I bought a pair of Edifier powered bookshelf speakers (R1280T model, I think) for my living room setup and they work fine for casual TV and movie watching. Cost about $110 total. No subwoofer necessary, but I would add one if I had movie nights with more than just me and my partner (and didn’t have downstairs neighbors, lol).

And that pedophile-enabling, genocidal family are all still living as billionaires and influencing global economics and society using this stolen wealth. This is not some story of the past, it is a story that is still ongoing.

Funny how bipartisanship is all of a sudden a thing when the empire needs to feed the war & suffering machine. But when it comes to providing healthcare, housing, basic needs like food and utilities, or civil rights protections to the people, they just can’t seem to come to an agreement.

Well, I guess the dems do seem to always supply a few of their own to stand with republicans on those topics, which is just a more subtle form of bipartisanship if you think about it.

That’s what makes it a fun meme!

Huh, will be interested to try this and see what changes they implemented to ‘modernize’ it. I used to mod the hell out of Civ3 back in the day, but I also remember the base game being pretty solid.

LMFAO. This meme makes me second-hand embarrassed for Europeans. For 3 reasons.

First, it is politically illiterate and whoever made it is clearly not a serious person.

Second, pretending you’re in Star Wars? Really?

Third, you have not and will never be the ‘good guys’ in any sort of fight, as long as you are a union of capitalist nations still feasting off of the stolen wealth of the global south.

It’s about time the ‘average American’ started questioning what the fuck this system is doing. Many of us have only been trying to show them how messed up it is for the past 250 years or so.

Seriously though, it really is way more tense than I have ever seen it. The kinds of political conversations I am having with neighbors and coworkers are ones that I never would’ve imagined being able to have even 5 years ago.

Yeah, he’s tried some lagers of various origins, and didn’t like any of those. He doesn’t seem to like IPAs either. Off the top of my head that’s all I’ve “offered” him, aside from the Belgian and trappist ales he loves. Just to be clear, I never let him straight up drink it (no drunk kitties allowed, lol), I only offer him the little bit of residual liquid on the rim of the bottle/glass when I finish. The only exception was the 1 or 2 times I caught him lapping from a full glass back in the day, before I knew better than to keep it out of his reach.

Go on then, git!!

My cat does similar when smelling most foods/drinks I may be having, but will straight up start eating anything with egg in it (like challah bread). He also will drink any beer that is Belgian or a trappist ale.

We previously had a cat that ate salsa, and her brother ate an entire sub once. That was pretty funny.

Instead of: Of course they’re going to say they like their government, otherwise they’ll be punished

Say: I am a western chauvinist who thinks people in the global south lack agency

He is a beast on the tennis courts, makes sense.

Most definitely, I didn’t mean to imply that this was itself an instance focused on socialism. Just that it tends to avoid the pitfalls of US-centric Reddit culture in a way I find welcoming and easy to adhere to as it matches my values, which happen to underpin my Marxism. As a (mostly) lurker with limited time, browsing local and reading comments is pretty great for me after a hard day of work.

For context, I naively joined Lemmy.world when making my initial Lemmy account. Moved here within a month or two, lol, cause it was too much like Reddit.

Another thing I like about Lemmy.ml - being a general purpose instance it has a lot going on in terms of topics, and stays federated with instances that I may want to engage with for the purposes of casual conversation or to occasionally discuss politics when I have the time (like today, while recovering from an illness). I appreciate you and all the other admins and community mods here for keeping it this way.

“but they (AES states) don’t have elections”

You show them the rich political structures of Cuba, Vietnam, China, etc. that have multiple legislative and executive organs with elected representatives (e.g., in Cuba, members of the municipal, provincial, and national assemblies, are all elected directly by the people last I checked) with large groups of citizens such as workers councils and trade unions helping craft policy and nominate delegates. Just because they don’t always directly elect the president or head of state doesn’t negate their robust democratic processes…

“but they’re only allowed to vote for one party”

You show them the other parties in AES countries that have representatives in the aforementioned assemblies, but which must align with the principles of the socialist state based on their constitutions, as well as the counter example of the US and other western liberal states where any party with power only serves capital and not the people…

“but they can’t criticize their government”

You show them plenty of examples of citizens criticizing their government without reprisal, as well as statistics on their overall satisfaction with the job their government is doing, and how they only crack down on people trying to commit fraud, foment violence against the government, or otherwise exploit others…

“ahah, see, they ARE authoritarian because they didn’t let them do that and executed/imprisoned them, they’re political prisoners!!!”

No, dipshit, they’re just protecting everyone else from the asshole bourgeoisie in their country. Isn’t that supposed to be what you’re all about?

(just an example of some of the conversations I’ve had with my ‘leftist’ friends here in the good old USA, one of whom was actually Cuban American, lol)

Thank you for this, it’s a breath of fresh air. The rest of Lemmy (minus the explicitly socialist instances) has basically been Reddit-lite ever since June 2023, and it’s getting worse in some ways. I didn’t want to be a part of that even though I was also leaving Reddit at that time (but had been highly disillusioned with the platform and barely posted at that point), and found a good home here. I love it.

What can we realistically expect from this group?

It would be great if they could at least sanction Israel and the US in addition to what some of these states are already doing unilaterally, but short of blocking any further shipping of arms (many of these countries are positioned on or near key straits in the region, I guess) what else can they do other than direct conflict or more performative decrees from the same neoliberal-dominated institutions that are currently failing us?

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Just watched a speech from Ibrahim Traore for the first time earlier today. It was very powerful. The four Sahel states are showing great fortitude and bravery as they stand up to NATO imperialism and the collaborators (i.e., traitors) in ECOWAS. Seeing the Burkinabe PM speak at the recent Sandinista celebration was fantastic too!

Thanks for helping me learn more about the other Sahel states and their united efforts.