Damnit…should have just wrote in PSL. I’LL try to be better next time. Will y’all forgive me?

I got some really bad news for you about building socialism…

I have a 9 year old I have 50/50 custody with. We don’t do much youtube, if any, in our house but his mom is extremely Laissez-faire with electronic devices so I think he’s basically freebasing youtube over there.

Both logistically and ethically you can’t really keep your kid in a perfect bubble and its unavoidable they’re going to get exposed to stuff like this so unironically: do talk to your kids about it. Especially with the future of AI: I believe Media literacy is going to be INSANELY important to start grasping as soon as possible. My partner and I have used Mr. Beast as a starting point to have conversations about how people can be playing themselves as a character or presenting things as reality even though they’re scripted. We’ve also used it to engage in conversations about how liking/enjoying certain content isn’t a value judgement on the people creating it and how we all enjoy things written and created by people who weren’t super great humans. I encourage checking out “making of” docs also. He’s 9 so I can’t say how well this all plays out long term…but I have observed him noticing recurring tropes in some of his media so I feel like there’s something to it.

I think he’s saying the picture is real, but that the context/story might be fake. Ie: they put teddy bears on the thing but the teddy bears don’t necessarily come from Palestinian kids.

Still pretty deranged…but not comic book villain levels of evil.

However this all concludes whether it be: the worst case, best case, or mixed case scenario I honestly have to wonder out loud how anyone is expected to take phrases like “rules base international order” and “human rights” seriously ever again going forward?

Like I’m not naive and I know it was always bullshit and the rules have always been whatever we say they are but like…is this really gonna just be a case where everything is memory holled and everyone just tried to act like it wasn’t all exposed as a fucking sham for everyone to see?

I’m struggling to be cynical enough to believe it will play out like that…so I worry I am naive.

Genuinely Jaw dropping. I just went and watched the video because I couldn’t believe it, but its just as bad as its implied. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC2-fJw4SBg, about 4 mins in if you want to hear it for yourself.

I was already prepared to vote green but I’m stunned how little they’re even trying to make me have cold feet about it. I don’t fucking understand it…why don’t they just fucking lie like they do about everything else???

LET IT ROCK!!!

It’s definitionally not healthy. I’ve been sub 10% body fat as part of a personal goal/experiment before and it’s pretty fucking awful and totally unsustainable. 10-15% is maintainable for most people and you still have visible definition…but when you’e talking about stage ready bodybuilders or even some more modern shirtless scenes in movies it should always be stressed: they’ve literally starved themselves in preparation for this brief few minutes/hour long window. Absolutely nobody in the world looks like 24/7 365. It simply isn’t possible even with drugs and even if it were nobody would want to live that way

He might be in decent shape but yeah, that 10% body fat is almost certainly nonsense. I’m 6’1 and work hard to be part of the swoletariat around 200 lbs. and probably somewhere close to the 15% bodyfat range if I had guesstimate.

225 at 6’2" and 10% bf is almost literally Arnold fucking Schwarzenegger. He’s either an active competition level bodybuilder juiced to the gills or he’s full of shit.

I forget the details but I swear I saw a poll once where a plurality of Americans thought that “communism” and “dictatorship” were synonyms, which goes a long way towards explaining why most people think that being a communist means being pro-dictator and anti-democracy.

I mean that was basically the entire bait and switch that cold war propaganda did. They absolutely recognized that framing it as a battle between communism and democracy was a much easier sell to people.

This is also my central critique of the setting/world building in Mass Effect and one of the major reasons I wasn’t super hype for this game. At least mass effect has super interesting characters, even if their overall world building is paint by the numbers capitalist realism sci-fi.

Bethesda though? Oh dear…

It gets better. Apparently he did this after crowd sourcing for ideas and got the idea from Ian miles cheong.

https://twitter.com/nycsouthpaw/status/1699828939311452519?t=mKlj58VXhMnpH5T3E90qaA&s=19

I just genuinely do not understand how these fucking rubes seem to genuinely believe that Russia is somehow alone or uniquely powerful in terms of online propaganda or influence campaigns. Like I just want to sit down with these people face to face and try and see if they’ve even considered for one fucking second the idea that maybe literally every single national and private interest that exists, including their own country and corporations in it, are broadcasting propaganda online at a constant 24 hour basis.

If “Hints at Forgotten Values” and “Believes in, and tries to produce, beauty” weren’t enough then “Good art is man’s divine right and terrible duty” should remove all doubt. Its most definitely Fasch.

It will vary depending on where you’re coming from but my budget, for the entire experience, was about 2k and that was almost right on the money. I went a little wild in the dealers room and that put me over budget. Here’s a small breakdown. I might write up a longer guide if there is interest.

-Event pass for the early bird pricing was about 90 dollars for Saturday and Sunday between ticket and processing fees. Each game you want to enter as a competitor is about 10 dollars. Personally even if you’re mainly just a spectator I’d recommend entering the games you’re interested in anyway. Nothing wrong with being a pot monster. -There are some additional add-ons you can buy with the ticket such as getting your gamer tag on your badge ($10), and a tshirt ($30). Up to you but personally I went all out.

-IMPORTANT: finals day is a seperate ticket purchase. Its held in the michelob ultra arena and it will fill up fast. This ticket on its own is about 106 dollars total. Finals day is worth it. Don’t miss out and order early!

-Plane tickets and/or gas to drive are going to vary entirely based on where you’re coming from. I live in Texas and it was just over 500 dollars to get round trip tickets with the flight cancellation plan added on in case covid hit me. I recommend getting there Thursday afternoonish and picking up your badge as early as possible. You can fly out monday whenever. Whatever you do don’t get in super late thursday or early friday morning, it’ll ruin the whole experience.

-I recommend doing carry on and avoiding baggage check fees, but be aware you’re likely to get a full packed flight to vegas and they WILL be sticklers about the carry on policy due to lack of room. If you want to bring souvenirs back make sure you have the space available.

-No shuttle from the airport to hotel. You’ll need an uber/taxi so factor that cost in. The trip from the airport is about 20ish with a tip. I recommend reserving a pickup from the hotel 2 hours before your flight on monday, which costs closer to 30.

-There are two exclusive offers they’ll have for hotel rooms for Evo. One is at the Luxor and one is at Mandalay bay hotels. The Luxor is by far the cheaper option at 150ish a night versus like 350ish at Mandalay bay. I’m sure the Mandalay bay hotel rooms are super nice but IMO it is a needless expense. You have everything you need at luxor and there isn’t much reason to be in your room unless you’re sleeping. The only exception to this is if you want to run some kind of salty suite…but that’s up to you and your crew to figure out. Final bill for me was about $650.

-Food and drink wise, let me not beat around the bush: EVERYTHING IN VEGAS IS OVERPRICED. Its stupid expensive. 6 dollars for a bottle of water. Plan extra for your food budget and maybe make a quick stop at a grocery/convenience store along the way! Also: there are some really great restaurants in Vegas…so I hear. The reality is that around 9:00 you’re going to be faced with the decision to either get food or stay at the tournament. The tournament concludes at 9:00 fri/sat but the venue will remain open for 2 more hours to go snag art stuff as well as casual stations. By the time 11 hits your food options are extremely limited. You can get okish food at some of the bars but other than that you’re pretty much limited to mall food at the food court. Next year I’m planning on finding a grocery store and just getting stocked up for the next couple nights.

-After that your remaining costs are what you want to spend in the dealers/art alley spots. They have some excellent stuff. BRING CASH AS THEY WON’T CHARGE YOU TAX! I spent about 200 dollars here and could have easily spent another 100 if i’d wanted to!

-Gamble at your own risk and budget whatever you want for this appropriately. I abstained completely and advise everyone to do the same…but you do you.

So again, all together about $2,000 is the final bill. Hope that helps!

You know sometimes I have to admit I feel a bit frustrated about how jaded I am towards so much media now since becoming a leftist. There are days I do kinda wish I could just clap like a seal and enjoy the latest Marvel nonsense without a hint of cynicism.

Shit like this makes me realize how much fucking worse it is on the flip side…and that makes me so fucking happy.