I think it is time we had a Chinese thread on this site.
 
Civilization you know!

Posted by: Don Firineach | Jun 18 2026 17:46 utc | 3

Another banger from Aurelien:
 
21st Century Schizoid Man.
As above, seldom below.

Posted by: ChatNPC | Jun 18 2026 18:03 utc | 5

Don Firineach | Jun 18 2026 17:49 utc | 4—
 
Thanks for making your request and your promo of that article. I’m working on an article framed around the release of China’s latest White Paper, “More Just and Equitable Global Governance: China’s Principles, Proposals and Actions,” which is a 37-page PDF that can be accessed from the link. China’s been pushing very hard on this goal which IMO is its path to eliminating hegemony since it will take a group effort by the Global Majority to attain. The recent This is China talk I translated and posted as this article discusses the fact that too many nations overestimated the Outlaw US Empire’s power either in reliance or fear which it having lost its criminal war on Iran has brought to fore. 
 
China is casting itself as a different sort of power that’s the polar opposite of the Western Imperialism that’s dominated the world since the mid-1400s, while those same imperialists try to cast China as being no different from them. We should understand that China’s Global Governance Initiative is a major part of its grand narrative that includes its other global initiatives. That’s the Big Picture Western media and the Empire doesn’t want seen or heard.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 18 2026 18:18 utc | 7

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 18 2026 18:18 utc | 7
 
Keep up the good work Karl. Some pieces related to China you posted recently I have yet to get to … my reason for this post here is that we may tend to forget the emerging civilization in Eurasia, which provides a real social and economic alternative for humanity’s progress, due to our focus (understandable) on the Hegemon’s onslaught on the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran as well as its support for the genocidal colonial Zionist state in West Asia.

Posted by: Don Firineach | Jun 18 2026 18:47 utc | 9

ON: Samira Mohyeddin : Zio Power in TO/FIFA
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8iPv9Pbv1k
 
“Denial denial denial. That’s the name of the game. From denying anti-Palestinian racism to denying the Nakba. We also expose the denial of Iranian football joy at FIFA.”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Jun 18 2026 18:56 utc | 11

 
 
https://x.com/Jonathan_K_Cook/status/2066564248835072097
Jonathan Cook  @Jonathan_K_Cook 
 
Former UK ambassador Craig Murray, an expert in maritime law, says the UK has engaged in a blatant act of piracy – and a self-sabotaging one at that – in seizing a ship passing through the Strait of Dover. 
 
He adds: “It is astonishing that at this moment, when navigation of the Strait of Hormuz is arguably the single most live question in all of international politics, the UK has decided to abandon the principle of free transit through straits. 
 
“It takes hypocrisy to an entire new level – it truly beggars belief – that the day after closing the Dover Strait to Russian shipping, Starmer issued a joint statement with Germany, France and Italy insisting on ‘Freedom of Navigation’ in the strait of Hormuz.”
 
More here:   https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2026/06/the-uk-joins-the-pirates/
The UK Joins the Pirates 
 
I was genuinely surprised by the Starmer regime’s refusal to state that the Israeli boarding of the Global Sumud flotilla on the High Seas was illegal. I did not realise it was because the UK was planning to undertake similar illegal seizure itself. 
 
The Gaza Flotilla seizure was illegal: while for obvious reasons freedom of navigation had been the undisputed basis of UK maritime policy for centuries. The UK is a set of islands whose population is dependent on food imports to stay alive. Freedom of navigation is a core strategic interest of the UK. The relevant provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea were very heavily UK driven, including on passage through straits. 
 
Abandoning the primacy of freedom of navigation is absolutely a radical policy departure for the UK – driven, like so many other changes to traditional British legal positions, by the Starmer regime’s extreme support for Israel……
 

Posted by: michaelj72 | Jun 18 2026 19:36 utc | 13

my reason for this post here is that we may tend to forget the emerging civilization in Eurasia.
 
Posted by: Don Firineach | Jun 18 2026 18:47 utc | 9
 
Seems much more like undeserved ass kissing 

Posted by: Screwdriver | Jun 18 2026 22:11 utc | 15

emerging…. what is in a word?? the fact is the west – usa and friends – have  been so infatuated with the special history they think they have from the recent past, that any other civilization is beneath them, or beside the point…. so yeah – china is indeed emerging, even if it has been around for countless centuries…. it is emerging in the minds of people who have been to preoccupied with their own culture to recognize another culture that is indeed ”ascending” and in the ascendancy… so maybe emerging is a word to get caught up in, along with your ego, lol…. or maybe it is something else… i will go back to submerging myself in a book and my gig tonight! 

Posted by: james | Jun 18 2026 22:20 utc | 17

I await any substantive comment on the piece on China posted above …
 
… from those who might actually read it  – it is not the I Ching!

Posted by: Don Firineach | Jun 18 2026 22:48 utc | 19

emerging…. what is in a word?? the fact is the west – usa and friends – have  been so infatuated with the special history they think they have from the recent past, ….
 
Posted by: james | Jun 18 2026 22:20 utc | 17
 
******************
 
Good point, James.
 
Yesterday, our national broadcaster (the Australian abc) had a commemorative piece about the “discoverer” of Australia, Captain James Cook, who also “discovered” Hawaii (which he called The Sandwich Isles) and was subsequently killed by the “savages” living there when his men gathered some wood from a hut because they needed to light a fire.
 
This account is ‘sort of’ true – but a bit of extra detail adds some interesting nuance. The ‘savages’ who killed Captain Cook were members of a nation that had resided there for thousands of years and had developed quite a sophisticated civilisation. The pieces of ‘wood’ that Cook’s men ‘gathered’ for the fire they needed were sacred spiritual items stolen from the building the residents used for worship. 
 
BBQ at Piazza San Pietro this afternoon, anyone? I hear that relics of The True Cross are well-seasoned, so they burn quite well, and impart a distinct smokey flavor to steak, particularly on Friday – so hurry along. The local savages are a bit excitable, and, unlike my civilised bees, are not normally calmed by smoke, even holy smoke.
 
Holy Smoke – here they come!

Posted by: General Factotum | Jun 19 2026 1:11 utc | 21

Re: Green Party ?
 
always suspected the German Green Party was created by Washington, etc. For nefarious purposes. 

Posted by: Exile | Jun 19 2026 8:54 utc | 23

@Exile | Jun 19 2026 8:54 utc | 23
I agree but Larouche probably found it convenient to say Britain because ideologically the US/UK would be on the same page. Only like Lord Halifax said to J M Keynes in 1946: They come with their money bags but we have all the brains. If the excellent american scholar Carroll Quigley could have had his ‘The Angloamerican Establishment’ published in 1949 instead of 1981 after he died I think more people in the US would have understood how much of the intellectual power came from the outside.

Posted by: petergrfstrm | Jun 19 2026 9:04 utc | 25

Sebgo, in the last few minutes of a wideranging interview President Lukashenko talks about Belarus’s relationships with African countries. What response do you have to his words?
https://english.alarabiya.net/webtv/programs/counterpoints/2026/06/16/-gaza-is-a-holocaust-belarusian-president-on-the-iran-war-ukraine-trump

Posted by: tucenz | Jun 19 2026 10:05 utc | 27

I’ve long thought that the coincidence theorists are the true conspiracy theorists.

Posted by: lachaussette | Jun 19 2026 11:32 utc | 29

What did they put in their beer in Berlin?
NATO will attack Kaliningrad, the Kola Peninsula, St. Petersburg, and the Black Sea area in the event of a conflict with Russia, the commander of the German Air Force said – “Germany is ready to fight Russia tonight and will defend every inch of NATO territory,” General Neumann emphasized in an interview with The Telegraph.
@Slavyangrad
Today’s rhetorical question became necessary after reading this reckless and provocative statement from a revanchist German official.
What could have made Germans, of all people, become amnesiac to forget the atrocities they have inflicted on the world, not once, but twice?
Article 2 of the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany (the “Two-Plus-Four Treaty”), signed on 12 September 1990 by the two German states and the four victorious powers of World War II: Federal Republic of Germany, German Democratic Republic, United States, United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union.
“The Governments of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic reaffirm their declarations that only peace will emanate from German soil.”
The article continues:
“According to the Constitution of the United Germany, acts tending to and undertaken with the intent to disturb the peaceful relations between nations, especially to prepare for a war of aggression, are unconstitutional and constitute a punishable offense.”
And further:
“The Governments of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic declare that the united Germany will never employ any of its weapons except in accordance with its Constitution and the Charter of the United Nations.”
The question is whether today’s political class in Berlin still remembers that solemn undertaking?
Answers, anyone?
©️ Femi Akomolafe (1st Dan)

Posted by: Femi | Jun 19 2026 12:52 utc | 31

Lachaussette
That is a good OT comment, thanks

Posted by: Willy | Jun 19 2026 14:24 utc | 33

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jun 19 2026 9:56 utc | 26
I stopped reading Aurelian several years ago.  He was just too naive and simultaneously hopeless for me.  He’s a nice fellow and makes some interesting points but without the basic objective socioeconomic underpinning he can’t reach any significant conclusions, much less suggest a workable solution to the problem.  Comparing him to a genius like Hegel though is a stretch.  

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Jun 19 2026 14:54 utc | 35

Roger Boyd @26: “The global population is very much delusional in its general views on Nature, seeing humanity as separable from the thing of which it is but a part…”
 
 
This unity of the natural world and the individual is a key aspect of what I often call Materialism. The world has a material existence and the individual is merely a tiny part of that material existence. The natural world cares not the slightest for the internal subjective mental experience of individual. That is nothing more than some signal/noise cascading through networks of neurons and has no more significance to reality than the patterns of sunlight sifting through the leaves of a tree on nice summer afternoon. Pleasant to experience, perhaps, but it has no meaning or impact on the universe. 
 
 
The converse of Materialism, of course, is Idealism, in which the internal mental representations of realia from the physical world are considered equivalent to those realia. This fundamental mistake of the Idealist philosophy is the source of the narcissism and delusion that is so prevalent in adherents of that perspective.
 
 
What is bizarre to me is that many people for some reason treat Materialism as being synonymous with greed. That exhibits a basic misunderstanding of the topic.

Posted by: William Gruff | Jun 19 2026 15:01 utc | 37

The converse of Materialism, of course, is Idealism, in which the internal mental representations of realia from the physical world are considered equivalent to those realia. This fundamental mistake of the Idealist philosophy is the source of the narcissism and delusion that is so prevalent in adherents of that perspective.
Posted by: William Gruff | Jun 19 2026 15:01 utc | 37
Subjective thoughts always in some way reflect some material reality, even those of a madman, buy the thoughts of one individual are rarely his own.  Typically, people have been programmed from a very young age, like their parents, to think in a certain way which is always ultimately compatible with the interests of the ruling class of the day (Zio billionaires in our times).  Although Idealism does produce a certain narcissism, it originated in the religious conceptions of the middle ages (primarily Christian in Europe).  The existence of a consciousness beyond the material world naturally gave rise to a belief in ideas beyond and above the material world.  Pre Christian idealists like Plato still believed in God(s), so in ancient times it was this state enforced faith in a super human consciousness that underpinned Idealism.  As the philosophical founder of science , Aristotle got as close to a materialist perspective as one could at that stage of development.  Hegel was sort of a bridge between Christian idealism and modern Atheist Materialism.  I agree with Trotsky that he was a genius.  His error was attributable to his age and the stage of development only.  He may even have known better and kept quiet for professional reasons (although I believe he was a sincere Christian) Marx really only made one core change to Hegel, but otherwise left his method and most his observations intact.  
That said, I don’t agree with Boyd that most people are delusional in the idealist sense.  There is certainly a state enforced confusion as to philosophical questions, but daily reality today radically counterposes and reinforces a materialist viewpoint. The idealist propaganda has lost its hold on millions.  I say this only because there is a pernicious intellectual elitism in the West that seems to track the thoroughly debunked “great man” theory of history in which the working class are just a bunch of mindless sheep waiting for some intellectual marvel superhero to come save them.  In my experience, the consciousness of the Western worker is often much more developed than advertised.  That is truer at this moment than it’s been in my lifetime.  Their core problem is not understanding the basic facts of their plight, but in developing a class based and trustworthy vehicle to change it. And as always, it’s important to remember there is a powerful class interest in promoting misanthropic elitism amongst intellectuals.  If your thinking favors the ruling class in anyway, you may want to think again.  

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Jun 19 2026 15:49 utc | 39

Ahenobarbus @39: “…I don’t agree with Boyd that most people are delusional in the idealist sense… the consciousness of the Western worker is often much more developed than advertised.”
 
 
 
I cannot disagree there. The western working class does seem to be fairly solidly grounded in the real world despite extreme efforts by the Establishment trend-setters and opinion-makers to lure them to the delusional dark side.
 
 
You are correct to point out that it is a mistake to confuse Establishment narratives with consensus in the population. Those two really are diverging more than at any other time I can think of. 

Posted by: William Gruff | Jun 19 2026 17:49 utc | 41

Tulsi Gabbard is making a point on her way out of office
 

Today, on my final day as Director of National Intelligence, I’m releasing never-before-seen communications and documents exposing how Dr. Fauci provided millions in US taxpayer dollars to fund dangerous gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab, worked with politicized elements within the Intelligence Community to suppress the truth about his actions and hide the virus’ lab-leak origins, and lied to Congress while under oath in 2024. It’s time you know the truth.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 19 2026 18:45 utc | 43

Post-War Energy Markets: What’s Next for Oil? Doomberg

In this episode Doomberg discusses the post-war energy market, the future of oil prices, copper, uranium, gold, silver, and the biggest misconceptions driving commodity investing today.
 
Doomberg explains why he believes the long-term real price of commodities is lower, why the oil market ignored the Iran conflict, why copper bulls may be missing a crucial piece of the puzzle, and why gold remains one of the most attractive long-term assets.
 
We also discuss China’s growing influence on global energy markets, the future of uranium, AI’s potential disruption of agriculture, and whether an oil crash could be coming.
 
🗓️ Recording date: June 18 , 2026
 
📖 Chapters
00:00 Intro
01:15 Iran Peace Deal and Oil Markets
04:55 Why Doomberg Thinks Oil Could Be Much Lower
07:05 How the Iran War Changed Energy Markets
09:40 Why Investors Misread the Oil Market
11:45 Commodity Narratives vs Reality
14:55 The Copper Supercycle Debate
18:05 Copper Demand, AI and Solar
19:10 Uranium, Gold and Silver Outlook
21:35 Physical Gold vs Gold Stocks
22:15 Agricultural Commodities & AI Disruption
23:30 How to Follow Doomberg
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5Vb2V0KEFs

Posted by: unimperator | Jun 19 2026 19:02 utc | 45

Bitof aroundup Aussie is to give 100m to Ukraine via PURL
Netherlands 5000m, Sweden 108 m, 
Germany will allocate $400 million to Ukraine for air defense systems and missiles for Patriot complexes, said German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.
@ukr_leaks_eng
 
Belgium will donate seven F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine this year: four for spare parts and three for operational use, Defense Minister Theo Francken announced.
“I’m considering imposing sanctions on Russia. I’m also considering providing American missiles to Ukraine,” Trump said.In The US, it has been proposed to use frozen Russian assets to purchase weapons for Kiev.The bill was introduced in the Senate by a group of Republican and Democratic representatives.@ukr_leaks
 
The US and European G7 members will launch production of long-range missiles in Ukraine.The corresponding agreement has already been signed. Kiev will receive licenses to produce air defense systems and long-range missiles.@ukr_leaks_eng
ItsBloomberg: At the Brussels EU summit, most countries advocated negotiations with Russia, contrary to the position of France and Germany.UKR LEAKS_eng:Slovak Prime Minister Fico will propose to the European Council establishing a direct line of communication between Russia and Ukraine, Teraz reports.According to him, the EU is incapable of playing a decisive role in peace negotiations between Moscow and Kiev.@ukr_leaks_engEuractiv: France and the Netherlands are the biggest obstacles to Ukraine’s accelerated accession to the EU.

“It’s already taken us 11 years to get Albania on track; why should we do the same with Ukraine in three weeks?” said a European diplomat, explaining the two countries’ positions on the issue.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni proposed delegating negotiating powers with Russia to “middle-sized countries.”

@ukr_leaks_engMacron and Merz criticized European Council President António Costa for his attempts to establish contact with Moscow. Paris and Berlin consider the moment inopportune, and when it comes, negotiations should be led by France, Germany, and the UK, not the EU itself.@ukr_leaks_eng
Ukraine and the United States are discussing freezing the war along the front line, The Economist reports, citing sources.The two sides are in daily contact. Informal talks with Russia have also resumed.

“One idea being discussed is a two-stage ceasefire: first, limiting hostilities to a 50-70 km zone on both sides of the front line, followed by a broader agreement,” the report states.

@ukr_leaks_eng
all kinda all adding up still. sighs. Kinda getting confused re Hungary and Bulgaria Bulgaria vetoed the 21st EU sanctions package.
Bulgaria threatens to veto the 21st EU sanctions package against Russia unless it excludes Patriarch Kirill and restrictions that are dangerous for the Bulgarian economy – Reuters.
 
Prime Minister Rumen Radev stated that Sofia is only prepared to support restrictions that could bring Russia and Ukraine closer to peace talks.
 
At the initiative of Hungarian Prime Minister Magyar, the EU removed the provision on Ukraine’s accelerated accession to the European Union from the summit’s final statement.

It wasn’t easy, Magyar wrote.

Bulgaria threatens to veto the 21st EU sanctions package against Russia unless it excludes Patriarch Kirill and restrictions that are dangerous for the Bulgarian economy – Reuters.
 

@ukr_leaks_eng
 

Posted by: Jo | Jun 19 2026 19:13 utc | 47

Below is a section of a ZH piece showing that China is not being forgotten in our civilization war……the projection at the end is cringe worthy.
 

The U.S. Senate unanimously approved on June 16 by voice vote a resolution (Senate Resolution 444) condemning Xi for “deceit, undermining prospects for peace and security, and orchestrating crimes against humanity.”
The resolution also encourages the U.S. government and its agencies to use all available tools—including the authorities under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which allow sanctions against individuals responsible for serious human rights violations or corruption—to hold Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials accountable.
The vote came just a day after Xi’s 73rd birthday.
“There is no greater threat to America’s way of life, peace, and prosperity in the world than Xi Jinping and the CCP,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who introduced the resolution earlier this month, told the Senate before the vote.
“Xi Jinping hates us. Communist China wants to destroy us. He is not a partner. He is not a competitor. He is a brutal dictator leading a criminal organization that lies, cheats, steals, exploits slave labor, and commits genocide and crimes against humanity on an industrial scale.”

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 19 2026 19:38 utc | 49

@ psychohistorian | Jun 19 2026 18:45 utc | 43
 
thanks for sharing that and for others posts on this thread too.. thanks all..

Posted by: james | Jun 19 2026 20:15 utc | 51

unimperator | Jun 19 2026 20:46 utc | 52
*** The bad news is his assumed replacement, Andy Burnham is another WEF muppet.***
 
Which does of course include being a NATO-sucking Zionist pimp.
Potential third contender, Wes Streeting, is the same — though maybe even nastier.
 

Posted by: Cynic | Jun 19 2026 20:57 utc | 53

The question of “delusion”, in the idealist sense, highlights the innate tension between philosophical idealism and material reality for working-class individuals. The common worker’s awareness is frequently far more advanced than mainstream narratives suggest, but it is often actively obscured by structural forces rather than the ‘individual delusion’ so often disparagingly cast by elitist Establishment operatives.
 
Dominant socio-political commentary from cloistered academics often dismisses the ‘delusional’ working class as politically disengaged, easily manipulated, or suffering from false consciousness. In reality, the day-to-day survival of the modern worker demands a highly practical, hyper-aware consciousness sharpened by the direct, tangible impacts of inflation, stagnant wages, and labor exploitation on a daily basis. So-called intellectuals debate abstract theories, while workers focus on concrete actions. The pragmatism of the proletariat is often misread as a lack of sophistication; when in actuality it is a highly-focused and directed rejection of unhelpful idealism.
 
The outcome of the fundamental misreading by the intelligentsia manifests itself in an ‘own goal’ of conjuring the Illusion of Delusion. It begs the question that if workers possess a highly developed consciousness, then why does the widespread ‘delusion’ appear to persist? The answer lies not in the purported lack of intelligence of the working class, but in the systems that manage public perception.
 
Institutional media and education systems work aggressively to frame societal problems through an idealist lens. They promote the idea that individual attitude, rather than systemic structure, dictates success.  What appears to be delusional acceptance of status-quo ideology by the worker is actually cunningly masked tactical compliance. The worker often plays along with corporate or social expectations simply because keeping a job requires the appearance of conformity; not because they actually believe the imposed constrictive narrative.
 
The spurious claim that workers are delusional, in the idealist sense, rests on the false assumption that thoughts independently dictate social reality. A more precise perspective recognises that material conditions drive human consciousness. The worker is rarely deluded about their immediate reality; rather, they are deeply constrained by a highly manipulative system that rewards outward compliance while suppressing collective dissent.
 
To counter individual greed and the materialistic envy driven by collective anthropocentric narcissism, the worker must actively reset their mind-set from seeking external validation to the pursuit of internal satisfaction and non-attachment. Greed thrives on status-seeking behavior, perpetual dissatisfaction, and harmful social comparisons. Greedy impulses can be subjugated by implementing specific internal and behavioral strategies, reducing exposure to conspicuous consumption and high-prestige status signaling that triggers malicious envy, while actively disarming marketing tactics that deliberately exploit vanity, entitlement, and superiority. 

Posted by: General Factotum | Jun 19 2026 23:43 utc | 55

Checking out the young chicks LIVE … great nest – two every year …
 
Big Bear Bald Eagle Live Nest – Cam 1

Posted by: Don Firineach | Jun 20 2026 0:24 utc | 57

Posted by: John H9 | Jun 20 2026 0:32 utc | 58
They wrote on bamboo strips …
The earliest form of Taoism arose in Siberia 8,000 years ago – spread across the landbridge to Alaska and down through North and South America; also south into China, Japan, Korea and South East Asia. Core belief that there are two worlds – the material physical world and the spiritual world which exists beyond this world and sometimes pops into the material world. The Shaman could contact this other world and figure things out. The shamanists role in China is detectable through all periods of history – and in parts of rural China today under umbrella of folk Taoism. The greatest of the oracle books is the I Ching and the Tao Te Ching introduces the idea of the philosopher sage – who owes his origin to the shaman – who was also often the sage-ruler. Disaster in  213 BC when a tyrant ordered almost all ancient books to be destroyed …. and hundreds of Confucian scholars executed …. dictatorial mind control. Thankfully – many of the bamboo strips were hidden – to emerge later – . So, nothing premature about it – check it out.

Posted by: Don Firineach | Jun 20 2026 1:00 utc | 59

AI Economics for beginners.
 
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/ai-economics-for-dummies

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 20 2026 1:37 utc | 61

@Don@59: you don’t do irony.  

Posted by: John H9 | Jun 20 2026 5:03 utc | 63

I know everyone on this site isn’t Left, but for those who are some serious consideration:
Challenging Fantasies of BRICS and the US Empire in Decline
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2026/05/31/the-us-empire-is-in-decline/
 
We got no time for wishful thinking or ‘Hope’, the enemy of action.
 

Posted by: Iron Felix | Jun 20 2026 14:52 utc | 65

Oops! My #66 should be directed to:
 
Posted by: GreatLakesObserver | Jun 20 2026 10:27 utc | 64

Posted by: Don Firineach | Jun 20 2026 15:17 utc | 67

psychohistorian | Jun 19 2026 19:38 utc | 49—
 
The projection at the end of the cited tract is copied from the initial crusade against Communism and displays the degree of ignorance and immorality present as I wrote about on the Iran thread. Fortunately, there’s very little the dying Outlaw US Empire can do regarding China. By 2040, the modernization/tech gap will be very wide as American infrastructure collapses, particularly along the East Coast where cities are the oldest. China as a civilization state has lasted over ten-times as long as the USA has existed as a barbarian settler state and then Lawless Empire–there’s no civilization here as shown by those senators. 

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 20 2026 16:57 utc | 69

Posted by: John H9 | Jun 20 2026 15:18 utc | 68
 
“action” is mobilization of the working class in response to the class war being inflicted upon us. Hoping somebody will save us serves the bosses well. Obama played that game well.

Posted by: Iron Felix | Jun 20 2026 22:08 utc | 71

I welcome the materialists’ picture being outlined here and elsewhere. I happen to disagree on mostly epistemological grounds, but will not engage at this time. Let me just remark that the old bicker about idealism vs. realism/materialism is a historical McGuffin, and as such can be detrimental to organizing the political movement which many here await. My argument is pretty unusual, so I have no other means but to keep offering the view; maybe it’ll be picked up by some.
 
I will also thank Ahenobarbus for outlining his views on the history of ideas at 39, as they relate to his professed political stance. Again no engagement from me, but I shall note that this post makes it clear that the foundations of materialism aren’t exactly rock solid, which is a bit of a problem for ideologies wanting to base themselves on it. Not to disagree with the political angle here, but the conceptual foundation may be prone to bad arguments.
 
Well, that’s my view at least. I’ll have a chance to discuss it with the BSW people soon; am looking forward to it.

Posted by: persiflo | Jun 21 2026 7:47 utc | 73

John Gilberts | Jun 21 2026 8:28 utc | 74
*** Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos Says Human Water Consumption is Limiting AI’s Potential https://x.com/Kabiran_/status/2068228541741973777 “The billionaire’s vision of the world is a version without humanity.” Beware the oligarchs. ***
 
Maybe the Overclass intend a new version of Highland Clearances, forcibly transporting most people in the world to Mars. 
Which isn’t ready for habitation, but that’s just unfortunate.
 

Posted by: Cynic | Jun 21 2026 10:44 utc | 75

What is bizarre to me is that many people for some reason treat Materialism as being synonymous with greed. That exhibits a basic misunderstanding of the topic.
Posted by: William Gruff | Jun 19 2026 15:01 utc | 37
 
I think the confusion is due to the multiple definitions of materialism.
 
New Heritage gives these 3:

1. The theory that physical matter is the only reality and that everything, including thought, feeling, mind, and will, can be explained in terms of matter and physical phenomena.
2. The theory or attitude that physical well-being and worldly possessions constitute the greatest good and highest value in life.
3. Concern for possessions or material wealth and physical comfort, especially to the exclusion of spiritual or intellectual pursuits.

 
Since the days of beats and hippies definitions 2 & 3 have been considered worthy of scorn and I think definition 1 gets mixed up with 2&3 unless one is careful to be clear. Some mix them on purpose (e.g. Scorpion) to buttress their Idealism stance.
 

Posted by: waynorinorway | Jun 21 2026 11:42 utc | 77

In my opinion, no ontological position can assert epistemological certainty. All are merely models of an underlying reality that we inhabit as conscious beings. Any given ontological position held by an individual tends to correlate with their idiosyncratic psychological make up and tendencies. The same is arguably true for me.

However, I attempt to filter out my personal psychological prejudices. I am compelled to accept the world as it is, and not how I want or need it to be. I reach this conclusion: that philosophical materialism, as defined by waynorinnorway above (New Heritage – definition 1) is the model most congruent with the accumulated empirical evidence of the workings of the world. It is the most most parsimonious model. It is the most pragmatically helpful in making sense of the world and in conducting oneself in life.

Through the lens of of philosophical materialism I see that most of my fellows are not temperamentally inclined to agree with me. So it goes.

Posted by: Andrew Vincent Celestina | Jun 21 2026 15:18 utc | 79

Am I missing something or has the Oreshnik been a complete flop as a deterrent?

Posted by: Nasty Little Pool Pisser 💦😦 | Jun 21 2026 20:12 utc | 81

Whats the matter with your computers. Why are you asking your dumb questioms on here?

Posted by: arby | Jun 21 2026 21:56 utc | 83

@Iron@71: and that has worked exactly when?  

Posted by: John H9 | Jun 22 2026 13:09 utc | 85