Skulldrinker
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User ID: 1874
Skulldrinker
1d ago
Yesterday I tried going to a LGS to help some friends try out wargaming (specifically Grimdark Future, the actual rules for 40K as a game are terrible). The guy who was agitating for it in the first place didn't turn up, nor did another guy. Turned out, my only day off was also the day of a tournament, so there were no available tables and I had to cancel on the one guy who would have turned up. I should have just gotten lunch instead with that guy, but I was in a miserable mood by that point and didn't want to take the risk of being unpleasant.
My miserable mood snuck up on me. The last time I'd been to that store (it has display armies you can borrow and good terrain) it was 2021. I'd seen the store's policy was that either masks OR vaccination was required, it was a little ray of hope for me that we were exiting the pandemic/lockdown conditions; my J&J card would let me sit in a basement and play plastic army dudes unmasked.
But by the time I got there, there had been a slight uptick in reported COVID cases in the city, and the store had a new sign on the door; Masks AND vaccination required. The unvaccinated need not apply.
It was, frankly, one of the reasons I stopped engaging with 40K, MtG, and ("F")LGS culture in general, even when the pandemic ended. I hated how obedient and cowed most geeks were, and how over-eager store staff was to go above and beyond on Taking COVID Seriously; normies didn't have to deal with this, they could go to their sports bars and whatever else it is normies do without wearing stupid cloth things on their faces just to soothe the anxiety of neurotic hypochondriacs who were staying home anyways.
One thing I had liked about the culture of wargaming was how mixed the culture was; blue collar and white collar, some ex-military, some artsy people, all of them united by their appreciation of chainsaw swords and Catholic Space Nazi aesthetics.
Anyways, I go back to this place in the Year of our Lord 2026, and the entire staff, and 25% of the upstairs mtg/board game clientele, are still masking up. The entire staff is also trans, for some fucking reason. At least there were no masks downstairs in the crowded basement of cis male tourneyfags, (with more racial diversity than the upstairs crowd).
It just reminded me of bad times, and how if these people had their way, those times never would have ended.
AI as it is right now is a gimmick I want people to get bored with, like NFTs, "Blockchain" everything, and 3d Films/TVs. I also have a deep personal disgust reaction towards how it's apparently impossible to get an LLM not not call things Chef's Kiss or declare that it as [X] Energy, and the general way so much of its output is designed to give the impression of comprehension while not comprehending. Or when it touches certain topics it suddenly becomes cautiously, obsequiously, orthodoxly pozzed, and mysteriously stops trying to lick my ass. I realize I only used text generation on free and, for a while, one step above free models, and not using it to code, which seems to be the most impressive practical function it has.
I want to step into the turbolift and say "Deck 12," and have the computer reply with "Deck 12,"
I do not want to hear "Sure buddy, I'll get right on that. Deck 12 has some serious Starfleet Energy to it, it's an excellent choice. Dare I say, it's downright Chef's Kiss."
The other day I was watching Sharpe's Rifles on Plex (only place I could find it), which has commercials every now and then (the only time I see commercials), and way too many of them feature creepily-animated AI-derived CGI critters that make my skin crawl. I'm distressed that so many other humans seem incapable of recognizing or rejecting AI slop; their reaction seems to be "This thing is awesome, it tells me exactly what it thinks I want to hear!" completely oblivious to how horrific that is.
Skulldrinker
4d ago
TL;DR young woman at UK university is indistinguishable from young woman at USA university (frothing leftist, Marxism, Gaza, BLM, ACAB, disdain for boyfriend).
Skulldrinker
5d ago
I am surprised (again I'm not a good predictor) that such an economically disenfranchised college graduate population (if that 43% is accurate) haven't solidified into any kind of a political movement yet.
They did. It's called being a Leftist. It has next to nothing to do with advancing their interests, but it's what everyone picked, and without economic security, it's too risky to pick anything else and wind up a pariah.
Skulldrinker
8d ago
Do you get annoyed when someone says they "built" a PC? They didn't make a single part, they probably don't even know what a "PCB" is! They just slotted it together like Lego.
Building a PC is a technical task apparently beyond the median human being. What IS worthy of annoyance would be someone talking about how they built a PC by buying an Alienware gaming laptop.
The first and only time I encountered Infinite Jest, it was the guy so dedicated to social climbing he became a gay black communist to pick up college-educated white chicks. And he had suddenly started talking about infinite jest without ever mentioning anything about infinite jest. I was just there when he reliably brought it up with the same lines in every interaction with a new person. He was 30 though and knew exactly what he was doing.
I was frankly confused as to why he was so obsessed with a book he wasn't actually reading and couldn't explain what he liked about it.
I like genre trash, and am not embarrassed about it, and I have very low tolerance for performative waffling.
Skulldrinker
20d ago
Just to make sure I follow, is the TL;DR of this that it's illegal to not maximally encourage trans/queerness in therapy, even when neutrality is what the client is asking for?
Or is this sort of therapy really just laundered gay conversion treatment?
Skulldrinker
20d ago
Well, someone is telling them that being "very liberal" requires shitting on stuff from a very specific list that someone put together.
Skulldrinker
20d ago
Yeah, this. "Girls Need Role Models" thing has been beaten on the cliche drum for decades, and in the Girlboss era of screenwriting you'd have to be living under a rock to not notice it.
In my personal life, I've even noticed a reflexive poisoned-well disdain among women for anything empathetic towards men that feels downright-coordinated; Blade Runner 2047 is Misogynistic, Frankenstein is Incel. Basically anything with Ryan Gosling in it makes them uncomfortable, and I don't know what the vector for all this groupthink is. I just know that I can't get through a casual conversation about film with a woman without them shitting on something that spoke to me. Or praising something for being "so queer" when they themselves are obstensibly straight.
Skulldrinker
22d ago
Once bitten, twice shy; is there a way to engineer scenarios where they get bullied or otherwise mistreated by diverse and inclusive wokescolds?
Skulldrinker
23d ago
Im soured on technothrillers in general and michael chritchton in particular, and Jurassic Park as a film is way more influential and significant, and way more of a human achievement, than a sour old man pontificating via a self-indulgent sockpuppet. I think the 10th-grade part is key for your enjoyment, it's a mind-blower when you're 16. Ian Malcolm as an adult reads a lot stronger as IAmVerySmart. I guess back then shitting on sports as a concept was far more stunning and brave.
Skulldrinker
23d ago
Not to the point that, without explaining it, I was objecting to the science presented as nonsense. But I do have a degree in zoology, so I may be a bad sample.
Skulldrinker
24d ago
Weird kids can get really emotionally dependent on teachers and other school staff; one guidance councilor obsessed with egg-cracking can do a lot of damage. And I've seen the cloying lovey-doveyness that gets lavished on adult trans people secondhand; the extreme protective emotional reactions when a wokie thinks they spotted a transphobe. I've seen straight girls dating men in dresses because they were told not dating a trans person is transphobic. I know a few weird girls who dabbled in lesbianism or FtM, then left it later and suddenly lost all their friends for being a betrayer.
I'm quite convinced that a lot (discalaimer: not all) of those spectrum-y people, especially the FtMs, female asexuals, and non-attention-whore they/thems, are just kinda trusting and gullible and were groomed into the identity by the LGBTQXY recruitment drive, independent of any molestation.
Even the from-an-early age trans stuff makes me slightly doubtful, just because I once knew someone dumb who thought her 18-month-old might be trans because he didn't like wearing pants.
The problem is the way any expression of gender non-conformity gets lovebombed, when it should be neither encouraged nor discouraged.
Skulldrinker
24d ago
Recently saw Hail Mary and enjoyed it a bunch. Sped through the book and came to the conclusion that, just like The Martian, the film is a far better film than the book is a book (joining the likes of Jurassic Park and The Godfather, also arguably Silence of the Lambs); the author's writing style is very positive and optimistic but also very IAmVerySmart and I Fucking Love Science and generally gave me Reddit vibes.
So, because I apparently love checking in on the progress of cancer like I'm some kind of internet oncologist, I go to Reddit and poke around. The stuff at the top is mainly resentment that the author is "conservative" and a misogynist and did an interview with noted elite misogynist The Critical Drinker. And some grumbling that the author/viewpoint character used "He" pronouns for the hermaphroditic alien and assumed they's mate was female by calling thim "Adrian." (Because Rock Alien=Rocky, so Rock Alien's mate = Adrian). Such oppressive heteronormativity is proof that the author is a bad person. Also something something mediocre white man.
So yeah, reddit gonna reddit. It gave me a chuckle when years ago I would be disappointed and annoyed.
Skulldrinker
27d ago
A lot of my grumpiness comes from my experiences with the people around me, less so public figures. People who didn't know the difference between a bacteria and a virus or how the immune system works tried Educating me on The Science. They flipped from shaming anyone who tried socializing outdoors with precautions to shaming anyone who didn't go outside to protest against cops existing. Lockdown policies stuck around way past the "official" end of the pandemic, and I still see maskies out in public to this day. People would weaponize making a stink about masks and social distancing mid-conversation, like when the topic of how much money they owed me came up. They'd use selective anxiety to torture their partners or to get their way. It broke my faith in people as people.
Skulldrinker
1mo ago
Is the current Zeitgeist turned towards "himbos," then?
official feminist sermons
Honest question, how widespread is feminist messaging regarding dating towards men these days? Women don't actually claim to want nice guys (but date jerks) anymore, they just date jerks (the most-panty-melting man in their Hinge inbox, who has no reason to treat them well) and complain about it. Part of this is that there's a lot more median and trashy women visible on the internet these days, and they don't seem to maintain the previous kayfaybe as tightly as the FeministTM bloggers of yesteryear did; the shallowness is very on-display. What "official" messaging that does exist consists of shitting on men for being a gestalt of the Patriarchy, rapists and abusers, and that hot guy who won't text them back after fucking them. They don't even call them NiceGuys anymore. I suppose there's ideological demands on men to be rabid protesting leftists (these demands coming from women who are themselves rabid protesting leftists), but its all abstract stuff to do with abortion, transphobia, Orange Man Bad, and anti-racism.
(Edit: the TL;DR is that the feminist orthodoxy of the time was that male romantic success was contingent on personal virtue, with personal virtue being defined as being politically Feminist, and later anti-racist and pro-LGBTQXYZ, with any lack of romantic success being proof of lack of personal virtue. Now the orthodoxy seems to just be that men=bad)
I'm old and don't really hear young guys talking about women at all, cut myself off from as much mainstream dating discourse as possible online, and I'm in a horrible bubble IRL where every woman compulsively says "Men are all such trash, amirite?" as a greeting, so I'm very aware my perspective is distorted.
Even the man-o-sphere stuff these days is plainly targeted at median/normie men, with an emphasis on those who actually do seem to have toxic masculinity (ex: the huge Muslim fanbase), whereas in the past, when the internet was just nerds, it very clearly was coming from/to nerdy experiences and frustrations.
Sometimes I hear women complaining about being on dates with man-o-sphere guys, and I'm a little bit skeptical. What fucking guy is the unlikely combination of hot enough to get a woman to go on a date with him, romantically frustrated enough to engage in Man-o-Sphere content, AND clueless enough to talk judgy redpill lingo about bodycount and hypergamy to the woman he's on a date with?
My last point of contact for the Apex Predator of contemporary playa appeal-maxxing is five years out of date, and it was to be hot while also being a black gay communist and say cringey soy things about Believing Women and Pronouns. And I don't know of any Man-o-Sphere influencers or dating coaches who give guys the advice that apparently works; self-identify as "queer" and use leftist buzzwords while treating women like shit.
Skulldrinker
1mo ago
I've noticed this too. I've also noticed that the Enterprise's computer says "Acknowledged" instead of "Wow, that command is absolutely chef's kiss and has real Starfleet energy, I'll get on that right away. While we're here, tell me what thoughts you have on Deck Seven?"
Skulldrinker
1mo ago
Those are probably actually emotionally avoidant people, since they don't represent one woman's entire dating history, and weren't diagnosed by Reddit.
I'm pretty sure that "Emotional Avoidant" is women pathologizing a man who just wants to keep fucking them but not do feel-y relationship stuff with them, because he's too hot to need to bother.
Similar to "Hysteria" or "Drapetomania." I just hear it said too much and it makes me roll my eyes, it's becoming one of those words like Abuse, Gaslighting, Love-bombing, et cetera.
That doesn't account for the queerfishing. Or the hockey porn. Every woman I have a conversation with apparently judges all media based on how queer it is. I really do think this is becoming a misdirected lust thing; slightly similar to "non-threatening boys" where sex and attraction is scary, so the only men they're comfortable lusting over are guys that will never do something so un-gallant as reciprocate, to the degree they forget that reciprocation is the point of sexuality.
Skulldrinker
1mo ago
I've never understood how a second man helps in this situation; that's just another oppressor who might be a serial killer or have a podcast.
Skulldrinker
1mo ago
Except that straight women love gay men. I firsthand observed a woman flip from "ewwww, men" to a loving gaze the moment a conventional-looking guy mentioned being gay.
I used to know a guy who listed his sexuality on Hinge as "queer" to increase his matches, even though he was already a black-ish communist.
I've thought about trying to articulate "gay" as a pejorative with "behavior that's gone so far up it's own ass it's forgotten the original point of doing the behavior." Which is nothing to do with men who have sex with men.
Under this metric, a peackock's tail, and being part of a magic superhero team who only chases after one guy, are both completely gay.
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