August 2023. Over here we are curb stomping one climate record after another.

In the past week I did three (3) strength workouts and I went running twice. Unfortunately I did not have my phone with me on my runs, so I wasn't able to track my speed and I can't tell if there is any improvement yet. When running I was overtaken by a madlad who must have been going like 14km/h for multiple rounds straight. I hope to one day achieve whatever he can do.

Anyway, this week went steady enough for me to lose all focus on tracking my lifts and runs, so I don't have any specific PRs to mention. I have more than a month left before competing in the trail run and I can already run 5km easily. It should not be a problem 🤞

How was your week?

So, I'm dealing with lots of anxiety lately. About money, the future, hitting rock bottom, whatever. But the thing is, I'm not in a position to be anxious about these things. I have a decent paying job with an unlimited contract. I have an appartment, a loving gf, I'm healthy and even if shit hits the fan, my family would happily help me.

Still, I get like panic attacks when I think about some stuff. The fear of my car breaking down, for example, makes me feel like dying, despite being able to buy a new one without problems.

My anxiety feels misplaced. When I walk to my job (because even that's a luxury I have), I walk past homeless people sleeping on porches, I walk past addicts shooting up etc. and I think ti myself: 'they are so much worse off, What do I worry about?'.

Years ago I was trapped in a life of crime with very little perspective, and even then I didn't feel anxious. Now that I have monumentally changed my life around, I worry. It makes no sense to me.

Has anyone else felt this way before? Or ar you still having issues like this? How did/do you deal with it?

I have this app called Too Good To Go and it lets you buy shit from grocery stores that they would otherwise throw away for a cheap price (think like 15 euro worth of stuff for 3-4 euro). Today I went for it and got sort of disappointed, as a got like two cheeses, plant based butter, a box of eclairs, 15 little desserts and a steak. Sort of decent catch, not very nutritious. We gave the steak away as meat is not eaten in our house.

The app is a hit or miss. You can sometimes end up with a big box of veggies you can eat for a whole week. Just not today.

Anyway, it always makes me think how fucking much food is thrown away. Like, the app is so full in just my City. According to the app, 124kg of food is throw out every SECOND in this country. How anyone has to get hungry because they can't contribute to the profit is just insane. I hope we can one day look back at this time in disgust.

So I have seen this one vid of RFA and CNN once told me something about Asia so I don't feel the need to read your comment.

China bad. King Kong Un maniac. Here's why I, a Westerner, think the DPRK should just dissolve and give themselves to the South regardless of what their citizens think. No, I'm not a white supremacist? I'm a free thinking person in the land of the free! Sorry, I can't read the RT link you send me, it's blocked in my country.

Slava Ukraini!

Like, I feel like I'm missing something lol

Just came back from my holiday to Basque country, where I spent almost three weeks. I decided to take a break from politics (as far as possible in Basque country lol). To make this easier, my phone randomly decided to die a few days in, so I lost all connection to the world.

I wanted to use the holiday to find myself again. I was dealing with anxiety for the past two-three months, overly worrying about money and the future even though it may not have been needed to do so.

I did some hikes on the rocky beaches and through the mountains for a few days. I spent days on the beach relaxing and swimming. My gf gave me a book that, according to her, was meant to take me away from politics. She gave me 'Fall of Giants' by Ken Follett. For those who have not read it, it's a book about the labour struggle in England, the (build up to) the first world war, fall of aristocracy and the Russian Revolution. It even features Lenin lmao. It's mostly fiction, so she probably thought it would be nice for me to read fiction. I am enjoying the 1000 page book so far, so she was right.

While looking for balance in life, I had my great breakthrough on a rock. I was swimming at the beach when I suddenly felt the urge to swim past the cliff seperating the bay from the sea. There was nothing but cliffs behind it and I decided to go back when I suddenly saw a small rock protruding from the sea. I swam to it and climbed it, facing my back to the land. I saw nothing but ocean in front of me and I sat there for over an hour, staring into the distance. I saw water, incredible clouds, a far away thunderstorm and a boat in the distance, slowly passing by. I sat there thinking how this view will be the same in a hundred years and that I'll be long gone by then. And so will be the people back at the beach, together with all our worries. It made me realize again how little time I have in this place and how much time I spent worrying about unimportant things. When the hour was gone, I felt like a weight was gone from inside my head and my shoulders, and I swam back to the beach.

I enjoyed my stay in Basque country. I tasted the local cuisine, spent some time at the beaches, the bars and in between the Basque people. I enjoyed the countless political flags and (communist) statements made everywhere. I enjoyed the easy and laid back way of living and I feel refreshed. I'm ready to continue the communist fight over here now, and I have a lot of things coming up.

And, importantly, I will start my new job at the Union next monday.

How is life going? Have I missed important things while I was gone?

In Dutch/Belgian news there seems to be a recent trend of giving figures of the 'enemy' dumb nicknames.

Saw a video about a Chinese arms dealer, who was called 'The Chinese Ghost'. A while ago I saw a video about a Russian arms dealer, called 'Death' (yes really, that's it). Saw some other videos on other people, with guys called 'The Monster of [forgotthename], The Butcher, The Brains' or whatever.

It's just proper weird. Like, these people aren't propably even named like that. And it's always in between quotation marks. Just seems like lazy writing.

I'm curious to see what Lemmygrad does in their free time, apart from shitposting on an obscure internet board.

I went out to a park to chill in the shade and read a book / sleep in the grass.

I also spent some time working on my indoor herb garden. My basil started quickly but since a few days, my cilantro has joined the race as well. Unfortunately there are no signs of the spring onions yet, but inshallah they will grow.

I made banana bread with my gf and afterwards we went to a bar.

Today, I will do a workout and follow my cat's advice of doing absolutely nothing. It's too hot and with the sun on maximum UV strength, going outside would mean turning into a lobster very quickly.

Borgerhout, a traditional right leaning district of the city of Antwerp, has been under 'communist' rule for a while now. A few years ago, after many years of activism, our marxist party surprisingly won the district elections (and one in another municipality called Zelzate), together with the left leaning Green party. We formed a coalition with them and started working towards a common goal: a progressive, local government in a high poverty and crime ridden district. The victory was such a surprise that we didn't even had a program ready. We had to write one after our victory.

Now, the district government does not have much power. It is responsible for Public Spaces, Greenery, Youth/Seniors, Sports and Culture. Important sectors like Housing and Healthcare are not their domain, but more on that later. It has to work with the rules set out by the city's government, which is a right leaning one. However, this did not stop us from reaching for the borders that were set, or even crossing them.

I want to discuss three victories our party has achieved in the meantime.

The first being a low effort, easy to reach information point in which the residents of the very culturally rich district can go to with their questions. Think questions about medical access, questions about food, we even give away free veggies and tell them what they can cook with it. All questions are welcome. There's even a story about a street cleaner who used to smoke, but thanks to the advice of the information point, which he passed every day, he managed to quit smoking. Even better, he started working out before his shifts on the little outside gym we installed next to it. So far, the information point is servicing many culturally different people from around the district, who managed to become much more informed about the possibilities they had. As I said, healthcare is not the district's responsibility. Making a healthcare point would not be allowed. What we did, though, is set up a place on a public square for volunteers to visit. 'Coincidentally', lots of healthcare volunteers and orgs 'found' their way to it and set up shop.

Our second effort is going against the city's guidelines and budgets. In the energy crisis of the past two years, the city government responded by trying to make public services more expensive in order to compensate for rising energy costs. This means local sport clubs, libraries, swimming pools etc. all got more expensive. In an act of rebellion, the district of Borgerhout increased the subsidies given to local initiatives, which prevented them from having to increase pricing. Borgerhout soon became the most active district in the city, with lots of new, ethnically diverse activities popping up. We also decided to make these activities free, and without registration, as we found out that many people still weren't able to find out about them. Instead, we went to the public squares, markets, parks and set up there in order to reach out to the public. This was a succes, as the activities brought in even more people.

Third, we wanted to celebrate diversity in our district. We found out that repressing native languages was not effective, and even that allowing people to keep developing their native language helps them to learn Dutch faster and better. So we made a festival around everyone's native language and invited them to come and exchange stories, languages and education on culture. This attracts thousands of diverse people yearly and it has brought all kinds of cultures together. This is just one festival of the many we organize. BorgerRio, another popular one, manages to attract over 50k people annually.

A bonus mention would be that we went and had talks with local youth about their needs. One need of an outdoor place to hang out while it rains was a big priority of theirs. So we made a few places where we set up bus stop looking sheds where they could hang out. Trouble and noise went down, and people living near these places are happy for the youth, who are happy themselves as well. It was such a simple yet effective thing to do.

This is far from the communist utopia we strive for. But this is a way we managed to make a difference. We went from one action group in Borgerhout to five very active groups. When we walk around the district with our Party's flag, people legit start cheering. People call us, because they know we are the party that does something for the people. We make a difference. It was a hard decision to start actually governing, but we're glad we did it. Electoral politics is still not our way to go, we keep focussed on action groups, workers at their workplace and organizing in the street. But electoral politics have also brought us extra funding through parliament as well as local victories and popularity. Our next goal is the District of Antwerp, the biggest one in the city, where we feel like having a good chance. It would be a massive victory, as it is one of the most imporant districts in the country.

Gendered question, I know. If you don't identify as a man, please feel free to answer with whatever you want. I meant to post it in the Men's Lib sub but somehow it always bugs for me.

Let's spill the tea lads

I like painting my nails.

I like gardening and I take great pride in my plants and upcoming indoor veggie and herb garden.

I dance when I go out.

I like bright colors.

I like candles that smell nice.

I like flowers.

I like Harry Styles.

I like crocheting.

Whatever you like, be proud of it. There is no such thing as liking something unmanly. Nothing can harm your manliness. Do what you want.

Alexa, play It Was A Good Day by Ice Cube

Meme aside, tomorrow is June 4th, or the Reddit Memorial Day™ for the Tiananmen Square 'massacre'. I thought I might give a heads up for people who are not feeling like stepping into radio active waste tomorrow.

Asking this because I was 'inspired' by yesterday's edition of Dutch hooligan fights, which has been incident number I don't even know of this year.

Ever since covid happened, Dutch society has become more harsh against each other. I think hooliganism may be the most obvious example of this but society as a whole has changed for the worse. People seem to openly hate each other even more, with hooliganism, open LGBTQ+ hate, polarization and increasing right wing rhetoric.

Yesterday AZ Alkmaar fans attacked West Ham United fans outside and inside the stadium. This comes after a few days ago, FC Groningen - Ajax was suspended because of hooliganism, the week before that incidents happened as well and basically the past two years have been violent in Dutch football with incidents happening every week.

People going out and partying have seen an increase in violent incidents as well. Femicide is up. Racism and homophobia have increased.

The 'end' of covid was portrayed as one big party but the opposite seemed to have happened.

Does anyone notice this in their countries as well? Because over here in Belgium it's much less for example.

I just thought it was cool to see a video that's not entirely positive on China but that does make a positive note on China's efforts to combat climate change. I hope it reaches a lot of people who need it.

Figured this was the best place to post. Wanted to highlight cool it is to be able to do things like this.

With an ideology like this, who needs a good mental health amirite?

Anyway, since we are so focussed on the grand scheme of things we (or I, speaking for myself here) tend lose sight of the small good things in life. I feel like we should appreciate them more often, if possible.

Yesterday I bought the vinyl Deja Vu of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, which I found in a bargain box in a random second hand store. It has the song 'Our House' on it, which is my gf and I's couple song so to say. It was a nice moment to be able to have a physical copy of the song.

I also had a prom with my friend group over here and it was really nice to just dance all night, with everyone looking happy.

I also randomly ran into Post Malone the other day. Not that I'm his biggest fan or anything but I thought it was fun to see him here.