chat

I support Left media because of course I do, I'm not going to get my news after it has been heavily censored by the bourgoisie, but there isn't an issue of The Communist (the newspaper of the IMT in Britain formerly known as Socialist Appeal) which gets printed that doesn't dedicate some part to attacking The Morning Star (the newspaper of the CPB), The Communist Party of Britain, or Stalin, and usually they work something in there about modern China too.

The most recent beef between the IMT and the CPB as far as I have been paying attention springs from this article published by The Communist in response to a series of articles on Lenin published by The Morning Star:

Despite its name, this party [The Communist Party of Britain] has long ago become a reformist organisation, little different from the trade union and Labour ‘lefts’

While probably a bit true this is also funny, since before changing their name to The Communist and announcing the launch of the new Revolutionary Communist Party, Socialist Appeal had been a force dedicated to entry-ism within the Labour party, that is before it was finally ruled in July 2021 that anyone associated with Socialist Appeal would automatically be expelled from the Labour party. Prior to this, Socialist Appeal had been very clear that they had no other aspirations besides pulling the Labour party left, and actually their entire existence can traced back to a previous round of left purges within the Labour party prior even to Blair, when in 1991 the left group Militant abandoned Labour to form their own party (later known as the Socialist party, they made impressive gains as part of the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition in 2015 before throwing their support behind Corbyn a few years later).

Those who remained within the Labour party went on to become Socialist Appeal, and it is just funny to me how things have come full circle since then. Those within the Socialist party must be feeling quite vindicated by now.

Then in the latest issue of The Communist, there is this article:

FROM OPPORTUNISM TO ULTRA-LEFTISM: THE CRIMINAL ZIG-ZAGS OF THE STALINISTS

The launch of The Communist and the planned launch of the Revolutionary Communist Party in May has met with great enthusiasm from our supporters.

However, as we reported in the last issue, the misnamed Communist Party of Britain (CPB) has clearly been stung by our successes, and attacked us as coming from an “anti-communist” tradition.

On the contrary, we have consistently defended genuine communism. But in doing so we reject the tradition of Stalinism, which has played, and still plays, a criminal role.

It is good to see left newspapers fighting eachother over disagreements which occurred over 100 years ago. If only there was some way we could use the benefit of hindsight to evaluate who was right and who was wrong, what worked and what didn't, what needs to be done differently next time, but sadly there is a huge overlap between people willing and able to write lengthy articles in fringe newspapers and people who are actually just huge dorks, heavily invested in squabbling over petty minutaee and championing their favourite heroes, like they are comic book characters.

What does it matter if Trotsky is right about permanent revolution, if no Trot organisation has ever accomplished anything in 100 years? Was Stalin wrong to withdraw support from the international community and order others to lay down their arms and co-operate with the bourgeoisie? For sure, the USSR was villified for supporting them anyway. Was Stalin wrong for cracking down on security within the USSR? I don't know, have you seen what happens to fledgling communist states when they do not?

I really don't know enough to be able to comment on everything, and I don't see the need to, either. Just the bitchiness from these orgs is such a turn-off, stop fighting and kiss eachother. Oh no, Special Branch wouldn't like that.

Just putting it out there if anyone wants to help me out. I don't have any healthy support structures or people really in my corner that can keep me held to my word. It'd be great if it's someone else who managed to quit and stay quit.

I fished them out using a pair of tongs that I put under hot water in the sink. I went to get some alcohol wipes while I left the tongs under the sun, after drying the AirPods with some bathroom tissue (and throwing out the ear tips).

Once I had the wipes, I cleaned the AirPods multiple times, and wiped them on a microfibre cloth. Now I’m letting them under stay in the sun.

I don’t know what more to do. I plan to let them be under the sun for the rest of the day, and probably wipe them a few more times. I don’t know if that’ll be enough to soothe my worries, though.

I watched the video archive. They said my letter was great, and that they learned a new word, "Aporophobia". They also agreed that much of the town's backlash comments were tantamount to "Aporophobia" and that they have some serious "reeducating" they have to do with these citizens.

The town is pretty woke, but it felt good to hear these people fully agree with my take on low-income housing. Right before they read my letter, they had an email from some oldhead in town complaining about how the poor are all criminals. What is it about Chuds that compels them to show up at every meeting and be the dumbest, loudest person in the room?

I could have bought a bigger can of soup from the grocery store for $4 and made a grilled cheese for like $6. Absolute rip off.

I think I’m falling for my internet pen pal (who really seems much more than that). I don’t know what the fuck happened, but some redditor messaged me about a very niche post I made on a niche subreddit and we’ve been talking for almost 6 months.

I’ve never seen them, they’ve never seen me, etc. But like I said we’ve been messaging (first on Reddit then I got their number) pretty consistently now.

It’s truly bizarre but I think I found someone who understands me idk weird af

Whole body feels painful this morning but I do feel better. The real kick was I threw up my nighttime meds so I couldn't sleep What's a food I can order today that's easy on your stomach?

Obviously just exagerating, but it was not was I was expecting.

I had spent a few months in Turkey earlier in the year and been really disappointed to learn that the British do it better for once, so I was excited to get home and try it again. I moved to Scotland shotly after I came back, and I figured it would be just the same. It is not.

First of all, the pros:

In Scotland you have the option to get a munch box, which contains doner meat, a variety of pakore, and the legendary pink sauce. This shit is good, and the portions are abundant, to say the least.

Later though when I wanted to get a regular doner kebab, the salad was not on point, and the sauce, first of all they didn't even have garlic sauce as an option, and when I learned that the chilli sauce was sweet instead of tangy, oof. Not good.

While I have continued to adore Scottish cuisine for being exactly the kind of food I imagine stuffing my face with when I am drunk or high, my rose tinted glasses were broken. If they can commit such a cardinal sin as this, what else can they do?

A doner kebab pie.

I saw one today in the co-op and immediately had to try it. This is the most delicious thing I have ever eaten in my entire life, and the sweet chilli sauce made it taste vaguely Chinese, like char sui? God damn, I could eat these all day. I had an Irn Bru energy drink to go with it.

I have to drop Creamsicle off at a friend’s (not the one I’m twacking out about in the next paragraph) house tomorrow because I’m scared of him getting lost/hurt out here.

I’d do anything for another chance, or just to talk to my friend one last time—or even for them to just believe me when I say that I’m sorry. Being cut off and told to fucking move on by everyone isn’t working, what a shocker. I truly believe that nobody who says this has any idea what they’re talking about. I’m skirting a bit dangerously close to getting myself addicted to fentanyl. That’ll be fucking fun, won’t it?

All they have to do is realize I’m not a fucking freak—which they might already realize—and talk to me, but no, the way I feel ~%*isn’t normal*%~, so I have to die. Too bad I was born with a fucking penis, eh? I wonder how they’ll feel when I die. I actually hope they don’t give a single shit about me, because I don’t want them to be sad, or blame themselves or whatever. I’m not even sure I want someone to reach out to them for me, to give them the letter I want to write for them.

There’s just no place for me in this world.

Some days I just feel, for some reason, so empty. It’s not like the normal sad that I feel—which is more upset than sad.

Ill be sure and share the songs when they're released, but for now my wrists hurt, I got frustrated with the last song because apparently my brain can decide to forget how to count to 8, and we gotta go back Friday to figure out how to finish up a bridge.

Idk. Gonna shower, play Elderand, watch my YouTube slop (been into Dead Domain lately, that channel is cool and good), and snuggle Comrade Bailey.

One of my students asked me this question and I did not really know how to answer her. She was referring to the kinds of "games" that children and sometimes adults play in order to make a decision, like other forms of flipping a coin, for example.

Here in my country we also do rock paper scissors, but we call it joquempô. We also do odds and evens, par ou ímpar, and a more extended version called dois ou um, "two or one", in which players present either one or two fingers, and then the ones who chose the same amount of fingers leave the game or become a team. This can also be done with up to five fingers, and then it's called dedos iguais, "equal/same fingers".

Are there any other such games in your country? My student really caught me off-guard when she asked that, I had never thought about this cultural aspect.

Also, I'm curious to know what you do and/or did as a child if you're not from an English-speaking country as well!

So my teeth used to be heavily crowded and impossible to floss, plus as a teen I had very serious depression and executive dysfunction. My teeth were a disaster by the time I got braces on, and those things seriously impeded my ability to brush and stuff. I got them off a few years ago; one of my molars legitimately broke in half when I bit down on soft chocolate, it was so bad.

It's been a lot of repairative work and I've been lucky to have access to it. I'm told I'm doing well on caring for my teeth now which is rad. But two seperate people, my dentist and one of his guys, made a funny suggestion.

"Yeah sis, you got this super strong toothpaste right, 1.1% sodium fluoride? Just leave some of that on your teeth every night, in your lil plastic retainees, trust me sis."

This feels so incredibly wrong, like I didn't even rinse my mouth, and now there is toothpaste on my teeth. I'm supposed to sleep like this? This shit is as bad as upper lip estradiol absorbtion. Why am I tormented by silly sensory suggestions lately? 'Just leave the toothpaste on'...

I have become allergic to some component of the dust in my environment, and when it directly contacts my skin, I get an almost instantaneous rash that gets worse the longer I ignore the itch and wait to remove the hoodie/shirt/socks/whatever (or stop petting the dog) that collected dust that then touched my skin.

like, actual huge visible welts, and they Itch like fire omfg, but they go away in 15-20

I thought it was something from the chickens or guineas, but then I reshuffled some ancient stored stuff in the basement that hasn't been touched since long before they arrived, and it broke me out so fucking bad! It looked like someone had been whipping my forearms, it was nuts.

I have never seen anything visible on my skin or on my clothes to show what is causing it. If I am obsessive about cleaning my dog and my floors and not letting anything sit out before it goes on me and not letting anything I'm going to wear to bed touch any other furniture, then it's fine, but that's exhausting

idk what the point of this is. Have you suddenly become allergic to anything? What was it and how is that going for you?

Where I live now, things are okay. I have friends I see regularly, a stable job, and the prospect of owning a home in the next few years. At the same time, it is absolutely sprawling and street life is absolutely non-existent. Cultural life is oriented around bars and events and it is hard for things to happen spontaneously.

Meanwhile, I grew up in a different city which had a much more vibrant street life, and it was borderline possible to live without a car. I am at a real crossroads here now deciding if I should cut it and move home, or keep going with the life I am building here.

In general I struggle with depression, and I am worried I am fixating on changes in my extrinsic conditions as a deflection from my inner work/inner struggles.

Would like to here other's perspectives, and particularly the experience of people who have made a big move recently.

Staying Pros

• No major life disruption
• Continue with stable job
• Cost of Living lower
• Most friends live here

Staying Cons

• No street life
• Must drive to do anything---feel shut-in

Leaving Pros

• No car!
• Closer to family
• Street Life
• Bigger Gay scene
• Start Over lite

Leaving Cons

• Job hunt
• Major life disruption
• Might just be 'grass is greener'
• Leave friends
• Higher Cost of Living
• Continue my very patchy work history

I stg youtube is speedrunning fascism, I know it really, really wants to recommend me JBP and Ben Shapiro too but I haven't miss-clicked yet.

I'm just venting, it's not a big deal and it's nothing that needs fixing.

I take a conciliatory approach to engaging people, except when someone is completely out of line in which case I match their tone and rhetoric because shutting them up is of more use than a discussion could ever be. I don't appreciate the online slapfight culture and I think it's pretty toxic and it just causes people to double down in their position.

I don't bother with teaching people way to refine their arguments if their politics are in direction opposition to my own but if I get rh impression that someone is having a discussion with me in good faith about a topic we disagree with, I will often explain to them where my argument is heading, where I see their argument heading, and how the chips will fall. Not in a way like I'm trying to say that I already know everything and this is exactly how it's going to play out but more like the fact that I've been through this discussion before and we can cut to the chase if they are willing to level with me sorta thing (it probably doesn't come off that way but oh well.)

So recently I came across someone who I figure is either a baby leftist or more likely a progressive lib saying that fascism is when corporate power merges with the government or whatever. This was on an actual discussion about fascism btw.

I'm sure that most of you have already had this same discussion that I was about to dive into with this person. I find it to be tiring.

If you don't know the discussion basically it's this:

• People quote Mussolini as saying that

• The quote has never been sourced

• Mussolini only ever discussed corporatism, not corporatocracy and he details this system in writings like The Doctrine of Fascism

• While Mussolini coined the term fascism, he is not the only voice on the subject and just because he may have used a particular definition doesn't mean that we are all bound to sticking to his definition

• The Wikipedia entry on corporatism used to have a disclaimer about distinguishing the term from corporatocracy but I think they've updated it to being the entire first paragraph because lay people keep on conflating the two

• Corporatism is a system of structuring the political and economic spheres in such a way that people are grouped according to their profession or their interest group (but usually profession) into guilds that advocate for the group the represent with government - think where trade unions having a seat at the table with government and other interest groups like stay at home parents, unemployed people, religious groups etc. also have a representative guild

• Corporatocracy is a garbage-tier lib term that is functionally meaningless because it appeals to this notion of being able to turn the clock back to a time when corporations and governments were separate (you know, like back in the old days of the first corporations such as the Dutch East India Company and the British East India Company, which ran intercontinental militaries and ruled as the government over entire countries they annexed... 🙄)

Anyway, you know the deal.

I told this person that I get what they're saying but corporatism doesn't mean what they think it means and I gesture to the Mussolini stuff being about corporatism not corporatocracy etc. I'm trying to be patient and kind in how I engage with them but they immediately go into online debatebro mode and start getting snarky and condescending and all of that stuff.

I was trying to give them an easy out and let them down gently so they could develop a deeper understanding of these terms and of politics more broadly. I wasn't looking for some beat down or to feel a sense of superiority over them. I was just trying to signal to them that they're on shaky ground and their position relies upon assumptions, and if they're willing to listen then I can give them pointers for developing their knowledge.

Idk. It just drives me nuts when people automatically assume that they are the smartest person in the room. I don't like humbling people but when someone is so self-assured it's almost impossible to get through to them without turning a discussion with them into bloodsport. I hate it.

It's my nighttime med I take for depression and they're all out lady on the phone said later on today the shipment should come in. I really don't want to go a day skipping my meds and withdrawing and shit.

Someone who knows me IRL, as in by name, reported me to the Estonian State Security Agency probably for that one time I flipped the bird at the Foreign Ministry or attending a Palestinian rally, waving both the South African and Palestinian flag, while donning a keffiyeh and one of those fancy hats from Nigeria. Most likely they recognized me from pictures taken.

UPDATE: The 3-hours long discussion was nowhere near as horrific as I'd envision. Even in this BalticraKKKer land, I was able to pretty openly like... quite literally, post. To put it briefly, it was basically explaining historic/material analysis and what critical support means. In the least likeliest of all places, lmao.

(With someone who is awesome)

• Eat at this vegan sushi joint I love
• Go to my place or theirs
• Play board games
• Make some herbal tea and just talk for hours to learn more about each other and feel one another's vibes
• Go our separate ways in amazement after planning a second date

I'm not asking for too much, am I? 🥺

So I heard a man singing something in a language I didn't understand. I was curious if it was a religious day for one of the many cultures on my street. So I googled around and turns out it's Ramadan. I'm not sure what the appropriate well-wishing is for our muslim comrades from someone not of the same faith. I'll go with this and hope it's OK: may your faith, family, and friends bring you comfort.

But it's not about Ramadan that I wish to speak. On the same page I found were entries for Commonwealth Day ( ), something called Maslenitsa that's apparently like a Russian equivalent of Mardi Gras, and World Plumbing Day.

This is where I argue that plumbers do more than anyone else in advancing socialism - whether they know it or not. Here's the logic.

1. Water/sewage systems go in.

2. Health improves. Workers live better and longer.

3. The average worker is now much more skilled and reliable.

4. The labour theory of value kicks in, and we all know the rest of that story.

So the next time you see a plumber, do whatever figurative hat-tipping is appropriate to the situation. Their work hastens the contradictions in capitalism. Every toilet, every showerhead, every sink faucet is a tap against the castle walls of the bourgeoisie. No one tap will bring down the walls - but billions will.

Postscript: I am extremely high right now, and quite sleep deprived in addition. I am broadcasting this to you from what I believe is Halley's comet.

The work day is cut by several hours for fasting, and this car-dependent hell hole is seeing 2-4 hour traffic jams on highways for some reason. In a normal world this would mean that we would have HSR and subways like yesterday, but we've had one sub-federal subway constructed whose average speed is like 40km/h and that's it. Another disappointment (sub-federal subway) was announced like 18-20 years ago in another state and the construction has still not started.

How is traffic where y'all live?

So I've been in a relationship with my boyfriend for coming on 8 years now. It's been mostly really good, but more recently I've been feeling less into it. This is my first real relationship and I can't help but feel that I've missed out on a part of myself because of it.

It's not been helped recently because I've met someone, and I've really clicked with her, in a way that I hadn't with him. Thing is, I don't want to end my relationship with him necessarily. Recently I've been coming to realize that monogamy has never sat right with me, but when I brought this up to him he immediately shut it down and made a comment about poly people just wanting to cheat.

Idk, I don't think I'm really looking for answers about this, mostly just venting.