Tbh I don’t use Facebook and don’t know this group. But on the homophobia part the Burkina Faso case is interesting. They banned homosexuality as a ‘colonial product.’ Here it’s different. Cultural imports made LGBTQ+ people more visible. Old homophobia didn’t disappear. So now there’s conflict. That conflict is how change happens. There’s this guy I heard about who brought a knife to threaten his siblings for having same-sex partners. Now he’s slowly accepting them. That’s exactly how it works. More visibility forces confrontation. Confrontation forces change.

As for the nationalist part, the “patsoc” stuff (honestly, I don’t even know what that word means) serves the party’s interest, channels popular energy into supporting the system. The homophobia in pages like Tifosi is organic backlash to visibility. The party doesn’t encourage it but doesn’t seriously challenge it either. They tolerate advocacy within limits and restrict it when it conflicts with political stability.

Lingering sentiment in southern Vietnam toward the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) is rooted in history. Many of the most reactionary elements fled to the U.S. after 1975. Their relatives remain, supported by remittances and pathways to U.S. citizenship, creating a material basis for pro-American sympathy.

Historically, Vietnam’s relationship with China is defined by centuries of domination contrasted with a brief period of communist camaraderie. The fraternal bond between Ho Chi Minh and Mao was genuine, but it was catastrophically damaged by the 1979 border war and the conflict over Cambodia. The persistent South China Sea disputes, a major point of contention from the late 20th century onward, have continuously strained the relationship. These maritime conflicts transform historical grievance into a present-day, tangible issue of sovereignty and resources.

This shifting perception coincided with Đổi Mới. To develop, Vietnam opened to the global economy. The nearest, richest market was the West. This created a new material base:

• The South, with its ports and historical links, became the engine for Western-facing trade and investment.

• This base then shaped the ideological superstructure: a generation in the South now sees the U.S. as a primary partner for development and, for some, a potential strategic counterweight.

The North retains stronger memories of the wars with both the U.S. and China. The state, pursuing national development, intentionally invested in the South to harness its proximity to Western markets.

The southern economic base, built on this Western integration, naturally fostered a new ideological reality: a generation more oriented toward global consumerism than party doctrine. This is not a failure of propaganda but a dialectical outcome of the development strategy. Systemic corruption emerged as a severe, destabilizing cost of this rapid economic model. The party’s perpetual and contradictory project is to manage the resulting ideological drift while checking the corruption that threatens its legitimacy, all to maintain enough discipline for the state machinery to function and prevent the corrosion of the party structure itself.

New wallpaper!

Chrono Gear is actually pretty linear and level-based, so getting lost isn’t really an issue

Yeah, I get what you mean. I’ve never watched VTubers either, but the technology behind it all is really fascinating.

Honestly, the only way I even know about Chrono Gear is through one of the devs I follow; I just tend to like their style.

I tried antimicrox and it works like you said! The only issue is I can’t get the joystick to rotate the view fully in fullscreen (yes, I’m a fullscreen freak) without the cursor hitting the edge of the screen. Still, it’s useful stuff though. Thanks a lot!

soft power

That’s impressive. While I know nothing about VTuber rigging (and have no particular interest in it), I still find it fascinating. It reminds me of a fan game I play called Chrono Gear: Warden of Time; I haven’t even finished it yet, and I don’t know any of the characters or the lore, but it’s a great game. It just goes to show that good work is good, regardless of context!

Oh, and about the modpack. Call me weird, but I like to play everything with a controller, including minecrap of course. The problem is that this version of the modpack doesn’t support controllers, so I’ve had to scrap the idea of playing on older versions of the game, at least any that are too old to have controller support. The idea of playing an old version is still neat, though! It would help prevent me from getting overwhelmed by objectives and let me just focus on enjoying the experience, which is a very good thing!

I appreciate the tip. It’s probably my OCD. Never considered using an older version of minecrap, but I’ll try it next time I get the itch to play. Will bookmark your modpack!

Also, cool to hear you used to be a builder for servers.

Seeing your world gets me hype to play. But then all I do in minecrap is start a new world, punch a few trees, mine some stuff, build a crib, then leave it to die and let PrismLauncher gather dust on my Ubuntu desktop. Repeat.

I’m jealous of people who can enjoy it so easily; the only thing I ever truly enjoyed was playing minigames on servers

The same way they are currently arming Israel

That’s only possible if they can topple the government

I would argue it’s easier to arm the resistance fighters than to de-arm Israel

Like… how do Americans start arming the resistance? Through what port? With what shipping company? While the FBI is… what, on lunch break?

That’s a fair point, and it actually reinforces the core principle I was getting at. The key in any space is to know your audience and speak their language, avoiding the ‘red’ terminology that triggers defenses. This isn’t just true for people; it’s true for the platforms themselves.

We can spread our ideas on any platform. The key is to know your audience and speak their language. Avoid the intimidating ‘red’ terminology. I understand the frustration of tempering your language, but you can’t convert someone in a single interaction. Focus on planting seeds. Remember the lurkers: an idea is more readily absorbed when it’s a thoughtful point, not a full manifesto.

Seek out catalytic moments, where a reactionary crowd targets someone for a progressive statement. In these situations, treat the opponent’s rhetoric as a specimen to be dissected. Your discipline is key: do not react emotionally or be baited into their frame. Your goal is a systematic dismantling. Break their argument down into its core claims. Do not let them distract you with personal attacks, whataboutism, or shifting goalposts. Anchor the debate on their original, foundational points. Then, methodically invalidate each one with concrete evidence. You are performing a public demonstration: this is how an ideology collapses under the weight of its own failures.

Know your battlefield. If you’re thinking of going into a place like Stormfront to debate their core members, forget it. You’re not there to convert the propagandists; you’re there to win the audience. Your goal is to make the lurkers see the truth, not to make the liar admit they’re lying.

And when you pique someone’s interest, when you see that spark of genuine curiosity, guide them. Point them toward resources where they can educate themselves further. Maybe that’s a book, a video essay, or even an instance like lemmy.ml. It’s a gradual process; you don’t hand a new recruit the full agitprop arsenal on day one. You’ve just shown them the crack in the wall; now give them the tools to see it’s part of a crumbling foundation.

The signatory list for the Hanoi Convention has been disclosed. As expected, the key states leading the charge for a multipolar world and digital sovereignty have signed: Russia, China, DPRK, Cuba, Belarus, and Iran.

And, in a move that should surprise no one, the United States is conspicuously absent.

buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuump amber whataboutism volcel police

Wow! that was some cool insight

Yeah. Don’t be mean to me, okay?

What is the charge? To cuddle an adorable, squishy, little pink blob?

You can read the Vietnam-China Joint Statement here. Statement #10 explicitly commits both sides to ‘persevere in friendly consultation…’ and to ‘take no action that can complicate the situation or extend disputes.’

This is not the first joint statement to address the East Sea issue. The consistency across them shows this isn’t just diplomatic boilerplate; it reveals a shared, strategic priority: to manage and contain the dispute rather than let it define the entire relationship. Economic ties, party-to-party solidarity, and regional stability are simply more important to both sides than escalating a maritime quarrel. The repeated commitment to this framework is evidence of that calculated choice

Well, I’d say the relationship has been improving gradually for years, and even more since our new General Secretary was appointed. The tariff things gave it another big boost. We’re seeing more state visits and high-level meetings now than ever before. They’ve also become much more open to doing business across many new sectors