Pro: artist speaks up for Palestine

Con: it's Macklemore so you still can't listen to his music

Have a great week, everyone! Hold your heads high.

As always, communism will win.

Greetings lemmugrad, and glory to Yemen and Ansar Allah.

Seeing an anti-socialist popup table at my campus and having to repeat "don't feed the trolls" in my head repeatedly

Mariachis in China!

78th Anniversary of the Communist Youth Org of Venezuela!

Where'd you get the image in the post? We hear so little about socialist Laos in Western media.

It reminds me, is there any news of high speed rail being built in North Korea? I can't wait for the day North Korea gets HSR before the USA California HSR is finished.

One day we will be able to ride HSR from Vietnam and Laos through China into North Korea. The world's best train trip of socialism.

People in my study year are legit 17 and I feel like an ancient person sometimes. Their mentality is shit!!!1! (It is though).

Also, the amount of right wing bullshit they spew already is worrying.

How to tank your career masterclass feat. Ed Sheeran

I hope you all have a nice week :D

I walked out of my lecture today because my professor is just spewing a bunch of anti-migrant bullshit (on a topic regarding human rights and labours). There is a part of me that knows it's wrong to do this. Not in the sense, anyone have to hear racist nonsense but because in part, because I feel like I am performing liberal moralism by turning away from how people like that professor can end up influncing others rather than facing it head-on. Yet, I still feel weak and rather unprepared to tackle this.

🫵 You WILL have hope, comrade.

Last week, my father told me he knows I only go to church because of my mother. I never thought he would notice that.

It's a bit of a relief for me.

I am going through the painful experience of buying a mop and bucket under capitalism.

Every store has a single brand for all your cleaning needs, that all work with their own proprietary system so you need Brand™ System™ refills or Brand™ compatible handles. I thought I finally had one that is 'just a mop' but the squeeze for the bucket 'that came free' was made too small for the same brand's mop head and it will break in one more use and barely worked. I will have some plastic waste that will outlive humans on my hands.

I just want a fucking mop that goes on a fucking handle that can go in a fucking bucket to mop some fucking floors. Capitalism is hell. I refuse to participate in this, and will never order online for the same thing. So its an ongoing mission to just find a damn thing in this damn country that hasn't been captured.

Another far right protest in The Netherlands. They are getting less shy about using literal Nazi symbolism. Even sang about gassing Jews. Somehow the pro Israel orgs do not seem to shout antisemitism now.

Part of me keeps wanting to mention that a family member has cancer, but it's like... what do you say? It's this agonizingly slow process relative to how awful the condition is (almost certainly made worse by how profit-driven the US healthcare system is). They are old enough and the stage of cancer bad enough that their chances don't look great to me, but I feel like I'm supposed to stay optimistic anyway and the doctor(s) are trying to treat them with chemo, so that's something. But it still isn't clear what exactly the plan is in the long-term. From most recent information I have, they still don't have full biopsy results; they had to send stuff out of state to get it fully analyzed, which is apparently not entirely abnormal, I guess if it's not straightforward to analyze for one reason or another. And then there is the helping with caregiving part while things are ongoing, which puts into sharp relief every pre-existing disjointed family dynamic, is taxing in general, and is made harder by not knowing how long it's going to go on and in what form. Meanwhile, the condition and/or medications can cause new complications, so there isn't even a normal.

I'm being somewhat vague about how I describe it on purpose for better anonymity, but the gist is it sucks and nothing prepares you for it. It's been one surreal day after another with no end in sight. And I have this recurring thought that is maybe a bit doomer but it goes something like, "This is just the beginning, isn't it? We may actually be dealing with this during a better time than it could be. If things start going domino effect with fuel costs and so on, it could be way worse." But it's not like a "I'm grateful for what it is" thought, it's more like, this feels like a preview of decline, not the real thing. They are at least getting care, but what if the healthcare system gets worse? The primary observation so far is just how understaffed / stretched thin places tend to be, how hard it is to reach people by phone that you'd want to be in communication with, and how unclear the plan is (unless I'm missing what it's supposed to be). These are not entirely new observations about the healthcare system, but I'm noticing them more starkly and in more detail in this situation.

New week. I am looking to get into kickboxing again. I was motivated by the large amount of far right wankers here and if I get into activism some more, you never know when you need it.

Also, dating apps really suck ass.

Interesting results from this poll.

The Dutch budget will be more taxes for working people and less taxes for the rich and nobody is burning the country down. Bootlickers.

Another day, another psychiatrist defeated /s.

Back to needing to find a new psych because they keep not listening to me discussing my conditions and just assume their own thing. Getting tired of having to go through this time and time again. Gotta love capitalist healthcare education.

The Dutch union has pulled their head out of their arse and is going on a PR tour. Fucking finally. They even went on a right wing talk show and imo served good points.

Wanted to try to translate another Rudolf Nilsen poem. This time with only one forced rhyme. This one is called "Ridderslag"/"Knights battle".

We march to victory

with no time for loafing

So should we forget history

and hammer ourselves a coffin?

Remember, we are the people who work

to build a shield with our left hand

While our enemy lies and lurks

and waits for us to perish from this land

So should our right hand flaunt

a rusty sword?

Nay, faith moves no mount

and can slay no lord

Our shield, our guard, is the party.

but our sword is: Lenins writing!

If you are knighted to battle heartly,

bring the sword a-fighting.

So, today my cult (Jehovah's Witnesses) has updated its policy on blood. Context: no blood transfusions were allowed, even if life was at risk, even if it was a kid about to die. Now people can accept blood fractions (plasma, white cells etc.). Still no whole blood.

Long story short, thousands of people -- including children -- died for absolutely nothing. Zero apologies.

Yay. /s

It's a good thing this cult has so many real estate investments. Hopefully when the bubble pops they will lose their share. Unfortunately, I'm not holding my breath for that.

Sometimes autism feels like a superpower and I rizz 'em with the 'tism

Other days it feels like hell

Most of the times it feels like flipping a coin to see what it will be like today

I feel like I'm starting to develop an actual hatred for people who hate AI. I'm not proud of it, but the feeling is there. I've always tried to be understanding of the visceral reactions, be diplomatic about the nuances of it, and too many times it is the same damn conversation with the same hypercharged intensity and I feel obligated to be the patient communist trying to explain in the face of people's impotent rage and insulting stereotypes. It's like an Eternal September but for trying to frame AI holistically in the context of systems of power instead as binary good/bad.

Starting to notice that Sonic pfps on Twitter are consistently the most childish posters on that hellsite

I feel like there's an excellent masterpost somewhere here involving Tiananmen square sources and I'm in an annoying altercation with a liberal rn who's getting on my ass but I can't find it, does anybody have a link...?

I managed to get my bike fixed and I believe I found a route that I could actually make it work as a means of commuting without having to spend money. Gonna try today to see if it's viable or not.

Spent ~$50 bucks on a school transit card that's supposed to allow me to use the bus as much as I want. I'm short by 1 unit, so now my eligibility is terminated. Can't even get the 50 back lol.

I have been meaning to explore the South East Asian side of Orientalism in media. If anyone else is interested here is what I plan to look at.

The Dragon Lady of Gotham: Feminine Power, the Mythical East, and Talia al Ghul (This comes from the book, The Woman Fantastic in Contemporary American Media Culture) https://academic.oup.com/mississippi-scholarship-online/book/21419/chapter-abstract/181174863?login=false

Techno-Orientalism: Imagining Asia in Speculative Fiction, History, and Media https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1647cqh