Welcome again to everybody. Make yourself at home I just ask that you dont solve the crossword in this weeks Lemmygrad Weekly. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.
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The Netherlands is so individualistic that family bonds are becoming less strong. I haven’t seen my cousins (except one) in a coupke of years. One of them has a one year old child which I’ve never seen. It doesn’t help that we all live in different parts of the country, but still I feel like this wouldn’t happen in communist countries
My family is kinda the same but in Mexico. Idk i’ve never felt any bonds with them and we lived in a small town. This is particularly noticeable on petit bourgeois families and above, meanwhile families from a poor background are much more united.
Really the amount of rich families i’ve seen getting torn apart because of property issues is kinda funny. And they are the most vocal supporters of family first slogans.
Its similar for me as well
I’ve been thinking about both Souls-like games and Hollow-knight [if all metroidvanias use this mechanic feel free to correct me] and honestly I’m trying to think if there would be a better death mechanic than what they have. Dropping all your currency on death (and then losing it if you die again) is…fine i guess. I just haven’t found it particularly engaging.
Because if you have no currency for whatever reason (died already, stored somehow, just got whatever you were saving up for) then it kinda defeats the point (which I think is supposed to discourage reckless behavior). Additionally, losing them permanently is more just annoying than anything. I mean, you can obviously just grind for them if you really need it.
But I can’t come up with any ideas to replace it with so :p
Far right party FVD won big in my Dutch hometown as they become the fourth largest party. Which is sad because it is a heavy working class city.
horseshoe theory evil deng tiananmen square massacre history class versus ONE silly girl. feel like a jubilee video up in here bro
neoliberals who hate socialism are so funny, i feel like nobody realizes it’s 2026. like, i just don’t think we can keep pretending the PRC isn’t real
and it’s also happening as xi is still cracking down and being more, well, recognizably ‘socialist’ even to politically illiterate westerners. we have had simultaneous xi-doomposting for the last 10 years and also watched as they continued to prosper, continued to be dynamic and continue to support its population, and like, okay, are we just going to pretend a) it’s doomed Gommunist/Gocialist country failed state ohhh any day now or b) big ebil Capitalist country evil evil? are we still doing this? today? on march 19th?
Yes, some will hold on to these neurotic beliefs until the grave. Parenti quote is relevant, in case you haven’t seen it already.
Parenti quote
Edit: RIP Parenti quote bot?
diesel prices are killing me rn, fortunately i bought 2k liters the day USrael started the terrorist campaign. Prices went from 26.4 to 29.6 mxn per liter in these 2 weeks. I am about to run out and i guess i should buy another 2k before it increases even further, DEATH TO USRAEL.
Funny side piece, 8 years ago the opposition parties in Mexico were saying that investing in oil was a investing in a sinking ship because and i quote “oil is on it’s way out” (their goal complete the privatization of oil and give it to the US), now they’re saying that oil prices are way too high.
Due to the oil prices, I am starting to think real hard on buying an EV for my little family’s business.
The BYD pickup that I sometimes see from farmers in my small city is looking like a buy option with each passing day.
I feel like that one pickup is the weakest offering they have, i personally love the BYD seal u dm-i (also hybrid) but you’re right about it being a better alternative. It’s an hybrid so it’s ideal for my use case, still it’s kinda expensive compared to the other offerings.
Tell me how it goes. I’m thinking of buying one too, once it becomes avaliable
If you’re confused about the 2010s part let me clarify:
This was roughly the time I was beginning to understand that what the US pretends to be and what the US actually is were two different things. I was still a pro-intervention radical liberal but I was mad we were invading countries for oil instead of overthrowing dictatorships to liberate people. I wanted the propaganda to match the reality and it wasn’t until I learned that was impossible that I really began moving through the pipeline to actual Leftism.
I spent way too long at this stage.
I feel you. 🫂
Yup, me too.
In the 2000s I was a patriot and I saw America’s apparent invincibility and it made me happy.
In the 2010s I was a patriot and I saw America’s apparent invincibility and it made me sad.
In the 2020s I am no longer a patriot and I see America’s actual vulnerability and it makes me happy.
It’s been a wild ride.
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How do you guys deal with doomscrolling and a sense of helplessness? Struggling with it a lot, switch between this and periods of hopefulness but it’s really hard to feel hope lmao
Next time you are doom scrolling go Here
firstly, i got rid of or altered any social media that has algorithmic content suggestion and endless scrolling. overproduction (in this case, of content/information) incentivizes capitalists to get you to overconsume, regardless of whether or not that overconsumption is unhealthy/addictive.
secondly, i investigated what internal features or contradictions i had left to resolve that would explain why i defaulted to hopelessness. part of what’s meaningful about revolutionary optimism to me is the fact that it not only feels much better than hopelessness, but is also the correct/optimal cognitive approach. and, it applies to society as much as it does to every individual life.
i think it’s much easier to be revolutionary optimistic when you actively unlearn whatever you learned to become/feel helpless, rather than trying to simply paper over your helpless feelings with revolutionary optimism, which always felt kind of fake to me. this may or may not track with your experience, but that’s the process i’ve gone through to actively and permanently feel more hopeful.
thanks for this my friend. On social media, I’ve gotten off almost all of it. Trying to get off Reddit but I used it heavily for sports stuff too but I think I’m getting better at cutting it out.
And yeah, I’m trying to examine myself and I do understand why I have a tendency towards hopelessness. I think it’s just gonna take time for me to work through my own internal contradictions.
Thanks again
things like that are always easier said than done, but i’m sure you can do it. good luck, and hope you feel better soon
I wore an ACAB shirt to work today and someone asked what it meant so I convinced them it was the police union
Activists of Chicago Against Bullyingpolice 💞
One of the far right Dutch parties, FVD, has a guy running for the municipalities who lost his teaching job for harassing underage girls. So I went to their insta to say how cool it was of them to let a pedo run for their party and they blocked me lmao. Free speech enthusiasts btw.
Last thing, has anyone here been the Beijing? I want to go on a trip there sometime. I’m planning on going to the Mao Mausoleum and the national museum, any other reccomendations?
I was there a couple years back on a research co-op. When I wasn’t working, I visited tiananmen square and a couple of the local tourist traps. I also took the subway out to the outer rings and looked at the new development housing and generally how people lived their lives in Beijing.
They should just call it the Maosoleum in English
makes it sound like a fun theme park attraction
I have, but I was very young at the time (around 6 years old.) We went to all kinds of temples and I even saw Mao Zedong’s tomb. I have seen Mao IRL.
Hopefully you’ve booked those ahead of time as they’re usually packed lol. You can also try the Ming Tombs, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, Revolutionary Military museum (has a shot down U2 plane as an exhibit).
Oh im not planning on going for a long while, at least a year. But it’ll be my first time visiting a foreign country for any serious period of time so I want to be well prepared.
I think for this visit I’d like to stick more to socialist specific places, (although I’ll try to make room for the forbidden city and stuff) so the revolutionary history museum sounds cool
That’s fair lol, the revolutionary museum has a good number of exhibits from small arms, tanks, aircraft and even some small gunboats (both captured from enemies or those that were used by the army). There’s a small lunch area where you can buy and eat some of their MREs too.
If you ever find yourself in Shanghai, there’s also the museum of the Site of the first National Congress and the old Sihang Warehouse building where soldiers made a stand against the Japanese invaders.
Yeah, I’m trying to decide if I want to spend my whole time in Bejing or split it between Beijing and Shanghai.
Also I’m genuinely so mad that I can’t go to North Korea because of Visa restrictions. That would’ve been a nice day trip. But whatever, I’ll take what I can get
Is it just me or is the navy always a hotbed of rebellion for some reason? HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën, the German navy mutinies at the end of ww1, hell even Krondstadt (although I hold pess respect for the latter for obvious reasons) amongst others. Idk, i feel like i hear about it often enough so it’s starting to intrigue me
Mentioned famous mutinies and didn’t even talk about the Potemkin smh.
But seriously, it makes sense when you consider the conditions sailors are often in: stuck on wood/steel boxes in the middle of nowhere for weeks to months to even years at a time with nothing but ocean for miles around. Humans are land creatures and it’s where we belong; we’ll never really get used to life at sea or in space or wherever - we just learn how to tolerate it and only up to a certain point.
It makes sense that mutinies at sea are fairly common throughout history.
Why are western leftists like this lol
It’s really wierd being adventurous but timid. Like I don’t mind trying new things or going to far off places, as long as I have someone who can help me in doing that. Unfortunately not a lot of people i know are lining up to take a hakf a week to a week long trip to China at somepoint. But also I don’t wanna go alone ):
I will always advise people to travel solo if that is an option. Not that traveling with people is bad (it can be horrific) but there is something special about meeting world head on with no social baggage.
