It's late and we needed a mega, so I googled "on this day in history", and am copying and pasting the result. The first result, was, of course, perfect, because communism stays winning. So that was cool.

On April 25, 1983, the Soviet Union releases a letter that Russian leader Yuri Andropov wrote to Samantha Smith, an American fifth-grader from Manchester, Maine, inviting her to visit his country. Andropov’s letter came in response to a note Smith had sent him in December 1982, asking if the Soviets were planning to start a nuclear war. At the time, the United States and Soviet Union were Cold War enemies.

President Ronald "Asshole" Reagan, a passionate anti-communist, had dubbed the Soviet Union the “evil empire” and called for massive increases in U.S. defense spending to meet the perceived Soviet threat. In his public relations duel with Reagan, known as the “Great Communicator,” Andropov, who had succeeded longtime Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in 1982, assumed a folksy, almost grandfatherly approach that was incongruous with the negative image most Americans had of the Soviets.

Andropov’s letter said that Russian people wanted to “live in peace, to trade and cooperate with all our neighbors on the globe, no matter how close or far away they are, and, certainly, with such a great country as the United States of America.” In response to Smith’s question about whether the Soviet Union wished to prevent nuclear war, Andropov declared, “Yes, Samantha, we in the Soviet Union are endeavoring and doing everything so that there will be no war between our two countries, so that there will be no war at all on earth.” Andropov also complimented Smith, comparing her to the spunky character Becky Thatcher from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.


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  • FirstToServe [they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    White people have more mental health issues because they were raised by white people.

  • ClathrateG [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses. Ezekiel 23:20

  • DeathToBritain [she/her,they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    1 week left of ramadan 🙏 . lunch, coffee, snacks, a nice tall cold glass of water when you get in, ah how I have missed thee

  • Sklorp [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    A man fucking lit himself on fire outside the Supreme Court and the media is ignoring it, and those that do report it are conveniently ignoring why he did it.

  • LoudMuffin [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I was at work the other day and kinda got to thinking "damn, my country literally dropped a nuclear fucking missile on civilians (twice)"

    :jesse-wtf:

  • layla
    ·
    2 years ago

    Visited Hacker News for the first time in a while to see what they think of Drew DeVault's new language.

    I should not be visiting Hacker News for anything, ever. It is so much worse than Reddit.

    • TrashGoblin [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Oh, he's released it now? I'll have to check it out.

      I have a lot of karma on the orange site from back in the day, which means that now I can pretty much troll with impunity.

      • layla
        ·
        2 years ago

        Yeah, I posted about it here: https://hexbear.net/post/189695

        I have thought about making an account there but I cba to build up 500 karma just to downvote comments.

  • acealeam [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    i thought about getting one of those shitty meal kit things, but then i realized i dont want them to actually send me food. i just want someone to tell me what to make. and you can just look at their menus... so now im just stealing their ideas. i like cooking i just hate deciding what to eat

    • Koa_lala [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Imagine not being able to drink your tap water.

      EDIT: you should imagine it. It's very sad and it should be solved.

    • ElGosso [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      If you let the water stand after pouring it should evaporate off; if it's real bad you can boil it

      • TyMan210 [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I only know this from keeping aquariums, but it can differ. If it's chlorine it'll evaporate off before long, but some cities use chloramine instead of/in addition to chlorine, and chloramine takes a lot longer to evaporate, even if you boil it. In that case you realistically have to either filter it out, or use a chemical dechlorinator.

  • FRIENDLY_BUTTMUNCHER [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Getting fed up with the climate change activists in my county who like, superglue their hand to a starbucks counter or get themselves arrested blocking traffic. Direct action is cool and good, but this is just disconnected action. There is no reason for their actions to influence those who matter. There is an air gap between the protest and the intended target, and that guarantees that nothing will come from it. Supergluing yourself to a counter inconveniences you, the worker, and whoever else wants coffee that day. Supergluing an oil executive to a counter would do way more.

    • Huldra [they/them, it/its]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Its like propaganda of the deed but the deed is being a mild nuisance and an asshole, and propaganda of the deed is already at best dubiously effective when it comes to doing actual assassinations and terror deeds.

    • DeathToBritain [she/her,they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      last time I said this on here about Extinction Rebellion, who o the same stuff, somebody said I hated black lives matter. a lot of people on the left seem to really think these minor disruptions and individual outbursts do anything. the logic is you get seen and get a platform, but the media is just gonna paint you as a melon regardless of how legitimate your points about climate change are, because they control the narrative through how all of this is shown to the public, and the reactionaries can paint you as an out of touch asshole who hates 'regular people' through your actions, while you've not really done anything at all. ofc protest requires disruption, but you gotta think about how, when, why, to what end, if you actually want this to be a way to propagandise, because the point of propaganda is to pander and convince those who do not yet agree with you

    • Quimby [any, any]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      the scientist who handcuffed themselves to JP Morgan recently were effective, imo. they got a lot of press out of that and the press repeated their views without editing.

  • DeathToBritain [she/her,they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    8 hour workdays are so fucking annoying. my supervisor and company owner both know I do no work after 3 (I do no work before then too but that's another thing). and just let me play video games in the open and even comment if I do anything after 3 as being pointless and excessive. but I'm here until 5pm if I like it or not. and sure, being paid to sit on my ass and game is fun, but you could just bump my hourly wages up and let me go home at 3... I mean fuck even a pay cut and going home at 3 on the same rate would still be nice. 2 hours .more free time a day and not going home at rush hour is worth more than those 2 hours pay tbh

    • kristina [she/her]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      yeah everyone pisses around at my office around 3 too. usually everyone hangs out and talks out, though luckily a lot of stuff is going remote so i can just fuck on company time now. im pretty adamant that all office work is bullshit and should all be done from home, they should just send you any equipment you need and have remote servers

      not having to drive and deal with rush hour is honestly the best time of my life

        • LoudMuffin [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Not really, I'm about to be fired from my job cuz I'm their punching bag for standing around too much

          Working sucks cuz some places want you to always be doing something no matter how fucking ridiculous, as a Marxist I know why of course but like lol

          I have to wonder to what degree management huffs their own supply, like I wonder if the idea that you can just not work gives them anxiety in their down time

  • corgiwithalaptop [any, love/loves]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Hello everyone! Hope you're well! Just hanging out at work, very tired today, up late playing a show last night. Love you all!

  • Alf [any]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    deleted by creator