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Josh

@jooshinator.bsky.social

341 followers 179 following 139 posts

He/Him, dumb commie in philly, usually post to talk about the garbage I'm cooking or the garbage I'm listening to White Latine (mostly white)

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Josh @jooshinator.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Lenin covers the need for theoretical struggle a lot in What is to be Done. He also here quotes Engles

let him... but be that enough!

Let us quote what Engels said in 1874 concerning the signif- icance of theory in the Social-Democratic movement. Engels rec- ognises, not two forms of the great struggle of Social-Democ- racy (political and economic), as is the fashion among among us, but three, placing the theoretical struggle on a par with the first two. His recommendations to the German working-class movement, which had become strong, practically and politically, are so in- pra structive from the standpoint of present-day problems and con- troversies, that we hope the reader will not be vexed with us for quoting a long passage from his prefatory note to Der deutsche Bauernkrieg,* which has long become a great bibliographical

"The German workers have two important advantages over those of the rest of Europe. First, they belong to the most theo- retical people of Europe; and they have retained that sense of theory which the so-called 'educated' classes of Germany have almost completely lost. Without German philosophy, which pre- ceded it, particularly that of Hegel, German scientific socialism -the only scientific socialism that has ever existed-would never have come into being. Without a sense of theory among the workers, this scientific socialism would never have entered their

Page 111 in lenin's selected works vol 1:
flesh and blood as much as is the case. What an immeasurable advantage this is may be seen, on the one hand, from the in- difference towards all theory, which is one of the main reasons why the English working-class movement crawls along so slowly in spite of the splendid organisation of the individual unions; on the other hand, from the mischief and confusion wrought by Proudhonism, in its original form, among the French and Bel- gians, and, in the form further caricatured by Bakunin, among the Spaniards and Italians.

"The second advantage is that, chronologically speaking, the Germans were about the last to come into the workers' move- ment. Just as German theoretical socialism will never forget that it rests on the shoulders of Saint-Simon, Fourier, and Owen- three men who, in spite of all their fantastic notions and all their utopianism, have their place among the most eminent thinkers of all times, and whose genuis anticipated innumerable things, the correctness of which is now being scientifically proved by us-so the practical workers' movement in Germany ought never

to forget that it has developed on the shoulders of the English and French movements, that it was able simply to utilise their dearly bought experience, and could now avoid their mistakes, which in their time were mostly unavoidable. Without the pre- cedent of the English trade unions and French workers' political struggles, without the gigantic impulse given especially by the Paris Commune, where would we be now?

"It must be said to the credit of the German workers that they have exploited the advantages of their situation with rare under- standing. For the first time since a workers' movement has existed, the struggle is being conducted pursuant to its three sides-the theoretical, the political, and the practical-economic (resistance to the capitalists)-in harmony and in its interconnections, and in a systematic way. It is precisely in this, as it wer…

Pg 112 in lenins selected works (WitbD):
cialism, since it has become a science, demands that it be pur- sued as a science, i.e., that it be studied. The task will be to spread with increased zeal among the masses of the workers the ever more clarified understanding thus acquired, to knit together ever more firmly the organisation both of the party and of the trade unions....

"If the German workers progress in this way, they will not be marching exactly at the head of the movement-it is not at all in the interest of this movement that the workers of any partic- ular country should march at its head-but they will occupy an honourable place in the battle line; and they will stand armed for battle when either unexpectedly grave trials or momentous events demand of them increased courage, increased determina- tion and energy."

Engels's words proved prophetic. Within a few years the Ger- man workers were subjected to unexpectedly grave trials in the form of the Exceptional Law Against the Socialists. And they met those trials armed for battle and succeeded in emerging from them victorious.

The Russian proletariat will have to undergo trials immea- surably graver; it will have to fight a monster compared with which an anti-socialist law in a constitutional country seems but a dwarf. History has now confronted us with an immediate task which is the most revolutionary of all the immediate tasks con- fronting the proletariat of any country. The fulfilment of this task, the destruction of the most powerful bulwark, not only of European, but (it may now be said) of Asiatic reaction, would make the Russian proletariat the vanguard of the international revolutionary proletariat. And we have the right to count upon acquiring this honourable title, already earned by our predeces- sors, the revolutionaries of the seventies, if we succeed in inspir- ing our movement, which is a thousand times broader and deeper, with the same devoted determination and vigour.

Pg 122-123:
Let us recall the example of Germany. What was the historic service Lassalle rendered to the German working-class move- ment? It was that he diverted that movement from the path of progressionist trade-unionism and co-operativism towards which it had been spontaneously moving (with the benign assistance of Schulze-Delitzsch and his like). To fulfil such a task it was ne- cessary to do something quite different from talking of under- rating the spontaneous element, of tactics-as-process, of the in- teraction between elements and environment, etc. A fierce strug- gle against spontaneity was necessary, and only after such a struggle, extending over many years, was it possible, for instance, to convert the working population of Berlin from a bulwark of the progressionist party into one of the finest strongholds of Social-Democracy. This struggle is by no means over even today (as might seem to those who learn the history of the German movement from Prokopovich, and its philosophy from Struve). Even now the German working class is, so to speak, split up among a number of ideologies. A section of the workers is organised in

Catholic and monarchist trade unions; another section is organised in the Hirsch-Duncker unions, 156 founded by the bourgeois worshippers of English trade-unionism; the third is organised in Social-Democratic trade unions. The last-named group is immea- surably more numerous than the rest, but the Social-Democratic ideology was able to achieve this superiority, and will be able to maintain it, only in an unswerving struggle against all other ideologies.

But why, the reader will ask, does the spontaneous move- ment, the movement along the line of least resistance, lead to the domination of bourgeois ideology? For the simple reason that bourgeois ideology is far older in origin than socialist ide- ology, that it is more fully developed, and that it has at its dis- posal immeasurably more means of dissemination.* And the younger the socialis…

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Josh @jooshinator.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Finally getting to reading Lenin, picked a great time for it. From "two tactics of social democracy in the democratic revolution", feels increasingly relevant today

"Get out of your study, look about you, and seek your answer in the streets. Has not the government itself started civil war by everywhere shooting down crowds of peaceful and unarmed citizens? Have not the armed Black Hundreds come out as an "argument" of the autocracy? Has not the bourgeoisie-even the bourgeoisie-recognised the need for a citizens' militia? Does not Mr. Struve himself, the ideally moderate and punctilious Mr."

Struve, say (alas, he does so only to evade the issue!) that "the open nature of revolutionary action" (that's what we are like today!) "is now one of the most important conditions for exerting an educational influence upon the mass of the people"?

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Josh @jooshinator.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Replace "Henry George" with "Andrew Yang" and "Land Value Tax" with "UBI" and it basically still applies, especially that bit about them being great at advertising

Marx letter to Freidrich Adolph Sorge June 20 1881:
"All these "socialists" since Colins have this in common, that they leave wage labor, and thus capitalist production, untouched, and de-"

ceive themselves or the world into believing that through the trans- formation of land rents into a state tax, all the evils of capitalist pro- duction would disappear by themselves. The whole thing is thus merely a socialistically embellished attempt to save the capitalist rule, and,

indeed, to establish it anew on an even wider basis than the present one. This cloven hoof which is at the same time an ass's hoof, also unmistakably peeps out of the declarations of Henry George. It is the more unforgivable in him, since he, on the contrary, should have asked the question: How did it happen that in the United States, where relatively-that is, compared to civilized Europe-land was accessible to the great masses of the people and to a certain degree (again rela- tively) still is, the capitalist economy and the corresponding enslave- ment of the working class have developed more rapidly and more shamelessly than in any other country?

On the other hand, George's book, like the sensation it has made

among you, has importance in that it is a first, even though disappoint- ing, attempt at emancipation from orthodox political economy. Moreover, H. George does not seem to know about the earlier American Anti-Renters,5 who were more practical than theoretical. He is otherwise a writer of talent (with a Yankee talent for advertising too), as, for example, is shown by his article on California in the Atlantic. He also has the repulsive presumption and arrogance that invariably characterize all such panacea-hatchers..

Salut fraternel.

Yours,
K. Marx

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Josh @jooshinator.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

Ok this woman is evil and a narcissist and the author is bad for taking her side but this is GRADE A horror material: an extremely religious woman obeys catholicisms/patriarchy's insistence that women be baby factories, and after she is unable to naturally continue creating life, she turns to forbidden science to further her work. The loss of both her mother and one of her daughters cause her to fully throw herself into the project to try to make up for what she's lost and she destroys what's left of her family in the process. The story ends with her kidnapping a child from their loving family to try to regain what she once had.

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Josh @jooshinator.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

You're clearly just copying this from wikipedia. The source claims that the sans-culottes are not taken as a separate class in other parts of the history of france, not that the class-based understanding of the sans-culottes was invented by soboul c'mon man this is basic knowledge of the revolution

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Josh @jooshinator.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Finished a People's History of the united states. Despite its drawbacks (the soviet-bashing especially, though the book is from before we saw how bad the world is without them) I think he's mostly correct, especially here. It feels a bit naive in places, but it deserves its place in the US left

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Josh @jooshinator.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

interesting to contrast Zinn's treatment of the dprk and vietnam, though he does of course condemn the US in both. Elsewhere zinn lionizes NV's guerilla history, and emphasizes it was the legitimate govt, but the equivocation of NK and SK as foreign backed dictatorships is really all he says on them

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Josh @jooshinator.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

F l a k e s

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Josh @jooshinator.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

Apple pie was so close to bing actually good but i forgot to cut vents until 40 minutes into the bake, and its not quite as dark as I'd like, think next time ill bake it a bit longer and laminate it a bit more, and hopefully remember to cut vents into it lol

The pie, edges arent sealed, the filling spilled out over the top and sides of the crust

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Josh @jooshinator.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

Seems kind of evil to openly promote gambling like this in public spaces ngl, but then again its not like septa doesnt need the ad money

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Josh @jooshinator.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

Made it, tastes good enough, crust is good besides the burnt bit, need to get enough crust and filling to fill my entire dutch oven. Also keep fucking up the seal because i preheat the DO so can't mess around with the sides as much. Cleaning was also basically effortless

Picture of the pie, little burnt on top, about 2 inches tall

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Josh @jooshinator.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Making a concoction, have no idea what the hell im doing, guess ill shove this in a pie tomorrow

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