puff

This is the official hexbear Dune discussion thread (not really)

I watched the new Dune and enjoyed the films from a cinematic/fantasy perspective but wasn't super on-board with the politics as I thought the message was simply 'leaders bad', but what didn't come across (imo) from the movies and what I'm learning from discussion of the books is that the message is more nuanced than that: Herbert's message wasn't "don't blindly follow leaders because they're evil", but "don't blindly follow leaders because movements based on blind belief are a force of their own and can sweep everyone up into a mess, even if that was not at all the intention", and there are of course examples of that happening throughout human history. I want to hear all of your thoughts on the books, the films, and the messages. Thanks.

It's like someone asked ChatGPT to turn the book into a dumb anglo sitcom.

-Every character is emotionally immature, spiteful, and sassy. None of the 'friends' act like friends. None of the characters talk like real people. They're constantly insulting or hitting each other. It's just embarrassing. The actors have nothing to work with.

-All the major twists/reveals are shown in the first two episodes. No suspense, no build-up, no pay-off. Rushed is an understatement.

-Single characters from the book have been unnecessarily split into multiple new characters adding nothing to the story.

-The story is a cosmic horror but comedy and romance have been forced in for no reason whatsoever except as filler, which is even more mind-boggling because they've essentially rushed all of the good stuff in the book to make room for unfunny jokes.

-Apparently they could barely afford any sets and extras, so scenes and locations that are supposed to be bristling with sights and people just feel oddly empty. Even the special effects feel muted. The budget is just weirdly limited, and the show looks much cheaper than the Tencent series.

-Almost all of the science (which is the interesting stuff) has been gutted from this science fiction.

I hate anglo slop. Where is the kino. Tencent pls adapt The Dark Forest.

Cross-post from c/History

I know of a few academic journals that review and publish articles on Marxism and Socialism but all of them seem to be run by Trots and are extremely hostile to Marxism-Leninism, Stalinism, and AES countries like China, Viet Nam, and (formerly) the Soviet Union. Are there any academic journals that are pro-Lenin/Soviet and pro-AES? I would like to read such articles and possibly contribute myself. Obviously there are sites like this one but I'm looking specifically for a scholarly journal, e.g. with peer-review or at least something more formal than a forum.

Thanks in advance.

The Barbies pokemon-go to the polls and vote out the Kens. It's mind-numbingly stupid. Remember how that strategy went in 2016? It doesn't deserve the awards.

Happy holidays, comrades.

I'm looking for serious replies only, please. I have a friend whose family 'escaped' from East Germany and moved to the US during the Cold War. My friend's opposition to socialism seems to be almost exclusively based upon this idea that their poor family had to 'run from evil communists'. This person either doesn't know or won't tell me what their family was up to in Germany from 1930-1945. I suspect they were nazis and were not 'escaping' socialism but hiding their participation in war crimes by moving to a country that would not persecute them for killing civilians etc. I know their grandfather's name (who was just a boy when his parents forcibly moved them all to the US). How would I go about proving my hypothesis that they were nazis? Are their databases with the names of nazi party members and so on? Any advice and guidance would be much appreciated. Thanks.