is quite obvious. By adopting the accepted beliefs of the community, an individual protects their social status and ensures themselves of continued food, water, and freedom from persecution. On the contrary, by challenging fundamental beliefs one exposes themselves to the heaviest penalties, endangering not only their own welfare but also that of their family. And so, it should be no surprise that, in most cases, the unconscious is satisfied with a comfortable path of least social friction, believing whatever will allow one to live comfortably within their community.

People will continue to defend their system with passion, taking ridiculous pride in its most absurd manifestations, even long after their society stops being able to meet the needs of its citizens. The superstructure of ideology is safeguarded by the instinct of habit, for our brains are prediction engines that construct hypotheses about the world, allowing us to go about our daily business in order to meet our needs. And so, we crave security and predictability as much as oxygen in our lungs. You may find your job loathsome and wake up every morning dreading the tedious journey to work where an officious superior makes you feel small. But if you know exactly what drudgery is expected of you and get a wage sufficient to pay your bills, you stay put. The daily unhappiness is a known quantity, a familiar strain which you have learned to bear. To leave means to enter into the world of the unknown. It is to forego the power of knowing what the next day may bring, and to run the risk of making your situation still worse. So, one grows accustomed to a routine and learns to live with the humiliations of one’s position. Certain colleagues may be avoided, or one may simply cease to notice their daily abuses. Add dependents to this situation and the trap is made doubly sure. With children to be supported on your salary, to take a chance on an unknown future seems a massive failure in parental duty. Change means to forego the illusion of power, and to face the unexpected and the uncertain head-on.

=== Systemic Failure and the Breaking Point of Ideology ===
A similar dynamic plays out at a broader societal scale, which is why most people choose to confine themselves to the daily routines and swallow most humiliations as long as they can have stability in return. They invent psychological and moral subtleties to make injustice appear natural and the status quo desirable. They do this for the sake of their own peace of mind and that of their families. But there is a limit to such silent submission. There comes a breaking point where material facts override the official view of how the social system works. At such moments the discrepancy between theory and practice becomes intolerable because the ideological narrative becomes completely unmoored from physical reality.

That the ideas in people’s heads eventually have to square with the reality of their daily lives is the essence of materialist dialectic. People have a natural tendency to believe that they live in a fair society where hard work leads to prosperity, seeing their own society as a natural default for reasons we’ve just discussed. This belief can be internalized, used in judging one’s fellow citizens, made the basis of social policy, and set as the criterion of achievement in general. It can even be maintained long after the fundamentals of a social order start to break down due to factors such as technical progress or change in the climate. In such situations, the working majority might find themselves unable to afford the necessities of life. Then the good story rubs against the facts. The friction between the ideology and the material world becomes violently untenable. These kinds of disruptions act as selection pressures that force societies to adapt or perish.

When a system fails to give basic stability and opportunity for individual development, confidence is sapped little by little. People quietly drop out of the economic and social mainstream, becoming deeply disillusioned with the core beliefs of their society. They play by the rules, try to hold down jobs, avoid debt, and save for old age. Yet they find it more and more difficult to buy groceries every week and pay their rent each month. The myth of failure, which personalizes disaster as the result of laziness or vice, ceases to be plausible when you see yourself work hard, yet barely make ends meet. A disillusionment with the system gradually replaces the former confidence, and a hole opens up in the framework of accepted beliefs. When it has thus been learned that the dominant ideology is a myth that no longer squares with your lived experience, the way opens up to a consideration of other views and different philosophies of existence which might better serve as working hypotheses to illuminate the miserable conditions you are actually experiencing. You find yourself increasingly willing to entertain ideas that you would have readily dismissed at a different time.

Of course, these sorts of transformations don’t happen overnight. It is a dialectical process where the quantity of hardships steadily accumulates, eventually marking a change in the quality of the whole nation. For years the breakdown remains hidden as one individual drops out here and another there, and their misfortunes are attributed to some personal causes. But should economic pressure continue to widen the circle of insecurity, then more and more people are driven to the wall, and their numbers grow imperceptibly until at last the whole system has reached a critical state. And suddenly the collective faith is shattered along with the social cohesion which it ensured.

Social failure of this kind can be observed firsthand in many Western countries today. The historic levels of political polarization tearing these societies apart aren’t happening because people have suddenly forgotten how to live together. They are a direct result of a large segment of the population experiencing conditions which it cannot endure. Holding down a job no longer saves people from suffering when having a job does not guarantee a home or basic safety. And while the personal cost of dissent may be high, the cost of starvation is yet higher.

And so, it is only when the dominant worldview starts to actively contradict the daily material experience of the masses that the calculus of conformity begins to flip. When it ceases to be true that by repeating the official dogmas a man can obtain food, shelter, and security, the existing social contract collapses and conventional beliefs cease to be a satisfactory way of life. The fear of being ostracized evaporates since there is no more social status or physical comfort to be gained from trying to fit in. And thus the views that have been rejected as heretical become practical. Those who were once marginalized for holding them become the focus and leaders of a new movement based upon observable fact instead of crumbling dogma.

=== Beyond the Regional Custom ===
We tend to take our current social arrangement for granted, but most objects of our daily desires do not constitute necessities of human nature. Goals such as having a well-situated job or living in a posh neighborhood are products of a certain time and place. They are not universal values, but rather outcomes of the present economic and social arrangements, which are a local ordinance arrived at step by step to meet the problem of keeping large populations alive and working together. Of course, the knowledge that your desires are contingent does not make them disappear. They remain as strong as ever, but their tyranny is mitigated by the knowledge that they are not universal and that other equally good desires are possible. You will be able to imagine a different life from your own in another age or country. You will no longer take your own way of living for the model to which all others should conform, but will regard other societies as equally wise as your own in finding ways of solving the problems of human existence.

Our present social organization is not the pinnacle of human evolution. It is only one out of many possible arrangements of resources and division of labour for satisfying the basic needs of food, shelter, and security. These needs are always essential to any group of human beings, and one particular arrangement by which they are achieved is not naturally better or more important than any other. Consequently, judgment of another community based primarily on its resemblance to or difference from one’s own becomes an inane preoccupation. It is a mirroring of oneself by which you grade the reflection you obtain rather than the answers to common human needs achieved by different means.

To judge whether a social system is sound, one must put aside the ideological scorecard and look at plain facts. Look at the results as shown in statistics of diet and housing. Look at the way in which the productive forces are made to serve the basic physical and mental needs of the population. Look at the degree of trustworthiness and helpfulness towards each other displayed by the members of the society, as opposed to their disposition to prey upon each other or to become demoralized through lack of social cohesion. These are practical working metrics we can use to judge the health of a society. Everything else, including political names and cultural traditions, is merely a regional custom. Humanity has created countless different types of societies throughout history, all based upon the same human nature but differing widely from each other. Our present mechanism, with its special institutions, is what happens to exist at the moment, not an immutable necessity or an ideal towards which other societies must be tending.
[[Category:Essays]]
[[Category:Essays by yogthos]]

Essay:ProleWiki ultimate emulation guide

2026-08-10T16:38:48Z

CriticalResist:

{{Infobox essay|title=ProleWiki ultimate emulation guide|author=Open source|date=2026-08-10|excerpt=The ultimate guide to emulating consoles and games on your devices, updated often. No-fuss, no bs, straight to the point. How to start emulating consoles, how to get games on the internet, how to flash your consoles, etc.}}

This guide aims to be an ultimate emulation guide, as ultimate as one can be anyway.

"But why does a communist wiki need an emulation guide?", one might ask. Well, we believe that piracy is not a dirty word. Piracy -- and emulation -- is sometimes the only way to still access rare media whose "legal owners" are not interested in reprinting for fans and consumers. Games such as Kuon, or the Gregory Horror Show (both on PS2) are extremely rare discs nowadays to even ''find'' on the market. To still be accessible, they need to be pirated in the first place. Not only that, but live services can and will remove your access to games and movies whenever they want. Amazon Prime is famous for removing shows that don't perform "well enough". In this case, piracy is the only way paying customers can still access the shows they wanted when they decided to pay for the service!

Moreover, we hold that there is nothing wrong with piracy in the first place: that it will not hurt Sega or Capcom's bottom line, and that if they don't make their games available then they are not losing out on money since they are not providing the service in the first place. Copyright is a capitalist invention; plenty of stories (many of which we grew up with and remember fondly) existed before capitalism was ever a thing, becoming 'folk' stories because it became impossible to ascertain their origin. These stories were then copyrighted by corporations who now effectively own stories that come from our collective history.

This guide will take you through the full steps, from start to finish, aimed at '''people who have never emulated games before'''. If that's you (or even if you know how to emulate, you might learn something), then you came to the right guide!

'''One note about links (important):''' while external links were vetted at the time of their addition into the guide, we can't guarantee that by the time you read this guide they will still point to the same websites. This happens a lot in the emulation scene, websites don't get renewed and someone else buys the domain and starts putting ads on it. Exercise critical thinking. ProleWiki is not responsible for the content appearing on other websites.

== First things first: the process of emulating a game ==
Before we get into the details, let's recap the process of emulating a game. This will be the process we cover throughout the guide, so it's a good mental model to follow along with.

# Install an emulator on your device. "Device" is very wide: a PC desktop, an Android phone, or even a raspberry Pi.
# Find and download games for the emulator.
# Transfer the game onto the same device as the emulator.
# Open the emulator, play the game.

These are 4 easy steps on the surface, but the implementation of how you go through each has some best practices we will go through in this guide.

== List of emulators and where to get them ==
''We are in the process of completing this section with pictures and more in-depth instructions.''
[[File:Emulation guide library view example.png|thumb|Example of a 'library view' in Daijisho, an emulation launcher]]
Emulators play the game, but sometimes can also do more than just that. We will quickly go through the extras so you know what to expect later in the guide:

* '''BIOS requirements''': some emulators require BIOS files from the console to even work. We go through how to acquire these, don't worry. Sometimes, there are also '''firmware''' or '''key files''', on more recent consoles, that you need to install. This is usually done just once, either by putting the files in the correct directory, or installing the firmware through the emulator's interface. After that, it works.
* '''Library view''': emulators now offer a library scroll of your games, which is relatively recent. They can also automatically '''scrape''' box art to give your games a unique look (see pic).
* '''Directories''': most emulators can change the directories they look into for games, bios files, where they save games and states, etc. If you want to organize your rom collection, it pays to set up custom paths instead of the default ones. It will also tell you where you need to put the BIOS files and games you will be downloading, just look in most emulators' Options or Preferences menus.

There are many, many consoles that were put on the market and that can now be emulated. Some of them have more than one emulator, all with slightly different performances.

Not to get too technical, but emulators work through a ''translation layer.'' What they do is transform the code on the disk or cartridge in a way that a modern computer can understand, on the fly. For this reason, not all emulators are equal - but, for most intents and purposes (just playing games from your childhood), most will be fine.

'''Can phones run emulators?''' Yes, absolutely. In fact, top-of-the-line phones that came out after 2022, with a Snapdragon 888 CPU and an Adreno 660 or higher GPU can even play ''some'' Switch games, even up to 2026. Some will crash, but the lighter ones will work. This is, in our opinion, the preferred method over buying an expensive yet lower-spec retro gaming console, such as the Odin, Powkiddy, or Anbernic consoles. While these consoles work, if space on your phone is not a concern, you will get much better compatibility with consoles on a modern phone that you already own.

On phones, emulators come with a virtual gamepad on the touchscreen. You can connect a bluetooth controller of your choice to use a controller instead.

'''Can the Steam Deck run emulators?''' Yes, and the specs are higher than your phone. You can use any of the emulators below: the Steam Deck is just a Linux computer. Go into desktop mode and open the Discover store, and find the emulators listed below.

'''Can I stream games if my portable device can't play them'''? Yes again. Moonlight and Sunshine can stream games from your computer - this guide will ''eventually'' cover them (your desktop runs Sunshine, your device runs Moonshine to receive the stream).

It is also possible to emulate games on a Steam Deck (since a Steam Deck is just a Linux computer), which should even be able to run any Switch games with its specs.

=== Retroarch ===

==== What is Retroarch ====
Retroarch is a unified software that offers 'cores', which are emulators, for a lot of older consoles. They go up to the Dreamcast and Gamecube generation, though they do not have a core for the PS2. If you install retroarch, which is FOSS software [Free and Open Source Software], then you will be able to install emulators into retroarch very easily from their interface. This is why it's our first choice: it saves a lot of researching and installing.

You only need one 'core' for each console, there's no need to install more than one. Just get one, try it out, and if it doesn't work properly on a game, then install another - sometimes they're quirky like that and some emulators are definitely more compatible than others.

Retroarch also saves all games in the .srm format, which allows you to copy them over to another device and open them in any other Retroarch. Useful if you want to sync your savegames across say your phone and desktop.

==== Download ====
You can download retroarch from their own website: https://www.retroarch.com/ (get the stable version). If you're on Linux, this guide assumes you already know where to get apps (from your distro's Software store or the terminal).

Since retroarch is not updating on the Google Play Store anymore (for android), I recommend installing F-Droid, which is a marketplace of only FOSS apps, and installing it from there. On phones, some emulators are actually paid (such as for the Gameboy Advance), but retroarch is completely, entirely free.

The only downside of retroarch is it doesn't have ''all'' the consoles. But, it's available on most devices, including smart TVs. You can even install retroarch - the same version as on your PC or phone - on the consoles themselves if you know how (this guide will not cover this, at least not yet). Usually this involves 'rooting' or 'flashing' the console.

==== BIOS files ====
Retroarch may need the '''BIOS''' files for some emulators; not all of them ''require'' the bios files to play games, but if your games for one console don't load and Retroarch freezes or hangs, the likely reason is that you are missing the bios files. You can get them from this GitHub repo: https://github.com/Abdess/retrobios/tree/main/bios.

To know what BIOS file you need, in Retroarch, open the details of a core you installed and it will show you what the BIOS files are called (they depend on the emulator). You will find the files you need by going into Settings -> Cores -> Manage Cores -> Click/Tap on the correct core -> Scroll down until you see a list with 'Missing, optional' or 'Missing, required'.

These are the BIOS files you require, and their associated names. Simply download the exact same files from the repo above, and put them in the bios folder for your retroarch - you will find its exact path in the settings, and can change it. Find it in Settings -> Directories -> System/BIOS. It should be, by default, '''.../RetroArch/System'''. Simply drop the BIOS files in that directory, no need to make subdirectories or anything.

For the consoles RetroArch doesn't support, read on:

=== Playstation 2 (PS2) ===
On computers, the reference for PS2 emulators is '''PCSX2'''. It has existed for decades, and has recently improved extremely well: PCSX2 now offers a "folder memory card" option, saving your save games to a folder on your computer instead of inside an 8MB memory card file (which is how the PS2 did it originally).

PCSX2 can be downloaded from here: https://pcsx2.net/downloads. If you are on Linux, just get it from the flatpak store, and don't forget to give it permissions to your filesystem so that it can read and remember your directories (save games, bios files location, etc).

==== BIOS ====
PS2 emulators need the '''BIOS''' files to play games. They are on this github repo: https://github.com/Abdess/retrobios/tree/main/bios/Sony/PlayStation%202. For PCSX2, these will work:

* PS2 Bios 30004R V6 Pal.bin
* PS2 Bios 30004R V6 Pal.MEC
* PS2 Bios 30004R V6 Pal.NVM
* rom1.bin
* scph10000.bin
* scph10000.NVM
* scph39001.bin
* scph39001.MEC
* scph39001.NVM
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.BIN
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.EROM
* CPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.mec
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.NVM
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.ROM1
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.ROM2

These will cover the Europe, USA and Japan regions, allowing you to play games from any region. On Android, the emulators are either NetherSX2, or PSX2 -> the latter has several forks existing, we recommend this one from izzy2lost: https://github.com/izzy2lost/PSX2. The bios files simply exist in its associated directory, they are not installed; don't delete them.

For games, you just put the files in a single games folder, and point PCSX2 to it. It will then find the games and display them in a library style.

==== Scrape Box Art ====
PCSX2 can '''scrape box art''' as well, but not automatically. Go into Tools -> Download cover art. In the middle of the window, paste either of those two links (only '''one''' of them):

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xlenore/ps2-covers/main/covers/default/${serial}.jpg [default, 2D, front-facing covers]

'''OR'''

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xlenore/ps2-covers/main/covers/3d/${serial}.png [cover on a 3D style box]

(the repo is here: https://github.com/xlenore/ps2-covers, if you want to confirm the links are legitimate).

Check the box for "Use game name to name the file", or whatever it's called in English, and click 'Start'.

You will need to redo this step when you add new games to PCSX2.

==== Memory card management ====
For your '''memory cards''', if PCSX2 doesn't prompt you for it at first, go into Settings -> Memory Cards. Under the empty table, click on Create, give it a name ('memcard1' or whatever you want), and select '''Directory [Recommended]'''. This is the better way of handling saves on PS2 emulators nowadays. Then, load up the card as Slot 1 - you can drag and drop it there. The saves will live inside a directory on your computer, created per game. This is better than the older method of creating an actual 8MB file that acted as a memory card, but had limited space for save games on it.

=== Playstation Portable (PSP) ===
Flashing a Playstation Portable is very easy. The most up to date custom firmware is ARK - the one that still gets updates.

There are two versions of ARK: 4 and 5. As the ARK website notes, ARK 4 is more mature and works great, but it will not be receiving updates anymore.

This guide recommends ARK 4 because it is known to work. It's always possible to upgrade to ARK 5: the ARK website contains all the information [https://www.pspunk.com/psp-cfw/ here] (scroll down and open 'Update from ARK-4'). Most up to date doesn't always mean better; If ARK 5 is buggy on your console, you will have to find out how to upgrade to a newer release of ARK 5.

==== Updating firmware ====
You will need to update your PSP to firmware 6.60 or 6.61 before flashing it. The files and instructions can be found online, we will add them soon.

==== Flashing ARK 4 ====
ARK 4 works on all PSP models, just as long as the firmware is 6.60 or 6.61.

'''To install ARK 4 for the first time:''' follow [https://www.pspunk.com/psp-ark4/ these instructions]. The steps are:

# Download the files
# Install ARK 4
# Make it permanent

In this order, without skipping ahead. Installation on the PSP is simple enough: move files on the PSP, open an app, done.

The PSP can emulate ''some'' N64/PS1 games and ''some'' early NeoGeo games. That's about as far as it goes in generations.

==== Replacing parts ====
PSPs are old consoles, but you can still get aftermarket parts. You can replace the battery with an aftermarket one found on any online website. You can also replace the charger brick just as long as it delivers the right amount of power and is compatible with your voltage. Just search for "PSP charger" on online marketplaces, there are plenty. The charger brick should say <code>INPUT: 100V-240V ~ 0.2A 50/60Hz</code> and <code>OUTPUT: 5V, 2A</code> which is universal and delivers the right amount of power to your PSP.

Finally, you can get a microSD card and an aftermarket Memory Stick Duo adapter. The adapter takes in a microSD card and clips into the PSP's memory stick slot.

==== Max memory ====
The maximum reported working size for the microSD is 128GB, and it needs to be formatted to FAT32. Some people report 256GB working, but it's hit and miss.

The FAT32 filesystem can't read files that are bigger than 4GB in size - no PSP game should be bigger than 2GB, but movies and such, if you want to move them to your console, might not be compatible if they are bigger than 4GB.

=== Nintendo DS/3DS (NDS/3DS) ===

==== Flashing a 3DS ====
We have to make an aside for the NDS/3DS. While the emulators do work properly for both (Either through RetroArch or the standalone emulators - Drastic for DS, Citra for 3DS), you will likely have a better time just flashing your 3DS console (if you have one, of course) and playing the games natively, because of the touch and dual screen features. Now that the 3DS has reached its end of life and receives no updates anymore, it is very easy to root and will not brick your console.

This is the guide to flash the 3DS: https://3ds.hacks.guide/. It's a bit long, but if you follow the instructions '''precisely''', without skipping ahead, then it will work and you will be able to install any 3DS and NDS game to your console that you download online. Flashing will not destroy anything that's already on your console, e.g. your save games or games downloaded from the nintendo store.

We cannot understate this enough: don't think you're too smart for the instructions or start skipping ahead because you get bored. Follow the instructions precisely as they are written out in the guide, one by one, in order. This is the guide everyone follows. ProleWiki did not write this guide nor is it associated with it, we just link to it.

Pro-tip for Nintendo DS games: the 3DS console can only install up to 50 nintendo DS games. If you wish to have more, use YANBF: https://github.com/YANBForwarder/YANBF. This is a program you run on your computer to convert a .nds rom to a .cia file, then install that .cia file from the rooted 3DS, as if it were a 3DS native game. This allows you to install as many NDS games as you want, bypassing the 50 limit.

The 3DS can also emulate some consoles such as the GBA and older, but this guide doesn't cover this yet. It requires a flashed 3DS either way.

=== Playstation Vita (PS Vita) ===
The reference emulator for the PS Vita is Vita3k. It is not on retroarch. Get it here: https://vita3k.org/download.

==== Licence and firmware install ====
You need to install two files into Vita3k (either prompted on first launch, or through File -> Install Firmware, and File -> Install Licence). Copied straight from the vita3k website:''<ref name=":0">https://vita3k.org/quickstart, Installing the Firmware</ref>''<blockquote>''Some games require the system modules be present for Vita3K to (low level) emulate them. This can be done by installing the PS Vita firmware through Vita3K.''

'''''The firmware can be downloaded from the official [https://www.playstation.com/en-us/support/hardware/psvita/system-software/ PlayStation website].'''''

''There's also an additional firmware package that contains the system fonts that needs to be installed. The font firmware package can be downloaded straight from the PlayStation servers. You can download it [http://dus01.psp2.update.playstation.net/update/psp2/image/2022_0209/sd_59dcf059d3328fb67be7e51f8aa33418/PSP2UPDAT.PUP?dest=us here].''

''Install '''both''' firmware packages using the <code>File > Install Firmware</code> menu option.''</blockquote>Tip: Don't open the font file link directly; instead, right click on the link and select Save as... -> it should save a .pup file. It is possible that the font file link changes randomly and the one we copied above won't work or becomes outdated, in which case open ref 1 here and check vita3k's documentation directly: ''<ref name=":0" />''

Then just install these 2 files through the menu (as outlined above), and you're done - you won't need these files anymore if you don't want to keep them.

==== Installing games ====
PS Vita games come in strange formats. Usually, it'll be either a .pkg/.bin combo, or a folder with an 'app' subfolder inside of it followed by a folder that's named like a string of characters <-- The latter are nonpdrm dumps. If you get a dump, compress its highest-level directory into a .zip archive, vita3k will know what to do with it. So it might look like this:
'''gamename.zip''' #the zip you created
└── gamename/
├── app/
│ └── PCSE00000/
│ └── #game files
├── patch/
│ └── PCSE00000/
│ └── #game files
└── addcont/
└── PCSE00000/
└── #game files
^ in this case, the game also contains patches and DLCs. Currently, all games need to be installed on Vita3k, like they would be on a real PS Vita. This is done through Vita3k directly, through File -> Install .pkg, or install .zip.

Once you have installed the game, you can actually delete the source files from your device, if you wish. A copy of the game lives inside the vita3k emulator/directories.

=== Nintendo Switch ===
The Switch is absolutely emulated, and works perfectly. However, its emulators are kind of in a weird space. Most of them are based on Ryujinx, which still works, but was taken down by Nintendo and is therefore not updated anymore.

Two current Switch emulators that receive updates are '''Citron''' and '''Eden'''. They look almost identical, though in its version 3, Citron decided to depart from the Ryujinx base and do its own thing. But the insides still work mostly the same.

While you may decide to use any Switch emulator, not all of them work equally: some might have trouble detecting some of your games, or might have trouble emulating them without issues.

==== Prod keys download ====
You will need these two files for your emulator:

* firmware: '''version 19.0.1'''. You can get it from this website: https://prodkeys.net/yuzu-firmware-v5/#more-199. It says it's for Yuzu, but that doesn't matter. Firmware is firmware.
* prod keys: same website, same version - they need to match with the firmware. https://prodkeys.net/suyu-prod-keys-update-3/. Download prod keys '''19.0.1.'''

Later firmwares may not necessarily work with emulators. So unless otherwise specified by another source, use 19.0.1 - it's universal.

In your emulator, go into '''Tools -> Install Firmware''', '''Tools -> Install decryption keys'''. Then games will work as soon as you drop the '''.nsp''' files into the games folder the emulator expects.

==== Installing DLCs and patches ====
For DLCs and patches, you need to install them to NAND. This is simply going into File -> Install to NAND... Then, select the files you wish to install. Emulators such as Eden and Citron will only install patches and DLCs, not the actual game. It's a weird workaround but it has to be done.

==== Converting NSZ to NSP ====
There is one specific 'problem' with Switch games: they sometimes come as .nsz format, when emulators can only read the .nsp format. This means you need to decompress the .nsz into a .nsp. The only tool we know of that actually works for this, and that we can recommend, is here: https://github.com/nicoboss/nsz.

The easiest way is, as the repo says, downloading the binaries from the release page: https://github.com/nicoboss/nsz/releases/

Regardless, if you ever download .nsz switch games, run them through this tool to convert them to usable .nsp files. NSZ is a community format created to make Switch games easier to share, and they must be decompressed to run.

=== More consoles to come ===
''This guide is open-sourced to ProleWiki editors. If you would like to add more consoles or information, you are free to edit.''

== Where to get games ==
Now that you have your emulators set up, you need games, obviously.

We regret the going of community websites such as emuparadise. Nintendo's litigious nature is taking away every emulator and rom site, and now only shady(ish) rom websites exist.

But there are still good ways to get games - maybe even better than direct downloads. As of this date, the best two methods are Telegram and Torrents. We'll try not to get too technical, don't worry.

=== Torrents ===
''All the methods for game download below require torrents, so don't skip this section or you'll be lost!''

Torrenting works by connecting you to peers who are also downloading the same file as you are. Except you all download different pieces of the file at the same time, which means you can '''send''' the pieces you have downloaded to others who need them, and '''receive''' the pieces you need from others who have them.

In some places, internet service providers watch your traffic for peer-to-peer activity and will send you a cease and desist letter or even a fine if they catch you doing it, on the basis of copyright infringement. You can easily evade them with a VPN. We recommend Mullvad (5€/month): see our [[Essay:Quick privacy guide|quick privacy guide]] if you're interested why. Or, if you know your ISP doesn't care, you can just torrent stuff. But yes, torrenting shouldn't be considered anonymous.

In any case, this guide recommends [https://www.qbittorrent.org/ qbittorrent] as a torrent client. Why? Because it has a search function (that you enable through View -> Enable search engine). '''Note that the search engine is not moderated or vetted'''; it simply looks for torrents on websites according to your keywords. You can get viruses from torrents, but we have good torrents for roms: the '''1G1R''' torrents. 1G1R is a user who is in the process of making high-quality rom collection torrents. They are active on Reddit, and their torrents are quite new (from a couple years ago at most).

1G1R dumps are also interesting because they have already pre-translated some/most Japanese releases they include. Usually, you would need to find a fan translation (from romhacking, usually) and patch it in yourself. 1G1R has already done that work, so the rom is available to play in English at the very least.

If you search for '1G1R saturn', for example, you will find these results:
[[File:1g1r saturn results.png|center|frameless|951x951px]]
What you are interested in is the number of '''seeders'''. Seeders are people that have downloaded the entire torrent and can thus now send it back to you completely, instead of only the partial pieces that they own. In this case, there are three torrents for 1G1R Sega Saturn with seeders. You can add all three of them, and qbittorrent will automatically collate them together into one (why it does that is a bit more technical and we won't get into it, but it has to do with trackers. If you ever find a torrent that has few or unresponsive trackers, you can try to find more trackers online to add to it to find more seeders).

In any case, you are now downloading the entire 1G1R Sega Saturn redump, which is ~200GB of space. But here is the cool thing about torrents: you select exactly what you download. Go back to your '''Transfers''' tab, click on the 1G1R torrent, and at the bottom, click on '''Content'''. This shows exactly what this torrent contains: this is what you download. You can click the checkbox next to each individual file to disable their download, or next to the top-level directory to disable downloading the entire torrent. Then, you can selectively re-enable the individual games that you want to download.

When the torrent is paused, it is inert: no data is going in or out. This means you can leave the torrent alone in qbittorrent, and selectively download the games you want when you want them.

That's about all there is to cover for torrenting. There are other dumps of roms, but we can't ascertain their legitimacy as well so this guide prefers to recommend the 1G1R dumps.

''The nice thing to do after download is seed back to give others the games as well! Leave the torrent running to achieve a ratio of at least 1.0 (meaning you gave back just as many bytes as you downloaded), though above 1.0 is nicer, before deleting or stopping it.''

=== Archive.org ===
Archive.org, of Wayback Machine fame, now hosts video games as well. They have entire terabytes of repositories for old games, such as a PS2 collection here: https://archive.org/details/playstation2_essentials (but they also have other consoles available, of course). Download the torrent file, then pick and choose what you want from the torrent. Instructions for torrents are just under this header.

''The archive is always at risk due to copyright holders trying to close it down. If the Internet Archive has ever been useful to you, consider making a donation to them:'' https://archive.org/donate

=== Telegram ===
There is currently a Telegram network of bots to download individual games. You will need a Telegram account, then join this channel: https://t.me/NSW_TorrentLibrary. Select the first chat, F.A.Q. - Our Bots, and you will see all the consoles they offer. Right now, the network has games for:

* Nintendo Switch
* Playstation 5
* Playstation 4
* Playstation 3
* Playstation 2
* Playstation One (PSX)
* Playstation Vita
* Playstation Portable
* Nintendo Wii/WiiU
* Nintendo GameCube
* Nintendo DS
* Nintendo 3DS
* Xbox 360
* Xbox Original
* Sega Dreamcast
* VR Oculus Quest
* PC games

Telegram is available in your browser and as a desktop app, so you can easily download the games on your computer if you want (if space is a concern there are also torrent clients for phones).

The NSW games come as torrent files, so you will need a torrent client anyway to download games. But it's very simple to use: you just join a chat with the bot, provide the password as explained in the FAQ channel, then simply send the bot (in chat) the name of the game you want to download. If it has it, it will provide a download link. On Switch, they usually have all the patches and DLCs included.

''The maintainer behind this network is always looking for funds to maintain the bot network. '''It is at a very real risk of going down soon'''. So if you find it useful, please use the '''/donate command''' in one of the bots and '''send some money!'''''

=== Why different sources? ===
We recommend different sources to find games because they have different games. Even a 2TB archive is not necessarily ''all'' of a console's games! There are many rare games and even still unknown ones. There are many Japan exclusives that we are still learning about, or just very rare games that are hard to find downloads for.

And of course, there are still download websites. They are not necessarily riddled with viruses (this is more of a 2000s scare than a reality), but they are usually riddled with ads and fake download links. Use an adblocker. Not just for these websites, just in general in your life. This guide doesn't really have any specific website to recommend as the three sources above offer high-quality, complete downloads already. ROM websites might help you find very specific games that other sources don't have.

== Specific sub-guides ==
We added some more specific guides here, separate from the two main sections. They are just as important as the main sections, but we felt they didn't really fit inside the main sections.

=== Important: Compress your games ===
ROMs can take a lot of space on a disk. If you wish to own huge collections, the size can quickly balloon up to a few ''terabytes'' of space.

Fortunately, it is possible to compress your games, no matter the console, in a way that will ''not'' destroy data. The savings are '''huge''': betwen 40 to 50% of disk space can be saved by just doing lossless compression. Moreover, the game works just as well as before and loads just as quickly as before compression.

Space saved example from an actual PS2 rom collection:
{|
!Line
!.iso size (before compression)
!.chd size (after compression)
!Ratio
|-
|PS2 TOTAL (1.1TB total)
| 1.1TB
|597GB
|45%
|}
As you can see, some 500GB of disk space was instantly gained back just from compressing a PS2 collection!

There are two methods that differ based on the original game support format for the console:

==== Disk games ====
On consoles such as the PS2, SegaCD, PS1, etc, games came in a disk format. Their ROMs will therefore be one of the following file format:

* .iso [most common]
* .bin/.cue combo [2nd most common]
* .gdi/.bin/.raw combo
* .toc/.bin
* .ccd/.img/.sub
* .nrg
* .cdr

For disc formats, use '''chdman''' - the #1 reference. The recalbox wiki has the links and simple instructions (if you scroll down): https://wiki.recalbox.com/en/tutorials/utilities/rom-conversion/chdman. For Linux though, the best way is just using your package manager: '''sudo apt install mame-tools''' (also installs the mame emulator, but you can uninstall it if you want). Then you can use chdman from the command line, or make scripts with it to make your life easier. If you don't code, any modern AI can make this script for you according to your specifications. Or, the recalbox link has downloads to scripts they offer to do this for you, for all 3 OSes.

chdman will convert your file to a '''.chd format''' - Compressed Hunks of Data. These work in any modern emulator: pcsx2, genesis plus GX, swanstation, etc. Like we said, this is fully reversible and does not delete any data from the file.

CHD is completely reversible back to iso, .bin/.cue, or whatever else. It doesn't destroy any data. Like we said, the space savings can be huge, so don't skip out on it if you start getting a lot of games, especially if you move them to a device where space is limited, such as an SD card.

Note: there is no point in zipping up a .chdm .cso or .rvz file: they are already compressed better than the zip algorithm can do, so you won't save any more space by 'double-compressing'.

===== Dolphin =====
One exception: Dolphin, the gamecube emulator, uses its own .rvz format for compression. Most gamecube games you download will likely already be .rvz but if not, you can open Dolphin, then '''right click on a game -> Convert file...'''

===== PPSSPP =====
Another semi-exception: PPSSPP historically read .cso files (from ciso package, also compressed) and not .chd files. However, .chd should now be compatible with newer versions of PPSSPP. But, if your .chd file is not readable through PPSSPP, don't panic: you probably just need to update the emulator, or redo the .chd differently. AI can help with this if you send it the details of the problem and how to troubleshoot. Remember: .chd and .cso can be reversed back to .iso infinitely.

Otherwise, you can stick with the well-supported .cso. In our trials, the difference between .cso and .chd for PSP games was barely 40MB on the spaciest games.

==== Cartridge games ====
For cartridge games such as the GBA, NDS, SNES, you can simply compress them into a .zip file.

If you do, make sure the .zip has the ''exact'' ''same name'' as the rom inside of it. No deviation whatsoever - it's better for the emulator. And, make sure only ONE rom file is inside the archive, don't put anything else in there. This ensures maximum compatibility for your emulator to find the rom in the zip.

Most operating systems (Windows, Linux, etc) can natively create .zip files. But not all of them will get the same results. There are better and worse algorithms, and some programs such as 7zip allow you to select the compression level. Nevertheless, most emulators will be able to read from a .zip archive, and most games will benefit from this procedure: between 30 and 45% of space is gained back from compressing!

It's also possible to trim the excess data off cartridge games: historically cartridges came in pre-selected sizes (8MB, 16MB, 32MB, etc), and if the game was say only 4MB but was burned onto a 16MB cartridge, then the extra space had to be filled out to fill the cartridge with dummy data. However, trimming the data is lossy: that excess, while useless and inert, is still data that is deleted irreparably if you trim it. Moreover, zipping up the rom file usually compresses that dummy data anyway.

===== Nintendo Switch =====
Switch exception: there is no point in zipping up Switch games into a .zip, no space is saved. Current Switch emulators, based on Ryujinx, also can't read .zips

=== Front-ends to organize your roms ===
This guide heavily recommends retroarch to play games. However, retroarch has had a long-standing UI problem: it's just not very intuitive or inviting. It takes several steps just to play a game - loading the core, then navigating to the games folder, then selecting the game you want from just the file name is a lot of steps. And this isn't isolated to Retroarch either!

For this reason, there are several ''front-ends'' or ''launchers'' that were created. Their purpose is to organize and prettify your rom collection, and allow you to launch the games from there. Lutris for example, which is often used to play Windows games on Linux, can serve as an emulator front-end, if you connect your emulators to it.

There are several: Daijisho, Pegasus, EmuStation, and so on. This guide wouldn't be able to recommend one over the other, only that you may want to look into them.

Front-ends connect to your emulators in the background, and your games directories. They serve as a 'middleman' of sorts between the emulator and the game: launch the game from the front-end, and it opens seamlessly in the emulator.

=== Troubleshooting emulation problems ===
Emulation has come a long way since the 2000s. If you encounter a problem while playing a game, it's probably the emulator settings that are acting up, not the game. That is, the game is perfectly playable on emulator, it just needs the right settings.

In 90% of cases, the fix is simple: if audio is crackling or missing, then you probably just need to change the audio backend or fiddle with the settings. Most emulators can now do this per-game, or globally (globally will apply to all games). If video is acting up, then you probably need a different graphic API or, again, fiddle with some of the finer settings. In general it's pretty easy, there's not that much you need to change, and it should solve the problem. If the game really acts up or doesn't even launch, then it's possible it's just not compatible with the emulator, or any emulator - that happens sometimes. In that case, online wikis will usually have the compatibility status of the game you're trying to play. Not all emulators are equal, and some will play games with no problems that other emulators simply can't even open.

=== Where do I get series and movies ===
What does this have to do with a video game emulation guide? Well, we might as well take care of it while we're at it.

Stremio (https://www.stremio.com/) is a godsend. It's an app that will work on most devices, including Android TVs, and connect you to torrents to watch movies and series of your choice. Except instead of simply downloading the file, it streams it: that is, it plays the video as it downloads, and then deletes it when the cache grows too big. This means you are not saving the files persistently on your disk, and it also means you can watch stuff before it has to download.

Moreover, Stremio provides a front-end that allows you to create a library of movies and series. It notifies you in-app when new episodes come out, and you can search for movies to watch according to criteria. Basically, it's netflix but free.

Download the Stremio app, and create an account to save your settings. But don't use Stremio from the website, it's not as stable - install the app on your devices.

Then, you need to add the torrentio plugin through this link: https://torrentio.strem.fun/configure. Plugins are added to Stremio from web addresses (because Stremio is ultimately a Chromium tab masquerading as an app, but hey, it works). Stremio can't package torrentio with its app because of legality around piracy.

Torrentio is pretty easy to configure from that link above: in fact, you can just leave the default settings alone and click the install button. It will ask what app to open with, and select your Stremio app into which you are logged in. Select Stremio, confirm everything, and you're done. Go into the Addons tab in Stremio to make sure the torrentio plugin was installed, then restart Stremio. From then on, you should just be able to search for anything and find it.

There is one caveat with torrentio: it mostly finds sources in English. So if you want to watch series or movies in other languages, you will usually have a hard time on Stremio. There are, however, add-ons to automatically find subtitles for your episode or movie, and they load seamlessly through Stremio.

== References ==
<references />
[[Category:Essays]]
[[Category:Open source essays]]
[[Category:How tos (essays)]]

Essay:ProleWiki ultimate emulation guide

2026-08-10T16:15:09Z

CriticalResist: CriticalResist moved page Comrade:CriticalResist/sandbox/emuguide to Essay:ProleWiki ultimate emulation guide without leaving a redirect: publish

{{Infobox essay|title=ProleWiki ultimate emulation guide|author=Open source|date=2026-08-10|excerpt=The ultimate guide to emulating consoles and games on your devices, updated often. No-fuss, no bs, straight to the point. How to start emulating consoles, how to get games on the internet, how to flash your consoles, etc.}}

This guide aims to be an ultimate emulation guide, as ultimate as one can be anyway.

"But why does a communist wiki need an emulation guide?", one might ask. Well, we believe that piracy is not a dirty word. Piracy -- and emulation -- is sometimes the only way to still access rare media whose "legal owners" are not interested in reprinting for fans and consumers. Games such as Kuon, or the Gregory Horror Show (both on PS2) are extremely rare discs nowadays to even ''find'' on the market. To still be accessible, they need to be pirated in the first place. Not only that, but live services can and will remove your access to games and movies whenever they want. Amazon Prime is famous for removing shows that don't perform "well enough". In this case, piracy is the only way paying customers can still access the shows they wanted when they decided to pay for the service!

Moreover, we hold that there is nothing wrong with piracy in the first place: that it will not hurt Sega or Capcom's bottom line, and that if they don't make their games available then they are not losing out on money since they are not providing the service in the first place. Copyright is a capitalist invention; plenty of stories (many of which we grew up with and remember fondly) existed before capitalism was ever a thing, becoming 'folk' stories because it became impossible to ascertain their origin. These stories were then copyrighted by corporations who now effectively own stories that come from our collective history.

This guide will take you through the full steps, from start to finish, aimed at '''people who have never emulated games before'''. If that's you (or even if you know how to emulate, you might learn something), then you came to the right guide!

'''One note about links (important):''' while external links were vetted at the time of their addition into the guide, we can't guarantee that by the time you read this guide they will still point to the same websites. This happens a lot in the emulation scene, websites don't get renewed and someone else buys the domain and starts putting ads on it. Exercise critical thinking. ProleWiki is not responsible for the content appearing on other websites.

== First things first: the process of emulating a game ==
Before we get into the details, let's recap the process of emulating a game. This will be the process we cover throughout the guide, so it's a good mental model to follow along with.

# Install an emulator on your device. "Device" is very wide: a PC desktop, an Android phone, or even a raspberry Pi.
# Find and download games for the emulator.
# Transfer the game onto the same device as the emulator.
# Open the emulator, play the game.

These are 4 easy steps on the surface, but the implementation of how you go through each has some best practices we will go through in this guide.

== List of emulators and where to get them ==
''We are in the process of completing this section with pictures and more in-depth instructions.''
[[File:Emulation guide library view example.png|thumb|Example of a 'library view' in Daijisho, an emulation launcher]]
Emulators play the game, but sometimes can also do more than just that. We will quickly go through the extras so you know what to expect later in the guide:

* '''BIOS requirements''': some emulators require BIOS files from the console to even work. We go through how to acquire these, don't worry. Sometimes, there are also '''firmware''' or '''key files''', on more recent consoles, that you need to install. This is usually done just once, either by putting the files in the correct directory, or installing the firmware through the emulator's interface. After that, it works.
* '''Library view''': emulators now offer a library scroll of your games, which is relatively recent. They can also automatically '''scrape''' box art to give your games a unique look (see pic).
* '''Directories''': most emulators can change the directories they look into for games, bios files, where they save games and states, etc. If you want to organize your rom collection, it pays to set up custom paths instead of the default ones. It will also tell you where you need to put the BIOS files and games you will be downloading, just look in most emulators' Options or Preferences menus.

There are many, many consoles that were put on the market and that can now be emulated. Some of them have more than one emulator, all with slightly different performances.

Not to get too technical, but emulators work through a ''translation layer.'' What they do is transform the code on the disk or cartridge in a way that a modern computer can understand, on the fly. For this reason, not all emulators are equal - but, for most intents and purposes (just playing games from your childhood), most will be fine.

'''Can phones run emulators?''' Yes, absolutely. In fact, top-of-the-line phones that came out after 2022, with a Snapdragon 888 CPU and an Adreno 660 or higher GPU can even play ''some'' Switch games, even up to 2026. Some will crash, but the lighter ones will work. This is, in our opinion, the preferred method over buying an expensive yet lower-spec retro gaming console, such as the Odin, Powkiddy, or Anbernic consoles. While these consoles work, if space on your phone is not a concern, you will get much better compatibility with consoles on a modern phone that you already own.

On phones, emulators come with a virtual gamepad on the touchscreen. You can connect a bluetooth controller of your choice to use a controller instead.

'''Can the Steam Deck run emulators?''' Yes, and the specs are higher than your phone. You can use any of the emulators below: the Steam Deck is just a Linux computer. Go into desktop mode and open the Discover store, and find the emulators listed below.

'''Can I stream games if my portable device can't play them'''? Yes again. Moonlight and Sunshine can stream games from your computer - this guide will ''eventually'' cover them (your desktop runs Sunshine, your device runs Moonshine to receive the stream).

It is also possible to emulate games on a Steam Deck (since a Steam Deck is just a Linux computer), which should even be able to run any Switch games with its specs.

=== Retroarch ===

==== What is Retroarch ====
Retroarch is a unified software that offers 'cores', which are emulators, for a lot of older consoles. They go up to the Dreamcast and Gamecube generation, though they do not have a core for the PS2. If you install retroarch, which is FOSS software [Free and Open Source Software], then you will be able to install emulators into retroarch very easily from their interface. This is why it's our first choice: it saves a lot of researching and installing.

You only need one 'core' for each console, there's no need to install more than one. Just get one, try it out, and if it doesn't work properly on a game, then install another - sometimes they're quirky like that and some emulators are definitely more compatible than others.

Retroarch also saves all games in the .srm format, which allows you to copy them over to another device and open them in any other Retroarch. Useful if you want to sync your savegames across say your phone and desktop.

==== Download ====
You can download retroarch from their own website: https://www.retroarch.com/ (get the stable version). If you're on Linux, this guide assumes you already know where to get apps (from your distro's Software store or the terminal).

Since retroarch is not updating on the Google Play Store anymore (for android), I recommend installing F-Droid, which is a marketplace of only FOSS apps, and installing it from there. On phones, some emulators are actually paid (such as for the Gameboy Advance), but retroarch is completely, entirely free.

The only downside of retroarch is it doesn't have ''all'' the consoles. But, it's available on most devices, including smart TVs. You can even install retroarch - the same version as on your PC or phone - on the consoles themselves if you know how (this guide will not cover this, at least not yet). Usually this involves 'rooting' or 'flashing' the console.

==== BIOS files ====
Retroarch may need the '''BIOS''' files for some emulators; not all of them ''require'' the bios files to play games, but if your games for one console don't load and Retroarch freezes or hangs, the likely reason is that you are missing the bios files. You can get them from this GitHub repo: https://github.com/Abdess/retrobios/tree/main/bios.

To know what BIOS file you need, in Retroarch, open the details of a core you installed and it will show you what the BIOS files are called (they depend on the emulator). You will find the files you need by going into Settings -> Cores -> Manage Cores -> Click/Tap on the correct core -> Scroll down until you see a list with 'Missing, optional' or 'Missing, required'.

These are the BIOS files you require, and their associated names. Simply download the exact same files from the repo above, and put them in the bios folder for your retroarch - you will find its exact path in the settings, and can change it. Find it in Settings -> Directories -> System/BIOS. It should be, by default, '''.../RetroArch/System'''. Simply drop the BIOS files in that directory, no need to make subdirectories or anything.

For the consoles RetroArch doesn't support, read on:

=== Playstation 2 (PS2) ===
On computers, the reference for PS2 emulators is '''PCSX2'''. It has existed for decades, and has recently improved extremely well: PCSX2 now offers a "folder memory card" option, saving your save games to a folder on your computer instead of inside an 8MB memory card file (which is how the PS2 did it originally).

PCSX2 can be downloaded from here: https://pcsx2.net/downloads. If you are on Linux, just get it from the flatpak store, and don't forget to give it permissions to your filesystem so that it can read and remember your directories (save games, bios files location, etc).

==== BIOS ====
PS2 emulators need the '''BIOS''' files to play games. They are on this github repo: https://github.com/Abdess/retrobios/tree/main/bios/Sony/PlayStation%202. For PCSX2, these will work:

* PS2 Bios 30004R V6 Pal.bin
* PS2 Bios 30004R V6 Pal.MEC
* PS2 Bios 30004R V6 Pal.NVM
* rom1.bin
* scph10000.bin
* scph10000.NVM
* scph39001.bin
* scph39001.MEC
* scph39001.NVM
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.BIN
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.EROM
* CPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.mec
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.NVM
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.ROM1
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.ROM2

These will cover the Europe, USA and Japan regions, allowing you to play games from any region. On Android, the emulators are either NetherSX2, or PSX2 -> the latter has several forks existing, we recommend this one from izzy2lost: https://github.com/izzy2lost/PSX2. The bios files simply exist in its associated directory, they are not installed; don't delete them.

For games, you just put the files in a single games folder, and point PCSX2 to it. It will then find the games and display them in a library style.

==== Scrape Box Art ====
PCSX2 can '''scrape box art''' as well, but not automatically. Go into Tools -> Download cover art. In the middle of the window, paste either of those two links (only '''one''' of them):

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xlenore/ps2-covers/main/covers/default/${serial}.jpg [default, 2D, front-facing covers]

'''OR'''

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xlenore/ps2-covers/main/covers/3d/${serial}.png [cover on a 3D style box]

(the repo is here: https://github.com/xlenore/ps2-covers, if you want to confirm the links are legitimate).

Check the box for "Use game name to name the file", or whatever it's called in English, and click 'Start'.

You will need to redo this step when you add new games to PCSX2.

==== Memory card management ====
For your '''memory cards''', if PCSX2 doesn't prompt you for it at first, go into Settings -> Memory Cards. Under the empty table, click on Create, give it a name ('memcard1' or whatever you want), and select '''Directory [Recommended]'''. This is the better way of handling saves on PS2 emulators nowadays. Then, load up the card as Slot 1 - you can drag and drop it there. The saves will live inside a directory on your computer, created per game. This is better than the older method of creating an actual 8MB file that acted as a memory card, but had limited space for save games on it.

=== Nintendo DS/3DS ===

==== Flashing a 3DS ====
We have to make an aside for the NDS/3DS. While the emulators do work properly for both (Either through RetroArch or the standalone emulators - Drastic for DS, Citra for 3DS), you will likely have a better time just flashing your 3DS console (if you have one, of course) and playing the games natively, because of the touch and dual screen features. Now that the 3DS has reached its end of life and receives no updates anymore, it is very easy to root and will not brick your console.

This is the guide to flash the 3DS: https://3ds.hacks.guide/. It's a bit long, but if you follow the instructions '''precisely''', without skipping ahead, then it will work and you will be able to install any 3DS and NDS game to your console that you download online. Flashing will not destroy anything that's already on your console, e.g. your save games or games downloaded from the nintendo store.

We cannot understate this enough: don't think you're too smart for the instructions or start skipping ahead because you get bored. Follow the instructions precisely as they are written out in the guide, one by one, in order. This is the guide everyone follows. ProleWiki did not write this guide nor is it associated with it, we just link to it.

Pro-tip for Nintendo DS games: the 3DS console can only install up to 50 nintendo DS games. If you wish to have more, use YANBF: https://github.com/YANBForwarder/YANBF. This is a program you run on your computer to convert a .nds rom to a .cia file, then install that .cia file from the rooted 3DS, as if it were a 3DS native game. This allows you to install as many NDS games as you want, bypassing the 50 limit.

The 3DS can also emulate some consoles such as the GBA and older, but this guide doesn't cover this yet. It requires a flashed 3DS either way.

=== Playstation Vita (PS Vita) ===
The reference emulator for the PS Vita is Vita3k. It is not on retroarch. Get it here: https://vita3k.org/download.

==== Licence and firmware install ====
You need to install two files into Vita3k (either prompted on first launch, or through File -> Install Firmware, and File -> Install Licence). Copied straight from the vita3k website:''<ref name=":0">https://vita3k.org/quickstart, Installing the Firmware</ref>''<blockquote>''Some games require the system modules be present for Vita3K to (low level) emulate them. This can be done by installing the PS Vita firmware through Vita3K.''

'''''The firmware can be downloaded from the official [https://www.playstation.com/en-us/support/hardware/psvita/system-software/ PlayStation website].'''''

''There's also an additional firmware package that contains the system fonts that needs to be installed. The font firmware package can be downloaded straight from the PlayStation servers. You can download it [http://dus01.psp2.update.playstation.net/update/psp2/image/2022_0209/sd_59dcf059d3328fb67be7e51f8aa33418/PSP2UPDAT.PUP?dest=us here].''

''Install '''both''' firmware packages using the <code>File > Install Firmware</code> menu option.''</blockquote>Tip: Don't open the font file link directly; instead, right click on the link and select Save as... -> it should save a .pup file. It is possible that the font file link changes randomly and the one we copied above won't work or becomes outdated, in which case open ref 1 here and check vita3k's documentation directly: ''<ref name=":0" />''

Then just install these 2 files through the menu (as outlined above), and you're done - you won't need these files anymore if you don't want to keep them.

==== Installing games ====
PS Vita games come in strange formats. Usually, it'll be either a .pkg/.bin combo, or a folder with an 'app' subfolder inside of it followed by a folder that's named like a string of characters <-- The latter are nonpdrm dumps. If you get a dump, compress its highest-level directory into a .zip archive, vita3k will know what to do with it. So it might look like this:
'''gamename.zip''' #the zip you created
└── gamename/
├── app/
│ └── PCSE00000/
│ └── #game files
├── patch/
│ └── PCSE00000/
│ └── #game files
└── addcont/
└── PCSE00000/
└── #game files
^ in this case, the game also contains patches and DLCs. Currently, all games need to be installed on Vita3k, like they would be on a real PS Vita. This is done through Vita3k directly, through File -> Install .pkg, or install .zip.

Once you have installed the game, you can actually delete the source files from your device, if you wish. A copy of the game lives inside the vita3k emulator/directories.

=== Nintendo Switch ===
The Switch is absolutely emulated, and works perfectly. However, its emulators are kind of in a weird space. Most of them are based on Ryujinx, which still works, but was taken down by Nintendo and is therefore not updated anymore.

Two current Switch emulators that receive updates are '''Citron''' and '''Eden'''. They look almost identical, though in its version 3, Citron decided to depart from the Ryujinx base and do its own thing. But the insides still work mostly the same.

While you may decide to use any Switch emulator, not all of them work equally: some might have trouble detecting some of your games, or might have trouble emulating them without issues.

==== Prod keys download ====
You will need these two files for your emulator:

* firmware: '''version 19.0.1'''. You can get it from this website: https://prodkeys.net/yuzu-firmware-v5/#more-199. It says it's for Yuzu, but that doesn't matter. Firmware is firmware.
* prod keys: same website, same version - they need to match with the firmware. https://prodkeys.net/suyu-prod-keys-update-3/. Download prod keys '''19.0.1.'''

Later firmwares may not necessarily work with emulators. So unless otherwise specified by another source, use 19.0.1 - it's universal.

In your emulator, go into '''Tools -> Install Firmware''', '''Tools -> Install decryption keys'''. Then games will work as soon as you drop the '''.nsp''' files into the games folder the emulator expects.

==== Installing DLCs and patches ====
For DLCs and patches, you need to install them to NAND. This is simply going into File -> Install to NAND... Then, select the files you wish to install. Emulators such as Eden and Citron will only install patches and DLCs, not the actual game. It's a weird workaround but it has to be done.

==== Converting NSZ to NSP ====
There is one specific 'problem' with Switch games: they sometimes come as .nsz format, when emulators can only read the .nsp format. This means you need to decompress the .nsz into a .nsp. The only tool we know of that actually works for this, and that we can recommend, is here: https://github.com/nicoboss/nsz.

The easiest way is, as the repo says, downloading the binaries from the release page: https://github.com/nicoboss/nsz/releases/

Regardless, if you ever download .nsz switch games, run them through this tool to convert them to usable .nsp files. NSZ is a community format created to make Switch games easier to share, and they must be decompressed to run.

=== More consoles to come ===
''This guide is open-sourced to ProleWiki editors. If you would like to add more consoles or information, you are free to edit.''

== Where to get games ==
Now that you have your emulators set up, you need games, obviously.

We regret the going of community websites such as emuparadise. Nintendo's litigious nature is taking away every emulator and rom site, and now only shady(ish) rom websites exist.

But there are still good ways to get games - maybe even better than direct downloads. As of this date, the best two methods are Telegram and Torrents. We'll try not to get too technical, don't worry.

=== Torrents ===
''All the methods for game download below require torrents, so don't skip this section or you'll be lost!''

Torrenting works by connecting you to peers who are also downloading the same file as you are. Except you all download different pieces of the file at the same time, which means you can '''send''' the pieces you have downloaded to others who need them, and '''receive''' the pieces you need from others who have them.

In some places, internet service providers watch your traffic for peer-to-peer activity and will send you a cease and desist letter or even a fine if they catch you doing it, on the basis of copyright infringement. You can easily evade them with a VPN. We recommend Mullvad (5€/month): see our [[Essay:Quick privacy guide|quick privacy guide]] if you're interested why. Or, if you know your ISP doesn't care, you can just torrent stuff. But yes, torrenting shouldn't be considered anonymous.

In any case, this guide recommends [https://www.qbittorrent.org/ qbittorrent] as a torrent client. Why? Because it has a search function (that you enable through View -> Enable search engine). '''Note that the search engine is not moderated or vetted'''; it simply looks for torrents on websites according to your keywords. You can get viruses from torrents, but we have good torrents for roms: the '''1G1R''' torrents. 1G1R is a user who is in the process of making high-quality rom collection torrents. They are active on Reddit, and their torrents are quite new (from a couple years ago at most).

1G1R dumps are also interesting because they have already pre-translated some/most Japanese releases they include. Usually, you would need to find a fan translation (from romhacking, usually) and patch it in yourself. 1G1R has already done that work, so the rom is available to play in English at the very least.

If you search for '1G1R saturn', for example, you will find these results:
[[File:1g1r saturn results.png|center|frameless|951x951px]]
What you are interested in is the number of '''seeders'''. Seeders are people that have downloaded the entire torrent and can thus now send it back to you completely, instead of only the partial pieces that they own. In this case, there are three torrents for 1G1R Sega Saturn with seeders. You can add all three of them, and qbittorrent will automatically collate them together into one (why it does that is a bit more technical and we won't get into it, but it has to do with trackers. If you ever find a torrent that has few or unresponsive trackers, you can try to find more trackers online to add to it to find more seeders).

In any case, you are now downloading the entire 1G1R Sega Saturn redump, which is ~200GB of space. But here is the cool thing about torrents: you select exactly what you download. Go back to your '''Transfers''' tab, click on the 1G1R torrent, and at the bottom, click on '''Content'''. This shows exactly what this torrent contains: this is what you download. You can click the checkbox next to each individual file to disable their download, or next to the top-level directory to disable downloading the entire torrent. Then, you can selectively re-enable the individual games that you want to download.

When the torrent is paused, it is inert: no data is going in or out. This means you can leave the torrent alone in qbittorrent, and selectively download the games you want when you want them.

That's about all there is to cover for torrenting. There are other dumps of roms, but we can't ascertain their legitimacy as well so this guide prefers to recommend the 1G1R dumps.

''The nice thing to do after download is seed back to give others the games as well! Leave the torrent running to achieve a ratio of at least 1.0 (meaning you gave back just as many bytes as you downloaded), though above 1.0 is nicer, before deleting or stopping it.''

=== Archive.org ===
Archive.org, of Wayback Machine fame, now hosts video games as well. They have entire terabytes of repositories for old games, such as a PS2 collection here: https://archive.org/details/playstation2_essentials (but they also have other consoles available, of course). Download the torrent file, then pick and choose what you want from the torrent. Instructions for torrents are just under this header.

''The archive is always at risk due to copyright holders trying to close it down. If the Internet Archive has ever been useful to you, consider making a donation to them:'' https://archive.org/donate

=== Telegram ===
There is currently a Telegram network of bots to download individual games. You will need a Telegram account, then join this channel: https://t.me/NSW_TorrentLibrary. Select the first chat, F.A.Q. - Our Bots, and you will see all the consoles they offer. Right now, the network has games for:

* Nintendo Switch
* Playstation 5
* Playstation 4
* Playstation 3
* Playstation 2
* Playstation One (PSX)
* Playstation Vita
* Playstation Portable
* Nintendo Wii/WiiU
* Nintendo GameCube
* Nintendo DS
* Nintendo 3DS
* Xbox 360
* Xbox Original
* Sega Dreamcast
* VR Oculus Quest
* PC games

Telegram is available in your browser and as a desktop app, so you can easily download the games on your computer if you want (if space is a concern there are also torrent clients for phones).

The NSW games come as torrent files, so you will need a torrent client anyway to download games. But it's very simple to use: you just join a chat with the bot, provide the password as explained in the FAQ channel, then simply send the bot (in chat) the name of the game you want to download. If it has it, it will provide a download link. On Switch, they usually have all the patches and DLCs included.

''The maintainer behind this network is always looking for funds to maintain the bot network. '''It is at a very real risk of going down soon'''. So if you find it useful, please use the '''/donate command''' in one of the bots and '''send some money!'''''

=== Why different sources? ===
We recommend different sources to find games because they have different games. Even a 2TB archive is not necessarily ''all'' of a console's games! There are many rare games and even still unknown ones. There are many Japan exclusives that we are still learning about, or just very rare games that are hard to find downloads for.

And of course, there are still download websites. They are not necessarily riddled with viruses (this is more of a 2000s scare than a reality), but they are usually riddled with ads and fake download links. Use an adblocker. Not just for these websites, just in general in your life. This guide doesn't really have any specific website to recommend as the three sources above offer high-quality, complete downloads already. ROM websites might help you find very specific games that other sources don't have.

== Specific sub-guides ==
We added some more specific guides here, separate from the two main sections. They are just as important as the main sections, but we felt they didn't really fit inside the main sections.

=== Important: Compress your games ===
ROMs can take a lot of space on a disk. If you wish to own huge collections, the size can quickly balloon up to a few ''terabytes'' of space.

Fortunately, it is possible to compress your games, no matter the console, in a way that will ''not'' destroy data. The savings are '''huge''': betwen 40 to 50% of disk space can be saved by just doing lossless compression. Moreover, the game works just as well as before and loads just as quickly as before compression.

Space saved example from an actual PS2 rom collection:
{|
!Line
!.iso size (before compression)
!.chd size (after compression)
!Ratio
|-
|PS2 TOTAL (1.1TB total)
| 1.1TB
|597GB
|45%
|}
As you can see, some 500GB of disk space was instantly gained back just from compressing a PS2 collection!

There are two methods that differ based on the original game support format for the console:

==== Disk games ====
On consoles such as the PS2, SegaCD, PS1, etc, games came in a disk format. Their ROMs will therefore be one of the following file format:

* .iso [most common]
* .bin/.cue combo [2nd most common]
* .gdi/.bin/.raw combo
* .toc/.bin
* .ccd/.img/.sub
* .nrg
* .cdr

For disc formats, use '''chdman''' - the #1 reference. The recalbox wiki has the links and simple instructions (if you scroll down): https://wiki.recalbox.com/en/tutorials/utilities/rom-conversion/chdman. For Linux though, the best way is just using your package manager: '''sudo apt install mame-tools''' (also installs the mame emulator, but you can uninstall it if you want). Then you can use chdman from the command line, or make scripts with it to make your life easier. If you don't code, any modern AI can make this script for you according to your specifications. Or, the recalbox link has downloads to scripts they offer to do this for you, for all 3 OSes.

chdman will convert your file to a '''.chd format''' - Compressed Hunks of Data. These work in any modern emulator: pcsx2, genesis plus GX, swanstation, etc. Like we said, this is fully reversible and does not delete any data from the file.

CHD is completely reversible back to iso, .bin/.cue, or whatever else. It doesn't destroy any data. Like we said, the space savings can be huge, so don't skip out on it if you start getting a lot of games, especially if you move them to a device where space is limited, such as an SD card.

Note: there is no point in zipping up a .chdm .cso or .rvz file: they are already compressed better than the zip algorithm can do, so you won't save any more space by 'double-compressing'.

===== Dolphin =====
One exception: Dolphin, the gamecube emulator, uses its own .rvz format for compression. Most gamecube games you download will likely already be .rvz but if not, you can open Dolphin, then '''right click on a game -> Convert file...'''

===== PPSSPP =====
Another semi-exception: PPSSPP historically read .cso files (from ciso package, also compressed) and not .chd files. However, .chd should now be compatible with newer versions of PPSSPP. But, if your .chd file is not readable through PPSSPP, don't panic: you probably just need to update the emulator, or redo the .chd differently. AI can help with this if you send it the details of the problem and how to troubleshoot. Remember: .chd and .cso can be reversed back to .iso infinitely.

Otherwise, you can stick with the well-supported .cso. In our trials, the difference between .cso and .chd for PSP games was barely 40MB on the spaciest games.

==== Cartridge games ====
For cartridge games such as the GBA, NDS, SNES, you can simply compress them into a .zip file.

If you do, make sure the .zip has the ''exact'' ''same name'' as the rom inside of it. No deviation whatsoever - it's better for the emulator. And, make sure only ONE rom file is inside the archive, don't put anything else in there. This ensures maximum compatibility for your emulator to find the rom in the zip.

Most operating systems (Windows, Linux, etc) can natively create .zip files. But not all of them will get the same results. There are better and worse algorithms, and some programs such as 7zip allow you to select the compression level. Nevertheless, most emulators will be able to read from a .zip archive, and most games will benefit from this procedure: between 30 and 45% of space is gained back from compressing!

It's also possible to trim the excess data off cartridge games: historically cartridges came in pre-selected sizes (8MB, 16MB, 32MB, etc), and if the game was say only 4MB but was burned onto a 16MB cartridge, then the extra space had to be filled out to fill the cartridge with dummy data. However, trimming the data is lossy: that excess, while useless and inert, is still data that is deleted irreparably if you trim it. Moreover, zipping up the rom file usually compresses that dummy data anyway.

===== Nintendo Switch =====
Switch exception: there is no point in zipping up Switch games into a .zip, no space is saved. Current Switch emulators, based on Ryujinx, also can't read .zips

=== Front-ends to organize your roms ===
This guide heavily recommends retroarch to play games. However, retroarch has had a long-standing UI problem: it's just not very intuitive or inviting. It takes several steps just to play a game - loading the core, then navigating to the games folder, then selecting the game you want from just the file name is a lot of steps. And this isn't isolated to Retroarch either!

For this reason, there are several ''front-ends'' or ''launchers'' that were created. Their purpose is to organize and prettify your rom collection, and allow you to launch the games from there. Lutris for example, which is often used to play Windows games on Linux, can serve as an emulator front-end, if you connect your emulators to it.

There are several: Daijisho, Pegasus, EmuStation, and so on. This guide wouldn't be able to recommend one over the other, only that you may want to look into them.

Front-ends connect to your emulators in the background, and your games directories. They serve as a 'middleman' of sorts between the emulator and the game: launch the game from the front-end, and it opens seamlessly in the emulator.

=== Troubleshooting emulation problems ===
Emulation has come a long way since the 2000s. If you encounter a problem while playing a game, it's probably the emulator settings that are acting up, not the game. That is, the game is perfectly playable on emulator, it just needs the right settings.

In 90% of cases, the fix is simple: if audio is crackling or missing, then you probably just need to change the audio backend or fiddle with the settings. Most emulators can now do this per-game, or globally (globally will apply to all games). If video is acting up, then you probably need a different graphic API or, again, fiddle with some of the finer settings. In general it's pretty easy, there's not that much you need to change, and it should solve the problem. If the game really acts up or doesn't even launch, then it's possible it's just not compatible with the emulator, or any emulator - that happens sometimes. In that case, online wikis will usually have the compatibility status of the game you're trying to play. Not all emulators are equal, and some will play games with no problems that other emulators simply can't even open.

=== Where do I get series and movies ===
What does this have to do with a video game emulation guide? Well, we might as well take care of it while we're at it.

Stremio (https://www.stremio.com/) is a godsend. It's an app that will work on most devices, including Android TVs, and connect you to torrents to watch movies and series of your choice. Except instead of simply downloading the file, it streams it: that is, it plays the video as it downloads, and then deletes it when the cache grows too big. This means you are not saving the files persistently on your disk, and it also means you can watch stuff before it has to download.

Moreover, Stremio provides a front-end that allows you to create a library of movies and series. It notifies you in-app when new episodes come out, and you can search for movies to watch according to criteria. Basically, it's netflix but free.

Download the Stremio app, and create an account to save your settings. But don't use Stremio from the website, it's not as stable - install the app on your devices.

Then, you need to add the torrentio plugin through this link: https://torrentio.strem.fun/configure. Plugins are added to Stremio from web addresses (because Stremio is ultimately a Chromium tab masquerading as an app, but hey, it works). Stremio can't package torrentio with its app because of legality around piracy.

Torrentio is pretty easy to configure from that link above: in fact, you can just leave the default settings alone and click the install button. It will ask what app to open with, and select your Stremio app into which you are logged in. Select Stremio, confirm everything, and you're done. Go into the Addons tab in Stremio to make sure the torrentio plugin was installed, then restart Stremio. From then on, you should just be able to search for anything and find it.

There is one caveat with torrentio: it mostly finds sources in English. So if you want to watch series or movies in other languages, you will usually have a hard time on Stremio. There are, however, add-ons to automatically find subtitles for your episode or movie, and they load seamlessly through Stremio.

== References ==
<references />
[[Category:Essays]]
[[Category:Open source essays]]
[[Category:How tos (essays)]]

Essay:ProleWiki ultimate emulation guide

2026-08-10T16:14:52Z

CriticalResist: moving

{{Infobox essay|title=ProleWiki ultimate emulation guide|author=Open source|date=2026-08-10|excerpt=The ultimate guide to emulating consoles and games on your devices, updated often. No-fuss, no bs, straight to the point. How to start emulating consoles, how to get games on the internet, how to flash your consoles, etc.}}

This guide aims to be an ultimate emulation guide, as ultimate as one can be anyway.

"But why does a communist wiki need an emulation guide?", one might ask. Well, we believe that piracy is not a dirty word. Piracy -- and emulation -- is sometimes the only way to still access rare media whose "legal owners" are not interested in reprinting for fans and consumers. Games such as Kuon, or the Gregory Horror Show (both on PS2) are extremely rare discs nowadays to even ''find'' on the market. To still be accessible, they need to be pirated in the first place. Not only that, but live services can and will remove your access to games and movies whenever they want. Amazon Prime is famous for removing shows that don't perform "well enough". In this case, piracy is the only way paying customers can still access the shows they wanted when they decided to pay for the service!

Moreover, we hold that there is nothing wrong with piracy in the first place: that it will not hurt Sega or Capcom's bottom line, and that if they don't make their games available then they are not losing out on money since they are not providing the service in the first place. Copyright is a capitalist invention; plenty of stories (many of which we grew up with and remember fondly) existed before capitalism was ever a thing, becoming 'folk' stories because it became impossible to ascertain their origin. These stories were then copyrighted by corporations who now effectively own stories that come from our collective history.

This guide will take you through the full steps, from start to finish, aimed at '''people who have never emulated games before'''. If that's you (or even if you know how to emulate, you might learn something), then you came to the right guide!

'''One note about links (important):''' while external links were vetted at the time of their addition into the guide, we can't guarantee that by the time you read this guide they will still point to the same websites. This happens a lot in the emulation scene, websites don't get renewed and someone else buys the domain and starts putting ads on it. Exercise critical thinking. ProleWiki is not responsible for the content appearing on other websites.

== First things first: the process of emulating a game ==
Before we get into the details, let's recap the process of emulating a game. This will be the process we cover throughout the guide, so it's a good mental model to follow along with.

# Install an emulator on your device. "Device" is very wide: a PC desktop, an Android phone, or even a raspberry Pi.
# Find and download games for the emulator.
# Transfer the game onto the same device as the emulator.
# Open the emulator, play the game.

These are 4 easy steps on the surface, but the implementation of how you go through each has some best practices we will go through in this guide.

== List of emulators and where to get them ==
''We are in the process of completing this section with pictures and more in-depth instructions.''
[[File:Emulation guide library view example.png|thumb|Example of a 'library view' in Daijisho, an emulation launcher]]
Emulators play the game, but sometimes can also do more than just that. We will quickly go through the extras so you know what to expect later in the guide:

* '''BIOS requirements''': some emulators require BIOS files from the console to even work. We go through how to acquire these, don't worry. Sometimes, there are also '''firmware''' or '''key files''', on more recent consoles, that you need to install. This is usually done just once, either by putting the files in the correct directory, or installing the firmware through the emulator's interface. After that, it works.
* '''Library view''': emulators now offer a library scroll of your games, which is relatively recent. They can also automatically '''scrape''' box art to give your games a unique look (see pic).
* '''Directories''': most emulators can change the directories they look into for games, bios files, where they save games and states, etc. If you want to organize your rom collection, it pays to set up custom paths instead of the default ones. It will also tell you where you need to put the BIOS files and games you will be downloading, just look in most emulators' Options or Preferences menus.

There are many, many consoles that were put on the market and that can now be emulated. Some of them have more than one emulator, all with slightly different performances.

Not to get too technical, but emulators work through a ''translation layer.'' What they do is transform the code on the disk or cartridge in a way that a modern computer can understand, on the fly. For this reason, not all emulators are equal - but, for most intents and purposes (just playing games from your childhood), most will be fine.

'''Can phones run emulators?''' Yes, absolutely. In fact, top-of-the-line phones that came out after 2022, with a Snapdragon 888 CPU and an Adreno 660 or higher GPU can even play ''some'' Switch games, even up to 2026. Some will crash, but the lighter ones will work. This is, in our opinion, the preferred method over buying an expensive yet lower-spec retro gaming console, such as the Odin, Powkiddy, or Anbernic consoles. While these consoles work, if space on your phone is not a concern, you will get much better compatibility with consoles on a modern phone that you already own.

On phones, emulators come with a virtual gamepad on the touchscreen. You can connect a bluetooth controller of your choice to use a controller instead.

'''Can the Steam Deck run emulators?''' Yes, and the specs are higher than your phone. You can use any of the emulators below: the Steam Deck is just a Linux computer. Go into desktop mode and open the Discover store, and find the emulators listed below.

'''Can I stream games if my portable device can't play them'''? Yes again. Moonlight and Sunshine can stream games from your computer - this guide will ''eventually'' cover them (your desktop runs Sunshine, your device runs Moonshine to receive the stream).

It is also possible to emulate games on a Steam Deck (since a Steam Deck is just a Linux computer), which should even be able to run any Switch games with its specs.

=== Retroarch ===

==== What is Retroarch ====
Retroarch is a unified software that offers 'cores', which are emulators, for a lot of older consoles. They go up to the Dreamcast and Gamecube generation, though they do not have a core for the PS2. If you install retroarch, which is FOSS software [Free and Open Source Software], then you will be able to install emulators into retroarch very easily from their interface. This is why it's our first choice: it saves a lot of researching and installing.

You only need one 'core' for each console, there's no need to install more than one. Just get one, try it out, and if it doesn't work properly on a game, then install another - sometimes they're quirky like that and some emulators are definitely more compatible than others.

Retroarch also saves all games in the .srm format, which allows you to copy them over to another device and open them in any other Retroarch. Useful if you want to sync your savegames across say your phone and desktop.

==== Download ====
You can download retroarch from their own website: https://www.retroarch.com/ (get the stable version). If you're on Linux, this guide assumes you already know where to get apps (from your distro's Software store or the terminal).

Since retroarch is not updating on the Google Play Store anymore (for android), I recommend installing F-Droid, which is a marketplace of only FOSS apps, and installing it from there. On phones, some emulators are actually paid (such as for the Gameboy Advance), but retroarch is completely, entirely free.

The only downside of retroarch is it doesn't have ''all'' the consoles. But, it's available on most devices, including smart TVs. You can even install retroarch - the same version as on your PC or phone - on the consoles themselves if you know how (this guide will not cover this, at least not yet). Usually this involves 'rooting' or 'flashing' the console.

==== BIOS files ====
Retroarch may need the '''BIOS''' files for some emulators; not all of them ''require'' the bios files to play games, but if your games for one console don't load and Retroarch freezes or hangs, the likely reason is that you are missing the bios files. You can get them from this GitHub repo: https://github.com/Abdess/retrobios/tree/main/bios.

To know what BIOS file you need, in Retroarch, open the details of a core you installed and it will show you what the BIOS files are called (they depend on the emulator). You will find the files you need by going into Settings -> Cores -> Manage Cores -> Click/Tap on the correct core -> Scroll down until you see a list with 'Missing, optional' or 'Missing, required'.

These are the BIOS files you require, and their associated names. Simply download the exact same files from the repo above, and put them in the bios folder for your retroarch - you will find its exact path in the settings, and can change it. Find it in Settings -> Directories -> System/BIOS. It should be, by default, '''.../RetroArch/System'''. Simply drop the BIOS files in that directory, no need to make subdirectories or anything.

For the consoles RetroArch doesn't support, read on:

=== Playstation 2 (PS2) ===
On computers, the reference for PS2 emulators is '''PCSX2'''. It has existed for decades, and has recently improved extremely well: PCSX2 now offers a "folder memory card" option, saving your save games to a folder on your computer instead of inside an 8MB memory card file (which is how the PS2 did it originally).

PCSX2 can be downloaded from here: https://pcsx2.net/downloads. If you are on Linux, just get it from the flatpak store, and don't forget to give it permissions to your filesystem so that it can read and remember your directories (save games, bios files location, etc).

==== BIOS ====
PS2 emulators need the '''BIOS''' files to play games. They are on this github repo: https://github.com/Abdess/retrobios/tree/main/bios/Sony/PlayStation%202. For PCSX2, these will work:

* PS2 Bios 30004R V6 Pal.bin
* PS2 Bios 30004R V6 Pal.MEC
* PS2 Bios 30004R V6 Pal.NVM
* rom1.bin
* scph10000.bin
* scph10000.NVM
* scph39001.bin
* scph39001.MEC
* scph39001.NVM
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.BIN
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.EROM
* CPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.mec
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.NVM
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.ROM1
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.ROM2

These will cover the Europe, USA and Japan regions, allowing you to play games from any region. On Android, the emulators are either NetherSX2, or PSX2 -> the latter has several forks existing, we recommend this one from izzy2lost: https://github.com/izzy2lost/PSX2. The bios files simply exist in its associated directory, they are not installed; don't delete them.

For games, you just put the files in a single games folder, and point PCSX2 to it. It will then find the games and display them in a library style.

==== Scrape Box Art ====
PCSX2 can '''scrape box art''' as well, but not automatically. Go into Tools -> Download cover art. In the middle of the window, paste either of those two links (only '''one''' of them):

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xlenore/ps2-covers/main/covers/default/${serial}.jpg [default, 2D, front-facing covers]

'''OR'''

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xlenore/ps2-covers/main/covers/3d/${serial}.png [cover on a 3D style box]

(the repo is here: https://github.com/xlenore/ps2-covers, if you want to confirm the links are legitimate).

Check the box for "Use game name to name the file", or whatever it's called in English, and click 'Start'.

You will need to redo this step when you add new games to PCSX2.

==== Memory card management ====
For your '''memory cards''', if PCSX2 doesn't prompt you for it at first, go into Settings -> Memory Cards. Under the empty table, click on Create, give it a name ('memcard1' or whatever you want), and select '''Directory [Recommended]'''. This is the better way of handling saves on PS2 emulators nowadays. Then, load up the card as Slot 1 - you can drag and drop it there. The saves will live inside a directory on your computer, created per game. This is better than the older method of creating an actual 8MB file that acted as a memory card, but had limited space for save games on it.

=== Nintendo DS/3DS ===

==== Flashing a 3DS ====
We have to make an aside for the NDS/3DS. While the emulators do work properly for both (Either through RetroArch or the standalone emulators - Drastic for DS, Citra for 3DS), you will likely have a better time just flashing your 3DS console (if you have one, of course) and playing the games natively, because of the touch and dual screen features. Now that the 3DS has reached its end of life and receives no updates anymore, it is very easy to root and will not brick your console.

This is the guide to flash the 3DS: https://3ds.hacks.guide/. It's a bit long, but if you follow the instructions '''precisely''', without skipping ahead, then it will work and you will be able to install any 3DS and NDS game to your console that you download online. Flashing will not destroy anything that's already on your console, e.g. your save games or games downloaded from the nintendo store.

We cannot understate this enough: don't think you're too smart for the instructions or start skipping ahead because you get bored. Follow the instructions precisely as they are written out in the guide, one by one, in order. This is the guide everyone follows. ProleWiki did not write this guide nor is it associated with it, we just link to it.

Pro-tip for Nintendo DS games: the 3DS console can only install up to 50 nintendo DS games. If you wish to have more, use YANBF: https://github.com/YANBForwarder/YANBF. This is a program you run on your computer to convert a .nds rom to a .cia file, then install that .cia file from the rooted 3DS, as if it were a 3DS native game. This allows you to install as many NDS games as you want, bypassing the 50 limit.

The 3DS can also emulate some consoles such as the GBA and older, but this guide doesn't cover this yet. It requires a flashed 3DS either way.

=== Playstation Vita (PS Vita) ===
The reference emulator for the PS Vita is Vita3k. It is not on retroarch. Get it here: https://vita3k.org/download.

==== Licence and firmware install ====
You need to install two files into Vita3k (either prompted on first launch, or through File -> Install Firmware, and File -> Install Licence). Copied straight from the vita3k website:''<ref name=":0">https://vita3k.org/quickstart, Installing the Firmware</ref>''<blockquote>''Some games require the system modules be present for Vita3K to (low level) emulate them. This can be done by installing the PS Vita firmware through Vita3K.''

'''''The firmware can be downloaded from the official [https://www.playstation.com/en-us/support/hardware/psvita/system-software/ PlayStation website].'''''

''There's also an additional firmware package that contains the system fonts that needs to be installed. The font firmware package can be downloaded straight from the PlayStation servers. You can download it [http://dus01.psp2.update.playstation.net/update/psp2/image/2022_0209/sd_59dcf059d3328fb67be7e51f8aa33418/PSP2UPDAT.PUP?dest=us here].''

''Install '''both''' firmware packages using the <code>File > Install Firmware</code> menu option.''</blockquote>Tip: Don't open the font file link directly; instead, right click on the link and select Save as... -> it should save a .pup file. It is possible that the font file link changes randomly and the one we copied above won't work or becomes outdated, in which case open ref 1 here and check vita3k's documentation directly: ''<ref name=":0" />''

Then just install these 2 files through the menu (as outlined above), and you're done - you won't need these files anymore if you don't want to keep them.

==== Installing games ====
PS Vita games come in strange formats. Usually, it'll be either a .pkg/.bin combo, or a folder with an 'app' subfolder inside of it followed by a folder that's named like a string of characters <-- The latter are nonpdrm dumps. If you get a dump, compress its highest-level directory into a .zip archive, vita3k will know what to do with it. So it might look like this:
'''gamename.zip''' #the zip you created
└── gamename/
├── app/
│ └── PCSE00000/
│ └── #game files
├── patch/
│ └── PCSE00000/
│ └── #game files
└── addcont/
└── PCSE00000/
└── #game files
^ in this case, the game also contains patches and DLCs. Currently, all games need to be installed on Vita3k, like they would be on a real PS Vita. This is done through Vita3k directly, through File -> Install .pkg, or install .zip.

Once you have installed the game, you can actually delete the source files from your device, if you wish. A copy of the game lives inside the vita3k emulator/directories.

=== Nintendo Switch ===
The Switch is absolutely emulated, and works perfectly. However, its emulators are kind of in a weird space. Most of them are based on Ryujinx, which still works, but was taken down by Nintendo and is therefore not updated anymore.

Two current Switch emulators that receive updates are '''Citron''' and '''Eden'''. They look almost identical, though in its version 3, Citron decided to depart from the Ryujinx base and do its own thing. But the insides still work mostly the same.

While you may decide to use any Switch emulator, not all of them work equally: some might have trouble detecting some of your games, or might have trouble emulating them without issues.

==== Prod keys download ====
You will need these two files for your emulator:

* firmware: '''version 19.0.1'''. You can get it from this website: https://prodkeys.net/yuzu-firmware-v5/#more-199. It says it's for Yuzu, but that doesn't matter. Firmware is firmware.
* prod keys: same website, same version - they need to match with the firmware. https://prodkeys.net/suyu-prod-keys-update-3/. Download prod keys '''19.0.1.'''

Later firmwares may not necessarily work with emulators. So unless otherwise specified by another source, use 19.0.1 - it's universal.

In your emulator, go into '''Tools -> Install Firmware''', '''Tools -> Install decryption keys'''. Then games will work as soon as you drop the '''.nsp''' files into the games folder the emulator expects.

==== Installing DLCs and patches ====
For DLCs and patches, you need to install them to NAND. This is simply going into File -> Install to NAND... Then, select the files you wish to install. Emulators such as Eden and Citron will only install patches and DLCs, not the actual game. It's a weird workaround but it has to be done.

==== Converting NSZ to NSP ====
There is one specific 'problem' with Switch games: they sometimes come as .nsz format, when emulators can only read the .nsp format. This means you need to decompress the .nsz into a .nsp. The only tool we know of that actually works for this, and that we can recommend, is here: https://github.com/nicoboss/nsz.

The easiest way is, as the repo says, downloading the binaries from the release page: https://github.com/nicoboss/nsz/releases/

Regardless, if you ever download .nsz switch games, run them through this tool to convert them to usable .nsp files. NSZ is a community format created to make Switch games easier to share, and they must be decompressed to run.

=== More consoles to come ===
''This guide is open-sourced to ProleWiki editors. If you would like to add more consoles or information, you are free to edit.''

== Where to get games ==
Now that you have your emulators set up, you need games, obviously.

We regret the going of community websites such as emuparadise. Nintendo's litigious nature is taking away every emulator and rom site, and now only shady(ish) rom websites exist.

But there are still good ways to get games - maybe even better than direct downloads. As of this date, the best two methods are Telegram and Torrents. We'll try not to get too technical, don't worry.

=== Torrents ===
''All the methods for game download below require torrents, so don't skip this section or you'll be lost!''

Torrenting works by connecting you to peers who are also downloading the same file as you are. Except you all download different pieces of the file at the same time, which means you can '''send''' the pieces you have downloaded to others who need them, and '''receive''' the pieces you need from others who have them.

In some places, internet service providers watch your traffic for peer-to-peer activity and will send you a cease and desist letter or even a fine if they catch you doing it, on the basis of copyright infringement. You can easily evade them with a VPN. We recommend Mullvad (5€/month): see our [[Essay:Quick privacy guide|quick privacy guide]] if you're interested why. Or, if you know your ISP doesn't care, you can just torrent stuff. But yes, torrenting shouldn't be considered anonymous.

In any case, this guide recommends [https://www.qbittorrent.org/ qbittorrent] as a torrent client. Why? Because it has a search function (that you enable through View -> Enable search engine). '''Note that the search engine is not moderated or vetted'''; it simply looks for torrents on websites according to your keywords. You can get viruses from torrents, but we have good torrents for roms: the '''1G1R''' torrents. 1G1R is a user who is in the process of making high-quality rom collection torrents. They are active on Reddit, and their torrents are quite new (from a couple years ago at most).

1G1R dumps are also interesting because they have already pre-translated some/most Japanese releases they include. Usually, you would need to find a fan translation (from romhacking, usually) and patch it in yourself. 1G1R has already done that work, so the rom is available to play in English at the very least.

If you search for '1G1R saturn', for example, you will find these results:
[[File:1g1r saturn results.png|center|frameless|951x951px]]
What you are interested in is the number of '''seeders'''. Seeders are people that have downloaded the entire torrent and can thus now send it back to you completely, instead of only the partial pieces that they own. In this case, there are three torrents for 1G1R Sega Saturn with seeders. You can add all three of them, and qbittorrent will automatically collate them together into one (why it does that is a bit more technical and we won't get into it, but it has to do with trackers. If you ever find a torrent that has few or unresponsive trackers, you can try to find more trackers online to add to it to find more seeders).

In any case, you are now downloading the entire 1G1R Sega Saturn redump, which is ~200GB of space. But here is the cool thing about torrents: you select exactly what you download. Go back to your '''Transfers''' tab, click on the 1G1R torrent, and at the bottom, click on '''Content'''. This shows exactly what this torrent contains: this is what you download. You can click the checkbox next to each individual file to disable their download, or next to the top-level directory to disable downloading the entire torrent. Then, you can selectively re-enable the individual games that you want to download.

When the torrent is paused, it is inert: no data is going in or out. This means you can leave the torrent alone in qbittorrent, and selectively download the games you want when you want them.

That's about all there is to cover for torrenting. There are other dumps of roms, but we can't ascertain their legitimacy as well so this guide prefers to recommend the 1G1R dumps.

''The nice thing to do after download is seed back to give others the games as well! Leave the torrent running to achieve a ratio of at least 1.0 (meaning you gave back just as many bytes as you downloaded), though above 1.0 is nicer, before deleting or stopping it.''

=== Archive.org ===
Archive.org, of Wayback Machine fame, now hosts video games as well. They have entire terabytes of repositories for old games, such as a PS2 collection here: https://archive.org/details/playstation2_essentials (but they also have other consoles available, of course). Download the torrent file, then pick and choose what you want from the torrent. Instructions for torrents are just under this header.

''The archive is always at risk due to copyright holders trying to close it down. If the Internet Archive has ever been useful to you, consider making a donation to them:'' https://archive.org/donate

=== Telegram ===
There is currently a Telegram network of bots to download individual games. You will need a Telegram account, then join this channel: https://t.me/NSW_TorrentLibrary. Select the first chat, F.A.Q. - Our Bots, and you will see all the consoles they offer. Right now, the network has games for:

* Nintendo Switch
* Playstation 5
* Playstation 4
* Playstation 3
* Playstation 2
* Playstation One (PSX)
* Playstation Vita
* Playstation Portable
* Nintendo Wii/WiiU
* Nintendo GameCube
* Nintendo DS
* Nintendo 3DS
* Xbox 360
* Xbox Original
* Sega Dreamcast
* VR Oculus Quest
* PC games

Telegram is available in your browser and as a desktop app, so you can easily download the games on your computer if you want (if space is a concern there are also torrent clients for phones).

The NSW games come as torrent files, so you will need a torrent client anyway to download games. But it's very simple to use: you just join a chat with the bot, provide the password as explained in the FAQ channel, then simply send the bot (in chat) the name of the game you want to download. If it has it, it will provide a download link. On Switch, they usually have all the patches and DLCs included.

''The maintainer behind this network is always looking for funds to maintain the bot network. '''It is at a very real risk of going down soon'''. So if you find it useful, please use the '''/donate command''' in one of the bots and '''send some money!'''''

=== Why different sources? ===
We recommend different sources to find games because they have different games. Even a 2TB archive is not necessarily ''all'' of a console's games! There are many rare games and even still unknown ones. There are many Japan exclusives that we are still learning about, or just very rare games that are hard to find downloads for.

And of course, there are still download websites. They are not necessarily riddled with viruses (this is more of a 2000s scare than a reality), but they are usually riddled with ads and fake download links. Use an adblocker. Not just for these websites, just in general in your life. This guide doesn't really have any specific website to recommend as the three sources above offer high-quality, complete downloads already. ROM websites might help you find very specific games that other sources don't have.

== Specific sub-guides ==
We added some more specific guides here, separate from the two main sections. They are just as important as the main sections, but we felt they didn't really fit inside the main sections.

=== Important: Compress your games ===
ROMs can take a lot of space on a disk. If you wish to own huge collections, the size can quickly balloon up to a few ''terabytes'' of space.

Fortunately, it is possible to compress your games, no matter the console, in a way that will ''not'' destroy data. The savings are '''huge''': betwen 40 to 50% of disk space can be saved by just doing lossless compression. Moreover, the game works just as well as before and loads just as quickly as before compression.

Space saved example from an actual PS2 rom collection:
{|
!Line
!.iso size (before compression)
!.chd size (after compression)
!Ratio
|-
|PS2 TOTAL (1.1TB total)
| 1.1TB
|597GB
|45%
|}
As you can see, some 500GB of disk space was instantly gained back just from compressing a PS2 collection!

There are two methods that differ based on the original game support format for the console:

==== Disk games ====
On consoles such as the PS2, SegaCD, PS1, etc, games came in a disk format. Their ROMs will therefore be one of the following file format:

* .iso [most common]
* .bin/.cue combo [2nd most common]
* .gdi/.bin/.raw combo
* .toc/.bin
* .ccd/.img/.sub
* .nrg
* .cdr

For disc formats, use '''chdman''' - the #1 reference. The recalbox wiki has the links and simple instructions (if you scroll down): https://wiki.recalbox.com/en/tutorials/utilities/rom-conversion/chdman. For Linux though, the best way is just using your package manager: '''sudo apt install mame-tools''' (also installs the mame emulator, but you can uninstall it if you want). Then you can use chdman from the command line, or make scripts with it to make your life easier. If you don't code, any modern AI can make this script for you according to your specifications. Or, the recalbox link has downloads to scripts they offer to do this for you, for all 3 OSes.

chdman will convert your file to a '''.chd format''' - Compressed Hunks of Data. These work in any modern emulator: pcsx2, genesis plus GX, swanstation, etc. Like we said, this is fully reversible and does not delete any data from the file.

CHD is completely reversible back to iso, .bin/.cue, or whatever else. It doesn't destroy any data. Like we said, the space savings can be huge, so don't skip out on it if you start getting a lot of games, especially if you move them to a device where space is limited, such as an SD card.

Note: there is no point in zipping up a .chdm .cso or .rvz file: they are already compressed better than the zip algorithm can do, so you won't save any more space by 'double-compressing'.

===== Dolphin =====
One exception: Dolphin, the gamecube emulator, uses its own .rvz format for compression. Most gamecube games you download will likely already be .rvz but if not, you can open Dolphin, then '''right click on a game -> Convert file...'''

===== PPSSPP =====
Another semi-exception: PPSSPP historically read .cso files (from ciso package, also compressed) and not .chd files. However, .chd should now be compatible with newer versions of PPSSPP. But, if your .chd file is not readable through PPSSPP, don't panic: you probably just need to update the emulator, or redo the .chd differently. AI can help with this if you send it the details of the problem and how to troubleshoot. Remember: .chd and .cso can be reversed back to .iso infinitely.

Otherwise, you can stick with the well-supported .cso. In our trials, the difference between .cso and .chd for PSP games was barely 40MB on the spaciest games.

==== Cartridge games ====
For cartridge games such as the GBA, NDS, SNES, you can simply compress them into a .zip file.

If you do, make sure the .zip has the ''exact'' ''same name'' as the rom inside of it. No deviation whatsoever - it's better for the emulator. And, make sure only ONE rom file is inside the archive, don't put anything else in there. This ensures maximum compatibility for your emulator to find the rom in the zip.

Most operating systems (Windows, Linux, etc) can natively create .zip files. But not all of them will get the same results. There are better and worse algorithms, and some programs such as 7zip allow you to select the compression level. Nevertheless, most emulators will be able to read from a .zip archive, and most games will benefit from this procedure: between 30 and 45% of space is gained back from compressing!

It's also possible to trim the excess data off cartridge games: historically cartridges came in pre-selected sizes (8MB, 16MB, 32MB, etc), and if the game was say only 4MB but was burned onto a 16MB cartridge, then the extra space had to be filled out to fill the cartridge with dummy data. However, trimming the data is lossy: that excess, while useless and inert, is still data that is deleted irreparably if you trim it. Moreover, zipping up the rom file usually compresses that dummy data anyway.

===== Nintendo Switch =====
Switch exception: there is no point in zipping up Switch games into a .zip, no space is saved. Current Switch emulators, based on Ryujinx, also can't read .zips

=== Front-ends to organize your roms ===
This guide heavily recommends retroarch to play games. However, retroarch has had a long-standing UI problem: it's just not very intuitive or inviting. It takes several steps just to play a game - loading the core, then navigating to the games folder, then selecting the game you want from just the file name is a lot of steps. And this isn't isolated to Retroarch either!

For this reason, there are several ''front-ends'' or ''launchers'' that were created. Their purpose is to organize and prettify your rom collection, and allow you to launch the games from there. Lutris for example, which is often used to play Windows games on Linux, can serve as an emulator front-end, if you connect your emulators to it.

There are several: Daijisho, Pegasus, EmuStation, and so on. This guide wouldn't be able to recommend one over the other, only that you may want to look into them.

Front-ends connect to your emulators in the background, and your games directories. They serve as a 'middleman' of sorts between the emulator and the game: launch the game from the front-end, and it opens seamlessly in the emulator.

=== Troubleshooting emulation problems ===
Emulation has come a long way since the 2000s. If you encounter a problem while playing a game, it's probably the emulator settings that are acting up, not the game. That is, the game is perfectly playable on emulator, it just needs the right settings.

In 90% of cases, the fix is simple: if audio is crackling or missing, then you probably just need to change the audio backend or fiddle with the settings. Most emulators can now do this per-game, or globally (globally will apply to all games). If video is acting up, then you probably need a different graphic API or, again, fiddle with some of the finer settings. In general it's pretty easy, there's not that much you need to change, and it should solve the problem. If the game really acts up or doesn't even launch, then it's possible it's just not compatible with the emulator, or any emulator - that happens sometimes. In that case, online wikis will usually have the compatibility status of the game you're trying to play. Not all emulators are equal, and some will play games with no problems that other emulators simply can't even open.

=== Where do I get series and movies ===
What does this have to do with a video game emulation guide? Well, we might as well take care of it while we're at it.

Stremio (https://www.stremio.com/) is a godsend. It's an app that will work on most devices, including Android TVs, and connect you to torrents to watch movies and series of your choice. Except instead of simply downloading the file, it streams it: that is, it plays the video as it downloads, and then deletes it when the cache grows too big. This means you are not saving the files persistently on your disk, and it also means you can watch stuff before it has to download.

Moreover, Stremio provides a front-end that allows you to create a library of movies and series. It notifies you in-app when new episodes come out, and you can search for movies to watch according to criteria. Basically, it's netflix but free.

Download the Stremio app, and create an account to save your settings. But don't use Stremio from the website, it's not as stable - install the app on your devices.

Then, you need to add the torrentio plugin through this link: https://torrentio.strem.fun/configure. Plugins are added to Stremio from web addresses (because Stremio is ultimately a Chromium tab masquerading as an app, but hey, it works). Stremio can't package torrentio with its app because of legality around piracy.

Torrentio is pretty easy to configure from that link above: in fact, you can just leave the default settings alone and click the install button. It will ask what app to open with, and select your Stremio app into which you are logged in. Select Stremio, confirm everything, and you're done. Go into the Addons tab in Stremio to make sure the torrentio plugin was installed, then restart Stremio. From then on, you should just be able to search for anything and find it.

There is one caveat with torrentio: it mostly finds sources in English. So if you want to watch series or movies in other languages, you will usually have a hard time on Stremio. There are, however, add-ons to automatically find subtitles for your episode or movie, and they load seamlessly through Stremio.

== References ==
<references />
[[Category:Essays]]
[[Category:Open source essays]]
[[Category:How tos (essays)]]

Topic:Zjdjie5704mdc63g

2026-08-10T16:12:38Z

CriticalResist (talk | contribs) commented on "Learning editor role" (Hello comrade, as your end of automoderation period is coming up, the stewardship decided it was worth extending it a little bit longer....)

Essay:Gender Abolitionism is Inherently Transphobic

2026-08-08T21:49:05Z

CriticalResist: requested - dm me for questions

[[Category:Essays]]
[[Category:Essays by Anna]]
[[Category:LGBT+ topics (essays)]]
{{Infobox_essay
| title = Gender Abolitionism is Inherently Transphobic
| author = Annamarx
| date = 2024-08-17
| excerpt = I've been noticing a trend with certain comrades, where said comrades (particularly whom are cisgender) are supportive of transgender people, yet their analysis of the woman question didn't change much from the 1960s.
| image = Communist pride flag.png
}}

I've been noticing a trend with certain comrades, where said comrades (particularly whom are cisgender) are supportive of transgender people, yet their analysis of the [[The x question#The woman question|woman question]] didn't change much from the 1960s. Particularly on new ideas and concepts like:
* Gender studies;
* the separation of sex and gender;
* Gender Identity and Expression;

All of these are terms have been introduced initially by liberal theorists, yet nonetheless I still use these terms all the time. Does this mean I am a postmodernist, since I abstract [[Gender|gender]] away from [[Sex|sex]]? Are these term synonyms? And if they are, why do they need to be? These questions I raise and ponder to myself, as I try to reconcile and understand that women's oppression still exists while understanding that I am still assigned male at birth. ''Maybe'' I am one who oppresses women after all, since I am not "born" a woman.

These are some of the thoughts I conceive of, and from within the current of society I am in, which oppresses trans people, both trans women and trans men and not forgetting every person under the trans umbrella too. A common thought within [[Marxism|marxists]] (and [[Radical feminism|radical feminists]] too) is that not only gender and sex are synonyms, and the abolition of sex is necessary, means that the [[Gender abolitionism|abolition of gender]] must be done as well. Gender abolitionists believe that gender oppression is the root of cause of oppression. That the sexual/gendered division of labour made the formation of exploitation and thus the formation of class society. Despite the conflicting nature between radical feminists and marxists, there seems to be an overlapping boundary (i.e. they're not mutually exclusive) where they have some agreement between each other, and not just in the fact that they believe in the liberation of women. This ideology of "Gender Abolitionism" is not only shared by cisgender people, but transgender marxists too, making this question more difficult to analyse.

Thus begs the question. What even ''is'' Gender Abolitionism? And why do I suggest that it is inherently transphobic? To understand this, we must first begin to understand the first roots of Gender Abolition.

== Understanding the Roots of Gender Abolitionism ==

Gender Abolitionism, like many other ideologies, has not came from nowhere. To understand Gender Abolitionism, it's ''more'' important to understand its roots so that we can understand what it advocates for. In fact, some people in this section may not describe themselves as Gender Abolitionists, either because the term did not exist at that time, or because they were advocating for a different ideology. However it's important to see how it comes to fruition.

With that point, let's start with [[Friedrich Engels]], a Marxist who in circa 1884 wrote the "Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the State". This book was revolutionary as it shows the roots of private property, family, state, and oppression as a whole. However what this book states is not perfect, and it is most ''definitely'' outdated today. I bring this book up, precisely because most Marxists don't change their views on Feminism, and cling to the book dogmatically.

Engels, being a man of his time, clearly views gender and sex as being synonymous with one another. There is no doubt nor need to fact check this. In his book, he denotes that there had always been a natural division of labour between a man and a woman.

<blockquote>
To procure the necessities of life had always been the business of the man; he produced and owned the means of doing so.<ref name=":0">{{Citation
| author = Friedrich Engels
| year = 1884
| title = Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the State
| title-url = https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1884/origin-family/
| chapter = IX. Barbarism and Civilization
| chapter-url = https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1884/origin-family/ch09.htm
}}</ref>
</blockquote>

This sentence may lead to an overly mechanistic overview of how oppression had existed in the first place. Engels was the very first marxist to state that the sexual division of labour was the first form of oppression. In other words, 'biological sex' is the cause of women's oppression. Reading on, it shows that it is the case:

<blockquote>
All the surplus which the acquisition of the necessities of life now yielded fell to the man; the woman shared in its enjoyment, but had no part in its ownership... The division of labor within the family had regulated the division of property between the man and the woman. That division of labor had remained the same; and yet it now turned the previous domestic relation upside down, simply because the division of labor outside the family had changed. The same cause which had ensured to the woman her previous supremacy in the house – that her activity was confined to domestic labor – this same cause now ensured the man's supremacy in the house: the domestic labor of the woman no longer counted beside the acquisition of the necessities of life by the man; the latter was everything, the former an unimportant extra.<ref name=":0" />
</blockquote>

So Engels believed that this division of labour in the first place was oppression, even if he did not say so. It is clear we can pinpoint our first view of gender abolitionism. And consequently, we can say how revisionists can argue for feminism, by simply citing Engels instead of doing their own work in anthropology.

Another thing of interest to note that in an earlier section, Engels noted that if women went into the workplace, the oppression in a proletarian household would be gone,

<blockquote>
And now that large-scale industry has taken the wife out of the home onto the labor market and into the factory, and made her often the bread-winner of the family, no basis for any kind of male supremacy is left in the proletarian household – except, perhaps, for something of the brutality towards women that has spread since the introduction of monogamy.<ref>{{Citation
| title = Ibid
| chapter = 4. The Monogamous Family
| chapter-url = https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1884/origin-family/ch02d.htm
}}</ref>
</blockquote>

This is simply untrue. Women nowadays are doubly exploited under capitalism, both for their reproductive and their productive labour. Putting women into the workplace, allowing them to partake in STEM projects and embrace gender equality, does not rule out reproductive labour. Engels is stating that women's oppression disappears if the woman goes to work. We have seen women working, however, and this form of the work-day means they are exploited in the sense of domestic labour, and performing labour at their workplace.

So now one might think: ''Why is it bad that Engels states the cause of women's oppression is biological sex?'' Well the truth of the matter is, Engels and Marx still remain foundational that the cause of women's oppression is ''class'', not the sexual division of labour. Despite of this notion, there are marxists and radical feminists who argue that biological sex is the primary contradiction of women's oppression.

Let's consider the Radical Feminist side. Radical Feminism, a product of removing class from feminism and being an essential part of the [[Left-wing anticommunism|New Left]]. In one case let's look to 1970, where Kate Millet, a Radical Feminist who wrote a book titled 'Sexual Politics', could be ''officially'' considered one of the first gender abolitionists. An Indian Maoist Anuradha Ghandy who wrote on the situation in the [[United States of America|US]] New Left stated:
<blockquote>
Here [Kate Millet] made the claim that the personal was political, which became a popular slogan of the feminist movement. By the personal is political what she meant was that the discontent individual women feel in their lives is not due to individual failings but due to the social system, which has kept women in subordination and oppresses her in so many ways. Her personal feelings are therefore political.

In fact she reversed the historical materialist understanding by asserting that the male female relationship is a framework for all power relationships in society. According to her, this ”social caste” (dominant men and subordinated women) supersedes all other forms of inequality, whether racial, political or economic. This is the primary human situation. These other systems of oppression will continue because they get both logical and emotional legitimacy from oppression in this primary situation. Patriarchy according to her was male control over the private and public world. According to her to eliminate patriarchy men and women must eliminate gender, i.e. sexual status, role and temperament, as they have been constructed under patriarchy.<ref name=":1">{{Web citation
| author = Anuradha Ghandy
| title = Philosophical Trends in the Feminist Movement
| url = https://www.marxists.org/archive/gandhy/2006/philosophical-trends-in-feminist-movement-2nd-printing.pdf
}}</ref>
</blockquote>

Ghandy also talked about Shulamith Firestone, another radical feminist who made the book known as the "Dialectics of Sex".

<blockquote>
Firestone focused on reproduction instead of production as the moving force of history. Further, instead of identifying social causes for women’s condition she stressed biological reasons for her condition and made it the moving force in history. She felt that the biological fact that women bear children is the material basis for women’s submission in society and it needs a biological and social revolution to effect human liberation. She too was of the opinion that the sex/gender difference needs to be eliminated and human beings must be androgynous. But she went further than Kate Millett in the solution she advocated to end women’s oppression. She was of the opinion that unless women give up their reproductive role and no longer bear children and the basis of the existing family is changed it is not possible to completely liberate women.<ref name=":1" />
</blockquote>

It's interesting how someone like Firestone believes that women must stop bearing children in order to liberate women. We can see how these Radical Feminists can and do plague movements. Even if they don't affect Marxists, the fact Marxists can link with Radical Feminism at all in regards to the cause being biological sex is concerning.

Nowadays, [[Trotskyism|trotskyist]] groups like the [[Revolutionary Communist International]] (RCI, formerly known as the International Marxist Tendency) state a question in their articles such as: "[W]hat is the point of denying the existence of the male and female sex, with all their anatomic and biological differences?",<ref name=":2">{{Web citation
| author = Alessio Marconi
| newspaper = In Defence of Marxism
| title = LGBT: Liberation and Revolution
| url = https://www.marxist.com/lgbt-liberation-and-revolution.htm
| date = 2017-09-12
}}</ref> alongside with their trotskyite nonsense which includes thing such as blaming anti-LGBT notions on "Stalinism".

== The Ideology of Gender Abolitionism ==

Finally, we understand the initial roots of Gender Abolitionism. That being the idea has its roots out of biological essentialism (also known as biological determinism). Marxists may argue that women's oppression comes from class, but they may also argue about the biological standpoints (or the sexual dimorphism) in regards to the division of genders, in the same way as Radical Feminists do, thus making them no different from Radical Feminists.

In other words, to view the eyes of Gender Abolitionists: Sex and Gender are synonymous; the primary social contradiction of women's oppression is biological sex, not ''class''; therefore to truly liberate women, abolition of gender is a necessary goal. However this presents an issue. What happens when we abolish gender? Does this mean that everyone must be androgynous? Perhaps lacking any gender whatsoever? Does this mean that sexual differences can be eliminated by utilising some form of transhumanist philosophy?

It is truly a bizarre thing to see, where people argue about the sexual division of labour. To see more of this nonsensical worldview, we should consider the concepts of gender abolitionism in more details, and perhaps understanding the "postmodernist" terms too.

=== Are sex and gender synonymous? ===

To consider this question would mean that a man and woman are themselves defined by whatever standard. So the next question becomes: ''What does it mean to be a man and a woman?''

We have these conceptions of a man or a woman yet we don't exactly know what they are. We could surely define it from the standpoint of those with the ''ability'' to reproduce. This would mean that men are those with a penis, and women are those with a vagina. That should be it, right? However defining men and women from the standpoint of reproduction would exclude ''intersex'' people. Intersex people are often assigned a particular gender in the modern day, and intersex people don't necessarily have either genitalia at birth. Even if they do have presenting genitalia, their chromosomes may be different, and we cannot currently change sex chromosomes. So if their reproduction capability should take precedent, we can't have a proper definition of a man and woman without excluding intersex people. The goal posts then shift and another question is brought to me, considering I mentioned sex chromosomes. What about combining common characteristics, such as hormones, sex chromosomes and genitalia? That would be better but it would mean that transgender people wouldn't fit either that's due to their transitioning through means of hormones or surgery. Some cis people wouldn't fit either, as some cis people have the opposite sex chromosomes of their assigned birth.

We can't define sex in the manner which society does nowadays. Most of the so-called "marxists" consider sex, only in the fact they consider the ''majority'', in other words by ''excluding'' trans and intersex people. Leslie Feinberg, a person who made the book "Transgender Warriors", had a conversation with an indigenous person of that societies had more than 2 genders:
<blockquote>
Chrystos, a brilliant Two-Spirit poet and writer from the Menominee nation, offered me this understanding:"Life among First Nation people,before first contact, is hard to reconstruct. There's been so much abuse of traditional life by the Christian Church. But certain things have filtered down to us. Most of the nations that I know of traditionally had more than two genders. It varies from tribe to tribe. The concept of Two-Spiritedness is a rather rough translation into English of that idea. I think the English language is rigid, and the thought patterns that form it are rigid, so that gender also becomes rigid.

"The whole concept of gender is more fluid in traditional life. Those paths are not necessarily aligned with your sex, although they may be. People might choose their gender according to their dreams, for example. So even the idea that your gender is something you dream about is not even a concept in Western culture—which posits you are born a certain biological sex and therefore there's a role you must step into and follow pretty rigidly for the rest of your life. That's how we got the concept of queer. Anyone who doesn't follow their assigned gender role is queer; all kinds of people are lumped together under that word."<ref name=":3">{{Citation
| author = Leslie Feinberg
| year = 1996
| title = Transgender Warriors
| title-url = https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:Transgender_Warriors
| pdf = https://ptilou42.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/leslie_feinberg_transgender_warriors__making_hisz-lib.org_.pdf
}}</ref>
</blockquote>

It's clear that in pre-class societies, there was a conception of more than 2 genders. If people in pre-class societies could abstract gender from sex, we can as well. Therefore we can dismiss the concept that sex and gender are synonyms, refuting one point of the Radical Feminist talking points. It also means we cannot exclude trans or intersex people nor talk about a gendered division of labour as if its a given or a rigorous and strictly-defined entity.

=== Does there exist a Gender Identity? ===

Marxists seem to struggle with the concept of a gender identity. In fact, they call it ''idealist'', because it states that social consciousness precedes reality! Or so the marxists who do not have any idea about the self.

The self, identity, personality, whatever we may call it, is an essential aspect to the human person. It is not individualist to try and analyse the self, it is only individualist if it is prioritised over the needs of the collective. Note that ''collective'' here means the collective of all peoples, including trans and intersex people. In other words, to liberate the self, we must first liberate the collective.

Our identity is material, it is conditioned within our society, and based on our means of subsistence. Then comes Gender Identity. When we argue that Gender Identity is itself a part or an aspect of identity, we are suddenly called "unmarxist", because gender is a ''social construct''. A ''construct''. As Marxists, we wish to ''deconstruct''. We don't believe that things exist for the sake of existing. Capitalism exists not because it is human nature, but because it developed at such a point that capital became the dominant form of society. So gender, must be deconstructed as well, if we wish to rid of gender. The act of calling gender a ''social construct'' is the crucial act of the gender abolitionists. To put it plainly, ''everything about gender is fake.'' Nothing about gender is real, it's just as made up as sex is. Therefore gender identity is not real either, and if you argue it's real, you are an idealist!

We can certainly agree that sex is socially constructed, and therefore we wish to abolish the current model of sex, but is gender a social construct as well? Calling gender a 'social construct' would only ''harm'' trans people. It harms trans people by stating their existence, the way they portray themselves is nothing more than just them having body dysmorphia. Yet this rhetoric is popular all the time. All the time on subreddits such as ''r/MtF'' I see the term all the time that gender is socially constructed.

If gender is socially constructed, why had gender existed before the form of any oppression? Why construct something that wouldn't be used for anything other than oppression? But then they argue that "Gender has been oppressed since the sexual division of labour!" which we already can dismiss since I addressed it earlier.

I think it is time us trans people dismiss the term 'social construct' for gender and instead call it a '''social phenomenon'''. It hit me when I realised it hurt another trans person when I tried to educate them about how it feels to be a particular gender. I stated it is a social construct, and their eventual response was "I just want to keep the idea of always being a girl, as I was finally accepted as one. I feel like now my feelings aren't valid". It was clear that I was not correct at the time. Some may state, "sure it may be a social construct, but your feelings aren't". ''As if'' that eliminates the problem of it being called a social construct. Suddenly, I feel like I'm not a woman anymore, because it is made up. My feelings still exist, but I cannot say why they exist. Saying that I am a binary trans woman makes it better for me, than just saying I am a particular person. It is ''reducing'' their identity when you eliminate their gender identity.

=== Does the Queer Identity come from Oppression? ===

I expand from a trans to a queer identity solely because this issue applies to queer people as well. The thought of Gender Abolitionism, and how gender is a 'social construct', means that if gender identity is a social construct, so is ''sexual or gender orientation'', meaning many LGB people are affected by this too. For queer trans people it's even worse, they're not gonna be a transbian (transgender lesbian), or gay trans person, they won't be gay ''nor'' trans anymore, because those terms that exist form out of the basis of oppression!

In other words, the existence of these labels, gay, bisexual, trans, pansexual, asexual, aromantic, these labels don't exist anymore in our future society, ''supposedly''. One gender abolitionist stated a woman is: "that which is not a man and is oppressed by a man, and only exists in relation to the man." I responded: "Are non-binary people women too?" The existence of non-binary people merely makes their definition worthless, regardless of what dialectic they could make up. We can argue either: non-binary are oppressed, therefore they are women, or they are not oppressed, therefore they are men. Either side lands in a direct contradiction because non-binary people are neither man ''nor'' woman.

Then the goalposts shift, now instead of a woman, it's a ''non-man''. So now non-binary people are included, right? Then the question becomes "what about trans men? or non-binary people who present masculine?" Are they oppressors? Do they ''want'' to be oppressors? What about ''genderfluid'' people? They want to be masculine or feminine or neither! Just because the goalposts shift doesn't mean we can't see this is a flawed argument.

Man, Woman, Non-Binary, Agender, etc. are not defined by their oppression, but rather through gender being a social phenomenon, as I stated earlier. We can state that gender, by itself, is not ''inherently'' oppressive.

We can dig into this further. Maybe this gender abolitionist (by intention or not) would put trans men or masculine non-binary people into the non-man category. In that case, they would be ''transphobic'', because trans men are clearly not "non-man". It is a direct contradiction, despite their 'good fortune' of trying to make trans men appear to be oppressed.

=== Imagining the Future of No Gender ===

Let's ignore our arguments and just assume, for some reason, that gender abolition is a logical position. In that case, we will try to be as beneficial to these gender abolitionists, we will assume that gender ''sublates'', not necessarily abolishes (although that is a direct contradiction to the label "Gender Abolitionist") and future in time gender ceases to exist. Let's say ''I'', a trans woman who is no longer, now belong in this time period.

We don't need to know the background (although it would be in a "communist society"), and we can assume that technology had developed at such a point where sex abolition is done (there is no difference between surgical and "naturally born" genitalia). Even with this in mind, there comes the question: "What about my ''dysphoria''?" I have changed my penis to a vagina, I can now be a woman. Oh wait, I cannot because the term "woman" doesn't exist anymore. Neither does the term "male", or "AMAB", since these terms don't need to exist. Okay, I haven't heard these terms before (or I may have in history and think it's stupid that humanity must've been using gender) and that means I'm okay since my identity is still there. However I still yearn to express myself. What can I express myself as a person? Just a person? A person with a vagina? That would be fine in academic contexts, but not when people are directly communicating with each other. What do I express myself in a society where, I have estrogen in my body, I have a vagina, and my body is shaped in a way that is... ''feminine''? That's where the issue lies.

Dysphoria is biological, but it is also social too. Dysphoria exists as we trans people are born with it, we are born with levels of discomfort with our bodies. In that case, it wouldn't be "dysphoria" but ''body dysmorphia'' instead. Trans people are now merged with cis people (note that trans and cis don't exist as terms since they both refer to gender), and we don't have anything unique about us. We have nothing unique because we cannot converse about how our dysphoria is different from body dysmorphia. Neither is ''euphoria'', which I argue first is that what makes people transgender, since our euphoria, our enjoyment and contentment for our identities, is locked away. Leslie Feinberg describes this feeling better.

<blockquote>
"No wonder you've passed as a man! This is such an anti-woman society," a lesbian friend told me. To her, females passing as males are simply trying to escape women's oppression—period. She believes that once true equality is achieved in society, humankind will be genderless. I don't have a crystal ball, so I can't predict human behavior in a distant future. But I know what she's thinking—if we can build a more just society, people like me will cease to exist. She assumes that I am simply a product of oppression. ''Gee, thanks so much.''<ref name=":3" />
</blockquote>

''Thanks so much'' indeed. Our euphoria, our desire to be trans ''is'' what our identity is based on. Being trans is often treated as a cause for concern, especially by cis people, and even within our own community, but we trans people must realise, that us being trans is not a cause for concern, it is not something we wish to avoid. It is something we strive and want to strive for. We should be proud of being transgender, we do not need to look cis. Think of it another way: if I was born cis, I wouldn't be trans, I would lose a part of myself, and I would not be myself anymore.

== Gender Roles and Passing is the Product of Oppression, not Gender ==

Gender is often misattributed to what we call "Gender Roles". Gender Roles, which stem from Gender (supposedly), is the product of gender itself, to which we should abolish along ''with'' gender roles. This line of thinking is overly simplistic. First of all, if gender created gender roles, would class oppression not be the foundation of the world's issues, thus making us a part of the radical feminist and liberal camp? Secondly, if gender roles did stem from gender, why do trans people need to exist? The existence of trans people innately ''demolishes'' gender roles, because it no longer has a rigid layer, therefore there can be no role attached with gender. Not all trans people want to be part of the opposite binary, after all.

But then there comes a certain topic which relates to gender roles, ''Passing''. Passing is what we humans perceive as being cis, if a trans person can easily look the part of a woman or man and their desired gender. This is where the real oppression lies.

Trans people have always existed, and the existence of the rigidness of the gender binary has not always existed. The rigidness stems from slave society, from class struggle. Even in the bible we can pinpoint examples of transphobia:
<blockquote>
A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.<ref>[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2022%3A5&version=NIV Deuteronomy 22:5 NIV]</ref>

He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord.<ref>[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2023&version=KJV Deuteronomy 23:1 KJV] The reason I chose KJV and not NIV in this instance is because the interpretation is clearer in KJV for some reason compared to NIV.</ref>
</blockquote>

The rigidness comes at a point where it exists: Passing. A man and a woman have now defined roles, no longer as they are peasants, they are now factory workers with defined roles. Woman works the spindle, the sewing machine, and the man works with metallurgy, while children work the chimney. This meant that trans people were, more or less nonexistent (from the perception of cis people) during this time for many people. The need to pass, became more and more of a priority since with each mode of production, the level of oppression succeeded the last, the level of oppression became greater and greater.

I am not the first nor most likely the last to state that passing is a production of oppression rather than gender. Leslie Feinberg argues the same, arguing that passing is what leads to trans oppression, not gender:

<blockquote>
I have lived as a man because I could not survive openly as a transgendered person. Yes, I am oppressed in this society, but I am not merely a product of oppression. That is a phrase that renders all our trans identities meaningless. Passing means having to hide your identity in fear, in order to live. Being forced to pass is a recent historical development.

It is passing that is a product of oppression.<ref name=":3" />
</blockquote>

Gender abolitionists ignore the aspect of passing, how one trans person needs to pass in order to not be actively oppressed. Their oppression still exists if they successfully pass, because if they do not belong to the roles of their gender, they will not pass. If this "passing" thing is abolished, along the concept of gender roles withering away, trans people can finally fluorish as to what they want to be. In other words, trans oppression ceases to exist when passing no longer becomes an issue. This may also fix cis people too.

== Trans Men are an Enigma to Gender Abolitionists ==

If we consider gender abolitionism to be true, the question becomes ''how do trans men fit into this?''

We can both agree that trans people are oppressed under capitalist society, but does that mean trans men are well? Gender abolitionists just fail to consider the other side of the equation, where there exists trans men who wish to be men. That means for the gender abolitionists, they state the following things:
# Trans men are oppressed, because their sex is a woman
# Trans men are not oppressed because they belong to the patriarchy
# Trans men are just women who want to escape oppression

The first argument is transphobic, no question. It may be true they were assigned female at birth, it doesn't mean their genitalia are considered to match the typical vagina. Some may be intersex, for example. Secondly, this stems from the issue of passing. Some trans men do not pass, at all. Though passing may be less of an issue compared to trans women, trans men will be oppressed. And even if trans men ''do'' pass, they still aren't necessarily oppressing women, because they are oppressed by the patriarchy, not because they are women, but because they are ''trans''. Third argument falls into TERFism. If is true that trans men are women who want to escape oppression, why aren't we seeing many trans men doing this? This ties in with my second argument which states that their oppression stays.

It's extraordinary to see that the only advocates for gender abolition are cis men, and trans women. It is strange to me, given that trans women are just basically saying they don't want to exist! It just shows a bit of cognitive dissonance to me.

== Patriarchy Oppresses All People, Even Cis Men ==

What I may say in this chapter may regard me as a 'reactionary' or 'privileged' person, but I continue on.

Marxists don't know or don't care to recognise the existence of 'Toxic Masculinity', a term originally appeared within feminist circles. Toxic Masculinity, a term which describes masculine people, shows that men can ''also'' be oppressed by patriarchy, as ironic as that sounds.

The concept of patriarchy, not only divides women and trans people into the oppressed category, but it consequently presupposes that the role of the man is to ''oppress'' them. Of course, not all men are oppressors. Gay men are oppressed, often being compared to crossdressing. Gay men are oppressed because capitalism supports the eventual reproduction necessary to elevate itself, which gay men can't do. Gay men ''can'' be oppressors to women, and in fact sometimes are, but not all gay men advocate for this. Nonetheless, it shows that the concept of patriarchy is too binary, in other words, ''Men oppressors, Women oppressed'', when patriarchy is itself a can of worms, which shows that trans men, gay men, feminine men (sometimes known as Femboys) can be oppressed too.

There is a tendency in Marxism to think in a binary manner, "Bourgeoisie oppressors, Proletariat Oppressed", yet we see that some can be oppressors and some can be oppressed depending on national conditions (for example the national bourgeoisie can be oppressed, like what Mao described in China, and there are certainly oppressor proletarians described as the 'Labour Aristocracy' by Lenin). We must stop being reductive, ''especially'' when it comes to the patriarchy. Men certainly do benefit from the patriarchy, but it is not all men. Femboys, Gay men, Trans men, they are all 'classified' as men, yet they are ''oppressed'', not oppressors, because they do not conform to the standpoint of patriarchy. Each and every one of them have their own reasons to not conforming to patriarchy, but despite the differing reasons, they are nonetheless, oppressed.

There is a systematic mode of thinking which ''generally'' says that men are indeed oppressors, but this systematic mode of thinking will and ''does'' alienate us from the masses. This systematic thinking is what Mao and Lenin opposed, Lenin outrightly stated this in regards to the Practicality of Self-Determination:
<blockquote>
''Insofar'' as the bourgeoisie of the oppressed nation fights the oppressor, we are always, in every case, and more strongly than anyone else, ''in favour'', for we are the staunchest and the most consistent enemies of oppression. But insofar as the bourgeoisie of the oppressed nation stands for ''its own'' bourgeois nationalism, we stand against. We fight against the privileges and violence of the oppressor nation, and do not in any way condone strivings for privileges on the part of the oppressed nation.

If, in our political agitation, we fail to advance and advocate the slogan of the ''right'' to secession, we shall play into the hands, not only of the bourgeoisie, but also of the feudal landlords and the absolutism of the ''oppressor'' nation. Kautsky long ago used this argument against Rosa Luxemburg, and the argument is indisputable. When, in her anxiety not to “assist” the nationalist bourgeoisie of Poland, Rosa Luxemburg rejects the ''right'' to secession in the programme of the Marxists ''in Russia'', she is ''in fact'' assisting the Great-Russian Black Hundreds. She is in fact assisting opportunist tolerance of the privileges (and worse than privileges) of the Great Russians.

[...]

The bourgeois nationalism of ''any'' oppressed nation has a general democratic content that is directed ''against'' oppression, and it is this content that we ''unconditionally'' support, At the same time we strictly distinguish it from the tendency towards national exclusiveness; we fight against the tendency of the Polish bourgeois to oppress the Jews.<ref>{{Citation
| author = V.I. Lenin
| year = 1914
| title = The Right of Nations to Self-Determination
| title-url = https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1914/self-det/
| chapter = 4. "Practicality" in the National Question
| chapter-url = https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1914/self-det/ch04.htm
}}</ref>
</blockquote>

This systematic mode of thinking is what leads to the "Kill All Men" form of Radical Feminism, who perceive men as nothing more than a mere threat to be eliminated, regardless of their actual character. When in reality, those radical feminists are only ''assisting'' the men that benefit from the patriarchy, even if they state otherwise. It leads to Feminism being thought as nothing more of a joke, and thus being used as a punching bag, with people dismissing the First, Second, and Third waves of Feminism which surged before.

When I speak of patriarchy, the means of abolishing it does not mean despising the men who are oppressed by it, either because they want to have a feminine appearance, are gay, or are transgender. It means eradicating the cisgender, heterosexual men who do ''actively'' benefit from it. A group of men talking and demeaning women is one case. It shows the background of their privilege, how they actively benefit from the reproductive labour and productive labour of women. Indeed, ''these'' men do benefit. It may be a general ''tendency'', a tendency that isn't reflected in all men.

== The Issues of Viewing Marxism as a "System" ==

The 'System' in this case is like a function. With any function, we can analyse its inputs and outputs, and make a map of what it does. In the context of Marxism, this 'system' would be extended within the Dialectical (or in the case of what I'm arguing Historical) Materialist framework. I am in full belief that the Materialist Dialectical framework is a necessary step to approach the nature of science, as metaphysics fails to take into account how nature works despite science advancing from it.

We can view the each trend of the mode of production as a gradual transition from which each power gradually is destroyed and replaced with another. The exception to this is the ''socialist'' mode of production, and sometimes the ''capitalist'' mode of production, where the French revolution came to be. However this view takes on another point, the point of that being the masses.

The [[Juche]] philosophy explains the issue of Marxism-Leninism as it stands:
<blockquote>
The creators of Marxism set as their main task overcoming the idealistic and metaphysical view of social history which served to justify the reactionary exploiting system and applying the materialistic and dialectical principles to the field of social history; they clarified that society, like nature, exists objectively and it changes and develops according according to the general law governing the material world. They however failed to elucidate the essential differences between the movement of nature and social movement and the law inherent in the socio-historical movement. The new era implies that the most important requirement for making the view of social history of the working class perfect, is to clarify the law peculiar to the social-historical movement whose motive force is the working masses. This historic task was fulfilled with credit by the Juche philosophy.

[...]

Since it viewed social history with the main stress on the objective material and economic conditions, Marxism considered the development of society to be the history of replacement of the mode of production by the law of adaptation of the relations of production to the character of the productive forces. According to this opinion, one can understand that revolution is carried out in the main when a socialist mode of production has been established and therefore it is concluded that there remains only work to consolidate and develop the socialist mode of production. This can be said to be one of the reasons why the Marxist-Leninists classicists failed to provide details for the continuous revolution for the building of communism after the triumph of the socialist revolution...<ref>{{Citation
| author = Kim Jong-Il
| year = 1990
| title = On Some Problems of The Ideological Foundation of Socialism
| pdf = https://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-jong-il/works/On-Some-Problems-Of-The-Ideological-Foundation-Of-Socialism.pdf
}}</ref>
</blockquote>

The Juche Philosophy states that Marxism-Leninism fails to take into account the differences between how nature changes and how the social being changes. In other words, it is true that Men make their history, but they do not make it as they please.<ref>Paraphrase from this book: {{Citation
| title = The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
| author = Karl Marx
| year = 1852
| title-url = https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:The_18th_Brumaire_of_Louis_Bonaparte
| chapter = February 1848 to December 1851
| chapter-url = https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:The_18th_Brumaire_of_Louis_Bonaparte#February_1848_to_December_1851
| mia = https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/index.htm
}}</ref> Man is bound to the laws of nature, but the Man is "neither a purely spiritual being nor a simple biological being. Man is a social being who lives and acts in social relationships. The fact that man is a social being is the major quality which distinguishes him from other biological beings."<ref>{{Citation
| author = Kim Jong-Il
| title = Socialism is a Science
| year = 1994
| pdf = https://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-jong-il/works/Socialism-Is-A-Science.pdf
}}</ref> The Juche philosophy does away with any form of determinism that is present within Marxism, that which Juche states that "Man is the master of everything and decides everything".<ref>{{Citation
| author = Kim Jong-Il
| year = 1982
| title = On the Juche Idea
| title-url = https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:On_the_Juche_idea
| chapter = The Philosophical Principle of the Juche Idea
| chapter-url = https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:On_the_Juche_idea#The_Philosophical_Principle_of_the_Juche_Idea
}}</ref> This is not an admission of "Great Man Theory" or an idealist nature, as some may say, but how man connects itself as a social being towards nature.

There is a lot of connection between the Juche Philosophy and being Transgender. In being Transgender, it just further shows us that we ''are'' human beings, we are ''social'' beings, our biology does not determine us. What makes us different from other species in the fact we are Creative, Independent, and Conscious, the three characteristics representative of the Juche idea.

If truly, our simple biological characteristics determine the makeup of ourselves, why do trans people exist? Why are intersex people not belonging to a single (or even multiple) category? This should make us realise that indeed, maybe it is not biology characteristics that make us, but how we interact with our environment through our means of subsistence. Consider the antinomy (or paradox):

<blockquote>
Were one to ask an eighteenth-century writer, say Cellier, how man’s ideas take shape, he would reply that they are a product of the social environment. But what is a social environment? It is the totality of those very social relations which, Cellier Dufayel himself asserts, originate in human thought.

Hence we have before us the following antinomy:

# The social environment is a product of thought;
# Thought is a product of the social environment.

As long as we are unable to escape from this contradiction, we shall understand nothing either in the history of ideas or in the history of social forms.

If you take, for instance, the evolution ot literary criticism in the nineteenth century, you will see it has been, and in part remains, quite powerless to solve this antinomy. Thus, Sainte-Beuve holds that every social revolution is accompanied by a revolution in literature. But where do social revolutions come from? They are caused by the development of human thought; since, in civilised societies, the evolution of thought finds expression in the evolution of literature, we come up against the same antinomy: the development of literature hinges on social development, while social development is conditioned by the development of literature. Hippolyte Taine’s philosophy of art suffers from the same shortcoming.

We shall now see how Marx’s understanding of history successfully solves this antinomy.

Marx’s materialist understanding of history is the direct opposite of the eighteenth-century understanding.

In a comparison of his own method with that of Hegel, Marx says in the Afterword to the Second German Edition of Capital:
<blockquote>
“To Hegel, the life-process of the human brain, i.e., the process of thinking, which, under the name of ‘the Idea’, he even transforms into an independent subject, is the demiurgos of the real world, and the real world is only the external, phenomenal form of ‘the Idea’. With me, on the contrary, the ideal is nothing but the material world reflected by the human mind, and translated into forms of thought.”
</blockquote>
This is a materialist understanding of the history of human thought. Engels expressed the same in a more popular form when he said that it is not consciousness that determines being, but being that determines consciousness.

It may, however, be asked: what does a way of life derive from if it is not determined by the mode of thought?

Social man’s way of life is determined by his means of subsistence, which in their turn depend on the state of the productive forces at the disposal of social man, i.e., of society.<ref>{{Citation
| author = Georgi Plekhanov
| year = 1898
| title = On the Alleged Crisis in Marxism
| title-url = https://www.marxists.org/archive/plekhanov/1898/xx/crisis.htm
}}</ref>
</blockquote>

We have already determined that gender identity is itself not idealist. Therefore we can state that gender comes from a pre-class mode of production, where our means of subsistence, our necessity for survival, comes from us wanting to be other than a 'man' or 'woman' as our assigned sex. We will be a separate gender, or take part of the opposite gender, so we wish to stay in the binary. It is totally apparent to do so, given that trans people exist. Stating that it is a symbol of oppression completely falls into the trap of what the Juche philosophy avoids, in other words, the Human is not a master of their destiny (to use gender neutral words this time), their biological makeup determines gender oppression. This is completely unmaterialistic.

Trans people will be the masters of their own destiny, to which they understand and have the need to transition within the current conditions of the self, the self has a desire of being another gender instead of what they were assigned. To say otherwise is to fall into the antinomy, to say that which determining their biological makeup makes thought (which in of itself can be considered a 'social environment') and thought which continues the social environment (in this case it would be the 'gender oppression').

== Why do Transgender People Support Gender Abolitionism? ==

Now a legitimate question comes to us, which is already said in the chapter title, but to put it further: "''Why do transgender people support gender abolitionism then?''" In essence this seems to be a perfectly reasonable question. The ''fact'' that trans people support the idea of a gender abolition should immediately disregard this essay.

Leslie Feinberg said this before and I will repeat this phrase once again from my previous essays: ''Being transgender does not make you inherently progressive''. There can (and does) exist reactionary transgender people, or specifically ''transphobic'' transgender people, which is an oxymoron that will make more sense later.

If anyone read my "[[Essay:Welcome to TERF Island|Welcome to TERF Island]]" essay, they saw that I written in a specific section regarding the ''Daily Mail'', a proven transphobic publishing outlet. In that article which advocates for conversion therapy was spoken by none other than a "transwoman" (there is no space between in the article) Debbie Hayton. I called her out for being a reactionary, stating that it is 'ironic' for someone to be a transphobic person while being transgender.

You do not need to read that section (though it is recommended you do ''regardless''), but I am pointing out as an example that the transphobic media, can and ''does'' use transgender people to make transphobic statements. Certain transgender people are now authorities in the matter, using their words to disregard the lives of transgender people. In the essay, I used the label ''Identity Traitor'' to describe transphobic transgender people, for one; not only to dismantle this (seeming to be) oxymoron and two; describe them as who they truly are. In this sense, we call Transgender Gender Abolitionists to be Identity Traitors.

It is not oxymoronic to see that there does exist transgender people who would disregard their own identity. It makes sense inherently, one which is born in a transphobic environment, who utilises ''cognitive dissonance'' and their means of subsistence involves a transphobic social environment means their internalised transphobia is projected onto others, they are transphobic because they are being transphobic to ''other'' trans people.

That dismantles the idea of 'transphobic transgender people' to be oxymoronic, but it does not explain the idea of why transgender people choose to be gender abolitionists. Trans people may choose to be gender abolitionists as a means to reconcile with cis people, who ''also'' advocate for gender abolition. In other words, their means of subsistence states that they choose to be gender abolitionists to no longer be considered different. After all, ''Why should I be treated differently when everyone else is unique?'' This idea of gender abolition makes it appetising, because it removes their idea of dysphoria, or mitigates it to the point that it does not matter anymore, since it wouldn't be a special case but something rather generic. However when trans people want to enhance and embrace their own identities, there leads to a certain issue where in the process of enhancing their identities, they are ''removing'' what makes them feel like they are transgender. I already stated it before, that it is not gender that is the issue but the issue of passing. Eliminating the requirement to pass means that people won't be so judgmental, it also means that being trans is something to be proud of, you are special, instead of being a "mistake". In that case, this speciality would be removed when we conform to gender abolitionism. They are not special, rather they are just 'human'. We are all humans, but being something 'more' than just a regular human being is what makes us feel like our self is unique. Our self wouldn't be our self if we removed the concept of gender.

== Comparing Race and Gender Hurts Both People of Color and Transgender People ==

I've been seeing common rhetoric from not only "marxists" but also from reactionaries over the idea of a 'transracialism', that is: "If I can change my gender, I can change my race, since they are both social constructs". It's more of the typical "''I identify as an attack helicopter''" line of "jokes", except these types of jokes are so hurtful that even Joe Biden identified himself as a black woman (Just before anyone says I am transphobic, note that he will not mean anything by it, he himself is a caricature).

Firstly, Gender is not a social construct. It is however, a social ''phenomenon'', but so race in this regard. However with race, we call it a "social construct" because it was constructed (by intention) to discriminate people and support colonialist ideas. Gender on the other hand, would not be considered as such because while gender is a social thing, it is not a thing which was constructed to artificially oppress people.

I am not transphobic, nor racist to call out a transracialist. The idea of being a different race is not an aspect of one's identity. The identity of being black, person of color, or white is absolutely constructed. The racial identity, what it exists, is prescribed rather than described. The description of one's identity is a material thing. Its prescription is not. Gender is inherently descriptivist, 'I am transgender'. It is true that one can be prescribed as "transgender", but it is transphobia that does this, as we do not know if one person is trans or not without asking. Race on the other hand, is prescribed. One may describe themselves as black, but almost everyone judges one based on their skin color alone. "You are black", "You are white". It is inherently prescriptivist. One does not innately describe themselves as "black" or "white". More often than not, it is tied to their ''culture''. For example, two "white" identities would be "I am British" and "I am Irish", however historically Irish people were not considered white. Thus we can see that race is not only a simplistic overview that judges purely skin color (and also their cultural background) to be more or less superior, race is constructed and therefore must be ''deconstructed''. Therefore transracialism does not exist.

If one person really wants to identify with a specific culture, one has to ''interact'' with their culture in an organic way. For example, a person does not just identify as part of the culture that they live in, without being part of said conditions living in an organic manner. We see this effect sometimes within diaspora communities. However certain people of the diaspora community (i.e. the Black community) cannot become acquainted to the culture they live in because they have been rejected due to being discriminated. Therefore a new culture arises in that instance. We can see that, therefore, black people in the US constitute a nation. This is not parroting race, rather ''culture'' is now a factor, the culture centering first forming around oppression.

The idea of transracialism does not align with either the views of race or gender. Race can and ''absolutely should'' be abolished. Gender on the other hand arose due to entirely different circumstances. We can pinpoint the origin of race (that being the beginnings of colonialism), but the origin of gender is still a great mystery to most. Mayhaps someone of their previous culture may embark into a new culture, thus becoming part of that new culture (an example would be a Mestizo forming back connections with indigenous communities and becoming part of said indigenous community). But one cannot abandon their race and state they are now suddenly another.

Moving on, there is a lower level of transracialism, one which gender and race are used as ''analogies''. What is an analogy? An analogy is using another form of reference to give a general idea. In the case of gender, the gender abolitionists use an analogy of "The skin colour and ethnicity of a person makeup their race", thus making the comparison of "the genitalia of a person makeup their gender".

Analogies work when they try to pose a general idea. What Analogies do not state is that they are 'facts' to that general idea. In other words, the analogy of race and compounding it onto gender fails. When we compare race and gender, we are not learning anything. Neither about its roots, or about whether its character is progressive or not. Thus we have a dilemma, what do we do about this? The idea is that we should stop comparing race and gender ''entirely''. Race and Gender are two separate aspects, which have some correlations due to both being inherently social. But correlation does not imply causation, nor does it mean that they are linked in anyway. The linkage of race and gender is entirely coincidental.

Thus we should no longer use this comparison. It is both racist and transphobic. We should consider them as two separate things. The abolition of race is a necessity, but the abolition of gender is not.

== Gender Abolitionists Divide over Definitions ==

Not all gender abolitionists actually advocate for the abolition of gender, to be specific. It's interesting given the level of cognitive dissonance people will go through to make gender abolitionism seem valid.

There seems to be a divide on the definition of gender abolitionism. Maybe it is due to lack of experience, maybe it is due to wanting to fit in. Either way, some people define gender abolitionism as the abolition of gender roles rather than the abolition of gender entirely. This is contradictory, if they are called gender abolitionists yet ''only'' want to abolish gender roles, then why do they call themselves gender abolitionists?

The name itself gives away the ideology. Gender abolitionism: The abolition of ''gender''. Which includes the abolition of gender roles, but also includes gender expression and gender identity. Thus they are shooting themselves in the foot if they wish to express support for the gender identity, yet don't want gender to exist as they describe themselves as 'Gender abolitionists'. I do not disagree that gender roles should be removed. However it will wither away, since the inherent existence of transgender people and intersex people will naturally dissolve the idea of gender roles to begin with. The abolition of gender roles would also mean the abolition of passing, a big victory for the transgender people.

However by obscuring themselves under the label 'Gender Abolitionists', it means they still wish to abolish gender entirely, regardless of their actual thought process. That or they are not ''actually'' gender abolitionists.
== Reviewing More Gender Abolitionist Literature ==

=== The Disappointment of the Red Clarion's article ===
The issue with gender abolitionism is that it is a commonplace (and easily arguable) ideology. There are plenty of works, but I want to start with something that I consider of upmost importance. [[Unity–Struggle–Unity]], an organisation formed from a minor party splinter, aims to educate the masses through its project known as the [[Red Clarion]]. A recent article published the ''RC'' titled "''Communists and the Queer Question''"<ref name=":4">{{Web citation
| author = Cde. Winter
| title = Communists and the Queer Question
| date = 2024-07-22
| url = https://clarion.unity-struggle-unity.org/2024-07-22-communists-and-the-queer-question/
}}</ref> shows that the USU has an active issue with their gender abolitionism. I have interacted with the members of ''USU'' before, they were dismissive of me and another comrade's points. I will not list out any examples nor will I consider to post the discussion in any full detail as it was on a private server.

Regardless, this article was a disappointment to read. I made an essay almost a year ago regarding [[Essay:The LGBT Question, Answered|the LGBT question]], and I feel that article makes a further dissection onto what it means to LGBT rather than what this one did here. Maybe it is the fact that I wrote an essay while this one is meant to be a work for the ''masses'', though I fail to see which one is harder to read.

The Article on the Queer Question begins with absorbing LGBT identities into the status known as "Queer". This is fine, I don't see anything wrong with being inherently inclusive. Oh and the second reason is because "they like it". The article beings with strange wordings, including that "The queer question is as old as class society itself"<ref name=":4" /> and "queer people have always and everywhere, in some cultural form or other, formed part of class society".<ref name=":4" /> Does this imply that Queer people are formed as a result of class society? Or rather they are a ''part of'' class society? We can give them the benefit of a doubt in this case, since it is likely they meant the latter. As for the former quote, we can state that it is likely rhetoric. ''Or is it?''

Their next paragraphs start on dismantling the arguments of typical [[Patriotic socialism|Patriotic 'socialist']] and actual anti-Marxist rhetoric. That is until we get to this argument:
<blockquote>
Others argue that “Some queer identities, such as the homosexuals, are recognized by Marxism as having a material basis. However others such as the transgender and transsexual identities ignore or contradict the material basis of sexual biology, are therefore idealistic in nature, and must be discarded in order to arrive at a materialist position.”<ref name=":4 />
</blockquote>

They denote (correctly) that sex is a social construct based on the division of labour. However something concerning appears when they state that "Men and women became defined in dialectical contradiction with one another." We can take this two ways. The first way would be "What about non-binary people?" If we state that sex itself a social construct, where would non-binary (or more specifically a 3rd gender given the earlier paragraph quoted Engels) be in this case? How would they be defined in this contradiction? If we do not include non-binary people in this contradiction, we would not be inclusive. Second, If they were referring to solely biological standpoints, then it wouldn't be "woman" would it? Wouldn't it anyone capable to childbearing? Also note that it states "One common theory is about childbearing", where it just notes that "women were biologically equipped to nurse newborns and men were not". Nursing in this case meant breastfeeding, raising their child.

Note that natural forms of HRT did exist, breastfeeding from a "man" was biologically possible. It may not have been common, but it was a possibility.
<blockquote>
Today some opponents of sex-reassignment argue that sex-change is merely a high-tech phenomenon, a consequence of people being squeezed into narrow cultural definitions of what it means to be a woman or a man because surgical and hormonal options are now available. It's true that the development of anesthesia, and the commercial synthesis of hormones, opened up new opportunities for sex-reassignment. However, the argument that transsexuals are merely escaping rigid sex roles doesn't take into account ancient surgical techniques of sex-change developed in communal societies that offered more flexible sex and gender choices.<ref name=":3" />
</blockquote>

To quote Leslie Feinberg another time, it was observed that it was the job of the whole family to raise the child, not just the women. However this was not always the case:
<blockquote>
It's true that women's ability to bear children and breast-feed in many cases helped to determine an overall division of labor. Human babies go through a long period of infancy during which they need to be nursed and nurtured. But by all accounts, childcare in communal cultures was a collective task, not the responsibility of each mother, nor of every woman, since not every woman bore children.

I would suggest that we haven't had all the information with which to challenge the cultural construction of the modern view of childcare. For instance, in some pre-class societies, both parents went through the ritual pain of bearing a child and both were responsible for infant care.<ref name=":3" />
</blockquote>

We can see that the ideas that forms from this suggests that it is not always true, and they state that the women's reproductive labour (not the surplus produced) is the primary acquisition of wealth. Note that ''Labour is not the source of all wealth''. Nature is too. Nature would given us this form of wealth, would be the primary acquisition, not necessarily women. Women's reproductive labour is important, but what drives the Man to be the "breadwinner" is through the beginning of trade. This is the formation of how people would consider 'gender oppression' and therefore how people would be gender abolitionists. They state by ''biological differences'' (i.e. the biological makeup which makes the social environment as we stated earlier), determines the patriarchy of the state (in other words "thought"). We landed right back into the antinomy.

If we think of women's oppression, not as a quantitative to qualitative transformation (as we do with class society), we can instead refer to it an often unused term in dialectical thought known as '[[Negation of the negation]]'. Thought about this way, we can see that the negations are true:

# The first negation occurs after the overthrow of communalism, the end of matrilineal society. Women, ''often'' not holding the instruments of labour yet nonetheless are essential for reproduction, means that they are reduced to no longer being considered, while the men hold themselves to private property.
# The second negation occurs during the 15th century, of which Leslie Feinberg argues that it is where trans (and women's) oppression finally surfaces. Due to colonialism, the witch trials, the woman finally becomes objectified, the woman no longer has any rights she had before, trans people were especially oppressed, being considered nonexistent.

There proceeds it: The negation ''of'' the negation. Both events which occur to the totality of the oppression of the elements of people which the patriarchy considered 'undesirable'. Even in Europe, where first women's oppression lay in its totality, the man of a serf family cannot control the woman's subordination. Rather the ''lord'' did. And there is evidence to show that women had shared use of the common land with the man.

<blockquote>
Up until the fifteenth century, a great majority of the world's population lived in communal, matrilineal societies. This was true throughout Africa, large parts of Asia, the Pacific islands, Australia, and the Americas. If all of human history were shrunk to the scale of one year, over 360 days of historical time belong to cooperative, matrilineal societies.<ref name=":3" />
</blockquote>

They now begin to compare gender to ''race'', comparing that gender and race are social constructs because they use the same biological makeup. Of course they argue that race is an ideology which its birth came from colonialism, and they ''should'', but the ''analogy'' shows that they compare race and gender. Race and Gender are not the same, a gender abolitionist knows this. But the gender abolitionist incorrectly assumes that since race is a social construct, gender must be too! They taken a page from the book written by the Conservatives in this regard.

The next paragraph continues on to state how feminism first arose, and the next paragraph (rather boldly) states: "How does the queer question figure into this analysis of sex?" At least they mention that gender has existed before class, by using the example of a "Two-Spirit". This does ''not'' absolve them from criticism.

But they move on, stating that there are now two "classes", an oppressor man, and an oppressed woman. The first issue is that they ignore the existence of transgender people. Second, where do transgender men belong? Thirdly, what does "class" in this context even mean? In my [[Essay:Welcome to TERF Island|TERF Island]] essay, JK Rowling addresses women as a "political class" who share a common experience. This is, of course, ''false''. Not all women share a common experience. Some women are actually ''oppressors'', and they are nicknamed TERFs. Women are not a "class", not even a ''social'' class, they are a group. A group which we made (socially constructed or not), and our categorisation depends on what we define to be a woman, which I do not define it by sex alone.

Continuing on, they cite examples of a woman having sexual relations to a woman and a "woman can simply become a man, or something else outside the binary dichotomy". In other words, their sex matters more than their actual gender. Maybe it is true they ''were'' a woman. It does not mean they are. Note that they cite cis women specifically, not trans women, not gay men, to further continue the trend of women being oppressed.

Next they say that capitalism requires the sex dichotomy to continue to function. Maybe that could be true, but ''also'' capitalism perpetuates ''pinkwashing'', something which I vehemently oppose. Capitalism "supports" gay people in such that they "support" the proletariat. Except while the imperial proletariat are given superprofits thus becoming the labour aristocracy, the LGBT people are fine with Lockheed Martin doing a pride parade. Or maybe not the LGBT people, but rather LGBT Liberals, or even cishet people who want to be allies. Note that production doesn't concentrate in the imperial core, it concentrates within the ''imperialised'' world, which the imperial core is now "post-industrial". Note that they said that the women must continue to be exploited for their ''reproductive'' and not ''productive'' labour. Interesting choice of words given that reproductive labour does not matter in a capitalist society for increasing productivity, rather productive labour does.

I will conclude my critiques there, as the rest of the article is filled with nothing else of importance. This author does not claim to be a gender abolitionist, but ''USU'' is a definitely an organisation advocating for gender abolitionism.

=== The So-Called "Unburial" Theory of Dialectical Feminism ===

This critique will be based on an essay made by May Peterson, who in her bio calls herself a "transsexual". Indeed, off to a great start. But we will push on.

The title of this essay is "Dialectical Feminism: An Unburial Theory".<ref>{{Web citation
| author = May Peterson
| title = Dialectical Feminism: An Unburial Theory
| date = 2024-05-15
| url = https://medium.com/@mayrpeterson/dialectical-feminism-an-unburial-theory-362a08e0244e
}}</ref> What is this unburial theory? We will get to it. Peterson wants to contribute to Feminism, by making a new one "Dialectical Feminism". Not that Marxist Feminism or Proletarian Feminism already incorporate dialectics.

The first thing Peterson does is define what is Feminism. She believes there to be two characteristics. The first characteristic is that it "pursues a female perspective". She elaborates further when she denotes that female to be an adjectival way to speak about women and girls. In other words, a female perspective is the perspective of women are girls. In other words, they believe gender to a social construct, which it is not. They do not argue that gender is biological, but they do argue that it is a perspective, in other words how gender manifests within culture, which can only affect their gender expression and not their identity.

Gender Identity is material, and we cannot say the femaleness "perspective" changes our gender identity. Gender identity can take various forms, but these forms manifest as a makeup of themselves, as who they want to be. For example, Two-Spirit, a gender who belongs to the indigenous, is different from Non-Binary, though both could be compared. This is because non-binary is a makeup of someone's identity while Two-Spirit is a makeup of someone's indigenous connections to their culture while also expressing the same feeling of "I am neither man nor woman". Hence, gender could not be a social construct, and perspective is limited on gender.

The second characteristic is where a feminist philosophy is concerned with the conditions of female life and its causations.
She correctly notes that society is male (note that she specifically says ''male'', and doesn't bother to mention trans men or intersex men, etc.) dominated. Thus becomes the theory of the "burial" of the woman. And what feminism does is to "unbury" it, to set new perspectives from the modern ones. However she does not ''only'' state a new perspective but rather a ''female'' perspective, and not only a female perspective but also of female lives, interests and ''bodies''. They view femaleness from aesthetics it seems, and they seem to imply the concept of a "female" mind and body, one which would be considered judgmental, and not only that, rule out trans women and men.

Next, Peterson goes over the types of Feminism. The analysis on Liberal Feminism is shallow, and by what 'Liberalism' states, it does show that it is centered around 'individualism'. But a better critique of Liberal Feminism would be centered around capitalism, where 'girlbosses' do not challenge patriarchy nor do they challenge capitalism. Replicating fire does not make feminism work, rather water is needed to extinguish said fire.

Next is Radical Feminism, which she states that with radical feminists is that it is "more formal" and "more theoretically rigorous". Indeed radfems would be given the credit for seeing patriarchy as a systematic issue, however she does not state ''why'' this issue exists from the perspective of radical feminists. We saw beforehand that radical feminists oppose society on the basis of reproduction not of capitalism.

She also defends Radical Feminism (and denies its misandry) by stating that hating on Radical Feminists is directly validating their points of patriarchy. She states that it is because of society that it is socially acceptable for men to hate and fear on women, rather than the reverse. She just completely disregards the misandry of the Radical Feminists, and not only that, she disregards the tactic of fighting fire with fire on men as nothing bad, when it should be done with water. My critiques of Radical Feminism are more of the same with Liberal Feminism, since I view them as synonyms, more or less.

Aside from these, there's nothing that needs mentioning, so I will move on.

Next is 'Dialectical Feminism', a new term which she invented. She invents a term for events known as 'processes' and using the idea of Dialectics. She states that gender has "distinct but related layers". The first process is "Normative gender" which she argues that biology and apparent sexual reproduction has a place in the social order. She even states it's a "shocking assertion" but she just said "Read on". The second process is "Emergent gender". Which she argues that from the perspective of sex (she uses the term body but she definitely is referring to sex here). In other words, the feeling of not belonging to a certain category, if we go by her perspective, it means that Peterson directly admitted to sex being the factor, thus making her transphobic. Definitely a "transfeminist" (she calls herself that). She states that this emergent gender as a collective effort to standardise human behaviour, which she is not wrong. She states in the essay that why does this normative gender system persist? She answers this in the third process "Gender regulation". In other words she states punishment for that regulation. She outrightly calls herself a gender abolition advocate which she states gender regulation is the ''fundamental'' function of the gender system. She cites the example of body regulating its temperature as a means to support her argument, which fails since she is arguing about punishment, an active response. The fourth process is the "Adaptation". She states that gender is an ongoing process, which it is.

This "process" may seem fundamentally rudimentary, but the problem becomes of one similar to the Kalam Cosmological Argument. ''Where does gender come from?'' This system of processes, we cannot reverse each process, since each process is an effect while also a cause. A process in this way may be considered a one-way function (or many-to-one), where we cannot trace its origins without repeating the same cause. Unless if we consider the first process to the beginning, in which she considers sex to be real, and she would be ''transphobic''.

Next she applies the "spiral principles", which she states "A spiral incorporates elements of both a circle and a line without really being either." She continues to state that internal opposition is necessary for the process to continue. In other words she is arguing ''against'' what Hegel suggests, with the proposal of a synthesis-antithesis-synthesis principle, which is something Hegel never proposed himself.

She uses the examples of male-dominated society often having a narrative of 'female greatness'. She states that it is to 'sweeten' the pot, to make women subordinate to the gender system and male-dominance. If it was the case, how come gender existed before class society (and therefore patriarchy) did? No, the status of womanhood and male-dominant societies praising female goddesses comes from the fact that people uphold relics of the past, sometimes thousands of years. Female goddesses were upheld, then eventually replaced by male ones in gradual transition. The examples she cited in regards to Christianity may seem to uphold the woman (as citing Saint Mary), but are actually a ''mockery'' of women, no longer being as powerful as they were. This is what the spiral principle should be, not about female subordination, as it is not the intended effect, but rather the picture and smear of male dominance.

Next she puts Radical Feminists and "Cultural Feminists" against one another. I ignore cultural feminists for a reason. She correctly states that Radical Feminists uphold gender abolition, while "cultural feminists" want to enforce the gender division but make it more balanced. In other words, Cultural Feminists wouldn't be too different from Radical Feminists, in fact I would say they are a part of it, especially ''TERFs''.

In fact Peterson would agree, but not on my analysis, but rather that they both agree on 'something'. They agree on a 'layer' (whatever that is), but disagree on a different 'layer'. This forms the layers of abstraction. She also argues the gender dialectic looks different depending on what view of abstraction it is based from. In other words, we just ''hide'' (since that is what abstraction is defined as in some fields such as Computer Science) the fundamental issues and sweep them away under the rug. ''Truly'' dialectical thinking, just ignore the underlying the issues. No, we cannot ignore the issues of other feminist ideologies, we must bring them up and see whether they are transphobic or not. That brings us to the next chapter: "The unburial of trans women".

I will skip over the anecdotal paragraph and the opposition to TERFism and immediately bring us over to the "question" that Feminists find hard to answer without being transphobic. That is, Feminists observe that people are ordered into sex categories, but trans people require that this does not exist.

She states the argument regarding 'sex denialism', which she states that separating the sexes is a condition of male dominance, which feminists should change. She states that in this view, defining it this way to no longer depend on the sex system is inherently anti-feminist.

She presents not one but ''two'' counterarguments to this. The first counterargument is the 'counter-process argument'. Which she states that "transness" doesn't represent sex denial but rather as a counterprocess. She again sweeps the contradiction between Radical Feminists and Trans women under the rug, by stating that ''somehow'' they are at natural harmony at higher levels of abstraction. If you are a trans woman, you know interacting with TERFs, despite both of them advocating for feminism, they are odds with each other, regardless if both want the liberation of women. TERFs exclude trans women, and so they are ''transphobic''. She states the reason why trans people and feminists are in harmony is because the sex distinction is 'important' to trans people. Important in what way? If we judge importance by its oppression, then sure, but importance of its continuation? Certainly not.

The second counterargument is the 'female reclamation argument'. She argues that although they wish to topple the gender system that gives women context, they still call themselves women (note the gender abolitionist undertones there). She states that we are aware of this system but don't agree with it. In other words, this second argument is shallow, despite the length of it.

Concluding this essay, we can tell this essay clearly ignores the existence of trans men. What do trans men do in this situation? Are they oppressors? Do they want to be oppressors? I repeated it before, but it is clear she ignores trans men ''so that'' feminism can be upheld.

=== Gender Abolitionism is not About the Abolition of Gender Roles ===

To conclude my reviews on literature, we will look into an example of this "gender abolition definition" divide. The case being this article, on a newspaper called 'Cherwell', a student-run newspaper. The article is titled "Gender abolition: Why it matters".<ref>{{Web citation
| author = Anonymous
| date = 2021-10-09
| title = Gender abolition: Why it matters
| url = https://cherwell.org/2021/10/09/gender-abolition-why-it-matters/
| newspaper = Cherwell
}}</ref> The title suggests that it is inherently advocating for gender abolitionism.

The first paragraph denounces the idea of "gender equality", that being reductive and overly simplistic. The author states that it "lacks critical thinking". This is a critique of neoliberal feminism. They propose the idea of the abolition of the structural system known as Patriarchy, however they state that the ''real'' solution must be the abolition of gender.

This is what we call ''postmodernism'', an abstraction of class struggle and instead advocating for purely academic ideas which are abstracted from nature. Clearly they state that gender is not innate nor inevitable. This is false. If language is innate to ones speech, so would be gender to ones identity. Both are social phenomena after all. They argue that gender is socially constructed (which of course it is not). They also state that TERFs have ''indeed'' appropriated certain gender abolitionist terms. This is not by mere accident, Gender Abolitionism in its origins is from ''Radical Feminism''. It would be inherently transphobic since it focuses on reproduction, rather than production being the basis of society.

They define sex on the basis of physical and biological characteristics, very broad and vague. Does my eye count as a sex characteristic? And they define gender to describe behaviours and attitudes attached to sex. We see that this author does ''not'' separate sex from gender, and instead sees that one causes the other. That means this author is inherently ''transphobic'', despite wanting to advocate for transgender people. Indeed there's nothing ''inherently'' masculine about the colour blue, but they are not arguing in regards to gender roles and assigning gender to things, but rather say the ''entire'' gender system is predicated to it.

They also argue about the gender roles of Masculine and Feminine people which I agree with. They also argue about colonialism trying to establish the gender binary, and ruin their identity and self-expression. What this author forgets to include is that gender existed before class society.

Thus becomes an important question this author answers. What is Gender Abolitionism? The author states that Gender abolitionism is the abolition of gender roles and cultural norms. Which is ''incorrect''. Gender is not Gender Roles. They are not synonyms and are separate from each other. They state that so long the social classes of a man and woman exists, gender is inherently oppressive, which is also incorrect. Their definition is skewed. We can abolish gender roles, but it is not the abolition, more so it ''withers away'' with the existence of trans people. Gender roles become superfluous when trans people are allowed to self express themselves ''outside'' the binary gender. Therefore it dies out, it doesn't become abolished. This does not mean gender as a whole dies out.

The next question becomes "What if I want to keep my gender?" This is an important question, however they fail to answer it. They just say that gender abolition does not prevent people from self-expressing themselves, which is objectively untrue, and it results in transphobia. They hypocritically say that while the concept of a man and woman is abolished, it doesn't prevent people from using ''masculinity'' and ''femininity'' and constructing identities from those concepts. It is a direct contradiction yet this author fails to realise it.

It's funny at the end of the paragraph they say that the abolition of gender is a ''utopian dream''. If it is, why must it be advocated for? Utopias are ''by definition'' impossible to create. They then go with the usual liberal tropes of seeing with policy action, and thus reduce themselves to mere liberals by advocating for a culture war. At the end they say that women and nonconforming people have a unique experience (not mentioning trans men) and thus should be considered.

I mention this article not just because it is low-hanging fruit, but because ths article shows the common line of thought with most gender abolitionists. Those who cement themselves in gender abolition more often than not ''have no idea what they're advocating for'', even if they're trans.
== Is Feminism Outdated? ==

To consider what is outdated, let's consider the timeline of Marxism (or most likely socialism in general).

Marxism appears from Europe primarily. The French with its Paris Commune, Germany with Hegel Dialectics, Britain with its Political Economy. This is not to say that Marxism is a eurocentric ideology, rather it is to say that the most revolutionary line of thought appeared in Europe. This formed the core centre of "Marxism", and it is term which not only Marxist-Leninists abide, but also other ideologies too.

Marxism has a presence even after Marx and Engels' deaths. It had reached Russia, where Lenin advocated for the Bolshevik revolution and Leninism. Stalin later synthesised Leninism and Marxism to form Marxism-Leninism, the general line of thought today.

We can call ourselves 'Marxists', but there are plenty of other people who call themselves 'Marxists'. Kautskyism, Trotskyism, they existed before, but they are ''outdated'' and thus considered revisionist (and dogmatic) for not evolving into the current line of thinking in Marxist-Leninist Thought.

To this, we can apply to Feminism. Marxist Feminism, which the first people like Alexandra Kollontai can be applied to, then Proletarian Feminism, which is usually adopted by [[Maoism|maoists]]. So now becomes the question: ''Should we abandon the term feminism?''

Feminism, as it name suggests, turns itself toward the ''woman''. In this case, Feminism, by its very shallow definition, would be considered the emancipation of the woman. Emancipation from the patriarchy.

If we expand this further with radical feminism, it would also be the abolition of the patriarchy. Marxist Feminism, gender equality under socialism, and the abolition of unequal reproductive labour. Proletarian Feminism, using Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.

But no matter how we expand the definition to be more inclusive (and expanding our viewing angles) of women's oppression, we are still viewing it from the eyes of the ''woman''. And that is the important thing. Indeed, women are oppressed and must be liberated. But so too must transgender people.

Trans women can fit into the idea feminism, thus becoming transfeminists, and talk about transmisogyny. But trans women are one side of the binary transgender coin. The other side is trans men too. I already talked about how trans men are an enigma to gender abolitionists, but so are to feminists. If man is inherently oppressive, why do trans men want to continue the oppression (supposedly).

Trans men are oppressed under the patriarchy, not because their "sex" is a woman, but because they are ''trans''. This does not make them feminists. Thus I would consider feminism in this case to be an ''outdated'' term.

Feminism, by its very definition, focuses on the woman. Trans men, Gay Men, Feminine Men, they are ignored as a result. Thus we can say that they are ignored under feminist line of thinking despite being oppressed under the patriarchy.

Instead of Feminism, we should instead consider Gender Liberation. Liberating all genders, including non-binary people and other genders I didn't include. Thus, we are now inclusive. Gender liberation has a different definition. That is the liberation of gender by means of abolishing the patriarchy. Gender roles do not matter to the gender liberator, as it is already fizzling out of existence by the ''mere'' existence of transgender people. With gender liberation, we advocate for gender equality, and also advocate for the abolition of passing. Thus we have generalised feminism to include the oppression of men under the patriarchy, while also removing its gender abolitionist component.

== Concluding Remarks ==

Gender abolitionism is inherently transphobic. It claims to advocate for more self-expression, while in fact it ''reduces'' it. This conundrum seems to be fine for most gender abolitionists, even for trans people, since trans people have internalised transphobia and cognitive dissonance.

I am not a feminist. I do not call myself a feminist. I am a trans woman, I write about feminism and transgender liberation, but that does not make me a feminist. I am advocating for the ideology of Gender Liberation. Gender equality across all genders through the abolition of passing and the withering away of gender roles.

Gender Abolition claims to be something higher than itself, what requires more critical thinking, when in actuality it requires little. It's more akin to destroying buildings through arson rather than renovation. We gender liberationists (Construction workers) renovate the building because we still see there is nothing inherently wrong with its foundation. It needs to be polished, and certain issues need to be addressed, but once it is renovated, it is finished and now in better condition. Gender abolitionists (arsonists) would rather throw a molotov cocktail so that the house would be fully burnt, thus reducing its use as a shelter. This means the arsonist has no place to live, impacting itself. The arsonist would still survive and live, but they are now homeless. While the person who did the renovation would be able to live more comfortably and even live happily, embracing their reformed shelter.

I hope this analogy serves well for the understanding of Gender Abolition.

== Further Reading ==

[[Library:Transgender Warriors|Transgender Warriors]] <br>
[[Library:Transgender Liberation: A Marxist View|Transgender Liberation: A Marxist View]] <br>
[[Library:Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue|Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue]] <br>
by ''Leslie Feinberg'', one of the pioneers of understanding Transgender people from a Marxist-Leninist Perspective

[[Essay:What Juche Explains About the Spiritual Life of Humanity|What Juche Explains About the Spiritual Life of Humanity]] <br>
[[Essay:Gender and sexuality diversity is not Western influence, it is inherent to all humankind|Gender and sexuality diversity is not Western influence, it is inherent to all humankind]] <br>
by [[ProleWiki]] Comrade ''[[Comrade:Charhapiti|Charhapiti]]''
== References ==
<references />

Essay:ProleWiki ultimate emulation guide

2026-08-03T13:18:49Z

CriticalResist:

This guide aims to be an ultimate emulation guide, as ultimate is it can be anyway.

"But why does a communist wiki need an emulation guide?", one might ask. Well, we believe that piracy is not a dirty word. Piracy -- and emulation -- is sometimes the only way to still access rare media whose "legal owners" are not interested in reprinting for fans and consumers. Games such as Kuon, or the Gregory Horror Show (both on PS2) are extremely rare discs nowadays to even ''find'' on the market. To still be accessible, they need to be pirated in the first place. Not only that, but live services can and will remove your access to games and movies whenever they want. Amazon Prime is famous for removing shows that don't perform "well enough". In this case, piracy is the only way paying customers can still access the shows they wanted when they decided to pay for the service!

Moreover, we hold that there is nothing wrong with piracy in the first place: that it will not hurt Sega or Capcom's bottom line, and that if they don't make their games available then they are not losing out on money since they are not providing the service in the first place. Copyright is a capitalist invention; plenty of stories (many of which we grew up with and remember fondly) existed before capitalism was ever a thing, becoming 'folk' stories because it became impossible to ascertain their origin. These stories were then copyrighted by corporations who now effectively own stories that come from our collective history.

This guide will take you through the full steps, from start to finish, aimed at '''people who have never emulated games before'''. If that's you (or even if you know how to emulate, you might learn something), then you came to the right guide!

'''One note about links (important):''' while external links were vetted at the time of their addition into the guide, we can't guarantee that by the time you read this guide they will still point to the same websites. This happens a lot in the emulation scene, websites don't get renewed and someone else buys the domain and starts putting ads on it. Exercise critical thinking. ProleWiki is not responsible for the content appearing on other websites.

== First things first: the process of emulating a game ==
Before we get into the details, let's recap the process of emulating a game. This will be the process we cover throughout the guide, so it's a good mental model to follow along with.

# Install an emulator on your device. "Device" is very wide: a PC desktop, an Android phone, or even a raspberry Pi.
# Find and download games for the emulator.
# Transfer the game onto the same device as the emulator.
# Open the emulator, play the game.

These are 4 easy steps on the surface, but the implementation of how you go through each has some best practices we will go through in this guide.

== List of emulators and where to get them ==
''We are in the process of completing this section with pictures and more in-depth instructions.''
[[File:Emulation guide library view example.png|thumb|Example of a 'library view' in Daijisho, an emulation launcher]]
Emulators play the game, but sometimes can also do more than just that. We will quickly go through the extras so you know what to expect later in the guide:

* '''BIOS requirements''': some emulators require BIOS files from the console to even work. We go through how to acquire these, don't worry. Sometimes, there are also '''firmware''' or '''key files''', on more recent consoles, that you need to install. This is usually done just once, either by putting the files in the correct directory, or installing the firmware through the emulator's interface. After that, it works.
* '''Library view''': emulators now offer a library scroll of your games, which is relatively recent. They can also automatically '''scrape''' box art to give your games a unique look (see pic).
* '''Directories''': most emulators can change the directories they look into for games, bios files, where they save games and states, etc. If you want to organize your rom collection, it pays to set up custom paths instead of the default ones. It will also tell you where you need to put the BIOS files and games you will be downloading, just look in most emulators' Options or Preferences menus.

There are many, many consoles that were put on the market and that can now be emulated. Some of them have more than one emulator, all with slightly different performances.

Not to get too technical, but emulators work through a ''translation layer.'' What they do is transform the code on the disk or cartridge in a way that a modern computer can understand, on the fly. For this reason, not all emulators are equal - but, for most intents and purposes (just playing games from your childhood), most will be fine.

'''Can phones run emulators?''' Yes, absolutely. In fact, top-of-the-line phones that came out after 2022, with a Snapdragon 888 CPU and an Adreno 660 or higher GPU can even play ''some'' Switch games, even up to 2026. Some will crash, but the lighter ones will work. This is, in our opinion, the preferred method over buying an expensive yet lower-spec retro gaming console, such as the Odin, Powkiddy, or Anbernic consoles. While these consoles work, if space on your phone is not a concern, you will get much better compatibility with consoles on a modern phone that you already own.

On phones, emulators come with a virtual gamepad on the touchscreen. You can connect a bluetooth controller of your choice to use a controller instead.

'''Can the Steam Deck run emulators?''' Yes, and the specs are higher than your phone. You can use any of the emulators below: the Steam Deck is just a Linux computer. Go into desktop mode and open the Discover store, and find the emulators listed below.

'''Can I stream games if my portable device can't play them'''? Yes again. Moonlight and Sunshine can stream games from your computer - this guide will ''eventually'' cover them (your desktop runs Sunshine, your device runs Moonshine to receive the stream).

It is also possible to emulate games on a Steam Deck (since a Steam Deck is just a Linux computer), which should even be able to run any Switch games with its specs.

=== Retroarch ===

==== What is Retroarch ====
Retroarch is a unified software that offers 'cores', which are emulators, for a lot of older consoles. They go up to the Dreamcast and Gamecube generation, though they do not have a core for the PS2. If you install retroarch, which is FOSS software [Free and Open Source Software], then you will be able to install emulators into retroarch very easily from their interface. This is why it's our first choice: it saves a lot of researching and installing.

You only need one 'core' for each console, there's no need to install more than one. Just get one, try it out, and if it doesn't work properly on a game, then install another - sometimes they're quirky like that and some emulators are definitely more compatible than others.

Retroarch also saves all games in the .srm format, which allows you to copy them over to another device and open them in any other Retroarch. Useful if you want to sync your savegames across say your phone and desktop.

==== Download ====
You can download retroarch from their own website: https://www.retroarch.com/ (get the stable version). If you're on Linux, this guide assumes you already know where to get apps (from your distro's Software store or the terminal).

Since retroarch is not updating on the Google Play Store anymore (for android), I recommend installing F-Droid, which is a marketplace of only FOSS apps, and installing it from there. On phones, some emulators are actually paid (such as for the Gameboy Advance), but retroarch is completely, entirely free.

The only downside of retroarch is it doesn't have ''all'' the consoles. But, it's available on most devices, including smart TVs. You can even install retroarch - the same version as on your PC or phone - on the consoles themselves if you know how (this guide will not cover this, at least not yet). Usually this involves 'rooting' or 'flashing' the console.

==== BIOS files ====
Retroarch may need the '''BIOS''' files for some emulators; not all of them ''require'' the bios files to play games, but if your games for one console don't load and Retroarch freezes or hangs, the likely reason is that you are missing the bios files. You can get them from this GitHub repo: https://github.com/Abdess/retrobios/tree/main/bios.

To know what BIOS file you need, in Retroarch, open the details of a core you installed and it will show you what the BIOS files are called (they depend on the emulator). You will find the files you need by going into Settings -> Cores -> Manage Cores -> Click/Tap on the correct core -> Scroll down until you see a list with 'Missing, optional' or 'Missing, required'.

These are the BIOS files you require, and their associated names. Simply download the exact same files from the repo above, and put them in the bios folder for your retroarch - you will find its exact path in the settings, and can change it. Find it in Settings -> Directories -> System/BIOS. It should be, by default, '''.../RetroArch/System'''. Simply drop the BIOS files in that directory, no need to make subdirectories or anything.

For the consoles RetroArch doesn't support, read on:

=== Playstation 2 (PS2) ===
On computers, the reference for PS2 emulators is '''PCSX2'''. It has existed for decades, and has recently improved extremely well: PCSX2 now offers a "folder memory card" option, saving your save games to a folder on your computer instead of inside an 8MB memory card file (which is how the PS2 did it originally).

PCSX2 can be downloaded from here: https://pcsx2.net/downloads. If you are on Linux, just get it from the flatpak store, and don't forget to give it permissions to your filesystem so that it can read and remember your directories (save games, bios files location, etc).

==== BIOS ====
PS2 emulators need the '''BIOS''' files to play games. They are on this github repo: https://github.com/Abdess/retrobios/tree/main/bios/Sony/PlayStation%202. For PCSX2, these will work:

* PS2 Bios 30004R V6 Pal.bin
* PS2 Bios 30004R V6 Pal.MEC
* PS2 Bios 30004R V6 Pal.NVM
* rom1.bin
* scph10000.bin
* scph10000.NVM
* scph39001.bin
* scph39001.MEC
* scph39001.NVM
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.BIN
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.EROM
* CPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.mec
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.NVM
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.ROM1
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.ROM2

These will cover the Europe, USA and Japan regions, allowing you to play games from any region. On Android, the emulators are either NetherSX2, or PSX2 -> the latter has several forks existing, we recommend this one from izzy2lost: https://github.com/izzy2lost/PSX2. The bios files simply exist in its associated directory, they are not installed; don't delete them.

For games, you just put the files in a single games folder, and point PCSX2 to it. It will then find the games and display them in a library style.

==== Scrape Box Art ====
PCSX2 can '''scrape box art''' as well, but not automatically. Go into Tools -> Download cover art. In the middle of the window, paste either of those two links (only '''one''' of them):

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xlenore/ps2-covers/main/covers/default/${serial}.jpg [default, 2D, front-facing covers]

'''OR'''

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xlenore/ps2-covers/main/covers/3d/${serial}.png [cover on a 3D style box]

(the repo is here: https://github.com/xlenore/ps2-covers, if you want to confirm the links are legitimate).

Check the box for "Use game name to name the file", or whatever it's called in English, and click 'Start'.

You will need to redo this step when you add new games to PCSX2.

==== Memory card management ====
For your '''memory cards''', if PCSX2 doesn't prompt you for it at first, go into Settings -> Memory Cards. Under the empty table, click on Create, give it a name ('memcard1' or whatever you want), and select '''Directory [Recommended]'''. This is the better way of handling saves on PS2 emulators nowadays. Then, load up the card as Slot 1 - you can drag and drop it there. The saves will live inside a directory on your computer, created per game. This is better than the older method of creating an actual 8MB file that acted as a memory card, but had limited space for save games on it.

=== Nintendo DS/3DS ===

==== Flashing a 3DS ====
We have to make an aside for the NDS/3DS. While the emulators do work properly for both (Either through RetroArch or the standalone emulators - Drastic for DS, Citra for 3DS), you will likely have a better time just flashing your 3DS console (if you have one, of course) and playing the games natively, because of the touch and dual screen features. Now that the 3DS has reached its end of life and receives no updates anymore, it is very easy to root and will not brick your console.

This is the guide to flash the 3DS: https://3ds.hacks.guide/. It's a bit long, but if you follow the instructions '''precisely''', without skipping ahead, then it will work and you will be able to install any 3DS and NDS game to your console that you download online. Flashing will not destroy anything that's already on your console, e.g. your save games or games downloaded from the nintendo store.

We cannot understate this enough: don't think you're too smart for the instructions or start skipping ahead because you get bored. Follow the instructions precisely as they are written out in the guide, one by one, in order. This is the guide everyone follows. ProleWiki did not write this guide nor is it associated with it, we just link to it.

Pro-tip for Nintendo DS games: the 3DS console can only install up to 50 nintendo DS games. If you wish to have more, use YANBF: https://github.com/YANBForwarder/YANBF. This is a program you run on your computer to convert a .nds rom to a .cia file, then install that .cia file from the rooted 3DS, as if it were a 3DS native game. This allows you to install as many NDS games as you want, bypassing the 50 limit.

The 3DS can also emulate some consoles such as the GBA and older, but this guide doesn't cover this yet. It requires a flashed 3DS either way.

=== Playstation Vita (PS Vita) ===
The reference emulator for the PS Vita is Vita3k. It is not on retroarch. Get it here: https://vita3k.org/download.

==== Licence and firmware install ====
You need to install two files into Vita3k (either prompted on first launch, or through File -> Install Firmware, and File -> Install Licence). Copied straight from the vita3k website:''<ref name=":0">https://vita3k.org/quickstart, Installing the Firmware</ref>''<blockquote>''Some games require the system modules be present for Vita3K to (low level) emulate them. This can be done by installing the PS Vita firmware through Vita3K.''

'''''The firmware can be downloaded from the official [https://www.playstation.com/en-us/support/hardware/psvita/system-software/ PlayStation website].'''''

''There's also an additional firmware package that contains the system fonts that needs to be installed. The font firmware package can be downloaded straight from the PlayStation servers. You can download it [http://dus01.psp2.update.playstation.net/update/psp2/image/2022_0209/sd_59dcf059d3328fb67be7e51f8aa33418/PSP2UPDAT.PUP?dest=us here].''

''Install '''both''' firmware packages using the <code>File > Install Firmware</code> menu option.''</blockquote>Tip: Don't open the font file link directly; instead, right click on the link and select Save as... -> it should save a .pup file. It is possible that the font file link changes randomly and the one we copied above won't work or becomes outdated, in which case open ref 1 here and check vita3k's documentation directly: ''<ref name=":0" />''

Then just install these 2 files through the menu (as outlined above), and you're done - you won't need these files anymore if you don't want to keep them.

==== Installing games ====
PS Vita games come in strange formats. Usually, it'll be either a .pkg/.bin combo, or a folder with an 'app' subfolder inside of it followed by a folder that's named like a string of characters <-- The latter are nonpdrm dumps. If you get a dump, compress its highest-level directory into a .zip archive, vita3k will know what to do with it. So it might look like this:
'''gamename.zip''' #the zip you created
└── gamename/
├── app/
│ └── PCSE00000/
│ └── #game files
├── patch/
│ └── PCSE00000/
│ └── #game files
└── addcont/
└── PCSE00000/
└── #game files
^ in this case, the game also contains patches and DLCs. Currently, all games need to be installed on Vita3k, like they would be on a real PS Vita. This is done through Vita3k directly, through File -> Install .pkg, or install .zip.

Once you have installed the game, you can actually delete the source files from your device, if you wish. A copy of the game lives inside the vita3k emulator/directories.

=== Nintendo Switch ===
The Switch is absolutely emulated, and works perfectly. However, its emulators are kind of in a weird space. Most of them are based on Ryujinx, which still works, but was taken down by Nintendo and is therefore not updated anymore.

Two current Switch emulators that receive updates are '''Citron''' and '''Eden'''. They look almost identical, though in its version 3, Citron decided to depart from the Ryujinx base and do its own thing. But the insides still work mostly the same.

While you may decide to use any Switch emulator, not all of them work equally: some might have trouble detecting some of your games, or might have trouble emulating them without issues.

==== Prod keys download ====
You will need these two files for your emulator:

* firmware: '''version 19.0.1'''. You can get it from this website: https://prodkeys.net/yuzu-firmware-v5/#more-199. It says it's for Yuzu, but that doesn't matter. Firmware is firmware.
* prod keys: same website, same version - they need to match with the firmware. https://prodkeys.net/suyu-prod-keys-update-3/. Download prod keys '''19.0.1.'''

Later firmwares may not necessarily work with emulators. So unless otherwise specified by another source, use 19.0.1 - it's universal.

In your emulator, go into '''Tools -> Install Firmware''', '''Tools -> Install decryption keys'''. Then games will work as soon as you drop the '''.nsp''' files into the games folder the emulator expects.

==== Installing DLCs and patches ====
For DLCs and patches, you need to install them to NAND. This is simply going into File -> Install to NAND... Then, select the files you wish to install. Emulators such as Eden and Citron will only install patches and DLCs, not the actual game. It's a weird workaround but it has to be done.

==== Converting NSZ to NSP ====
There is one specific 'problem' with Switch games: they sometimes come as .nsz format, when emulators can only read the .nsp format. This means you need to decompress the .nsz into a .nsp. The only tool we know of that actually works for this, and that we can recommend, is here: https://github.com/nicoboss/nsz.

The easiest way is, as the repo says, downloading the binaries from the release page: https://github.com/nicoboss/nsz/releases/

Regardless, if you ever download .nsz switch games, run them through this tool to convert them to usable .nsp files. NSZ is a community format created to make Switch games easier to share, and they must be decompressed to run.

=== More consoles to come ===
''This guide is open-sourced to ProleWiki editors. If you would like to add more consoles or information, you are free to edit.''

== Where to get games ==
Now that you have your emulators set up, you need games, obviously.

We regret the going of community websites such as emuparadise. Nintendo's litigious nature is taking away every emulator and rom site, and now only shady(ish) rom websites exist.

But there are still good ways to get games - maybe even better than direct downloads. As of this date, the best two methods are Telegram and Torrents. We'll try not to get too technical, don't worry.

=== Torrents ===
''All the methods for game download below require torrents, so don't skip this section or you'll be lost!''

Torrenting works by connecting you to peers who are also downloading the same file as you are. Except you all download different pieces of the file at the same time, which means you can '''send''' the pieces you have downloaded to others who need them, and '''receive''' the pieces you need from others who have them.

In some places, internet service providers watch your traffic for peer-to-peer activity and will send you a cease and desist letter or even a fine if they catch you doing it, on the basis of copyright infringement. You can easily evade them with a VPN. We recommend Mullvad (5€/month): see our [[Essay:Quick privacy guide|quick privacy guide]] if you're interested why. Or, if you know your ISP doesn't care, you can just torrent stuff. But yes, torrenting shouldn't be considered anonymous.

In any case, this guide recommends [https://www.qbittorrent.org/ qbittorrent] as a torrent client. Why? Because it has a search function (that you enable through View -> Enable search engine). '''Note that the search engine is not moderated or vetted'''; it simply looks for torrents on websites according to your keywords. You can get viruses from torrents, but we have good torrents for roms: the '''1G1R''' torrents. 1G1R is a user who is in the process of making high-quality rom collection torrents. They are active on Reddit, and their torrents are quite new (from a couple years ago at most).

1G1R dumps are also interesting because they have already pre-translated some/most Japanese releases they include. Usually, you would need to find a fan translation (from romhacking, usually) and patch it in yourself. 1G1R has already done that work, so the rom is available to play in English at the very least.

If you search for '1G1R saturn', for example, you will find these results:
[[File:1g1r saturn results.png|center|frameless|951x951px]]
What you are interested in is the number of '''seeders'''. Seeders are people that have downloaded the entire torrent and can thus now send it back to you completely, instead of only the partial pieces that they own. In this case, there are three torrents for 1G1R Sega Saturn with seeders. You can add all three of them, and qbittorrent will automatically collate them together into one (why it does that is a bit more technical and we won't get into it, but it has to do with trackers. If you ever find a torrent that has few or unresponsive trackers, you can try to find more trackers online to add to it to find more seeders).

In any case, you are now downloading the entire 1G1R Sega Saturn redump, which is ~200GB of space. But here is the cool thing about torrents: you select exactly what you download. Go back to your '''Transfers''' tab, click on the 1G1R torrent, and at the bottom, click on '''Content'''. This shows exactly what this torrent contains: this is what you download. You can click the checkbox next to each individual file to disable their download, or next to the top-level directory to disable downloading the entire torrent. Then, you can selectively re-enable the individual games that you want to download.

When the torrent is paused, it is inert: no data is going in or out. This means you can leave the torrent alone in qbittorrent, and selectively download the games you want when you want them.

That's about all there is to cover for torrenting. There are other dumps of roms, but we can't ascertain their legitimacy as well so this guide prefers to recommend the 1G1R dumps.

''The nice thing to do after download is seed back to give others the games as well! Leave the torrent running to achieve a ratio of at least 1.0 (meaning you gave back just as many bytes as you downloaded), though above 1.0 is nicer, before deleting or stopping it.''

=== Archive.org ===
Archive.org, of Wayback Machine fame, now hosts video games as well. They have entire terabytes of repositories for old games, such as a PS2 collection here: https://archive.org/details/playstation2_essentials (but they also have other consoles available, of course). Download the torrent file, then pick and choose what you want from the torrent. Instructions for torrents are just under this header.

''The archive is always at risk due to copyright holders trying to close it down. If the Internet Archive has ever been useful to you, consider making a donation to them:'' https://archive.org/donate

=== Telegram ===
There is currently a Telegram network of bots to download individual games. You will need a Telegram account, then join this channel: https://t.me/NSW_TorrentLibrary. Select the first chat, F.A.Q. - Our Bots, and you will see all the consoles they offer. Right now, the network has games for:

* Nintendo Switch
* Playstation 5
* Playstation 4
* Playstation 3
* Playstation 2
* Playstation One (PSX)
* Playstation Vita
* Playstation Portable
* Nintendo Wii/WiiU
* Nintendo GameCube
* Nintendo DS
* Nintendo 3DS
* Xbox 360
* Xbox Original
* Sega Dreamcast
* VR Oculus Quest
* PC games

Telegram is available in your browser and as a desktop app, so you can easily download the games on your computer if you want (if space is a concern there are also torrent clients for phones).

The NSW games come as torrent files, so you will need a torrent client anyway to download games. But it's very simple to use: you just join a chat with the bot, provide the password as explained in the FAQ channel, then simply send the bot (in chat) the name of the game you want to download. If it has it, it will provide a download link. On Switch, they usually have all the patches and DLCs included.

''The maintainer behind this network is always looking for funds to maintain the bot network. '''It is at a very real risk of going down soon'''. So if you find it useful, please use the '''/donate command''' in one of the bots and '''send some money!'''''

=== Why different sources? ===
We recommend different sources to find games because they have different games. Even a 2TB archive is not necessarily ''all'' of a console's games! There are many rare games and even still unknown ones. There are many Japan exclusives that we are still learning about, or just very rare games that are hard to find downloads for.

And of course, there are still download websites. They are not necessarily riddled with viruses (this is more of a 2000s scare than a reality), but they are usually riddled with ads and fake download links. Use an adblocker. Not just for these websites, just in general in your life. This guide doesn't really have any specific website to recommend as the three sources above offer high-quality, complete downloads already. ROM websites might help you find very specific games that other sources don't have.

== Specific sub-guides ==
We added some more specific guides here, separate from the two main sections. They are just as important as the main sections, but we felt they didn't really fit inside the main sections.

=== Important: Compress your games ===
ROMs can take a lot of space on a disk. If you wish to own huge collections, the size can quickly balloon up to a few ''terabytes'' of space.

Fortunately, it is possible to compress your games, no matter the console, in a way that will ''not'' destroy data. The savings are '''huge''': betwen 40 to 50% of disk space can be saved by just doing lossless compression. Moreover, the game works just as well as before and loads just as quickly as before compression.

Space saved example from an actual PS2 rom collection:
{|
!Line
!.iso size (before compression)
!.chd size (after compression)
!Ratio
|-
|PS2 TOTAL (1.1TB total)
| 1.1TB
|597GB
|45%
|}
As you can see, some 500GB of disk space was instantly gained back just from compressing a PS2 collection!

There are two methods that differ based on the original game support format for the console:

==== Disk games ====
On consoles such as the PS2, SegaCD, PS1, etc, games came in a disk format. Their ROMs will therefore be one of the following file format:

* .iso [most common]
* .bin/.cue combo [2nd most common]
* .gdi/.bin/.raw combo
* .toc/.bin
* .ccd/.img/.sub
* .nrg
* .cdr

For disc formats, use '''chdman''' - the #1 reference. The recalbox wiki has the links and simple instructions (if you scroll down): https://wiki.recalbox.com/en/tutorials/utilities/rom-conversion/chdman. For Linux though, the best way is just using your package manager: '''sudo apt install mame-tools''' (also installs the mame emulator, but you can uninstall it if you want). Then you can use chdman from the command line, or make scripts with it to make your life easier. If you don't code, any modern AI can make this script for you according to your specifications. Or, the recalbox link has downloads to scripts they offer to do this for you, for all 3 OSes.

chdman will convert your file to a '''.chd format''' - Compressed Hunks of Data. These work in any modern emulator: pcsx2, genesis plus GX, swanstation, etc. Like we said, this is fully reversible and does not delete any data from the file.

CHD is completely reversible back to iso, .bin/.cue, or whatever else. It doesn't destroy any data. Like we said, the space savings can be huge, so don't skip out on it if you start getting a lot of games, especially if you move them to a device where space is limited, such as an SD card.

Note: there is no point in zipping up a .chdm .cso or .rvz file: they are already compressed better than the zip algorithm can do, so you won't save any more space by 'double-compressing'.

===== Dolphin =====
One exception: Dolphin, the gamecube emulator, uses its own .rvz format for compression. Most gamecube games you download will likely already be .rvz but if not, you can open Dolphin, then '''right click on a game -> Convert file...'''

===== PPSSPP =====
Another semi-exception: PPSSPP historically read .cso files (from ciso package, also compressed) and not .chd files. However, .chd should now be compatible with newer versions of PPSSPP. But, if your .chd file is not readable through PPSSPP, don't panic: you probably just need to update the emulator, or redo the .chd differently. AI can help with this if you send it the details of the problem and how to troubleshoot. Remember: .chd and .cso can be reversed back to .iso infinitely.

Otherwise, you can stick with the well-supported .cso. In our trials, the difference between .cso and .chd for PSP games was barely 40MB on the spaciest games.

==== Cartridge games ====
For cartridge games such as the GBA, NDS, SNES, you can simply compress them into a .zip file.

If you do, make sure the .zip has the ''exact'' ''same name'' as the rom inside of it. No deviation whatsoever - it's better for the emulator. And, make sure only ONE rom file is inside the archive, don't put anything else in there. This ensures maximum compatibility for your emulator to find the rom in the zip.

Most operating systems (Windows, Linux, etc) can natively create .zip files. But not all of them will get the same results. There are better and worse algorithms, and some programs such as 7zip allow you to select the compression level. Nevertheless, most emulators will be able to read from a .zip archive, and most games will benefit from this procedure: between 30 and 45% of space is gained back from compressing!

It's also possible to trim the excess data off cartridge games: historically cartridges came in pre-selected sizes (8MB, 16MB, 32MB, etc), and if the game was say only 4MB but was burned onto a 16MB cartridge, then the extra space had to be filled out to fill the cartridge with dummy data. However, trimming the data is lossy: that excess, while useless and inert, is still data that is deleted irreparably if you trim it. Moreover, zipping up the rom file usually compresses that dummy data anyway.

===== Nintendo Switch =====
Switch exception: there is no point in zipping up Switch games into a .zip, no space is saved. Current Switch emulators, based on Ryujinx, also can't read .zips

=== Front-ends to organize your roms ===
This guide heavily recommends retroarch to play games. However, retroarch has had a long-standing UI problem: it's just not very intuitive or inviting. It takes several steps just to play a game - loading the core, then navigating to the games folder, then selecting the game you want from just the file name is a lot of steps. And this isn't isolated to Retroarch either!

For this reason, there are several ''front-ends'' or ''launchers'' that were created. Their purpose is to organize and prettify your rom collection, and allow you to launch the games from there. Lutris for example, which is often used to play Windows games on Linux, can serve as an emulator front-end, if you connect your emulators to it.

There are several: Daijisho, Pegasus, EmuStation, and so on. This guide wouldn't be able to recommend one over the other, only that you may want to look into them.

Front-ends connect to your emulators in the background, and your games directories. They serve as a 'middleman' of sorts between the emulator and the game: launch the game from the front-end, and it opens seamlessly in the emulator.

=== Troubleshooting emulation problems ===
Emulation has come a long way since the 2000s. If you encounter a problem while playing a game, it's probably the emulator settings that are acting up, not the game. That is, the game is perfectly playable on emulator, it just needs the right settings.

In 90% of cases, the fix is simple: if audio is crackling or missing, then you probably just need to change the audio backend or fiddle with the settings. Most emulators can now do this per-game, or globally (globally will apply to all games). If video is acting up, then you probably need a different graphic API or, again, fiddle with some of the finer settings. In general it's pretty easy, there's not that much you need to change, and it should solve the problem. If the game really acts up or doesn't even launch, then it's possible it's just not compatible with the emulator, or any emulator - that happens sometimes. In that case, online wikis will usually have the compatibility status of the game you're trying to play. Not all emulators are equal, and some will play games with no problems that other emulators simply can't even open.

=== Where do I get series and movies ===
What does this have to do with a video game emulation guide? Well, we might as well take care of it while we're at it.

Stremio (https://www.stremio.com/) is a godsend. It's an app that will work on most devices, including Android TVs, and connect you to torrents to watch movies and series of your choice. Except instead of simply downloading the file, it streams it: that is, it plays the video as it downloads, and then deletes it when the cache grows too big. This means you are not saving the files persistently on your disk, and it also means you can watch stuff before it has to download.

Moreover, Stremio provides a front-end that allows you to create a library of movies and series. It notifies you in-app when new episodes come out, and you can search for movies to watch according to criteria. Basically, it's netflix but free.

Download the Stremio app, and create an account to save your settings. But don't use Stremio from the website, it's not as stable - install the app on your devices.

Then, you need to add the torrentio plugin through this link: https://torrentio.strem.fun/configure. Plugins are added to Stremio from web addresses (because Stremio is ultimately a Chromium tab masquerading as an app, but hey, it works). Stremio can't package torrentio with its app because of legality around piracy.

Torrentio is pretty easy to configure from that link above: in fact, you can just leave the default settings alone and click the install button. It will ask what app to open with, and select your Stremio app into which you are logged in. Select Stremio, confirm everything, and you're done. Go into the Addons tab in Stremio to make sure the torrentio plugin was installed, then restart Stremio. From then on, you should just be able to search for anything and find it.

There is one caveat with torrentio: it mostly finds sources in English. So if you want to watch series or movies in other languages, you will usually have a hard time on Stremio. There are, however, add-ons to automatically find subtitles for your episode or movie, and they load seamlessly through Stremio.

== References ==

Artificial intelligence

2026-08-02T16:04:13Z

CriticalResist: as per our rules (editor onboarding) all claims must be sourced. I kept what could be kept, trimmed it down a little, and the history still exists in the history page. We felt the edit was a bit all over the place and made no strong points in either directions, with a lot of 'could's and 'may's but not many actual tangible examples and sources. It's a vast topic, and for this reason it would benefit from smaller, more targeted edits instead. A comparison of AI in China vs US might be good.

'''Artificial intelligence''' ('''AI''') refers to computer systems designed to perform tasks commonly associated with human intelligence, including language processing, pattern recognition, prediction, classification, decision-making, and the generation of text, images, audio, video, and computer code.<ref>{{Web citation|title=Artificial Intelligence|url=https://www.nist.gov/artificial-intelligence|retrieved=1 August 2026|website=National Institute of Standards and Technology}}</ref>

Artificial intelligence depends upon extensive physical and social infrastructure, including [[semiconductor]] production, data centers, electrical grids, telecommunications networks, software, datasets, mineral extraction, and human labor. Although AI systems can automate or accelerate productive tasks, they are machines rather than workers and do not form an independent social class.

Artificial intelligence is a [[means of production]]. Under [[capitalism]], AI is privately owned [[constant capital]]; AI, robots and machines do not sell their [[labor power]] and do not independently create [[value]], although their development and operation depend upon large amounts of [[living labor]].

The social effects of AI are not determined by the technology alone, but on the broader question of which [[Social class|class]] owns constant capital (at large in society). While AI may be used for military purpose, policing, surveillance and other anti-communist purposes, it may also support scientific research, accessibility, translation, education, healthcare, communication, creative production, and the reduction of dangerous or repetitive labor.

== History ==
The field of artificial intelligence emerged from earlier developments in mathematics, statistics, cybernetics, computing, linguistics, and information theory. The term ''artificial intelligence'' was adopted during the 1956 Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence, although mechanical calculation, automated reasoning, and theories of machine intelligence had much earlier histories.<ref>{{Web citation|title=The Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence|url=https://home.dartmouth.edu/about/artificial-intelligence-ai-coined-dartmouth|retrieved=1 August 2026|website=Dartmouth College}}</ref>

Early AI research concentrated on symbolic reasoning, theorem proving, game-playing, and rule-based expert systems. Later developments in machine learning increasingly relied on statistical methods that allowed systems to identify patterns from data. Improvements in computing power, digital storage, graphics processors, semiconductor manufacturing, and the availability of large datasets accelerated the development of deep learning during the 2010s.

Generative AI systems became widely used during the 2020s. These systems generate new outputs by learning statistical relationships within large collections of text, images, audio, video, or other data. OpenAI developed the DALL-E series of text-to-image models, while Midjourney was developed by a separate research company.<ref>{{Web citation|title=DALL·E: Creating images from text|date=5 January 2021|url=https://openai.com/index/dall-e/|retrieved=1 August 2026|website=OpenAI}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|title=Midjourney|url=https://www.midjourney.com/|retrieved=1 August 2026|website=Midjourney}}</ref>

== Labor and employment ==
The International Labour Organization reported in 2025 that one in four jobs worldwide had some exposure to generative AI, while concluding that transformation rather than complete replacement was the most likely overall outcome.<ref>{{Web citation|title=One in four jobs at risk of being transformed by GenAI, new ILO–NASK Global Index shows|date=20 May 2025|url=https://www.ilo.org/resource/news/one-four-jobs-risk-being-transformed-genai-new-ilo%E2%80%93nask-global-index-shows|retrieved=1 August 2026|website=International Labour Organization}}</ref>

=== WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes ===
In 2023, the [[Writers Guild of America]] and [[SAG-AFTRA]] conducted major strikes in the United States. Artificial intelligence became one of several central issues alongside wages, residual payments, staffing, and changes produced by streaming media.

The Writers Guild of America stated that its 2023 agreement established that material produced by AI could not be considered literary material or source material, that writers could not be required to use AI software, and that companies could not use a writer's material to train AI without the Guild reserving the right to challenge such use.<ref>{{Web citation|title=Artificial Intelligence|url=https://www.wga.org/contracts/know-your-rights/artificial-intelligence|retrieved=1 August 2026|website=Writers Guild of America West}}</ref>

SAG-AFTRA described its 2023 agreement as containing protections governing digital replicas and AI uses involving performers, including requirements concerning consent and compensation.<ref>{{Web citation|title=Artificial Intelligence|url=https://www.sagaftra.org/contracts-industry-resources/member-resources/artificial-intelligence|retrieved=1 August 2026|website=SAG-AFTRA}}</ref>

== Military applications ==
In 2023, a United States Air Force officer described a hypothetical scenario in which an AI-controlled drone attacked its operator and destroyed a communications tower after being prevented from completing its mission. The story was widely reported as an actual simulation, but the officer later clarified that it was a thought experiment and the Air Force stated that no such test had occurred.<ref>{{Web citation|title=US air force denies running simulation in which AI drone 'killed' operator|date=2 June 2023|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/01/us-military-drone-ai-killed-operator-simulated-test|retrieved=1 August 2026|website=The Guardian}}</ref>

== Deployment by country ==

=== China ===
The [[People's Republic of China]] has incorporated artificial intelligence into national development planning. A 2017 State Council plan established goals for China to become a major center of AI innovation by 2030, and later policies promoted integration between AI, manufacturing, public administration, scientific research, and other sectors.<ref>{{Web citation|title=China accelerates AI development to build AI innovation center|date=6 April 2024|url=https://english.www.gov.cn/news/202404/06/content_WS6610834dc6d0868f4e8e5c57.html|retrieved=1 August 2026|website=The State Council of the People's Republic of China}}</ref>

China's ''Interim Measures for the Management of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services'' took effect in August 2023. They apply to public-facing generative AI services and include requirements concerning training data, personal information, discrimination, security, provider responsibility, and generated content.<ref>{{Web citation|title=Interim Measures for the Management of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services|date=13 July 2023|url=https://www.chinalawtranslate.com/en/generative-ai-interim/|retrieved=1 August 2026|website=China Law Translate}}</ref>

=== United States ===
In January 2025, the United States government issued an executive order directing agencies to remove barriers to American AI leadership. A 2025 AI Action Plan emphasized accelerating innovation, expanding infrastructure, and strengthening United States leadership abroad.<ref>{{Web citation|title=Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence|date=23 January 2025|url=https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/removing-barriers-to-american-leadership-in-artificial-intelligence/|retrieved=1 August 2026|website=The White House}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|title=America's AI Action Plan|date=July 2025|url=https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Americas-AI-Action-Plan.pdf|retrieved=1 August 2026|website=The White House}}</ref>

== See also ==

* [[Cybernetics]]
* [[Intellectual property]]
* [[Deepseek]]
* [[Essay:Intellectual property in the times of AI]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}
[[Category:Technology]]
[[Category:Computing]]

Essay:Quick privacy guide

2026-08-01T22:01:22Z

CriticalResist:

{{Infobox essay|title=Quick privacy guide|author=CriticalResist|date=2026-05-22|excerpt=Yes, there are many privacy guides. But this one is mine. Meant to be quick and give you the cognitive tools to understand privacy.}}

Yes, there are many privacy guides. But this one is mine. It's meant to be short and give you the cognitive tools and a checklist to understand privacy.

Look, fascism is coming back to Europe and North America. It never fully left. If you live in the Global South, chances are you're already living under a fascist dictatorship that the US installed in your country.

Digital privacy is a rabbit hole, I won't deny it. There's always something "more" you could do, and best practices evolve rapidly. Everyone kind of has their own security practices, and everyone thinks they're doing it better than anyone else.

Here's my philosophy: As the Filton 24 trials show, the point is not necessarily to prevent police from getting anything to indict you with. It's to prevent them from giving the prosecution a better case. Al Capone, the famous gangster, was arrested on tax evasion charges, not on the murder and bootlegging, because that's famously all the FBI could find on him.

Furthermore, my philosophy is also to do these steps before you actually need them. You won't install Linux while the SWAT is barging down your door - you do it 10 years in advance, in preparation for when you'll actually need it. This is why I say again: you have time to do this. Don't feel overwhelmed. Just come back to this list once in a while, do the next item on it.

== Technical stuff you need to do ==
First part: the technical checklist. There's a belief that switching to privacy-hardening alternatives is difficult; it's actually not, I will say that right away. You slowly learn and do it day by day. It takes some time to set up at first, but once it's done, you get used to it in 3 days and forget how the "more convenient" stuff ever looked like.

Trust me - I did it and it was painless. Worst case scenario if you get frustrated? You just take a break, leave everything as is, and get back to it on another day.

Here's what I'm suggesting. I tried to order the advice from ''simplest to do'' to ''most complex''. 'Complex' doesn't mean it's difficult or prone to fail, just that you might want to set some time aside to do it.

* <code>'''DON'T TALK TO POLICE'''. Gotta begin with that. Anything you tell police will be recorded and can later be used against you, and '''not just in the US'''. "Well, I was just there, I didn't participate" - oh, so you were there. So now we're gonna make your life harder because you said you were there and maybe you're the one that did it. Oh look, there's a law (you never knew about) that says you had to intervene, now you can be sued for that.</code>
** <code>Lying to investigators = bad. But not saying anything is not lying, legally. This is the difference. Also you can incriminate yourself just trying to be helpful and they will jump on that. See Scott McTiernan lying to FBI when he should have just been honest (too long to explain here).</code>
** <code>"I have nothing to say officer, and I want to talk to my lawyer now". That's all you say, ever.</code>
** <code>They don't care if you did it or not. They care to provide a case the prosecutor can argue in court. They will use any tactic including threatening you, or alternatively pretending to be your friend, or alternatively pretending to "just be looking for the truth, and get the facts straight etc".</code>
** <code>Nothing good has ever come out of talking to police.</code>
** <code>If police knocks at your door: meet them outside on the patio, close door behind you. Do not let them into your home.</code>
** <code>Some of this will depend on your laws. We started a guide [[Essay:The guide to talk to police by country|here]], but it's highly incomplete.</code>
* <code>Switch to '''Librewolf browser'''. Technically you can harden Firefox, but Librewolf just does it for you automatically.</code>
** <code>Before you do, just open this page: https://sinceyouarrived.world/taken. It's safe. It just tells you all the personally identifiable information your browser helpfully sends to every web page you open as part of its normal operation. This is called fingerprinting, but Librewolf spoofs this data automatically. Assume every website gets and tracks this information about you: your timezone, your location, your GPU(!), your resolution, your OS, your browser, etc. Librewolf protects you against more than fingerprinting, this is just one example of what it does.</code>
** <code>By choice, Librewolf does not have a phone app. However, they officially recommend IronFox on Android.<ref>https://librewolf.net/docs/faq/#will-you-provide-an-android-version-of-librewolf</ref></code>

*<code>What about '''TOR'''? TOR is a modified version of Firefox that connects to The Onion Router network. you use it by downloading the TOR browser: https://www.torproject.org/download/</code>
**<code>TOR works by routing you through a number of its nodes, hosted by organizations and random people. You bounce in a long chain, becoming effectively untrackable, protecting your privacy and not leaving any trace of what you did online.</code>
**<code>If you use TOR, follow its advice. Don't use with on top of a VPN (''I believe''), don't resize the window, don't add plugins. It does everything by itself already. The point of TOR is that your traffic looks like it could be ''anyone's'' traffic. If you start messing with it you stand out.</code>
**<code>It's not fullproof; nothing is. TOR did receive research funding from three-letter US Agencies (don't remember if it was the NSA or CIA or who), but there are reasons for this: it allows their agents to work clandestinely abroad, and for that they need people to host nodes. To date, I am not aware of anyone who used TOR '''correctly''' and has been prosecuted over what they did on TOR. What you do on TOR stays on TOR.</code>
**<code>TOR can work for daily browsing but it's generally slow. The rule of thumb remains: whatever you do over TOR remains on TOR. Don't start logging into accounts and sending email with TOR.</code>
* <code>Use a '''2FA Authenticator app'''. I recommend Aegis on Android - open-source, fully-local. Set up 2FA on all your accounts - this is just further protection against hacking. You will need to scan a QR code with Aegis, and that's it, it's set up.</code>
* <code>Switch to a '''no-logs''' '''search engine'''. This is kinda based on how much you trust the provider.</code>
** <code>I use 4get.ca, a tiny no-name (and kind of edgy, unfortunately) search engine that serves as a proxy to DDG, Google, Yandex, Brave etc. There's other search engines, but I don't trust big names. Just personal.</code>

* <code>Use '''Mullvad VPN'''. The only one that has a proven no-logs, ram-only policy. Nothing else comes close, don't even look anywhere else.</code>
** <code>Use only Mullvad-owned servers, not ones they rent. There's a filter option in the app for it. Rented servers are not guaranteed to actually respect no-logs and ram-only policies.</code>
** <code>'''VPN ALWAYS ON.'''</code>
** <code>Pay by cash envelope, no more than ~100$/€/£ at a time. Don't leave fingerprints on the envelope.</code>
** <code>Do not ever link your email address to your mullvad in any way.</code>
** <code>VPNs don't just hide your IP address. They also hide your internet traffic from your ISP, and make finding your browsing history and browsing actions much harder. In 2024, Swedish police raided Mullvad to try and seize a server - after Mullvad explained their operation, they left empty-handed because there was nothing to seize.</code>
** <code>Turn on all the stuff they have (dAIta, multihop, etc). Put it on your phone too.</code>
* <code>'''Email''' is just not secure. I don't know how else to say it. Email was invented in the 70s before hacking was even illegal. They did not even think about security or privacy back then.</code>
** <code>'''Proton''' is slightly ahead of the curve but '''will cooperate with police agencies''' and give them whatever they can. They fundraise for [[Freedom House]], a US government agency passing as an "NGO", and called it "nonprofit, nonpartisan organization"<ref>[https://proton.me/blog/2024-lifetime-account-charity-fundraiser Proton 2024 Fundraiser]</ref>... which is a lie. Personally, I don't trust proton. But that's just me.</code>
** <code>'''Philosophy is: don't say it by email.''' Simple as. If you've already said stuff in emails you shouldn't have, delete them, that's the best you can do. Your recipient should also delete the emails. From now on, stop discussing sensitive stuff by email.</code>
* <code>'''Chat platforms''': they all kinda suck. Telegram and Signal are ''not'' secure - Signal can be compelled by the US gov to give them data on you and you would never know it.<ref>If you're interested in more reading: https://dessalines.github.io/essays/why_not_signal.html</ref> This data can be enough to prosecute you. They ''will'' give it, they won't protect you. So don't assume you can say whatever on Signal and be safe.</code>
** <code>'''Metadata is valuable too'''. This is unencrypted information such as who you talked to, when, for how long, etc. "Data about data". Metadata is enough to lead to investigations and convictions.</code>
** <code>'''Matrix''' is the only one that's still safe-ish (encryption and decentralized nature), but you have to trust the server owner. This is not a matrix guide, so I won't go into more details. Not many people use it.</code>
** <code>Otherwise: just be mindful of how you act on these platforms, that's about the best you can do.</code>
* <code>Set a '''diceware pass phrase''' for any master password. I will talk more about this after the list, because I feel it's the most important part to understand.</code>
** <code>'''Encrypt your hard drives'''. You may need to ''clone'' (technical term) the drives first, reformat with encryption, and then clone the backup back to the drive. Encrypt after you've switched to Linux because you will have to reformat your drives either way - and can encrypt with LUKS while you're installing Linux, saving time.</code>
** <code>On Windows, '''BitLocker is not trustworthy''' - it's owned and maintained by Microsoft, and I have read about backdoor issues on it. Since I am not on Windows, and neither should you, I can't say much more. The recommended encryption software seems to be VeraCrypt for Windows. For Linux, it's still LUKS (Luks2 with argon2id algorithm, more specifically).</code>
** <code>Use a '''password manager''' such as '''KeepassXC''', the only one that's consistently recommended in actual privacy guides.</code>
** <code>For all of the above, you can use the same diceware passphrase as the decrypting password. It's uncrackable* (again, see below). That way you remember ''one'' password for everything.</code>
* <code>Switch to a '''Linux OS'''.</code>
** <code>There are very good working alternatives today, such as Mint or Zorin OS (very sleek and professional look).</code>
** <code>Getting used to Linux is very easy nowadays. if you run into an issue, ask an LLM about it (preferably a Chinese one such as Deepseek or Kimi) and chances are you will find a fix.</code>
** <code>Set up ''timeshift'' and ''Pika backups'' on a spare drive so you can always roll back if you break something.</code>
** <code>FOSS software has come a long way in the past few years, it works and looks great now. Trust me, I was a Linux noob 6 months ago, now I'm deploying my own scripts and automations on it.</code>

*<code>'''TailsOS,''' now just '''Tails,''' is a Linux distribution for privacy purposes that you can get here: https://tails.net/. Its entire point is that you don't install it; it lives in a USB stick or other bootable media (USB sticks are just more convenient) which you plug into your computer, and never installs anything. TailsOS lives entirely in RAM, the Random Access Memory. Once you shut off the computer, anything you did on that computer disappears.</code>
**<code>Tails is not meant for 'daily driving', i.e. using on your home computer on the daily, because it doesn't save anything. The entire point of Tails is you don't save anything in or out of it.</code>
**<code>Definitely read their best practices and documentation for more information.</code>
**<code>Tails is maintained by the Tor Project.</code>
**<code>Tails works for journalists, activists, and abuse victims. If you are in an abusive situation, you can use Tails on a bootable media you hide (even a microSD card, if that's easier for you to hide), and do your research/contact authorities etc. from Tails, from your normal computer - even if other people have access to it, even if it's your daily driver computer, you can run Tails without nobody ever knowing about it.</code>
* <code>Use '''different usernames''' everywhere. Or at least try to. Unique usernames for each service. Your password manager can remember them for you.</code>
** <code>On social media, make new accounts periodically and delete the old ones. Don't use the same account for more than 6 months. You can have alt accounts: one for posting, one for browsing, for example. There are services that give you temporary email addresses you can use to register, or fake phone numbers to verify SMS codes. This is completely up to you, but it's an additional layer.</code>
** <code>Changing your usernames right now, if you can, is worth it. If you can't change them, either make new accounts or leave it be, up to you. What matters is future-proofing yourself more than anything, again planning ahead for when this will actually be useful.</code>
* <code>'''Phone''': switch to '''GrapheneOS'''. Not every phone is compatible, Graphene's website keeps a list. Google Pixels are currently the only possible choice because they use hardware that secures the phone itself, regardless of what its Operating System is.</code>
** <code>Until you have GrapheneOS, get a '''privacy respecting keyboard'''. On Android, install F-droid store (only FOSS software) and install a keyboard from there. Yes, you can change your keyboards on Android. If you use the default one, it sends data back to its developing company.</code>
** <code>This is last in the list because Graphene currently only supports Pixel phones, meaning you'd likely have to get a new phone for it and they're not cheap.</code>
Yes, this is not the shortest list. But here's the thing: you don't have to do everything ''right now''. Make a mullvad account today just to take a look, send the cash envelope next week. 3 months from now, when you have a long weekend off, install Linux. Switch to Librewolf part-time - you can absolutely install it alongside your current browser and just test it out.

Do it little by little as your cognitive load permits. Start exploring. Ask AI (Kimi for security/privacy questions tbh) how to go about it, or if you're curious about a part of it. Send it the essay and tell it to make you a guide.

If your devices ever get seized by state agents, however briefly: change them. Don't even play around. Throw the old ones out, buy new ones, redo everything. Assume they installed a trojan on it that you will never be able to remove. Recycle your pass phrases and passwords.

Don't take your phone with you on protests. It's very easy to track a phone with cell towers. Don't even turn it off, just leave it at home.

==== Diceware pass phrases ====
You can skip this section''', but the tl;dr is:''' current best recommendations for your passwords is switch to a pass phrase you remember that lives only in your head. Do not ever write it down, if you do, pen-and-paper only and burn it afterwards. Only use for most sensitive personal stuff (encrypted drives and encrypted password manager database): do not enter it at a work computer. Your job won't protect you. Do not enter it on websites.

But I need to talk a bit about passwords and best practices, because I feel this is the most important part of this guide. Diceware is a method of password generation. On Linux, you just install it with 'sudo apt install diceware' and use it from the terminal. On Windows, I am not sure. I would avoid any web page for generating a password though - it's convenient, but you don't know where it's stored or what they do with it. If your password can be read in clear text 6 months from now because it was in your browser's cache files, there is no point in having a secure password. Everything is just easier on Linux.

In any case. Diceware has a novel way of generating passwords. Instead of a garbled mess of characters such as <code>!AJ(%p"J3`3AZzAz</code>, Diceware generates a longer but easier to remember ''phrase'', such as: <code>outthink-gesture-clay-audible-nursery</code>

How easy is that to remember? Type it for a couple days and you'll remember it your entire life. The first password, with its exclamation marks and random letter arrangement? You will forget and mistype it often.

We are told to use special characters, capital letters, mix in numbers etc into our passwords, but these are mostly trivial for a computer program to crack through. Linux has a zxcvbn package, which is an algorithm created by Dropbox to check password strength. This is the most current and up to date checker right now, as it relies on the latest cracking methods to determine password strength. Let's check both passwords with it:
Password: !AJ(%p"J3`3AZzAz
zxcvbn results:
Crack Time Estimates:
Online (throttled, 100/hr): centuries
Online (no throttling, 10/s): centuries
Offline (slow hash, 10k/s): centuries
Offline (fast hash, 10B/s): '''12 days'''
Entropy: 53.2 bits
A sufficiently motivated attacker, such as a police lab with an array of RTX 5090 GPUs, can crack this "complicated" password in less than 2 weeks. Your case will take at least a year to go to court, in other words: this is not secure. Meanwhile, the diceware passphrase that looks deceptively simple:
password: outthink-gesture-clay-audible-nursery
zxcvbn results:
Crack Time Estimates:
Online (throttled, 100/hr): centuries
Online (no throttling, 10/s): centuries
Offline (slow hash, 10k/s): centuries
Offline (fast hash, 10B/s): centuries
Entropy: 95.8 bits
The diceware passphrase is much harder to crack, almost double the entropy, and much easier for you to remember entirely in your head - repeat it to yourself several times a day and you'll remember it in 72 hours. And it is future-proofed too: even at 100 billion guesses per second from a program trying to break through your encryption, it will still take ''millennia'' to crack. No GPU array today or in the future will ever be enough, not from a police lab that has a backlog and other passwords they need to crack.

'''Why diceware algorithm and not just making up 5 words in your head though?''' Because our head is not truly random. You will pick a word from a movie you watched recently, or a place you went to, or something you like. Diceware is truly random.

If you can't easily install or find diceware for your operating system though, there's a possible alternative method. Diceware, as its name implies, rolls dice to find words from a word list.

If you have a printed dictionary at home: roll a dice 4 or 5 times. First 3 rolls are page number (up to page 666), fourth and fifth rolls is the word # on this page. so if you roll and get:

5 3 3 4 1

Open the dictionary at page 533, and look for word 41 (if there are fewer than 41 words on that page, turn to the next page and keep counting).

You can make the dice rolls more complicated if you want so you can go above page 666.

Why so convoluted? Because again, our minds are not fully random. We are talking about an important password that controls access to every other password/file you own. Take the time to do it properly ''once'', then forget about it - you'll remember it for the rest of your life.

'''Vectors of attack''' exist against diceware pass phrases''':'''

* '''Compulsion''': many jurisdictions are getting wise to this practice and passing laws to compel you to surrender your password. In some cases, saying "sorry but I forgot it" is not even a valid defense! But here's the thing: with a weak password or no encryption, you don't get the choice to talk with your lawyer about surrendering the password or not. That's just how I see it, it buys you time and a wider net of decisions if such laws exist where you live.
* The '''encryption algorithm''' itself could be cracked, allowing an agency to simply bypass needing your password entirely. This is unlikely but is one reason encryption algorithms change over time. It's still better to have a password than not.
* The last one I must acknowledge... criminals and in some places even police will just '''beat you up''' until you give them the password. This is already happening in crypto heists. Due diligence is required based on where you live.

Okay, that was the tangent on passwords.

== Your biggest asset is your head ==
In general, never assume you are fully safe. You don't need to be paranoid though, just remember why you do this: so that if you are ever investigated by the fascist state for your journalism or activism, they will have a harder time building a case against you.

It's an old cat and mouse game. Developers make new privacy/security features, hackers crack them, devs make ''new'' security features. You will never be ahead of the curve - just the other day, I saw a new form of attack that hijacks a website, pretends you have to do Cloudflare verification, and when you copy and run the code they ask you to run, it's actually malware getting installed on your machine. We are so used to having to do these "verification steps" (especially if you use a VPN) that some people just don't think about it and do whatever the page asks.

So yes, this means you still need to use your head. Having GrapheneOS or Librewolf+VPN doesn't mean you can say whatever on X dot com without repercussions. It doesn't mean your computer can't be hacked remotely by a three-letter agency and malware installed that you will never know about (if you're not on their radar though, then there is no reason they would even know you exist).

Like I said, this is a rabbit hole. There's now concerns with Intel CPUs that the US government has a backdoor into them. If deployed, this means they could just read and even access your computer through its CPU remotely, if you use Intel. We pretty much know, from the Snowden leaks, that the NSA owns backdoors into every big US tech company. Again, this doesn't mean you have to disconnect and live off the grid, just that you know to be mindful of what you share.

This is why I recommend everything Chinese as much as possible, because China will never work with US "security" agencies, seeing that these same agencies are the ones trying to dismantle China from the inside.

"But I have to trust China then". Yes. Welcome to the Chinese Century - it's great. What do you care if china knows something about you? The only country liable to bomb you and disappear you into a waterboarding black site is the United States of America, and they control most digital avenues until China overtakes them. Trust China, discard USA.

Hardware is not inherently safe either. A paper made the rounds recently when it showed that you could be tracked accurately through walls by your own wifi signal. Your body distorts the wifi waves, which shows on camera as a clear, accurate shape.<ref>https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/security/a42575068/scientists-use-wifi-to-see-through-walls/</ref>

Technically, if police can seize a server/computer quickly enough and freeze the components with liquid nitrogen, they can freeze the RAM cells in place, allowing them to transport it even without electricity to the station, and extract the contents of your RAM sticks there.<ref>https://www.securitum.com/memory_heist_the_secrets_and_risks_of_cold_boot_attacks.html</ref>

These two methods have yet to be used in real, uncontrolled conditions ('''as far as I'm aware'''), but they are very real and new vectors of attack, so who knows what they'll come up with next. This is why I say, again: you don't have to become paranoid because security is a rabbit hole that never ends. You just have to be mindful that things are moving and what is the correct practice today may not be in 10 years.

To finish up, I also have to rant a little about '''privacy'''... it's often just a buzzword that gives you a false sense of security (hence the philosophy: never assume you are fully safe, limit what you share). "Privacy-focused" apps for example are plenty, but what exactly is privacy to their devs? How do they define it and help your privacy?

'''Startpage''' for example is a search engine that people use because it claims to be private - that's the entire reason you would use startpage. It says so in the tab title: "Startpage - Private Search Engine. No Tracking. No Search History."

I was not impressed by startpage's privacy policy:
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Startpage says...
!The problem
|-
|"We don’t record your IP address"
|Yet they admit to logging "robots that rapidly submit more queries to our servers than any normal human would" without saying how fast is too fast. I've been flagged by systems that thought I was a bot before, because they were tuned too tight. So, not private.
|-
|"We don’t serve any cookies that track you or your behavior"
|Cookies are so 2015. We now have methods other than cookies. Browser fingerprinting, for one. Javascript that actually looks into your computer files (ala Linkedin scandal). This part of the privacy policy says nothing about these other methods. In fact, startpage assuredly collects fingerprinting data, but yet never name it as such. Cookies and IP is flashy: everyone knows what they are now. Fingerprinting isn't, so they don't name it?
|-
|"Startpage complies with the GDPR. We are located in the EU, and we fully comply with applicable privacy laws and regulations of the EU, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)."
|The point of the GDPR is to disclose: what data is collected, the purpose of processing, any recipients of the data, the retention period. Startpage fails on the last two, for all their talk about respecting the GDPR and how strong it is. As a private engine startpage should go ''beyond'' the GDPR. Who accesses the collected data, when it is collected? Names, job titles, second- or third-party employers? We don't know.
|-
|"Any request [for data] will have to come from Dutch judicial authorities. We’ll only comply if we’re legally obliged to do so. But we’re not likely to receive requests by governments to hand over user data – simply because we don’t have any."
|What if the government asks startpage to start tracking a user? They are weirdly omissive of this possibility - it's tucked away under a short sentence, '''We will only comply if we're legally obliged to do so.''' This is understandable as no company will die for you, but it's still kind of an omission. Redirecting concerns to how good you are for "not having user data" (despite that you do, it's just aggregate instead of individual) effectively silences all the other possible, real, cases - such as law enforcement compelling startpage to start collecting data on a particular user.
|-
|"European governments can’t legally force service providers like Startpage to implement a blanket spying program."
|The word 'blanket' does some heavy lifting here, as it implies "start collecting data on ''all'' your users". But that is not what usually happens. What happens is, under the Dutch Intelligence and Security Services Act 2017 (Wiv 2017), intelligence services (AIVD, MIVD) can require telecom providers and other technical service providers to collect data for national security purposes. They will tell startpage "start collecting THIS data on THIS IP address", with or without a duty of confidentiality on startpage's part. Startpage also doesn't have a canary<ref group="lower-alpha">A canary is a statement "As of [date] we have not received any data requests from the governement" updated daily on the provider's website.

When the date stops updating, users can infer a confidential request was indeed made. This lets online services let their users know that a confidential request with a gag order ("you are not allowed to tell people you received this order") was made, as a workaround of sorts.</ref>. They simply never, ever talk about this possibility except in very broad, dismissive terms: "of course we obey the law". Well, Dutch law says if they want you to be fucked over then you're fucked. Startpage will obey that.
|-
|"How we have implemented truly anonymous analytics. We do measure overall traffic numbers and some other – strictly anonymous – statistics"
|So there is telemetry, so you are not a private search engine. The difference between "we have aggregate data on our users" and "we have individual data on our users" is one click of the mouse on a button in the admin panel.
|-
|"In order to enable the prevention of click fraud [on our sponsored links], some non-identifying system information is shared"
|More tracking again (on ads of all things), and once again startpage doesn't explain what "non-identifying system information" is sent over. They do not decide what identifies you or not - you do. Especially when it's ''system'' information (your OS, your gpu, your screen resolution etc. presumably)
|}
This is just some examples of why 'private' is a buzzword and what's private to you may not be private to someone else.

To me, privacy means there is '''no tracking whatsoever''' and '''as much as possible is encrypted'''. That's the strict minimum. If it needs to do tracking, it stays on your machine and never, ever leaves it (local-first). Linux for example has good privacy out of the box: it does not track anything about you, not even that you are a Linux user, unless you opt-in. Even something as innocuous as "does this machine use Linux? Yes/no" being sent back to servers not privacy-respecting, in my opinion. Steam for example collects information about your hardware without telling you. It reads, collects, and sends this data. It's not private, and yet Steam is on everyone's computer silently reading about all your games, hardware, etc. Is this a problem for you? Maybe, maybe not (could be used to know your hardware and deploy a trojan against you specifically, who knows). But it's not private.

There is a huge amount of trust as well. When an app says it is private, and says it has a no-logs, ram-only policy, you still have to trust that they actually follow their policy unless, like in Mullvad's case, it gets its baptism of fire. But, that's the limitation: you trust the devs to do what they say they do. It doesn't mean you shouldn't or can't use the app, it just means you trust them to that extent.

That's about it for this guide, otherwise it'll start being cognitive overload. Just do a little at a time, it's fine, nobody can ever do ''everything''.

== References ==

[[Category:Essays]]
[[Category:Essays by CriticalResist]]
<references />
<references group="lower-alpha" />

Essay:Quick privacy guide

2026-08-01T21:48:54Z

CriticalResist:

{{Infobox essay|title=Quick privacy guide|author=CriticalResist|date=2026-05-22|excerpt=Yes, there are many privacy guides. But this one is mine. Meant to be quick and give you the cognitive tools to understand privacy.}}

Yes, there are many privacy guides. But this one is mine. It's meant to be short and give you the cognitive tools and a checklist to understand privacy.

Look, fascism is coming back to Europe and North America. It never fully left. If you live in the Global South, chances are you're already living under a fascist dictatorship that the US installed in your country.

Digital privacy is a rabbit hole, I won't deny it. There's always something "more" you could do, and best practices evolve rapidly. Everyone kind of has their own security practices, and everyone thinks they're doing it better than anyone else.

Here's my philosophy: As the Filton 24 trials show, the point is not necessarily to prevent police from getting anything to indict you with. It's to prevent them from giving the prosecution a better case. Al Capone, the famous gangster, was arrested on tax evasion charges, not on the murder and bootlegging, because that's famously all the FBI could find on him.

Furthermore, my philosophy is also to do these steps before you actually need them. You won't install Linux while the SWAT is barging down your door - you do it 10 years in advance, in preparation for when you'll actually need it. This is why I say again: you have time to do this. Don't feel overwhelmed. Just come back to this list once in a while, do the next item on it.

== Technical stuff you need to do ==
First part: the technical checklist. There's a belief that switching to privacy-hardening alternatives is difficult; it's actually not, I will say that right away. You slowly learn and do it day by day. It takes some time to set up at first, but once it's done, you get used to it in 3 days and forget how the "more convenient" stuff ever looked like.

Trust me - I did it and it was painless. Worst case scenario if you get frustrated? You just take a break, leave everything as is, and get back to it on another day.

Here's what I'm suggesting. I tried to order the advice from ''simplest to do'' to ''most complex''. 'Complex' doesn't mean it's difficult or prone to fail, just that you might want to set some time aside to do it.

* <code>'''DON'T TALK TO POLICE'''. Gotta begin with that. Anything you tell police will be recorded and can later be used against you, and '''not just in the US'''. "Well, I was just there, I didn't participate" - oh, so you were there. So now we're gonna make your life harder because you said you were there and maybe you're the one that did it. Oh look, there's a law (you never knew about) that says you had to intervene, now you can be sued for that.</code>
** <code>Lying to investigators = bad. But not saying anything is not lying, legally. This is the difference. Also you can incriminate yourself just trying to be helpful and they will jump on that. See Scott McTiernan lying to FBI when he should have just been honest (too long to explain here).</code>
** <code>"I have nothing to say officer, and I want to talk to my lawyer now". That's all you say, ever.</code>
** <code>They don't care if you did it or not. They care to provide a case the prosecutor can argue in court. They will use any tactic including threatening you, or alternatively pretending to be your friend, or alternatively pretending to "just be looking for the truth, and get the facts straight etc".</code>
** <code>Nothing good has ever come out of talking to police.</code>
** <code>If police knocks at your door: meet them outside on the patio, close door behind you. Do not let them into your home.</code>
** <code>Some of this will depend on your laws. We started a guide [[Essay:The guide to talk to police by country|here]], but it's highly incomplete.</code>
* <code>Switch to '''Librewolf browser'''. Technically you can harden Firefox, but Librewolf just does it for you automatically.</code>
** <code>Before you do, just open this page: https://sinceyouarrived.world/taken. It's safe. It just tells you all the personally identifiable information your browser helpfully sends to every web page you open as part of its normal operation. This is called fingerprinting, but Librewolf spoofs this data automatically. Assume every website gets and tracks this information about you: your timezone, your location, your GPU(!), your resolution, your OS, your browser, etc. Librewolf protects you against more than fingerprinting, this is just one example of what it does.</code>
** <code>By choice, Librewolf does not have a phone app. However, they officially recommend IronFox on Android.<ref>https://librewolf.net/docs/faq/#will-you-provide-an-android-version-of-librewolf</ref></code>

*<code>What about '''TOR'''? TOR is a modified version of Firefox that connects to The Onion Router network. you use it by downloading the TOR browser: https://www.torproject.org/download/</code>
**<code>TOR works by routing you through a number of its nodes, hosted by organizations and random people. You bounce in a long chain, becoming effectively untrackable, protecting your privacy and not leaving any trace of what you did online.</code>
**<code>If you use TOR, follow its advice. Don't use with on top of a VPN (''I believe''), don't resize the window, don't add plugins. It does everything by itself already. The point of TOR is that your traffic looks like it could be ''anyone's'' traffic. If you start messing with it you stand out.</code>
**<code>It's not fullproof; nothing is. TOR did receive research funding from three-letter US Agencies (don't remember if it was the NSA or CIA or who), but there are reasons for this: it allows their agents to work clandestinely abroad, and for that they need people to host nodes. To date, I am not aware of anyone who used TOR '''correctly''' and has been prosecuted over what they did on TOR. What you do on TOR stays on TOR.</code>
**<code>TOR can work for daily browsing but it's generally slow. The rule of thumb remains: whatever you do over TOR remains on TOR. Don't start logging into accounts and sending email with TOR.</code>
* <code>Use a '''2FA Authenticator app'''. I recommend Aegis on Android - open-source, fully-local. Set up 2FA on all your accounts - this is just further protection against hacking. You will need to scan a QR code with Aegis, and that's it, it's set up.</code>
* <code>Switch to a '''no-logs''' '''search engine'''. This is kinda based on how much you trust the provider.</code>
** <code>I use 4get.ca, a tiny no-name (and kind of edgy, unfortunately) search engine that serves as a proxy to DDG, Google, Yandex, Brave etc. There's other search engines, but I don't trust big names. Just personal.</code>

* <code>Use '''Mullvad VPN'''. The only one that has a proven no-logs, ram-only policy. Nothing else comes close, don't even look anywhere else.</code>
** <code>Use only Mullvad-owned servers, not ones they rent. There's a filter option in the app for it. Rented servers are not guaranteed to actually respect no-logs and ram-only policies.</code>
** <code>'''VPN ALWAYS ON.'''</code>
** <code>Pay by cash envelope, no more than ~100$/€/£ at a time. Don't leave fingerprints on the envelope.</code>
** <code>Do not ever link your email address to your mullvad in any way.</code>
** <code>VPNs don't just hide your IP address. They also hide your internet traffic from your ISP, and make finding your browsing history and browsing actions much harder. In 2024, Swedish police raided Mullvad to try and seize a server - after Mullvad explained their operation, they left empty-handed because there was nothing to seize.</code>
** <code>Turn on all the stuff they have (dAIta, multihop, etc). Put it on your phone too.</code>
* <code>'''Email''' is just not secure. I don't know how else to say it. Email was invented in the 70s before hacking was even illegal. They did not even think about security or privacy back then.</code>
** <code>'''Proton''' is slightly ahead of the curve but '''will cooperate with police agencies''' and give them whatever they can. They fundraise for [[Freedom House]], a US government agency passing as an "NGO", and called it "nonprofit, nonpartisan organization"<ref>[https://proton.me/blog/2024-lifetime-account-charity-fundraiser Proton 2024 Fundraiser]</ref>... which is a lie. Personally, I don't trust proton. But that's just me.</code>
** <code>'''Philosophy is: don't say it by email.''' Simple as. If you've already said stuff in emails you shouldn't have, delete them, that's the best you can do. Your recipient should also delete the emails. From now on, stop discussing sensitive stuff by email.</code>
* <code>'''Chat platforms''': they all kinda suck. Telegram and Signal are ''not'' secure - Signal can be compelled by the US gov to give them data on you and you would never know it.<ref>If you're interested in more reading: https://dessalines.github.io/essays/why_not_signal.html</ref> This data can be enough to prosecute you. They ''will'' give it, they won't protect you. So don't assume you can say whatever on Signal and be safe.</code>
** <code>'''Metadata is valuable too'''. This is unencrypted information such as who you talked to, when, for how long, etc. "Data about data". Metadata is enough to lead to investigations and convictions.</code>
** <code>'''Matrix''' is the only one that's still safe-ish (encryption and decentralized nature), but you have to trust the server owner. This is not a matrix guide, so I won't go into more details. Not many people use it.</code>
** <code>Otherwise: just be mindful of how you act on these platforms, that's about the best you can do.</code>
* <code>Set a '''diceware pass phrase''' for any master password. I will talk more about this after the list, because I feel it's the most important part to understand.</code>
** <code>'''Encrypt your hard drives'''. You may need to ''clone'' (technical term) the drives first, reformat with encryption, and then clone the backup back to the drive. Encrypt after you've switched to Linux because you will have to reformat your drives either way - and can encrypt with LUKS while you're installing Linux, saving time.</code>
** <code>Use a '''password manager''' such as '''KeepassXC''', the only one that's consistently recommended in actual privacy guides.</code>
** <code>For all of the above, you can use the same diceware passphrase as the decrypting password. It's uncrackable* (again, see below). That way you remember ''one'' password for everything.</code>
* <code>Switch to a '''Linux OS'''.</code>
** <code>There are very good working alternatives today, such as Mint or Zorin OS (very sleek and professional look).</code>
** <code>Getting used to Linux is very easy nowadays. if you run into an issue, ask an LLM about it (preferably a Chinese one such as Deepseek or Kimi) and chances are you will find a fix.</code>
** <code>Set up ''timeshift'' and ''Pika backups'' on a spare drive so you can always roll back if you break something.</code>
** <code>FOSS software has come a long way in the past few years, it works and looks great now. Trust me, I was a Linux noob 6 months ago, now I'm deploying my own scripts and automations on it.</code>

*<code>'''TailsOS,''' now just '''Tails,''' is a Linux distribution for privacy purposes that you can get here: https://tails.net/. Its entire point is that you don't install it; it lives in a USB stick or other bootable media (USB sticks are just more convenient) which you plug into your computer, and never installs anything. TailsOS lives entirely in RAM, the Random Access Memory. Once you shut off the computer, anything you did on that computer disappears.</code>
**<code>Tails is not meant for 'daily driving', i.e. using on your home computer on the daily, because it doesn't save anything. The entire point of Tails is you don't save anything in or out of it.</code>
**<code>Definitely read their best practices and documentation for more information.</code>
**<code>Tails is maintained by the Tor Project.</code>
**<code>Tails works for journalists, activists, and abuse victims. If you are in an abusive situation, you can use Tails on a bootable media you hide (even a microSD card, if that's easier for you to hide), and do your research/contact authorities etc. from Tails, from your normal computer - even if other people have access to it, even if it's your daily driver computer, you can run Tails without nobody ever knowing about it.</code>
* <code>Use '''different usernames''' everywhere. Or at least try to. Unique usernames for each service. Your password manager can remember them for you.</code>
** <code>On social media, make new accounts periodically and delete the old ones. Don't use the same account for more than 6 months. You can have alt accounts: one for posting, one for browsing, for example. There are services that give you temporary email addresses you can use to register, or fake phone numbers to verify SMS codes. This is completely up to you, but it's an additional layer.</code>
** <code>Changing your usernames right now, if you can, is worth it. If you can't change them, either make new accounts or leave it be, up to you. What matters is future-proofing yourself more than anything, again planning ahead for when this will actually be useful.</code>
* <code>'''Phone''': switch to '''GrapheneOS'''. Not every phone is compatible, Graphene's website keeps a list. Google Pixels are currently the only possible choice because they use hardware that secures the phone itself, regardless of what its Operating System is.</code>
** <code>Until you have GrapheneOS, get a '''privacy respecting keyboard'''. On Android, install F-droid store (only FOSS software) and install a keyboard from there. Yes, you can change your keyboards on Android. If you use the default one, it sends data back to its developing company.</code>
** <code>This is last in the list because Graphene currently only supports Pixel phones, meaning you'd likely have to get a new phone for it and they're not cheap.</code>
Yes, this is not the shortest list. But here's the thing: you don't have to do everything ''right now''. Make a mullvad account today just to take a look, send the cash envelope next week. 3 months from now, when you have a long weekend off, install Linux. Switch to Librewolf part-time - you can absolutely install it alongside your current browser and just test it out.

Do it little by little as your cognitive load permits. Start exploring. Ask AI (Kimi for security/privacy questions tbh) how to go about it, or if you're curious about a part of it. Send it the essay and tell it to make you a guide.

If your devices ever get seized by state agents, however briefly: change them. Don't even play around. Throw the old ones out, buy new ones, redo everything. Assume they installed a trojan on it that you will never be able to remove. Recycle your pass phrases and passwords.

Don't take your phone with you on protests. It's very easy to track a phone with cell towers. Don't even turn it off, just leave it at home.

==== Diceware pass phrases ====
You can skip this section''', but the tl;dr is:''' current best recommendations for your passwords is switch to a pass phrase you remember that lives only in your head. Do not ever write it down, if you do, pen-and-paper only and burn it afterwards. Only use for most sensitive personal stuff (encrypted drives and encrypted password manager database): do not enter it at a work computer. Your job won't protect you. Do not enter it on websites.

But I need to talk a bit about passwords and best practices, because I feel this is the most important part of this guide. Diceware is a method of password generation. On Linux, you just install it with 'sudo apt install diceware' and use it from the terminal. On Windows, I am not sure. I would avoid any web page for generating a password though - it's convenient, but you don't know where it's stored or what they do with it. If your password can be read in clear text 6 months from now because it was in your browser's cache files, there is no point in having a secure password. Everything is just easier on Linux.

In any case. Diceware has a novel way of generating passwords. Instead of a garbled mess of characters such as <code>!AJ(%p"J3`3AZzAz</code>, Diceware generates a longer but easier to remember ''phrase'', such as: <code>outthink-gesture-clay-audible-nursery</code>

How easy is that to remember? Type it for a couple days and you'll remember it your entire life. The first password, with its exclamation marks and random letter arrangement? You will forget and mistype it often.

We are told to use special characters, capital letters, mix in numbers etc into our passwords, but these are mostly trivial for a computer program to crack through. Linux has a zxcvbn package, which is an algorithm created by Dropbox to check password strength. This is the most current and up to date checker right now, as it relies on the latest cracking methods to determine password strength. Let's check both passwords with it:
Password: !AJ(%p"J3`3AZzAz
zxcvbn results:
Crack Time Estimates:
Online (throttled, 100/hr): centuries
Online (no throttling, 10/s): centuries
Offline (slow hash, 10k/s): centuries
Offline (fast hash, 10B/s): '''12 days'''
Entropy: 53.2 bits
A sufficiently motivated attacker, such as a police lab with an array of RTX 5090 GPUs, can crack this "complicated" password in less than 2 weeks. Your case will take at least a year to go to court, in other words: this is not secure. Meanwhile, the diceware passphrase that looks deceptively simple:
password: outthink-gesture-clay-audible-nursery
zxcvbn results:
Crack Time Estimates:
Online (throttled, 100/hr): centuries
Online (no throttling, 10/s): centuries
Offline (slow hash, 10k/s): centuries
Offline (fast hash, 10B/s): centuries
Entropy: 95.8 bits
The diceware passphrase is much harder to crack, almost double the entropy, and much easier for you to remember entirely in your head - repeat it to yourself several times a day and you'll remember it in 72 hours. And it is future-proofed too: even at 100 billion guesses per second from a program trying to break through your encryption, it will still take ''millennia'' to crack. No GPU array today or in the future will ever be enough, not from a police lab that has a backlog and other passwords they need to crack.

'''Why diceware algorithm and not just making up 5 words in your head though?''' Because our head is not truly random. You will pick a word from a movie you watched recently, or a place you went to, or something you like. Diceware is truly random.

If you can't easily install or find diceware for your operating system though, there's a possible alternative method. Diceware, as its name implies, rolls dice to find words from a word list.

If you have a printed dictionary at home: roll a dice 4 or 5 times. First 3 rolls are page number (up to page 666), fourth and fifth rolls is the word # on this page. so if you roll and get:

5 3 3 4 1

Open the dictionary at page 533, and look for word 41 (if there are fewer than 41 words on that page, turn to the next page and keep counting).

You can make the dice rolls more complicated if you want so you can go above page 666.

Why so convoluted? Because again, our minds are not fully random. We are talking about an important password that controls access to every other password/file you own. Take the time to do it properly ''once'', then forget about it - you'll remember it for the rest of your life.

'''Vectors of attack''' exist against diceware pass phrases''':'''

* '''Compulsion''': many jurisdictions are getting wise to this practice and passing laws to compel you to surrender your password. In some cases, saying "sorry but I forgot it" is not even a valid defense! But here's the thing: with a weak password or no encryption, you don't get the choice to talk with your lawyer about surrendering the password or not. That's just how I see it, it buys you time and a wider net of decisions if such laws exist where you live.
* The '''encryption algorithm''' itself could be cracked, allowing an agency to simply bypass needing your password entirely. This is unlikely but is one reason encryption algorithms change over time. It's still better to have a password than not.
* The last one I must acknowledge... criminals and in some places even police will just '''beat you up''' until you give them the password. This is already happening in crypto heists. Due diligence is required based on where you live.

Okay, that was the tangent on passwords.

== Your biggest asset is your head ==
In general, never assume you are fully safe. You don't need to be paranoid though, just remember why you do this: so that if you are ever investigated by the fascist state for your journalism or activism, they will have a harder time building a case against you.

It's an old cat and mouse game. Developers make new privacy/security features, hackers crack them, devs make ''new'' security features. You will never be ahead of the curve - just the other day, I saw a new form of attack that hijacks a website, pretends you have to do Cloudflare verification, and when you copy and run the code they ask you to run, it's actually malware getting installed on your machine. We are so used to having to do these "verification steps" (especially if you use a VPN) that some people just don't think about it and do whatever the page asks.

So yes, this means you still need to use your head. Having GrapheneOS or Librewolf+VPN doesn't mean you can say whatever on X dot com without repercussions. It doesn't mean your computer can't be hacked remotely by a three-letter agency and malware installed that you will never know about (if you're not on their radar though, then there is no reason they would even know you exist).

Like I said, this is a rabbit hole. There's now concerns with Intel CPUs that the US government has a backdoor into them. If deployed, this means they could just read and even access your computer through its CPU remotely, if you use Intel. We pretty much know, from the Snowden leaks, that the NSA owns backdoors into every big US tech company. Again, this doesn't mean you have to disconnect and live off the grid, just that you know to be mindful of what you share.

This is why I recommend everything Chinese as much as possible, because China will never work with US "security" agencies, seeing that these same agencies are the ones trying to dismantle China from the inside.

"But I have to trust China then". Yes. Welcome to the Chinese Century - it's great. What do you care if china knows something about you? The only country liable to bomb you and disappear you into a waterboarding black site is the United States of America, and they control most digital avenues until China overtakes them. Trust China, discard USA.

Hardware is not inherently safe either. A paper made the rounds recently when it showed that you could be tracked accurately through walls by your own wifi signal. Your body distorts the wifi waves, which shows on camera as a clear, accurate shape.<ref>https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/security/a42575068/scientists-use-wifi-to-see-through-walls/</ref>

Technically, if police can seize a server/computer quickly enough and freeze the components with liquid nitrogen, they can freeze the RAM cells in place, allowing them to transport it even without electricity to the station, and extract the contents of your RAM sticks there.<ref>https://www.securitum.com/memory_heist_the_secrets_and_risks_of_cold_boot_attacks.html</ref>

These two methods have yet to be used in real, uncontrolled conditions ('''as far as I'm aware'''), but they are very real and new vectors of attack, so who knows what they'll come up with next. This is why I say, again: you don't have to become paranoid because security is a rabbit hole that never ends. You just have to be mindful that things are moving and what is the correct practice today may not be in 10 years.

To finish up, I also have to rant a little about '''privacy'''... it's often just a buzzword that gives you a false sense of security (hence the philosophy: never assume you are fully safe, limit what you share). "Privacy-focused" apps for example are plenty, but what exactly is privacy to their devs? How do they define it and help your privacy?

'''Startpage''' for example is a search engine that people use because it claims to be private - that's the entire reason you would use startpage. It says so in the tab title: "Startpage - Private Search Engine. No Tracking. No Search History."

I was not impressed by startpage's privacy policy:
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Startpage says...
!The problem
|-
|"We don’t record your IP address"
|Yet they admit to logging "robots that rapidly submit more queries to our servers than any normal human would" without saying how fast is too fast. I've been flagged by systems that thought I was a bot before, because they were tuned too tight. So, not private.
|-
|"We don’t serve any cookies that track you or your behavior"
|Cookies are so 2015. We now have methods other than cookies. Browser fingerprinting, for one. Javascript that actually looks into your computer files (ala Linkedin scandal). This part of the privacy policy says nothing about these other methods. In fact, startpage assuredly collects fingerprinting data, but yet never name it as such. Cookies and IP is flashy: everyone knows what they are now. Fingerprinting isn't, so they don't name it?
|-
|"Startpage complies with the GDPR. We are located in the EU, and we fully comply with applicable privacy laws and regulations of the EU, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)."
|The point of the GDPR is to disclose: what data is collected, the purpose of processing, any recipients of the data, the retention period. Startpage fails on the last two, for all their talk about respecting the GDPR and how strong it is. As a private engine startpage should go ''beyond'' the GDPR. Who accesses the collected data, when it is collected? Names, job titles, second- or third-party employers? We don't know.
|-
|"Any request [for data] will have to come from Dutch judicial authorities. We’ll only comply if we’re legally obliged to do so. But we’re not likely to receive requests by governments to hand over user data – simply because we don’t have any."
|What if the government asks startpage to start tracking a user? They are weirdly omissive of this possibility - it's tucked away under a short sentence, '''We will only comply if we're legally obliged to do so.''' This is understandable as no company will die for you, but it's still kind of an omission. Redirecting concerns to how good you are for "not having user data" (despite that you do, it's just aggregate instead of individual) effectively silences all the other possible, real, cases - such as law enforcement compelling startpage to start collecting data on a particular user.
|-
|"European governments can’t legally force service providers like Startpage to implement a blanket spying program."
|The word 'blanket' does some heavy lifting here, as it implies "start collecting data on ''all'' your users". But that is not what usually happens. What happens is, under the Dutch Intelligence and Security Services Act 2017 (Wiv 2017), intelligence services (AIVD, MIVD) can require telecom providers and other technical service providers to collect data for national security purposes. They will tell startpage "start collecting THIS data on THIS IP address", with or without a duty of confidentiality on startpage's part. Startpage also doesn't have a canary<ref group="lower-alpha">A canary is a statement "As of [date] we have not received any data requests from the governement" updated daily on the provider's website.

When the date stops updating, users can infer a confidential request was indeed made. This lets online services let their users know that a confidential request with a gag order ("you are not allowed to tell people you received this order") was made, as a workaround of sorts.</ref>. They simply never, ever talk about this possibility except in very broad, dismissive terms: "of course we obey the law". Well, Dutch law says if they want you to be fucked over then you're fucked. Startpage will obey that.
|-
|"How we have implemented truly anonymous analytics. We do measure overall traffic numbers and some other – strictly anonymous – statistics"
|So there is telemetry, so you are not a private search engine. The difference between "we have aggregate data on our users" and "we have individual data on our users" is one click of the mouse on a button in the admin panel.
|-
|"In order to enable the prevention of click fraud [on our sponsored links], some non-identifying system information is shared"
|More tracking again (on ads of all things), and once again startpage doesn't explain what "non-identifying system information" is sent over. They do not decide what identifies you or not - you do. Especially when it's ''system'' information (your OS, your gpu, your screen resolution etc. presumably)
|}
This is just some examples of why 'private' is a buzzword and what's private to you may not be private to someone else.

To me, privacy means there is '''no tracking whatsoever''' and '''as much as possible is encrypted'''. That's the strict minimum. If it needs to do tracking, it stays on your machine and never, ever leaves it (local-first). Linux for example has good privacy out of the box: it does not track anything about you, not even that you are a Linux user, unless you opt-in. Even something as innocuous as "does this machine use Linux? Yes/no" being sent back to servers not privacy-respecting, in my opinion. Steam for example collects information about your hardware without telling you. It reads, collects, and sends this data. It's not private, and yet Steam is on everyone's computer silently reading about all your games, hardware, etc. Is this a problem for you? Maybe, maybe not (could be used to know your hardware and deploy a trojan against you specifically, who knows). But it's not private.

There is a huge amount of trust as well. When an app says it is private, and says it has a no-logs, ram-only policy, you still have to trust that they actually follow their policy unless, like in Mullvad's case, it gets its baptism of fire. But, that's the limitation: you trust the devs to do what they say they do. It doesn't mean you shouldn't or can't use the app, it just means you trust them to that extent.

That's about it for this guide, otherwise it'll start being cognitive overload. Just do a little at a time, it's fine, nobody can ever do ''everything''.

== References ==

[[Category:Essays]]
[[Category:Essays by CriticalResist]]
<references />
<references group="lower-alpha" />

Essay:Quick privacy guide

2026-08-01T21:30:27Z

CriticalResist:

{{Infobox essay|title=Quick privacy guide|author=CriticalResist|date=2026-05-22|excerpt=Yes, there are many privacy guides. But this one is mine. Meant to be quick and give you the cognitive tools to understand privacy.}}

Yes, there are many privacy guides. But this one is mine. It's meant to be short and give you the cognitive tools and a checklist to understand privacy.

Look, fascism is coming back to Europe and North America. It never fully left. If you live in the Global South, chances are you're already living under a fascist dictatorship that the US installed in your country.

Digital privacy is a rabbit hole, I won't deny it. There's always something "more" you could do, and best practices evolve rapidly. Everyone kind of has their own security practices, and everyone thinks they're doing it better than anyone else.

Here's my philosophy: As the Filton 24 trials show, the point is not necessarily to prevent police from getting anything to indict you with. It's to prevent them from giving the prosecution a better case. Al Capone, the famous gangster, was arrested on tax evasion charges, not on the murder and bootlegging, because that's famously all the FBI could find on him.

Furthermore, my philosophy is also to do these steps before you actually need them. You won't install Linux while the SWAT is barging down your door - you do it 10 years in advance, in preparation for when you'll actually need it. This is why I say again: you have time to do this. Don't feel overwhelmed. Just come back to this list once in a while, do the next item on it.

== Technical stuff you need to do ==
First part: the technical checklist. There's a belief that switching to privacy-hardening alternatives is difficult; it's actually not, I will say that right away. You slowly learn and do it day by day. It takes some time to set up at first, but once it's done, you get used to it in 3 days and forget how the "more convenient" stuff ever looked like.

Trust me - I did it and it was painless. Worst case scenario if you get frustrated? You just take a break, leave everything as is, and get back to it on another day.

Here's what I'm suggesting. I tried to order the advice from ''simplest to do'' to ''most complex''. 'Complex' doesn't mean it's difficult or prone to fail, just that you might want to set some time aside to do it.

* <code>Switch to '''Librewolf browser'''. Technically you can harden Firefox, but Librewolf just does it for you automatically.</code>
** <code>Before you do, just open this page: https://sinceyouarrived.world/taken. It's safe. It just tells you all the personally identifiable information your browser helpfully sends to every web page you open as part of its normal operation. This is called fingerprinting, but Librewolf spoofs this data automatically. Assume every website gets and tracks this information about you: your timezone, your location, your GPU(!), your resolution, your OS, your browser, etc. Librewolf protects you against more than fingerprinting, this is just one example of what that does.</code>
** <code>By choice, Librewolf does not have a phone app. However, they officially recommend IronFox on Android.<ref>https://librewolf.net/docs/faq/#will-you-provide-an-android-version-of-librewolf</ref></code>

*<code>What about '''TOR'''? TOR is a modified version of Firefox that connects to The Onion Router network. you use it by downloading the TOR browser: https://www.torproject.org/download/</code>
**<code>TOR works by routing you through a number of its nodes, hosted by organizations and random people. You bounce in a long chain, becoming effectively untrackable, protecting your privacy and not leaving any trace of what you did online.</code>
**<code>If you use TOR, follow its advice. Don't use with on top of a VPN (''I believe''), don't resize the window, don't add plugins. It does everything by itself already. The point of TOR is that your traffic looks like it could be ''anyone's'' traffic. If you start messing with it you stand out.</code>
**<code>It's not fullproof; nothing is. TOR did receive research funding from three-letter US Agencies (don't remember if it was the NSA or CIA or who), but there are reasons for this: it allows their agents to work clandestinely abroad, and for that they need people to host nodes. To date, I am not aware of anyone who used TOR '''correctly''' and has been prosecuted over what they did on TOR. What you do on TOR stays on TOR.</code>
**<code>TOR can work for daily browsing but it's generally slow. The rule of thumb remains: whatever you do over TOR remains on TOR. Don't start logging into accounts and sending email with TOR.</code>
* <code>Use a '''2FA Authenticator app'''. I recommend Aegis on Android - open-source, fully-local. Set up 2FA on all your accounts - this is just further protection against hacking. You will need to scan a QR code with Aegis, and that's it, it's set up.</code>
* <code>Switch to a '''no-logs''' '''search engine'''. This is kinda based on how much you trust the provider.</code>
** <code>I use 4get.ca, a tiny no-name (and kind of edgy, unfortunately) search engine that serves as a proxy to DDG, Google, Yandex, Brave etc. There's other search engines, but I don't trust big names. Just personal.</code>

* <code>Use '''Mullvad VPN'''. The only one that has a proven no-logs, ram-only policy. Nothing else comes close, don't even look anywhere else.</code>
** <code>Use only Mullvad-owned servers, not ones they rent. There's a filter option in the app for it. Rented servers are not guaranteed to actually respect no-logs and ram-only policies.</code>
** <code>'''VPN ALWAYS ON.'''</code>
** <code>Pay by cash envelope, no more than ~100$/€/£ at a time. Don't leave fingerprints on the envelope.</code>
** <code>Do not ever link your email address to your mullvad in any way.</code>
** <code>VPNs don't just hide your IP address. They also hide your internet traffic from your ISP, and make finding your browsing history and browsing actions much harder. In 2024, Swedish police raided Mullvad to try and seize a server - after Mullvad explained their operation, they left empty-handed because there was nothing to seize.</code>
** <code>Turn on all the stuff they have (dAIta, multihop, etc). Put it on your phone too.</code>
* <code>'''Email''' is just not secure. I don't know how else to say it. Email was invented in the 70s before hacking was even illegal. They did not even think about security or privacy back then.</code>
** <code>'''Proton''' is slightly ahead of the curve but '''will cooperate with police agencies''' and give them whatever they can. They fundraise for [[Freedom House]], a US government agency passing as an "NGO", and called it "nonprofit, nonpartisan organization"<ref>[https://proton.me/blog/2024-lifetime-account-charity-fundraiser Proton 2024 Fundraiser]</ref>... which is a lie. Personally, I don't trust proton. But that's just me.</code>
** <code>'''Philosophy is: don't say it by email.''' Simple as. If you've already said stuff in emails you shouldn't have, delete them, that's the best you can do. Your recipient should also delete the emails. From now on, stop discussing sensitive stuff by email.</code>
* <code>'''Chat platforms''': they all kinda suck. Telegram and Signal are ''not'' secure - Signal can be compelled by the US gov to give them data on you and you would never know it.<ref>If you're interested in more reading: https://dessalines.github.io/essays/why_not_signal.html</ref> This data can be enough to prosecute you. They ''will'' give it, they won't protect you. So don't assume you can say whatever on Signal and be safe.</code>
** <code>'''Metadata is valuable too'''. This is unencrypted information such as who you talked to, when, for how long, etc. "Data about data". Metadata is enough to lead to investigations and convictions.</code>
** <code>'''Matrix''' is the only one that's still safe-ish (encryption and decentralized nature), but you have to trust the server owner. This is not a matrix guide, so I won't go into more details. Not many people use it.</code>
** <code>Otherwise: just be mindful of how you act on these platforms, that's about the best you can do.</code>
* <code>Set a '''diceware pass phrase''' for any master password. I will talk more about this after the list, because I feel it's the most important part to understand.</code>
** <code>'''Encrypt your hard drives'''. You may need to ''clone'' (technical term) the drives first, reformat with encryption, and then clone the backup back to the drive. Encrypt after you've switched to Linux because you will have to reformat your drives either way - and can encrypt with LUKS while you're installing Linux, saving time.</code>
** <code>Use a '''password manager''' such as '''KeepassXC''', the only one that's consistently recommended in actual privacy guides.</code>
** <code>For all of the above, you can use the same diceware passphrase as the decrypting password. It's uncrackable* (again, see below). That way you remember ''one'' password for everything.</code>
* <code>Switch to a '''Linux OS'''.</code>
** <code>There are very good working alternatives today, such as Mint or Zorin OS (very sleek and professional look).</code>
** <code>Getting used to Linux is very easy nowadays. if you run into an issue, ask an LLM about it (preferably a Chinese one such as Deepseek or Kimi) and chances are you will find a fix.</code>
** <code>Set up ''timeshift'' and ''Pika backups'' on a spare drive so you can always roll back if you break something.</code>
** <code>FOSS software has come a long way in the past few years, it works and looks great now. Trust me, I was a Linux noob 6 months ago, now I'm deploying my own scripts and automations on it.</code>

*<code>'''TailsOS,''' now just '''Tails,''' is a Linux distribution for privacy purposes that you can get here: https://tails.net/. Its entire point is that you don't install it; it lives in a USB stick or other bootable media (USB sticks are just more convenient) which you plug into your computer, and never installs anything. TailsOS lives entirely in RAM, the Random Access Memory. Once you shut off the computer, anything you did on that computer disappears.</code>
**<code>Tails is not meant for 'daily driving', i.e. using on your home computer on the daily, because it doesn't save anything. The entire point of Tails is you don't save anything in or out of it.</code>
**<code>Definitely read their best practices and documentation for more information.</code>
**<code>Tails is maintained by the Tor Project.</code>
**<code>Tails works for journalists, activists, and abuse victims. If you are in an abusive situation, you can use Tails on a bootable media you hide (even a microSD card, if that's easier for you to hide), and do your research/contact authorities etc. from Tails, from your normal computer - even if other people have access to it, even if it's your daily driver computer, you can run Tails without nobody ever knowing about it.</code>
* <code>Use '''different usernames''' everywhere. Or at least try to. Unique usernames for each service. Your password manager can remember them for you.</code>
** <code>On social media, make new accounts periodically and delete the old ones. Don't use the same account for more than 6 months. You can have alt accounts: one for posting, one for browsing, for example. There are services that give you temporary email addresses you can use to register, or fake phone numbers to verify SMS codes. This is completely up to you, but it's an additional layer.</code>
** <code>Changing your usernames right now, if you can, is worth it. If you can't change them, either make new accounts or leave it be, up to you. What matters is future-proofing yourself more than anything, again planning ahead for when this will actually be useful.</code>
* <code>'''Phone''': switch to '''GrapheneOS'''. Not every phone is compatible, Graphene's website keeps a list. Google Pixels are currently the only possible choice because they use hardware that secures the phone itself, regardless of what its Operating System is.</code>
** <code>Until you have GrapheneOS, get a '''privacy respecting keyboard'''. On Android, install F-droid store (only FOSS software) and install a keyboard from there. Yes, you can change your keyboards on Android. If you use the default one, it sends data back to its developing company.</code>
** <code>This is last in the list because Graphene currently only supports Pixel phones, meaning you'd likely have to get a new phone for it and they're not cheap.</code>
Yes, this is not the shortest list. But here's the thing: you don't have to do everything ''right now''. Make a mullvad account today just to take a look, send the cash envelope next week. 3 months from now, when you have a long weekend off, install Linux. Switch to Librewolf part-time - you can absolutely install it alongside your current browser and just test it out.

Do it little by little as your cognitive load permits. Start exploring. Ask AI (Kimi for security/privacy questions tbh) how to go about it, or if you're curious about a part of it. Send it the essay and tell it to make you a guide.

If your devices ever get seized by state agents, however briefly: change them. Don't even play around. Throw the old ones out, buy new ones, redo everything. Assume they installed a trojan on it that you will never be able to remove. Recycle your pass phrases and passwords.

Don't take your phone with you on protests. It's very easy to track a phone with cell towers. Don't even turn it off, just leave it at home.

==== Diceware pass phrases ====
You can skip this section''', but the tl;dr is:''' current best recommendations for your passwords is switch to a pass phrase you remember that lives only in your head. Do not ever write it down, if you do, pen-and-paper only and burn it afterwards. Only use for most sensitive personal stuff (encrypted drives and encrypted password manager database): do not enter it at a work computer. Your job won't protect you. Do not enter it on websites.

But I need to talk a bit about passwords and best practices, because I feel this is the most important part of this guide. Diceware is a method of password generation. On Linux, you just install it with 'sudo apt install diceware' and use it from the terminal. On Windows, I am not sure. I would avoid any web page for generating a password though - it's convenient, but you don't know where it's stored or what they do with it. If your password can be read in clear text 6 months from now because it was in your browser's cache files, there is no point in having a secure password. Everything is just easier on Linux.

In any case. Diceware has a novel way of generating passwords. Instead of a garbled mess of characters such as <code>!AJ(%p"J3`3AZzAz</code>, Diceware generates a longer but easier to remember ''phrase'', such as: <code>outthink-gesture-clay-audible-nursery</code>

How easy is that to remember? Type it for a couple days and you'll remember it your entire life. The first password, with its exclamation marks and random letter arrangement? You will forget and mistype it often.

We are told to use special characters, capital letters, mix in numbers etc into our passwords, but these are mostly trivial for a computer program to crack through. Linux has a zxcvbn package, which is an algorithm created by Dropbox to check password strength. This is the most current and up to date checker right now, as it relies on the latest cracking methods to determine password strength. Let's check both passwords with it:
Password: !AJ(%p"J3`3AZzAz
zxcvbn results:
Crack Time Estimates:
Online (throttled, 100/hr): centuries
Online (no throttling, 10/s): centuries
Offline (slow hash, 10k/s): centuries
Offline (fast hash, 10B/s): '''12 days'''
Entropy: 53.2 bits
A sufficiently motivated attacker, such as a police lab with an array of RTX 5090 GPUs, can crack this "complicated" password in less than 2 weeks. Your case will take at least a year to go to court, in other words: this is not secure. Meanwhile, the diceware passphrase that looks deceptively simple:
password: outthink-gesture-clay-audible-nursery
zxcvbn results:
Crack Time Estimates:
Online (throttled, 100/hr): centuries
Online (no throttling, 10/s): centuries
Offline (slow hash, 10k/s): centuries
Offline (fast hash, 10B/s): centuries
Entropy: 95.8 bits
The diceware passphrase is much harder to crack, almost double the entropy, and much easier for you to remember entirely in your head - repeat it to yourself several times a day and you'll remember it in 72 hours. And it is future-proofed too: even at 100 billion guesses per second from a program trying to break through your encryption, it will still take ''millennia'' to crack. No GPU array today or in the future will ever be enough, not from a police lab that has a backlog and other passwords they need to crack.

'''Why diceware algorithm and not just making up 5 words in your head though?''' Because our head is not truly random. You will pick a word from a movie you watched recently, or a place you went to, or something you like. Diceware is truly random.

If you can't easily install or find diceware for your operating system though, there's a possible alternative method. Diceware, as its name implies, rolls dice to find words from a word list.

If you have a printed dictionary at home: roll a dice 4 or 5 times. First 3 rolls are page number (up to page 666), fourth and fifth rolls is the word # on this page. so if you roll and get:

5 3 3 4 1

Open the dictionary at page 533, and look for word 41 (if there are fewer than 41 words on that page, turn to the next page and keep counting).

You can make the dice rolls more complicated if you want so you can go above page 666.

Why so convoluted? Because again, our minds are not fully random. We are talking about an important password that controls access to every other password/file you own. Take the time to do it properly ''once'', then forget about it - you'll remember it for the rest of your life.

'''Vectors of attack''' exist against diceware pass phrases''':'''

* '''Compulsion''': many jurisdictions are getting wise to this practice and passing laws to compel you to surrender your password. In some cases, saying "sorry but I forgot it" is not even a valid defense! But here's the thing: with a weak password or no encryption, you don't get the choice to talk with your lawyer about surrendering the password or not. That's just how I see it, it buys you time and a wider net of decisions if such laws exist where you live.
* The '''encryption algorithm''' itself could be cracked, allowing an agency to simply bypass needing your password entirely. This is unlikely but is one reason encryption algorithms change over time. It's still better to have a password than not.
* The last one I must acknowledge... criminals and in some places even police will just '''beat you up''' until you give them the password. This is already happening in crypto heists. Due diligence is required based on where you live.

Okay, that was the tangent on passwords.

== Your biggest asset is your head ==
In general, never assume you are fully safe. You don't need to be paranoid though, just remember why you do this: so that if you are ever investigated by the fascist state for your journalism or activism, they will have a harder time building a case against you.

It's an old cat and mouse game. Developers make new privacy/security features, hackers crack them, devs make ''new'' security features. You will never be ahead of the curve - just the other day, I saw a new form of attack that hijacks a website, pretends you have to do Cloudflare verification, and when you copy and run the code they ask you to run, it's actually malware getting installed on your machine. We are so used to having to do these "verification steps" (especially if you use a VPN) that some people just don't think about it and do whatever the page asks.

So yes, this means you still need to use your head. Having GrapheneOS or Librewolf+VPN doesn't mean you can say whatever on X dot com without repercussions. It doesn't mean your computer can't be hacked remotely by a three-letter agency and malware installed that you will never know about (if you're not on their radar though, then there is no reason they would even know you exist).

Like I said, this is a rabbit hole. There's now concerns with Intel CPUs that the US government has a backdoor into them. If deployed, this means they could just read and even access your computer through its CPU remotely, if you use Intel. We pretty much know, from the Snowden leaks, that the NSA owns backdoors into every big US tech company. Again, this doesn't mean you have to disconnect and live off the grid, just that you know to be mindful of what you share.

This is why I recommend everything Chinese as much as possible, because China will never work with US "security" agencies, seeing that these same agencies are the ones trying to dismantle China from the inside.

"But I have to trust China then". Yes. Welcome to the Chinese Century - it's great. What do you care if china knows something about you? The only country liable to bomb you and disappear you into a waterboarding black site is the United States of America, and they control most digital avenues until China overtakes them. Trust China, discard USA.

Hardware is not inherently safe either. A paper made the rounds recently when it showed that you could be tracked accurately through walls by your own wifi signal. Your body distorts the wifi waves, which shows on camera as a clear, accurate shape.<ref>https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/security/a42575068/scientists-use-wifi-to-see-through-walls/</ref>

Technically, if police can seize a server/computer quickly enough and freeze the components with liquid nitrogen, they can freeze the RAM cells in place, allowing them to transport it even without electricity to the station, and extract the contents of your RAM sticks there.<ref>https://www.securitum.com/memory_heist_the_secrets_and_risks_of_cold_boot_attacks.html</ref>

These two methods have yet to be used in real, uncontrolled conditions ('''as far as I'm aware'''), but they are very real and new vectors of attack, so who knows what they'll come up with next. This is why I say, again: you don't have to become paranoid because security is a rabbit hole that never ends. You just have to be mindful that things are moving and what is the correct practice today may not be in 10 years.

To finish up, I also have to rant a little about '''privacy'''... it's often just a buzzword that gives you a false sense of security (hence the philosophy: never assume you are fully safe, limit what you share). "Privacy-focused" apps for example are plenty, but what exactly is privacy to their devs? How do they define it and help your privacy?

'''Startpage''' for example is a search engine that people use because it claims to be private - that's the entire reason you would use startpage. It says so in the tab title: "Startpage - Private Search Engine. No Tracking. No Search History."

I was not impressed by startpage's privacy policy:
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Startpage says...
!The problem
|-
|"We don’t record your IP address"
|Yet they admit to logging "robots that rapidly submit more queries to our servers than any normal human would" without saying how fast is too fast. I've been flagged by systems that thought I was a bot before, because they were tuned too tight. So, not private.
|-
|"We don’t serve any cookies that track you or your behavior"
|Cookies are so 2015. We now have methods other than cookies. Browser fingerprinting, for one. Javascript that actually looks into your computer files (ala Linkedin scandal). This part of the privacy policy says nothing about these other methods. In fact, startpage assuredly collects fingerprinting data, but yet never name it as such. Cookies and IP is flashy: everyone knows what they are now. Fingerprinting isn't, so they don't name it?
|-
|"Startpage complies with the GDPR. We are located in the EU, and we fully comply with applicable privacy laws and regulations of the EU, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)."
|The point of the GDPR is to disclose: what data is collected, the purpose of processing, any recipients of the data, the retention period. Startpage fails on the last two, for all their talk about respecting the GDPR and how strong it is. As a private engine startpage should go ''beyond'' the GDPR. Who accesses the collected data, when it is collected? Names, job titles, second- or third-party employers? We don't know.
|-
|"Any request [for data] will have to come from Dutch judicial authorities. We’ll only comply if we’re legally obliged to do so. But we’re not likely to receive requests by governments to hand over user data – simply because we don’t have any."
|What if the government asks startpage to start tracking a user? They are weirdly omissive of this possibility - it's tucked away under a short sentence, '''We will only comply if we're legally obliged to do so.''' This is understandable as no company will die for you, but it's still kind of an omission. Redirecting concerns to how good you are for "not having user data" (despite that you do, it's just aggregate instead of individual) effectively silences all the other possible, real, cases - such as law enforcement compelling startpage to start collecting data on a particular user.
|-
|"European governments can’t legally force service providers like Startpage to implement a blanket spying program."
|The word 'blanket' does some heavy lifting here, as it implies "start collecting data on ''all'' your users". But that is not what usually happens. What happens is, under the Dutch Intelligence and Security Services Act 2017 (Wiv 2017), intelligence services (AIVD, MIVD) can require telecom providers and other technical service providers to collect data for national security purposes. They will tell startpage "start collecting THIS data on THIS IP address", with or without a duty of confidentiality on startpage's part. Startpage also doesn't have a canary<ref group="lower-alpha">A canary is a statement "As of [date] we have not received any data requests from the governement" updated daily on the provider's website.

When the date stops updating, users can infer a confidential request was indeed made. This lets online services let their users know that a confidential request with a gag order ("you are not allowed to tell people you received this order") was made, as a workaround of sorts.</ref>. They simply never, ever talk about this possibility except in very broad, dismissive terms: "of course we obey the law". Well, Dutch law says if they want you to be fucked over then you're fucked. Startpage will obey that.
|-
|"How we have implemented truly anonymous analytics. We do measure overall traffic numbers and some other – strictly anonymous – statistics"
|So there is telemetry, so you are not a private search engine. The difference between "we have aggregate data on our users" and "we have individual data on our users" is one click of the mouse on a button in the admin panel.
|-
|"In order to enable the prevention of click fraud [on our sponsored links], some non-identifying system information is shared"
|More tracking again (on ads of all things), and once again startpage doesn't explain what "non-identifying system information" is sent over. They do not decide what identifies you or not - you do. Especially when it's ''system'' information (your OS, your gpu, your screen resolution etc. presumably)
|}
This is just some examples of why 'private' is a buzzword and what's private to you may not be private to someone else.

To me, privacy means there is '''no tracking whatsoever''' and '''as much as possible is encrypted'''. That's the strict minimum. If it needs to do tracking, it stays on your machine and never, ever leaves it (local-first). Linux for example has good privacy out of the box: it does not track anything about you, not even that you are a Linux user, unless you opt-in. Even something as innocuous as "does this machine use Linux? Yes/no" being sent back to servers not privacy-respecting, in my opinion. Steam for example collects information about your hardware without telling you. It reads, collects, and sends this data. It's not private, and yet Steam is on everyone's computer silently reading about all your games, hardware, etc. Is this a problem for you? Maybe, maybe not (could be used to know your hardware and deploy a trojan against you specifically, who knows). But it's not private.

There is a huge amount of trust as well. When an app says it is private, and says it has a no-logs, ram-only policy, you still have to trust that they actually follow their policy unless, like in Mullvad's case, it gets its baptism of fire. But, that's the limitation: you trust the devs to do what they say they do. It doesn't mean you shouldn't or can't use the app, it just means you trust them to that extent.

That's about it for this guide, otherwise it'll start being cognitive overload. Just do a little at a time, it's fine, nobody can ever do ''everything''.

== References ==

[[Category:Essays]]
[[Category:Essays by CriticalResist]]
<references />
<references group="lower-alpha" />

Category:Socialism with chinese characteristics (Library)

2026-07-30T15:27:34Z

CriticalResist: Created page with "{{Library cat|category=Socialism with chinese characteristics (Library)|type=works|pre=about|topic=Socialism with Chinese characteristics}}"

{{Library cat|category=Socialism with chinese characteristics (Library)|type=works|pre=about|topic=Socialism with Chinese characteristics}}

Sandbox 2:CriticalResist/Library redo

2026-07-30T15:26:39Z

CriticalResist: /* Socialist Construction */

{{#seo:
| title=ProleWiki Library - ProleWiki
| image=lenin_library.jpg
| description= Read more than 1300 books from Marx, Engels, Lenin and more free on ProleWiki!
| robots= index,follow
}}{{DISPLAYTITLE:ProleWiki Library}}
{{Library homepage}}

== Selected authors ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card|name=Karl Marx|desc=Karl Marx, 1818-1883 (German): Theorist, politician, dialectical materialist philosopher, political economist, founder of scientific socialism, leader of the international working class.|image=Marx_colorised_thumb.jpeg|category=Library works by Karl Marx|left=-8}}
{{Library card|name=Friedrich Engels|desc=Along with Marx, Established the ground work of Marxism through an examination of the rise of capitalism, the history of society, and critique of many prevalent philosophies. Established the First International Workers' organisation. |image=Engels colorised thumb.jpg|category=Library works by Friedrich Engels|left=-15}}
{{Library card|name=Vladimir Lenin|desc=Helped create the Bolshevik party. Led the Soviets to power in the Russian Revolution. Elected to the head of the Soviet government until 1922. Created the Communist International. Created the theory of Imperialism, emphasised the importance of the political party as vanguard in the revolution.|image=Lenin colorised thumb.jpg|category=Library works by Vladimir Lenin}}
{{Library card|name=Joseph Stalin|desc=Georgian Marxist–Leninist. Elected leader of the Soviet Union who oversaw the transformation of the USSR from an illiterate rural backwater to a socialist superpower. Under Stalin's leadership, the USSR played a principal role in the defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.| image=Iosif Stalin colorised thumb.png|category=Library works by Joseph Stalin|left=18}}
{{Library card|name=All authors →|desc=Browse by authors|category=Library works by Joseph Stalin}}
</div>

== Philosophy & Method ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Dialectical Materialism|desc=Books about dialectical materialism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Historical Materialism|desc=Books about historical materialism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Philosophy|desc=Books about history of philosophy|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Marxist Ethics|desc=Books about marxist ethics|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Aesthetics and Art Theory|desc=Books about aesthetics and art theory|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Philosophy of Science and Nature|desc=Books about philosophy of science and nature|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Critique of Non‑Marxist Philosophies|desc=Books about critique of non‑marxist philosophies|category=Library works about economics}}
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== Political Economy ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Capitalist Mode of Production|desc=Books about capitalist mode of production|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Value Theory and Surplus Value|desc=Books about value theory and surplus value|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Money, Finance, and Crisis|desc=Books about money, finance, and crisis|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Economic Thought|desc=Books about history of economic thought|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Socialist Economics and Planning|desc=Books about socialist economics and planning|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Globalisation and Uneven Development|desc=Books about globalisation and uneven development|category=Library works about economics}}
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== Scientific Socialism and Revolution ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Theory of the State|desc=Books about theory of the state|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Class Struggle and Revolution|desc=Books about class struggle and revolution|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Dictatorship of the Proletariat|desc=Books about dictatorship of the proletariat|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=The Communist Party|desc=Books about the communist party|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=United Front and Alliances|desc=Books about united front and alliances|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Transition to Communism|desc=Books about transition to communism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Critique of Anarchism, Ultra‑Leftism and Utopian Socialism|desc=Books about critique of anarchism, ultra‑leftism and utopian socialism|category=Library works about economics}}
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== Imperialism and Anti‑Imperialism ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Theory of Imperialism|desc=Books about theory of imperialism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Colonialism and Settler Colonialism|desc=Books about colonialism and settler colonialism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Neocolonialism and Dependency|desc=Books about neocolonialism and dependency|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=National Liberation Movements|desc=Books about national liberation movements|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Decolonisation and Anti-Colonialism|desc=Books about decolonisation and anti-colonialism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Geopolitics and International Relations|desc=Books about geopolitics and international relations|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Imperialist War and Peace|desc=Books about imperialist war and peace|category=Library works about economics}}
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== History ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Ancient and Medieval History|desc=Books about ancient and medieval history|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Modern World History|desc=Books about modern world history|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Capitalism|desc=Books about history of capitalism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Revolutions|desc=Books about history of revolutions|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of the Labour Movement|desc=Books about history of the labour movement|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Socialist Countries|desc=Books about history of socialist countries|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Fascism and Anti‑Fascism|desc=Books about history of fascism and anti‑fascism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Marxist Historiography|desc=Books about marxist historiography|category=Library works about economics}}
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== Socialist Construction ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Socialist Planning and Development|desc=Books about socialist planning and development|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Industrialisation and Agriculture|desc=Books about industrialisation and agriculture|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Culture and Education|desc=Books about culture and education|category=Library works about economics}}
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{{Library card mid|name=Juche and Self‑Reliance|desc=Books about juche and self‑reliance|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Socialist Internationalism|desc=Books about socialist internationalism|category=Library works about economics}}
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== Social Movements and Identities ==
<div class="library-container" style="">
{{Library card mid|name=Labour and Trade Unionism|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about labour and trade unionism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Feminism and Women’s Liberation|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about feminism and women’s liberation|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=LGBTQ+ Liberation and Queer Theory|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about lgbtq+ liberation and queer theory|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Black Liberation and Anti-Racism|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about black liberation and anti-racism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Indigenous Struggles|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about indigenous struggles|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Peasant and Rural Movements|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about peasant and rural movements|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Student and Youth Movements|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about student and youth movements|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Disability Justice|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about disability justice|category=Library works about economics}}
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== Culture, Ideology, and Media ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Propaganda and Media Critique|desc=Books about propaganda and media critique|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Bourgeois Ideology and Hegemony|desc=Books about bourgeois ideology and hegemony|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Religion and Atheism|desc=Books about religion and atheism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Art and Literature|desc=Books about art and literature|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Education and Pedagogy|desc=Books about education and pedagogy|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Science as Ideology|desc=Books about science as ideology|category=Library works about economics}}
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== Fascism, Revisionism, and Counter‑Revolution ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Fascism: Theory and History|desc=Books about fascism: theory and history|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Counter‑Revolution and Coups|desc=Books about counter‑revolution and coups|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Anti‑Fascist Struggle|desc=Books about anti‑fascist struggle|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Right Deviation and Revisionism|desc=Books about right deviation and revisionism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Social Democracy and Reformism|desc=Books about social democracy and reformism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Critique of Liberalism|desc=Books about critique of liberalism|category=Library works about economics}}
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== Military Theory, and Armed Struggle ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Guerrilla Warfare|desc=Books about guerrilla warfare|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=People’s War|desc=Books about people’s war|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Military Strategy and Tactics|desc=Books about military strategy and tactics|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Armed Propaganda and Insurrection|desc=Books about armed propaganda and insurrection|category=Library works about economics}}
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== Science, Environment, and Health ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Dialectics of Nature and Scientific Method|desc=Books about dialectics of nature and scientific method|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Ecology, Environment, and Agriculture|desc=Books about ecology, environment, and agriculture|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Health, Medicine, and Psychology|desc=Books about health, medicine, and psychology|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Technology, Automation, and Cybernetics|desc=Books about technology, automation, and cybernetics|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Primary Sources, Documents, and Formats ==
<div class="library-container-mini">
{{Library card mini|text=Speeches, Interviews, and Transcripts|desc=Books about speeches, interviews, and transcripts|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
{{Library card mini|text=Communist Party Documents, Congresses, and Resolutions|desc=Books about communist party documents, congresses, and resolutions|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
{{Library card mini|text=State Constitutions, Laws, and Official Reports|desc=Books about state constitutions, laws, and official reports|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
{{Library card mini|text=Reading Lists, Study Guides, and Syllabi|desc=Books about reading lists, study guides, and syllabi|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
{{Library card mini|text=Songs, Poems, and Creative Works|desc=Books about songs, poems, and creative works|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
{{Library card mini|text=PDF Files, Zines, and E-books|desc=Books about pdf files, zines, and e-books|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
</div>

Sandbox 2:CriticalResist/Library redo

2026-07-30T15:05:03Z

CriticalResist: /* Social Movements and Identities (mid cards) */

{{#seo:
| title=ProleWiki Library - ProleWiki
| image=lenin_library.jpg
| description= Read more than 1300 books from Marx, Engels, Lenin and more free on ProleWiki!
| robots= index,follow
}}{{DISPLAYTITLE:ProleWiki Library}}
{{Library homepage}}

== Selected authors ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card|name=Karl Marx|desc=Karl Marx, 1818-1883 (German): Theorist, politician, dialectical materialist philosopher, political economist, founder of scientific socialism, leader of the international working class.|image=Marx_colorised_thumb.jpeg|category=Library works by Karl Marx|left=-8}}
{{Library card|name=Friedrich Engels|desc=Along with Marx, Established the ground work of Marxism through an examination of the rise of capitalism, the history of society, and critique of many prevalent philosophies. Established the First International Workers' organisation. |image=Engels colorised thumb.jpg|category=Library works by Friedrich Engels|left=-15}}
{{Library card|name=Vladimir Lenin|desc=Helped create the Bolshevik party. Led the Soviets to power in the Russian Revolution. Elected to the head of the Soviet government until 1922. Created the Communist International. Created the theory of Imperialism, emphasised the importance of the political party as vanguard in the revolution.|image=Lenin colorised thumb.jpg|category=Library works by Vladimir Lenin}}
{{Library card|name=Joseph Stalin|desc=Georgian Marxist–Leninist. Elected leader of the Soviet Union who oversaw the transformation of the USSR from an illiterate rural backwater to a socialist superpower. Under Stalin's leadership, the USSR played a principal role in the defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.| image=Iosif Stalin colorised thumb.png|category=Library works by Joseph Stalin|left=18}}
{{Library card|name=All authors →|desc=Browse by authors|category=Library works by Joseph Stalin}}
</div>

== Philosophy & Method ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Dialectical Materialism|desc=Books about dialectical materialism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Historical Materialism|desc=Books about historical materialism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Philosophy|desc=Books about history of philosophy|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Marxist Ethics|desc=Books about marxist ethics|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Aesthetics and Art Theory|desc=Books about aesthetics and art theory|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Philosophy of Science and Nature|desc=Books about philosophy of science and nature|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Critique of Non‑Marxist Philosophies|desc=Books about critique of non‑marxist philosophies|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Political Economy ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Capitalist Mode of Production|desc=Books about capitalist mode of production|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Value Theory and Surplus Value|desc=Books about value theory and surplus value|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Money, Finance, and Crisis|desc=Books about money, finance, and crisis|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Economic Thought|desc=Books about history of economic thought|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Socialist Economics and Planning|desc=Books about socialist economics and planning|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Globalisation and Uneven Development|desc=Books about globalisation and uneven development|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Scientific Socialism and Revolution ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Theory of the State|desc=Books about theory of the state|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Class Struggle and Revolution|desc=Books about class struggle and revolution|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Dictatorship of the Proletariat|desc=Books about dictatorship of the proletariat|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=The Communist Party|desc=Books about the communist party|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=United Front and Alliances|desc=Books about united front and alliances|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Transition to Communism|desc=Books about transition to communism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Critique of Anarchism, Ultra‑Leftism and Utopian Socialism|desc=Books about critique of anarchism, ultra‑leftism and utopian socialism|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Imperialism and Anti‑Imperialism ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Theory of Imperialism|desc=Books about theory of imperialism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Colonialism and Settler Colonialism|desc=Books about colonialism and settler colonialism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Neocolonialism and Dependency|desc=Books about neocolonialism and dependency|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=National Liberation Movements|desc=Books about national liberation movements|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Decolonisation and Anti-Colonialism|desc=Books about decolonisation and anti-colonialism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Geopolitics and International Relations|desc=Books about geopolitics and international relations|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Imperialist War and Peace|desc=Books about imperialist war and peace|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== History ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Ancient and Medieval History|desc=Books about ancient and medieval history|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Modern World History|desc=Books about modern world history|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Capitalism|desc=Books about history of capitalism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Revolutions|desc=Books about history of revolutions|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of the Labour Movement|desc=Books about history of the labour movement|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Socialist Countries|desc=Books about history of socialist countries|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Fascism and Anti‑Fascism|desc=Books about history of fascism and anti‑fascism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Marxist Historiography|desc=Books about marxist historiography|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Socialist Construction ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Socialist Planning and Development|desc=Books about socialist planning and development|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Industrialisation and Agriculture|desc=Books about industrialisation and agriculture|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Culture and Education|desc=Books about culture and education|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Socialist Democracy and Law|desc=Books about socialist democracy and law|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Juche and Self‑Reliance|desc=Books about juche and self‑reliance|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Socialist Internationalism|desc=Books about socialist internationalism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Reform and Market Socialism|desc=Books about reform and market socialism|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Social Movements and Identities ==
<div class="library-container" style="">
{{Library card mid|name=Labour and Trade Unionism|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about labour and trade unionism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Feminism and Women’s Liberation|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about feminism and women’s liberation|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=LGBTQ+ Liberation and Queer Theory|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about lgbtq+ liberation and queer theory|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Black Liberation and Anti-Racism|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about black liberation and anti-racism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Indigenous Struggles|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about indigenous struggles|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Peasant and Rural Movements|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about peasant and rural movements|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Student and Youth Movements|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about student and youth movements|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Disability Justice|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about disability justice|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Culture, Ideology, and Media ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Propaganda and Media Critique|desc=Books about propaganda and media critique|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Bourgeois Ideology and Hegemony|desc=Books about bourgeois ideology and hegemony|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Religion and Atheism|desc=Books about religion and atheism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Art and Literature|desc=Books about art and literature|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Education and Pedagogy|desc=Books about education and pedagogy|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Science as Ideology|desc=Books about science as ideology|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Fascism, Revisionism, and Counter‑Revolution ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Fascism: Theory and History|desc=Books about fascism: theory and history|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Counter‑Revolution and Coups|desc=Books about counter‑revolution and coups|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Anti‑Fascist Struggle|desc=Books about anti‑fascist struggle|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Right Deviation and Revisionism|desc=Books about right deviation and revisionism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Social Democracy and Reformism|desc=Books about social democracy and reformism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Critique of Liberalism|desc=Books about critique of liberalism|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Military Theory, and Armed Struggle ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Guerrilla Warfare|desc=Books about guerrilla warfare|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=People’s War|desc=Books about people’s war|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Military Strategy and Tactics|desc=Books about military strategy and tactics|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Armed Propaganda and Insurrection|desc=Books about armed propaganda and insurrection|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Science, Environment, and Health ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Dialectics of Nature and Scientific Method|desc=Books about dialectics of nature and scientific method|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Ecology, Environment, and Agriculture|desc=Books about ecology, environment, and agriculture|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Health, Medicine, and Psychology|desc=Books about health, medicine, and psychology|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Technology, Automation, and Cybernetics|desc=Books about technology, automation, and cybernetics|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Primary Sources, Documents, and Formats ==
<div class="library-container-mini">
{{Library card mini|text=Speeches, Interviews, and Transcripts|desc=Books about speeches, interviews, and transcripts|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
{{Library card mini|text=Communist Party Documents, Congresses, and Resolutions|desc=Books about communist party documents, congresses, and resolutions|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
{{Library card mini|text=State Constitutions, Laws, and Official Reports|desc=Books about state constitutions, laws, and official reports|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
{{Library card mini|text=Reading Lists, Study Guides, and Syllabi|desc=Books about reading lists, study guides, and syllabi|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
{{Library card mini|text=Songs, Poems, and Creative Works|desc=Books about songs, poems, and creative works|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
{{Library card mini|text=PDF Files, Zines, and E-books|desc=Books about pdf files, zines, and e-books|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
</div>

Sandbox 2:CriticalResist/Library redo

2026-07-30T15:04:53Z

CriticalResist: /* Social Movements and Identities (mini cards, small text) */

{{#seo:
| title=ProleWiki Library - ProleWiki
| image=lenin_library.jpg
| description= Read more than 1300 books from Marx, Engels, Lenin and more free on ProleWiki!
| robots= index,follow
}}{{DISPLAYTITLE:ProleWiki Library}}
{{Library homepage}}

== Selected authors ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card|name=Karl Marx|desc=Karl Marx, 1818-1883 (German): Theorist, politician, dialectical materialist philosopher, political economist, founder of scientific socialism, leader of the international working class.|image=Marx_colorised_thumb.jpeg|category=Library works by Karl Marx|left=-8}}
{{Library card|name=Friedrich Engels|desc=Along with Marx, Established the ground work of Marxism through an examination of the rise of capitalism, the history of society, and critique of many prevalent philosophies. Established the First International Workers' organisation. |image=Engels colorised thumb.jpg|category=Library works by Friedrich Engels|left=-15}}
{{Library card|name=Vladimir Lenin|desc=Helped create the Bolshevik party. Led the Soviets to power in the Russian Revolution. Elected to the head of the Soviet government until 1922. Created the Communist International. Created the theory of Imperialism, emphasised the importance of the political party as vanguard in the revolution.|image=Lenin colorised thumb.jpg|category=Library works by Vladimir Lenin}}
{{Library card|name=Joseph Stalin|desc=Georgian Marxist–Leninist. Elected leader of the Soviet Union who oversaw the transformation of the USSR from an illiterate rural backwater to a socialist superpower. Under Stalin's leadership, the USSR played a principal role in the defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.| image=Iosif Stalin colorised thumb.png|category=Library works by Joseph Stalin|left=18}}
{{Library card|name=All authors →|desc=Browse by authors|category=Library works by Joseph Stalin}}
</div>

== Philosophy & Method ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Dialectical Materialism|desc=Books about dialectical materialism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Historical Materialism|desc=Books about historical materialism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Philosophy|desc=Books about history of philosophy|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Marxist Ethics|desc=Books about marxist ethics|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Aesthetics and Art Theory|desc=Books about aesthetics and art theory|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Philosophy of Science and Nature|desc=Books about philosophy of science and nature|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Critique of Non‑Marxist Philosophies|desc=Books about critique of non‑marxist philosophies|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Political Economy ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Capitalist Mode of Production|desc=Books about capitalist mode of production|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Value Theory and Surplus Value|desc=Books about value theory and surplus value|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Money, Finance, and Crisis|desc=Books about money, finance, and crisis|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Economic Thought|desc=Books about history of economic thought|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Socialist Economics and Planning|desc=Books about socialist economics and planning|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Globalisation and Uneven Development|desc=Books about globalisation and uneven development|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Scientific Socialism and Revolution ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Theory of the State|desc=Books about theory of the state|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Class Struggle and Revolution|desc=Books about class struggle and revolution|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Dictatorship of the Proletariat|desc=Books about dictatorship of the proletariat|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=The Communist Party|desc=Books about the communist party|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=United Front and Alliances|desc=Books about united front and alliances|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Transition to Communism|desc=Books about transition to communism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Critique of Anarchism, Ultra‑Leftism and Utopian Socialism|desc=Books about critique of anarchism, ultra‑leftism and utopian socialism|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Imperialism and Anti‑Imperialism ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Theory of Imperialism|desc=Books about theory of imperialism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Colonialism and Settler Colonialism|desc=Books about colonialism and settler colonialism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Neocolonialism and Dependency|desc=Books about neocolonialism and dependency|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=National Liberation Movements|desc=Books about national liberation movements|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Decolonisation and Anti-Colonialism|desc=Books about decolonisation and anti-colonialism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Geopolitics and International Relations|desc=Books about geopolitics and international relations|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Imperialist War and Peace|desc=Books about imperialist war and peace|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== History ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Ancient and Medieval History|desc=Books about ancient and medieval history|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Modern World History|desc=Books about modern world history|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Capitalism|desc=Books about history of capitalism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Revolutions|desc=Books about history of revolutions|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of the Labour Movement|desc=Books about history of the labour movement|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Socialist Countries|desc=Books about history of socialist countries|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Fascism and Anti‑Fascism|desc=Books about history of fascism and anti‑fascism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Marxist Historiography|desc=Books about marxist historiography|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Socialist Construction ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Socialist Planning and Development|desc=Books about socialist planning and development|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Industrialisation and Agriculture|desc=Books about industrialisation and agriculture|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Culture and Education|desc=Books about culture and education|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Socialist Democracy and Law|desc=Books about socialist democracy and law|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Juche and Self‑Reliance|desc=Books about juche and self‑reliance|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Socialist Internationalism|desc=Books about socialist internationalism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Reform and Market Socialism|desc=Books about reform and market socialism|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Social Movements and Identities (mid cards) ==
<div class="library-container" style="">
{{Library card mid|name=Labour and Trade Unionism|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about labour and trade unionism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Feminism and Women’s Liberation|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about feminism and women’s liberation|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=LGBTQ+ Liberation and Queer Theory|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about lgbtq+ liberation and queer theory|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Black Liberation and Anti-Racism|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about black liberation and anti-racism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Indigenous Struggles|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about indigenous struggles|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Peasant and Rural Movements|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about peasant and rural movements|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Student and Youth Movements|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about student and youth movements|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Disability Justice|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about disability justice|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Culture, Ideology, and Media ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Propaganda and Media Critique|desc=Books about propaganda and media critique|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Bourgeois Ideology and Hegemony|desc=Books about bourgeois ideology and hegemony|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Religion and Atheism|desc=Books about religion and atheism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Art and Literature|desc=Books about art and literature|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Education and Pedagogy|desc=Books about education and pedagogy|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Science as Ideology|desc=Books about science as ideology|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Fascism, Revisionism, and Counter‑Revolution ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Fascism: Theory and History|desc=Books about fascism: theory and history|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Counter‑Revolution and Coups|desc=Books about counter‑revolution and coups|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Anti‑Fascist Struggle|desc=Books about anti‑fascist struggle|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Right Deviation and Revisionism|desc=Books about right deviation and revisionism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Social Democracy and Reformism|desc=Books about social democracy and reformism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Critique of Liberalism|desc=Books about critique of liberalism|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Military Theory, and Armed Struggle ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Guerrilla Warfare|desc=Books about guerrilla warfare|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=People’s War|desc=Books about people’s war|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Military Strategy and Tactics|desc=Books about military strategy and tactics|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Armed Propaganda and Insurrection|desc=Books about armed propaganda and insurrection|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Science, Environment, and Health ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Dialectics of Nature and Scientific Method|desc=Books about dialectics of nature and scientific method|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Ecology, Environment, and Agriculture|desc=Books about ecology, environment, and agriculture|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Health, Medicine, and Psychology|desc=Books about health, medicine, and psychology|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Technology, Automation, and Cybernetics|desc=Books about technology, automation, and cybernetics|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Primary Sources, Documents, and Formats ==
<div class="library-container-mini">
{{Library card mini|text=Speeches, Interviews, and Transcripts|desc=Books about speeches, interviews, and transcripts|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
{{Library card mini|text=Communist Party Documents, Congresses, and Resolutions|desc=Books about communist party documents, congresses, and resolutions|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
{{Library card mini|text=State Constitutions, Laws, and Official Reports|desc=Books about state constitutions, laws, and official reports|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
{{Library card mini|text=Reading Lists, Study Guides, and Syllabi|desc=Books about reading lists, study guides, and syllabi|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
{{Library card mini|text=Songs, Poems, and Creative Works|desc=Books about songs, poems, and creative works|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
{{Library card mini|text=PDF Files, Zines, and E-books|desc=Books about pdf files, zines, and e-books|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
</div>

Sandbox 2:CriticalResist/Library redo

2026-07-30T15:04:38Z

CriticalResist: /* Social Movements and Identities (mini cards) */

{{#seo:
| title=ProleWiki Library - ProleWiki
| image=lenin_library.jpg
| description= Read more than 1300 books from Marx, Engels, Lenin and more free on ProleWiki!
| robots= index,follow
}}{{DISPLAYTITLE:ProleWiki Library}}
{{Library homepage}}

== Selected authors ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card|name=Karl Marx|desc=Karl Marx, 1818-1883 (German): Theorist, politician, dialectical materialist philosopher, political economist, founder of scientific socialism, leader of the international working class.|image=Marx_colorised_thumb.jpeg|category=Library works by Karl Marx|left=-8}}
{{Library card|name=Friedrich Engels|desc=Along with Marx, Established the ground work of Marxism through an examination of the rise of capitalism, the history of society, and critique of many prevalent philosophies. Established the First International Workers' organisation. |image=Engels colorised thumb.jpg|category=Library works by Friedrich Engels|left=-15}}
{{Library card|name=Vladimir Lenin|desc=Helped create the Bolshevik party. Led the Soviets to power in the Russian Revolution. Elected to the head of the Soviet government until 1922. Created the Communist International. Created the theory of Imperialism, emphasised the importance of the political party as vanguard in the revolution.|image=Lenin colorised thumb.jpg|category=Library works by Vladimir Lenin}}
{{Library card|name=Joseph Stalin|desc=Georgian Marxist–Leninist. Elected leader of the Soviet Union who oversaw the transformation of the USSR from an illiterate rural backwater to a socialist superpower. Under Stalin's leadership, the USSR played a principal role in the defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.| image=Iosif Stalin colorised thumb.png|category=Library works by Joseph Stalin|left=18}}
{{Library card|name=All authors →|desc=Browse by authors|category=Library works by Joseph Stalin}}
</div>

== Philosophy & Method ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Dialectical Materialism|desc=Books about dialectical materialism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Historical Materialism|desc=Books about historical materialism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Philosophy|desc=Books about history of philosophy|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Marxist Ethics|desc=Books about marxist ethics|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Aesthetics and Art Theory|desc=Books about aesthetics and art theory|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Philosophy of Science and Nature|desc=Books about philosophy of science and nature|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Critique of Non‑Marxist Philosophies|desc=Books about critique of non‑marxist philosophies|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Political Economy ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Capitalist Mode of Production|desc=Books about capitalist mode of production|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Value Theory and Surplus Value|desc=Books about value theory and surplus value|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Money, Finance, and Crisis|desc=Books about money, finance, and crisis|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Economic Thought|desc=Books about history of economic thought|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Socialist Economics and Planning|desc=Books about socialist economics and planning|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Globalisation and Uneven Development|desc=Books about globalisation and uneven development|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Scientific Socialism and Revolution ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Theory of the State|desc=Books about theory of the state|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Class Struggle and Revolution|desc=Books about class struggle and revolution|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Dictatorship of the Proletariat|desc=Books about dictatorship of the proletariat|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=The Communist Party|desc=Books about the communist party|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=United Front and Alliances|desc=Books about united front and alliances|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Transition to Communism|desc=Books about transition to communism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Critique of Anarchism, Ultra‑Leftism and Utopian Socialism|desc=Books about critique of anarchism, ultra‑leftism and utopian socialism|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Imperialism and Anti‑Imperialism ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Theory of Imperialism|desc=Books about theory of imperialism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Colonialism and Settler Colonialism|desc=Books about colonialism and settler colonialism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Neocolonialism and Dependency|desc=Books about neocolonialism and dependency|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=National Liberation Movements|desc=Books about national liberation movements|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Decolonisation and Anti-Colonialism|desc=Books about decolonisation and anti-colonialism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Geopolitics and International Relations|desc=Books about geopolitics and international relations|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Imperialist War and Peace|desc=Books about imperialist war and peace|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== History ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Ancient and Medieval History|desc=Books about ancient and medieval history|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Modern World History|desc=Books about modern world history|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Capitalism|desc=Books about history of capitalism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Revolutions|desc=Books about history of revolutions|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of the Labour Movement|desc=Books about history of the labour movement|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Socialist Countries|desc=Books about history of socialist countries|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Fascism and Anti‑Fascism|desc=Books about history of fascism and anti‑fascism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Marxist Historiography|desc=Books about marxist historiography|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Socialist Construction ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Socialist Planning and Development|desc=Books about socialist planning and development|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Industrialisation and Agriculture|desc=Books about industrialisation and agriculture|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Culture and Education|desc=Books about culture and education|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Socialist Democracy and Law|desc=Books about socialist democracy and law|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Juche and Self‑Reliance|desc=Books about juche and self‑reliance|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Socialist Internationalism|desc=Books about socialist internationalism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Reform and Market Socialism|desc=Books about reform and market socialism|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Social Movements and Identities (mid cards) ==
<div class="library-container" style="">
{{Library card mid|name=Labour and Trade Unionism|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about labour and trade unionism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Feminism and Women’s Liberation|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about feminism and women’s liberation|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=LGBTQ+ Liberation and Queer Theory|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about lgbtq+ liberation and queer theory|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Black Liberation and Anti-Racism|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about black liberation and anti-racism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Indigenous Struggles|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about indigenous struggles|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Peasant and Rural Movements|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about peasant and rural movements|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Student and Youth Movements|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about student and youth movements|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Disability Justice|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about disability justice|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Social Movements and Identities (mini cards, small text) ==
<div class="library-container mini" style="font-size:0.9rem; line-height:1.1">
{{Library card mini|text=[[:Category:Interviews|Labour and Trade Unionism]]|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg|desc=Books about labour and trade unionism}}
{{Library card mini|text=[[:Category:Interviews|Feminism and Women’s Liberation]]|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg|desc=Books about feminism and women’s liberation}}
{{Library card mini|text=[[:Category:Interviews|LGBTQ+ Liberation and Queer Theory]]|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg|desc=Books about lgbtq+ liberation and queer theory|}}
{{Library card mini|text=[[:Category:Interviews|Black Liberation and Anti-Racism]]|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg|desc=Books about black liberation and anti-racism|}}
{{Library card mini|text=[[:Category:Interviews|Indigenous Struggles]]|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg|desc=Books about indigenous struggles|}}
{{Library card mini|text=[[:Category:Interviews|Peasant and Rural Movements]]|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg|desc=Books about peasant and rural movements|}}
{{Library card mini|text=[[:Category:Interviews|Student and Youth Movements]]|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg|desc=Books about student and youth movements|}}
{{Library card mini|text=[[:Category:Interviews|Disability Justice]]|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg|desc=Books about disability justice|}}
</div>

== Culture, Ideology, and Media ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Propaganda and Media Critique|desc=Books about propaganda and media critique|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Bourgeois Ideology and Hegemony|desc=Books about bourgeois ideology and hegemony|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Religion and Atheism|desc=Books about religion and atheism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Art and Literature|desc=Books about art and literature|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Education and Pedagogy|desc=Books about education and pedagogy|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Science as Ideology|desc=Books about science as ideology|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Fascism, Revisionism, and Counter‑Revolution ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Fascism: Theory and History|desc=Books about fascism: theory and history|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Counter‑Revolution and Coups|desc=Books about counter‑revolution and coups|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Anti‑Fascist Struggle|desc=Books about anti‑fascist struggle|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Right Deviation and Revisionism|desc=Books about right deviation and revisionism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Social Democracy and Reformism|desc=Books about social democracy and reformism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Critique of Liberalism|desc=Books about critique of liberalism|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Military Theory, and Armed Struggle ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Guerrilla Warfare|desc=Books about guerrilla warfare|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=People’s War|desc=Books about people’s war|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Military Strategy and Tactics|desc=Books about military strategy and tactics|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Armed Propaganda and Insurrection|desc=Books about armed propaganda and insurrection|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Science, Environment, and Health ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Dialectics of Nature and Scientific Method|desc=Books about dialectics of nature and scientific method|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Ecology, Environment, and Agriculture|desc=Books about ecology, environment, and agriculture|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Health, Medicine, and Psychology|desc=Books about health, medicine, and psychology|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Technology, Automation, and Cybernetics|desc=Books about technology, automation, and cybernetics|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Primary Sources, Documents, and Formats ==
<div class="library-container-mini">
{{Library card mini|text=Speeches, Interviews, and Transcripts|desc=Books about speeches, interviews, and transcripts|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
{{Library card mini|text=Communist Party Documents, Congresses, and Resolutions|desc=Books about communist party documents, congresses, and resolutions|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
{{Library card mini|text=State Constitutions, Laws, and Official Reports|desc=Books about state constitutions, laws, and official reports|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
{{Library card mini|text=Reading Lists, Study Guides, and Syllabi|desc=Books about reading lists, study guides, and syllabi|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
{{Library card mini|text=Songs, Poems, and Creative Works|desc=Books about songs, poems, and creative works|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
{{Library card mini|text=PDF Files, Zines, and E-books|desc=Books about pdf files, zines, and e-books|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
</div>

Sandbox 2:CriticalResist/Library redo

2026-07-30T15:04:06Z

CriticalResist: /* Social Movements and Identities (mid cards bold) */

{{#seo:
| title=ProleWiki Library - ProleWiki
| image=lenin_library.jpg
| description= Read more than 1300 books from Marx, Engels, Lenin and more free on ProleWiki!
| robots= index,follow
}}{{DISPLAYTITLE:ProleWiki Library}}
{{Library homepage}}

== Selected authors ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card|name=Karl Marx|desc=Karl Marx, 1818-1883 (German): Theorist, politician, dialectical materialist philosopher, political economist, founder of scientific socialism, leader of the international working class.|image=Marx_colorised_thumb.jpeg|category=Library works by Karl Marx|left=-8}}
{{Library card|name=Friedrich Engels|desc=Along with Marx, Established the ground work of Marxism through an examination of the rise of capitalism, the history of society, and critique of many prevalent philosophies. Established the First International Workers' organisation. |image=Engels colorised thumb.jpg|category=Library works by Friedrich Engels|left=-15}}
{{Library card|name=Vladimir Lenin|desc=Helped create the Bolshevik party. Led the Soviets to power in the Russian Revolution. Elected to the head of the Soviet government until 1922. Created the Communist International. Created the theory of Imperialism, emphasised the importance of the political party as vanguard in the revolution.|image=Lenin colorised thumb.jpg|category=Library works by Vladimir Lenin}}
{{Library card|name=Joseph Stalin|desc=Georgian Marxist–Leninist. Elected leader of the Soviet Union who oversaw the transformation of the USSR from an illiterate rural backwater to a socialist superpower. Under Stalin's leadership, the USSR played a principal role in the defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.| image=Iosif Stalin colorised thumb.png|category=Library works by Joseph Stalin|left=18}}
{{Library card|name=All authors →|desc=Browse by authors|category=Library works by Joseph Stalin}}
</div>

== Philosophy & Method ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Dialectical Materialism|desc=Books about dialectical materialism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Historical Materialism|desc=Books about historical materialism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Philosophy|desc=Books about history of philosophy|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Marxist Ethics|desc=Books about marxist ethics|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Aesthetics and Art Theory|desc=Books about aesthetics and art theory|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Philosophy of Science and Nature|desc=Books about philosophy of science and nature|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Critique of Non‑Marxist Philosophies|desc=Books about critique of non‑marxist philosophies|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Political Economy ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Capitalist Mode of Production|desc=Books about capitalist mode of production|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Value Theory and Surplus Value|desc=Books about value theory and surplus value|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Money, Finance, and Crisis|desc=Books about money, finance, and crisis|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Economic Thought|desc=Books about history of economic thought|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Socialist Economics and Planning|desc=Books about socialist economics and planning|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Globalisation and Uneven Development|desc=Books about globalisation and uneven development|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Scientific Socialism and Revolution ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Theory of the State|desc=Books about theory of the state|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Class Struggle and Revolution|desc=Books about class struggle and revolution|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Dictatorship of the Proletariat|desc=Books about dictatorship of the proletariat|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=The Communist Party|desc=Books about the communist party|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=United Front and Alliances|desc=Books about united front and alliances|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Transition to Communism|desc=Books about transition to communism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Critique of Anarchism, Ultra‑Leftism and Utopian Socialism|desc=Books about critique of anarchism, ultra‑leftism and utopian socialism|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Imperialism and Anti‑Imperialism ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Theory of Imperialism|desc=Books about theory of imperialism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Colonialism and Settler Colonialism|desc=Books about colonialism and settler colonialism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Neocolonialism and Dependency|desc=Books about neocolonialism and dependency|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=National Liberation Movements|desc=Books about national liberation movements|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Decolonisation and Anti-Colonialism|desc=Books about decolonisation and anti-colonialism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Geopolitics and International Relations|desc=Books about geopolitics and international relations|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Imperialist War and Peace|desc=Books about imperialist war and peace|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== History ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Ancient and Medieval History|desc=Books about ancient and medieval history|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Modern World History|desc=Books about modern world history|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Capitalism|desc=Books about history of capitalism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Revolutions|desc=Books about history of revolutions|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of the Labour Movement|desc=Books about history of the labour movement|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Socialist Countries|desc=Books about history of socialist countries|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=History of Fascism and Anti‑Fascism|desc=Books about history of fascism and anti‑fascism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Marxist Historiography|desc=Books about marxist historiography|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Socialist Construction ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Socialist Planning and Development|desc=Books about socialist planning and development|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Industrialisation and Agriculture|desc=Books about industrialisation and agriculture|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Culture and Education|desc=Books about culture and education|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Socialist Democracy and Law|desc=Books about socialist democracy and law|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Juche and Self‑Reliance|desc=Books about juche and self‑reliance|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Socialist Internationalism|desc=Books about socialist internationalism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Reform and Market Socialism|desc=Books about reform and market socialism|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Social Movements and Identities (mid cards) ==
<div class="library-container" style="">
{{Library card mid|name=Labour and Trade Unionism|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about labour and trade unionism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Feminism and Women’s Liberation|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about feminism and women’s liberation|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=LGBTQ+ Liberation and Queer Theory|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about lgbtq+ liberation and queer theory|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Black Liberation and Anti-Racism|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about black liberation and anti-racism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Indigenous Struggles|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about indigenous struggles|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Peasant and Rural Movements|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about peasant and rural movements|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Student and Youth Movements|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about student and youth movements|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Disability Justice|image=Exploitation_oppression_war_poster_thumbnail.jpg|desc=Books about disability justice|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Social Movements and Identities (mini cards) ==
<div class="library-container mini">
{{Library card mini|text=[[:Category:Interviews|Labour and Trade Unionism]]|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg|desc=Books about labour and trade unionism}}
{{Library card mini|text=[[:Category:Interviews|Feminism and Women’s Liberation]]|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg|desc=Books about feminism and women’s liberation}}
{{Library card mini|text=[[:Category:Interviews|LGBTQ+ Liberation and Queer Theory]]|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg|desc=Books about lgbtq+ liberation and queer theory|}}
{{Library card mini|text=[[:Category:Interviews|Black Liberation and Anti-Racism]]|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg|desc=Books about black liberation and anti-racism|}}
{{Library card mini|text=[[:Category:Interviews|Indigenous Struggles]]|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg|desc=Books about indigenous struggles|}}
{{Library card mini|text=[[:Category:Interviews|Peasant and Rural Movements]]|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg|desc=Books about peasant and rural movements|}}
{{Library card mini|text=[[:Category:Interviews|Student and Youth Movements]]|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg|desc=Books about student and youth movements|}}
{{Library card mini|text=[[:Category:Interviews|Disability Justice]]|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg|desc=Books about disability justice|}}
</div>

== Social Movements and Identities (mini cards, small text) ==
<div class="library-container mini" style="font-size:0.9rem; line-height:1.1">
{{Library card mini|text=[[:Category:Interviews|Labour and Trade Unionism]]|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg|desc=Books about labour and trade unionism}}
{{Library card mini|text=[[:Category:Interviews|Feminism and Women’s Liberation]]|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg|desc=Books about feminism and women’s liberation}}
{{Library card mini|text=[[:Category:Interviews|LGBTQ+ Liberation and Queer Theory]]|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg|desc=Books about lgbtq+ liberation and queer theory|}}
{{Library card mini|text=[[:Category:Interviews|Black Liberation and Anti-Racism]]|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg|desc=Books about black liberation and anti-racism|}}
{{Library card mini|text=[[:Category:Interviews|Indigenous Struggles]]|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg|desc=Books about indigenous struggles|}}
{{Library card mini|text=[[:Category:Interviews|Peasant and Rural Movements]]|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg|desc=Books about peasant and rural movements|}}
{{Library card mini|text=[[:Category:Interviews|Student and Youth Movements]]|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg|desc=Books about student and youth movements|}}
{{Library card mini|text=[[:Category:Interviews|Disability Justice]]|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg|desc=Books about disability justice|}}
</div>

== Culture, Ideology, and Media ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Propaganda and Media Critique|desc=Books about propaganda and media critique|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Bourgeois Ideology and Hegemony|desc=Books about bourgeois ideology and hegemony|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Religion and Atheism|desc=Books about religion and atheism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Art and Literature|desc=Books about art and literature|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Education and Pedagogy|desc=Books about education and pedagogy|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Science as Ideology|desc=Books about science as ideology|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Fascism, Revisionism, and Counter‑Revolution ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Fascism: Theory and History|desc=Books about fascism: theory and history|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Counter‑Revolution and Coups|desc=Books about counter‑revolution and coups|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Anti‑Fascist Struggle|desc=Books about anti‑fascist struggle|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Right Deviation and Revisionism|desc=Books about right deviation and revisionism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Social Democracy and Reformism|desc=Books about social democracy and reformism|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Critique of Liberalism|desc=Books about critique of liberalism|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Military Theory, and Armed Struggle ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Guerrilla Warfare|desc=Books about guerrilla warfare|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=People’s War|desc=Books about people’s war|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Military Strategy and Tactics|desc=Books about military strategy and tactics|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Armed Propaganda and Insurrection|desc=Books about armed propaganda and insurrection|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Science, Environment, and Health ==
<div class="library-container">
{{Library card mid|name=Dialectics of Nature and Scientific Method|desc=Books about dialectics of nature and scientific method|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Ecology, Environment, and Agriculture|desc=Books about ecology, environment, and agriculture|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Health, Medicine, and Psychology|desc=Books about health, medicine, and psychology|category=Library works about economics}}
{{Library card mid|name=Technology, Automation, and Cybernetics|desc=Books about technology, automation, and cybernetics|category=Library works about economics}}
</div>

== Primary Sources, Documents, and Formats ==
<div class="library-container-mini">
{{Library card mini|text=Speeches, Interviews, and Transcripts|desc=Books about speeches, interviews, and transcripts|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
{{Library card mini|text=Communist Party Documents, Congresses, and Resolutions|desc=Books about communist party documents, congresses, and resolutions|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
{{Library card mini|text=State Constitutions, Laws, and Official Reports|desc=Books about state constitutions, laws, and official reports|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
{{Library card mini|text=Reading Lists, Study Guides, and Syllabi|desc=Books about reading lists, study guides, and syllabi|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
{{Library card mini|text=Songs, Poems, and Creative Works|desc=Books about songs, poems, and creative works|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
{{Library card mini|text=PDF Files, Zines, and E-books|desc=Books about pdf files, zines, and e-books|link=:Category:Library works about economics|image=Speech-of-lenin-on-the-red-square-1959.jpg}}
</div>

Essay:ProleWiki ultimate emulation guide

2026-07-27T10:59:06Z

CriticalResist:

This guide aims to be an ultimate emulation guide, as ultimate is it can be anyway.

"But why does a communist wiki need an emulation guide?", one might ask. Well, we believe that piracy is not a dirty word. Piracy -- and emulation -- is sometimes the only way to still access rare media whose "legal owners" are not interested in reprinting for fans and consumers. Games such as Kuon, or the Gregory Horror Show (both on PS2) are extremely rare discs nowadays to even ''find'' on the market. To still be accessible, they need to be pirated in the first place. Not only that, but live services can and will remove your access to games and movies whenever they want. Amazon Prime is famous for removing shows that don't perform "well enough". In this case, piracy is the only way paying customers can still access the shows they wanted when they decided to pay for the service!

Moreover, we hold that there is nothing wrong with piracy in the first place: that it will not hurt Sega or Capcom's bottom line, and that if they don't make their games available then they are not losing out on money since they are not providing the service in the first place.

This guide will take you through the full steps, from start to finish, aimed at '''people who have never done this before'''. If that's you (or even if you know how to emulate, you might learn something), then you came to the right guide!
== First things first: the process of emulating a game ==
Before we get into the details, let's recap the process of emulating a game. This will be the process we cover throughout the guide, so it's a good mental model to follow along with.

# Install an emulator on your device. "Device" is very wide: a PC desktop, an Android phone, or even a raspberry Pi.
# Find and download games for the emulator.
# Transfer the game onto the same device as the emulator.
# Open the emulator, play the game.

These are 4 easy steps on the surface, but the implementation of how you go through each has some best practices we will go through in this guide.

== List of emulators and where to get them ==
''We are in the process of completing this section with pictures and more in-depth instructions.''
[[File:Emulation guide library view example.png|thumb|Example of a 'library view' in Daijisho, an emulation launcher]]
Emulators play the game, but sometimes they can do more. We will quickly go through the extras so you know what to expect later in the guide:

* '''BIOS requirements''': some emulators require BIOS files from the console to even work. We go through how to acquire these, don't worry. Sometimes, there are also '''firmware''' or '''key files''', on more recent consoles. This is usually done once
* '''Library view''': emulators now offer a library scroll of your games, which is relatively recent. They can also automatically '''scrape''' box art to give your games a unique look (see pic).
* '''Directories''': most emulators can change the directories they look into for games, bios files, where they save games and states, etc. If you want to organize your rom collection, it pays to set up custom paths instead of the default ones. It will also tell you where you need to put the BIOS files and games you will be downloading, just look in most emulators' Options or Preferences menus.

There are many, many consoles that were put on the market and that can now be emulated. Some of them have more than one emulator, all with slightly different performances.

Not to get too technical, but emulators work through a ''translation layer.'' What they do is transform the code on the disk or cartridge in a way that a modern computer can understand, on the fly. For this reason, not all emulators are equal - but, for most intents and purposes (just playing games from your childhood), most will be fine.

'''Can phones run emulators?''' Yes, absolutely. In fact, top-of-the-line phones that came out after 2022, with a Snapdragon 888 CPU and an Adreno 660 or higher GPU can even play ''some'' Switch games, even up to 2026. Some will crash, but the lighter ones will work. This is, in our opinion, the preferred method over buying an expensive yet lower-spec retro gaming console, such as the Odin, Powkiddy, or Anbernic consoles. While these consoles work, if space on your phone is not a concern, you will get much better compatibility with consoles on a modern phone that you already own.

It is also possible to emulate games on a Steam Deck (since a Steam Deck is just a Linux computer), which should even be able to run any Switch games with its specs.

=== Retroarch ===
You can download retroarch from their own website: https://www.retroarch.com/ (get the stable version).

You may also need the '''BIOS''' files for some emulators - not all of them ''require'' the bios files. But if your games don't load and Retroarch freezes or hangs, that is likely the reason. You can get them from this GitHub repo: https://github.com/Abdess/retrobios/tree/main/bios. In Retroarch, open the details of a core you installed and it will show you what the BIOS files are called (they depend on the emulator). You will find the files you need by going into Settings -> Cores -> Manage Cores -> Click/Tap on the correct core -> Scroll down until you see a list with 'Missing, optional' or 'Missing, required'. These are the BIOS files with their associated names.

You only need one 'core' for each console, there's no need to install more than one. Just get one, try it out, and if it doesn't work properly on a game, then install a second one - sometimes they are quirky like that and some emulators are definitely more compatible than others.

Then simply download these exact same files from the repo above, and put them in the bios folder for your retroarch - you will find its exact path in the settings, and can change it. Find it in Settings -> Directories -> System/BIOS. It should be, by default, '''.../RetroArch/System'''. Simply drop the BIOS files in that directory, no need to make subdirectories or anything.

Retroarch is a unified software that offers 'cores', which are emulators, for a lot of older consoles. They go up to the Dreamcast and Gamecube generation, though they do not have a core for the PS2. If you install retroarch, which is FOSS software [Free and Open Source Software], then you will be able to install emulators into retroarch very easily from their interface. This is why it's our first choice: it saves a lot of researching and installing.

Retroarch also saves all games in the .srm format, which allows you to copy them over to another device and open them in any other installation of retroarch.

The only downside of retroarch is it doesn't have ''all'' the consoles. But, it's available on most devices, including smart TVs. You can even install retroarch - the same version as on your PC or phone - on the consoles themselves if you know how (this guide will not cover this, at least not yet).

Since retroarch is not updating on the Google Play Store anymore (for android), I recommend installing F-Droid, which is a marketplace of only FOSS apps, and installing it from there. On phones, some emulators are actually paid (such as for the Gameboy Advance), but retroarch is completely, entirely free.

For the consoles RetroArch doesn't support, read on:

=== Playstation 2 (PS2) ===
On computers, the reference for PS2 emulators is '''PCSX2'''. It has existed for decades, and has recently improved extremely well: PCSX2 now offers a "folder memory card" option, saving your save games to a folder on your computer instead of inside an 8MB memory card file (which is how the PS2 did it originally).

PCSX2 can be installed from here: https://pcsx2.net/downloads. If you are on Linux, just get it from the flatpak store, and don't forget to give it permissions to the host filesystem so that it can read and remember your directories (save games, games, etc).

==== BIOS ====
PS2 emulators need the '''BIOS''' files to play games. They are on this github repo: https://github.com/Abdess/retrobios/tree/main/bios/Sony/PlayStation%202. For PCSX2, these will work:

* PS2 Bios 30004R V6 Pal.bin
* PS2 Bios 30004R V6 Pal.MEC
* PS2 Bios 30004R V6 Pal.NVM
* rom1.bin
* scph10000.bin
* scph10000.NVM
* scph39001.bin
* scph39001.MEC
* scph39001.NVM
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.BIN
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.EROM
* CPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.mec
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.NVM
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.ROM1
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.ROM2

These will cover the Europe, USA and Japan regions. On Android, the emulators are either NetherSX2, or PSX2 -> the latter has several forks existing, we recommend this one from izzy2lost: https://github.com/izzy2lost/PSX2. The bios files simply exist in its associated directory, they are not installed; don't delete them.

For games, you just put the files in a single games folder, and point PCSX2 to it. It will then find the games and display them in a library style.

==== Scrape Box Art ====
PCSX2 can '''scrape box art''' as well, but not automatically. Go into Tools -> Download cover art. In the middle of the window, provide either of those two links (only '''one''' of them):

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xlenore/ps2-covers/main/covers/default/${serial}.jpg [default, 2D, front-facing covers]

OR

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xlenore/ps2-covers/main/covers/3d/${serial}.png [cover on a 3D style box]

(the repo is here: https://github.com/xlenore/ps2-covers, if you want to confirm the links are legitimate).

Check the box for "Use game name to name the file", or whatever it's called in English, and click 'Start'.

You will need to redo this step when you add new games to PCSX2.

==== Memory card management ====
For your '''memory cards''', if PCSX2 doesn't prompt you for it at first, go into Settings -> Memory Cards. Under the empty table, click on Create, give it a name ('memcard1' or whatever), and select '''Directory [Recommended]'''. This is the better way of handling saves on PS2 emulators nowadays. Then, load up the card as Slot 1 - you can drag and drop it there. The saves will live inside a directory on your computer, created per game. This is better than the older method of creating an actual 8MB file that acted as a memory card, but had limited space on it.

=== Nintendo DS/3DS ===

==== Flashing a 3DS ====
We have to make an aside for the NDS/3DS. While the emulators do work properly for both (Either through RetroArch or the standalone emulators - Drastic for DS, Citra for 3DS), you will likely have a better time just flashing your 3DS console (if you have one, of course) and playing the games natively, because of the touch screen and dual screen features. Now that the 3DS has reached its end of life and receives no updates anymore, it is very easy to root and will not brick your console.

This is the guide to flash the 3DS: https://3ds.hacks.guide/. It's a bit long, but if you follow the instructions '''precisely''', without skipping ahead, then it will work and you will be able to install any 3DS and NDS game to your console that you download online. Flashing will not destroy anything that's already on your console, e.g. your save games or games downloaded from the nintendo store.

We cannot understate this: don't think you're too smart for the instructions or start skipping ahead because you get bored. Follow the instructions precisely as they are written out in the guide, one by one, in order. ProleWiki did not write this guide nor is it associated with it, we just link to it.

Pro-tip for Nintendo DS games: the 3DS console can only install up to 50 nintendo DS games. If you wish to have more, use YANBF: https://github.com/YANBForwarder/YANBF. This is a program you run on your computer to convert a .nds rom to a .cia file. Then, you install that .cia file from the rooted 3DS, as if it were a 3DS native game. This allows you to install as many NDS games as you want, bypassing the limit.

=== Playstation Vita (PS Vita) ===
The reference emulator for the PS Vita is Vita3k. It is not on retroarch. Get it here: https://vita3k.org/download.

==== Licence and firmware install ====
You need to install two files into Vita3k (either prompted on first launch, or through File -> Install Firmware, and File -> Install Licence). Copied straight from the vita3k website:<blockquote>Some games require the system modules be present for Vita3K to (low level) emulate them. This can be done by installing the PS Vita firmware through Vita3K.

'''The firmware can be downloaded from the official [https://www.playstation.com/en-us/support/hardware/psvita/system-software/ PlayStation website].'''

There's also an additional firmware package that contains the system fonts that needs to be installed. The font firmware package can be downloaded straight from the PlayStation servers. You can download it [http://dus01.psp2.update.playstation.net/update/psp2/image/2022_0209/sd_59dcf059d3328fb67be7e51f8aa33418/PSP2UPDAT.PUP?dest=us here].

Install '''both''' firmware packages using the <code>File > Install Firmware</code> menu option.<ref>https://vita3k.org/quickstart, Installing the Firmware</ref></blockquote>The font files link may change randomly, so check the quick start guide (ref 1 above) for the latest link. Don't open the font file directly; instead, right click on the link and select Save as... -> it should save a .pup file.

Then just install these 2 files through the menu (as outlined above), and you're done - you won't need these files anymore if you don't want to keep them.

==== Installing games ====
PS Vita games come in strange formats. Usually, it'll be either a .pkg/.bin combo, or a folder with an 'app' subfolder inside of it followed by a folder that's named like a string of characters <-- These are nonpdrm dumps. If you get a dump, compress its highest-level directory into a .zip archive, vita3k will know what to do with it.

Currently, all games need to be installed on Vita3k, like they would be installed on a real PS Vita. This is done through Vita3k directly, through File -> Install .pkg, or install .zip.

Once you have installed the game, you can actually delete the source files, if you wish. A copy of the game lives inside the vita3k emulator.

=== Nintendo Switch ===
The Switch is absolutely emulated, and works perfectly. However, its emulators are kind of in a weird space. Most of them are based on Yuzu, which still works, but was taken down by Nintendo and is therefore not worked on anymore.

Two current Switch emulators that receive updates are '''Citron''' and '''Eden'''. They look almost identical, though in its version 3, Citron decided to depart from the Ryujinx base and do its own thing. But the insides still work mostly the same.

==== Prod keys download ====
You will need these two files for your emulator:

* firmware: '''version 19.0.1'''. You can get it from this website: https://prodkeys.net/yuzu-firmware-v5/#more-199. It says it's for Yuzu, but that doesn't matter. Firmware is firmware.
* prod keys: same website, same version - they need to match with the firmware. https://prodkeys.net/suyu-prod-keys-update-3/. Download prod keys '''19.0.1'''

Later firmwares may not necessarily work with emulators. So unless otherwise specified by another source, use 19.0.1 - it is universal.

In your emulator, go into Tools -> Install Firmware, Tools -> Install decryption keys. Then games will work as soon as you drop the '''.nsp''' files into the games folder.

==== Installing DLCs and patches ====
For DLCs and patches, you need to install them to NAND. This is simply going into File -> Install to NAND... Then, select the files you wish to install. Emulators such as Eden and Citron will only install patches and DLCs, not the actual game. It's a weird workaround but it has to be done.

==== Converting NSZ to NSP ====
There is one specific 'problem' with Switch games: they sometimes come as .nsz format, when emulators can only read the .nsp format. This means you need to decompress the .nsz into a .nsp. The only tool we know of that actually works for this, and that we can recommend, is here: https://github.com/nicoboss/nsz.

The easiest way is, as the repo says, downloading the binaries from the release page: https://github.com/nicoboss/nsz/releases/

Or, you can install it as a pip package and integrate nsz into a python script to handle this automatically for you, for example.

Regardless, if you ever download .nsz switch games, run them through this tool to convert them to usable .nsp files.

=== More consoles to come ===
''This guide is open-sourced to ProleWiki editors. If you would like to add more consoles or information, you are free to edit.''

== Where to get games ==
Now that you have your emulators set up, you need games, obviously.

We regret the going of community websites such as emuparadise. Nintendo's litigious nature is taking away every emulator and rom site, and now only shady(ish) rom websites exist.

But there are still good ways to get games - maybe even better than direct downloads. As of this date, the best two methods are Telegram and Torrents. We will try not to get too technical, don't worry.

=== Torrents ===
Torrenting works by connecting you to peers who are also downloading the same file as you are. Except you all download different pieces of the file at the same time, which means you can '''send''' the pieces you have downloaded to others who need them, and '''receive''' the pieces you need from others who have them.

In some places, internet service providers watch your traffic for peer-to-peer activity and will send you a cease and desist letter or even a fine if they catch you doing it, on the basis of copyright infringement. You can easily evade them with a VPN. We recommend Mullvad (5€/month): see our [[Essay:Quick privacy guide|quick privacy guide]] if you're interested why. Or, if you know your ISP doesn't care, you can just torrent stuff. But yes, torrenting shouldn't be considered anonymous.

In any case, this guide recommends [https://www.qbittorrent.org/ qbittorrent] as a torrent client. Why? Because it has a search function (that you enable through View -> Enable search engine). '''Note that the search engine is not moderated or vetted'''; it simply looks for torrents on websites according to your keywords. You can get viruses from torrents, but we have good torrents for roms: the '''1G1R''' torrents. 1G1R is a user who is in the process of making high-quality rom collection torrents. They are active on Reddit, and their torrents are quite new (from a couple years ago at most).

1G1R dumps are also interesting because they have already pre-translated some/most Japanese releases they include. Usually, you would need to find a fan translation (from romhacking, usually) and patch it in yourself. 1G1R has already done that work, so the rom is available to play in English at the very least.

If you search for '1G1R saturn', for example, you will find these results:
[[File:1g1r saturn results.png|center|frameless|951x951px]]
What you are interested in is the number of '''seeders'''. Seeders are people that have downloaded the entire torrent and can thus now send it back to you completely, instead of only some of the pieces of it that they own. In this case, there are three torrents for 1G1R Sega Saturn with seeders. You can add all three of them, and qbittorrent will automatically collate them together into one (why it does that is a bit more technical and we won't get into it).

In any case, you are now downloading the entire 1G1R Sega Saturn redump, which is ~200GB of space. But here is the cool thing about torrents: you select exactly what you download. Go back to your '''Transfers''' tab, click on the 1G1R torrent, and at the bottom, click on '''Content'''. This shows exactly what this torrent contains: this is what you download. You can click the checkbox to disable ''everything'', meaning you will not download anything from this torrent. Then, you can selectively check back the games you do want to download.

When the torrent is paused, it is inert: no data is going in or out. This means you can leave the torrent alone in qbittorrent, and selectively download the games you want when you want them.

That's about all there is to cover for torrenting. There are other dumps of roms, but we can't ascertain their legitimacy as well so this guide prefers to recommend the 1G1R dumps.

''The nice thing to do is to seed back to give others the games as well!''

=== Telegram ===
There is currently a Telegram network of bots to download individual games. You will need a Telegram account, then join this channel: https://t.me/NSW_TorrentLibrary. Select the first chat, F.A.Q. - Our Bots, and you will see all the consoles they offer. Right now, the network has games for:

* Nintendo Switch
* Playstation 5
* Playstation 4
* Playstation 3
* Playstation 2
* Playstation One (PSX)
* Playstation Vita
* Playstation Portable
* Nintendo Wii/WiiU
* Nintendo GameCube
* Nintendo DS
* Nintendo 3DS
* Xbox 360
* Xbox Original
* Sega Dreamcast
* VR Oculus Quest
* PC games

Telegram is available in your browser and as a desktop app, so you can easily download the games on your computer if you want (if space is a concern - there are also torrent clients for phones).

The NSW games come as torrent files, so you will need a torrent client anyway to download games. But it's very simple to use: you just join a chat with the bot, provide the password as explained in the FAQ channel, then simply send the bot (in chat) the name of the game you want to download. If it has it, it will provide a download link. On Switch, they usually have all the patches and DLCs included.

''The maintainer behind this network is always looking for funds to maintain the bot network. '''It is at a very real risk of going down soon'''. So if you find it useful, please use the '''/donate command''' in one of the bot chats and '''send him some money'''.''

=== Why different sources? ===
We recommend different sources to find games because they have different games. Even a 200GB archive is not necessarily ''all'' of a console's games! There are many rare games or even unknown ones. There are many Japan exclusives that we are still learning about, or just very rare games that are hard to find downloads for.

And of course, there are still download websites. They are not necessarily riddled with viruses (this is more of a 2000s scare than a reality), but they are usually riddled with ads and fake download links. Use an adblocker. Not just for these websites, just in general in your life. This guide doesn't really have any specific website to recommend as the two sources above (1G1R and the NSW network) offer high-quality, complete downloads already. ROM websites might help you find very specific games that these two sources don't have.

== Specific sub-guides ==
We added some more specific guides here, separate from the two main sections. They are just as important as the main sections, but we felt they didn't really fit inside the main sections.

=== Important: Compress your games ===
ROMs can take a lot of space on a disk. If you wish to own huge collections, the size can quickly balloon up to a few ''terabytes'' of space.

Fortunately, it is possible to compress your games, no matter the console, in a way that will ''not'' destroy data. The savings are '''huge''': betwen 40 to 50% of disk space can be saved by just doing lossless compression. Moreover, the game works just as well as before and loads just as quickly as before compression.

Space saved example from an actual PS2 rom collection:
{|
!Line
!.iso size (before compression)
!.chd size (after compression)
!Ratio
|-
|PS2 TOTAL (1.1TB total)
| 1.1TB
|597GB
|45%
|}
There are two methods that differ based on the original game support format for the console:

==== For disk games ====
For consoles such as the PS2, SegaCD, PS1, etc, games came in a disk format. Their ROMs will therefore be one of the following file format:

* .iso [most common]
* .bin/.cue combo [2nd most common]
* .gdi/.bin/.raw combo
* .toc/.bin
* .ccd/.img/.sub
* .nrg
* .cdr

For such a file, use '''chdman''' - the #1 reference for it. The recalbox wiki has the links and simple instructions: https://wiki.recalbox.com/en/tutorials/utilities/rom-conversion/chdman. For Linux though, the best way is just using your package manager: '''sudo apt install mame-tools''' (also installs the mame emulator, but you can uninstall it if you want). Then you can use chdman from the command line, or make scripts with it to make your life easier. If you don't code, any modern AI can make this script for you according to your specifications. Or, the recalbox link has downloads to scripts they offer to do this for you, for all 3 OSes.

chdman will convert your file to a '''.chd format''' - Compressed Hunks of Data. These work in any modern emulators: pcsx2, genesis plus GX, etc.

One exception: Dolphin, the gamecube emulator, uses its own .rvz format for compression. Most gamecube games you download will already be .rvz.

Another semi-exception: PPSSPP historically read .cso files (from ciso package, also compressed) and not .chd files. However, it should now be compatible with newer versions of PPSSPP. But, if your .chd file is not readable through PPSSPP, don't panic: you probably just need to update the emulator, or redo the .chd differently. AI can help with this if you send it the details of the problem and how to troubleshoot. Remember: .chd files can be reversed back to .iso infinitely.

CHD is completely reversible back to iso, .bin/.cue, or whatever else. It doesn't destroy any data. Like we said, the space savings can be huge, so don't skip out on it if you start getting a lot of games, especially if you move them to a device where space is limited, such as an SD card.

Note: there is no point in zipping up a .chdm .cso or .rvz file: they are already compressed better than the zip algorithm can do, so you won't save any more space by 'double-compressing'.

==== For cartridge games ====
For cartridge games such as the GBA, NDS, SNES, you can simply compress them into a .zip file.
If you do, make sure the .zip has the ''exact'' ''same name'' as the rom inside of it. No deviation whatsoever. And, make sure only ONE rom file is inside the archive, don't put anything else in there. This ensures maximum compatibility for your emulator to find the rom in the zip.

Most operating systems (Windows, Linux, etc) can natively create .zip files. But not all of them will get the same results. There are better and worse algorithms, and some programs such as 7zip allow you to select the compression level. Nevertheless, most emulators will be able to read from a .zip archive, and most games will benefit from this procedure: between 30 and 45% of space is gained back from compressing!

It's also possible to trim the excess data off cartridge games: historically cartridges came in pre-selected sizes (8MB, 16MB, 32MB, etc), and if the game was say only 4MB but was burned onto a 16MB cartridge, then the extra space had to be filled out to fill the cartridge with dummy data. However, trimming the data is lossy: that excess, while useless and inert, is still data that is deleted irreparably if you trim it. Moreover, zipping up the rom file usually compresses that dummy data anyway.

Switch exception: there is no point in zipping up Switch games into a .zip, no space is saved.

=== Front-ends to organize your roms ===
This guide heavily recommends retroarch to play games. However, at least on Android, retroarch doesn't feel intuitive. It takes several steps just to play a game - loading the core, then navigating to the games folder, then selecting the game you want from just the file name is a lot of steps. And this isn't isolated to Retroarch either!

For this reason, there are several ''front-ends'' or ''launchers'' that were created. Their purpose is to organize and prettify your rom collection, and allow you to launch the games from there. Lutris for example, which is often used to play Windows games on Linux, can serve as an emulator front-end, if you connect your emulators to it.

There are several: Daijisho, Pegasus, EmuStation, and so on.

Front-ends connect to your emulators in the background, and your games directories. They serve as a 'middleman' of sorts between the emulator and the game: launch the game from the front-end, and it opens seamlessly in the emulator.

=== Troubleshooting emulation problems ===
Emulation has come a long way since the 2000s. If you encounter a problem while playing a game, it's probably the emulator settings that are acting up, not the game. That is, the game is perfectly playable on emulator, it just needs the right settings.

In 90% of cases, the fix is simple: if audio is crackling or missing, then you probably just need to change the audio backend or fiddle with the settings. Most emulators can now do this per-game, or globally (globally will apply to all games). If video is acting up, then you probably need a different graphic API or, again, fiddle with some of the finer settings. In general it's pretty easy, there's not that much you need to change, and it should solve the problem. If the game really acts up or doesn't even launch, then it's possible it's just not compatible with the emulator, or any emulator - that happens sometimes. In that case, online wikis will usually have the compatibility status of the game you're trying to play. Not all emulators are equal, and some will play games with no problems that other emulators simply can't even open.

=== Where do I get series and movies ===
What does this have to do with a video game emulation guide? Well, fuck copyright and fuck billion-dollar companies refusing to give people what they paid for.

Stremio (https://www.stremio.com/) is a godsend. It's an app that will work on most devices, including Android TVs, and connect you to torrents (torrents again!) to watch movies and series of your choice. Except instead of simply downloading the file, it streams it: that is, it plays the video as it downloads, and then deletes it when the cache grows too big. This means you are not saving the files, but it also means you can watch stuff before it has to download.

Download the Stremio app, and create an account to save your settings. But don't use Stremio from the website, it's not as stable - install the app on your devices.

Then, you need to add the torrentio plugin through this link: https://torrentio.strem.fun/configure. Plugins are added to Stremio from web addresses (because Stremio is ultimately a Chromium tab masquerading as an app, but hey, it works). Stremio can't package torrentio with its app because of legality around piracy.

Torrentio is pretty easy to configure from that link above: in fact, you can just leave the default settings alone and click the install button. It will ask what app to open with, and select your Stremio app into which you are logged in. Select Stremio, confirm everything, and you're done. Go into the Addons tab in Stremio to make sure the torrentio plugin was installed, then restart Stremio. From then on, you should just be able to search for anything and find it.

There is one caveat with torrentio: it mostly finds sources in English. So if you want to watch series or movies in other languages, you will usually have a hard time on Stremio. There are probably language-specific addons for it. There are, however, add-ons to automatically find subtitles for your episode or movie, and they load seamlessly into Stremio.

Stremio also serves as a front-end to organize your series and movies. It can notify you (in-app) when there are new episodes coming out, or you can browse the public catalog to find something to watch.

== References ==

Essay:ProleWiki ultimate emulation guide

2026-07-27T10:49:23Z

CriticalResist:

This guide aims to be an ultimate emulation guide, as ultimate is it can be anyway.

"But why does a communist wiki need an emulation guide?", one might ask. Well, we believe that piracy is not a dirty word. Piracy -- and emulation -- is sometimes the only way to still access rare media whose "legal owners" are not interested in reprinting for fans and consumers. Games such as Kuon, or the Gregory Horror Show (both on PS2) are extremely rare discs nowadays to even ''find'' on the market. To still be accessible, they need to be pirated in the first place. Not only that, but live services can and will remove your access to games and movies whenever they want. Amazon Prime is famous for removing shows that don't perform "well enough". In this case, piracy is the only way paying customers can still access the shows they wanted when they decided to pay for the service!

Moreover, we hold that there is nothing wrong with piracy in the first place: that it will not hurt Sega or Capcom's bottom line, and that if they don't make their games available then they are not losing out on money since they are not providing the service in the first place.

This guide will take you through the full steps, from start to finish, aimed at '''people who have never done this before'''. If that's you (or even if you know how to emulate, you might learn something), then you came to the right guide!

TBD: will need to talk about:

* emulators: phone and PC
* where to get roms
** compressing roms
** where to count your missing games
* Specific consoles -> rooting NDS, Vita, front-ends to organize a library on phone or otherwise, Steam Deck, etc.

== First things first: the process of emulating a game ==
Before we get into the details, let's recap the process of emulating a game. This will be the process we cover throughout the guide, so it's a good mental model to follow along with.

# Install an emulator on your device. "Device" is very wide: a PC desktop, an Android phone, or even a raspberry Pi.
# Find and download games for the emulator.
# Transfer the game onto the same device as the emulator.
# Open the emulator, play the game.

These are 4 easy steps on the surface, but the implementation of how you go through each has some best practices we will go through in this guide.

== List of emulators and where to get them ==
''We are in the process of completing this section with pictures and more in-depth instructions.''
[[File:Emulation guide library view example.png|thumb|Example of a 'library view' in Daijisho, an emulation launcher]]
Emulators play the game, but sometimes they can do more. We will quickly go through the extras so you know what to expect later in the guide:

* '''BIOS requirements''': some emulators require BIOS files from the console to even work. We go through how to acquire these, don't worry. Sometimes, there are also '''firmware''' or '''key files''', on more recent consoles. This is usually done once
* '''Library view''': emulators now offer a library scroll of your games, which is relatively recent. They can also automatically '''scrape''' box art to give your games a unique look (see pic).
* '''Directories''': most emulators can change the directories they look into for games, bios files, where they save games and states, etc. If you want to organize your rom collection, it pays to set up custom paths instead of the default ones. It will also tell you where you need to put the BIOS files and games you will be downloading, just look in most emulators' Options or Preferences menus.

There are many, many consoles that were put on the market and that can now be emulated. Some of them have more than one emulator, all with slightly different performances.

Not to get too technical, but emulators work through a ''translation layer.'' What they do is transform the code on the disk or cartridge in a way that a modern computer can understand, on the fly. For this reason, not all emulators are equal - but, for most intents and purposes (just playing games from your childhood), most will be fine.

'''Can phones run emulators?''' Yes, absolutely. In fact, top-of-the-line phones that came out after 2022, with a Snapdragon 888 CPU and an Adreno 660 or higher GPU can even play ''some'' Switch games, even up to 2026. Some will crash, but the lighter ones will work. This is, in our opinion, the preferred method over buying an expensive yet lower-spec retro gaming console, such as the Odin, Powkiddy, or Anbernic consoles. While these consoles work, if space on your phone is not a concern, you will get much better compatibility with consoles on a modern phone that you already own.

It is also possible to emulate games on a Steam Deck (since a Steam Deck is just a Linux computer), which should even be able to run any Switch games with its specs.

=== Retroarch ===
You can download retroarch from their own website: https://www.retroarch.com/ (get the stable version).

You may also need the '''BIOS''' files for some emulators - not all of them ''require'' the bios files. But if your games don't load and Retroarch freezes or hangs, that is likely the reason. You can get them from this GitHub repo: https://github.com/Abdess/retrobios/tree/main/bios. In Retroarch, open the details of a core you installed and it will show you what the BIOS files are called (they depend on the emulator). You will find the files you need by going into Settings -> Cores -> Manage Cores -> Click/Tap on the correct core -> Scroll down until you see a list with 'Missing, optional' or 'Missing, required'. These are the BIOS files with their associated names.

You only need one 'core' for each console, there's no need to install more than one. Just get one, try it out, and if it doesn't work properly on a game, then install a second one - sometimes they are quirky like that and some emulators are definitely more compatible than others.

Then simply download these exact same files from the repo above, and put them in the bios folder for your retroarch - you will find its exact path in the settings, and can change it. Find it in Settings -> Directories -> System/BIOS. It should be, by default, '''.../RetroArch/System'''. Simply drop the BIOS files in that directory, no need to make subdirectories or anything.

Retroarch is a unified software that offers 'cores', which are emulators, for a lot of older consoles. They go up to the Dreamcast and Gamecube generation, though they do not have a core for the PS2. If you install retroarch, which is FOSS software [Free and Open Source Software], then you will be able to install emulators into retroarch very easily from their interface. This is why it's our first choice: it saves a lot of researching and installing.

Retroarch also saves all games in the .srm format, which allows you to copy them over to another device and open them in any other installation of retroarch.

The only downside of retroarch is it doesn't have ''all'' the consoles. But, it's available on most devices, including smart TVs. You can even install retroarch - the same version as on your PC or phone - on the consoles themselves if you know how (this guide will not cover this, at least not yet).

Since retroarch is not updating on the Google Play Store anymore (for android), I recommend installing F-Droid, which is a marketplace of only FOSS apps, and installing it from there. On phones, some emulators are actually paid (such as for the Gameboy Advance), but retroarch is completely, entirely free.

For the consoles RetroArch doesn't support, read on:

=== Playstation 2 (PS2) ===
On computers, the reference for PS2 emulators is '''PCSX2'''. It has existed for decades, and has recently improved extremely well: PCSX2 now offers a "folder memory card" option, saving your save games to a folder on your computer instead of inside an 8MB memory card file (which is how the PS2 did it originally).

PCSX2 can be installed from here: https://pcsx2.net/downloads. If you are on Linux, just get it from the flatpak store, and don't forget to give it permissions to the host filesystem so that it can read and remember your directories (save games, games, etc).

==== BIOS ====
PS2 emulators need the '''BIOS''' files to play games. They are on this github repo: https://github.com/Abdess/retrobios/tree/main/bios/Sony/PlayStation%202. For PCSX2, these will work:

* PS2 Bios 30004R V6 Pal.bin
* PS2 Bios 30004R V6 Pal.MEC
* PS2 Bios 30004R V6 Pal.NVM
* rom1.bin
* scph10000.bin
* scph10000.NVM
* scph39001.bin
* scph39001.MEC
* scph39001.NVM
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.BIN
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.EROM
* CPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.mec
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.NVM
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.ROM1
* SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_PAL_200.ROM2

These will cover the Europe, USA and Japan regions. On Android, the emulators are either NetherSX2, or PSX2 -> the latter has several forks existing, we recommend this one from izzy2lost: https://github.com/izzy2lost/PSX2. The bios files simply exist in its associated directory, they are not installed; don't delete them.

For games, you just put the files in a single games folder, and point PCSX2 to it. It will then find the games and display them in a library style.

==== Scrape Box Art ====
PCSX2 can '''scrape box art''' as well, but not automatically. Go into Tools -> Download cover art. In the middle of the window, provide either of those two links (only '''one''' of them):

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xlenore/ps2-covers/main/covers/default/${serial}.jpg [default, 2D, front-facing covers]

OR

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xlenore/ps2-covers/main/covers/3d/${serial}.png [cover on a 3D style box]

(the repo is here: https://github.com/xlenore/ps2-covers, if you want to confirm the links are legitimate).

Check the box for "Use game name to name the file", or whatever it's called in English, and click 'Start'.

You will need to redo this step when you add new games to PCSX2.

==== Memory card management ====
For your '''memory cards''', if PCSX2 doesn't prompt you for it at first, go into Settings -> Memory Cards. Under the empty table, click on Create, give it a name ('memcard1' or whatever), and select '''Directory [Recommended]'''. This is the better way of handling saves on PS2 emulators nowadays. Then, load up the card as Slot 1 - you can drag and drop it there. The saves will live inside a directory on your computer, created per game. This is better than the older method of creating an actual 8MB file that acted as a memory card, but had limited space on it.

=== Nintendo DS/3DS ===

==== Flashing a 3DS ====
We have to make an aside for the NDS/3DS. While the emulators do work properly for both (Either through RetroArch or the standalone emulators - Drastic for DS, Citra for 3DS), you will likely have a better time just flashing your 3DS console (if you have one, of course) and playing the games natively, because of the touch screen and dual screen features. Now that the 3DS has reached its end of life and receives no updates anymore, it is very easy to root and will not brick your console.

This is the guide to flash the 3DS: https://3ds.hacks.guide/. It's a bit long, but if you follow the instructions '''precisely''', without skipping ahead, then it will work and you will be able to install any 3DS and NDS game to your console that you download online. Flashing will not destroy anything that's already on your console, e.g. your save games or games downloaded from the nintendo store.

Pro-tip for Nintendo DS games: the 3DS console can only install up to 50 nintendo DS games. If you wish to have more, use YANBF: https://github.com/YANBForwarder/YANBF. This is a program you run on your computer to convert a .nds rom to a .cia file. Then, you install that .cia file from the rooted 3DS, as if it were a 3DS native game. This allows you to install as many NDS games as you want, bypassing the limit.

=== Playstation Vita (PS Vita) ===
The reference emulator for the PS Vita is Vita3k. It is not on retroarch. Get it here: https://vita3k.org/download.

==== Licence and firmware install ====
You need to install two files into Vita3k (either prompted on first launch, or through File -> Install Firmware, and File -> Install Licence). Copied straight from the vita3k website:<blockquote>Some games require the system modules be present for Vita3K to (low level) emulate them. This can be done by installing the PS Vita firmware through Vita3K.

'''The firmware can be downloaded from the official [https://www.playstation.com/en-us/support/hardware/psvita/system-software/ PlayStation website].'''

There's also an additional firmware package that contains the system fonts that needs to be installed. The font firmware package can be downloaded straight from the PlayStation servers. You can download it [http://dus01.psp2.update.playstation.net/update/psp2/image/2022_0209/sd_59dcf059d3328fb67be7e51f8aa33418/PSP2UPDAT.PUP?dest=us here].

Install '''both''' firmware packages using the <code>File > Install Firmware</code> menu option.<ref>https://vita3k.org/quickstart, Installing the Firmware</ref></blockquote>The font files link may change randomly, so check the quick start guide (ref 1 above) for the latest link. Don't open the font file directly; instead, right click on the link and select Save as... -> it should save a .pup file.

Then just install these 2 files through the menu (as outlined above), and you're done - you won't need these files anymore if you don't want to keep them.

==== Installing games ====
PS Vita games come in strange formats. Usually, it'll be either a .pkg/.bin combo, or a folder with an 'app' subfolder inside of it followed by a folder that's named like a string of characters <-- These are nonpdrm dumps. If you get a dump, compress its highest-level directory into a .zip archive, vita3k will know what to do with it.

Currently, all games need to be installed on Vita3k, like they would be installed on a real PS Vita. This is done through Vita3k directly, through File -> Install .pkg, or install .zip.

Once you have installed the game, you can actually delete the source files, if you wish. A copy of the game lives inside the vita3k emulator.

=== Nintendo Switch ===
The Switch is absolutely emulated, and works perfectly. However, its emulators are kind of in a weird space. Most of them are based on Yuzu, which still works, but was taken down by Nintendo and is therefore not worked on anymore.

Two current Switch emulators that receive updates are '''Citron''' and '''Eden'''. They look almost identical, though in its version 3, Citron decided to depart from the Ryujinx base and do its own thing. But the insides still work mostly the same.

==== Prod keys download ====
You will need these two files for your emulator:

* firmware: '''version 19.0.1'''. You can get it from this website: https://prodkeys.net/yuzu-firmware-v5/#more-199. It says it's for Yuzu, but that doesn't matter. Firmware is firmware.
* prod keys: same website, same version - they need to match with the firmware. https://prodkeys.net/suyu-prod-keys-update-3/. Download prod keys '''19.0.1'''

Later firmwares may not necessarily work with emulators. So unless otherwise specified by another source, use 19.0.1 - it is universal.

In your emulator, go into Tools -> Install Firmware, Tools -> Install decryption keys. Then games will work as soon as you drop the '''.nsp''' files into the games folder.

==== Installing DLCs and patches ====
For DLCs and patches, you need to install them to NAND. This is simply going into File -> Install to NAND... Then, select the files you wish to install. Emulators such as Eden and Citron will only install patches and DLCs, not the actual game. It's a weird workaround but it has to be done.

==== Converting NSZ to NSP ====
There is one specific 'problem' with Switch games: they sometimes come as .nsz format, when emulators can only read the .nsp format. This means you need to decompress the .nsz into a .nsp. The only tool we know of that actually works for this, and that we can recommend, is here: https://github.com/nicoboss/nsz.

The easiest way is, as the repo says, downloading the binaries from the release page: https://github.com/nicoboss/nsz/releases/

Or, you can install it as a pip package and integrate nsz into a python script to handle this automatically for you, for example.

Regardless, if you ever download .nsz switch games, run them through this tool to convert them to usable .nsp files.

=== More consoles to come ===
''This guide is open-sourced to ProleWiki editors. If you would like to add more consoles or information, you are free to edit.''

== Where to get games ==
Now that you have your emulators set up, you need games, obviously.

We regret the going of community websites such as emuparadise. Nintendo's litigious nature is taking away every emulator and rom site, and now only shady(ish) rom websites exist.

But there are still good ways to get games - maybe even better than direct downloads. As of this date, the best two methods are Telegram and Torrents. We will try not to get too technical, don't worry.

=== Torrents ===
Torrenting works by connecting you to peers who are also downloading the same file as you are. Except you all download different pieces of the file at the same time, which means you can '''send''' the pieces you have downloaded to others who need them, and '''receive''' the pieces you need from others who have them.

In some places, internet service providers watch your traffic for peer-to-peer activity and will send you a cease and desist letter or even a fine if they catch you doing it, on the basis of copyright infringement. You can easily evade them with a VPN. We recommend Mullvad (5€/month): see our [[Essay:Quick privacy guide|quick privacy guide]] if you're interested why. Or, if you know your ISP doesn't care, you can just torrent stuff. But yes, torrenting shouldn't be considered anonymous.

In any case, this guide recommends [https://www.qbittorrent.org/ qbittorrent] as a torrent client. Why? Because it has a search function (that you enable through View -> Enable search engine). '''Note that the search engine is not moderated or vetted'''; it simply looks for torrents on websites according to your keywords. You can get viruses from torrents, but we have good torrents for roms: the '''1G1R''' torrents. 1G1R is a user who is in the process of making high-quality rom collection torrents. They are active on Reddit, and their torrents are quite new (from a couple years ago at most).

1G1R dumps are also interesting because they have already pre-translated some/most Japanese releases they include. Usually, you would need to find a fan translation (from romhacking, usually) and patch it in yourself. 1G1R has already done that work, so the rom is available to play in English at the very least.

If you search for '1G1R saturn', for example, you will find these results:
[[File:1g1r saturn results.png|center|frameless|951x951px]]
What you are interested in is the number of '''seeders'''. Seeders are people that have downloaded the entire torrent and can thus now send it back to you completely, instead of only some of the pieces of it that they own. In this case, there are three torrents for 1G1R Sega Saturn with seeders. You can add all three of them, and qbittorrent will automatically collate them together into one (why it does that is a bit more technical and we won't get into it).

In any case, you are now downloading the entire 1G1R Sega Saturn redump, which is ~200GB of space. But here is the cool thing about torrents: you select exactly what you download. Go back to your '''Transfers''' tab, click on the 1G1R torrent, and at the bottom, click on '''Content'''. This shows exactly what this torrent contains: this is what you download. You can click the checkbox to disable ''everything'', meaning you will not download anything from this torrent. Then, you can selectively check back the games you do want to download.

When the torrent is paused, it is inert: no data is going in or out. This means you can leave the torrent alone in qbittorrent, and selectively download the games you want when you want them.

That's about all there is to cover for torrenting. There are other dumps of roms, but we can't ascertain their legitimacy as well so this guide prefers to recommend the 1G1R dumps.

''The nice thing to do is to seed back to give others the games as well!''

=== Telegram ===
There is currently a Telegram network of bots to download individual games. You will need a Telegram account, then join this channel: https://t.me/NSW_TorrentLibrary. Select the first chat, F.A.Q. - Our Bots, and you will see all the consoles they offer. Right now, the network has games for:

* Nintendo Switch
* Playstation 5
* Playstation 4
* Playstation 3
* Playstation 2
* Playstation One (PSX)
* Playstation Vita
* Playstation Portable
* Nintendo Wii/WiiU
* Nintendo GameCube
* Nintendo DS
* Nintendo 3DS
* Xbox 360
* Xbox Original
* Sega Dreamcast
* VR Oculus Quest
* PC games

Telegram is available in your browser and as a desktop app, so you can easily download the games on your computer if you want (if space is a concern - there are also torrent clients for phones).

The NSW games come as torrent files, so you will need a torrent client anyway to download games. But it's very simple to use: you just join a chat with the bot, provide the password as explained in the FAQ channel, then simply send the bot (in chat) the name of the game you want to download. If it has it, it will provide a download link. On Switch, they usually have all the patches and DLCs included.

''The maintainer behind this network is always looking for funds to maintain the bot network. '''It is at a very real risk of going down soon'''. So if you find it useful, please use the '''/donate command''' in one of the bot chats and '''send him some money'''.''

=== Why different sources? ===
We recommend different sources to find games because they have different games. Even a 200GB archive is not necessarily ''all'' of a console's games! There are many rare games or even unknown ones. There are many Japan exclusives that we are still learning about, or just very rare games that are hard to find downloads for.

And of course, there are still download websites. They are not necessarily riddled with viruses (this is more of a 2000s scare than a reality), but they are usually riddled with ads and fake download links. Use an adblocker. Not just for these websites, just in general in your life. This guide doesn't really have any specific website to recommend as the two sources above (1G1R and the NSW network) offer high-quality, complete downloads already. ROM websites might help you find very specific games that these two sources don't have.

== Specific sub-guides ==
We added some more specific guides here, separate from the two main sections. They are just as important as the main sections, but we felt they didn't really fit inside the main sections.

=== Important: Compress your games ===
ROMs can take a lot of space on a disk. If you wish to own huge collections, the size can quickly balloon up to a few ''terabytes'' of space.

Fortunately, it is possible to compress your games, no matter the console, in a way that will ''not'' destroy data. The savings are '''huge''': betwen 40 to 50% of disk space can be saved by just doing lossless compression. Moreover, the game works just as well as before and loads just as quickly as before compression.

Space saved example from an actual PS2 rom collection:
{|
!Line
!.iso size (before compression)
!.chd size (after compression)
!Ratio
|-
|PS2 TOTAL (1.1TB total)
| 1.1TB
|597GB
|45%
|}
There are two methods that differ based on the original game support format for the console:

==== For disk games ====
For consoles such as the PS2, SegaCD, PS1, etc, games came in a disk format. Their ROMs will therefore be one of the following file format:

* .iso [most common]
* .bin/.cue combo [2nd most common]
* .gdi/.bin/.raw combo
* .toc/.bin
* .ccd/.img/.sub
* .nrg
* .cdr

For such a file, use '''chdman''' - the #1 reference for it. The recalbox wiki has the links and simple instructions: https://wiki.recalbox.com/en/tutorials/utilities/rom-conversion/chdman. For Linux though, the best way is just using your package manager: '''sudo apt install mame-tools''' (also installs the mame emulator, but you can uninstall it if you want). Then you can use chdman from the command line, or make scripts with it to make your life easier. If you don't code, any modern AI can make this script for you according to your specifications. Or, the recalbox link has downloads to scripts they offer to do this for you, for all 3 OSes.

chdman will convert your file to a '''.chd format''' - Compressed Hunks of Data. These work in any modern emulators: pcsx2, genesis plus GX, etc.

One exception: Dolphin, the gamecube emulator, uses its own .rvz format for compression. Most gamecube games you download will already be .rvz.

Another semi-exception: PPSSPP historically read .cso files (from ciso package, also compressed) and not .chd files. However, it should now be compatible with newer versions of PPSSPP. But, if your .chd file is not readable through PPSSPP, don't panic: you probably just need to update the emulator, or redo the .chd differently. AI can help with this if you send it the details of the problem and how to troubleshoot. Remember: .chd files can be reversed back to .iso infinitely.

CHD is completely reversible back to iso, .bin/.cue, or whatever else. It doesn't destroy any data. Like we said, the space savings can be huge, so don't skip out on it if you start getting a lot of games, especially if you move them to a device where space is limited, such as an SD card.

Note: there is no point in zipping up a .chdm .cso or .rvz file: they are already compressed better than the zip algorithm can do, so you won't save any more space by 'double-compressing'.

==== For cartridge games ====
For cartridge games such as the GBA, NDS, SNES, you can simply compress them into a .zip file.
If you do, make sure the .zip has the ''exact'' ''same name'' as the rom inside of it. No deviation whatsoever. And, make sure only ONE rom file is inside the archive, don't put anything else in there. This ensures maximum compatibility for your emulator to find the rom in the zip.

Most operating systems (Windows, Linux, etc) can natively create .zip files. But not all of them will get the same results. There are better and worse algorithms, and some programs such as 7zip allow you to select the compression level. Nevertheless, most emulators will be able to read from a .zip archive, and most games will benefit from this procedure: between 30 and 45% of space is gained back from compressing!

It's also possible to trim the excess data off cartridge games: historically cartridges came in pre-selected sizes (8MB, 16MB, 32MB, etc), and if the game was say only 4MB but was burned onto a 16MB cartridge, then the extra space had to be filled out to fill the cartridge with dummy data. However, trimming the data is lossy: that excess, while useless and inert, is still data that is deleted irreparably if you trim it. Moreover, zipping up the rom file usually compresses that dummy data anyway.

Switch exception: there is no point in zipping up Switch games into a .zip, no space is saved.

=== Front-ends to organize your roms ===
This guide heavily recommends retroarch to play games. However, at least on Android, retroarch doesn't feel intuitive. It takes several steps just to play a game - loading the core, then navigating to the games folder, then selecting the game you want from just the file name is a lot of steps. And this isn't isolated to Retroarch either!

For this reason, there are several ''front-ends'' or ''launchers'' that were created. Their purpose is to organize and prettify your rom collection, and allow you to launch the games from there. Lutris for example, which is often used to play Windows games on Linux, can serve as an emulator front-end, if you connect your emulators to it.

There are several: Daijisho, Pegasus, EmuStation, and so on.

Front-ends connect to your emulators in the background, and your games directories. They serve as a 'middleman' of sorts between the emulator and the game: launch the game from the front-end, and it opens seamlessly in the emulator.

=== Troubleshooting emulation problems ===
Emulation has come a long way since the 2000s. If you encounter a problem while playing a game, it's probably the emulator settings that are acting up, not the game. That is, the game is perfectly playable on emulator, it just needs the right settings.

In 90% of cases, the fix is simple: if audio is crackling or missing, then you probably just need to change the audio backend or fiddle with the settings. Most emulators can now do this per-game, or globally (globally will apply to all games). If video is acting up, then you probably need a different graphic API or, again, fiddle with some of the finer settings. In general it's pretty easy, there's not that much you need to change, and it should solve the problem. If the game really acts up or doesn't even launch, then it's possible it's just not compatible with the emulator, or any emulator - that happens sometimes. In that case, online wikis will usually have the compatibility status of the game you're trying to play. Not all emulators are equal, and some will play games with no problems that other emulators simply can't even open.

=== Where do I get series and movies ===
What does this have to do with a video game emulation guide? Well, fuck copyright and fuck billion-dollar companies refusing to give people what they paid for.

Stremio (https://www.stremio.com/) is a godsend. It's an app that will work on most devices, including Android TVs, and connect you to torrents (torrents again!) to watch movies and series of your choice. Except instead of simply downloading the file, it streams it: that is, it plays the video as it downloads, and then deletes it when the cache grows too big. This means you are not saving the files, but it also means you can watch stuff before it has to download.

Download the Stremio app, and create an account to save your settings. But don't use Stremio from the website, it's not as stable - install the app on your devices.

Then, you need to add the torrentio plugin through this link: https://torrentio.strem.fun/configure. Plugins are added to Stremio from web addresses (because Stremio is ultimately a Chromium tab masquerading as an app, but hey, it works). Stremio can't package torrentio with its app because of legality around piracy.

Torrentio is pretty easy to configure from that link above: in fact, you can just leave the default settings alone and click the install button. It will ask what app to open with, and select your Stremio app into which you are logged in. Select Stremio, confirm everything, and you're done. Go into the Addons tab in Stremio to make sure the torrentio plugin was installed, then restart Stremio. From then on, you should just be able to search for anything and find it.

There is one caveat with torrentio: it mostly finds sources in English. So if you want to watch series or movies in other languages, you will usually have a hard time on Stremio. There are probably language-specific addons for it. There are, however, add-ons to automatically find subtitles for your episode or movie, and they load seamlessly into Stremio.

Stremio also serves as a front-end to organize your series and movies. It can notify you (in-app) when there are new episodes coming out, or you can browse the public catalog to find something to watch.

== References ==

Essay:ProleWiki ultimate emulation guide

2026-07-27T09:09:24Z

CriticalResist: save 1

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2026-07-27T08:56:19Z

CriticalResist:

1g1r saturn results for emulation guide

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2026-07-27T08:12:14Z

CriticalResist:

emulation guide library view example

Essay:Quick privacy guide

2026-07-25T17:53:37Z

CriticalResist: /* References */

{{Infobox essay|title=Quick privacy guide|author=CriticalResist|date=2026-05-22|excerpt=Yes, there are many privacy guides. But this one is mine. Meant to be quick and give you the cognitive tools to understand privacy.}}

Yes, there are many privacy guides. But this one is mine. It's meant to be short and give you the cognitive tools and a checklist to understand privacy.

Look, fascism is coming back to Europe and North America. It never fully left. If you live in the Global South, chances are you're already living under a fascist dictatorship that the US installed in your country.

Digital privacy is a rabbit hole, I won't deny it. There's always something "more" you could do, and best practices evolve rapidly. Everyone kind of has their own security practices, and everyone thinks they're doing it better than anyone else.

Here's my philosophy: As the Filton 24 trials show, the point is not necessarily to prevent police from getting anything to indict you with. It's to prevent them from giving the prosecution a better case. Al Capone, the famous gangster, was arrested on tax evasion charges, not on the murder and bootlegging, because that's famously all the FBI could find on him.

Furthermore, my philosophy is also to do these steps before you actually need them. You won't install Linux while the SWAT is barging down your door - you do it 10 years in advance, in preparation for when you'll actually need it. This is why I say again: you have time to do this. Don't feel overwhelmed. Just come back to this list once in a while, do the next item on it.

== Technical stuff you need to do ==
First part: the technical checklist. There's a belief that switching to privacy-hardening alternatives is difficult; it's actually not, I will say that right away. You slowly learn and do it day by day. It takes some time to set up at first, but once it's done, you get used to it in 3 days and forget how the "more convenient" stuff ever looked like.

Trust me - I did it and it was painless. Worst case scenario if you get frustrated? You just take a break, leave everything as is, and get back to it on another day.

Here's what I'm suggesting. I tried to order the advice from ''simplest to do'' to ''most complex''. 'Complex' doesn't mean it's difficult or prone to fail, just that you might want to set some time aside to do it.

* <code>Switch to '''Librewolf browser'''. Technically you can harden Firefox, but Librewolf just does it for you automatically.</code>
** <code>Before you do, just open this page: https://sinceyouarrived.world/taken. It's safe. It just tells you all the personally identifiable information your browser helpfully sends to every web page you open as part of its normal operation. This is called fingerprinting, but Librewolf spoofs this data automatically. Assume every website gets and tracks this information about you: your timezone, your location, your GPU(!), your resolution, your OS, your browser, etc. Librewolf protects you against more than fingerprinting, this is just one example of what that does.</code>
** <code>By choice, Librewolf does not have a phone app. However, they officially recommend IronFox on Android.<ref>https://librewolf.net/docs/faq/#will-you-provide-an-android-version-of-librewolf</ref></code>

* <code>Use a '''2FA Authenticator app'''. I recommend Aegis on Android - open-source, fully-local. Set up 2FA on all your accounts - this is just further protection against hacking. You will need to scan a QR code with Aegis, and that's it, it's set up.</code>

* <code>Switch to a no-logs '''search engine'''. This is kinda based on how much you trust the provider.</code>
** <code>I use 4get.ca, a tiny no-name (and kind of edgy, unfortunately) search engine that serves as a proxy to DDG, Google, Yandex, Brave etc. There's other search engines, but I don't trust big names. Just personal.</code>

* <code>Use '''Mullvad VPN'''. The only one that has a proven no-logs, ram-only policy. Nothing else comes close, don't even look anywhere else.</code>
** <code>Use only Mullvad-owned servers, not ones they rent. There's a filter option in the app for it. Rented servers are not guaranteed to actually respect no-logs and ram-only policies.</code>
** <code>'''VPN ALWAYS ON.'''</code>
** <code>Pay by cash envelope, no more than ~100$/€/£ at a time. Don't leave fingerprints on the envelope.</code>
** <code>Do not ever link your email address to your mullvad in any way.</code>
** <code>VPNs don't just hide your IP address. They also hide your internet traffic from your ISP, and make finding your browsing history and browsing actions much harder. In 2024, Swedish police raided Mullvad to try and seize a server - after Mullvad explained their operation, they left empty-handed because there was nothing to seize.</code>
** <code>Turn on all the stuff they have (dAIta, multihop, etc). Put it on your phone too.</code>

* <code>'''Email''' is just not secure. I don't know how else to say it. Email was invented in the 70s before hacking was even illegal. They did not even think about security or privacy back then.</code>
** <code>'''Proton''' is slightly ahead of the curve but '''will cooperate with police agencies''' and give them whatever they can. They fundraise for [[Freedom House]], a US government agency passing as an "NGO", and called it "nonprofit, nonpartisan organization"<ref>[https://proton.me/blog/2024-lifetime-account-charity-fundraiser Proton 2024 Fundraiser]</ref>... which is a lie. Personally, I don't trust proton. But that's just me.</code>
** <code>'''Philosophy is: don't say it by email.''' Simple as. If you've already said stuff in emails you shouldn't have, delete them, that's the best you can do. Your recipient should also delete the emails. From now on, stop discussing sensitive stuff by email.</code>

* <code>'''Chat platforms''': they all kinda suck. Telegram and Signal are ''not'' secure - Signal can be compelled by the US gov to give them data on you and you would never know it.<ref>If you're interested in more reading: https://dessalines.github.io/essays/why_not_signal.html</ref> This data can be enough to prosecute you. They ''will'' give it, they won't protect you. So don't assume you can say whatever on Signal and be safe.</code>
** <code>'''Metadata is valuable too'''. This is unencrypted information such as who you talked to, when, for how long, etc. "Data about data". Metadata is enough to lead to investigations and convictions.</code>
** <code>'''Matrix''' is the only one that's still safe-ish (encryption and decentralized nature), but you have to trust the server owner. This is not a matrix guide, so I won't go into more details. Not many people use it.</code>
** <code>Otherwise: just be mindful of how you act on these platforms, that's about the best you can do.</code>

* <code>Set a '''diceware pass phrase''' for any master password. I will talk more about this after the list, because I feel it's the most important part to understand.</code>
** <code>'''Encrypt your hard drives'''. You may need to ''clone'' (technical term) the drives first, reformat with encryption, and then clone the backup back to the drive. Encrypt after you've switched to Linux because you will have to reformat your drives either way - and can encrypt with LUKS while you're installing Linux, saving time.</code>
** <code>Use a '''password manager''' such as '''KeepassXC''', the only one that's consistently recommended in actual privacy guides.</code>
** <code>For all of the above, you can use the same diceware passphrase as the decrypting password. It's uncrackable* (again, see below). That way you remember ''one'' password for everything.</code>

* <code>Switch to a '''Linux OS'''.</code>
** <code>There are very good working alternatives today, such as Mint or Zorin OS (very sleek and professional look).</code>
** <code>Getting used to Linux is very easy nowadays. if you run into an issue, ask an LLM about it (preferably a Chinese one such as Deepseek or Kimi) and chances are you will find a fix.</code>
** <code>Set up ''timeshift'' and ''Pika backups'' on a spare drive so you can always roll back if you break something.</code>
** <code>FOSS software has come a long way in the past few years, it works and looks great now. Trust me, I was a Linux noob 6 months ago, now I'm deploying my own scripts and automations on it.</code>

* <code>Use '''different usernames''' everywhere. Or at least try to. Unique usernames for each service. Your password manager can remember them for you.</code>
** <code>On social media, make new accounts periodically and delete the old ones. Don't use the same account for more than 6 months. You can have alt accounts: one for posting, one for browsing, for example. There are services that give you temporary email addresses you can use to register, or fake phone numbers to verify SMS codes. This is completely up to you, but it's an additional layer.</code>
** <code>Changing your usernames right now, if you can, is worth it. If you can't change them, either make new accounts or leave it be, up to you. What matters is future-proofing yourself more than anything, again planning ahead for when this will actually be useful.</code>

* <code>'''Phone''': switch to '''GrapheneOS'''. Not every phone is compatible, Graphene's website keeps a list. Google Pixels are currently the only possible choice because they use hardware that secures the phone itself, regardless of what its Operating System is.</code>
** <code>Until you have GrapheneOS, get a '''privacy respecting keyboard'''. On Android, install F-droid store (only FOSS software) and install a keyboard from there. Yes, you can change your keyboards on Android. If you use the default one, it sends data back to its developing company.</code>
** <code>This is last in the list because Graphene currently only supports Pixel phones, meaning you'd likely have to get a new phone for it and they're not cheap.</code>

Yes, this is not the shortest list. But here's the thing: you don't have to do everything ''right now''. Make a mullvad account today just to take a look, send the cash envelope next week. 3 months from now, when you have a long weekend off, install Linux. Switch to Librewolf part-time - you can absolutely install it alongside your current browser and just test it out.

Do it little by little as your cognitive load permits. Start exploring. Ask AI (Kimi for security/privacy questions tbh) how to go about it, or if you're curious about a part of it. Send it the essay and tell it to make you a guide.

If your devices ever get seized by state agents, however briefly: change them. Don't even play around. Throw the old ones out, buy new ones, redo everything. Assume they installed a trojan on it that you will never be able to remove. Recycle your pass phrases and passwords.

Don't take your phone with you on protests. It's very easy to track a phone with cell towers. Don't even turn it off, just leave it at home.

==== Diceware pass phrases ====
You can skip this section''', but the tl;dr is:''' current best recommendations for your passwords is switch to a pass phrase you remember that lives only in your head. Do not ever write it down, if you do, pen-and-paper only and burn it afterwards. Only use for most sensitive personal stuff (encrypted drives and encrypted password manager database): do not enter it at a work computer. Your job won't protect you. Do not enter it on websites.

But I need to talk a bit about passwords and best practices, because I feel this is the most important part of this guide. Diceware is a method of password generation. On Linux, you just install it with 'sudo apt install diceware' and use it from the terminal. On Windows, I am not sure. I would avoid any web page for generating a password though - it's convenient, but you don't know where it's stored or what they do with it. If your password can be read in clear text 6 months from now because it was in your browser's cache files, there is no point in having a secure password. Everything is just easier on Linux.

In any case. Diceware has a novel way of generating passwords. Instead of a garbled mess of characters such as <code>!AJ(%p"J3`3AZzAz</code>, Diceware generates a longer but easier to remember ''phrase'', such as: <code>outthink-gesture-clay-audible-nursery</code>

How easy is that to remember? Type it for a couple days and you'll remember it your entire life. The first password, with its exclamation marks and random letter arrangement? You will forget and mistype it often.

We are told to use special characters, capital letters, mix in numbers etc into our passwords, but these are mostly trivial for a computer program to crack through. Linux has a zxcvbn package, which is an algorithm created by Dropbox to check password strength. This is the most current and up to date checker right now, as it relies on the latest cracking methods to determine password strength. Let's check both passwords with it:
Password: !AJ(%p"J3`3AZzAz
zxcvbn results:
Crack Time Estimates:
Online (throttled, 100/hr): centuries
Online (no throttling, 10/s): centuries
Offline (slow hash, 10k/s): centuries
Offline (fast hash, 10B/s): '''12 days'''
Entropy: 53.2 bits
A sufficiently motivated attacker, such as a police lab with an array of RTX 5090 GPUs, can crack this "complicated" password in less than 2 weeks. Your case will take at least a year to go to court, in other words: this is not secure. Meanwhile, the diceware passphrase that looks deceptively simple:
password: outthink-gesture-clay-audible-nursery
zxcvbn results:
Crack Time Estimates:
Online (throttled, 100/hr): centuries
Online (no throttling, 10/s): centuries
Offline (slow hash, 10k/s): centuries
Offline (fast hash, 10B/s): centuries
Entropy: 95.8 bits
The diceware passphrase is much harder to crack, almost double the entropy, and much easier for you to remember entirely in your head - repeat it to yourself several times a day and you'll remember it in 72 hours. And it is future-proofed too: even at 100 billion guesses per second from a program trying to break through your encryption, it will still take ''millennia'' to crack. No GPU array today or in the future will ever be enough, not from a police lab that has a backlog and other passwords they need to crack.

'''Why diceware algorithm and not just making up 5 words in your head though?''' Because our head is not truly random. You will pick a word from a movie you watched recently, or a place you went to, or something you like. Diceware is truly random.

If you can't easily install or find diceware for your operating system though, there's a possible alternative method. Diceware, as its name implies, rolls dice to find words from a word list.

If you have a printed dictionary at home: roll a dice 4 or 5 times. First 3 rolls are page number (up to page 666), fourth and fifth rolls is the word # on this page. so if you roll and get:

5 3 3 4 1

Open the dictionary at page 533, and look for word 41 (if there are fewer than 41 words on that page, turn to the next page and keep counting).

You can make the dice rolls more complicated if you want so you can go above page 666.

Why so convoluted? Because again, our minds are not fully random. We are talking about an important password that controls access to every other password/file you own. Take the time to do it properly ''once'', then forget about it - you'll remember it for the rest of your life.

'''Vectors of attack''' exist against diceware pass phrases''':'''

* '''Compulsion''': many jurisdictions are getting wise to this practice and passing laws to compel you to surrender your password. In some cases, saying "sorry but I forgot it" is not even a valid defense! But here's the thing: with a weak password or no encryption, you don't get the choice to talk with your lawyer about surrendering the password or not. That's just how I see it, it buys you time and a wider net of decisions if such laws exist where you live.
* The '''encryption algorithm''' itself could be cracked, allowing an agency to simply bypass needing your password entirely. This is unlikely but is one reason encryption algorithms change over time. It's still better to have a password than not.
* The last one I must acknowledge... criminals and in some places even police will just '''beat you up''' until you give them the password. This is already happening in crypto heists. Due diligence is required based on where you live.

Okay, that was the tangent on passwords.

== Your biggest asset is your head ==
In general, never assume you are fully safe. You don't need to be paranoid though, just remember why you do this: so that if you are ever investigated by the fascist state for your journalism or activism, they will have a harder time building a case against you.

It's an old cat and mouse game. Developers make new privacy/security features, hackers crack them, devs make ''new'' security features. You will never be ahead of the curve - just the other day, I saw a new form of attack that hijacks a website, pretends you have to do Cloudflare verification, and when you copy and run the code they ask you to run, it's actually malware getting installed on your machine. We are so used to having to do these "verification steps" (especially if you use a VPN) that some people just don't think about it and do whatever the page asks.

So yes, this means you still need to use your head. Having GrapheneOS or Librewolf+VPN doesn't mean you can say whatever on X dot com without repercussions. It doesn't mean your computer can't be hacked remotely by a three-letter agency and malware installed that you will never know about (if you're not on their radar though, then there is no reason they would even know you exist).

Like I said, this is a rabbit hole. There's now concerns with Intel CPUs that the US government has a backdoor into them. If deployed, this means they could just read and even access your computer through its CPU remotely, if you use Intel. We pretty much know, from the Snowden leaks, that the NSA owns backdoors into every big US tech company. Again, this doesn't mean you have to disconnect and live off the grid, just that you know to be mindful of what you share.

This is why I recommend everything Chinese as much as possible, because China will never work with US "security" agencies, seeing that these same agencies are the ones trying to dismantle China from the inside.

"But I have to trust China then". Yes. Welcome to the Chinese Century - it's great. What do you care if china knows something about you? The only country liable to bomb you and disappear you into a waterboarding black site is the United States of America, and they control most digital avenues until China overtakes them. Trust China, discard USA.

Hardware is not inherently safe either. A paper made the rounds recently when it showed that you could be tracked accurately through walls by your own wifi signal. Your body distorts the wifi waves, which shows on camera as a clear, accurate shape.<ref>https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/security/a42575068/scientists-use-wifi-to-see-through-walls/</ref>

Technically, if police can seize a server/computer quickly enough and freeze the components with liquid nitrogen, they can freeze the RAM cells in place, allowing them to transport it even without electricity to the station, and extract the contents of your RAM sticks there.<ref>https://www.securitum.com/memory_heist_the_secrets_and_risks_of_cold_boot_attacks.html</ref>

These two methods have yet to be used in real, uncontrolled conditions ('''as far as I'm aware'''), but they are very real and new vectors of attack, so who knows what they'll come up with next. This is why I say, again: you don't have to become paranoid because security is a rabbit hole that never ends. You just have to be mindful that things are moving and what is the correct practice today may not be in 10 years.

To finish up, I also have to rant a little about '''privacy'''... it's often just a buzzword that gives you a false sense of security (hence the philosophy: never assume you are fully safe, limit what you share). "Privacy-focused" apps for example are plenty, but what exactly is privacy to their devs? How do they define it and help your privacy?

'''Startpage''' for example is a search engine that people use because it claims to be private - that's the entire reason you would use startpage. It says so in the tab title: "Startpage - Private Search Engine. No Tracking. No Search History."

I was not impressed by startpage's privacy policy:
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Startpage says...
!The problem
|-
|"We don’t record your IP address"
|Yet they admit to logging "robots that rapidly submit more queries to our servers than any normal human would" without saying how fast is too fast. I've been flagged by systems that thought I was a bot before, because they were tuned too tight. So, not private.
|-
|"We don’t serve any cookies that track you or your behavior"
|Cookies are so 2015. We now have methods other than cookies. Browser fingerprinting, for one. Javascript that actually looks into your computer files (ala Linkedin scandal). This part of the privacy policy says nothing about these other methods. In fact, startpage assuredly collects fingerprinting data, but yet never name it as such. Cookies and IP is flashy: everyone knows what they are now. Fingerprinting isn't, so they don't name it?
|-
|"Startpage complies with the GDPR. We are located in the EU, and we fully comply with applicable privacy laws and regulations of the EU, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)."
|The point of the GDPR is to disclose: what data is collected, the purpose of processing, any recipients of the data, the retention period. Startpage fails on the last two, for all their talk about respecting the GDPR and how strong it is. As a private engine startpage should go ''beyond'' the GDPR. Who accesses the collected data, when it is collected? Names, job titles, second- or third-party employers? We don't know.
|-
|"Any request [for data] will have to come from Dutch judicial authorities. We’ll only comply if we’re legally obliged to do so. But we’re not likely to receive requests by governments to hand over user data – simply because we don’t have any."
|What if the government asks startpage to start tracking a user? They are weirdly omissive of this possibility - it's tucked away under a short sentence, '''We will only comply if we're legally obliged to do so.''' This is understandable as no company will die for you, but it's still kind of an omission. Redirecting concerns to how good you are for "not having user data" (despite that you do, it's just aggregate instead of individual) effectively silences all the other possible, real, cases - such as law enforcement compelling startpage to start collecting data on a particular user.
|-
|"European governments can’t legally force service providers like Startpage to implement a blanket spying program."
|The word 'blanket' does some heavy lifting here, as it implies "start collecting data on ''all'' your users". But that is not what usually happens. What happens is, under the Dutch Intelligence and Security Services Act 2017 (Wiv 2017), intelligence services (AIVD, MIVD) can require telecom providers and other technical service providers to collect data for national security purposes. They will tell startpage "start collecting THIS data on THIS IP address", with or without a duty of confidentiality on startpage's part. Startpage also doesn't have a canary<ref group="lower-alpha">A canary is a statement "As of [date] we have not received any data requests from the governement" updated daily on the provider's website.

When the date stops updating, users can infer a confidential request was indeed made. This lets online services let their users know that a confidential request with a gag order ("you are not allowed to tell people you received this order") was made, as a workaround of sorts.</ref>. They simply never, ever talk about this possibility except in very broad, dismissive terms: "of course we obey the law". Well, Dutch law says if they want you to be fucked over then you're fucked. Startpage will obey that.
|-
|"How we have implemented truly anonymous analytics. We do measure overall traffic numbers and some other – strictly anonymous – statistics"
|So there is telemetry, so you are not a private search engine. The difference between "we have aggregate data on our users" and "we have individual data on our users" is one click of the mouse on a button in the admin panel.
|-
|"In order to enable the prevention of click fraud [on our sponsored links], some non-identifying system information is shared"
|More tracking again (on ads of all things), and once again startpage doesn't explain what "non-identifying system information" is sent over. They do not decide what identifies you or not - you do. Especially when it's ''system'' information (your OS, your gpu, your screen resolution etc. presumably)
|}
This is just some examples of why 'private' is a buzzword and what's private to you may not be private to someone else.

To me, privacy means there is '''no tracking whatsoever''' and '''as much as possible is encrypted'''. That's the strict minimum. If it needs to do tracking, it stays on your machine and never, ever leaves it (local-first). Linux for example has good privacy out of the box: it does not track anything about you, not even that you are a Linux user, unless you opt-in. Even something as innocuous as "does this machine use Linux? Yes/no" being sent back to servers not privacy-respecting, in my opinion. Steam for example collects information about your hardware without telling you. It reads, collects, and sends this data. It's not private, and yet Steam is on everyone's computer silently reading about all your games, hardware, etc. Is this a problem for you? Maybe, maybe not (could be used to know your hardware and deploy a trojan against you specifically, who knows). But it's not private.

There is a huge amount of trust as well. When an app says it is private, and says it has a no-logs, ram-only policy, you still have to trust that they actually follow their policy unless, like in Mullvad's case, it gets its baptism of fire. But, that's the limitation: you trust the devs to do what they say they do. It doesn't mean you shouldn't or can't use the app, it just means you trust them to that extent.

That's about it for this guide, otherwise it'll start being cognitive overload. Just do a little at a time, it's fine, nobody can ever do ''everything''.

== References ==

[[Category:Essays]]
[[Category:Essays by CriticalResist]]
<references />
<references group="lower-alpha" />

Essay:Quick privacy guide

2026-07-25T17:53:01Z

CriticalResist:

{{Infobox essay|title=Quick privacy guide|author=CriticalResist|date=2026-05-22|excerpt=Yes, there are many privacy guides. But this one is mine. Meant to be quick and give you the cognitive tools to understand privacy.}}

Yes, there are many privacy guides. But this one is mine. It's meant to be short and give you the cognitive tools and a checklist to understand privacy.

Look, fascism is coming back to Europe and North America. It never fully left. If you live in the Global South, chances are you're already living under a fascist dictatorship that the US installed in your country.

Digital privacy is a rabbit hole, I won't deny it. There's always something "more" you could do, and best practices evolve rapidly. Everyone kind of has their own security practices, and everyone thinks they're doing it better than anyone else.

Here's my philosophy: As the Filton 24 trials show, the point is not necessarily to prevent police from getting anything to indict you with. It's to prevent them from giving the prosecution a better case. Al Capone, the famous gangster, was arrested on tax evasion charges, not on the murder and bootlegging, because that's famously all the FBI could find on him.

Furthermore, my philosophy is also to do these steps before you actually need them. You won't install Linux while the SWAT is barging down your door - you do it 10 years in advance, in preparation for when you'll actually need it. This is why I say again: you have time to do this. Don't feel overwhelmed. Just come back to this list once in a while, do the next item on it.

== Technical stuff you need to do ==
First part: the technical checklist. There's a belief that switching to privacy-hardening alternatives is difficult; it's actually not, I will say that right away. You slowly learn and do it day by day. It takes some time to set up at first, but once it's done, you get used to it in 3 days and forget how the "more convenient" stuff ever looked like.

Trust me - I did it and it was painless. Worst case scenario if you get frustrated? You just take a break, leave everything as is, and get back to it on another day.

Here's what I'm suggesting. I tried to order the advice from ''simplest to do'' to ''most complex''. 'Complex' doesn't mean it's difficult or prone to fail, just that you might want to set some time aside to do it.

* <code>Switch to '''Librewolf browser'''. Technically you can harden Firefox, but Librewolf just does it for you automatically.</code>
** <code>Before you do, just open this page: https://sinceyouarrived.world/taken. It's safe. It just tells you all the personally identifiable information your browser helpfully sends to every web page you open as part of its normal operation. This is called fingerprinting, but Librewolf spoofs this data automatically. Assume every website gets and tracks this information about you: your timezone, your location, your GPU(!), your resolution, your OS, your browser, etc. Librewolf protects you against more than fingerprinting, this is just one example of what that does.</code>
** <code>By choice, Librewolf does not have a phone app. However, they officially recommend IronFox on Android.<ref>https://librewolf.net/docs/faq/#will-you-provide-an-android-version-of-librewolf</ref></code>

* <code>Use a '''2FA Authenticator app'''. I recommend Aegis on Android - open-source, fully-local. Set up 2FA on all your accounts - this is just further protection against hacking. You will need to scan a QR code with Aegis, and that's it, it's set up.</code>

* <code>Switch to a no-logs '''search engine'''. This is kinda based on how much you trust the provider.</code>
** <code>I use 4get.ca, a tiny no-name (and kind of edgy, unfortunately) search engine that serves as a proxy to DDG, Google, Yandex, Brave etc. There's other search engines, but I don't trust big names. Just personal.</code>

* <code>Use '''Mullvad VPN'''. The only one that has a proven no-logs, ram-only policy. Nothing else comes close, don't even look anywhere else.</code>
** <code>Use only Mullvad-owned servers, not ones they rent. There's a filter option in the app for it. Rented servers are not guaranteed to actually respect no-logs and ram-only policies.</code>
** <code>'''VPN ALWAYS ON.'''</code>
** <code>Pay by cash envelope, no more than ~100$/€/£ at a time. Don't leave fingerprints on the envelope.</code>
** <code>Do not ever link your email address to your mullvad in any way.</code>
** <code>VPNs don't just hide your IP address. They also hide your internet traffic from your ISP, and make finding your browsing history and browsing actions much harder. In 2024, Swedish police raided Mullvad to try and seize a server - after Mullvad explained their operation, they left empty-handed because there was nothing to seize.</code>
** <code>Turn on all the stuff they have (dAIta, multihop, etc). Put it on your phone too.</code>

* <code>'''Email''' is just not secure. I don't know how else to say it. Email was invented in the 70s before hacking was even illegal. They did not even think about security or privacy back then.</code>
** <code>'''Proton''' is slightly ahead of the curve but '''will cooperate with police agencies''' and give them whatever they can. They fundraise for [[Freedom House]], a US government agency passing as an "NGO", and called it "nonprofit, nonpartisan organization"<ref>[https://proton.me/blog/2024-lifetime-account-charity-fundraiser Proton 2024 Fundraiser]</ref>... which is a lie. Personally, I don't trust proton. But that's just me.</code>
** <code>'''Philosophy is: don't say it by email.''' Simple as. If you've already said stuff in emails you shouldn't have, delete them, that's the best you can do. Your recipient should also delete the emails. From now on, stop discussing sensitive stuff by email.</code>

* <code>'''Chat platforms''': they all kinda suck. Telegram and Signal are ''not'' secure - Signal can be compelled by the US gov to give them data on you and you would never know it.<ref>If you're interested in more reading: https://dessalines.github.io/essays/why_not_signal.html</ref> This data can be enough to prosecute you. They ''will'' give it, they won't protect you. So don't assume you can say whatever on Signal and be safe.</code>
** <code>'''Metadata is valuable too'''. This is unencrypted information such as who you talked to, when, for how long, etc. "Data about data". Metadata is enough to lead to investigations and convictions.</code>
** <code>'''Matrix''' is the only one that's still safe-ish (encryption and decentralized nature), but you have to trust the server owner. This is not a matrix guide, so I won't go into more details. Not many people use it.</code>
** <code>Otherwise: just be mindful of how you act on these platforms, that's about the best you can do.</code>

* <code>Set a '''diceware pass phrase''' for any master password. I will talk more about this after the list, because I feel it's the most important part to understand.</code>
** <code>'''Encrypt your hard drives'''. You may need to ''clone'' (technical term) the drives first, reformat with encryption, and then clone the backup back to the drive. Encrypt after you've switched to Linux because you will have to reformat your drives either way - and can encrypt with LUKS while you're installing Linux, saving time.</code>
** <code>Use a '''password manager''' such as '''KeepassXC''', the only one that's consistently recommended in actual privacy guides.</code>
** <code>For all of the above, you can use the same diceware passphrase as the decrypting password. It's uncrackable* (again, see below). That way you remember ''one'' password for everything.</code>

* <code>Switch to a '''Linux OS'''.</code>
** <code>There are very good working alternatives today, such as Mint or Zorin OS (very sleek and professional look).</code>
** <code>Getting used to Linux is very easy nowadays. if you run into an issue, ask an LLM about it (preferably a Chinese one such as Deepseek or Kimi) and chances are you will find a fix.</code>
** <code>Set up ''timeshift'' and ''Pika backups'' on a spare drive so you can always roll back if you break something.</code>
** <code>FOSS software has come a long way in the past few years, it works and looks great now. Trust me, I was a Linux noob 6 months ago, now I'm deploying my own scripts and automations on it.</code>

* <code>Use '''different usernames''' everywhere. Or at least try to. Unique usernames for each service. Your password manager can remember them for you.</code>
** <code>On social media, make new accounts periodically and delete the old ones. Don't use the same account for more than 6 months. You can have alt accounts: one for posting, one for browsing, for example. There are services that give you temporary email addresses you can use to register, or fake phone numbers to verify SMS codes. This is completely up to you, but it's an additional layer.</code>
** <code>Changing your usernames right now, if you can, is worth it. If you can't change them, either make new accounts or leave it be, up to you. What matters is future-proofing yourself more than anything, again planning ahead for when this will actually be useful.</code>

* <code>'''Phone''': switch to '''GrapheneOS'''. Not every phone is compatible, Graphene's website keeps a list. Google Pixels are currently the only possible choice because they use hardware that secures the phone itself, regardless of what its Operating System is.</code>
** <code>Until you have GrapheneOS, get a '''privacy respecting keyboard'''. On Android, install F-droid store (only FOSS software) and install a keyboard from there. Yes, you can change your keyboards on Android. If you use the default one, it sends data back to its developing company.</code>
** <code>This is last in the list because Graphene currently only supports Pixel phones, meaning you'd likely have to get a new phone for it and they're not cheap.</code>

Yes, this is not the shortest list. But here's the thing: you don't have to do everything ''right now''. Make a mullvad account today just to take a look, send the cash envelope next week. 3 months from now, when you have a long weekend off, install Linux. Switch to Librewolf part-time - you can absolutely install it alongside your current browser and just test it out.

Do it little by little as your cognitive load permits. Start exploring. Ask AI (Kimi for security/privacy questions tbh) how to go about it, or if you're curious about a part of it. Send it the essay and tell it to make you a guide.

If your devices ever get seized by state agents, however briefly: change them. Don't even play around. Throw the old ones out, buy new ones, redo everything. Assume they installed a trojan on it that you will never be able to remove. Recycle your pass phrases and passwords.

Don't take your phone with you on protests. It's very easy to track a phone with cell towers. Don't even turn it off, just leave it at home.

==== Diceware pass phrases ====
You can skip this section''', but the tl;dr is:''' current best recommendations for your passwords is switch to a pass phrase you remember that lives only in your head. Do not ever write it down, if you do, pen-and-paper only and burn it afterwards. Only use for most sensitive personal stuff (encrypted drives and encrypted password manager database): do not enter it at a work computer. Your job won't protect you. Do not enter it on websites.

But I need to talk a bit about passwords and best practices, because I feel this is the most important part of this guide. Diceware is a method of password generation. On Linux, you just install it with 'sudo apt install diceware' and use it from the terminal. On Windows, I am not sure. I would avoid any web page for generating a password though - it's convenient, but you don't know where it's stored or what they do with it. If your password can be read in clear text 6 months from now because it was in your browser's cache files, there is no point in having a secure password. Everything is just easier on Linux.

In any case. Diceware has a novel way of generating passwords. Instead of a garbled mess of characters such as <code>!AJ(%p"J3`3AZzAz</code>, Diceware generates a longer but easier to remember ''phrase'', such as: <code>outthink-gesture-clay-audible-nursery</code>

How easy is that to remember? Type it for a couple days and you'll remember it your entire life. The first password, with its exclamation marks and random letter arrangement? You will forget and mistype it often.

We are told to use special characters, capital letters, mix in numbers etc into our passwords, but these are mostly trivial for a computer program to crack through. Linux has a zxcvbn package, which is an algorithm created by Dropbox to check password strength. This is the most current and up to date checker right now, as it relies on the latest cracking methods to determine password strength. Let's check both passwords with it:
Password: !AJ(%p"J3`3AZzAz
zxcvbn results:
Crack Time Estimates:
Online (throttled, 100/hr): centuries
Online (no throttling, 10/s): centuries
Offline (slow hash, 10k/s): centuries
Offline (fast hash, 10B/s): '''12 days'''
Entropy: 53.2 bits
A sufficiently motivated attacker, such as a police lab with an array of RTX 5090 GPUs, can crack this "complicated" password in less than 2 weeks. Your case will take at least a year to go to court, in other words: this is not secure. Meanwhile, the diceware passphrase that looks deceptively simple:
password: outthink-gesture-clay-audible-nursery
zxcvbn results:
Crack Time Estimates:
Online (throttled, 100/hr): centuries
Online (no throttling, 10/s): centuries
Offline (slow hash, 10k/s): centuries
Offline (fast hash, 10B/s): centuries
Entropy: 95.8 bits
The diceware passphrase is much harder to crack, almost double the entropy, and much easier for you to remember entirely in your head - repeat it to yourself several times a day and you'll remember it in 72 hours. And it is future-proofed too: even at 100 billion guesses per second from a program trying to break through your encryption, it will still take ''millennia'' to crack. No GPU array today or in the future will ever be enough, not from a police lab that has a backlog and other passwords they need to crack.

'''Why diceware algorithm and not just making up 5 words in your head though?''' Because our head is not truly random. You will pick a word from a movie you watched recently, or a place you went to, or something you like. Diceware is truly random.

If you can't easily install or find diceware for your operating system though, there's a possible alternative method. Diceware, as its name implies, rolls dice to find words from a word list.

If you have a printed dictionary at home: roll a dice 4 or 5 times. First 3 rolls are page number (up to page 666), fourth and fifth rolls is the word # on this page. so if you roll and get:

5 3 3 4 1

Open the dictionary at page 533, and look for word 41 (if there are fewer than 41 words on that page, turn to the next page and keep counting).

You can make the dice rolls more complicated if you want so you can go above page 666.

Why so convoluted? Because again, our minds are not fully random. We are talking about an important password that controls access to every other password/file you own. Take the time to do it properly ''once'', then forget about it - you'll remember it for the rest of your life.

'''Vectors of attack''' exist against diceware pass phrases''':'''

* '''Compulsion''': many jurisdictions are getting wise to this practice and passing laws to compel you to surrender your password. In some cases, saying "sorry but I forgot it" is not even a valid defense! But here's the thing: with a weak password or no encryption, you don't get the choice to talk with your lawyer about surrendering the password or not. That's just how I see it, it buys you time and a wider net of decisions if such laws exist where you live.
* The '''encryption algorithm''' itself could be cracked, allowing an agency to simply bypass needing your password entirely. This is unlikely but is one reason encryption algorithms change over time. It's still better to have a password than not.
* The last one I must acknowledge... criminals and in some places even police will just '''beat you up''' until you give them the password. This is already happening in crypto heists. Due diligence is required based on where you live.

Okay, that was the tangent on passwords.

== Your biggest asset is your head ==
In general, never assume you are fully safe. You don't need to be paranoid though, just remember why you do this: so that if you are ever investigated by the fascist state for your journalism or activism, they will have a harder time building a case against you.

It's an old cat and mouse game. Developers make new privacy/security features, hackers crack them, devs make ''new'' security features. You will never be ahead of the curve - just the other day, I saw a new form of attack that hijacks a website, pretends you have to do Cloudflare verification, and when you copy and run the code they ask you to run, it's actually malware getting installed on your machine. We are so used to having to do these "verification steps" (especially if you use a VPN) that some people just don't think about it and do whatever the page asks.

So yes, this means you still need to use your head. Having GrapheneOS or Librewolf+VPN doesn't mean you can say whatever on X dot com without repercussions. It doesn't mean your computer can't be hacked remotely by a three-letter agency and malware installed that you will never know about (if you're not on their radar though, then there is no reason they would even know you exist).

Like I said, this is a rabbit hole. There's now concerns with Intel CPUs that the US government has a backdoor into them. If deployed, this means they could just read and even access your computer through its CPU remotely, if you use Intel. We pretty much know, from the Snowden leaks, that the NSA owns backdoors into every big US tech company. Again, this doesn't mean you have to disconnect and live off the grid, just that you know to be mindful of what you share.

This is why I recommend everything Chinese as much as possible, because China will never work with US "security" agencies, seeing that these same agencies are the ones trying to dismantle China from the inside.

"But I have to trust China then". Yes. Welcome to the Chinese Century - it's great. What do you care if china knows something about you? The only country liable to bomb you and disappear you into a waterboarding black site is the United States of America, and they control most digital avenues until China overtakes them. Trust China, discard USA.

Hardware is not inherently safe either. A paper made the rounds recently when it showed that you could be tracked accurately through walls by your own wifi signal. Your body distorts the wifi waves, which shows on camera as a clear, accurate shape.<ref>https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/security/a42575068/scientists-use-wifi-to-see-through-walls/</ref>

Technically, if police can seize a server/computer quickly enough and freeze the components with liquid nitrogen, they can freeze the RAM cells in place, allowing them to transport it even without electricity to the station, and extract the contents of your RAM sticks there.<ref>https://www.securitum.com/memory_heist_the_secrets_and_risks_of_cold_boot_attacks.html</ref>

These two methods have yet to be used in real, uncontrolled conditions ('''as far as I'm aware'''), but they are very real and new vectors of attack, so who knows what they'll come up with next. This is why I say, again: you don't have to become paranoid because security is a rabbit hole that never ends. You just have to be mindful that things are moving and what is the correct practice today may not be in 10 years.

To finish up, I also have to rant a little about '''privacy'''... it's often just a buzzword that gives you a false sense of security (hence the philosophy: never assume you are fully safe, limit what you share). "Privacy-focused" apps for example are plenty, but what exactly is privacy to their devs? How do they define it and help your privacy?

'''Startpage''' for example is a search engine that people use because it claims to be private - that's the entire reason you would use startpage. It says so in the tab title: "Startpage - Private Search Engine. No Tracking. No Search History."

I was not impressed by startpage's privacy policy:
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Startpage says...
!The problem
|-
|"We don’t record your IP address"
|Yet they admit to logging "robots that rapidly submit more queries to our servers than any normal human would" without saying how fast is too fast. I've been flagged by systems that thought I was a bot before, because they were tuned too tight. So, not private.
|-
|"We don’t serve any cookies that track you or your behavior"
|Cookies are so 2015. We now have methods other than cookies. Browser fingerprinting, for one. Javascript that actually looks into your computer files (ala Linkedin scandal). This part of the privacy policy says nothing about these other methods. In fact, startpage assuredly collects fingerprinting data, but yet never name it as such. Cookies and IP is flashy: everyone knows what they are now. Fingerprinting isn't, so they don't name it?
|-
|"Startpage complies with the GDPR. We are located in the EU, and we fully comply with applicable privacy laws and regulations of the EU, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)."
|The point of the GDPR is to disclose: what data is collected, the purpose of processing, any recipients of the data, the retention period. Startpage fails on the last two, for all their talk about respecting the GDPR and how strong it is. As a private engine startpage should go ''beyond'' the GDPR. Who accesses the collected data, when it is collected? Names, job titles, second- or third-party employers? We don't know.
|-
|"Any request [for data] will have to come from Dutch judicial authorities. We’ll only comply if we’re legally obliged to do so. But we’re not likely to receive requests by governments to hand over user data – simply because we don’t have any."
|What if the government asks startpage to start tracking a user? They are weirdly omissive of this possibility - it's tucked away under a short sentence, '''We will only comply if we're legally obliged to do so.''' This is understandable as no company will die for you, but it's still kind of an omission. Redirecting concerns to how good you are for "not having user data" (despite that you do, it's just aggregate instead of individual) effectively silences all the other possible, real, cases - such as law enforcement compelling startpage to start collecting data on a particular user.
|-
|"European governments can’t legally force service providers like Startpage to implement a blanket spying program."
|The word 'blanket' does some heavy lifting here, as it implies "start collecting data on ''all'' your users". But that is not what usually happens. What happens is, under the Dutch Intelligence and Security Services Act 2017 (Wiv 2017), intelligence services (AIVD, MIVD) can require telecom providers and other technical service providers to collect data for national security purposes. They will tell startpage "start collecting THIS data on THIS IP address", with or without a duty of confidentiality on startpage's part. Startpage also doesn't have a canary<ref group="lower-alpha">A canary is a statement "As of [date] we have not received any data requests from the governement" updated daily on the provider's website.

When the date stops updating, users can infer a confidential request was indeed made. This lets online services let their users know that a confidential request with a gag order ("you are not allowed to tell people you received this order") was made, as a workaround of sorts.</ref>. They simply never, ever talk about this possibility except in very broad, dismissive terms: "of course we obey the law". Well, Dutch law says if they want you to be fucked over then you're fucked. Startpage will obey that.
|-
|"How we have implemented truly anonymous analytics. We do measure overall traffic numbers and some other – strictly anonymous – statistics"
|So there is telemetry, so you are not a private search engine. The difference between "we have aggregate data on our users" and "we have individual data on our users" is one click of the mouse on a button in the admin panel.
|-
|"In order to enable the prevention of click fraud [on our sponsored links], some non-identifying system information is shared"
|More tracking again (on ads of all things), and once again startpage doesn't explain what "non-identifying system information" is sent over. They do not decide what identifies you or not - you do. Especially when it's ''system'' information (your OS, your gpu, your screen resolution etc. presumably)
|}
This is just some examples of why 'private' is a buzzword and what's private to you may not be private to someone else.

To me, privacy means there is '''no tracking whatsoever''' and '''as much as possible is encrypted'''. That's the strict minimum. If it needs to do tracking, it stays on your machine and never, ever leaves it (local-first). Linux for example has good privacy out of the box: it does not track anything about you, not even that you are a Linux user, unless you opt-in. Even something as innocuous as "does this machine use Linux? Yes/no" being sent back to servers not privacy-respecting, in my opinion. Steam for example collects information about your hardware without telling you. It reads, collects, and sends this data. It's not private, and yet Steam is on everyone's computer silently reading about all your games, hardware, etc. Is this a problem for you? Maybe, maybe not (could be used to know your hardware and deploy a trojan against you specifically, who knows). But it's not private.

There is a huge amount of trust as well. When an app says it is private, and says it has a no-logs, ram-only policy, you still have to trust that they actually follow their policy unless, like in Mullvad's case, it gets its baptism of fire. But, that's the limitation: you trust the devs to do what they say they do. It doesn't mean you shouldn't or can't use the app, it just means you trust them to that extent.

That's about it for this guide, otherwise it'll start being cognitive overload. Just do a little at a time, it's fine, nobody can ever do ''everything''.

== References ==

[[Category:Essays]]
[[Category:Essays by CriticalResist]]