I took a class called Philosophy of Race once. The professor said something that has stuck with me since: “Race doesn’t exist, but racism sadly does.” A lot of the class was deconstructing the concept of race by showing how difficult it is to define.

Well, I’m poly, so I’d just discuss it with my girlfriend. Idk how monogamous people deal with these issues. In my experience, my attraction to people wanes pretty quick when I focus on interests/ideas they have that I don’t like or disagree with, things that would bother me if we lived together, sexual compatibility, etc. Suck the wind out of infatuation’s sails by doing a pragmatic analysis of what a potential relationship might look like. It also helps you appreciate your partner(s) more, because you already have compatibility and comfort there.

But I would still take the job, yeah.

Helldivers II, Deep Rock Galactic, Dead Space remake, Mount & Blade: Bannerlord 2, Chivalry 2.

I like FPS, RTS, and the like. Not exclusively shooters, but swords and sorcery.

I haven’t completed the remaster, but I’ve played Dead Space before. I didn’t find the original scary (I played it after being spoiled by better graphics), but the remaster is definitely making me appreciate the original’s horror.

I had several catalysts while earning my BA in History. It’s a sick joke, and if you cry foul, they hold you in the same regard as Holocaust deniers or anti-vaxxers because you’re “fringe”.

They’re half-aware of the double-standard, too. My professors talked a lot about the dubious nature of sources, and how much of modern historiography amounts to reinterpreting the available evidence to challenge narratives, and how much academia requires funding for research and catering to your sponsors.

My favorite professor told me you wouldn’t find any “Stalin apologists” in academia today. He, and others, all astonished (and horrified) me once. We got to do this trip to Italy, and I mentioned an interest in seeing Roma culture. The prof leading the trip (an American, mind you) called them the g-word and said they’re all thieves. When I brought it up to my other history professors, all Americans, they agreed.

The foundations are rotten. The body of “experts” is intentionally stacked to control the narrative. If you somehow get into a level of status and respect in the humanities, it will be through omission or deception. And if you ever speak against the narrative in regards to communism, you will be destroyed. Want to humanize Nazis or explain away responsibility for their actions? You’re free to do that. Want to point out the inconsistency of anticommunist fables? You won’t even be allowed to operate on the fringes. Even climate change deniers and anti-vaxxers will have more status than you.

I wish I had any helpful advice.

I suspect the elites prefer Trump but keep up appearances. He’s a tool, like Mussolini or Hitler: a lacky of capitalists to bludgeon socialist movements and organize the rabid far-right into a tool to use for imperialism. But liberal values are still the dominant trend here, so they must keep up appearances. But, in that too, they like Trump. He’s a perfect scapegoat. They can give him some slack to crush their enemies, then use him as something to condemn in order to shift all responsibility from themselves. In that way, even the tragedies he causes become profitable.

A better question is what are we (American comrades) doing in preparation for the inevitable crackdown we’ll receive?

I fear that might be too optimistic. It’s a double win for libs. Trump’s reactionary rhetoric and policies further the interests of the global capitalist class much more bluntly and quickly than the usual liberal channels, but then when it’s done they can blame every evil act on him and use it as a rallying cry for more supporters. That’s how it is in the US, and I suspect the US sets the standards for the EU more than even its critics would like to admit.

The comparison is intentional. This viewpoint exists in the US, too, and the Nazi-abortion false equivalency is a popular one among various right wing sectors, mostly Christo-fascists.

When I was in high school, one of the various Christian groups allowed to operate in our public school put “informative” papers in all our lockers that made that comparison. I think they got a talking to and that was it. I never watched the film shared on the paper, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the same.

Knew a guy who said Planned Parenthood was made to cull the POC population in the US. He didn’t seem overtly aware that he was comparing abortion to genocide, or like a Christo-fascist. It’s a pervasive force here, repackaged a thousand ways in order to convince people in every demographic or party to support it.

I’m AMAB and never felt any other way than masculine. I’m also straight because that’s just what I’m attracted to. I was never raised to subscribe to gender roles by my family, and I’ve never thought people ought to. I know now that gender is a social construct, but I still choose to identify as such because it’s just what I am - what I feel to be. I don’t think it’s all that different to how my trans and NB friends choose to identify; only that society treats me better for it, which is a tragedy.

I don’t really feel duped or forced into this. I don’t feel unnatural just because how I identify lines up with how I “should” identify according to my country.

Exactly this.

Don’t forget the old chestnut about how nuking Japan saved more lives than it took, and we had to do it/didn’t know better. I still remember that one. I think some teachers still teach that.

Agreed. I’ve seen so many people here get 80% to a meaningful conclusion explaining why our country is the way it is, but they always refuse to finish the logic. Instead, they jump to some racist theory that a foreign power has corrupted the US, and therefore whatever element they disagree with is un-American sedition. Conservatives insist it’s Muslim or Chinese infiltration. Liberal progressives think it’s Russians. Nobody wants to admit it’s just all our insanity coming to a head.

The greatest irony is that they’ll admit the government lies, big lies are told all the time, and we get tricked all the time. But introduce the concept that they lie about socialist countries, point out the consistency and pervasiveness of the lies, and that the US has everything to gain from lying, and they’ll call that a conspiracy theory. Even if you produce evidence, like CIA admissions to lying. I feel like I’m insane half the time.

For me it’s wargaming subs. A little easier to understand, but still a nuisance.

Sadly not just the internet. I meet a lot of people who are too quick to believe anything bad they hear about “enemy” countries, no matter how absurd.

The book is very different from the film, especially in tone. The film is pure satire, but the book was quite serious in its anticommunist themes, going so far as using the Arachnids as a metaphor for - specifically - Asian communists. Heinlein thought of Asian communists as virtually mindless, sacrificing themselves for the collective - like bugs.

I notice the shit everywhere. From kids and family shows to churches, social media, and education, regardless of state. They really do introduce it and hammer it in from the earliest opportunity.

I tried using it only as a tool for hobbies, but anti-communism infects damn near everything. Couldn’t go a week without some dumbass take about China randomly worming its way into just about anything. Glad I quit.

No argument here. It’s no wonder most people here look to the cultures of their ancestors.

I can relate to that. I’m from the US too, and I just don’t get it. I don’t feel like I’m part of the culture - any of the things here. If there’s a culture here, it’s something I don’t belong to or don’t want to belong to.

There are plenty of cultures in the US, but if you aren’t born and raised in them, they just kinda exist as far as being part of one.

In a way, it is inevitable. NATO tries to agitate Russia into invading its neighbors to justify military spending and keep their citizens under the fascist illusion of an evil Russian threat.

If anything, when they act like a Russian invasion of Estonia is inevitable, what they’re really doing is admitting that’s a future confrontation they want to force, like Georgia and Ukraine.

People always talk like a civil war is inevitable here because of our “political divide”, but it’s not. The reactionary elements of the US have all the power that matters here. Even when elements try to make good on their progressive platforms they used to win elections, they show a total inability to meaningfully enforce things. The institutions meant to enforce laws are corrupt and conservative as hell. Pass an unconstitutional law to beat up pro-Gaza supporters, they’ll enforce it in a heartbeat; pass a constitutional law to demilitarize the border and they’ll let state NGs do whatever they want.

The only war that I ever see happening here is if enough rabid reactionaries slip the leash, believe their own hype, and try to take down their paymasters. A Night of the Long Knives, and it’ll end the same way: with the rabid dogs put down by their corporate masters.