Removed by mod

Clearly not, I’ll repeat the excerpt from your source

As a term, communist state is used by Western historians, political scientists, and media to refer to these countries. However, these states do not describe themselves as communist nor do they claim to have achieved communism

Wikipedia called the USSR a “flagship communist state”, Wikipedia also explicitly said that even though some in the west use the term “communist state”, that those states are not in fact communist. So obviously you cannot hold two related facts in your head simultaneously.

Can you read?

With about as much value as 10 seconds of research would imply. I clicked on one link there to find:

As a term, communist state is used by Western historians, political scientists, and media to refer to these countries. However, these states do not describe themselves as communist nor do they claim to have achieved communism

Please be so kind as to produce some of this historical literature

None of which any state which has nominally aspired toward Communism has achieved. There have been no Communist states. There have been states which have claimed, perhaps earnestly, that they are trying to transition to Communism. There can be no Communist state, it’s a contradiction of terms.

Toddlers say all sorts of wild stuff, this is totally believable

Move fast and break things, I guess. My take away is that the genie isn’t going back in the bottle. Hopefully failing fast and loud gets us through the growing pains quickly, but on an individual level we’d best be vigilant and adapt to the landscape.

Frankly I’d rather these big obvious failures to insidious little hidden ones the conservative path makes. At least now we know to be skeptical. No development path is perfect, if it were more conservative we might get used to taking results at face value, leaving us more vulnerable to that inevitable failure.

Uh, that pop-up is “unpleasant feelings”. Pain, discomfort, bad taste/smell, etc. If you went outside and started eating dirt, your brain would pop-up with “Hey, this tastes yucky, you should stop”

Every Neil Cicierega Mouth album

Her is set in 2025

“It would be nice to develop an auxiliary sign language to bridge the accessibility gap between the hard of hearing and those who don’t learn a dedicated sign”

“You’re just as bad as the colonizers that decimated native American cultures”

Get out of here with that bad faith savior complex nonsense. Teaching indigenous people English wasn’t the problem, the problem was beating children for using their native language. I guess you think literacy is racist too because literacy requirements were used to disenfranchise black Americans, huh?

Your sanctimonious colonization comments are dripping with irony. I asked a question, directly to another person, about their opinion of the concept as a deaf/hard of hearing person. You interceded uninvited, deliberately ignored the explicitly stated context of the question (gestural languages having unique properties from verbal ones) so you could shoehorn in your opinion about a topic explicitly excluded by that context, which you smugly assumed I wasn’t familiar with, purporting the relevance by referencing authors who wrote very little about the actual topic at hand.

You want to talk about colonizers, look at your own actions here.

My goalposts are in precisely the place they started: a collection of basic international gestures to facilitate the most basic communication. Where are you jumping to colonization? Where did I say that my cultural group gets to decide what the signs are? You’re, again, wildly overestimating the scope of my proposal and jumping to ridiculous, unsubstantiated conclusions.

You get a group of signers from around the world to develop an international pidgin (like they already do informally at international gatherings) and come to consensus based on commonality. When the majority agree on a sign, use it. Where there’s little agreement, choose a new sign. No finger spelling, no complex abstract concepts, just a formalization of gestures most people could probably figure out anyway. I fail to see how that perpetuates colonization unless that’s what you’re setting out to do with your methodology.

I am familiar with the regionality of language. I don’t understand your point, you’re simultaneously saying that you can’t have universal understanding, but we have gestures we instantly understand instantly so there’s no need to codify them, but they look different.

I think you’re wildly overestimating the scope of my proposal.

It would certainly be limited and rudimentary; I wouldn’t suggest a solution exists capable of any broad nuance. But gesture is a unique variety of communication, in that it can convey “innate” meaning in ways verbal language simply cannot, except in the case of onomatopoeia. Pointing is nearly universal, smiling is nearly universal, beckoning is nearly universal. Gesture is a spatial form of communication, centered around our primary means of material interaction with the world.

Grammar and syntax aside, I’d argue that it would be possible to assemble a vocabulary of universal concepts (eat, drink, sleep, travel, me, you, communicate, cooperate, come here, go away, etc). Certainly not a language for extended detailed conversation, but a codification and extension of gestures which are already nearly universal by virtue of their innate implications alone. Enough to communicate that you’re hungry, but not enough to send for takeout.

A universal language, at the level of any other sophisticated language, is obviously impossible. A formal codification of simple gestures to communicate at the most basic human concepts is much more doable.

I know this is a point of some contention among the deaf community, but how do you feel about the development of a “standard” international sign? Personally, and I’m speaking as a fully hearing person, I think a basic international sign should be developed and taught to everyone. Not only to facilitate communication with the hard of hearing, but also in loud environments and with those who don’t share a spoken language.

It’s my understanding that a large portion of the deaf community is hostile to the idea of a universal sign from a cultural perspective, since each regional sign has cultural content. However I think it’s a potential solution for numerous issues, with more pros than cons.

Dems are fascist capitalists

Are you smoking crack? Dems are a lot of unsavory things, but if you’re suggesting they’re equal to Republicans on the fascism scale you’re either unbelievably idiotic or a bad faith actor. The longer you talk the more you seem like the latter, so these responses aren’t even for you; they’re for the onlookers who might be confused enough to think your argument makes sense.

Leftists: this person is either an idiot who doesn’t understand US elections, or is deliberately trying to help the far right. DO NOT vote third party in the general election, the only thing that accomplishes is splitting the vote on the left which actively helps the right. All this “Vote your conscience! Show Genocide Joe you won’t support him!” rhetoric is designed to confuse you so Republicans win the general election. They are actively making the country worse for women, minorities, and the working class, don’t let these trolls equivocate “Not progressive enough” and “Actively evil”.

The Dems aren’t great but the Republicans are orders of magnitude worse across the board. There are many ways to support third parties and progressive candidates in order to benefit the left, voting third party in the general election is NOT one of them, and only HURTS leftists. Project 2025 is not a joke, if Republicans win this November we may not have another fair election again.

you’re just a pawn for the fascists. I don’t really care whether you’re a fool or malicious, I’m done with this brainless nonsense.

Alright dude, keep shilling for the far right. That is what you’re doing, whether you’re doing it on purpose or because you’ve fallen for the propaganda. Your strategy failed and we’re all worse of for it. If you keep advocating the same strategy that’s sure to fail, then you’re just a pawn for the fascists. I don’t really care whether you’re a fool or malicious, I’m done with this brainless nonsense.

Yeah, we tried that, in 2016. We saw: Trump won, stacked the courts, dismantled public services, rolled back taxes on billionaires and shifted the tax burden onto the working class, dismantled pandemic watchdog labs which directly lead to the pandemic, and that’s just scratching the surface. How did Dems respond? Biden.

We tried it, we saw, it was an abject failure that played right into the hands of the far right. You’re either politically illiterate, or a bad faith actor trying to make the country mask-off fascist by splitting the left