Comradeship // Freechat

Let me know what else I can do to promote this place.

Cheers!

I realize this might be a silly question, but I feel much safer in this instance than in mainstream social networks.

I'm also aware that GenZedong have an Akkoma instance and a Matrix instance, but I just want to have a wider variety of social networks.

Do you have or at least can you recommend alternatives to Facebook, Tumblr and Blogger that exist within the Fediverse that are friendly to people in this instance?

I just never had a Tumblr account mainly because of my anti-SJW phase and have even less desire since NSFW content was banned in 2018.

I would appreciate it quite a bit if you could help me with that issue.

Life is just becoming untenable. It's bad enough being ill and disabled, dealing with chronic pain, endless hospital appointments, multiple surgeries and seeing my life slip down the drain because I'm not well enough to do anything worthwhile. But I could live with this. What I can't cope with any more is poverty.

It's one thing going through benefit appeals. OK my money gets stopped for months during the appeal, and I rack up debt and have to beg for food on here. It's hard because I usually get ignored on mutual aid so had to start asking for help on here, and I'm always worried that people on here will stop responding too. So living with constant threat of hunger too. Having to eke out each morsel of food carefully. But I could live with that for a while until my benefits get sorted, since it's temporary.

But now the government say they are cutting disability benefits drastically, to the point I will not be able to live on them, AND they're making it virtually impossible to claim them AND they're forcing claimants into work placements. Multiple doctors have written me letters of support saying I'm totally unfit for any type of work whatsoever, and need help with basic daily things. Yet I still got 0 points on my last assessment. So there is no way the DWP will take the doctor's word for it that I can't work when these new rules come in (and the government say they're being implemented in 54 days.) I know I can't work any more, it's not even a debate.

On top of cancer treatment and a stroke, I'm currently recovering from my last foot surgery. I can't even wear shoes right now, and they said the recovery could take up to 4 months to be complete. I need another foot surgery and I've been given the date - 24th April. That's three months from now. That means just as I recover from this surgery I'll be having another one and have to go through the whole thing again. And this recovery has been horrible - as well as being unable to wear shoes I ended up in A&E when my surgical wounds got infected and it's still infected. I have to get the dressings changed by the nurse multiple times a week and pay for my own bandages because the NHS don't pay for that! I got the money for the bandages by begging on here. And that alone puts me at risk of getting in trouble with the DWP. AND I have to constantly fight to keep my meds as they're always trying to stop or reduce them on cost grounds, never on medical grounds.

I just feel that this latest news about disability benefits is the final straw. When this is implemented I don't see any way out but suicide. I am scared of course, I tried once before and just ended up in intensive care for 5 days. I'm worried about making another mess of it. This sick world does everything it can to make the most reliable and painless suicide methods unavailable, while making people's lives more unbearable so they want to die, but can't.

I'm thinking my only real option is drowning. I live right by the sea and have some diazapam tablets, maybe I can take enough to knock myself out so the drowning won't be so bad. I should stress I am planning to do this in several months when the financial situation becomes clear, not right now so I don't want any do-gooders phoning the police on me or any shit. I am only writing this so if the time comes people will know I did this purely for financial reasons, because the government have bullied me to the point of having no other way out.

I will not accept being out on the street, or moved from shelter to shelter. In fact I asked my shitty therapist about sheltered accommodation, you know what she said? She said you have to pay to live there, it's not free. I said so what about when I'm not in receipt of benefits, such as during appeals? She said then I'd be evicted. There is no security or safety, anywhere.

I am tired of this. The immense stress of benefit assessments and appeals is bad enough, but this new government have taken away all hope of a survivable future. It's already exhausting and stressful begging for food and never knowing whether I will get a response or not, but this new situation means the end of all hope and a life of permanent destitution and homelessness.

I don't know why it took me so long

I needed to get these thoughts out of my head, so I wrote a quick draft that I might work on further in the future. This is definitely not good enough right now, but I'll be glad for any criticism so I can identify the issues better. It's also not sourced, so all facts are either from memory or maybe even unverified and possibly incorrect.

I have no internet and I must post.

The idea of California seceding from the U.S., known as "Calexit," has gained prominence in social and political movements, especially during times of tension. Let's explore the reasons behind this proposal!

Political and Cultural Differences:

California is predominantly progressive, often clashing with the conservative policies of the federal government, especially during the Trump administration. Issues such as immigration and climate change are points of conflict.

Disproportionate Economic Contribution:

As the largest economy in the U.S., California contributes significantly to federal taxes. Some argue that the state "supports" other regions without receiving proportional benefits in infrastructure or social programs.

Legislative Autonomy:

California already has strict laws in areas like the environment and labor rights. Independence would allow for greater freedom to implement progressive policies without federal government interference.

Unique Cultural Identity:

With its diversity and strong technology and entertainment economy, many Californians see the state as culturally distinct from the rest of the country. This unique identity reinforces the idea of secession.

Recent Events:

The tensions during the Trump administration and the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the differences in public policy between California and the federal government, reigniting the debate over the possibility of secession.

This has been a concern of mine for awhile now, and it's finally happening. My only close friends are people I have grown up my whole life with. We're all suburbanite cishet crackermen who were well-off enough to never have to struggle with potentially starving or becoming homeless; predictably, this has fostered some garbage politics, mainly trumpanzees and blue MAGA. With Cheeto Hitler removing whatever shreds of a mask of humanity the Great Satan had left, I now have my blue MAGA friends calling out my trumpanzee friends for their support of Drumpf. The trumpanzees have been silent since the inauguration, and today the group chat has been split.

It was already a terrible form of liberalism for me to have let things slide for the sake of peace and friendship with people who, if I wasn't already close to, would throw in the cuck pit. There is still a major issue in that the most vocal of the friends I'm still in touch with are blue MAGA to the point that, if I'm to grow a spine and actually stop letting things slide, I'm worried that I'll be smeared as fascist myself and lose the close friends I have because pushing back against great man theory takes that make Orange Satan out to be a uniquely evil force instead of recognizing the evil of the system that produced him will invariably come across as defending Trump. I'm bad at making myself go outside, let alone making friends, that I'll have very few IRL people in my actual life.

Edit: The issue seems to have been deeper than politics, and the sides reconciled. However, the baseline seems to be "no outright evil political beliefs", and Marxism Leninism is considered evil by most burgers.

Rachel Reeves, the evil thing who is trying to save money by making it impossible to access disability payments, has a net worth of 2 million. Meanwhile the country is trying to save a small amount of money by stopping me from getting what I need to live, both in terms of meds and basic income for food and shelter.

I've spoken on here before about how doctors and pharmacists are trying to stop me accessing my meds. I had one doctor try to stop prescribing me a med that was prescribed by a consultant at the hospital - because that med is "too expensive" at £2 per pill. It's too big a burden on the country's finances to give me this med. I had to fight to keep receiving it. Then when the neurologist prescribed me another pill, the pharmacist complained about the cost (£12 per pill) and the GP's surgery will only prescribe me 8 a month because of the cost, instead of the 30 a month the neurologist ordered. Then they tried to stop my topiramate because it can cause birth defects and I won't take contraception (check out my username, I clearly don't need contraception).

The latest one happened today. As a side effect of my cancer treatment I have developed terrible eczema. It's so bad that it gets terribly infected to the point that I have been admitted to hospital with these infections countless times. I sometimes wake up with my skin fused to my bedsheets with dried blood. I'm supposed to get 2 bottles of eczema cream a month. That's barely enough as it is. Now they've cut it down to one a month. No medical reason at all. It's just it will save the country £20 a month. Stupid, short sighted fake saving that will end up costing more when I have to spend more time in hospital. I hate this shitty world. Everything is always difficult, it's always a never ending battle to get the absolute basics. Those on top live in luxury while those at the bottom can't get even the basic things we need.

I know there's a search history function, but it's not helping. A few months ago I found a youtube video that was several New Retro Wave pieces of music, one after the other. I can't remember the name of the video or the names of the pieces though. All I remember is the first piece was an instrumental and was one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard. The thumbnail/picture was a head-on drawing of a car in neon colours.

I've tried typing everything I can think of, both into youtube's search function, and my youtube history search. I've tried typing different combinations of new retrowave, synthwave, chillwave, mix, collection, compilation. I've searched through so many videos. Can't find it. I want to hear that first piece of music again, so much.

This post is the continuation of this post. I was going to make plans to live with drewfro66, he said he we can do a voice call, but I never heard anything from him. So I'm going to seek for someone else on here.

So the current Trump administration is trying to deport Indigenous Americans. However, Indigenous Americans have no option, but to RESIST ANY ATTEMPTS to put into internal exile.

Native Americans will not give up fighting for their rights.

I really like a lot about the IFUSA, with the primary exception being the obvious fact that they’re liberals. Does anyone know of a similar American organization with this level of professionalism and anti-fascist zeal, but not liberals? (Not just a party, but specifically an anti-fascist united front org that I could volunteer for in some capacity.)

Hell I’d even accept one that is partially liberal but isn’t outright anticommunist like the IFUSA is (see the three arrows in their logo, and the “about us” section on their website)

To preface, this is not praxis or relevant, and I'm not going to pretend it is. Nor am i going to pretend like this is aplicable to anything irl. I'm legitimately just curious about the socialist perspective on this.

Anyway, I just finished up playing a certain game (which I won't name cause spoilers, but if you've seen a crow in a broken mirror then you know what I'm talking about) and it was another one of those stories where charecters try to "end death" and ergo end suffering. Evangelion does this too, if I remember right [it's been a few years since i watched it so i might be wrong]. and it shows up uncommonly in some other places like pathologic, and honestly I'm conflicted.

Essentially the idea is that some charecter(s) have the power (or wish to) end death in some way or to create some general entropy where people are united as a general whole and not in singularity. From what i can tell, the characters who wish for this are depicted all in some negative light, or at the very least are on the wrong side of things (this is just my interpretation of course). For pathologic the charecter is depicted as generally stupid and incompetent and utopian, in eva its depicted as evil and selfish, and in the game I just played the character is depicted as essentially desperate and afraid.

And, I think thats right, right? The general anti-thesis to these characters is that to have something is to necessitate nothing, and visa versa. If you were to have no suffering you would have no happiness, and if you had no death there would be no change. This feels correct, and possibly even dialectical (I think, honestly the philosophy of marxism still eludes me to an extent. Sorry Gramsci). But simultaneously there's two things nagging in the back of my mind.

First is the similarity of these arguments to those used by conservatives to continue the capitalist system. That if there was no suffering that there would be nothing to live for, and that the death and suffering caused by capitalism is just the nature of the world.

The second is that death is the status quo, the cycle is the status quo. But those ending death are seen in the opposite light, that they are the ones in power and it is through death and change that the people are liberated, in a sense. Personally I'm...wary of stories where the ones threatening the status quo are seen as bad (discounting Eva, since SEELE are the ones in power and I don't want to defend fascists and all)

Like I said, obviously this matters very little. I doubt any of us are going to be given godlike powers to change the fabric of the universe. But I wanted some different perspectives on this than from what I'll see from liberals and such.

So, the Big Tech has started praising the current United States Government, a lot of people are deciding to leave the Big Five and Xitter.

This guide will help everyone to join alternatives. 2025 and beyond will be the era of mass migration from popular websites.

I'm sorry for ranting, but I need to let the steam off.

The amount of redditors defending Elon Musk is beyond pissing me off. This piece of shit literally sieg hailed and people are defending him like crazy, some going even to the length of saying it isn't a nazi salute because the arm angle is wrong............................................

The thread that finally pissed me off to this point is this one in r/linux_gaming.

The sheer amount of libs that think there shouldn't be politics in a fucking Linux subreddit is beyond baffling, and the amount of people just defending Musk just pisses me off to no end. At this point I'm done with that shit ass platform. I'll delete my account after I bookmark some of the actual useful threads I saved over the years. FUCKING HELL.

Imagine having a huge fence and still being afraid of journalists standing on the driveway.

note: the section labeled other things I want to read is just things I find interesting and want to learn about, not necessarily an endorsement of the ideologies or authors on there (and also not necessarily not an endorsement)

I'm really grateful for the help I've received from you previously but I just found out I'm going to need your help for a bit longer. I'm making this post on Hexbear's Mutual Aid too, but sometimes my posts there don't get responses, or sometimes I have to make a request two or three times before getting a response, so I'm posting it here too.

As you may know by now, I'm going through a disability benefit appeal. (I'm a thyroid cancer patient and had a stroke due to the cancer treatment). The DWP originally estimated that it should be sorted out by the end of February. However I've just received a letter from them saying that it's going to take longer than expected. This is probably because they re-assess disabled people for their benefits so ridiculously frequently that they have a huge backlog to get through. I will probably need help for a few more months (I have no money at all, actually a negative amount due to debts accrued while trying to get through the appeal.) I've also had to use the supermarket vouchers previously given by people on here to buy some other necessary things that I have no way of paying for, like soap, toilet paper, etc. So they are almost used up now.

I don't like to ask for actual money unless it's strictly necessary, as the DWP love to make claimants' lives a misery and I would probably get in trouble if they see money going into my account. I had to ask for money recently though to pay for the bandages for my upcoming surgery. Thankfully, you came through and I'm having my next surgery this Thursday. I wouldn't have been able to have this surgery, nor feed myself this long, without your help, and I'm so grateful.

But now I need to get through the next few months until my situation is resolved. If anyone is willing to help me out with some supermarket gift cards (to avoid getting in trouble with the DWP for receiving money) I'd be so grateful. The easiest option is probably Sainsburys supermarket, you don't have to be in the UK to buy these gift cards, they take debit card, credit card and google pay. You can do it anonymously if you want, and it gets emailed to my email address.

https://www.sainsburysgiftcard.co.uk/

If this is not a suitable option for you, I will gladly accept any kind of vouchers or gift cards that can be used to buy food in the UK - justeat, amazon, etc.

I also really need some dental supplies - toothpaste, dental floss, toothbrush heads. I'm down to my last toothbrush head, I've been using it for a while, it's not very clean and has been used longer than it should be. My toothpaste tube is almost empty. I tried getting free toothpaste samples from the local dentist but they said they don't give those out any more. Would anyone be willing to order these things and send them to me? They can be bought from amazon, or from Boots.com and to order from Boots you don't need to be in the UK, I believe they take paypal.

I just need to get through the next few months.

Hi, I hope I can talk to people who are interested in football here, the current game or the history of it. Also, is anyone familiar with the footballing pyramid of the USSR? I would love to learn more, and was anyone here a matchgoing fan in the USSR? Even better, a player?

So Musk did a gesture that was likely a Nazi salute. It could've also have just been some other type of salute from another country known for genocide. Much like Ukrainian soldiers have been spotted using "resignified" fascist symbols. And honestly, this is always the least damning and easier to backtrack evidence that somebody or some organisation might be similar to the fascists of the thirties.

It doesn't matter if billionaires or politicians maintain prisons for non-citizens on the border, employ immigrant-catching police, uphold laws for hyperexploitation of minority ethnicities at home or use military force to subordinate countries abroad, or even fund the fucking genocide of the Palestinian people.

The only smoking gun these "commentators" have on whether Trump or Musk (or even Bolsonaro or the Azov battalion) might be like the fascists of the 30's is if they replicate (consciously or not) their aesthetics with motorcades, rallies, salutes and swastikas. Otherwise, who can really know?

(Yes, I understand that using those symbols is making their ideological roots explicit, and giving cover and legimaticy to groups that never really went away. My point is not to minimise it, but that a billion articles will be written about "Did Musk do a Fascist Salue?" rather than the much more necessary "is Musk a fascist?")

Is this the real deal?

So, two and a half years ago, I was trapped by a YouTube channel named "China Insights", I was so very confused. I was also trapped by another YouTube channel named "China Observer". I didn't even know that these channels were backed by the Cult. YouTube algorithm screwed me so tight.

Now, when I started defecting from the major Western mainstream media, I also started getting rid of two YouTube channels, and I had to get rid of BS David Zhang.

Shen Yun should have been thrown out of the stage.

We're seeing something happening.

All these wealthy and powerful people who snubbed Trump now flock to him to talk. Class is now on full display as even those who disdained him now flock to be courtiers in his court. Capitalist diversity initiatives designed to paper over the exploitation of the system with carefully tested language and a few hiring preferences are being tossed out. The long, decades-old corporate push in this direction has been discarded.

This is a sea-change and a departure from the collective shrug of the powerful to his first election years ago.

The question is are they visiting Trump to kiss his ring? Or are they visiting him to make him kiss theirs and telling him what the plan is now that they're onboard with the reactionary side of the culture war and are shifting messaging and strategies a bit?

The Democrat-led but empire supported push for cracking down on "disinformation" and "misinformation" which targeted domestic problematic elements outside the grip of mainstream media as well as enemies of empire is being rolled back and in its place I think we have increasingly naked jingoistic power politics. No longer do they hide behind and clutch the supposed liberal values which they've so long used to push the agenda.

Now it's no longer talk of combatting disinfo but I think of just directly fighting Russia and China. The supreme court ruling on Tiktok shows they're open to just admitting that they don't think the values they've long said others need to embrace apply such as free speech are something they need to hide and conceal their motives behind. It's not working much more, their hypocrisy is laid bare with Ukraine, with Gaza, etc. So now it becomes discarded in favor of the same national security excuses for censorship that they've long derided China and Russia and other nations for as being undemocratic for exercising.

It I think illustrates the great possibility we do see greater pushes of control, greater censorship, breaking of encryption, roll-backs of rights granted during the good times such as the first amendment and those of privacy. The boot in other words coming down.

It also gives me pause. Though I largely think liberals are histrionic when it comes to claiming Trump is going to suspend elections and seize power, I admit all these moves have me questioning whether there isn't a small chance that the bourgeoisie and empire would at this junction be fine with a suspension of the institutions and norms in order to carry out crack-downs and to solidify their grasp on power as an empire, to prepare for the well underway cold war with China/Russia. It would give them a certain plausible deniability to carry out unpopular work and then discard certain people should they need to fall back on liberal ideals in a few years after doing most of the dirty work. I'm not saying given his age he'll necessarily last beyond his 4-year mandate, I am saying he might be allowed to wield power in ways that most would assume is proscribed by the institutions of US liberal capitalist 'democracy'.

At the very least we can say that reaction seems ascendant and there is a growing danger for the working class, for minorities, for women as all pretenses of capitalism adopted after the fall of the USSR are being discarded and if you want to war with China, if you want to win a cold war you need to ramp up the reaction at home. This goes beyond Trump's last win or a bunch of petite boug shit-heads getting together with some tea because a black guy won. This I think represents a real, and possibly enduring shift in domestic politics and perhaps international strategy to match though on that we'll have to wait and see.

This along with pushes for re-arming, for increasing "defense" spending and cutting welfare and embracing wackos like RFK jr (whose deranged ideas for the mentally ill and neurodivergent are just a new age coat of paint on old protestant 'tough-it-out' slave mentality work ethics and an excuse to bring back workhouses for cheap domestic manufacturing off the backs of the incarcerated, the differently abled, etc) the truncheon is out, the steel-tipped boots are ready to step on necks. We enter interesting and dangerous times.