On The Left Side of Things

 Recently, Joe Biden finally  came out in support of lifting patent protections on COVID-19 vaccines, allowing other countries to use information related to the structure of the vaccine in order to develop their own. This is something that Biden promised to do during his campaign if a vaccine was developed. For the past two months, people have been pressuring the Biden administration to do so, and Biden has finally relented. During the last month, over 360 thousand people died worldwide of COVID, meaning that Biden's refusal to act quicker resulted in more completely avoidable deaths. Of course, not all of those could have been prevented, but if vaccines were allowed to be distributed worldwide earlier, then we would not see cases and deaths continue to be at this level. But, of course, Biden did come around on the issue eventually. However, most of Europe hasn't yet. Rich countries are choosing to protect big companies over poor people, as is expected under capitalism. Not al...

Today is Karl Marx's 203rd birthday, and although Marx died in 1883 at the age of 64, his ideas are still important today and have played a large role in what I believe about politics, economics, and society. I am a socialist and a Communist because of the work and theory that was done by Karl Marx and subsequent interpretations and implementations of his work. On this day, 203 years from when he was born, I have decided to list some of Marx's works that I think are must-reads or are at least important to learn about and understand, and to provide some places to learn about Marxist ideas online. Happy birthday, Marx! Wage-Labour and Capital I consider Wage-Labour and Capital to absolutely be a must-read in Communist theory. This is a fairly short work, and it outlines components of capitalism, namely, as the title suggests, how wage labor works. It can be pretty didactic at times, as Marx tends to get, but it is important in understanding how labor is valued under capitalism a...

This is probably pointless to write, as very few people will read it and the majority of those who will will already know this, but it still feels important to do, as the level of misunderstanding surrounding socialism in American political discourse is just insane. Politicians like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have popularized the term and increased support for broadly progressive policies, but they have also helped to introduce many moderates and progressives to a nonsensical view of socialism and a lack of understanding of what it is. Despite the fact that members of this progressive wing are easily the best figures in American politics, they are not socialist, and it is important to understand what socialism is and why it should be supported. A very basic definition of socialism is a system in which the means of production are owned collectively, rather than individually. Under capitalism, capitalists own the means of production (factories, land, etc.) and use the la...

In 2020 I kept a full list of the books that I read for the first time ever. I completed 30 books in 2020, which, while not as many as I wanted to read, is definitely more than I read in 2019 and sets a good baseline for what I can beat in 2021. I thought that it might be a good idea to list the books that I read here, along with a number rating for each one. I won't say anything about each book, besides the number, just to make sure this post doesn't go on for too long.  This post will definitely be longer than mine tend to be, and much less interesting, but I like the idea of posting my lists here at the end of every year to document what I read.  1. The Chosen - Chaim Potok 5/5 2. The Screwtape Letters- C.S. Lewis 3/5 3. The Stranger - Albert Camus  4/5 4. Eleven Rings - Phil Jackson 3/5 5. Overthrow - Stephen Kinzer 5/5 6. The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels  4.5/5 7. Ways of Seeing - John Berger 5/5 8. Wage-Labour and Capital - Karl Marx 5/5...

Every election we hear that America is growing more and more polarized politically and that this is a huge problem dividing the American people. "People used to be able to agree." "Even if you disagreed with each other, you were still Americans." According to these people, now American political polarization has gotten so bad that nobody can agree on anything, and the solution proposed is bipartisanship and moderate centrism that makes everyone gets along. Unity is the most important thing. Now, part of the claim is true. In some sense, America is  more politically polarized. But this polarization isn't something that is simultaneously happening at both ends, with Democrats moving drastically left and Republicans drastically right, it's something that is happening at only one end. The Republican party and Republican voters have been moving further to the right, while Democrats have mostly stayed exactly the same, save a few members of government that the est...

Recently, high-profile Democrats have come out against the slogan of "Defund the Police". Obama recently said that it's a bad slogan because it caused the Democrats to lose support and it's "divisive". I've been seeing a lot of Democrats complaining that the slogan is somehow "unclear" or could easily be misconstrued. I've seen other slogans be floated, most commonly "Reform the Police". The idea is that a slogan like that is more honest, more easily attainable, and less divisive. However, the criticisms from prominent liberals aren't backed by anything of value.  First off, Obama doesn't like "Defund the Police", not because he's worried about it being divisive, but because he is against the idea. Barack Obama, and the Democrats as a whole, are pro-police. They are pro-cop and they are pro giving the cops more money. Biden even ran on increasing  police budgets, showing that it isn't an issue of messagin...

  Jeremy Corbyn was just suspended by the Labour Party over remarks that he made about a report concerning Labour Party antisemitism. Corbyn said that the report was exaggerated for political reasons, which it was, and the Labour Party opted to punish him with suspension. There has been antisemitism in the Labour Party, of course, and Corbyn has never denied its existence. He, however, has not been the perpetrator and claims made in the report are overblown.  Why has Corbyn been labelled an antisemite? All paths lead to one reason: he supports Palestine and Palestineans over the Israeli apartheid state. In the UK, like the USA, this is all that it takes to be labelled as antisemitic. Even Bernie Sanders, a man who openly takes pride in his Jewish heritage, has been called antisemitic because of his criticism of Israel and support of Palestine. This needs to be made abundantly clear: being against the state of Israel does not mean being against the Jewish people. Being against ...

A week ago the Bolivian MAS ( Movimiento al Socialismo   or Movement Towards Socialism ) party won the Bolivian presidential election by a majority, and Luis Arce, a cabinet member of former president Evo Morales, will be Bolivia's next president. If you've been keeping up with the news surrounding Bolivia, you know that in November 2019, Morales was ousted by a U.S. backed coup to protect lithium interests. Morales was the president of Bolivia from 2006 to the coup and increased GDP while decreasing poverty, enfranchising more indigenous peoples, and nurturing a Bolivian economy that has suffered under military dictatorships, colonial repression, and neoliberal capitalist economic policies for decades. All of this has been written about exhaustively, and the election of Arce shows the true popularity of Morales and MAS in Bolivia. Most importantly, it is a sign of hope for Latin America and those on the left in general. I think that there are lessons that we can learn from Bol...

First off, sorry that I haven't posted in a while. I haven't really had any ideas about what to post and I've had things to do these past two weeks.  For as long as I can really remember, I've had issues with anxiety in one form or another. When I was little, I would worry that my parents had died when they had left the house and been gone for longer than I had expected. I would worry about nearly every aspect of myself and whether people would want to be my friend or not. I was insecure and anxious at a very young age, and now that I'm 17 and living in the worst year ever, there are more real things to be anxious about than ever before, so I'm even more anxious about the things that I don't need to worry about as well. Since March 19, I've left my house probably around five times, maybe slightly more than that. All the hours spent in my house have been filled with worry: about the pandemic, about school, about politics, about whatever else I can find it...