There was a post recently saying the total sum of wage theft, including conventional theft and the results of suppressed wages, totals to like $50 trillion over the past few decades.
Shit's bad. But other than the rich, people in the US have like no class consciousness.
I do wonder how the media will frame it when ICE tries to kidnap someone, and gets shot. I guess it depends on if they live or not. If the ICE agents are dead, the survivor can tell a story without being so easily contradicted. Otherwise, it'll be competing testimony and a lot of people reflexively believe police/police-like-figures.
DND is tricky to recommend. On the one hand, as far as RPGs go it's mega popular. On the other, it's a very specific kind of game and rather finicky.
Many people who don't want to play fantasy dungeon crawling tactical combat would enjoy other genres, but finding those groups can be harder. One of my friends has no real interest in fantasy, but immediately was like "LET'S DO IT" when I mentioned a game of Vampire.
The tabletop game meetup I know of (in New York) is explicitly friendly to new players. One of the hosts said their first game ever was at the meetup many years ago.
One of the reasons I prefer playing on PC over other platforms is there's usually fan made mods / cheats. Like, yeah, I could do something really tedious for four hours, or I could get a mod to skip it. This is my leisure activity, not an exam.
I try to be mindful that too much cheating can water down the experience. Like, if I was playing BG3 and just set everyone to max level from the start, I would probably have less fun, personally. But if someone just wants to do the story and have fun with exploding barrels? Not for me to judge.
(I do draw the line at multiplayer. Cheating against other people is rude as heck. )
I think there was a bit in Vampire: The Masquerade where you could eat drain another vampire to gain their powers. Someone tried to do that to an especially powerful vampire, but the eaten vampire was so powerful they took over the one who ate them from the inside, eventually. So that might be a concern. You eat someone who's so vivid that it eclipses who you were.
Yeah. Often when I talk to people who say they "don't have time" I wonder where their time is going. Often to watching TV. Sometimes podcasts. Social media is a big time suck.
But like if you have time to watch all of the office again this year, you had time to play video games.
A friend of mine realized they were just losing hours a day to Instagram. Delete that, and you have time for better hobbies. Play a game. Read a book.
Having children seems like a bigger factor. The only couple I know that has kids still has time. One spends it on DND, and other on TV and simple phone games.
Unknown Armies is kind of like this. Most magic requires obsession, and you don't get a lot of well adjusted, friendly, people who also, say, collects all many of coin and money (money is power) but won't spend any (that's giving away your power!)
There's a bunch of schools of magic but they're all built on an obsession and paradox. The book is really well written, too. (At least 2e is. I didn't spend much time with 3e)
Right, humans are bad about that kind of thing. I think it has to do with Dunbar's number? The monkeysphere? It's hard for us to model a lot of people as full people in our head, especially as they're more removed from us.
Like you probably don't really think about the garbage man as a fully fleshed out guy with hopes, dreams, a favorite band, a love that got away, and all that. When you have some absolutely rancid trash, you probably just throw it in the can and forget about it. But if it was your mother or best friend that was going to have to deal with it, maybe you'd be more careful. Wouldn't want the bag to rip and spray maggots all over Mom.
That's fine. That's all of us.
But I think there's degrees. Shades. Like you mentioned cell phones. Most of us accept the out of sight horrors that go with them. But, like, some people are absolute assholes to wait staff. Just treat the waiter like shit, are rude to the coffee shop people, whatever. I think most of us recognize that as bad.
Somewhere between those two points I think is "I'm going to build software to spy on people". Personally, I think that should be ok the far side of the line. The not okay side. Why? A bit of self preservation, a bit of ethics, and a helping of "I don't want to contribute to bad things happening to people, even ones I don't know".
This post is getting long. I think you're right that it's not as simple as "doesn't care about other people" but I think that's a factor.
It's not a betrayal. That's an absurd characterization.
They're not being mocked for their immutable traits. They're being mildly disparaged for not doing anything to resist the trump administration, and the fact that they are personally extremely safe is being pointed out. They are not being insulted for being cis het white guys. They are being mildly insulted for staying home playing video games while fascism is outside shooting journalists.
The fact that they're cishet white etc is brought up because it's, let's say, interesting that they're not doing anything when they're not in any personal danger. There's a whole poem about that, the one that ends with "and there was no one left to speak for me.".
Let me say it again. They're not being attacked because of their immutable traits. They're being insulted for their inaction. Their immutable traits make their inaction worse. Like if you need a place to stay, it's harder to accept when the guy living alone in a four bedroom says no than when the couple living in a studio does.
I'm sorry you've been hurt and felt betrayed but I think you're really reading more into this than there is. I texted one of the guys I was referring to in the initial post and he laughed pretty hard about it.
You're really going to bat hard for people you don't even know, huh.
Atacking them based on a characterization? What? My point is they're not going to protests or doing much to resist the trump admin, and they're privileged enough that they're not in any personal danger. They know why they're being asked to go. It's on the news and internet, too. They decided they'd rather just stay home and play video games.
I know one thing though. you’re a shit friend for attacking them for things they can’t change and implying they are wrong for being it.
lol what. Are you serious? They're not being attacked for their immutable properties. They're being derided for staying home instead of doing a bare minimum.
Why are you so worked up about this? Did you also freak out about the "in the woods: man or bear?" thing?
You're right that I don't know you. All I got was your post.
When you wrote, "what exactly is offered to these friends for them to leave the comfort of their homes?", it came off as very transactional. Like, "I don't care about other people and their struggles, unless I'm being offered something.". That's why I ask if I'd need to sell you on the idea of caring about people.
I don't know how much you're doing. Your whole tangent about comparing weiners is kind of a non sequitur.
Your line "I just help others because it needs to be done without my ego getting in the way." specifically seems to contradict "what are you offering them?"
Nothing effective. Invited them to come out with me to the protest. Suggested we hang out after. Tried to appeal to their civic duty. Tried to appeal to their obligations to the more vulnerable.
A handful of my friends are going. A couple friends I can't convince to leave their house, so they'll be staying home enjoying the safety of being straight white cis abled bodied men, I guess.
Conservatives dont care about facts or truth. They use words for feelings. That's it. Salt of the earth. The common clay. You know. Morons.