Zonetrooper

@Zonetrooper@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If a leftist ran for president, would liberals support him?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I mean, at least for me, the question is “Who?”

  In more ways than one. It’s quite evident to me now that a candidate needs to be charismatic, not just have some good ideas, to motivate voters to take their side. But “leftism” and “leftist” are still pretty vague labels. Just personally, some of the left-wing figures in the US today would earn my vote and some would not. More broadly, and I think there’d be a big difference between voters-at-large’s willingness to accept Bernie-esque proposals and some of the more out-there stuff I’ve seen.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Are the inside parts of toilets universal?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  While the kits may use standardized plumbing connector, they are not all guaranteed to use the same standard sizes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is "Red Storm Rising" by Tom Clancy considered a good book?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s not a great classical literature, for sure. The characters are almost entirely flat and forgettable, and even the handful that do grow (the young Soviet commander, the US destroyer captain) barely do so. Their experiences never almost never inform their later actions.

  But among the techno-thriller/war-simulator genre, I found it more compelling than several more recent attempts (Ghost Fleet, Nuclear War: A Scenario, etc). Many of those seem to go out of their way to bend the plot to produce the author’s intended point, and while RSR wasn’t exactly innocent in that regard, I found it far less guilty than others - largely because Clancy was holding to the known or theorized-near-future capabilities.

  Where I actually find it fascinating is how, in retrospect, we can see the biases of the era influencing how Clancy makes certain predictions:

  • The Soviets place immense importance on taking Iceland to permit a “second Battle of the Atlantic” against US carrier groups. In retrospect, we know the Soviet Navy had no interest in this and intended to act as a cordon around northern Europe; specifically the Soviet SSBN bastions.

  • While Clancy did loosely predict the nature, role, and value of Stealth aircraft, the design and air-to-air role he describes them in is actually too advanced for the 1980s setting. Essentially, Clancy bought the rumors, which were wrong.

  • Land attack helicopters with ATGMs play relatively little role in the ground fighting. This was because the current generation (namely the AH-64) had just been introduced; their full capabilities and impact were not yet publicly available.

  These mistakes, although understandable, provide an interesting insight into what the American defense establishment was thinking about in the early 80s.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What do you like/dislike about lemmy?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I have, thank you! Unfortunately, I don’t see the niches I’m looking for, and even when they do, they’re basically dead. I can only scream into the void so long…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What do you like/dislike about lemmy?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Like:

  • It has that small-community feel still. I don’t see (perhaps because I stay out of a lot of the more tech-ey communities?) the kind of farming, low-effort, generally mediocre content I saw on Reddit.
  • Lack of the sense of a hyper-corporatized, “You’re only allowed to do things that make us money” sense that’s enshittified much of the internet lately. I’m not even sure if Lemmy can be monetized.

  Dislike:

  • Not yet large enough either. I don’t want millions of users, but I still miss a lot of the more niche hobby/discussion communities I used to be able to participate in. Even communities for fairly large hobbies or interests can be dead on Lemmy.
  • The awful political takes. Everything from typical dumbness up to advocating violence (but it’s okay because it’s my point). And it’s everywhere.
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How is anime and manga more popular than comics and western cartoons?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Vox Machina, Scavengers’ Reign, Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal.

  But yeah, one of the last gasps of the streaming bubble was a surge of adult-oriented cartoons which were far and above anything of the type before them. I’m a little worried that that bubble has started to deflate, we’ll see this go away.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  These are all really good reasons to purchase digital media, but the comment above still has a great point that this is super subjective and we can’t answer for you. In the end, I echo their sentiment that “if you think the song is worth the price then go for it”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What the fuck happened to YouTube!?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Another revanced lover here. You’re not alone. It takes away nothing and adds so much.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Suggestion: Remove bias rating from media bias bot⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  We are investigating in sort of “Community organized Bias / Fact check” but this commes with their own issues

  To say the least. That actually sounds mildly terrifying; it either opens you up to individuals’ biases being presented as the community’s views, or would makes the decision subject to whoever organizes a “louder” group to dominate the decision making. Both are rather alarming for a community like this.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it generally safe to walk through a field of cows?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Small horses, like small dogs, are herd animals, are utterly convinced they are ten times their actual size, and will show this off at any opportunity.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨When did breasts become a thing that needed to be concealed in public and why?⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  “Blame England” is basically the “Blame Canada!” of history discussions.