Fuck This Shit
Morning Comrades! Whenever I sit down and plan these longer, more thorough emails for Wednesdays I come across several stories that I want to spend time on and then before I know it, so much other mind boggling shit that exposes the insanity that we call “western democracy” comes up that more than several drafts end up being deleted. We are literally at that point, all a little overwhelming, I know, but rest assured, holding steadfast to the principles of scientific marxism, coupled with actionable humanism we will get out of this. I am convinced of this. A quote from Eugene Debs, often comes to mind when events seem to be piling on top of one another:
The Socialist does not stop to consider whether the change is coming next week or next month or next century. They know that it is coming, that is inevitable. They have taken their place as a class-conscious socialist, and they can never become anything else*
*I changed this to a gender neutral version.
With that, a few exciting news from the Black Lodges Merch department ( also me ) before I get into today’s topics.
The opening banner is going to be part of a very special release I have been working on for some time. I am not sure when then sample will be ready, soon, but until then, let’s just say: black, lined, nylon coach jacket and embroidery. Secondly, this weekend will see the Fuck This Shit graphic return for the continuation of the Fall Winter experiment in the shape of a hoodie as well as a special t-shirt to raise money for Doctors Without Borders.
The paying subscribers to this newsletter will be getting an early bird link on Thursday with their discount code and the drop will be released for everyone in Friday’s email.
A brief statement, triggered by some incredibly sad and upsetting local news. Similar to many countries in the “enlightened” west, the covid pandemic has unified anti-vaxxers with Qanon type conspiracy nuts. We have them here and they are a problem. I’ve never accepted or respected anti-vaxxers but truthfully, they are such a minority here in Germany that I also never gave them much thought. As soon as the pandemic started however, that odd group of people got together with a variety of mostly extreme right wing conspiracy nut jobs to outright violent fascists to loosely form a group called “Querdenker” that roughly translates “lateral thinkers” - a wonderful example of how language has been broken mostly into worthless jibberish. Irrespective of this worrying union, again, their numbers never exceeded anything that gave me genuine worry - however, similar to all right wing extremists, they represent a violent, loud, minority and every politician here, similar to the UK and the US couldn’t wait to pander to their extremism, utilizing their vocal protest to justify moving the entire narrative and action of the government to the far right.
A 20 year old person, working a night shift at a gas station on Saturday night was shot in the head and killed by an anti-vaxxer / Qanon person because entry to the gas station wasn’t permitted without a mask. The shooter cited precisely this mandate as his reason for killing a 20 year old person.
With that I want to be incredibly clear. Anyone that refuses to acknowledge the safety of the group as a primary responsibility and refuses to vaccinate on whatever non-medical grounds, anyone that facilitates the anti-vax to Qanon pipeline by refusing to stand up against these right wing fascist is now considered a threat to me and my comrades. I will leave it that.
I have written a great deal about Peter Thiel and his work in the past. I consider him to be one the greatest enemies to everything I hold dear and he is in the way of the future I want. Now the above article goes into great detail as to why he is such a threat, without really realizing this, but that’s not exactly the story here. No, rather it is the fact that Thiel is Zuckerberg’s mentor and much of what is wrong with the world comes down to the ideology of this person and subsequently the effect this has on Zuckerberg. This is the part I wanted to point your attention to:
In 2019, while on a trip to Washington to answer questions from Congress about his digital currency, Thiel joined Zuckerberg, Jared Kushner, Trump, and their spouses at the White House. The specifics of the discussion were secret — but, as I report in my book, Thiel later told a confidant that Zuckerberg came to an understanding with Kushner during the meal. Facebook, he promised, would continue to avoid fact-checking political speech — thus allowing the Trump campaign to claim whatever it wanted. If the company followed through on that promise, the Trump administration would lay off on any heavy-handed regulations.
After the dinner, Zuckerberg took a hands-off approach to conservative sites. In late October, after he detailed the policy in a speech at Georgetown, Facebook launched a news app that showcased what the company called “deeply reported and well-sourced” outlets. Among the list of recommended publications was Breitbart, Steve Bannon’s site, even though it had promoted itself as allied with the alt-right and had once included a section dedicated to “Black crime.” Facebook also seemed to go out of its way to help the Daily Wire, a younger, hipper version of Breitbart that would become one of the biggest publishers on the platform. Facebook had long seen itself as a government unto itself; now, thanks to the understanding brokered by Thiel, the site would push what the Thiel confidant called “state-sanctioned conservatism.”
If you needed more solid information as to why Facebook Inc, as well as the the rest of Silicon Valley is a net negative entity for humanity, I hope this settles it.
I am sure that everyone has heard horror stories in their mainstream medias about supply chains breaking down, shipping problems and so on. I know I have. I am feeling the effects of inflation here, as well as genuine break down in regards to supplies, shipping and so on. At the start of the pandemic everyone essentially just said “it’s because of Covid”, and whilst that is semi true, a deeper analysis was missing. Here you go. This is an incredible break down of what is actually going on and I find it hugely important to understand and keep an eye on. This is such an incredibly well researched piece that again, everyone even remotely interested needs to read through this.
With that, I am going to end this full bag of information and resources with a few hot shots. Enjoy, these are for you to share and pass along. Same with this newsletter by the way.