That song slaps so fucking hard.

Yes, Lemmygrad is explicitly communist.

Countries weren’t controlled by the USSR, they were a member state of the USSR and had input on democratic central planning and decisions. Please feel free to provide documentation if you feel that my worldview is incorrect.

Modern Russia and the USSR are two entirely different issues.

I didn’t play Civ II, I was into Starcraft, Incoming (1998 Rage Software), the Motocross Madness demo, Space Cadet, and RCT.

I’m old enough to have played OG Star Craft, v1.0.3 v1.05 on CD ROM on an AMD K6-2 with 64MB of RAM…where’d my ibuprofen go?

Yeah, I don’t get along with that track, too much straight and the curves just don’t turn the crank when they do arrive.

Oh, for sure, I just was making a comment about the difference in laptimes. It’s literally the one event I refuse to miss each year lol.

only 1-2 minutes

Cries in Nurburgring 24H layout.

In this order: Imperialism (Lenin), Wretched of the Earth (Fanon), Neo-colonialism (Nkruma). If you prefer audiobook with context, all three of those are featured in the Marx Madness podcast as well and all are great reads.

You must watch this at least once. Of course, it’s for the greater good.

Yep, for the capitalist class who wants to buy up new neo colonial territory, this is a feature, not a bug.

Jenin, Jenin which is a documentary about apartheid conditions in Jenin, Palestine.

You also forgot, the few things still owned by the state have now been privatized by western capital to try and fund this foolish endeavour. When the west pulls out, not only will they have lost their land, homes, and lives, they’ll be in a worse financial position because the state won’t have the means to provide and will be relying on western capital. In the end, what’s left of Ukraine becomes another neo-colonial capitalist hellscape for the workers while western capital sits back and counts new stacks.

Might I also recommend Marx Madness? I’ve been listening to them and it has helped me a ton. I’d have never had the attention span to read Capital myself but listening to it being read to me while working swings when nobody is around? That I can do.

Season 1 does have super long episodes so if you already have an understanding of the Marx Labor Theory of Value, you can probably skip straight to Season 2, Lenin’s State and Revolution.

I can’t help with everything, but I can provide you with some possible hope. I have lived more than one of your bullet points in my lifetime. One thing I can tell you is that if you do end up with the life crippling medical debt, it can actually become a sweet release (hear me out, it isn’t all sunshine and roses but it can end well).

My youngest was conceived while I was uninsured and the state that I lived in heavily means tested medicaid so I couldn’t qualify because my parents made too much (though my child’s mother wouldn’t qualify to be on their plan). Even with near perfect cesarean delivery, that was one hell of an expensive pile of bills that I couldn’t come close to affording. I started to get hounded by bill collectors regularly until I finally told one of them threatening legal action to go for it and hung up. I figured it was another empty threat but it wasn’t and I got served a month later.

I was able to get the money for the bankruptcy lawyer (this is the hard part) and suddenly a whole ton of bills were just not an issue anymore. My credit score actually improved, ever so slightly, from the discharge.

It did take me damn near a decade to fully recover in terms of credit score and finding better work but I was able to get a high interest auto loan to get a bigger car that fit the whole family and was more reliable than my previous vehicle afterwards and also eventually relocate to an area with better opportunities.

Hang in there comrade, maybe see if any mutual aid exists in your area. I know it is difficult, but it can get better if the cards happen to fall just right.

Also, I totally understand dealing with reactionaries and fascists within your family. I don’t talk to the vast majority of my extended family because they’re either neo fascists or pompous liberals. Find yourself a group of comrades and make them your new family.

Chumbawumba agrees with you and so do I.

3000 miles away or whatever

Fun fact, the closest distance from mainland USA to China is still over 7000 miles, the lower 48 is around 3000 miles coast to coast. (Don’t worry, I totally understand the rest of the comment, I just figured I’d provide additional context to point out just how preposterous the original joke is)

Edit: correction in italics

That doesn’t surprise me, I meant more to say that the book, to my knowledge, is focused on the Canadian side of the border (I’ve only read the preface though so it could be that I’m just not yet far enough in if the US ones are addressed)

Red skin, white masks also tackles this, though I believe it focuses on Canada instead of the USA. Same issues, different borders. It’s next on my reading list.

For examples in history, Black Reconstruction by DuBois is an excellent source of “if you let the fascist be fascist right after crushing them in a civil war, you’re gonna have a bad time.”