askchapo

Back when I was very young, like still in elementary school, I started playing Super Metroid for the first time. I was running around Norfair, generally having a good time, when I opened an innocuous-looking super missile door and encountered... Crocomire.

If you're familiar with that game, you might be thinking "Oh, you got scared when Crocomire's skeleton popped out of the lava, right?" No, I never even made it that far. Instead, on finding myself suddenly confronted by this huge, grotesque monster to a background of intense, blaring music, I freaked out. I didn't even think of aiming for his mouth, instead just firing all my missile and super missiles in a blind panic as he slowly pushed me toward the spiked wall at the far end of the room. At the time, I didn't know you could hurt bosses with the charge beam, so once I was out of missiles, I used the only other weapon I thought might work: a power bomb. Turns out that's the worst possible thing you can do. Power bombs make Crocomire go apeshit, charging at you and quickly smashing you into the rear wall, at which point you're basically guaranteed to die. Sure enough, I did.

I didn't quit the game forever, but I did put it give up on progressing further until I was older, wiser, and generally better at video games. And even then, for years afterward, I played the Crocomire fight with the volume off.

I have a few:

• I was in my house at night and got scared, so I went to go get my parents. Their dream bedroom was huge, though, and almost pitch-black, so all I could see was a bit of carpet directly underneath and around me. The carpet swarmed with fist-sized bugs that skittered around and over my feet.
• I was on a beach with my brother, looking at him while he faced me. My brother's face was grotesquely distorted, elongated and stretched to one side. His eye socket on that side took up a good portion of his face, and it was stuffed with what must have been dozens of regular-sized eyeballs.
• I was trapped with my family in a big outdoor area surrounded by concrete walls, with the ground covered with gravel and trash. We were all sitting together on a long bench atop a trash pile, and we couldn't leave the bench because we were being menaced by an animate blue plastic tarp that wanted eat us and the bench was - somehow - the only safe place. The tarp fluttered in front of us, then reared up onto one edge and struck at us like a cobra, accompanied by a sound like duct tape being violently torn off of something. The bench protected us, so we were unharmed, but we were all very distressed and afraid.

I stand up, I look out my window at the big city. I think 'how is any of this real, and why do I have to age and eventually die?'

I wake up in the morning in my weird little flat. I wonder to myself, 'so this is it, huh? I just do this until my body fails?'

I cook myself a meal. I find out how a museum works behind the scenes. I get a tour of an office. I see my friends go out. I book a movie ticket. I work out. I watch a comedian. I listen to a podcast. All of these things just make me ponder what the point of it all is. Am I doing it wrong? Am I doing it pretty well? Why should I accumulate all this knowledge if I'm just going to die? What's the point in watching my stupid obscure movies that I can't even talk to people about? Am I missing out on the human experience?

Realistically I'm a happy ape. All my needs are satisfied. But I am a sad human.

I think it's all linked to graduating. The pressures on to do well, the workload is racking up, and then once that's all done I just get thrown into the real world. That's it. Then it truly is just doing the same thing over and over. Then it really is a question of survival. Would it be better to just be a dumb neolithic huntsman who is grateful for his bed of fur in his cave? What the fuck did those guys even think of when they took psychedelics? Well, spirits, I know, but wow, the things in their head must've been so original. If I do them, most of my thoughts are just about the garbage I've watched, and my modern worries that are worrisome but relatively tame.

Is this just a normal thing to go through, and then you get on with it and accept that this is just how things are?

Maybe life is simply starting to get to me, and time will tell if I crack under pressure.

Is this a cry for help or just a regular Tuesday for ya’ll?

I want to learn more about the conflict and interventions in Ethiopia and Eritrea, but from a left-wing source. Many sources hint at socialist vs. capitalist disputes and interventions, and there are religious angles here too, but I haven't seen this pulled together into a coherent narrative. Any recommendations for something good?

I'm noticing a lot of people taking "you should read more about this, here are some book recommendations" as insulting their intelligence.

This is relevant because most USians lack a political education.

Alright, hear me out. I've been on a diet for several years now, and I've lost over 150 lbs. Part of the key to my success is having a variety of low / zero calorie things that I drink, perhaps most importantly including one sugarless energy drink per day. What makes them work within the context of my diet is that they're very flavorful, and take a very long time to drink relative to stuff like water, tea, soda, etc., and drinking them over that long period suppresses my appetite for the duration.

But I don't want, or need the "energy." And I sure don't need the heart palpitations, either. So basically, I am looking for "energy" drinks in terms of intensity of flavor, but without all the stuff that makes them "energy" drinks.

While looking I've seen some that are caffeine free, but they're still "energy" drinks. Do you guys think being caffeine free alone is enough to lessen the strain on my body?

And before anyone mentions drinking water: I DO drink water. I drink at least two liters every day. But just sitting here chugging water all day doesn't quiet the unceasing scream in my brain that tells me to eat an entire family's worth of food in one sitting.

I'm a baby leftist and still learning. You keep using this phrase. I'm sure I live in it but I'd like to know what Hexbears define as the imperial core.

Discussion: hexbear.net, lemmygrad.ml

Reading: redsails.org, marxists.org, spectrejournal.com

News: telesurtv.net, cgtn.com

Others please?

My partner has all the right political instincts and really wants to bolster their knowledge of the systems of socialism/communism and the ideologies therein.

I was initially thinking of recommending Blackshirts and Reds by Parenti as that was an entry point for me to shed any remaining lib tendencies I had.

Would love to hear what y'all would recommend!

Both Ukraine and Palestine are fighting against an invading force. We can unanimously agree that Palestinians have have been illegally occupied in an open air prison/concentration camp for 75 years. And we seem to agree that Palestine cannot be a perfect victim and it is reasonable that they seek support in Hamas instead of their Israeli oppressors.

Now why can't the same logic be applied to Ukraine? There is absolutely a nazi problem in Ukraine. A nazi problem that needs to be wiped out. But Russia isnt trying to denazify Ukraine, they're trying to maintain borders and resist NATO. But while doing so they are indiscriminately killing civilians and are the aggressors.

Personally, I believe in what Norman Finkelstein has to say about Hezbollah and the red army. Both are not perfect, but I don't care about their politics. I care that they are a resisting force and believe a country should have the right to self determination.

So how are these situations diametrically opposed that you seem to be hostile towards Ukraine but supportive of Palestine?

I don't mean to come off as shaming or judgemental. I genuinely would like to hear your perspective.

Edit: I appreciate all of the thoughtful and patient responses. Even though I might not respond to everything here I am reading all of it. I was operating under a lack of information, which I've never seen any Western media source report on. Ever since leaving reddit, hexbear has been a great source of alternative perspectives and context. It's opened my eyes to a lot of how I've been misled by papers that I've trusted.

Thinking of joining an ml party. I’ve been doing little things with dsa and other orgs now and again but it gets tiring having to hold my tongue around liberal progressives all the time and I’d like to be part of an org where I theoretically don’t have to do that.

If you’re in one of these parties, why do you like it, why should I join? I’m also mainly interested in any reasons why I should not join any of these orgs. Like are any of them just full of cops, or are they political cults full of abusers or anything? Tbh right now I’m leaning towards frso just because I like their stance of national liberation struggles within the us and also the idea that they’re sort of a “pre-party” organization, since I recognize while I’m probably knowledgeable enough theory-wise to join an ml organization, I definitely still have a lot of learning I need to (and would like to) do. But it would be nice to have comrades and not just be reading alone in my room lol.

But that is by no means set in stone and I’m hoping someone can give me a rundown of the ml landscape in the USA and/or guide me away from any parties I probably shouldn’t join.

I am taking part in a uni course about the Feminist revolution in Iran. The lecturer has been going over the Iranian revolution in 1979 in a very, shall we say, interesting way.

I do not want to discredit their pov on this as I am obviously a Westoid, but the way this is being framed is that before the revolution things were better for women. The lecturer said the revolution happened because people disliked the Shah having more than others, but she did not elaborate this in any way. One would think the complaints of people were pretty big for them to start a revolution? But I know very little about this.

After the revolution women were to have equal rights, but over the next years the dictatorship which is named as Islamic removed them and things like the hijab became mandatory. She stated that people were given false promises and betrayed and this is why the people sided with the revolution. Where does this framing come from? Was it the same people going for revolution that ended up in places of power?

Now my understanding is that the social democratic movement there was destroyed by the West in the 50s and the following twenty+ years under the Shah led to a sort of pseudorevolution that wasn't entirely progressive in nature. Is this correct or wrong?

Also how did the revolutionary force become so deeply conservative? The lecturer told us that before this there was no national religion as such and things like wearing a scarf were personal choices. This was then turned into a mandatory thing starting from workplace dresscode to eventually all public life, however at home people to this day do not follow these norms.

The Women Life Freedom movement is then a result of the way these last decades have eroded all womens rights.

I will include the following questions as well:

If this reactionary tendency in societies is always high, how do we make sure our revolution does not lead to something like this? Or was this all external influence?

If we accept that there always tends to be external influence, what can we do to make sure the reactionary force does not get on top and be in a position to dictate things like womens rights? (I am spesifically thinking of Hamas in Palestine now being the force that is driving change, if they stay in power, won't that easily result in a second Iran when it comes to Islamic nationalism/minority rights?)

How then can we engage in critical support of operators who have a high chance of creating systems of oppression?

Any history on Iran, feminism and ML and other thought very welcome.

Daily struggle session slop here.

Do you pee in the shower? Do you support this inalienable right open to all humanity? Or are you like my fascist partner who says it's not okay and "childish." As a communist, anyone who would be upset at peeing in the shower should be thrown in jail along with people who tailgate when I'm already going 5 over.

Just to throw a bone to the ladies and other people who suck dick (literally not metaphorically), you should also wipe your penis after you pee. Even if you think you got it all out you should still wipe. However, this is intersectionality. Obviously the biggest oppression is against shower-pee-pee people but pee-pee wipers can still unite with us as we apply dialectics to hygiene.

Yes, he described Palestinians as "the bugs" and said some other really fucking ignorant quotes from that movie without the slightest understanding of Paul Verhoeven's intent (his effort may have been doomed from the start; he even scolded actors on set for "not getting it" and just enjoying the fascism).

I have some license with what I say because I'm moving and transferring out of state in a few weeks but I also don't want to have a bad mark on my record by saying something particularly scary about the IDF, so what should I tell him on Monday?

Looking for info to disprove this stigma, I don't really have much other than one academic research paper I found but I don't think if the guy I'm arguing with would be willing to sit through and read that. He dismissed it as queer theory which he says has been "debunked" idk what the hell queer theory is. Anyway from what I can tell with this dude the simple and more obvious the better but it must also be backed by peer reviewed research

• What do you think the percentage is of Americans who throws out good food (even junk food) based on the expiration date? I mean - they do so not because the food might be stale but because they believe it suddenly became possibly toxic to eat.

• What's the percentage for non-food stuff like soap? The other day I noticed my liquid hand soap has an expiration date for whatever reason. I better hurry up - I only have two years left of it being safe.

I started thinking about it after I read this...

"Good thing I read the labels and dates before I opened or ate anything. I avoided potential food poisoning and/or a trip to urgent care by paying attention."

It's from an Amazon review. After they checked the label - they learned the package was delivered with an expiration date two weeks past. They are talking about a Ruffles potato chip variety pack.

This is something I've wondered about but never really seen an official leftist position on, and it's gotten a lot more relevant with the ongoing Palestinian uprising. Also curious if there is any good reading out there on this subject.

Yes I know that fascism is a playable ideology in Disco Elysium, but presenting fascism as with its integral ugly reality, glaring contradictions, and unsustainable death drive is a pretty leftist (and correct) way of portraying it.

Is it the beginning of the end of socialism for them?