It was not voluntary.

Oh hey, my family did this back in early 2010s Italy. The local gold and silver dealership proudly displayed a copy of L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics near the counter, that was fun.

New Windows feature… same as a virus?

Iowa man hauls grain, becomes involved in a minor diplomatic incident. Meanwhile, someone else on the ship wonders if he’s fated to become his own ancestor.

Compare that with Ukraine’s 90% approval of independence in 1991.

71,5% for staying in the USSR in the March '91 referendum (83,5% turnout) - 92% against in the December 1991 one (84% turnout)

The public opinion turned around very fast in one year. Then the Communist Party and other left wing parties were the strongest in the late 90s. It’s like Lenin’s quote about there being weeks where decades happen. There’s no reason why it could not happen again or elsewhere.

Nah, it’s the New Left -> Neoliberal pipeline, except for some reason they refused to admit it for themselves unlike in most other countries.

Some still can be considered leftists in spite of questionable views on foreign policy, but the majority are r/neoliberal types. Then there’s the sizeable amount of racists and clash of civilization types.

Yeah, it’s a decent site. Their reviews are a good way to find out what seasonals are interesting, which are horny nonsense… and sometimes praise is given to shows that are both.

I read that this weird aspect has in fact been toned down from the original game where unless you decide to involve yourself in a romantic relationship with the female social links, you can’t max then which… I don’t know what to say about it.

Yeah, the female route (from the PSP port and controversially not adapted to the remake) adds the innovation of… being able to not romance social links of the opposite sex. Also one of the characters rejects you no matter what. Though of course it has a very controversial romance choice which yea, was a huge L from ATLUS.

I haven’t played the remake, so I can’t comment on the music, but the best part of Persona 3 has to be the story imo.

However, in terms of the soundtrack, you can’t beat the atmosphere of Persona 1 on the PS1 in my opinion, even if Persona 3 has a lot of bangers.

I thought my name would be on a file by now wtf.

It might. It however needs to be actually accessed. If they don’t think it necessary, then they likely won’t bother.

That reminds me of when I was in Helsinki airport.

I still had some time for my flight, and was walking around to get something to eat. The place itself is very cozy, lots of wooden architecture, places arranged to seem like they’re in the middle of a forest, etc. Then I look the wrong way and see inside the smokers’ lounge. There, a bald middle-aged guy wearing a black hoodie with the coat of arms of Nazi Germany on it, vaping.

I somehow doubt that person got into any trouble for it. One of the rare Germany Ws is that that would be very illegal here.

If there’s one country you can rely on to rattle the sabre, it’s Poland.

Always nice to see how it’s 1910 and the bourgeois governments of the world are marching to what both sides see as the war to end all wars and capitalism with them at the helm leading to pax [country]. (do trzech razy sztuka)

The seed of fascism is present in every liberal, and even social conservatism and the move to what they’d call conservatism (really, just a slightly different form of liberalism).

When they deem the state/nation to not be doing well, because say birth rates are low, they decide men of wö (Disco Elysium, fascist quest) and the gays are at fault - who cares if they don’t want to have children? They must, or the nation will suffer for it. If there’s international competition, then it must be made uncompetitive by either threats or violence (and their nationalists see it that way too, but from a different perspective). If there’s internal enemies, or too much bickering making the state fall behind, then violence, etc. If the economy is doing badly because of strikes (or I’m convinced it is, by say being inconvenienced by blocked streets, etc.) then the workers must be put down for my… OUR sakes. etc.

Of course, it’s the petty bourgeois that are the driving force of fascism. The haute bourgeois support the status quo for the most part (no matter what it is), as long as they’re allowed to remain influential and use the state to maintain that position.

The moralistic stories of human rights etc. are merely a justification in the superstructure, while the “a place in the sun” competition is still a driving force in liberal society.

Menthol, Pork and Pepper sausage, anyone?

Racism

For proletarians, it’s the fear of losing your job to someone who is most likely willing to work for shittier conditions than you out of desperation and an inability to be choosy from say having no family around to help you out.

For the bourgeois, the fear of a lack of control - say from either a rise in crime making the chance of getting murdered in their homes go up from 0,01% to 0,015% or from getting the workers angry and aware of exploitation or any other breakup of the state that acts in their interest.

I don’t know either, but it going down is probably related to the Hong Kong protests, and maybe the start of the Uyghur genocide claims.

Boomers grew up in times of rapid technological progress, with wars threatening to destroy humanity and fought with the utmost brutality, while AES countries were in their most prosperous phase and reform was improving quality of life in the west. Truly a groovy time to fight the stale elites for socialism with real freedom to do whatever you want to do.

GenXers grew up in a time where the warmongering of the boomer era seemed to bear fruit, as one of the sides of the conflict basically gave up. Thus, communism was “proven” “not to work”, and that also meant adjacent organizations like unions or the same reforms from the 60s and 70s. Growth was high, so getting kicked in the ass by capital seemed justified, and even necessary because there was no alternative.

Millennials saw the promises of neoliberalism not get fulfilled in the biggest recession since the 1920s, while adventures around the world brought back terrorism, dead soldiers and budget holes in the west. The 1% did what it wanted, and the 99% suffered for it.

Zoomers grew up in a time where climate change was getting progressively worse and the ruling class was completely uninterested in doing anything about it. That was not the only crisis. Everything kept getting worse, so it was time to start searching for old ideas. The few remaining boomer leftists have interesting ideas… I’m sure they will live up to expectations.

Gen Alpha is growing up in a time where there’s a renewed battle between good (we) and evil (they). We must fight to the last Ukrainian to ensure morality wins. The decline our society has two causes, the forces of evil from abroad, and the forces of evil within.

Basically, it’s not a characteristic of something as nebulous as generations, but is caused by material conditions present in the affected times.

It’s kind of a tradition at this one (though I had remembered it was in Cologne, oh well) - and yes, they are always this cringe.

In German right wing press.

The budget hole is actually not a big deal.

There was way less national debt before Covid-19 but the actual issue is that in 2011, the neoliberals pushed through a constitutional amendment requiring the country to have a balanced budget.

Then Covid comes and the war in Ukraine. The covid expenses are a given, but then the government pumps a lot of money into the military because the government sees itself as part of the western bloc and wants it to survive.

So they ran a deficit budget for two years as an arbitrary exemption, and now the constitutional court says “you can’t actually” - so the government is gonna do austerity now and throw people under the tank it just bought.

There’s no risk of collapse whatsoever. It’s just the new (old) form of the bourgeois state enforcing bourgeois interests.

In my view this is a shameful and destructive strategy, completely opposite to ideals of communism

Russia isn’t communist, nor does it claim to be.

It’s also not about morality, or GDP - it’s about the goals a government sets itself. Do they want to proceed to a stateless, classless society, or are they simply concerned with good government and to make the country be stronger than the competition, be it through sword or construction?

It’s hard to say where the winds are blowing in the CPC - United Russia, however, just wants a strong Russia.

As for the USSR’s market turn, it’s hard to say. Most people here would probably say Khrushcev due to the rejection of the necessity of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the policy of peaceful coexistence (in spite of the grand announcement of communism by 1980). Other communists would blame Stalin for say, having a more nationalistic policy than Lenin and his pragmatism in foreign policy matters. Of course, as the rot continued it became easier to see obvious liberals. The USSR probably started rejecting a planned economy in the Brezhnev era, with the Kosygin reforms. Of course, the question is - did the CPSU pursue communism then? Some undoubtedly did, while others were merely nationalistic technocrats.