askchapo

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6769488

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6769487

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6769485

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6769484

Comrades… I don’t even know how to start this but I need to share something painful and urgent.

These past few days in Juba have been so heavy. We’ve been struggling to pay the remaining 200 usd of our 900 usd rent so the caretaker can reconnect our water. Thanks to the incredible support from kind comrades, we managed to pay 700 usd and he turned our WiFi and electricity back on. That helped a little but without water even the smallest things…cooking, washing, bathing…feel impossible. We’re doing our best to survive.

Then something I never imagined happened.

Three of my girls pretty, olivia and charity left the house to fetch water like we used to do before the attack. I expected them to be back in a few hours… but they never returned.

I spent three sleepless nights searching, asking around and walking everywhere my fear could imagine. Nothing. I was shaking, praying someone had at least seen them.

Today, I went to the nearest police post to report them missing. One officer told me he knew where they were. My whole body went cold. I begged him to take me to them. After he spoke with another officer, they directed me to where my girls were being held. Right now, I’m at the police station, waiting. I haven’t been allowed to see or speak to them yet. I don’t know their condition or what they’ve been through. I’m just praying they’re safe.

Please keep us in your thoughts. I’ll update you as soon as I can.

Every kind heart reading this…please also consider checking my profile and our fundraiser. Your support keeps us alive and safe especially in moments like this.

Support link is in my profile

When I was a child, I went through a Digimon phase. One night me my brother were outside jumping on a trampoline or something and we saw some little floating lights swirling around us. There seemed to be more and more of them and I got terrified cause I thought I was getting sent to the Digimon realm or something, so he and I ran away screaming. So that was my first experience with fireflies.

Just curious. I don't think I've jumped for a while, maybe two weeks? I think it was performative like 'wow I'm so happy' to underscore a point not practical

For instance: Stalin would have Stoutland cuz mustache.

I'm also imagining a Mystery Dungeon scenario where they just are Pokemon.

It can be super small in a way most people don't understand or have lost touch with. Or anything bigger. The important thing is that it means something to you.

I deal with disabilities. For me being alive and managing basic tasks is something I try to feel pride in. Being here to enjoy watching people around me do things for fun can be a nice feeling. Last night in my dream I painted my nails and I felt pride in my dream. I woke up feeling proud that I have still have that creative instinct after last painting them once maybe 7 years ago. I feel proud of art I dream of. Just because I don't draw it doesn't mean it doesn't exist in my mind, temporarily in my thoughts. I was there before something brilliant my mind had created, and it meant a lot to me.

Watching Guillermo del Toro's 2025 movie Frankenstein made me realize we are all frankensteins who should be proud of our every ability, however limited it is huge that we are alive, and furthermore impressive that we have instincts to live beautifully in any way.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6748848

Today was one of the hardest days…

Our tents were flooded as the rainwater poured inside. The ground turned into mud, and the cold became unbearable. Our few belongings got soaked, the children were shivering, and we had nothing to shelter us. Moments like these make survival itself feel like a daily battle.

And in the middle of all this suffering, Soliman’s story reflects what thousands of families in Gaza are going through.

Soliman is a young man who lost his home and everything he owned during the war. Before that, he used to work, dream, and try to build a simple life for his family. But after the destruction, he found himself living in a tent barely standing against the wind, trying to protect his mother and little siblings, struggling every day to secure food and warmth for them.

Yet Soliman keeps fighting, and any support — even the smallest amount — can truly change their lives, especially now after the camp was flooded and the tents became unlivable.

Anyone who can help, even a little… please, you could save an entire family.

Donation link:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/surviving-an-onslaught/cl/s?utm_campaign=fp_sharesheet&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link&lang=en_GB

Hey all, I've just been reading Lenin's "What is to be Done" and I for some reason I really feel motivated to start a book club now, especially knowing that was (a part of) how he got his start in organizing around 1894. Especially by the part where, I am paraphrasing, he says that you become a 'professional' rev. only through years of practice (or use Praxis here). I am not planning on running a secret 'conspiratioral' tight-knit circle of revolutionaries, I don't think my capabilities are fit for anything like that, but running a book club would be a step in that direction. Maybe someone will emerge from it who will?

Anyways, it's s first step, not that we should hope for us to become a vanguard out of a library, just that in terms of organizing, this type of amateurish learning circle is usually helpful in the beginning. As the group grows you can expand to informal propagandizing and agitational work, as the book clubs of the 1890s in Russia did. It would probably just be in the form posts online, but that is our analogue to the printing press.

But I am saying this without any experience and only having read about it, not done it. If any of you have any experience or anything like that, it would be helpful to know. I am thinking of contacting a local left-wing party (not communist, dem-soc) or their youth wing on help with this, but it is entirely achievable and desirable to do it on my own, just that it would be easier with help. I am not familiar with the organisation and don't have any contacts besides the ones or their websites, but I don't see a problem with mooching off of them.

This can also be done online, but frankly, that is not what I am looking for. I know a few places that could plausibly be used for it, free of charge.

OPSEC is important, I know the secret services of neighbouring countries actively have spied on anarchist book clubs and even Fridays for Future, deporting someone for giving a presentation on Marxism (Russian citizen). The rules aren't so draconian here, but OPSEC is still necessary.

China Burger, Iran Burger, Venezuela Burger, Russia Burger, North Korea Burger, etc.

The Axis...of Flavor!

In my head it was something like a NATO spokesperson, I forgot.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/38975713

Okay, at work I was surrounded by tons of people who were bigots. They would randomly say how they didn't want free college because then who would serve at restaurants, while they would say that they care about the environment. They would casually say that the confederate flag was not a big deal. They would casually comment on how they didn't have any black people in their schools when I sat down at the table. Whenever I sat down they would complain on how men salaries are higher than women, which I would have agreed on if it was not for the fact that the only people always discussing this was middle class white people, who only said this when I black man sat down, and statistically black people make the lowest salaries, so to me it felt like if someone from a buffet came to only complain to starving people that the next person at the buffet got more food than they did.

They made fun of my Mexican coworker who once got mistaken by the guy who was painting the stairs because he was Mexican. And many other microaggressions that are too numerous to tell.

But going to the point of my question: These people were pure asses, but they were brilliant at programming. They did so much better than me, and I was trying my best. It bothered me so much not just because their performance was better, but that they were bigots and their performance was better. It just felt like universal injustice. Made me wonder what was the point of trying if all your effort can just be surpassed by bigots.

I have to admit that I was pretty ignorant of corporate American culture, and had no idea what area I wanted to concentrate on. But somehow these people just knew all that shit. Like, I have no clue how they knew so much.

Which makes me wonder how do you deal with this feeling, and what gives you the motivation to keep trying, when even your best effort can be surpassed by people with terrible attitudes that you hate. Like, I know that I will never surpass people like that, and I don't think the point of life is being in an endless scoreboard, but it literally just feels like pure ass, and I want to hear others experiences. I also hate feeling behind all the time.

Also - does anybody know the context?

I don't know anything about the image. Somebody posted it on Bluesky without context. I asked them about it but they ignored me. I assume the photo was taken in the US and that's an actual street scene so that photo isn't from a training exercise. But those are just guesses.

I did a reverse image search but it was useless.

---

Edit

Clippy [the Hexbear that is] gave me a larger image. I used Tinyeye and it lead me to this 2015 article: Opinion: How U.S. police came to look like soldiers. Unfortunately there's zero info about the photo and it doesn't even appear on the page. But it did give me an even larger photo.

Zoift...

As for the tank thing itself, possibly a modified M706 Cadillac Commando. Its similar but looks greebled with addons

Climate activists are usually very against nuclear energy and I don’t think I understand why. Does anyone know?

Arguments I’m somewhat familiar with:

• sometimes it’s used as a cover for developing nuclear weapons
• nuclear waste is very bad for living things.

What are the main historical moral arguments?

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Two years of war have left us with nothing. Prices are getting higher every single day — food, medicine, and even the simplest things are hard to find. We’re trying to stay strong, but it’s getting harder to survive.

Winter has arrived, and the cold in the camps is unbearable. Families are freezing, and children sleep hungry under thin blankets that can’t keep them warm.

Please, don’t forget us. Your donations are not just money — they are hope, warmth, and life. Every bit of help matters. 🤍 Your support can truly save us https://gofund.me/00439328

Does anyone know the hexbear link to that? or a news page? I can't find it

I feel like anti-intelectualism has won. People can be given free audiobooks, the physical book, etc but they refuse to read because they view reading theory as bad or some bullshit. I have a friend and she thinks "its posh" to read theory. It seems like everyone has fallen for the propaganda that the only people who read theory are rich white college students. It fucking pisses me off.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6705667

From the Heart of Gaza: A Brother’s Plea to Keep Hope Alive

Hello everyone,

My name is Soliman, and I am writing this from Gaza — a place where every sunrise feels like a small miracle, and every night is a test of survival.

Before the war, life was simple. I used to work, dream, and hope for a quiet future for my little family. I never imagined that one day, survival itself would become our biggest dream.

But everything changed — our home was destroyed, our neighborhood turned into rubble, and the life we knew disappeared in an instant.

Now, I live with my younger siblings: Asaad, Mohammad, and Montaha. They are just children, yet they’ve seen things no child should ever witness.

Every day, I try to find something — anything — to keep them alive. Sometimes it’s a piece of bread, sometimes a small chocolate, or even an instant noodle pack to share.

Prices are extremely high, and opportunities are gone. But what hurts the most is not being able to protect them the way a big brother should.

We are not asking for much.

Even 5 euros can mean a warm meal, clean water, or medicine for a sick child.

Your kindness — your small act of humanity — could be the reason we make it through another day.

If you can’t donate, please share our story. Every share gives us hope that someone, somewhere, still cares.

🕊️ Together, we can keep hope alive, even in a place where it’s fading away.

🔗 GoFundMe Link:

Help Suleiman and His Family Survive the Onslaught