If its anything for you there like my city than the Hasidic/Orthodox Jewish people are probably some of the strongest voices in the community speaking out against genocide in Palestine. Ridiculous propaganda angle to go for, anyone actually involved in street level community would know its bullshit.

Was looking into options here in my city in Canada recently to take a Manadarin class. Specifically I was looking for beginner courses aimed specifically at english speakers, and was surprised at how limited the options were. Then I remembered that several years ago the government went on a racist tirade where they shut down most of the Confucius Institutes in the country for frivolous (racist) reasons. Very disappointing as most of the current options seem to be more aimed at Chinese diaspora who have a background from home but need to practice. I tried before a Mandarin class that was more similar to this when I used to be in uni and struggled heavily as one of the only non ethnic Chinese people in the course. From what I recall the Confucius Institute used to offer classes geared towards adult anglos similar to the way Alliance Française does, but now that option just seems to be gone. Truly this country sucks.

its so true, and yet when I talk to american friends who live in smaller cities they are envious of the urban development that occurs here even. Sad state of affairs in North America

It’s really hard to fathom how quickly things have changed in China in the past ~20 years. I haven’t been there since early 2017 which doesn’t feel that long ago, but I’m planning another trip there hopefully for next year and I already know to expect massive changes since then.

Meanwhile in my city here in Canada the fact that we have built a half dozen decent residential towers and put in some bike and bus lanes downtown since then is sadly good progress compared to a lot of cities on the continent. Truly just different levels of progress in China.

Based only on reading this thread I find this all very confusing and unnecessary, but this is the sort of strange niche drama that only small independent message boards can offer, just not the same on corporate social media, sorta gotta love it.

I hope not I steal a lot of memes from there

I’ve done what I feel is a pretty good job ignoring US election (canadian here), but the liberal head loss over this I sadly cannot ignore. Otherwise reasonable people acting as if the world has ended when this man has already been president ? Some of the same people who agreed with me that KKKamala is not in any capacity a “harm reduction” vote acting as if martial law has just been declared or some shit ? Maybe I’m just the disagreeable asshole but I just find this behavior sad.

Obviously fuck Trump should go without saying how pathetically shitty that dude is but I mean come on. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been murdered and terminally wounded under the democrats, not trump. Roe v Wade was overturned under the democrats, not Trump. We have witnessed one of the most acute transfers of wealth to the ultra rich under the dems, not the republicans. The war in the Ukraine started and was goaded on under Biden’s admin, not Trump.

I’m not trying to say in any sense that things will get a single iota better with republicans in office but I feel like I’m taking crazy pills seeing the reactions online and from people I would consider to be rational individuals. They might even be right that these things will get worse under another Trump admin more quickly or in different ways than if Kamala won, but still I find the reaction to it ridiculous.

Not that any american needs to or should care about my opinion considering I’m relatively removed from the situation but like, am I being unempathetic or unreasonable ?

I’m going to extremely highly recommend the movie Mandy from 2018 with Nicolas Cage. Its sorta a horror movie but its mostly just an absolutely bizarre and unsettling experience.

Second half might be bit gory I honestly cant recall but I don’t think too bad. Anyway I cannot recommend it enough if you like freaky and disturbing type horror movies.

Agreed comrade, I am ready to enjoy a long weekend

I thought her and Bradley Cooper were both fantastic in the “A Star is Born” remake from a few years back

I just gave up on work and went home between the news today and the Champions League both popping off I was never gonna be getting any shit done anyway

Okay that’s fair, I’ve had ants in one shitty shouldn’t be legal apartment I lived in and they totally suck. I like watching them outside though

Ant should be higher imo otherwise good list

Took the words out my mouth, truly despise it here.

Does anyone in this country want war ? Sure there are some deranged PMC neolibs out there but I spend most of time around median or below income people, aka most people, and I’d say even the most reactionary amongst them have no appetite for war. All vibes based analysis really but the disconnect between the “average” person here and the actions/rhetoric of our government just seems so far removed. Not sure what to make of it really.

Anyone else rapidly approaching 30 and have no clue what to do with their life cause they didn’t think they’d make it this far ? Absolutely no clue what I should do career wise, never have had less of an idea. If any comrades have some worldly insight it would go a long way for me right now

I love them

I’ve been a huge charli xcx fan for like over a decade now and liked her new album but now i cant even enjoy this shit cause of the damn memes even she said she’s sick of it now lol

Definitely although hard to say how exactly because the ones openly belonging to the Moscow Patriarchate are being gradually deplatformed for years.

this is what I was getting at I think when I said it might be viewed as a crucial error, because that group that has been systematically deplatformed can’t be tiny right ? and its one thing to mess with nationality and politics of these people but I feel like attacking the church is unnecessary step too far

It’s not catholicism, there are below 8% of catholics in Ukraine, it’s state sponsored schism in the orthodox church, purely politically motivated and although the docrine remains the same the new de facto state religion supports the ukronazi actions very much and entire situation looks kinda like church support for ustase during ww2, though in this case the Kiev church is more of a puppet, after all, every sincgle church that didn’t complied ended up shaken up by Kiev goons with confiscates and priest imprisonments. Legality of the schism is also kinda dubious, because even if other patriarchates recognized it, Moscow didn’t so it’s outside meddling, something previously heavily criticized in orthodox church.

When I said Catholicism I meant Orthodox I think sorry, I’m not as familiar as i should be with branches of Christianity. Totally agree with you that new doctrine is clearly aligned to push ukronazi agenda, I guess my question is just to what degree is there pushback against this in the Ukraine ? Perhaps its just my preconceived biases but id have thought that even among those in the Ukraine who were on board with russophobia, NATO war ect there must be many who find government attacks on the church unnecessary/unsavory, as it seems from what I gather that that previously existing ukrainian orthodox church was far removed from Russia already and really only took issue with theological type stuff related to the schism (though once again i am theologically illiterate so good chance i am misunderstanding)

Honestly I could see Ukronazi fight against the church being talked about as one of their biggest errors in the future (outside of relying on US for anything lol). Surely this is an unpopular move with vast swathes of Ukrainian population ? I know many of them take their Catholicism seriously, and its not like this church was some bastion of Soviet society, deeply reactionary institution already, just seems unnecessary to force this change