Towering Barbarian

@AstraGhostvt The ironic thing is that they're hastening their own obsolescence by being this way. 🤔 Smiths never went entirely out of business after the Industrial Revolution because they could still provide things that factories couldn't. But who'd want to deal with an abusive "smith"? 😒

I normally stay far away from the AI debate. It's messy and divisive and frankly it gets on my nerves. But since I've been lectured like a toddler about how "I should know better", here are my thoughts on it. I don't see AI as this inherently evil thing. I don't. In my personal case I very rarely use it, I have thousands of dollars in art posted all over Twitter. But I post 1, and suddenly I'm unfollowed, blocked, talked down to, and obviously this has happened to many more than me and on a larger scale to others, but the mean girl high school esque behavior that's come about in response to people using it has been so pathetic, it makes people want to use it more just to prove the point that they don't need your approval. People who use it aren't doing so to disrespect anyone, but (some) artists are going out of their way to disrespect people who they disagree with for using it. It pushes people to want to seek out alternatives. In short, people are going to use AI, being a jerk to people who do isn't going to stop it from happening, and it might even make people feel more inclined to do so, especially as it becomes harder to access art since it has now also become commonplace to discriminate against customer base for their personal or political beliefs.

@Leaflit Break a leg, kid! ^_~

Oh geez... time to go out there and sing about how much I hate the government again... 30 on 30

@OliverJia1014 I'm inclined to regard that as rose tinted nostalgia. Social interaction before the Net seems no better or worse than the way things are now according to my memory. 🙂

Question for those alive during pre-internet or nascent internet days. Were people actually kinder to each other overall before social media? I've always wondered if that was actually the case or just rose-tinted nostalgia talking considering how every era has social problems.

@EYakoby UN considers that a feature instead of a bug. 😐

Why hasn’t UN Women said a word about the Islamic Republic’s planned hanging of 8 females in Iran?

@AstraGhostvt Nothing wrong with that. You seem to have very good priorities to me. 🙂

Normally I'm just a LotR obsessed, old PC and horror game loving, down to earth, space themed vtuber who is also a mom with lots of kids, and pretty much makes motherhood my whole identity, because I find my irl life to be much more important. 💜 I've disappointed a bunch of people for not leaning more into the vtubing thing, but I'm really just a real person behind an anime model, y'know?

@AlysssaHazel Oho! 😃 Have fun! 🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂

Five hours of cleaning? Done. Squirmy? Asleep. Conan? Most Definitely. Lads, it's time to start my first read of 'The Hour of the Dragon'.

@Write4Republic Up until more recent times America has been more resistant to Socialist ideology than the rest of the world. "It Didn't Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed In The United States" by Seymour Martin Lipset and Gary Marks is worth reading. 🙂

Why does woke ideology viscerally hate America?

@InsaneCope If California would like more than 2 Senators that's an easy fix. Let's break them down into 4 or 5 smaller seperate states. I'm sure NorCal wouldn't mind! 🙂

@FiadhBaikal Feh. Those outfits are too modern for proper Swords and Sorcery. Standard for women would be loincloth and halter. Standard for men would be a simple loincloth. And both options would be relatively modest since full nudity was also a common option on any Frazetta cover. 🙂

PLEASE GIVE US MALE ARMOR THAT LOOK LIKE THAT I WANT TO DISRESPECTFULLY STARE

@PopulistPennsy1 One reason leftists are indoctrinated into staying within their echo chamber is so that they are never exposed to what conservatives *actually* think and be told what their political masters want them to believe about conservative thinking instead. 😋

Wait people genuinely believe in this? I thought it was just rage bait on account of how stupid it sounds

@TheLaurenChen "Have also been achieved through nepotism" should read as "have also been achieved through good looks". 😓 Definitely time to nap if I'm making mistakes like that! 😋

@TheLaurenChen Nepotism. He's Nancy Pelosi's son in law as I recall. Which I suppose might also have been achieved through nepotism. 🙂

Being handsome is basically all you need to succeed in politics I can think of no other reason why Gavin Newsom would be a top contender for President after managing to ruin BOTH San Francisco and California

@yamatuibora I'd probably go with both. Lots and lots of both. 🙂

What's your choice?

@maryarchived You seem to have an emotional need to believe that paternal instincts do not exist. Have you ever considered the possibility that it is your own reaction to the game that is the strange one? 🙂

lots of strange reactions to this game. let’s clear some things up: childless men do not have paternal instincts the way that childless women have maternal instincts (we observe this even in the way little girls play vs. little boys). men first experience paternal instincts once they have their own children - and typically, those paternal instincts are only ever felt for their own children, and no one else’s. men are not nurturers. men don’t gush over cute kids in public. men don’t have baby fever. if a man wants to possess a child for any reason other than it being a product of his own lineage, he is likely a predator. and you’d be taking the feminist/radical gender abolitionist position to protest any of the above points. this should explain why a “dad simulator” game marketed to mostly childless men gives people the creeps.

@CynicalPublius I always felt anonymous sources are convenient sources because you can make one up out of whole cloth, have him say whatever you want said and how would anyone necessarily know that he never existed outside of your head? 🙂

Every single time you see an anonymously sourced news article that is unflattering to a member of the Trump Administration, the anonymous “source” is someone in the government who is unhappy that a Trump appointee is pushing the agenda the American people elected Trump to push. 100% of the time, without exception. Also, the facts revealed by the anonymous “source” are always either lies, or gross exaggerations, or they leave out very significant facts that tell a different story. 100% of the time, without exception. Please keep this in mind when reading anonymously sourced articles.

@RealMartinii @KerryBurgess The Vichy political establishment regarded Nazi Germany as more predictable and more respectful as well. 🙂

@KerryBurgess For me, the US has become an unreliable banana republic. In contrast, working with China has been more predictable and more respectful.

I don't think Americans have any idea just how badly they are viewed in Europe. Without any doubt, the US is considered by the majority of ordinary Europeans to be a bigger threat to Europe than Russia or China...

@KerryBurgess Pretty sure that if that were entirely true the European political establishment wouldn't be so fearful of social media in general and X in particular. Pretty interesting that Germany is suddenly so fearful of allowing it's young men going abroad as well. 🙂

@kasumijiki Not in a million years. 🙂

be honest... would you punch me in the face for a million dollars?

@SandyofCthulhu And it's not as though the Mexicans I knew wanted this. When I gave a book on English grammar to a coworker she was seriously grateful. 🙂

It's not hard to see that the states with the worst level 1 literacy are also mostly the states with the highest Hispanic population. Latinos aren't less intelligent - but more and more of late they haven't been as encouraged to learn English. I think this attempt to be "understanding" of Hispanic culture has served Latinos poorly. If they don't learn to read and speak great English then they can't really escape the Latino subculture and neighborhoods. I'm not crying out to ban Spanish anywhere. My wife speaks fluent Spanish and it's really helpful. The better-off Latinos I knew back in Texas and California all spoke and read excellent English. My great-grandfather spoke Danish, but my grandfather and father did not. You need English to become a citizen which is, I believe, the key to success in America. Also is it okay to say I'm sick of people pretending all Mexicans are "brown"? There are white, beige, and pitch-black Mexicans. Mexicans come in a whole range of colors. Yet we never see a white Mexican in a film. Heck the whitest woman I ever met - platinum blonde, blue eyes - was fully Mexican with a really strong almost comical accent.

@DataRepublican @BasedMikeLee "...the wise prince will therefore always find it more profitable as well as more honorable to side with the people against the aristocrats.". 🙂

@DataRepublican @BasedMikeLee Reminds me of something Machiavelli wrote in either the Prince or the Discourses. Paraphrased from memory, it went, "The aristocrats want unlimited power to oppress the people while the people want to be unoppressed. Since the desire of the people is easier to satisfy,..."

The EU is one of the least-democratic government institutions on earth. But I guess they like the word “democracy” so ….