The media is complicit. That includes social media.

#yinzers will understand

The prophets from many different traditions have taught that we should love even our enemies. But I've never heard any of them instruct us to love systems of oppression, nor the brainwashing ideologies that sustain them.

Sure, but capitalism still outperforms socialism at expanding the wealth gap, overthrowing democracies, exploiting workers and human trafficking.

The fact that Mamdani is seen as such a radical says a lot more about how far right the Democrat party has shifted than it does about him. None of the policies he has proposed so far would be seen as unusual or unacceptable even among center right parties in Europe.

It’s no wonder that a country that thinks Dick Cheney is a champion of democracy thinks a center left moderate like Mamdani is a far left radical

Mamdani is better than the alternative, but a reformist imperialist is still an imperialist. We’d all love food aid and public transportation and affordable child care. But if we’re only going to get those things living in a Zionist police state invading Venezuela then we’ve got a long way to go.

No one would accept this system if we hadn’t been born into it and propagandized from birth. This isn’t “human nature.” This is a brainwashing of the masses. Because without our belief, the people that run our lives become regular people again, just like us.

There is only the ruling class and the rest of us, and they will do ANYTHING to keep it that way

South Side Cemetery offers some of the most beautiful skylines in the city #pittsburgh #carrick

It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding; And to the open-handed the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving. -Khalil Gibran, “The Prophet”

If they’re going to hit us in our pockets then it’s time we hit back. #Community first ✊

Stumbled into a debate among liberals over whether a war with Venezuela was going to be an effective response to our drug problems. So… You’re just gonna accept the stated purpose for war? As if fascists have good intentions but they’re misinformed? No wonder there’s no resistance in this country.

Everyone prefers non-violence. We’d all love to live in that world. But here’s a question: If we knew that oppressor was planning to be violent toward us - if you could read about it ahead of time - would we still wait around to let them get all of their pieces into place rather than act?

When you went to school, I’ll bet you were taught that communists want to take all of your rights away. It was projection, of course. Those that have taken your freedoms from you have always been the capitalists right here at home.

Serious question: If this is our future if we don’t resist, then what are we risking by resisting? I understand that most of us don’t want to risk our lives. But we need to consider what kind of lives those will be if we allow things to continue as they are.

Today’s reminder that if you aren’t trying to replace the entire system you aren’t resisting fascism

The presumption the fascists make is that your desperation will cause you to become more submissive, more compliant. Understand that if we respond to the SNAP situation with passivity, we are essentially encouraging them to do worse.

The silver lining of nuclear war is that we won’t need all those benefits they’ve cut. Also, I would personally prefer to be vaporized instantly to living out my life in a labor camp.

Lovely sky pic from a hike the other night

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll see that the one thing the Democrat party has been doing consistently since Inauguration Day is telling us that we can’t do anything to stop fascism except throw parades and vote. No one has benefited more from this messaging than the fascists.

One of the reasons we struggle to resist fascism in America is because so many of us haven’t broken our childhood conditioning to confer moral authority upon the ruling class and its agents of enforcement, while looking down on the poor and blaming them for the problems they face each day.

This has always been the plan: Build labor camps, arrest immigrants, expand the wealth gap until the working class can’t survive day to day, use all of the advanced surveillance technology and bloated police force to arrest every desperate hungry person, end up with a system of oligarchs and slaves.

If I’ve learned one thing in 47 years of working on myself, it’s that people are capable of improvement. We absolutely can do better in how we treat ourselves, each other, and the world around us. This is what prevents me from giving up on the world. We must recognize that it’s all in our hands.

The amount of cognitive dissonance required to shame welfare recipients for taking without working while simultaneously giving a pass to people that hoard all the world’s resources while never laboring for any of it would be shocking - if we weren’t the most propagandized people in world history.

If you’re selfish, if you’re callous, if you’re willing to lie and cheat, if you’ll stomp on everyone beneath you while kneeling to those above you, if you prioritize profit above nature and humanity then you’re more likely to succeed in a system that rewards those traits. It’s that simple.

I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you can’t have an easy, comfortable, risk-free life AND fight fascism. I know it isn’t fair. I wish it was different, too. But that’s the reality. Oh, and one more thing: Choosing not to fight doesn’t guarantee they won’t come for you anyway.

Our cities are militarily occupied, people are getting taken away and human trafficked, SNAP is expiring, we’re still arming a genocide and we’re starting a war with Venezuela. But you’re mad they tore down part of the White House?

Under capitalism, people will unironically tell you that the cure to your own exploitation is to become the exploiter. This is how poisoned our minds have become. This is what “freedom” means to sick people.

Spending on deadly weapons for ICE has increased by 700% this year. Food benefits are about to vanish. You can see what they’re up to if you just look. This is not a situation that magically fixes itself while we sit on our hands. Passivity will be our undoing.

These programs that aren’t currently funded due to the government shutdown, most of them are going away or being significantly rolled back in future budgets. If you don’t know how you’re going to make it in November, just wait for 2026 and beyond. When do we decide enough is enough?

At some point, as a rational adult you have to recognize that you have been duped. It’s all been lies from the empire. Everything American and Israeli politicians tell you is a lie meant to keep that military industrial complex running, the bombs dropping, and the cash flowing.

Freedom comes at a price, but the alternative will cost you much more.

Framing is everything. Capitalist media constantly frames the worst consequences of capitalism as natural and unavoidable - human nature - so that you won’t blame the system and won’t push for change.

Hellooooo Brooklyn-err uhh Brookline! #Pittsburgh is a beautiful city to walk, and you’ll get a workout on these hills.

We love the devil, actually. He’s such a perfect scapegoat. You can get away with anything if you just place the blame elsewhere.

FTR I address so many of my posts to liberals not to feel smart or morally superior but because many of our goals are the same. We want a lot of the same things, but I want libs to take a hard look at the Democrat party and its oligarch donors and ask themselves if it can or even would help us.

OK, so hear me out… If all of these people refused to go to work until their demands were met, we’d get our Medicaid and SNAP back by Halloween. It’s not that we don’t have power - just look at these pictures and see. They’ve just got you wasting it on parades.

Functionally, the protest - and the Dem party - exist to hide the real problem, and to transform revolutionary energy back into passivity and compliance. There is no fascism without capitalism/imperialism (which Dems support.) The system itself is the source of oppression, not the “king.”

Liberals would have you believe that what John Brown should have done was throw a parade

No Kings isn’t a protest, it’s a parade… a Democrat party rally aimed at neutering all the rage and frustration people are feeling. The main goal - quite clearly - is to convince liberals to maintain order. But in a fascist nation, what does it mean to maintain order? Who does that order support?

It is important for all of us to understand that any opinion contrary to theirs will get you labeled as a terrorist (they have said as much) and any action you take against them - however non-violent - will be labeled as violence.

So… what are we going to do when our water bills start rising by hundreds of dollars a month? We’ve already got shortages in some areas… what happens when the whole country has to ration water? Isn’t the something we should be trying to prevent before it is completely out of hand?

Listen, I know that you’re addicted and you could probably quit every other drug more easily than your phone. But every time you see something like this, you should close the app immediately. That’s the only thing that will make them stop.

Everywhere in the world, people are suffering and dying because of American imperialism. It’s not enough to resist Trump. We must fundamentally change what we are as a nation.

I’m not sure there’s a better example of planned obsolescence than $200 earbuds that stop holding a charge after six months. For this we wreck the environment, exploit workers and even fight wars… so that you can stick it in a landfill and buy another set ASAP.

Corporations invite them here because they can force them to work for low wages, long hours in unsafe conditions, knowing they’ll never unionize because they’re under the constant threat of deportation. It’s not just that you’re mad at the wrong people. You’re not mad at the ones you should be.

The truth is always going to sound crazy to anyone that has never in their life questioned the official narrative.

What do you call a politician that pays lip service to progressive ideals but whose primary goal is to preserve the hierarchy with all its injustices? Mamdani is not a revolutionary. He’s not even a social democrat. He’s just another liberal. He’s the illusion of progress that enables the empire.