Johnny Ringo
Bio
Disabled, bisexual American socialist and political activist. Student of politics, aspiring journalist, and academic. Bachelor’s of Science in Criminal Justice.
Stories (35/0)
What is Capitalism? Legalized Theft.
Capitalism is an economic system centered around not only the private ownership, control, and operation of industrial means of production (the factories, farms, and other manufacturers of food, clothing, and all the products and services we use every day), but also the deliberate redistribution of a vast, overwhelming majority of global wealth into the pockets of those same private owners of the means of production.
By Johnny Ringo4 years ago in The Swamp
What is True Alienation in Capitalism?
One of the hardest things to deal with when one first realizes the harm, the damage, the evil that capitalism embodies, promotes and waves away, is the social alienation. It is alienating to be a socialist, and this shouldn't be the case. Because the people we love, the liberals, centrists, and right wingers among our friends and families, whether they know it or not, there is a disconnect that goes on between us and them. And that disconnect comes from their inability or unwillingness to understand that capitalism is killing all of us. It's lonely sometimes to be a socialist, because it feels like being awake when everyone else is asleep.
By Johnny Ringo4 years ago in The Swamp
Understanding a Fundamental Marxist Idea
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” This is perhaps the foundational idea of Karl Marx, a famous quote from Marx’s “Critique of the Gotha Program”. The practical, material expression of this Marxist idea is that the the government taxes you what you can afford, and gives to you what you need. To anyone who has paid attention to staggering wealth inequality, particularly in American society, we understand that this principle put into actual practice will invariably mean that the poor need more help to survive, and because of their poverty will end up paying less taxes. Inversely, this means of course that the rich take exponentially less in social or government assistance, and will pay exponentially more in taxes, because realistically they can afford to. It’s a fundamental idea I believe in and agree with, and at one point we did, too.
By Johnny Ringo4 years ago in The Swamp
How Do We Define and Think About Freedom? Anarchism Versus the State
This is going to be an argument about how we think about freedom, primarily based upon my interpretations of Isaiah Berlin’s original 1958 lecture, “Two Concepts of Liberty.” In this philosophical view, freedom can be viewed in two ways, positive and negative. According to Berlin, positive freedom is freedom of choice, or freedom to do. Negative freedom is consequently freedom from, or to be free to avoid some kind of negative stimuli. When people speak of freedom, it is usually a combination of these two concepts. So in this way, people often define freedom as a combination of both positive and negative. Positive freedom posits that people must be free to choose to do as they wish, freedom to live happily and well. Whereas negative freedom is freedom from; but from what? That usually depends upon one’s politics and perspective.
By Johnny Ringo4 years ago in The Swamp
Socialism, Revolution and Foreign Policy: A Black Panther Analysis
Black Panther is one of the greatest comic book movies ever made. The film is rich with visual style, overflowing with culture, and completely immersive into a literally unseen world. This analysis of the film is somewhat spoiler-laden, assuming that the reader has seen the film and understands the plot. This analysis is more focused on the ideas, symbolism, themes, and philosophies in the movie. The YouTube channel Wisecrack has already explored some of the ideas in the film, and this analysis is an attempt to explore them further, build upon them, and explore other ideas that Wisecrack did not cover.
By Johnny Ringo4 years ago in The Swamp
How Do Rich Liberals View “Revolution”: David Cage and "Detroit: Become Human"
Revolution. The romantic, idealized, dramatized, and sanitized idea of an in-some-way-oppressed people rising up against the city, nation, corporation, or socio-economic structure that oppresses them. This revolution often is framed in two extreme ways: one, as a violent, bloody, visceral, terrible war; or two, as a romantic, pacifist, do-no-harm-and-no-harm-will-come-to-us civil resistance akin to Dr. King or Ghandi; to change from within those people and structures who do us harm by singing about love. American attitudes about revolution have long been disproportionately described as “peaceful good, violent bad”, and this is the prefered social narrative of rich liberals in the United States.
By Johnny Ringo4 years ago in The Swamp
Telltale Games: the Lesson About Capitalism That Nobody Wants to Learn From
The games industry is abuzz with news that popular game developer studio Telltale Games, put on the map for its beloved title “The Walking Dead Season One” is shutting its doors. An outpouring of support from game studios across the world is reaching out to the hundreds of former Telltale employees who were laid off in a mass firing that a class action lawsuit from former Telltale developers alleged had violated California state and American federal labor laws. Some would say that the rest of the industry is callously scavenging, picking the Telltale corpse clean, looking for little morsels of talent.
By Johnny Ringo4 years ago in Gamers
Sheriff Chuck Jenkins, 287(g) and ICE: the Wrong Choice for Frederick County
Sheriff Jenkins is a hard man. In the same vein of crooked, corrupt, and criminal “law enforcement” figures like former Milwaukee sheriff David Clarke and former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, Jenkins is “tough on crime”. Or at least that is what he wants us to believe about him. The sheriff also clearly wants such a position to be viewed positively by the Frederick County citizens. But should it be?
By Johnny Ringo4 years ago in Criminal
To What Standard Do We Hold Muslims in Our Society?
At 5 pm on March 24th, 2019, the Islamic Society of Frederick held a vigil for the 50+ victims of a white supremacist shooter who targeted multiple masjids (what we know as mosques) in Christchurch, New Zealand. The death toll could have been worse if this man’s co-conspirators had been successful in detonating a number of homemade IEDs. Thankfully they failed to detonate, but the death toll was still unacceptable. One life taken by a hate-filled white supremacist monster, whether because of the victim’s religion or their ethnicity, is unacceptable.
By Johnny Ringo4 years ago in The Swamp
Nuka World’s Raiders and the Minutemen, or: How a Fallout Loving Libertarian YouTuber Accidentally Made a Socialist Argument
Fallout fanatic Oxhorn joined Youtube on October 26th, 2011, and in those nearly 8 years he’s built a solid, successful channel with great production value. With over 1.2 million subscribers, weekly Twitch streams, a Patreon, a Discord, online merchandise, and over a third of a billion total video views, Oxhorn is pretty popular for a reason. His content is just good, his voice is really nice to listen to, and his explorations of the Fallout games and other games are extensive and excellent. He does cut content, easter eggs, full playthroughs, mod reviews, in-depth character analysis, quest walkthroughs, and his discussions about the social and philosophical questions in video games are very entertaining, thought provoking, and just generally agreeable; he just seems like a nice guy.
By Johnny Ringo4 years ago in Gamers
PA Dems Patron Anti-Gay Christian Group Through Local Coffee Shop
LOCK HAVEN, PENNSYLVANIA — A transgender activist in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania is blowing the whistle on an alleged Christian hate group, the Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA). The CMA is a longstanding anti-gay Christian group which has contributed millions to the National Christian Foundation, a nationwide network of anti-LGBT fundraising and lobbying.
By Johnny Ringo4 years ago in The Swamp
The Horrible Legal Legacy of Attorney General Jeff Sessions
For minority Democrats in Congress, rhetoric paints Trump as an architect of evil, or that’s what they’d have us believe. Immediately following Trump’s election, millions of women took to the streets in protest, but in protest of what? As a socialist, I think this shows a weakness in the Democratic establishment’s response to Trump, while simultaneously showcasing how fantastically that establishment has co-opted social movements like Occupy Wall Street, or more recently, #Resist.
By Johnny Ringo4 years ago in The Swamp