We should not seek to blame someone, but the "something", which leads to all these repeating patterns of subconscious and hidden ideology within the capitalist-imperialist superstructure. All imposed onto people unbeknownst to them through conditioning that exists everywhere under capitalism.
I tend to blanket dismiss everything western because i need to balance the scales. Western ideology is cancer
This is just plain truth no matter what anyone says. lol
Horrible and unfortunate, a dark chapter in African socialism and pan-Africanism. It could easily be mistaken as being only "divide and rule" tactics at play - except both were socialist states, meaning it was more of a catastrophic failure of socialist internationalism and especially pan-African sectarianism rooted in unfortunate material conditions which sparked this conflict to begin with. Entrenched national borders and the Cold War did not help either. The Ogaden region was predominantly Somali, and these frontier regions, unsurprisingly, were colonial drawn (see: 1897 Anglo-Ethiopian treaty).
Mohamed Siad Barre, the leader of the Somali Democratic Republic, professed pan-Somalism which was also a national ideology in Somalia (coincidentally, the most homogenous country in Africa as well), rooted in scientific socialism and the belief of the right to self-determination. It is the belief that all ethnic Somalis in the Horn of Africa (including those in Ethiopia's Ogaden, Kenya's Northern Frontier District, and Djibouti) should be united under one flag. What little people know is that it is referred to by nationalists as "Greater Somalia" (but NOT to be categorized alongside the settler colonial and expansionist fantasies like "Greater Morocco" and "Greater Israel" which are rooted entirely in false narratives and historical revisionism).
a tl;dr is that for Somalia, it was national liberationist irredentism at play rooted in colonial borders, and for Ethiopia, it was a matter of territorial integrity.
It's a fucking shame because both of them were socialist, USSR-aligned and staunchly opposed to Western imperialism. The USSR was even the primary arms supplier of both sides. Both Cuba and the USSR ended up aligning with Ethiopia, due to perceived "aggression" from Somalia which led the initial offensive, and I guess Ethiopia being viewed as a more "strategic" partner and fellow AES state. In Somalia, this wasn't viewed kindly, and Barre expelled Soviet diplomats and advisors.
..and yes, the US saw an opportunity in this on the Somali side to quietly coerce it moving forward. Look at Somalia today - ravaged by US imperialism. Ethiopia, despite being capitalist now and facing poverty in most regions, is sovereign and a BRICS+ member.
It's such an ugly chapter in socialist history because it's a literal war being fought between several AES countries at the time that goes unmentioned due to Western left tendencies to often ignore anything that isn't the USSR, DPRK, Cuba or the PRC as far as the Cold War era is concerned. The reality of colonial borders and divide and rule tactics are the entire reason the term "Balkanization" exists in the first place - also look at Sykes-Picot in West Asia, Kashmir, among countless others.
Late stage capitalism. Also, "people" here applies mostly to the working classes in Western countries, and to an extent, some in the Global South with more significant levels of urbanization. Alienation under late stage capitalism and the US-led neoliberal world order leads to ever increasing precarity and desperation amongst the working class all over the world, as we face crisis after crisis, which is now worse than ever (and nothing new, obviously). In the imperial core, or the Global North (Anglosphere, Western Europe, North America), the dynamic is largely different than it is in the Global South, because every single aspect of life in these countries has become almost completely commodified and controlled by capitalist monopolies or duopolies alongside the death of "localism", in simple terms, sucking the joy out of life through profit maximization more than ever before. As fewer and fewer people control more and more wealth, in addition to costs of living skyrocketing through inflation, austerity measures, economic warfare (only to be worsened as far as the US goes following the latest stupid tariffs), leading to even more price gouging, this means that people need to take up an increasing number of jobs, or simply begin working longer hours (in addition to pension and other social security vanishing), leading to prolonged burnout and severe mental health issues, which also negatively impacts social lives through atomizing social structures. There's no doubt that this results in these "mental illnesses", though I've kind of observed that this term is often used in a very bigoted and ableist fashion that lacks nuance.
In the Global South, on the other hand, these dynamics occur differently. Many of us here have only known colonialism, imperialist destabilization, and exploitation in our countries, meant to stifle our socioeconomic development for the benefit of the imperial core, the same countries now suffering this perceived "social decay" the question concerns. We aren't living through "decaying" labor aristocratic capitalism, unlike the imperial core which attained its "high standards of living" through imperialist superprofits and exploitation, meaning slight breadcrumbs could be distributed to the working class in these countries to placate them and prevent them from gaining class consciousness by offering them a nice, mortgaged house, jobs in the service sector, consumerism derived from overproduction, etc. — instead, we're living under neocolonialism. This has an adverse effect at the same time, with the primary dialectic here being that, despite us still living under capitalism and thus still being vulnerable to its internal contradictions, we still retain degrees of non-atomized social structures more "free" of alienation, as well of subsistence-based lifestyles based on cooperation — in my country, for example, the informal economy is pretty much omnipresent.
It's not a binary. It's proof that capitalism needs to go. Basically, to summarize the above: You either live in a "developed" society where you enjoy temporary privileges and economic prosperity attained through imperialist superprofits that ever so slightly trickle down to you — but capitalist decay and crisis is inevitable and will only worsen for the working class which has no material interest in this mode of production (Global North / imperial core)
..or you live in poverty, IMF-imposed SAP austerity measures meaning zero social services (privatised and sold to imperialist financial cartels), and the economic dependence of your country on imperial powers (France, US, broader West) caused by the same force that leads to the temporary material privileges of the working classes in the Global North, yet your social structures aren't atomized (meaning no or less significant emergence of hyper-individualism in society, as seen in the West), because you're literally forced to cooperate socially as opposed to engaging in competition or wage slavery in the typical sense (the norm under capitalism) not to build a better world but to merely subsist (Global South / imperial periphery).
In both scenarios, though, there are no people in power looking after you - and most importantly, your class is not in power of the state.
Also, a relevant video video came to mind about this
Every major Palestinian political figure part of the resistance will remain jailed as all of this is, as always, on imperialist terms. Even if Hamas will try to bring negotiations to their advantage as much as possible, it will mean no more than minuscule concessions. An "erasure of Palestinian politics", to paraphrase Vijay Prashad. Regardless, "ceasefire", because it really is no more than that when we're speaking of settler colonialism and genocide. The Oslo Accords were always a joke, as history teaches us that you don't "negotiate", or "engage in dialogue" with oppressors; you resist and crush them. Yet watch the "international community" rhetorically invoke the "two state solution" again in 3....
I didn't, really. Barely ever used Reddit to begin with. I just wanted a platform to chat and engage with every now and then, and this federated, decentralized alternative is principally superior and is a historical necessity. The reason you "struggle" is because Reddit wants to keep you trapped in its ecosystem and addicted by centralizing online communication spaces.
Already wrote this somewhere else, but might well share it here: Reddit is a cesspool US deep state cut-out propaganda and censorship platform like all of these US-based platforms are, they answer to the US state dept and empire and we all know it. Doesn’t matter if it’s META, X or Reddit (and fuck, Google and YouTube obviously) - they all follow the same line. They’ll crack down on leftist subs, even r/russia due to the official US position, yet keep racist Western subs around (like r/europe) and other liberal shitholes of all kinds I don’t give a shit to even name or remember, even fascist subs and of course the genocide apologists on r/“israel”.
If we do the math with the official death toll so far into this genocide, it amounts to one Palestinian killed by the Zionist entity roughly around this minute mark every hour. But I don't think there's any place for an "or" in this matter, as injury is, let's be real, pretty much constant with the relentless destruction and massacre that the settler colonial Zionist entity constantly engages in. It also doesn't even take into account gradual injury due to disease, starvation, and lack of healthcare.
This is an incredibly naïve understanding of how branding and human cognition work. To claim a corporate logo is a "neutral placeholder" is to ignore the entire multi-trillion dollar industry of marketing and the last century of psychological research.
A logo is not a "placeholder" but instead it's the visual distillation of a brand's entire propaganda campaign.
Every commercial, billboard, and sponsored post you've ever seen for that brand has worked to create a subconscious association between that symbol and a set of feelings, aspirations, or identities (Nike = "achievement", Coca Cola = "taste", Apple = "innovation/creativity", and whatever other crap). Seeing the logo fires that neural pathway without the "prerequisite" for a full ad. The commercial already happened in our heads, across years. And it still constantly does under capitalism, hence commodity fetishism is a thing.
The primary goal of all advertising is not to make you buy something right now, but to ensure their brand is the first one you think of when you have a need. A logo constantly flashing in your visual field does exactly that. It's a maintenance ad, whether deliberate or not, keeping the brand's presence active in your subconsciousness.
It is a territorial claim on mental space, and by arguing that their symbols have a right to exist in our public and digital spaces "just for identification," corporations are claiming a right to permanent, free real estate in our minds.
It's almost like calling a national flag of any country "just a piece of colored cloth" because it ignores the immense weight of symbolic meaning, cultural conditioning, and ideological power that whatever given symbol carries. In this case, it's a flag that flies not for a nation or people but for the empire of capital. Even if it was a defunct company, it still once served this purpose, even if now "retired."
They never tell you who this "freedom" is intended for. They just isolate the word and dilute it of its meaning.
It proves there's a difference between a war and a genocide, with said genocide being complementary to settler colonialism too.
Just needs that ghoulish EU commission dictator Ursula Fond Of Lying and it'd even better. DEFENDING CAPITALISM IN DECAY WITH ALL GENDERS!
"historymemes. Guess some liberals learned their first ever genuine fact about an event in geopolitical history, impressive. I totally bet they'll add 2+2 together and begin to see recurring patterns in US-led anti-communist covert action globally, and figure out why they're told that gommunism bad no food no freedumb, and adopt a materialist understanding of history /s
Mutual dialogue! Two-state solution! Every opinion matters and is equal! Social Darwinism is a valid philosophy! We all need to work together as a nation! Freedom, democracy, civil society and human rights! We're helping all these poor people around the world! Unemployed people are just lazy and don't want to work and contribute to society! Capitalism offers wages as a rewards system, how motivating! We're spoiled rotten! Poverty is a personal responsibility that the individual must take action to combat!