If that is the goal, they are doing a bad job. Because my family is just going to watch A Christmas Story for the 5-billionth time.

The running theory from some of the channels I watch that have people with children, their operating theory is there is a soft boycott of Disney. Not one that is loud and in the open like what happened with Budweiser, but one that still exist. Even just on the grounds of "Well, we cant trust Disney anymore. So lets not go see it until we know what it is."

Additionally, there is an issue where Disney seems to have trained their own customer base to want to wait until their movies are on Disney+ to go see it, due to there being some signs they do well on streaming. But there are two additional problems for Disney with that one, being 1) Disney+ is still massively in the hole and losing a ton of money, so any movie people are watching on there isnt actually helping them, and 2) with the exception of Encanto (which failed in theaters, did well on D+, and has had strong merch sales) , the merch isnt selling either. So they dont get any income from the long side either.

The problem is, then the girl boss feminist would have to actually look at the revealed preferences of women and admit that when it comes to this sort of things, women prefer male superheroes. And they prefer them to be hot with absolutely jacked muscles (see: Jason Mamoa as Aquaman, Chris Hemsworth as Thor). And they prefer their female superheroes to be just as sexy as the men like them (see: Black Widow, Wonder Woman). And they like a good romance, and many of them kind of wish they could be forced around by a strong man (see: the roaring success of 50 Shades of Gray).

This all defies the feminist logic, and therefore they have to fight the women just as much as they fight the men. And this problem extends to other mediums, like how every Zoomer who complains about sexy depictions in media is countered by dozens showing off their favorite hot anime waifu.

Funny you mention the Gurkhas. One of those regiments is stationed in the Himalayas in the disputed territory. And while most of the skirmishes between the Indians Regulars and the PLA have been fairly even (with a minor tilt toward India), the handful of times the Gurkhas have fought has seen them absolutely slaughter the Chinese. The last fight, 2 Gurkhas were killed. Meanwhile, the Chinese refuse to say, but rumors from Chinese dissidents says their death toll was 40+. And this was with just sticks and rocks (no guns to try and keep the escalation away).

The problem with a military move is that also guarantees their destruction. Because even if the US decided to sit out because a leader that was China-friendly was in charge, the Japanese, Vietnamese, and Indians have already said an attack on Taiwan will see responses from all of them. And while Vietnam is questionable there, the Indians have been winning skirmishes with the Chinese and the Japanese have the better navy in terms of both ship quality and quality of their sailors.

And this is before we get around to the fact that the political class has shown evidence they care more about Taiwan than China and would be more than willing to go to the mat for that fight.

The one good thing I see going for us in that regard is that the US is decentralized enough that there are pockets that can outlast it to allow us to get back up on our feet. Much like when the Soviets were doing similar shit in the past. There has already been a trend of manufacturing returning to the US, and there has been efforts by states to actually control it.

This is why I dont buy that the Chinese will displace the US. Because much like the Soviets before them, they are being propped up with a fine veneer of being "superior", but the second you chip away that glittering paint, it is all rust underneath it.

He really is pretty much on par with the absurdity of Tropico. But then, considering what Argentina has been for like 70 years now, maybe absurd is what they need.

While definitely true, the management at the shop I work at has given me a lot of autonomy and has me working on product for our number 1 customer. Simply because I demonstrated a high degree of detail and care for my work in the parts I build, so they have trust me with the more important jobs. And that is something I take pride in.

The issue is I am willing to engage with people who do that, but I wont myself. I can tolerate alcohol if I must, but its not my thing.

I have generally used alternative methods to network, and at least for work I have relied on my work horse mentality to pull me along. But then, I also have Aspergers so there is something to be said that I dont really think I am missing out on anything by not really socializing outside of specific arenas (usually game shops and table top).

I am not really one to talk since I dont drink or smoke myself (older Millennial) and I met my fiancé at school. I am just passing along their things they said as people who were GenX (a fact worth remembering here).

TLDR of the stats for those who dont want to watch the whole video:

• ~50% of GenZ are White, compared to 81% of Boomers

• Over 1/3 of GenZ identify as religiously unaffiliated, roughly twice that of Boomers

• 23% of GenZ identify as some form of LGBT, compared to 17% of Millennials and 5% of Boomers. Interestingly, a massive chunk (almost 50% of LGBT) identify as Bisexual, and almost all of those end up in heterosexual relationships. Additionally, it splits as 31% of GenZ women but only 17% of GenZ men.

• Less than half of GenZ believe being LGBT is an innate quality (IE: "Born This Way"), directly in opposition to the Millennial view. Perhaps as a consequence of this, GenZ is the only generation to backslide and favor banning gay marriage.

• 31% of Zoomers say they spent time in their teens talking to a therapist, a massive increase over Millennials. Additionally, GenZ men say it doesnt help them compared to GenZ women.

• 41% of GenZ never had a romantic relationship as a teenager, 78% say they spent some time hanging out with friends, 24% of GenZ reports regularly feeling lonely (seeming that social media creates a paradox of less connection). The crew formulates this will lead to a further bifurcation in GenZ between those who had families who controlled their electronics and internet vs those who did not.

• 40% of GenZ had no job as a teenager, 70% worry about finding a job that is "meaningful". 60% of GenZ worries about having enough money to pay bills, and this applies to every generation except Boomers, who feel they have enough money (with 61% saying they are fine).

• 32% of GenZ reports drinking or smoking, the lowest among any generation by far. They also point out this has a social knock on of people not going to the bar and finding a romantic partner by sharing a drink, and is also causing women to lose bearing on reality as they have no romantic partner so turn their natural instincts to activism to have something to do.

• 43% of GenZ women identify as Liberal (Left), compared to only 35% of GenZ men.

• Pre-Lockdown, Depression was to 46% of GenZ women and 24% of GenZ men. We have no stats post-Lockdown.

• In terms of political attitudes, GenZ is splitting. About 50% of GenZ favors a government that "puts the experts in charge". But there is also a significant portion that favor a Strongman who can ignore the political apparatus (Parliament listed as the study was done in the UK), or military dictatorship.

Honestly, as schlocky as they are, I kind of wish there were more Musou games. Every once and a while, I enjoy just firing up a game where it is just me vs billions and you cut through them like a hot knife through butter until you eventually find an enemy commander who then gives you an actual fight. But right now about the only options are Dynasty Warriors or Samurai Warriors.

I figured. I had played a little bit of the 3rd game when it fell into my backlog, and it seemed like it was more focused around the humor than anything else.

burning the entire city of Topeka

Point of order, it was Lawrence that was burned, not Topeka. It actually got attacked twice in fact. Once during Bleeding Kansas as it was the Free State capital, and the second time by William Quantrill and his raiders during the Civil War (like you said, because they blamed us for there even being a Civil War because we didnt just roll over and take it).

Also considering the fact that many Hamas leaders were found to be living in the UK without suffering consequences despite being members of a banned group.

What is the context that line is said in though? After all, you are playing as the villains in that game, so if it is one of your people saying it: duh? You're the bad guy.

Definitely applies for their Age of Sail game, and I do enjoy that one too. but I was talking about Pre-Dreadnaught steam ship warfare. The ships like this, or this, or Semi-Dreadnaughts like this. And while they have a bad reputation, I love the ugly French bastard fleet.

This was before autoloader systems really existed, before long range fire control existed, and ships that were only barely considered stable in calm water. And as much as I like the Dreadnaught-era warfare for its large fleet battles at long range, there is something to the "Get in close and slug it out" style of the Pre-Dreadnaughts that I find more entertaining. It is also more about positioning since your secondary's make up the bulk of your firepower in those ships. And you will learn to fear Torpedo Boats, because in an era before effective anti-torpedo and flood protection systems existed, I have absolutely lost battleships to a single torpedo that caused it to capsize before I could even do anything to save it.

I would also recommend it for the simple fact that I dont know of many pieces of media (never mind games) that cover the Pre-Dreadnaught era of naval warfare. Which I honestly find more fun in the game than when you get to the Dreadnaught era, even if I enjoy the game as a whole.

I think Dreadnought allows you to build your own ships.

Basically, it works like this. You start with a hull from one of the major navies from the 1890's-1940's. That hull, in addition to intrinsic ratings on things like tonnage limited, passive stability, default damage resistance, etc with all hulls being based on IRL designs of their time period (ie: The hull for an Iowa, the hull for a Queen Elizabeth, the hull for the Massina, etc). You then have a budget and are supposed to use that budget to design a ship that does not exceed the max tonnage for the hull, and can add whatever guns and armor you like. So if you want to make an Iowa that traded some armor for 18" guns, it is possible. Subsystems like autoloaders, fire control, and advanced armor schemes also count but can give pretty substantial boost so can not be ignored.

At the moment, there are three modes to play with it. One is the Naval Academy, where you are given pretty tight limits on ships and funds to wargame out a scenario (ex: "Build a battlecruiser to rescue a convoy that has been ambushed by an enemy fleet of cruisers, with your battlecruiser starting several dozen NM from the convoy"). There is a campaign mode, where you pick a nation and are effectively the Lord of the Navy in charge of the fleet through your wars, where you are limited by your shipyard capacities and the budget given to you by the government. And multiplayer capable single actions where the rules are a bit more flexible.

I didn’t say it wasn’t. What I am saying is you shouldn’t allow the lack of such laws to keep you from voting. “But what if they cheat?!” Then that is one more vote they have to override.

Additionally, we probably lost because people just didnt show up. I saw that in Ohio, the amount of Dem voters was largely the same as the 2020 election, but Rep voters were half of what they had been.

This "blaming everything on rigged elections" is starting to be a self-fulfilling prophecy, and people really need to stop or less this will keep happening.

If it means anything to you, the same thing happened here in Kansas in 2022. Because people didnt like the Republican option for governor, but they did like the down-ticket Republicans or at the very least just did the rest of the ticket as R. So its not as unusual as you think. And ironically, it results in said Dem governors hands being tied on a lot of the stupidest things because the rest of her cabinet is calling her an idiot.

They also mass executed Catholics and Catholic leadership.

Even this kind of undersells the things they did to the Catholics. There are many occasions of them digging up the corpses of dead priest and nuns from graveyards, and then placing them "on trial" for "crimes against humanity", and then destroying the bones.

This is why people considered Franco at least tolerable compared to the Socialist.

Possibly. I know that she is on Thrawns Origin comic right now, and she seemed interested in some of the other EU characters I talked about like Mara Jade (as well as the Vong as an enemy).