MeowZedong

Never in my life have I seen someone call Star Wars prophetic before this moment.

Don't turn it into Harry Potter. SW has seen enough pain as it is.

I would only suspect anti-Stalin leftists of ignorance as I have yet to find an instance where someone talks about Stalin in this way and it isn't from a place of ignorance. Never seen it from someone who was informed and purposely pushing anti-Stalin Cold War propaganda...except fucking Trots.

Not that ignorance is a good excuse for their actions, but the amount of damage propaganda has done to the history surrounding Stalin is very difficult to break through and shouldn't be overlooked. If someone didn't grow up in a Western country, it seems they have a serious advantage in overcoming the challenge of looking at Stalin with a critical eye because they aren't constantly exposed to an overwhelming amount of trash heaped on his grave. Not only can it be difficult to find information that isn't Red Scare propaganda on your own, but you'll be ostracized when trying to speak to anyone about the subject from anything but an anti-comminist perspective. It makes having discussions on the subject difficult and I can't say I would have ever broken through this without the Internet.

Maybe I'm going too easy on them because overall I agree with you. I also want to give people the benefit of the doubt because I was once where they were and my anti-Soviet, anti-Stalin, and anti-China stances all came from a place of ignorance (and miseducation) that I only overcame once I began looking at the topics with a critical eye and put effort into learning about them from a different (and materialist) perspective.

A friend sent me this. Doesn't work on most phones now, just older androids I think. It's meant to teach you not to scan unknown QR codes by causing androids to restart on scanning.

I too look better in black. Does this mean I am an ugly car?

On one hand: work long hours with little to no recognition, put up with the bullshit politics of academia, constantly worrying about job security due to grant-based funding, and all while struggling to make ends meet.

On the other hand: don't struggle to make ends meet, deal with a lot less bullshit, job security.

I'd ask you how you don't understand, but you thought someone else bringing up capitalism was unrelated, so it's obviously a sad waste of my expensive fucks-to-give to try to educate you. Misplaced priorities? Sounds more like you have no clue what you are talking about.

At least five generations living outrageously opulent lifestyles while assuming they're shite with money.

The situation is more complicated than your comparison and your analysis shows a fundamental lack of understanding about what critical support is or why it's given. It only appears like cherry-picking when you don't understand the underlying reasoning that informs these decisions and how they are consistent with Marxist-Leninist theory.

A better metaphor for comparison is if you think of Putin as chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is poisonous, it's bad for your body, and enough of it will kill you. It sucks and it hurts to go through, however, it also kills cancer cells (weakens US/Western hegemony/imperialism). No one likes chemotherapy and everyone recognizes that is bad for your body, but we suggest the use (critically support the use) of chemotherapy in the fight against cancer (Western Imperialism/capitalism) because it helps us progress toward our ultimate goal.

If the West had allowed Putin to join their hegemony as he had always wanted, then there would be no critical support for him from MLs because all the geopolitical waves he makes that are destructive towards the Western imperialist geopolitical waves would not exist. Anytime you see an ML saying "I love you daddy Putin" please understand that it's a joke. People misrepresent our positions all the time and we cope by embracing them in jest. He's a capitalist pig who we'd like to see gone or reformed like the others, but he's a strategically useful pig in that his actions are weakening Western Imperial power in the current moment. By the ML definition, imperialism = capitalism (it's just the stage we are in) and the biggest base of imperial power comes from the US. Once the bigger threat is defeated, if he's still around and up to capitalist bullshit, Putin will not have our support. While his actions help support our goals, it makes no sense for us to actively oppose him when we could better spend that energy elsewhere. It's similar to "the enemy of my enemy is my [strategic] friend". ML prefers an approach that is more focused on pragmatism than ideological purity.

Not all leftists agree on this type of critical support. Typically, those are the ones shouting for more purity and are typically who we call ultras. The same reasons they would not critically support Putin are the same reasons they don't support China and call it capitalist (a focus on ideological purity rather than a practical approach toward achieving our goal of communism).

If you want to better understand why certain leftists do what they do, there is plenty of material out there explaining leftist theory and contemporary geopolitical analysis. Likewise, you could always ask us why we take certain positions on Lemmygrad or Hexbear. There is likely someone happy to take the time to explain or a well written explanation that already exists that can be linked for you if you show genuine interest and a willingness to listen, though you should be warned to expect some prickly responses in those spaces due to people who asked before you and turned out to be trolls.

The extent of the energy I'm willing to spend on the topic now ends here. Hopefully it helped clarify what we mean by critical support.

Aerogel. Always seemed like it would have an interesting texture.

Hop in their lap, look up expectantly in a cute way, and take very good care of your hair so you are soft to pet. Once they start begging for your attention, act aloof and uninterested.

The bar cats did this to me recently and it worked. It was clear they were the masters of the bar.

Surprisingly, no. The framing of the article isn't bad and they have nothing poor to say about Amtrak (there's a lot to criticize imo). A couple things stood out: the article praises Amtrak overall, highlighting a quote early on about how they are modernizing and expanding rail travel in the US and there is zero mention of HSR.

A puff piece for Amtrak, though I'd love to see them actually modernize and expand services so that they are reliable, take priority over freight, modernize to include extensive HSR networks, expand their stations to more areas, and keep prices low enough to incentivize rail travel over car travel. My experiences with Amtrak have been quite bad, though I love traveling by train, so I may be a bit more critical of them.

An interesting quote that stood out that really puts the state of travel in the US into perspective:

Since 1950, the population has more than doubled and the number of motor vehicles registered has increased sixfold.

Delete enough data points and it will be 1. You'll only have two data points, but you'll have bragging rights.

Aspartame cures cancer, but only when ingested in soda.

Pi equals exactly 3.

The most effective, universal vaccine is based on asbestos.

I took the same approach and my kids started believing when they were in elementary school. My mom was taking them to church sometimes more for the social aspect (my mom wasn't directly preaching to them at all), so the influence was relatively weak. It caused some problems for a while but neither of them believe as teenagers now.

Just as a word of warning, you may run into situations where your children's beliefs are different from yours and worse yet, they are getting conflicting information from multiple trusted adults. It can be very uncomfortable and confusing for them to the point that it's very upsetting because kids often idolize the adults closest to them when they are that young.

It's very important to talk to them, but you need to tread very lightly. I ended up telling them my beliefs and telling them that it's up to them to choose what they believe in life, even if what they choose is different from mine.

Good luck!

I'm loving all the orca lore! The more fish memes posted, the deeper this rabbit hole gets and the more likely that I wind up doing some weird shit with fish that I'll never be able to adequately explain to outsiders.

Don't forget how the Democrats supported free and fair elections by suing third parties all over the country to remove them from ballots and collaborated with Republicans to form private organizations that allowed them to legally bar third parties from participating in debates and gaining valuable time in the media.

Since when did fascists need an election to gain power and whose support gave them that power?

What you really got there is a big old tent of fucking fascists collaborators, which means from a practical standpoint, you've got a big tent full of fucking fascists. Those criticisms are the calls warning you that they will do nothing to stop the rise of fascism and, worse yet, are actively aiding its rise by stamping out any competition to their rule that will show strong opposition to fascism. These are warning calls that echo the realities of our history and you should heed them! Germany is not the only example mirroring this path.

If you really want to dig a bit deeper into motivations, the Democrats will and have always supported right wingers over the left because they have more in common with the fascists than actual leftist movements. They are far more threatening than the Republicans simply in that they pretend they aren't also right-wing and swindle people into acting against their own class interests.

People see the fascist without the mask, but it's much harder for them to recognize the monster when it instead smiles at them and removes the mask slowly.

I presume it was a round-bottom flask as explosions are usually the fault of chemists.

From what I last heard, X and his sister aren't exactly on speaking terms.

MeowZedong

But "socialism" is a scary word

But "socialism" is a scary word

The best use of QR codes

It’s Impossible to Get Rid of a Tesla Cybertruck. I Want to Cut My Losses and Move On, but I Can't Give This Thing Away. I’ve Lost So Much Money Already; Help.

I got into the wrong career lol

Couldn't care less, actually

Couldn't care less, actually

If you owned a restaurant catering for those who have pica, what would you put on your menu?

Why do people install expensive hardwood flooring in their kitchens, the place where you are most likely to drop food, cutlery, spill liquids, etc?

master manipulators

More Americans are taking the train than ever. In December, Amtrak surpassed its highest-ever ridership figures in a fiscal year, with 32.8 million passengers.

Nobody will question you

What scientific study are you waiting for that'll just shit on everything we've once thought to have believed in?

Irreligious people, what's it like having kids when your parents are religious?

For the next 24 hours, everyone in the world, regardless of a language barrier, has to listen to whatever is on your playlist of no more than 15 songs on repeat no skip. What's on your music playlist?

Orcas so hot right now.

Forgot the disclaimer

Forgot the disclaimer

explosions

human anteaters