canekicker's recent activity
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Comment on US strikes Venezuela and says its leader, Nicolas Maduro, has been captured and flown out of the country in ~society
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Comment on What video games would you say have the best stories? Feel free to suggest more than one. in ~games
canekicker (edited )Link ParentI've been a big proponent of "video games as art" and one of the biggest reasons is because player agency in games takes diegetic story telling to a whole new level. I think Outer Wilds is the...I've been a big proponent of "video games as art" and one of the biggest reasons is because player agency in games takes diegetic story telling to a whole new level. I think Outer Wilds is the best example of this and while yes, even when some games like TLOU can easily be translated into a TV show, the feeling that you get from unfolding the story of Outer Wilds and Gone Home is something that cannot be translated into film or text. It's something I wish everyone would get to experience.
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Comment on What video games would you say have the best stories? Feel free to suggest more than one. in ~games
canekicker (edited )LinkI'll throw out some big ones: Last of Us Part 1 - I read an interesting piece years ago about how the ending subverts the normal player/main character dynamic. It's stuck with me and really helped...- Exemplary
I'll throw out some big ones:
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Last of Us Part 1 - I read an interesting piece years ago about how the ending subverts the normal player/main character dynamic. It's stuck with me and really helped reshape my perspective as a player. I also thought Part 2 was quite good but I know it's not everyone's cup of tea.
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Clair Obscur : Expedition 33 - This video sums up my thoughts but what I loved was this was a "jrpg" that addressed adult themes in a way that actually felt mature
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Outer Wilds - beautiful game and beautiful story that sort of unfolds through environmental story telling
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Final Fantasy 6 - this is more nostalgic for me but I do remember being blown away by the grand story of the game as it was the first time I ever experienced a JRPG. I've gone back and reread the synopsis and it seems to hold up but I'm unsure how it feels while playing
Some "lesser" known games. Honestly, I'd argue that indie games tend to have better stories than most AAA games.
- Gone Home , Her Story, Kentucky Route Zero, and Florence- walking sims and interactive novels/films probably barely meet the requirements for "games" but these four really left an impact on me and are meaningful in their own ways. It's not a coincidence that 3 of the 4 were published by Annapurna
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Comment on Let franchises end in ~movies
canekicker (edited )LinkI thought this was a good essay, particularly given the slow drip of Avengers: Doomsday teasers we'll all be inundated with over the next year. He also convinced me to read Aliens vs. Avengers...I thought this was a good essay, particularly given the slow drip of Avengers: Doomsday teasers we'll all be inundated with over the next year. He also convinced me to read Aliens vs. Avengers which is quite good and would be the second comic book recommendation from a video essay that I've enjoyed, the first being TMNT : The Last Ronin.
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Let franchises end
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Comment on USAID hired the right-wing influencer responsible for its decimation in ~society
canekicker LinkPaywall Bypass What an astoundingly stupid, racist, conspiratorial, and overall awful individual that is now par for the course for this administration. If you don't want to read the whole piece...What an astoundingly stupid, racist, conspiratorial, and overall awful individual that is now par for the course for this administration. If you don't want to read the whole piece (for the sake of your sanity), gems about Mike Benz, who is a rough looking 41 which is also on par for this administration, include his beliefs that:
Taylor Swift is a secret NATO asset and once wrote, under a pseudonym, “I want white identity politics to grow like wildfire.”.... “I don’t have any problem with White Nationalists; it’s just not me.”
His whole mission is to try to find evidence supporting his stupid beliefs
Benz’s mission, officials told me, is to use the agency’s archives to substantiate his own allegations about USAID’s pernicious influence in the world—its role in foreign regime change, its promotion of “state-sponsored hit pieces,” and its suppression of free speech....in Benz’s telling, the foremost threat to free expression is USAID and associated U.S. humanitarian missions cloaking plots against global right-wing movements.... Current and former USAID employees predicted that Benz’s research is going to come up short.
Like my god, what a bunch of fucking losers
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USAID hired the right-wing influencer responsible for its decimation
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Comment on Can you live a normal life in Cyberpunk 2077? in ~games
canekicker LinkFirst saw Any Austin's videos here and I think he's my favorite video game Youtuber/essayist out there. Splits the line between the absurdity of people like the McElroy Brothers or Brian David...First saw Any Austin's videos here and I think he's my favorite video game Youtuber/essayist out there. Splits the line between the absurdity of people like the McElroy Brothers or Brian David Gilbert and the more serious like Super Bunny Hop or Jacob Geller. To me, this is probably one of his best videos.
Bonus clip is this hour long interview he did with economist Tyler Cowen.
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Can you live a normal life in Cyberpunk 2077?
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Comment on The shutdown of USAID has already killed hundreds of thousands in ~society
canekicker (edited )Link ParentThat's more generous than I'd say. I think they don't give a shit and the fact it's poor brown people makes it even harder to care. For all his insane faults, at least W cared and followed through...That's more generous than I'd say. I think they don't give a shit and the fact it's poor brown people makes it even harder to care. For all his insane faults, at least W cared and followed through with his compassionate Christian bullshit and provided foreign aid to a lot of these places but that whole wing of conservativism is dead and hated by MAGA
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Comment on The shutdown of USAID has already killed hundreds of thousands in ~society
canekicker LinkPaywall bypass. JESUS FUCKING CHRIST. Watching Christian nationalists defend Trump and possibly influence this decision is baffling.The model is conservative, assuming, for example, that the State Department will fully sustain the programs that remain. As of November 5th, it estimated that U.S.A.I.D.’s dismantling has already caused the deaths of six hundred thousand people, two-thirds of them children.
JESUS FUCKING CHRIST. Watching Christian nationalists defend Trump and possibly influence this decision is baffling.
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The shutdown of USAID has already killed hundreds of thousands
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Comment on The goon squad. Loneliness, porn’s next frontier, and the dream of endless masturbation. in ~life
canekicker (edited )LinkI'm sure many of you have at least heard the term gooning but the complexity, history, and practices was completely unknown to me. Definitely stranger and not for everyone but regardless of...I'm sure many of you have at least heard the term gooning but the complexity, history, and practices was completely unknown to me. Definitely stranger and not for everyone but regardless of subject, I really enjoy it when prestige publications cover subcultures with the same seriousness they cover anything in the mainstream. Like with all niche online subcultures, I take the actual practices with a grain of salt (like are these people making shit up for this "normie" reporter? Is this like butt chugging or the knockout game? The author expresses their own concerns) but I there definitely seems some truth behind is being discussed here. I also find this comment towards the end quite poignant:
It’s true that gooners are masturbating while they engage in these behaviors. You could say that only makes them more honest.
Granted, day-in-the-life TikToks or unboxing videos won’t poison your soul to precisely the same degree as gooner porn. But it’s hard not to see goonerism as just an intensification, almost a burlesque, of prevailing cultural trends.
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The goon squad. Loneliness, porn’s next frontier, and the dream of endless masturbation.
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Call of Duty: Ghosts – Power, paranoia, and orbital tungsten rods
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Comment on Nick Fuentes breaks with US President Donald Trump and MAGA over Jeffrey Epstein in ~society
canekicker (edited )Link ParentYup and it's still the case. There was nothing more infuriating to me than leaving up a bad faith, barely compliant comment but having to take down all the good but rule breaking rebuttals,...There were right wing people who were willing to put in so much work to make sure their gish gallop stayed within the letter of the rules and trying to counteract their bullshit was exhausting.
Yup and it's still the case. There was nothing more infuriating to me than leaving up a bad faith, barely compliant comment but having to take down all the good but rule breaking rebuttals, usually for a lack of sourcing or addressing the user. It'll be the case with that subreddit until something drastic changes as all these ass holes employ the same tactic and anyone who tries to participate in a productive and good faith way will get burned out, myself included.
edit: In all my years of modding, not once did anyone respond to one of my removals with this. Like that's just how shitty some of these Redditors are.
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Comment on Nick Fuentes breaks with US President Donald Trump and MAGA over Jeffrey Epstein in ~society
canekicker (edited )Link ParentYup, nothing "happened" but I have strong feelings so this will be a long one. If anyone spent time in the subreddit or it's sister subreddit /r/neutralpolitics over the last 5 years, I should be...Yup, nothing "happened" but I have strong feelings so this will be a long one. If anyone spent time in the subreddit or it's sister subreddit /r/neutralpolitics over the last 5 years, I should be somewhat familiar and apologize for removing your comment. I should have let all that shit fly to burn down the place. Here's the core of my issue: there's a complete inability and unwillingness to adapt procedures. When Reddit was smaller and there good faith discourse was more common, those processes worked but now, the bad faith is so easy and too common.
The rules are so ill-equipped to handle the bullshit and shitty rhetorical tactics mostly coming from the right. To be honest, some mods care more about keeping it open to these people because they represent a political perspective (a fucking shitty one) than trying to make the place more welcoming to users acting in good faith. Why worry about the 80% when you can do everything to protect the 20% who make everyone's life worse? Any proposed change had to come about by overhauling the already complicated rule system, which required reworking procedures, pointless deliberation, and sometimes multiple votes. For example, the rules for how a new source is added? That was created by me and you know why it was created? Because I couldn't ban some fuckwad user who kept finding loopholes in our source standard to post bullshit. The only reason we made any progress on that fucko was because I threatened to quit. We also had a run in with niche crack pot Michael Harrop aka MaxamillianKohler and as the only person on the team with a background who could see through Harrop's bullshit, I argued multiple times for his ban but was denied. You know how Harrop was "solved"? He was banned from all of Reddit. Note, Harrop tried to come here and was basically banned on sight. THAT'S HOW YOU FUCKING DO IT. The fact that Reddit, a place well known for tolerating pedophilia and Qanon-cultist, found Harrop more reprehensible than members of that mod team speaks volumes. Every other reasonable subreddit just banned these users, but no, we couldn't because of "wE ArE rElucTanT to BaN uSerS". Honestly, it's a perfect place to nazi bar and I'm hoping it happens one day.
As a mod who did the fucking vast majority of work (I want to say it was like mid 80% of mod actions for long stretches) on both subreddits for years, it fucking takes a toll on you and anytime I tried to solve an issue, I had to contort my thinking to try to get something passed. This type of mindset fucks up your thinking and solutions are never the simple or obvious one. It destroys your spirit and the veteran mods do not support you and if anything, make your life harder. I joined around a time where we had quite a few new active mods and they all burned out and became inactive long before I quit. I know for a fact that three of these mods just got tired of dealing with the bullshit without support. I was harassed multiple times in DMs, harassed in the comment section, and I had a user literally calling for my sterilization. No support, no updating of the rules, no ability to permaban users without a vote. Just suck it up, it's part of the "job". And when I left, I got a response from one of them that basically was "sorry you feel this way". It's why I deleted everything in my old account and when I saw my comments/posts weren't being deleted properly, I just nuked my Reddit account because I want nothing to do with that place and I want to destroy anything I ever contributed to it. So yea, fuck that place. Fuck some of those mods.
TL;DR - Modding is hard. Modding a political subreddit is even harder. Modding a subreddit where other mods stick their head in the sand or work against you? IMPOSSIBLE
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Comment on Nick Fuentes breaks with US President Donald Trump and MAGA over Jeffrey Epstein in ~society
canekicker (edited )LinkSome meta commentary on this publication from someone who used to mod a subreddit (side note, fuck that place) focused on higher quality news. There's been a few sites, namely Latin Times, Irish...Some meta commentary on this publication from someone who used to mod a subreddit (side note, fuck that place) focused on higher quality news. There's been a few sites, namely Latin Times, Irish Star, and The Daily Boulder that seem to exist to churn low quality, high engagement, left biased rage bait. Throw in contributor networks from notable publications like HuffPo and Forbes as well as general decline in legacy publications like Newsweek and the whole media landscape is turning to shit and the good stuff is all behind paywalls.
Like do I believe what this article is somewhat accurate? Absolutely and Latin Times is better than it's sister site Irish Star and light years ahead of Daily Boulder but to me, they all have questionable journalistic standards and low credibility. While this singular article is probably ok, I tend to take everything from these outlets with a grain of salt. That said, fuck Nick Fuentes and that whole alt right/racist influence sphere. I hope they never find peace and live a long life suffering proportionally to the harm they cause
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Comment on The America Party in ~society
canekicker (edited )LinkGet me off this fucking ride. I literally just looked up to see if I qualify for citizenship in my parents country of birth and turns out, I do so going to keep that in mind going forward. This...- Exemplary
Get me off this fucking ride. I literally just looked up to see if I qualify for citizenship in my parents country of birth and turns out, I do so going to keep that in mind going forward. This "America Party" is just perfectly summed up in this thread a friend shared with me from David Roberts
Tech bros get frustrated with politics, which involves painstaking, often frustrating communication & compromise with other people who have different backgrounds & perspectives, so their approach is always to wish it away....But it's as true now as ever: the choices are frustrating, slow, unsatisfying democracy ... or tyranny. And no matter how much you think you may have found the perfect tyrant or tyrant class, sorry, we've run this experiment a few times & the results are pretty clear: it doesn't work out.
Like absolutely fuck white nationalist and Nazi salute throwing Elon Musk. Fuck AAPI hate apologist and fucking loser "politician"Andrew Yang. Fuck Mark Cuban and The Mooch.
Maybe America needs to learn that the billionaire class doesn't give a fuck about it and have and always will be in it for their own self interests. Relying on billionaires to 'save us' is fucking insane given how they've always throw us under the bus if it keeps the line going up. Musk isn't some politically homeless centrist, he's a fucking racist / possible white nationalist whose fucking mad his shit cars are now less attractive and desperately wants to be loved. He's a child who's mad he can't eat ice cream before finishing his veggies.
Sure, maybe this will make a dent in the 2026 midterms of 2028, though Trump not being on the ticket for either will likely do more, but the fact that margins are so thin any thing backed by this kind of money and Elon's personality cult has a real chance of making shit a lot worse for a lot of people.
Side note, this whole thing is perfect for the left to seize upon to maybe put aside their stupid fucking internal conflicts and maybe develop a coherent strategy to capitalize on the insanity of the movement we're all living in. Just finished this good opinion piece breaking down the flaws of abundance vs populism. For all this talk of mutual aid, you'd think left populists would put aside their purity tests and you know, FUCKING TRY TO BUILD A COALITION TO ACCUMULATE POWER while the abundance left can start, I don't know, FUCKING ACKNOWLEDGE AND ADDRESS THE INSANE INEQUALITIES THAT EXIST IN THIS SHIT HOLE COUNTRY.
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Comment on Suspect in Minnesota attacks is detained, ending manhunt in ~society
canekicker (edited )LinkI've been following this whole situation kind of closely, not just because it's an awful situation but because the speed and stupidity in the response from the right is as astounding as it is...- Exemplary
I've been following this whole situation kind of closely, not just because it's an awful situation but because the speed and stupidity in the response from the right is as astounding as it is disgusting. I've seen it all over Reddit, including in a place I used to mod (aside, fuck that place) and I wanted to provide sources about what I've found about this piece of shit with the caveat that we may learn more in the future
- Started his own security firm however, NPR has investigated these claims and cannot verify the full legitimacy of this security firm and it's now pretty likely it was an aspiration rather than an actual functioning company. It appears he worked primarily food services and recently was delivering bodies to morgues.
Boelter himself appears to have no history working in law enforcement, the military or private security.
...one long-time friend described parts of Boelter's narrative about his life as "fantasy."....NPR found no record of the firm having clients or providing any services. A call to the company's phone number connected to what appears to be a private phone line, not a business. The address listed in incorporation papers appeared to be that of a law firm specializing in divorce litigation.
There are also claims that he has multiple advanced degrees from Cardinal Stritch University, which closed in 2023. I question the veracity of these claims since the place is closed and this fucker has a history of lying and possibly over stating his successes.
- Evangelical "who opposed abortion and went to church “every Sunday”. He also went on missions to Congo and delivered multiple sermons there, stating in clips that "Many churches in America didn’t listen to Jesus. They’re divided...The churches are so messed up, they don’t know abortion is wrong, many churches.” This makes his targeting of pro-choice advocates and abortion clinics more "understandable". Additional information reveals he studied practical theology at charismatic bible college. For those who are not familiar with this style of evangelicalism:
Charismatic Christians believe in supernatural, spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit such as speaking in tongues, prophets and divine healing.
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He was appointed to a MN workforce board, including an appointment under Walz. However, despite the assertions by idiots on the right, this appears to be an apolitical board that includes people "on the opposite end of the political spectrum from Walz" and the board doesn't interact with governor on a regular basis. I have questions about why the shooter was on this board if things like his security business are not as they seem
Boelter’s friend and roommate David Carlson told reporters on Saturday that Boelter voted for President Donald Trump and was a “strong supporter” of the president but was “hardly ever talking about politics lately.”
- Random tidbit but maybe something useful to demonstrate knowledge on the material, his name is pronounced like "belter"
“The ‘o’ is silent,” Boelter said."
He described Boelter as “the gun type,” saying he liked to go shooting at the range. But he said he never thought he would use guns to hurt people.
- Probably fits more into his conspiracy theories but in his ramblings, had mentioned killing Sen. Klobuchar and having Walz replace her? I'm sure the right will seize on this to make him seem like he's on the left.
Despite the right spreading this stupid false narrative, what appears to NOT be the case is
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Boelter was not a close ally of Walz nor was he an appointee in the way a chief of staff or Attorney General may be
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There isn't any evidence at this point that Boelter is a Democrat. Instead there's a longer history demonstrating the opposite
Boelter was registered as a Republican when he lived in Oklahoma in the early 2000s...The DFL also shared a survey response from Boelter in 2012 saying he would vote for Republicans down the ticket...
and
Boelter voted in the March 2024 Minnesota Republican presidential primary, according to records obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune
- Boelter's wife was not an intern. In typical right wing fashion, they can't seem to understand that multiple people can have the same name. This appears to be more AI slop
The Walz intern is a different person who appears to be married to someone else, the spokesperson said.
Grok, X’s AI bot, said Vance Boelter’s wife, Jennifer, worked at CentraCare. St. Cloud-based CentraCare indeed does employ a doctor named Jennifer Boelter. However, she is not married to Vance Boelter.
- There's no evidence suggesting Boelter did this because of the removal of health care from undocumented adults, in fact evidence suggests the opposite
Boelter also shot and injured Hoffman and his wife, even though Hoffman, unlike Hortman, voted against the bill to remove health coverage.
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Conspiratorial and appears to be a prepper.
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Struggling financially and it appears a lot of his ambitions never came to fruition. My personal view is Boelter is a "i have a plan" loser. You know the type, the ones who keep talking about grand ambitions but have neither the competency or ability to actually work on making those things come true. If he did any of the things he claimed he did, like "400 farmers and 500 fishermen and hoped to develop a network of 1,000 female motorcycle taxis in Congo", his resume would look completely different.
edit : final update
I think part of it is because they're going to try to use the flimsy SDNY indictment which means we're entering the show trial phase of authoritarianism. I don't think the DOJ bungles this because their whole case against Maduro is complete bullshit but once you violently remove a head of State, even one as shitty as Maduro, you can't really unshit that turd and the outcome is predetermined.
I can't remember who said it or if it was even said at all but this whole administration is obsessed with the aesthetics of strong governance. Dressing up in the airport for the appearance of civility. Not fat troops because Murica strong. Renaming cultural institutions because Trump is classy. The "situation room" they created to watch "Operation Absolute Resolve" (which is just incredibly dumb sounding) because they want that iconic killed Osama vibe. I mean it's even down to the personal aesthetic from their stupid hats to Mar-a-Lago face to the general 80s vibe that Trump and MAGA love.
To me, having Maduro stand trial to answer for his "crimes" in the US is another way for Trump to show his base and those easily convinced by podcast grifters and failed comedians that Trump is a big tough guy who doesn't like drug dealers.