u/DisdainfulStacks

Will delete if this is too speculative or controversial. I am studying to be a librarian in the United States right now, and I’m currently running into an unusual roadblock alongside a lot of my friends and family who are in teaching or education-related fields—people have some form of inherent distrust of scientific or educational authorities, and I’m finding it difficult to educate people.

For example, I’ve had patrons at the library ask me if I “Indoctrinate children” with books on science or books on LGBTQ+ topics (I myself am transgender, but am not openly so to the public). I find that I often struggle to explain that I am not doing such a thing, and try to provide alternative reading material if patrons dislike recommendations. At the same time, I’m aware of a growing anti-literacy crisis among the young people of the United States, but am unaware of hard statistics showing how drastic it has become in recent years.

As scientists and educators, do you believe that the overall scientific progress of the world as a whole might be sliding backwards with the potentially massive amount of anti-intellectual discourse in the media today? How do you think such things could be stopped or the public could be made to listen?

As a Guard tanker currently making some T’au Human Auxillaries for my Guard army, I was wondering. Without Longstrike, is a list focused on Hammerheads with Pathfinders/Fire Warriors viable? I love the look of the hovercraft, not so much the Battlesuits.

For Genestealers, we have:
- The Cult of the Pauper Princes which started as a union before being morphed into a cult
- Cult of the Chittering Verse, which is actually still active due to their hivefleet being destroyed by Votann
- Congregation of the Divine Union on Morod (eaten)
- Cult of the Four-Armed Emperor (began as a mining union on Tryst but is now a full religious group)
- Cult of the Writhing Wyrm (destroyed by the Deathwatch)

Notice how these went from union to “something else” showing how the cults mostly just adapted to their host societies and didn’t keep them as actual unions

There are potentially more Gue’vesa workers combines and unions which have also lasted longer than any of the Genestealer “Unions” in the lore.

T’ros (Taros) is mentioned to have dozens of unions alone which formed into the Union of Iron, becoming one of the longest-lasting unions of any Gue’vesa Sept in Imperial Armor.

Mu’gulath Bay is mentioned to have at least one. (Their Sept was destroyed)

Prefectia is mentioned to have unionized workers to fight the Imperials inside their Hives, along with gangers being given T’au weaponry to defend their “trade partners” in the Damocles anthology.

Cao Quo, while remaining Allied to the T’au and not an actual controlled Sept, is mentioned to have both a smuggler’s union (the Red Society) and multiple unnamed worker’s combines (mostly used as locations for Elemental Council plot or combat).

Velk’Han in the Jericho Reach is noted to have a “Gue’retha” academy where Humans are sent to be taught T’au philosophy and ideology, and which they are then sent back to espouse this ideology to others. This isn’t exactly the same as a union, but it has the similar outcome of causing more T’au aligned groups to spread.

And the entire mess that was the Fourth Sphere in Psychic Awakening: The Greater Good found Genestealers actively infesting several worker’s combines and union groups in Vorotheion which led to the Genestealers being purged (along with a lot of normal Humans)

Hello. Will delete if this question or series of questions is too loaded, but I am curious to know if my ideology aligns with socialist principles. I am a young person, and quite new to politics overall. I’ve voted in an election and gone to some union rallies, and organized a free book drive (I think this is a form of praxis?)

1. Can one still be a civil or government worker and be socialist? I’m currently studying library science in university, and looking to work at the Library of Congress in the future. Is this desire incompatible with being a socialist?

2. What are some resources about socialistic practices in the federal or state library space? I didn’t get much info on this when beginning my university studies, and the most I got was a civil service class which praised mutual aid for spreading outreach and information. Books and resources are welcome if anyone has sources for further reading.

3. If I believe in the basic ideas of socialism (that being egalitarianism, no corporations or oppressive hierarchies, and no forms of inequality or imbalanced distribution of resources or wealth), but still believe in the idea of a state or government, what does that label me as?

Is there a specific party or group that would be more conducive to me? I’ve been reading some basic theory (I started Kapital, Capital and Ideology by Thomas Piketty, and Mao’s Little Red Book, but have not finished any yet, and don’t feel attracted to any one solid ideology to call myself a Marxist, Maoist or other)

4. How important is praxis over labels and reading theory? My attempts at reading theory have often stumped me, as many books like Kapital seem confusing in their discussion of outdated economics. I’ve tried to read Enrico Malatesta’s memoir and Mao, by Ross Terrill, but both were complicated reads (Mao was less of a theory focused read and more a general historical overview, which made it much more comprehensible).

I understand one needs to read theory to be called a socialist, but is there a hard and fast line of how much theory and how much praxis? Is volunteering at socialist adjacent places like public libraries and parks a form of praxis?

“Every regiment possessed a few: sub-patterns and relics whose supply chains had long disappeared and whose remaining lifespan depended on the deviousness and indulgence of Munitorum quartermasters. Ceroferarius was an ancient beast. It had been painted enough to render its hull a moonscape of pits and scars, each layer of enamel the silent witness to some forgotten war. Valian did not recognise the armament.”

‘What’s the turret mount?’

“Ceroferarius’ commander was Drookian Fenguard, his accent almost impenetrable.
‘Laser.’ He pronounced it lay-sharr and puffed out his cheeks afterwards. The weapon looked like a colossal heat sink. It was caked in old black ash. Valian doubted it had been fired in centuries.”

We then see the Volkite Demi-Culverin of the Leman Russ Incinerator tear through a T’au Hammerhead’s much stronger nanocrystalline armor.

“Something that bit through the stale, acrid air
and Valian’s mask-filters. It was the Russ. Paint was drifting from it in thin shrouds. It went black, then green, then red, shedding the marks of
campaign after campaign, till the metal was bare and sweating – and then the world was black, a great darkness that seemed to pulse from the vehicle.”

“Only, Valian realised, it was not darkness at all but a piercing ray of light, so vast in intensity that everything in its wake was rendered invisible. He remembered the strange contours of Ceroferarius’ weapon, and a word from
his early education in the Schola. Volkite, the searing laser light of the Imperium’s founding, the forgotten flame that had brought a galaxy to heel.”

“The Hammerhead was plated in some kind of thermal alloy. The beam of white heat spilled across its surface, cobwebbing through the interlocking plates and revealing the subtle geometries of their manufacture. The
gunship died with the beam; the ray sputtered, then stopped. The Hammerhead’s hull was still glowing when it hit the water, carving a wall
of steam in the air. Valian let his eyes adjust for a second, then signalled the column.”

“Kill confirmed.”