That still doesnt give them justice. They are the only species of bear that is known to actively attack humans just because they can. Unlike every other bear that will only attack humans if they feel threatened or are starving.

Gaming Villain: Senator Armstrong from Metal Gear Rising: Revengence, all day, every day. Even beyond the memes and the epic fight, his true motivation is admirable, and you can even make an argument that him going as far as he does makes sense in the context of the Metal Gear universe. In fact, the only reason I dont consider him to be the hero snubbed by the game and the author is because he goes too far.

Media Villain: Iago from Shakespeare's Othello. He still serves as my platinum standard of a villain for all media regardless of type. He manages to accomplish all of his goals, get his revenge, do it without being suspected by anyone else, and even manages to kill those he feel wronged him without lifting a finger. He merely spoke a few words and then let them tear themselves apart.

Historical Villain: I am going to go in a little bit of a strange direction and say Thomas Robert Malthus on the grounds that he is the inventor of Malthusianism. This is the single most destructive ideology created IMO, and is the one that most of the Elite of the world seem to have come to believe which is why they are making such destructive policy. This despite the fact that if you actually look at history, we actually figure out ways to either get more resources or we use them more efficiently (Peak Oil was supposed to be like 40 years ago, yet we are still increasing oil production). And the worst part of his theory? Its starting basis is flawed! He based his idea that eventually you run out of resources and therefore need aggressive government control of the population is based on his review of the Irish Famine...WHICH WAS A GOVERNMENT CREATED FAMINE!!!!

People always say they would go back in time to kill Hitler? Nah bitch, I am going back in time and killing Malthus.

Cities Skylines

On the other hand, it can be fun to go full gremlin mode and create a city in such a way that it would make your average Modernist NeoLiberal city planner want to pull his hair out (as much as the game will let you anyway).

My typical cities consist of:

• Almost everywhere that can be accessed by mass transit can also be accessed by car. And any that cant will at least let you get close. And of course, the road network will not be hostile to motorist (multiple lanes, highways, good access, no reserved lanes, etc).

• Extensive suburban and single-family housing for those who dont want to live in downtown apartments with the Bugmen.

• Manufacturing jobs available in abundance for those who dont want to be an office drone downtown.

• Power provided by reliable means, which means a mix of both "traditional" power (coal and oil), as well as reasonable renewables. This then goes out the window once Nuclear is unlocked and the grid becomes 100% nuclear.

• Harsh enforcement of laws by an aggressive police force to keep the criminals in the slammer where they belong.

• The main funded and endorsed universities are a Research University and a Trade School, because they are actually important.

• If any of the above offends you, you can either live downtown with the Bugmen, or live in the district I dubbed the "Hippie Ghetto", where non-electric vehicles are banned, roads are hostile to motorist (take the tram you smelly Hippie!), housing is "eco-friendly", businesses are organic and social justice-minded, and its also where we dumped the Liberal Arts college. Oh, and I hope you like the additional 2% tax on your business and home for the trouble of stinking up my city, assmunch.

Victoria at least has some advantage in that regard as it does have free-floating wages (although like I said, it is currently unoptimized and due to be patched in the near future). But you as the government can institute wage controls and welfare....which I usually see as the moment people cite as their economies beginning to die, as wages get so high its virtually impossible to keep business profitable without subsides, which further eats into their profits and gold reserves.

So they have to start raising their taxes. And when that is not enough, they have to start taxing goods. And when that still isnt enough, they have to go get colonies, which pay taxes without using your institutions. And when that still isnt enough, you start looking at your neighbors to try and bring them into the fold, and....oh wait, this is all starting to sound very familiar.

Meanwhile, my Capitalist, Liberal society has profitable business, my workers are making just as much, if not more, money even without wage laws, welfare exist for a very select few of the population that deserve it (like the elderly), and even with taxes minimized I am still collecting more than I know what to do with because my Capitalist are funding everything due to their profits meaning I dont need to pay for construction. And of course, I am making a killing selling excess items for export, and importing what I lack.

If it happened that way, it was either a glitch or they had taken some sort of deliberate action. Council Republic just makes it so that the building owners is redefined as "All employees" instead of "Private Ownership" (which can either mean Capitalist or Aristocrats depending on other laws and building type).

The way it works is that any excess profit of the building is paid as dividends to all owners, which means under a capitalist system the owners will make stupid amounts of money (which can then boost your Investment Pool for construction), but under Council Republic since everyone is the owner everyone gets a [much smaller] slice of the profits.

If I had to guess, if the Capitalist are making no money and have low standard of living, it is because they have excessive taxes on them and then have consumption taxes on the goods they buy, as well as making those goods deliberately expensive (ie: not producing or importing things like Porcelain and Luxury Clothes because "Eat the Rich!"). But since the people I see on Reddit showing off their starving Rich never show the SoL tab, I am just guessing at what they are doing since I know the mechanics.

As for the pay hikes and immigration they talked about: Immigration happens if you have a higher SoL than where they are coming from, but how fast it happens depends on what your border control policy is, so I imagine they have Open Borders (which is a policy favored by the Industrialist, by the by).

Wages is the only thing that actually matches what they are talking about, and that is only because it was unoptimized at launch to where businesses would always raise their wages when they had excess profit, until you had people making such high wages that your entire economy collapses because its literally impossible to make enough money. Which is getting changed in the upcoming patch to make it so wages only go up when businesses have to compete for workers, to make it more in line with actual IRL economics. So its an exploit that can only be used for about another week.

Having played the game for about 200 hours now, I am going to say this: The people saying that Communism is OP in the game is very much a self-report rather than a genuine take on the game.

I have had runs where I deliberately try to become Communist just for RP purposes, and I never have it work out. Either I almost get there and have a revolt to take the government back to an older Capitalist stance, or I just dont have any momentum to pull it off. Because why would my people do it? If anything, the games I have had CAPITALISM is the OP one. My people have frankly absurd standards of living, have been making tons of money, and have been living reasonable lives, and therefore are not open to radical changes in government (sometimes to the point that I cant even change minor laws because "Its fine as is").

The only way these people can get Communism probably means they are keeping their people in low conditions so they demand radical change, or they just got lucky.

Also, it probably also means they are keeping the price of products high, because other people I have seen on the forums say that Communism worked great...right up until prices started falling and their command economy crashed with it because their government lost income. I have had no such issue with Capitalist runs, and in fact have managed to get to a point where people could buy everything they wanted for reasonable prices while I still had significant export.

Because America is still the good guys in the world. It just so happens that our government is currently occupied by a hostile enemy force. But I am not worried about that, because we are slowly but surely getting them out of there so we can have our government back.

Besides, in my America, I would want one.

I am aware of all of the improvements. Just that while I am impressed that they managed to make something that much better and also get the cost way down (something, something, "Belkan witchcraft" here), it just looks like a slightly modified B-2 to me in terms of appearance.

I guess there is only so much you can do with a flying wing and keeping it stealthy.

On the one hand, I always like new military gear that keeps us on the edge.

On the other hand, for all intents and purposes this is just a B-2 that was modified to significantly cheaper to build. So while that does mean we can have a lot more of them and probably put the B-1 out to pasture (finally), there is nothing really exciting about it.

"Dr Frankenstien is gay and trying to remove women from the reproductive system, and this is why he destroys the bride of his monster."

Excuse me, what the fuck?

Am I being punked here?

The allegory of Frankenstien being the man who played God and therefore showed that science went too far is so obnoxiously in your face its part of the fucking subtitle ("The modern Prometheus")! Who would be dumb enough to believe.....

Oh right, Leftist. Nevermind, I know the issue now.

Also, hearing the interpretation of Othello done by modern British schools makes me very happy that I went to school in a state that would (with time) go on to ban CRT and with a teacher who was a Shakespeare fanatic. Because the way she taught it was actually in line with the play. You know, about paranoia, words from people you think you can trust being used to destroy you, lack of communication being deadly, stuff that actually fits with the things we are reading with the words in front of us. But as we all know, words are violence.

(one last sidenote: I still consider Iago to be my gold standard of a Villain, and he is still my favorite villain of any medium)

I know Tex and the BPL. But as much as I love watching Tex do stupid shit in games and talk about Battletech, I don’t really feel like joining. Especially when I have my own friend group where we do our own stupid shit.

Yep. My group pretty much only lets in people after we have vetted them through other games like Red Dragon Inn (which we consider to be both a good ice-breaker and a good way of weeding out ultra-soy).

In all of my campaigns, there has been consistent themes of races be racist toward each other, egalitarian societies being exceptions, and always sticking to whatever my storyline is supposed to be with no consideration for how "woke" it is, just what is fun and what makes sense.

And of course, the only thing we care about in the rulebooks is guidelines. I dont even KNOW what the official Race lore is for DND, because I always go with my own campaigns lore. I have 3 different campaigns at the moment, and just as one example Orcs are different in all three of them.

Furiously scribbling in Book of Grudges

Let me guess: You are some filthy Knife-Ear arent you?

You mean the one that is also heavily underperforming and may only break even at best?

It also means nothing for the overall political will of the states in question. Here in Kansas, there were a tone of politicians who supported the amendment that were still overwhelmingly reelected.

We still agree with most of their policies. We just didnt want a full ban. Shocking, I know.

To be fair, it was in 2021, when Biden was the one telling the Park Service what to do, before general public opinion had really heavily turned against the Covidians, and it was still far less enforced than you would expect when the Covidians were in charge. The places around the parks on private/state land was the most different of anywhere. Like I said, in S. Dakota, when we were in a small town near Mt. Rushmore to have dinner (elk burger, btw, Surprisingly good), no business anywhere in that town had a mask requirement. And while you occasionally saw people where masks, it was pretty rare.

Meanwhile, when we were in Estes Park at the base of the Rockies, almost everywhere had a mask requirement, and we even got some dirty looks just walking down the street without mask on.

But it makes total sense to me. Rural Dakota is going to be fairly conservative, and in general still has that "Fuck the Feds" attitude going on and still telling people to live their lives as they saw fit. Estes Park on the other hand is one of the most Left-wing parts of Colorado, and I cant tell you how many people I saw that looked like every stereotype of SJW's and Hippies you have ever heard of, and they were usually the ones getting in your face about the mask.

No. Same when we were in Badlands and Rushmore. If you were in one of the buildings they would make you keep a mask on, but the second you stepped outside they ceased to care.

For my families road trip, we went to S. Dakota to hike in Badlands National Park, then we went to Mt. Rushmore and drove through the Black Hills. Then we went to Cheyanne, WY because I wanted to see the Union Pacific depot and rail house (unfortunately, the rail house was closed to guest at the time), and then we went to Estes Park to hike in Rocky Mountain National Park. While the Rockies were not strict on mask (not that it mattered, we wore them anyway because of snow and cold), but Estes Park itself had damn near every place being "mask required."

Which was quite the whiplash after having gone through SD and WY where there were many places that had so little of a damn to give about mask that they didnt even bother to put a sign on the door. When I say we almost forgot Covid was a thing for a few days, I meant it.

I have noticed the same thing. Every time I hear ethnonats complain about how there are no people having kids, and the kids they do have are being Trans. Then I go out in my town that is one of the largest in the state (about 40k-60k depending on the time of the year), and I see kids everywhere. I hear people talking about their kids and their families. The boys I see still like cowboys and guns. The girls I see still like dolls and princesses. And that holds when I travel to everywhere except the big cities in the state (and even they arent as bad as anything I have seen out of New York or California).

It also applied when I went on my roadtrip through the Plains last year (SD, WY, CO), which is also where I learned that Covid didnt exist the second you stepped outside of anywhere the Dems controlled. Because the only two places that I saw that even gave the mildest of a damn about masks was when we went to Mt. Rushmore (and that was still pretty mild), and Estes Park, CO (which did heavily enforce). But when I was in the Dakotas and Wyoming? I straight up forgot Covid existed for a few days.

And I dont see that changing any time soon. And its why I still think the US is worth fighting for and refuse to get blackpilled. Because the second you leave a Leftist stronghold and get off the internet, they cease to exist and the America I always loved abounds.

Its also my high school sweetheart, and the exact nature of how we got together is so convoluted and relies on so many coincidences that if you made it into a Hallmark movie, people would say it is cheesy and unrealistic.

For me, the issue is that there is a lot of it that seems so intuitive that I cant explain how it works, because it would be like trying to explain air. They also feel like there needs to be certain things in the relationship that are usually the sort of things that come about from the corruption of the culture.

I have found the usual sticking point is related to sex. Because it has been so forced into the culture and corrupted that, to some people, if you dont get it on at least once a day, it means your relationship is in decay and will collapse. And when I tell them that for us, while sex is nice its not the end all, be all, and we can get plenty of emotional fulfillment by just touching and holding one another, they start treating us like we must have the fortitude of a Buddhist monk. Even though for most of history that was exactly the attitude of most husbands and wives. And then the issues seem to grow out from there, and leads to cascading issues down the line.

And of course, a lot of them do nothing on actually building a relationship, giving and taking with their partner to make both of you happy, and doing what you can to start a family to continue it onward. And so they are shocked when it all comes crashing down in months or a few years at best, because they confused lust with love.

To be fair, it has turned into that only for a single group of politically charged people. In my neck of the woods, everything still is the way it has always been. The last Thursday in Nov, and the 4th of July, everything shuts down, flags adorn every pole, and everyone gets together and celebrates their families and their nation. And if any bitching and moaning occurs, its directed at people like those in the OP picture.

IIRC, the Dwarves are supposed to be Welsh, in terms of attitude and industriousness.

Men don't, women don't, rightists don't, leftists don't, authoritarians don't, libertarians don't. Nobody does except sometimes religious zealots, but they normally don't even know why what they are doing works.

The moment I realized this is when I realized that my fiancé and I seem to know how a relationship works and creates that old standard of love, but we are both Autistic and therefore literally dont think like normal people.

We have been together for almost 11 years now with few fights (and none over anything major or long-term), and have hit that point where we literally can not conceive of life without each other in it. And when people ask me what our secret is that makes this work, I cant tell them because my thought process is so unusual they cant conceive of it. And when I do try to explain or say things that we do with each other, they look at me like I grew a second head.

Thing is, just how vicious are these particularly leftists prepared to be?

The answer is probably "very."

If for no other reason than the fact that they are so dumb they dont know the meaning of "quit while you are ahead."

Remember, the Fabian Society a year ago tried to pass along to their acolytes, through friendly media, that the Culture War was supposed to be over, because the Right was actually starting to fight back and was making things hell for them. And how did their acolytes respond? Overwhelmingly, by ignoring them, doubling down, and making it backfire even more on them.

And I have seen plenty of Leftist looking at their tools being taken away and taking that personally to start airing dirty laundry of their overlords and try to whip up the mob against them.

In effect, they have created their own monster that drives forth on its own without having to be told, as long as it can find a target to eat. And that may well be their undoing in the end.

In other news, now that actual money has to be put down, it turns out companies dont really care about paying their tithe to the DIE cult to indoctrinate their staffs.

As vast layoffs have been hitting a variety of companies (especially tech focused ones), data suggest that the first ones being laid off have been the Diversity and Inclusion branches, as well as deep cuts to HR departments. The DIE cult has tried to go full mafia and say "Well, if you get rid of us, we will make your company look bad." but said companies have yet to respond to their threats.