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I would also be interested in more sources on this topic. The wikipedia page on Vavilov links this source on the Soviet view of genetics, but it has a very clear anti-communist bias and some obvious nonsense. I only realized this most of the way through typing my comment but apparently the author joined the USSR branch of Amnesty International in 1981, and was the chairman from 1985-1988. My favorites are claiming 10 million peasants were arrested and exiled or shot during collectivization (source: Winston Churchill, The Second World War, vol. 4) and this line:

Thus, Party leaders began doing what scientists always tried to avoid: turning scientific sessions into forums for resolving political tasks.

Anyways, the article is interesting even if I’m skeptical of it’s accuracy. It seems as though there was a lot of debate around genetics in the Soviet Union at the time, which makes sense to me from a layperson’s perspective at least. From what I understand, modern genetics was a relatively new science at the time, and considering the role of eugenics and Social Darwinism in Nazi ideology, I think it’s reasonable that some Soviet scientists were skeptical. If I am incorrect here, I’d appreciate it if someone could correct me.

Vavilov himself certainly spoke highly of Soviet science. Here’s a telegram he sent to The New York Times:

The lie about Soviet science and Soviet scientists conscientiously working for the cause of socialism has become the specialty of certain organs of the foreign press…. On many occasions I gave reports in the press and orally in many cities of the USA about Soviet science, about the exceptional possibilities granted to Soviet scientists, about the role of science in our country, and about the tremendous progress of science during the Soviet period.

From a small institution during the Tsarist period—the Bureau of Applied Botany—the Institute of Plant Industry that I am in charge of has grown during the Soviet period into a most prestigious scientific institution having few equals in scale in the world. Its staff of about 65 people during the Tsarist period at the present time has reached 1,700 when all its branches in the outlying areas are included. The institute’s budget has gone from 50 thousand rubles to 14 million rubles…

We argue, discuss existing theories in genetics and in selection [plant breeding—V.S.] methods, we summon each other to Socialist competition, and I have to tell you frankly, this is a great stimulus, which significantly increases the level of work…

I more than many other people am obliged to the government of the USSR for its great attention to the institute I head and to my personal work.

As a faithful son of the Soviet country, I consider it my duty and good fortune to work for the good of my native land and give my entire being to science in the USSR.

Sweeping aside as vile slander of dubious origin your report about me and the fabrications that in the USSR intellectual freedom allegedly does not exist, I insist on the publication of the present telegram in your newspaper.

Academician N. I. Vavilov (1936).

As for his imprisonment, it seems like he was arrested for foreign espionage and sabotage? It’s pretty difficult for me to find a more concrete answer than this, as this story seems to be an anti-communist favorite and there are tons of articles propagandizing about Stalinism around it. Again if anyone has better sources, or if @GayTuckerCarlson@hexbear.net wants to link a source, I’d appreciate it. I got sucked into this and spent more time on it than I wanted to already.

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Like what am I supposed to tell people? I’m seriously asking here. I don’t know and I don’t expect you to know either, but I really don’t know what to say to people about any of it.

I don’t know either, I really wish I did. Appealing to their morals doesn’t work. Appealing to their self-interest doesn’t work. Yelling at them about immunocompromised people definitely doesn’t work, maybe the least effective thing I’ve tried so far. Being visible and vocal in my workplace hasn’t worked. And people’s logic just goes round and round, you disprove one thing and they use it to justify some other misinformed take, and then you disprove that one and they move on to the next or bounce right back to where they started. It’s a never-ending cycle of cynicism and defeatism at best, and ableist, settler brainworms at worst. I wasn’t kidding when I said being nice doesn’t work, so now I’m just mean. At least that way I’m not biting my tongue off.

The problem is the practicality of it. I can’t give people more willpower to stand up on this. And sure I can go on with guilting myself or telling myself I’m doing some small amount of % harm reduction or telling myself I’m being principled, but it’s not helping me persuade anyone else or explain well to them why I’m doing it.

So what are we supposed to do? At least masking can have a positive effect at all. Who benefits from us not wearing a mask? The capitalists kind of benefit I guess, but even then I can’t see mass disabling your work force as beneficial to them, really. The only other people I can think of are those who choose to opt out of masking for their own personal comfort, trading their health and the health of those around them to avoid social pressure. Hell, it’s not exactly a material benefit, but least when I see people properly masking I can feel a little relief that anyone around me cares.

The only other thing I can think of is if you are the organizer for any sort of event or social gathering, require N95 respirators and strictly enforce that rule, kicking out anyone who takes theirs off or refuses to wear one. Agitating in gatherings you don’t organize is worth it too I’d say, though frankly I wouldn’t expect much in my experience. I guess if you can get your job to provide air filtration that would be good too, but again good luck if you already can’t get your coworkers on board.

I mostly recall posts qualifying as “anti-mask” coming across as a defeated, beaten down attitude about it, like “I give up”, not something anti-science or the like.

That is being anti-masking and anti-science. Copying and pasting what I said in the Hexbear thread on this:

Should I not confront racism or misogyny in my workplace just because everyone around me is racist/misogynistic? Should I not reject the attitude of lesser-evilism just because everyone around me are chauvinistic liberals? Of course not. I don’t understand why so many cannot make that same connection with masking. Yes, our governments, especially the US government, have severely dropped the ball with Covid. But masking is only one step towards a community response to protect the vulnerable, and the most basic one at that. If we can’t clear that bar, how can we expect to accomplish anything?

If you live with people who refuse to mask, I feel for you, that’s awful and I’m sorry they are damaging your health through their inaction. That does not excuse contributing yourself to the spread of illness in your community. If you have the ability to mask but refuse and take a defeatist attitude, then you are not my comrade. Camaraderie is not given freely. Respect is not given freely. I’m tired of being talked down to people who claim to be on my side while contributing to the shit that has fucked up me and my family’s entire life for the last almost half decade now.

On top of living in places where virtually nobody else is doing it anymore, which can attract strange looks or worse, depending on the place. Which can be very isolating, trying to somehow overcome that and be principled while people are getting sick in spite of what we do.

I’m sorry but fuck off with this. You want to know what’s isolating? Having all your friends abandon you because you are immunocompromised. Being forced out of every community you were a part of because none of them will accommodate you. Being forced into the fringes of society because everywhere you go, everything you do, is a constant, neverending reminder that your life matters less than everyone else’s to the general public. And you know what’s really isolating? Spending years, years, calmly and patiently explaining to people the dangers of Covid, the effectiveness of masking, the history of ableism that has led to this disaster, the action we can take to improve, offering people free masks, free tests, anything at all out of my own pocket (even though we are barely scraping by ourselves!) just to try and get anyone to care at all, and none of them accept them, no one takes what we say seriously, and no one can be fucked to change their behavior. How long do I have to be nice and patient with people for? Cause it sure as fuck isn’t working, and if being nice won’t work, then I have no problem with getting mean.

ah yeah one of my reports was a hexbear user. i’m at work now so i won’t have a chance to go through the thread again but when i’m off i can go through whatever’s still up and report anything that remains. again appreciate you taking the effort to fix things, this is far from the first time i’ve seen you doing good work on lemmygrad so just want to say thanks and that i’m sorry if i was too harsh in my comments on this topic, it’s just unfortunately i have (usually unproductive at best) conversations about covid and masking just about every day, so i have very little patience around the topic any more, especially when it’s with fellow communists.

I did report a couple comments that were more blatant misinformation, but i was a little wordy in my reports so maybe they didn’t go through? Regardless I appreciate you taking a look. The general attitude in many of the comments of “No one masks so why bother” and the one or two people calling it “virtue signaling” were particularly annoying. Should I not confront racism or misogyny in my workplace just because everyone around me is racist/misogynistic? Should I not reject the attitude of lesser-evilism just because everyone around me are chauvinistic liberals? Of course not. I don’t understand why so many cannot make that same connection with masking. Yes, our governments, especially the US government, have severely dropped the ball with Covid. But masking is only one step towards a community response to protect the vulnerable, and the most basic one at that. If we can’t clear that bar, how can we expect to accomplish anything?

I don’t want to come at you too hard because I understand moderation is a thankless job, and that you are bound to piss off someone regardless of what you do. But like I said in my other comment in this thread, it was really disappointing to see chauvinistic and ableist attitudes about health left untouched, but those who (very understandably, imo) lost their temper on those with those attitude removed. Again, I’m sorry for the long disorganized rant, but I hope you can understand where I and many of the users here are coming from.

It’s more up front cost, but you can save a lot in the long run with an elastomeric respirator, plus it has a lower environmental impact. Before that we were buying 3M N95s from a bulk reseller and splitting the cost between my wife and I, and our roommate, which was a lot cheaper in the long run. I wish I had more specific numbers for you but unfortunately I don’t at the moment. Depending on where you are, there may be a covid conscious mutual aid group nearby that could help as well.

And that’s not taking into account that you’re supposed to change your mask every 3 hours.

Do you have a source for this? Not trying to interrogate you, just want to make sure I’m doing the right thing and giving people in my life good advice. I’m pretty sure an N95 filter should last a lot longer than that, although the elastic straps on disposable ones will wear out much sooner so maybe that’s why?

I was really disappointed with the mod response to this thread. Locking the thread and removing comments from people being hostile towards those who are being covid minimizers, yet leaving up posts that are anti-science liberalism is absurd. How can you expect people to be respectful to those whose actions directly threaten you? Also people on lemmygrad are constantly making flippant comments about any number of people and topics, but apparently calling people plague rats is too far? I guess the folks there can dish it but can’t take it. Just an absolutely shameful display from a community of marxists. Sorry for the disorganized rant but this has been pissing me off all morning.

Masks and respirators for prevention of respiratory infections: a state of the science review

You may find this useful as an in-depth look on the topic of masking. It’s pretty long, but I think worth the read.

I do still mask every time I leave my apartment. There’s essentially no reason not to in my opinion. It would obviously be much safer if everyone was still masking, but at least in my experience, diligent masking has been very effective at preventing illness in my household despite the lack of precaution from the public. People can be kind of weird about it sometimes, but it’s mostly limited to staring and the occasional rude statement, which as a trans woman is something I was used to before the pandemic anyways lol. I do worry sometimes about the chance of someone getting violent with me or my wife, but also if the alternative is giving up the mask and destroying our health, and maybe even killing her if we get unlucky, just to please ableist assholes, well, the choice is obvious to me.

I wish I knew more about the masking culture of other countries. All I can say with certainty is that in my community (A large city in the US), nobody gives a fuck about public health at all, and largely refuse to change their lifestyle in any way to help themselves, much less anyone else. Unmasked people outweigh masked people by an enormous amount, and the few maskers are often wearing surgical masks or other insufficient PPE, and I frequently see people still wearing them beneath their nose or taking them off in public. Many people I talk to are well aware that Covid is still around and is destroying everyone’s health, but they either seem to think it doesn’t affect them, or prefer to live in a lie and ignore it.

I finished Chrono Trigger recently, fuckin’ awesome game. I haven’t really been able to articulate my thoughts on it yet but I can definitely understand why it’s got its reputation. Now I’m finally playing Disco Elysium, I’m only a few hours in but I’m loving it so far. I also started Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, but I’m kinda garbage at platformers and these sorts of old action games and this one seems pretty hard, so uhh I guess we’ll see if I can keep up with it.

Prolewiki has an absolute beginner’s list that should be valuable to you. +1 to Blackshirts and Reds, personally I would read this before anything else. The State and Revolution is definitely a must read for all socialists, but I think I agree with the beginner list that it would be better as a followup once you’ve got a working understanding of marxism.

idk about the other stuff but i had problems with buttons like the next page one not working like you are describing. are you on an iphone? for me it was an issue with safari being out of date, and updating my phone fixed the issue. maybe try next.hexbear.net as well.

i seriously doubt they actually believe this even a little bit. fascists constantly say obvious nonsense like this, that they know is obvious nonsense.

reminds me of this classic

oh damnit lol. thanks, should be fixed now

In addition to the answers you’ve gotten already, here’s some links that may be of interest to you.

How did the whole war in the Donbas start? Why did Donets and Luhansk declare independence?

According to Lenin’s definition of imperialism, is the Russian Federation imperialist?

PSL Statement on Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine

Prolewiki page on the war

Most of these links are a few years old already, but at a glance they appear to me to still be relevant. I’m unfortunately busy with work so I can’t take a more in-depth look at the moment, but hopefully this will still be of some value.

Listen, I’m all for dunking on shitlibs, but if someone’s literally asking for reading recs on communism, I think we should at least try and give them something. Maybe I’m just being naive or my sealion detector is bad or something, but this to me seems like a good faith request, even if it’s very ignorant.