General Discussion Thread - Juche 114, Week 30
Welcome again to everybody. Make yourself at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.
☭ Matrix homeserver and space
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Yesterday I went to my brother who bought a house to help renovate some stuff. Afterwards I visited my parents who live nearby and we talked about home ownership and how difficult it can be for our generation. They talked about their own financial situation and it became clearer to me how insane the current situation is.
They bought a house in a time where it was still pretty cheap to buy one. Got a good mortgage deal and everything. Their home value tripled in the last few years. They have now nearly paid of their mortgage over the course of 25 years and are basically sitting on top of 600k of their own money. The only thing they had to do for it was paying off their mortgage and not selling. For my brother to get the same percentage of return on his investment his house would have to be valued at 1.2 million euro within the next 25 years. For a simple terraced roof house. There is no way that will happen.
You know at first I was kinda whatever about a porn ban but now it's starting to affect me personally and I'm concerned.
These things are always preloaded with the more "agreeable" aspects. This will be used to censor pro-palestinian, anti-west, pro-lqbtq+ and many many other things in the west.
Laith Marouf has been released from detention.
Picked up a nasty stomach bug for the second time in a few months. Wondering if it's something in the soil or somesuch since I harvest a lot of fresh vegetables. Either way, went like thirty six hours without eating and just ate a strawberry and a few miracle fruit (called thusly because they coat your tongue in an enzyme that makes sour things taste sweet) and am already regretting it. Either way, eurgh.
Getting a stomach bug once can hurt your stomach permanently to some degree, making you more susceptible for new infections or more sensitive for certain foods.
Ough. I didn't know that, thanks. Would explain why I got sick again so quickly. :/
Why are so many people just dickheads online? Like, you can have a fun talk with someone about a topic you enjoy only for people to show up and be dicks. I had talk about the city development from my home town like I did in this thread with someone on a different outlet only for someone to show up and say: 'ugliest city I visited'. Like, okay? That's not what we were talking about you psycho lol. Who behaves like that? Imagine joining a conversation between, idk, coworkers with the sole intention of being a dick.
My parents are in a Basque village, and they told me there are a lot of Basque and Palestinian flags hanging from the windows. Gotta love the Basques.
Basque country is amazing and you should go there if you haven't been already. Great food, great beaches, great nature and above all great people. The place is plastered with left wing grafitti lol.
I've been there a lot when I was a child. I really want to go back there one day. Especially Donostia is amazing.
Funny how the media attention for Bob Vylan just turned "death, death to the IDF" into a popular slogan. It wasn't common before, but I was at a Palestine demonstration yesterday and we chanted it a couple of times. It felt so good to chant.
Still fighting my sticker war with the local Nazi. I keep removing his stickers and placing my own antifa and commie stickers. Today I found that he placed his stickers on top of mine.
But the way he did it was telling me the guy is just a little chicken shit lol. They were half assed and you could peel them off easily. Some of them even had the paper back still partially on it. I just hope one day I can catch him in the act.
Be careful peeling them because nazis often put razor blades under their stickers
Seeing how much of a pussy this one is, that is probably not a problem here
Out of curiosity, what are his stickers?
Stuff like: Hand in Hand, back to your own land (made by neonazi org Voorpost)
'Culture dies where multiculturality begins'
Pictures of Filip Dewinter, Belgian nationalist.
I counter it with a cat accompanied by a hamsic and text: 'there used to be a racist sticker here but not anymore' and a sticker with 'Forever antifascist' and a sticker with Tinky Winky of the Teletubbies holding a socialist flag. Oh and one of Mark Rutte, nato leader, with clown make up and the text 'we live in a society'
lol kinda crazy how awful the internet is without pihole + browser adblock (ublock origin).
using a friend computer i went to website i normally use on my home setup without any problems for streaming sports, got like a billion popups and shit, didn't realize how protected from this crap i am on my home network.
It really is wild. I don't know if I could deal with using much of the internet regularly without a thing like ublock. Especially like youtube, I'm pretty sure I'd just stop using youtube if I could not block ads. And like, I understand there would be less videos made if people were not making money off of the platform, but it doesn't change how awful of an experience ads are inherently, having distracting crap shoved into your brain so that you'll buy shit you don't need and never wanted. In general, I think it's bad for society how much of capitalist mode of things depends on ads and the way they abuse knowledge of human psychology. Organic in-video "sponsorships" are almost worse in this way because the personable figure who you might enjoy as an audience member now becomes the sales person and they get to abuse that liking of them to get you to buy something, not unlike how multi level marketing schemes work.
Even through multiple layers of abstraction, it all boils down to commodity production.
I was running both pihole & ub0 for the last two years, A few weeks ago I disconnected from the pihole and it made no difference. Turns out it was redundant.
Pihole covers all devices on the network tho.
I think that Jack Dorsey shouldn't be trusted with meshtastic technology.
Decided to be bold and apply for my dream job of gardener without any of the necessary papers lol
Shoot for the moon y'all don't let nobody hold you down
You got this
I used to get see a post or 2 on my social media feed about Gaza but suddenly it is flooded with politicians and news organizations saying that Gaza is a genocide and we need to end it. Is this a sign of the beginning of the end?
It's only a matter of time before the big ideological break between the rulers of our countries and the people in them. The question is whether or not they want Israel to be that breaking point. I think serious debates are going behind closed doors.
I hope so. But I’m sure there’s no resolution the U.S. or Israel agree to that doesn’t involve some kind of two-state solution. So it really won’t end I don’t think. Unless the U.S. cuts funding but that won’t happen
A 2 state situation is not a resolution. The zionist entity is expansionist racist and genocidal in its very nature. There is no peace while it exists and thus no resolution. Even if they left the Palestinians alone they would attack the Lebanese, the Syrians, the Iraqis, the Egyptians because they are rabid fascists.
How true is this? The "996" thing in China?
Lets just say that i wish my chinese suppliers worked "996", them mfers have vacations every other week. Still China is just way to big, i bet there are many places working under that schedule. That's thr thing with China, it's scale is so big that you can find literally cases about anything.
That's a very good point, and I trust your experience as well. Yeah, any Western journo can find a case study somewhere.
To be clear, I'm not saying China is perfect and I don't expect it to be, just wondering if this is an issue in China and in what sectors.
One of the advantages of my home region of Eindhoven is that until the founding of Philips it had no historical relevance whatsoever. So there is no protest against building upwards. This has caused the city to go from this in 2007:
To this now:
With 19 70+ meter high buildings on their way. 5 of which will be 100m+, adding to the already 5 100m+ buildings in the city.
Not only does this result in a great skyline, it is also a far more efficient use of space. Only criticism is that living there is expensive.
It has been cool to see the city develop from a provincial town vibe to a more proper city. Especially once the larger building reaching up to 150m will be finished.
Days after my rain post it started absolutely pissing down lol. I should make a communism please post.
Please do! Hahahaha
Protest against gentrification in Mexico
I spent more time than I want to admit trying to read that colorful sign in the middle. Here's what I think it says if anyone cares lol
Gobierno de México
la gentrificación no es
progreso si expulsa a quienes
han construido esos barrios
PROTEJAN NUESTRAS
COMUNIDADES
And you got it right! And I do care! Thanks for taking the time for transcribing it here.
Sunshine spills over the streets, tracing this city’s edges with warmth 🇰🇵
Idk if that like mint green the DPRK uses in it's buildings is a certain material, or just a paint but it looks so good. Reminds me of how looking at green can reduce headaches and stuff. Probably because in nature we are meant to see a lot of green when in lush, and plentiful areas. So much nicer than the typical glass/cement coloring you see.
I believe it is a polyurethane coating that is better resistant against Korean weather
132 Palestinians killed yesterday, of which 18 starved to death.
The only thing Elias Rodriguez did wrong was not holding those two hostage and demanding aid to be let in.
They were randos, nobody would stop genocide over some whacko dime a dozen staffers.
I think it'd be extremely bad publicity if you valued your own cruel intentions of starving a population to death over a couple of your embassy employee's lives though
Far right infighting:
Belgian defence minister, a Flemish nationalist, refused to say Vive la Belgique (Long live Belgium) on live tv today as he considers himself, you know, a Flemish nationalist. But now that he is the Defence Minister that might be a a bit of a stupid thing to do lol.
places that you can get it (crack cocaine) are some of the most dangerous places in whatever location you happen to be in, mainly for that reason i learned to make my own. - Hunter Biden
damn i didn't know biden was literally heisenberg
Pretty sure making crack is just boiling coke and baking soda in water.
Due to two public holidays I have had two consecutive weekends of three days and I gotta say it is a superior work-life balance. I had time to visit fam one day, one day to clean the house and now one day to relax. There is just so much more time to relax after a week of working. It should at least be the standard everywhere.
What's up with the increasing amounts of videos on social media, talking about how China is so unscientific regarding it's way of treating people, medicines and hospitals being full of pseudoscientific bs, people having no access to "actual scientific, evidence based" medical treatment?
I can see why traditonal Chinese medicine, acupuncture, fire treatment, things like this are hated on and are considered scams, doing people wrong in need, and overall lack evidence (?), but I don't think this'd be the norm everywhere, even if this would actually be the state of practiced medicine (?). This just sound racist, or made up even. How the hell could they take care of that many people with pseudoscientific methods? I don't know what these videos are on about.
Do we have articles or something to repell these accusations? Or anyone able to talk a bit about these methods? I can not imagine these methods being standard in 2025, sounds like something you find on the black market or some kind of private practitioner. I guess it can also simply be just projection, when we are having people doing BBL with motor oils and concrete, and thousands of people in my area making their dicks exploding with having injected too much Vaseline in it over time.
So, let's talk about it guys a bit, if possible.
It's probably just the usual thing the west does, as western systems and social safety nets collapse (healthcare, in this case) they need to distract the population, so they go for the tried and tested "Sure, things are bad, but Bad Guy Country is worse!"
Honestly traditional Chinese medicine isn't even unscientific. Just because something doesn't look exactly like western medicine doesn't make it pseudoscience. Herbalism is scientifically backed, and can be a better solution to some things than prescription drugs. As it has less risk of side effects. Anyone who has ever put Aloe Vera on a sunburn knows how good herbalism can be.
It is actually a known issue though that rural areas in China still lack access to medical care, and the government is making a big push to fix this. China has gone from a fully agrarian country to what they are now in a generation. They're not done building out their infrastucture yet. The CPC has been making rural revitalization a big focus of their current efforts. Because they recognize there is still work to be done there. Which a big part of that is building the proper healthcare facilities.
I imagine the west is using this to try and critisize China. Without mentioning they're actively fixing the issue.
I'm not fully versed on TCM but as chinese diaspora/being casually exposed to parts of it, I know it's some serious stuff (as in, definitely has effects. that I have personally experienced..) and it's not "Just" "traditional" (connotation: some ancient rites that have never changed or evolved in use/practice). Also my layman understanding is that TCM and general culture regarding health/healthcare is that TCM is more preventative in nature, while attitudes about western ("modern") medicine is that it's for ailments/conditions that require immediate attention or reactive in nature... Additionally it's important to note that TCM and western medicine aren't in conflict, or at least it's discouraged for people to believe that TCM is superior or should be the sole mode of healthcare to follow, if that makes sense (I have to note this because in the west I believe it's very common for pseudoscientific/cultish "alternative medicine" to purport that all of modern medicine is bogus or unreliable while their alternative practice is superior).
Also I don't have links on hand but iirc there have been modern scientific medical research into aspects of TCM, such as acupuncture being better than placebo for specific conditions... oh, and my personal observation that dermarolling and microneedling have an odd resemblance to guasha (tho I also see influencers/beauty bloggers telling people to use both/all. two comments: beauty industry has been ramping into skincare/dermatology territory for a while now... also the facial version of guasha popularized by beauty industry/influencers both eastern and western is Different from TCM guasha, which leaves marks that should fade relatively quickly).
Lastly I'll die on this hill: TCM is [mostly]* real medicine while chiropractice is full-on quackery. *moxibustion spooks me and I have the least confidence about that. also cupping
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writing this post made me actually look up cupping, even if only briefly, which I thought was a TCM-only thing, but I learned that cupping and different variants are used in health practices associated with other non-sinosphere cultures, specifically wet cupping which I had never heard of until today. also learned that cupping wasn't prevalent in TCM until 1950s ??
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//not really TCM related but recently I saw a post floating on rednote that was like "[foreign visitor posting]: I noticed yall don't really use pain medications even ibuprofen, what's up with that" and many cn responses being something to the tune of "don't need to mask the pain in order to keep going, we try to find and treat the cause not the symptom eg pain. only use pain medications when it's very hard/impossible to cure the cause such as chronic conditions"
You are right in the aspect that TCM is heavily focused on the prevention aspect moreso than the direct treatment of symptoms. Which is why many TCM practitioners will literally prescribe 养生, take care of your health, which is obvious and I think gives many people bad experiences. TCM is built upon natural remedies so I'm sure it's limited in that regard, and also doesn't have a surgical aspect.
What I will say though as someone who believes in TCM, not everything you hear people say is TCM is TCM, even in certain "clinics". TCM is based on 3 foundational books 黄帝内经，难经，伤寒杂病论。They lay out foundational philosophy (which is bullshit, much of it is old hypotheses of how disease comes about, miasma type of thing) and treatment of illness comes from. Many hacks will use the title of TCM to sell weird alternative shit, so be careful and if you do want to try TCM make sure they are certified from a university, because in many countries you can get a bachelor's in TCM, and that's about the only way you can trust the practitioner.
I wonder sometimes if Western info-warfare strategy is shifting to "flooding the zone", producing such an avalanche of dubious quality media on China that no accurate picture of successes can be easily accessed by the Western lay audiences
A Western "great firewall" may take on a quite different form to what we have seen in China in the last few decades for example, given the aesthetic concessions required to maintain illusions of liberalism in the popular consciousness
I expect some mixture of legalism, as we observe regarding proscribed organisations in the UK, and systematic covert as well as overt online misinformation
This doesn't directly address your points on traditional medicine, but I certainly agree that it is a worthwhile topic
I wonder sometimes if Western info-warfare strategy is shifting to “flooding the zone”
It's been part of the strategy for a long time, and not just for China. Bourgeois media inundates people with baseless or highly distorted claims (often very time-consuming to disprove, and affects collective consciousness over time), and both social media sites and search engines promote this content while censoring reliable sources
Im sure they mix some traditionsl elements into it and it's fine, i heard from some mexicans talking about their experiences in healthcare in China and one mentioned getting treated for s broken foot finger or something and being surprised about the treatment but it worked nonetheless, i don't exactly remember what the treatment was but it worked i guess, also remember the guy saying that the doctor told him "im not treating your symptoms, but directly fixing the problem". This is an anecdote so it should be taken with s grain of salt.
I imagine that with the scale of China, doctors are fundamentally trained differently than in western nations and have to be more efficient with medicine in contrast. There is also the inherent incentive in western nations for doctors to prescribe more drugs in order to make more profit, even though it may not be needed. I personally have an issue with medicine in the US because a relative got a > $1000 bill for literally just filling a form in the hospital, they didnt even get treated since they left because the hospital was to goddamn slow.
Ultimately, many drug compounds come from stuff that can be naturally found, so why should one take a pill of X compound if it was proven to be found in a tea of X herb? Having it in a pill form doesn't make it more "scientific".
I saw a video claiming that evul cpu was starving its citizens and totally going to collapse, because a construction worker ate a bun and a leek. The video was even filmed by a chinese-american.
Kneecap is genuinely a fantastic time, I've got the feeling that their and Bob Vylans acts at Glastonbury are likely going down in history as one of the most important sets in punk music.
Yeah they are legit and their music is great too. I like to listen to it at the gym.
It seems like Somalia is kinda collasping now (again). Al-Shabaab has taken another town in central somalia. Both Jubaland and Puntland have become de-facto independent, Puntland has even arranged a meeting with clan elders of the disputed Khatumo state.
Shit, hopefully they don't go the way of Syria.
I am going to be honest. They will likely. I know Trump (and Turkey) have both been flirting with Puntland and Somaliland (since they both border the Gulf of Aden), it seems that they are prepared to basically salvage the "important" parts and let the rest fall. Ethiopia and Kenya are will definitely feel it. Especially since their border regions are majority somali.