u/Misanthropia1777

In my country (Canada) for example, there are 3 active communist parties. All of them subscribe to the works of Marx, Engels, and Lenin, and uphold the vanguard party as the necessary vehicle for revolutionary change. Despite sharing all of the same goals, they all remain separate parties.

The Marxist Leninist party split from the original communist party in the 70’s because they thought they had become revisionist for supporting Khrushchev. Neither party denounces Stalin or Mao, and both view the Soviet Union as an example of actually existing socialism, yet neither have made any attempt to reconcile in the last 50 years.

The Revolutionary Communist Party is another group that seems to advocate for the exact same overarching ideas and policies, but differs from the other two in that it rejects “Socialism in One Country” and the legacy of Stalin and Mao, in favour of Trotsky and his theory of “Permanent Revolution.” Why does it matter whether or not you like Stalin or Trotsky, or think the Soviet Union should have embraced X policy or not over 100 years ago. None of these things seem to have any bearing to me on the implementation of socialism today, let alone in a country these things have nothing to do about.

Am I missing something?

If the Soviet Union still existed in the fallout timeline by this point, what was their level of involvement in the European civil war? I highly doubt that they wouldn’t involve themselves in such a conflict given their own ideological goals and the existence of the eastern bloc. Did they stay out of the conflict due to their potentially still vast oil supply and if so why wouldn’t they trade any of it with China which they were clearly more friendly with in this timeline? There’s always the possibility that the Eastern Bloc didn’t exist anymore, but I find this doubtful considering how destructive its dissolution was to the Soviet Union as a whole in OTL.

It also seems strange to me that in a world where America has no qualms about invading and occupying countries of material importance they wouldn’t have involved themselves in an oil war in the Middle East, especially one in which Tel-Aviv is destroyed by Nuclear Weapons.

It’s also not like NATO didn’t at some point exist as we find plenty of NATO standardized ammunition across the games. Some people have theorized that NATO dissolved when the UN did, but I feel like it would make less sense than it dissolving decades earlier, possibly in response to the formation of the European Commonwealth.

Hey everyone, I know you guys probably get questions like this all the time but I thought I’d ask for help with this anyways.

For years I (20M) have been consistently attracted to women both romantically and sexually. I’ve only ever dated women, and I could only ever see myself being with one in the long term. That being said while I never found traditionally masculine guys attractive at all (muscles, facial hair, deep voices) I realized lately that I have had a pretty consistent type in guys for a number of years. Skinny, Shy, Artistic, soft spoken, and even feminine men are sexually attractive to me for some reason. This started as early as middle school, and it’s been an on and off source of confusion for me since then. For most of my life I simply said I was straight and left it at that. I didn’t feel a need to specify anything else or use a different label, because these feelings never amounted to anything outside of a few masturbatory sessions.

It wasn’t until recently that I started to think more about it, and began questing whether or not calling myself straight is a meaningful label for me anymore. Sure, it’s been practically accurate, but I feel like I’m denying a part of myself by calling myself that. At the same time I feel like because I’m repulsed by traditionally masculine guys, and have a strong preference for women, the label of Bisexual is too broad. Logically it makes sense for me, but even though people say it doesn’t have to be 50/50 I think there’s this bias in a lot of spaces that being bi means you’re attracted to both masculine and feminine characteristics alongside an attraction to both genders.

Another source of confusion comes from the fact that I’m coming to terms with all of this while I’m actively in a monogamous straight relationship. I want to clarify I love my girlfriend deeply and I have no desire to be with anybody else sexually or romantically. She’s incredibly supportive of me, is queer herself, and knows I’ve been questioning my sexuality. That being said I never got to explore this side of myself while I was single which means I may well never be able to find the answers to some of these questions in a tangible way. I feel guilty because even though I don’t want to be with anyone else I find myself wishing I got to experiment with my sexuality more before I met her, if anything just so I can understand this side of myself more.

TLDR: even though I’m mostly attracted to the opposite sex, there’s a specific type of the same sex I find myself at least sexually attracted to. I don’t feel like straight is a good label for me anymore, but I don’t know if I “qualify” as a bisexual. What do you guys think? Maybe some of you will relate to this, but I don’t know.

Whenever I do a working with my patron Satan, I always experience his presence as very intense. I begin to feel cold spots touching my arms and hands, even when I’m wearing a cloak and have several warm candles going. I experience a pressure in my head and my body feels as if it is being surrounded and sometimes even enveloped by another presence. I find that this trance like state is very hard to hold onto as the intensity of it is very overwhelming. I don’t feel it as explicitly negative or positive, but when I’m done the working I feel like I’ve interacted with something far beyond my comprehension. It feels like I’ve just come back to earth from a trip somewhere beyond the material and my every day hobbies like video games or watching tv seem so mundane to me. The feeling always goes away after some post ritual grounding (eating food, drinking, journaling, and watching YouTube)

These experiences are fascinating and mentally transformative, but I wonder if the feelings of being tired or drained are a sign I’m doing something wrong? I've been a Theistic Satanist for a few years but only started practicing meditation and ritual magic more frequently over the past year. I’ve consistently received many signs and have had nothing but positive experiences through divination and other spells so I don’t think I’m communicating with some sort of imposter spirit and like I say, my rituals don’t feel negative, just draining afterwards.

Is this normal or is there something I’m doing wrong? Do/Have any of you had similar experiences? Any advice or ritual tips are much appreciated.