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the thing that was funny about it is that Apollo would need to pay TWENTY MILLION DOLLARS a year on average to cover for all the API requests it needs.
Reddit will go forward with this, it will go public and they know that their biggest selling point is user data. Which isn’t worth a lot if third parties can access it for free anyway.
I think people have this notion that revolutions in history have been brought about by groups of people that shared the exact same ideology and magically agreed on everything.
This won’t, ever, be the case.
We advance our goals by using our voices to influence leftist movements from within, by being radical streams in the big umbrella of “leftism”.
I have been a member of the local socialist (socdem) party for a decade, and a local leader in the youth wing. 95% of the times i disagree with the party line. But being there gives me the chance to introduce new ideas, to at least start a debate. Our regional section is the only one that opposed exporting arms to Ukraine, and me and my small clique of radicals are the reason for it. Swiss tanks would be rolling around the Donbass if people like me and my comrades were stuck in our own small ideological sect with 14 members and 0.07% of the vote.
It’s not about gloriously leading the people in a long march towards our specific ideals. It’s about working in the background to slowly, piece by piece, build a consciousness of geopolitics and class warfare. It’s about saying that one sentence that will provoke someone to think differently for once.
China is too smart and cautious to get itself involved in such a conflict. They gave their token support to Serbia and that’s it - nobody in the CPC wants China to be seen as the one stirring up conflict in Europe or elsewhere.
Same reason why they don’t (openly) support the NPA in the Philippines and they keep reiterating that they want a peaceful solution to the SMO. China cares about being seen as the reasonable mediator, someone countries can rely on to actually stop conflicts instead of escalating them like SOME countries do
the terror attacks in the last decades (such as the one in nice, or the bataclan, or many others) have been our 9/11 in that regard. The fearmongering that came after those was meant to justify heavily armed police (and in some cases even soldiers, i saw them in Milan) in public spaces just like the fearmongering after 9/11 was meant to justify the patriot act.
From in the last 10 years police and military presence has increased MASSIVELY across europe, and nobody noticed because at the time the media made it seem reasonable. And now the emergency is no more, but we sure as hell ain’t going back to how it was before just like the US never dropped the patriot act.
Shit’s really looking bad for Kurti when even the americans aren’t putting up with his crap.
But what was he thinking? Ethnic albanian majors “elected” with 0-100 votes in constituencies of tens of thousands of people. That’s clearly a matter of renegotiating the electoral process instead of giving the Mayor title to whoever was there first. I can’t believe the Kosovar goverment thought that that was going to work out.
I just hate how Italy is seen as a meme in ww2. We committed our more than fair share of atrocities and warmongering, and the global memory of that has been ereased by spaghetti memes.
Besides, negating the contribution of the italian fascist state (and other minor allies, as you mention) helped build this image of Germany being this real aryan supernation who took on the entire allies by itself, and occasionally had to rescue the clueless italians, romanians or hungarians thanks to its muh superior german engineereing/will.
It has a reason to exist and it is somewhat functional as an anti-imperialist “outpost”, i think that under a certain lense it’s a good example to showcase the “independence for me but not for thee” western approach to non-western aligned separatism. Highlighting the media treatment of transnistria compared to the one of places like Kosovo is at least somewhat useful in certain debates.
This said, it’s essentially a corporatocracy. The power belongs to industrial conglomerates like Sheriff and the president is whoever them and russia can agree upon. It’s not really a desireable form of government.
Bonus points for the flag tho
speaking as a guy with AVPD and thus with a general difficulty in doing exactly what you describe, i will say that as an adult (read: a person who doesn’t get the chance to socialize in school/uni) your best bet is to join a club or any sort of group activity.
The idea of getting on an app is attractive, but keep in mind that that will bring you to meet other people in your same situation - which doesn’t really help integration, since you are a person out of the local network meeting other people that are out of the local network. So it’s not really the best if your intention is to “integrate” yourself in the new area.
i am into sports so joining a rock climbing course allowed me to meet other somewhat likeminded people. I also got into a group that does experimental archeology (in other words, we study medieval manuscripts about melee combat and we try to recreate what is written there in order to figure out what works and what doesn’t, thus understanding better how people actually fought). That’s the best kind of group activity imo, as it forces the people present to interact and discuss with each other.
In my experience going to bars and whatnot isn’t really effective nowdays, since people go there to meet their friends and not really to get to know new people. But then again i have psychological issues about that so what do i know
Could you describe your situation a bit better in terms of general conditions? I have some knowledge but it is mostly relevant to the conditions in my country. Stuff like wheater, police attitude, crime, etc.
Anway, some things i suggest to the people i work with (i am a social worker, have experience with migrants who received little to no support) include:
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there are apps that allow you to buy leftover store products at a dirt cheap price. In my country it’s called “TooGoodToGo” and you can buy “closed boxes” of products for like 2 dollars. For example a bakery will throw in some croissants, some bread and a couple sandwiches. At least in Switzerland, with high living costs, it is by far the most efficient way to spend your money and getting stuff that’s ready to eat.
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Get to know the public spaces in your area. You can spend a lot of time in a nice and comfortable building if you care to look for places like libraries, public centers or clubs, and you’ll also mitigate one of the main dangers of homelessness: social isolation.
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Prioritize hygiene, washing your clothes and your car. You say you have a job so money shouldn’t be a giant issue - don’t be cheap on this stuff. It’s way more important than we think, both practically, socially and psychologically.
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Do anything in your power to maintain your network of friends and acquaintances. Being socially integrated negates most of the psychological challenges normally posed by homelessness.
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This is obvious, but in general keep yourself occupied. The more time you spend doing stuff in places, the less time you spend thinking about the feelings of instability and vulnerability that comes from not having a house.
Anyway, i feel like having a job and a car (assuming you are financially somewhat stable) puts you in a good situation. It will suck for a while, but you have all the cards to make it. Good luck comrade, let us know how it goes
The idea of understanding “why” people or groups commit atrocities is attractive, but unfortunately it can be hard to pinpoint a reason.
Excessive brutality in warfare has a long history. Few people realize that taking bodyparts of your enemy as trophies was common in WW2, american forces in the pacific did that a lot for example. The sheer hatred you may end up feeling for the enemy is enough to push you to do things you wouldn’t imagine, since brutalizing a corpse has a lot of meaning psychologically.
For what concerns “institutionalised” brutality, like in some comparable cases such as imperial japan’s treatment of China or the Belgian Congo, you have a combination of two factors:
- An ideology centered around the fundamental inferiority of the enemy, which leads to dehumanization
- A culture that promotes nationalism and militarism/militancy, which causes people to inflate the value of their “mission” and thus of the lengths they are willing to go to accomplish it
- A military command structure that emphasizes local autonomy, meaning that crimes commited by individual groups of soldiers have a smaller chance to actually make it up the ranks and be tried, as the leading officer doesn’t necessarily need to report everything to their superiors.
I believe democratic Kampuchea sort of… adapted? those principles to a “communist” context. It was an agrarian movement that despised urbanites and urban life, due to a deep social divide. They were an extremely militant movement, and they were organized in local cadres who enjoyed a great level of autonomy (and thus impunity).
as a rule of thumb, when those figures complain about a lack of ammo it’s for one of two reasons:
- they need to create the perception that the army is lacking in its ability to protect the country, thus manifacturing consent for higher military expenditure and whatnot.
- they want to make the enemy think they are weaker than they actually are. This is what both Russia and Ukraine have been doing in Bakhmut, each complaining of a shortage of shells in order to encourage the other side to get out of cover.
Armies do not voluntarily expose their weak points, so assume that whenever army officials say shit like this, it’s not genuine.
this is a topic i really hate arguing about because, in the short term, voting does matter. If you are part of a vulnerable demographic, say you are trans, you have a lot at stake and i won’t blame you for picking the best of two neoliberal parasites.
Of course we understand that not voting is beneficial in the long term because it will eventually delegitimize the system. But i say that from the privileged position of a young, white, cishet male - there are a lot of people who would not survive this kind of approach.
I’m all for the “end justifies the means/sacrifices must be made” type of reasoning, but it is ultimately a choice we can’t force onto the marginalized people that WILL suffer consequences if we “let go” of politics and let the overton windows slide to the right until it collapses.
My suggestion is to just avoid this topic. You have nothing to gain by arguing with someone who wants to vote. It’s like being vegan and arguing with a normal person. Yeah, maybe you can get them to recognize that we eat too much meat - but sure as hell they won’t stop doing so, and you just wasted your time
- technique and form over weight
- nobody is actually looking at you
- weed before weight training feels like a bad idea but actually isn’t
- find a buddy and track each other on some app, competition does wonder for consistency and progress
- drink a shitload of water
- get a timer and actually track your pauses inbetween sets
- there is no best exercise. Some objectively suck, but in most cases the best exercise is the one that suits best your skeleto-muscular layout. Don’t get lost in the “uhhrr duhrr a supenated retroflexed grip provides a better stimulus to the bottom 4 fibers of the latissimus dorsi”, that’s for kynesiologists - you’ll get better results by sticking to what feels good
i’ve been saying this since the beginning. A lot of people, specially students, have been rushed out of the country. Several of them, specially girls, are to this day unaccounted for. They were rushed into trains to be shipped either back to their country or to western ukraine, some of them definitely never ended up where they were supposed to.
straight from wikipedia: "The Council of Europe’s Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) and aid organizations such as the Human Trafficking Foundation and World Vision warned that refugees are at risk of falling into human trafficking, exploitation and violence, including sexual violence.
Concerns about human trafficking and sexual violence have been realized during the refugee crisis, with spotty documentation and identification, language barriers and the large numbers of refugees creating opportunities for traffickers. A Ukrainian refugee who stayed to help at a border location told reporters of calling the police on three men holding transportation signs, who were later arrested for looking for women for the sex trade. Another refugee spoke of men who attempted to coerce her and her children into a van full of only women, and refused to show her proof of identification and attempted to intimidate her from other travel options. At least one man was arrested on suspicions of raping a 19-year-old refugee after promising her work and shelter."
When the dust settles, western europe is going to see a looooot of ukrainian women on the sides of the roads. Just like it happened with weapons, with Nigeria’s president complaining that Boko Haram is trotting around with state of the art NATO gear that was, in theory, supposed to be handed to the UAF.
bags of onion and minced meat who polished the cocks of poles and germans for a thousand years before being briefly elevated to sapience by the soviet union
edit: didn’t realize that included poland, finland and ukraine too, so:
Poland: imagine “hating russia” as your emo fase in highschool, then imagine being unable to grow out of it
Ukraine: a country so historically relevant, that most of their PR is reminding people that their cities have a ukrainian name too
Finland: imagine your biggest national achievements being having an antisocial population and being proud about a war that you lost
i follow a lot of news from the war.
Everyone agrees that there has been a full on internet offensive in these days, probably connected to the fall of Bakhmut. Even in “neutral” communities, the nafo bots are out in full force.
In all likelyhood they figured that Russia will be able to celebrate the liberation of Bakhmut by the 9th of may, Victory day. Wouldn’t be surprised if the reddit batallion has been mobilized to downplay the importance of those events or to otherwise taint Russia’s celebration.
It’s also believable that this is simply an effort to flood the internet in order to mud the waters and hide possible leaks concerning the (alleged) upcoming ukrainian offensive. Just today i saw a couple of trademark videos of the “clean and shaven soldier in Bakhmut” claiming that there is a “surprise coming” for the russians
This definitely happens in waves, increases in “lib activity” are never random
yeah, this is like Musk trying to solve traffic with underground tunnels. The solution has been in front of our eyes this whole time; trains. Cheap, easy to build and maintain, efficient, easy to electrify… and in europe we also proved just how far you can go with railways. There’s one under the channel, and 60 odd kms of underground railway tunnel under the Gotthard pass.
On a continental level, there really isn’t anything stopping us
More than anything, it’s the definitive confirmation that the Lion of Damascus won the civil war. They wouldn’t have let him in if there were doubts about his position.
It pretty much says that the arab world has made peace with the idea that Assad and the Ba’ath party are there to stay