General Discussion Thread - Juche 114, Week 3
General Discussion Thread - Juche 114, Week 3
Welcome again to everybody. Make yourself at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.
☭ Matrix homeserver and space
☭ Theory reading group on hiatus, will move to Lemmygrad later this year
☭ Find theory on ProleWiki, marxists.org, Anna's Archive, libgen
There's a massive general strike in Belgium today. 30k strikers are in Brussels right now, mainly people working in the public sector. The strike today is against retirement reforms among some other things.
It's part of an initiative of the unions to strike every 13th of the month from now on. I participated in last month's strike and I was a bit sceptical about today's turnout but it's great to see so many people on the streets today. I decided to sit this one out though. But I work at the union so I'm at least somewhat involved.
Tragedy occurred today as I very unexpectedly lost a family member. The day has been kind of a blur and of course I am in a state of grief.
Despite all this one of the things I keep thinking about is work tomorrow, wondering if it's deserved for me not to go. If anyone came to me and asked me a question if they were in a similar situation, I'd say of course you should stay at home. For myself it's often more difficult, I find.
I just hate this system in which a natural and human thing to do, grieving, becomes a questionable thing because god forbid you miss out on a day of work. Fuck this system.
Take the day. If they give you a hard time just tell them that you wouldn't have been able to focus and would have just been in the way.
Take the day off, fren.
sorry to hear that dankzedong, unfortunately i've had too many unexpected tragedies happen to people close to me so i can relate to what you're going through.
everyone griefs differently but in my experience in these sudden tragedies the worst comes after time passes, it's as if you haven't actually realized that your relative is gone and it hits like a truck when you do an activity you used to do with them.
My sincere condolences. I hope that you get the chance to grief even in the middle of this madness of a system. Sadly, finding time to grief is difficult.
Sorry to hear that, comrade. Hope you're doing okay.
Do what you think it is best, comrade. It's really sad that we don't have the right to grieve.
Random thought: The vanguard party for a socialist state are kind of like astronauts. They have an understanding that:
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The stakes are high for any mistakes
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Logistics and scientific process are critical
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Discipline, principal, and training are critical
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No one is above criticism (no room for being egotistical)
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Any kind of corruption in the system has to be dealt with very seriously
One of the reasons I like this analogy is that in space, you're all depending on each other, whether you like it or not. There is no "I got mine" in space; you thrive and suffer together.
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That's an incredible picture. Wish i could go there one day. Speaking of which, if any comrade here still hasn't read When Serfs Stood Up In Tibet, go do so asap (i linked the chapter on the visit to the Potala Palace cause i thought it fitting here, but you should probably start at the beginning, haha).
Known as Xiaohongshu, which translates to “little red book,” RedNote features a layout similar to Pinterest and is often described as a Chinese version of Instagram. According to TechCrunch, the app’s focus on short-term content, similar to TikTok, has helped it emerge as a viable alternative.
I can't believe this is real.
They'll port it eventually
China does nothing: wins It’s amazing to see people downloading red note and causing it to reach number 1 in the iPhone App Store.
How many people so far?
I was talking about this with a colleague of mine who is from China yesterday. He said it's great the Americans are hopping in but the company that makes the app is already working on a way to separate Chinese users from Western users instead of embracing what is going on according to gossip on the app.
REDnote (小红书, XHS), the Instagram of China, mistaken for TikTok of China (technically it's Douyin), is getting more hype among American users.
Hey comrades, I made an Arabic lesson on hexbear's c/languagelearning if anyone is interested. Here is a Lemmygrad link.
I'd join to practice my Spanish but I'm banned
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Mr Beast trying to be a hero saying he will buy tiktok to stop the US Gov of banning it has to be the most stupid PR act ever, dude ITS GETTING BANNED PRECISELY BECAUSE THEY REFUSED TO SELL IT TO AMERICANS INVESTORS.
Wait he really said that thats so funny
that xhs app in japan. today morning
night
it was at 13 yesterday
bruh did biden really say that the good news was that he became a great grandfather during the california fires? LMAO
All that matters is the preservation of the Biden Seed.
i found it hilarious lmao
Fucking ghoul apparently showed up at a press conference about the fires and said "I'm the first president who is a great grandfather!" and then went on to blame state and local government for not stopping the fire.
I’ve really been slacking off lately with /c/capitalismindecay. The main reason for that is that I have been focused on teaching myself Judezmo, which was easier for me to do from my smartphone than accessing writings on history was. I know that there is no ‘rule’ saying that I need to update that subcommunity daily, but I managed to keep at that for so long that I don’t want to disappoint somebody by taking another break despite having a working computer now.
Nothing wrong with taking a break if you need it. I think the work you've done on the community is admirable and wouldn't hold it against you.
Almost got into a fight with a 50 something year old boomer at the gas station today. Was buying my typical poison at the gas station and with four people behind me this fuck cuts right in front of me.
Dude cuts in front of four people for two lottery tickets and I just step up aside him and start pressing him about how much he spends per month on those things and why he acts like a crackhead. Got a jolly "Ohhh so I'm a crackhead now?" and he stepped towards me right in front of my face. At that point I just shoved him back into lottery machine that was right next to the cashier till and he kinda half-crashed out and stood up and walked out holding the tickets in his hand waddling towards his big-ass truck.
Was probably on camera, not sure if I'm gonna get into trouble but at these days I'm at a certain breaking point where I just don't give a fuck anymore. Hate these dumbass motherfuckers around here that grew up in petit-bougie homes that think the whole fucking world belongs to them.
Does anyone get these feelings? I have so much empathy for so many people in my life I work with, I deal with on a daily basis. I've volunteered for FNB and my local orgs. Does anyone else have this near homicidal rage when dealing with these blabbering caricatures of the truck driver from Disco Elysium? Just dealing with pure, selfish, unbridled pieces of fucking shit where you want to drive your thumbs to the back of their eye-sockets?
I do. Even made a post about it one day and was kind of corrected by the Grad about it not being useful. They are right. Don't get me wrong I still get these feelings though. The other day I was preparing my bike to ride home when a colleague saw me and wanted to stop next to me. Two fuckers on an electric razor scooter who were speeding nearly crashed into him and started giving him shit for something he wasn't even in the wrong about. Even asking him if he needed a slapping, to which I jumped up and stood right in their faces saying that they now either needed to be the tough guys they think they are and slap me or move on. They moved on.
Now, if they started a fight I could've gotten seriously injured or maybe even dead, which would not benefit me at all. There is no use in fighting. But something about what you call pure, selfish, unbridled pieces of fucking shit makes me full of rage and I do want to claw their eyes out with a spoon.
I think it's good to stand up for yourself and others. After all that's a part of why we have this ideology I guess. On the other hand you do need to be cautious as some things just aren't worth potentially dying for.
I think you'll be ok on that one but you might want to find some way to enhance your calm.
Are looters even a thing in the US or is it copaganda? I feel like its crazy that looters are a thing, its a sign the US is broken society.
They are, but it's not exactly something I'd condemn. Most of the houses are going to burnt to a crisp. People who are the victims of it just trying to evacuate is one thing but 98% of it is happening in the areas that are directly in the path of the fire or already burnt down. Reminds me of that quote about pouring gasoline on the oranges from grapes of wrath.
Besides, when private property matters more than human life; destruction is a form of protest. One they sincerely hate.
Welcoming committee on Red Note is something else...
Good thing I already have a WeChat / Weixin account
Anyone else expect biden to do one more escalation in ukraine to poison the chalice? I'm not sure what it will be but I feel he will make a military move of significance to try to force Putin to fight back.
Trump will do that himself.
He's never been anti-Ukraine, contrary to media claims.
Trump has nothing to gain propping up ukraine. He knows it is a lost cause and there is nothing trump likes less than a loser.
trump rightfully sees ukraine as a proxy for biden and other dems. Also zelenski is personally responsible for the first impeachment of trump. trump isn't going to help someone who gave the dems ammunition against him.
what do you think about this?
Broad claims with a veneer of logic and no sources.
Do they think people in the bottom income brackets in america can't afford a phone?
75 percent of all Chinese people own a smart phone and that includes babies and old people. 90-95% of people between 15 and 40 own a smartphone in China. Over a billion people in China have a smart phone.
While the percentage of people in China who own multiple homes is higher than usa it isn't because people are hoarding but because of over supply. This same person probably shared stories about ghost cities a few years ago. Many urban middle class people own a home in a rural area that they are simply unable to sell. The one child policy coupled with urbanization means rural towns have low to negative population growth and until new jobs are made in those places those homes will remain almost worthless.
Yes there is some wealth inequality in China but the percentage of people at the lowest end and highest end of the spectrum are a fraction of population with the bulk of them in the middle income range. Almost half of Americans are in the lowest 2 out of 8 tax brackets and 70% of people in the bottom 3/8 tax brackets (under $80K/year).
Doctors are alerting to be on edge about possible polio cases in the near future. Polio has been eradicated since the 60s here due to it being the only mandatory vaccine given to children. We are truly evolving backwards I think.
I’m verklempt: I’ve never watched Morning Joe and didn’t know it had a co-host, and I’d never heard of Mika Brzezinski, but the name Brzezinski I did know.
💀
With the TikTok ban coming (and probably gonna go through), do you guys think there'll be a local competitor pop up? Or will everyone just be on the cesspool that is Instagram? Or perhaps move to the other Chinese app RedNote?
really funny quote I just heard. "Statisticians are just torturers. They torture data until it says whatever they want."
Language learning tip: after watching a video in your target language, always try to leave a comment in that language. I started doing this for Arabic and it really helps my skills
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