C ✊ UVW-CWA

@ckjong.bsky.social

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Pixel artist + game designer. Art for Dwarf Fortress, Fraymakers, and other mysterious projects. Proud member of UVW-CWA https://uvw-cwa.org/ Portfolio: https://ckjong.artstation.com/

Screenshot of a Washington Post article headline, the text reads: "Sports betting was once widely outlawed. Now it’s promoted at the White House. The UFC event on the South Lawn reflects how sports-related gambling has evolved into a powerful mainstream force in American life."
Screenshot of a Futurism headline. The text reads "Artificial Intelligence - Company Behind AI School Surveillance System in Major Trouble After It Fails to Spot Armed Student Walking In to Commit Mass Shooting, By Frank Lyndmore." Above the headline and byline is an image of a person with a blue backpack holding a gun behind their back.
Screenshot of a headline from the Wall Street Journal. The headline reads: "The World’s Most Surprising Economic Success Story Is…North Korea". Underneath that in smaller text: "Arms sales to Russia and goods from China provide boost, despite sanctions; ‘the regime is wealthier than ever’".
Cover of the Economist from 2019 with a black and white photo of a young woman shouting in the bottom left and the words "The Rise of Millenial Socialism" written in a Soviet graphic style on the right against a red background.
GIF of a stone and wooden building that alternates between showing the ground floor, one floor above, and a red roof. Alien creatures are working in the building. On the first floor there are stockpiles of materials on the floor, a stone oven and chimney, and tables with various tools and objects on them. The second floor is a living space with a bed, bookshelf, table and chairs, and a barrel and crate, and a communications device. There are 3 staircases leading to the second floor, as well as a ladder. Outside the building is a yellow forklift and wooden palette, a stone well and oven, logs, a red wheelbarrow, as well as various plants and lichen.
Isometric pixel art scene showing an autumn landscape with two turquoise ponds, a wooden and stone cabin above, and a modern laboratory structure below.
Photo of a grey-haired man with glasses about to slam down a card on a table. The card is labeled "el problema es el capitalismo" and the table is labeled "una conversacion casual." "Yo" is written over the man in large white text.
A computer screen displaying a conversation with an AI. The user asks the AI "Are you absolutely sure about that?" In response the AI thinks for 2 seconds and then says "Let me actually verify by looking at the source code directly". However after searching the web multiple times for the Github repository it receives only generic AI-generated responses. The phrase "Gonna throw up" is overlaid on top of the image.
Pixel art scene of two characters talking near a thatch house. The house is next to a stream with stones, cattails, and lily pads, a small wooden bridge, and a rice paddy. To the left of the house there is a basket of rice drying in the sun and laundry hanging on a clothesline next to some ferns and bamboo. On the right of the screen is a scroll with dialogue options, discussing a kidnapped lapdog and what action to take next. On the bottom left are UI elements enclosed by a sickle and a blue wooden frame, including icons of a sun, a light-bulb, a scale, a bullet, a gear, a compass, and a photograph, with flowers and grass sprouting from the bottom of the screen.
Quote from Aimé Césaire's Discourse on Colonialism (content warning: racial slurs): "Yes, it would be worthwhile to study clinically, in detail, the steps taken by Hitler and Hitlerism and to reveal to the very distinguished, very humanistic, very Christian bourgeois of the twentieth century that without his being aware of it, he has a Hitler inside him, that Hitler inhabits him, that Hitler is his demon, that if he rails against him, he is being inconsistent and that, at bottom, what he cannot forgive Hitler for is not the crime in itself, the crime against man, it is not the humiliation of man as such, it is the crime against the white man, the humiliation of the white man, and the fact that he applied to Europe colonialist procedures which until then had been reserved exclusively for the Arabs of Algeria, the 'coolies' of India, and the 'niggers' of America."
Pixel art of a small house with a red roof near a stream with waterfalls, surrounded by trees, rocks, and a wooden fence. There's a small wood pile, stump, and axe next to the house.
Pixel art scene of two characters talking near a thatch house. The house is next to a stream with stones, cattails, and lily pads, a small wooden bridge, and a rice paddy. To the left of the house there is a basket of rice drying in the sun and laundry hanging on a clothesline next to some ferns and bamboo. On the right of the screen is a scroll with dialogue options, discussing a kidnapped lapdog and what action to take next. On the bottom left are UI elements enclosed by a sickle and a blue wooden frame, including icons of a sun, a light-bulb, a scale, a bullet, a gear, a compass, and a photograph, with flowers and grass sprouting from the bottom of the screen.
Art mockup of a warehouse in low-poly 3D with pixel art textures. There are conveyor belts and shelves with yellow containers and cardboard packages on them. In the background a worker helps another worker who has fallen on the ground. In the center of the image is a group of workers standing together and holding multicolored protest signs with symbols like a raised red fist, and people > money.
Screenshot of a statement on X by David Adler, the text reads: "Dear friends, I fear this will be the final letter that I write to you from the Global Sumud Flotilla — now just 120 NM from the shores of Gaza. Last night, several Israeli naval ships menaced our convoy. They attacked our vessels, intimidated our crew, and disabled our communications. We recognize these tactics from previous flotilla missions. We know that they are the precursor to what we have long feared: illegal Israeli abduction in international waters. As I write this, we are preparing ourselves for such an imminent attack. We know the procedures. We know the protocols. When they board our boats, we will not resist. We are ready. From our cell phones and our CCTVs, we will do our best to document everything. We will transmit it to the world. And we will rely on you to spread the word about this criminal attack. But before they intercept us, I want to say something — corny, I know; copium, possibly — but that I truly believe nonetheless: that even if we do not complete our mission this time, the Sumud flotilla has already achieved so much."
Excerpt from the linked article. The text reads "Across all measures, the study controls for the influence of other factors that may influence inequality and poverty, GHG and TPM emissions, and mortality. In this way, the authors are able to single out the influence that unionization has. As they conclude, 'The evidence presented here suggests that when unionization rates are higher in Canadian provinces, the environment is cleaner, inequality is lower, and health is better.'"
Screenshot from Disco Elysium dialogue with a character called "The Deserter". The text reads: "You: Seen *what*? The Deserter: The mask of humanity fall from capital. It has to take it off to kill everyone — everything you love; all the hope and tenderness in the world. It has to take it off, just for one second. To do the deed. And then you see it. As it strangles and beats your friends to death... the sweetest, most courageous people in the world... _(he's silent for a second)_ You see the fear and power in its eyes. Then you *know*. You: What? The Deserter: That the bourgeois are not human."
Screenshot of a page from Wretched of the Earth, the highlighted text reads: “ In colonial regions, however, the proximity and frequent, direct intervention by the police and the military ensure the colonized are kept under close scrutiny, and contained by rifle butts and napalm. We have seen how the government’s agent uses a language of pure violence. … The colonist’s sector is a sated, sluggish sector, its belly is permanently full of good things. … The colonized’s sector, or at least the “native” quarters, the shanty town, the Medina, the reservation, is a disreputable place inhabited by disreputable people. You are born anywhere, anyhow. You die anywhere, from anything.“
Screenshot from chapter 12 of Socialism or Extinction: Climate Automation and War in the Final Capitalist Breakdown by Ted Reese. The text reads: "In an article in January 2018 headlined “When the next recession hits, the robots will be ready”, the Washington Post pointed out that innovations happen quickest “when employers slash payrolls going into a downturn and, out of necessity, turn to software or machinery to take over the tasks once performed by their laid-off workers”. Pointing to growing expectations by economists of a financial crisis in 2020, the paper adds that the “next wave of automation won’t just be sleek robotic arms on factory floors. It will be ordering kiosks, self-service apps and software smart enough to perfect schedules and cut down on the workers needed to cover a shift. Employers are already testing these systems. A recession will force them into the mainstream."
Screenshot from chapter 12 of the book Socialism or Extinction: Climate Automation and War in the Final Capitalist Breakdown by Ted Reese. The text reads: "Those who are lucky enough to find or remain in work as the capitalist crisis deepens will see their pay and conditions savagely forced down. In April 2018, the World Bank recommended yet more deregulation in a report that said “high minimum wages, undue restrictions on hiring and firing and strict contract forms all make workers more expensive vis-à-vis technology”. International capital is preparing a major assault on international labour in order to accelerate moves towards automation. Capitalists could be forced to slow down or stop the introduction of new automation by, say, a strong and militant neo-Luddite or trade union movement and – the usual driver for concessions – the desire for social peace. But the contradiction persists: capital accumulation, and staying ahead of or keeping up with competitors, requires higher productivity and therefore labour-saving innovation. The deeper capitalism sinks into crisis the more necessary it becomes to raise productivity. That is, the more workers are replaced by robots, the greater the underproduction of surplus value becomes, and yet the system needs to respond by replacing more workers with robots. If it cannot do this then capital goes unvalorised and the economy crashes. From the perspective of the bourgeoisie, a strong neo-Luddite or trade union movement would sooner or later have to be crushed."
Screenshot of an excerpt from the 6th chapter of Socialism or Extinction: Climate Automation and War in the Final Capitalist Breakdown by Ted Reese. It reads "6. The final contradiction? 'The worker becomes an ever cheaper commodity the more commodities he creates. With the increasing value of the world of things proceeds in direct proportion the devaluation of the world of men.' Marx A report by a Canadian investment bank, Macquarie, goes so far as to say that, unlike what it calls the first three industrial revolutions, which “aimed to supplement” human workers, the fourth “aims to replace humans completely”, making it “intrinsically far more disruptive”. In a seemingly Marxist explanation, the report puts the global economic crisis down to “declining returns on humans”, warning investors of “deglobalisation”, intensifying trade wars and a booming “lumpenproletariat”. If it is possible and true that the automation revolution aims to “replace human workers completely”, then it inadvertently aims to cut off the key social relation in the process of capital accumulation, ie the exploited human labour that goes into commodity production. Machinery cannot produce surplus value because, unlike workers, it cannot sell labour power – it cannot be exploited. “Declining returns on humans” is therefore an apt diagnosis, and once again shows, to the chagrin of all its would-be grave-diggers both on the Left as well as the Right, that the labour theory of value remains correct and, indeed, more relevant than ever."
Screenshot of a section of a book. The section title is "Senile imperialism" in bold. The rest of the text reads: "What we are seeing then is this: the highest stage of capitalism has gone past its own high point and is elapsing as a historical epoch – automation is undoing the economic relations that underpin the system. The productive forces now demand a higher mode of production altogether. Monopoly capitalism could survive despite the turmoil it wrought 100 years ago because it was still in its infancy and full automation was a distant reality. Today imperialism is old and senile with nowhere left to go but ‘home’, and highly developed automation has brought the expiration of the law of value into view."
Screenshot of the victory screen from the game Weiqi Dungeon. The first line reads "Enemy Defeated" in yellow text. The second and third lines say "You are now level 12. Click to advance deeper" in white text.
Screenshot of a long post by Arnaud Bertrand on X. The post reads: "It's becoming clearer and clearer that we're looking at a seismic shift in the US's relationship with the world, between: 1) The US dismantling its foreign interference apparatuses (like USAID 👇) 2) Marco Rubio stating that we're now in a multipolar world with "multi-great powers in different parts of the planet" (https://state.gov/secretary-marco-rubio-with-megyn-kelly-of-the-megyn-kelly-show/) and that "the postwar global order is not just obsolete; it is now a weapon being used against us" (https://foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/6df93f4b-a83c-89ac-0fac-9b586715afd8/011525_Rubio_Testimony.pdf) 3) The tariffs on supposed "allies" like Mexico, Canada or the EU This is the US effectively saying "our attempt at running the world is over, to each his own, we're now just another great power, not the 'indispensable nation'." It looks "dumb" (as the WSJ just wrote) if you are still mentally in the old paradigm but it's always a mistake to think that what the US (or any country) does is dumb. Hegemony was going to end sooner or later, and now the U.S. is basically choosing to end it on its own terms. It is the post-American world order - brought to you by America itself."
Screenshot of a comment on the YouTube video "100 Slaps: The Breaking News The Games Industry Ignored in 2024." The comment reads: "Also remember: in the 1950s and 1960s, Indonesia was a progressive society with a strong union movement, and workplace rights and laws. Compared to their neighbours, Indonesian factory workers had better rights, protections and pay. The President of the time wanted to tax oil and gas extraction (just like Norway does). The US government didn't like this, so the CIA funded, weaponised and backed the far-right coup that would result in a brutal dictatorship that lasted until 1998. The coup resulted in over a million Indonesians butchered in the streets. Over a million more placed in concentration camps. Communists, unionists, feminists, and social progressives were targeted in particular. Women's rights, worker's rights, fairly taxing foreign corporations: all things of the past under this new regime. As late as the 1990s, Indonesian schoolchildren would walk past the mutilated corpses of political dissidents as they walked to school. That's the regime that the CIA put in power. That's why a story like this one is even possible.