domain:alakasa.substack.com?page=3
orthoxerox
If you can read this, you're using a custom theme
5hr ago
The frustrating thing about the Aloygate is that the changes to her are entirely plausible: not every woman ages gracefully, especially not a post-apocalyptic tribal. Well, not in six months, but such changes in six years are far from impossible.
However, this framing would require the creators to acknowledge that they've made her less attractive and defend this as a natural process that women go through and are very sensitive about. And since the unspoken rule is that every woman is 10/10, the whole thing devolved into a shouting match of "you've made Aloy ugly" - "no we haven't".
2rafa
5hr ago
Joel Greenburg recruits women off of sugar daddy websites, gives them fraudulent real Florida driver's licenses listing their age as 18, he then pays them to have sex with men (at least one rising star in US House of Representatives), and then uses this information to negotiate a deal with the DOJ,
This seems like a much less likely course of events because if Greenberg had never spread lies about his primary opponent (and thus been investigated) the government would next have found the relevant evidence. Maybe he set that up himself, but it seems unlikely given his general sloppiness and failson nature.
It seems much more likely that Greenberg and Gaetz both enjoyed underaged hookers from SeekingArrangement and that when Greenberg’s ridiculously corrupt behavior got him caught by the Feds he offered the only thing of value he had. They then looked up Gaetz’ dad and saw an opportunity to get some off the books money for whatever wacky op this is.
orthoxerox
If you can read this, you're using a custom theme
6hr ago
The Kraft Heinz Company would kindly like to insist that it wasn't Kool-Aid®. The Kraft Heinz Company products have never been used to facilitate a mass murder-and-suicide.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
6hr ago
Possibly, in some circles even probably, but historically (I write that without solid support beyond my assumption) this type of behavior has been invisible. To be too brazen or overt (by, say, throwing a shoe, or, imagining Connie Corleone, breaking a bunch of dinner plates and sloshing the pitcher of wine over the veal) is to reveal oneself as an aggressor and thus drop the plausible deniability (if I may borrow a CIA term).
Any physically vulnerable or weaker player will necessarily develop strategies to compensate for this weakness, and passive aggression done well is like an art form. Its sisters, cattiness, backstabbing, intrigue, manipulation, these are the fey but effective weapons of the court (or dining table) as opposed to the battlefield or backyard. And to repay cattiness with a smack up the mouth is forbidden (and ineffective), just as to answer a blow to the jaw with a withering comment doesn't win fights.
This is nothing that everyone here is not already aware of (probably. Some might take issue ) I suppose my point is that this behavior gets modeled and copied, the same way swagger and volume of voice and strongarm get modeled for growing boys. Modeled without being so much overtly talked about.
2rafa
6hr ago
Once anti-woke video game studios appear, they will quickly displace the incumbents.
They won’t because to the average Call of Duty or League of Legends player the ‘lore’ and any associated progressive politics are completely irrelevant to their enjoyment and these franchises have $10bn moats in terms of brand value and built up expertise.
I'm not convinced that the SWEs they hire in the video game industry actually are all that woke, that's at least not my experience with swedish video game developers. They're not anti-woke but they aren't really woke either.
The people that are woke and who are able to insert woke inte video games are the writers, artists and designers (and game journalists but that's outside of the developers), and i believe its that pipeline thats really rotten if any. What percentage of writers with a "relevant degree" are even non-woke? Anti-woke?
Furthermore even if you're non-woke, if the only acceptable culture in your industry is woke what are you going to do? You'll at the very least put in performative nods towards wokeness like "body type a/b" and inserting a girlboss here and there.
2rafa
6hr ago
Most “anti woke” consumers still enjoy woke media. Marvel movies attracted hundreds of millions of moviegoers in red states. The new Gladiator movie is extremely woke and lib and yet box office data suggests it’s attracting a primarily white male audience (unlikely to be mostly progressives).
Most gamers don’t even play games for the story and don’t pay attention to it, so the relative ‘wokeness’ of the writing is irrelevant. Among those who do care, I’d guess a disproportionate number are women, gay or lib.
Video games companies need developers who are competent, willing to work for low wages, and willing to tolerate long working hours. This is a tough sell. Competent devs in the US can easily earn 200-500k with cushy working conditions. Why get paid less than half as much and be subjected to semiannual death marches?
This is a misunderstanding. Most game devs aren’t software engineers / programmers, for whom this is (sometimes) true. Most devs are QA, artists, level designers, 3D modellers, writers, sound engineers, producers, cinematic designers, and system/game designers. Those jobs can’t be ‘easily’ found at much higher salaries elsewhere; in fact if you’re a professional artist or writer who doesn’t want to write non fiction (ie be a technical writer / copywriter) being a game dev is probably one of the most secure, highest paying roles.
urquan
6hr ago
HR having a "Cluster hiring" policy literally gives them a party cadre within a few hiring cycles, and then you're fucked.
Wow... you weren't kidding. I looked up the term "cluster hiring" and was greeted by this helpful description (in an academic context):
Cluster hiring, a recruitment practice known to increase diversity and promote interdisciplinary collaboration, is becoming increasingly popular among colleges and universities looking to diversify faculty and advance research related to social justice.
That's almost, but not quite, the most on-the-nose self-aware description of the long march through the institutions I've ever seen. I also enjoyed the one HR blog that described it as "an approach that aims to aggressively onboard diverse candidates", which sounds rather, um, unnecessarily violent. (Perhaps it's just a microaggression.)
The most self-aware description of the long march I've ever seen was from a book by a progressive theologian, described in an academic article I read like this:
"I do think the church is well placed to bring about some significant change in the world. And change in the world is desperately needed." The church’s "new mission" will be to “develop spiritual awareness in individuals and communities around the world”. Because the church – at least in North America – is so widely distributed throughout the community it is well placed to effect widespread consciousnessraising about such issues as AIDS, Global Warming, equitable access to technology etc. "The church has ground level access to millions of people. And millions of aware, reflective, conscious people is exactly what this world needs."
(Students of history may be reminded of suicide-cult-leader Jim Jones, who -- before drinking the Kool-aid -- attempted to convince the people of Indiana to "put real socialism into practice" through the guise of Methodism and then Pentecostalism. Sometimes a wolf comes as a wolf.)
I do appreciate all the evidence we're gathering on how progressives are wearing all our institutions as a skinsuit, but one wishes they might try to be more subtle.
Fruck
Lacks all conviction
7hr ago
Who are these people who need to touch grass, the implication being that they are so opposed to the woke they make this (and @WhiningCoil) look tame in comparison -
it is just really exhausting to be constantly reminded that these are the most marginalized and oppressed people ever and the slightest hint of impatience or annoyance with them is a genocidal wish for them not to exist, and meanwhile we have to celebrate them everywhere every day, in films, in games, in books, nothing can be published without Representation and god fucking forbid any work feature all gender-conforming straight white people (or any two out of those three) because that's a hate crime.
I want to "just show basic human decency." I do show basic human decency. I do not hate anyone and I do not want LGBTQ people harmed, harassed, or shoved into a closet. And that's not enough. Because I have hateful, bigoted, genocidal beliefs (like maybe trans women shouldn't compete in women's sports, and it's just possible that some sex offenders with penises who want to be sent to women's prison are not sincere about their gender identity, and also they are like 0.5% of the population so maybe everything doesn't have to be about them!).
Because it looks to me like that there is precisely what the vast majority of the anti-woke - particularly on the motte - have been screaming exasperatedly for the past decade and it is the same gaslighting that you point out here - which has only started dying down recently (since the election made it clear the progressives weren't ordained by God is how it looks to me) and was previously much much more ubiquitous - that has made them apoplectic.
edmund-nelson
Filthy Anime Memester
7hr ago
Yes. I think it's selection bias on the kinds of people who make games compared to other types of programming.
magic9mushroom
If you're going to downvote me, and nobody's already voiced your objection, please reply and tell me
7hr ago
And a group of people pulled along by the same force differ from a monolith how?
My point is, there are actually-heterodox thinkers on the right.
The predictions for which I give probabilities are the predictions.... The long elaborate descriptions of scenarios to be prepared for NECESSARILY CANNOT BE, because everytime you describe something additional happening the overall likelihood of all of it happening lowers.
It's a little confusing to say that it's not a prediction when you say that sometimes is going to happen. It did not seem to me that this part of the essay was hedged as one possibility, rather, you seemed fairly confident that it would happen.
I described about 20 different possible dynamics and scenarios in that piece as preparedness exercise.
Indeed, but there were two plausible scenarios listed for the outcome of the election based on who won, so I think it's fair to evaluate one conditional now that we know the outcome. After all, one of the two cases should have come true, if they are so confidently stated.
Specifically the mass rioting if Trump won, I expect that would have 100% happened if he had won the electoral college but lost the popular vote
I don't believe this was hedged like this in the original article, although I may have missed it. If not, this seems like post-hoc cope to me.
atelier
Jimmys: unrustled
8hr ago
Nice! My favorite so far is 1Q84. I loved it's surrealness. I read A Windup Bird Chronicle first on a blind recommendation and thought it was very strange. But I've gotten a lot more appreciation for his style since then. I think Infinite Jest is my favorite novel but 1Q84 is close!
atelier
Jimmys: unrustled
8hr ago
Yes! I really enjoyed it! That's why I got Dance Dance Dance.
Amadan
I will be here longer than you
8hr ago
I'm far less aggro and boiling with resentment than @WhiningCoil, to say nothing of some of our other posters. But I recently posted this about my own exhaustion with the eternal celebration of rainbow folx, and got a response from @HaroldWilson that was much like yours: "Why does this bother you? It's not intrusive, no one is making you do anything, it's just basic decency!"
And yeah, I'm not exactly being forced to wear a pronoun badge (yet), but it is just really exhausting to be constantly reminded that these are the most marginalized and oppressed people ever and the slightest hint of impatience or annoyance with them is a genocidal wish for them not to exist, and meanwhile we have to celebrate them everywhere every day, in films, in games, in books, nothing can be published without Representation and god fucking forbid any work feature all gender-conforming straight white people (or any two out of those three) because that's a hate crime.
I want to "just show basic human decency." I do show basic human decency. I do not hate anyone and I do not want LGBTQ people harmed, harassed, or shoved into a closet. And that's not enough. Because I have hateful, bigoted, genocidal beliefs (like maybe trans women shouldn't compete in women's sports, and it's just possible that some sex offenders with penises who want to be sent to women's prison are not sincere about their gender identity, and also they are like 0.5% of the population so maybe everything doesn't have to be about them!). Like, I can say this (and I do), but I know I am picking a fight when I do, so I have to decide if it's worth it, and which people I am going to alienate.
What is "basic human decency" to you?
Are there some righties looking for opportunities to flip out every time they see "woke"? Yes. Just like there are lefties looking for excuses to call anyone who doesn't hate JK Rowling and Trump enough a Nazi. I try very hard not to let myself get sucked into that hate-and-seethe rabbit hole (i.e., every day on Twitter, and most days here on the Motte - seriously, some of you people do need to touch grass). But, you know, it's pretty tiresome when you can't find good faith on either side.
edmund-nelson
Filthy Anime Memester
8hr ago
There are lots of non-woke games literally so many
It's just that you focus on some weird niche of american games, but the Japanese and korean studios make plenty of interesting ones. There are also american indie titles which... are actually pretty woke (I'm a member of many indie game publishers private discords and the politics channel is like Bluesky)
jeroboam
8hr ago
Fair enough. If you’re a wage slave they can get you. If you’re a person or brand with a real audience they are powerless.
The situation can be fixed by firing DEI departments and it’s happening right now.
Sometimes the good guys win.
edmund-nelson
Filthy Anime Memester
8hr ago
Mega crit is An american group (of 2 guys) Anthony Giovannetti and Casey Yano, who live in Seattle.
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
9hr ago
At some point, people need to realize that woke scolds have no power.
They do, though. They can have you fired. They can have other companies break contracts or refuse to do business with your company. Including companies like Mastercard and Visa.
Credentialism + nepotism is also a major factor on the creative side. A lot of the industry jobs are going to people because "I met they/them at calarts and followed their Tumblr askblog about superheroines with vitiligo, that's definitely the sort of person we need for Concord's character design team." I'm not kidding, that's literally the life story of all but two people I know doing art for games and cartoons, and those two are old guys.
Same with translation/"localization." It's a tiny industry with cliques of professional bullies getting away with hiring all their discord buddies, because there's literally no oversight.
It works without pushback because there's still no counter to the superweapons they developed. HR having a "Cluster hiring" policy literally gives them a party cadre within a few hiring cycles, and then you're fucked. And what do the old guard do except shake their heads and say "well I'd never hire or reject a candidate for political reasons."
Yeah, we used to hear that a lot from Google guys in 2012 who are no longer Google guys.
TL;DR: as nybbler likes to say, you can't pick up $20 off the sidewalk when there's a troll with a club making sure nobody touches it.
jeroboam
9hr ago
Jason Schreier.
With respect, no one gives a rat's ass about this creature, whoever he may be.
At some point, people need to realize that woke scolds have no power. Don't apologize, don't cuck, and things will be fine. In fact, they will be better than fine if you mine their outrage for engagement.
Living the life of a rugged warriors, not always having enough to eat, wouldn't cause ones face to become more similar to that of Nikocado (before his weightloss) in terms of fatness.
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