askchapo

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Ask Hexbear is the place to ask and answer ~~thought-provoking~~ questions.

Rules:

  1. Posts must ask a question.

  2. If the question asked is serious, answer seriously.

  3. Questions where you want to learn more about socialism are allowed, but questions in bad faith are not.

  4. Try !feedback@hexbear.net if you're having questions about regarding moderation, site policy, the site itself, development, volunteering or the mod team.

founded 4 years ago
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1726
 
 

Localized entirely within your kitchen?

1727
 
 

My in laws gifted my kid this pretty cool RC car but it makes this awful music that’s REALLY loud. Can I wire a resistor in series on one of the speaker legs to turn the volume down, say 50%?

1728
 
 

I really like my hair, and it's starting to get thinner. No I do not want to get bald. Yes I am already eating healthy and exercising, I know diet is important thank you for not answering my question you smug lucious haired motherfucker

1729
 
 

Hi, I was wondering what the economics and related social factors are in this current controversy?

I'm not USian, so I'm not too familiar with things there. I know its being used as a political football, so to speak, but there must be material factors involved too right? I mean, I see some commentary here about the 'political' drama aspect, and people saying its "manufactured" or similar. But I'm not sure if they mean it's not real (or vastly 'overblown' in terms of effect) or if they mean it is real, but caused by someone(s).

As far as I understand, human migration is (despite being against international labor law) treated as a commodity exchange, especially by richer countries. Like the US (and Europe) like to mess a place up (or bribe comprador rulers), because it consequentially provides them with exploitable labor, temporary or permanent.

I may be incorrect, but thats how it seems to me. So, if that is true, what are the material considerations for those states that are making a drama out of the Southern Border issues? I know that agricultural labor and domestic servents and porters are often from poorer countries where I am. Certain industries (hospitality, agriculture, construction, warehouse/factory) are reliant on such migrants. So how does this break down for the US, in terms of industries, and States interests?

Are they causing a shortage of commodity labor for the big coastal cities? Are they messing with the Academy (students)? Is the military affected? Is it more about servants for the wealthy?

I ask because I haven't really seen a good analysis of this on these grounds, only on either moral or political grounds, from a USian yet. Thanks!

1730
 
 

So, my partner finally decided to get with on the trolley and start getting shit for free

Problem is, I've been out of the sailing game for a while, so I don't know what's good anymore and I figure y'all probably know what's gonna work best for us anyway

I'm sort of tech savvy, but anything on the less finicky side would probably be best

Thanks in advance, -Love, Flakes

1731
 
 

I just checked the rents in my area and I could rent a large commercial space for only $1k when absolutely tiny studios here are $1.5k minimum. I checked the building has 24hr access and I will be asking if it has a water hookup. Is it too risky?

1732
 
 

Friend linked me a video on advertisers in NASCAR and I could only make it like 2 minutes because it's just them talking about the seemingly positive mental associations they have with auto parts brands and winning racers. Supposed to get to "weird" sponsors later, as if it's more weird for there to be a Scooby Doo ad than an M&Ms ad for some reason.

A bunch of these other kinds of videos just talk about like Five gum ads and their "rise and fall" as if that literally matters at all.

1733
 
 

I think one depressing example is innovation in weapons and other dangerous fields. "If we don't build it, someone else will first" is unfortunately historically been shown to be true, has it not?

Today's unsavory borderline reactionary doomposting brought to you by: my crippling fear that I'm isolating myself in a political echo-chamber (so naturally I gotta hop online and exclusively ask my fellow leftists)

1734
 
 

I usually get a few scam calls every day but in the last week or so it's increased exponentially. For example: I've received 19 in the past 6 hours. Just curious if this is happening to everyone or just me.

1735
 
 

I know this site spawned from a podcast but that's the extent of my knowledge. I cannot be the only one.

1736
 
 

I know about the podcast because someone I hang out with listens to them. I almost always half-listen to the first five minutes then tap out.

(...Except when they cover Rod Dreher. He's my favorite topic they bring up. party-parrot-popcorn )

Because even when things are looking up, lots of the topics are depressing. For example, when the Hamas are successful in any way, it's always attached to their struggles. Sometimes I think I'm too fragile to listen., Other times I think it's actually my perspective. Perhaps I'm too cynical and must beat a case of doomer brain. There's always a better perspective to see the news with.

I also got dismissed and dehumanized a lot as a child. I don't like to hear others suffering getting the same or worse treatment. Even if it's heavy, I would like to not dismiss listening to their stories. You develop a resilience to hearing them over time right?

1737
 
 

Hopefully well?

1738
 
 

My sibling likes to read fiction. They’re a comically basic-ass shit-lib. This person says that they don’t like to talk about politics. They always take the bosses side at work, basically a reincarnation of our Rachel Maddow-parroting boomer capitalist fucboi parent.

I know it’s a tall order but: What work of fiction can I gift them that will break them out of their capitalist complacency and remind them that they’re nothing more than a wage slave before they can even resist the indoctrination? I want to be subtle but effective; it has to fly to under their radar.

To give you an idea of how hopeless this little lemming is: this person has been reading Vonnegut lately and legitimately didn’t even know that Eugene Debs was a real person. This person figured it out when I informed them of Debs when they were telling me that no one has ever run for President from a jail cell. 🤦🏿‍♂️

Halp!

1739
 
 

I saw some people on Reddit discussing whether someone was being orientalist, and I agreed they were simply by using the phrase "zen-like concentration". I'm not offended by them using this term, I just find it stupid. "Zen-like" has absolutely no meaning, but gives an air of eastern spirituality and mysticism. I personally think you should only be able to use that phrase if you can give a detailed and verifiable explanation about the differences between zen-like concentration, huayan-like concentration, mahasthabir nikaya-like concentration, and chan-like concentration, as well as recognize that the last one is exactly the same as zen.

And why is it only ever "zen-like"? I'm sure everyone would find it strange if Asians suddenly started to use the terms "seventh day adventism-like" or "independent fundamentalist baptist-like" to refer to the elements of American culture they find exotic.

1740
 
 

I've been debating to myself whether or not voting for a third party candidate (Either PSL's de la Cruz or Green's West, regardless of my criticisms for both) would be the most "effective" use of my time in election season this year. The argument for "not" is that maybe voting at all is bad because it legitimizes this system, even if a third party candidate getting a record turnout would grab more attention (and piss off Blue MAGA cultists) than simply not going since it's not like abysmal turnouts, even by this country's historical standards, are newsworthy at this point. So I guess I have to ask how you people rationalize voting or not this year?

I fully understand that this is more symbolic than anything else and won't materially affect change for a while but it's still something to think about.

1741
 
 

These are the 2021 numbers. I have a printout of the 2022 numbers (china 546B, US 141B) but not a digital copy.

This page indicates that the 2023 numbers are out but I can't get access to the report. anyone got the new version of this chart?

1742
 
 

Both are very similar games . Lato from fdroid and alto from google play . They didn't even try to change the name . Did someone steal some open source project to make their game or was the idea stolen from the play store version ? Lato says the name is choosen because it's the name of the main character who is always late . Is there any history behind these coincidences ? Not really serious just noticed this and wanted to know if somone had any answers or if there even is any answers . I have only played the fdroid version btw and it's nice.

1743
 
 

To be clear, I'm not making accusations about Vietnam, I was just thinking about it and found it a little strange.

I can think of some fairly plausible reasons, but just because those reasons are plausible doesn't mean they're actually correct, so I was wondering if anybody had a more concrete historical and materialist understanding of the situation.

1744
1745
 
 

You know when you point a mirror at another mirror and it looks like there are infinite images of the reflection that get smaller and smaller? How small do you think they get and what happens at that point?

1746
 
 

Is there some document about what colors, fonts and logos to use for hexbear stuff? Maybe logos in SVG format? I found 4 variants of the logo linked on the site. The sidebar logo seems to have different colors than the others and is the only one with scan-lines.

Logo in the sidebar:
side-bar logo

Logo in the header:
header logo

Watermark linked in the sidebar of c/memes
meme watermark logo

tilted sicko hexbear logo: sicko hexbear

1747
 
 

Not that I need your help or anything baka. /tsundere

/sincere thanks for real though, Google is being fucking useless rn and yandex is coming up with weird shit.

1748
 
 

A friend of mine (actually a friend, not me, I have known forever not to buy soda streams I PROMISE I'M NOT A LIB angry-hex ) wants to actually try to boycott Israeli products (finally). They have a soda stream though and they want to continue to use it, but they don't want to buy the cartridges from soda stream because they're don't want to support genocide. Since this is a noble goal I want to help them.

So what are their options, where do they buy cartridges for their soda stream that don't support literal genocide. This is their Very Important Treat and they really want their treat and we all deserve our treats so I'm trying to help them. Thank you.

Thanks everyone this was super helpful...looks like you just buy an adapter and then I've got a bunch of local brew stores that will fill the tank!

1749
13
Good books? (lemmygrad.ml)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by QueerCommie@lemmygrad.ml to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
 
 

I find there tends to be two general categories of books; those that are exciting and interesting, so much that I want to recommend them immediately, and “slogs” that are just slow and unappealing regardless of the content. Some I get the jist of fast and a lot seems irrelevant like What is to Be Done, some like Fresh Banana Leaves the writing is just dislikable and repetitive. This is in sharp contrast to books like Half Earth Socialism or State and Revolution where I may be familiar with some of the content, but I really like the style and new information and want to recommend to people.

Do you agree with this categorization? Are there any books that you feel strongly about either way? I’m sure I’ve heard a lot of your recommendations before, but I want to know what will actually be fun to read, because some aren’t even if the content is good. I want to know which to prioritize reading.

1750
 
 

Since climate change, it isn't even that cold, it was supposed to dip to -8c but now it is summer again. It does rain almost constantly though. I am on a hill, and the wall of the house provides a lot of shelter. I don't think anywhere is particularly boggy, but it is wet most of the year. It is flat grass against the wall of my house, and a slope stepped with stones against the pavement of the road outside.

I'm thinking hardy varieties of climbing rose, hydrangeas, ivy, hopefully jasmine, some evergreen holly hedges and crawling juniper. The previous owners planted a tree in the centre of the garden which does not appear to be making much progress. My phone identified it as something stupid like Goat Willow, which I can only imagine is the most boring plant a person could ever willingly choose to plant themselves.

Other stuff which does well in my garden is Hoary Willowherb, which is so abundant I had to remove it from the gutter of the roof.

Further away from the shade there is a healthy Redclaw which is home to about a million tiny birds. It is pretty ugly but I can't exactly evict these birds now they have lived there for generations, so maybe there is a way to turn it into a wild hedge made up from lots of different shrubs. Maybe I can grow cranberries and blueberries.

Let me know you guys's thoughts especially if you think I can grow anything fragrant. Personally I could obsess about this for weeks and not make any decisions so I really need someone to help me.

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