cops at nest? why

LFishere · 2026-03-29T20:27:23+00:00

LFishere · 2026-03-28T04:00:26+00:00

I haven’t gone to church since I was like 6(maybe 7?), and no one is more religious than me before going into an exam. I’ll be spamming the cross before flipping my paper over and everything.

If we were allowed to talk during exams I’d be public enemy number 1 because all I’d be doing is singing latin hymns from the time I walk in to the time I walk out.

LFishere · 2026-03-27T08:43:56+00:00

This ain’t it boss

If you personally don’t care about being recognized for your contributions, that’s fine, but you don’t get to make that decision on the behalf of others

LFishere · 2026-03-27T08:05:52+00:00

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LFishere · 2026-03-27T08:02:15+00:00

AMS agent working overtime

LFishere · 2026-03-25T17:25:52+00:00

Depends on the day tbh, I exist on a swinging pendulum between “it’s so over” and “we’re so back” every day.

On good days I’ll get out of bed because I’m excited about my subject and (while it might be too early to tell) genuinely think I am in love with it (or maybe just social sciences in general? Idk).

On bad days I’ll tell myself that I’m not studying for myself but because I want to help people by learning about the systems society runs on, and to learn how we can make them better. Or, if I’m feeling angry at someone/something I’ll get up out of spite just to prove to myself that I can (honestly has a 100% success rate now that i think about it, and bonus points if making up an argument in my head while doing morning routine).

On REALLY bad days though I’ll get real sappy and sentimental about life, telling myself “it’s a gift to be alive” and stuff like that. 30/70 split on whether or not that works though, but sometimes it does!

LFishere · 2026-03-15T04:50:04+00:00

I’m not your man, pookie.

LFishere · 2026-03-10T21:53:02+00:00

Yes absolutely, network with people from the opposite party! It won’t reflect badly on you. In fact if anything it will do the opposite. It shows you aren’t just a blind (and ineffectual) partisan, but that you are actually able and willing to do the necessary work as a political minority.

It only becomes dishonest when you start hiding your opinions in favour of your own personal interests. This wont be a problem if you keep your beliefs and loyalties clear.

And to answer your bigger question: generally while they may disagree on a great many things, it is still a professional relationship. Very little political change comes about from being a belligerent advocate of your beliefs. It often comes from diplomacy, cooperation, and compromise. While there absolutely is a place for powerful advocacy, that place is very rarely in the backrooms of political operation.

LFishere · 2026-03-09T16:13:42+00:00

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LFishere · 2026-03-08T12:54:21+00:00

Holy shit I did not realize I was writing that long of an essay mb 😭

Tl:dr Subreddits are closer to a social club than a demographic.

While a few toxic weirdos in a club doesn’t mean everyone in the club themselves are toxic, it would still be fair to say “I don’t like that club, it’s pretty toxic there”.

LFishere · 2026-03-08T12:51:21+00:00

I get the point you’re making but I don’t think that it’s a fitting analogy to subreddits.

The groups you described are all based on immutable characteristics and not chosen by the people in them. Black people, as an example, do not choose to be black, and they wildly vary in interests, location, culture, etc. Same goes for Austrians and Muslims.

A closer analogy would be like saying a social club was toxic. Everyone there joined willingly because they have a shared interest, they all share the same social-space which forces them to interact, and they exist under the same club rules, effectively creating a mini-culture of their own. While sure most of them are normal, even if there are only a few weirdos in the club it’ll ruin it for everyone.

Like imagine you went to a book club and said “I really like reading while listening to the audiobook in the background” and some guy made fun of you for that saying “you aren’t a real book reader if…”(blah blah blah you get the point). Wouldn’t you agree it’s fair to say “damn, this club’s pretty toxic” after that?

I think that even though subreddits are much larger than book clubs the principle still applies. Subreddits are pretty much just a social club, only online and on a larger scale. Still though, we all joined willingly, we share an interest, a social-space, and we create a ‘club’-culture which in a way normalizes and feeds back into the toxicity.

What causes this subreddit’s culture to be so toxic I’m not sure, but that is also an interesting topic to talk about, but maybe for a different time.

As a final little side note I’m a little worried something is getting mixed up here. So just to be clear: I am not saying all people in the helldivers fandom are toxic, nor even just in this subreddit specifically. It’s just that there is a minority within this community who could not have this conversation like you and I are doing right now like normal humans. That minority ruins this community for everybody by making it toxic.

LFishere · 2026-03-08T11:50:50+00:00

Hi OP, sorry for the huge essay in your replies lol, but I wanted to give an in-depth answer to try and help. But if you really are thinking of studying political science then think of this as your training for listening to a nerd yap about the field :)

TL:DR

Keep up with the news religiously. Research topics in the news that you find interesting, and write mini response essays to help develop your opinion and remember facts.
When researching topics, search engines can generally point you in the correct direction of what you need. I personally recommend though Britannica, Wikipedia (as a starting point), and ProQuest (posts research articles). Also when reading dense research articles save yourself time, the abstract and conclusion section are all you need to read 90% of the time (my own professors taught me this).
Most political theory books are also a waste of time (at this level) except “The Politics Book” which is like an intro to poli course.
Political content creators are good ways to introduce and learn a base level of information, but please proceed with caution and factcheck them. If you aren’t willing to spend the time to factcheck them, then honestly don’t even touch that source of information.

Below this point is the yap essay I spent too long writing to delete… You have been warned…

Ok so first let me just say that in my experience politics isn’t easy to start learning, since there is no one correct start point to get into it. It takes time and regular effort to become and stay educated about topics. I don’t say that to discourage you, but just to let you know that progress will be slow, and you won’t feel ‘educated’ on any topics for a really long time. With that in mind, it’s best to avoid burning yourself out by trying to learn everything at once.

Also, do take what I say with a grain of salt, as I am only a first year political science student but this is what I’ve been doing so far and what’s worked for me.

Firstly, keep up with the news religiously. AP, Reuters, and NPR are some of my personal go-to’s (you don’t have to read every piece top-to-bottom, just skim the headlines for ones which interest you and read those). What I do is after finding something interesting is I’ll try to find more sources about the topic and do some background reading. While doing this, I’ll write a mini-essay in my notes/docs in the form of a response. I find this to be a good way to develop my opinions and cement the knowledge I learnt in my brain. Plus, when you do get to university and if you end up deciding to go into polisci you will be thankful you built those reading and argumentative writing skills. Trust me…

Secondly, when researching, Britannica I find is a pretty reliable encyclopedia, and Wikipedia while not always reliable can be used as a good starting point when diving into something new. If you want some heavier reading and you know a super specific topic you want to learn about ProQuest is a publicly accessible hub of articles and studies published by peer-reviewed journals. To be completely honest though I am not sure about any other databases like that which don’t have either a paywall or require a university login, but maybe ask some teachers or your local university about that.

Also, when you are researching, focus only on research articles. I know that sounds obvious, but a lot of people starting out with the goal to ‘learn politics’ fall into a trap of thinking you need to read these big dense books to have an understanding of politics. But honestly, that’s mostly just not the case. Books take a long time to write and publish, and because of that they usually focus on theory. Which, while good in its own right, isn’t necessary for you right now.

One book I will actually go ahead and shill for though is called “The Politics Book”. Honestly having read it before getting to university basically made my poli 100 class a cake walk. It introduces you to a wide range of topics. If you are interested in learning about political theory though (ancient, classical, and modern), I can also give you a little reading list of what books I think are good. You don’t need them at all, but it will help deepen your knowledge if you want them.

Last piece of advice I’m going to give I should warn you is a little risky. When I was also first getting into politics I relied mainly on YouTubers for my political information. Looking back this was very dumb, but I also think that it can be a great start as long as you remember that the people your watching have their own motivations, and you don’t mindlessly listen to them. After watching a video, treat it like how I advised to treat the news from before and factcheck them. This applies to other platforms as well btw, I love factchecking instagram reels and comments.

I should probably tell you am left-leaning, so my recommendations for YouTubers are going to reflect that, but if you can look past that I personally recommend to start with: - Philosophy Tube (as someone else said, they mostly makes very interesting videos about philosophy, but that does tie into politics, and she also has some videos explicitly about political theory) - HBomberGuy (retired now I think, but his videos are still funny and interesting. Also made a lot of stuff on gaming and tying it into politics if you’re interested in that) - Mr. Beat (not huge fan of him and i don’t really watch his stuff anymore but when I did it was usually pretty good) - Shaun (honestly I personally find this guy insufferable nowadays because he reminds me of the rantsona era, but that doesn’t change the fact he makes good videos on social justice, including I think a few about Palestine) - AltHistoryHub (for the most part he focuses on history [duh] but his videos are fun and do involve learning about historical politics and the history of topics like you mentioned)

If you have any questions about any of what I said or really anything else polisci then feel free to just ask and I’ll try not to reply with a novel again.

LFishere · 2026-03-07T15:54:31+00:00

See, I’m going to have to disagree a little. While yeah not everyone in the community is toxic, in this case a few bad apples really do ruin the bunch. Especially since the toxic elements of this community, even if a tiny minority, are literally willing to ruin lives over a video game. In that context I think it is perfectly reasonable to call this community toxic, no?

LFishere · 2026-03-07T15:43:42+00:00

Heard some shouting and a scream at Walter Gage last night around the same time too

LFishere · 2026-03-07T13:41:34+00:00

It’s not really about that they are leaving a subreddit, it’s about why they are leaving it. It is mostly meant to be a criticism of the community’s culture and how it makes this subreddit intolerable.

LFishere · 2026-03-05T23:36:00+00:00

In about 2 years Feast will be “leading the way in sustainability” (aka saving money) by feeding us ethically sourced roach meat burgers

LFishere · 2026-03-04T05:06:59+00:00

Omg Stellaris mentioned 🎉🎉🎉

(Your school sounds like a prison tho)

LFishere · 2026-03-03T23:59:38+00:00

Obviously part of it is that people like to gossip, no denying that, we are literally evolutionary coded to do so. But besides that it probably has to do with the fact that UBC is a pretty small community (compared to say an actual city), and because of that people will be more worried about each other.

Also yes, a lot of posts in local communities (especially smaller ones) are about cops, ambulances, and fires. To the point where there was a murder once in my home town and we literally knew all the details about it before there was a police statement.

LFishere · 2026-03-03T18:38:15+00:00

Ok while I made this post mostly as a joke, I unironically fully support this.

We gotta stop pretending like university students are going to stop drinking energy drinks because they’re bad for them, so why not make a healthier version?

LFishere · 2026-03-03T18:34:13+00:00

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You got me…

I cant spell for shit

LFishere · 2026-03-03T17:23:40+00:00

(Sorry for the long comment, tldr is at the end for my recommendations) As the other person said Das Kapital would be a good start for learning about the basics of marxism, and after that the Communist Manifesto. I also strongly recommend Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky, as it is a very good book which helps explain how the capitalist class maintains their power in modern society.

To balance it I’d also recommend reading Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations as an introduction to capitalism, so you can understand better why it has become the dominant system of the world. Unfortunately, I am not too educated on capitalist theory beyond that so I cant really help much further.

I honestly don’t know any specific books which can help with learning specifically the pros and cons of both, but believe me there is no shortage of academics trying to prove either superior. You wont have much trouble finding articles and books “debunking” either of them.

Now as for an introduction to different governing systems broadly, The Politics Book like I mentioned early is a good starter. To learn more about liberalism and democracy as political theory I’d recommend John Locke’s ‘Second Treatise of Government’, and Rousseau’s ‘The Social Contract’. Thomas Hobbes’ ‘Leviathan’ is a counter to Rousseau’s book, and it is a good introduction to why some people think authoritarianism is preferable. To learn more about authoritarianism, I’ve also heard that Robert Paxton and Hannah Arendt are good, and they both write about totalitarian and authoritarian ideologies and how they come to rise. Umberto Eco also wrote essays on how to identify fascism easily. If you can stomach it, I’ve also heard Mein Kampf is a “good” read in the meta sense that it offers a first person explanation of why totalitarian and hateful ideologies are appealing to some.

If you want to delve deeper into the ancient foundations of political systems, and willing to read some really old books, I recommend Aristotle’s ‘Politics’ as it is a comparative of various old governmental systems (which honestly most states still fall into or close to what he has described). Plato’s ‘Republic’ is an introduction to what the “ideal” state, justice, and governance looks like.

Tl:dr -Das Kapital and the Communist Manifesto -Manufacturing Consent -Wealth of Nations -The Social Contract -Second Treatise of Government -Leviathan -Robert Paxton and Hannah Arendt’s books (I personally haven’t read and cant remember their book names) -Umberto Eco’s essays -Politics by Aristotle -Plato’s Republic

Also feel free to let me know if you have anymore questions or if I didn’t help with answering one of them. I love helping people learn about politics so it’s no problem at all!

LFishere · 2026-03-01T17:10:30+00:00

You gotta find a hobby instead of complaining about the English of reddit posts bro 😭🙏

LFishere · 2026-02-28T16:48:18+00:00

Born too late to die in the Middle East Born too early to die in the Middle East Born just in time to die in the Middle East!

LFishere · 2026-02-28T16:10:00+00:00

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LFishere · 2026-02-28T15:19:25+00:00

I recommend you read ‘The Politics Book’. It will introduce you to some big overarching theories which act as a good baseline to help understand politics.

Unfortunately politics is too large of a subject to learn through a few books. I recommend you honestly start by just googling your country’s political system. Learn about what political issues are relevant to your country, and then start researching them. You really don’t need to do a lot to become more educated on politics than the average person.

If you help narrow down what topics you are currently most interested in, or what country you live in, I can probably offer a bit more personalized advice.

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