I think the issue is that games are games; an example that springs to mind is Caves of Qud’s Markov-chain generated books. I don’t mind them, but once I realized what they were, I stopped reading them. Unless it’s written by a developer, it doesn’t matter. They might as well be empty, unopenable items, like books from Dwarf Fortress where they get a description of what is inside but not any text from the passage.

Even random dialogue is interesting in games not only to “immerse” the player, but to receive messages and information from the developers; if they are randomly generated, they have no purpose. The game would only be improved by their absence.

Removed by mod

Removed by mod

Removed by mod

There’s a word for this, the promotion of leaders based on merit instead of popularity - Technocracy. And it’s not a distinct ideology but a syncretic one that has been adopted by many groups with differing politics. The most prominent example would be the Technocratic faction of the People’s Republic of China, which was opposed to the Maoists back in the 50s and 60s; they argued for society to be led by experts instead of Democratically with a strong emphasis on Peasant participation (the standpoint of the Maoists). China today follows a moderate path taking from both factions.

In the West, however, Technocracy is mostly associated with Liberals; however, I would argue that the modern Liberal view of Technocracy is fundamentally flawed, since it relies on Capitalism distributing wealth meritocratically (which Socialists understand is not the case).

Lmao amazing

First blocking Hexbear, now blocking dbzer0. Obviously the Lemmy.world admins are taking the “lemmy.world being so big is bad for the Fediverse and people should move to smaller instances” critiques to heart and trying to incentive users to move

One benefit the Fediverse has over a centralized site is that, as long as you set the same display name and avatar, most people will recognize you after a migration. For example, I know a few fellow Lemmygrad guys who have alternate, identical Lemmy.ml accounts for posting on instances that block Lemmygrad, and you can’t even tell which account they’re using unless you visit their page.

Flow Free, and its spinoff games Bridges, Hex, Warps, and Fit.

The puzzles are kind of mindless and not that difficult, but I’ve really enjoyed it. You do have to pay to get rid of ads, but after doing so the user experience is excellent.

I work in the meat department and you cannot imagine how often I get someone from a different part of the store bringing me something (like a pet bringing me a present) like “Oh yeah I found this 10 lb. pork butt behind the cheezits” or “This tenderloin fell behind the register and we only noticed it because it started to smell” (real stories)

Most (Many? It’s a lot) European countries have official state religions. The Church of England, Church of Scotland, the Lutheran Churches of Scandinavia.

In Germany, if you are associated with a religion, tithes are taken directly out of your paycheck like taxes.

Yes please

No-one has thought of Anarchists when they hear the word “Libertarian” for over 20 years and no amount of complaining on the internet about how the word was stolen will bring it back.

There are different ideologies that fall within the broad spectrum of “Libertarianism” as it is used in America. They are all bad, but some are “misguided but good at heart” (and better than, say, a Democratic-establishment Liberal) while others are “you have to be a literal sociopath to believe this”. The latter tend to get signal-boosted more because they get funding from right-wing foundations and think-tanks.

Most ordinary people who identify as “Libertarians” would be Socialists of some sort but have been brainwashed by Capitalist propaganda that Socialism is bad and evil and is also when the government does stuff, and the government is bad, so Socialism is bad.

The logical extreme of Libertarian thought is Anarcho-Capitalism: the belief in the Non-Aggression Principle (that no-one should ever restrict another’s freedoms, including their freedom to use their private property as they see fit), that coercion does not exist, contracts are sacrosanct, and that people have an absolute right to control what happens with the things that they own. This of course runs contrary to things like “Worker’s Rights” or “Anti-Discrimination Laws”; and is also where a lot of the Pedophilia stuff comes from, since children are either (1). property of their parents (in which case the parents, as their owners, should be allowed to abuse or prostitute them) or (2). free actors in society (in which case they should be allowed to give consent or prostitute themselves). The ultimate issue with Anarcho-Capitalism is that its logical endpoint is Neo-Feudalism: if you own land, you have the right to dictate what the people living on that land are allowed to do while living there; there are no Tenant’s Rights (in fact, like I said before, the only right you have under Anarcho-Capitalism is your freedom to act as you please on your own property, with your own property, without interference from others). Thus, Landlords become a new sort of feudal government, with complete power over their fiefdoms.

There’s also Randian Objectivism, which is a rationalist philosophy whose main influence on modern Libertarianism is the Randian Ubermensch: living your life independently, to the pursuit of your own happiness (and only your own happiness), without care for the social rules of society at large. Batman’s creators have cited Randian Objectivism as a major influence; Batman is the archetypical Randian Ubermensch: wealthy, white, egotistical, and living outside of society and its rules and laws (while benefiting from them).

There are more moderate forms of Libertarianism that believe in things like Net Neutrality (that the internet, like a public service, should treat all traffic through it equally, not giving preference to certain sites or companies) or the Right to Repair (the right to repair something you own personally, rather than having to take it to a licensed repairman). It’s important to note that both of these run contrary to Anarcho-Capitalism: under Anarcho-Capitalism, an ISP has a right to treat traffic through its tubes however it sees fit; and a company can lease its products with whatever anti-repair clauses it wishes. There’s also Right to Roam, which is very popular in Europe (but less so in the states), the idea that you should be allowed to travel through private land, as long as you do not mistreat it.

What a gentleman

Things like North Korean parents feeding their children mud, or Kim Jong-un personally executing an orchestra conductor in front of a crowd.

North Korea is not a complete black box. Americans are banned from the country, but most Europeans can visit on guided tours.

Millions of North Koreans work abroad in China. If anyone actually wanted to know what life was like in North Korea, you could just ask them. But no-one with the money to hire a translator and head to Beijing is really interested in the very boring truth; that North Korea is a poor, imperfect country where the vast majority of people live normal lives.

The documentary “Loyal Citizens of Pyeongyang in Seoul” has a few interviews with North Korean citizens who went to the South for better economic opportunities before having their passports seized and prevented from going home to the North.

The issue is if these lists end up being blindly copied based on trust, and instances that don’t deserve to be banned end up being banned by dozens of instances just because they’re copying lists.

Something similar happened with Twitter banlists. A lot of the accounts were trolls and fascists and whatnot, but oftentimes someone with progressive views who is just a little controversial ends up on a banlist and banned by half of Twitter because one guy decided to stick him on a widely used banlist.