Sound advice, also for OP to test their fingerprint: https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/

25, 35, 27, 33, 1, 46, and 110.

I will never stray from the fact that Russia has been instrumental in supporting people around the world, but also recognizing that Russia is a reactionary state, which if given the same status as the United States would engage in all the very same tactics. I know people are quick to dismiss the KPRF as “controlled opposition” that is “joined at the hip” with United Russia, but in my opinion it’s a counter balance that appeals to Soviet era demographics, and it does its job well, and by no means are they “non-radical” in the sense they absolutely risk strikes and organizing people even if it gets them thrown in jail. Yet despite all this, the KPRF recognizes too, the self-determination of Donbass, and has written very good analysis on the subject over the years, recognizing the absolute need of the military operation in the region. I do not personally believe that United Russia wholeheartedly supports this operation from a ground of moral conscience, but I do not also believe that they are innately engaging for economic reasons as one would for a capitalist state. I also hold the belief that out of all post-soviet countries, Russia holds one of the highest potentials for another mass communist movement organized from below, which would almost certainly reform many of the “bad” elements found within the KPRF (some of the more chauvinist points in their programme for example), especially with Russia weakening the chains of the neoliberal crisis, the revival of productive forces due to self reliance from sanctions and pressure, and finally, from the aggression by Kiev’s fascist regime against history and peoples of the USSR, will ultimately only drive people further in to finding the historical links between anti-fascism and communism.

Yeah…initially I had a lot of hope, I thought maybe he had changed from the last time he made the mistake with Haiti, but I was wrong. Strange that he’d jump on this opportunity twice. Also, a lot of indigenous people still are left without justice against multinationals and abuse of their lands, it’s really disheartening how much inaction is taking place. I know that MST critically supported Lula, but I wonder what their stance is nowadays…

Russia (more so I support the progressive character of self-determination in Donbass), Nicaragua, Belarus, Venezuela, Bolivia, currently Honduras because of Xiomara Castro, Burkina Faso, Iran, the resistance in Artsakh, Yemen, but also recently I stopped supporting Brazil because Lula decided to again support the oppression of the Haitian people.

Aside from the listed movies, I have a TV show to recommend called “In the Name of the People,” which I’m literally HOOKED to. Here is a playlist with English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A74YChOkSpY&list=PLJpCdaWK6PVpeWbeUSjw4dBWt5IKK5Buj. The show is about an anti-corruption taskforce dealing with high profile cases, cadres involved in various schemes, etc. Show really caused a whirlwind of confusion in the west because it broke through the notion that the CPC “censors” anything that portrays it in a potentially negative light. I really like the message the show brings across, and the need to reinforce the notion of serving the people wholeheartedly, while smashing opportunists and those who try to bring down the cause of socialism.

Unlike some political parties which used Marxism-Leninism as a cover to gain support in their national liberation struggles, I certainly hold the belief that the MPLA’s was authentic in nature. I think naturally of course given the time period of the change, it was during the fall of the Soviet Union, and like most communist parties ideas were being re-evaluated. There’s a trend among many communist parties around the world that have transitioned to social-democratic beliefs because of the perceived failures, and the large wave of reaction that followed. I do think the party structure hasn’t changed too much, hypothetically some faction could knock the social democrats out, but given the momentum of the largest opposition party UNITA, it’s looking more and more unlikely. I feel like the KPRF is more likely to go “Marxist-Leninist” again before I could imagine the MPLA doing so, but who knows.

While I agree with this, Angola is no longer an ML state, it was changed to social democracy on their 3rd congress in December of 1990. Perhaps it has more revolutionary potential though.

Here’s my favorite watching path, which I also started with:

Star Trek: The Motion Picture -> Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan -> Star Trek: The Search for Spock -> Star Trek: The final frontier (hated by many, but one of my favorites) -> Star Trek: The Voyage Home -> Star Trek: The undiscovered Country -> TNG (Series) -> Star Trek: DS9 (Series) -> Star Trek: Generations -> Star Trek: Voyager -> Star Trek: First Contact -> Star Trek: Insurrection -> Star Trek: Nemesis -> Enterprise

Benefits of watching it in this order:

1.) You get to see the original crew from the TOS series in their full glory (without them getting horny), not necessarily needing the context of the original series at all to understand the dynamics and relationships between the characters. The original six movies above (The motion picture all the way to the undiscovered country), lay the ground work for a lot of what you see in TNG, and provides some valuable context for some future episodes, as well as Star Trek: Generations. I highly, highly recommend watching the six before going to TNG, trust me, you won’t regret it.

2.) There is some intersection between TNG and DS9, somewhere half way through TNG is technically where DS9 begins (I don’t want to spoil, but if you want to watch them side by side, start DS9 after watching “The Best of Both Worlds” episode S03E26).

3.) Star Trek: Voyager before Star Trek: First Contact, is beneficial to watch since you get to see the evolution of the borg, as well as central elements of the borg which later show up in Star Trek: First Contact. It also makes chronological sense, which you will see in the first few minutes after watching First Contact.

4.) Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek: Nemesis will wrap up everything, but mind you these are two films that cause wars among Trekkies. Save Enterprise for last, because it is arguably the worst among all of them in overall quality, but technically it plays before any of the above, at the infancy of earth’s space exploration. The benefit of watching it last is that everything before will fill the vague contexts and hints in the show about different species and events.

Other notes: Star Trek isn’t very “progressive,” either. But then again, perhaps one could also say it is a product of its time, in the lens of liberal ideology. There are some very, very problematic representations in the first few seasons that are downright racist, and even the cast themselves regret making those episodes. Other shows I can recommend (although not so great either when looking for non-reactionary media) is The Expanse. That show, had me so hooked, you wouldn’t believe. It’s not overly pretentious, and it almost feels like it would be the actual consequence of a capitalist dystopian future.

Hope this helps!

Depends on your threat model, and whether you prefer security or privacy. GrapheneOS doesn’t seem too bothered by Google, and is more interested in security aspects. Because of that, you can also install sandboxed Play Store, but from a “privacy” point of view the default permission sets provided to it are still enough to give away a substantial deal about yourself and device usage. That being said, I do use GrapheneOS currently, without Google Play installed, only using applications provided by F-Droid. But this isn’t for everyone. There’s other “friendlier” projects out there too, take a look at: https://e.foundation/e-os/. With all this in mind, owning a smart phone, period, regardless of how “secure,” it is, will not save you from a state actor that has enough investment and time to monitor you. If you truly are a target of interest, then nothing aside from hiding several hundred km underground, and even then, will probably save you from these kinds of threats.

Addendum edit: Security is a slippery word here. As long as firmware blobs and certain pieces of software are proprietary, you have no underlying way to audit how your phone functions. For all you know, the blobs shipped for the Pixel on GrapheneOS or Calyx have a backdoor from Google. Never “trust” your phone, and if you truly want to be a “challenge” to local agencies, your only option is to throw away your phone. At the very least, never bring your phone to protests. Never state your intentions or communicate with fellow activists, over that device, if you are worried about security/privacy implications. Always be amnesic, don’t leave a trace on any devices, (no, I don’t mean deleting files or conversations (you risk leaving forensic trails), I mean carrying around a live stick like tails that will go poof after a restart) don’t state your intentions online, if you are absolutely serious about avoiding state actors, or if you suspect they are after you. For the majority of protestors, I’d say capitalist states do not perceive us as a “threat” unless we truly engaged in something radical (let’s say you became the next RAF). Punishment is more of a public spectacle, and most authorities won’t bother to investigate your device for the most part given the legal implications and proceedings involved in doing such a thing. That aside it’s still a good idea to take some mitigations, but don’t go too far down the rabbit hole I’d say, because at some point you will take away your ability to operate or even spread the word in this capitalist hellhole, given that most people engage on social media or at the very least, own a phone themselves. Strength in numbers, being a part of mass organizations already makes it hard enough for authorities to care about “individual” threats.

It’s okay. I come from the same background, and worst part is I didn’t go to an actual school. Now I can speak German relatively well, and I’m on my way to figuring out Mandarin. All it takes is discipline. There is no time like the present, and don’t stall yourself mentally by speaking of regret. Want to learn Spanish? Slap open a dictionary, right now, start writing down words. Google resources on Spanish grammar, there’s plenty out there. Libgen is your friend if you ever need to get a PDF copy of certain textbooks. Want to learn Chinese? Also plenty of resources. If you like gamified learning and don’t feel like you can sit around to learn Mandarin, get Duolingo, do a few words a day. Yes, you probably won’t get a good grasp on the language that way, but every bit counts! Learning a language isn’t like going from 0% to 100%, often time it’s a life long struggle, and by no means am I trying to discourage you with this, but the way you need to see it is: learn a few words a day, phrases, learn grammar, consume media, however much you can tolerate at a given time, and you will be equipped with much more knowledge than before, possibly in the future with enough to engage in basic conversation. And the best part is with languages in my experience, once you get to a conversational level, everything else will come easily, vocabulary will be something you pick up the more you engage, and people will certainly be impressed. Don’t give up comrade, you’ve got this.