askchapo

It's the manufacturing share of total jobs.

Nitter

Questions

1. What do you think a better percentage for manufacturing share of total jobs would be?

2. Why?

3. My grasp of even basic economics is very weak. I need leftist econ 101 resources. Podcasts. Youtube channels. Whatever. Suggestions?

Nitter

My little brother just died. They found him dead on his back porch. Doesn't look like any foul play was involved, but there was a ton of Unisom and Phenibut in his apartment.

I'd never heard of it before today.

They declawed their cat. They are confused about showing kindness to the homeless. They like pop country.

Any hope here?

For example, the topic of anti-natalism. It isn't an inherently reactionary subject. But very often it turns into "poor people/any other minority shouldn't have children". Perhaps that is a bad example. Maybe the answer is to debunk and combat reactionary takes while not ceding the idea/subject.

Churn credit cards = constantly open and close new credit cards for the sign up bonuses but in a careful way that doesn't crash your credit score

So I've met quite a few people in tech who do this and they're literally all hardcore neoliberals. They hate any type of welfare for new immigrants, refugees, and the unemployed. They despise unions and think it's for lazy people. They worship companies and have snitched on coworkers to HR for doing stuff like stealing office supplies and abusing employee benefits

I'm wondering if all credit card hobbyists are like this or just the ones in tech because theoretically, there's nothing about having good personal finance that inherently makes you have shitty politics. I guess I can see how people who do this think poor people are poor because they don't do all this neurotic credit card min maxing shit?

I'm getting a bit worried

A post from a petit bourgeoisie business owner asking how to protect himself from cancel culture showed up in my feed and I am vibrating with the desire to dunk but I don't want to break our rules if we're supposed to be nice to other instances.

Edit: link because I'm not a lib

I keep seeing some feder-posts with cross-posting listed at the top, just not sure how that works.

Maybe I missed something along the way, but it looks like you can only select one comm when posting on hexbear. Is this just disabled for now?

Every site I can find is like a teespring or redbubble shop that sells $30 shirts that say shit like "i just want healthcare hun " or just has general random tee shirts so you might find some weird chud shit next to the Antifa Supersoldier shirt you're looking at.

I've been browsing Hexbear and noticed that while it has some discussions it mainly has an abundance of memes and visual content. While the link aggregator format is great for discussions and text posts, I can't help but wonder why not use an image board like Leftybooru. Image boards offer the advantage of easily finding images based on tags, whereas Lemmy lacks this feature. So you can never go back to an image you liked unless you remember something said in the post. On the other hand, Lemmy does allow for better organization of discussions through comment trees. It seems like a platform that combines the best of both worlds would be ideal for the Hexbear community. What are your thoughts on this? Is there a reason why you haven't adopted a more hybrid approach?

Obviously Bernie is not a revolutionary, nor a proper socialist. However, that is not the question I am asking. Rather, given his long and consistent record as a social-democratic reformist, is Bernie merely misguided or is he an active betrayer of the worker's cause?

I get there are people who look young for their age but come the fuck on!

I bet it will be related, especially because of the stench that wafts off of "the problem is both sides are too extreme" Enlightened Centrists that already showed up here, and few things get them more defensive and tribalistic than vegans existing, let alone stating (correctly) the cost and consequences of industrialized meat production.

Looking for some good comedy. Preferably standup/podcast stuff, but I'll allow others.

For more modern comedians, I like the Adam Friedland Show, Stav... And then it gets controversial.

Shane Gillis says some hilarious stuff but he's also got a lot of moments that I don't approve of/find funny. Every now and again though he surprises me with moments of empathy and good will, or benevolence in the form of being so 'idgaf' that they're surprisingly acceptive or critical of right wing shit.

Same with Matt McCusker - other than the 'wife bad' coded stuff at the start, his most recent special had me laughing quite a lot.

On MSSP together they have moments of magic but also say some woefully dumb things that I sort of just roll my eyes at, because their actual funny stuff is so entertaining.

Comedy is in a strange spot.

It'd be nice to see if federation actually makes a difference to this

I understand the question should answer itself, as in no, we can not. I just got thinking talking with a racist g*mer, that there are two rightly removed comments where after I give them crap. The problem is for the lurkers, that they maybe can not see the whole dialogue. Maybe removing problematic content fully is the right choice, but maybe seeing context can be useful, too? Sorry for the rambling, but, can, and should, we view removed posts?

There's a shirt on Etsy with a cat rolling DnD dice that I've been thinking about for a while and I've decided to buy it. It's being sold by a bunch of sellers though, and I have no idea how to find out who actually designed it. I'd like to support the actual artist, if I can. I've attached an example, but there are a bunch of sellers with the same or very similar design with color added.

Still new here and trying to figure things out. Regarding voting, I'd like to get some feedback on some thoughts I've had.

I get that voting D/R is pointless since Ds just seatwarm for Rs at best, and actively implement R policies at worst. They have no incentive to work for left policies, and R policies will ultimately benefit them personally.

That being said, we're "punished" for not voting D by getting an actual insane R in office. If Rs are in control its way worse, right? or, maybe it has to get worse to get better?

So what is the dominant strategy here for National elections? My personal vote is extremely minor and unimportant so keeping that in mind, I can:

1. not vote - Lower participation rate shows I don't endorse the system, and if enough people don't vote, does it mean anything?

2. vote third party - I like this idea since, although super unlikely, it gives more pressure to D and R to moderate (lol) as neither want to lose power. Write in votes aren't going to turn in to anything big without some serious organizing, but I don't know if there's ever been a serious attempt to organize a mass write in campaign? Or if there will even be a viable third party candidate in 2024?

3. vote D - 🤮

4. Something else?

I haven't seen this discussed much in the short time I've been here so maybe I'm missing something obvious or misunderstanding something above, so would appreciate any help. Maybe the real answer is it really doesn't matter, but would like to make the best limited choice I can

Unless you plan on being a parasite (landlord 🤮) there seems to be less and less incentives to own your home in this country. You're taking on a massive amount of debt that spans decades, and if you fail to make the payments then the home is seized and you're fucked. Have a sudden medical issue that drains all of your finances and puts you further in debt? You're losing your house.

There's also the issue of increasingly common natural disasters, as we're seeing in Florida and the Gulf coast, and wildfire regions.

Insurance is a scam as always so you can't count on that either. Freak storm sends a tree through the roof? You're fucked.

You have to contend with American houses (especially newer) being poorly made. Houses are being built with the cheapest possible materials by the cheapest possible labor by the scummiest companies who love to cut corners and do half assed jobs.

Depending on where you live you might have to deal with ridiculous restrictions or laws like HOAs. You're subject to the whims of the shittiest boomers who have nothing better to do with their time than fuck with you. Turns out your new neighbor is a fuckwad? Congrats, you're stuck with him for possibly the rest of your life. Hopefully he won't shoot your children or poison your pets.

Someone I know recently bought a house that ended up being a disaster. They were so happy to finally be free of the bullshit that comes with renting but that quickly faded. Despite having 3 independent inspections before closing on the house, there ended up being several critical issues that were totally unnoticed or ignored by the inspectors (who were paid a lot of money for their inspections also) and never brought up by the sellers. The foundation has problems, the plumbing has to be completely redone, the roof has to be replaced, and there's some other stuff I'm forgetting too. This is costing them tens of thousands of dollars and it's possible there's still other problems that haven't been discovered. They considered going after the previous sellers for withholding knowledge of the issues but their lawyer said it wasn't worth it.

You also have to worry about the possibility of the government eminent domaining your property to build a new 28 lane highway.

Renting fucking sucks but at least if something goes wrong with the building you're not on the hook for it and your entire financial everything isn't chained to it. Maybe this is just high grade copium because I'll never be able to afford home ownership.

What do you think?

I'm in the mood for some banger fanonical reimaginings/explorations.

Off the top of my head, here's what I can contribute:

• An Eagle Among Lions is a neat little (and by little I mean long) Fire Emblem: Three Houses Edelgard-centric time travel fic (kinda) that has all-but-explicitly leftist undertones poking out from under it every now and then. It's to the point where I consider it leftist dogwhistling, which had me going every time something hit.

• The Summoned Hero Is A Historical Materialist is an explicitly communist Shield Hero AU that flips Naofumi's character to be an hardline anti-slavery socialist rather than an isekai-typical pedophile slaver protag. It is the fanfic equivalent of the concept of a John Brown Isekai. It's great, well-executed, and I think it deserves more recognition

Anyone else have recommendations? I'd love to expand my palate.

• What is the Goa'uld-Tau'ri conflict?
• How much do you care about the conflict?
• Who started the conflict?
• What are the causes of the conflict?
• What is the role of allies in Tau'ri defense?
• What is the perspective of the Asgard and Nox on the conflict?
• What is the perspective of the System Lords on the conflict?
• What do Jaffa think about the war?
• What is the current status of the conflict?
• What is the most likely way the conflict will end?
• Which of the leaders involved in the conflict is the most evil?
• What is the best in-depth review you've seen about the conflict explaining all of this?

Hello comrades, I'm looking for some guidance on understanding degrowth.

It seems very idealistic. Where they hope their work can convince people on an individual level, then on an organizational level, to influence policy which creates targets that will decrease environmental impact (that is the main contradiction) and subsequently profit-seeking.

I think some part acknowledges that quality of life with respect to material possessions is sufficient for people in the global north, and they can be content with their current conditions and improve things like community with a decreased emphasis on growth. There isn't a base theory or mechanism to understand or explain how humans and societies work like historical materialism or dialectical materialism in ML. It does seem to rely on ecological thinking, e.g. carrying capacity. Maybe the idea is that there is a physical limit, we can acknowledge it and work around it for the best outcome for all people rather than butt heads against it after consequences emerge.

This doesn't seem to operate at the level of human societies which I think is a bit confusing. You can take something from ecology but its application needs a robust set of auxiliary theories to explain how it operates at the level of human society. It also seems there is wishful thinking about how movements like this work historically and there are inherently groups (i.e. classes, but they don't seem to indicate this in another form) which are the causes of this. Am I correct to assume this is a reactionary response to current political problems using some of the language of Marxism without any of the fundamental understanding?

I can't shake the idea that believers of this think the solution will 'magically' emerge if enough people agree with it or are educated on it. Accepting that the bourgeois will not relinquish their control after understanding and that their lack of cooperation is a feature of their class interest and not 'needing to be educated enough' is just ignored?

Any commentary or analysis would be really appreciated, my thoughts are a bit jumbled.

Here's a website for this someone shared with me recently: https://degrowth.info/en/degrowth

I've got my defaults set to "all" and "active". It's my understanding that "all" shows instances we're federated with, whereas "local" will show only Hexbear posts. I am seeing some non-hexbear posts on "all", but it's mostly Hexbear. Are we simply the most powerful posters and therefore take up the front page or is it weighted behind the scenes to still favor local?

No complaints, I'm enjoying federation so far. Mostly because I'm only seeing posts from other instances talking about how cool we are