In the United States, for over a hundred years, the ruling interests tirelessly propagated anticommunism among the populace, until it became more like a religious orthodoxy than a political analysis. During the cold war, the anticommunist ideological framework could transform any data about existing communist societies into hostile evidence. If the Soviets refused to negotiate a point, they were intransigent and belligerent; if they appeared willing to make concessions, this was but a skillful ploy to put us off our guard. By opposing arms limitations, they would have demonstrated their aggressive intent; but when in fact they supported most armament treaties, it was because they were mendacious and manipulative. If the churches in the USSR were empty, this demonstrated that religion was suppressed; but if the churches were full, this meant the people were rejecting the regime’s atheistic ideology. If the workers went on strike (as happened on infrequent occasions), this was evidence of their alienation from the collectivist system; if they didn’t go on strike, this was because they were intimidated and lacked freedom. A scarcity of consumer goods demonstrated the failure of the economic system; an improvement in consumer supplies meant only that the leaders were attempting to placate a restive population and so maintain a firmer hold over them. If communists in the United States played an important role struggling for the rights of workers, the poor, African-Americans, women, and others, this was only their guileful way of gathering support among disfranchised groups and gaining power for themselves. How one gained power by fighting for the rights of powerless groups was never explained. What we are dealing with is a nonfalsifiable orthodoxy, so assiduously marketed by the ruling interests that it affected people across the entire political spectrum.

• Michael Parenti

I am completely sure that China is indeed spending god knows how many millions in building more solar farms in a year than the US has built in their entire history so people like Jake from Minnesota can be convinced that China is actually a pretty cool place.

Do you people ever listen to yourselves?

Both my airbuds and phone are Chinese already and they are both malfunctioning terribly despite the fact that I have only had them for 2 years at most. I guess one day I'll just have to renew my electronics and compensate the expense with soups for dinner for a few weeks.

Give me back my gains, you rat.

I’m almost at a three plate one rep max for bench, 435 lbs squat, almost 500 lbs deadlift.

Those are some good lifts at any age. For what I see, in this community we have an overall higher level than the one I expected there to be.

Britain

My condolences.

That doesn't sound like a gains goblin. It would be if it was an obstacle between you and your fitness goal, but you seem to be exactly where you want to be.

I have probably more than one, but my silliest and, at the same time, most annoying one is an object: my wireless earbuds. I cannot put my phone one meter away without losing signal and my music cutting out. Not even carrying it in my pocket works, and at the end of my training session I have lost a ridiculous amount of time trying to get those things to work by turning them on and off again or resetting them. I would buy new ones, but alas, there's no money for that.

OP already said they have bad knees.

"Bad knees" can mean anything. What it actually means is for OP's doctor to decide, as well as if it is compatible with squats/DLs or not.

They are doing leg extension and curls which is a safe alternative good for beginners.

Good heavens, no. None of those exercises target together as many muscles as the squat. You are completely forgetting your core and your posterior chain with those.

Squat and deadlift are both very technical lifts usually done poorly.

That is why you learn first not to do them poorly. An excercise being more or less complex is no excuse to forget form in any of them. Watch some youtube videos to learn to do them properly and if you don't try to egolift, rest enough between sets and mind progressive overload you can perfectly squat twice as heavy as when you began in 4-5 months with good form.

Similarly working in the 5 rep range is usually heavier weight which also is not good for the beginner especially with technical lifts.

You begin with light weights and minding form above all before progressing to higher weights. No matter the weight you lift: if you are not lifting what for you is heavy relative to the reps you are doing, you are going nowhere.

Starting Strength and Strong Lifts 5x5 is kinda ass when you think about it. It’s the opposite of beginner friendly because the lifts are technical and you’re going heavy.

Technical is what you want to be as a beginner before you start lifting heavy. Bad habits need to be kicked out right at the beginning before they settle, and this is true in any sport or skill.

It’s outdated.

It has worked for most people who have tried and stuck to it, and the human body has not evolved exactly much in the few decades that have passed since it was written. I can't see how it is outdated.

I did overall good progress though, I have way more visible muscle and bulked around 13kg.

The thing with being a beginner is that pretty much everything you do will work to an extent, but I still maintain my advice if what you want is to maximize your noob gains and keep progressing afterwards.

My new gym doesnt mark the weights which is annoying, it just marks them like level 1-13

Less "annoying" and more "downright terrible". I would tell you to ask what weight they are exactly to your gym's receptionist, but I assume those are dumbbells which I think are not right for you to use now. More on that later.

I’m unsure about my body fat ratio, how can I calculate it?

https://www.calculator.net/body-fat-calculator.html

Yeah I do that in around 1h30m. I started around June 2023.

You started lifting a little bit more half a year ago and you are already doing skull crushers and incline presses and attempting to target your chest by sections despite the fact that you only have a chest press of 25 kg: where I am from we call this "building the house from the roof": just because your favourite gym influencer or that high school friend of yours that has been hitting the gym for 6 years does it it doesn't mean that it is the right thing for you.

Instead of doing a lot of exercises that target specifically small muscle groups you should be doing what a beginner should be aiming for: a general development of your musculature through a few compound movements following a strength program, which should mainly include squats, deadlifts, bench presses and overhead presses. Eat a calorie surplus and 1 g of protein per lb of body weight, keep adding weight to your lifts often, sleep 8 h a day and once you've gotten big and strong and you see that there are small bits of muscle here and there that are lacking behind, you can then start thinking about isolation exercises. For now, consider sticking to a beginner program of the many ones you can find on the web. I personally recommend Starting Strength or StrongLifts 5x5 (both of which use barbells only, thus why what I said of dumbbells above) for more or less a year before considering moving on.

Also, avoid the Smith machine like the plague.

You do all of this in a single day? I agree with what is being said here that it is too much for a single session, but at the same time I also wonder about how you can have such a long list of isolation exercises with such light weights. Can I ask you for how long have you been working out? It would also help to have your height, weight and bf%.