I went to a small meeting for my party, and at the end, one of us went on an anti-Russia and anti-Soviet rant (He's a Trotskyist). He started with saying that Russia buys gold from Sudanese rebels in exchange for Russian weapns for those rebels. I don't know if that is true although I don't necessarily doubt it, and another one of us said it's probably not only Russia giving weapons to Sudan, but US as well. He said that this proves that Russia is imperialist and that he doesn't understand why communist parties in the global south support Russia. I said to him that even though Russia has imperial ambitions and capitalist nations always move towards imperialism, I can see why global south countries want to work more with Russia since cooperation with Russia is less harmful that cooperation with the USA. I specifically said that it is choosing for a lesser evil, in order to convince him better.

Then he started talking about how Putin uses Siberian native soldiers as cannon folder to protect ethnic Russians. He then said that this is a holdover from Stalin who kept the colonial system from the Tsar were and that Central Asian and Siberian Native soldiers were sent to the front first in order to protect Russians. He said that Soviet Union was a colonial nation as well for the Russians and Belarussians and that the Soviet Union fell because of this colonisation and that Gorbachov was the first one who tried to correct it.

After that the other member said that it's hard to convince others when there are not many examples of actually socialism. She then named Cuba as a dictatorship, and I called her out and said it was not. Luckily she was receptive. The trotskyist defended me as well saying that Cuba 'is not as bad' and he mentioned that Cuba has a lot of international solidarity because they for example sent doctors to Northern Italy during covid. But he didn't mention that international solidarity for Cuba also means that they support Russia lol. Then we started talking about Che, and he said that Che wanted to become a minister in Cuba but was forced to leave Cuba by the Soviet Union, because they didn't like him. I said that it was hard to believe and that I didn't hear about it. He forgot where he got that from and said that not many people know about it.

I definitely held back a lot, and should've gone harder sometimes, but it's harder when the other person brings up so much random wild stuff that you don't know how to start to refute it.

What are some strategies for the next time?

als kruis­bericht geplaatst vanaf: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/5078223

From June 29th, 2024. He was playing in an exhibition match for the team of the Presidency against a team of (ex-)professional players from Burkina Faso. The team of the Presidency won 3-2 with Traoré scoring twice. This was a return match from the first exhibition match in 2023, where the team of the presidency won with 3-1, with Traoré scoring twice as well.

https://burkina24.com/2024/07/07/football-lequipe-de-la-presidence-du-faso-triomphe-des-footballeurs-professionnels-par-3-buts-a-2/

For my main sports, I follow Football and Ice Hockey pretty closely.

I watch tennis a bit when there's a grand slam on, I follow badminton games on the BWF youtube channel sometimes. I watch the tour de france. I sometimes watch bandy, which is a sport similar to ice hockey. And I'm getting into cricket and baseball.

Shows you how transphobic my country really is. Don't get me wrong, the Iranian system seems to be impractical as well, but I'll still say it's better there than here.

Some people in my country of the Netherlands seem to think that all Dutch media is bad and most Dutch people consume mostly American media. I want them to give Dutch media a chance and to give global media a chance.

I have a special interest in languages and cultures and I wouldn't have had it if I didn't start looking for music outside of the global core. I enjoy watching Bollywood, and wouldn't have done that if I didn't look past Hollywood. Consuming non-American media opens your eyes for a so much good media that you wouldn't have consumed otherwise. It gives you a different perspective on humanity as well and shows you humanity is more than just the global core. For some liberals it could lead to less prejudice and racism.

There's also so much imperialist and capitalist propaganda in American media and consuming global media lets you escape that. Global media can also show you more anti-imperialist and socialist sentiment, especially if you consume media from socialist countries. This is also why I want liberals to consume global media, so they don't fall for propaganda.

Here's a list of some of my favorite Musicians, Movies and TV-shows outside of USA:

First music:

Koza Mostra: Greek Ska Folk

Doe Maar: Dutch Ska

De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig: Dutch Hiphop

Stromae: Belgian French pop

Kadim al-Sahir: Iraqi Arabic poetic singer

Fairouz: Lebanese ballad singer

Otava Yo: Russian folk band

Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble: North Korean pop

Movies:

Er Ist Wieder Da: great German movie about how fascism can return illustrated by Hitler returning.

De Marathon: Dutch comedy

Lagaan: Indian cricket movie set in British Raj with an anti-colonialist theme

Festen: Danish drama movie about family affairs

Dil Se: Indian movie through the eyes of a stalker

Cidade de Deus: Brazilian crime thriller about the Cidade de Deus favela. The actors are locals from the actual favela.

TV Shows:

Trailer Park Boys: Canadian mockumentary comedy. I count this because this show is distincly Canadian and not wannabe American. There needs to be more focus on Anglosphere media outside the USA anyway.

Farouk Omar: Great Arab drama show based on the life of Omar Ibn al-Khattab. This show is so detailed that it taught me a lot about early Islamic history.

The Australian Ice Hockey League is also on right now, but it's harder to find streams for them.

Thank god for the southern hemisphere

They are the biggest party in the state elections but in national elections Kerala votes more for Congress and the communists only win a few seats, why?