izzy's playlists!
Misplaced Lens Cap
Not today Justin
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
Cosimo Galluzzi
Xuebing Du
art blog(derogatory)
NASA
The Stonewall Inn
No title available
$LAYYYTER
The Bowery Presents
trying on a metaphor
Noah Kahan
Andulka
h
No title available
★
#extradirty
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Panama
seen from United States
seen from Ecuador
seen from Indonesia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Canada
seen from Türkiye
seen from Bangladesh
seen from India
seen from Ecuador
@demiseautomaton
Israel says it's suspending humanitarian organizations that have failed to meet its new rules to vet international groups working in Gaza.
30 December 2025
This left only Gaza based mutual aid networks. That's why you need to donate to the following aid groups on recurring basis:
The Sameer Project
Dahnoun Mutual Aid
Mona's Initiatives
Hussein Team
Since the start of 2026, the civil defence in Gaza cannot pay wages for its workers who received only 656 USD since then. How can someone live 7 months on this amount? The European Union and so-called human rights organisations treat civil sectors employees of Gaza as Hamas and never fund their efforts in any capacity which imperils them and their lives, as we have seen in the systematic targeting of these civil servants. I have also been told by sources on the ground that one police member earns only 325 USD in three months. Police members have been conflated with Hamas to justify murdering them. They have been the subject of one of the most brutal terror campaigns falsely labelled as Hamas. Help civil rights to flourish in Gaza. Donate to the Gaza municipality to keep its indispensable operations going for people. Share and donate now: gaza-city.org/campaign/1
It takes a little bit of effort but it should be possible to send money through your banking app. The SWIFT code and all details are in the link above.
This is urgent because Israel has planned to shut down Gaza banks in August.
The highlands of Paektu
“When the people have to live on foxtail millet, we must also eat foxtail millet.”- President Kim Il Sung
skorea has introduced a new ai tool for monitoring "defectors" from the north, under the guise of mental health checks
"no one is owed anything, except for me who is owed your money"
this might be a bit of a shock for american authors but your right to your intellectual property does not take precedence over our right to read whatever the fuck we want and your shit wouldn't be half as popular as it is if it weren't for piracy
I don't know this author or her work & also this is going to get me crucified but she is 100% right. The idea that you should be able to use the fruits of someone's labor for free is entitlement. For some reason everyone on this "leftist" site forgets that if someone does not get to reap the (financial) rewards for their own work, that is a form of injustice and will lead to alienation.
Yes, you can make very valid arguments for pirating textbooks, medical texts or other books that are necessary for your survival or the betterment of your life. But as everyones derogatory comments in the notes already show, we all know Booktok books don't fall in that category. If you think you have a right to read because reading will make you more intelligent or empathetic, you still must admit that some books have no such effect. They're just entertainment, and thats fine, but it's also a luxury! It is not something you NEED, let alone something you have some unalienable right to. And honestly I don't even care that much if you pirate a book (some people really cant afford to buy it or have no other way to access it), but to act as if you deserve to read everything you want for free even though you could afford to buy it, is pure entitlement.
Someone being upset that you're significantly undermining their livelihood isnt ridiculous. If you can see why artists deserve to have high rates for their commissions (because they put a lot of skill and time and effort into their work), then why can't you apply that logic to writers? Even if you think their work is bad, they did put in the hours. And so did their editors, the cover illustrators, the marketing team and everyone else at the publishing house. Do none of these people deserve compensation for their work? Do you really believe that no one who pirates a book might otherwise have bought it, or could have borrowed it from a library? What is it about books that makes you feel like you're owed free access to them?
If you want to talk about exploitation of writers (and their team's) labour here, i suggest you point fingers at the publishing houses that hardly allow these people to have a cut of the profits from book sales, rather than the people who are barred from being able to access knowledge around the world for one reason or another. If you are able and want to support the author financially you are better off finding their social media and checking if they have a patreon you can pledge yourself to, rather than expecting the publishing houses to share a decent cut with them.
Small booktok authors aiming their frustration with the capitalist system that exploits them at the people who are barred access from information is ridiculous, and frankly they only serve the global push right now to cut off our access to the repositories that have copies of ANY of these books, not just the booktok ones.
The fruits of your labor are realized the moment your publisher prints your books and places them on bookstore shelves. That is the product of your work. At that point, your contractual obligation has been fulfilled, and you have been compensated according to the agreement you made with your publisher.
You are not entitled to perpetual "rent" from every person who encounters your work. It is unreasonable to demand payment from people who have no ability to pay. A right to be compensated for creating a work is not the same as a right to extract payment from every possible reader forever.
Once your books leave the publisher's printers, they become physical objects circulating in the world. You no longer have the authority to dictate every use of those objects. People may lend them to friends, donate them to libraries, resell them to used bookstores, or give them away. None of these actions requires additional payment to you because your compensation was tied to the creation and publication of the work, not to every subsequent transfer or use.
The same principle applies to digital copies. If someone uploads your book to the internet and it reaches people who would never have purchased it in the first place, that does not necessarily deprive you of income. Your payment came from the publishing agreement that enabled your work to be printed, distributed, and sold. The existence of a digital copy does not automatically create a new obligation for every recipient to pay you, particularly when they lack the means to do so.
The value created by your labor is the book that enters circulation through publication. That is the tangible product of your work and the basis on which you are compensated. Digital copies shared among people who cannot afford to buy the book do not generate additional value from which further payment can reasonably be demanded.
The fruits of your labor are the books that reach the marketplace through publication—not every digital copy that exists afterward.
I like volcanoes because there’s nothing you can do about it.
Death to copyrights
Death to intellectual property
Today is July 27 Fatherland Liberation War Victory Day in People's Korea ! The Korean people led by President KIM IL SUNG defeated US imperialism !
US General Mark Clark who signed the armistice on behalf of the US said “it capped my career, but it was a cap without a feather in it. In carrying out the instructions of my government, I gained the unenviable distinction of being the first commander in the history of the United States Army to sign an armistice without winning a victory” (Clark “From the Danube to the River Amnok). The infamous anti-communist senator JR McCarthy remarked that “we suffered a serious defeat in Korea”.
President KIM IL SUNG said "In this great struggle our people fought determinedly as one in mind under the correct leadership of the party and government and thereby withstood the harsh trials of war honourably and won a historic victory inflicting an ignominious defeat on US imperialism and its running dogs".
sorry it’s actually so fucking crazy thinking abt how certain places have banned burqinis like literally making a woman take her clothes off in public like that shit is so fascist
genuinely horrific like that’s law mandated sexual assault & we just let it happen. hello. can anyone hear me.
It is not forcing women who would otherwise be wearing a burkini to take their clothes off. It just banned an obviously religious garment. These women still have options to cover themselves; they can wear a scarf, pants, t-shirt, even a full diving suit if they want. Just not a burkini.
In the case of France, yes laïcité is important and religion is a private thing. It does bother me when the 1st thing that I learn about someone is their religion, even before knowing their name. And let's not pretend that burkini is for modesty, as I've said above, there are other options to cover yourself at the beach. Burkinis exist to advertise the fact that the women wearing them are muslim; and I would even say to mark themselves as good, pure, and an example to other muslim women.
And to anticipate on some comments, why is there no equivalent ban for other religions? Because other religion are not pushing for religious garment everywhere in France. There are already laws banning all religious signs, (meaning all, including catholicism, judaism, etc...) in specific places (like public schools).
this is such an egocentric argument, which tells me enough about racists like you
It does bother me that the 1st thing I learn about is their religion, even before knowing their name
OHH NOOO user thetriballibrarian apparently feels BOTHERED!!!when people are wearing head gear!!! the only solution to this grave problem is militantly controlling what a woman is allowed to and isn't allowed to wear in public. (wokely! no i am not being fascist this is not fascist haha what)
"and let's not pretend the purpose of burkini is modesty" is a woman only allowed to wear a garment if the purpose is something some fucking rando thinks is okay. should i only wear things because a misogynist online thinks that my intentions are "pure" according to their islamophobic scale. you are a fucking fascist.
sorry it’s actually so fucking crazy thinking abt how certain places have banned burqinis like literally making a woman take her clothes off in public like that shit is so fascist
genuinely horrific like that’s law mandated sexual assault & we just let it happen. hello. can anyone hear me.
A long time ago I got a book about stories of people "nostalgic for life under tyranny", basically just a chauvinistic mockery of people who speak positively about communism and especially their experience with Stalin or Fidel (two central targets of the author's anti-communist tirades)
But I took it anyway because I wanted to hear from the people the author was speaking to, and now I have been reading the Georgian women's recollections of communism, and it actually made me cry to see how miserable they had become after the capitalist restoration. The depth of love they have for socialism and Stalin and the Soviet Union is so beautiful
Some of my favourite quotes <3
"[Stalin] comes to me at night. He gazes at me, puffs on his pipe, and twirls his moustache. He smiles, and then heads for the door. Then I weep and cry for him to stay. But what guy could be bothered by a woman crying?" ... "...I have the mentality of a socialist hero of labor. When something needs to be done for society, I go and do it. I've produced a wall newspaper for the employees and classes for single mothers bringing up children on their own. In the Communist era, everyone would have respected me. But now that we have capitalism, they look at me as if I'm an idiot. So when I really can't manage anymore, I come to the museum to calm down. And I say, 'Mr. Stalin, I know you'd appreciate it.' And it helps." ... "When the war was on, they closed the museum, so I came to the park, to the statue, and I said, 'Mr. Stalin, you'd have got a firm grip on it all, and there'd be peace.' And sometimes I go and say to him, 'If you were alive, maybe we'd be together. You'd have a good time with me. I know how to cook, I'm a cheerful person, and I can sing well too.' And I fantasize about how nice it would be to be Stalin's wife. But later on I reject those thoughts, because I'm behaving like an idiot. Stalin is dead. Communism has collapsed. It's over. It's finished. Been and gone. If I dream about him when I'm feeling like that, I'm very cold and official toward him in my dream."
"When I was at college, we were still taught that Stalin was an outstanding statesman. But the system changed, the curriculum changed, and now I have to teach that he was a tyrant and a criminal. I don't think that's true. ... And before you start ranting, please let me finish. Are you feeling calmer now? All right, I'll tell you my personal opinion. I regard Stalin as a great man, but I can't say that, either to my students or to the tourists, so I say, 'Some regard him as a dictator, others as a tyrant, and others see him as a genius. What he really was, you can decide for yourselves.'"
"When I see what they've done to our beloved Stalin, my heart bleeds! How could they? How could they make such a good man into a monster, a cannibal, an ogre? Once upon a time, bus after bus came to our museum. People stood in lines several hundred yards long. I used to look at those people's faces, and I could see the goodness emanating from them. But nowadays? One would bite the other. That's capitalism for you." ... "In the morning I get up, cut a slice of bread, make the tea, sit down, and say to myself, 'O Christ, why did you let me live to see times like this? Why do they badmouth our darling Stalin?'" ... "What do we need all this capitalism for, all these American cheeses, juices, and chocolate? You can't even buy normal milk anymore—it has to be in a carton, because that's how it is in America. I think, 'O Christ, take me off to my dear Stalin. Take me away from this world, because I can't bear it here any longer.'"
"I used to work at a clothing factory. In the personnel department too. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the factory collapsed with it. And everything was looted—even the glass was stolen out of the window frames. In Stalin's day something like that wouldn't have been possible. The culprits would have been punished. So these days when I hear the stories they tell about him, I say, 'People, you've lost your minds. Remember the Soviet Union. Everyone had work. The children had a free education. From Tbilisi to Vladivostok.' If it weren't for Communism, I, for example, would still be living in the countryside. I would never have thought of occupying a managerial position, because only men had those jobs before then. No system has ever given women so much. Since its collapse, everything is worse." ... "And life gets worse and worse for women. In the USSR men had a good life. There were no wars. And if a man hit you, you could go and complain to the party committee. The committee informed the party cell at the factory, and the abuser could get into big trouble. These days the men have no work and they're frustrated. And when one of them hits you, you've no one to defend you." ... "Something of [Stalin's] charm remains to this day. Sometimes when I stop at his death mask, I only have to glance at it, and it sends such a shiver down my spine that I have to go outside into the fresh air for a while."
It's indeed not correct to mock these people but a bit of critical attitude is needed...
This seems to fairly easily resolve into:
People quite reasonably frustrated about their society having a major economic and civic collapse.
The commie equivalent of utter garbage-tier boomerslop nostalgia with a side of Trump-worship and implications of grievance over loss of elite status.
This seems exactly isomorphic to people who imagine the perfect 1950s capitalist suburban elite life.
I'd like my followers to see this bc putting aside the fact that the fantasy of the "idyllic 1950s usa" is based on a myth and not comparable to the topic at hand, dismissing the lived testimony of masses of people by reducing their material memory to a psychological symptom is a great example of epistemic violence. lazy dismissal of stories is an extremely politically useful way to serve capitalism by framing anything outside of it as irrational. historically lazy and bigoted behavior
saying this as mildly as possible but the anti ai posting tenor on this website (not last post, but in general - i have been biting my tongue for a long long time) is one generally oriented towards a maximal amount of self-righteousness. in my experience, self-righteousness only ever produces martyrdom and a punitive desire for "justice" that can never quite be quenched. none of it is actually conducive towards good politics around the matter in question, least of all ai, which is frankly poorly understood and thought about on here. a little more compassion and thoughtfulness and a little less solipsistic self-absorption perhaps is in order.
finally! a type of pollution i am not complicit in
finally! proof my art is innately virtuous in at least one way
finally! a perceived theft of which i am invisibly the victim
finally! a perceived laziness which i can avoid falling into
I don't know if full on execution is proper justice, but at least they did something.
