Description:

Change My Mind is a bold Czech documentary due for completion in July 2025 and release on August 21 2025. It adopts a confrontational approach: individuals known for spreading Pro-Russian narratives are taken to the Ukrainian war front and faced with raw, unfiltered horrors of conflict. The filmmakers don't aim for a neat redemption arc; instead they want to juxtaposed absurd denial with inescapable human suffering, prompting real - or at least visibly strained - reactions.

What does hexbear think of the idea for this documentary? Think it will work?

Saw this on /r/hasbara (a.k.a. /r/worldnews)

I don't know a ton about the situation or if this is normal for reporters, or just one bad reporter seed. Can someone do some counter propaganda? How would you respond to this?

Feel like we should use this community more often because it's one of the more useful things this instance could do (along with mutual aid), besides dunking and doomering.

I think I'm just looking for some hope or catharsis lately. What's a good game where I can see some success as a communist group, country, etc?

Would playing as the USSR for Hearts of Iron IV work? It sounds super satisfying to defeat the Nazis in a war, but the game also sounds extremely complicated - well, the one time I tried it (and found a 6 hour tutorial or something like that on YouTube, then gave up).

What do people think of that game? Are there other alternatives to scratch that itch?

There's the recent game where you play as the Mensheviks or Bolsheviks post USSR Revolution in 1917, but I'm still figuring out the German SDP version of the game. My brain isn't ready to learn all the nuance of a new version of that yet, I don't think lol.

Red paint attack follows no vote on amendment to cut anti-missile funds – despite her rejection of $600m Israel aid bill

A Bronx office of the US House member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was vandalized early on Monday, according to New York City police, who say they are investigating.

The vandalism occurred as the progressive Democratic congresswoman grapples with “threats on [her] life”, as her campaign manager put it, after a recent US House of Representatives vote involving American aid to Israel.

Officers called out to Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign office in Westchester Square at about 12.45am found its front covered in red paint, police said. Images circulating online and on local news media outlets showed someone had left a sign which alleged that Ocasio-Cortez “funds genocide in Gaza”, though she has repeatedly criticized the Israeli military’s strikes there.

It feels like 10 years ago, /r/cscareerquestions was full of people falling over each other to worship FAANG and their super high salaries. The tech field in general has always felt very full of chuds to me, or at the very best libertarians.

Maybe things are changing. This question was if the Big Beautiful bill would be good for software engineers.

Will Trumps big beautiful bill benefit software engineers?

Was reading up on the bill and came across this:

The bill would suspend the current amortization requirement for domestic R&D expenses and allow companies to fully deduct domestic research costs in the year incurred for tax years beginning January 1, 2025 and ending December 31, 2029.

That sounds fantastic for U.S based software engineers, am I reading that right?

Almost all of the answers are negative, with some even using a class analysis. One or two bad answers or course but still, if tech could gain some sort of class consciousness, and identify themselves with the working class instead of the petite bourgeois or labor aristocracy, there may be hope for them yet.

All the top answers I've seen so far:
mpaes98 says:

It will benefit software engineers ^at ^Palantir

Then all of the replies to this are insulting Palantir lol.

jarena009 says:

Well...US Corporate profits are currently up to $4T, and white collar/business professional jobs, especially in tech, are still down since 2023.

Meanwhile many of the major tech players are doing layoffs.

Do you think increased corporate profits, say to $4.4T or $4.6T, are going to result in more tech jobs?

Do you still believe in trickle down economics?

SenorSplashdamage says:

. And even if our wages went up as engineers, most of us still have family that will end up being impoverished by all the other effects, especially health care. The overall losses will exceed any gains in personal salaries.

randomuser194 says:

In theory will be beneficial in that way, you just have to ignore all of the negative factors to the overall economy because of the bill

Wallstreet says:

Wild to see the difference in this sub from just ~5 years ago to now.

Back then: People’s complaints about this sub was that a lot of people would post the 5 massive offers they received then they would just say: don’t compare yourself to these posts, you don’t have to grind leetcode for hours, 80k offer for a no name company is good enough

Vs now: this sub is just a bunch of posts about people struggling to find a job and now grinding leetcode is the norm, and if you’re not doing it, you’re the problem

mau5tron says:

No. Every major tech CEO sweet talked trump and threw a bunch of money at Trump's campaign with the promise to keep AI deregulated. Those tech companies are then going to keep dumping money into an unprofitable technology and call it an "R&D" expense, then lay off a bunch of engineers and still get their tax cut. And like clockwork, they'll buyback a bunch of stock to keep stock price at a steady level while the economy goes to shit. Trickle down economics has never worked bro. People are just hoarding at the top.

LeadVitamin13 says:

When companies and the rich save money they don't pass it on they hoard it. Its like thinking tax cuts will increase hiring when they don't. Maybe for a struggling company that need extra help but couldn't afford it not tech giants. If they can do a job with X amount of people why would you hire anymore just cause you got more money.

LeftcellInfiltrator says:

Yeah, it'll free up trillions for the booj to invest with. But you'll be programming robot jailers with the soul of Peter Tiel to whip Amazon indentured servants into being more productive instead of solving any real problems. This is already happening in research.

I watched the Andor Season 1 Recap in anticipation of my season 2 watch (I'm only on episode 3 so no spoilers yet) and I've felt more hope than I have in a bit. Maybe it makes me a lib, but the lines from the manifesto especially felt poignant at this point in time.

The combination of those lines about thousands are joining battalions without realizing it, and the protests and LA fight back against ICE, idk, it's helped offset some doomer I've felt lately. I can't wait to finish this show.

I don't know if they're scared of Zionist counter protestors, or the state cracking down and arresting people, me losing my job, or what. Tbh, those are all fair reasons to be nervous, but I can't just keep reading about stuff without doing something. I know protests don't do a lot, but I feel like I should do something to start coalition building, organizing, and doing stuff on the streets with actual real life people. And I feel like I have to for all the people who can't for other reasons (social anxiety, disabilities, work schedules, etc).

On the other hand, we have a lot of debt, and I have a job that relies on government funds, plus I'm not the biggest guy, so I understand why she's scared. But I doubt anything will happen and I'll take precautions (leave phone in car, maybe wear a mask). Anyone got advice on how to navigate a relationship situation like this?

Ben Cohen was one of seven people who were arrested at the hearing held by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, the spokesperson said.

...

Moments later, Cohen rose to his feet and accused Congress of playing a role in the deaths of children in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war.

Nice. Someone get Ben to join PSL.

Tried to cross-Post from Hexbear. Doesn't work well with Jerboa.

I don't really have a specific question, I'm just wondering how Laos is. Do people have any thoughts, interesting facts, or information about it?

So the context is that I've been doing a re-watch of King of the Hill, where Hank's neighbor is Laotian, at the same time I've been listening to the latest season of Blowback, which is about the area formerly known as French Indochina, but more specifically Cambodia and Vietnam. They don't really talk about Laos much, which makes sense.

In King of the Hill though, there's a couple references to a communist dictatorship in Laos. I just finished an episode where a former guerilla veteran is trying to recruit Laotians in the US to go back and fight this government. One of the funny parts to me, is that whether that government is bad or good but poor as a result of historical conditions, I see Kahn as the kind of person who would be wooed away to the USA with Hollywood images of the American Dream. He seems to work hard, but is obsessed with status, success, and commodities. Anyway, it's not a political show, so combined with that Blowback season, it's just enough information to get me curious lol.

I could review Wikipedia but it tends to be biased against communist nations, and I'd rather supplement boring scrolling of articles with interesting conversations. Especially since it's in the same general area as one of the most based communist parties I've studied so far (in Vietnam) and probably the worst one I've studied so far (the Khmer Rouge).

I don't really have a specific question, I'm just wondering how Laos is. Do people have any thoughts, interesting facts, or information about it?

So the context is that I've been doing a re-watch of King of the Hill, where Hank's neighbor is Laotian, at the same time I've been listening to the latest season of Blowback, which is about the area formerly known as French Indochina, but more specifically Cambodia and Vietnam. They don't really talk about Laos much, which makes sense.

In King of the Hill though, there's a couple references to a communist dictatorship in Laos. I just finished an episode where a former guerilla veteran is trying to recruit Laotians in the US to go back and fight this government. One of the funny parts to me, is that whether that government is bad, or good but poor as a result of historical conditions, I see Kahn as the kind of person who would be wooed away to the USA with Hollywood images of the American Dream. He seems to work hard, but is obsessed with status, success, and commodities. Anyway, it's not a political show, so combined with that Blowback season, it's just enough information to get me curious lol.

I could review Wikipedia but it tends to be biased against communist nations, and I'd rather supplement boring scrolling of articles with interesting conversations. Especially since it's in the same general area as one of the most based communist parties I've studied so far (in Vietnam) and probably the worst one I've studied so far (the Khmer Rouge).

I got to the part of the Revolutions podcast where the royal family died. He said the consensus is that Moscow ordered the death of the whole family. Is that pretty much agreed on by serious historians nowadays or is that Cold War historiagraphy?

It seemed kind of split when I looked in some Ask Historians thread on Reddit from years ago, but I also might just be seeing what I want to see. What do historians think? What do you think? If Lenin and company in Moscow ordered it, why?

Looking for a way to get into Lynch's work. I know, a little late, but I feel like I'm missing out on something with all the condolences going out today. I've heard good things about Twin Peaks? Does it still hold up?

What about his movies? I've heard great things about Mulholland Drive, although I was very confused when I got halfway through.

Are there other works that are better to start with or just that people generally recommend as being good?