So it was an inside job!

They do a naked run every semester at Berkeley the week before finals. Its called dead week, where there’s no classes, and its a time for students to cram for their exams, or, you know, run naked around campus.

Literally tried looking for a jinx text editor for a minute

I disagree. I think that may actually be the only way out of this mess. “Cooperation [being nice, forgiving, but not a pushover, and clear] pays even among rivals” (Veritasium - Prisoners Dilemma).

There’s an idea on the left about building horizontally, or from the ground up, for there to be something to fall back on after the inevitable collapse of capitalism. These are things like community food systems, mutual aid, cooperatives, land trusts, etc. The left is active in local politics, supporting unions, organizing, and so on. Not all of us that worry this system may be beyond saving are actually just waiting to die, but doing what we can where we can with limited resources.

I can read docs and would be interested in an internship… Paid ideally, but would love to have a mentor to learn devops. I also know multiple programming languages and am comfortable in a terminal

Great suggestion! Gonna try this on the bus on my way to work later.

I’m talking consistent effort over years or decades though. Thinking about how your bones are constantly renewing themselves and you have a completely new set every 5-10 years is the kind of consistency I mean. Of course this would be hindered by injury or over use before can adaptations occur. You need to give yourself recovery time no matter the fitness routine or athletic level.

Your body adapts to the stresses you put on it, folks.

I mean its the goal… to avoid violent revolution. If it does need to turn to that though, then what will be there to replace capitalism?

Its literally an alternative where workers own the means of production. How is that not outside the system? They already exist in pockets around the world.

Right I see. Co-ops are a threat to a capitalist that wants to exploit their workers, and if co-ops got big enough to strain the system I imagine there would be some push back from someone with money.

But co-ops can exist outside the system so it shouldn’t matter, and theyd have the power in numbers. Cooperation among cooperatives is one of the defining principles of a cooperative. So if a housing co-op gets their food from a food co-op who gets their food from a farmers co-op and they all get there energy from an energy co-op, what is a capitalist to do? Its like a free market and if the capitalist fails, that’s just competition.

All that would need to be done is for there to be more co-ops and more people that understand and want them to exist.

I mean if we want to overthrow the system violently, or reject it with violence, we can but I see an alternative here if somehow people can unite on an idea. I don’t know how to do that though.

I had an ex help organize an event to great success, ultimately accomplishing more than they were asking for from the powers at be. Organizers in the area tried to shut it down, or take over, however because it wasn’t how protests are typically done.

I don’t know enough about Lenin, but do we need violent revolution to advocate for cooperatives and elect officials that will help support them? With the right state sponsored incentives, cooperatives can be a great stepping stone for a peaceful transition of power giving workers ownership to the means of production. I struggle to understand how someone can argue against this idea. Maybe I need to learn more history, or maybe we need to be collectively more optimistic and united. I don’t know how to accomplish this aside from trying to feebly spread the idea here and in my own life. I’m involved and trying to be more involved in the small cooperative movement.

Just what ive decided might be the best, or quickest, path to achievement. Wishful thinking, idealist, idea worth spreading. I see cooperatives as a form of peaceful revolution, but how best to achieve a cooperative economy when so few are aware of what it means? One way, I suppose, is for elected officials to advocate for it. Its hard but not impossible to imagine. I suppose there are multiple steps in between that would make that more tangible, and one of those is awareness. There’s already a lot of us in support of socialist ideas where one of the biggest criticisms is for a planned economy, so why not advocate for a stateless form of socialism that expands, rather than possibly, or arguably, restricts, individual and collective freedoms?

Was Lenin aware of cooperatives when he wrote the state and revolution? Its not a theoretical idea. Its already a proven and successful form of enterprise. Why do some of our representatives advocate for workers unions when their existence goes against capitalist exploitation of workers? Seems totally possible to advocate for worker cooperatives in a similar vein.

I’d like to point out the viability of cooperatives to accomplish this. A co-op is defined by the seven Rochdale Principles. Among those is open and voluntary membership, democratic member control, cooperation among cooperatives, and concern for community.

Its a stateless form of socialism that gives workers ownership to the means of production and doesnt have to necessarily negate private ownership. They can simply be incentivized by the state similar to how tax breaks and subsidies currently work or by providing workers the framework for which to purchase a company in the case of failure (like after the 2008 financial crash - when competition, greed, and capitalism failed).