KarlBarqs [he/him, they/them]

I know no less than 30 people I could send this article to, and yet know I would get one of two responses:

1. It actually was a spy balloon and all the media is pretending it wasn’t so that the US can hide that they’ve gained valuable knowledge

Or

2. Okay maybe this one wasn’t, but what if it was a spooky Chinese spy balloon?

And in the immense wave of paranoia afterwards they shot down three American weather balloons at the cost of 400k per missile plus fuel and maintenance and man hours.

Somehow we’ve managed to find the first human being to function without a single neuron firing.

A brain exists, but nothing is occuring within. No electrical signals, no neural activity.

And yet they manage to post anyway

For example, many meetings where I am start with an acknowledgment that the land we’re on once belonged to a particular tribe of people who were wiped out.

A land acknowledgement isn’t shit if it isn’t backed by any action. It means jack shit to acknowledge that one is on stolen land and then do nothing to give the land back to those it was stolen from.

All it does is let white libs feel a little better about themselves for five minutes, and then wash their hands of any of the true consequences and outcomes of the genocide that gave them this land.

To be somewhat fair, all of Russia’s claims in Ukraine (Crimea, the Donbas) would give them unparalleled access to the Sea of Azov and the northern banks of the Black Sea. Yes, I know they control a significant portion of the Black Sea already, but this would allow them to wrap the Sea of Azov nicely.

I know Russia states they’re there to kick the Nazis out of the Donbas and protect the Russian language minority in that region, but I also don’t believe any nation, especially a very nationalistic, neoliberal government like Russia’s, is out doing something out of the goodness of their hearts. Call me a cynic, but I think the expanded Black Sea control is more important to the government.

Nah, I am one of the few dudes in my social circle who know how to cook. Most subsist off some form of frozen foods and prepackaged stuff. Cooking is seen as a girly thing to do, unless it’s m e a t, but even then I haven’t seen most dudes cook meat properly

As a whitey myself I’ve always found “Yakubian devil” fucking hilarious tbh

When it comes to these Wunderwaffen, remember that Western media surrounding war for the last 40 years or more has been about how incredibly superior NATO tech is to Russian tech in every aspect.

Take the Challenger 2 tanks that recently got sent to Ukraine. As someone who used to really be too into military stuff, any time you read about the Challenger 2 there was always talk about how invincible it was, how it has never been destroyed in battle, how the armour is so advanced that even what it’s made out of is a classified state secret. When you hear stuff like this for decades on end, it’s difficult to shake it even when one sees Challenger 2s torched in a field, and often these NAFO types will justify it by saying sure, it was destroyed, but that tank probably took down 30 T-90s before it was taken out.

In some places I’ve been in, the liberal rationale is that the governments are cowards for not providing more arms to Ukraine and should be giving at least double what’s already given, and that - at least in the US - they’re being blocked by the “pro-Putin” GOP from sending more.

It’s purely nonsensical.

Fun fact:

He voices a character in Fallout 4. Specifically, he voices a character who, regardless of your interaction with him, calls you the R-slur

He was 14.

At 14, I guarantee you did stupid shit. And at 14, I’m sure you didn’t expect the grocery store to sell you food with fatal amounts of capsaicin in it.

It was a dumb idea, sure, but he was a fucking child and likely didn’t think it would be legitimately dangerous.

they would support somebody equally if not more bloodthirsty as Putin, so long as he was following the rules based international order while bombing a non-European country

They fucking do, he’s called Navalny, a man who had a campaign ad where he essentially called for the expulsion of all Muslims from Russia, and someone who I’m fairly sure also supports this war.

Same lead writer, Emil Pagliarulo, a hack of a writer who somehow has been the head of every Bethesda project since Oblivion.

How could they? A 15 minute city isn’t literally creating like 1 square kilometer mini cities within a city, it’s just urban planning. There’s no conceivable way for this to ever have cops try and enforce city zones.

Not only that, but commodifying his death in order to get people to pity him after death. I get the same vibes from the quest as all those glowing articles about McCain just prior to and after his death: yeah sure he did some awful stuff but by golly he tried to do better at the end. It’s disgustingly cynical and not in the way I think Cyberpunk intended.

I think it would have worked better if the guy wasn’t repentant and instead it was made clear that he was choosing the crucifixion BD route out of corpo coercion rather than an attempted sacrificial martyrdom. Make it about how the death penalty is awful regardless of who gets it, and how commodifying death is worse.

I found the worst part about the Sinnerman questline is that at no point can you or anything other character point out that the murderer is a self-serving prick trying to martyr himself. The only two choices are to go along with it and act as if it’s some odd noble thing he’s doing while the execs are drooling for more Content, or to take the stance that he’s a weirdo because of his religious beliefs. At no point does the quest entertain the idea that he’s doing this to get a bit of a last laugh spotlight on him before his execution.

I found it was a very Bazinga Brain concept for a quest, like a shitty Black Mirror episode.

lost just six of their 105 Western-made tanks: five of 71 Leopard 2s and one of 14 Challenger 2s.

I love how they frame this as positive. The Leopard 2 and Challenger 2 are the current frontline tanks for the entirety of Western Europe, tanks that were constantly thought to be invincible compared to Russian tanks, and they got clowned on by significantly older Russian tanks. And these EU bozos still think they could win handily against Russia?

Edit: I’m also calling bullshit on this article for another reason. A comrade posted pictures of the burnt out tank lower down, and that turret is not still attached. It’s canted at an abnormal angle. The ammo cooked off and likely caused a relatively small detonation that lifted the turret just a bit, rather than a more spectacular turret flying through the air, but it absolutely sheared the turret off.

Do you think Finland is capitalist? Or the rest of the EU?

Are you trying to imply that Finland or the EU is socialist?

Because if so

I’m all for transgender rights.

I’m all for trans rights/

I’ve got pride flags in my yard/

I support those brave souls who step out of the closet/

But when it comes to trans athletes, I think that’s a step too far/

So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal

Yes, it is a complicated issue.

What’s complicated about it, name one single aspect about the issue that cannot be solved with “yes or no”.