[-] LaughingLion@hexbear.net 5 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

they should have impeached him jan 7th to prevent it when they could muster the political willpower to do it and actually get a few republicans on board but that ship sailed so fast

as far as any can guess impeaching a former president is totally fine. impeachment is just a political trial to remover from office AND prevent re-election

[-] LaughingLion@hexbear.net 8 points 2 hours ago

theres asking innocent questions and then theres asking "innocent questions" and then brow beating people when they refuse to take your bait

[-] LaughingLion@hexbear.net 2 points 3 hours ago

has brace served on every front?

[-] LaughingLion@hexbear.net 13 points 3 hours ago

my favorite accounts are the ones that are just promoting the minority ethnicites and other stuff like historical outfits and shit

[-] LaughingLion@hexbear.net 23 points 3 hours ago

friendship ended with tiktok

xiaohongshu is my friend now

[-] LaughingLion@hexbear.net 5 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

ABOUT TIME

A Leonard Peltier protest in Boston was my first interaction with political action at around the age of 14. I was on a family trip and protestors walked by banging drums and chanting and someone smiled and handed me a flyer. It had Leonard on it. It was around '96 or so. This started me on a path to look into protesting, Indigenous struggles in America, leftist politics, and the lot.

Let this be a lesson to anyone, even the simple act of smiling at a kid and handing him a leaflet about your issue can ripple through time and have an effect. You never know who's heart you will touch.

[-] LaughingLion@hexbear.net 4 points 1 day ago

Honestly, I could not tell.

[-] LaughingLion@hexbear.net 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

In my city a few years ago white supremacists marched through the streets without a permit. Then an hour later we had a permitted protest for black rights and an end to police brutality. A comrade of mine stepped off the sidewalk with one foot. The cops beat her so badly she was hospitalized for a week.

This was in the Tampa Bay area, not some backwoods town in Mississippi.

[-] LaughingLion@hexbear.net 38 points 1 day ago

"ad"? the election was finished months ago

[-] LaughingLion@hexbear.net 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Well the government wastes money on fruitless tasks all the time. But also they will be using it to reinforce the ignorant nonsense people already believe. Propaganda works best when it plays on preconceived notions. You can't just spend a billion dollars to convince people the average Chinese person has four arms and expect it to work. Additionally, I find it funny sometimes how much we leftists think anything that reinforces western ignorance must be by bots or whatever. It's a very liberal take. We have to start recognizing that westerners on average can be extremely ignorant all on their own.

[-] LaughingLion@hexbear.net 44 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

A lot of discussions about the TS incident gets bogged in what happened and what didn't happen and so on. But I think something a lot of communists and socialists (even on this site) need to focus on is why the Chinese government "censors" the incident.

The fact is the Chinese government is pretty open about what happened. They talk about the people who were killed surrounding the square, both students/protestors and security forces. What they don't like is the western propaganda surrounding the incident and the lies surrounding it that have arisen organically from that propaganda in the west. See, in China you are not permitted to lie to the public about other people, the government, history, companies, and so on. And they are sensitive to certain topics because they are such common lies used to defame China. They will not stand for the defamation especially on platforms they control and nor should they.

Think of it like this, whenever China is doing well or something is going on with China, oop, here we go: pictures of the square and the student protestors or tank-guy/bag-man. When Shinzo Abe was offed by the doohickey, were there posts on Reddit about Nanjing? When Germany sent tanks to Ukraine do we see images on /r/pics about Dachau? No, of course not. Only China and Iran get this treatment.

Some ill-intentioned westerners will go on Xiaohongshu and post about TS and get banned and decry that they were censored, oh no! "I ran into my neighbor's house and shit on the living room floor and he kicked me out! I'm being oppressed!" China does not want these people stinking up the place. Most Americans in these spaces don't want these people stinking up the place. Instead they are sent packing back to their house, western social media, where the floor is already covered in shit so they can pretend like they are privileged to sit in it and enjoy the smell.

I'm not even here to claim this is a psy-op because it does not need to be, this lashing out at China whenever they are experiencing growth and openness is likely purely organic. I think there is a deep sadness in the heart of the west - at the unnecessary struggle daily life can be for the average person. This is doubly true for Americans. We have already seen how emotional people are getting to see how well the Chinese are doing on average. The lament that life doesn't have to be so hard. The realization they have been lied to. It is jarring to the psyche to have a fundamental element of your worldview reversed overnight. There is almost a grieving process at all the potential you lost by believing and living the lie. Sadness is a stage, as is anger. For most westerners they never move past denial.

[-] LaughingLion@hexbear.net 25 points 1 day ago

they sucked because they are liberals larping as anarchists

122

ebil chinese gov censorhsip tho ami wright?

i literally cannot stop laughing at the irony of this

109
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by LaughingLion@hexbear.net to c/chapotraphouse@hexbear.net

I really mean this. Most of the time its embarrassing as fuck what they thought going in. Literally, "I thought it would be a dystopian totalitarian nightmare where everyone walked around like zombies." It's just amazing to me to see how much people buy into the propaganda they are told. You didn't have a single nugget of skepticism on that nonsense, homey?

Or, "OMG I did not expect to see [restaurant] here!" Yeah, it's a modern, thriving economy which by most measures that actually try and compare it fairly to the west puts it well ahead of America. You think some western companies would try and break into that market?

Another good one is, "I can't believe how nice everyone was!" This one is wild to me because it's an accidental admission to racism. "I thought the Chinese man would be duplicitous and suspicious of me as is the nature of his ilk!" Fuck off. I would suspect that almost anywhere in the world you go as a tourist most people either won't pay you much mind or be kind to you as the average person is generally fairly kind and welcoming. Or they want to sell you something because they make a living off tourists. There are exceptions, like the French who will treat you like shit and also try to sell you something while doing it, but otherwise this is true almost anywhere.

Oh and don't forget the final thoughts segment where they have to add in a caveat that of course you can't really trust anything any of the people from China say about their country or it's political situation because obviously they must be frightened that secret CCP agents will jump out of the shadows as soon as the travel vlogger walks away and take the poor Chinese citizen to a political re-education camp. Though, I admit that this sentiment is at least dying down and you don't see it as much.

Obviously these are the extremes but in all seriousness the travel videos of white people going to China and being blown away by it's progress are overall pretty based and it's nice to see the bubble of western propaganda being popped even if it's the most ridiculous liberals who are doing it.

98

i watched a dude, who was alone, eating his burger get up from his table and walk into the bathroom with his burger, still eating it, then 3 minutes later come back out still finishing it off

this was before covid and i still think about it sometimes

151
submitted 3 months ago by LaughingLion@hexbear.net to c/chat@hexbear.net

Poverty. The answer is always poverty. Evacuation is not free and never has been.

Currently sitting in the Tampa Bay area while a category 5+ hurricane comes barreling at me. I'm in flood zone D next to E so I shouldn't have any issues there. In a building that is solid brick/cinderblock construction, built like a bunker. Don't worry about me. I got water, food, and enough fat to get me through the winter as they say.

The one thing I don't have is the hundreds or thousands of dollars it would take to drive 2+ states away and get a hotel for a week. I simply don't have it. Then you have all these people in places like Missouri or Montana posting this question about why people would not evacuate. We don't have the goddamn money. It's not hubris. We SHOULD evacuate. I don't see any of the people saying this offering up a spot on their couch. We should always evacuate... somewhere other than the house of the person who thinks we should, apparently.

64

could be better but honestly keep up the good work

29
submitted 4 months ago by LaughingLion@hexbear.net to c/chat@hexbear.net

Post.

37
submitted 6 months ago by LaughingLion@hexbear.net to c/chat@hexbear.net

No, seriously. Just like any system ours has loopholes and contradictions, we all know this. I think the left in America isn't focused enough on legislation that would almost certainly be challenged by SCOTUS which, in their decision, would open up an even bigger can of worms to overturn than to just keep in place.

I think the goal of this should not be to try and force a decision to uphold but rather to force them to swallow the poison pill and further harm the fascist project in the USA. Literally goad them into an overturning of whatever law you passed that requires such an opinion as to have broad sweeping repercussions. I don't have any ideas because I haven't thought much on it. However, I think there is some opportunity in this idea and enough people ruminating around it has potential.

It seems to me the rightwing kind of already engages in this. So why not the left? Isn't eroding the legal constructs of the capitalist state in our best interests?

75
submitted 7 months ago by LaughingLion@hexbear.net to c/memes@hexbear.net

An American citizen says to a Chinese citizen, "In my country we have freedom of speech. I can stand in my country's capital and scream 'Fuck America' and nothing will happen to me."

The Chinese citizen replies, "In my country we have freedom of speech. I can stand in my country's capital and scream 'Fuck Israel' and nothing will happen to me."

145
submitted 7 months ago by LaughingLion@hexbear.net to c/chat@hexbear.net

If you are white collar then it's going to "disrupt" your field.

I work in tech. I got laid off last year. I wasn't at Alphabet or Amazon or anything. Much smaller company. But AI "optimization" has ravaged the tech industry and not just programmers. Admins, database specialists, network specialists, developers, you name it. Our job market is absolutely fucked.

In my county, a major metro area in the US (like, top 10) craigslist used to be the place to get real job postings. If it wasn't a recruiter then your odds of getting a callback from a job posting there is pretty high. There are plenty of postings for other fields like mechanics and tradesmen and so on. For the few tech categories: nothing in the last month. Zero postings. Not even recruiter ads. Literally nothing. It's a wasteland.

I've been told to "go back to school." I'll be 41 soon. I'm still paying off my computer science degree. It's worthless. What else should I go for? Accounting? HR? These are going to be taken by AI, too. Will it be a mistake? Sure. They don't care. They'll do it anyways.

When I got my degree my wife and I were homeless. We just got back out of the hole in the last 10 years. I was finally building savings. It'll be gone in 60 days. She was laid off on Friday. Her industry is in property finance. Another gutted industry. She has to change industries, too.

What is to be done?

94
submitted 7 months ago by LaughingLion@hexbear.net to c/chat@hexbear.net

I want to throw out a quick tactic in rhetoric for this particular line because it is so common but is often bungled by comrades online and in real life and the counter is easy. Allow me to illustrate through a hypothetical conversation between a comrade (C) and a liberal (L):

L: I don't hate immigrants, I'm against ILLEGAL immigration.

C: Okay, what if I could pass one law that would get rid of all illegal immigration overnight and there would be no more in the future ever again. Once you hear it you'll understand exactly why illegal immigration could be eliminated this way. Would you support it?

L: Sure, sounds great.

C: I would make ALL immigration legal. Every immigrant would from now and forevermore be automatically approved and put through the process to longer term residency or citizenship status.

Posing your fix to immigration like this immediately exposes the lie that they don't hate immigrants. The next sentences out of their mouths will be why some immigrants are not worthy or how this is unthinkable (even though it has been the norm for 99.9% of human history). It's such an easy retort. It's leftist. It jumps right into the contradiction their ideology holds.

Now of course they will try and dig into details but it's important not to ever get bogged down in details of how such a policy would work. Of course, as a mental exercise for yourself it might be fun to think about but the details of the policy are irrelevant. The point here is they hate ILLEGAL immigrants. You can propose to get rid of the ILLEGAL parts. Would they welcome all immigrants who are LEGAL? No, of course they will not. It is important to keep reiterating, "but they will be legal and those are the immigrants you like."

As with all rhetorical tools it will not convince most people. The goal with using rhetoric and responding to rhetoric is often not to convince the person you are interacting with. It is to put them in an uncomfortable position while appealing to an audience.

I like this one because it plays into everything most liberals and even many conservatives don't want to admit: their anti-immigration ideology is racist and they can try and hide behind the law all they like but they cannot once that shield is stripped from them. Of course, that means that this kind of rhetorical retort is useful in for some other policies as well. I often like to propose legalization when someone says they don't like the ILLEGAL aspect of something. They are almost always using that to shield racism, classism, or some other form of sociological bigotry.

Hope this helps.

63

Should be described as "human-made".

Women hold up half the genocide.

166

No, this isn't 1960. 2008-2023 is the date range. Only records were kept for people buried after 2016.

One of the bodies is a man who was hit by an off-duty officer. The PD said they could not identify him. His exhumed body had his wallet in his pocket with a state issued ID and an information card with his home phone number on it and current address. They charged his mother $250 to reclaim his body for a proper burial. That same woman had her brother killed by the same police department when they brutally beat him to death on the side of the road. A pig went to prison for it.

Death to Amerikkka. Fuck this demon cracker nation.

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LaughingLion

joined 4 years ago