If the Soviets refused to negotiate a point, they were intransigent and belligerent; if they appeared willing to make concessions, this was but a skillful ploy to put us off our guard.
By opposing arms limitations, they would have demonstrated their aggressive intent; but when in fact they supported most armament treaties, it was because they were mendacious and manipulative.
If the churches in the USSR were empty, this demonstrated that religion was suppressed; but if the churches were full, this meant the people were rejecting the regime’s atheistic ideology.
If the workers went on strike (as happened on infrequent occasions), this was evidence of their alienation from the collectivist system; if they didn’t go on strike, this was because they were intimidated and lacked freedom.
A scarcity of consumer goods demonstrated the failure of the economic system; an improvement in consumer supplies meant only that the leaders were attempting to placate a restive population and so maintain a firmer hold over them.
If communists in the United States played an important role struggling for the rights of workers, the poor, African-Americans, women, and others, this was only their guileful way of gathering support among disfranchised groups and gaining power for themselves. How one gained power by fighting for the rights of powerless groups was never explained.
What we are dealing with is a nonfalsifiable orthodoxy, so assiduously marketed by the ruling interests that it affected people across the entire political spectrum.
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The Yellow Lecture goes hard. I need to finish it
If you’re struggling to make it through you can skip over like from 45:00 to 1:00:00, he spends a while going until the minutia of the 80s arms race.
(Also most of his lectures are uploaded to your podcast app under “Yellowparenti”)
I’ll find them in podcast form, thanks for the tip. I started one on YouTube but I don’t always remember to have it on in the background whilst working
They’ve got them all on spotify. I’ve listened to a few of them while commuting or standing in long lines. Very helpful.
I’m sure you can find audio versions elsewhere too
It’s a small point, but it’s pretty telling how the ‘health’ section is talking about companies failing, while the ‘Business’ section is talking about the effects of lack of access to masks (lol, as if
not masking was in any way related to current supply levels).Really going mask off (heh) with what health they’re actually concerned about
Wow, and they say leftists are cynical any time they suggest that the bourgeois state only serves its own class interests.
How one gained power by fighting for the rights of powerless groups was never explained.
This is a fun point as well. Dunno how many movies I’ve seen where some fascist stand-in gains power from the support of marginalised groups. Mostly fantasy movies where it’s some hard-done by race like orcs or werewolves or something. And it’s like, wait ,no that doesn’t make sense tho cause irl the fascists have the backing of industrialists and demoralised middle classes.
I remember when my parents were convinced kn95 masks were garbage because they were chinese
