Perhaps if the federal government did not treat the wider US as a conquered colony it must extract wealth from by force

Isn't it though?

Interesting.

It still shows that they are woefully underprepared and to use gamer terms, are going to have to be carried. Your military isn't suddenly ready to the level that others are because you spend 2% this year. This graph shows decades of underinvestment.

What's revealing is that they're saying they'll be recommending it, before knowing if it even works.

Evil.

This theory would be more easily seen in tabletop wargames and card games. Think warhammer (40k and sigmar), mtg, yugioh. Where they really want to drive new sales. Not that your RPG ones don't, but the incentives to purchase in the physical games are higher.

But part of it is naturally just powercreep too. There's a natural power creep that comes simply from having additional options. New metas and strategies become available even if the new release is entirely balanced, thanks to there being increased options. That's where looking at card games vs warhammer is useful. There's not much crossover, releasing a new set of space dwarfs doesn't give me any new.

Also, the first release is always imbalanced. As the game matures and the metas settle, it's easier to develop something that's 'solid B tier', rather than the range of F to S+ you initially released. Shiny new things are always going to be at least decent, to drive sales, and because it's now easier to pitch things at that level with expierience.

Yes there's bias to drive sales, you'd be stupid not to. But there's also just the fact that new options create new metas, and new stuff can be more easily pitched at a solid B+ at least.

Also you need to shuffle things to keep it from being stagnant. There should be a natural rise and fall of different armies or builds or characters. Opens up new strategies and interesting interactions.

Almost every incentive is there, even if profit wasn't there, to release stuff at a good B+/A, better than a lot of the OG stuff. When doing so also drives sales, why wouldn't you?

MAID

11: Ascend to the state of enlightenment/heaven/next stage of being by liberating yourself from the constraints of your own biology.

I think Lindsay is onto something with claiming a link to gnosticism, yes.

Don't worry. They'll bring it about soon enough.

Cunts.

ABC in Australia,

We've ALSO got the SBS. And the aboriginal NITV

Can't have just one channel like the good old days, we've got to have at least 7, and 17 radio channels.

Western civ was 1000s of years old.

It's taken what, 50, 70? To fuck it all up. Russia didn't take too long either.

15 isn't all that hubristic given the tech difference and their previous experience. They just didn't go all in. You could if you really wanted to. It would just take more investment and cruelty than they were willing to do.

They’re just fun; not something you’re meant to take too seriously

And yet every single one follows the formula of:

1. Woman with man who doesn't listen and respect her shitty dreams of opening a flower pattern t shirt business or doesn't care about the town's Christmas pageant she wants to run

2. Old feminised friend rocks up

3. Woman talks with her girl friends, who'll encourage her to stay the course marry her man.

4. He says something unaffirming or something, something the old friend who only ever listens would never say.

5. Woman leaves the man and gets with the old friend who's now attractive for listening or something.

These shows have women constantly exposed to a message of move on, he's not right cause he doesn't validate everything you say. Hallmark is not healthy.

It's just an uncool sound, whines and beeps suck

The deep rumble of an engine is half the visceral appeal for the crowd.

https://youtu.be/OHlqXfG78Rs?t=6

Mass effect had a good reporter

already do ;-)

The USA should stop subsidising parasites.

But should start using the letter s where it belongs*

Germany is the only country where the economy would IMPROVE if you removed its capital.

On paper.

In reality, they all would.

This is extra revealing when you consider how the bellcurves work in the sexes also when it comes to IQ.

Women cluster more closely around 100, there is a smaller standard distribution. Looking at a german study male SD is 16.2, female is 13.2. 22% of women are below 90IQ but 27% of men are. The bottom 20% this is who they're looking at here.

This means that they're absolutely scraping the bottom barrel of women here, and we're still seeing a 10fold increase. These people aren't suited and can't be happy, they're taking on debt for nonsense degrees that they aren't suited for, or that are meaningless to the point where even the bottom 20% can achieve it.

it does also start to explain why its fewer men too though. Because those men are down at 80 and 70 even, rather than clustering up at 'just under 90' as closely as women are. This is a rare care where you'd 'naturally' expect to see this sort of thing with more women than men 'excelling' (well, if having sub 90iq people in uni is natural).

biden had just gotten pulled out of the shower

Followed by his daughter.

Neither are good, but you can sustain welfare OR immigration for a while, things seem ok with just one. One will lead to the other though, and then the combo will destroy you very quickly.

Open immigration but no welfare incentive will initially bring in relative hardworking foreigners, but they'll want their families in too and vote for laxer standards. Meanwhile welfare creates weak gov-dependent people who vote for immigration. Not understanding 'universal' isn't the issue. It was always doomed to follow this path.

The old libertarian circle argument that you can have one or the other but not both isn't right. It misses the later consequences, having one will set the stage for the other to come along. You can sustain just one for a while and won't fall off the cliff immediately, but you are still eventually fucked.

Let's look to the future. South africa.

Did the elites get their own power?

I think there is something to physiognomy, enough that AI would be able to have a higher than chance likelyhood of picking things up. Forget race, if nothing else it could have a good guess from just the effects of T and body fat. Stronger jaw..., this then allows you to predict average behaviors and beliefs. It's not rocket science, it's an observable trend we can all see, every person you pass and talk to, unless we delude ourselves into not seeing it. You don't judge people by their face?

The issue though is how would you train ai to do it.

First idea would be mugshots as to where I'd go for the training, because each is linked to a crime, with each crime having ties to particular personality characteristics.

"but why do you Christians have to post your Christian stuff on muh videogames nerdy culture war board"

Its something alien to a lot of Westerners and our monotheism, but once you've thought about it in that manner I think a lot of people would benefit from that kind of faithless religion.

The resurgence of gnosticism and its war against God of The Bible (Whom they term the demiurge*) is at the root of many of the evils of today. There is no benefit to it, only ruin. Hegel and Marx's writings are rife with references to it.

Its something alien to a lot of Westerners and our monotheism,

It is not nearly as alien as you would think, it pervades our pop culture. Less overtly common than traditional faith and disbelief and satanism sure. But it has absolutely been explored. If anything it's been explored to death. Yes moreso by japanese media. But the west has more than done its share.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K5PGWZ0DWI

But that's just a passing reference? Ok sure, let's look at other media then. We've had larger more explicit explorations of it, from Pullman's his dark materials, to the da vinci code, that best seller. And there's a middle ground pervasiveness too, other media like the matrix borrow fundamental aspects and themes from it without being explicitly gnostic. Our media runs the gamut, from mere passing references, to borrowing themes, and outright explorations of it. Media in all genres and for all ages does this.

And that's just the obvious stuff. You'll spot their sophia/hermetic/Gospel of John conspiracies/hermes/isis/owl/minerva/wisdom/simulation/ prison/transformative/strong body-soul dualism... heresies everywhere if you learn what to look for.

Even transgenderism is built upon it. The idea that there is a 'female soul' trapped in a male body. And you'll hear them talk this way, of their female soul and spirit, even if they claim to be atheists. This whole idea depends upon some very gnostic presuppositions, and 'spiritual' ideas. The ideas that the mind and soul are entirely separable, that the body can be a prison, and that there is a force or deity putting souls in the wrong body, presumably for nefarious purposes. The whole thing is built on ancient ideas that do actually pervade our culture. How can you be born in the wrong body if there is not a 'you' separate from your body? And yet it is also 'faithless' for most, they accept these ideas without exploring the metaphysical implications.

I think a lot of people would benefit from that kind of faithless religion.

It brings ruin.

but my best friend's family went to a non-denominational church that did convince people D&D was satanic.

Looking at the D&D community, I'm far more sympathetic to that view than I was before.

There's nothing inherently wrong with roleplaying games per se. But look how how many queers there are in this hobby, more than most anything else. Look at how many choose tiefling as their go-to. Why are they drawn to it? Why are these groups so dysfunctional while others are far less so. Even by the standards of the modern era, rpg hobby circles are a fucking trainwreck.

I do think that roleplaying as an evil diety worshiper needs a proper prep and mindset if it is to be done at all. There needs to be actors for evil roles. But these people are diving into it enthusiastically, no prep.

Also, the hells in dnd are just the pop culture hell (inferno style with many circles) and devils named after actual demons. Rather than it being subtle allegory or its own invention. It's just hell.

And so I've come to worry about a game where you can roleplay worshiping devils, where the hell isn't creative, and where the community has fallen to being queer. More than any other nerd community. There's something to be wary of here. I at least wouldn't just let my kids go play it. We're having a chat first at the very least. That community is deeply spiritually ill.

This is the word of God. It is both true and beautiful. A skilled translator can achieve both. They are complimentary in many ways. Not entirely at odds.

That's not to say that there's never a tension when translating, particular for songs and poetry. There absolutely is. But you can retain a lot of the beauty. Maybe lean on notes a bit more and retain even more of it.

Beauty alone is not everything, and the Bible also has warnings against shallow adornments and uses the phrase 'whited sepulcher' sure. But it is important.