I'm not doing well, and this isn't helping, I need to take a few long breaths.

I will not delete my account.

My birthday is this month and I'd like to do something for it, but all my friends abandoned me when I got sick, I've got no-one to hang out with. It's cold outside and I'm recovering from a stroke and still have trouble walking, so I'd need to do something in my own home. It also needs to be free as I have no income at all, so things like renting a film off amazon or whatever are off limits.

Any suggestions? Years ago I would have celebrated with some magic mushrooms but aside from the financial aspect, I don't even know who to get them off any more. I'm totally out of ideas. Just something that will make the day feel a bit special and different from every other day.

So I'm not a particuarly sexual person, not asexual, but my views on sex just seem so different to the norm. I don't find sex jokes and things funny and don't really like to talk about or have sex, and I hardly ever think about it. (And quite frankly, I've never enjoyed it and don't ever really try to pursue it).

I went to a party yesterday and we played one of those Jackbox games, it was really crude and sexual and I just didn't "get" it. A question came up "What is your ideal sex location" and I just flat out have never thought of that before. Like, is this sort of thing something that people usually think about? Everyone else in the room seemed to have an instant go-to answer, but I just didn't know.

A mate of mine made fun of me, implying I was a virgin for not thinking about sex enough apparently. It was just really gross and juvenile and I can't stop thinking about it. Like, he treated my lack of "getting it" as a moral failing or something, something to be ashamed of.

It's been on my mind all day, just really upsetting and I don't really know why. I guess it's the implication that I'm less of a man or something for not spending all my time trying to get laid. We're in our late 20s/early 30s, so I was really surprised to hear this kind of immature teenage shit coming out of a close friend, it felt kind of like he was letting me know how he "really feels" with that one line, when he normally holds his tongue.

It just feels so gross, like the idea that I need to go out and have sex in order to be considered more of a person to him. I might be overthinking it, but it just...hurts in a way I can't really describe easily. Which is why I'm writing this nonsense, to share my thoughts, and hopefully hear some ideas from other people about this sort of thing. Am I being the weird one here? Should I just "toughen up" or something and try and get a partner or go looking for a one night stand or something? I've always thought of myself as straight and cis, but my attitudes towards sex just seem so different from the norm. I feel like a failure of a person right now, though hopefully that's just because I'm really exhausted and low on energy.

Some of this comes from Marxism, but some I've been thinking of. I didn't make it up because these ideas come from somewhere lol. Just wonder what your thoughts are. Note: I do not think humans are cogs in the machines or tools. This is just what I've observed in society.

In a society run by a machine, humans are not actually humans in this system.

Those at the top of the social ladder are puppet masters, developers of the system. They are engineers for oppression. They design projects that keep oppression efficient and long-lasting.

Soldiers are the hands on tools for oppression projects. They apply these ideas.

Citizens are cogs in the machine to keep the system going (Poor to middle class)

In return, they are given leisure that’ll keep them satisfied in their mundane role. Consumerism.

They are also manipulated on vulnerable emotions such as pride, hope, and ego.

For ego and pride, humans are manipulated into thinking they can have a piece of themselves in the oppressor status. (Misogynist men, fascists, racists, etc.) Because the oppressor status in this society is glorified.

Not only pride and ego is played upon, but negative emotions are also played upon. Emotions gained from trauma are easily manipulated. (Ex: A woman wanting to start a family to become a mother her own mother never was to her.) I used to have this ideal before becoming a feminist.

They are given external forces that delude them from reality. These external forces also decrease their sense of self-confidence. When that external force finds an empty spot, it fills it with delusions that shape this person’s identity.

Identity is a strong feature, however they are limited in what they can choose. In this society, they are manipulated into thinking the range of identities are large, expanding, and infinitive.

Some societies within this system take advantage of a human’s sense of superiority, whether in strength or intelligence. A person’s sense of intelligence can easily be manipulated. They may think to know everything, but they only know what’s in their system. (Ex: Those intelligent in philosophy, but they’re only intelligent in western philosophy, thus, mostly knowing a western world. Western world is the main beacon of oppressive societies. You often don’t see these folks speaking out against oppression.)

However, anti-intellectualism justifies and makes unintelligent people feel better about themselves. To feel cool and normal. (Ex: The U.S). When the standards are so low for someone to “know” something and be “smart” in something, it can limit their intellectual capabilities. Their standards are controlled.

To keep the oppressors away from suspicion, they make civilians uphold and glorify them. They play on their aspirations and hope, hoping to be like them. They are role models, but not leading, just an appearance to cultivate.

Homeless people are the junk parts tossed in the dump and left behind. They can be efficient parts that wear out overtime until they’re non-usable.

They can be parts born into the world and not maintained throughout their childhood. These parts fail at society and end up thrown away or they decide to not involve themselves in the machine. (I potentially fall into this category.)

Since humans are human no matter how much the system dehumanizes them, they can fall into bad habits that deteriorate them as parts (ex: drugs), which will cause them to be thrown away from society.

The system hardly helps homeless people, especially in areas with record-breaking numbers. Aid is actually taken away from the homeless, or they make it harder to reach. Since the system views them as useless parts in the dump, what's the point of making the dump a beautiful place? It's where trash goes according to them. Makes me angry.

Ever seen videos of business owners forcing homeless people off their property? It's simply like sweeping litter off their porch.

Then you have "cogs in the machine" blaming homeless people for their own problems. Where does that reasoning come from? The puppet masters. It's like they code these mindsets.

Lumpenproles have parasitic relationships with citizens and lower class. As a desperate attempt to cling onto their place in society, they believe in defying the law but also climbing the ladder by parasitic means instead of being cogs in the machines. They are vultures who watch and swoop in for benefit. (Thieves, drug dealers, etc.)

What happens when all of the parts are defected and inefficient? The machine weakens and the system crumbles. How is this possible when there are people who keep it squeaky clean and running like new?

The system is a continuity of the old system. Ex: Feudalism to Capitalism.

Life ain't a game. It sure ain't somebody's game either.

Was listening to radio the other day. Radio folks talk about the most random stuff to fill the airtime. This time they were discussing a memory from their childhood. Specifically, when, as a child, they returned to home from their school, who was the first person that would look for they asked. Someone called in and said they wanted to see their mother the most and now that they have children, the children do the same thing.

I was thinking about myself and I have no idea what I did in this situation as a child. I know both my parents worked, so maybe they weren't there when I returned. I had some nannies take care of me but I don't recall much about them other than their names or faces. Or maybe my parents were done with work by then. Maybe I didn't look for anyone and wanted to do something else, but I have no concrete recollection of that either.

I wonder if this is normal.

I wish I had a bag full of revolutionary optimism. It is incredibly difficult to avoid falling into the darkness and become paralysed. We know our planet is gonna get cooked, us and other animals too. Despite of this, wars are being fought and imperialism is trying to provoke WW3. Europe is diving into fascism and like in Finland workers are being stripped from rights to strike. People aren’t fighting any of this…

It’s bleak. Very. All I can think of is how to survive all of this and die peacefully of old age somewhere far away. Farming. I wanna do small scale farming by some bog and forest. Live in a simple cottage and knit socks for kids. That’s a good escape.

But I do remember the words of Bobby Sands, “our revenge will be the laughter of our children”, and it keeps that revolutionary fire burning inside of me just hot enough for me to push through yet another depressing day.

Maybe there still is hope. Just maybe we can stop this madness the western world is dragging us into. Maybe.

Now, some people might object, so I will address objections some may have

1. "Collectivization destroys individuality!"

This completely misconstrues what collectivization of art is. Collectivization of art does not mean that all art will look the same/have the same message/etc. Collectivization of art does mean that the people as a collective have the right to use, redistribute, and derive art made by the people.

2. "But isn't this stealing?"

Let me ask you something. If I had a "make a bicycle" button that magically creates a bicycle out of thin air, then would it be "stealing" for you to press the "make a bicycle" button and keep the bicycle for yourself? Stealing something involves an intent to deprive someone of something, and what are you depriving me of? Bicycles? It is utterly absurd to say that I am being deprived of bicycles when I can just press the "make a bicycle" button and have as many bicycles as I wish. But, say that I create a "make a bicycle" button and then Mike decides to tell everyone that only he can press the "make a bicycle" button. This action now deprives the people of bicycles, and is thus much closer to stealing than you pressing the "make a bicycle" button.

3. "But how will you earn money?"

Do you really think the optimal way to earn money off of the art to produce is to sell it off piecemeal by creating artificial scarcity? A collectivized system of art would require a vastly different system of compensation compared to the current privatized art that exists today. The system of payment for collectivized art requires socialist planning. When an artist publishes a work of art, they will be given a government grant equivalent to the amount of labor that was put in in exchange for the art being able to be used and derived by the public. This is a much more equitable and fair system of production and distribution of art.

4. "But what if someone takes credit for your art?"

Collectivization of art does not mean removing credit from the original author. Redistributing art in a collectivized system would still require the redistributor to credit the original creator. The person's art will still be protected by a trademark, not a copyright. This means that the art will always be linked to the original creator, and the original creator will still be able to take action against people who fail to credit them/intentionally take unauthorized credit.

5. "But what about freedom? Should I not have the freedom to choose who can distribute my art?"

This idea, although it may seem like human nature to liberals, has only arisen when publishers, the real thieves of art, have created strict copyright laws to protect themselves, not the creators. Before the age of publishers, these ideas did not exist, as there was no material justification for these ideas to arise. Just as these ideas have arrived with privatized art, they will also leave with privatized art. This argument falls in the same category as the "communism goes against human nature" category, as they both use the justifications the current system creates for itself as "evidence" against alternative, and superior, systems.

If you have any counterpoints, please comment them below! ^^

I'm making a post on mutual aid too, but last month I made two posts asking for help on there in the space of a week, and after getting no responses, made a post on here. I know mutual aid are inundated with requests and more so than usual at the moment, it seems. So I thought I'd ask on here again, as my last request on here enabled me to eat this month.

For those who don't know me yet, I'm currently having treatment for thyroid cancer and also recovering from a stroke (caused by the cancer treatment, which has left me partially sighted and learning to walk again). The DWP (people who run the British benefits system) in their infinite wisdom, decided at my last assessment to give me zero points (saying I'm fit to work and care for myself, despite multiple doctors letters proving otherwise) and stop my payments, I had to appeal. I have no money at all, actually negative money as I've maxxed out my overdraft along with other debts.

After this, I tried food banks but it is so time consuming and difficult to access them around here, I was still going hungry most of the time. I tried begging a Christian website for advice on Christian food aid, but they turned me away. I've shoplifted multiple times and tried selling my prescription meds in desperation.

Due to the inability to keep myself properly fed, I ended up being diagnosed with several vitamin and mineral deficiencies, but instead of giving me food this insane country decided to solve the problem by prescribing me supplements on the NHS! Meanwhile, I was still starving.

Then I found this place and you are the only people who have helped me over the past couple of months. I've been able to eat normally again because of your help, and it has made a huge difference to my life. I've made the food vouchers last as long as possible but now I have just a few days food left. I've decided to ask for help again now in case it takes multiple posts on here/mutual aid again, by which time I will have run out totally.

I'm too scared to accept actual money in case it gets me in trouble with the DWP. If anyone is able and willing to help, I would be extremely grateful for any food vouchers that can be used in the UK. I know sainsburys accept google pay, credit and debit cards and you don't have to be in the UK to buy their vouchers, you just pay for it and email it to the recipient: https://www.sainsburysgiftcard.co.uk/

If that's not convenient I will gladly accept any type of vouchers that can be used for food, another supermarket, justeat, amazon, anything. Thanks so much to anyone able to help.

https://old.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/1gvntxt/deepseek_r1_lite_preview_a_new_o1preview_level/

wouldn't have imagined seeing something like this a month ago

So we all im sure have seen the insanely dumb shit the USA is doing and for anyone near an area that might be hit by a tactical nuke in the event of a limited exchange i thought id post some advice on what to do.

This is for people outside the blast zone but inside a radiation zone. If your in the blast well... tell Lenin i send my love.

Firstly a few basics to stock up on.

Bottled water

cheap shelf stable ready to eat foods. Trail snacks, granola, stuff like that. Few multivitamins too.

Iodine tablets.

N95 masks(or the best u can find.)

goggles.

Duct tape.

A cheap handheld radio that can be recharged and has emergency channels.

When the strikes happen if your outside get inside ASAP. Remove all clotheing before going inside and leave it outside. Pick a room preferably a bathroom in the center of a structure that doesnt have windows. Preferably have all supplies already in there, but if not get them in there fast. Close the door and duct tape over any cracks or vents. Fill bathtub with water. Take 1 iodine pill everyday starting now.

Turn the water to the toilet off. You will be using the bathtub water to flush do not bring in outside water anymore. You will stay sealed in this room for 48 hours. After 48 hours you will remove the duct tape as you need air from outside but stay in the room as long as you can.

The fallout of modern nukes should break down pretty fast the longer you stay inside the better. Listen to the radio for info from your government. When you cannot stay inside anymore due to low supplies you will put on an N95 mask, a thick jacket, gloves, long pants, closed shoes, etc. Duct tape the seams between pants, jacket, gloves, and shoes. wear goggles. If you can do multiple layers!

You want to minimize exposure to your skin, and keep fallout particles from entering the body. a makeshift hazmat suit like this is single use. You will get as far away as you can as fast as you can. Hopefully the radio told you a safe place. When you get there you will carefully remove this suit and discard it while avoiding touching the outside of it. Get into clean clothes (you can bring a change of clothes and keep them in a sealed bag).

At this point you should be outside the immediate fallout zone and probably in a refugee camp. Seek out medical care immediately. Inform medical staff you may have been exposed to radiatioactive fallout. If you did all of this youll be better off then 90% of people and most likely be fine. If you do get radiation poisoning youll have atleast minimized the damage. Remember that radiation is invisible. Even if you feel fine, never saw ask or dust, etc. GET PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL CARE ASAP!

I hope nobody ever has a need to use this advice but ive been researching it just to prepare myself and thought id share it. Anyone who has any other advice please post it below for me and others to educate ourselves.

Stay safe everyone <3

The Sahel nations (especially Burkina Faso) are showing a lot of revolutionary hype recently. Could any other African nations see similar revolutions anytime soon?

All I know it is made by the former CEO of twitter.

Mansa Musa is said to have been the richest man in human history, possessing in the 14th century AD what could today be considered at least $400 billion, and that's just a lower estimate. Basically, he was richer than Elon Musk.

He was the king of the Mali Empire, located in an area that produced HALF of all gold worldwide.

As a devout Muslim, he later took a pilgrimage to Mecca and was reported to be rather generous on his journey. The man was so absurdly rich that his donations would CAUSE LOCAL ECONOMIES TO HYPERINFLATE BECAUSE OF THE DEVALUATION OF GOLD!

You can read more about him.

Point is, what are yall's thoughts on the richest man in history that got rich by being the lucky king of the biggest producer of gold in the world.

Basically the story is this: in 1984 a German kid named Darius was taping a rock radio show. In 2007 he and his sister Lydia found the tape again, but were unable to identify one of the songs. So Lydia posted the song online.

For the next 17 years millions of people around the world searched and investigated, trying to find out what this song was. The song became known as "The most Mysterious song on the Internet," or "Like the Wind," as that's the first line in the song. The recording was old and not entirely clear in places, and people argued endlessly over what the lyrics actually were.

Multiple subreddits became devoted to the search for the band, and it spawned an entire genre called Lostwave. Many people devoted years of their lives to searching archives, not only online but searching through actual radio station archives and similar places, turning up in person and spending hours, days, weeks, months and eventually years of their lives searching for the band who created this masterpiece. Youtubers like Justin Whang made multiple videos documenting the search.

Even the radio station that originally broadcast the song got involved, trying to help but had no idea what the song was. It seemed a lost cause. People even started to believe the song had somehow crossed into our dimension from a parallel universe, as apart from this recording, there was no trace of it, like it had never existed.

Two weeks ago, they mystery was finally solved. Turns out it's called "Subways of Your Mind," and it's awesome:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwiEvPMANa8&list=RDDwiEvPMANa8&start_radio=1

I just Open reddit and the first post i saw is straight up islamophobic 💀

Shit feels terrible. I live in the Imperial Core, and of course, I always hear about the news all the time after Election Day. As a high-schooler, I feel particularly helpless and stuck.

Yeah, I know, I know - the Dems are just as bad as Trump but man, is it fucking disheartening to the point where it goes full cycle and ends up being straight up comical (I mean Amerikkkan bs has always been comical but this time its reaching some crazy fucking levels of face-off comical clownery shit), to see Trump appoint the absolute WORST and most irredeemable pieces of shit to office. Like fucking hell, of course Chris Wright, a Big Oil mogul is the leader of the Department of Energy, and RFK - Mr. Brain Worms himself as the Health Department leader, not to mention the whole Elon Musk DOGE and the abolishing the Department of Education bullshit Trump is also doing.

I mean, the billionaires and the corporate fascist oligarchs were always destined to win in the Empire no matter what but fuck damn - the speed and magnitude of this shitstorm is taking even me by surprise (although admittedly, I very well shouldn't be surprised). Everything is fucked in the first place - the climate, the people, everything that actually matters is fucked. I knew this from the start but shit, does it still hurt.

I apologize if this sound a bit too US-defaultist but I just want to kinda vent from my own perspective and ask for advice. Thanks comrades.

• Wire - Pink flag
• Wire - Missing Chairs
• Wire - 154
• フライドポテト、チーズ、ソース - Kino​-​Qu​é​bec
• Кино - Последний Герой
• Macintosh Plus – Floral Shoppe
• Saint Pepsi & Luxury Elite – Late Night Delight
• The Velvet Underground & Nico - S/T
• Vaperror – Mana Pool
• Com Truise - Galactic Melt
• Boards Of Canada – Geogaddi

Warm and cozy

got it from a milsurp store discount bin; been a part of my winter gear ever since.

I dare not reveal my handle, though some of you may follow me on X / Twitter.

Also, what has been your experience with Bluesky? 'Cause I quite like it so far.

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/6258081

And I don't even know my hours. It's as a package handler. Not UPS, though.

I know that I start during the evenings, but I don't know what time I end at in terms of my shifts. I need a password to get in the Workday app, but I can't.

And I can't find the chief manager anywhere in the building to schedule time off for my upcoming graduation ceremony this month.

My word, only the work area is available to us!

Hello! How are you? I am 21M from India currently in university for higher studies. I am struggling with depression and poor health in general, the situation at home, my country and my studies are not helping either. I was hoping to find someone to talk with.

Revolutionary Love!

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/6231044

I don't trust IGN in this case.

They gave The Penguin a 5.

@muad_dibber@lemmygrad.ml

In India courses like these are called Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and Master of Business Administration (MBA). Often folks do a bachelors in some other field (eg. my friend did a bachelors in law) and then enrol in an MBA program.

I know a handful of people who underwent these programs and they are total imbiciles and capitalist bootthroaters. What do they do to people these programs?