Tomorrow not paying back student loans actually means something again. I don't wanna go back to paying again but I'm not sure the ratio of debt strikers to student debt collector mafias is in our favor

Serious post here, what are your predictions? Do the US sign on for a subscription to Hitler or Hitler+? What makes you believe this?

My take: Harris eeks out a victory, based on the vibes I get. She may flip NC too. I think that second part because the overall trend of polling has had her slowly increasing on average there. AZ is flipping back to Trump this go around.

Second possibility I see is that the electoral college shenanigans the GOP is angling for in NE actually results in the first ever tie. Supreme court gives it to Trump even though he loses the popular vote. Libs say "ah well, never the less".

Either way, I think there's going to be hog riots in MI, PA, and NC if it flips.

I posted this on /c/traaaaaaannnnnnnnnns but on further reflection that was possibly an error because it's a question about cis. Since I'm seeking ideas that would be relevant to a cis person it would be better to pose the question more widely. Trans people probably don't spend much time reading stuff describing why they are human and debunking arguments to the contrary so might not have such sources on the tip of the tongue.

The original thread has lots of good answers and I am mulling them over and following sources. So you should read them if you are interested.

Hope it's not ridiculous to x-post myself. :/

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/3576012

> I don't know if any CW are required for this but if so suggest them and I will add. I'm not mentioning any particular hateful things; just the presence of them. > > -------------- > > An old comrade of mine has fallen into the grips of anti trans bigotry. > > It has been happening for 10+ years and I have raised the issue multiple times when we've been together or in touch. They downplayed their investment in the ideas. > > Recently I have learned that it has crept into their mass organizing. This person is an excellent, committed, powerful organizer working for years at a local level. > > I think they are now getting in to organizing explicitly on anti-trans grounds. They have capacity to be highly effective at this. But really it is the integration of anti-trans stuff into legitimate mass organizing work that is more dangerous. My understanding is that they are seeking to orient these orgs against the interests of trans people and to exclude trans people and even trans-allied people from organizing. > > This person made many key political contributions to who I am. Much of the good I have done as an organizer is due to their influence on me. Without them I would have ended up the most insufferable kind of lib. On a personal level, it breaks my heart to see this has happened to a dear friend. I feel compelled to attempt to return the wisdom and patience they afforded me when I needed it, and offer them a better perspective, help them be a better organizer. > > I plan to attempt intervention. We live far away from each other but do keep occasional contact. Less so over recent years just due to being on different social media platforms. I could get some correspondence and maybe a phone call to discuss this on the basis of our long standing relationship. I would offer to maintain the dialogue on going if they were willing. > > - general advice? > - have you tried this and if so how did it go? > - is there hope? > - some kind of FAQ covering anti-trans misinformation; more in-depth and comprehensive would be better (for me to read) > - writing/ideas aimed specifically at communists/socialists > - theory to understand trans* from marxist/materialist perspective > - I know this sounds stupid but they already have theory to hate trans* > - This person is coming at it from a TERF (as in actual old school radical feminsm) perspective, not a right-wing/fash perspective > - The idea of "bourgeois decadence" is important here. It's not something I ever found to be very compelling so I don't have much analysis to counter it.

• Added in the crosspost: This video Trans Liberation & Marxism: Is Gender Identity Actually Anti-Materialist? | Let's Talk Patriarchy provides the idea of "sexual metaphysics" around the 20-minute mark and I'd like to know if folks think it is a useful road to pursue?

> Of course I have my own ideas and knowledge but I'm sure all of the above has been perfected so I want to make sure I have the best at top of mind. > > This person is pretty stubborn, as required to be a lifelong revolutionary. So I know I'm not going to turn the ship around in one conversation. I am considering strategy of reformism or harm reduction. For example if I could convince them to avoid bringing these ideas into their organizing, even while still holding them privately, it would be a benefit. >

As title states I’m looking to dispose of a bunch of 200mg/ml liquid synthetic nicotine I’ve had stored in Boston round bottles for the last three-four years. It’s an artifact from when I used to vape and I’m tired of it taking up freezer space.

In its current form it is extremely toxic to just about goddamned everything. In its current potency it is even more of a hazard to everything. I’d like to dispose of it, properly. I’ve already called my local landfill and they will not accept it. I dunno where else to put it, or how else to make it inert.

Does anyone have suggestions for how to do so? It’s about 5 liters, btw. I also have about 100-ish bottle of flavorants from when I used to mix my own vape juices. I think those can just be emptied into a wad of paper towels and disposed of conventionally.

like a well-meaning kind of guy, not a macho guy

Need help

Basically a repost pf things I said in the mega, but anecdotally I'm hearing that sales of fiction read by men are dropping precipitously, and English and literature classes in colleges are now dominated by women. It seems like young men are not being exposed to literature in the same way that they used to. Like, when I was in high school and college, you could be a "bro" kind of guy and read Chuck Palahniuk, or Hunter S. Thompson, or David Foster Wallace. For decades, authors like Hemmingway and Bukowski found receptive audiences in young men, not to mention all the crime fiction, horror, sci-fi, and fantasy that men have traditionally consumed. The "guy in your English class who loves David Foster Wallace" was a stereotype for a reason. I read in another thread that music is less culturally important to young men than it used to be. It seems like younger men just straight up see no value in reading literature or fiction, or exposing themselves or critically engaging with art and music, because the algorithms just railroad them into Alpha Gridset world.

Am I wrong about this? Am I being condescending and out of touch, or is this a real thing that's happening, where the whole "male" culture is turning into grindset podcasts and streamers?

Edit: Okay, so the impression I'm getting is that everything is worse but also kind of the same as it ever was, which sounds right.

Zoomer here, will go to concerts alone once every few months because I have pretentious taste in music + the one friend I have with very similar tastes is a little agoraphobic

Hell all 3 festivals I've been to have also been alone cause people flaking before a big fest is pretty common in general and happened to me all 3 times. Will sometimes try to meet people and hangout, sometimes not depending on what vibe I'm feeling

So many zoomers who find out I do this look at me so weird but like what, am I just not going to enjoy myself and do something I want just because I don't have somebody to go with?

I have a few friends that are 40+ and it sounds like they do stuff alone frequently. The ~30 year old friends aren't doing it a lot but they don't seem to have the same fear zoomers do either. I regularly run into 30+ yo ppl I know at an event there alone but never happens with zoomers

as a leftist and dissenter. Should i have my passport ready to flee?

Like the fuck? Does this dude not have like a wealth manager screaming at him to sell the two extremely valuable properties he's left derelict?

hello again. recently i had my post from one of my broken teeth removed. the remainder of this tooth is small and they offered me extraction (for implants which was the doctor's choice, not covered by insurance) or endodontic re-treatment for a dental veneer (i think, my preferred choice which i did because it's cheaper with the insurance coverage).

the issue is this tooth looks like an L from its sides, meaning it has a very narrow segment in the front and im afraid it might break and then i would have no choice but to extract it. their list of dos and don'ts is kinda vague and the only solid piece i got from it was to eat nothing for 2 hours. also i think the temporary filling is too little but i don't know about that.

if there are any dentist hexbears or someone who has experience with this it would be appreciated.

EDIT: seems like a little bit of the temporary filling has washed away. is that a problem?

Which is it? Which do you use? Are there different associations between them?

I've always said it "comrad," but when I started to meet people in orgs, they predominantly say "comrayd" (within the same country).

I haven't dressed up in years and wanna do something cool

How do i win?

So I live in a part of the US where I haven't seen more than 2 or 3 people wear a mask (outside of a protest I went to) in the past two years. Its genuinely just not done here. I will wear a mask if I feel a under the weather or my allergies are acting up but typically don't wear one. Should I? Would it help? Do y'all wear one everytime you go out?

As I understand it masks don't prevent you from getting sick as much as they prevent you from getting others sick. Is this correct?

Title. I've been dealing with it for months now and it feels like it's getting worse. Just curious if anyone else here ever had it and got rid of it?

Under communism, how do we clean our clothes?

• It's not really efficient for every housing unit to have its own washing machine let alone dryer
  • some people can dry clothes on lines but some can't
• Washing clothes by hand sucks
• Laundromats suck
• Industrialized clothes washing? I have no direct experience with this

And it needs so much water.

To my mind laundry is one of the most intractable issues.

I know 2 of the 5 AES (China and North Korea) have a nearly no-immigration policy, but what about the other three?

Mine are "First Contact" TNG S4xE15, "Where silence has lease" TNG S2xE02 and "Night" VOY S5xE01

Because I subscribed to the Asexual Community on this site, and it said "Subscribe Pending" after I clicked the subscribe button.

I'm talking hair products, body washes, deodorant, body sprays, laundry detergent, candles, literally ANYTHING that can smell nice I want to know to about it

Has anyone ever dealt with it?

I'm not old enough to remember. I known the basics of the armed struggle of the ANC, bantustans, Cuba in Angola, etc. But not enough to compare it to Israel today. My general suspicion is Israel is worse but the US is way more committed to backing Israel than it was apartheid South Africa. I'm mostly want to gauge how the anti-apartheid movement was going then compared to now. Any resources or personal experiences.

If you missed my other thread - I haven't been a gamer since the late 1970s so I don't know anything about this stuff.

I'm going to buy an Alienware Aurora R16 next week. The only PSU options seem to be 500W or 1000W. The PSU is proprietary. I'm going to buy my PC from one of the following...

1. New from dell.com. Both PSU options are available.

2. Refurbished from Amazon Renewed. There are no power supply details. That's even true if I use plain old amazon.com and look at new models.

3. Refurbished from outlet.us.dell.com. Both PSU options are available.

Amazon Renewed might be cheaper but it annoys me they won't give the info. Even if 500W is fine for me - I'll like to have that "in writing" before I buy anything.

I'm going a PC at least this powerful...

• Processor: Intel Core i7 14700F (61 MB cache, 20 cores, up to 5.4 GHz Turbo)

• Videocard: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12GB GDDR6X

• Memory: 32 GB: 2 x 16 GB, DDR5, 5600 MT/s

• Harddrive: 2 TB, M.2, PCIe NVMe, SSD

I don't know if I'll ever upgrade. Is 500W good enough?

Is the public view of these people warranted, or is it just ableism from neurotypical people? Is it bad for me to use "psychopath" and "sociopath" as pejoratives against other people?

I'm going to buy a new prebuilt PC next week. I'm almost certain I'll buy a Windows PC and making a PC is not my thing. I haven't been a gamer since the late 1970s so I'm a bit behind the curve.

What peripherals should I buy?

I know that's vague but I sincerely don't know what kind of games I'll end up liking.

How much should I budget for it?

~$300? I have no idea. For the short term - I want the basic core stuff I need and maybe a bell and whistle or two.

I want to avoid going crazy and buying specialized stuff like a wheel and pedals set. If I decide that driving games are my thing - I can always buy that later.

Should I buy a headset right off the bat?

Do you use a headset? My mental image is that I don't want to talk to anybody or listen to anybody because there are a lot of trolls out there. But am I wrong? Are there games where a headset is worth it? I'll let you define "worth it".

Also - how much does a good headset cost?

\---

Edit

I thought I needed to budget more for peripherals. It seems I don't. And - I don't need to buy everything next week anyway. There's no rush and my gaming needs might turn out to be (very) modest anyway. Current plan

• Keyboard. My current keyboard is beyond crap anyway.
• Gaming mouse?
• Microphone headset?
• Speakers? Maybe not. For reasons I don't want to explain - no speakers might be better.

Be honest.

Earnest question here. I got offered a job with public works inventory management for a city. I thought it would be limited to just public works, but it also includes inventory for the police fleet. Part of applying was to salt for the municipal workers union. Would doing inventory management partially for cop cars make me a pig?

I've known plenty of !libbing-out but when it comes to being scratched about it, it has to be my old neighbor that lived just down the road at the intersection, one of the first to buy (and performatively loop around the neighborhood with) a Te$la.

I had the misfortune of running into him at the bookstore, and he had this sort of eager "oh boy I'm going to blow your mind" look on his face as he saw me at the tables by the obligatory coffee shop inside.

!maybe-later-honey "Isn't it insane what's happening out there?"

!debord-tired "What?"

!maybe-later-honey "The looney left! They're out of control! I mean... you know it's bad when the most philanthropic human on the planet says they're out of control."

!debord-tired "Oh..."

!maybe-later-honey "Yeah that's right! E_LO~N has to take a stand or no one will! I don't want to be stuck living in a mud hut just so I don't hurt someone's feelings!"

!debord-tired "Oh it's your turn. She's trying to take your order."

If so, how so? I hope it doesn't because love how the song sounds.

Tbh idk what Zionism even is. I just judge from news that a lot of them, maybe up to all of them, support Israel. Feel free to educate me.

I seriously am baffled by this conflict. One side (rsf) is apparently being supported by both Iran and Ukraine, the other (saf) by the UAE, and there's also the SRF alliance/coalition which consists of a bunch of other factions. What is going on?