I’ve been eating at the same pizzeria that has been standing strong for just shy of a century, my mom used to eat their when she lived in the neighborhood and my dad reintroduced us to it back when I was 13.

After ordering my regular two slices of Sicilian, the owner gives me my drink free of charge, an arrangement we have had for about two years now. Pig chimes in, “soft drinks of choice? That’s mafia shit” I laughed it off because I like the sopranos too but then the other kept prying. “Think this is funny?” He said with a serious tone, I ignore him and thank the owner and find my booth. As I’m eating my first slice the pig that chimed in sits close to me and then starts asking me things like what I do for work and if I live in the area. “Just enjoy your slice” I say and continue eating my Sicilian. “Why are you being so paranoid, I’m just trying to make conversation?” He replies, and I keep ignoring him.

The second cop comes with his sausage pizza, nobody gets the sausage slice so it’s obvious they haven’t been here before. “This kid is ignoring me when I’m trying to make conversation, what’s up with that” he asks his partner sarcastically. First pig kinda doesn’t give a shit but rookie pig I feel is trying to make a name for himself so he can brag back at the pig pen. I wanted to involve both of them so I responded with “sausage slice what’s up with that” now first pig is fucking upset that I mentioned his slice, pigs are so weak. “You know the owner?” He asks me, I finish my first slice and then open my can of cherry soda. I always eat the first slice without drinking soda and then start drinking as I get to my second slice. Again, I ignore the question.

A few minutes go past and they’re laughing obnoxiously trying ruin my evening meal by making me feel uncomfortable. I have to rush the second slice now because I want to leave, I do feel uncomfortable at this point. “What’s the hurry?” Sausage slice pig beckons, again I continue ignoring. I brush off the crumbs onto my plate and head to the trash. I stand around for a bit enjoying my soda and then leave the can on my table for recycling, which is custom here. “That’s littering” the second pig says, “yeah throw your can away, ever heard of respect.” I start walking away but before leaving I say “never disrespect the pizza parlor.”

Howdy y'all!

A few years back, I did a deep dive into the history and politics of the DPRK, but the one thing that I struggled to wrap my head around was The Juche Idea, and I'm wanting to jump back in and try again!

So, what are the main principles of Juche?

How does it compare to other ML variants in the rest of East Asia/in general?

I once saw Juche compared to existentialism. Is that accurate?

Any resources to help me learn more? Most of what I've found has either been old, difficult to understand, translations of old DPRK books, and uncritical regurgitations of those old books with little in the way of commentary.

seriously what the fuck i've been to every hardware store within 15 miles searching for this rumored plate. What I really don't understand is why every coaxial wallplate I've come across is 1-gang which would be fucking useless for my purposes.

i spent 30 minutes today showing the poor Lowes employee who dared to walk up to me while I was investigating their aisle of Leviton the wallplate in my possession, the part of the wall I need to cover, and the coaxial cable that needs to be run through it. Sagaciously, this kinda cute man went "why don't you just do the 'build your own wallplate' and make one that size" and I was like 'wow okay what aisle is that' before walking over and realizing the goddamn build your own wallplates didn't even have a coaxial option.

i still don't fucking understand why the nomenclature is 'gang' for number of outlets/switches on a plate and I STILL DON'T HAVE A FUCKING WALLPLATE AHHHHHHHH

is my only option really about to be to just drill a hole into this wallplate or get a single outlet 2-gang wallplate and just have the coaxial cable running through the empty space like a straw through a donut....no...surely not....right??

This is of course inspired from that "AI entrepreneur" douchebag that spent $745 to commission a treat printer to print out a shitty and soulless whitewashed version of Princess Mononoke and assigned himself that title the way that putting a quarter in a gumball machine makes someone a candy entrepreneur.

I really don't have a good answer. Anyone else?

Do I need to take my iphone back in to apple to get camera fixed ?

I'm mostly asking on behalf of a comrade who is somewhat new to leftism. My own knowledge is only surface level, which is why I’m turning to Hexbear.

Could I get a rundown of the reasons for the conflict, for someone who only knows the basic Western position of "Russia bad" ? I’m not trying to say modern Russia is good, but there are reasons for this conflict, and it's much more nuanced than how it's presented in Western media, correct?

Any input from fellow Hexbears, sources, etc., is welcome. I truly appreciate the help.

Title. I'm very paranoid about hypothetical legal scenarios.

I work in Oregon, which I heard is a place where psilocybe mushrooms grow naturally. This scares me because if I were to just Find one out in the wild, would that be illegal? Like I know it's illegal to purchase and sell them but if I just Accidentally picked/ate some, would that be a problem?

Also, just to make absolutely sure that I stay as far away from them as possible, I'd like to know where exactly in Oregon they grow, and around what time of year, etc.

Additionally if there's any place you guys can direct me toward with additional resources on foraging/dosing/other essential info, just so I know exactly what to avoid, that would be great too, thank you :)

this mostly applies to the U.S. but also most of the western world:

As Marxists we know that most policy is driven by what capital allows or within the increasingly narrow range of acceptable discourse it allows within bourgeois dictatorship

Obviously it's not a conspiracy of ten guys in a secret room but a general consensus that develops from a chaotic web-like oligarchy of money peddlers, influencers, lackeys, billionaire puppetmasters, etc

But this really, really hurts Capital. they need the influx of cheap labor or face the real threat of forced degrowth. and we know every including is trying to make it harder for people to be childless but short of forcing people to procreate at gunpoint..

• so why allow this to become a bipartisan consensus (U.S.) instead of say throwing some scraps of social democratic programs?

• or in Europe's case allowing these parties to come to power instead of reversing some neoliberal austerity?

Is this a case of anti-immigration just being easier to do vs. building resiliency into the system? i mean it's always easier to write laws crimializing stuff and throwing cops at a problem i suppose

Or something else?

got elected in the first place, in large part, because of the gimmick, the novelty, the brand recognition. Sure, the bigotry and the crude barbarism appeal for chuds was there too, but that's what I'm worried about.

My concern is that description, including basically all of the above, has a lot of overlap with a lot of famous-for-being famous "influencer" grifters.

I can't help wondering if the red team vs blue team of the electoral future of Burgerland will be some shrieking game streamer chud (R) versus some cold-eyed rictus smiling "philanthropy" grifter (D)

I ask if there's something I'm not thinking of that might push back against what looks like an inevitability, short of Giant Meteor 2024 or sufficient Cool Zone events.

But I checked and they might be the most rabidly racist and pro-genocide shitholes on

Between the whining about how the cops haven’t executed the protestors yet and the demands for “Chinese scum” to be expelled, I’m not sure where the supposed progressivism is supposed to be.

Interested in reading books centered around economics and resources (mineral resources, water, energy be it gas, biofuels, etc, scarcity) and logistics

I'm going to be involved in making a union website, probably just a simple page with some hopefully good looking design. What would be the ideal tools for the job, and any good looking union sites that I can take inspiration from?

There's a campaign near me to protect valuable old trees which are slated for destruction. These trees are on public property and being killed to make way for a parking deck. The misguided decision makers have already made it "legal" for them to do this, and some of us intend to fight.

I would love to hear any stories or tips on how to approach strategies for raising public awareness, staging actions, and the like. Tree sitting is already a given. I think our situation is at the point now where we cannot prevail via the legal system. They're doing the murder by the book. I think the only leverage we have is to turn public sentiment so hard against these actors that the political cost for them is too extreme. And even that's a longshot.

Thanks and much love.

Update: I welcome discussion of all methods and actions! After reflecting further I wanted to say I'm particularly interested in agitprop and messaging strategies. Perhaps this is discussed in the Ecodefense link - will be checking that out shortly.

With the anniversary of Oct 7 coming up, I suspect it will be a topic for some friends of mine. Due to some work I’ve done on them over the past year, I think they might actually be amenable to learning more about Palestine and everything that’s happened in the last 100+ years.

Problem is, these people really have no idea what’s going on or what happened. I don’t know if they could find Palestine on a map. They literally haven’t moved beyond “Jews and Arabs have an ancient grudge and this is just the continuation of that.

What are some basic - and I mean basic videos I could send to them. I think 1948 Creation & Catastrophe is amazing but its scope is a bit narrow. There’s also that many-hour video Hasan did with historian Zach Foster that’s very good but it’s more about debunking hasbara.

The word is in entertainment a lot. Outside the context of slavery, it still triggers me. For example, I'm watching a show called Gyeongseong Creature, and characters keep saying "Master Jang." (A protagonist.) He's an ultra rich guy who owns a pawn shop. He's constantly acknowledged as if he's an authority figure. I don't have enough context about Korean culture to understand when and why people get the label "Master." It just sucks to hear.

It would help if hearing "master" and observing severe sucking up didn't feel so visceral.

This isn't about matters for this specific thread, so for the sake of diversity of responses I welcome any and all feedback about the place. I never ate there, never intend to eat there, and just by glancing at the prices they're comically high, even for a contemporary fast food restaurant.

Why the hype? Why the massive lines? Are chicken tendies from that specific location that magical? I have no fucking clue.

Sure, they don’t immediately release CO2 which is of course miles better. But eventually we will reach Peak Lithium, and when all the current batteries inevitably degrade and no one bothers to properly recycle the materials, aren’t we SOL?

Is there a publishing house or social media site (Weibo account?) that I can follow to get the latest Chinese political thought?

I've been reading theory, grinding my ML points, and now I want to Get Organized and Serve the People.

I know this is largely a regional choice, but among the major Marxist-Leninist orgs, which are doing the best work, in your opinion? Not asking anyone to dox what org they are in!

I've seen FRSO and , but wanted to know people's general opinions on them, or other orgs I should check out. I have a firm belief that proper theory and practice leads to better results, so it's important that theory and practice are both good. Additionally, the international struggle must be paramount, since this is

Thanks!

Witness Cowbee's attempt at building Communism in 2024!

He made the Birds Nest Olympic stadium in Beijing so he'll be brought up forever.

I was introduced to his work as a kid and people seem to always mention him and his work just to say "China bad." Everytime I try to listen to why it just sounds like grey unlistenable sludge. Partially because I don't know much about history in general so I don't know what the mentioned parts of Chinese history are about. My final reason to give up is because I know much/all of what I hear is probably whitewashed propaganda. If he indeed has good criticism, I don't trust Western media to not twist his words out of their original meaning.