bleepingblorp

FOR THE PEOPLE, COMRADES!

Men,

We have all been conditioned by the patriarchy to be disconnected, angry, inclined toward violence, and display many other toxic and often counter-revolutionary behaviors.

How do you fight that? How have you been working to undo years of conditioning which tries to exert its force on use every second of every day, internally and externally?

I'll start by sharing some of the things I have been doing and what it does for me. I'll be posting in no particular order, just as things come to me. I'm not prioritizing one method over another. Also, a lot of this will look like solutions for mental health management, and that is because it mostly is. What is patriarchy other than the systemic manifestation of anger and violence? Anger is a secondary emotion which usually responds to some other primal emotion, such as fear. Patriarchy, in other words, is a disease of the mind made manifest as a self perpetuating system of inherited and passed along trauma and their associated responses.

Meditation. I've been getting back into meditation as I recall it helping me through a particularly depressive period previously. I personally find that grounding myself and allowing my compassion to expand gradually throughout the session helps me counter detachment and permits me to feel love to others.

I start by of course grounding myself in the now, simply feeling air, breathing, the weight of my body in my 'seat' (I sit on a meditation pillow which sits on a thin mat on the ground, cross legged). During this time I'll do a body scan to relax tense areas and become aware of my current mindset in order to acknowledge it. During this body scan, I allow myself to feel compassion and toward whatever part of myself I've directed my attention to. This allows me to accept my body as it is, giving thanks to it for working hard to keep me alive the best way it can.

I then start to move my attention and love outward, gradually expanding my sphere of self to include family and close friends: people I am intimate with and close to. Then further outward to include more distant friends, associates, etc., and afterward even further to strangers I've seen, strangers I've never met, then finally all of the Earth, all her life and the rocks and trees and streams and everything.

This practice has allowed me a better sense of love toward others and the self, permitting me to do so inside. It calms the mind and trains me to slow down, often giving me better control of myself when things get tense or I am triggered by something.

Journaling. This one is simple but effective. I usually write about things that bother me, and usually as I do so I can look at things from a top down view, almost as if it is happening to someone else. It allows me to recognize that something is indeed bothering me while giving me a moment to think about it and what I can do about it rationally. I can get in touch with my emotions outside of the cause/reaction cycles. Later, when I encounter the problem or its offspring again, I can often better respond, having prepared and considered rational solutions, even if that solution is: "Welp, nothing I can do about it now so I need to let it go. I'll survive and keep going so no reason to be angry or upset."

Reading about feminism/patriarchy, and mental health: Being aware of the issues caused by the patriarchy is crucial for me, especially books about things I can do personally (Bell Hooks has a few books about this). I'm not referring to the wage gap or things I have almost no individual control over, but rather things I can do in my daily life. This means things like allowing myself to be soft and gushy with my spouse and pets (I don't have children, but they'd be included if I did), shake off feelings of shame when I cry or not hold back (nature documentaries almost always do that for me), and even just realize where some of the roots of my feelings might exist. Reading these books is kind of like the intellectual half of trauma informed therapy for me. I would include that as well in my list of things I do... if I still could do that (trauma informed therapy I mean). I encourage trauma informed therapy if that is an option for you though. I've done a few sessions back when I had insurance and it did help.

Remember, my list is things I personally do, so it is just a few things and definitely not exhaustive.

What do you do men comrades? How do you beat the inner patriarch?

And for non-men comrades, I don't want to exclude you! Do you know of things which you've seen help the men in your life overcome their inner patriarch? What do you do to help men in your lives overcome their inner patriarch? When they choose love over patriarchy, how has this made things better for you personally? And for your community? What do you want to see in men when they choose love over patriarchy?

First, sorry if this isn't the best community for this kind of thing, but I hope you will engage with me regardless. Now...

Warning: This post will be US-centric as far as specific information pieces like tax rates, but I am under the impression the underlying principle can apply to any nation in the West and those aligned alongside it (looking at you, Japan, South Korea, and NATO).

So, to survive in the Imperial core, you essentially have to hold a job if you aren't a capitalist or landlord. You earn a wage, and use that wage to not starve and maybe have a roof overhead.

A portion of that income is taxed. In the US, the typical working class person gives roughly ~30% of their income to the nation-state as taxes. Here is where the crux lies:

Yes, some of that money does go toward worthy things like maintaining roads, funding medical care for some people, some social programs, etc., but...

Of the fiscal year 2023 federal budget, about ~37% goes toward military past (think interest on loans taken out in order to kill people) and current costs. This does not include all Department of Homeland Security and all State Department, though those are "partially" included in military.

So an average US based full time worker works about ~8 paid hours a day, plus or minus some depending on specifics, but ~8 is considered the standard.

About a third of that time is taken by the government in the form of taxes. And about a third of that time is used to fund military shit.

A third of 8 hours is about 2.6 repeating. A third of that is 0.8 repeating. So a little under an hour (roughly 53 minutes) each day is spent helping the military. A week that is about 4.4 repeating hours. Do the math and that time helping the military murder people adds up.

This makes every US worker an accomplice to murder, whether they like it or not. It doesn't matter if you are a factory worker, barista, or paid anti-war activist for an NGO, everyone in the US paying income tax is helping kill poor people.

Now that I've established that, I have another point to make from a moral perspective: if you have the power to help people (or stop hurting people), it is your moral duty to do so.

If you are walking down the street and you see a child (or any person really, it isn't the fact that it is a child making it imperative you save them) in a pond drowning, and you can swim, then you absolutely must stop, get in there, and save that child. It doesn't matter if you'll get your suit all muddy and wet and you have to present at some meeting soon, or whatever. You must go in there and save them.

And then obviously, if you don't have the capacity to help people (or stop hurting them), then you can't be expected to carry out that moral imperative.

So for the drowning child example, if you can't swim, you can't be expected to go out and save the kid. Or if you can't reach the pond for whatever reason, like a physical barrier is blocking you, then you can't be expected to save the child.

Now, this imperative extends to everything in life. For example, you have to buy a shirt because your other shirts are for whatever reason unusable as a shirt anymore. You are presented with two choices: a shirt made using slave labor and a shirt made voluntarily. It is you moral imperative to get the shirt using voluntary labor. It doesn't matter if it is not as pretty. It doesn't matter if you like the brand less. Those are of moral in-consequence. Using slave labor is bad.

Now, back to my original question: As long as material conditions are such that a revolution is impossible, if you have the capacity to leave the Imperial Core and stop paying taxes, you must do so. Staying would mean you are helping murder people. It does not matter that moving, especially abroad, is inconvenient. It does not matter that it might mean you need to learn about and get used to a new culture. It doesn't even seem to matter (correct me if I'm wrong) that your extended family will be sad, if they aren't dependent on you for their life or welfare (thus creating a moral barrier preventing you from being about to go), then it is your duty to stop aiding and abetting murder. It doesn't even matter if emigrating might mean a noticeable drop in your standard of living, as long as you can meet all your human needs and expect to live a similar life expectancy then it is your duty to go.

Now, obviously I am assuming that such a person who takes these things into consideration should also behave respectfully when they arrive at their destination. They will treat locals with love, kindness, and respect. They will strive to do work that is fulfilling and aids society while meeting their needs. They will speak the local language to the best of their ability and be respectful of local traditions and customs. In a Marxist context, this person would also continue to build resiliency and community in their new home, aiding the working class by way of praxis.

I am also going under the assessment that a communist revolution will not happen in the relevant Imperial Core countries in a reasonable time to morally justify staying and continuing to pay into this war tax system in the meantime.

Also, obviously this moral imperative doesn't apply to people who can't leave. If you can't afford to move, you can't afford to move. If you can't get permission from a qualifying non-imperialist nation state to legally enter, then you can't go.

Comrades, am I missing something? Where is my argument flawed if it is flawed? Is there a justification to continue to pay into the war system when you have the option to stop?

Please note: These thoughts are influenced by Peter Singer's 1972 paper titled "Famine, Affluence, and Morality" and then applied to my current understanding of material conditions in the US (and extended to some degree to the rest of the Imperial core based on what I hear from comrades, friends abroad, and media intake [both reliable and less reliable]). I am not aware of any Marxist literature which might cover these sorts of dilemmas, so if you have suggestions, I'm all ~~ears~~ eyes. Lastly, if you downvote, please say why so I (and maybe other comrades too) can learn and grow from it.

So I've been toying with an idea in my head: Setting up a mutual aid group centered around gardening for food and herbs, teaching organic and sustainable gardening techniques, and sharing produce amongst each other and the community.

I feel it could reduce working class dependence on the prices set by the top six agro-companies like Tyson or Monsanto and enable a degree of food security for everyone, which is especially important now as people start to see that $100 will only get you enough food to sometimes hide the mesh at the bottom of your cart and will no longer fill it to the brim like it used to when I was a kid.

It seems like gardeners always have way too much of some produce or another. I had an aunt a summer ago have piles of home grown tomatoes in her house she was begging us to take with her (which we happily did) because it was just too much, and it was from only about 4-5 plants. So why not create a way to share?

What challenges do you all see with creating a functional, organized mutual aid group centered around this idea and how might they be overcome? Have any of you done this? What other thoughts do you have on this idea?

So I am a bit aware of the John Brown Gun Club and Socialist Rifle Association, but I am looking for more information.

Do any comrades here know of or are part of any gun groups for Marxists? Any information could be helpful, including about the two I mentioned. I've heard mixed reviews on both and would like it kind of straightened out. Also additional options or what have you would be nice.

I am US based.

So, just wondering why the symbol for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), a union, was used for this sublemmy (sorry, don't know what else to call it yet).

I mean, I'm supportive of the IWW and am a dues paying wobbly myself. I also support cooperatives and hope to one day be a cofounder and worker/resident at one.

However I'm not seeing a direct correlation between the IWW, a majority of whose members are not in a cooperative and cooperatives, a majority of which are not unionized with the IWW, if they are unionized in the first place.