this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2024

104 points (100.0% liked)

videos

22697 readers

121 users here now

Breadtube if it didn't suck.

Post videos you genuinely enjoy and want to share, duh. Celebrate the diversity of interests shared by chapochatters by posting a deep dive into Venetian kelp farming, I dunno. Also media criticism, bite-sized versions of left-wing theory, all the stuff you expected. But I am curious about that kelp farming thing now that you mentioned it.

Low effort / spam videos might be removed, especially weeb content.

There is a cytube that you can paste videos into and watch with whoever happens to be around. It's open submission unless there's something important to commandeer it with at the time.

A weekly watch party happens every Saturday (Sunday down under), with video nominations Saturday-Monday, voting Monday-Thursday. See the pin for whatever stage it's currently in.

founded 4 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

104

"The demise of the Soviet Union was a catastrophe..." - Hasan interviews Yanis Varoufakis (www.youtube.com)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

38 comments fedilink hide all child comments

all 41 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 46 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

He is good for transitioning to more radical socialism but he's an opportunist. He tries on multiple occasions to wash away the faults of capitalism, either by saying that we have entered a new system he calls "technofeudalism" which is somehow different than Lenin's imperialism and that we need to fix capitalism through technocratic means (workers get an equal share of companies but the capitalist system does not get torn apart), or by attacking actually existing socialism in history by saying that it's undemocratic and authoritarian.

He is open to working together with other opportunists instead of defending correct socialist theory, and the members of his party that take part in syndicalism always take weird positions, sometimes defending the companies, and all around not being nearly radical enough.

I believe they contribute to the working class movement positively and that they would eventually ally with the communists if it came to revolution, but they need to be treated with caution just like the other socdems.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago

i agree the feudalist stuff is really annoying. historically reductive and a distraction from more accurate analyses like you say. just a buzzword really

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

So far I haven't read his technofeudalism point as washing away the faults of capitalism. I do think that in general, capitalists would rather be lords than capitalists. I think he's saying capitalism is beginning to create feudalist conditions by its nature.

But maybe he was more explicitly whitewashing capitalism in some other writing or speaking, I could see it because that would mesh with the first half.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

it's not an analysis grounded in a dialectical historical/material outlook so it serves to distract from that essentially and imo even runs a soft defense for capitalism by saying we live under a secret worse thing when actually we live under imperialist capitalism, that is the problem and all marxist have known this for a century or more.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yanis is a lib but I guess he's good for a pipeline type thing.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

Yanis do be perma-mewing.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 6 months ago (1 children)

is this zoomerspeak for having a jawline

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yes

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago

yanis is a lenin in waiting

[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I'm eepy rn somebody please tell me who the fresh fuck these people are and why I should spend two hours listening to them.

Also I know who Hasan is. The other guy. WHO??

Thank you! sleepi

[–] [email protected] 38 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (5 children)

Yannis Varoufakis is an economist from Greece. From 2012-2013, he worked as an Economist for the video game company Valve. He has called himself a Marxist but also called himself a Libertarian.

Recently Yanis Varoufakis was banned from Germany for giving speeches in support of Palestine, against Israel. He is banned from entering the country and also he said the government shut down events where he was giving a speech remotely over webcam.

https://jacobin.com/2024/04/yanis-varoufakis-germany-banned-palestine-gaza

Here's a clip from 5 years ago that went viral. Some woman tells Yanis that China is doing imperialism in Africa. Yanis replies "No, they're not. China is far more humanistic than the United States ever was." He explains that China is non-interventionist.

https://youtu.be/gGeevtdp1WQ?t=4053

[–] [email protected] 22 points 6 months ago (1 children)

didn't know about the valve thing, but he's not just some economist, he was the Greek finance minister and an MP

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

For Syriza, the biggest disappointment in recent SocDem history. I remember listening to one of his talks during that time, he said that the radical left was not ready to take power, so they have to fix capitalism instead. I haven't been following him since.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Sometimes people say libertarian in the older sense and not the ancap sense. I think I have heard him use that language in that way

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I think that's still the preferred usage in Europe. There's a story of an American "Libertarian" showing up to a Greek "Libertarian" meetup and getting physically thrown out as soon as he started talking that comes to mind.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

I love that story lmao... "wait, that just sounds like fascism??"

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

From 2012-2013, he worked as an Economist for the video game company Valve

Lol what I've never heard that

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

According to him, the "Valve economy" (I guess CS:Go knives and stuff?) emerged unexpectedly, and they hired him to tell them how it worked.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Thank you! I'd been running on zero sleep for a couple days and I couldn't bear to watch two hours of some guy I didn't know about.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

[–] [email protected] 32 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Yanis is a left leaning economist but not quite Marxist (I don't think?), he was Greece's finance minister during the budget crisis.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 6 months ago (1 children)

P sure he is a Marxist. And even might be a Leninist, in this exact interview him and Hasan agree the dictatorship of the proletariat is necessary.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 6 months ago (2 children)

He is a not a Marxist in any meaningful way. His economics is Keynsian/MMT. If in light of all evidence, you still rejected the labor theory of value you have no right to call yourself Marxist.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

Im not sure. He has been to Cuba and has spoken positively about it.

https://youtu.be/6MfuGSlDRsc

I don't agree with his anti worker's-state views but he is pretty good overall.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

Plenty of soc Dems and Keynesians (especially Europeans) don't want to crush Cuba and even speak supportively of it while couching their criticisms in one's of the "bureaucracy" or the Cuban state. That being said, giving the thumbs up to Cuba doesn't make you a Marxist imo

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

He is an economist working within the bourgeois state apparatus. If you don’t think pushing MMT/neo-Keynesian economics in that position is a good idea, not sure what to tell you. If you read and listen to him enough, you’ll see he understands and thinks very much like a radical Marxist. But the framework he has agency in allows for very little, and he tries to push as far left as possible imo. While also agitating for radicalism outside of that framework, with his books, talks, appearances etc.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

You can think that he does good with his platforms and appearances and whatnot, that's a seperate thing. But simply put, if he pushes Keynesianism he is not a Marxist and that's that.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Thank you for the explanation! I was very eeby. blob-sleep

[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I feel like he is a marxist but talking a lot about workers syndicates but not about how to get there, its always something something AI Amazon something something. HOW CAN WE EXPROPRIATE AMAZON, HOOOOOW???

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

I just read his book Technofeudalism a few weeks ago. What I got out of it is we're fucked. I'm being hyperbolic, but it's mostly an explanation of existing conditions and where they came from. He does present his vision of work place democratization.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Im buying it, cause now Im interested.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago

2 guys I check up on every now and then to see how they're vibing

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy: