u/Proud3GenAthst

It’s kinda funny when media make the case for the biggest pop star du jour as the new Michael Jackson, be it Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, The Weekend, Drake, Harry Styles… it’s funny because as we all know, Michael started all the well known tropes and trends of modern pop music. He made music videos an art form, form of promotion and something inseparable from pop music and pretty much anything you can imagine when someone says “pop music” can be linked to him. The only way someone can be the next Michael Jackson is if someone manages to completely reinvent pop music.

But in addition to that not happening, I feel like the world has changed in the way that it’s actually impossible to ever happen and it’s impossible deliberately. For the past 15 years, I’ve been feeling like pop music has been getting more and more simple, bland, not to keep unoriginal.

I feel like it’s on purpose because record labels figured out that originality and creativity don’t sell and they’d rather keep it bland and hollow to keep the masses satisfied and not invest into music of someone actually creative and original, because they might not be as successful as the false blandness.

I listen to pop music very sparsely. I consider myself Taylor Swift fan even though I didn’t listen to her in almost a year, while at this point I almost exclusively listen to metal. Although I think I should diversify my collection again. But listening to contemporary pop, it sounds more bland compared to the handful hits from the 80s I happen to know and make me feel nostalgic for a decade I didn’t live in (like Michael’s biopic for that matter).

So I’m wondering, do you feel like there are many mainstream-ish artists who don’t get anywhere near the attention you think they deserve and they could actually disrupt the world of pop music in a positive way?

A rare pop musician I’m a huge fan of is Lindsey Stirling. I kinda assume that she should be fairly popular among Moonwalkers. Because sophisticated dancing is a huge part of her performances and she has a music video that pays homage to Thriller (it’s basically pastiche, really).

She’s no groundbreaking musician by any means, but she’s definitely original, she is creative in many different ways. She has charisma that could be used to make bulletproof vests, super inspirational and even though some people say that she doesn’t do violin justice and that her music is almost insultingly simple to professional violinists who had to practice hard and she takes all the attention, her music is catchy and even beautiful. I see no reason why she shouldn’t be far more famous than she is.

She uses music videos in a creative way to convey beautiful messages, even with no lyrics and she often is the creative force of these videos. She can come up with sobering visually beautiful even though she has no background in visual arts. And can be resourceful with ways to achieve it.

And that’s without mentioning that she plays violin while dancing, which is incredibly difficult task. And being the dedicated artist that she is, she pushes herself towards improvement and her moves even evolve and she manages to be breathtaking even though she’s almost 40. Her concerts mix violin, dancing, little bit of theatre, some motivational speaking and more recently even gymnastics. Incredible artist.

What I’m trying to say, is that I’m under the impression that there are many genuinely original artists who are overlooked by major labels because major labels think that it’s more profitable to stick with the simplest and least inspired music there is, while some original or unique artists like Lindsey Stirring, although fairly famous, remain in limited niches of fans who find them by looking for them, rather than by them being pushed by corporations.

Do you have some artists like that who you think should be more famous than they are, but feel like they’re too creative for major labels? Also as a bonus, maybe you can give me your opinion on Lindsey in particular.

Já nemám rád čistou vodku. Ředěný ethanol podle mě nemá vůbec cenu pít. Taky ale nechci být bezcharakterní mamlas, co rád pije ochucené přeslazené destiláty, které chutnají jako sirup proti kašli s alkoholem. Proto normálně nepiju ani ochucenou vodku. Slyšel jsem ale, že Nemiroff dochucený medem a pepřem je solidní chlast, který má nějaký charakter.

Já žiju ve Slezsku a v žádném supermarketu jsem žádný Nemiroff neviděl asi 2 roky. Měl jsem za to, že to přestali dovážet kvůli válce. Ale před pár měsíci jsem viděl Nemiroff v Kauflandu v Ostravě. Bohužel jen čistý.

Nevíte 2 se dá pořídit?

I’ve been addicted to anti establishment (read anti American and anti west) YouTubers covering geopolitics from perspectives that always paints the west as the bad guy while being chummy towards dictators and terrorists.

What are some good YouTube channels that cover what’s happening in the world (be it war or economics) objectively?

I need to make a condition that I’m not gonna watch any channel that’s straight-up right wing conservative or further right. Right-leaning liberalism is tolerable, but I will never adopt fully right-wing worldview because I think it’s all about hate, greed and division and I don’t think these make good geopolitical analysis.

I only became Zionist last year. This is not the first time I’m talking about it on this sub, but among other stupid things I believed about Israel, was that the rise in antisemitism talked about in the media is a hoax meant to discredit leftist movements. But after a while, I decided to stop with the mental gymnastics and began to look at the matter clearly. The rise in antisemitism worldwide is indeed real and chilling. Perhaps somewhat magnified by social media algorithms, but actually chilling.

I live in Czech Republic, which consistently ranks as one of the least antisemitic countries in the world and one of the most reliable allies of Israel. Which is one of the reasons that allowed me to believe that it’s a hoax, because I have an annoying trait to psychologically protect and to assume that my experience is more or less universal, as in that if the situation in Czechia is OK, it has to be OK to the west of it.

So, in my experience, public antisemitism is nigh-nonexistent in my country when I’m not looking for it. I live near our third largest city with the population of about 350 thousand (Czech population is about 10.5 million. Plus about 500 things Ukrainian refugees or so) where I go very often. The best I could see here is a small sticker of Netanyahu calling him “war criminal” in front of a shopping centre. And beneath a tram stop beneath a shopping centre, I think I saw low effort graffiti saying “Zionism is cancer”. But I can’t see it now. Either my memory is playing tricks or it was painted over.

I’m a passionate concert goer and often go to Prague for concerts with bus. Usually I have to transfer in Brno and wait for hour and half or so.

Now, that’s funny. There’s a news stand at the bus terminal and last year in September, there was “Free Palestine” written on it. Next month, I walked by it again and in the meantime, someone added “from Hamas” to it. I believe that when I walked around it again the following month in November, the “from Hamas” was scratched. And when I walked by this February, there was “from Hamas” added again.

Also, there’s a shopping center nearby, part of which was demolished and now rebuilt (which is sad, I liked it.) and it’s surrounded with steel barrier and there is one Palestinian flag sticker on it, which I never seem to see anywhere.

Brno is significant, because it’s considered student capital of Czech Republic. It has young population and tens of thousands of students live here as it hosts several of our largest universities (the population of the city is 400 thousand). And since anti Israel activism mostly attracts the young and students, one would expect that Brno would be our epicenter of anti Israel sentiment.

I never see or ever hear about any anti Israel rallies in Czech Republic or seen any leaflets inviting people for any. I don’t see youth with pro Palestine badges or watermelon t-shirts or just Palestinian flags.

Meanwhile in the US and Western Europe, from what I hear and read on social media, people of Ireland are obsessed with Israel and anti Israel rhetoric is commonplace and mainstream politics. France is full of antisemitic immigrants from Middle East who lead the charge in antisemitic rhetoric and there’s one antisemitic hate crime after another. Italians protest against Italy’s alliance with Israel as an excuse to go on strikes (or is it the other way around). Spain is infested with antisemitism too. As is apparently Belgium, Netherlands and more.

And of course the US. Too much to name, but New York City, which until recently could be considered Jewish haven outside Israel, is seeing antisemitic hate crimes skyrocket and synagogues adopting almost absurd security measures.

So what does antisemitism look like where you live when you’re not actively looking for it compared to my situation in Czechia? Assuming you take a trip through your closest large city (or the capital), are some antisemitic displays common?

Edit: I just realized that I forgot to specify that I’m asking about displays of antisemitism that are just visible in public and don’t directly affect anyone when they appear. Like anti Israel posters, antisemitic graffiti. Basically stuff that makes you feel unsafe to be visibly Jewish in public, rather than being directly affected by antisemitic behavior at the moment.

I’m a progressive who’s been lately coming into terms that most of the online left is largely just anti-America and anti-west and that they hold onto narratives that are often twisted if not outright false.

One of these narratives is about how pretty much everything wrong in the world is because of American imperialism, which is of course tightly related to the topic of the Cold War.

There are narratives like that Iranians chant “Death to America” because of American backed coup that toppled Mohammed Mosaddegh in 1953 and that South America is behind North America because the US toppled or supported toppling of any leftist leader that gets elected like Jacobo Arbénz in Guatemala in 1954, Joao Goulart in Brazil in 1964, Salvador Allende in Chile or Isabel Perón in Argentina (both in 1973), etc.

I follow subreddit called r/NewIran, where I learned that the story about the toppling of Mosaddegh is largely an anti-American myth, because:

A. He was no good guy. He was a populist who took advantage of Iranian population’s ignorance of oil and its extremely low literacy rate to become a dictator.

B. He was about to put Iran under Soviet sphere of influence and the Cold War was all about keeping Soviet Union from getting too powerful.

C. Despite the narrative that he was toppled because he wouldn’t let the UK and the US have Iranian oil, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi actually didn’t let the West loot Iran dry. He kept oil partially nationalized and used its revenues to develop Iran.

What about other regime changes that America was involved in throughout the Cold War? Is the idea that the US is an evil empire responsible for all the ills in the world to enrich itself just an anti western propaganda meant to empower authoritarian socialists and Islamists?

What is there to say about these leftist leaders that were toppled during that era?

I’m 27-yo man with no creative or active hobbies and who very much wasted formative years by doing nothing productive or not doing any extracurricular activities. Now I’m someone with next to no useful skills or interests that require at least intellectual activity.

So I decided that maybe it’s about time to do what I’ve been wanting to do from time to time for years and start learning whole bunch of languages. Mostly because I heard that learning languages is a good way to prevent early development of dementia, to do something about my procrastination and laziness and maybe, even for some practical purposes. Maybe they could even help me find some exciting job.

I’m Czech and apparently, I’m fairly fluent in English. I was learning German in middle school and high school after which I was happy I won’t have to learn it anymore, because I hate it. The I had 2 years of Spanish at what could be described as Czech equivalent of community college. The first year was during COVID, which totally killed our will to learn and ability to learn effectively, so it went to shit quite quickly. And then I attended a course of French for a few months. I liked the language, but because of my problem to economize with my time and actualize myself, I quit soon.

So now, I realize I can’t learn them all, but I’m having whimsical thoughts about learning French, Ukrainian, Romanian, Hebrew, Finnish, Greek, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Swedish and maybe even Chinese, because some people say it’s the language of the future.

So what is the most effective and cost-effective way to learn a language? I’m currently trying Duolingo for Ukrainian and Romanian and it seems to be pretty worthless. I’m thinking about buying some textbooks, one for each language and learn from that.

I just made a meme here about how I dream about a world where Ukraine, Iran and Venezuela (and others) are major geopolitical players aligned with the west. I explained that Ukraine winning the war and becoming said major geopolitical player is the most likely. After that is Iran becoming democratic and the third most likely is Venezuela becoming democratic.

But if you happen to follow it, can anyone give me some information on the recent development? I could just follow subreddit related to Venezuela. The problem is that they’re all in Spanish and I don’t know Spanish and Reddit doesn’t have automatic translators. Where can I follow the development? And how likely is Venezuela becoming a democracy within a year or 2?

Basically the title.

What are some old shows that keep holding well, their content is still relevant, that doesn’t contain any bigotry that was accepted at the time and overall was just very ahead of its time?

First, let’s stick to these facts:

1. Hamas is a terrorist group, not a proper army, meaning:

They don’t wear uniforms

They don’t care about rules of engagement and international law

They use civilians as shields

They embed themselves civilian infrastructure and use it for combat purposes

They have absolutely no regard for lives of the people they’re supposed to represent

Their only reasonable chance of winning is winning through PR

2. Gaza is tiny and very densely populated

3. Hamas murdered and raped 1400 and kidnapped 250 Israelis, most of them civilians and promised more such attacks.

Regarding the last point, think about it and let it marinate in your head for a while.

If we scale it up, 1400 and 250 Israelis is like 40000 and 7000 Americans. Compare that to 3000 victims of 9/11.

Some might say that this is a silly talking point because Hamas is average size terrorism group and 1400 victims is 1400 victims and it makes no sense to use any scales.

Maybe, but consider how 9/11 affected average American. It was major trauma to all Americans and many Americans know someone who died that day or was there. It’s personal to many Americans.

Israel is tiny. Not only is its population less than 1/30 of the US, its area size also makes it more intimate environment. People know each other even though they live in different cities and there are fewer degrees of separation between people. From what I heard, Israel is pretty communal place.

This would logically make those 1400 casualties of October 7 hurt way more than they would hurt in many other countries, where people aren’t so familiar to one another.

So take these facts into consideration. Imagine terror attack equal to 10/7 happens in your country. What do you think would be adequate reaction from your government? Let’s not forget that one such invasion makes another invasion easier and easy to replicate. Since 400 people died at music festival and I am seasoned concert goer, that’s kinda personal to me. How cool would you be to attend music festival knowing it could be attacked by terrorists like that? And since Hamas was killing everything it could, how cool would you be about merely functioning inside your country?

Is this largely left-leaning or rather right-wing?

I was firmly leftist on everything until last year when I finally accepted that the concern for Palestine is really a. nothing but antisemitism, b. absurd and c. I finally got tired of the mental gymnastics to convince myself otherwise.

I still consider myself leftist. But since then, I’ve been kind of staggering in my positions and struggling to resolve political identity issue. Now I think I’m figuring stuff out;

I’m a leftist. I support strong social safety net, I support strong unionization, I support any and all measure to tackle wealth inequality, I support tackling climate change and pollution, I support women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, drug liberalization, free college… And I feverishly oppose influence of religion in government.

The only difference between me and most other leftists is that I apply these values to everyone. I don’t only hate backwards-thinking, anti democratic religious lunatics if they’re white Christians. I hate them when they’re brown Muslims too. As MLK would want me to, I’m judging people by the content of their character. This is why I hate Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis and Islamic Republic just as I hate MAGA.

The reason why I’m writing this is that I’m looking for subs to call home. Almost every political sub is infested with anti western tankies and Islamist bots. Is this a good sub for leftists whose brains aren’t broken into shit?

Addendum:

As of late, besides having supported Ukraine from the start, I recently started to support liberation of Iran and Venezuela. As much as I despise Trump and don’t trust him one bit, I hope that his reign of terror will lead to a silver lining of those 2 giants becoming free and contributing to world peace.

I have a theory that some of those people who think that Gaza war is genocide, think so because they have no idea what war looks like, because they’re only used to sanitized or filtered perspective on wars given by mainstream media that don’t show the war in its gruesome or gory detail and only show footage taken from distance. Or from war movies. And war movies, just like movies of any genre can only rarely show tough subject matter in a very realistic way.

One movie that’s particularly hard is Come and See made in Soviet Union. It’s noted for hyper realistic portrayal of psychological impact of war and unlike most war movies, this one actually mostly focuses on the impact on civilians, rather than combat itself. But given that it’s WWII movie where all atrocities are done by Nazis, that wouldn’t exactly help Israel to make people understand why it’s doing what it’s doing.

When I asked this question on a different sub, someone recommended Black Hawk Down, because it’s graphic and depicts intricacies of urban warfare. But I wasn’t very satisfied, because civilians in the movie had plot armor and overall, the battle didn’t seem to show what Israel has to deal with.

If you happen to know a war movie that can potentially make someone understand why Israel can’t just magically kill all Hamas members without killing single civilian and destroying a single civilian building (or even documentary), what would you recommend?