On the occasion of the 79th anniversary of the end of the war with the Third Reich, some (not all) federal subjects of Russia have held victory parades. Local authorities from Moscow to Sakhalin found themselves in a difficult situation. On the one hand, they need to demonstrate to people military equipment and personnel, which obviously lack due to the ongoing war against Ukraine. On the other hand, the complete rejection from celebrations of the anniversary of the end of the war with Nazi Germany does not correspond to the Kremlin's policy of total dominance of propaganda and ideological mobilization of the population around the Leader.
The Russian authorities did their best to resolve this dilemma. For example, a long lines of the military on Moscow’s Red Square was replaced by the holders of the Hero of Russia title for special merits in the ongoing war against Ukraine. In turn, the absence of long columns of military equipment at the parade in Moscow was compensated by a demonstration of the most modern and threatening weapons of the Russian Federation – Yars intercontinental ballistic missiles (actually, this is a modernized version of the Soviet Topol-M missile), Iskander-M ballistic missiles (which is still a Soviet development) and the S-400 Typhoon air defense complex (a modernized version of the Soviet S-300).
As for the personnel, according to open Russian resources (published obituaries, articles about losses in regional media, eulogies proclaimed by representatives of local authorities), since the large-scale invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine, 55 thousand people have been buried on the territory of the Russian Federation. This figure exceeds all the human losses of the USSR and the modern Russian Federation since the end of World War II on September 2, 1945, and until now. That is, from the Korean War, many conflicts and proxy wars in Asia and Africa to Afghanistan and, finally, to the two Russian wars in Chechnya. Of course, the USSR and then the Russian Federation has always underestimated and hidden real losses in the wars and conflicts of the second half of the 20th century. However, the figure of 55,000 is only losses with verified personal information about fallen soldiers and a place of their burial.
At the same time, over the past two years, unofficial military cemeteries have appeared in a number of federal subjects of the Russian Federation (mostly in the Rostov and the Krasnodar region). In addition, military personnel are often buried quietly in existing cemeteries and even in mass graves. According to local Russian public activists, several cemeteries with buried members of the Wagner PMC were demolished (there were even memorials in some places) after the Kremlin’s suppression of the failed mutiny of the PMC in the summer of 2023.
It is assumed that the large losses in the war against Ukraine made the authorities to cancel the “Immortal Regiment” action (it is the great march with portraits of fallen soldiers) this year. The authorities concluded that this year the participants of the actions would not come out with photos of their ancestors - participants of the Second World War (as was usual), but with a lot of pictures of men who died in Ukraine today.
According to the intelligence services of Western countries and independent Russian investigators (their calculations practically coincide), from 150,000 to 200,000 people died during the two years of the large-scale invasion (Russia's war against Ukraine itself began in 2014). Moreover, this number does not include such categories as the missing, seriously injured, disabled without limbs, severely contused and, in fact, terminally ill (for example, those who got radiation sickness in the radiation zone around Chornobyl, or those who got a severe form of tuberculosis). All these categories are additional tens of thousands of people.
The Russian authorities continue to involve their country and all population into the world of neo-imperial illusions by hiding new military cemeteries in the country and holding victory parades, equating the former struggle with Nazism with the current conquest of the Ukrainian state (which was artificially declared neo-Nazi). All this once again confirms the Kremlin’s stance to continue the war until complete victory.

https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/do-you-know-these-rpgs.8771/page-7#post-140400

Academy of Game Critics Award 1987
Worst RPG of the year: Iron Head Manifesto, the first RPG by american neo-nazis. Expensive and bad, bad, bad!
The academy consisted of Mike Stackpole, Laurence Schick, Warren Spector, Wallace Poulter and Steve Jackson. It awarded games, persons and corporations that just made a bad impression.

Sounds like a thing similar to one of the Unholy Trinity

Before the pill, before the internet, before the cell phone, lots of misinformation about Asian history and culture circulated in books written by people who were not qualified.
Over the last 60 years, most of the assumptions and beliefs Zen have been debunked, although to people who don't go to college and don't read modern scholarship, it's still like the 1960s never ended.
Just as there are still books being published today about alien visitation and Jesus riding a dinosaur, there are plenty of opportunities for people to be misinformed. There are even books you can buy that describe how Trump won in 2020 and has been in charge of the deep state for the last 4 years.
But these books don't offer fact and arguments that can be repeated in the public square in anything like a coherent and compelling dialogue.

Zen not related to taoism

For people who haven't read a book of instruction written by a zen master but read a popular translation of Te Tao Ching (the more accurately translated title), it can be easy to believe the opinion from the 1960s that Zen was related to taoism.
People who have read the Taoist Canon don't think so: www.reddit.com/zen/wiki/taoism. Taoism resembles Hinduism and Catholicism, none of which bear any resemblance to Zen.

Zen rejects meditation

There is no doctrinal connection between Zen, the sudden realization of enlightenment, and any of the many Buddhist and quasi- Buddhist meditation practices like Zazen-Shikantaza, breath counting, or mind-stopping. Meditation requires faith in Messianic doctrine of a "fallen" nature, revealed practice, and a state to be achieved, all of which are incompatible with Zen study and practice.
Patriarch's Hall, a recently rediscovered text from 900ce, illustrates how aggressively is and rejected Buddhist meditation. www.reddit.com/zen/wiki/notmeditation
Additionally,, scholarship from Stanford proved that zazen was invented in Japan by a Tientai Buddhist priest and was not ever a Zen practice. www.reddit.com/zen/wiki/secular_dogen

Zen is not and never was a branch of Buddhism

The 1960s and '70s saw Zen only through the lens of Japanese Buddhist claims about a tradition that wasn't Japanese originally, and wasn't Buddhist originally.
8FP Buddhism is very much a religion that promises people supernatural rewards in exchange for compliant behavior. The 8FP is the means to those supernatural rewards.
Zen Masters never taught the eightfold path and instead taught the four statements of Zen (found in the sidebar). Scholarship on the four statements was entirely unknown in the 1960s, as Japanese Buddhists steered a curious West away from Chinese historical sources and towards modern religious apologetics that a nearly illiterate Western academia embraced too quickly.
The last 30 years of scholarship, clearly the translation of a wide variety of texts, has not only severed Zen from Buddhism.www.reddit.com/zen/wiki/getstarted but has raised very serious questions about what it is that makes Buddhism essentially Buddhist www.reddit.com/zen/wiki/Buddhism

60's as a primary sources for Neo-Christian new agers

Just as there are still people who say Jesus road a dinosaur to work, the internet will still provide havens for people who didn't graduate college, did not study comparative religion or philosophy, and don't practice anything like Zen's commitment to the five lay precepts and public interview.
Many of the '60s era sources were linked inextricably to Nazi era thinkers, sex predators, people with drug and alcohol addiction, and religious frauds from Buddhist churches (Christian churches aren't the only unreliable churches).
The tragic part of all this is that people who might be interested in Zen never get the chance to study it, because they encounter neo-christian meditation worship and get turned off by the whole topic.
And who can blame them?

A man walks into a talent agent's office and says, "Have I got an act for you! It's a family act.'" The agent says, "Okay, I'm listening. What do they do?"
The man starts, "First, the father, Donald, comes out. He kicks things off by boasting about grabbing women by their privates because, as he says, his celebrity status lets him do whatever he wants. Then he mocks a disabled reporter, flailing his arms in a grotesque imitation. He incites violence at his rallies, encouraging his supporters to 'knock the crap' out of protesters. He calls for a complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States. Behind him, screens show clips of him separating children from their parents at the border, dismissing COVID-19 as a hoax while thousands die, and making comments about how if Ivanka weren't his daughter, he might be dating her. "Then his daughter, Ivanka, steps in. She’s promoting her fashion line, which is made in sweatshops overseas. She stands by her father as he calls neo-Nazis 'very fine people,' and she defends his policies on social media while trying to rebrand herself as a champion for women and families. Her husband's failed Middle East peace plans and misuse of federal resources for personal gain play on the screen behind her.
"Next, Donald Jr. and Eric Trump join in. Donald Jr. starts by boasting about their big game hunting expeditions, proudly displaying photos of themselves with endangered animals they've killed. Eric, looking disheveled and twitchy, brags about funneling money from Trump charity events into the family business and echoes his father's conspiracy theories about rigged elections and political enemies. The screen shows headlines about their shady business deals, ongoing investigations into their financial practices, and rumors about Eric's cocaine use. "Melania, Donald's wife, makes an appearance, delivering a speech about anti-bullying that’s a blatant rip-off of Michelle Obama's. She stands silently next to Donald as he boasts about his sexual exploits and pays off porn stars, her stoic demeanor barely hiding her disdain. The screen flashes images of her wearing a jacket that says 'I really don't care, do u?' while visiting detained children at the border.
"Finally, the youngest, Barron, walks in, seemingly oblivious to the chaos around him. He’s on his phone, playing games, while the rest of the family descends into a chaotic shouting match, each trying to outdo the other in self-aggrandizement and offensive rhetoric. Screens show the endless stream of tweets, lies, and scandals that have defined their time in the public eye. "As the act culminates, the whole family stands together in front of a backdrop of a gaudy, gold-plated Trump Tower facade. They strike a triumphant pose, surrounded by a whirlwind of lawsuits, impeachment trials, and global condemnation. The crowd is left in stunned silence, unsure if what they saw was real or some elaborate satire."
The agent, flabbergasted, asks, "What do you call this act?"
The man grins and says, "The Aristocrats!"

For a bit of context, the Roscami Federation is an extremely racist militaristic pariah state which in March, called for “all fascists” to destroy the Commonwealth of Faltree. Wynnbury ostensibly has answered this call and additionally unilaterally recognizes Roscamistan, actively associating themselves with a group of Nazis despised throughout the community. Definitely not a good idea! Faltree is a relatively peaceful nation with limited foreign action, so we’re a tad irked at recent fascist ambitions to harm our nation!
Pertinent links:
Roscami call fascists to destroy Faltree - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SD1R-1Cj95AJTMibzkQ2Vy9FiPiy-qw8gvWFNm4VdE8/mobilebasic
Wynnbury microwiki page wherein they unilaterally recognize Roscamistan - https://micronations.wiki/wiki/Draft:Kingdom_of_Ƿynnbury

The average normie (even IT users) have no fucking clue who true virgins actually are.
When the try to describe a truevirgin they end up describing a neo-fascist or a redpiller.
If I were to talk politics, I'm actually a leftist (Libertarian Socialist to be exact) however, outside of some applications, my political beliefs are hardly relevant to my relationship status. JFL at the ppl who think I'm a neo-nazi

Why should we care?

Zen and Science are both less popular than Neo-Christian New Age on social media. I think this is do in large part to Ttump's Presidency, which encouraged people across the political spectrum to believe what they felt should be true, rather than reason from facts.
This "feelings over facts" was especially true for people who, 60+ years later, are still getting their information about Zen, China, Buddhism, etc. from the likes of Japanese Buddhists, Alan Watts, and other long ago debunked claims: www.reddit.com//zen/wiki/fraudulent_texts. Nazis. Who the @#$# would believe that Nazi scholarship on Japan would be a basis for understand Zen history over Blue Cliff Record?
Yet a Neo-Christian New Ager is currently sitting at 19 upvotes on our front page, despite admitting in the comments that he had no evidence in support of his claims.

How do Zen and Science contrast with Neo-Christian New Age?

1. Demonstrations in reality as opposed to "I’ll take my mystical experience and realization over decades of poring over books for the truth"
   
   • Science is based on collecting data and replicating others' data collection
   • Zen is a tradition of public interview, with 1,000 years of data collection in the form of historical records, mostly transcripts.
   • Neo-Christian New Age is about mystical experience, not anything from reality that could be written in a book.
2. Zen and Science acknowledge history, Neo-Christian New Age has anti-historical claims
   
   • Zen Masters and science talk about what we agree happened. Neo-Christian New age invents history
3. Zen and Science talk about finding truth in reality. Neo-Christian new age talks about mysticism as the basis for truth
   
   • Foyan, in particular, rejects mysticism in the way Huangbo rejects Buddhism.

Foyan Wrekks Neo-Christian New Age "mysticismers"

Some people immediately declare, “ I have nothing to say at all, and no reason either.” They do not realize this is in fact a rationalization!

• If you can't answer questions, excuses/rationalizations won't save you.

They make a cliche of "your own mind" and then try to use mind to realize mind.

• Without cliches, mysticismers will fall apart. How often they try to sound original, but fail.

There is another type of Zen teacher who tells people not to make logical assessments, that they lose contact the minute they speak, and should recognize the primordial. This kind of “ teacher” has no explanation at all.

• Mysticismers brag about there being "no possible explanation"... that's fine in churcher forums... but not in secular forums.

.

Welcome! ewk comment: Foyan has a ton of these... he's very down to earth, materialistic even. Like Huangbo is anti-Buddhist. Still, if you don't read the book, what will you have to discuss?

On May 7th of this year, Steve Albini died. He is perhaps best known for producing / engineering Nirvana's album In Utero, although he is also known for being a member of various noise rock and post-hardcore bands throughout the 80s and 90s.
Following his death, author Joshua Goldberg posted "Now That Steve Albini is Dead, Let’s Reflect on His Admitted Love (and Promotion) of Child Pornography"
Trigger warning: GRAPHIC descriptions of CP CSAM in that article. DO NOT READ unless you're fine with your day being ruined. Thankfully CP CSAM is not depicted in the article, but it is described in detail.
In the article, the author describes and shows various articles where Albini aligned himself with pedophiles and pedophilic material. In these articles, Albini talks about possessing a CSAM magazine owned by his longtime friend Peter Sotos, who was convicted of that charge in 1985. In 2022, Albini claimed to still be friends with Sotos even following the CP arrest and incarceration.
Pay attention to the history of this author. His... affiliations will come up later.
Following this revelation, various music subreddits are currently ablaze with many many people detracting against Albini, while others defend him claiming it to be "edginess."
It is also worth noting that Albini had a reddit account that he posted on pretty often until his death, but this account has since been deleted.
Drama:
From an punk thread almost a year ago:

• "Durp. Steve albini's whole shtick is being really creepy and abrasive. It's almost like people don't understand that every artist has a bit and albini's bit was highlighting the less savory aspects of being a young alienated man in the United States."
  
• "Steve's a well known edgelord who loves saying shocking bullshit to get a reaction."
  

From an music post a few days ago:

• "I do not view this as an uncovering that Steve Albini was a pedo."
  
• "Is there any evidence that the Zine he supposedly supported actually existed?"
  
• "Not excusing Albini but just trying to add a bit of perspective first before you grab your pitchforks."
  

New drama comes to light after it is revealed that the author of the Medium article is allegedly a neo-Nazi and may have allegedly attempted a bombing while posing as a member of ISIS. (Most of the articles he published to his Medium site were written while he was in prison for the aforementioned attempted bombing):

• "The guy who wrote the article is an avowed neo-Nazi, just so you know"

It was brought up in noiserock about 2 years ago but was promptly shut down by multiple users:

• "Isn’t this just Steve being an edgelord in the 80’s? Who gives a shit."
  
• "I guess its a good thing for you now that he's a bloated rotting corpse, you can wait until he's buried and go piss on his grave I am sure he would have appreciated that."
  

Indieheadscirclejerk brings it up:

• "He has also stated since then that he deserves more hate for those sorts of proto-edgelord comments"

guitarcirclejerk has some thoughts:

• A really long comment claiming that he was not a pedophile

There's so, so much more to post but I won't because most of these threads at this point are just reiterating the same things. This is by far the most insane thing I've read this past week apart from the Kendrick / Drake stuff. Have fun.

Like sometimes it feels like the world didn’t learn anything at all

https://twitter.com/OrdinaryGamers/status/1789853482351985146?t=bt46HnVNr9bqWqVJyE4AWA&s=19
Disagree with Destiny saying that she changed by apologizing to him in person and telling her audience to calm down. She will never change.