You sure about scihub? I am finished without it. Do you know what’s going on there?

Did you try sci hub for the separate chapters (if they have separate doi)?

And MS Office

ToC via Styles formatting and Table of authorities - these are from the top of my head, which I remember not working properly with Open Office. They need to work when I do them and also should be displayed correctly when I receive them from colleagues in docx format.

Format painter, track changes, spell checker in two languages, intendation adjustments, page breaks, and paste as text - I use these like crazy but I don’t remember if they were OK in Open Office or not.

Can I use MS Office natively with that? Also, can I use it as a non-techie lay man in a way that is similar to the way most office bottom-feeders use Windows?

I know there is Open Office but I am lawyer and the free office alternatives just don’t have the rich formatting options I need to do my job. I have tried and they just won’t do.

Well, I hate mmunism as much as the next Eastern European but this is absolutely true. Commie blocks rule.

This reminds me of that post apocalyptic Robert Evans novel (the Behind the Bastards guy)

True and accurate.

I just want to add that we need to rein in capitalist greed, reduce car reliance, mitigate climate change, stand with our LGBTQ friends, and allow for fair distribution of wealth, so that the 1% don’t hoard all resources built in the economy.

What is not clear?

deleted by creator

Absolutely. There is nothing “natural” about capitalism. It sprung up in some place of the world (not all) a couple of centuries ago. Thousands of years of humanity and no capitalism before that.

There is nothing natural or inevitable about capitalism. Historical determinism is plain wrong. Capitalism is just one of many ways to organize a society. Its time will pass in due course. Probably not in our lifetimes, unfortunately.

Nostalgia is huge in the eastern block. That’s a separate topic of discussion, all on its own.

I am from Eastern Europe and I share this sentiment when I see anyone from the West defending communism. The issue is complicated but, to put it bluntly:

No, Timothy, communism didn’t fail in Eastern Europe because it was implemented wrongly. This is a very complicated topic but the tldr summary is “It is a broken idea, it did not work and it will never work. The natural and logical outcome of any attempt at Marxism is a bloodbath followed by autocracy.”

That being said, communism isn’t the only way to achieve a more equitable society. You have social democracy (in Lennin’s words - communism’s greatest adversary); organized labour movements; collectivist anarchism; communitariasm, etc.

Communism, as applied in the 20th century, violently fought against or oppressed all of these movements and is incompatible with any of them.

Not to mention that in most countries nowadays orthodox communists have been hugely discredited for excusing the Russian war of annihilation against the Ukrainian people.

In conclusion, if you live in the USA or Western Europe and you are unhappy with how corporate greed has ruined society, don’t look to communism for answers. There are many other proposed solutions out there - go and research these. Communism is very well known, which makes it easily accessible to people who want change - but it is never, ever the solution.

Nope. They have brought in the corporate ghoul consultants. There is no context or feeling the situation. Just “oh, this was really popular last time, let’s continue milking it, what could go wrong”.

I still don’t get it. What’s the point of instances and why are things “federated”. I use mastodon and lemmy - how does “federation” between them changes anything?