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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 18th, 2023

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  • I hear you, especially because there is a lot of pressure from the right to destroy public education outright – But I didn’t really say much about what a school system could/should provide? Only what it currently does not provide, at least in the US. It’s a pessimistic take, for sure, but the reality is so bad here that if I had to choose, my (nonexistent) kid would be home schooled. For sure, the current system could be improved a whole lot simply with more teachers (or adults), I’d guess, taking part in the learning experience – but not completely fixed.

    I’m focused on the learning environment because in my view, a schools primary purpose is to impart knowledge through learning. I don’t think that purpose can be achieved without an environment conducive to learning. Throwing all the kids in a community into a building with little adult supervision, where they cannot leave for 6 hours, where they must move when the bell tolls, where they have to deal with the myriad social issues of a young person – that is not a physical environment conducive to learning. A compulsory curriculum with graded assignments and examinations does not, IMO, make a kid (me) open to knowledge – it makes him aware of conditional acceptance and a hierarchy of accomplishment. At best, it makes him want to get a good grade, or be in good standing with the teacher. And he will! But all he’ll learn is, as I said, how to find out what the teacher wants and give it to them.

    Now that I’m older, I’m finding I missed out on a whole lot of good books, for example, because I was compelled to read them for a class, rather than curious to find out what was inside them. In classic capitalist fashion, I did the most efficient thing when I was in school: I read a summary of the books online and nailed the tests.

    Obviously, there are also the secondary purposes of school, like learning acceptable socialization and conflict resolution strategies, but, as I said, dumping 10 kids to 1 teacher (and even this is a relatively low ratio) in a classroom is not going to be conducive to learning these things. They ought to be learned, for sure, but school as it is now fails at this and only outputs trauma and a stratified student body – the exact thing you’re thinking school should prevent! The whole structure of public schools here teaches that there are good students and bad students, that the good students are rewarded and the bad students are punished or, at best, ignored. There are parallels there, in my view, with how we treat the disabled, the sick, the imprisoned, the poor, or anyone whose ability does not fit neatly into the structure we’ve provided (capitalism) that our current school system feeds into.

    sorry for the novel lol.


  • I think its because both need to house a large amount of individuals in as small a space as acceptable to the outside society. But also, both are ultimately mechanisms of authority that shirk their supposed goals of education on the one hand and restitution/rehabilitation on the other.

    Related, perhaps unpopular opinion: It’s outright silly how we expect a good learning environment to come out of putting all of our socially unformed minds into one big facility, with little behavioral supervision (10-to-1, 15-to-1, or worse), and compel them to move from location to location by a bell, and to perform rote memorization in order to meet some metric of success. It’s sillier how we expect children to come out of this environment socially well-adjusted, having learned something of value, without psychological trauma, besides the experience of navigating a system of hierarchical authority. You know the wisdom passed down by my liberal (using liberal here in a very strict sense – NOT necessarily left leaning) Catholic father, who ostensibly would defend the value of educating the public (though, perhaps not the value of public education)?

    “Find out what the teacher wants and give it to them.”



  • I get it works in the context of the plot, the characterization just didnt work for me. When I say he’s underpowered, what I mean is I wish there were more moments where he’s SUPERMAN and not just a super guy. There weren’t many of those WOW moments, to me, where you and all the other characters are just astounded by his raw power. He struggles through the whole movie and that’s just not the version of Superman I like, I guess.

    The JLU animated series version is more how I see Superman so that’s kinda the model I judge the live action movies against


  • Sure they’re bemoaning the failing state, but in doing so they’re glorifying State power – maybe that’s a better way to put it. But again, inspiration from community and anger at the State aren’t mutually exclusive – and the author making it out like they are is simping for the State imo.

    I think we probably also have a disconnect because I tend to think of the State as an unjust centralization of power that is extremely vulnerable to this exact sorta thing happening, rather than a mechanism to execute the will of the people. Even if you’ve wrangled it enough to provide some material good to normal folk – look how fast it can be taken away at a whim. Communal acts tell me first that free relations between individuals are possible (plausible, or maybe inevitable?) outside of the context of Government and Market, that the Government and the Market are not as inevitable as we’re taught to believe – so I think that there is hope there. Hopefully that kinda illustrates what I’m saying better.

    But I do see how a liberal or a socialist may say, “anger first” in this context, so I hear you. Just not that way for me.


  • I hear you, but weirdly enough I feel the opposite! I do get that the hope and optimism part was severely lacking in MoS, and it’s more present in Gunn’s new movie. But I kinda think of Superman as the wooden goodie-two-shoes of the JLU animated series, and to me Henry Cavill did that better than David Corenswet did. I feel like the Superman from Gunn’s movie is kinda underpowered and a little too “normal quirky funny nerd guy” rather than the straight-edge force of nature I feel like JLU Superman is. I feel like MoS almost got that, but then injected a bunch of sadness and desaturation which brought it down a bit


  • But I never said it was more reasonable for people to bypass the state, especially, as you say, a state as large and rich as the US. Im specifically saying that the denial of even granting these communities the terms “inspirational” or “resilient” is Statist, particularly because the fact that wood banks are resilient and the fact that it’s bad thing that State institutions are failing are not mutually exclusive, while the author asserts that, since these acts are indicative of a failing State, they are neither inspirational nor resilient. It’s just a fallacy.

    You can avoid the glorification of private solutions to public problems while also granting that a community that engages in communal acts is a good thing.

    And that’s great that it’s happening, but it’s shifty that the government, ostensibly the representative of the community, can’t institutionalize what is clearly the will of the community

    Yes ^^ but, to me, expected – when your politicians rely on boats of money to get elected, they are beholden to the money and not the community. Especially now it seems, the clear will of the community in the US is of less value than the will of the large donor.








  • subversive punk is still around. It’s still politically leftist. Jeff Rosenstock and his fans are pretty anarchist in ethos. Go to one of his shows, you’ll find a whole lot of messaging about solidarity, mutual aid, building better world, fuck the police, etc. His lyrics aren’t always about politics but they have an anti authoritarian edge.

    There’s Infinity Knives x Brian Ennals who are mixing punk and hip hop in a very in your face political way and theyre GREAT.

    Viagra boys are a pop punk who satirize the alt-right, especially in their album Cave World.

    Mount Eerie is a noisy folk band that dabbles in some punk aesthetic – their most recent albums contains themes of decolonization and anti-war.

    Honningbarna just came out with an amazing record called Soft Spot that has some leftist political themes, but not as overt as the others. Amazing sound though. Maybe more Hardcore than punk.

    There is no centralized counter culture because the media landscape is so different now. There’s no radio to all listen to together. Communities are pretty isolated online. There are advantages and disadvantages. At the very least, decentralization of the counter culture prevents it from ever being squashed completely. On the other hand, decentralization makes it harder for people to see, and cause them to lose hope and feel alone. But as another said, you’re here, aren’t you?



  • He got it in Croatia btw. To me, it’s plausible he didn’t know. He seems to have gotten progressively more disillusioned by his time in the military. Comments from 2018 like

    If people “expect to fight fascism without a good semi-automatic rifle, they ought to do some reading of history,” he wrote in one since-deleted post. In another, he said that “an armed working class is a requirement for economic justice.”

    don’t scream secret nazi to me. People comparing him to Fetterman is kinda silly to me considering Platner has called what’s going on in Gaza a genocide while Fetterman is a still supporter of Israel.

    There’s a source out there, I guess, that claims they talked to Platner and he explicitly referred to his tattoo as “my totenkopf” but its an anonymous source who spoke to zionist publication Jewish Insider, so idk. Seems hit job-y to me.

    Then again what the fuck do I know. The water is pretty muddy and its a terrible look regardless.