For more on the situation in Nepal, I recommend @[email protected]’s comment here.
Following a “anti-corruption” protest movement spurred by a social media ban (but with much deeper roots) in which dozens of protestors were killed by state forces, the government of KP Oli has been ousted, and an interim leader is currently in power as the country prepares for elections. Notably, events have been characterized as “Gen Z protests”, and this leader was decided (at least partially) by a Discord vote. When a non-western government rapidly falls, it’s wise to at least glance in the direction of the United States, and there are almost certainly elements of color revolution here. But, as always, it’s more complicated than simple regime change - Nepal is a deeply troubled economy even as developing countries go.
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Despite winning 75% of the seats in parliament in 2017, the various communist parties have failed to unify towards forming a common agenda and solving the problems of the people. When the nominally united communist party split in 2021, infighting and opportunism eventually brought on the rightist politicians we see today.
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The Nepalese economy is not successful. Disasters are slow to be ameliorated, education and healthcare is underfunded, and poverty is fairly rampant. There have been significant developments made by the communist parties, such as electrification programs and some poverty reduction, but it has been insufficient.
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The petty bourgeois usually come from oppressed Hindu castes, and are frustrated by the domination of upper castes, and so are inspired by India’s BJP. They essentially want a return to monarchy, under the guise of anti-corruption, and despite their relatively small numbers, are powerfully organized.
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Of the countries that aren’t tiny islands, Nepal has the highest per capita rate of work migration, due to insufficient employment in Nepal. The jobs that Nepalese citizens receive overseas range from unpleasant to unbearable in both labour and wages, and this has generated rightful suspicion that the government cares more about foreign direct investors than their own citizens overseas.
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The government of KP Oli was close to the United States, and India’s Modi has promoted the BJP in Nepal. Both countries have sought to exert influence over Nepal, though Prashad speculates that, if there is indeed a foreign mastermind at work, India is more likely to be the culprit behind these recent protests, in a gambit to use the chaos to promote/install a far right monarchist government.
I agree with Prashad that it seems unlikely that mere electoral changes will result in anything terribly productive, though whatever government emerges will inevitably hoist the banner of anti-corruption to try and legitimize themselves. We have seen the same breakdown of electoralism as a meaningful pathway to solve national problems all across the world, from the superpowers to the poorest states. Until a rupture occurs, greater surveillance, policing, and repression seems guaranteed.
Last week’s thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
Please check out the RedAtlas!
The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
Israel's Genocide of Palestine
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel’s destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
Tyler Robinson is ex-Mormon. That really explains everything to me about the motive and character of this assassination. The family is Mormon and active in the local church still, and the rat father is LDS.
For those who did not grow up in the LDS church, it is fairly all-consuming. You spend 3 hours on Sunday at Church, ~2 hour each Wednesday at Youth Group, ~5 hours per week at Seminary before school, ~2 hours cleaning the church once a month or so, time doing service, time doing your assigned roles in the church as it’s all unpaid lay clergy. You hang out with Mormons all day every day. You have a certain certainty as you have the “gift of the holy ghost” which is basically deputized emotions given prophetic power, what you feel is always right. There is huge emphasis on the church being true, the only true church, with very specific rites and rituals that are required. This instills them a deep idealistic and romantic outlook, symbolic things are very real and materialism is a thing of the world. There are literal truths about existence that they have access to, the earthly world was one realm of many and they would eventually become Gods.
They are also very much into gun culture and vigilante non-government violence, as seen by the dudes who occupied the Malheur refuge in Oregon and the entire hundreds year history of Utah and their clashes with the US government, the native peoples they occupied and even just non-Mormon white settlers (Look up Mountain Meadow Massacre for starts, that’s the tip of the iceberg).
It’s not that they’re “rebellious”. They are very obsequious and subservient to authority. They just believe the authority of the world is mostly fake, or secondary, to the authority of the church and the prophet and Mormon material interests as a whole. Remember, Mormons are very rich and powerful and connected in Utah especially. Remember, the entire goal of their stated theology is to become Gods by accruing wives and children and obeying authority until they are rewarded.
When you first become ex-Mormon and leave the church, it doesn’t come off all at once. For some, they only partially do it and become Jack Mormons, drinking and sinning and doing drugs but maybe attending church once in a while when your active Mormon friends come pick you up. But those who break more radically are often pissed off and angry at the lies they’ve been fed their whole lives, justifiably so. However, they still feel that there is an absolute truth, have a very idealistic and romantic outlook and very violent outlook that shirks popular opinion and widespread culture as shallow and material.
I remember when I went through the nu-Atheist phase of my early ex-Mormondom, I consumed hours of atheist “philosophy” on YouTube and forums and chats. I was in college and also taking philosophy 101 classes and my mind was being blown. I was moving to the left, very pissed and rebellious against the Bush-era conservatism of my father and family. I could see if I was familiar in hunting and handling guns I might just do something stupid out of the “principle” of the thing, if caught in a weird mood. This is like radliberalism times one hundred. Mormons are the most American religion, and an ex-Mormon is the most American radical.
This isn’t even only a Mormon thing, plenty of evangelical/protestant churches are like this too. Plus mission work and so forth.
Interesting how the “deputized gift,” one true church, and spending all your time doing church things is also true for christian cults, such was my experience with pentecostalism.
Great post. I always like to remind Mormons how exactly Nephi got the plates from Laban. Mormons venerate vigilante justice - it shows in their history and in the current day.
I think there’s a lot to be said about their recent attempts to join “Greater American Christendom” and how much this Tyler Robinson episode could do to de-rail that whole effort. I know they’re powerful inside Utah and the West, but I’ve always maintained that the Mormons could once again become targets via fascist infighting. Their “allies” view them as heretics at the end of the day. No amount of rebranding or relaxing of orthodoxy will change that.
I occasionally dip into Mormon Stories podcast which is run by ex-mormons, but seems to engage as much as possible with still-mormons. Which I respect as a strategic decision as their goal appears to be facilitating people to move away from the clutches of the LDS church. So just talking to atheists would be pointless and insular.
That shit is so fucked up. They run the whole fucking state and people who are born into it are indoctrinated from day 1. The whole lives are built so it’s easy if you cooperate and continue being mormon, but you are ruined if you go against it. They own fucking everything, control fucking everything. And the sex stuff omg the sex stuff.
LDS is a very american religion. LDS and americanism have existed cooperatively and dynamically and neither could be what it is without the other. LDS has a settler/imperial mindset.
if any of you dip your toes into the bourgeois decadence of true crime reporting, one of the under-reported aspects of the recent ruby franke case was how she, as a mormon, broke apart from the interdependent shell game that mormon housewives play via multi-level marketing scams by creating a successful mommy vlog. the community resentment and ostracization that followed partly explains how she ran headlong into another mormon influencer’s circle and then even deeper into child abuse
Do I dare ask you to elaborate on that one?
Tap for spoiler
Here is a search of that podcast for “sex abuse” it has 6 pages of results: https://www.mormonstories.org/?s=Sex+abuse some of it is direct survivor retellings which generally include their efforts at resistance being systematically thwarted. Others atr historical or legal, political etc analysis.
Here is my understanding from memory but I haven’t fact checked myself so take a grain of salt:
Basically the LDS think saving the soul of the abuser is the most important thing. They oppose all measures that interfere with the abuser having their role in the church. Because then their soul is at risk. And due to the patriarchal/familial nature of Mormon heaven that has implications for all his relations too. So if you try to get someone removed from the clergy (all men in the Mormon church are clergy) you are attacking not only him but his family.
They heavily oppose mandatory reporter laws in general and have successfully obtained carveouts for clergy. They have a highly promoted internal abuse reporting system which is like a malicious compliance project that redirects to nothing.
They are involved in facilitating sex abuse from individual cases of people abusing their own children to large scale systematic abuse e.g. boy scouts and the whole child “marriage” thing. There have been big lawsuits demonstrating the comprehensive nature. Its huge.
The people wanna know 🧐