Lianodel @ Lianodel @ttrpg.network

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359

Joined

2 yr. ago

That REALLY depends.

Year One? Absolutely.

The Dark Knight Returns? Agree to disagree.

All-Star Batman and Robin? Christ no, it might be the worst.

What gets me is when right-wingers act like choosing your insurance company makes you a freer person.

No it doesn't. Most of the time, you just get what your employer gives you. Even if I could choose, I'd rather not have to make any choice, and just be able to go see a fucking doctor and go get a fucking prescription. Unnecessary bullshit getting between people and actual necessities isn't freedom.

So much right-wing rhetoric is targeted squarely at low-information voters, and it's depressing how effective it is.

It doesn't matter if it falls apart under the lightest scrutiny, because they aren't talking to people who will scrutinize anything at all.

Research suggests, on a psychological level, conspiracist ideation—belief in conspiracy theories—can be harmful or pathological, and is highly correlated with psychological projection, as well as with paranoia, which is predicted by the degree of a person's Machiavellianism.

wiki

I believe that's Andy Ngo, so yes, absolutely a pro-fascist activist. He was caught on camera actively coordinating with Patriot Prayer, a far-right extremist group.

And, on the flip side, there's also their total blindness to many examples of old Trek being decidedly unsubtle. They just will not address those, because to do so would completely undermine their point—and they're not interested in the truth, really. They just want their anger.

I don't know how someone can be a Star Trek fan and not get it. It's an attitude diametrically opposed to the core spirit of the franchise. How do these people enjoy a show about exploring strange new worlds, seeking out new life and new civilizations, but they can't stand the presence of different humans?

It should be easy, shouldn't it? Especially since there's no shortage of examples of old Trek being decidedly unsubtle in this thread. Strange how that user never seems to respond to those...

There's also an episode where literally Abraham Lincoln shows up, talks to Uhura, and comments on how much things have changed in the future. Real subtle stuff!

I feel like a large majority of AI problems are really just systemic economic problems below the surface. Not all, but most.

It's especially sticky because "Men's Rights" is a bait-and-switch, ripping off "Men's Liberation."

Men's Liberation is associated with feminist movements, because patriarchy hurts everyone. That's not to equivocate between the extents to which men and women suffer under it (or any group under systemic bigotry), but liberation and egalitarianism would help us all.

So Men's Rights does the thing where it appeals to people with genuine grievances, but offers them a bullshit solution that benefits grifters and people in power. It's not this systemic problem, it's this group of people, and if only we could deal with them, everything would magically fix itself. In this case, "It's not patriarchy, it's not capitalism, it's feminists, and women in general. If only we could get them back in their place, your life would be back on track. So vote for me/sign up for my course..."

So, bringing up the ways in which men also suffer under sexism can kick up some dirt to muddy the waters, intentionally or not. Some will be bad faith actors who just want to shit on feminism. Others will be taking the feminist side on this. And those in the middle, who see things turn toxic, can go any way—but if they stay neutral, or especially move right, then the reactionaries gain some ground.

So I don't know what's in OP's heart. But, at least from way too many fights online, I've found that the best course of action is to assume good faith, and give reactionaries enough rope to hang themselves. They don't have the better ideas, and they don't have the better plans, but they're good at shit-flinging. If you just make a good case, they tend to unmask pretty quickly and fall apart. There's no point trying to convince a die-hard bigot, but you can play to the audience by just making the better case and helping bigots embarrass themselves.

In my opinion, at least, for whatever that's worth. Sorry for the rambling!

Oh, this'll be fun in the future when people try to whitewash it. We'll have another chance to follow up by asking, "a state's right to what, specifically?"

I quit Spotify when the "New Library Experience" completely fucked the music library side of the app. If you mostly use playlists, it was a lateral change. If you used it to collect some songs here, and album there, and keep them all sorted, it's like it dumped your entire collection on the floor and expected a thank-you for the new organization system.

My guess, as others have mentioned, is that Spotify tries to squeeze more profits by pushing certain songs, whether because they get paid to promote them, or the royalties are lower. That's easier to do with their playlists and recommendations, so they pushed people to that side of the app by making everything else dogshit. And now, apparently, the curated side took it too far and is awful, too.

I still use Apple Music, which is one of like two services that actually let you organize your music in a sensible way outside of playlists. That said, after I cut cords with video streaming services and set up my own library, I think I might do the same with music.

And their recommendation engine sucks.

Netflix used to be famously good at suggesting films. Articles were written about it, and there was even a cash reward for anyone who could contribute to its performance. Then it just turned to shit.

And the funny thing is that it would have helped counteract the shrinking library. Sure, there would be fewer films on the platform, so you'd be less likely to find a specific title, but at least you could select a film Netflix recommended based on your past ratings and be fairly confident you'd enjoy it. Now? Absolutely not.

I've thought about this a lot. I think there are three main elements.

1. People like this will judge the facts based on the conclusions they want, and they sure do prefer the conclusion where their selfishness wasn't that bad.
2. They're extremely bad at understanding anything that isn't black & white. So when you go into things like rates of effectiveness or levels of confidence, they shut down, and either say "it doesn't work" or "nobody knows for sure."
3. One of the major benefits of masks is to prevent yourself from spreading infection, and they just plain don't give a flying fuck about other people.

Also, the point that got to me was his defense of sending kids to school because covid wouldn't affect them too badly. Firstly, some kids will be badly affected, and secondly... where the fuck does he think the kids go after school? They go home, where they've got parents, guardians, maybe even grandparents and other elderly family members.

What a dumb asshole.

I HIGHLY recommend people actually click through and read the superintendent's full ad, because it's a gold mine of hypocrisy, idiocy, and not-so-subtle racism.

EDIT: To clarify, the article doesn't actually present the superintendent's screed. It embeds a tweet that has a photo of it. That said, it's been posted elsewhere in this thread, which has the added upside of avoiding Twitter.

To make this extra stressful, Revivify is the only resurrection spell I allow if I'm running 5e. :)

(Okay, to be fair, that doesn't mean I ban player resurrection in heroic campaigns. I just want it to be more of an ordeal, y'know? So it has to be a quest, or require bargaining with some kind of supernatural entity, or come with a price or chance of failure, etc. I just don't want it to be "I cast the spell, or go to someone who can cast the spell and pay some gold.")

That was my experience, too. After tinkering with KDE a while, I tried GNOME, added a couple of extensions, and it was like a wave of relief when it suddenly turned into almost exactly what I wanted the entire time.

It's a bit weird. KDE is so customizable that I don't want to do it. If a distro has nice defaults, great, but if I'd have to start with a fresh, default KDE install, I wouldn't want to bother.

Yeah, I get that, and honestly agree. I just like the rest of GNOME, so it's worth it. Plus I've tried KDE before, and it could be a bit finicky. Like, all the options are there, but it weirdly takes longer to get it set up in a way I like, and sometimes I run into issues along the way. With GNOME, yeah, I have to add the extensions, but once they're installed, it's pretty much exactly what I want.

That said, I totally get why someone would love KDE, especially if they like the tinkering and getting things just right. I also check it out every now and then, so maybe one day it'll grow on me. :)

Different strokes, of course. :)

I think for me and my group, it's just a sometimes thing. I think I'd be happy to let players make some decisions about the world around them, but narrative control of action resolution just fell a bit flat.

It's also why I like the distinction between "writing a story" and "being a character." It indicates the difference without presenting either as better than the other, which is a risk when talking about... well, anything, especially online. :P

I remember doing that for reddit back in the day. I downloaded a bunch of apps, then picked the one I liked best. Good to see devs doing the same for Lemmy!