And Batman doesn’t exist, so the quote still checks out. But, if he did, he shouldn’t either. Absolute Batman has a great take on Batman as a poor, working-class person. I think Batman works better as that. Batman inherently is problematic, as a billionaire playboy beating up mentally-ill people. (This coming from a Batman fan myself).

I can see that. I think there was one progressive blip in US politics, and funnily enough Roosevelt was pushed left-ward by the communist and socialists of the era to get the New Deal passed. And we’ve not seen such a progressive slant in US politics since. That’s what happens when you get a major purge of progressive parties from the McCarthy era forward. Communist and Socialist parties used to be much more prominent in the early 20th century until they we’re practically eliminated, now they’re a shadow of what they once were.

Yeah, makes sense. I was part of the reddit exodus with the api stuff. Although, I’m not someone that would be part of the typical reddit culture. Or at least the die-hard libs types. I always was on the fringes of reddit, and in the last few years I stayed away more often than not. There are a few forums and “smol web” places I visit. Even frequent irc occasionally. So, I’ve been out of the loop when it comes to the general reddit mentality. It sucks that those types have to take the piss out of .ml users so frequently though, it’s gotten pretty annoying lately with people saying stuff like “of course, it’s a .ml user” like we’re some type of pariahs.

Just gauging the sentiment towards lemmy.ml, even in the fediverse there needs to be a safe space for people. It’s sad to say, but merely jumping ship from reddit doesn’t ensure that comrades will be safe online. .world and .ee users seem to be reddit-esque but just in a different ilk. I regularly see users from those communities targeting .ml users and since the reddit exodus it’s only gotten worse. Stay strong comrades.

A fantastic book covering the American political system, is “Democracy Inc” by Sheldon S. Wolin, which wrote about how the system is constructed to give the semblance of democratic participation but, is in fact, what he terms a “managed democracy”, in which the levers of the democratic processes are manipulated to a minute degree. He wrote this book in ~2006, I believe, which just goes to show how long this horse and pony show has been going on for (probably FAR longer).

Yes, I appreciate that Bernie moved me further left than I was already. Although, if I had more political consciousness before Bernie arrived on the scene, that shift would have happened irregardless. I dropped out of politics for about a good decade (after being disillusioned with Obama’s first term) and he got me back thinking that a real progressive had a shot.

But after the last ten years, it’s quite evident that the progressive wing of the Dems are merely a pressure release valve, same that the Dems are for the Republicans. It just keeps people endlessly mired within the constraints of a system that will not move leftward no matter the consequences of not doing so.

After reading enough Marxist literature, it’s clear Marx was right, and that only a revolution ending in the dismantling of the current system and installation of a worker’s controlled one, will create any meaningful and lasting change for the working classes.

“If we the voters can kick this football, then the Dems will move left”

That guy looks like a real life Mac from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, giving off mad Mac vibes too.

It’s amazing to me that you could read that quote, and your take, unironically, is exactly the sentiment that Arendt was warning about.

Ugh, so true. The insidious nature of Steam is the fact that they’re basically a PC gaming business monopoly, but they’re benign compared to other corporations, so gamers tend to turn a blind eye to that fact, or find various grasping ways to convince themselves otherwise (there’s still Epic and GOG! etc). The fact that 80%+ of PC game sales are through Steam doesn’t seem to faze or disturb them, when it most definitely should. What happens when Steam drops the facade? I imagine it won’t be long before Steam turns into the badguy.

Right on, that’s good on them. I was honestly disappointed to learn that they were deniers years ago, which definitely effected my ability to watch the show afterwards. I’ll have to check out the episode when I can.

Oh, I didn’t realize they’d revisited the gag. Thanks for the head’s up.

Kudos. That got an unexpected, but much needed, hearty chuckle out of me :D

That episode is commonly misunderstood. I too had always thought they were lampooning climate change deniers, but Matt and Trey were actually poking fun of Al Gore and An Inconvient Truth as alarmist. They’ve since apologized for the episode, but it’s wild that it’s so often confused for satirizing the very thing it was mocking. For me I just assumed that Matt and Trey wouldn’t be deniers so it never occured to me until I found out their true intention and now it’s pretty cringy to watch that episode since it’s a lot more obvious. Here’s an article about it:

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a25127458/south-park-climate-change-manbearpig-apology-season-22-episode-7/

Just because I’m already on .ml

It’s gotten a fair amount of attention so far, I’m sitting at 49 subscribers now. So, I think it’s best to stay where I’m at. I’d hesitate to move it right now after almost 50 subs. I could see if there was less traction, but right now it seems like it’s alright where it is.

Thanks, will do!

You find tiny phonographs attached to each flower, playing a symphony of staccato squeaks. The music swells and as it does your thoughts become scattered and erratic, you feel your limbs begin to involuntarily move in jerky motions. Describe how you stop the maniacal music from controlling your mind and roll a D6!

The gazebo cries out in agony, a series of high-itched squeaks emit from it and it breaks apart into a swarm of purple rubber duckies that amass into a giant fist, pummeling you for your audacity. The fist swings, the purple duckies bobbing and undulating like a wave of scurrying ants. When the the fist hits you an enormous SQUEAK rattles you teeth. You fly backwards in an arc, hitting a nearby flower stand, the flowers explode out in a flurry of daisies, roses and tulips, the startled flower-seller jumps in the nearby shallow creek in a panic. You are now covered in assorted flowers. What do you do?

Direct link to the community: !Every_Post_Is_An_RPG@Lemmy.ml

Direct link to the Stuperheroes game

Awesome! I am very familiar with Zot, Understanding Comics and Mr. McCloud in general, but I’d never heard of this. Thanks for showing me. I’ll have to check it out sometime!