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I was just arguing with an old white man who complained that the Wheel of Time TV series is "less white less manly" compared to the books and is therefore "woke crap". Aside from the fact that this assertion is based off of an idea of masculinity as outdated as he is (stoic, non-verbal and...

It's a new era of adaptations. There are so many these days. And with each new adaptation, millions of voices cry out, and they won't be silenced. Look, I get it, you love the original. But guess what? It's still there. It's not somehow cheapened or ruined by the adaptation. And I simply...

Ironically, fascism seems similar to Bolshevism and other historical revolutionary movements in that it has an intellectual vanguard that buys into the ideology, but it gains critical mass from people who are motivated to support it for other reasons. Maybe fear of the other or fear of losing...

There's a concerning development where I am recently that shed some light on what I feel is a disturbing trend. A boy wearing a jacket with the Nazi flag and German eagle in public was told off by a woman who inquired if he was a Nazi supporter. He answered in the affirmative and she basically...

Editions of yore: What Video Games have you been playing I: My Muffintop Expands! What Video Games have you been playing II: Have you finished that backlog? What Video Games have you been playing III: You're gonna need a bigger boat. What video games have you been playing? 4 What video games...

There has been lots of noise about 'cancel culture' the world over in recent years. The term is thrown around whenever people call out someone or an organisation for things they do and say. Sometimes, things do get cancelled, like when a band could not perform because they no longer had the...

There is an AI archer in Medina. I moused over the city to show that the city is not on a hill and has no walls. The archer had just shot my archer above the tooltip, which is why it's damaged. How is it possible for the AI archer to fire over the sheep hill when I can't do the same?? Can...

I've noticed a pretty big trend in entertainment media recently where opinions on 'bold' new productions tend to be very divided, especially along the lines of professional critics vs. mass audience. Now, you might be thinking that this isn't new at all. Popular entertainment has long been...

This might get people more fired up. The plural of anecdote is not data, but anecdotes are enough to get a discussion going. I've noticed that in conversations about political issues, especially relating to 'softer' issues like personal identity, a lot of those who seem blithely unaware of or...

I've noticed that when practitioners, people who spend most or all their time doing a particular type of work that they specialise in, do give their view on something, they often offer a pretty one-sided perspective that comes from their area of expertise. The best would simply accept and...

A failed state would have a weak government. Private interests would be more free to pursue their goals, and the outcomes you get would be more dependent of your capabilities and the resources you have. Isn't that what the US Republicans want? Is that what 'small state' right wingers want in...

This might be early, but I have time right now and we can revisit this next year. It seems to me that American moderates are beginning to panic about what re-electing Donald Trump would mean. But their suggestion is for Democrats to run a moderate candidate, which didn't work the last time. If...

And conversely, what most people think is bad is bad. I've recently seen this sentiment expressed here on this forum, but it's a pretty common one, and we all probably lean on it at some point. It's much easier to push your point when you can claim that you have majority backing - it cuts down...

I'm sure nobody is surprised by the existence of shills for political parties. You could say that at the very least there's probably some innately human sense of tribalism at play there. But what about corporate shills? Are they mostly either employees or paid by the corp? Because why else would...

Saw an article that claims, with the make up of the US Supreme Court as it now is, 24 American states may go ahead and ban abortion. Not sure how real such a prospect actually is (go ahead and discuss that too), but if it does happen, then what? Will the majority of American voters accept it...

I guess we can reframe that as a more fundamental question: What constitutes 'PC culture'? Assuming you think 'PC culture' is a bad thing, I suppose you'll want it dismantled entirely, so it becomes a question of what is not 'PC culture'. Should people be allowed to say anything they want...

When it comes to things that cause enough social harm but that societies can't give up for whatever reason (whether those reasons are rational or not), there's almost always a divide between those that believe the harm should be mitigated by heavy regulation and those that believe it should be...

In a previous thread, I posed a question about alternatives to democracy, but ultimately the discussion wasn't able to move beyond assertions that democracy tends to make society better or rhetorical questions about what could be better than democracy. So let's re-examine the topic from a...

Outside of the West, democracy as you know it is probably not the norm. Often, the trappings of democracy may be present in one form or another, but they're a fig leaf for de jure non-democratic ways with which ruling elites retain power. From sham elections to Electoral Politics with Limited...

Left-liberals have always been derided for wanting safe spaces, but what about moderates and the right? Right-wingers champion freedom of speech and are anti-PC culture, but when their views are criticised, they often raise a stink and are quick to accuse critics of trying to shut down...