swordgeek
@swordgeek@lemmy.ca
- Comment on If media corporations worked together to convince you that a half decent politician is evil incarnate but the politician that helps corporations extort the people is good, what would it look like? 1 day ago:
This is questioning in bad faith, and is asked to push a narrative.
Even if I agree with the narrative, it doesn’t belong here.
- Comment on Rumors of Sony Acquiring FromSoft’s Parent Company - GAMESCENSOR 2 days ago:
Games, economics, and politics aside…
FromSoft has to be about the worst name for a company ever.
- Comment on Why do the majority of women still take their partner's last name? 3 days ago:
Two short answers: Tradition and simplicity.
If you have different names, which one do the kids get? Also, it’s sometimes challenging to fill in school forms when your kid has a different last name than you.
- Comment on [deleted] 3 days ago:
That is probably true up to a point - but there is also a point where some ‘honest opinions’ shouldn’t be tolerated or debated. The Nazis marching through Columbus two days ago don’t need to be respectfully convinced, they need to be put down however possible.
- Comment on [deleted] 3 days ago:
It’s not something you do, it’s something that society is. Japan has a long cultural history of a few things that are absolutely foreign to Western culture (not just the USA, but Canada, Great Britain, Australia, most of western Europe, etc.)
Even in a high-stakes game of consumer-capitalism, Japan has a sense of ethics that just isn’t present elsewhere. A CEO might pull the same shady shit in Japan as they would in the US, but if they’re caught, they still mostly take responsibility - resigning in disgrace, rather than “resigning” to another company with a fat bonus, which is what we see elsewhere. I mean, three years ago McDonalds actually made news for clawing back a $105M severance package from their disgraced ex-CEO, who was having an affair with several of his employees. The fact of the matter is that he initially got the package, no matter what he did.
Likewise, there is an expectation of acceptable behaviour in Japan. There are all sorts of circumstances where a blind eye is turned, but they’re oddly strict - and sketchy behaviour outside of that is considered reprehensible.
So can we? Maybe in theory, but we’d have to revamp our culture - and in a direction opposite to the trajectory it’s currently on.
- Comment on At what point do you stop calling the years "two thousand and X" and start calling them "twenty X"? 1 week ago:
Two thousand was obvious.
Two thousand and one as well, thanks to Stanley Kubrick.
I made a determined effort somewhere around 2004 to go back to the previous century’s naming, and call the first decade “aught,” as in “twenty aught six.”Nobody followed me in that.
Even so, I now refer to all years except 2000 and maybe 2001 as “twenty (aught/oh) <year>.” Good riddance to “two thousand seven” as a year.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 week ago:
“Five mistakes” were actually one point repeated over and over, for a ten minute video.
In other words, clickbait.
- Comment on Is it expected to tip for furniture deliveries? 1 week ago:
No.
Don’t normalize the spread of toxic tip culture.
- Comment on Is this what every election is like? 2 weeks ago:
I’m nearly three times your age and so will likely have a very different perspective, but…
I remember watching the news (from Canada) when Reagan was first elected. it felt HORRIBLE, and turned out to be just that - Reagan, Thatcher, and their psychophant hanger-on Mulroney ushered in a new era of “get fucked by the rich, fuck the poor” also known as trickle-down economics.
And yet, there was always a sense of decorum among them. Even Harper and Bush jr. at least pretended to be civil in the world of politics, no matter how corrupt and evil they were.
Trump changed everything. He was loud, abrasive, offensive, and off the rails. And he won! Suddenly the doors were open. Here in Canada, O’Toole did outhouse attack ads against Trudeau. Jingoistic, vapid, fear-mongering populism took root throughout Europe. And it just kept getting worse.
Now this election in the US was unhinged beyond description. Trump said things and did things that should have gotten him locked up. Musk should be facing either life in jail or the electric chair for his interference. There are no limits in American elections anymore - I would genuinely say including shooting someone onstage.
Here in Canada, Poilievre has been carefully fanning the same embers - stoking fear, instilling rage, creating groups to hate; and at the same time, throwing out meaningless attacks on his opponents. Unlike when O’Toole awkwardly attempted it, it is working very effectively. Having an entire room or stadium chanting “AXE THE TAX” without even offering an alternative shows that he’s winning by being the same empty bully as Trump.
(And meanwhile, Harper is chortling quietly from behind the curtain as he pulls the puppet strings.)
So yeah, this is crazy - and it’s the new normal, until we start showing politicians that it doesn’t work, and can get them arrested.
- Comment on For my fellow Americans, when is enough enough? 2 weeks ago:
This happens in the US, Canada, and many other western democracies.
The difference this time is that it’s not just the GOP being shitty, it’s an unhinged Nazi who just got elected, and has spent four years purging the party of unfaithful.
- Comment on For my fellow Americans, when is enough enough? 2 weeks ago:
I don’t think you actually did get my point.
The fascists are the majority. The majority will do nothing because they chose this, and you - the people fighting fascism - are in the minority.
I’m not saying I disagree with you, but it is important to understand that your revolution is actually going against the will of the American people.
- Comment on For my fellow Americans, when is enough enough? 2 weeks ago:
Unless you make voting mandatory, that will always be the case. Regardless, the split amongst non-voters is statistically likely to be the same as the people who actually voted. Consider the election to be an information poll, with a sample size of ~65% of the entire eligible population.
So with updated numbers, Trump got 72.5M out of ~240M eligible voters, so yeah you could say that 70% of the population didn’t vote for him. But then to be clear, you should also look at Harris’s 68M votes, and say that 72% of the population didn’t vote for her.
The people who mark and deposit their ballots are the only measure we have of the nation’s opinion, and in that contest a majority of the votes went to Trump.
- Comment on For my fellow Americans, when is enough enough? 2 weeks ago:
No, that’s a misleading number.
27% of the entire eligible population voted for him. Less than that voted for Harris. About 45% of eligible voters didn’t bother.
So Trump got more than 50% of the popular vote, as well as the majority of seats. First past the poll is a terrible system, but it’s not the system that’s at fault here, it’s the voters.
- Comment on For my fellow Americans, when is enough enough? 2 weeks ago:
I’m not an American, but I can’t help but notice something:
A clear majority elected Trump. Over 71 million Americans went out of their way to vote for him, saying “I am proud to be a Nazi.”
If you are going to fight (either figuratively or physically), then understand that a majority of the USA supports a fascist state.
- Comment on Why I'm not worried about the election. 2 weeks ago:
Clickbait.
- Comment on Why doesn't Lemmy have a system like Reddit's Karma? 2 weeks ago:
Honestly, a person’s actual post history should be more relevant and indicative to whether they’renworth engaging with tham a single number.
Furthermore, aside from deliberate trolls, most comments or posts should be assessed on their own merits, irrespective of the poster’s history.
People are complex, and it’s possible that raving political idiots might have thoughtful opinions on their favourite video game or the aspects that make a perfect butt.
- Comment on U.S. Copyright Office rejects DMCA exemption to support game preservation 3 weeks ago:
Interesting points, but you’re missing an important point: This isn’t necessarily about the definition of what SHOULD be or MUST be preserved, but whether studios should be allowed to PREVENT it from being preserved by those who want to.
- Comment on What does this emoji mean? Is this a British thumbs up? 4 weeks ago:
Hang Loose (both gesture and phrase) goes back to at LEAST the early '70s.
- Comment on What do you call your first cousin's child? 4 weeks ago:
First cousin, once removed.
For the record, ‘once removed’ refers to the generation. Your cousin’s grandkid would be your first cousin twice removed.
- Comment on 5 weeks ago:
I’d say Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR2). Everything about the atmosphere in that game was immersive - graphics were good enough that I didn’t notice they were graphics. I genuinely felt cold, wet, hot, windblown, or joyful at the various weather/environment situations in the game.
- Comment on Do you actually care about your friend's new baby, vacation abroad or similar life events or are you just being nice? 5 weeks ago:
So I’m in my mid-50s, and I’ve honestly only come up with genuine lasting interest in my friends’ lives in the last few years.
I noticed that I’d get together with friends and they’d say “hey, how did your kid’s sportsball tournament go back in July?” What struck me about it is that they cared enough to actually hear what I said, and remember it - not because they have a deep abiding interest in my kid’s life, but because they cared about me and the things that were important to me.
And I wasn’t repaying the care.
So I’ve tried to change. When people tell me stuff about their kids or vacation, I make a concerted effort to remember it and remember the significance of it, because the fact that it’s important to the people I care about means that to some degree, I care about it as well.
- Comment on How do I get my clothes to smell like I just bought them at the store? 5 weeks ago:
Manufacturing detritus. Machine oil. Pollution. The rancid sweat of 100 hands they’ve passed through.
That smell is an excellent reason to wash your clothes before wearing them.
- Comment on Is Lemmy an effective alternative to Reddit? 5 weeks ago:
Depends on what you mean “effective.”
The structure is very similar, and on the surface, it works about the same way. So in that sense, yes.
The lack of centralization improves on reddit - no authoritarian rule-making, no limitation of content by the laws of a single country, etc. - but also adds flaws. The biggest one is the potential for redundant groups on different servers, but also a concern is the potential for someone taking down their server and leaving the users high and dry. (I don’t know exactly what happens to the content in this case, but that could be another issue.)
Practically speaking though, it is not a meaningful replacement for reddit because it is lacking content. I browse “all”, and get fewer total posts that I saw on reddit on my 20 or so subscribed subreddits alone.
Community is the key. Community is what made reddit, and lemmy doesn’t have a developed community. Yet. We can get there, and then discover what other problems with the platform are.
- Comment on why does every single flashlight have multiple settings that you have to scroll through? 5 weeks ago:
Here’s a feature I want that doesn’t seem to exist in any modern flashlight:
DON’T DRAIN THE BATTERY WHEN TURNED OFF!!!
Seriously, the constant drain on the battery means that you cannot have an emergency flashlight in the drawer. How FUCKING STUPID is that?
- Comment on why does every single flashlight have multiple settings that you have to scroll through? 5 weeks ago:
My bike lights aren’t bad.
Hold to turn on (to the last mode used), hold to turn off, push to switch between three modes: High, Low, and Flashing.
- Comment on What does a federal ban on price gouging look like? 1 month ago:
Wrong community.
- Comment on Why isn't apple a popular ice cream flavor? 1 month ago:
Little boutique place near us has an “Apple Cheddar Pie” ice cream in the fall. It’s never quite as good as you expect. Gotta try it again this year, to see how they’ve changed it.
(On the other hand, their Lemon Curd Blueberry is one of the greatest things ever served in a cone in the history of humankind.)
- Comment on I make games and this literally happened to me this morning 1 month ago:
I guess I shouldn’t be expected to pay for games until my total is over a hundred bucks then?
- Submitted 2 months ago to games@lemmy.world | 17 comments
- Comment on What's going on at Mozilla these days? 2 months ago:
Capitalism, fucking everything up, same as everywhere.