The Colt 1911 is a disturbing reminder of the relationship between ideology and the material world. It exists as a direct response to problems the USA military had with wiping out and conquering indigenous peoples in the Philippines.
Today, this brutal and barbaric origin story is romanticized and used as a selling point by arms dealers in the West.
This is not to imply that the 1911 is, as an object, "evil." This is a hand-made Colt 1911 pattern pistol, one of many built by Viet Minh freedom fighters in terrible conditions (often using metal scavenged from bombs dropped on our villages).
Vo Nguyen Giap wrote extensively in People’s War, People’s Army about the lack of firearms available to Vietnam and our desperate need for weapons. Thus material conditions drove us to copy captured weapons of our imperialist oppressors.
USAmericans like to be dismissive of the "crude craftsmanship" of such Vietmamese firearm "copies." But these were made by peasants with no training in engineering and very limited tools. Nonetheless, plenty of imperialist invaders were neutralized with our "crude" weapons.
That said, we don't romanticize our low-quality wartime weapons. We may venerate war relics, but we never want to be in a situation where we can't arm ourselves with modern weapons again, which is why we go to great lengths to manufacture our own modern firearms domestically.
Being able to manufacture modern weapons as a poor developing country was no easy task, and some compromises had to be made. Developing a high tech weapons platform is something very few nations can achieve. We had to license some tech while maintaining PRODUCTION at home.
This material production is the result of an ideological mandate which stems directly from the material conditions of our revolutionary struggle... and, of course, production is restrained by material reality. The material determines, with impact from the ideal. DiaMat 101!🤓
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This was in an article calling for the end of the colonization of Ireland and demanding the British should make the complete liberation of the Irish from colonial and imperialist oppression their highest priority, but go off
This is the problem with liberal metaphysical analysis. It's just a process of gathering up little static units of information to support your a priori conclusions, with no interest whatsoever in seeking a comprehensive and historical perspective of truth
Cringe tbh 🙃
"It is the task of the International everywhere to put the conflict between England and Ireland in the foreground, and everywhere to side openly with Ireland." From the same damn document 🤣
The communist party doesn't just rest on its laurels and brag about statistical drops in poverty reduction, though, and isn't satisfied with poverty reduction that doesn't seem sustainable.
Vietnam is a socialism-oriented market economy, not a free market capitalist market economy, which is why the government can enforce loan quotas and restrict real estate speculation while making allowances for residential needs.
We went to a private bank yesterday and heard them say they aren't giving out ANY loans for the rest of the year because the government won't allow them.
The idea that oppressed people can "weaponize" our identity is misguided liberal metaphysics (at least as reactionaries claim).
Dialectical materialism has us define things by internal and external relations and development over time...⏩️
Context: a common example which comes from debate bro discourse is that of a "black trans woman"(the most common example I've seen) "weaponizing her identity" to win a debate or to bully others into accepting her point of view.
This is coupled with the strawman argument that oppressed people can use our identities to "never be wrong," which obviously nobody believes. This framing is just used so that the arguer (usually white men) can quickly poison the well and invalidste oppressed perspectives.
In scientific socialism, perspective is KEY. Socialism has a working class perspective. Our decisions and judgments are made from the perspective of liberating the working class. When enemies of workers fight and weaken each other (Trump vs FBI), we LEVERAGE it.
This is a situation rife with contradiction, and contradiction drives development. This is a major opportunity for agitation and propaganda for the working class. We should be able to highlight the evils of American presidents like Trump AND bourgeois agencies like the FBI.
It's like Derek Chauvin going to jaul for killing George Floyd. Liberal metaphysical thinking might see it as "hypocritical" for critics of prison to want cops to be convicted, but it makes sense when you consider it from the perspective of the oppressed working class.