He/Him. Marxist-Leninist, Butcher, DnD 3.5e enthusiast and member of UCFW local 880. I administrate a DnD 3.5e West Marches server for Socialists called the Axe and Sickle. https://discord.gg/R5dPsZU

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Cake day: March 24th, 2022

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  • I’m part of a coalition trying to prevent a private equity firm from buying out a local nonprofit hospital and using AI to “Improve efficiency” is one of their plans that we’ve had to study (done by people much more competent than I).

    The main thing they plan to use AI for is filling out paperwork - nurses will record their introductory interviews with patients and the AI (basically, speech recognition + knowing what fields to fill out for certain information) will automatically fill out that patient’s chart.

    I’m sure they’re planning on using AI for other purposes as well, but this is the most prevalent use - speech recognition and filling out charts automatically.





  • There’s a word for this, the promotion of leaders based on merit instead of popularity - Technocracy. And it’s not a distinct ideology but a syncretic one that has been adopted by many groups with differing politics. The most prominent example would be the Technocratic faction of the People’s Republic of China, which was opposed to the Maoists back in the 50s and 60s; they argued for society to be led by experts instead of Democratically with a strong emphasis on Peasant participation (the standpoint of the Maoists). China today follows a moderate path taking from both factions.

    In the West, however, Technocracy is mostly associated with Liberals; however, I would argue that the modern Liberal view of Technocracy is fundamentally flawed, since it relies on Capitalism distributing wealth meritocratically (which Socialists understand is not the case).



  • Geographic Determinism overstates the role of geographic conditions in the development of society (though I think some people in the thread are making it out to be worse than it is).

    Dialectics are a useful framework for dissecting this problem. Geography does play a part in the development of human societies, but it is not the only part - there is also the world of ideas, individual people and events, and pure random chance.

    Geographic Determinism is almost the most extreme form of Historical Materialism - that material conditions are the absolute driver of societal development. This debate is useful in that it shows us Historical Materialism is not absolute - that the actions of individual people and groups, movements and inventions, do matter - even if the material conditions and class interests are always the more important factor.

    The “absolution of guilt” part is trickier. Marxism is not a moralistic ideology. If anything, GG&S hews more to the Marxist orthodoxy than many people in this thread. Marxism presumes that classes will always tend to act in their own class interests - that it is natural for the oppressor to oppress, and that it is up to the lower classes to secure their own power. White people were never going to feel guilty about colonialism - it is in their class interests to apologize for themselves in whatever small way they can to ease their conscience. To expect them to do otherwise is un-Marxist; it is un-Marxist to expect the upper classes to change society for you, instead of the oppressed class changing society proactively.





  • Lemmygrad is a space for Communists who support AES. If you do not support China, you’re probably correct that this instance is not for you.

    But I think you’ll find it’s a fine place to engage as long as you keep questions about the legitimacy of past and present Socialist experiments to the !communism101@lemmygrad.ml comm.

    The fact of the matter is that, while China does have billionaires, it is not an Oligarchy in the same way the United States or Russia is because these people do not hold the power in society. In China, the Communist Party does; and while you might say that the CPC overvalues its own bureaucracy and the so-called “Labor Aristocracy”, it still more-or-less represents Working Class values. There are laws in place that mandate certain proportions of Communist Party membership and leadership come from certain positions and industries specifically to avoid it becoming beholden to the very-rich.





  • Drewfro66@lemmygrad.mltoGenZedong@lemmygrad.ml*Permanently Deleted*
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    1 year ago

    Lemmy is an internet protocol, like Email. Just like anyone can start their own email server, anyone can start their own Lemmy “Instance”.

    An “Instance” is a website. It is wholly controlled by the people who run (or rent) the servers. “Lemmygrad.ml” is an instance. So is “Lemmy.world” and “Lemmy.ml

    Instances have Communities, which are like subreddits. But Instances can also “Federate” with each other, so you can see and comment on posts from your home instance on federated instances. This is why, when you’re browsing Lemmygrad’s front page with browsing set to “All” (instead of “Local” or “Subscribed”), you’ll see posts from “asklemmy@lemmy.ml” or “Fediverse@lemmy.world”.

    The developers of the Lemmy protocol are Marxists. They run their own instance, lemmy.ml, but it is not an explicitly ideological instance like lemmygrad.ml. There is a Nazi instance, exploding-heads. Most major instances do not federate with them, except the shitty “free speech” ones. There is no way to prevent Nazis from using Lemmy, because no-one owns Lemmy. It would be like trying to prevent Nazis from using Email.

    Lemmygrad federates with most instances, except porn instances and fascist instances. Many instances choose not to federate with Lemmygrad due to “Tankie” hysteria.