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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 8th, 2023

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  • I know the feeling, happened to me with Elden Ring.

    With BG3 I also had some occasions where it felt difficult to pick up again, especially when I had to do plenty of inventory and party micromanagement and figure out where to go next. It’s a game that especially in earlier stages didn’t feel like something you can easily pick up again, play a little, and drop again whenever you want. There’s too much going on at times. It also didn’t help me that I couldn’t care for the story or for companions early on. But it does get better and easier as you become better at party and inventory management, and is often saved by the fact that the moment to moment dialogue and gameplay are stellar.




  • You know I really can’t tell, and as a non-American outsider see that both sides are being extremely alarmist at this moment. Although the main criticism of Harris is that she is more of the same, there are plenty who try to paint her as a radical and dangerous left-winger, when she is nothing of the sort of course. Makes one wonder where the real Donald Trump ends and the caricature begins on the other end of the spectrum.

    This is simply what we call polarization in politics, and is very hurtful to any semblance of unity that nationhood requires. America will likely not heal from this for a while, no matter who wins. Unless, whoever wins, delivers on something that matters to everyone, regardless of politics, that is usually something having to do with the cost and quality of life. That tends to placate people, even while their freedoms are being curtailed.

    But I do feel that Trump is more symptom than cause. And the article suggests as much as well:

    “…rising political antagonism in America is a perennial outgrowth of its defining conflict over race and national identity — with the current round of conflict sparked largely (albeit not entirely) by backlash to Barack Obama’s 2008 victory.”







  • Maybe that person had trouble adjusting to SK life and was missing his country and/or people back home. Nothing to see here. It is only “surprising” because presumably they took some risk in leaving and because we only ever hear about NK in the context of its authoritarian government and it being some dystopian nightmare presumably, though if we’re being honest most of us don’t know two shits about the country and I bet to some people it’s simply home.

    Why does anyone want to go back to any country that others are desperate to leave? For reasons…


  • This is a prime example of how big business can cozy up to authoritarianism. Of course in the name of offering a service to the nation or saving something precious to all, I guess it’s “democracy” in this instance. Deep down I think it’s about asking a simple question: which regime will be most accommodating to fulfilling my ambitions, i.e. sustaining and growing my business empire with the least amount of oversight or regulation? Who is more likely to be anti-union? Who is more likely to employ migrants without granting them political rights? Who is less likely to tax the rich? Who is more likely to give me more power to influence public opinion and public policy? Elon is, in some respects, correctly betting on Trump. Of course it is a risky bet, and a marriage of convenience; one will sooner or later lose favor with the other. It would probably be wiser of Musk to stay out of the limelight and play Democrats against Republicans whenever and however it suits him. But I guess he can’t help himself. To be honest I don’t even know whether it’s possible for a major business figure to remain neutral in a country where perhaps the best predictor of a presidential candidate’s success is the amount of donations their campaign receives.


  • Well first these are the frequent talking points of incels when they harp on what they consider “low value females”. If you find yourself constantly repeating such devaluing talking points, maybe a break from the internet would do you good. Secondly, and more generally, it is usually more attractive to talk about the things you love than the things you hate. Unless you have already established that you and the other person hate the same things, then you can bond over that too.




  • Ooph, there the same issue again, about what we consider “propaganda”. I have yet to meet someone with objective standards on this, who is able to hold people he agrees with politically to the same standard. Many on here also seem to hate the MBFC ratings that were added to at least create some baseline. So, at the end of the day the value judgements people make on these matters are more often biased than not. Anyway, I am actually interested in even “mouthpieces”, as I am always curious how the other side actually defends what they do, and they could be just marked as such for the avoidance of doubt.



  • Nothing is surprising about nations allying to advance common geopolitical and economic interests. Perhaps you are perturbed by the fact that these are not the US and its allies, who have indeed defined the world order in recent years, after the end of WW2 and especially after the fall of the USSR. I don’t think anyone is surprised - let alone failing to recognize - that the current world order is being challenged. Of course that does unfortunately mean a more uncertain and likely conflict-ridden future for all of us. But there are also those who look forward to a multipolar world, or at least the decline of “the West”, because it didn’t exactly serve everyone in the world equally well.