Spyke

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2023 demographics survey results in the link!

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Labor aristocracy are proletariat still, just ones that are paid just well enough to have their interests (generally) align with the capitalists. For example, people who identify as "middle class" are labor aristocracy.

To learn more, I'd start with the source: Lenin's Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism. In this original context it's used to explain how companies use superprofits extracted from exploited colonies to pay off the working class in the developed world enough to blunt class consciousness at home and suppress solidarity for workers abroad.

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Even Stricter Laws - Why is Russia doing this to LGBT?

Not a Russia expert by any means but this is how I understand the situation:

  • The Eastern Orthodox Church gained influence after the fall of the USSR and used it to spread anti-LGBT sentiment
  • Russian leadership are conservative reactionaries and the KPRF, the largest opposition party (and only nominally communist), is also quite reactionary
  • Due to the way the US weaponizes the concept of human rights, being anti-queer is seen as being anti-imperialist in many countries outside the West, including Russia

I had another point that I forgot while I was typing this up because I'm trying to function on 3 hours sleep lol. If I remember it I'll update

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Reading about free medical procedures in English is always an experience

Sorry gonna semi-hijack this thread to go off about tubal ligation (sterilization for someone with a uterus) in the US.

Although the ACA requires insurance plans to cover tubal ligation, 18 states allow providers to set their own policies and these policies can be used to prevent access. Specifically for white cis women, they will deny the procedure for being childless or having "only" one child, being unmarried (to a cis man), or being deemed too young. Even if they're married, doctors will sometimes demand their husband's approval. And even if none of these conditionals apply, the provider might add additional hurdles like needing a psychologist's approval. And of course, there's the "religious objection" card to be played at any time. 1 in 7 people in the US get care from a hospital aligned with the Catholic Church, so that's a lot of religious control over women's bodies.

Now if we're talking about BIPOC cis woman, especially those in poverty, incarceration, or other precarious situations, the system will trip over itself to find reasons to forcibly sterilize them. Also any woman who are disabled or have autism have no trouble whatsoever getting sterilized if they ask.

I wonder why there are so many barriers for white, allistic, able-bodied women to get sterilized and so easy to do for all other women. What a mystery.

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What kind of work do you do?

Graphic designer. I've worked on marketing teams most of career but after I lost my last job I tried freelancing. That was shortly before the pandemic started so that plan ended up fizzling out. I've been living on whatever few contracts I can land and gig work ever since.