Silverdawn
I wake up 🔄 There's another psyop
35-year old male from Eastern Europe.
User ID: 2412
Silverdawn
I wake up 🔄 There's another psyop
18d ago
How close to done is this?
There are 2 chapters left and the author posts a chapter a week.
I'm also seconding the book recommendation, I enjoyed it quite a lot. Solid 9/10
Silverdawn
I wake up 🔄 There's another psyop
26d ago
There's a spring steam sale happening right now, here's a link for the discounts, sorted from highest to lowest: https://steamdb.info/sales/?sort=discount_desc
If you're only interested in the really big games, set the minimum reviews on the right to 5000 or something along those lines.
Silverdawn
I wake up 🔄 There's another psyop
28d ago
You can't time the market, you should come up with a strategy of investing X of your income every Y months and completely ignore the stock numbers. As for right now, don't panic sell.
Silverdawn
I wake up 🔄 There's another psyop
30d ago
I'm disappointed with the way he's treated US allies. Or maybe I should say "ex-allies".
Tariffs are a good idea but aimed at the wrong countries. Better to fight financial wars than the kind that leave young men in wheelchairs or in the ground. But why Canada of all things?
On the topic of economy, numbers tend to randomly go up or down. Neither economists nor governments seem to know what they're doing or have much control so I think it's best to not look at the stock market much.
Doge and anti-DEI efforts seem to be going pretty well.
Overall, I still think he's overwhelmingly a better candidate than Harris, even if he makes embarrassing and bizarre mistakes like antagonizing Zelensky.
Warfronts released a pretty good video summarizing the current NATO military asset situation.
TL;DR: NATO/Europe is actually fine in most respects and even significantly outnumbers Russia in terms of navy. The critical bottleneck are artillery shells. Artillery is responsible for ~70-80% of casualties in the current war for Ukraine, to give you an idea of its importance.
There are multiple factories currently in construction but it'll be years before they're ready and producing in the necessary numbers.
Silverdawn
I wake up 🔄 There's another psyop
1mo ago
How do you intend to achieve a neutral Ukraine? The ukrainians can decide to be pro-western without our consent, and as things stand it seems that they would.
A treaty between Russia, the US and major European nations to defend Ukraine against further aggression. A token military force from said nations overseeing the relevant borders.
Investment, humanitarian efforts and debt relief from both western nations and Russia so Ukraine can recover within a reasonable period of time (decades as opposed to centuries).
In return, changes to Ukraine's constitution comparable to Switzerland's so they're not legally allowed to join any alliances or start offensive wars. And maybe some small payment in natural resources (nothing even remotely close to 50% of revenue).
All of this is assuming smart, competent leaders guided by a sense of empathy, of course.
Silverdawn
I wake up 🔄 There's another psyop
1mo ago
this forum is overrun with Russian Propaganda
I have seen some on youtube but not a single one on this forum actually.
How much aid would you provide? Weapons? Money? No-Fly Zone? Air support? Troops on the ground? Nuclear umbrella? Something else?
The most important idea is making it clear to Putin that he needs to back off or the US will take a more active role in the conflict. I would have given him an ultimatum, a week to make significant steps towards a ceasefire or 5 US divisions arrive on the front. In fact, I assumed this was exactly what Trump meant while talking about "ending the war in 1 day". Putin would have caved because his nation is barely hanging on while fighting against a 3rd rate local power. This is from the perspective of 2 months ago of course, when this was still a US proxy-war. I actually don't think the US is in a position to threaten anything anymore, Donald Trump burned too many bridges and diverted too many resources.
What is the end-state your policy is aiming for? A ceasefire? Deter subsequent Russian invasion? Restoration of Ukraine's original borders? The Russian army destroyed? Putin deposed? Russia broken up? Something else?
The "ideal" outcome would probably be a return to pre-war Ukrainian borders or similar, and a somewhat neutral Ukraine. Meaning, not Russia's puppet but not a puppet of the EU either. So a neutral grayzone and a hard stop to the Russian conquest of neighboring countries. And the US could have gotten A LOT of natural resources, of course. They would have been the obvious side to build mines and factories since the Ukrainian infrastructure and economy will be in shambles whenever the war eventually ends.
Is there an end-state or a potential event in the war that you think would falsify your understanding of the war, and convince you that providing aid was a bad idea? Another way of putting it is, do you think your views on the Ukraine war are falsifiable, and if so, what evidence would be sufficient for you to consider it falsified?
Maybe there's an asteroid about to destroy Earth tomorrow and Russia is somehow the only country in a position to stop it and conquering Ukraine is somehow necessary for destroying it?
I dunno, I have a difficult time imagining the continuation of the conflict as necessary or good or sensible in any way.
Some people are afraid of MAD but I can't imagine Putin dooming his country to nuclear devastation. He doesn't care about many things but he does care tremendously about Russia's stability and continued existence.
Silverdawn
I wake up 🔄 There's another psyop
1mo ago
What is better for Ukraine, justice or peace?
Well, "peace" would result in the murder, rape, imprisonment and displacement of ~all Ukrainian citizens. So effectively genocide. Russia has already done this to many of its more "problematic" cultural groups in the past. What would justice look like? Presumably extreme reparations, maybe imprisonment of some war criminals. But I can't imagine who would force Russia into this position.
So the Ukrainians will continue fighting and dying. They don't really have any choice.
Watching the disastrous discussion between Zelensky Trump and Vance I wonder how you guys here feel? The whole thing made me nauseous
"Nausea" is exactly how I felt as well. Trump could have had such an easy win: show the world the US is still the keeper of peace and justice, bloody the nose of one of America's two main rivals and get natural resources worth trillions for the US economy. Instead, him and Vance are acting like 10-year old playground bullies, antagonizing their allies and showing the world the US will only follow through on promises when convenient.
As someone on a different forum put it, the main danger for Russia right now is running out of champagne.
Silverdawn
I wake up 🔄 There's another psyop
1mo ago
Hiding books that were previously free is a bad practice for a host of reasons.
It's bad from RoyalRoad's perspective because it hurts the objective of the site (namely, no-name authors get a chance to become someone and casual readers can read potentially good fiction for free, with a few small caveats).
It's obviously bad from the user's perspective because what used to be free and convenient is neither anymore. Even if I take the obvious next step of filtering out works with the 'stub' tag, maybe I find a story I like, come back to it in a year and find out most of the content is now gone. And this also changes my perspective of the site: it used to be "This is a pretty good way to introduce casual readers to decent fiction", and now it's "This site is unreliable, any story could be removed at any time". Naturally, I will no longer link to such stories, which hurts everyone.
It's arguably bad from the perspective of the author because they trade short-term money for a loss in popularity, word-of-mouth circulation, comments, reviews and even freedom (in the sense that they are stuck with Amazon).
But the main reason this is bad is what it does to the community and people's way of thinking. If we have an environment where information is freely distributed, everybody benefits. The authors get a little bit of fame and a little bit of money, the readers get to enjoy what is usually way less accessible. But if a few authors start reneging on this unspoken rule? Well, everything changes. A lot of authors will see this is allowed and start thinking "Why not me too?", a lot of the community members will start subtly guilt-tripping the unhappy fans in the obvious, predictable ways. And the unhappy people will leave silently because of the widespread censorship that will follow any negative public expression. And in no time at all, you end up with a completely different atmosphere: fewer positive emotions all around, more aggressive monetization, way worse access to good content for everyone.
The RR owners screwed up in a huge way when they didn't immediately punish the defectors in this game of Prisoner's Dilemma. I can't change that but I can push-back on a personal level against what I perceive is a phenomenon that significantly hurts something I care deeply about (fiction, writing, free sharing of information).
My bad, I didn't realize. I've edited the original message with a link to the wayback machine and won't be recommending that author in the future.
Silverdawn
I wake up 🔄 There's another psyop
1mo ago
Yeah, I felt the same way.
I recommend "Beware of Chicken", here's a royal road link. It's kind of a parody of the genre, so should be a lot easier to get into.
Edit: Nvm, the author had the brilliant idea to hide the novel behind a paywall. You can use the wayback machine to view the old chapters but it's a huge pain in the ass and probably not worth overall.
What do you think of the tariffs?
Mostly, I'm surprised previous US presidents haven't used the immense economic and geopolitical advantage of their country more.
If you're asking for a moral judgment, history only remembers good victors and evil losers. So if Trump wins, he will be remembered as a good president and vice-versa.
He already forced his will on Panama and Mexico and he'll probably keep 'winning' the same way. There are scant few nations on the planet who can afford to say 'no' when threatened with 25% US tariffs.
How strict are the owners of substack in regards to culture war? I'm thinking about starting a blog for reviewing videogames as a hobby and curious exactly where the line is between "spicy" and "permanent ban". I used to do these kinds of reviews on /r/patientgamers but reddit has turned to absolute shit the last few years.
Edit: Consider this question answered, thanks lads 👍
Silverdawn
I wake up 🔄 There's another psyop
2mo ago
Yeah, I'll try a few things to try to revive my current pan and if none of them work, I'll get a cast iron. Seems like the best option overall.
Silverdawn
I wake up 🔄 There's another psyop
2mo ago
The 5-year number probably assumes sporadic use. I use mine daily, multiple times a day.
As far as care, nothing problematic that I can think of. I use a wooden spoon and a regular sponge for washing.
don't buy expensive non stick. replace every year at least. there is no such thing as a long-term coated non-stick pan.
Yeah, that seems to be the popular opinion everywhere else online I'm seeing. It's a real shame, I would much rather buy one decent product and use it for 5 years or longer.
What are my best frying pan options if I want to fry eggs? I bought an expensive non-stick model about 10 months ago and it apparently already needs to be replaced. Is there any good long-term alternative option?
Silverdawn
I wake up 🔄 There's another psyop
2mo ago
"Woke" is a preterit and past participle of wake.
Thanks to the evolution of language, it became associated with being "awake to" the injustices faced by black people in the USA.
Thanks to the further evolution of language, it means the performative, superficial show of solidarity with minority and oppressed bodies of people that enables (usually white and privileged) people to reap the social benefits without actually undertaking any of the necessary legwork to combat injustice and inequality. It is a form of "virtue signalling" and is indicative of heavy-handed political messaging at the expense of quality of product.
Silverdawn
I wake up 🔄 There's another psyop
2mo ago
"We" (or rather the US) can fight a war without clothes, shoes and auto parts. China receives 60-80% of its oil through the Malacca strait. The US has worked for decades to make almost every nation in East Asia an ally in a possible war with China and has stationed a tremendous amount of troops, naval and air assets in that region.
Here's a decently detailed video if you want to learn more about the situation there.
I am morbidly curious. Can you link some?
Here is a transcript from one of the court cases.
I regret reading even some of that. Don't think I'll be getting any sleep tonight. And the UK government actively covered up this massive gangrape ring for thirty years. Absolutely unthinkable that such a thing can happen in the 21st century, in a first-world country.
Silverdawn
I wake up 🔄 There's another psyop
3mo ago
Small correction: "reperations" should be "reparations".
Silverdawn
I wake up 🔄 There's another psyop
3mo ago
I expect the rates to be actuarily fair and the median customer to have been better of self insured.
That doesn't make any sense. For an insurance to exist as a business, they have to take more then they're giving to the average customer. They have to pay for offices, ads and personnel. Maybe you got lucky and are temporarily ahead financially, but long-term insurance will always result in a net negative for the customer.
Any guesses as to what happens in the next French elections?
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