I could see Shane saying “fuck it”. Then again, there’s a witch flying around somewhere and the thunderstorms are pretty intense…

Slay the spire 2 is tugging my sleeve but I’ve got a bit more iron to process and that’s already paid for

Banned in 1996 in USA. If you were born in 76 or earlier, you breathed a ton of it during brain development

You’re right, of course - I just meant in the context of why it’s competing with video games for user attention. Gambling, porn, crypto, video games : one of these things is not like the other (he says with several 1000+ hour games in his steam library)

Gambling/crypto is all risk, porn is risk-free reward

If people have more alluring alternatives for cheap dopamine, maybe video games can prioritize satisfying gameplay and narratives. Play has value, that’d be ok

The bar is in hell with the rest of us

I don’t imagine microwaves chasing me down an alley tho

I guess worry depends too on how good an empire is at coming into being. You can argue that the Russian special operation is pretty damn ineffective (relative to expectation) And less dangerous than if Putin was marching toward the Atlantic

I was thinking unexploded ordnance

My primary schooler is already tired of it and has moved on. I patiently await the next silly fad

“it’s not just you”? It’s not even me. I wonder how many complaints there were - would be a good metric of actual usage

I’m old enough to have played SimCity and there was a satellite power supply that only sometimes would miss the receiver and incinerate a swath of the city. Good times

But not as billionaires

It’s centrist in the sense that the mainstream old guard Ds and Rs are both corporate bootlickers - so he’s solidly in that venn overlap

From what I can tell, she’s doing great so far - but it’s still pretty early

That’s the seat Kat Abughazaleh (sp?) is running for. And she Definitely doesn’t take aipac money. In this environment, I think Dems are going to pay more attention to primaries this time around

I was going to send a DM to cowbee, but it may be worth knowng for others. I’m a bit older and may be a “normie” leftist with moderate anti-cap views and have unexamined prejudices about the USSR. I liked what I read from Lenin/Marx (one work each, i know!) but don’t like the reality of what I know of Stalin so don’t want that association. After reading some more, I’ll reexamine the USSR prejudices. So thanks to cowbee and folks who didn’t assume malice

Civil and Fair, so thanks. I’ll also pay more attention to the instance in the future if only to not be so baffled. Even if folks consider the Soviets progressive for the time, my 2 cents is that tying modern anticapitalism to the realities of USSR, especially Stalinism, does a disservice to progressive movements and even Marxism. But as you say, it’s a minority opinion, so I’ll accept my downvotes. Thanks again

Fascism is probably heading more towards neo-Feudalism than sticking with traditional capitalism

Because the Soviets were assholes. I didn’t realize that would be controversial. I wish folks wouldn’t restrict the concept of anti-capitalism to the ussr. Raised fist? Red and black?