I floated around several different jobs. Never found anything I liked so I decided to move back in with my parents so I can do the last few things I need to change careers/apply for physical therapy school, and I’m older than you.

I don’t know if there’s any otherworldly insight to it other than I just really love exercise and training.

When I was working other jobs, I felt like two different people. I had my job that I honestly didn’t give a flying fuck about, had no motivation, made me depressed and just couldn’t force myself to be interested in. I had to pretend to care while surrounded by people who did care.

And when I was doing my physical training for the sports I love I was/am a completely different person- much happier and learning new things because I care.

On mental health: I think not being in a career adjacent to my passions really, really hurt me. It’s not like I’ve solved my depression but I can wake up now with something to look forward to, a path that I actually want to walk on.

It was passion that I had to build on but there was always an interest in exercise even before I can say I developed it into a passion. I was previously going to college for physical therapy, changed direction, but built my passion and now coming back to it, it all seems to make sense. Maybe there is something you have enjoyed in that past that you can return to build on?

And the big thing I can say is try not to get too down. This isn’t uncommon nowadays for people around our ages.

Don’t think of these years as wasted years, but learning years. I always felt like I was spinning my wheels and there’s a lot of truth in that. My parents always wondering what I was doing etc., is a terrible burden. But maybe in a way, I wasnt ready to go down that road since I hadn’t the passion for it yet, and the world didn’t make sense to my neurodivergent brain because I hadn’t learned Marxism yet, either.

And I suppose while we’re at it (to use Marxist terms), my experiences and internal contradictions weren’t strong enough yet that they’d need to resolve themselves by producing a new decision to go back to school.

I became an ML the day I found r/GenZedong lol. Didn’t get banned from anything.

“Barbarians raid another state for their plane”

I hate breadtube.

You’re trying to get as many people introduced to Marxist ideas as possible. And whilst you will get some people to explore further down and eventually some will become Marxists, others will reject it or stay aligned on only certain issues. That’s just how it is.

This kind of applies to every level of radicalization to be honest, bar like once someone grasps the historical materialist/scientific interpretation of history. But that is much further down the pipeline than someone like Hasan is.

So for example he will have some viewers who become Marxists after hearing the deprogram podcast and then checking out Hakim, and then falling even further down (Hasan has been on the deprogram), whilst some viewers might stay and watch Hasan only for info about Palestine, or some may stay social democrats.

Telling someone they’d be speaking German were it not for Lenin or Stalin usually shuts them up pretty quickly

If making memes is what you like to do, ideally you read some theory to help make memes that better convey ML ideas. Only reading theory is not enough by itself.

Also I kinda will walk back, or maybe clarify, a little of what I said, specifically about Hasan “occupying an important niche”. Whilst he occupies that niche, that’s not to say that he’s the only person in that niche nor that there’s only room for one person in there. Also not saying that someone else cant come along and do better.

But the real world results matter and I know there are a lot of people here who might not be here without Hasan, myself included. And remember not everyone is going to become a Marxist when you’re that high up on the pipeline.

I go back and forth on Hasan. But in general I think he occupies an important part of the pipeline that isn’t an actual dead end ala destiny/vaush. And whilst he has criticised China, the last time I heard him do that it was honestly rather feeble or felt like stock criticism (“they could loosen up censorship”). Then he’s got gigachad Xi/China emojis that you’ll see in his chat all the time. This is obviously the beginning of normalizing China for many watchers, not unlike the memes that many of us saw on GenZedong before reddit shut it down (although GZ was way more radical).

This, with his connections to the deprogram, who directly interface with non-MLM Marxist theory, is a pipeline. From there you’re a hop away from Professor Wolf, who isn’t far from Geopolitical Economy Report/Hudson/Prashad etc. I’d like to see a bit more direct interface between creators at the level of the deprogram etc make an effort to lead to Wolf/GER a bit more but I’m so out of the loop with “breadtube” maybe that’s already happening.

Hasan (and the deprogram, but especially Hasan as a giant “influencer” ) does have to work within a capitalist framework which makes him petty bgz but it feels wrong to group him with the rest.

There absolutely can be a contradiction between his material interest of keeping his followers vs keeping the valve to the pipeline open. Maybe he could make more an effort to lead his followers to unknowingly allow themselves to fall further down the pipeline, but again Ive moved beyond that area of the pipeline (as you’re supposed to) and haven’t made an effort to monitor it so I can’t offer much more than just giving an outline of how this works and what problems can arise.

There were many good arguments. Youre just ok with genocide and/or weren’t smart enough to understand them 👍

Don’t want to get ahead of myself but Japan is one of the three/four major strategic pieces of US Pacific control, so it’s good to see cracks forming.

And of those, it’s such a huge piece that if the US could no longer control it (Japan), then the entire US strategy is basically undone and holding other places is kind of pointless.

Even though sometimes it’s best to unplug from all social media (even lemmygrad) this place is an oasis. A place of healing and learning.

I’m not a big YouTube watcher or smash bros expert but I do know this guy does a lot of work hosting for the Smash Bros melee scene out of his pocket. Notably in 2022 when Nintendo shut down the Smash melee world championship tournament which was basically fully organized and ready to go until Nintendo stabbed them in the back. This guy Ludwig pulled through and got a legitimate tournament up and running to fill the void Nintendo made.

Huge

As much of a steaming heap of crap that movie was, there are worse movies.

Ivysaur is a great pokemon!

I actually just got done with some western leftists on the western pacific/China situation. I thought we had mutual respect between us but then they tried to call me white when they knew I’m not and they knew I was from one of those areas. And called me unhinged/deranged. So being deprived of my humanity was cool. I should have just done what you did and ask for sources.

fuckin hell mate I don’t think I’ve ever been mad about an online confrontation like this. sorry I needed the vent. the steam is coming out my ears, nose, and cuticles. It’s just actually physically tiring.

The classic model of petty bourgeoisie being the progenitor of fascism works well in America.

Petty bourgeoisie make up a large portion of the Republican base. Petty bgz themselves are the direct inheritors of the settler ideology and elevated position in society (thus it also includes many poor whites already “demoted” in social status). They feel the contradictions intensify from both sides, workers asking for more, and big bgz taking over. This puts them in a precarious position of becoming workers, so the petty bgz naturally act according to their (privileged) interests and become very reactionary.

An analysis of Trump’s attempted coup on Jan 6th reveals the petty bourgeois make up of his supporters. He is a useful tool of the big bourgeoisie to resolve this contradiction.

So I think before attempting to analyze big bourgeois intraclass conflict, it’s very important to consider the basic big bgz-petty bgz situation.

Sovereignty is when you are couped by the US and Nazis. The more you are a pawn of the US and the more Nazis you have the more sovereign you are.

It’s wonderful to see that western intelligence services are no smarter than redditors though

I know you mean well but that’s why we do those things already. But yeah it’s always sound advice to have a hobby to connect with others.