Good comment! (Sorry, not on here a lot)

An important reminder and a good counter example. That said…this is petty and clearly unethical, and also strikes me as quite a different phenomenon from the kind of open corruption we are talking about with the conservative justices.

I’m not sure. It’s partly just that Alito is a selfish, lonely, bitter, viciously bigoted person. The progressive justices don’t seem to be having a problem following the ethics rules.

Fair enough - I don’t have one. At least not to hand. There has been a LOT of reporting about misinformation, disinformation, and fucked up cultural trends unique to TikTok, but I used that phrase hyperbolically to reinforce my actual point: that it is literally impossible to cite sources on TikTok, making it the only social network where credible, knowledgeable, expert, and authoritative creators cannot in principle be distinguished from hoeseshit.

I stopped playing salt and sanctuary because of the platforming, despite being an ardent lover of souls likes.

I really like minor stat boosting items instead. So rather than giving me an inventory full of potions, give me three or four slots for items that can have a huge range of different bonuses and penalties, and they are pretty minor, but they’re permanent. That way I get to craft a build instead of just being annoyed

I’ve been whining to everyone in earshot about all the puzzles in remnant 2 hahaha

Ayyy that person can go eat hog turds alone in a field

You’re worthy of respect and as real a woman as anyone alive. Sorry for the shitty Pride experience. There are Pride events that aren’t like that, I swear. My local Boston Block Party is mostly weed stores and a killer drag show. Wishing you happier Prides and reciprocated trust in the near future.

If TikTok starts allowing standard hyperlinks it would dramatically reduce the platform’s peak harm potential. Tiktok’s single biggest problem rn is that it is literally impossible to cite your sources - that’s why it’s the runaway global leader for misinformation. Adding text would help, bringing it back down to regular Facebook levels of social erosion and election distortion.

The most interesting piece of this for me is that the “gender politics index” is an even stronger predictor of Trumpy support than the “modern sexism index.” The gender politics piece is outrage politics - it’s culture-war, cult of victimhood stuff with minimal substantive claims attached. And that’s what most strongly predicts voting preferences.

What that means to me is that, as with everything that makes the news coming out of high profile republicans, their positions are utterly cynical and calculated to induce fear-based rage voting, rather than a reflection of a sincerely held set of moral and cultural beliefs.

Lovely read, thanks for sharing!

95% of people definitely aren’t hetero though. Or anyway, they aren’t cisgender and straight and vanilla and mainstream in every other possible way related to sex and gender. We have no idea how many people are queer, but it’s a lot more than 5%, and we won’t know what the actual numbers are like until there have been several generations that are very queer accepting.

If you want slightly less tactical (but even more fun) turn based combat with a lot more RPG, divinity 2 original sin is phenomenal.

… well, for one thing, your numbers are a little bit off there. The US is sent about $75 billion to Ukraine, not $100 trillion.

The aid check situation sucked, but that was very much a congress problem caused by the most conservative Dems (one of whom has since left the party).

More to the point, I feel confused by your answer: what is it that you don’t buy? You genuinely feel there’s a moral equivalence across all politicians?

I don’t agree. This is a very South Park perspective. Yes, all politicians engage in bribery, corruption, and double dealing. No, the parties are not morally equivalent.

Biden has protected his son, but he has consistently displayed an eagerness to help people and to pass useful, popular laws that save lives and shift money downward in the economic pyramid.

Trump passed a tax cut for people with private jets and GW Bush killed 300,000 innocent civilians. It’s insane to pretend there’s a moral equivalence here.

I agree that cashing in is at least important part of this. As I understand it, however, past a certain point creating and using LLMs is in fact extremely expensive. That’s why GPT4 limits user interactions, for example. I also think that the more restricted these tools are in general, the better for everyone. It’s absolutely possible to use them in positive ways, but as it stamps they are mostly just flooding the internet with garbage at killing low level content jobs.

Agatha Christie is queen of fun, quick reads. Terry Pratchett is also perfect.

Fantastic reply. Also consider the dramatic and sustained rightward slide of the Overton window over the last 40 years.

Within right-wing media spaces that window has slid in so far to the right that mentioning vaccines, public housing, or a living wage is seen as outrageous or absurd or communist, and outright white supremacy is a major plank of prominent politicians’ platforms.

So when someone says “there’s no room to talk about right-wing ideas,” they’re saying “why don’t you all accept an equivalence between radical Christian nationalism and moderate democratic conservatism as they two poles of political debate?”

And the reality is that “right-wing ideas” in America are mostly fabricated or deeply bigoted. And outside of conservative media environments, they are accurately perceived that way and so are not talked about much.

I think everything you’re saying makes lots of sense. The only thing I want to add is that the discomfort and confusion you’re dealing with around this isn’t because of you. You live in an intolerant, homophobic society and you’re trying to figure out how to treat people well who are marginalized and excluded by that society.

It’s genuinely difficult, because you have to choose which social norms to ignore, which to try to change, and which to follow. Doing that with grace is very hard. And putting in effort is the single most important thing.

Yeah dude! It can help to watch queer things - maybe try Unhhhh, Ru Paul, or Queer Eye? Just to sort of…help you feel familiar with what you’re seeing and hearing. Being aware of queer ideas and spaces and vocab is probably the #1 thing here.

Otherwise, if something like rainbow pins and stickers are too overt, and ditto earrings or nail polish, you could consider just sort of…looking fashionable. Hair and skin, nice shoes, well fitted clothes, color and flair, all of that (at least to me) signifies “I didn’t vote for trump and I know what a French tuck is.” Obviously not a failsafe metric, but it can help.

It doesn’t take a lot to show you’re safe, most of the time. Another good option is, if the chance comes up w/o busting into other people’s spaces, put yourself out there a little or offer a complement or a supportive remark.

Okay last thing. To really be safe, and be an ally, you may need to confront members of your family who pose a threat/risk to queer people in public. Telling off your homophobic aunt is a GOOD way to show who you are.

Yeah. Supreme is the ultimate example, but also stuff like yeezees. And far be it from me to judge those more fashionable than myself. But most streetwear / hype stuff is just normal stuff but really shit quality and with the price upped by an order of magnitude b/c of intense social media FOMO. So, so dumb