I may be too old to understand what you are referring to.

Early Access is just you paying a company to work as their beta tester. I would call it unpaid labor except it’s even worse because they take money from you. It is the biggest scam in gaming today.

My old uni laptop was a Lenovo ThinkPad running a Windows/Linux dual boot. If i were to go to university again today i would probably go with a Lenovo again but ditch Windows altogether. You don’t need Windows for university work, and especially if you are in a scientific field like i was everyone is using Linux anyway. Lenovo has pretty good price-performance ratio and generally does not force manufacturer specific software on you like many others do. I am not very familiar with the new models though, the last time i bought a laptop is over ten years ago. You would have to do some research and decide what criteria you are looking for and what your budget is.

Who cares? The so-called “Squad” turned out to be sellouts for imperialism. Besides, i guarantee you the average voter doesn’t even know about this, unless the opposition specifically paid for a giant media campaign to highlight it 24/7. Also there is no such thing as “the reason why someone lost an election”. There are a thousand different factors and it is almost impossible to say whether, if any individual thing was different, the outcome would have been different. The structural reason why AIPAC candidates generally win is because they have the media behind them, the establishment of both parties, and a ton of money. There will always be some controversy for the opposition to successfully highlight when they have that much more resources.

My parents’ generation is extremely reactionary but i think one of my grandfathers may have been a communist, or at least generally aligned with communist ideals since he worked in a position that required some ideological education back in the socialist era. He was still sympathetic to Russia/the USSR when i was growing up and i could tell from our conversations he had a fairly Marxist/materialist world view in some respects. No party members unfortunately that i know of, but maybe there were some in my extended family and nobody told me because it became fashionable to deny ever being a communist after the counter-revolutionary coup.

Yes. The desire to be “part of the club” is very strong, especially for those who spend a lot of time on Western online platforms and consuming Western media, which is why those 45 and below are afflicted so strongly with this and not the “boomers”.

The “boomer Soviet generation” are right though. Things are worse now than they were in the USSR. Also, after what they went through in the 90s, they are justified to be distrustful of foreigners, at least Western ones, because it was Westerners who came to Russia in the 90s to implement shock therapy and Western corporations who looted and plundered the country. The younger generation of Russians who have only known capitalism (or the last decade of disastrous Perestroika under Gorbachev) and who grew up being taught anti-communist and anti-Soviet propaganda without ever having really experienced socialism themselves as adults, have an unjustified disdain for the “boomer” generation. A part of it is imo resentment, because while they won’t openly acknowledge that liberalism is worse, they subconsciously resent and envy the older generation for having lived under socialism lives where they didn’t have the kinds of worries and alienation and stress that Russians have now under capitalism.

Thank you, Finland, being such racist Nazis that you are helping Russia slowly but surely build its own version of China’s Great Firewall. A lot less Russians will be falling victim to Ukrainian scams, hacking and blackmail schemes and a lot less terrorist attacks will be orchestrated using unsuspecting civilians once Russia takes control over its digital space like China has. The sooner the better.

Either already liberated or will be soon. Also, the name is only weird because Ukrainian spelling is ridiculous. It’s actually Stenki.

Absolutely childish behavior. Some people on the left really need to learn how to handle disagreements like adults. I don’t agree with you fully on AI either but you won’t see me throwing a fit over it. We are never going to have 100% agreement over every single issue in any community that is worth something.

Over the last few weeks, the situation for Ukraine on the frontline has rapidly deteriorated in an unprecedented manner not seen since early 2025.

In the northeastern corner Kharkiv Oblast, Russia has achieved two localised breakthroughs, threatening to encircle more than 360 km² of Ukrainian-controlled territory.

In the Dobropillya direction, one of the most formidable Ukrainian strongholds which has stood for over a year has been breached, with Russian forces now flooding Ukrainian positions in the urban agglomeration between Pokrovsk and Dobropillya.

In the Kramatorsk/Slovyansk direction, Ukraine has been unable to slow down Russian advances, with Russia now coming within 4.7 km of both Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, and coming close to fully capturing the crucial tactical ridgeline east of these two final Donbas cities.

In the Kostyantynivka direction, Russia has captured Chasiv Yar after 840 days of battles, and has almost completed the capture of Kostyantynivka. The salient west of Chasiv Yar is falling apart day by day as Ukraine withdraws.

In the Druzhkivka direction, Russia achieved a localised breakthrough of up to 6 km, capturing 3 villages and entering 3 others, coming within 5.1 km of Druzhkivka, and threatening the Ukrainian salient west of Kostyantynivka with encirclement.

In the Omelnyk direction, Russia has finally captured the Ukrainian stronghold town of Zaliznychne after over 7 months of battles, and are making new advances west of the Haichur River towards Vozdyvzhivka.

In the Stepnohirsk direction, Russia has halted the Ukrainian counterattacks and have begun retaking previously lost ground, advancing northeast of Kamyanske and north from Mali Shcherbaky.

In the Kupyansk direction, the crucial Ukrainian bridgehead east of the Oskil River continues to shrink day by day, with Russian forces expanding their zone of control in the area of Novosynove, Kivsharivka, Pishchane, Petropavlivka, and Kupyansk itself.

Ukraine is losing incredibly important defensive positions necessary for holding the frontline in the future, especially the areas south of Dobropillya which should not be falling this quickly. However, they are seemingly intent on concentrating their assault forces in counterattacks north of Lyman, west of Komar, and south of Novopavlivka, which have questionable (at best) strategic reasoning for the heavy cost being endured.

The new Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Mykhailo Drapatyi has inherited a situation that is getting worse by the day, and will have to make some serious and difficult decisions in order to try stabilise it towards the end of Summer.

https://xcancel.com/AMK_Mapping_/status/2083834214341091817

Iran is systematically chasing the Yankees out of West Asia

https://archive.ph/m1O9g

He will probably be replaced by himself. This looks like procedural shenanigans to have himself re-appointed.

Even if he was actually replaced, it would be as you say a reshuffling of comprador puppets of Western interests.

Armenia is pretty firmly captured at the moment. They would need a political revolution like Georgia had to break free.

Some people are beyond re-education.

Yeah. Although i would not call either Armenia or Georgia “western”.

Why is he not in prison like Georgia’s former president Saakashvili? I really think that, globally, we need to bring back the tradition of executing treasonous heads of state.

This is normal for pretty much any source of news and analysis. You are not always going to agree with everything they say and everyone they platform, and that’s ok. Especially when they platform people with a diverse range of views, some of the guests are going to inevitably have reactionary takes and low quality analysis. I personally don’t listen to any episodes of any program with Doug Mcgregor, not so much because of his reactionary views – sometimes people can have reactionary views and still have good analysis – but just because i find his commentary very uninteresting, repetitive, low quality and not that reliable. Same goes for some others.

Krapivnik is more interesting because he has better info on what is actually happening militarily, but i skip the segments where he bloviates on some culture war nonsense or other. Again, not because i find it offensive – like i said, you should not shy away from taking in analysis from people even with views contrary to your own if it’s good analysis – but because it’s boring and provides nothing of value to a conversation. It is important to value your own time and not waste it on pointless nonsense.

Ignore anything you read or hear about that conflict in Western media. Just assume that everything they say about it is bullshit and/or projection. That will resolve your confusion.

No. Also the Malvinas are not such a situation either. In both cases it is clear that the European country has no business owning that territory. That being said, it is currently not a priority to rectify either problem given that both Argentina and Morocco are Zionist-captured. If in doubt always take the opposite position of whatever position US-Israel take.

so I think it’s more likely that they would just have europe ban Chinese imports

I think so too.