The Fascism-to-Incontinence pipeline is real.

In general the entire series is mean-spirited. You can see the roots of Rowling’s hate in how she describes any of the series antagonists.

Sort of, but it’s more a comforting theory rather then a true belief. I came up with it when I was younger, doing a lot of psychedelics, and meditating often on the nature of existence and reality.

My theory is that God is everything. The earth, the stars, our fellow beings. All of reality makes up a complex web that I loosely refer to as a “consciousness” for lack of a better word. The nature of this “consciousness” is incomprehensible to us. It does not activly intervene in our daily lives, and operates on a scale beyond our comprehension. Mostly, it simply is. It is the oblivion from which our consciousness was once plucked, and it is where we will one day return.

In essence, each of us is a tiny fragment of reality experiencing itself. The meaning of life is to experience it. All of it. Joy, pleasure, and suffering. It is all a part of the whole of existence. When we die and return to the infinite our individuality is lost, but maybe God learns something about itself.

Even where there is viable public transport, there’s a stigma against using it. The city I live in has a decent and cheap Metro system. It’s reasonably clean, mostly runs on time, and you only have to deal with the occasional crazy. I took it for a summer after a car got totaled and it was fine.

Yet I work with a bunch of impoverished young people who spend $30-$40 on Ubers every day getting to work. I’ve suggested taking the bus to many of them, there’s even a stop right outside our workplace, and they are always dismissive and disgusted by the idea.

Man this takes me back.

Encarta and Paint were where I spent most of my computer time as a younger teenager. The trivia games on Encarta were dope, I also spent a lot of time walking around the 3d castles and ancient ruins. And a lot of time in the ummm… Art section. Learned a lot about myself from Venus of Urbino.

Used to waste time by painting giant graphic and bloody battle scenes between stick figures in paint. Did it pixel by pixel! Good times!

Oh, guess I don’t have to worry about catching up on all the dlc I’ve missed!

Morrowind would be a whole different beast to remaster. Not saying I wouldn’t enjoy some better graphics and tweaked systems, but it would be a hard sell to most gamers if they only did that.

-no voice acting -outdated gameplay systems -Game map that wasn’t designed with unlimited draw distance, fast travel, or even unlimited running in mind.

Honestly at this point it would be better served by a full remake.

What exactly has been changed besides the graphics? Sounds like they tweaked the melee combat to more resemble Skyrims.

Imo Oblivions two biggest problems were level scaling and how barren the world was between cities and dungeons.

Edit: I got it after watching more of the gameplay. It still feels like Oblivion, but there’s a lot of little tweaks that improve the experience. Combat and movement has more weight to it, so while the systems all effectively function the same it feels a lot less floaty then the original game. There’s a lot of small tweaks and QOL improvements, like the UI is reminiscent of the original but much more fluid. Cant comment on if they fixed level-scaling or not, as I’m only at level 3.

Make no mistake, this is 100% Oblivion. Its just a lot prettier and with a lot of small improvements. So far it seems like a rare modern Bethesda W.

Humanity stands on the brink of self-destruction because we have yet to overcome the primitive, selfish aspects of our nature. I have to believe that any civilization advanced enough for interstellar travel—without having destroyed itself along the way—must have achieved a certain level of cooperative enlightenment.

I think they’re starting with foreign prisons until the process becomes more normalized. Right now it would be too risky, the victims would have too many pesky rights. Need lawyers and journalist afraid of being sent to the El Salvador Death Camps before we can open the American ones.

I mean… kinda? Its no excuse, but Trump, Musk and the lot of them seem to all have deep insecurities rooted in childhood trauma. A toxic culture that encourages abusive behavior and discourages self-reflection and accountability certainly doesn’t help.

The memes about it how these men would rather destroy America then see a therapist are pretty real.

They couldn’t even be bothered to pick a name of an actual Dire Wolf from GoT either. Fucking tourists.

I daresay he almost looks… Stately in the portrait. It’s like a look into an alternate reality where Trump was loved by his father and got into politics out a desire to serve his country, and were he’s also done the bare minimum to care for himself for the past 79 years.

I mean, it could be a shitty disfunctional country with a very poor QoL, but still an independent country.

Small states will likely form coalitions with neighbouring states with whom they share culture and values. Texas, California, Florida, and New York might be independent, with nearby coilitions of states falling into their spheres of influence, or they may be the dominant power in a coalition of states.

It would be interesting to see what becomes of the states in the Midwest and the Great Basin. None of them have the economic power to stand on their own, and they will be reliant on having good relations with States that have ports.

Border disputes and tensions will be widespread, and the state-lines we know today will likely be completely redrawn. It’s likely too that many States will be facing their own internal succession movements from regions on the other end of the culture wars. Not to mention foreign powers pursuing their interests in the remains of the United States. The only certainty in this hypothetical future is that is will be a big, bloody, mess.

A chilling look into what could be the first real steps towards the Balkanization of the United States. It’s sad that it’s gotten to this point, but realistically I don’t see another path forward. It may be unconstitutional, but unfortunatly that founding document has lost its legitimately as the current administration wipes it’s ass with it on a daily basis.

A lot of people in this thread are talking about how much women suck because of X, Y, Z. But like… have you tried not dating shitty women? Or at least not getting so hung up on a woman who treats you poorly? Yeah, it sucks to be treated badly, but consider that you just dodged a bullet. You don’t need women like that in your life. Find a woman you actually connect with, someone you share interests with, not just someone you want to sleep with.

Two hard truths a lot of single men need to reckon with:

1: Most people are kind of shitty, and therefore, most women are kind of shitty. I could go on about how consumer culture and social media encourage toxic traits, but the fact of the matter is you should focus on not being a shitty person yourself, and you shouldn’t settle for shitty people either.

2: With number one in mind, you need to broaden your horizons regarding what kind of woman you’re attracted to. Porn and social media have rotted our brains when it comes to attraction. Maybe I’m just pervy, but honestly, I can find something attractive in just about everyone. 90% of people are at least a 7/10 if they put in some effort, and a 7/10 who you truly vibe with is better than a 10/10 who treats you like shit. And trust me, when you form a true romantic connection with someone, they become even more attractive in your eyes.

There are good, beautiful women out there, I know because I’m marrying one. We met online, and she’s one of the kindest and smartest people I’ve ever met, and I find her more beautiful than anyone else in the world. And I’m a fat, impoverished, autist. If I can do it, so can you.

A rare moment of honesty

TNG and DS9 are the only two series that I really know well enough to make these recommendations for.

I would highly recommend watching TNG before DS9, even if she likes DS9 better. TNG and DS9 work best as companion shows, with TNG building up a lot of DS9 plot-lines in its latter seasons. I would also highly recommend against starting with any episodes involving Q or the Borg, or any of the series “highlights”. Let those plots build, and you don’t want to spoil some of the best episodes in a sampler. My go-to TNG introduction picks are:

-Cause and Effect

-Darmok

-Measure of a Man

DS9 can be harder to pick introductory episodes for. Its more serialized nature means that a lot of later episodes have a lot of spoilers. I would highly recommend against picking any episodes that highly involve the Dominion or the Dominion War, let that plot build itself up. That does however, leave us with a lot fewer options. My DS9 introduction picks are:

-Duet

-Past Tense

-Bar Association

I mean what are we supposed to do?

I’m working class. I live paycheck to paycheck. I don’t have much charisma. I do my best to raise awareness among my peers, with little success. I voted. I support organizing, but unless the strike happens on a weekend I’ll be looking at homelessness.

I’m thinking of just going blackout on media, because the constant barrage of the encroaching fascism has wreaked my mental health. I know where this is all heading, and I feel powerless to stop it. I’m a victim of the whims of history. Does that play into the fascist hands? Absolutely. What the fuck else am I supposed to do? Throw my life away in a suicidal attempt at positive change that has a incredibly small chance of success? I need to have a few less things to lose before I’m at that point.

I see people all over social media asking, why aren’t you doing anything? Where’s our next Luigi? Acting like their provocative online discourse makes them into some revolutionary badass. Well… what the fuck are you doing?