CuriousCat Archive Page 111 of 202

  1. Idk, is there a poll or other evidence that suggests anti capitalism is really in a majority? I mean, I get saying policies like green new deal, marijuana legalisation, public medical care, are supported by a majority but I dont think you can really say the same for a socialist revolution? Due to the extent of propaganda, at least

    in response to What's the point in a socialist government if the people don't believe in it? I mean, you could say that that was the main difference between Russian and say, East Germany. Despite all their troubles, most Russians still wanted the USSR to live on in 1990, while the Germans were chomping at the bit to become West Germans.

    I don't mean anticapitalism per se is a majority. Rather, a general cynicism about modern-era capitalism, a distrust of corporations, and anger about wealth inequality. A lot of people stop short of going full socialist because they don't think a socialist revolution is feasible, or they fear it would be just as bad, or they think reforming capitalism into the less brutal form it was in the 50's is more doable. All of these depend on the idea that replacing the system with something else is incredibly hard (which it is).

    But if you could just tell people "we can have something else set up, nonviolently, inside of a week, and you don't need to do anything but sit back and watch it happen," I think you'd be surprised how many let you do it.

    Maybe I'm wrong. But I suspect a lot of people's relationship to capitalism is simply "this is what I have to work with."

  2. Spider-Man is only unproblematic hero

    (this shitpost)

    how dare you say this shit about Kamala Khan

  3. As a point of curiosity - do you feel that, as a result of the more specific niche of people who pay attention to your CuriousCat, you feel more comfortable engaging with bad faith actors / assholes here than you would on, say, Twitter?

    oh yes

  4. If thats really true why didnt bernie win the primaries? I think you are the one underestimating how much people hate socialism in this country.

    in response to What's the point in a socialist government if the people don't believe in it? I mean, you could say that that was the main difference between Russian and say, East Germany. Despite all their troubles, most Russians still wanted the USSR to live on in 1990, while the Germans were chomping at the bit to become West Germans.

    what Bernie was offering was not a socialist revolution, ffs

  5. what if you're trans or otherwise gender-nonconforming? dating sites aren't very accommodating to trans folk from what I've heard

    in response to Hey dude, is there a way to court girls during this pandemic? From our own sofas/beds at home instead of going out?

    OKCupid has a pretty wide array of gender and orientation options. Can't speak to what the experience of trans/genderqueer folks is, but it lets them identify as such, at least. There are smaller apps like #open, for poly people, or FetLife if you're kinky, which are much more pointedly queer-friendly. Hopefully between those three you can get what you need.

  6. If everyone became vegan, what would we do with the leftover animals?

    pets!

  7. What's the point in a socialist government if the people don't believe in it? I mean, you could say that that was the main difference between Russian and say, East Germany. Despite all their troubles, most Russians still wanted the USSR to live on in 1990, while the Germans were chomping at the bit to become West Germans.

    in response to The powers remain in effect for 24 hours after you decide to use them. So like, if the mugger shot at you, and then you willed yourself to be invulnerable so as to survive the bullet, then you would remain invulnerable for the next 24 hours. And you wouldn't have telepathy at all, until you decided "I want to have telepathy," and then you would have telepathy and be able to use it freely until the 24 hours expire. For flying, same deal, you'd think "I want to fly," and then after 24 hours, if you were still flying, you would stop being able to fly and plummet to the Earth. Also these can stack, so you could decide "I want to fly AND be invulnerable" on the same day, but then you'd have used up both of those powers when your 24 hours are up.

    you dramatically over-estimate how much people like capitalism in this country. two of primary things stalling leftist movements are a) people having no idea how revolution would even happen in this country, and b) losing faith that anything better will ever happen. give them a superpowered dude who's like "we can be trying something else inside of 2 weeks" and see what happens.

  8. You may consider yourself as a democratic socialist...

    But if someone else were to refer to you as a liberal or a social democrat or a centrist liberal, will you still accept such interpretations or mindfully correct them?

    I spend rather a lot of time being called those things and correct them constantly.

  9. Hey dude, is there a way to court girls during this pandemic? From our own sofas/beds at home instead of going out?

    there's okcupid and zoom, you'll figure it out

  10. The powers remain in effect for 24 hours after you decide to use them. So like, if the mugger shot at you, and then you willed yourself to be invulnerable so as to survive the bullet, then you would remain invulnerable for the next 24 hours. And you wouldn't have telepathy at all, until you decided "I want to have telepathy," and then you would have telepathy and be able to use it freely until the 24 hours expire. For flying, same deal, you'd think "I want to fly," and then after 24 hours, if you were still flying, you would stop being able to fly and plummet to the Earth.

    Also these can stack, so you could decide "I want to fly AND be invulnerable" on the same day, but then you'd have used up both of those powers when your 24 hours are up.

    in response to You can have every superpower, but upon using one of them you'll lose that superpower after one day. How do you budget your superpower use?

    OK, so obviously the *right* thing to do with telepathy is sneak into a Far Right rally or conservative campaign stop and leak all their strategies to the Left, but what I'm actually *going* to do is use it at my high school reunion to find out who had crushes on me.

    Most everything else would be put to revolutionary means so I'm gonna decline to put them in print. But I think we could have a socialist government instated within about a week and a half if I had every superpower for 24 hours each.

  11. Do you ever feel super depressed watching cons interpret media?

    Apparently 1984 is about cancel culture and Borat was about how stupid Kazakh man is.

    no, I howl with laughter at cons

    I get depressed when I watch the Left repeat the cons' interpretations

  12. Everyone's liberal until they have children

    don't say "everyone" when you mean white people

  13. You can have every superpower, but upon using one of them you'll lose that superpower after one day. How do you budget your superpower use?

    This is curious, because some superpowers aren't used on command. Like, Superman doesn't turn his physical invulnerability on and off, he's just invulnerable. So, like, if I get mugged and someone shoots me and the bullet flattens against my skin and falls off, did I just burn invulnerability? If the mugger fires a second shot, am I dead? And telepathy - is it Professor X telepathy, where he seems to flip it on and off like a lightswitch, or is it like that one episode of Buffy where she just hears thoughts around her when they happen? How many thought do I hear before I've "used it up"? If I start flying, can I fly forever so long as I never land?

    I can't answer until I understand the mechanics here.

  14. do you think you'll play Psychonauts 2?

    in response to How do you feel about Psychonauts?

    If I hear it's good, maybe.

  15. Have you seen any tangible, politically speaking, success with ARP?

    I don't really go looking for such things, but, of information that has come my way, I know of at least one state senator who cites my work.

  16. By what metrics would you measure your fans in order to determine who is your "biggest fan"?

    I would never, ever, ever do that. That is the kind of Eldritch knowledge that would cost me my sanity.

  17. Funny you should say that, because checking Wikipedia is exactly what I did: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_capitalism#Origins

    We both agree that no economic model solves the problem of human greed and is immune to exploitation. So yes, even socialism doesn't address the root cause of capitalism's excesses and prevent the exploitation of the poor by a ruling class. Lenin and Stalin more than exemplified that. So what, in your view, makes one economic model superior to another?

    in response to I cannot. Because according to the 'commercialization model', capitalism originated in trade. Which has existed in some form since the paleolithic era, and is an essential part of any functioning human society. It was built out of necessity, not greed. It only became what it is today with the advent of the Industrial Revolution and mass production, which allowed those who held the most influence the means of production to increase their wealth and influence exponentially. So while it has become obscene, it didn't start out that way. No one in the paleolithic era was living in a high rise made of rock and mud hoarding pelts and skins by the billions. Can we agree on that much, at least?

    This is the first sentence on the page you linked to:

    "The history of capitalism is diverse and has many debated roots, but fully fledged capitalism is generally thought by scholars to have emerged in Northwestern Europe, especially in Great Britain and the Netherlands, in the 16th to 17th centuries."

    So, again, before we continue: do you agree that capitalism is not a synonym for "trade"?

  18. I remember you saying that Trump could be considered a fascist or an opportunist.

    Will losing the election answer that question? Seems reasonable to say he's an opportunist if he steps down peacefully and a fascist if he doesn't.

    I said there are differences in the tactics you use for fighting an opportunist as opposed to a true believer, and, beyond that, the difference is irrelevant.

    Both a fascist and an opportunist will try to hold onto power, so don't expect November to reveal the truth.

  19. Dazed and Confused and Everybody Wants Some are the most blatantly horny movies of his, but Boyhood also has a bit of it.

    I haven't seen Bernie or Waking Life.

    in response to Do you ever find it weird how horny Richard Linklater's movies are? Like, I love them dearly, and it doesn't bother me, but I always do find it a bit weird whenever that crops up. I guess I'm mainly wondering if this is because I'm asexual, or if allo people notice it too.

    I wouldn't call Boyhood hornier than your average coming-of-age movie.

  20. How do you feel about Psychonauts?

    I got as far as the conspiracy world and had to stop because the Mac port was buggy to the point of being unplayable. Might give it another try now that I've got the Sick Gaming PC.

    What I felt was that it had a lot of personality but was not convinced Tim Schafer should be making platformers. Didn't have good game feel or particularly interesting mechanics, just a great, anarchic sense of humor and fabulous world design, aka the things that make adventure games good.

  21. Hey jsyk - if you haven't played Counterfeit Monkey yet, I very highly recommend it. It has really fascinating worldbuilding and storytelling and all of the puzzles are just the right balance of hard and fair.

    I do love Emily Short...

  22. Would you think that Charlie Kaufman, David Fincher & David Cronenberg, based on their last films alone, would be fun at parties?

    I have not seen the most recent film by any of these men.

  23. I cannot. Because according to the 'commercialization model', capitalism originated in trade. Which has existed in some form since the paleolithic era, and is an essential part of any functioning human society. It was built out of necessity, not greed. It only became what it is today with the advent of the Industrial Revolution and mass production, which allowed those who held the most influence the means of production to increase their wealth and influence exponentially. So while it has become obscene, it didn't start out that way.

    No one in the paleolithic era was living in a high rise made of rock and mud hoarding pelts and skins by the billions. Can we agree on that much, at least?

    in response to Well-regulated capitalism is exactly the version of capitalism I'm talking about. Is there a reason that proper regulation of the current system wouldn't be better than tearing up that system and starting over?

    Capitalism as an economic model began during the Renaissance and became a dominant economic model after the fall of feudal monarchy. Please at least type concepts into Wikipedia before arguing about them.

    By your logic, socialism isn't even anticapitalist because trade would still exist.

  25. Is there cause to be hopeful if Joe Biden is president in january, or just grimly relieved?

    in response to Is there cause to be hopeful if Joe Biden wins the election, or just grimly relieved?

    I think it is possible that at some point during a Biden presidency I will feel hope, likely in spite of rather than because of him. It's not a given, but it's a possibility.

    But, in January, it will be grim relief at best.

  26. is it good praxis for democrats to platform John Kasich because he endorsed Biden?

    *sigh*

    I am not the President of Praxis

  27. Well-regulated capitalism is exactly the version of capitalism I'm talking about. Is there a reason that proper regulation of the current system wouldn't be better than tearing up that system and starting over?

    in response to I don't know if capitalism is a system that "relies" on greed more than it has been corrupted and gameified by self-interested parties over the centuries into an obscene parody of itself that lets the wealthy live out what Greta Thunberg called a "fairy tale of eternal economic growth" while the lower classes struggle and starve. And if it's true that no socioeconomic system is immune to such corruption, I'm not sure it's worthwhile to look for alternatives to capitalism rather than try to root out the corruption in our current system ang get it working in a way that gestures towards common sense and human decency. Thoughts?

    I just need you to acknowledge that, if you agree the only way to keep capitalism from treating people like cattle is for a democratic institution to prevent it from doing so, you are admitting it is, in fact, built on greed.

    Can you do that?

  28. Wasn't it kind of the other way around? He and Khrushchev stopped WW3 from occurring?

    in response to Was JFK the only good president? If not, why?

    what? if I threaten to shoot you and then don't, that doesn't mean I saved your life.

  29. Do you consider all armed conflict by state armies immoral? In your view, is the existence of a state military ever justified?

    I mean... I guess I'd fall somewhere in the vicinity of "armed conflict is always immoral, but sometimes worse things happen without it."

  30. Wouldn't everybody who calls you 'Dan' be giving you a nickname?

    in response to Has anyone ever given you a nickname

    no, that'd be calling me Nick

    they're giving me a danname

  31. If you could change one thing about your body, what would it be?

    that's a really personal and invasive question if answered sincerely

    so I'ma say "horns"

  32. I don't know if capitalism is a system that "relies" on greed more than it has been corrupted and gameified by self-interested parties over the centuries into an obscene parody of itself that lets the wealthy live out what Greta Thunberg called a "fairy tale of eternal economic growth" while the lower classes struggle and starve.

    And if it's true that no socioeconomic system is immune to such corruption, I'm not sure it's worthwhile to look for alternatives to capitalism rather than try to root out the corruption in our current system ang get it working in a way that gestures towards common sense and human decency. Thoughts?

    in response to How does anarcho-communism (or any socio-economic system put forth as a viable alternative to capitalism for that matter) solve the problem of human greed? What I mean is, how does one construct a socioeconomic system immune to exploitation?

    The "fairy tale of eternal economic growth" is not a corruption of capitalism. It is the root. There is no version of capitalism where the market reaches equilibrium and people within stop trying to earn more money. There is no version of capitalism where it isn't in the best interest of every single businesses to become a monopoly. What we are seeing now is exactly what capitalism's set of incentives optimize for.

    How do you see this "corruption" being "rooted out"? Government regulation, right? As in: the only way to stop capitalists from accumulating obscene amounts of wealth to the detriment of all is for an outside, non-capitalist force to prevent them.

    The problem is not a moral failing on the part of capitalists that can be solved by rejiggering the system to favor different, more honorable capitalists. The moral failings of the wealthy are PREFERRED by the system. Because the goal of capitalism is the accumulation of wealth, pure and simple. There is no point and which a capitalist is supposed to stop accumulating.

    Hence: a fairy tale of eternal economic growth.

  33. What's a game or two you're pleasantly surprised have gotten as big as they've gotten?

    Enhhhhh... I don't place a lot of stock in games getting "big," you know? Kinda comes with the anticapitalism thing. So for me it's stuff like Celeste, because it made the devs enough money to form a company and move their whole team to the same city. I don't need a game to be on the lips of everyone on the street or for the people who made it to become wealthy, I just need it to do well enough that there can be more like it.

    I also feel like, in this age of filter bubbles and fractured media, it's hard to tell how "big" the average game is unless you go looking for it. Like, in my circles Nier: Automata was a big deal. But I have no idea what its sales were like or how much broad cultural awareness there is for it.

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  34. Do you ever find it weird how horny Richard Linklater's movies are? Like, I love them dearly, and it doesn't bother me, but I always do find it a bit weird whenever that crops up.

    I guess I'm mainly wondering if this is because I'm asexual, or if allo people notice it too.

    Maybe I'm watching the wrong ones, but I don't remember Bernie or Waking Life being particularly horny. Definitely the Before trilogy has some hornt, but I don't get a strong hornt vibe from the others I've seen.

  35. something that bothers me a bit about Natalie's new video is how she said that "when the radical right says they're gonna overthrow the government, it's intent, and when the radical left says it, it's ideation"

    the thing is, I actually live with a bunch of anarchist gun nuts who have been actually training and doing proper armed antifa action stuff and are preparing for a fight. altho the keyword there is "preparing," their priorities are to end fights once they've been started, not start them themselves, and they don't generally go around conspiring to kidnap governors, they'd be the ones responding if the right wing militias were successful in their plans

    so it's not entirely accurate to say that leftist militias/armed organizers/active revolutionaries don't exist, they're just less visible because they're not as aggressive as the right (because they're smart enough to realize that doing the shit that right wing militias are doing would get them in prison)

    Also, none of them have Twitter accounts

    I haven't watched Nat's video yet so I can't speak to what her full argument is or whether you're hearing it right. But I was just thinking yesterday about how there's this contingent of the Left that believes in revolution the way evangelicals believe in the Rapture. It's something you believe in, endlessly prepare for, but it's not something you build. It happens to you. So, yeah, your anarchist friends are ready for the fight, but are they building dual power? Do they have a plan? Do they know who they want on their side and which alliances of convenience are counterproductive? I doubt it.

    I feel this is why we get so much fervor from parts of the Left when it looks like a (moderately) socialist might win the Presidency, or like someone might launch a general strike. They aren't doing the literal YEARS of groundwork it would take to make these things succeed, but they've spent their lives preparing to boycott businesses or not vote for liberals!

    Inverse doomsday prepping isn't revolutionary.

  36. Do you enjoy 100 gecs?

    I haven't sat down with their full album but I love what I've heard. I get Stupid Horse stuck in my head at random.

  38. Was JFK the only good president? If not, why?

    JFK brought us to the brink of World War III repeatedly

  39. Can you name some long-term narratives that are not self-contradictory?

    in response to I've recently begun to feel the idea of a canon within media franchises, particularly as something worth upholding, has gotten really boring and dumb to do. I feel like the only reason people care about it nowadays is because by and large people aren't allowed to create fan works without facing legal trouble should they try to pursue it meaningfully (read: make profits to survive.) It seems like art would be cooler and people would get bummed out less when copyright holders do something to change their franchise if it was more wildly accepted that canon is kind of meaningless. What do you think about this? Am I not considering any other perspectives?

    the Before trilogy

  41. Has anyone ever given you a nickname

    Only once. A friend and former housemate called me Ein, after the corgi on Cowboy Bebop, which I was enthusiastically appreciative of.

  42. Favourite fall dishes, both sweet and savory? Doing my first all vegan thanksgiving.

    I always make orange-and-maple-glazed beets for Friendsgiving.

  43. What about the troops that beat the Nazis?

    For the record I'm obviously referring to the soviets.

    in response to One hell of an oversimplification, but okay

    everyone who was of age to fight in WWII is dead now, I don't need to support them

  46. what's the specific reason you disrespect troops?

    they literally kill people for money

  47. Good answer, but I phrased it poorly. I meant to ask if there's a unifying quality on the particular adventures games you like, such as Loom, Grim Fandango etc

    in response to What is a unifying quality of all the adventure games you love?

    oh! um... no. I would say there are unifying qualities in the adventure games I hate: puzzles that fail to work as drama, over-reliance on incongruous logic puzzles, over-reliance on inventory, too much dialogue, inability to finish stories in a single game, lazy plots that rely on genre conventions to avoid having to make logical sense, and so forth.

    one thing I like about adventures is that they can be almost anything. I love some adventures for being wildly innovative, and others for being completely standard but using the formula to tell a good story. I'll even forgive some of the above if the story/design/themes/world make up for them.

  48. Have you ever seen anyone take a big bite out of a raw potato like it was an apple?

    haha, it's a meme for people to claim they've done this, but, like the cinnamon challenge, it's actually physically impossible. try it, you'll see!

  49. If republicans are starting to distance themselves from Trump somewhat ahead of the election, is that a good sign that they would be any less likely to try to contest election results if they lose?

    I'm not comfortable saying anything for certain at this point. A lot of people who distanced themselves from him in 2016 started phone banking on his behalf right before the election. Republicans have made it abundantly clear that they are willing to to sign on to whatever if it keeps them in power. Right now they're worried that Trump will go down and bring them with him. If it starts to look like he might hold onto power, I have zero trust they won't throw their lot in with him again.

  51. yeah i was going back through harry potter near the start of quarantine when jkr decided to really hammer home her firm belief that Bathrooms Are Sacred or whatever rhetoric drives that drivel nowadays. started to notice to more objectionable characterisations in the writing itself and the flame kinda died for me. i think a large part of that kinda thing is just how recent and in your face the bullshit is because you can almost assume in good faith someones ideas have shifted or something was misinterpreted until they come right out and make sure everyone knows they suck. whats the last series you dropped after realising the creator kinda blew chunks and were then turned off?

    in response to I have a question that's sorta a tangent of "thing good/bad" but not directly related. There is a sci-fi series that I am interested in that I read the first book of. While I didn't like everything about it, it did a LOT that I did like or atleast respected, but also had what I believe some toxic beliefs in there. Then I go online and find out that the author is fairly to the right. I can't tell if he's full alt-right, but he atleast believes BLM to be hypocrites and decries the loss of property from the protests far more than any lives lost. I am not asking you if I should read this author because I know you neither want nor can answer that question (especially since I'm not naming him to not give him any internet oxygen, even here). But what are your guiding principles between continuing to engage with a work that you like in many respects that also has some toxicity or is by a toxic person? Can you name any instances where you struggled to choose between keeping engaged or dropping a series you're interested in?

    I had already fallen off the Ender saga when I found out Orson Scott Card was a scumbag, but every so often I wonder how Children of the Mind ends or how the rest of the Shadow series plays out, but I can't bring myself to go back to that world. Don't even wanna reread Ender's Game anymore.

  52. "I also like to imagine how I would adapt the story to another medium, taking the premise and characters but sticking a better ideology into it."

    Can you give an example?

    in response to I have a question that's sorta a tangent of "thing good/bad" but not directly related. There is a sci-fi series that I am interested in that I read the first book of. While I didn't like everything about it, it did a LOT that I did like or atleast respected, but also had what I believe some toxic beliefs in there. Then I go online and find out that the author is fairly to the right. I can't tell if he's full alt-right, but he atleast believes BLM to be hypocrites and decries the loss of property from the protests far more than any lives lost. I am not asking you if I should read this author because I know you neither want nor can answer that question (especially since I'm not naming him to not give him any internet oxygen, even here). But what are your guiding principles between continuing to engage with a work that you like in many respects that also has some toxicity or is by a toxic person? Can you name any instances where you struggled to choose between keeping engaged or dropping a series you're interested in?

    Did you see the recent movie adaptation of Lovecraft's The Color out of Space? They took that story and, keeping its basic premise, made a story that Lovecraft would have fucking HATED. They made the lead characters a Black man and a pagan woman, and filled their relationship with sexual tension that you genuinely rooted for.

    I like to do that kinda shit in my head with compromised media. Like, what is the basic structure of this, the thing that makes me like it, and what themes that I like (and that would piss off the author) would fit into it? Part of the fun of adapting something to another medium is fixing what's wrong with it. Honestly, it's a big part of what I love about The Last Jedi.

  53. Thoughts on "ethnic" humor like Borat?

    I'm not a fan

  54. I've seen some argue how this election isn't like 2016, that because Trump isn't the "outsider" seen back then, that now that he has to justify his leadership after Covid, coupled with their being less hate for Biden than Clinton; that it's much more likely for Biden to win. Any thoughts?

    it's not like Trump's last victory was legitimate

  55. I've recently begun to feel the idea of a canon within media franchises, particularly as something worth upholding, has gotten really boring and dumb to do. I feel like the only reason people care about it nowadays is because by and large people aren't allowed to create fan works without facing legal trouble should they try to pursue it meaningfully (read: make profits to survive.) It seems like art would be cooler and people would get bummed out less when copyright holders do something to change their franchise if it was more wildly accepted that canon is kind of meaningless. What do you think about this? Am I not considering any other perspectives?

    I think there is value in long-term storytelling that is not self-contradictory, but I agree that it is wildly over-privileged these days, and for all the wrong reasons

  57. Do any bulk discounts apply?

    in response to Can you put a price on your dreams?

    we don't produce in bulk, these are artisanal

  58. How many "legs" would you recommend that we get?

    in response to Where do I go to buy these “legs”?

    what's your budget?

  59. Would you consider that, no matter how left-wing someone's views might be, if that someone doesn't want to get rid of capitalism they are irrevocably centrist? Or would you consider them center-left? Basically I guess my question is: Is getting rid of capitalism THE defining trait of leftism?

    I think you're conflating leftist with liberal. Yes, a defining trait of leftism is anticapitalism, that's what differentiates it from liberalism. Like, Bernie Sanders is functionally a liberal, but he is, by American standards, still quite left of center.

  60. How would you handle the situation if a friend of yours, someone who genuinely seemed to value your opinion, told you they were planning to become a landlord, or something equally objectionable?

    The problem here is that we all have to live under capitalism. If my friend truly values my opinion, then I will talk about why I think being a landlord is fundamentally immoral. But, at the same time, if they've been bootstrapping their whole life and they have an opportunity to get financially stable by renting property, I'm not gonna say they're obligated not to. I'm going to say they have to, at the very least, not be a shitty landlord. But, like... I'm a vegan who's friends with people who eat meat, an environmentalist who often drives cars, an anti-fascist who hosts his work on the site that gives Nazis their biggest platform. There are a lot of ethical compromises we make to survive and find a modicum of happiness. All I can ask of people is that they do their best with the flawed system we live in.

    Where I'd draw the line is if, now that they're a landlord, they start fighting against tenants' rights or stymieing efforts to create an equitable, landlord-less housing system. Do what you gotta to do get by, but don't fight to keep the system the way it is just because it benefits you.

  61. What is a unifying quality of all the adventure games you love?

    What I love about adventure games primarily is interactive narrative. I *love* being inside a story, having even a tiny amount of agency and self-direction within it. But some adventure games are more or less plotless. I'm not going to claim The Witness isn't an adventure game, but it doesn't really contain much of what appeals to me about the genre. It contains other stuff I find compelling, but I can't say they are a unifying quality.

    So maybe it's that flexibility of design? The fact that adventure games are a truly design-agnostic genre, that they can have almost ANY mechanics in them, is fascinating to me. It's not what makes me love the genre, but it's something I like that is true of pretty much all of them.

  62. How does anarcho-communism (or any socio-economic system put forth as a viable alternative to capitalism for that matter) solve the problem of human greed? What I mean is, how does one construct a socioeconomic system immune to exploitation?

    You can't. But you don't have to build a system that relies on it.

  63. Are leftist youtubers having any clear impact on what ideas are being brought to general political discourse?

    all popular media has impact, so yes

    but I don't know how to measure that impact

  64. Is there cause to be hopeful if Joe Biden wins the election, or just grimly relieved?

    since I don't yet know whether Biden winning the election guarantees Biden will be President in January, neither

  65. Why $7 to be exact? Any specific reason for that amount when it could be higher/lower?

    in response to Can you put a price on your dreams?

    you must be fun at parties

  66. Why are people trying so hard to get you to sign off on supporting the troops? Can they not do it if you haven't given permission?

    in response to ANOTHER version, then. Replace troop with veteran.

    I am apparently in charge of these things

  67. immortal beings have no emotions

    that is not a question

    that's only kind of a statement

    I'm not sure what that is if I'm being honest

  68. Is whether or not something (a plot point, theme, character framing, etc.) in a story is problematic a matter of opinion in and of itself?

    in the sense that whether or not a thing is harmful has to do with how it is interpreted, yes

    in the sense that there are real-world repercussions to those interpretations, no

  69. Do you like melons on their own?

    in response to How would you describe the perfect salad, to you?

    I don't utterly despise honeydew or cantaloupe, but they are to fruit salad what filler episodes are to anime.

  70. What topics would you consider yourself an expert on?

    none

  73. You do understand that soldiers are HUMAN, right? So when we say "support the troops", we mean support the (non-war criminal) duped, traumatized veterans, and we most certainly do not support Edwin Gallagher.

    in response to You don't need to, but others definitely want to, for a myriad of reasons. I'm just thinking that decoupling the idea of supporting the troops and going to war all the time would be useful for lefty goals, so arguing that supporting the troops means bringing them back home seems helpful.

    I support human beings, why do I need to make specific mention of the troops? I don't think they should be attacked or discriminated against or dehumanized. But they can and should be criticized.

  74. I have a question that's sorta a tangent of "thing good/bad" but not directly related.

    There is a sci-fi series that I am interested in that I read the first book of. While I didn't like everything about it, it did a LOT that I did like or atleast respected, but also had what I believe some toxic beliefs in there. Then I go online and find out that the author is fairly to the right. I can't tell if he's full alt-right, but he atleast believes BLM to be hypocrites and decries the loss of property from the protests far more than any lives lost.

    I am not asking you if I should read this author because I know you neither want nor can answer that question (especially since I'm not naming him to not give him any internet oxygen, even here). But what are your guiding principles between continuing to engage with a work that you like in many respects that also has some toxicity or is by a toxic person? Can you name any instances where you struggled to choose between keeping engaged or dropping a series you're interested in?

    If I care about a work enough to keep reading it even if I think the creator is a scumbag, I try to engage with it critically, keep my eyes open for where the ideology might be creeping in, maybe play the game where I try to imagine things from the perspective of characters the author clearly doesn't want me to identify with. I mean, I'm lucky; I'm a video essayist, and having complex feelings about a problematic creator is potential #content. (I also like to imagine how I would adapt the story to another medium, taking the premise and characters but sticking a better ideology into it.)

    But, if I'm being honest, it's been a long time since I wanted to keep reading something I found seriously ideologically compromised. It's not that I think it would be "wrong" to keep reading the series, it just sucks the enjoyment out for me. If you can keep at it and while maintaining your own perspective and picking apart the problem bits, power to you. I'm almost jealous.

  75. Why do leftists never talk about Republicans defunding NASA?

    where did you get the idea that leftists don't talk about that?

Anon commented:
Ian replied: