I occasionally do the same with an album I know takes almost exactly 1 hour to play. Have it in the background and roughly know what time it is.

My phone NEVER leaves my side, that’s not a big issue. And thankfully my wallet is 99% obsolete, as most of the cards are already in my phone, and the few that aren’t fit in my flip case. Keys are another story, fuck keys! Bulky loud ass bullshit! I’d love a keychain that could live in my phone or have the format of a card.

My Renault car has a pretty neat card that auto locks and unlocks the car. I just keep it in my breast pocket (or backpack in the summer) and forget about it.

Also European here. And just to bring some more up to date examples.

My colleague bought a nice big flat some 5 odd years ago. If he wanted to buy the exact same thing today, he literally wouldn’t be able to afford it, not even with much worse terms. For the same money he’d need to move to some small dinky house in the countryside.

My aunt bought a flat 7 years ago for almost 1.5 million CZK, and then 2 years later one for 2 mil. Today, they’re both worth at least 10 each.

Income has not grown like that in the past decade. These are arguably successful people that literally wouldn’t be able to recreate their success today, only a few years later. Shit’s going down hill and it’s going down hill fast.

So for me and my GF, buying a house is a pipe dream. We just about manage renting our current flat, which is already cheap, we both earn comfortably above average and she even works overtime often enough. Buying a house or having a child are literally crippling decisions.

This is always a clash when I end up talking to my parents. My home country is slowly falling apart economically and they’re completely fucking blind to it. Especially ironic cus one of em is a fucking portfolio manager.

Like when I even mention that affording anything it getting worse and worse each year, while the rich consistently break income records, they derail the discussion by saying like “but don’t you have it great tho” (I earn well above average and still feel the pressure, THAT’S THE POINT) or mention that some rich assholes renovated some random castle and that without him it would juts be a ruin and that’s sad or some shit.

And we aren’t even getting that political yet. Just saying “hey mom, my future be looking unsustainable”.

For fucks sake, this is how tankies are born. Fucking stop it!

School in general is wasted on kids. No kid cares about history or god forbid chemistry. You know who does? The person who just became an adult and is about to FUCKING GRADUATE! I only remember the last year and a half of school, because I was actually old enough to care and process that shit. Everything prior was just needless torture.

Aye, it’s curious how one’s upbringing affects their hearing. The Americans I interacted with can’t tell the Czech P and B apart. Which I find fucking weird as mixing them up in Czech results in absolute gibberish. Probably similar to how TH and F sound the same to me.

Fair, but it misses the trees for the forest. The US already pays WAY more for healthcare than any other country. The money is literally there, just mismanaged. While I feel your frustration, simply cutting aid to allied countries won’t change anything domestically.

Citation needed.

The Ukranian constitution has no amendments even mentioning NATO.

And Zelenky demanding nuclear weapons is a recent development. So not “tried” but “trying right now”. Not even the Russians claimed such prior.

And I don’t watch MSNBC or whatever else “msm” is supposed to be. Bold of you to assume I not only watch American news, but also a specific broadcaster. That’s got to be like a less than 50% chance.

The idea of Ukraine joining NATO was literally unimaginable before Russian aggression. After the fall of the soviet union there were multiple agreements like the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine and Budapest Memorandum that basically established Ukraine as a sovereign and neutral nation under the protection of the west and east. Even after Russian interventions in Ukraine and finally the taking of Crimea, NATO members like Germany were still vocal about never letting Ukraine in.

Also if Russia truly cared about NATO expansion, how come we barely hear anything about Finland and Sweeden? I occasionally even forget they’re a part of it now.

I mean my hand has touched way more disgusting things and yet I still eat with it. Seems a little too silly.

That’s not how science works. For anything to have value it needs peer review. In the case of history that means additional accounts by other people (ideally with different backgrounds) and ideally physical evidence like documents and other archeological finds. This is especially important in history, as every single piece of evidence is faulty due to distortion through bias. A single primary source all alone is literally worth shit. The last book provides multiple lengthy accounts from different primary sources and so at least meets the minimum requirement for not being immediately throw out.

Blackshirts also literally mentions some of the authoritarian issues I mentioned that you denied. The fact that in some cases it failed to properly adress the needs of the people due to abuse of power and how the structure it self accidently encouraged selfish self defeating behavior. I just added comments about party members basically being a separate class (because of the unrivaled abuse of power you refuse to dispute, while providing a book also mentioning it), while the book debunks western propaganda.

You can say I misunderstand communist theory, that’s a valid criticism. But saying you refuse to engage because my understanding of history is false is dogmatic bullshit. Saying I’m unwilling to change my mind is rich when you literally just say I’m wrong, give me a book largely discussing a different topic (western propaganda and fascism) and then refuse to provide examples for your own claims. While my claims are dubious third hand accounts at best, you somehow managed to stoop below me.

When I play simulations games like dwarf fortress I often feel like the characters are too riddled with irrational fears and reactions, just society crippling shit. And then I read stuff like this and realize it’s not as absurd.

The first two books are theory with random anecdotes with the same citation count as my shit. If that constitutes history, than so does the Bible.

Tho I apologize for lumping then all together as the last book is actually somewhat more interesting (like actually having fucking citations). It rightfully outlines western propaganda, highlights what good happened in the USSR and what bad in the west. Tho if you actually read the thing, you’d notice IT’S JUST AS CIRTICAL OF THE SOVIET UNION! Read it your self! It mostly defends the USSR from western propaganda, but it doesn’t do the same mistake you did and just deny the structural issues. Sadly it doesn’t say much, as it is very much focused on critiquing the west (like the first 50%), so I kinda just dismissed it at first.

Also you completely skipped my request to provide a single example for your previous claim, sad.

Yes… I was saying the theory doesn’t match the situation on the ground. And the links you gave are all theory, which I at no point argued about.

The “separate class” I mentioned was also less of a theory reference, and more of a reality on the ground. Party members are treated differently. My grandpa was a party member back in the western block and had privileges regular folk didn’t. Like traveling around the globe and importing foreign “imperialist” goods seemingly at will. My mom stood out with his gifts, like wearing jeans.

Also you say they have accountability with stuff like recall elections, but I’d like to invite you to provide an example of this actually happening. Like genuinely, I can’t find any. All I find is officials being ousted by other officials, never by regular everyday people. As an example of completely dodging consequences, I’d mention that soviet countries and China both tried becoming leading grain exporters while their populations fucking starved, and people complaining were just labeled liars and thieves!

Which reminds me of a saying we used to have: “Kdo nekrade, okrádá rodinu” or “Who doesn’t steal, is stealing from their family”. A very different context from the one above, but it paints a pretty vivid picture, so I think it’s still worth sharing.

I just feel like creating a class of people with absolute control that mustn’t be questioned under threat of absolute annihilation is a spit in the face of the most core socialist let alone communist values.

They both have one body dictating what the people’s needs are that mustn’t under any circumstance be challenged. Making the whole “according to needs” part null and void. Both have histories of completely neglecting their citizens in favor of pursuing imperial ambitions.

Also not calling anybody capitalist. Saying it’s not really communism isn’t the same as saying it’s capitalism. So considering your comment I feel the need to also express that my second paragraph is in no way saying other countries haven’t done the same under other systems like capitalism. Just covering my ass, feeling the ugly head of pointless what aboutism approaching.

That’s why they said “more upset about”. If rapists running the country isn’t an issue, than someone potentially entering the wrong shitter shouldn’t even be a topic. Just a reminder that mixed (or as I like to call em; regular) toilets exist without issue all over the world. Like since when are rapists stopped by signs? That’s some “you legally can’t steal from me” logic. It’s thinly veiled hostility towards citizens and it’s unacceptable.

I’m not even trans, I’m just sick of this obsoletely irrelevant topic. People would really much rather punch down at some toothless minority, rather than adress any serious issues.

Wtf are those even good for? My pencil case from back in the day alone would take up like a third of the while thing. Does an A4 even fit on it?

Brutal oversimplification is an understatement to what just happened here xD

Only if there are no checks and balances. The typical “communist” regimes like Russia and China can hardly be called communist by any definition. Just like nobody would call nazi’s socialist, despite it being in their name (national socialism).

Fucking “I take all and ya’ll better belive I’ll redistribute favorably or fucking die” is hardly even left. I especially hate when people say “in theory it makes sense, but in reality…”, no it fucking doesn’t even in theory!