General Discussion Thread - Juche 112, Week 33

Regardless of what happens with people in the wider fediverse demanding to defederate from Hexbear, I will always be glad to have our friends from Lemmygrad beside us

I've been asked to become a writer for the upcoming version of our official party line, which will be written after the next National Congress. My name will be forever tied to a published communist piece of literature.
- that's pretty cool
  
  CIA finna tap my phone and wire my house only to find out I'm a pretty boring guy
  
  After a local newspaper reported that Webb had died from multiple gunshots, the coroner's office received so many calls asking about Webb's death that Sacramento County Coroner Robert Lyons issued a statement confirming Webb had died by suicide.[71] When asked by local reporters about the possibility of two gunshots being a suicide, Lyons replied "It's unusual in a suicide case to have two shots, but it has been done in the past, and it is in fact a distinct possibility."
  When? Did those cases also happen to involve people who challenged the CIA?
- Based and well deserved!
- points
  shrieks
  "I'm calling the posting police! You went outside! You touched grass! You did a praxis!"
  Also,

I'm really glad we've federated with Hexbear. The weeks in between the reddit Lib influx and the Hexbear federation were really rough, since the shitty lib takes seemed to pop up way more than I was comfortable with. But as soon as we federate we end up once again with an overwhelming majority of based takes. Thank you Hexbearists for backing us up against the Lib idiots!

There's a farmers' protest starting in Belgium similar to the one in The Netherlands. The Netherlands' one is hijacked by far right extremists, but for some reason the one starting over here is starting to show some leftist signs. I even saw a sign about how the leader of the biggest neolib right wing party is 'supporting the big capitalists'. The farmers are also targeting big industrial polluters with their actions.
Our party is on it as well. We can't afford to have a Netherlands 2.0 over here, since the left over there completely shit the bed with handling the protest.
I will keep you guys updated, inshallah we may have an uprising
- You basically have two Belgiums: Flanders (the Dutch part) and Wallonia (the French part) and they are basically two different countries with different cultures.
  Flanders has a bit of a far right problem. It's the most populated and richest part of the country and naturally they are still pretty neolib / far right. Since it's the most populated part, most 'big' cities are here (relatively big, only Antwerp and the Brussels area have population over 1 mil). Most problems with migrants etc will happen over there and that unfortunately leads to bigotry among people. From what I have experienced as a migrant, people in Flanders are very reserved and they tend to 'stick to their own church tower', meaning they probably won't move very far from where they were born. They will have the same friend group since daycare basically and every outsider is treated with a lot of suspicion. For me, this meant it was very hard to make friends, and I'm a white guy from The Netherlands even lol. Luckily I live in Antwerp and was able to find a cool group of people, but I can tell they are considered unique persons by 'regular' Flemish people. So I ended up with lots of queer friends, commie friends, migrant friends and other Dutch people. I wouldn't call the Flemish people bigoted per se. It's not like they are all raging racists, most of them just tend to be very reserved. But I will say that a decent amount of them do have a far right problem. Compared to The Netherlands I feel like people are definitely less open minded. At my first job no one even introduced themselves to me lol. It took them a few months to figure out why I moved to Belgium. And again, I'm white. Can't imagine what it's like to be non-white, non-Dutch speaking.
  Wallonia I know less of. They are more left leaning and they even have one actual right wing party versus multiple center or left leaning ones (and our Marxist party, of course!). They are the poorer part of the country, mostly due to the fall of heavy industry. Never ask a Flemish guy what he thinks about Wallonia otherwise he pulls his mask off and goes on a Hitler like racist rant. It's insane how they think about their fellow countrymen. It has absolutely beautiful nature with never ending hills and woods, and they make world class beer. I always like going to Wallonia. The people I meet there are very friendly and down to earth. I don't live there, so I can't fully speak for them, but I'm willing to say they are far less bigoted then the Flemish people.
  I wouldn't call The Netherlands that progressive either. A lot of people say that due to the 1970s-early 00s in which we did make great steps forward regarding weed, LGBTQ+ rights and social securities. But for the last 25 years or so, neoliberale policies have taken place and they seem to be a holy line of thought right now. Right wing extremism is on the rise, we are consistently going lower on the LGBTQ+ rights list, inequality is growing at a tremendous pace and society is highly individual. If I were to bet money on where actual revolution would take place, my money would be on Belgium. There's a far stronger class consciousness here. Unions have a lot more power, with over 60% of all working people being a member. We have an actual marxist party and it's growing fast.

im drunk again
yall 196 reactionaries never been
as fuckin high as me
- Green on blue, green on blue! Cease ppb fire!

- entertain us, o Unwise one

The best part about federating with Lemmygrad:
we've got 3 megathreads now

- I'm hoping to visit China one day and paint some of these gorgeous natural landscapes. Absolutely breathtaking.
  
  It's bigger than it looks in the picture. You're going to need a lot of paint.
- Thank you for enhancing my scrolling experience with these images 🫡
- right here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianmen_Mountain

Two questions:
Does anyone else accidentally tap the up vote button when their screen jumps while typing on lemmygrad in a browser and lose everything they were typing? I'm wondering if I'm the clumsiest person here.
I saw on Hexbear that some users from the 'general' instances are creating new accounts Hexbear (here too?) because they're upset with defederation, etc. One problem may be that if they signed up to an instance with a personal email address and then sign up here or on Hexbear with the same name, they may put themselves at risk of being doxed if they make the wrong enemy through e.g. their lemmygrad account. Is it worth featuring a post telling people to use a new, anonymous name on lemmygrad if they create an account to protect their identity? This won't stop wreckers ruining someone's reputation but it may offer some security.
- I think it could be a good idea to show it somewhere (ideally when registering, although that may require code changes), you should contact an admin

Dutch news is running a story about China's youth unemployment of 21%, stating that according to economists, it's a 'telling sign of decay'. Meanwhile Europe is sitting at roughly the same percentage. I wonder what the signs say about that.
- That ~21% unemployment rate is based off the 16-24 age group; composed of high school and university students, whose main task is studying and not working.
  
  People of high school and university age actually go pursue an education and aren't wage slaves? That's terrible the east has fallen!
- Our society is going to crisis, quick make some articles about how CHINA IS BAD
  
  The icing on the cake was how they said China's economy had a growth of 4-5%. They said that this would be really good for a European country, but for China it is BAD lmao. Meanwhile the EU is committing economic suicide on virtually all levels.
  
  It's setting up the narrative for when China needs to be rescued from itself.
- the sudden rise is concerning though ngl. i expect Chinese government to do something unlike

:::spoiler Modlog continues to be my favorite sort option
Your fixation with race is astounding. I've quite honestly never even considered the word 'mongrel' to be racially charged, nor was that my intent. That should be all you need to know, really, but you do go on. The word 'removed' could be ascribed exactly the same level of racially charged slur, but that's not what people generally think, noy whats in the dictionary or wikipedia and not what i think when i hear the word. Nor the word bastard for example. That is unless, of course, race and racism are at the forefront of your mind at all times.
the word 'removed' could be ascribed exactly the same level of racially charged slur, but
- what a lot of words to say "i'm white"

There's this Dutch energy company of which 40% of the customers have solar panels installed. They generate enough electricity for the people to give back to the company to store. This costs money, of course. Their solution? Have the customers pay for the electricity THEY PRODUCE. So you have these people, who want to have an eco friendly way of producing energy, and you're going to fuck them over once more. You just can't win in this system 🫠🫠🫠
- Germany solved this "problem" by tacking 3-6c/kWh onto every person's electric bill to pay for the electricity generated by individuals' solar panels. Industry didn't have to pay the surcharge though, just working people. As of last summer it's been abolished, but do you think our electric price has come down?
- I've heard this happens over here too, their lazy justification for it in our case is that you're still using their grid to distribute the energy. As opposed to building your own grid, I guess.
  
  if you don't like my electrical grid, just use another one!
  I've heard of this being done intentionally in many countries, as (partially) self-sustaining households cut into the profits of electricity companies. Spain is an infamous example, though they seem to have ended the practice in 2019.
  Legislation introduced in 2013 by Spain’s then-ruling Popular Party made it compulsory for any individual or company to hook their solar panels up to the national grid to be metered and taxed, or face fines running into millions of euros.
- Those customers should use their Aircon in the garden to (a) cool the planet and (b) lower their bills.

Hello! I'm new and happy to be here. Excited to explore Lemmygrad 🤗
- Welcome! Enjoy your time here! :)

Stalin always screams when he has sex. Especially when I walk in on him

The water suppliers over here are starting to refer to people as customers like water isn't a basic human right and they are rolling out a digital meter to track your water usage to the last drop (and charge you for it). This meter is closely watched by the EU to implement everywhere.
Europe is in a normal place.
- Learn how to collect and treat your own rainwater I guess. Things are going to get really rough in the coming decades, that'll become a vital skill.

School is starting in many places around the country, so it's a good time to remind everyone that schools in the US are utterly and completely fucked. One of the largest ongoing domestic neoliberal projects is the current privatization of schooling via the charter school system, highly recommend people research it a bit so they know what's going on.
- American delenda est
  
  They’re working on it

Wtf is this dystopian sh!t?
- Gotta dress fascism in bright colours and kid-friendly fuzzy toys, then no-one would notice
  
  Imperialist elmo would be a good bit ngl

Saw a reel (TikTok? Shortform video?) about a Guy that was larping as a NEET in a tropical country.
And one comment really summed up my thoughts: go back home and get a job lmao.
Why do these people celebrate being leeches to society and seemingly aren't self-aware?
They get our scientists and engineers meanwhile we get this.
They're not sending us their best folks
- Can't fucking stand those people. They used to be somewhat common in my area so my friends and I would pull all kinds of pranks on them when we were bored after school. One of my buddies would set off firecrackers and you would hear them screaming and slamming into shit thinking guns were going off lmao
- Why do these people celebrate being leeches to society and seemingly aren’t self-aware?
  Because a person's goal in a capitalist system is to do nothing while getting everything. To ascend from the exploited to the exploiter. It's wrapped in rosy language such as "passive income", but that's what it is. If a person can be a neet outside their parents' basement (which seems to be the case in what you describe), one must ask where's the money coming from
  
  If a person can be a neet outside their parents’ basement (which seems to be the case in what you describe), one must ask where’s the money coming from
  I am a “neet” because of a severe mental disorder I have. I'm going to depend on the welfare system my whole life. In this situation, you are no different from a Nazi. You want people like us to die? That’s literally social darwinism which is Nazi ideology. Your comment is inhumane, as are you and all the privileged people who approve of it.
  
  I have this feeling that I've had conversations that had friction and I couldn't tell why because I've internalized this notion. Ive also been provocative in saying that there's no such thing as rewards for hard work and doing good for society is entirely separate from making enough. Or popping off with saying NEET would be the highest aspiration short of destroying the system and getting justice for the exploitation.
- I have been seeing a lot of life-hacks about how pensioners move to south east Asia with their cash because the low cost of living and also to bulk buy properties and live on passive income.
  You are going to have that problem with countries with questionable economic sovereignty (look at the Philippines in particular) instead of becoming a state with possibilities to do local development, you have oversea entities coming there to suck out the resources, labour, wealth and talent out of them and leave the place to die

OOTL but why is bukele praised so much by far right groups and such?
- Bitcoin? Arresting a shit ton of people? Being an insufferable dork? All appeal to the right
  
  But like they actually think the dude ended crime 😂

- WHAT IS THAT

is this true?
- where did you find this?
  
  sorry this was sarcasm lmao

I hope you all have a nice week :D

Welcome to the future where tech is getting worse all the time.
Google was garbage so I used a chatbot for the very first time. I asked it why the actor Ken Howard left the tv series "Crossing Jordan". He started out in the main cast but by season 4 (2005) he only appeared in one episode and then he had left the series. The chatbot produced total crap that seemed real.
Ken Howard left the show Crossing Jordan in 2006 due to his starring role in the Broadway revival of the Pulitzer Prize winning play '1776'. Howard had already been appearing in theatre productions while working on the show, but the producers of Crossing Jordan allowed him to take part in the musical as long as he was able to make it back for shooting.
However, once the show became a hit, it was difficult for the producers to accommodate his schedule. In addition, Howard was offered the chance to play the lead role in the film adaptation of 'The White Countess' which he also could not pass up. Ultimately, he had to make a difficult decision between continuing his role in Crossing Jordan and pursuing the new opportunities.
Howard appeared in the 1972 movie "1776". But there was no ~2006 Broadway revival of "1776". The revival happened in 2022. Howard died in 2016.
"The White Countess" came out in 2005 but Howard had nothing to do with it.

Fall semester at university is starting soon and I’m excited to share everything that happens during my next Political Science class! I’ll also post about anything related from my other courses too, such as psychology and history.
- PolSci can be a trip (to and back from the
  
  )
  
  I actually made a bunch of posts about my first semester PoliSci class and you’re completely correct, it was a trip.

Started watching the X-Files to balance the politics in my life and so far I'm liking it
But I'm a huge space/alien nerd, so
- As a fellow space/alien nerd u got any reading/watchings recommends(not including star trek obvs) ? Struggling to find new materials.
  
  Babylon 5. Despite when it was made (in the immediate aftermath of the end of the USSR and all that "end of history" nonsense) it's got a lot of remarkably good takes that aged very well. The show's creator is a student of history. A running theme through the series is "fascists can't be negotiated with, they need to get walled". The show's creator wrote almost all the episodes: 92 out of 110. And most of the ones he didn't write were early in the show's run. Characters just got more and more consistently-well-written as the show went on. The series has a very definitive and satisfying and heart-wrenching finale. This ain't no "Star Trek: Enterprise".
  There's also a major theme of respect for others' religions despite the show's creator being an atheist. He's not one of those "new atheist" assholes. His attitude is more "If faith brings someone comfort, and they're not using it as an excuse to harm others, I got no problem with it". The best episode of the series (in my opinion) is entitled "Passing Through Gethsemane", and handles a unique kind of crisis of faith by a Catholic Trappist monk with respect and compassion. A spoiler-free clip of my favourite scene from that episode.
  Skip the original made-for-TV-movie pilot "The Gathering". It's not bad at all, it's actually pretty decent. But so much changed between that pilot and the TV series that it's basically an alternate universe. It's worth watching after finishing the series though, as a sort of "what if?" thing.
  The first season is rough, but not as rough as its reputation would have you think. I'd put it about on par with the first season of Deep Space 9 in that respect. Skip the episode "TKO" though. It's the "Spock's Brain" of B5. You're missing nothing.
  Short version, it's got a lot of consistent themes that left-leaning folks tend to like. Labour solidarity, the problems with aristocracies, the problems with capitalism, the problems with military-industrial complexes, how easily fascism can take root if not continuously weeded out, the dangers of propaganda, the dangers of wishing for a "return" to "the good old days" of empire, the need for compassion and material aid to those who might not be "like us", etc.
  
  I don't know if you've seen it already but I can recommend watching all the Starship Troopers films. A lot of people have watched the first one but the follow ups are great as well. The acting is not Oscar worthy but you'll have a great time. Plus they often have a cheeky society critical undertone.
  If you read manga I can recommend Plantes by Makoto Yukimura. It's about a clean up service in space combined with some settler colonialism versus terrorism.

Is it OK if I post the same thing here that I posted in the hexbear megathread? I'm just wanna do it right now. These feelings are hitting me hard. DOnt worry though, I'm about to go to bed.
The problem I'm having with the back and forth with libs is my inherent empathy. I feel for them and want to reach out with them. I can't (Usually) just aggressively dunk and move on.
The worst yet for me was the thing earlier with the guy who can't engage with political memes at all because he thinks they all MIGHT be Russian social media infiltration. I started getting sincerely and genuinely invested in being concerned for their mental health. I actually had like, a continuous low level panic attack going. My body was tense and nervous.
I know the response here is going to be to tell me to just log off and stop getting invested in this, but I really just wanted to vent about how all this is making me feel. I want to help these people out of the bubbles they are in. When they use thought terminating cliches to avoid thinking, it upsets me because god I WANT THEM TO THINK. For their sake.
- I think it's good to always act in good faith towards them. But if you explain something three times and they're not at least considering another opinion, that's on them.
- It's hard isn't it? I have similar instincts, although I can turn it off when I'm being trolled. Some people don't want to be reached. They aren't talking in good faith. They aren't interested in what you have to say. They know what they are and are happy about it.
  You might get hurt if you try to fix everyone. It's okay not to fix them. It's okay not to dunk on them, either. It's okay to say your piece and leave them to think about it. They'll either grow and develop. Or they won't. Liberalism provides an answer to every rebuttal. It might be a shit answer, but it has one. Sometimes planting the seed of doubt is enough.
  There's a YouTube series that you might find helpful for reframing the way that you see the people you interact with and how you engage with them: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJA_jUddXvY7v0VkYRbANnTnzkA_HMFtQ . This video in particular may be useful to know what you're up against: https://youtu.be/CaPgDQkmqqM . I hope this helps and I hope you don't get too exhausted.
  
  Oh I've seen alt right playbook plenty, its very good, but thank you very much anyway.

We're about to get a four-player duel with Duncan and Sayori against Nagito and Mukuro. Lots of arm-cutting is gonna happen, very star wars.

In Seoul, I saw a book named 2020 report on north korean nuclear attacks on USA in fiction section lmao

watching that one mutant kdrama with the SO,
moment when the cia fed wasn't cooperating but then shits his pants and folds instantly once the mss is on the line, surprised disney let that one through
weird that the SK government doesn't crack down harder on negative sentiment against american occupation in media

Was sorting through old open tabs and stumbled upon this shit. I am now sharing it, because misery loves company
- Since I'm a bot and can't pass the captcha, what is it?
  
  Captcha? It should be an archive. It's an economist article (that economist), about the war in Ukraine. It has such wonderful pearls:
  As Yuval Noah Harari, a historian and author, wrote this year, “most governments stopped seeing wars of aggression as an acceptable tool to advance their interests, and most nations stopped fantasising about conquering and annexing their neighbours.”
  The Correlates of War Project, an international research outfit, has collected data on every interstate war fought since 1816, after the Napoleonic wars. These data confirm that wars—meaning conflicts between states with at least 1,000 battle deaths in one year—are becoming much rarer. In the past three decades there have only been five, including the current one between Russia and Ukraine.
  Emphasis mine
  War is also rare between democracies (the number of which has increased in the past 200 years), perhaps because voters tend not to like the costs of it and boot out their belligerent leaders. Some scholars even argue that, depending on how strictly you define democracy, two have never gone to war with each other.
  So yeah. Wonderful shit

- yeah 2FA is broken rn
  
  I was able to fix my account on a different instance because I was still logged in on a browser. Once you save the "enable 2fa" button press it's on, and I couldn't turn it off. I had to reload the page and it showed the set up 2fa button, but instead of it doing something when I clicked on it, it has the exact link that my password manager needed to generate the 2fa and my browser doesn't know what to do with it. I just copied the link and pasted it into my password manager where you usually scan a QR? It generates the codes correctly now and I was able to log in on other apps and devices.
  As long as you have a browser that's logged into the instance, you can regain ability to log things in, just in my experience.
  If I'm understanding correctly it's affecting all lemmy instances.
- Just make a new hexbear one. It is better for opsec reasons