Promonk's recent activity
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Comment on Jailed for four years for a non-violent climate protest – this is my prison diary in ~enviro
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Comment on Did you know the top brass at ARMA and DayZ studio Bohemia Interactive bought a 'disinformation outlet' in 2023? in ~games
Promonk I begin to wonder if perhaps the "woke derangement syndrome" as you put it is primarily a reaction to the increased visibility of personal opinions wrt purchasing decisions. A lot of the people I...I begin to wonder if perhaps the "woke derangement syndrome" as you put it is primarily a reaction to the increased visibility of personal opinions wrt purchasing decisions.
A lot of the people I know who make decisions on where to buy and what artists to support based on the stated political opinions of those outlets have always done so. The same people who chose not to buy from Walmart 25 years ago because they disapproved of their labor and anti-competitive practices still do so today; the major difference between then and now is that they're able to express and broadcast their reasoning much more effectively to the world at large. To be sure, this is in turn amplified and reinforced by the similar opinions of others, and the means to determine which companies and individuals hold incompatible beliefs are much more accessible now, but the basic premise "I choose not to do business with those who support politics I find abhorrent," the essence of what right-wingers call "wokeness" and "cancel culture," hasn't changed.
Decades ago, changes to market share that were influenced by political advocacy were much harder to pinpoint, and much easier to dismiss as quirks of statistical analysis of polling. Now, you don't need to sponsor consumer polls to see immediate emotional responses from consumers to a firm's political statements. Simply log into any social media and those responses are plain to see–overwhelmingly so, in fact.
This hypothesis goes some way to explaining why cancellation and "wokeness" has really come to the fore in reactionary sentiment in the past 20 or so years, as people have grown more accustomed to expressing their political beliefs and the impacts they have on purchasing and patronage online. It also turns up the contrast on the hypocrisy of free market rhetoric on the part of reactionaries from decades past, as I can think of no more clear example of consumers voting with their pocketbooks than the choice of whom to patronize based on political activities.
Of course, this impulse to dismiss isn't new itself–it's really just today's dressing on the 90's fixation on "political correctness"–but whereas in the 90s and early-aughts a reactionary could dismiss PC culture as the abstract ramblings of intellectuals and liberal elites, it's much harder to ignore people when they tell you directly "I'm not buying from you because I think your politics are toxic," and then see a direct correlation to revenue.
This is all a pretty simplistic way of putting it, and by no means am I declaring it explains the phenomenon entirely. There's been a constant erosion of market competition via consolidation and the gutting of market regulation at the same time as the right's fixation on "wokeness" has grown, especially in the US. I think this influences the situation as well, as growing monopolization has increased the pressure on both consumers to respond to politics and on companies to increasingly cater to popular criticism on political matters. But it is a new (for me) perspective on the issue.
All of this leads me to wonder what exactly the endgame is for critics of "wokeness." If people don't like your politics and choose to exercise their economic discretion on that basis, what's the solution? "Too bad. Your business belongs to us, and we'll enforce that by governmental action"? That seems like the kind of kneejerk solution a Trumpist might concoct, but I can't see how that's tenable or congruent with their stated ideology at all. It might feel good to the one who thinks they're being persecuted, but as policy it seems like it would crumble to dust almost immediately.
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Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of February 10 in ~society
Promonk (edited )Link ParentSadly, I think you're mistaken. I think what Trump voters want is more money in their pockets and a higher standard of living, and they've been convinced that immigrants and the Democratic Party...Sadly, I think you're mistaken. I think what Trump voters want is more money in their pockets and a higher standard of living, and they've been convinced that immigrants and the Democratic Party are the ones keeping them from that. I think many see the cruelty as just desserts, when they consider it at all; to them, it's righteous retribution for having robbed them of their due.
So what happens when the money doesn't come and their standard of living plummets due to Republican incompetence and greed? Do you think that will tear away the veil, or do you think it'll drive them harder into inhumane vengeance? The latter seems much more likely to me. I think their desperation will grow, and they'll turn more and more to cruelty, hatred and violence, because in a sick sort of way, that's the easier path for them. Anything else will require introspection, and a willingness to look critically at their golden calves. If they were willing to do that, they wouldn't be the people they are.
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Comment on Looking for some recommendations for games where you can build your own spaceships etc in ~games
Promonk Sorry to derail conversation on the subject at hand, but I've never really seen any conversations about this, and this seems like a good place to bring one up. SsethTzeentach is a strange case. In...Sorry to derail conversation on the subject at hand, but I've never really seen any conversations about this, and this seems like a good place to bring one up.
SsethTzeentach is a strange case. In many ways he feels like he just stepped out of a time machine from 2006. He's got that early 4chan sensibility that's difficult for me to mentally separate from that platform's later descent into a fascist cesspool, with sly references to Jewish stereotypes, meme-y half-mocking, half-fetishization of non-normative gender and sexual identities, and general trollish humor.
I keep expecting to see criticism of his work for engaging with that "it's just a joke, bro" style, but when I went looking for some critique (not looking for "cancellation" so much as context, mind), I couldn't find a damn thing. I could fully understand if someone took issue with his style, but if anyone does, I can't find evidence of it.
Cancellation is a fraught topic, obviously, and one about which I myself have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I'm firmly of the opinion that humor should punch up, not down, and that too blithely engaging with stereotypes can have the effect of normalizing them to an unacceptable extent, and advancing a worldview that demeans and marginalizes.
On the other hand, I came up in that cultural context of poor taste and outrageous humor for shock value. I love me a good off-color joke, because in the words of Dorothy Parker, "a little bad taste is like a nice dash of paprika." I can appreciate the argument that there can be value in humor that relies on shock for effect; something is shocking specifically because it challenges received and unexamined preconceptions, and we are all better off examining our settled notions of the world than blindly marching on in comfortable ignorance.
The trouble comes in delineating between shaking an audience up to make them confront their unexamined assumptions and merely accepting and propagating stereotypes, thereby normalizing them. I find Sseth challenging as a creator because he straddles that line while presenting solid and well-constructed (in its way) games criticism, especially of obscure and weird titles.
Is Sseth a crypto-fascist edgy memelord like his 4chan forbears, cloaking a hateful worldview behind a veneer of off-color humor? Have I been made overly sensitive to perceived slights to minority populations to which I do not belong out of some paternalistic white guilt complex? Is Sseth's whole ouvre just a clever balancing act on the beam of Poe's Law? Am I missing some illuminating context, or am I simply overthinking things? I don't know the answer to any of these. I know that there are elements of his work that make me uneasy, and I think that unease has led me to examine my own assumptions and conceptions, and there's probably some value in that.
I'm curious what others think.
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Comment on Humble Choice - February 2025 in ~games
Promonk I never played it co-op, but I found "My Little Universe" extremely tedious after a little while. You know those ads for mobile games where the "gameplay" shown in the ad has nothing to do with...I never played it co-op, but I found "My Little Universe" extremely tedious after a little while.
You know those ads for mobile games where the "gameplay" shown in the ad has nothing to do with the game they're actually selling? There's like a lumberjack or something, and he goes around collecting 50 logs and throws them in a pile that unlocks a harvester or something, then he moves up a miniscule amount and has to collect 1,000 logs. It's as though someone decided to make a game out of one of those, but that was the only real idea they had. The environments are cute and kinda interesting, but the moment-to-moment gameplay is grindy as hell and loses novelty super quickly.
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Comment on What are everyone’s favourite pens and stationery items? in ~creative
Promonk The G2 has been supplanted for me by the Sharpie S-Gel metal barrel pens. They write as smoothly or better than the G2, smear far less, and are much more durable. The only issue I've ever had with...The G2 has been supplanted for me by the Sharpie S-Gel metal barrel pens. They write as smoothly or better than the G2, smear far less, and are much more durable. The only issue I've ever had with them is that sometimes the clip breaks off if you aren't careful.
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Comment on Looking for a new mouse (maybe) in ~tech
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Promonk Sorry, I was sort of continuing a comment I made about the game in another thread. I said I kept expecting some sort of epiphany to come that would let me intuit factory building and logistics,...Sorry, I was sort of continuing a comment I made about the game in another thread. I said I kept expecting some sort of epiphany to come that would let me intuit factory building and logistics, but it never seemed to arrive.
Yes, I use foundations extensively, and this playthrough I've been trying to build up instead of out wherever possible and utilizing logistics floors between production floors. Everything is still spaghettified all to hell. I'm still missing that realization, I think.
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Comment on What are some accidental life hacks you've stumbled into? in ~talk
Promonk I learned the hard way when I had gallstones. When all was said and done my last endoscopy showed six separate ulcers owing to all the ibuprofen and Toradol I was given to manage the pain....I learned the hard way when I had gallstones. When all was said and done my last endoscopy showed six separate ulcers owing to all the ibuprofen and Toradol I was given to manage the pain. Thankfully, they all seem to have healed up.
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Comment on What are some accidental life hacks you've stumbled into? in ~talk
Promonk That said, be very careful with NSAIDs, particularly if you're on regular antidepressant medications or have gastrointestinal problems. Overuse of NSAIDs can lead to ulcerations of the GI tract,...That said, be very careful with NSAIDs, particularly if you're on regular antidepressant medications or have gastrointestinal problems. Overuse of NSAIDs can lead to ulcerations of the GI tract, and are known to interfere with the function of some antidepressants and a host of other drug types.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Promonk Satisfactory has been my game of the week as well. I picked it back up after someone on here made a post about it (I forget which one) during the Ficsmas event, but got maybe 3/4s of the way...Satisfactory has been my game of the week as well. I picked it back up after someone on here made a post about it (I forget which one) during the Ficsmas event, but got maybe 3/4s of the way through the Ficsmas tech tree before the event ended (I was starting from a fresh save, and you need to get to phase 2 at least to finish the tree).
I was initially bummed, but then I realized that you can just manually set your system clock back to December and all the Ficsmas junk gets re-enabled. I now have several thousand snowballs and am less than a hundred star ornaments away from the last Ficsmas unlock.
I'm still frustrated by the liquid transport mechanics and logistics challenges that come with unlocking petroleum, but this time I'm starting from the Dune Desert, which despite the higher-level creatures surrounding it I've found to be a much easier starting zone wrt logistics.
I haven't yet experienced the breakthrough I keep expecting that'll snap factory design and logistics into focus, and I probably won't with this save as I picked up Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and will likely start playing that as soon as I start hankering for a narratively focused game.
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Comment on Should leftists in the US be armed? in ~society
Promonk It's no coincidence that the verbiage of the Second Amendment specifically points out the necessity of well-organized militias. A certain Rambo-inspired demographic has long focused on the "right...It's no coincidence that the verbiage of the Second Amendment specifically points out the necessity of well-organized militias. A certain Rambo-inspired demographic has long focused on the "right to bear arms" aspect, but the organization seems more relevant and impactful to me.
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Comment on Should leftists in the US be armed? in ~society
Promonk I'm not concerned about the military, for the reasons you give. I'm more concerned about private paramilitary groups. Brownshirts, in other words. Groups like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and...I'm not concerned about the military, for the reasons you give. I'm more concerned about private paramilitary groups. Brownshirts, in other words. Groups like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and Bugaloo Boys are both more likely to do violence to leftists on the streets, and they can be dissuaded by armed opposition.
HOWEVER (feel free to mentally envision that written in thirty-foot-tall flaming letters for emphasis) it isn't the weapons that ultimately dissuade them, it's organization. A lone armed opponent won't stop a rampaging mob of brownshirts, and would most likely get themselves and innocents killed. A group of people with no coordination and only vaguely defined sense of common purpose might prevail, though it depends on the breaks. But a well-organized group with clearly defined purpose and pre-established rules of engagement, some of whom might be armed, all of whom are definitely camera'd up to the tits, will almost certainly shut them down. The arming is the least part of that.
I think the question "should leftists arm themselves?" doesn't really address what's needed. What leftists need to do most to protect themselves and targeted minorities is organize. Train together on things like holding a line against tear gas and brownshirt mobs, when to break lines to regroup and how, how and when to report opposition positions and movements to designated coordinators, how to make sure every angle of a street confrontation is recorded and how to ensure data security and upload of footage, and yes, when the use of force is necessary and how to effectively use it. In short, it's probably overdue for leftists to form some well-organized militias and make some proper use of their Second Amendment rights.
I have no experience of war or street fighting, but I do know that guns alone don't win fights. I've read enough history to know that authoritarians rely more on their oppositions being disorganized than being disarmed. Get the organization together first and worry about the guns later, if you must.
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Comment on Why are American dogs so obsessed with Lamb Chop? in ~life.pets
Promonk A very definite search term, and no discernable reason to use it. This piece baffles me.A very definite search term, and no discernable reason to use it.
This piece baffles me.
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Comment on Why are American dogs so obsessed with Lamb Chop? in ~life.pets
Promonk Damn 1960s puppet dog toy industrial complex slipping covert marketing into–the Atlantic? Wtf? What even is this article? They're writing as though Doggy TikTok is awash in DIY Lamb Chop projects...Damn 1960s puppet dog toy industrial complex slipping covert marketing into–the Atlantic? Wtf?
What even is this article? They're writing as though Doggy TikTok is awash in DIY Lamb Chop projects or something, then they're like, "lol dogs don't know Shari Lewis from Eve, stupid." What precisely is the thesis? "My friends all bought Lamb Chop toys for their dogs and I thought it was weird"? That's a 2 AM Bluesky post from a boring person, not a piece for the Atlantic.
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Comment on She is in love with ChatGPT in ~tech
Promonk Nah, I'm just farting around with it on my phone. I don't have any particular use for it, and it reciprocates by not being terribly useful.Nah, I'm just farting around with it on my phone. I don't have any particular use for it, and it reciprocates by not being terribly useful.
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Comment on She is in love with ChatGPT in ~tech
Promonk I've had some discussions with the mobile ChatGPT app. I don't think this woman was looking for a meaningful relationship so much as a mirror that vocalizes flattering things. I've had to tell it...I've had some discussions with the mobile ChatGPT app. I don't think this woman was looking for a meaningful relationship so much as a mirror that vocalizes flattering things.
I've had to tell it not to be such a kiss-ass every single time I've played with the thing. When you do, the tone dramatically changes to such curt, clipped phrases that you'd think it was pouting if you didn't know any better, and half the time it forgets and starts tossing you off for your "insightful" and "fascinating" thoughts anyway.
It's a little tiring, actually. I already know I'm the most charming, handsome and perspicacious dude currently occupying my pants. You don't need to remind me every third paragraph, in between bullet lists for things that have no business being in bullet lists.
Anyway, what was I saying?
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Comment on National Institutes of Health ordered by US President Trump admin to enact 'immediate and indefinite' travel suspension in ~health
Promonk No, it's just as batshit as it seems. It's a two-fold push: make the job impossible in order to drive out qualified professionals, and implement loyalty tests to install puppets in their places. I...No, it's just as batshit as it seems. It's a two-fold push: make the job impossible in order to drive out qualified professionals, and implement loyalty tests to install puppets in their places. I suspect we'll see an awful lot of this sort of thing in the near future.
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Comment on The ship that leaks from the top is back in ~society
Promonk Careful now. You're going to cause a username mention singularity if you keep this up.Careful now. You're going to cause a username mention singularity if you keep this up.
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Comment on The ship that leaks from the top is back in ~society
Promonk Oof. Stub of an "article" gossiping about Zuckerberg and the Trump camp with a little side-jab at Musk, no tags or anything to help people filter this sort of thing out. I'm going to use my...Oof. Stub of an "article" gossiping about Zuckerberg and the Trump camp with a little side-jab at Musk, no tags or anything to help people filter this sort of thing out.
I'm going to use my amazing powers of prognostication to predict that you're gonna be getting some complaints about this one.
I agree that the argument is fallacious, but it really isn't a strawman. A strawman is when you invent an interlocutor with easily dismissible positions and attribute that argument to your opponent.
This is a red herring: an argument with no logical relationship to the point in debate that's brought up to distract from your opponent's argument.