Yep, excellent write-up! Korea, in general, has not had a “normal” year of development for well over a century and a half. From colinization to war to the present split, Korea’s conditions have been extremely tumultuous. Throughout all of it, though, has been a strong history of radicalism and resistance. Japan had a much more “normal” course of development, as it gained a head-start on industrialization and maintained it with colonization of the surrounding areas.

Yep! Lots of quirky bits like that that make sense when analyzing the development of the ROK.

The biggest eye-opener seems to be telling people that Sansung sells insurance, has luxury hotels like the Silla, etc. The ROK is a bit more “naked” in that sense, contradictions are more out in the open. Watching the Samsung Lions play the Lotte Giants, instead of the Yankees against the Dodgers, for example, puts it up in your face a bit more. However, you’re absolutely right that the US’ own megacorps are the ones at the top, and it isn’t just “big tech.”

Yep, though Japan’s own imperial history gives it a qualitatively different character to the ROK, which has largely been the history of a colonized country turned imperial vassal. The ROK still has domestic mass manufacturing, though it largely keeps it through suppressing wages. At least, that’s my present understanding. The ROK still has extreme anti-communism, but a stronger union movement, which of course isn’t sufficient but does signify a more millitant working class. The ROK in general is a pot constantly on the verge of boiling over, including in the social sphere with rising feminist movements.

Yep! I tend to do that more when talking about 재벌 IRL, as for many Statesians they don’t really know about them at all. One thing they all seem to understand immediately is that Samsung, LG, Hyundai, etc. are massive in the ROK and that the families at the top are thus the real rulers of the ROK. Also serves as a nice springboard to talk about where they came from, ie collaborators with the US and former Japanese colonialist government.

Yep, Japan has no working class movement and is thus entirely controlled by the far-right.

Japan oscillates between far-right politics exclusively, the working class has little organizing and struggle going on and the state is thoroughly controlled by private intetests. The Republic of Korea may be an example of a capitalist dictatorship controlled by 3 companies in a trench-coat, but has active labor struggles and a history of millitant unions, at least.

Yep.

It’s really just theater, both uphold the interests of capital.

Oh duh, should’ve realized!

Pretty sure both parties are genocidal imperialists.

One party?

Centrism, as in what? The center of the Statesian political parties? Then yes, considering both parties are right-wing. The center of two arbitrary points? Depends on the points. “Centrism” is inherently an irrational way to describe political views, being in the center of two points adds no value. If someone says we should kill everyone with glasses, and someone else says we shouldn’t, we shouldn’t kill half of the people with glasses. What centrism does in practice is give people cover to obfuscate their actual views, it isn’t a position by itself.

Brb adding screengrabs from The Leader

Oh shoot that does seem like an actual federation issue, I always wondered why people say there’s a lot of anime on Lemmy without seeing much of it.

My favorite part so far was Noam Chomsky telling Epstein that “Venezuela isn’t real socialism,” lmao.

Chomsky’s always been terrible.

The biggest issue is that non-violent protest doesn’t really change anything. They can be useful for organizations to practice and develop logistics and mobilization, but not as a direct method of change. Lady Izdihar made a great graphic on the Leninist theory of revolution:

This is how we need to organize for actual change. Non-violent protest is helpful in practicing revolution, but not in achieving change itself.

Join a party like PSL, and be ready for violence. Pacifism is handcuffing yourself and handing the gun to your captor. That’s not to say that protest should only be violent or adventurist in nature, of course, but we should prepare and be ready for revolution, and that starts by studying strategy and tactics, training in firearms, first-aid, logistics, etc, and organizing in working class parties.

If you’re preparing for revolution in the US Empire, then it makes the most sense to buy common calibres and weapons that are commonly used and found. This makes them easier to learn and repair, service, etc. A 9mm pistol and AR-15 in 5.56 with a light and a red dot sight are plenty.

Depends more on the community and the instance than the platform itself.