General Discussion Thread - Juche 114, Week 27

Today I am thirty-one years old.

This is my 1000th comment on Lemmy and I think it's a good time to take a look back. It's already been 2.5 years, and although I haven't participated much, I feel I have started to learn a lot and grow politically thanks to Lemmygrad, Hexbear more recently, and a few comrades on lemmy.ml and other instances (even the occasional .world). 2 years ago I was very much a lib. Now I sometimes take the time to read through articles, made a list of books to read and bought a few, to my family and I. To reflect, time passes too quickly and I haven't read the tiny Engels book on my night stand. I'm lucky enough to not have a physically demanding job but at the end of the day I'm still exhausted and drained. I wish others in my branch could realize we are very much exploited, even though it is at different degrees. Another bothering point is that even the leftist of my friends has a hard time challenging the non stop propaganda we are fed, and it's depressing

This comment was a mess. Thank you Lemmygrad, keep it up, and for those who have the energy to explain basic things to liberals: yes, it matters

Well thank you for being here too 🫡
I used to work several physical demanding jobs, from a steel factory to carpentry to a warehouse dragging beer kegs for 12 hours a day but I have never been as fatigued as my current office job. That is not to say that office work is harder than back breaking work but I do feel like the toll it takes on your psyche and body gets underestimated a lot.
- Working on an assembly line or fast food restaurant, I’d punch out and not give work another thought until I punched in. Working in the software industry, it’s seldom fully gone from my mind, even on the weekend.

Libs cry that china is imperialist because they give loans while the loans are literally used to repay IMF interests lmao

Alright.. Be Honest Comrades..

I dont Trust Zohran.. Yeah...Yeah He Make Right-wingers Meltdown..

I just Hope He's Not AOC 2.0

in a vacuum he seems like a great guy but it's hardly relevant in the grand scheme of things. at best he is going to implement policies that marginally improve NYC people's lives, which is something i could hardly care about. heck even if lenin himself were to become mayor, it straight up doesn't matter, the imperial core won't be reformed through liberal democracy.
He's still a politician in the Third Reich and nowhere near a revolutionary marxist that some people make him out to be. When the other candidates are genocidal maniacs you can see the 'maybe let's not do that' candidate as a good guy but ultimately we need much more than what Zohran is.
We'll see what he turns out to be. Hopefully the comrades in the NY area use this as a way to get in touch with more people.
I think Mamdani the idea is infinitely more valuable than Mamdani the man - no matter how good Mamdani the man turns out to be. The fact that Zionists across the aisle decided to make this a referendum on """"anti-semitism""" (read: anti-Zionism) only to get utterly humiliated was not only hilarious, but serves as proof of the popularity of the pro-Palestine movement to all the holdover liberals who made excuses for Biden / Harris by saying, "but Palestine isn't popular! They'd be committing political suicide!" - now it's clear that it is political suicide not to support Palestine. Ditto for trans rights, and also just socialism in general - like, we've heard Democrats say they can't support trans rights because they'll lose votes over it, and then Mamdani has a blowout victory after going out promising to give 65 million to healthcare for trans kids.
So if nothing else, I feel like Mamdani is a good avenue through which to radicalize liberals against Democrats. You've got a bunch of people looking at Mamdani and realizing that better things are possible... and if Mamdani ends up getting ratfucked by the Democrats or just disappoints, it'll be very easy to welcome them into the fold.
Also, all of the Islamophobic attacks on Mamdani by right wingers and fellow Democrats alike have got liberals I wouldn't normally so much as acknowledge calling for the resignation of Hakeem Jeffries. If nothing else, the man is a golden opportunity for establishment Democrats to end their political careers.
The fact that he is running as a dem is a red flag. They are using him to rehabilitate the dem brand. Participation in bourgeois elections only helps the cause if it is done under the banner of communism. He's a sheepdog rounding up the "progressive" liberals who are disgusted by the support for the genocide.
He is the dem's way of saying "I'm sorry baby. I've changed. I'll never hit you again. Please take me back"

DPRK releases unpublished images of soldiers deployed in Kursk at an event for the visit of the Russian Minister of Culture.

🫡

The mosque in my city that got send a letter with a bullet in it the other day just received another one and it shocks me to see how little people care.

Honestly, as a Turk, growing up after 9/11, it was difficult...
- I have seen Arab Christians go through additional screening upon entry to the US despite their obvious Arabic Christian names and the crosses they are wearing. Hatred of Islam is still widely acceptable in the West and they use that to hate on all peoples from south and east of the Mediterranean even those who aren't Muslim. Otherwise they will have to admit that they are just racist, which many sometimes can obviously be, see how Sub-Saharan Christians are treated in Europe.
- Damn, you are a Turk, as well a dear American? Hasan?
In a world where antisemitism holds so much weight, islamophobia apparently doesn't matter at all.
(yeah I know that real bigotry against jews barely matters too and that the word has been coopted by zionists)

Here's a pic of Man Utd player Onana posing with Ibrahim Traore for some reason

Another pic

I have so much fun lurking in the european instance where they pretend to be anti-american but do not acknowledge they are their vassals.

That sounds maddening.

TIL China has exported greenhouses to Yemen

and the DPRK!!

So femicide is a real problem here. Every other week a woman gets murdered in Belgium, in most cases by a partner or someone close to them. Most of the time for patriarchal reasons.

What's funny to me is that right wingers shout a lot about revenge killing in Muslim communities but remains silent about the dozens of women killed every year by Belgian men.

As I was making the comment above a dude set his wife on fire while being on parole because prisons are too full here
- More prisons beget more crime, tbh.
- The rich or more wealthy get parole while the dirt-poor don't and are left out sight and out of mind.
I never thought an european country had that problem. TIL
- Well I feel like it gets swept under the rug because of Western supremacy views. Just 'incidents' rather than a structural societal problem.

Where from?

So in my Dutch hometown there will be an anti migration protest at which some far right leaders will join. It's near the city hall. A counter protest is expected.

My mom works at the city hall and she has to evacuate the building after 16h otherwise safety can't be properly guaranteed. Wild to think that my mom is now at danger from actual fascists.

Leave it to the 'concerned citizens' to do this protest and show up with Nazi flags
Something about this being in my hometown makes me absolutely furious. Get the fuck away you fucking wankers.

Never been the biggest vegan activist there is (despite being vegan now) but I got myself some vegan print t shirt. One of them says SOYBOY lmao. Can't wait to wear them in public.

A new law was implemented here today that will see capital gains taxed at a higher percentage (only slightly so). It will be free of tax until a 10k profit is reached.

Now, people are swarming to the comments online saying this will just target the 'middle class good intentions father'.

I hope these people get a reality check soon. 10k in profits (FROM INVESTING!!!! PER YEAR!!!!) is not middle class.

Middle class ain’t nothin’ but a vibe 🤷 10K is about what you’d get if you’ve got ~150K socked away in the public stock & bond market. White collar workers and the petite bourgeoisie often have that much accumulated before they reach middle age.

For this year I decided to grow legumes on my city balcony and I had the first harvest of the year this weekend. I picked 50 grams of legumes from the plant and there was at least 2-3 times as much coming up for the next round. It's fun to see what you can do with such limited space. I also grow strawberries, lettuce, different tea herbs, thyme, spinach, radish, peppers, basil and some other herbs.

What kinds of legumes do you favor? I have this Italian climbing purple green bean variety that I'm fond of which always produces an absurd amount of food - but granted I'm in Hawai'i and have a lot of space to plant things outdoors.
I've tried radishes a few times, but I can't seem to get them started when I sow them straight into the ground and I've heard you don't want to transplant root vegetables. I do have some chicken wire plant guards, though, so perhaps I could try sowing seed under them to see if it's just the birds eating them before they can grow.
- Currently I grow flat beans which is a more generic sort I picked up at the store. I wasn't sure if they'd manage as my balcony is kinda shady and my squash plant didn't do too well last year (though it did gave some squash). But it is going well so far. If I could pick another sort right now I'd pick lentils as I eat them literally every day and I love them lol.
  Radish is kinda picky as it needs a bit cooler temps and moist soil so I'm guessing the Hawaii climate might not be ideal lol. It could also be the month you sow that makes the difference. Right now I'm growing red meat radish and they need to be spread no earlier than June.

I hope you all have a nice week :D

Protest against gentrification in Mexico

Is it mostly about expats, or about richer Mexicans as well?
- Prob expats since you see signs written in English.

So a woman stabbed a man after a night out when the man started attacking her friend out in the street at night. The guy is now in a stable condition after fighting for his life for a few days.

The woman got arrested and might face attempted murder charges now. Fuck this world man.

I think I'm going to start using Peertube and even put original content on there for the sake of archival.

Try the Tankietube instance, it's administrated by tankietanuki and there's a lot of us on it.
- Oho, I shall.
I have wanted to put original content on PeerTube as well, but it's hard with my computer situation and being busy all the time. I hope to see more comrades posting content on alternative platforms, especially exclusively. I'm worried about loss of educational digital media on private platforms like YouTube and Reddit as enshittification continues. I'm also worried about archive.org. I depend on it greatly. I hope we archive and preserve media as much as possible on other platforms before we inevitably lose them.
- Fuck, I'm so worried about archive.org, you have no idea...

Absolutely scorching right now. And the stupid thing is that as soon as the sun is away the humidity ramps up to above 70 so you just lay the rest of the night sticking to whatever it is you're touching. Tomorrow will be even hotter.

Can't imagine being any further south where it is even hotter. Though I had to be in the middle of the city at the hottest time of the day today so I got to experience the radiating concrete. Sweating away at the commie meeting.

Added progesterone to my hormone regimen & all I wanna do is sleep & cry. On the other hand I went to a trans pride event & it was fucking awesome

I used to take it before bed for that reason. But also, that only happened to me when I took it orally - something to do with the progesterone being metabolized into something else, IIRC. Could be worth looking at rectal administration or a cream.
- Ohhh that's interesting, how did you feel otherwise?

Another day, another lazy horseshoe theorist meme raking in thousands of updoots.

This is a perfect example of why I rarely pay attention to these topics anymore. Both the OP’s point and the comments therebelow follow the same script, and it is rare for anybody to show up citing scientific journals, interesting-sounding history books, or even amateur investigators like Moss Robeson.

I can understand other communists being angry at threads like that, but after you’ve seen them so many times you become desensitized and too exhausted to be angry. They’re all so boring.

Especially reddit, get off there. Absolutely reactionary pedo infested place. And everyone else are libs (don't know which is worse)

Tomorrow morning the yearly visit to János Kádár's grave will take place in Budapest.

To be able to grasp what he meant to Hungary, consider reading something from him from here:

https://www.marxists.org/archive/kadar/index.htm

Or check out what life was like in Hungary during his time with us:

https://nemzetiarchivum.hu/photobank

You have me interested. I'll read.

Welcome to the united snakes

Land of the thief, home of the slave

Grand imperial guard where the dollar is sacred and power is god

May the marg bars see many amrikas

RIPiss Jimmy Swaggart; I hardly knew ye.

The televangelism GOAT was Dr. Gene Scott; final answer. Werner Herzog: God’sa Angry Man

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
yewtu.be
inv.nadeko.net
yt.artemislena.eu
piped.video

Day #8 of going through the four withdrawals of Guanfacine (lowered the dosage), caffeine pills (now I mostly just drink tea as opposed to the five 200 mg pills I was taking every other day), Lexapro (I'm now taking Zoloft), and vitamins (I was taking more than recommended for over a year, maybe two, and got hypervitaminosis).

I feel... pretty good today!

How do people in the DPRK spend their free time? 🇰🇵 This video has the answer

Need y'all consideration here:

https://lemmygrad.ml/post/8380033

I'm over-stimulated now, but it may be winding down.

How does one prevent over-stimulation?

I've decided to stop taking so many vitamins at once, since that may cause this (and cause brain fog too)

I was thinking: maybe I'm whiny about the heat. And then I heard sirens because some dude around the corner collapsed and died. Send help.

I think I want to switch from learning Portuguese to learning Spanish. I noticed I come across more Spanish and I enjoy speaking in it a lot more than in Portuguese

An easy switch. Spanish & Portuguese mutual intelligibility is not symmetrical. Portuguese speakers have the advantage.

Emoji suggestion:

https://lemmygrad.ml/post/8387212

I took creatine for the past week or so and doubled my dose of it in the last three days.

Why am I so angry right now? Very angry?

It's the only supplement I'm taking, btw.

From what I read, past the loading phase you don't actually want to take more than 5 grams daily. Your body isn't able to absorb more than that effectively, and it just ends up putting stress on your kidneys.
- Actually, I should be honest: I went above 5 gram, doubling it for seven days straight...