Those rancid fucking ghouls want to kill Chinese online shopping platforms like AliExpress by introducing a 3€ fee per item starting from July next year. Member nations may also impose their own additional fees on top of that. Apparently, the Dutch get to pay an additional 2€ per package while Romanians pay 5€.
This isn't too bad if you buy more expensive individual items. For example, paying 3€ on top of 25€ would suck but it's still less expensive than trying to get the same thing from the EU. However, if you had a 15€ package consisting of 8 smaller items, you'd have to pay an eye-watering 24€ in fees.
It absolutely infuriates me how fucking smug EU politicians and bureaucrats sound while they boast about this new scheme, like cops who had just done major drug bust or foiled some terror plot. The media also talks about people who shop on AE and Temu like they're fucking crackheads or drunk drivers or something while also admitting that the "worst offenders" are pensioners and single parents, aka the poor. Fuck those people amirite
Most of the stuff I get from AliExpress is lower-priced items so this EU protection racket is gonna suck. EU and corporate mouthpieces like to go on about how cheap Chinese goods are bad for the environment but most of the shit I get is replacement parts and accessories for things I already own that I could not get locally at all, or only at some ludicrous markup. I saw some electronics repairman say that they buy individual components directly from China because otherwise you would have to buy many of them in industrial quantities
Edit: Just look at this fucking shit, dude. My latest purchase contained a couple of Micro USB to USB-C adapters because I have a bunch of older devices and I figured it would be easier to have a couple of adapters instead of finding new Micro USB cables. The adapters cost less than 2€. Look at these prices at local retailers:
See that 2.90€ listing? Yeah, that one has a 6€ shipping fee and I'm pretty sure they're just a middle man for Alibaba products anyway 
Also, as a sidenote, I was commiserating about this and other shit with some real life acquaintances, and we were all in agreement until I brought up how our shitty fucking government is going to gut the welfare state to buy military jets and other weapons from the Yanks, at which point the mood changed completely. "We've got no choice but to defend ourselves from Russia" 
All their anger at the government, the EU and the US completely evaporated in an instant. These people are lefties
This entire stupid continent is 99% Nato-brained and there's like 10 communists. I guess this is better than the time I was accused of being a tankie Russian stooge for disagreeing with the take that Putin's ultimate goal is to conquer Europe for lebensraum for the Russians and he's gonna do it any day now
Yeah, solidarity. It fucking sucks. The consent manufacturing is also super aggressive. Yle does: "war is good, actually" or "everyone loves nato and is willing to die for capitalism" type articles non stop. Not to mention the tabloid rags the libs look at when shopping. The headlines are: "PUTIN, EVIL YADA YADA" like every single day.
I have deliberately stopped watching the news or even looking at tabloid headlines for this reason. It was making me feel like absolute fucking shit all the time
I'm safely insulated in my niche interest bubble. Serve me another 4-hour long retro video game essay baybeeeeeeeeeee
If someone talks to me about current events I just nod my head politely and say "damn that sucks" or "wow, awesome" depending on the context before changing the topic
Not a foolproof approach lol.
"Did you hear evil putler personally vaporized all the wholesome 100 international freedom fighters with an authoritarian missile?"
"wow, awesome"
I'm the same way until a drop of alcohol touches my lips. After that I am basically
I try to be the same way, but when I meet any of my relatives or hear a very outrageous take, this happens (no drink needed):
Tbf though, one relative has gone from a turbolib to reading Marx in a year or two because I kept pestering them about their lib takes.
Same. I do the Yle maybe once in one of two months and it's all the same. Backed off from Mastodon as well because it's permeated with all the insufferable local libs.
But when I go to the store I sometimes can't look away from the PUTLER headlines and it ruins my day every time.
Thankful there is Hexbear.
I'm gonna be honest, I don't really hang out on the front page of hexbear anymore either. I just browse my niche interest communities
It's sad because I used to be pretty well-informed. A decade ago I had a bunch of news sites bookmarked and I would make a point of keeping on top of everything but the succession of Covid, Ukraine, general saber-rattling, the ongoing climate crisis, panopticon shit like Chat Control and everything related to AI is so disheartening I just can't anymore. Everything sucks and it will never get better so fuck it
Have you tried the news megathread? I find the psychological damage is offset by the immediate discussion and analysis with comrades. Often the person posting an article will quote important excerpts and offer their own analysis, too.
That's why I started hanging out on r/cth and chapo chat in the first place. There comes a point though were the most poignant analysis or the funniest dunk can't really change the fact that the trajectory of the entire world is set straight into the toilet
Big ups to the news mega
I find the newsmega keeps me sane. It provides a far better and more global view into the world than you would ever get from the excuse of a media we have here.
On Finnish national news the domestic Finnish side and the international English side are wildly different, very much reflecting country branding and how differently things are portayerd depending on the assumed audience. The rapid nationalism and framing everything as somehow neutral, expept Russia and Ukraine, is very much contained to the Finnish side.
Every article is based on "thing happens, here's an expert to tell you what to think of it". The expert is by definition neutral because expert and also right, because expert.
ugh mood
and theyve been yanking themselves raw with that for years by now! Surely there's no angle of attack left?
I tried doing this and then watch some "Cinema wins" video where he imagines the evil government guy from this year's Superman explicitly not being Netanyahu but actually Putin.
Yeah... With all the brown people who superman saves from being ethnically cleansed.
Umm actually Putin is literally genociding the Ukrainians