WhiningCoil
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User ID: 269
WhiningCoil
2d ago
What, you don't enjoy constant iterations of "All this has happened before, and all this will happen again"?
WhiningCoil
2d ago
Sometimes it feels like Alpha Centauri was the last time they tried anything truly revolutionary with the formula. I should really play it again and refresh my memory. I remember it was the singular instance of being able to design my own units, do any sort of serious geo engineering, have floating cities, seriously need to worry about the local flora or fauna, etc. Many of those features haven't been seen again. I can't recall the last Sid Meier 4X game that let you create custom units. Even the spiritual successor, Beyond Earth, didn't.
WhiningCoil
2d ago
I mean, there was Sid Meier's Beyond Earth.
It was OK I guess.
WhiningCoil
2d ago
But clicking on heads is even more awesome! It's like you have reached such a level of zen with the game, so mastered the physics and situational awareness, that all the ephemera melted away and you are literally just clicking on heads.
I mean, I get what you mean. Coming from a person who's never played an FPS, it sounds reductive. But if master Counter-Strike 1.6 players talked about clicking on heads, I wouldn't want to play a team game against them.
WhiningCoil
2d ago
death stacks
Appreciate the rant, but I'm gonna keep using it. I think it's awesome, and my primary enjoyment of the game is overcoming all the challenges you listed above and finally assembling an unconquerable death stack that end an entire civilization before it's exhausted. Maybe it's taken on a more derogatory tone since Civ 5, but I'm taking it back god damnit! I think it sounds awesome. You might as well be telling me to stop saying "head shot".
WhiningCoil
2d ago
Anyone play Creeper World?
I can barely explain my continued affection for these games. I just enjoy them. I think the series peaked with Creeper World 3, but they've all been good if you enjoy the fundamental premise. A bit repetitive from sequel to sequel, but it is what it is. He seems to alternate between doing top down economic grind the enemy down games, and side profile moving limited weapons platforms around games. Also I'm pretty sure they are just made by some southern dude alone.
Creeper World IXE came out, and I finished it in about 3 days. It was more like Creeper World 2 and Particle Fleet than it was Creeper World 1, 3 and 4. I enjoyed it enough.
I donno, any other players of this niche series?
WhiningCoil
2d ago
Except we're redistributing glory instead of material assets. Which makes sense given the sort of person interested in this sort of thing.
At least when it goes wrong no one starves or gets shot.
Citation needed. I'd argue misaligning our culture is even more damaging than naked redistribution of assets. At least that can theoretically be undone. A population demoralized by propaganda seems to just commit slow suicide. When Stalin caused a famine in Ukraine, they didn't stop existing. We'll see how Ukraine fairs now that they've fed the flower of their nation into the meatgrinder of war, and NATO nations will probably flood them with 3rd worlders to get their GDP up and pay back all the money they've borrowed.
WhiningCoil
2d ago
I mean, in part, it goes to back to some things I said about "DEI" not being about diversity per se, but about raising up the most questionable unqualified people deliberately. Because they fundamentally don't believe in merit, or accomplishment at all.
Apply that to a game about historical figures, and it results in some odd choices.
You know, it's funny reading over that post I made from the distance past of August 4th.
Now if Kamala picks an absolute loser idiot white guy because she feels the need to placate white liberals, I could accept that being DEI. But it's looking like she's going to pick someone that actually brings something to the ticket, unlike she did in 2020. Most likely counting on Josh Shapiro to deliver PA's electoral votes.
Yeah, I guess Tim Waltz was a DEI pick.
WhiningCoil
2d ago
I haven't played a Civilization game since I dabbled in 5, and decided the tactical layer with single combat ruined an element of Civilization that I actually really enjoyed, which was the death stacks.
That said, Civilization has always dabbled in some measure of political grandstanding. I recall reading about a minor controversy from Civilization 2 and the fact that it included a global warming mechanic back when the concept of global warming was far less accepted. That said, there is still something dispiriting about Civilization scraping the bottom of the barrel of "current year" so hard they have turned Harriet Tubman into, whatever she is in that game. I don't want to beclown myself criticizing it, because I honestly haven't kept up with the mechanics of how this new Civilization will work. That said, she probably would have had a quote attached to a tech tree upgrade (like "Emancipation" or the like) in previous games had they decided she were important enough to include over other abolitionist leaders.
Like I said, I haven't kept up. I don't know if they have 700 leaders in the game with an exhaustive and expansive coverage of even niche historical figures from around the globe. Or if they've developed a myopic focus on black hagiography and include the current year talking points to puts "The founding fathers were slave owners" above "Wrote some of the most important documents on human rights ever in history, and then fought and died establishing a free nation that lived those principles"
All that said, Civilization 7 will have 26 leaders at launch, and I guess 20 of them are known at this time. The white ones are Augustus, Benjamin Franklin, Charlemagne, Isabella, Machiavelli, Napoleon (two versions?). The black ones are Amina and Harriet Tubman. So I wouldn't exactly claim they've developed any sort of myopic focus on blacks.
That said, Harriet Tubman is still just goofy.
WhiningCoil
4d ago
What is actually the ROI on fare enforcement?
Keeping actual psychopaths off the subway. Not putting innocent people through the kafkaeque nightmare of defending themselves and then having the state come down on them like a brick of shit.
WhiningCoil
5d ago
I think the bottom line, is this is just what a low trust society looks like. Everyone smashes the defect button as often and as quickly as possible, in every situation. There is literally no solving this problem, only clearing the way for a different species of defector who will ruin things, do material damage, and end lives with their greedy, corruption and indifference.
I was sitting in the car one day, pondering how low trust our society has become. I was at a gas station while my wife was using the bathroom. And I couldn't help but notice that the emergency gas shutoff switch is just out there, in the open, totally exposed. It got me thinking about the damage that will be caused when our low trust society devours that. I mean, it's there, unguarded, for a reason. Gasoline is dangerous, you can't just have it spilling all over the place. In case of emergency, you might not have time to grab the manager, have them get their keys, etc, etc. So it's just out there, for anybody to hit, whether there is an emergency or not. Which makes me wonder how long until some asshole tiktok prank becomes smashing that button as many times a day as possible until gas stations across the country have to start locking them up. Which then leads to more avoidable accidents at gas stations.
It's just going to be this way with everything. Nothing is going to be too trivial, or too important for some asshole to pillage, either metaphorically or literally.
WhiningCoil
6d ago
I honestly don't even understand what you are attempting to say. Let me make myself as clear as possible.
The Republican position was "having almost 30% of your town become third worlders on welfare overnight sucks" and the Democrat position was "Having almost 30% of your town become third worlders on welfare overnight is awesome!"
The people in the town who can vote, voted by a nearly unprecedented margin "Yeah nah, it sucks". Like, that's not a lie with the specifics off. There was an actual vote, with actual numbers! We can check!
Were the stories about specific ways it sucks to have your town overrun by barbarians from a distant country inaccurate? Yeah. Were the stories about how totally well adjusted and harmonious everything is also inaccurate? Clearly. But the fundamental question of "Does this suck?" was overwhelmingly answered.
WhiningCoil
6d ago
You know, this reminds me of Glenn Greenwald. For the longest time I would read his invectives against Sam Harris during their spats over the War on Terror, and I could barely wrap my mind around how unprofessional and unhinged he sounded.
It was only in the last 5 years I heard him speak, and realized he's just a sassy gay, and he writes how he speaks. Now I find his constant invective against the military industrial complex hilarious.
Maybe chalk it up to another case of taking someone literally and not seriously, versus seriously and not literally.
WhiningCoil
6d ago
The most amazing thing about it, was that after the universities were filled to the brim with so many fake degrees, they couldn't employ them anymore, suddenly every company began funding DEI departments. I still can't believe what a coup of a grift that was. And decades of saying "They're just college kids, they'll grow out of it when they get in the real world" was proven wrong to disastrous consequences. Nearly every entertainment property? Ruined. Institutional competence/faith in institutions? Ruined. It's so bad, our President Elect was convicted of 34 felonies, and our nation collectively went "We all know that shit ain't real" and elected him President anyways.
WhiningCoil
6d ago
I think most modern, reputable news sources do this, and thus maintain a veneer of impartiality, while still managing to steer the readers' prescriptions whichever way they want by being very selective about which facts they share, how they subtly prime the readers' view of those facts, and which quotes they include.
I think my favorite examples of this were the very passively, neutrally written articles about people facing backlash for saying or doing things. But the article were be these very blank descriptions of very biased quotes from activist. So you read 500 or so words where the author is ostensibly keeping their hands clean just including other people's unhinged angry quotes, and then the article ends. And you go "That's it?! I started reading this article because I wanted to know what this guy said/did and you never even told me!" Naturally when you actually look up what was said or done, it was nothing. Maybe something phrased slightly awkwardly that allowed a twitter activist to invent some new micro aggression for their own 15 minutes of fame.
That said, I haven't seen that format of article for a few years now. I think it died off some time around when Elon bought Twitter and the culture of it changed significantly.
WhiningCoil
6d ago
You know, a fascinating post-script to the whole "Haitian are ruining Springfield Ohio" claim...
Yes, what started off with salacious stories about immigrants eating pets morphed into more defensible claims about mass migration overrunning local institutions and destroying the quality of life for residents who've been attached to the area for generations.
Yes, many local political leaders came out, even Republican political leaders, to denounce the claims that Haitians are eating pets.
Springfield Ohio also flipped red in the election in a major way.. Biggest Republican margin in 40 years, and that's only because the records only go back to 1984 when Reagan won 49/50 states, and Trump had a bigger margin than that in Clark County.
So, when we are trying to decide who the liars are, it seems likely that Trump and Vance were speaking closer to the truth, even if the specifics were off, than everyone else screaming "THERE IS NOTHING TO SEE HERE! Actually everyone loves that one out of every three people in their town is now a 70 IQ third worlder on welfare!"
WhiningCoil
9d ago
CTE
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Basically you get so many concussions that you develop severe mental problems akin to Alzheimer's or dementia. Not entirely unlike how taking too many cocks results in severe dissociation and impaired mate bonding.
WhiningCoil
9d ago
You aren't wrong. Which is why it's so much more remarkable when people do turn away from fame. The example probably most near and dear to myself is Bill Watterson. There is something transcendent about becoming the best, a worldwide sensation, and then walking away and living a nice quiet life in the Midwest. Wikipedia says he has a wife, no mention of kids, but as private as he is I think we only know about the wife from public real estate transactions, since it's only mentioned alongside him buying a house.
I kind of love this. It makes it easier for the art to stand on it's own. I'm not fretting squaring my love for Calvin & Hobbes as a child with Watterson's political beliefs, his support for or lack thereof for Israel, which party he supports, his twitter beefs, outrageous bullshit he said for attention, etc. I know virtually nothing about him except by proxy from his art.
WhiningCoil
9d ago
All Entertainers are Terrifying People, and OnlyFans Models are no Exception
I watched McMahon some while ago, and it was kind of amazing. Basically tells the story about a young psychopath working his way up from being raised by a single mother in a trailer park, to building a multinational media empire and being friends with the President. All the same, he's still a psychopath. You can admire his unparallelled achievements and greatness, but he's still a terrifying individual you would never want to know personally. At a certain point in the documentary, I think before a slew of new allegations came out about McMahon but maybe not, a bunch of interview subjects are asked what they think McMahon's legacy will be. All but one of them choke on the question, knowing all the skeletons that man has in his closet, but not wanting to say anything because they aren't public (yet).
And McMahon was just one example. It was an industry built on people willing to make any sacrifice for fame and fortune. Putting aside the steroids, they worked at a pace that destroyed their bodies. Listening to the Undertaker go over the list of permanent injuries he's left with is a nightmare. And these people undoubtedly blew off steam in ways greater society would condemn. Drugs, alcohol, sexcapades, you name it.
With Hollywood, and all the high profile sex and crime rings that are being exposed with Harvey Weinstein, P Diddy and even old Epstein paint a nightmarish picture of an industry that paints itself in a very good light. The casting couch has always been infamous, but who knows how far the depravity goes. We catch glimpses every now and again. Brian Singer, the director of the first two X-Men movies was criminally outed as a gay pedophile.
And then there was Lily Phillips, who broke down crying after taking 100 cocks in a day. It's repulsive. But, as I sit with the knowledge of it for longer, most entertainment is made by repulsive people. Has Lily Phillips abused her body and broken with public morals more or less than McMahon, or P Diddy, or Harvey Weinstein? Or even the average wrestler or movie star willing to do anything to be famous? How was Chris Benoit doing during his career? How does taking thousands of cocks over a career, and the BPD and narcissism associated with such an act weight against CTE?
I guess if I have a point, it's that the Roman's were correct. Entertainers are all degenerates and you should scorn anyone who chooses to be one.
WhiningCoil
11d ago
I feel like you are implying two different questions. There is the religious question of does this person deserve forgiveness, and I donno. Not my call.
Sort of entrapped in that question is, does this person deserve to pretend they never did these things and live a "normal" life. To which I'd have to say any man that tries to wife her is out of his damned mind. But she could easily just not tell guys she was competing to be the UK's biggest attention seeking whore. Some guys might know, some might not. Were she to turn over a new leaf and find a church, she'd probably just run roughshod over some poor schmuck there.
Not an expert, but in a religious context, she belongs in a nunnery, and not out there ruining some poor man's life, along with whatever children they have. The BPD and narcissism inherent in that sort of attention seeking is incurable, even if the "sins" are absolved.
WhiningCoil
11d ago
Maybe you know, but how much chronic illness does the UK wrestle with compared to the US? About the same?
A while ago I went down this rabbit hole about how to combat childhood obesity, and the scourge of associated diseases it causes, assorted advocates are recommending Ozempic as a first line of defense instead of diet and exercise. Because psychopaths are employing HAAS or woke -ISM language to imply diet and exercise is unfair, but Ozempic for toddlers is "equity".
So I sit and I ask myself, does a NHS in the American context make this worse or better? My gut reaction is worse. These people have wormed their way into every level of government policy crafting in a way that has proven (as yet) impossible to uproot. I can't shake the feeling that if we had an American NHS they'd be reporting parents to child services for feeding their kids vegetables instead of pills.
Or take trans kids, an issue I am 1000% against. By and large it's fiat accompli as medical licensing boards have been weaponized, and if even ideologically critical doctors don't toe the "affirm affirm affirm" party line, they lose the livelihood they went into massive college debt and sacrificed over a decade of their life to achieve. All the same, does this get better or worse with an American NHS? My gut is it gets worse. Which is paradoxical as the UK NHS effectively banned the practice of transing kids. But my read on the beliefs of the PMC that would be in charge of an American NHS say the outcome would be the complete opposite.
Because it actually matters what people make up an institution. And presently, I wouldn't trust the federally employed PMC to manage my health. As the groundswell of support for RFK Jr shows, they've done a shit job in their already limited capacity the last 50 years.
Maybe in 4 years, or however long it takes to restore trust in institutions and non-partisan science, my thoughts on this will change. I want to believe things will be different this time around. But I am also prepared for disappointment.
WhiningCoil
11d ago
I got into an argument with my long lost British uncle (long story) about why British style gun control wouldn't work in America. And it largely came down to cultural differences.
I can almost understand the promise that a NHS style institution would work better in the US than it actually does in the UK. My misgivings about things like this, this or this aside. My bigger problem is I don't understand how we get from where we are, to there. It feels like the underpants gnomes joke where they leave out step 2.
I hear people selling "Medicare for All" as the magic bullet for this problem. But I simply don't see how it's possibly to effectively outlaw a 1.5T USD market. Especially within living memory of "If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor" being a lie.
WhiningCoil
11d ago
I don't fucking know. When you point it out to me, even though I said it, I do wonder why the fuck I chose to say it like that instead of "She sounds like a lovely girl". I guess the language I hear around me has rubbed off on me.
WhiningCoil
11d ago
People are celebrating this murderer because they, like their Middle Age ancestors, feel powerless in their lives and want a scapegoat to blame for their problems. In the end, this murder did reveal some harsh truths, but it was not about the health care system, it was about the evil and stupidity that lurks just under the surface of the average person.
Maybe.
Or maybe bad actors are a bit too comfortable knowing their bad acts can never be proven. Or that their bad acts melt into a sea of bad acts, and it's impossible to ever sort out any single point of failure. When everyone is in on the take, who's to blame really?
In a system that is corrupt from top to bottom, with everyone fleecing everyone in a byzantine and dysfunctional system of rules of responsibilities, maybe we need a scapegoat lottery system. Maybe that's exactly the sort of outside the system pressure we need to nudge people into being a little more honest, and a little less greedy. Maybe if they were afraid of pissing off the wrong person, they'd make more ethical decisions instead of hiding behind process.
It's gonna be messy. It could decay into an even worse system. But America's "Broken Healthcare System" has been a talking point my entire life, and it's arguably only gotten worse. It's proven itself reform proof. I'm not shocked murder turns out to be Plan B. There never was a different Plan B offered.
I'm not excited about this. Assassinations are fucking terrifying. I'm a firm believer than the attempt on Trump, had it succeeded, would have been probably the single most tragic event for the world since the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. We would have had WWIII, the destruction of America with open borders, the completely and unambiguous destruction of the bill of rights, and a dark age of multipolar global fascism. Instead I have hope. But, you open the "murder people I don't like" box, and you put events like that back on the table in a major way. It's no longer a single bullet we all dodged, but a relentless tide of entropy for our entire civilization.
That said, I'm not shocked people aren't just willing to lay down and die, especially not without taking someone with them. Maybe we shouldn't do that.
You know, in a perfect world, AI would finally stop the civilization destroying policy of importing the 3rd world because we need cheap, dumb labor. AI should be cheaper and less dumb than them.
Unfortunately, I know I'm going to get even more 3rd world "replacement population", because "We've always been a nation of immigrants" and apparently the neoliberal solution to global poverty is to invite everyone here so we can all be poor together.
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