I have been active for a few years within our party now and I can’t say I have made friends. Sure, I like working with them and we have hang out occasionally but that’s about it. We get along fine and we can do the work that’s required from us.

My actual friend group is diverse. Over here in Belgium it is pretty left leaning but not always communist. They’re just people who I met throughout the years with whom I share interests. They do help me out with party stuff and they are sympathetic towards my efforts, so that’s good I think.

Back in The Netherlands I have my childhood friends group and they are probably even further removed from me politically speaking. One of my friends even is a politician for VVD, the right wing neolib party. But they are still my friends with whom I have experienced so much. Whenever we get together we have a lot of fun despite political differences. I try to keep looking at the person behind the politics. It’s what we do with our party whenever someone says they for far right for example. You can either alienate them or try to talk to them to see where there is common ground and to see if you can get them on your side.

Things are almost never that black and white. I get along fine with most people and my world would remain very small if I instantly shut down connections with people that have different views. That being said, if one of my friends was an outright neonazi I’d cut ties. I do have my limits.

Must be some big conspiracy and UEFA is clearly pro Putler. Or it was just a mistake, given how other Donetsk born players were just listed as Ukrainian.

One thing I like to do when I eat alone is to watch food tours from all over the world, especially on channels like The Food Ranger. It’s a nice way to learn about different cultures and in a weird way it makes me emotional. Like, today I watched a video about an Iranian street food tour and everyone in the video is so nice and friendly and smiling and welcoming, which is such a stark contrast with how our media portrays countries like Iran. This whole world view of dehumanizing other countries gets shoved in our faces constantly and it makes me sad that these people can’t do anything about it.

I don´t think so unfortunately

That would be a move that would actually start a war I think. Congo is one of the largest natural resources producers in the world and the West will not let that slide.

Edit: I now see this is Congo-Brazzaville and not Congo-Kinshasa which changes things a bit. Brazzaville is still a big oil country but it is not as resource rich as Kinshasa.

Completely out of character I will fly for my holiday soon and funny enough I am nervous that the airport will be blocked by climate activists lol. Guess it is easy supporting when you’re not the one being targeted normally.

Friedrich Engels owned a factory, making him a capitalist. Sure, it might not be the most ethical thing to do when you consider yourself a communist but it’s not always that black and white. Also, you owning one appartment and renting it out for whatever reason will not make you comparable to big property owners that own 600 houses.

It’s better not to own an appartment that you’re only going to rent out though.

Clearly, as they are not Gen Sigma yet

Considering I was suffering from bronchitis for three weeks and I will soon go on a 2 week holiday to what is basically a vertical only island I am starting to wonder why I ever registered to run a marathon in october lol. But I will keep training and inshallah

Keep in mind this is a much smaller scale than any bigger society but there are some Belgian communes for example that use time as a metric. For example: I work x amount of time doing stuff for you, like working in your garden, and you then owe me x amount of time to do something for me. Basically everyone trades their time to meet the needs of the commune.

Basically something like this should be doable:

I tried laying down in the back and if I slide the front seats forward it is big enough. You wouldn’t be able to constantly have the bed installed I think but that’s why I will build a convertable setup. That way I have room to sit during the day and at night I can unfold the construction so that it is a bed.

With a smaller van you just have to be creative. My sister in law also has a van but it is one of those moving vans, like a small truck. She can fit an entire kitchen, seating area, bedroom and bathroom in there. I will never get that in a Berlingo but based on the vids on YouTube and the build my father in law has I should be able to manage.

Yeah there’s a lot of them on the road. Solid car.

Bunkerposting as we speak

Citroën Berlingo

Well maybe not van as in the kind of vehicle you’d think about when you see these van life people, but it’s a Citroën Berlingo. It has enough space to add a bed and with some thought you can also add storage and a system that can be modified into a bench and a table.

My father in law has one too and despite it not being the biggest van model out there, it is surprisingly spacious and you can comfortably take long trips with it.

Lmao I still can’t access RT due to sanctions

One of my dreams is coming true as tomorrow I will buy a van which I will convert to a sleeping area so that I can tour around a bit. The world may be going to shit but I will at least have had some adventure before that.

I’m guessing most advanced countries have advanced surveillance techniques and they are 100% using them to check on their people. ‘Surveillance’ is also such a container term. Everything from national security to counterterrorism to spying on dissidents to just collecting data can be seen as surveillance. But China bad because it is developing a system on their own outside of the US sphere of influence, I guess. The former head of the Dutch Secret Service has now become Dutch Prime Minister but you don’t see the media losing their shit over it. Meanwhile, imagine a person like that becoming the head of state in China.

My Chinese friends always tell me the security in China can be pretty intense, especially going in and out of the country. But they never felt threatened or anything. Anecdotal for sure, but sometimes it seems people forget you can actually talk to Chinese people about their experiences.

Babe, the Wearable Worksurface stays on during sex