On the presidential ticket for 2024, yes, harm reduction is the only option. But I don’t have to like it, and it’s not gonna mean that I’m not going to criticize and protest the genocide she enables.

There’s more to politics than just voting in an undemocratic system.

The whole “genocide joe” narrative did not provide any benefit in Gaza,

Biden’s admin absolutely noticed the protests against him and it was because of that that we got a pause (however temporary) on some of the heavy ordnance sold to Israel. The uncommitted votes in the primaries did not go unnoticed either. Not to mention that absolutely none of us are suggesting Trump is a viable alternative to anyone (i.e. we are not discouraging voting against him), and that we’d protest just as fervently (if not more) if he did win.

All this however is placing the blame on us for standing up for what we believe in, and implicitly forgiving the Biden admin for the atrocities they enable — after all, if they wanted to secure their candidacy more, why not acquiesce? Everyone’s all ready to criticize the people protesting to save lives, but not so much prepared to criticize the people enabling the killing?

Still, let’s be generous and take this as true regardless. Once the election is over, are you willing to commit to joining us in protesting until the U.S. stops sending weapons to Israel, regardless of who wins?

And folks wonder why I’m not optimistic for a Harris admin.

I can’t understand how anyone could see a vote for her as anything other than harm reduction.

So if leftists really cared about Gaza, they’d… not protest the party currently in power? The one selling the bombs?

Because I don’t think you genuinely believe any leftist, tankie or otherwise, actually likes Trump. I think you just don’t like it when they protest Biden or Harris.

So people need to vehemently denounce Trump once per hour or else they must obviously be siding with him…?

Seriously though, isn’t it obvious? If you expect Trump to be terrible, why would you fly into a rage when he meets that expectation? By contrast, Biden is expected to be better than this, and yet isn’t.

Pressure is applied where it is most effective. That is not and will never be anyone from the Republican party, because they openly and obviously do not give a fuck about any of us.

^{(edited for kinder tone)}

Estimates of Palestinian deaths have long since exceeded tens of thousands. How you can believe that the October attacks could possibly have exceeded that is beyond me.

But you’ve already made up your mind. I don’t even know why you’re here.

stopping supporting anti hamas actions won’t stop the war… it will just lead to more innocent people dying

If you think more innocent people will die if Israel stops bombing Gaza into dust, then you haven’t been paying attention to what’s happening to Palestinians.

Everything Hamas has done, terrible as it is, pales in comparison to the tragedy and horror inflicted by the IDF.

but sounds like a reasonable amount for anyone except the most marginalized groups

I know several people for whom $167 per month would be a big problem. Considering how many people struggle to get by on incredibly low wages, with ever-increasing rent, I really don’t think it’s fair to suggest that this would only be a problem for “the most marginalized groups.”

And that’s all ignoring the fact that “being unable to afford medicine” is not a problem anyone in such a rich country should ever have to face, regardless of income. Frankly, I really don’t care if it upends industries; people’s lives are more important than that.

Though I hope you’re right, there’s no guarantee of that:

It’s unclear why the remaining approximately 50 staff didn’t join Krafton, but it’s possible they had already found jobs elsewhere as the studio’s closure was announced three months earlier in May 2024.

A whole lot of small but meaningful improvements… that nonetheless depress me on account of the fact that this is apparently the most we’re allowed to vote for. And they’re not even guaranteed in the least.

Still, I can at least keep going by remembering that this is a presidential race, and is thus among the least democratic aspects of the country, short of things like the Supreme Court. There are better, more impactful things for me to focus on.

(Disclaimer: I’m a Phoenix supporter of SWG)

I’ve followed this drama pretty closely in the last few days, and it’s really not all so damning as others here have found it. I could write up something longer, but I don’t want to get too far into the weeds, so I’ll leave it at a few paragraphs.

The long and short of it is that the way this video was made and posted, in combination with the general atmosphere of the internet trending towards Huge Drama™, makes this look like more than it actually is. From everything I’ve seen and heard, I’d characterize Nick’s actions as “flawed human making mistakes” — which is to say, perfectly forgivable. He’s since owned up to the more egregious things, such as his comments in the Gameumentary call, and the folks at SWG have reined in his influence recently due to things like his social media troubles. I personally feel like this was a very good call, and will likely be enough to cover the complaints raised.

It is also worth noting, though, that not all of the accusations are worth much. I really don’t know how $10 in alleged Twitter bucks is even worth mentioning, especially considering the claim later looks to have turned out to be a misunderstanding entirely.

All in all, while I believe it’s very fair to want to address these things, and it’s also fair to want to do so in a way that Patreon supporters both existing and potential can use said info to make better assessments with regard to their money, the reality is that the method and platform upon which these grievances were aired lead to a far more bitter and unproductive outcome than was necessary. I still respect Frost, and I don’t think he meant for this at all, but it still happened. Such is the nature of the web, sadly.

Honestly, it still amazes me that this never got successfully ripped and emulated. I’ve heard that it’s because there isn’t a reliable PS4 emulator, but frankly that surprises me as well. I’d think that the sheer popularity of this game alone would encourage one to be made pretty heavily, especially since this game looks to be on track to becoming lost media otherwise.

This was always my biggest concern about voting Democrat in the coming election. I’ve since been convinced I should regardless – a realization of how little impact focusing on the presidency actually has was what changed my mind – but I could’ve been swayed far sooner if someone had provided me with a more reliable way to keep the DNC accountable back then.

To me, the Democrat party is failure by any standard bar the low one of “better than Republicans,” and that’s pathetic. I can’t be excited for any candidate they field unless I can be given good reason to finally trust them. And considering their sordid history, that’s gonna take a lot.

Probably not very stupid at all. Spear phishing is by definition targeted to specific people or groups, and so can be more successful in the end. More to the point, though, is that nobody has their guard up 24/7, and people make mistakes. That’s not stupidity.

Equal representation’s good, and I never liked this mechanic to begin with. Works for me!

I still won’t buy it, but that’s because it lacks T.J. Rotolo, not anything to do with this.

With you here. The title made it sound like a lot more than it actually was.

Hang on, why do we care what Trump says? We already know he’s full of shit, why give him even more exposure?

I think you’ve forgotten that centrists exist. Which is not entirely surprising, given how polarized politics is these days, but still. There are a lot of “I hate both sides” folks out there, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them not particularly committing to either party.

A one-time, $15 donation is that strong to you?

In many ways I find it refreshing how little there is to be said about the shooter. No manifesto, low social media presence — the guy just didn’t have that much to dig up. I shudder to think how endlessly he would be getting discussed day after day if he had left a pile of opinions behind, and I am very glad we avoided that.

News orgs, though? Man, they are frustrated. The most they have to work off of is which party he was registered to, plus hearsay and gossip of people who knew him at one point or another. Shit like that is just trying to capitalize on a dramatic event for clicks when absolutely nothing of substance is available. It’s vapor. Meaningless.

Assassination attempt aside, I could hardly be happier that the shooter – whoever he was – did not leave behind rhetorical carrion for the vultures. Site after site is clawing at the dirt, trying to force me to care about something that I really don’t need or want to care about, and for once, they have nothing to do it with. Good. I have far more important things to worry about.