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Cake day: June 2nd, 2023

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  • I used Solus for years, it was actually my first long time Linux distro, and I have fond memories from that time and deep appreciation of the project. Note that I say used, because I have moved on (to EndeavourOS and later NixOS).

    The reason why I moved on is the same as why I would recommend against Solus: the project have lost a lot of its core contributors. At the time I left there were no package updates for quite some time (used to be weekly).

    I am not quite sure Solus really got a future. There are talks about converging it with AerynOS, former SerpentOS, which is innovative but still experimental software built by the original team, i.e. those that left Solus in the first place. Though they are really proficient in making the software, I do not think they have the same skillset for securing longevity through contributions.

    In the end you should not care too much what people think. You will get the popular options for the intersection of Lemmy and Linux users, but popular is not always good nor what is right for you. Just try stuff and be ready to move a little through rigorous backups, you do have backups?


  • Urist@lemmy.mltoCommunism@lemmy.mlProtestation
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    13 days ago

    AES refer to acutally existing socialism in this context. I think most socialist have to go through some traumatic internal development in order to mature and and grow their political views. The main part of Marxist theory, as per my understanding of it (still learning), is to analyze the means of production through the view of historical dialectial materialism.

    I will explain these terms after a quick digression. The kernel of my belief in socialism is just the basic belief that every person by birth has the same right as me to have a good life. I also understand that earth’s resources are finite and that our means of production are as well (although increasing, historically).

    Thus the crux of the problem is this: If we both want something that is finite in supply, how does my gain not come at your expense? The answer is that it is not possible, which begs the question of who gets the pie? The easy answer is that we share it, but then how? This is where we begin to move away from morals and ethics and should start to analyze this objectively, more as a social contract. For me, that is what the origin of socialism is.

    Now, anyone born today has no part of any pie by right. Sure, some get bestowed something by their parents, but the truth is that all of earth is owned by someone or something (with few caveats). Who owns what is clearly a matter of history (usually those that owned something yesterday owns that and maybe even more today).

    So how does this fit in with the idea of a social contract that should serve the goal of an egalitarian society? It does not. It is clearly not in the direct personal interest (from a materialist point of view) for the people that own something to just give that stuff away and so we see that they don’t.

    I am already now hinting at the core Marxist idea of dividing people into classes according to ownership, since after all the poor have in common that they deserve a larger share and the rich have in common that they do not want to lose their wealth (after all it is finite at a global scale, so without the development of the means of production it is static). The unadressed term dialectical is in essence the study of contradictions within societies such as these, in order to solve them.

    From the historical point of view we see the rise of capitalism as a bourgeoisie revolution (against the prior feudal economic structure on which another societal structure rested). Marxists do not believe that the vehicle of this revolution was that some people started nailing messages on doors nor that somebody just woke up and wanted to free themselves of feudal tyranny and so did. They instead argue that the technological and material development forced a shift in power away from those that held landed power and over to the mercantilist bourgeoisie.

    Thus we only need to view the historical trend that the powerful rule, and the fall of feudalism seem almost inescapable. If we return to actual Marxist theory again, we can recognize that the means of production is dependant on a social class that does not really reap the full benefit from it: the workers. Analogously to the bourgeoisie revolution, we believe that the technological and materialist development of capital (i.e. the means of production) are what is needed for everyone to have enough to share, and that it must be wielded by the workers (the proletariat), whose interest it actually is to divide fairly among all people.

    I have tried to make this more colloquial, at the unfortunate expense of accuracy. However, if parts of this story resonates with you, you might just be a budding socialist yourself. I would either way implore you to analyze the world from the pragmatic point of “what if everyone did/had the same as me” even if you do not believe that we are all more or less equal. In the same line, if you think you are entitled to more than anyone else, how would you stop those that disagree they deserve less from taking your wealth? If you think you are entitled to defend your wealth by force, why are those that need commodities not entitled to take what they need by force.

    And thus we return to the necessity of a social contract or maybe just plain socialism.


  • Urist@lemmy.mltoCommunism@lemmy.mlProtestation
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    22 days ago

    I would urge you to think about the question of wether or not there is a “correct” way to attain socialism. I am not talking about hypothetically in a synthetic environment, but in the real world where the material gain of the proletariat comes at the expense of the bourgeoisie (and will until we arrive at gay space communism, which is again purely theoretical).

    How would you nationalize the resources and means of production of your country so as to distribute it fairly among the people? How would you stop those that resist on some stupid basis of “inalienable rights to private property” (🤢 btw)? If you are thinking about a country other than the US, how would you stop the hegemon from coming after you, either by assassination, invasion or both?

    It is easy to critique AES states based on a comparison to fantasy. If you think that you have theory that is not just pure speculation that can never be realized due to it inherently ignoring material reality, please share it.

    Note that I am not asking you to prove anything to me so that I can pick it apart at the seams while providing no viable alternative myself (that would be hypocritical with regards to the point I am trying to make). What I am asking is for you to consider this line of questions along with the specific historical material reality that have given way to say the PRC in particular.





  • No, it means only people with good pensions can retire early. Incidentally, this is by design those with high wages since these are the basis of earning pension. However, the ones that may actually need to retire early due to the stress of hard menial labor are not in this group of high earners.

    In effect we will see people at offices doing easy work close their pcs and have an office retirement party at an age of 65 that poor Olga of 70 years (or more) will have to clean up.


    1. Bleed the fish by cutting along the neck and splitting the heart in two.
    2. Gut the fish.
    3. Use a flexible and thin knife to cut along the rib bones in the belly starting from the neck.
    4. Follow the bones with the knife down toward the tail.
    5. Cut toward the back by following the bones with the knife.
    6. Cut the bone that lies in the side fin up toward the neck.
    7. Cut the bones from the dorsal fins.
    8. Use a pair of fish bone tweezers to pull out the bones running through the middle of the fillet.

    3-6 are the parts that require skill. 8 is only needed in some fish. Others have bones on the side that just go 1/3 of the way down and you can just cut that part out in a V formation.










  • Urist@lemmy.mltoSocialism@lemmy.mlCurious about socialism
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    3 months ago

    Thanks, @Cowbee@lemmy.ml for the usual thorough and detailed answers! Your effort to educate really is deserving of admiration.

    As a fellow Norwegian, @MoonlightFox@lemmy.world, I would also point out (not implying that you are in any way unaware) some of the mechanics of how the public sectors in Norway serve the private, and in turn how this undermines the social programs over time.

    In particular we are at a pivotal point with respect to our public healthcare system, where we have over time seen a rise in private clinics, culiminating in the somewhat recent “fritt behandlingsvalg”. In reality, the private healthcare providers serve to siphon resources from the public sector, while to a large degree giving less back to fewer people.

    In the propaganda of the bourgeoisie, private healthcare is good and necessary for dealing with increasing waiting times for treatments. In reality, they are one of the main causes of it. This is why we need to analyze the situation in terms of productive forces.

    1. We are educating doctors and nurses at a steep cost (I think one million kroner a year for each student of medicine per year amounting to six million for a degree).
    2. We have a shortage of people in key sectors such as the public “fastlegeordningen”, with near critical failure looming as the work load increases to a point where no one wants to be a part of this system anymore, due to the personal expense. This is further propagated by the alternative of fewer hours at a greater pay in private alternatives.
    3. The private sector can (over) charge both wealthy people for largely unnecessary treatments as well as hospitals that need to buy their services due to the increased load on the remaining people in the public sector. This answers how they can offer greater pay at fewer hours, by the way.
    4. The private sector only provide treatments that are comparatively simple, leaving the lengthy expensive ones to the public. Additionally, the public sector have to step in whenever complications with regards to a procedure happens, for which the public hospitals take all the cost. See the second point with respect to unnecessary treatments for rich people such as plastic surgery and the recent news for real context.

    All in all, my point was to demonstrate how the private healthcare providers prey on the public ones. This gives them an economical advantage that they in turn can use to increase their own surplus by taking and reducing (buying up) the publicly owned resources that were painstakingly developed by the state for public use.

    I could mention other stuff as well, but what is really, to me, interesting is how the overall production of health services declines due to increasing privatization. At the same time we put in more money from the public, from which the private firms extract the surplus value by design.

    All the while this is happening, the talking points in the political sphere is that private healthcare providers are the solution to the problem of deficient resources (productive forces that is, although it is not said aloud). In my view, this portrays some of the importance on why we need to educate ourselves and learn to analyze the mode of production from a materialist point of view. The how I think @Cowbee@lemmy.ml already have answered perfectly.