HeyListenWatchOut

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 16th, 2023

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  • “We have a concrete asterisk riddled corporation-friendly plan that I’m talking to you about with Liz Cheney right now for helping… that doesn’t involve anything approaching a green new deal, universal healthcare, or clawing back the massive wealth inequality that continues to worsen and has not improved since the 1970s.

    FTFY…

    But seriously, what is needed has been painfully clear not just for at least the last 4 presidential elections, but for DECADES. MASSIVE changes that are -of course - completely unfeasible (politically) but nonetheless necessary to scream about from the bully pulpit for the chance to make voters believe and push for such changes.

    Trump lies but he PREACHES (granted like it’s some kinda fucked up GOSPEL to his cult of followers)… and this era of “we go high they go low” as if voters care about anything but victories… and “we won’t lie to you with unrealistic promises” as an excuse not to even give aspirational speeches like JFK once used to do with his (at the time) seemingly crazy speeches about having a person walk upon the surface of the moon…

    It just is not a recipe for success. The corporate hacks running the DNC need to be FORCED out, as they don’t actually care that we keep losing. They are in revolving doors that are no different from those of Joe Manchin, Kristen Sinema, or ALL the other Rs.




  • There are no safe havens for multiple reasons… there are places you can probably guess will be less bad… but there are potential worse consequences for each. For example :

    • US military power already far exceeds that of every other country on Earth. It is not post WWI 🇩🇪 rearming after licking its wounds. If you go somewhere that “resists,” there is no guarantee you won’t fall under its 🎯
    • COVID has seemed to have a lasting effect EVERYWHERE in the world. Look how many other countries have now elected far right wing officials. In 🇩🇪, the non-right coalition government has just collapsed.
    • as an immigrant in any of those countries with newly elected right-wing anti-immigrant governments, you will be the first they punish for any perceived failures of said governments to improve their existing citizenry’s lives.

    In truth, despite things like inflation getting “better” overall and other economic indicators seeming to point to improvement, an overwhelming number of constituents who participate in voting across the world have felt pain from price increases without sufficient wage increases to offset that pain… and without action being taken that “feels” like it improves people’s material conditions, they are further ripened for the 🐂-💩 scapegoating of demagogues who gladly lie to pretend they will make their lives better… so everywhere they are being elected.

    It’s not fair, but history shows us this is what happens…


  • My favorite way to explain this to normies is with a weird thing that Denny’s breakfast joint did years ago…

    For those I don’t know, by the way, Denny’s is a US crappy breakfast joint that sells two cent pancake breakfasts for five bucks.

    Every year Danny’s used to have a “free breakfast” day… Where you could come in and they would give you a free breakfast.

    Now again, this breakfast is crappy, but it’s completely free. And as a result of this, Denny’s all over the US have always had lines out the door of people coming there to get that crappy free breakfast.

    Do you know why the line was around the corner?

    Because people like simple good things like a free meal, no strings attached or special actions needed.

    Now ask yourself this :

    Would Denny’s have near as many people show up if they offered a means-tested 70% off reusable coupon that actually had unlimited uses and ultimately saved you more?

    Or a mail-in rebate that only worked during a certain day of the week, or if they said “hey Denny’s customer! you better come to Denny’s on Tuesday because they’re going to otherwise get rid of free breakfast day later this year.”

    The answer is no.

    It’s stupid and sucks and is counterintuitive and even if the coupon had infinite uses, less people show up than would just for “free breakfast.”

    People are dumb and their needs should be directly and fully resolved, not simply just gestured toward or only marginally addressed.

    And so - just like if you tell them “you’re gonna lose the access to bodily autonomy” or “the ACA” or anything else… People don’t show up… At least not enough of them will.

    See, generally no one cares when you tell them they’re going to lose something… they show up when you OFFER them something simple and that ACTUALLY improves their lives in a measurable material tangible easily-connected straight-line way.

    Anyone posting here keeps up with the news and is well aware of every single policy proposal that each party has and their records…

    …BUT 10 GODDAMN MILLION LESS PEOPLE VOTED this time and - as stupid as they are - it wasn’t third-party voters’ fault (because even if every 3rd party vote auto-went to Harris it wouldn’t have been enough for her to win) and the 🍊 didn’t get more votes than he did last time.

    Yes, racism, sexism, etc. plays a role but inflation outpaced wage growth and there are people who remember getting a COVID check when Trump was president and the check stopped when Biden was president.

    These people are unreachable with platitudes and telling them that “things are better” seems like gaslighting to them when they seem to not be able to afford as much, and they haven’t gotten a raise that even comes close to making up the difference.

    It doesn’t matter who is actually at fault - they just know who is in charge when it was hurting… and unless you tell them, “I’m not like the person there now and I am going to fix it” and you make them believe you and you are fully and simply and directly addressing their concerns immediately - Not with a “70% off Denny’s coupon,” but with “free breakfast” kind of simple policies (even if you just lie to them like 🍊 does so openly)… then they will simply (and unfairly) vote for whoever is not “currently in charge” in their minds.










  • Payday 2 was a really novel idea a long time ago. Highly scripted replayable missions with unique aspects but RNG for procedurally variable elements like guard patrol positions, locations and security aspects… in addition to dynamic changes based off how successful the player was at doing a job without letting security escalate the mission to going “loud.”

    It made otherwise boring repetitive loops of missions feel new and different enough each time that it was exciting. Being randomly matched with others fed into the unpredictable heist aspect as well…

    But instead of focusing on constantly further improving upon those systems, fixing terrible issues related to both friendly and antagonistic A.I. (I remember how for the longest time your teammates could not literally pick up a duffle bag), they saw dollar signs with in-app-purchases… and with Payday 3, they doubled down on that aspect… so no one got on board… and eventually longtime players like myself stopped playing Payday 2 as well.