CuriousCat Archive Page 52 of 202

  2. It seems to be that wastewater and reported cases decoupled right before Jan '22 and that distrusting reported cases is super conspiratorial in such a way that it kinda demands evidence of wrongdoing

    in response to Why is COVID presence in wastewater a reliable measure, that doesn't necessarily reflected people that have been infected

    fam, it's not a conspiracy, it is public knowledge that the state of emergency is ending, PCR tests are not as widely available and may not be free much longer, and people rely much more on rapid home tests. people don't get tested by doctors or admitted to hospitals as much, they rapid test at home and (hopefully) follow CDC guidelines about isolating. but, because no part of this process involves a doctor, at no point does it get reported to the CDC. it's not conspiratorial to acknowledge that this is going to deflate their numbers.

  3. any more silly than the other games in the Warriors series or just silly compared to most Zelda games?

    in response to Why do you think Hyrule Warriors is a bad game?

    its silliness is not relativistic, it is objectively very silly

  4. "Yeah but did anything good or popular get made on there, huh?"

    MINECRAFT: *exists*

    in response to What would game development be like in a socialist society?

    I feel like measuring things by "were they record-shatteringly popular" kind of misses the point of socialism, but, yes, Minecraft, Fez, World of Goo, Spelunky, and Super Meat Boy all came out of TIGSource

  5. what is your opinion on Nintendo giving Neo Splash-o-Matic Triple Inkstrike, outclassing the Tentatek Splattershot, when the weapon was shown in the past to have Zipcaster?

    ain't that some shit

  7. What would game development be like in a socialist society?

    I used to hang out in the TIGSource forums before the indie game boom of 2008, where folks just made games and shared them with each other, rarely charging any money. just for the love and the respect. some really great and creative and weird games came out of there.

    in my ideal, games could be made like that, but people's needs are met so they don't have to work shit jobs for most of their week, they don't have to starve to do it full-time, they have access to resources that are currently paywalled or proprietary, and since everyone has these freedoms they can form larger teams to make bigger projects.

    obviously it's not solely up to me, and there's a lot about the process I don't know, so I can't say with certainty what is or isn't feasible. I just know people don't need a profit motive to make games, and, when freed from the profit motive, the games they make get really interesting. so I'm not worried that games would disappear without profit and exploitation.

  8. The avoidance is more telling then an actual answer I guess.

    in response to Does gender have an essence?

    was that a real question?!

  9. Why do you think Hyrule Warriors is a bad game?

    I love it but it's very silly

  10. Should respect be given or earned?

    respect should be given, disrespect earned

  12. Why is COVID presence in wastewater a reliable measure, that doesn't necessarily reflected people that have been infected

    in response to pandemic numbers have gone down since Trump was president - are you suggesting that Biden did nothing and things just happened to turn out okay?

    you can see in this chart that, after the first surge, reported cases and wastewater are almost perfectly correlated, only diverging during the largest surges when they follow the same shape but differ in magnitude. that is, until after omicron when the CDC changed its reporting and then they immediately part ways.

    there is no plausible explanation for why they would decouple at that exact moment except reported cases no longer reflect actual infection.

  14. pandemic numbers have gone down since Trump was president - are you suggesting that Biden did nothing and things just happened to turn out okay?

    in response to Do any of those bad things he did surprise you? I thought he’d be even worse than that.

    pandemic numbers have not gone down, the CDC stopped doing contact tracing and people mostly do home tests. going by the COVID presence in wastewater the numbers are higher than they were under Trump.

    thread: https://twitter.com/RowanKaiser/status/1608992057640775681?t=K3IRAY1cvAb9kqgSSWGYjg&s=19

  15. "Are you a Marxist?" "Yes" 😊
    "Are you a Leninist?" "Yes" 😊
    "Are you a Marxist-Leninist?" "No" 😠

    in response to Are you a Marxist–Leninist?

    Marxist-Leninists : Marxism :: National Socialists : socialism

  16. Cómo estás?

    más o menos

  17. Would you bang Stifler's mom?

    I wouldn't kick her out of bed, but I wouldn't spend a whole second movie obsessed with her either

  19. Thoughts on Vermin Supreme?

    is that Rat King's Latin name?

  20. Who would you like to see run in the next presidential election?

  21. "hmm, the gender of this year is rather piquant"

    in response to Does gender have an essence?

    top notes of the first rain after a forest fire

  22. Do you think getting the world to speak one language is a worthwhile goal? If so, a constructed language is probably the only possible language without political baggage.

    in response to What do you think about constructed languages, like Esperanto?

    what? no. why would that be a good idea? I'd strike down Babel myself if they tried.

  23. Do any of those bad things he did surprise you? I thought he’d be even worse than that.

    in response to How so?

    given that he staked his entire campaign on addressing the pandemic where Trump failed, his utter abandonment of that goal surprised me, yes

  24. Does gender have an Evanescense?

    in response to Does gender have an essence?

    evanescence is a gender, pronouns tears/fears/years

  25. Would you be impressed by vehicles that drive each other instead of drive themselves?

    in response to How do you feel about self-driving vehicles?

    I want cars that drive humans

  26. How do you feel about self-driving vehicles?

    I'll be impressed when someone actually invents one

  27. Does gender have an essence?

    it has more of a bouquet

  29. What's the story behind your scar?

    which scar

  30. how do I get you to acknowledge the existence of pink floyd

    didn't they write stairway to heaven?

  31. I mean WB also threw millions of dollars at the Arkham Origins devs over more than a decade and ended up w/ Gotham Knights (a much worse game) but go off I guess.

    in response to Warner Bros bought a developer with a track record with tie-ins and threw 150 million at them over 5 years just so people will keep talking about harry potter while they get their old timey wizarding world paris finished in the parks, they pushed this one hard because it's not like a film with a rowling credit on it is going to avoid mixed opinion, so they doubled down and hey look! people are buying! This is the thing the park is about kids, no don't look at that transphobes "controversy" section on Wikipedia, it's the game! You remember that right? I mean i get it in a way, i waited 15 years to buy dwarf fortress and say "yes" in a steam forum thread, i get wanting the thing you like to be topical, but it's topical because this is warner trying to keep HP relevant without any of the actors and the writer involved who will become lightning rods for negative press stories (hell they didn't even manage that, one of the HLmain voice actors was a gamergate supporter, so i guess it's relevant to you again!)

  32. Oh, I meant that as an open invite to discuss any games you've been excited about lately, meant it as more an excuse for you to talk about [insert game here] you were wanting to tell people about.

    in response to Think Renegade missed anything in that recommend list?

    Cultic is really, really good, though I'm not sure it will scratch the same itch as Harry Potter. honestly, just play Hollow Knight, I promise it's better than Hogwarts Legacy.

  33. How are you doing?
    Your channel, your approach to thought and your activism have shaped my life a lot. I just started re-watching "BBWS", currently on "Innocence".

    DFTBA

    I'm also glad for the title "seimiotics[sic] of cuck" and want to thank you for sharing your personal stuft thoughtfully. The video helped me in my first complex relationship, which was awesome and also a lot.

    💙

  34. What do you think about constructed languages, like Esperanto?

    conlangs are neat! I don't see them catching on tho.

  35. Has your opinion on Dark Brandon improved since he's become president?

    it's worsened

  36. Warner Bros bought a developer with a track record with tie-ins and threw 150 million at them over 5 years just so people will keep talking about harry potter while they get their old timey wizarding world paris finished in the parks, they pushed this one hard because it's not like a film with a rowling credit on it is going to avoid mixed opinion, so they doubled down and hey look! people are buying! This is the thing the park is about kids, no don't look at that transphobes "controversy" section on Wikipedia, it's the game! You remember that right?

    I mean i get it in a way, i waited 15 years to buy dwarf fortress and say "yes" in a steam forum thread, i get wanting the thing you like to be topical, but it's topical because this is warner trying to keep HP relevant without any of the actors and the writer involved who will become lightning rods for negative press stories (hell they didn't even manage that, one of the HLmain voice actors was a gamergate supporter, so i guess it's relevant to you again!)

    in response to as someone who was a fan of HP when they were 12: most of the HP games that have come out were decent if you were lucky, shovelware if you weren't. i imagine fans didn't really see most of them as "authentic" because they were made to capitalize on the movie that most recently came out rather than to exist as a piece of media within the corpus of harry potter works. no fucking idea about the newer mobile games though because spending time on a harry potter branded product in 2023 seems pretty terrible in basically every conceivable way

  37. Only public?

    in response to Do you still wear a mask in public?

    I wear it in private if I'm around people whose COVID protocols are unknown, or known but riskier than I'm comfortable with.

  38. did you realize everything you know is wrong was a tmbg parody when you listened to it or was it something you found out later?

    later

  39. Do you know any coding languages?

    ehhh, not enough to do much with. I knew a little python a long while back, and GML, the Game Maker scripting language.

  40. Literally your entire online prescense you half-man fuck-wit and you aren't the only one of your kind either

    in response to What's fucking disingenous is how this Church of "Be Aware and Critical of Flaws" was always a sham Rules for thee but not for Ian Danskin The rest of us must self-flagelate for daring to enjoy "problematic" fare, but the Ian Danskins of the world who demand we do so feel no such compunction to do the same And now you're preparing to deny that you do this when it's all you and your kind do! So obnoxious!

    seems like you're mad at a perceived trend and feel a) that it definitely exists and b) I'm probably part of it, and aren't sweating the details much

  41. Do you still wear a mask in public?

    yes

  42. What does the chud have to say today I wonder...

    the chud word of the day is: bilious!

  43. as someone who was a fan of HP when they were 12:

    most of the HP games that have come out were decent if you were lucky, shovelware if you weren't. i imagine fans didn't really see most of them as "authentic" because they were made to capitalize on the movie that most recently came out rather than to exist as a piece of media within the corpus of harry potter works. no fucking idea about the newer mobile games though because spending time on a harry potter branded product in 2023 seems pretty terrible in basically every conceivable way

    in response to (different anon) The appeal is that it's the game HP fans, trans and other marginalized fans included (a reminder that trans people are not a monolith), have fantasized about getting for decades. One with a level of care and polish usually only afforded to Fromsoft and and Rockstar games, that allows them to fully, finally inhabit a world that has provided them an escape from the cruel reality of their lives for so many years, and in many cases *saved* those lives when they *needed* such an escape. More importantly, talking *past* actual marginalized people to demand they give up something they genuinely love in an act of pious self-denial (as many so-called allies have done in the ceaseless social media pile-up against this game) just because an ultra-rich transphobe with a blue check will get a fraction of a fraction of a cent of their money in the offing is BAD allyship. Or at least I think so.

    I'm not super hip to the HP games, but this new one looks decent at best. I get that it's got more production values than your usual franchise cash-grab, but it's just a bunch of mechanics from better games with a Hogwarts paint job, I don't get why it's such a lodestone.

  44. Think Renegade missed anything in that recommend list?

    in response to (different anon) The appeal is that it's the game HP fans, trans and other marginalized fans included (a reminder that trans people are not a monolith), have fantasized about getting for decades. One with a level of care and polish usually only afforded to Fromsoft and and Rockstar games, that allows them to fully, finally inhabit a world that has provided them an escape from the cruel reality of their lives for so many years, and in many cases *saved* those lives when they *needed* such an escape. More importantly, talking *past* actual marginalized people to demand they give up something they genuinely love in an act of pious self-denial (as many so-called allies have done in the ceaseless social media pile-up against this game) just because an ultra-rich transphobe with a blue check will get a fraction of a fraction of a cent of their money in the offing is BAD allyship. Or at least I think so.

    sure! he wasn't trying to be comprehensive. what are you looking for?

  45. Well like I said it's the first game on this scale with this level of polish, the game HP fans have been fantasizing about for decades, but that's not really my point. I feel like you missed the part where I said there *are* trans people (not to mention people of every other marginalized identity; it's a large fanbase) who *are* buying this *in spite of* Rowling's transphobia and are being made to feel like Traitors to the Cause for doing so, and that's not okay. Marginalized people are being asked to deprioritize their own mental health in the name of "good allyship" and ideological purity. And that behavior, to me, is worthy of a base level of contempt. I'm not some superfan; I haven't read half the books or seen half the movies in the theatre. I'm not one of those that *needs* this escape. But those that do shouldn't have to live with a million voices demanding they deny themselves and suffer because JK Rowling turned out to be a POS.

    in response to (different anon) The appeal is that it's the game HP fans, trans and other marginalized fans included (a reminder that trans people are not a monolith), have fantasized about getting for decades. One with a level of care and polish usually only afforded to Fromsoft and and Rockstar games, that allows them to fully, finally inhabit a world that has provided them an escape from the cruel reality of their lives for so many years, and in many cases *saved* those lives when they *needed* such an escape. More importantly, talking *past* actual marginalized people to demand they give up something they genuinely love in an act of pious self-denial (as many so-called allies have done in the ceaseless social media pile-up against this game) just because an ultra-rich transphobe with a blue check will get a fraction of a fraction of a cent of their money in the offing is BAD allyship. Or at least I think so.

    this trans person whose sole source of happiness is this one specific game and who can't just buy it and play it without talking to all their trans friends about it, and whose trans friends reject them because they'd rather they have no happiness than give some money to JKR... is this person in the room right now?

    like, I get what your saying about consumerist purity politics, and I've been annoyed at that streak on the Left, but I feel like you're having to distort reality pretty intensely to insist that "please don't buy this game" is some kind of clarion call.

    but whatever: I hereby bestow, with my cis privilege, the right to buy Hogwarts Legacy to trans people whose mental health depends on this specific game and for whom there are no equally available/affordable alternatives. go with god, my child. I'm sure all twelve of you are relieved.

    to the rest of you: please don't buy this game.

  46. Who do you think wrote the Bible?

    sandra

  47. The bigger question is why is so much of allyship grounded in consumerism?

    in response to Am I a bad trans ally if I play Hogwarts Legacy?

    it's not "so much," it's that when it intersects with consumerism is when it generates the most discourse. like, some trans people saying "can you not buy this game?" is a fairly small conversation if 80,000 people don't yell at them about it. even if you're buying the game, you can just buy it without arguing. so I would rephrase your question: why are so many allies touchy about consumerism?

  48. Y'know no ammount of not buying it will not make JKR and less rich right?

    in response to Am I a bad trans ally if I play Hogwarts Legacy?

    I asked what the appeal is and you switched to talking about whether or not boycotting it affects her income.

  49. What's fucking disingenous is how this Church of "Be Aware and Critical of Flaws" was always a sham Rules for thee but not for Ian Danskin The rest of us must self-flagelate for daring to enjoy "problematic" fare, but the Ian Danskins of the world who demand we do so feel no such compunction to do the same And now you're preparing to deny that you do this when it's all you and your kind do! So obnoxious!

    in response to So do you think this anon doesn't know about the 15-minute long video you made pointing out how it's important to be aware and critical of the flaws in media that you love, or are they being disingenuous?

    I see! can you tell me what I've said that made you think I want you to self-flagellate?

  50. (different anon)

    The appeal is that it's the game HP fans, trans and other marginalized fans included (a reminder that trans people are not a monolith), have fantasized about getting for decades. One with a level of care and polish usually only afforded to Fromsoft and and Rockstar games, that allows them to fully, finally inhabit a world that has provided them an escape from the cruel reality of their lives for so many years, and in many cases *saved* those lives when they *needed* such an escape. More importantly, talking *past* actual marginalized people to demand they give up something they genuinely love in an act of pious self-denial (as many so-called allies have done in the ceaseless social media pile-up against this game) just because an ultra-rich transphobe with a blue check will get a fraction of a fraction of a cent of their money in the offing is BAD allyship. Or at least I think so.

    in response to Am I a bad trans ally if I play Hogwarts Legacy?

    I get that, but also, like... this is the literal 20th Harry Potter game, and there've been 8 movies and a play and 3 more movies and a theme park, so I don't know why this would be held up as the first true Hogwarts experience. everyone is entitled to their escape and if this is what you need then it's not really my place to tell you you can't have it. but I stand by what I said: if you have trans people asking you not to buy it and you buy it anyway, you have deprioritized allyship. maybe that was justified, maybe the people in your life will understand, but, however you slice it, it's not being a "good ally."

    anyway, if you're looking for an escape from the cruelty of the world, Hogwarts isn't the only place! the new season of His Dark Materials is out, and the time is ALWAYS right for an Avatar: The Last Airbender rewatch. if you need a video game, Renegade Cut has some recs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Le_SUrhDVU

  51. On the subject of 2D indie platformers, have you checked out Pizza Tower?

    this is giving me RunMan vibes

  54. Do you consume seed oils?

    are you setting up a cum joke

  55. what if life is too hard

    in response to I've just started playing Hollow Knight for the first time today, and it hasn't really clicked for me (coming from a huge fan of Celeste and Metroid). I've found it frustrating having to retrace my steps to where I die, only to lose my currency dying on the way there. At least deaths in Celeste are incredibly quick and inconsequential. The different areas also blend in with each other, and I've found the world pretty confusing. I've only played for an hour and a half though, so of course there's still plenty of time for my opinions to change. Anything I should aware of?

    we're all trying to git gud at life but life has adaptive difficulty

  56. So do you think this anon doesn't know about the 15-minute long video you made pointing out how it's important to be aware and critical of the flaws in media that you love, or are they being disingenuous?

    in response to So how do you square the fact that RRR is a fash piece of hindu nationalist propaganda garbage with your meticulously crafted public persona of being a strong warrior against reactionary rhetoric? Or do you just not bother because you’re a dishonest little creep?

    I think they're mad that I DIDN'T criticize RRR, but it's not like I did a video on it and failed to dip into its nationalist themes? my engagement with RRR discourse has been, like, two tweets.

  58. Did you ever go to Alcatraz?

    in response to Have you ever been to San Francisco? What did you think of it?

    weirdly, no. come to think of it, I'm not sure I've ever driven across the Golden Gate? the only times I've driven up that way I've started from the East Bay. weird!

  59. I would say honesty looks good on you for once but I know it wouldn't stick since it would hurt your bottom line

    in response to So how do you square the fact that RRR is a fash piece of hindu nationalist propaganda garbage with your meticulously crafted public persona of being a strong warrior against reactionary rhetoric? Or do you just not bother because you’re a dishonest little creep?

    so your position is, yes, it was good that the British subjugated India?

  60. I've just started playing Hollow Knight for the first time today, and it hasn't really clicked for me (coming from a huge fan of Celeste and Metroid). I've found it frustrating having to retrace my steps to where I die, only to lose my currency dying on the way there. At least deaths in Celeste are incredibly quick and inconsequential. The different areas also blend in with each other, and I've found the world pretty confusing. I've only played for an hour and a half though, so of course there's still plenty of time for my opinions to change. Anything I should aware of?

    in response to Which do you prefer, Hollow Knight or Celeste?

    there's a location I think you get access to fairly early on that lets you summon your shade rather than tracking it down, but the cold fact is that the game is hard and expects you to throw yourself against the wall a fair bit. that worked for me because I wanted to forget about the outside world and the game being hard and a little obtuse demanded a degree of attention that I was looking to give it. as you collect abilities, the combat starts to feel really good, and the world is very beautiful and the lore is fascinating. but if you're bouncing off, it might not be your jam! and that's okay. (I bounced off Ori and the Blind Forest, fwiw.)

  61. A question I've been struggling with lately is how can you have porn without objectification?

    sex work is consenting to being objectified within codified boundaries. it is a service the person provides. it begins with a transaction and ends when the services are rendered. the problems with objectification are a) when the customer does not respect the boundaries and objectifies the sex worker outside of the designated times and terms, b) when certain genders, body types, and modes performance are favored so strongly that those people suffer undue pressures to perform and everyone else is excluded, and c) when economic precarity compels workers to loosen the boundaries beyond their comfort because they need the money/clout/working relationships to stay solvent.

    basically, objectification is part of a larger problem, and can be performed ethically between consenting adults provided we fight those bigger issues.

  62. I've been increasingly feeling that transphobes have lost their right to exist within civilized society, and the most efficient way to aid trans people is to banish all transphobes to a deserted island.

    I think that's how England was founded

  63. Much apologies, you are of course correct! If only the millitias had a group who through the use of violence could protect them from external threats like someone coming along and executing their leaders

    in response to yeah like all of the non organized armies throughout history that totally defeated organized armies like say well there were the um the guys in like whatchamaplace

    I'm sorry, do you think getting backstabbed by your allies doesn't happen in hierarchical militaries? like are you arguing Marxist-Leninism solves that problem? the military of Joseph Stalin DIDN'T execute allies? that's what you're going with?

  64. Am I a bad trans ally if I play Hogwarts Legacy?

    allyship is about a lot more than buying products, but if a lot of trans people in your orbit are saying "please don't buy it" and you do it anyway, that's not GREAT allyship.

    also, like, do you really want to play Hogwarts Legacy? the game someone on Twitter dubbed "Dark Souls made by Mormons"? do you wanna make 14-year-olds dodge roll while particle effects come out of their little sticks SO BADLY that you'll push past your icky feelings?

    like... what is the appeal?

  65. Which do you prefer, Hollow Knight or Celeste?

    in the sense of which one do I love more, they are both absolutely wonderful but Hollow Knight gets the edge for me

    in terms of which one do I prefer to pick up and play more of, Celeste, because Hollow Knight is a BIG UNDERTAKING; I also played it at a very low point in my life and it brings up bad memories, where Celeste helps usually uplifts me

  66. So how do you square the fact that RRR is a fash piece of hindu nationalist propaganda garbage with your meticulously crafted public persona of being a strong warrior against reactionary rhetoric? Or do you just not bother because you’re a dishonest little creep?

    I know that, in the context of Indian patriotism, RRR carries a lot of subtextual baggage that I'm not versed enough in the history to pick up on, but the literal text of the movie is anti-British imperialism. in your moral framework, was British imperialism in India a good thing? cuz it killed like literally a billion people. so, like... I guess it's the dishonest little creep thing, cuz I think that was bad.

  68. Are people with blonde hair and blue/green eyes genetically superior?

    I'm not sure of what definition of "superior" you're using, but it's weird to call recessive genes "genetically superior"

  69. I disagree - I think if you repeatedly make incorrect claims even while speaking with confidence, as long as your lies are convincingly rebuked, neutral arbiters such as the audience will say that you lost

    in response to Why so little overlap though?

    this presumes

    a) there is such a thing as a neutral audience member
    b) that the neutral audience saying you lost accomplishes anything so long as the people you were trying to reach think you won
    c) that logic defeats affect, something nobody should believe in a post 2016 world

  70. did you eat any oils when you were on your pancake and lentil soup diet?

    the pancakes had oil in them, since I'm vegan and don't use eggs

  72. yeah like all of the non organized armies throughout history that totally defeated organized armies like say
    well there were the um
    the guys
    in like
    whatchamaplace

    in response to (different anon) It also doesn't follow that using armed defense of the revolution necessitate that it be done with hierarchical structures. Notice the sleight of hand. They think that organization and command are necessarily synonymous.

    love the capitalist argument of "we killed all the people of this political belief which proves we're the good guys"

    I highly recommend reading Orwell's Homage to Catalonia if you want to hear about the efficacy of anarcho-communist militias in fighting against Franco during the Spanish Civil War, and also about how the liberals rode those militias to power and then executed all their leaders to make sure the revolution didn't stay leftist (they then lost the war with Franco, btw)

  73. (different anon) It also doesn't follow that using armed defense of the revolution necessitate that it be done with hierarchical structures. Notice the sleight of hand. They think that organization and command are necessarily synonymous.

    in response to It may not reflect the aims of socialism directly, but socialism doesn't develop in a vacuum. State power is necessary in order to defend the revolution from imperialism (historically from Nazi Germany in WW2, or the United States and its allies during the Cold War) and potentially spread it to neighboring countries to eventually achieve proletarian internationalism. Fledgling socialist countries that don't consolidate their revolutions get overthrown (as in Allede's Chile and Sankara's Burkina Faso) or reformed back to capitalism (as in China, Vietnam, and eventually the Soviet Union.) Che Guevara himself witnessed the United States overthrow Guatemala's democratically elected socialist Jacobo Arbenz and the failed Bay of Pigs invasion to overthrow Fidel Castro, which was what cemented in his mind the need for state and military power to fight against imperialism. That was why he permitted Soviets to bring missiles to Cuba, culminating in the Cuban Missile Crisis.

  74. Why so little overlap though?

    in response to Is debating a waste of time?

    From an upcoming video: "To win a performative debate, all you have to do is speak with confidence, never admit to fault or fallacy, and cultivate an audience that cares about you winning more than they care about you being right. [...] [T]he things that make a good lefty - like the desire to break up authority, share power, and build healthy community - make you bad at developing a cult of personality."

  75. The whites won't take over the world, but whiteness definitely will.

    in response to Ok chud what's your problem with the white race?

    whiteness will destroy itself well before that happens

Anon commented:
Ian replied: