From a bazinga-rich family member, the kind that likes to dangle money at the poors by making them try to jump through hoops and otherwise kiss his ass, and otherwise pretend to be a "philanthropist" while not actually giving any actual money to the poors:

"I hate how game companies pander to lazy people with shit hardware! I have a cutting edge battlestation in my man cave and almost no game comes close to using its full potential!" :wojak-nooo:

  • 7bicycles [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    A chud friend of mine once said, in earnest, in polite company "Stalins only mistake was dying"

  • ssjmarx [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    My Mom: Actually, my sister isn't rich. She has to work part time in a pharmacy in order to afford her estate, two horses, and an international vacation every six months.

    Look my aunt's a nice person but she's got stacks of cash that she inherited from bourgeoisie parents and I'm just trying to be realistic about that.

  • AssortedBiscuits [they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I had someone support Azerbaijan over Armenia because "I remember this secretary in this place I used to work who was Armenian and she was a complete bitch." Apparently, he held this festering 15+ year old grudge against one of his coworkers that was strong enough to overpower his Islamophobia.

  • SaniFlush [any, any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    An elderly middle manager of mine was explaining to the janitor how he thinks sex ed classes are a waste of time, and how when HE was in school the teachers made him stay quiet and spit out his gum, and other forms of obedience. This is why schools are failing, you see.

    Not even a day later, a co-worker was watching South Park clips on his phone while mockingly laughing about how black people always die in inner-city gang wars over drugs.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      It's a good thing that white people never die over fentanyl or meth, right? :padme1:

      ...It's a good thing that white people never die over fentanyl or meth, right? :padme2:

      • SaniFlush [any, any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I don't think that guy heard me fuming on the other side of the room, so next time he brings it up I'll ask if he knows who invented crack and why. Encourage him to look it up. "C'mon, it'll be funny".

          • Diogenes_Barrel [love/loves]
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            its probably close to as old as refined cocaine, and according to wikipedia the UN had it listed as a harmful drug at least 6 years before it got spread by the feds in 81

            e:

            By 1885 the U.S. manufacturer Parke-Davis sold coca-leaf cigarettes and cheroots, a cocaine inhalant, a Coca Cordial, cocaine crystals, and cocaine solution for intravenous injection

            thats like, all the forms of coke right there

            • SaniFlush [any, any]
              ·
              2 years ago

              Thank for the info. How do I explain to someone the spread of 81?

              • Diogenes_Barrel [love/loves]
                ·
                2 years ago

                heres a good thread on askhistorians with discussion, speculation, answers, sources.

                theyre generally wishy washy because :shocked-pikachu: CIA secret operations dont leave a lot of concrete evidence, but its uncontrovertible the CIA aided smuggling of coke into the US (and already had a history of trafficking) the only questions are like, intent, and if the CIA got money from it--both of which are speculation questions

        • UlyssesT [he/him]
          hexagon
          ·
          2 years ago

          Please tell us the reaction if you get a chance to do that.

  • 7bicycles [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    “I hate how game companies pander to lazy people with shit hardware! I have a cutting edge battlestation in my man cave and almost no game comes close to using its full potential!”

    Remembering how Crysis: Warhead's preset graphic options were split in like "Amateur, Enthusiast, Gamer" categories.

    Someone needs to do a deep dive on the PC Master Race bullshit, it's largely gone now but it had a weird fucking stranglehold for a while there

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      Remembering how Crysis: Warhead’s preset graphic options were split in like “Amateur, Enthusiast, Gamer” categories.

      :sicko-zoomer: :the-doohickey: :so-true: :the-doohickey: :freeze-gamer:

      Someone needs to do a deep dive on the PC Master Race bullshit

      In its original context, Zero Punctuation was from the start mocking the idea as hyperbole but then :reddit-logo: ran with it because satire is dead and rotting and spreads disease.

      • 7bicycles [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I got a soft spot for Zero Punctuation but if you run a video series where the whole schtick is basically angry pessimistic gamer guy, even back then you shoulda figured this would not turn out well given your audience

        This is my youtube series on the origins of the roman salute, why are all my fans nazis type deal

        • ssjmarx [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I get the feeling that Yahtzee does ZP purely to pay the bills now and all of his actual creative energy goes into his other content that barely gets 1/10th the views.

          • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Agree, especially his novels and indie games. He’s also said before how he completely ignores comments about ZP now and just says what he wants to say/his editor approves and moves on. In one of the most recent episodes he talked about when the Escapist nearly went under and fired basically everyone except him and they tried to get him to also be an editor and he basically said “Fuck no I have very little responsibility and like it that way” which I absolutely respect.

            On his podcast and in ZP he occasionally says things like “we’re living in a capitalist hellscape” and other leftisty things, so while I don’t think he’s super politically engaged he seems to generally be on the correct side of things.

          • 7bicycles [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            It's a phenomenon of the mid-2000s marching on like a fucked up video version of a cronenberg monster at this point

          • SaniFlush [any, any]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Didn't he make a Metroidvania about a poacher with a shotgun who falls down a hole into a fantasy world?

        • UlyssesT [he/him]
          hexagon
          ·
          2 years ago

          The trilby, all along, was an unheeded warning. :heated-gamer-moment:

          • 7bicycles [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            An ex co-worker of mine had the theory that you can graph the decline of any given community by the number of young men wearing hats (excluding baseball caps and snapbacks, the old timey ones) and I think he's on to something

              • 7bicycles [he/him]
                ·
                2 years ago

                I did ask him about this because there was a lot of downtime on that job and he said any community that'd judge males based on male pattern baldness was inclined to go full shit eventually anyways

            • UlyssesT [he/him]
              hexagon
              ·
              2 years ago

              That's a weird theory that I'm actually intrigued by. Does it include Tim Pool knitwear?

              • 7bicycles [he/him]
                ·
                2 years ago

                In the summer, yes. Hats were excluded if used for necessity (like a beanie could be) or if they were a trendy fashion item (like snapbacks and basecaps).

                • UlyssesT [he/him]
                  hexagon
                  ·
                  2 years ago

                  if they were a trendy fashion item (like snapbacks and basecaps).

                  Why is that an exception? :lea-why:

                  • 7bicycles [he/him]
                    ·
                    2 years ago

                    Back then they were in style so hard like every 3rd guy was wearing them. Didn't really make a good signifier, it'd be like judging a community on the basis of people wearing t-shirts

                    If I had to distill it I'd say his argument was any community featuring loads of young men wearing unnecessary headwear that isn't currently in style was bound to be shit and I don't think he's wrong

                    • UlyssesT [he/him]
                      hexagon
                      ·
                      2 years ago

                      That is a compelling argument, and looking around, it seems to have some plausibility.

                      • 7bicycles [he/him]
                        ·
                        2 years ago

                        I've not found a single case where he's been wrong honestly, does hinge a lot on the "young men" part of it though

        • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          If I remember right I think he said on a podcast episode something along the lines of how he regrets that joke because of how the audience ran with it and he should’ve anticipated that

          But that’s a vague memory of a podcast I listened to at some random point in the last year, so may not be accurate. All I really remember is that the meme was mentioned, and not positively

  • TheSpectreOfGay [he/him, she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Had a boss from a place I don't work at anymore say that majority of homeless people actually do have homes and are just not in them because they're on drugs

  • WoofWoof91 [comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I hate how game companies pander to lazy people with shit hardware! I have a cutting edge battlestation in my man cave and almost no game comes close to using its full potential!

    considering how no newish game can be run at 4k ultra at 60fps on the top gpu on the market, i think he's full of shit lmao

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      He certainly is. His rant was mostly about MMOs, part of a longer rant about how the poors are supposedly "pandered to" because most reasonably modern systems can reach minimum system requirements.

        • UlyssesT [he/him]
          hexagon
          ·
          2 years ago

          I don't have to imagine. I have to talk to him sometimes.

      • WoofWoof91 [comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        that's even weirder, does he want to only have a couple hundred people to play (i assume) WoW with?

        • UlyssesT [he/him]
          hexagon
          ·
          2 years ago

          I did make that argument to him, but he got petulant and whiny in response, saying something about how the poors (me) would "work harder if they had to."

            • UlyssesT [he/him]
              hexagon
              ·
              2 years ago

              I don't ask or expect his takes to make sense.

              He once claimed that gay men were not "real" and were just "lazy" because men were "always seeking sex and some (slurs) lower their standards to get it."

                • UlyssesT [he/him]
                  hexagon
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  2 years ago

                  He didn't. But he's also :amerikkka-clap: enough to think that lesbians sort of exist for his entertainment until he shows up and wants to participate.

                    • spectre [he/him]
                      ·
                      2 years ago

                      Does it ever terrify you that these sorts of men have such empty heads when it comes to their misogyny?

                      • EmmaGoldman [she/her, comrade/them]M
                        ·
                        edit-2
                        2 years ago

                        Yes and no. Men can be extremely dumb, but they're also very fragile which can be advantageous. I'm mostly glad I'm super gay so I am often spared from the worst aspects.

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        MMO being a genre where they specifically and very carefully tune the graphics to be able to run on the broadest selection of hardware possible.

        • UlyssesT [he/him]
          hexagon
          ·
          2 years ago

          He's rich. I never implied he was good at critical thinking.

          • spectre [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            One would think that the rich generally have decent business acumen (for better or [mostly], so I always crack up when I hear about those who have the exact opposite of that.

            In the same genre is chuds who can't help but run themselves out of business cause they need to vocally and publicly do chud shit lmao

            • UlyssesT [he/him]
              hexagon
              ·
              2 years ago

              In the same genre is chuds who can’t help but run themselves out of business cause they need to vocally and publicly do chud shit lmao

              Reminds me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAKjhFcscnI

            • UlyssesT [he/him]
              hexagon
              ·
              edit-2
              2 years ago

              Some chuds do profit from riding the chud grievance business model. For entertainers, it involves tape on the mouth saying "CANCELED" or "CENSORED," for example. Also, fast food chains can get spite purchases from chud consumers.

  • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    People in my country that actually like the queen, and are actively mourning her death and watching the funeral processions, despite the British empire committing heinous acts against us that involved concentration camps just over 100 years ago. And the queen being our official head of state under the early apartheid government until the apartheid government decided to become a republic.

    And no, the queen being mean to Margaret Thatcher to get Thatcher to oppose apartheid in the 80s does not count for anything.

  • RamrodBaguette [comrade/them, he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Someone in my family was dumbfounded by how I was skeptical of Uyghur Genocide accusations. This even after I mentioned that I wouldn't doubt if the Chinese government were using excessive force in some instances. He got red-faced about "literal genocide" and confided how he earnestly believes it because he saw a video one time of journalists being shoved out of a classroom with guards.

    Normally, this wouldn't bother me much, but the fact that the person in question is a scientist and one of the most brilliant men I know is sobering. We have our work cut out for us.

    • SickleRick [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Having worked with engineers, scientists, and other STEMlords: they're very smart in their relevant field and assume that they're smart about everything and don't have to do the same work that made them smart in their specialty in the first place. They just assume the propaganda that's been drilled into them their entire lives was true and they came to their mainstream opinion that upholds patriarchal-white supremacist-capitalism organically.

      We do, indeed, have our work cut out for us.

      • CheGueBeara [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Yes, agreed. I would say this applies to people who get enough degrees to feel special, in general. There's a mass academic psychology that thinks reading The New York Times is the height of culture and very few people are willing to be truly radical.

    • cogito_ergo_cum [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Was talking to a relative the other day and somehow Falun Gong came up, and I mentioned they were a cult and basically believed the Chinese government wanted to harvest their organs because their pratices made them pure. He was like "yeah haha, but they're not exactly wrong about the organ harvesting tho" and then started looking for some news article he remembered having read about organ harvesting of Uyghurs that he couldn't find in the end. I guess he was talking about Falun Gong's "independent tribunal?" Basically everyone around me seems to harbor some vague feeling that China is doing Bad Things far beyond what any other country does.

      Even in the more leftist newspapers in my language there is zero pushback against the western imperialist narrative in general.

  • MolotovHalfEmpty [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Sounds like your family member needs a little Econ101 :econony:

    Love paying a million dollars for a bad GTA clone because I demanded it be made for a tiny audience of tech-fetishists.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      I heard that for Blizzard for years, too. "DAE le Blizzard never release le bad games?" was the other whopper.

      • Mindfury [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        gestures vaguely at the fate of the Diablo franchise

        • UlyssesT [he/him]
          hexagon
          ·
          2 years ago

          Warcraft III Reforged intensifies :dumpster-fire:

  • Theblarglereflargle [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Guy I went to highschool with said that all complaints about the queen are unjustified and should be directed towards the govenrment. And that he would gladly talk down to Indians and Caribbean’s if they said otherwise.

  • CheGueBeara [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Paraphrased: 'Being trans-inclusive might alienate a reactionary white middle-aged cis woman demographic so we're gonna be casually transphobic with our socialist messaging.' (ah yes, the classic base of socialism)

    Luckily I'm not in that party but hoo boy

    Also luckily: they changed their minds a day after that conversation lol.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      Oh no what if the chuds hate the organization that they already hate? Surely diet bigotry will win over the bigots loyal to bigotry classic! :liberalism:

      • CheGueBeara [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Their calculus was literally that trans people are a "small minority" so it's dumb to prioritize trans inclusion over casually transphobic middle aged white women.

        This is the level of critical thinking present at the heigts of certain US socialist parties. It's very depressing when you realize how shallow our pool of critical analysis and solidarity is. I mean, if you're not gonna put in the effort to really vet your ideas, at least err on the side of solidarity, right?

        • UlyssesT [he/him]
          hexagon
          ·
          2 years ago

          Not that long ago, a wrecker on this side, chanting "organize or die," made it quite clear account after ban-evading account that they didn't want trans people (or what they summarized as "the mentally ill") included in that grandiose organization.

          The wrecker had the charisma of wet dog shit, of course.

    • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Contrary to popular belief, gatekeeping is cool and good and we should do it more.

  • Link [comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    On the topic of putting a picture of yourself on your CV:

    "Only if you're not white."

    :what: