Welcome again to everybody! Make yourself at hoome. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is our weekly discussion thread!
We have a Matrix homeserver at genzedong.xyz. See this thread for information about our Matrix space.
Short reading list for new MLs here. To find theory, try marxists.org, Anna’s Archive, libgen, or Sci-Hub (for scientific articles). If an article is unavailable, try the Wayback Machine.
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!
Thank you for enhancing my scrolling experience with these images 🫡
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.
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
The best part about federating with Lemmygrad:
we’ve got 3 megathreads now
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.
Everywhere should have free water like Ireland but metered with a sensible amount of water free and anything over the designated free water amount sold for a sensible price. I’ve seen too many people in Ireland forget to turn off water all the time and using it like it’s not a precious resource just because it’s free.
I hope you all have a nice week :D
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 🫠🫠🫠
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.
popular party
does something unpopular in every sense of the word
what bourgeois “democracy” does to a mf
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?
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”
I was pissed when the colonial government in hawaii did nothing to help us when we burn, and move mountains to evac tourists. And now that they’ve sent “aid”, I’m even more pissed.
you want to know why?
Instead of sending extra volunteers, more firefighters, or further aid. Instead of stopping the landlord leeches currently using this crisis to further buy up land.
they sent a mortuary assistant to help identify our burnt corpses
That just feels like open mockery
Hello! I’m new and happy to be here. Excited to explore Lemmygrad 🤗
Welcome! Enjoy your time here! :)
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.
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.
Yeh seen the Starship trooper stuff.
Will check out Plantes.
i’m running out of more mind-bending stuff.
Was going to check out On the Silver Globe
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’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
CW: morbid joke
DankZedong was later found to have committed suicide by shooting themselves five times in the back of the head
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?
points
shrieks
“I’m calling the posting police! You went outside! You touched grass! You did a praxis!”Also,
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
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 can hurt to care, but the fact that you care means that you are the kind of comrade that leftism needs.
The challenge will be to care in ways that don’t burn you out with frustration. Compassion fatigue is a real thing and nurses suffer from it quite often, for example.
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.
You’re welcome.
One thing that I have to do so as not to get drawn in is not so much touching grass but sorting by local by default and sorting by subscribed manually (and not subscribing to the news comms that attract liberals). That’s still the same kind of non-solution of ‘just don’t participate’. But at least it gives you some control over not sorting by all, so you can browse but limit how much you’re exposed to people who might exhaust you.
Another thing is sorting by new by default and popping in to new threads but not engaging. Then sort by hot/active/top XYZ to see which threads got a lot of comments. If you engage in the most active threads after comrades have made the trolls ‘show their cards’, it might be easier to identify who is best to avoid. Someone who deliberately misinterprets others isn’t going to be worth your time.
That doesn’t necessarily make it easier for you not to try to convert them: would you be able to not engage in the first place if you already knew the person was insincere?
Probably not. I went back and forth today with someone who was pretty obviously bad faith, but at least my empathy wasnt going off in that case because I didnt feel bad for them or anything.
In that case, at least know that while you’re talking to one person in particular, you might still be reaching a wider audience that is paying attention, even if they don’t engage.
WHAT IS THAT
It would appear to be a custard tart with raspberries and most likely cream, but I suppose it could be “white chocolate” or icing or something like that
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
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
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.
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 think you’re making a huge assumption here. The context was people who choose to move to a different country to live off of “passive income”, not people who are unable to work. Don’t jump straight to calling someone “no different from a Nazi” without verifying their intentions
It was clear what they had in mind with the basement comment. Good old lazy neckbeard stereotype…
maybe there is some prejudice involved in the basement comment (I can’t speak for Shrike in that regard), but there’s a big difference between that and comparing someone to a Nazi
We want the government to provide ample services so everyone, you included, can live in dignity.
We don’t like seeing otherwise productive people exploit poor and marginalized folks to get there. I think we can appreciate the difference in quality there
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
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
