Stuff like this wouldn’t bother me if it wasn’t for the fact states (like mine) are lowering the working age to 14, and it’s all my damn students talked about when I taught middle school - how excited they were to make money. If we still had some semblance of child labor laws, then something like this would be pretty benign; I wanted to work fast food when I was a kid, and plenty of kids like to pretend they’re store clerks or chefs. Not surprised it’s Chik Fil A.

I’m trying to get into factory work. I’m looking at going to tech school and getting a job as a technician. Everything else has kind of fallen through.

I can’t see it happening any time soon, tbh. All the shit with Trump is purely spectacle. If it does wind up coming to blows, it won’t be a civil war so much as the government/capitalist class dealing with pawns they can’t control. They like having this tension and media circuses about voting - it’s good distraction from all the wretched shit we’re doing, and if anyone talks bad about US foreign policy, they can be accused of supporting Russian and/or China. However, it’s possible some MAGA dogs might slip the leash if Trump doesn’t win, convinced they need to “save democracy”. In which case, I guarantee, the politicians on both sides will disavow Trump and push for a bipartisan crackdown on the “radical insurrectionists” - most of whom will probably get pretty light sentences or deals, after seeing a few (if any) of their comrades get killed by a police/military response. Then we’ll probably see new legislation cracking down on “radicalism”, which will be used to target leftist media and literature.

There is the slight chance, I suppose, that Trump has enough popular support from people who would do something about it, and that the US might be too shocked by a widespread insurrection (an actual one, not that pathetic display on January 6th), that they actually force a response. Just speculating here, but I’d wager it’d just lead to a fascist transition with Trump as some kind of Mussolini so the capitalists and their politicians can stay in power, nobody in power willing to wage a civil war over it. After that, you could make an argument for a war of resistance, but we’re already making too many assumptions here.

From what I’ve read, most modern scholars agree it was likely a sperm whale. The Roman records about how it sank ships, and descriptions of the body after it washed ashore (before being butchered and consumed by the locals), support the idea.

This video is a good breakdown of it: https://youtu.be/K9rZ9OFQEgw?si=7rF8KuHKQfMi-Joc

I feel your pain. Reading and understanding ML theory while growing up in the Imperial Core is a uniquely painful experience. Thank God for spaces like Lenmygrad, where we can actually communicate and realize we’re not going insane.

Well, I’m poly, so I’d just discuss it with my girlfriend. Idk how monogamous people deal with these issues. In my experience, my attraction to people wanes pretty quick when I focus on interests/ideas they have that I don’t like or disagree with, things that would bother me if we lived together, sexual compatibility, etc. Suck the wind out of infatuation’s sails by doing a pragmatic analysis of what a potential relationship might look like. It also helps you appreciate your partner(s) more, because you already have compatibility and comfort there.

But I would still take the job, yeah.

I had several catalysts while earning my BA in History. It’s a sick joke, and if you cry foul, they hold you in the same regard as Holocaust deniers or anti-vaxxers because you’re “fringe”.

They’re half-aware of the double-standard, too. My professors talked a lot about the dubious nature of sources, and how much of modern historiography amounts to reinterpreting the available evidence to challenge narratives, and how much academia requires funding for research and catering to your sponsors.

My favorite professor told me you wouldn’t find any “Stalin apologists” in academia today. He, and others, all astonished (and horrified) me once. We got to do this trip to Italy, and I mentioned an interest in seeing Roma culture. The prof leading the trip (an American, mind you) called them the g-word and said they’re all thieves. When I brought it up to my other history professors, all Americans, they agreed.

The foundations are rotten. The body of “experts” is intentionally stacked to control the narrative. If you somehow get into a level of status and respect in the humanities, it will be through omission or deception. And if you ever speak against the narrative in regards to communism, you will be destroyed. Want to humanize Nazis or explain away responsibility for their actions? You’re free to do that. Want to point out the inconsistency of anticommunist fables? You won’t even be allowed to operate on the fringes. Even climate change deniers and anti-vaxxers will have more status than you.

I wish I had any helpful advice.

I suspect the elites prefer Trump but keep up appearances. He’s a tool, like Mussolini or Hitler: a lacky of capitalists to bludgeon socialist movements and organize the rabid far-right into a tool to use for imperialism. But liberal values are still the dominant trend here, so they must keep up appearances. But, in that too, they like Trump. He’s a perfect scapegoat. They can give him some slack to crush their enemies, then use him as something to condemn in order to shift all responsibility from themselves. In that way, even the tragedies he causes become profitable.

A better question is what are we (American comrades) doing in preparation for the inevitable crackdown we’ll receive?

I fear that might be too optimistic. It’s a double win for libs. Trump’s reactionary rhetoric and policies further the interests of the global capitalist class much more bluntly and quickly than the usual liberal channels, but then when it’s done they can blame every evil act on him and use it as a rallying cry for more supporters. That’s how it is in the US, and I suspect the US sets the standards for the EU more than even its critics would like to admit.

Exactly this.

Don’t forget the old chestnut about how nuking Japan saved more lives than it took, and we had to do it/didn’t know better. I still remember that one. I think some teachers still teach that.

Agreed. I’ve seen so many people here get 80% to a meaningful conclusion explaining why our country is the way it is, but they always refuse to finish the logic. Instead, they jump to some racist theory that a foreign power has corrupted the US, and therefore whatever element they disagree with is un-American sedition. Conservatives insist it’s Muslim or Chinese infiltration. Liberal progressives think it’s Russians. Nobody wants to admit it’s just all our insanity coming to a head.

The greatest irony is that they’ll admit the government lies, big lies are told all the time, and we get tricked all the time. But introduce the concept that they lie about socialist countries, point out the consistency and pervasiveness of the lies, and that the US has everything to gain from lying, and they’ll call that a conspiracy theory. Even if you produce evidence, like CIA admissions to lying. I feel like I’m insane half the time.

For me it’s wargaming subs. A little easier to understand, but still a nuisance.

Sadly not just the internet. I meet a lot of people who are too quick to believe anything bad they hear about “enemy” countries, no matter how absurd.

The book is very different from the film, especially in tone. The film is pure satire, but the book was quite serious in its anticommunist themes, going so far as using the Arachnids as a metaphor for - specifically - Asian communists. Heinlein thought of Asian communists as virtually mindless, sacrificing themselves for the collective - like bugs.

I notice the shit everywhere. From kids and family shows to churches, social media, and education, regardless of state. They really do introduce it and hammer it in from the earliest opportunity.

I tried using it only as a tool for hobbies, but anti-communism infects damn near everything. Couldn’t go a week without some dumbass take about China randomly worming its way into just about anything. Glad I quit.

People always talk like a civil war is inevitable here because of our “political divide”, but it’s not. The reactionary elements of the US have all the power that matters here. Even when elements try to make good on their progressive platforms they used to win elections, they show a total inability to meaningfully enforce things. The institutions meant to enforce laws are corrupt and conservative as hell. Pass an unconstitutional law to beat up pro-Gaza supporters, they’ll enforce it in a heartbeat; pass a constitutional law to demilitarize the border and they’ll let state NGs do whatever they want.

The only war that I ever see happening here is if enough rabid reactionaries slip the leash, believe their own hype, and try to take down their paymasters. A Night of the Long Knives, and it’ll end the same way: with the rabid dogs put down by their corporate masters.

My best guess is because Dems alienated their power base. They used to be “the progressive choice”, but over the years have shown they’re just the same as pre-Trump Republicans, just a little less homophobic and racist. As long as I can remember, Dems usually struggle to rally behind a single candidate and it has hurt them in elections. There’d be, like, 3 Dem choices while Republicans get it boiled down pretty quick, and the Dems always betray the most popular to select the most status quo.

So, if I had to guess why Genocide Joe is still in and backed by them, it’s because they recognize they simply can’t afford the arguments and division. Nobody likes them except deluded libs. Nobody believes or trusts them. Progressives are disillusioned, many realizing voting doesn’t work, others desperately looking for an alternative. Meanwhile, Republicans don’t have that issue. The Trump cult wants him back, and failing that they’ll overwhelmingly select the closest to him, because to them voting is more about patriotism and owning the lib. They’ll vote so they can say it’s rigged if they lose.

That’s good for me. I appreciate it, comrade :)