Even the DDR wasn’t doing socialism. The public had to be all-in the idea, or they were discredited or arrested. It was an authoritarian autocracy acting in the name of socialism.

Lol. Nice erasure of the existence of McCarthyism.

Communism pwnd itself bruh - shit sucked so hard they didn’t need Anti-Propaganda like:

Is This Tomorrow? America under communism!!

Shit was so bad, that the US didn’t need to run any covert operations to subvert, discredit, arrest, jail, or even, allegedly, assassinate the prominent figures and leaders of progressive, socialist, and communist movements – I mean, if they did, they certainly wouldn’t have called it COINTELPRO. It’d be a dumb name anyway.

Pfft

…they put just enough oxygen in those helium canisters consumers can buy to stop people…

I’m not so sure that’s true… At least, I know for certain it wasn’t true for at least one brand of consumer grade helium canisters sold in the US, around 12 or 13 years ago.

In the early 2010s, I worked the day shift as an EMT for a small town ambulance company. One morning, right as I was clocking in for the 5am shift change, a call came in for an adult male unresponsive. My partner and I didn’t think much of it - it was a college town and we worked the Friday morning shift, so it wasn’t unusual to get early calls for drunk frat kids passed out in a yard from the Thirsty Thursday parties - don’t get me wrong, these were often serious situations, but run of the mill stuff for the job. So we told the overnight volunteers to go home, jumped in the rig and got on our way to the scene.

I started to get a bad feeling on the way over though, because it was at the local fishing pier, which was in a park - kind of a scenic place, not really near the college - but my partner played it down, said rush week had just finished so it’s probably some pledge bullshit or something.

We arrive at the park, pull into the parking lot, and see the police lights off to the right - the dock is off to the left, with a small beach to the right, with the parking lot overlooking the coast - the police officer has back against the trunk of a grey Nissan, thumbs in his vest, head hung low - looks up at the ambulance makes eye contact with me and shakes his head.

We get out of the rig, ask him what’s going on, he tells us that we’ll need to pronounce, and it isn’t pretty.

I walk around the driver side of the car and see a kid in the front seat. He couldn’t have been older than 20. There was a clear plastic bag over his head, the edges pulled taught to his neck with a length of string tied in a bow, the bag mostly inflated so it wasn’t touching his face. There was one end of a tube inside the bag, held in place with an extra knot from the string. The other end traced back to a tank sitting on the front passenger seat, still in its cardboard box with pictures of happy children playing with balloons on the side. There was a bottle of brown liquor in the cupholder.

I’ll never forget the blank stare of his semi-open eyes, set in his young, handsomely featured, yet now lifeless face - his skin the ashen, mottled, and pale blue-grey color of the recently deceased.

It was immediately obvious this young man had parked there for one last nice view of either a sunset or sunrise, drank up some courage, donned his gear, and drifted off to a final sleep.

I stood there only for a moment, but it felt like an eternity passed as I absorbed the emotional intensity of what had transpired there. I regained my sense of composure with the crack of my partner shattering the driver-door’s window, saw him reach to check for a pulse, turning his head away after a moment while waiting for the full, painfully requisite 60 seconds, pronounced him dead, and we were back in the truck on our way back to the station.

I’m still not right from that call.

I really hope things have changed, and that manufacturers are required to add oxygen or bitter compounds or something that prevent this kind of thing from happening.

If you’ve read down this far, I thank you. Writing this out was helpful for me to process - I took a few minor liberties in writing this story, mostly to obfuscate potential recognition, and for dramatic effect - but made no changes to what I felt and saw in my description of that scene.

And lastly, if you’re struggling with your mental health or substances - you’re not alone. This world can be hard and cruel, terribly isolating and dark - but there is warmth and kindness too. If you feel like hurting yourself, please don’t. You are loved. You will be missed by the ones who love you. If you’re in crisis, and there’s someone you know and trust, call them and talk to them. If they cant talk or don’t pick up, or if there’s no one you feel you can trust, call a crisis prevention hotline any time, any day, and they will listen to you with the utmost respect, dignity, and empathy.

[US and Canada] Call 988 for the suicide and crisis lifeline. Call 911 for life-threatening/imminent situations. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/suicide-prevention

[Most other countries] Call your local emergency line, most often it’s 112 if you’re outside of North America - they will direct you to help if you’re in need.

Additional information: https://www.cnet.com/health/suicide-hotlines-crisis-hotlines-to-call-when-you-need-help/

What do you mean by “police speech?”

Not if Ianthe has anything to say about it.

Yes, but …

Setting aside the polarized nature of named generations, as a class; for these are entirely arbitrary and designed to create polarization …

There’s fun theory on the “Gen X are forgotten” meme. Yes yes, you Gen Xers got shafted, here’s a cookie 🍪 Please hear me out.

Most people fall on the cusps of their “generation” and Gen X is no different - in this case, you’re either old enough to identify with boomers, and are shouting “snowflake millennial” with them; or you’re young enough to identify with millennials, but still too old to identify with Gen Z, so you’re shouting “cringe zoomer” with the millennials, they who are cuspers themselves and too old to identify with Gen Z. The quintessential Gen Xer is uncommon, but exceptionally kind. You always know when one is around though, because they are quick with a self deprecation point out that Gen X was “forgotten again.” 😉

The sad thing is that many of the so-called boomers are being replaced by Gen Xers. And the millennials shouting the same inter-generational slurs will eventually take the throne of generational bully.

On the other hand, there is hope inspired by this meme - all we need to do to stop inter-generational trauma is stop perpetrating it.

Oh - that’s quite a deliciously nuanced take, a subtext that I indeed did not catch.

I’m at times a simpleton; I chuckled at “billionaire jerky” and “pickled billionaire,” as the phrases reminded me of the Bubba Gump quote.

I hear your point now - compared to the hundreds of millions of cattle, pigs, and chicken processed annually, 2000 billionaires would be small potatoes. The end product would be so scarce, supply/demand would necessarily dictate an ironically immense price, only affordable to those that served as the raw material.

…by working 370,000 times slaves in his daddy’s emerald mine harder than the rest of us.

Fixed that for you.

Good thing Ocean’s Gate already started that process for us.

He really would have done well as the lead in a fictional Michael Jackson biopic that’s an alternate retelling of how his life took a turn in the mid/late 90s, when he discovers that he’s actually in the Matrix and is the one. And instead of Annie, we’re asking “Neo, are you okay? Are you o.k. ne-o? – Sha-mona”

I’m sorry you’ve lost so many friends.

To quote Bubba Gump:

Anyway, like I was sayin’, [billionaire] is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. There’s uh, [billionaire]-kabobs, [billionaire] creole, [billionaire] gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There’s pineapple [billionaire], lemon [billionaire], coconut [billionaire], pepper [billionaire], [billionaire] soup, [billionaire] stew, [billionaire] salad, [billionaire] and potatoes, [billionaire] burger, [billionaire] sandwich. That- that’s about it.

How is this defendable in any way?

…my mistake.

I think you meant “missed steak.”

Hey - I might have given the wrong impression - I’m a civvy and never served. Grew up in a navy fam, so I have some exposure to life and lingo, but I won’t pretend to know shit. Stolen valor is fucked up, so I’m sorry if I gave you that vibe. Thank you for your service sailor.

Oh okay. No disrespect, but from your other posts, I get the feeling you’re fresh out of boot camp. A sense of pride is healthy, but it can get you in trouble if you don’t keep it in check - loose lips sink ships.

Next time go with the euphemism for dropping a deuce, it’s funnier.

Uh… not op… but, are you saying you’re sitting at some console, browsing lemmy while waiting to get the go ahead to launch nukes?

It’s literally the capital of your country and the seat of your government. How that “isn’t Germany” is beyond me.

No, I fully understand the point. By “German” you mean Fachwerkhäuser, Oktoberfest, Lederhosen and Dirndls, Bier Steins and Weißwurst, and you’re correct, these cultural symbols are not characteristic of Berlin - these are Bavarian. There is so much more to German culture than Bavaria though, despite what the Bavarians think.

But that’s not what OP said. OP Made a stupid claim about how only visiting Berlin means one hasn’t really visited Germany.

To your point, my analogy works quite well - If you go to NYC expecting to find the stereotype of cowboys, massive steaks, and barbeque, you’ll be disappointed, because that shit is in Texas.

It’s all relative to how one defines a country’s culture and the lens it creates. Just because someone has myopic expectations does not mean that NYC is less American than anywhere else in the US. The same holds true for Berlin and the rest of Germany.