Comradeship // Freechat

I got a new job at my college recently and I'm basically a glorified chore runner, and I love it. The pay is pretty shit and I'd probably make more working in a kitchen, but tbh, I'm literally typing this as I'm "on the clock", and I get to spend like 90% of the time doing my class work.

That's all, that's the announcement. Hope everyone is doing well.

Edit: The wosrt part of this job are the senior workers who feel the need to tell me to get off of my phone. Just now, someone told me to get off of my phone and when I got off of it they were like "haha, i'm just joking!" Like stfu bro, all passive aggressive for no reason smh...the most strenuous thing I've done today was go to the mail-room. If it's not coming out of your pocket then stfu!!!

What it says on the tin.

Like, I get it "Evil spoon man is basically as bad as Hilter and I'm a leftist with libertarian tendencies"

Fuck I hate Robert Evans

So I don’t wanna come off as depressing but the non-funny answer is when I had to leave work early bc my Mom was passing away from cancer🥺, sad answer aside onto funny answer lol, probably 2nd worst moment at work for me was when I worked Door2Door in the Southside of Chicago activating Free Gov phones and I had a gun pointed at me😂I had a gun threatened like 4-5 times throughout the job but the actual gun out spooked me, I just said in the most polite voice “I apologize and I will most certainly take you off of our list” like I get it, Door to Door people suck but it was a free phone and you could just say no. Anyways sorry for the rambling, what kinda shitty jobs have yall done and what would you say were the worst moments?

Desertion and mobilization, two sides of the same coin. Dragged into a minibus, given some rocks to throw as ‘grenade practice’ in a training center, then straight to the front.

And here’s a soundcloud track titled ‘CZCH’ - the military abbreviation for desertion.

The lyrics go:

Unit commander…

Can get fucked….

And the whole brigade…

Can get fucked…

You bunch of devils…

I’m going quietly, without being noticed

To CZCH

So I was talking with this middle-aged lady and, when it was almost over, she asked if I knew Jesus. I sounded neutral, saying he was a great person and all. And I thought she was going to do the usual proselytizing which she did at first.

And then she said that she saw Jesus three times, and she even told me the specific date when this happened. And that's when this started to get rrreeeaaalllyyy different.

It's important to point out, of course, that as I was talking to her, it became clear to me that something wasn't right. She didn't seem outright malicious or evil like she wanted to hurt me or anything. But it seems she's got some problems mentally. I'm really trying not to be ableist here, I'm trying to phrase this the best I can and trying to look at this with compassion the best I can.

A variety of people across the world, from a variety of cultures and personal beliefs, have claimed to have had some kind of extraordinary, spiritual experience. For example, there have been people who have claimed to have had seen the afterlife after having died or gotten seriously injured. The majority report having a pleasant, heaven-like experience, regardless of their beliefs, even if they are atheists, though occasionally some people have more unpleasant experiences. The fact that so many of these experiences have been reported across a variety of places, cultures, and beliefs has made scientists wonder about what's going on, but of course, a conclusive answer has not been found yet so take this all with a grain of salt.

So, why do I bring up these specific spiritual experiences? Because, from my own personal research, the way these experiences change these people tends to be different from I'm going to describe later. For instance, they tend to be more accepting of other people from different cultures and beliefs.

Anyway, given the vibe I got from this woman, I will not try to counter what they have said in this post.

So anyway, they claim that they have seen Jesus three times in one day. And that He is coming soon. (capitalized because Jesus is a widely respected figure and His pronouns are usually capitalized as such) She talks about being born again and that it's not enough to just go to church and all that.

Then she mentions the devastation brought out by Hurricane Helene. She mentions that the "secular media" (red flag) probably underreported hundreds of people dying and there was probably more deaths, and claims that much of the assistance went to "illegal aliens." (This "illegal aliens" part was when I really knew something was off.)

She pulls out her phone and shows me a YouTube channel called Last Days. It's run by a guy that's pretty similar to her. It's a super Christian guy who claims to get visions from God, only he makes videos about it. She also mentioned that he predicted that Trump would get shot in the ear, and her general attitude towards Trump was another red flag.

She claims that the U.S. government is demonic, which is actually pretty true, they don't call it the Great Satan for no reason. And she claims it started with Obama, and she generally mentioned what he did wrong was stuff like rather irrelevant internal policies. I mentioned that I agreed that Obama was bad and mentioned the suffering he brought to the people of Libya and Syria, she brushed that off.

Then she gets to the conflicts in the Middle East. She asks "You're not pro-Palestine, are you?" and I just say I'm neutral but even that seems to have scared her a bit. I mention the two-state solution and the fact that women and children are being killed in this conflict. She kind of brushes off the civilian part as "all kinds of people are dying from this" and mentions a part in the Bible where that land (Palestine) "only belongs to the Jews" and that God will punish those who "try to take their land." In general, she seems pretty pro-Israel and talks about how "the Muslims" are wanting to destroy them. (Edit: I'd like to clarify that I am pro-Palestine and support the end of Israeli colonialism. I only said I was neutral because I feared that being pro-Palestine would've made her get super angry at me.)

It was somewhere after that part that the conversation politely ended and we said goodbye. For most of it, I didn't really provide counters, I just said "uh-huh" or mentioned how I agreed with some of it. I'm just sharing what I remember, I'm pretty sure you can imagine what else she said.

So, what can we take away from this? Firstly, it should be noted that this lady isn't a threat to myself or really anybody else. She just claims to have seen Jesus, which by itself is an extraordinary claim. The "Last Days" guy, from what I've seen so far, despite his large following, doesn't seem very physically dangerous as well. If there's any danger at all, it would be from other people who share similar sentiments and attitudes but are far more organized.

As Marxists, we know that religion is the opium of the masses, the sigh of the oppressed. Under more difficult material conditions, people are more likely to be super religious. As material conditions improve, people are more likely to be more moderately religious or to even abandon religion entirely.

In addition to this, people's mental health tends to decline under worse economic conditions.

People like Donald Trump are usually not seriously supported by people who are economically secure or confident in the future. They are usually scared and suffering, feeling betrayed by the system, and looking for answers.

With wages stagnant, inflation rising, imperialism being weakened, the climate crisis intensifying, the material conditions of those in the imperial core are declining. With the left weak, at least for now, people are turning towards the right instead.

I'd say the main point of this post isn't to say "Look guys, this lady said that God said that Muslims are bad!" It's to give a glimpse of how the decline of Western imperialism is affecting the people at home, and even moreso what they're going to feel once collapse has finally, fully arrived.

Organize. Join a party. Educate your fellow humans about the truth about socialism.

Our future doesn't have to be bleak, we can fight for ourselves a brighter world.

Note to Moderators: Once again, I am really not trying to be ableist, but if you feel this post comes off like I am, even accidentally, feel free to remove this.

I don't care how much "real" power they have. If you actually believe in a meritocracy how can you defend someone getting a job because of their lineage, attending real political events and ceremonies and influencing policies that way? And let's not forget that in many cases, they ACTUALLY have institutional powers they just don't use because they don't have to, the institutions serve their interests all the same.

Sorry for the pointless rant. It just happens way too often.

It's a chud buzzword I hear often. It's something something "prioritizing diversity at the expense of quality" which makes no sense because the whole point of DEI is to make the workplace more welcoming not targeting obviously impossible and bullshit quotas. Yes DEI is handled horribly because usually the actual policies fail to help employees from marginalized groups work with the same level of proficiency required to do their job.

Good news and bad news! Notice, I want to say that I used a lot of "reactionary" starting points and immediately pivoted into the "opposite view" while masking it under class conscious ideologue. Most of this was to ascertain where he was; make sure he wasn't extremely racist or bigoted, etc. Plan to do more critical work with him in the future

I've had a talk with him and actually got somewhere with it. Apparently, despite his fierce patriotic and political display; he has never voted and doesn't plan to. His biggest issue, well, seemingly; is immigrants.

So, we had a nice talk about the reserve army of labor. He talked a lot about how they're literally "STEELIN OUR JERBS". At first, I brought up "Well, who hires and pays for illegal immigration?" to set up a layer of dissonance (just to wedge in somewhere, I suppose). Next, I pivoted that into "Why do we even have worry about immigrants when our corporations are the real ones hopping the border?". (to incite that nationalistic hog and immediately spin it into talking about how corporations have free right to go wherever but people aren't)

He brought up a lot about how "Our governor is giving free apartments, free X and X to illeeegul immigrants!!" and in response I deescalated and brought up that even if that scenario was true; billionaires and the ruling class control entire mechanisms of our economy without even putting any work into it like hard-working "illegals" do. Immigrants are the reason our economy is able to function to which I went into "Why is it that our economy is so dependent on illegal immigration, exploiting immigrants and they're the only ones to face punishment?"

He kinda mulled it over a bit, to which I then brought up that we are responsible for the most interventions in the world. He pipped in "Well, what is China doing right now?". I said, unlike China, our interventions have brought complete ruin and destruction on South America or the places we visit. He was actually intrigued by the amount of interventions we had; "I had no idea about that" etc etc. I pointed out that the reason we have so many asylum seekers is because we have systematically plowed over every stable governance that disagreed with ours.

Now, the bad news is that he keeps...KEEPS trying to relate Trump to everything. "Oh, Trump doesn't want to exploit south american countries" and it feels like if I try to be like "um, actually" he'd shut down or feel threatened. So, I rolled with it and then pointed out where he DIDN'T do things and how he affected my family. Cutting food-stamps, aid, etc.

It ended pretty much with us having a beer, talking about that and while I don't think I've "broken in" yet, I feel like I've had him internalize some alternative ideologues and that is a great, great start. I do plan to keep working on him!

Another good news is that he apparently isn't transphobic or homophobic; which is odd given his political proclivities. One of the things we ended off with. He pretty much just said "Well, I don't know how I'd feel if my kids went that way but I'd still love them the same. I just don't want "them" tryna force my kids into it" to which I responded "Children are "forced "into a lot of things. It's up to you to give them guidance and know what is best for them and let them decide on that on their own in a point of time."

Any advice from anyone? How do I wedge further from him bringing up Trump more? It seems like I've gotten him to think. A lot of the times, I'll say one thing, he'll get agitated and say "X and X" to which I usually sort of prime it with something he relates to and then immediately spin it into a class conscious angle. I did not agree with him on a single thing in relation to his xenophobia or egg that on.

as what the title says, i created a twitch channel. And i did it for fun. I'm probably going to do things like play video games. and when i get a good mic, i might do more things like politics, chatting?, etc. And i will put my twitch link in my bio.

Here in India, media is a tool of the fascists. I am ashamed to say it but the concept of journalistic standards is alien to the audience here. The media literally parrots the IOF line, to such a degree of precision that makes me think that I underestimated the sheer evil that can exist in the heart of human beings.

But India is a kind of a special case in the Global South, since its an Islamophobic Hindu fascist state and the preposterous IOF talking points slot well with the racist talking points.

But I am wondering what the situation is like everywhere else. Please fill me in.

So, essentially, we got a new neighbor about a month ago. Nothing seemed off at first; they were actually incredibly cool about my "farm", garden, compost, etc. Even our dog; whom is a huge, leaping staffy (w some boxer, obv).

I've actually been nice enough to offer them some veggies n such, as they seemed pretty decent.

Roommate walked out yesterday and the guy has a Trump sign on our front lawn. Now I'm fucking depressed. It's incredible how you can be nice, work with someone and actually seem like a decent human being until you just put the ol' "Hey, I'd see you dead" sign right on the front lawn. Fucks sake man.

My room-mate was the one who told me about it after they dumped it into the can lmao.

So! Anyone got recommendations for my own agitprop? My plan so far is to act normal; but just put increasing amounts of communist propaganda in the communal hallway, garden, outside the side door and just start ramping it like crazy. All while pretending I have no idea where it's coming from or if anything has changed. I'd like some websites where I can ethically buy some of this preferably from other communists or anarchists. If anyone would like to commission for such things, let me know!

Other ideas are open too.

Among other things, free market theories assume that the employee or the consumer has perfect knowledge, even if "unfortunately" s.he doesn't, let's help them then.

The salaries of each employee, with their bonuses, are already known, as well as their categories.
If it's displayed on a website then every employee of that category could know where to go in order to get a better pay(, yeah, i don't believe it solves the most important problems(, e.g., monopolies, surplus value, lack of democracy in the workplace, ...), but it wouldn't be worse than nowadays).
If the consultation of this website is insufficient, and it will, then an annual text summarizing the result of such research for them should be sent.

Similarly, for each product sold, a little screen underneath should indicate where's the cheapest same product ~50kms around.

I'm sure they would be glad to realize that they can put into practice their theories(, unironically for the honest ones though).

And they didn't say a thing about it.

Firstly, please excuse my bad English, but it isn't my first or second language.

I came to this community about a year ago (during the Reddit exodus). Someone on Reddit recommended Lemmy and while searching for a community I stumbled upon Lemmygrad. I don't know why, but I didn't expect there would be an active socialist forum. As an ML, it seemed like a no-brainer to join this one.

I'm mostly a so-called “lurker”, but are almost daily on here. I truly appreciate the news links, discussions, memes and more. It's a fresh air in the normal pro-right/capitalism news that I'm confronted with daily. It's even at a point that I can recognize many names around here 😅.

Furthermore, the kind and inclusive vibe is unfortunately rare in today's internet, and is something that I really miss about the old days. Fortunately, it's some that I can still experience here.

I just wanted to let you all know I sincerely appreciate the community and you all personally! Keep up the great content and the good vibes ❤️

I'm Asian The first thing whites ask me is what size my dick is

The first thing I ask whites is how racist they are

I'm gonna scale back how much time I spend online but it's pretty damn boring. I've been on sedentary lifestyle since the lock down and to put it bluntly it's starting to take its toll. I can even feel the effects of a sedentary lifestyle negatively affecting my gaming sessions.

I'm riding a bike again after giving up several times. I already know how to swim in deep waters. Any other ideas? I am looking for other hobbies outside art and gaming.

Just found wi-fi.

How are you all, good comrades?

Since red., DD Geopolitics etc. have been banned from the mainstream social media platforms after the stupidest US State Department announcement, I was thinking twice about joining Rumble. However, the biggest obstacle for joining was queerphobia.

PS: Might invite red. and DD Geopolitics to join the site.

Link

I've been in Uni for a few years now and I have to say the "weird kids" to me aren't the ones with dyed hair, the ones that play their Switch on campus, or even the guys who don't shower.

No, the weirdest kids are the ones who show up to class everyday just to talk their heads off in the back of the room. Can you imagine that? Imagine spending 10K to dick around instead of actually pay attention.

there's a guy that i'm mutuals with on other social media who's on the young side, like just out of college, and he's figuring out what he thinks about politics. he's pretty smart and hangs around cool marxist(-leninist) people, but he's definitely trying to figure out stuff on his own, which is really cool and he's critically engaging with stuff well.

however, it seems like he's seen a lot of patsocs and ACP members bring up weird corners of Marx's writing to try to justify their positions. the particular case he brought up recently was about an ACP guy on twitter using the productive vs unproductive labor distinction to call baristas (you know, people who make coffee for usually really low wages) enemies of the working class because they are unproductive labor. my friend was worried that this kind of weird nonsense argument was necessary for marxists in general. me and some other people explained that no, the ACP guys are picking weird bits of Marx to try to justify their reactionary bullshit and we actually mostly focus on class and not this other stuff. so like no harm done here, but it makes me wonder how often those kind of things go unchallenged in other people's experience.

I ain't young, but this is my first election where I am a real lefty, and... Has it always been this bad?

The liberal seething is just disgusting right now. You can't be on any place of the internet that has any discussion about politics whatsoever.

If you suggest that the Democrats should be better, then you get called out for trying to make Trump president

If you respond that now is the time to actually put pressure on candidates because they're running for office and in any fucking reasonable place, this is where they would make campaign promises and you can demand stuff out of them, then they say that you're being a fascist.

The liberal propaganda is just mind numbing.

Even the traditionally leftist places on Reddit (a place I visit very infrequently, so small changes add up over time when I visit and see the crazies have come out of the woodworks) are getting inundated with a bunch of "but the GOP is worse", and "we have to compromise" and blah blah blah. Even in some commie spaces.

Like I understand not being a doomer, and trying to actually make things better in the meantime while we build forces for the revolution, but holy shit, it's like Anyone to the right of Marxist Leninists have immediately caved to pressure.

I don't have a penny, the next food bank appointment is 30th Sept. I don't know how I'll last that long. Any faster ways?

Tw: self-harm, mental illness, addiction, trauma, abuse, discrimination

I have cptsd, panic disorder, depression, anxiety, ADD, and autism. They said I have high functioning autism but I make 20k a year and cannot function well enough to do basic things or have thoughts in my head so I don't know about the high functioning part.

Loner here. I'm in my early 30s and puttering through life without accumulating skills. I work a dead end medical documenting job from home that doesnt interest me at all. I dont have any interest in any field. I never go to develop that part of myself and it's too late now because of the hand to mouth nature of my existence which seems to be getting only worse for the foreseeable future. I have the generous support of a couple of family members who are themselves very isolated and struggling. Without them I'd be on the street. Everyday I see myself as a burden and cannot escape the thought that when they are gone one day I will have to off myself somehow, if not sooner. But since I can't seem to do anything right, I'm scared I will botch the attempt and survive.

I'm still struggling with cptsd just as much as ever. Despite having quit alcohol years ago and a couple of other addictive behaviors since. Despite leaving my abuser nearly a decade ago. Despite moving from the US to Canada. This place is not all it's cracked up to be if you're a struggling poor. There's basically no social safety net, the people are a bunch of liberal zionists, it's frozen over for half the year, and there's no way to make any money. I don't go out or talk to anyone but I know fully well that we do not live in anything resembling a functional society. That's the only conclusion I can reach when I cannot trust the healthcare system, cannot rely on public transport, cannot trust a single word anybody says, cannot expect to ever have my own place to live, cannot find a real job, etc.

I am also not a part of any online "communities" either because I cannot read posts that are too long or care about other people's stories. I'm not much on social media. Most of my internet use is just listening to YouTube but that stuff goes in one ear out the other because of my mental problems. It just seems pointless to try because my brain is like a sieve. I graduated from university while I was stuck in a mental hospital that I was dragged into by a couple of campus cops. I didn't make any friends in college or school or since. Can't even remember much of what I studied. It was some kind of history degree. I was drinking heavily at home with my abusive dad and we were codependent. Eventually I was rescued from him and he drank himself to death. All I got from the degree was debt and a piece of paper.

So anyway i have been recently assigned a couple of goals for the next year. They are...

1. increasing my muscular strength with the use of a lifting regimen and consuming adequate protein. I spent years in the gym without making Amy noticeable improvements, due in part to not going hard enough but also because I just wasn't getting enough protein at all. Like maybe 60-80 g daily at most. I was loaded on carbs and chronically dehydrated.
2. reading a series of self help and spiritual development books. I'm currently on Joe Dispenza's Becoming Supernatural and it's given me the first ideas I've had in a long time.

Here is what I want to change.... My day to day is just a repetitive set of autopilot behaviors. My brain is not useful for any purpose that I've seen other people use their brains for. I can't seem to be present in the moment. I'm always forgetting simple things and need to be hand held through tasks. I have to be given exact instructions that are pain staking to go through for the other person and even then I will probably ask a dozen questions and then screw the task up anyway. I wish to die from morning to night. I always want to sleep but i never feel rested afterwards. Some nights I don't bother brushing my teeth. I have no aspirations or interests. I have been like this for as long as I can remember, but it's gotten worse since 2016, then even worse since 2020. I can only think in negative terms. What do I not want to do? What is it I'm not able to accomplish? It seems like others can go through life accumulating things they can do, but I'm going through life with an ever expanding list of things I cannot do. Apparently my situation is pretty common, but again I have no interest in others because I cannot seem to get my own head straight. My nervous system seems to be stuck in the sympathetic state permanently. I've burned every bridge for venting I can burn. Counselors, forums, relatives, the few friends I made when I was living in the US. It's like I'm this black hole of trauma-induced mental health symptoms. Meds can't seem to do anything. Therapists are beyond what I can afford and whatever advice they have seems to be for upper-middle class tech workers with well-connected parents and vacation homes in the Caribbean.

So as I've said I started reading Joe Dispenza lately. I got to the part where he discusses how imbalances of our lower 3 chakras can cause our body to drain from the EM field surrounding us and prevent the flow of electrical charge up to the higher energy centers. I'm not here to debate if it's "real" or not. I try to keep an open mind, and it's not like psych meds have done anything for me anyway. I did the breathing exercise where you release your mind from your body and felt like it really jacked up my heart rate and for once I could actually notice a brief difference in my subjective experience. I'd really like to continue doing this on daily basis. I hope something actually works for my cptsd recovery.

Anyway i guess this has been a long-winded way of saying I'm struggling to improve as a traumatized shut-in. If you have found non-pharma approaches to healing from complex trauma, let's discuss them. My messages are open. Thanks folks.