I think we can all agree the spirit of the Empire has changed or shared hands many times throughout history. We can all agree a fundamental root of Western imperialism is the Roman Empire. We can also point to the United States as the clear holder of the title today, and more recently to the British, French, Spanish, and the like. The Nazi Empire was Germany's attempt to seize the reins.

However, it is hard for me to pinpoint the missing link between the Romans and the developed Christendom/ renaissance/ colonial/ industrial Western powers. Could one be the Vikings?

I am not an expert on the Vikings, but at a glance, it seems to check out. They are romanticized by white culture despite being a violent society--I understand they also foraged and farmed and made art, but they were famous for raiding, raping, murdering, pillaging, burning, and enslaving. There is reasons the Nazis popularized and the middle class whites of today maintain the idea that blonde-haired blue-eyed pale people are the ultimate human form, and the Nordic countries are seen as paradise, the ideal all leftwing imperialist liberals aspire to, despite to this day being functionally aspiring ethnostates. Vikings are not only celebrated in mainstream media, but all the white supremacist fascists love adorning themselves and their imagery with Viking aesthetics. Many Neo Nazi narrators invoke the Vikings as inspiration to the spirit of the legendary White Man™️ they must uphold. It seems their pagan religion was subsumed into the imperial Christian Church, but how did imperial Christianity subsume its neighbors? By integration, perhaps in this case, by taking warlike aesthetics from paganism and cutting off the harmony with nature.

My history knowledge here is a little vague, but didn't they essentially invade and take over England? So, would that not make the British--the closest to a post-Roman pre-USian singular pilot of Western hegemony--spiritually a lovechild of the Romans and the Vikings who both colonized them? In this way, Britian was much like the United States; original inhabitants slaughtered or subjugated, with a myriad of wicked societies forming a ghoulish beast together, no?

I am definitely no expert on the various histories at play here, so I wanted to see what comrades here think about this narrative.

We saw about this time a year or two ago, that the USA was manufacturing a lot of propaganda to manufacture consent for war in Haiti.

Like all good Machiavellian strategists, they have let the first wave of propaganda sit and ferment, allowing some people, some mass conscious pioneers that act as emissaries to the public with the will of the Empire, to familiarize themselves with Haiti's existence.

Now, a second wave has begun, and with greater reach and intensity. I think we can expect more tangible actions intended than a smattering of Kenyan militia being sent to Haiti--after it is established that the American public and its bleeding heart liberals have expressed approval of a "humanitarian mission."

Now is the time to educate ourselves, our comrades, and those within our sphere of influence as individuals and as a group about Haiti, its long past of brutal invasion consisting of mass murder, rape, and looting by the USA, the UN, and European powers, the actual situation of the "gang problems" cited by the USA as justification for military action, and the Haitian leadership.

The white supremacist empire has never forgiven Haiti for freeing itself by the blood of slave masters, and they have spent a century punishing them for their bravery, audacity, and dignity.

This is the exact blueprint for "cartel violence" the the USA is creating and then citing to build casus belli against Mexico.

If we can get ahead of the wave, it will save us a lot of headache in fighting the psychological war for American hearts and minds, not just for Haiti, but for Mexico, and all the other last-ditch-effort blundering invasions the dying empire will lash out with in the final act of its existence.

I have no idea why I've never shared these! I attended a meeting last year, all the speakers were charismatic and knowledgeable and the Black-led ML group is targetted by the FBI (a sign of their effectiveness, to me).

What do ya'all think?

Here's the latest I got:

>Uhuru! > >The Hands Off Uhuru Fightback Coalition is organizing a web event on the 2-year anniversary of the Russian/Ukraine war entitled: "The Bold Anti-War Statement That Sparked the FBI Raids" > >Sat Feb 24th 2:00pm - 4:30pm (EST) > >Register at: handsoffuhuru.org/register > >Will you join us tomorrow?

Got an ask on my Tumblr:

And honestly, I have not a clue. Does anybody know how to answer this?

I will be giving anonymous credit to anyone helping me with this, unless you'd like explicit credit, but I know most everyone here values their anonymity.

What kind of mental illness is it when I avoid with a passion all my messages and notifications across every app and website, I put letters marked "URGENT" in a giant pile and refuse to open them, my phone recieving a call makes me hideously upset, I have a hundred small things I need to do that would all take 5-60 minutes and yet I avoid all of them, I miss people and I crave socializing and yet every opportunity that presents itself to me feels like some terrible dread, I agonize for weeks, months, years over a message I never got back to and then send some long winded apology, re-opening contact with an old friend, only to sharply ghost them and repeat the process for another 1-5 years.

WHY THE FUCK DO I DO THIS

I listened to the whole album the single is from, very emotional very good music if you're into high effort and artistic hip pop

Obviously, there is nothing to celebrate about a far-right leader vowing to make the lives of everyday Germans worse, and to treat Arab refugees like Undesirables. But Germany being such a core component of the EU, them leaving would be a blow to US consolidation and use of them and the greater EU as vassals, no?

I hate our hyper individualist society. It pits us against each other as enemies, and pushes us all to become isolated and have to completely fend for ourselves in all avenues. This is ridiculously counter-productive. As a social unit we fill in each others gaps; maybe you provide good food and good laughs, someone else knows how to fix a fridge, someone else reminds us to file our taxes. We as individuals are puzzle pieces that perform best when we pick up the slack of others where we are most capable, and in turn others help us in areas we lack development in.

In many ways I fall into a stereotypical 2020s archetypal person: smart, socially aware enough, but with a natural tendency to avoid conflict, even at my own expense. This society raised me to defer not to those deserving of defference, but merely to whomever projects the most confidence. I was trained to excessively say "I'm sorry," to not voice when I am upset, to bite my tongue and build resentment, to react to others' initiative.

If this is relatable in any ways to you, I want you to know that positive change away from this naturally ingrained behavior is possible, just like any maladaptive pattern. I have spent years working on it, and although I am still clunky and awkward about better advocating for myself, it has slowly become less of a Herculean task and I am slowly enjoying small fruits budding from trying to change my course.

I am refusing to say "I'm sorry" unless I truly have something to say "I'm sorry" about. I am firmly saying "no" to people even when they destroy our entire relationship in protest. I am speaking my mind even when I am threatened with being fired or being hurt. I accept whatever losses come my way because it isn't half as damaging in the long term as what passivity and fealty got me. I have gotten a raise, I have gotten some respect from my peers...I don't even like the respect, it feels like a toxic sort of respect typical for our society's dynamic, but, hey, it is a more useful tool to my goals than being dismissed or taken advantage of or invisible. People try and gaslight me, they try and tell me I am aggressive, a liar, fickle, volatile, all to try and put me back in my place when I gently assert for myself; genuine positive assertion is unusual in this society. But I continue on. I lose those who were poisonous to me to begin with and I gain the respect of those whose being and values and goals more align with my own. I have gotten in shouting matches, I have had people point guns at me over the pettiest things. I struggle most of all when I see how these people are just hurt and were never taught a better way of living and socializing. It is deeply tragic but you cannot save every individual person. You cannot give give give and give, they will take take take and take like a drowning man but the second you leave they are right back to thrashing in the water; they recieved nothing constructive, you only fed them for a moment. We as communists must focus on how to not drown ourselves and how to make life vests. We cannot be caught by individuals, no matter how pitiable their case, and be relegated to serfdom to those who will never return the favor like this. You can't buy friends, you can't buy respect. You can't even buy a platform to advocate on. You can't buy ears, eyes, hearts or minds. Being assertive for yourself first and foremost sounds like a gross individualist pursuit, at least to me, and maybe it is. But it is necessary to float in this world. We cannot complain how things are, that will not change anything, we can only seek power to change this wicked society, and before we can join together our power in organization we need power as individuals in this hyper individual battle royale.

Whether for your personal life, professional life, or for your revolutionary life, I hope if you are anything like I was (and in many ways still am), you will take seriously the need to become a more assertive person. There will be lots of fear, embarassment, threats, and pain on this path. You may lose connections and opportunities and stability in your life. But it is the foundation from which you as an individual person will be a greater actor, and both you, everyone around you, and the causes we believe in will benefit from it.

I don't know if ya'all have heard much of or used Tumblr, but a user on there called Worker Solidarity posts high effort nitty gritty Ukraine war updates like this one which have been really interesting and informative to me. Thought it was time I shared!! Check out their blog for more!!

A good collection of some general tips, despite the speaker not being our friend.

Going off the "prepping" topic a week or so ago, I think we in the West should try to learn and train these sort of skills, even lightly, now, while collapse/revolution is still likely some ways off.