pasabagi's recent activity

  1. Comment on People tell us how QAnon destroyed their relationships in ~life

    pasabagi
    Link Parent
    I think things are getting much better, actually. In the 30's, the Nazis were propelled to power by the strength of popular belief in conspiracy theories about Jews - which, to a lesser or greater...

    I think things are getting much better, actually. In the 30's, the Nazis were propelled to power by the strength of popular belief in conspiracy theories about Jews - which, to a lesser or greater extend, most mainstream political parties subscribed to.

    Australian politics was dominated by the 'yellow peril', and the US was a hodgepodge of different racial anxieties, about chinese, black, catholic, germans, and so on. Most of these anxieties had attendant stories that were more or less absurd.

    Obviously, all the stuff you get these days about mindcontrol and telepathy were not technologically plausible back then. But there were equally insane ideas, like the 'blood libel', the idea that jews need the blood of a christian child for passover.

    7 votes
  2. Comment on Roguelikes, persistency, and progression in ~games

    pasabagi
    Link Parent
    It's super beginner unfriendly, but it's really worth the effort. Sit down with the LNP, and the wiki, and do the beginners guide. I honestly think that in a hundred years, when people look back...

    It's super beginner unfriendly, but it's really worth the effort. Sit down with the LNP, and the wiki, and do the beginners guide. I honestly think that in a hundred years, when people look back at computer games of this era, DF will be amongst the games that are remembered, for its innovation, influence, and sheer scale.

    Fortress mode really offers a kind of gameplay that nothing else out there has, a kind of open-ended, genuinely creative, consistently heartfelt and whimsical game that really brings out the best of what computers can do. I have been playing for about ten years now, and honestly, the text is just an interface. What you're really experiencing, once you know the game, is the story - and the story is an absolute work of genius. It's probably the only generative-story work in existence where the 'plot' is something you would write home about.

    3 votes
  3. Comment on I've been trying to learn more about inequality. How should I go about it in a proper, structured way? in ~books

    pasabagi
    Link Parent
    Absolutely seconded. Even if you go on to absolutely reject everything Marx said, he's by far the most influential writer in this discussion, even amongst people who despise him and his ideas....

    Absolutely seconded. Even if you go on to absolutely reject everything Marx said, he's by far the most influential writer in this discussion, even amongst people who despise him and his ideas. It's far better to read them first hand than to read about them through the work of others, where they are misunderstood, purposefully misrepresented, partially presented, and so on.