DankZedong
I only work in theory
‘E questo è il fiore del partigiano, morto per la libertà’
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Joined 1Y ago
Cake day: Mar 23, 2022
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I have rediscovered yoga in the past week and I incorporated yoga into my morning routine. For 10-15 minutes each morning, I will do some exercises. It’s a fun way of waking up, stretching and taking a moment for myself each day. And the cold showers afterwards is a bit more enjoyable this way.
I’ve been doing body weight exercises the entire week. I’m not going to the gym as often as I did and I feel like finding a new balance in my workout regime. Working out, maintaining strength and agility and eating healthy is currently winning the race from growing bigger in the gym. I don’t know if it’s the warmer weather or a slight mental crash I’ve endured for the past week or two, but it’s good to take some time to reflect.
I’m doing okay. I sometimes have some mental struggles where I get very negative or anxious for a while, and I can’t enjoy life in these moments. But overall I have to remind me that I’m okay, life is okay and things are going well.
I have one month left at my current job before I start my new job at the union. I’m really looking forward to it. Before I start I have a 3 week holiday of which I will spent most of the time abroad. We’re probably heading to Sweden to do some road tripping. My gf’s father bought a piece of land there in the middle of nowhere just last week and it would be nice to see it, if possible. The alternative is the Gironde area in France, if weather in Sweden would suck. Eitherway I’m looking forward to some time off.
A while ago Belgium’s biggest supermarket chain, who has been in fights with their employees for months now, issued a ban on striking which effectively put their workers in a stranglehold.
The Union (my future employer, yay,) has fought this ban in each State and judges in the first one agreed with them, effectively reversing the ban on striking. This is a huge win for the workers ✊🏼 but the fight is not over yet.
In a rare moment of honesty, Dutch media are now reporting that the Americans knew that Ukraine was going to blow up Nord Stream. Well, honesty is not really accurate. They are blaming a rogue Ukrainian force and the US and Zelensky couldn’t do anything. But at least Russia is not in the wrong according to them.
China does.
I’m kidding, but bumping your post as I had someone explain it to me in the hope that they see it. @CriticalResist8@lemmygrad.ml was it you maybe?
Western people see it mostly as a form of exercise and maybe, for people more involved, as a breathing method to keep composure and stay calm. The goal of yoga itsel is much broader though, as it aims to help you reach Self Realisation. Now, that’s where the interpretation of the practice comes in place.
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Yoga gets dunked on a lot. Even more when you are a guy doing yoga. It is seen as a feminine and hippie kind of thing.
But that's a dumb way of thinking, of course.
Yoga is good for flexibility, training your balance, focussing on your breath and staying calm and it even trains strength. A daily yoga session of ten minutes can keep you stretched, flexible, and calm.
As I said, yoga for women is already pretty popular. I know multiple women who do yoga on a regular basis. Men, not so much. But I want to change that, and inspire men to step out of their comfort zone, break the patriarchic view of yoga and keep them fitter.
Who in here has experience with yoga already? Please share your tips and visions!
To get some positive but very local news: Antwerp’s chapter of our party had two good victories this week!
We managed, through action, to keep a bus line in the city running.
We also, after two years of action, managed to ban a new, elite Maritime Campus high rise from being build in one of the city’s green areas.
This was all done through campaigning, petitions, visits to people living in the area etc.
Yes but have you considered doing something extra hurts their profits and that’s bad?
My gf and I are toying with the idea of saving some money, selling everything we have and go on a trip of a year or maybe longer. Travel, see the world, discover ourselves in other settings. That, or we want to buy a plot of land to become more self sufficient in our living, so that we can work less since we provide for our own stuff.
When I tell people this, they automatically ask me: ‘what about work?’. As if that’s the only thing I’m supposed to do.
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Meme aside, tomorrow is June 4th, or the Reddit Memorial Day™ for the Tiananmen Square 'massacre'. I thought I might give a heads up for people who are not feeling like stepping into radio active waste tomorrow.
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So in their new video, Our Chaning Climate tackles the dark side of cobalt mining used for electric cars. It has a history lesson on Congo and it shows how the imperial core, for centuries, exploited the resources available in the region.
It also has a bit on China, claiming they own 80% of the cobalt mines in Congo in exchange for infrastructure offered in the BRI. However, a lot of the deals agreed with China are not realized yet, all the while China keeps extracting cobalt in inhumane conditions. OCC goes on to call this imperialism by China.
Now, I'm not saying he is right. But if what he says is true, than that really disappoints me. Would any of the comrades here be able to provide more info on these claims?
[Link](https://yewtu.be/watch?v=XCECoZBZ5aU&) to the video.
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A while ago Ibrahim Traoré took over and images of Russian flag waving people went around the world. They also made some anti colonial statements IIRC. But it's been quiet for a while now. Any idea what happened?
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Fucking hell it's June already.
After a weekend of bike packing I fell ill with food poisoning and I was out for three days. I ate almost nothing and exercise was not possible. Tomorrow I will go back to the gym as usual though.
I've gotten used to the cold showers and it's pretty much a routine thing now. Can't say I feel lightyears better because of it, but since the weather is getting warmer it's sort of nice every morning.
Mental health is neutral-ish.
The comments are peak Reddit
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Asking this because I was 'inspired' by yesterday's edition of Dutch hooligan fights, which has been incident number I don't even know of this year.
Ever since covid happened, Dutch society has become more harsh against each other. I think hooliganism may be the most obvious example of this but society as a whole has changed for the worse. People seem to openly hate each other even more, with hooliganism, open LGBTQ+ hate, polarization and increasing right wing rhetoric.
Yesterday AZ Alkmaar fans attacked West Ham United fans outside and inside the stadium. This comes after a few days ago, FC Groningen - Ajax was suspended because of hooliganism, the week before that incidents happened as well and basically the past two years have been violent in Dutch football with incidents happening every week.
People going out and partying have seen an increase in violent incidents as well. Femicide is up. Racism and homophobia have increased.
The 'end' of covid was portrayed as one big party but the opposite seemed to have happened.
Does anyone notice this in their countries as well? Because over here in Belgium it's much less for example.
Can't help but watch it lol. Such a happy event most of the time. Glad they rejected Elensky from speaking.
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I just thought it was cool to see a video that's not entirely positive on China but that does make a positive note on China's efforts to combat climate change. I hope it reaches a lot of people who need it.
Figured this was the best place to post. Wanted to highlight cool it is to be able to do things like this.
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The energy crisis of the last year made me reflect on how I consume energy, mainly 'harmful' energy like gas. My appartment is heated using gas and due to the insane prices of the past year, I too lowered my heating. I spent a big part of december with the heating turned off but once it got to 8 degrees Celsius in my appartment I figured that I should turn on the heating. It was set to 13-15 degrees Celsius throughout the winter. It made me realize that I don't mind living in these temperatures. With a sweater on and underneath a blanket, it was actually quite comfortable. I also slept better in these temperatures than winters with the heating on.
So now that it's getting warmer again, I felt like I might as well have cold showers. To save on gas (note: it's not like I'm living in extreme poverty or anything, I just like finding ways to consume less), but also to see if the claimed health benefits are true. People like Wim Hof made a fortune selling books and courses on how to make your body adapt to cold temperatures and ice baths, making sometimes outrageous claims about its health benefits.
While I do know there are studies on the topic, I am also curious to see if you guys have any experiences taking cold showers and what effects it had for you.
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Due to lack of time after a weekend with a prom/family visits/attending a cup final, I forgor ☠️ to make the thread last week.
Anyway, I'm making progress on my pull ups as they now start to go more smooth. They also make my biceps feel way more sore then a workout without pull ups.
I've also picked up box jumping because the pull ups made me want to practice more 'useful' exercises so to say. Lifting weights is fun but you very rarely get yourself in a real life situation where a perfect bicep curl is required. I do, however, find myself in situations where pull ups or jumping ability would be nice. So I try to find more ways to do stuff like this.
How is your progress going?
With an ideology like this, who needs a good mental health amirite?
Anyway, since we are so focussed on the grand scheme of things we (or I, speaking for myself here) tend lose sight of the small good things in life. I feel like we should appreciate them more often, if possible.
Yesterday I bought the vinyl Deja Vu of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, which I found in a bargain box in a random second hand store. It has the song 'Our House' on it, which is my gf and I's couple song so to say. It was a nice moment to be able to have a physical copy of the song.
I also had a prom with my friend group over here and it was really nice to just dance all night, with everyone looking happy.
I also randomly ran into Post Malone the other day. Not that I'm his biggest fan or anything but I thought it was fun to see him here.
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Translation:
One of the arguments that often get used over here is that we could earn much more in the private sector and that's why the private privileges (higher wages) must be applied to us as well. First, allow me to doubt about this statement when I look around the Parliament.
I think we should analyse the mechanism a bit closer, how why politicians in Belgium and Europe assume they should earn as much as corporate elites controlling capitalism. This mechanism that allows politicians to earn as much should be reviewed by an independent commision. I also want to use my time today to reply to the accusations of us being a populist party. No, we are not populists. We are marxists. That's very different. Populism uses an analysis of the people against the elite. We marxists make an analysis of class in society. Wage labourers and independent contractors as a united front against the bourgeoisie who own the means of production. We don't do populism, we do marxism.
But you asked the question: 'how come marxists get so angry about politicians' privileges?' Because the labour movement, marxists, from the start were interested on this very crucial question: how do the economic elites make sure they control politics? The first ones who wanted to answer this question were Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in their book 'The origins of the family private property and the state'. I cite Engels: 'In the most democratic system, the rich impose their power indirectly but surely. On the one hand in the form of direct and indirect corruption of politicians, on the other hand through a bond between government and the [stock] exchange.' It's very interesting to see that even then a debate was held about giving economic privileges to politicians. This is a sociological mechanism that doesn't even relate to individual choices: Pierre Bourdieu discussed the 'habitus' greatly. The fact that politicians make 6000 euro a month leads to them becoming detached from the people they represent. A politician can vote for the wage index leap, like the right has done for example. Because politicians earn pensions of 9000 euro it is easy for them to lower the minimum pension. There is a very clear connection between the material basis of the politicans and the decisions they make. This is an important lesson from the labour movement. And that's why we should analyse this decision in detail.
I'm going to set up a crew to take on my city's non existing green policy and I was wondering if someone over here might have some tips to share
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Waddup
Due to a busy schedule and lack of motivation I found myself doing two workouts at home this week. Because of this I felt like walking to work, which takes an hour total on a daily basis.
What did your week bring you?
Wanted to translate it but it's taking me too long through DeepL
Basically 3M, a chemical company in the city of Antwerp, now wants to legally dump their toxic waste into the river. They've been doing so illegally for the past decades as the city officials look away, but they now want to do it in a legal way and have applied for a permit. One of their reasonings even is that it has been happening for so long now that we might as well do it.
Citizens of Antwerp (urban area pop 1.2 million) already have insane levels of PFAS in their blood. We're not 'allowed' to eat chicken eggs or grown veggies in a 15 miles radius from the factory.
I'm already trying to find ways to combat this with the party, but my God does this make me angry.
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Did one workout at the gym this week, but I made it a full body workout. Did two different exercises for each muscle group.
The rest of the week has been a holiday for me where I went back to my home country The Netherlands. I did some hiking in the hills (yes, the country isn't totally flat) so I guess that counts as a workout as well. For the rest I have been enjoying time with family during my tour of the country. I've also been busy with planning an upcoming tour throughout Belgium where I will be supported by one of our members of Parliament. During the tour we will be shining light on the energy crisis in the country, and what help and ideas we offer to support the working class people. Looking forward to it.
How was your week?
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It's april already.
This week went good. Some good workouts for me. But there were lots of strange people at the gym.
There was this bigger guy who was training with a friend and he was constantly yelling stuff like: 'SHOW ME YOUR POWER YOUR FUCKING WH*RE!' in English. Afterwards he said: sorry guys just did a pre workout. Like, okay you twat lol.
There was also this Jesus looking guy in the dressing room who casually whipped out an enormous schlong, parading it through the room and showers. I almost had to duck for cover when he walked by.
Anyway, tomorrow will be the start of another week of holiday for me, the second in three weeks. I'm off to the motherland to visit friends and family and I will be working on building a veggie gardens at a friend's new house. I'll count it as working out as well.
How did you do this week?
I myself have read the Bible and the Kuran but never managed to get convinced by either. I was raised as a Catholic and we regularly went to church when I was younger. Eventually I stopped going and so did my parents really. I consider myself an atheist.
Some parts of both books seemed very reasonable to me and I have to say I'd be more inclined to agree with a lot of things in the Kuran for some reason. But there were also parts that I didn't agree with. And parts I have no opinion on (no hunting during Hajj for example, as a vegan and someone who is not doing pilgrimmage).
Anyway I've always been interested in religion and I'd like to read some religious/spiritual books to take breaks from the marxist stuff from time to time. Maybe Budhism or something. What would you suggest?
The article is a bit older now, but they are still going. It's almost a month of strikes for these employees. Some of them have seen their pay cut by up to a third because of it, but they keep on going nevertheless.
Our party published a report on what Delhaize wants to do with this, with in depth analysis of how they need to repay Blackrock, Goldman Sachs over a billion dollar a year in dividend, how the CEO keeps raising his salary with 15% a year and how they lie about how a franchise model would benefit everyone. It's not, and a lot of the financial difficulties they face are because of Blackrock and other investing companies.
Delhaize threatened to take action if we didn't remove the report from the site. In an ultimate power move, we now published the report on the front page for everyone to read.
So, what shouldn't be a surprise is that there are even more civilian deaths caused by Dutch armed forces than previously thought.
I'm sure the ICC in The Hague is busy bringing prime minister Rutte to court.
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Time for some punk, translation:
People are being murdered in Velsen-Noord
It's as mysterious as it is unheard of
We don't know who does it
But it's probably not
That big steel factory there from Tata Steel
How come that in Velsen-Noord
So much cancer prevents, it s really crazy
And the steel mill did its own research
And guess what, it certainly wasn't them
People are being murdered in Velsen-Noord
It's as mysterious as it is unheard of
We don't know who does it
But it's probably not
That big cancer factory over there from Tata Steel!
It's a bit of a goofy video, but the results of this massage are great (at least for me). Lifting is important, stretching is important but massages can be important too. To lift pain, to keep blood circulation going, to feel relaxed and relieved, etc.
It's good to reflect sometimes.
I myself am feeling a bit dull lately. I'm working so hard at both my place of work and for the party that I forget that life has more to offer than communist propaganda spreading lol. I need to go out and touch grass more often. Today, for example, started at 6 and ended at 23 after cleaning, working, cooking and having a meeting with the party. Currently decompressing with wine and Harry Styles.
How about you guys?
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Bit late but I had a birthday weekend for my partner and I forgot lol
Anyway, went to the gym twice last week and the January madlads are still there it seems. It is so incredibly busy. People keep waiting at the machines or places I'm working at, staring me down as I intensely flex my glutes at them. Shame is not present anymore.
Also started running. It was my first time since forever but due to keeping up with strength training, I managed to do 8km in an hour right away. I was actually surprised by that and I want to keep doing it once a week for now.
The weekend was a party so no gym, alcohol at a bar, cake at home but it was fun 👍
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Had a talk today with a guy who was sort of offended for some reason about me not eating animal products and lifting weight. He said I'd never get enough protein (never heard that one before!!!). Because lentils aren't a thing in a world of steaks.
Anyway he said that you need at least 200 grams of protein each day when you lift but that's of course nonsense. Not saying you shouldn't do it, but you don't need to either.
I'm averaging around 110-140 grams a day and I'm doing fine at +-80kg body weight.
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So pea protein powder in the store costs up to 30 euro's here for 1kg of powder.
1 kg of dried peas costs 4 euro's. I thought about grinding them into a powder to have some protein to add to my diet. But I've never done this before so I don't know how well it works. Anyone here with experience?
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The person with the Orange-White-Blue is holding a Prinsenvlag, which was used by Nazi's during WW2. The person in front is Robert-Jan Koelewaard, a known neonazi who has Nazi tattoos all over his body.
Thank you, Dutch police.
Wait, no, this is the BBC and Gary Lineker I'm talking about. Sorry, force of habit.
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This week I managed to get back at a 24kg bicep dumbbell curl after some setbacks since december. It would be nice if I could do it for 8 reps soon, but I'll take my time.
I'm also eating like a mad men again after a week of covid, but I still have not regained my smell and taste. My passion of eating is now a boring task. I hope it gets better soon
How did your week go?
Interesting video on why these large SUVs have become the most popular new vehicle to buy, using clever marketing tricks to convince people they need the more impractical and unsafe option.
New polls have our marxist party as the fourth largest in Flanders and third largest in Wallonia. We’re also the only party still growing with the rest decreasing in popularity. And we ain’t stopping bby