There's people who believe that all written fantasy things have truth to them due some genetic mumbo jumbo projection / manifestation. So, for example, when you see the Asgard in Stargate, they didn't got their look from the new age pop culture of the Greys, but the Greys are real and this is some sort of sublime messaging or conditioning. It's all a big conspiracy.
If I recall correctly, GoT was originally proposed by GRRM as straight historical fiction about the Wars of the Roses and his publishers (wisely, it seems) suggested he use that history and turn it into fantasy.
Not really. Detaching one’s self from reality is inherently hostile to humanity’s future. It’s an asshole thing to do.
To be fair, we’re all assholes far more than we like to admit, religious or not. Being “spiritual” is not especially worse than a whole lot of other behaviors.
Why would anyone respect an opinion? I respect your right to have an opinion. I respect your right to advocate for an opinion. Opinions themselves should have to earn respect.
This is a perfect example of the kind of harm that magical thinking must do to society in order to preserve itself. Your words sound egalitarian, but they make you an asshole without you even noticing it.
Name one example of a serious problem being faced by humanity that isn’t solidly rooted in undue respect for unchallenged ideas. I think that any philosophy that inherently encourages that kind of behavior is dangerous. I know full well that some people think that makes me an asshole, but I also know they will never try to actually support that belief. Now that’s irony.
Whatever that is supposed to mean, I’m sure you can. But you shouldn’t expect anything of the kind from the head of an organisation with millennia of the most gruesome human rights abuses on their record.
Yeah, when Google starts trying to manipulate the meaning of results in it’s favour, instead of just traffic, things will be at a whole other level of scary.
You see, the comic doesn’t denote who is speaking. So I am asking as if I think the fan is the one speaking to the old man. Thus making a secondary, arguably worse, joke.
The cartoon humorously plays on the classic character Don Quixote, from the novel by Miguel de Cervantes. In the story, Don Quixote famously mistakes windmills for giants and attempts to fight them.
In this cartoon, Don Quixote is depicted on his horse with his lance, but instead of a windmill, he encounters a simple electric fan. The punchline, “I will not fight a child,” adds to the humor by suggesting that Don Quixote perceives the fan as a much smaller and less threatening opponent, akin to a child, thus deciding it’s not worth fighting. The absurdity of mistaking an electric fan for a child, combined with the reference to his original confusion with windmills, creates a humorous twist.
Looked it up fairly recently (cuz you know men got mad about bears or whatever) but don’t have source on me: Black bears cause about 1.2 human deaths per year across all of America.
That’s probably about right. Black bears don’t get into fights they don’t have to. I don’t know how many dozens of black bears I’ve been around, but the only problem I’ve ever had involved a cub. Even that was a communication issue! I was trying to get the hell out of there, the cub was moving towards me, and the sow didn’t like me moving in any direction lol
Made myself as big as possible, had my .357 out just in case, and not as slowly as I meant to continued to walk backwards the way I had come. Once she stopped coming towards me I turned around and went back to where I knew a clearing was. I plopped my ass in the middle of the clearing just in case, and waited a while. Once the shadows moved enough I headed back up the path and got to my truck.
It’s kinda why I never got the whole would you rather thing. As a fairly big dude, I’d much prefer the bear over a man or a woman. The bear is more than likely just going to scamper off. Even decent people in bad situations are very dangerous creatures, and more than likely, I’m just going to have to take care of a complete stranger in the woods.
A black bear is more likely to scamper off. A brown bear is going to expect you to scamper off. As an avid backpacker, I’m not stoked about the plan to reintroduce brown bears to my state.
As an avid backpacker, I’m not stoked about the plan to reintroduce brown bears to my state.
I do a lot of hiking as well, and yes brown bears are definitely more of a pucker your b-hole scenario. But for the most part as long as you don’t sneak up on one accidentally or accidentally get between the bear and the cubs, they’re fairly harmless. Ya just gotta have something that makes some noise when you’re hiking, I have buddies that just strap a cow bell on their packs.
It would still be pretty rare for one to outright attack a full grown person, they are generally aware that peeps be dangerous.
The problem with that is then you don’t see all of the other wildlife that is fun to come across while in the wilderness. You won’t have any more random deer or racoon sightings, since everything will run from your bell. Obviously it’s better to be safer, but I’m generally pretty happy that we don’t have fearless apex predators in our forests. We have a few apex predators with the black bear, grey wolf, and cougar, but those are all very wary of humans, and generally not a threat like the brown bear would be.
That’s fair, though it doesn’t seem to bother the little critters like rabbits or racoons for some reason. But yeah, it’ll def make the deer scamper off.
Tigers are fuzzy and cuddly, and they look like they can kill, with self-sharpening claws and big canine teeth.
We look like funny apes, and what makes us dangerous are all strange magics like sticks that spit rocks, mists of death and our capacity to summon and play with fire. Then we build giant nests of concrete and lights and clockwork machines.
The second verse of “Weird Al” Yankovic’s song, Headline News, is about these two.
Once there was this girl who Swore that one day she would be a figure skating champion And when she finally made it She saw some other girl who was better And so she hired some guy to Club her in the knee cap
Now you may find it inconceivable or rather very least a bit unlikely that The relative position of the planets and the stars Could have a special deep significance or meaning That exclusively applies to only you But, let me give you my assurance that These forecasts and predictions are all based on Solid, scientific, documented evidence So you would have to be some kind of moron Not to realize that every single one of them is absolutely true Where was I?
Weren't some states instituting book bans for subjects considered "harmful"? This seems like a prime opportunity to twist some poorly written state laws and do some actual good with them.
No. States were removing books from school libraries based on content, though. I always feel a bit bitter when I research something and realize I’ve been misled. Book banning isn’t really allowed.
While this book existing is whatever, it shouldn’t be in any school. Hopefully no public libraries either.
That’s hardly the only one that US public schooling completely avoids teaching about… Tulsa, OK, OK to TN before that, and Wyoming too… the despicably shameful list goes on
I suggest looking up what the Pinkertons were about as well. The US had a nasty history when it comes to the poor and people of color who get “uppity”.
They still exist to this day, and do the same business. There more recent thing was being hired by Wizards of the Coast to intimidate someone who received MTG cards before official release date.
This was a big stink on the R site; there is no reason to maintain that company name except to capitalize on its horrifying reputation.
I know very well what the Pinkertons did back then — and are still doing as part of various union-buster merc groups hired by Amazon, Starbucks, etc. (the WotC thing is a blip that happened to ruffle geek feathers, so it bubbled up over there), but the simple fact that the general public doesn’t (want to?) connect the dots between alt-right, cop gangs, and mercs like the Pinkertons is only one reason that this nation will continue to be slavery based, no matter the cosmetic flourish every 4+ years. 🤌🏽
Pinkertons today is a brand name purchased by a Swedish security firm. It has nothing to do with the previous Pinkertons and (fellow) D&D nerds circlejerking that the guys from Red Dead Redemption had come to (literally ask to) retrieve stolen property without involving the law was very embarrassing.
If it had nothing to do with the name, they would have dropped the name. The reputation behind the name is the point. Plenty of people knew who the pinkertons were before Rockstar released grand theft cowboy.
no, it’s that the same power structures have persisted and are still doing the same shit under a different mantle, even if it’s technically a Swedish company now (hit those people from Blair Mountain are long since retired, yet the organization is still doing similar things).
PS: “literally ask to” is a funny way of saying intimidate, the reason they refused to involve proper authorities was that legally speaking they had no case
The Swedish company is one you are probably familiar with - Securitas. Its quite literally not the same power structure, and completely different shit. They aren’t hunting outlaws. They arent union-busting. They are people you send to someones house when you dont want to involve the police. They didn’t intimidate the guy - he him himself described the interaction as “very nice, very apologetic”. Remind me again how interactions with American police usually go?
And no, they definitely had a case. The guy obtained unreleased cards (ie stolen) “from an acquaintance” and then refused all attempts to contact him by WotC. Do you think WotC should have sent police to his door? Would that have been a better loom for them?
again, just because it’s a different company doesn’t change the power structures that enable them, we aren’t talking about corporate structures here (also Securitas does unironically union bust for large companies like Amazon).
as for the “They didn’t intimidate the guy”, you don’t do that by threatening legal actions and the costs involved bankrupting a person.
The guy obtained unreleased cards (ie stolen) “from an acquaintance” and then refused all attempts to contact him by WotC.
That is complete head cannon on your end, as WotC tried calling twice with a suppressed phone ID and then sent the agent directly.
Do you think WotC should have sent police to his door?
you know, we have this magic thing in the civilized world called “proper legal action”, if they had a case they would have just sent a legal notice, inform the police, and the police only come get you if you ignore the court, but they didn’t do that, you know why? because no lawyer worth his salt would have signed off on this
How is this whataboutism? What happened to them is a direct (disproportionate) result of their actions. That’s not what whataboutism means.
Here is a hard concept for some people: Don’t: start a cult, collect illegal firearms, create a compound with the intention of drawn out conflict, start shielding people from lawful arrests over acts of terrorism, open fire on an actual legion of police officers and firefighters, continue shooting at them even after the roof is covered in flames and your fellow cultmembers are holding children above the water of the flooding basement. Maybe at some point attempt a surrender, maybe around the time they evacuated the entire area and rolled up with a fucking anti-tank machinegun?
Yeah, what of it? In Waco they thought the compound might be stockpiling illegal weapons, which turned out to be true when 4 ATF were gunned down. Then the FBI tried to negotiate for 51 days. That’s way better response than what happened in Philly.
And you would rather the people in charge of Waco were in charge of the police?
Yes there were huge problems with the police response, pooly trained and gung-ho who clearly made it worse but also it was a difficult situation and it’s hard to see it resolved by anyone without issue.
We were taught about the Trail of Tears when I was a kid. Is it no longer taught? Wait, I got transferred to a private school in fifth grade. That might be where it came up.
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