No, I think I’m far enough on the left to be aware of capitalist propaganda. In all fairness to you, my statement did not treat the subject with the appropriate nuance the subject should require.

The DDR was socialist. However, it was state socialism, which in my opinion is not ideal and not something we should strive to replicate. Yes, the means of production were “owned by the people,” but the state tasks itself with protecting the people. And therein lies the problem with state socialism - the state is easily commandeered by a corrupt minority who then uses the governmental apparatus to run an authoritarian regime. Precisely what happened in the DDR and the USSR.

We should be able to recognize the imperfections in prior socialist attempts, without immediately calling it “capitalist NGO propaganda.”

Even the DDR wasn’t doing socialism. The public had to be all-in the idea, or they were discredited or arrested. It was an authoritarian autocracy acting in the name of socialism.

Lol. Nice erasure of the existence of McCarthyism.

Communism pwnd itself bruh - shit sucked so hard they didn’t need Anti-Propaganda like:

Is This Tomorrow? America under communism!!

Shit was so bad, that the US didn’t need to run any covert operations to subvert, discredit, arrest, jail, or even, allegedly, assassinate the prominent figures and leaders of progressive, socialist, and communist movements – I mean, if they did, they certainly wouldn’t have called it COINTELPRO. It’d be a dumb name anyway.

Pfft

Did you not see the video of the guy wearing his new tim apple ski goggles, in his semi-self driving Tesla cyber truck?

What makes you think people can behave?

Unless they’re evil radical leftist Democrats, those Marxist-Leninist Antifa communist fascist socialists. Then they’ll be hanged.

MAGAts get a wrist slap.

I mean, having some water nymph toss a sword at someones feet is at least as good of a justification for governmental power - and if I’m honest, a better one at that.

It’s like 40% more creative than “I have all the money and the big boogey man in the sky said I have the right to reign supreme - who are you to question God?”

Thank you for the hardcore wiki linking - sincerely, I appreciate the labor you put into this reply.

C3 is a certified Deutsch.

Wild that they could just… Change their house like that. “Oh all that family lineage and history, no, no the name sounds quite too much like those jerries - the peasants won’t like it much - what now? yes yes, Windsor we are, always have been, chip cheerio - get in the trench my good chap, and fight my former brethren, I mean those awful germans.”

Totally out of the loop on UK royalty, because they’re basically just a medieval version of the Kardashians that’s hung around waaaaay too long.

I was under the impression that the monarchy’s power was predicated on their right to rule being divine, which could only be maintained by keeping their bloodline inbred pure.

Charles is German?

Ha it totally IS how one would write the Kiwi pronunciation for Bradley. Didn’t even occur to me. I’m just a Brad that likes bread.

Thanks, did you know your username is a Dutch phrase meaning “headhunter”?

It could also be Norwegian, meaning “cup snails.”

Where are these “men’s groups” you speak of? As a “man,” I’ve not heard of any, at least none that aren’t inherently linked to toxic masc MAN-man personality traits.

…they put just enough oxygen in those helium canisters consumers can buy to stop people…

I’m not so sure that’s true… At least, I know for certain it wasn’t true for at least one brand of consumer grade helium canisters sold in the US, around 12 or 13 years ago.

In the early 2010s, I worked the day shift as an EMT for a small town ambulance company. One morning, right as I was clocking in for the 5am shift change, a call came in for an adult male unresponsive. My partner and I didn’t think much of it - it was a college town and we worked the Friday morning shift, so it wasn’t unusual to get early calls for drunk frat kids passed out in a yard from the Thirsty Thursday parties - don’t get me wrong, these were often serious situations, but run of the mill stuff for the job. So we told the overnight volunteers to go home, jumped in the rig and got on our way to the scene.

I started to get a bad feeling on the way over though, because it was at the local fishing pier, which was in a park - kind of a scenic place, not really near the college - but my partner played it down, said rush week had just finished so it’s probably some pledge bullshit or something.

We arrive at the park, pull into the parking lot, and see the police lights off to the right - the dock is off to the left, with a small beach to the right, with the parking lot overlooking the coast - the police officer has back against the trunk of a grey Nissan, thumbs in his vest, head hung low - looks up at the ambulance makes eye contact with me and shakes his head.

We get out of the rig, ask him what’s going on, he tells us that we’ll need to pronounce, and it isn’t pretty.

I walk around the driver side of the car and see a kid in the front seat. He couldn’t have been older than 20. There was a clear plastic bag over his head, the edges pulled taught to his neck with a length of string tied in a bow, the bag mostly inflated so it wasn’t touching his face. There was one end of a tube inside the bag, held in place with an extra knot from the string. The other end traced back to a tank sitting on the front passenger seat, still in its cardboard box with pictures of happy children playing with balloons on the side. There was a bottle of brown liquor in the cupholder.

I’ll never forget the blank stare of his semi-open eyes, set in his young, handsomely featured, yet now lifeless face - his skin the ashen, mottled, and pale blue-grey color of the recently deceased.

It was immediately obvious this young man had parked there for one last nice view of either a sunset or sunrise, drank up some courage, donned his gear, and drifted off to a final sleep.

I stood there only for a moment, but it felt like an eternity passed as I absorbed the emotional intensity of what had transpired there. I regained my sense of composure with the crack of my partner shattering the driver-door’s window, saw him reach to check for a pulse, turning his head away after a moment while waiting for the full, painfully requisite 60 seconds, pronounced him dead, and we were back in the truck on our way back to the station.

I’m still not right from that call.

I really hope things have changed, and that manufacturers are required to add oxygen or bitter compounds or something that prevent this kind of thing from happening.

If you’ve read down this far, I thank you. Writing this out was helpful for me to process - I took a few minor liberties in writing this story, mostly to obfuscate potential recognition, and for dramatic effect - but made no changes to what I felt and saw in my description of that scene.

And lastly, if you’re struggling with your mental health or substances - you’re not alone. This world can be hard and cruel, terribly isolating and dark - but there is warmth and kindness too. If you feel like hurting yourself, please don’t. You are loved. You will be missed by the ones who love you. If you’re in crisis, and there’s someone you know and trust, call them and talk to them. If they cant talk or don’t pick up, or if there’s no one you feel you can trust, call a crisis prevention hotline any time, any day, and they will listen to you with the utmost respect, dignity, and empathy.

[US and Canada] Call 988 for the suicide and crisis lifeline. Call 911 for life-threatening/imminent situations. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/suicide-prevention

[Most other countries] Call your local emergency line, most often it’s 112 if you’re outside of North America - they will direct you to help if you’re in need.

Additional information: https://www.cnet.com/health/suicide-hotlines-crisis-hotlines-to-call-when-you-need-help/

What do you mean by “police speech?”

Not if Ianthe has anything to say about it.

Yes, but …

Setting aside the polarized nature of named generations, as a class; for these are entirely arbitrary and designed to create polarization …

There’s fun theory on the “Gen X are forgotten” meme. Yes yes, you Gen Xers got shafted, here’s a cookie 🍪 Please hear me out.

Most people fall on the cusps of their “generation” and Gen X is no different - in this case, you’re either old enough to identify with boomers, and are shouting “snowflake millennial” with them; or you’re young enough to identify with millennials, but still too old to identify with Gen Z, so you’re shouting “cringe zoomer” with the millennials, they who are cuspers themselves and too old to identify with Gen Z. The quintessential Gen Xer is uncommon, but exceptionally kind. You always know when one is around though, because they are quick with a self deprecation point out that Gen X was “forgotten again.” 😉

The sad thing is that many of the so-called boomers are being replaced by Gen Xers. And the millennials shouting the same inter-generational slurs will eventually take the throne of generational bully.

On the other hand, there is hope inspired by this meme - all we need to do to stop inter-generational trauma is stop perpetrating it.

I’d heard of project 2025, but had not read anything about it yet. Terrifying.

You seem to really know your shit. I’m realistic about my WAN speed needs (symmetrical 350 Mbps is more than sufficient) - but I’m pretty tired of my shitty Netgear setup. I’m not really sure what I need LAN wise, and the price tags of Ubiquiti/UniFi systems have me worried about buying more than I really need. I know pfsense/opnsense can be useful alternatives to start with in minimizing prices, but the steep learning curve has me a bit intimidated.

Do you have a suggestion or recommendation on where to start? Is there something that’s functional at a sub ~$500 initial investment, but would be upgradeable/expandable and ultimately more reliable/dependable in the long run? Do I need to wait for this wifi7 gimmick?

Thanks mate.

If they’re thinking at all… it’s likely less drone, more “leather trench coat, sleek sunglasses, uzis, katanas, and bullet time”

I’m sorry, they did what? Out of the loop on this one, but that guy is fucking brain cancer

Wirelessly charging EVs from your iPhone?