I agree with your first two paragraphs, but disagree with you minimizing the conflict with the rest. The Israel Palestine conflict isn't a mess because it's in the Middle East or ancient tribal grudges or religion or any of that. It's because one group wanted another group's land and so they decided to take it even though people already lived there. And now a genocide is happening. Same thing happened in the US, Canada, Australia, it's basic settler colonialism, but happening recently enough that we can try to stop it this time. He's acting way too slow. It's a hard line for a lot of people, and for good reason. That's the biggest crime you can do basically.
It's one of the simplest situations in the world right now. And Biden hasn't done anything about it but words and some small aid towards Palestinians. He needs to start taking actual action to stop the killing and start denying weapons to Israel, censuring them in the UN, using sanctions, things like that, that they'd be doing for any other country, like Russia. Netanyahu is making Biden look very weak. Iran has no reason to invade, that's a silly worry. There's no evidence that would happen. And Israel can defend itself with all the weapons they already have. The only reason Biden is acting slow is because he's a self-professed Zionist and Israel Stan, and has been his whole life.
And Iran isn't the "good guys" but that also doesn't mean they're the "bad guys" for retaliating when they're attacked, that just invites other nations to keep doing that. Same excuse we give for helping Ukraine stop Russia. International law is there for a reason. The US has done plenty of horrible stuff to all of South America, that shouldn't give them the freedom to start killing our officials or attacking near or at embassies. In this situation, we're the ones defending the bad guys trying to ravage this conflict, which is Israel.
But on all other topics, Biden is good. But this is just an important one for a lot of people. This is the most we've been involved in causing ethnic cleansing since manifest destiny and the Native Americans. We have the chance to at least not enable a genocide and ethnic cleansing campaign from a country that we directly supply the weapons for, and we're blowing it.
Fungi confuse me. I can't figure out what they are. I think the fact that I thought they were plants my whole life and then it turns out they aren't just broke me lol.
Sound alike the gymnastics to define racial categories to preserve a social hierarchy as well. What is white? Well it's people from here and here, not Irish, not Jewish, etc. Oh wait, Irish are allowed now but not Okies. Okay, they're allowed now but no Jews! Now, Jewish can be allowed sometimes but no Italians. Alright, Italians, but no Jews, Irish are also okay, some Hispanic people if they can pass, certain Asians can be let in, etc. Etc. It always go on like that. It stays malleable just to make it exclusive.
Don't look up too much the first time reading it. Just enjoy the weird ride. Feel free to page over to the relevant appendices every now and then, although they didn't make a ton of sense to me. When you're done, check them out. Apparently there's various secret messages and stuff back there that reveal more of the story but like I said, I still need to figure them out myself lol. Once I finished the book my mind was too twisted up trying to figure it out to look into them, but I'll come back... one day.
Soooo many. TTRPGs are a hobby I adore despite not playing much of lol.
Books I own that I haven't played yet include most of the Chronicles of Darkness series (I'd love to try the new Vampire: the Requiem 2e, Werewolf: the Forsaken 2e, Promethean 2e, Changeling 2e, and Mage: the Awakening 2e especially), Dungeon World, Blades in the Dark, the Avatar rpg, and Shadowrun (don't remember).
I've also been interested in a more crunchy D&D than my normal game 5e, so I've been looking into Pathfinder 2E and D&D 4E. I've been actively looking into running and playing in 4e lately and so far, reading into it, I don't think I have it a fair shake the first time around. I also wouldn't turn away Level Up 5e if someone offered to run it for me.
Other games I'd like to play: Vaesen, Mothership, Paranoia, and now Daggerheart.
It takes a bit of time to warm up, but once it does, it's pretty entertaining. It's not some masterpiece, but it's fun and ridiculous, and knows it is.
This was an unfortunate way to start my day