YouTube Video

I was provided this video in a lib pit during a discussion on BRICS. It was somehow supposed to refute the legitimacy of the project and cast it in a negative light (I guess?)

Honestly the video seems like high-school level information-wise, and says very little other than (paraphrased) things like:

• Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea cooperate

• These four states which USA considers to be enemies are helping each other, for some nefarious reason

• Countries which share a border can trade with each other

• Other countries in Asia can also trade and cooperate with these four countries that we don't like, because they also share borders with them

It never explicitly says if or why this is all bad, per se, it just heavily implies it with the imagery of "blue team good red team bad", and depicting the leaders of these four evil countries as cartoon super-villains.

Preferably something that goes over the pre-2022 history, covers the 2014 coup and subsequent civil war in Donbass, and NATO expansion.

My goal is to try to MAYBE convince some libs that yes, there are in fact two sides to this conflict, and all things considered NATO is the aggressor here. It's not just ebil Putler trying to rEcReAtE tHe SoViEt UnIoN and INVADE EUROPE !!!!!111

Thanks comrades!

It's exceedingly effective.

I was talking politics with someone earlier today, on the topic of the new BRICS payment system, and the conversation went something like this:

> Me: Countries should be able to trade in their own currencies, and no one country (USA or otherwise) should be able to declare unilateral sanctions and cause sabotage just because they want to.

> Lib: Shouldn't USA be able to sanction Russia for its invasion of Ukraine?

> Me: I don't think any country should be able to declare unilateral sanctions. On the other hand, if the global community wants to decide on sanctions together, that's another story. However, maybe the USA themselves should be sanctioned for their involvement in the 2014/2015 coup in Ukraine that started this whole mess.

> Lib: Were those democratic protesters not legitimate?

> Me: It was a far right, violet coup that overthrew a democratically elected government [Provides sourced examples of far-right violence during the coup, evidence it was a coup, and how it was clearly in the interests of Western governments]

> Lib: [Provides Wikipedia links of the "Democratic mass movements in Ukraine"]

> Me: Yes that is a textbook example of a CIA backed colour revolution.

> Lib: That is Russian disinformation.

Why exactly does "disinformation" always have to come from "the other, evil foreign governments"? Why the fuck does Russia care what I think? Wouldn't it make a lot more fucking sense that our own government is trying to manipulate our understanding of the world?

I don't think I have ever once heard a lib use the term "American disinformation" or "misinformation from our own government" - it's always the evil Russians or Chinese. Of course reactionaries and chuds always cry foul at what the government says but it's only about dumb bullshit like vaccines and bike lanes.

The second any information runs contrary to the Libs heavily propagandised worldview it can immediately be dismissed as "foreign propaganda" - no matter how thoroughly sourced or researched or documented. It's just an immediate off switch for both the conversation and their brain. And, conveniently, they have handy NATOpedia articles to counter with.

Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED Talk. Don't forget to like and subscribe.

Free Palestine 🇵🇸

> This “multi-currency system” will include new mechanisms not only to de-dollarize trade, but also to encourage investment in BRICS members and other emerging markets and developing economies, including a BRICS Clear platform, a “new system of securities accounting and settlement”, and financial instruments denominated in national currencies.

!inshallah

What a stupid fucking electoral system. Least actually-democratic system in the western world by far.

!trump-anguish

Lost my combo part way through and slipped a few times at the end but still got an A.

I'm not great at Stepmania but I like to play.

BIG CHUNGUS

Link to song pack for Stepmania if you're so inclined

Not a lib

I need to be really careful here not to tread into any anti-vaxx territory here but this is just sus af. Why would they take a break from the mass-murder of children to ensure those same children are vaccinated against polio?

Not to mention that the vaccine is going to be administered by the UN - an organisation who have lost nearly 400 employees during this holocaust. Why would the Zionist entity suddenly change their tune and say "Oh, right this way, come on in!"

Is it a photo op? Are they legit worried that polio will spread to their soldiers?

There must be some ulterior motive, right? This just doesn't make sense. WTF is going on here?

(btw be warned there's lot of !brainworms antivaxxers in the Twitter comments there, god damnit they make me so mad)

In this post I'm going to give a quick overview as well as provide some resources for downloading song packs and whatnot, as it's a little bit unclear how to get started with this game.

So, for those of you who have fond memories of playing DDR at your local arcade, great news! You can play it at home basically for free! It's a shit load of fun, and doubles as an excellent cardio workout that you can do in your living room (if you don't live above people in a wood apartment building, that is).

If you have kids, it's also fun times for fun families (just make sure to do a cursory review of the songs and remove any that have any drug/sex references in them, they're rare but they pop up from time to time). Get the energy out of the kids & help build and improve their rhythm.

The software works on all major operating systems (including Linux) although from what I've read support for all versions of OSX is a bit dicey. You can download it from the official website here.

Out of the box it only comes with three songs. The main repository for downloading new song packs is here:

https://search.stepmaniaonline.net/

All of the old/original arcade song packs are also available for download on this website that looks like it was designed in 2003:

https://zenius-i-vanisher.com/v5.2/simfiles.php?category=simfiles

Furthermore, there's a good beginner FAQ here.

On Windows once you download the song packs they can be installed here:

C:\Games\Stepmania\Songs\StepMania 5\Songs

Not sure about Linux/Mac but I'm sure it's equally straightforward.

The dance pads themselves you can just buy online and they cost about $30. There are more advanced ones as well of course but if you're just getting started the basic ones work fine.

Additionally there is a decent !reddit-logo community for the game.

PSA: People also play this game on their keyboards and there are song packs specifically designed for those players. Don't make the same mistake I did and try to play them with your feet they're absolutely impossibly difficult even on the easiest setting. Make sure you're downloading the right type of simpack!

PSA2: Different song packs are of course programmed by different people who have different ideas of what "easy" is. The standard DDR songpacks from the original arcade games are all very straightforward, but a lot of the other custom ones are way harder even on the easy settings, so just a heads up there.

I think that covers all the basics. Happy dancing!

Wild.

I will take this as a good omen.

!fidel-cool

For those who don't know:

> The 26th of July Movement was a Cuban vanguard revolutionary organization and later a political party led by Fidel Castro. The movement's name commemorates the failed 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba, part of an attempt to overthrow the dictator Fulgencio Batista.

NATOpedia link

Not a lib

Here's the basic design:

!

2 tomatoes, 2 cape gooseberry, 2 ghost pepper

!

My first attempt at outdoor hydroponics

The tomato plants are an eldritch horror

!

but growing some lovely fruit

!

Cape gooseberries have some flowers but I don't think they usually bloom until later in the year. The ghost peppers have been drowned out by the obnoxiously large tomatoes, I don't expect any peppers from them I'm afraid.

So far I'd say my first attempt has been a modest success.

EDIT: Here's an earlier pic showing the plumbing:

!

Not a lib

I've heard this from two different sources. Something to keep an eye on. If this turns out not to be true (it's just within the past few hours) just comment and I'll delete the post.

Edit: Not a lib

Edit2: There's also this

> Iran Raises Red Flag Of Revenge > Tehran- Minutes after Iran’s Supreme Leader promised a “harsh punishment” for Israel in retaliation for assassination of Palestinian leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday, a symbolic red flag was hoisted atop a major mosque in the holy city of Qom.

So the only Metal Gear game I've ever actually played was the 1998 Metal Gear Solid for the PS1 when I was a kid. I've not played a single other game in the series since.

Which ones would you recommend? Would it be better to play them in chronological order to get the full overarching story, or do they work ok independent of one another?

Since the would-be assassin of !cheeto-man seems to have been one of them.

Well, shit.

HELL YEAH

Not a lib

Edit: Just noticed the date. The fact that he was doing this shit even before the all-out genocide vindicates him even more IMO.

God damn the balls on this man

Not a lib

Edit: Holy shit I just noticed that bro is wearing a Lilo & Stitch onesie lmao !che-smile

I don't really know where else to post this, so I figured my comrades at Hexbear might appreciate it.

A couple months ago I was coming back home from the weekly Palestine solidarity rally. On my way back home I needed to somehow obtain a $5 bill to tip the grocery delivery guy that weekend, and thought "Hell, I haven't had a cigar in a while, maybe I'll pick one up". There's a cute little Cuban cigar shop down the road, so I popped in.

The owner is a short Cuban man, and he was rummaging through his cigars doing whatever cigar-store owners do in their down-time. I walk in the door. He looks at me, then looks at my keffiyeh, then back at me, then back at my keffiyeh, and then says "...Palestine?" Not knowing his politics, I reluctantly say "...yes 😬?"

This triggers a 40 minute long discussion, whereupon he goes off on how fucking despicable what's Israel is doing in Gaza is how they are getting away with mass murder in broad daylight, doing "exactly what the nazis did" etc etc. He had clearly been following what's been happening and was sickened by it and I got the impression he didn't have much of an outlet to express his thoughts (as many of us don't).

I wanted to buy two small cigars (the ones on the right in the photo) and he said that he'd give me a discount, and ended up giving me three free of charge, on the condition that the next time that I was out protesting the genocide in Gaza that I "yell a little louder for him" ✊, to which I of course agreed (there are only two in the photo because I've smoked one already) I honestly tried as hard as I could to give him my money but he simply would not accept any.

Although I left the cigar shop without the $5 bill I went in for, I did leave with three exquisite Cuban cigars free of charge.

So, I felt I needed to repay this guy for the ~$100 of free merchandise he gave me. I ordered him a keffiyeh made in the West Bank just like the one I was wearing. When it arrived, I popped back into the cigar shop and said " I have something for you." and put it on his desk.

> I will never forget this for the rest of my life. How much did you pay for this?

I lied and said "Only about $60, don't worry about it."

> You're lying. What cigars are your favourite?

I insisted that he not give me any more cigars because I was trying to pay him back, but he wouldn't take no for an answer. He ended up giving me four deluxe Cuban Bolivar cigars straight from Havana. On the way out he gave me a fist bump accompanied by a "Free Palestine".

So Hexbears, this is how I unintentionally stocked my cigar humidor with solidarity for Palestine 🇵🇸✊

I'm going to save a spare one so that maybe one day I can smoke it on the beaches of Gaza when Palestine is free.

Not a lib