This is pretty good timing for this topic, especially here on lemmygrad.ml we have been bringing this topic up multiple times.

PSL's candidates Claudia & Karina even mention how income would be capped, though they do mention locking up war criminals and Wall Street con men (which would still be under a prison system designed for rehabilitation and reeducation):

All income and assets over ten million dollars would be subject to a 100% tax – with no exceptions or loopholes – as would all offshore corporate profits. All debt from student loans, bail bonds, medical and utility bills would be canceled.

Same here with libre software and hardware and other technological freedom struggles. Becoming politically conscious in the technology sector was the spark (especially when Trump repealed net neutrality) that led me to Marxism-Leninism today.

One of the articles I had to read for PSL a few weeks ago was this: https://www.liberationschool.org/u-s-agenda-cuba-remains-counter-revolution/

This is called the “carrot and the stick.” At one moment, the U.S. extends a carrot to a country, the next moment they will use the stick, the club.

This is the same government that continues to finance the terrorist organizations trying to overthrow the Syrian government, armed the opposition in Libya and then just bombed Libya to smithereens.

And it is the same U.S. government that is backing the fascist-dominated government in Ukraine, and then tried to set up a false hacking accusation against North Korea, another socialist country the U.S. wants to overthrow. Now new sanctions have been imposed on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The U.S. politicians in Congress and the President, the establishment, have had fierce debates about what tactics to use, but the objective is the same: Expand Imperialism’s reach and power around the globe. If you are failing with one tactic, use another.

scrolls up to the top of the article

Jan 6, 2015

We were well aware of this for so long, and it's surreal looking at an old article affirming this before the Ukraine war happened.

The main purpose of these campaigns is to help educate more people and further bring class consciousness to the working class, as we saw Bernie's movement had done. We are very likely not going to win, but we need to organize as most people only pay attention to politics once every 4 years.

Here's an article from PSL regarding Bernie's campaign in 2020 that may help answer questions:

https://www.liberationnews.org/the-bernie-sanders-campaign-and-building-the-movement-for-socialism-in-the-us/

https://www.openra.net/about/

::: spoiler The OpenRA Games (aka Mods)

Games built using the OpenRA engine are known as “mods”. The OpenRA development team maintain the three official mods that can be downloaded from this website, but many more are developed and maintained by the OpenRA community.

Tiberian Dawn

An alliance of nations fights to protect Europe and northern Africa from a mysterious terrorist organization and the valuable but toxic alien mineral, Tiberium, that is slowly spreading over the world.

The Tiberian Dawn mod focuses on fast and fluid play, taking heavy influences from modern RTS games with features like multiple-queue production.

Red Alert

In a world where Hitler was assassinated and the Third Reich never existed, the Soviet Union seeks power over all of Europe. Allied against this Evil Empire, the free world faces a Cold War turned red hot.

The Red Alert mod focuses on strategy, providing a range of units and tactics to conquer the land, sea, and air.

Dune 2000

Three great houses fight for the precious spice melange. He who controls the spice controls the universe! Establish a foothold on the desert planet Arrakis, where your biggest threat is the environment.

The Dune 2000 mod currently focuses on providing an experience that is authentic to the original game.

Tiberian Sun

The next major goal for OpenRA is to support the second generation of Command & Conquer games, starting with Tiberian Sun.

The game engine features to support Tiberian Sun are still in development. The mod is not included with the OpenRA installer, but the source code is available in our GitHub repository. Please note that we do not provide support for incomplete development builds.

Building Custom Mods

Find community mods on ModDB

OpenRA is designed as a general purpose RTS game engine with strong modding support. The OpenRA Mod SDK provides tools to develop and release your own projects. Each new OpenRA release brings many improvements and fixes created for, and by, the modding community. A collection of community-built mods and games can be found on OpenRA's ModDB page. :::

Just finished my meeting with PSL last week over this article, and I thought this could help with context of Deng (I am not a fan of him in regards to how his wing overthrew the other wing and enacted their own reforms at the cost of millions of poorer, rural workers forced to work for the capitalist enterprises without safety net and protections offered by state jobs):

https://www.liberationschool.org/what-do-socialists-defend-in-china-today/

Immediately after its victory in 1949, the leadership of the Communist Party, by necessity, focused on the question of China’s economic development. Affecting the day-to-day lives of more than 500 million people, no task was more urgent than economic and social development. On this all wings of the Communist Party agreed.

How this development would take place in the context of the continued class struggle, however, became the pivot for what became known in China as the “two-line struggle” between elements of the party centered around Mao Zedong and those led by Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping. The Mao grouping advocated socialist methods for development, including nationalized public property in the core industries and banking, centralized planning, collectivized agriculture, mobilization of the workers and peasants, and a monopoly of foreign trade. The wing led by Liu and Deng was essentially pragmatic rather than Marxist in their approach, utilizing material incentives, capitalist-style accounting methods and elements of the capitalist market—all while professing allegiance to the goal of building socialism.

In 1966, this struggle led to the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, a mass campaign initiated by Mao and his allies that aimed to rally the poor and the young to dislodge from positions of authority Liu, Deng and thousands of others castigated as favoring the “capitalist road” for China’s economic development.

Contrary to the presentation by bourgeois historians, the two-line struggle was not primarily over the pace of economic development in China, with Mao favoring a slower approach and Liu and Deng favoring a faster tempo. Both sides in the two-line struggle put the rapid economic development of China as a top priority.

...

Despite the historic achievements on the road to socialism during this period, a series of international events and their reflection within the Communist Party weakened the strength of the revolutionary wing of the party. The defeat of the Indonesian Revolution in 1965, the escalation of the Sino-Soviet split and the ultimate rapprochement between China and U.S. imperialism, the corresponding death of People’s Liberation Army leader Lin Biao, and the purge of other leftists—all these events laid the basis for the reemergence of the “capitalist road” grouping following Mao’s death in 1976.

At the time, some observers of the Chinese Revolution considered the accusation that certain party leaders were “capitalist roaders” to be one more rhetorical flourish or excess of the Cultural Revolution. But the accusation, as it turned out, was not overheated rhetoric at all. It was a precise and accurate description of Mao’s political opponents inside the leadership of the Communist Party.

Following Mao’s death in 1976, the left wing of the party was routed and its leaders were arrested. By 1978, the “capitalist roaders,” galvanized under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, introduced sweeping economic reforms under the newly concocted and theoretically unfounded label of “market socialism.”

These reforms led over the course of several steps to the “opening up” of China to imperialist banks and corporations. The development strategy was premised on a strategic assumption: The lure of super profits from the employment of low-wage labor in China would lead to massive capital investment by the industries and banks that possessed the most advanced technology. China would benefit in its “development” by accessing and acquiring the latest technologies.

The Chinese commune system of collectivized agriculture was also dismantled. The Chinese countryside, known throughout Asia in the decades prior to the 1970s for its egalitarian achievements and social gains for the poorest peasants, became severely stratified again.

While millions of more well-to-do peasants saw a sharp rise in their living standards, a huge mass of rural dwellers lost everything. Left to fend for themselves, they migrated by the tens of millions to urban areas seeking employment in newly created factories—many in special economic zones set aside for foreign capitalist investors. This migrant labor force, uprooted from the land, became the source of human material necessary for the establishment of a new market-based private capitalist sector.

Within 25 years, the People’s Republic of China was fully integrated into the capitalist world economy. Foreign direct investment skyrocketed as U.S., European and Japanese capital set up in China to take advantage of the huge labor pool. Transnational corporations helped create the largest industrial work force in the world.

At the same time I am disgusted by this event, I also wonder if it was unfortunately necessary to help China reach to its current state today. If events had played in a different way where Mao's wing would have been dominant over Liu and Deng's, could China have suffered the same fate as the USSR? In the end, the West is responsible for creating a divide between the USSR and China, hurting their relations so the West could use one enemy against the other to their advantage.

Relevant:

No, there is a list: https://lemmygrad.ml/comment/2278718

This is just an open source engine for the classic Command & Conquer games. You need to supply discs/isos to be able to play the games fully--similar to open source ports like GZDoom/PrBoom for Doom/Quake/etc. and OpenMW for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.

This sounds like a really good tip! I need to work on this myself.

Because I am doing mental work, it's hard for me to listen to audiobooks/podcasts at the same time, thus I resort to listening to socialist music.

I plan to fight for revolution in the US until it is too dangerous and the revolution turns out to not likely succeed. I am already working towards becoming a candidate member with PSL. Because I want to be a computer hardware engineer working in the semiconductor industry, China may be my best option. This is why I am going back to school next year to get my bachelor's--so I have a viable Plan B just in case.

The GDI and Nod discs from this do work, but you can search for more discs on archive.org and other places to get other disc images for The First Decade, Covert Operations, etc.:

https://archive.org/details/command-and-conquer-tiberian-dawn

You may also find discs here:

https://cncnz.com/features/freeware-classic-command-conquer-games/

OpenRA's wiki mentions these locations:

https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/wiki/Game-Content#downloading-original-game-cds

::: spoiler Here's a list of discs you can find on archive.org (I still have to test them):

Tiberian Dawn

GDI and Nod Discs

https://archive.org/details/command-and-conquer-tiberian-dawn

The First Decade

https://archive.org/details/cnctfd-game-disc

The Covert Operations

https://archive.org/details/command-and-conquer-the-covert-operations-1996-westwood-studios-cd

Red Alert

Red Alert 95 Allied and Soviet Discs

(I think)

https://archive.org/details/command-conquer-red-alert_202309

The First Decade

https://archive.org/details/cnctfd-game-disc

Worldwide Warfare

Gold GDI & Nod, Covert Operations, Red Alert Allied and Soviet, Counterstrike, Aftermath, Tiberian Sun (Demo)

https://archive.org/details/cc_worldwide_warfare

Dune 2000

Dune 2000 Disc

https://archive.org/details/dune-2000-2001-ea-westwood-studios-cd

Tiberian Sun

Not included in mod but available to test if built with source: Issue, Milestone

Command & Conquer Collection

Tiberian Sun, Firestorm, Red Alert 2, Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge, Renegade, Generals (Demo)

I don't know if any of these are necessary or if I am missing any potentially supported expansions/content, but this seemed like a good collection to post for future reference.

https://archive.org/details/TheCommandConquerCollection :::

To install the discs when prompted, mount the isos to one of these locations on Linux:

/media/openra
/media/{user}/openra
/mnt/openra

https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/wiki/Game-Content#linux

You can use this tool to mount the disc: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/FuseISO

Make sure the directory has appropriate permissions to mount like so:

sudo chmod 777 /mnt/openra

Then mount with FuseISO:

fuseiso /path/to/iso /mnt/openra

In OpenRA, click Detect Disc or Installation (or Retry if you are already on that page) and it should be able to detect the disc and extract the files.

You can unmount and delete the directory (or mount and install other discs first before deleting the directory, of course) when OpenRA finishes extracting the files:

fusermount -u /mnt/openra
sudo rmdir /mnt/openra

I am assuming for the non-disc archives, you would be able to either copy or symlink the extracted files to one of the supported mount points, and the game should be able to detect the content. Downloads are taking a while so I haven't been able to test yet to confirm.

OpenRA does let you download the base game files plus some other content and patches from the internet.

I have been trying multiple at this point, though I am not sure I found one I am happy with. I tend to use SearXNG, but I tend to make too many searches too quickly and it causes various search engines to block me for a bit.

I thought I should share another search engine if it helps:

LibreX / LibreY

Here's a few more search engines:

Marginalia Search - A search engine that favors text-heavy sites and punishes modern web design - I just tried this one, and it's very handy. Definitely recommend, though the results may not be relevant depending on your search, but sometimes you may find another similar site you would want to bookmark for later.

wiby - A search engine of curated websites, useful for finding small blogs

Mojeek - Proprietary but uses its own web crawler

MWMBL - A free, open-source, and non-profit search engine

At this point, I have been unsatisfied with search engines because the internet it just filled with SEO optimized crap. I made a habit of bookmarking every interesting or useful thing I find. I rely on sites like Lemmy/Lemmygrad, Reddit, Hacker News, etc. to find interesting links. I also look for awesome list git repositories (such as this, this, this, and this) (and this and this to search for more) and Reddit/Lemmy wikis to find useful resources. If I find (semi-)trustworthy news sites like Grayzone, AntiWar, etc., I will keep a tab open to use that as my news feed instead of Reddit. If I want to look up a news story or opinion on a search engine, I tend to add the word "Marxist" or "socialist" and it sometimes gives me results I want. If I want to find help online, I either find the documentation web page or I will just add the word "reddit" since I still rely on reddit question posts to find answers.

Bringing Back The Minimal Web - A blog post about an idea I agree with and that I want to see manifested

One thing I would wish if we reach a socialist society is for everyone to be provided the option to make their own website (multiple options available for various levels of tech savviness, from self-hosting on one's own dedicated server to "simplified web designing tools with presets" for the least tech savvy) subsidized by the government. Then a search engine can be built to prioritize those sites, especially those that people used to make important informational resources.

I also like browsing Gemini websites, which requires a browser add-on or an entirely different browser. You may learn about it here: https://geminiprotocol.net/

I wish there were more Marxist Gemini capsules, though I hope to make Gemini equivalent mirrors of important Marxist websites someday.

I also wish there to be an org-mode protocol to make websites as org documents for emacs. There's this person's blog post that mentioned a similar idea, which I found from this discussion on Reddit.

I find that visiting niche communities on niche platforms helps with finding quality content and resources, thus I tend to enjoy looking through old/new protocols and small websites/platforms before they are flooded with commercialized crap and are abused by users that don't respect the sites' rules/etiquette/culture.

Sidenote: If you like to sail the seven seas, you can self-host Jackett to use as a proxy server to query torrents.

I'm sorry, but I believe I am in agreement with you. I am disgusted by the hijacking of the Cultural Revolution and the attempted assassination of Mao by his own close comrade. I am also open to different perspectives and want to improve my own to help humanity reach its best possible future. I intend to be a dialectical materialist and not an idealist. If my message came across as otherwise, I apologize. I am also still learning, and I only mean well.

Or in other words: the means of computation.

I guess the Gray Jedi are just clueless centrists with opposing takes because "muh both sides".

On Reddit, you could be restricted from posting on subreddits if you don't have enough karma. I want to encourage Lemmy to not adopt this feature because I enjoy being able to be honest and not worry about being downvoted to oblivion for mentioning anything from a Marxist perspective, especially where Russophobic libs are abundant in the fediverse.

Here's a start:

• https://wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_game_engine_recreations
• https://wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_video_games
• https://github.com/radek-sprta/awesome-game-remakes
• https://github.com/michelpereira/awesome-open-source-games
• https://github.com/leereilly/games
  • Updated Version: https://github.com/Yaksinikos/games

I mentioned some games on Lemmygrad a few months ago:

https://lemmygrad.ml/comment/605845

For a helpful response:

I agree that essentially reading communist literature is in and of itself learning to destroy capitalism. This is likely an incomplete list, but here is a Goodreads list of Hakim's book recommendations:

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/158587.Hakim_s_Book_Recommendations

Unfortunately many of his videos, including his book recommendation videos, are missing due to a YouTube bug or potentially YouTube just mass censoring leftist channels.

This channel is uploading Hakim's book recommendations soon.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5F5UYYUGGG42p1271OtU0A

Personally, I am working on my computer skills to help aid the technical side of a potential revolution. I am also working to be a member of PSL, and I hope that I may be able to help assist building and maintaining their technical infrastructure someday.

I know this doesn't answer your question, but if you are looking to meet comrades, find your local communist party. If one doesn't exist, there may be a pre-branch starting, and you should get in contact with a party like PSL to find out if there is one near you or even help start one. I contacted PSL and luckily found a pre-branch near me, and now I am helping with building it to become an official branch. I have met some pretty cool people this way. We come in all shapes and colors, and we each have our own mannerisms and come from different stages in our journey towards ML.

If you are not from the US, I hope the same advice still applies.