bloup's recent activity
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Comment on Controversial opinion: I don't like "cosmetic armor" being an option in games in ~games
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Comment on Fitness Weekly Discussion in ~health
bloup Link Parenton the contrary, I think it makes sense that pro runners wouldn’t benefit from a shoe like this because they’re already going to be conditioning their bodies to promote joint stability, especially...on the contrary, I think it makes sense that pro runners wouldn’t benefit from a shoe like this because they’re already going to be conditioning their bodies to promote joint stability, especially in their legs and ankles. in my opinion this is really just for people who are worried about how their joint health might become dependent upon their shoes, which is a thing. That isn’t to say that wearing barefoot shoes and having good stable ankles would actually be better for injury prevention than the best shoe on the average unconditioned person’s foot. But I really see it more of a conditioning/physical therapy kind of thing.
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Comment on I cannot get into Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door in ~games
bloup LinkI think it’s really important to understand that you don’t have to necessarily “like” or “enjoy” artwork in order to be able to appreciate it, and if you learn how to appreciate art (and...I think it’s really important to understand that you don’t have to necessarily “like” or “enjoy” artwork in order to be able to appreciate it, and if you learn how to appreciate art (and appreciating art is more than just figuring out what you do and do not like), I think you might find even the stuff that you don’t really “enjoy” compelling enough that you still want to explore and understand it.
Maybe what makes it great doesn’t have anything to do with how fun it is on its own in a vacuum, but rather what it chose to do differently, and how through its influence those choices wound up percolating into the games that are more familiar to you. To figure that stuff out, though, you’ll have to do more than just play the game!
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Comment on Weekly Middle East war megathread - week of October 14 in ~news
bloup Link ParentFor what it’s worth, I don’t think people should just take Mehdi Hasan’s word for things either, and I’m not trying to convince anybody of anything. I just felt like his perspective here was not...For what it’s worth, I don’t think people should just take Mehdi Hasan’s word for things either, and I’m not trying to convince anybody of anything. I just felt like his perspective here was not being represented accurately, and like his specific criticisms were going ignored.
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Comment on Weekly Middle East war megathread - week of October 14 in ~news
bloup Link ParentLook I honestly don’t understand how you can read this article and not think that the author who wrote it probably believes pretty much all of the countries you named should not be in the UN...Look I honestly don’t understand how you can read this article and not think that the author who wrote it probably believes pretty much all of the countries you named should not be in the UN either. he literally identifies them as human rights abusers and suggests that their very presence in the UN to some extent attacks and undermines it:
Why has it not yet been expelled from an organization that it is relentlessly and shamelessly attacking and undermining? Sure, there are other human rights abusers that remain card-carrying members of the UN – Syria, Russia and North Korea, to name but a few
But nothing you have said addresses what the article is really about: whether or not any of these countries come anywhere close to being as brazen about it.
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Comment on Weekly Middle East war megathread - week of October 14 in ~news
bloup Link Parentso like just to be clear: this article isn’t saying that Israel should be removed from the UN on the basis of human rights abuses. on the contrary, he is literally citing the fact that the UN does...so like just to be clear: this article isn’t saying that Israel should be removed from the UN on the basis of human rights abuses.
on the contrary, he is literally citing the fact that the UN does not seem to be interested in removing the likes of North Korea, Russia, and Syria as a reason why nobody should expect the UN to remove Israel regardless of whatever happens to the Palestinian people.
What he points out though is that not even any of these countries or any country pretty much really in the history of the UN has ever so consistently and so brazenly acted with such contempt towards the authority and mission of the UN as Israel has, and this article is literally just questioning why the UN continues to put up with it.
so the reason why he doesn’t go into detail about the human rights abuses of these countries is it is actually totally irrelevant to the thesis that he’s presenting, which is “isn’t it weird that the UN lets one of its members just constantly undermine what it does and ignore its decisions” and not “Israel should be removed from the UN on the basis of human rights abuses comparable to Syria, Russia, and North Korea”
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Comment on Weekly Middle East war megathread - week of October 14 in ~news
bloup (edited )Link ParentTo anyone who didn’t read the article: this is pretty much the only time Mehdi Hasan references Russia, North Korea, and Syria. You can decide for yourself if you think he’s “downplaying” the...To anyone who didn’t read the article: this is pretty much the only time Mehdi Hasan references Russia, North Korea, and Syria. You can decide for yourself if you think he’s “downplaying” the human rights abuses of these countries, but I definitely wouldn’t just take this person‘s word for it:
Perhaps the biggest question of all: how is Israel still allowed to remain a member of the UN? Why has it not yet been expelled from an organization that it is relentlessly and shamelessly attacking and undermining? Sure, there are other human rights abusers that remain card-carrying members of the UN – Syria, Russia and North Korea, to name but a few – but none of them have killed UN employees en masse; none of them have sent tanks to invade a UN base; none of them have “refused to comply with more than two dozen UNSC resolutions”. It has been more than 60 years since any country in the world dared make the UN secretary general himself “persona non grata”.
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Comment on Legalizing sports gambling was a huge mistake – The evidence is convincing: The betting industry is ruining lives in ~sports
bloup Link ParentI’m honestly not sure exactly how I’m “turning the situation into a competition between ‘recipients’ and ‘contributors’ to welfare” when I’m only making the point that these people don’t need...I’m honestly not sure exactly how I’m “turning the situation into a competition between ‘recipients’ and ‘contributors’ to welfare” when I’m only making the point that these people don’t need welfare, they need restitution, and using the welfare system to provide that restitution only transfers that economic damage onto everybody who might need it in the future and who is currently paying into it, and onto the people who are currently depending on it too for that matter.
by the way the last thing you write is “If you want to find a villain, look at the people profiting off of all this.” But my comment actually identifies this person: “it just pins the liability to the average taxpayer instead of to the person that promoted the industry in the first place and profited from it.”
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Comment on Legalizing sports gambling was a huge mistake – The evidence is convincing: The betting industry is ruining lives in ~sports
bloup Link ParentI do just want to point out though that in the context of vice industries like gambling, having a robust social support system to deal with the consequences doesn’t actually “solve” the abstract...I do just want to point out though that in the context of vice industries like gambling, having a robust social support system to deal with the consequences doesn’t actually “solve” the abstract economic problem, here. it just pins the liability to the average taxpayer instead of to the person that promoted the industry in the first place and profited from it. Because if the only reason a substantial portion of people need welfare is because they saw a fanduel ad and have an addictive personality, then it doesn’t really really seem fair that it’s me and you who has to pay for it in those particular cases.
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Comment on Legalizing sports gambling was a huge mistake – The evidence is convincing: The betting industry is ruining lives in ~sports
bloup LinkI always hate how the argument is whether or not vice should be legal, and it rarely ever goes any deeper than that. The vice isn’t the problem in my opinion. The problem is when people with...I always hate how the argument is whether or not vice should be legal, and it rarely ever goes any deeper than that. The vice isn’t the problem in my opinion. The problem is when people with economic resources, who are also almost completely insulated from the external costs of widespread vice, see promoting the vice as an easy way to earn a profit.
but, to use gambling as an example, why couldn’t the law simply be that all sportsbooks are legally required to donate a portion of their revenues to nonprofit organizations designed to support individual suffering from gambling addictions, that all of the accounting records have to be public information, and that no employee or shareholder can be compensated in terms of proportion of revenue?
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Comment on Is all language linear to a native speaker? in ~humanities.languages
bloup LinkIf you encode your language spatially instead of in audio, like in American Sign Language, it actually becomes possible to perform morphemes simultaneously, a phenomenon called synchronicity of...If you encode your language spatially instead of in audio, like in American Sign Language, it actually becomes possible to perform morphemes simultaneously, a phenomenon called synchronicity of syntax. In ASL a lot of the times to express adjectives and adverbs you can make a facial expression at the same time as you’re making the sign for the thing you’re describing. These are called “non-manual markers”
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Comment on UK music festival The Great Escape has withdrawn its partnership with the Faroe Islands after it was criticised for working with a country which allows “barbaric” whaling in ~music
bloup Link ParentI mean, yeah I’m saying that I wish everybody who is angry about faroese whaling would actually do exactly what you’re saying. And that I find it dismaying that, seemingly all of the energy that...I mean, yeah I’m saying that I wish everybody who is angry about faroese whaling would actually do exactly what you’re saying. And that I find it dismaying that, seemingly all of the energy that the public has towards animal rights issues is directed at an island of like 50,000 people that has basically no arable land or convenient access to industry, and not at any of the economic entities or individuals who are actually responsible for the industrialized scale slaughter of animals.
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Comment on UK music festival The Great Escape has withdrawn its partnership with the Faroe Islands after it was criticised for working with a country which allows “barbaric” whaling in ~music
bloup Link ParentI’ve thought about this for a long time and I’ve never been able to come up with a coherent manner in which you can base your morality on intellectual capacity such that it is not exclusionary...I’ve thought about this for a long time and I’ve never been able to come up with a coherent manner in which you can base your morality on intellectual capacity such that it is not exclusionary towards human beings that have certain disabilities
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Comment on UK music festival The Great Escape has withdrawn its partnership with the Faroe Islands after it was criticised for working with a country which allows “barbaric” whaling in ~music
bloup Link ParentI guess the point of my comment is I’m hoping some people might think about how the “whale” aspect of all this is kind of arbitrary though. I’m going to edit my comment to exclude the word...I guess the point of my comment is I’m hoping some people might think about how the “whale” aspect of all this is kind of arbitrary though. I’m going to edit my comment to exclude the word “unsustainable” because I think it’s really distracting for my main point
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Comment on UK music festival The Great Escape has withdrawn its partnership with the Faroe Islands after it was criticised for working with a country which allows “barbaric” whaling in ~music
bloup (edited )LinkI’m always dismayed by the amount of attention people living traditional lifestyles get for whaling from people who are living in a manner which requires far more vertebrate death to sustain, who...I’m always dismayed by the amount of attention people living traditional lifestyles get for whaling from people who are living in a manner which requires far more vertebrate death to sustain, who rarely if ever critically analyze their own relationship to the food they themselves eat.
Oftentimes I find myself wondering if it wouldn’t be more productive if instead of animal rights activists trying to galvanize public opinion against people living on the margins of society, we asked people to look inward and see if they really can’t find themselves and their neighbors in these things they are criticizing. And if they can, have them ask themselves, where are they more likely to make a meaningful difference in their own life?
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech
bloup Link Parenthttps://www.businessinsider.com/free-speech-censorship-elon-musk-throttled-tweets-turkey-presidential-election-2023-5 -
Comment on Xbox unveils four new accessibility offerings in ~games
bloup Link ParentDisability is the destiny of anyone who lives long enoughDisability is the destiny of anyone who lives long enough
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Comment on Hydrogen powered Toyota Mirai turned into bomb by Ukrainian forces explodes with the force of 400 pounds of TNT in ~transport
bloup LinkI honestly believe that the person responsible for this headline should be charged with a crime.I honestly believe that the person responsible for this headline should be charged with a crime.
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Comment on Protests seen as harming civil rights movement in the '60s—What we can learn from this for climate justice in ~enviro
bloup Link Parentit’s not supposed to subvert your attitude or understanding of MLK. It’s supposed to subvert your own personal attitude towards oppression and its consequences, including how the people affected...it’s not supposed to subvert your attitude or understanding of MLK. It’s supposed to subvert your own personal attitude towards oppression and its consequences, including how the people affected respond to it. I am not a scholar on MLK so I will not speak authoritatively on what exactly he is saying here but, in my opinion, what he wants you to understand is that if literally all you’re doing with respect to furthering the goals of justice, is literally nothing except for complain when people respond in a manner which you find unproductive or harmful even, then you are part of the problem too.
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Comment on Protests seen as harming civil rights movement in the '60s—What we can learn from this for climate justice in ~enviro
bloup Link ParentIt’s also an inherent act of victim blaming when you literally acknowledge that these injustices exist, but then direct your contempt towards the people whose methodology you disagree with and not...It’s also an inherent act of victim blaming when you literally acknowledge that these injustices exist, but then direct your contempt towards the people whose methodology you disagree with and not the people responsible for the sentiment in the first place.
The thing is though, stat changing equipment comes from tabletop role-playing games, which don’t have graphics. And these tabletop games would go onto inspire lots of different video games which would incorporate stat changing equipment as a pretty central design feature. And even in the early days, it was pretty uncommon for these games to change character appearance based on equipment. And even once technology reached a point where this sort of thing became more practical, sub genres had already formed where such a thing would be undesirable like in classic formula JRPGs which heavily rely on detailed narratives and well-designed characters. Maybe things have changed in the past few years but in my experience even in the modern day you rarely see equipment modifying character appearance in JRPGs except for maybe the weapons or maybe a secret item set or something.
I guess all this is to say that there have always been lots and lots of games that have had this mechanic that lacked this supposed “big part”.