You’re right, the democratization point is utter bullshit, my bad, missed that one.

As for the other points, as I alluded to, there are caveats for many of them. On the other hand, the soviet union modernized a country that was partly a feudalist state into a superpower. While the ideology and methods are unsympathetic, many of its results were beneficial, for example health care, which though imperfect, was universal and free, unlike the US for example. Education was also free and of high quality overall, marred of course with indoctrination and ideological blinders, but still good.

Saying the USSR was all good or all bad is a naive and unnuanced analysis of 80 years of history. Compare it to tsarist Russia incredible leaps were made. Compare it to USA they outperformed them on some metrics, and underperformed on others.

You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.

I don’t believe this! As a fumgrian living as a would be dead camoose off Mt. Kabul, I am overjizzed that AI is reading all my pornhub comments.

None of what is said here is untrue.

It just leaves out the dictatorship, the gulags, the holodomor, the torture, personality cult, the propaganda, the wars of aggression, political oppression at home and abroad etc etc.

Yeah forget about sending those squatters back to Europe. We don’t fucking want them.

Totally. Been a gamer for 30+ years, and none of the new stuff holds my interest. Also, my hardware being less than a full time mortgage, means most new games run poorly. So, old stuff it is.

I read the book

Couldn’t even get the image right. Atlas bore not the earth, but the sky.

Norway has BankAxept I believe. Fully homegrown, works just like visa.

Dear Andrew. You need to fill your head with stuff cause you’re unable to sit in the silence of your own mind since it’s shouting what an utter failure you are at being a decent person. You’ve hurt so many people, and deep down you know that ain’t right. It’s called cognitive dissonance. I want to hope you can become a whole person someday, but frankly you don’t deserve that. Honestly I can’t see you as anything other than a drain on society.

Eh, the original from the 90s is a more solid game. The game is good is some ways, but flawed in many. First of all the dumbing down. In 90s version you recruit soldiers for money, then check their stats and make them snipers, grenadiers, shock troops or even suicide bombers depending on their skills. 2012 version, you get a bunch of gamified units that have set upgrade paths.

90s version you build and attack multiple bases, administrate a world wide war with great wins and painful losses. In 2012, you pretty much have to win each scenario or the game becomes unwinnable.

Old version, more units, lose one or two, the fight goes on. New version, two dead soldiers will make many fights unwinnable. Old, all aliens are on map at start. New, aliens spawn suddenly in illogical positions and often put your troops in impossible situations that you would never have wandered into if the enemy was on the field and not suddenly appeared out of thin air.

Old, no limits to equipment, give every man 2 grenades and 2 smoke grenades, no worries. New, only Carl can carry smoke grenades, because the game wants to force strategic choices.

I could go on, but long story short, yes new xcom was good, but it really was a dumber version of the original, which had small flaws, but is still an amazing game. New xcom I would just not want to play again.

Your knowledge in this field supersedes mine, I defer to you. I merely summarized the article in my simple understanding. Which, I feel is kinda the same as what you said, only simpler and less accurate. Thank you for the elaboration.

Also, grinds my gears is an expression, and so is gets my goat. Yet clichés make us all dumber so I decided to grab the readers attention with a mangled metaphor, hoping it would draw smiles and further attention.

Norway is wrong. Jon and even John (pronounced Yohn) are in common use and closer.

Skatusen?

I agree, all countries should be split up into smaller parts, with say 5-10 million people. Then they can have meaningful democracy and will be too few to want to start wars. Yeay.

1. That must be quite frustrating and difficult for your self esteem.

2. You may be right, but you might be putting your own insecurities on to the motivations of others. The world from other people’s perspective don’t always align with what we think. Could what you describe be as easily explained by something else, perhaps even your insecurity about it?

3. Have you discussed this issue with friends / family and gotten their honest thoughts? Do they agree that what you say could pose a problem?

4. Have you attempted to make yourself look older with makeup and such? Are the results the same with as without?

5. Do you have male friends you can ask if you are attractive?

6. Are there republican conventions nearby? If the men there show interest and say you’re mature for your age, you may want to A. Run B. Conclude that your features may be a challenge.

7. If men don’t approach and talk to you, try approaching and talking to them. Showing you’re interested and available is usually a turn on. Men are simple.

Best of luck.

Why would makeup need jewels…?

Thank you! You just gave me a new bbeg!

Compliance in the form of endless entertainment and distraction. Same shit happened in Rome with circuses, and fascist takeovers have happened many a time many a place. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance and people got complacent, lazy and stupid. Of course, the corporate enshittification of media and labor basically ensured it.

Argh. As a Wikipedia supporter this grinds my goat, if I can maul two expressions at once. On the other hand, reading the article I see that AI is scrubbing Wikipedia already and it’s driving up costs. What wiki is doing is creating a model where AI companies will pay them for what they’re currently doing anyway.

I don’t like it, but until they can be blocked or otherwise prevented from access, at least wikimedia should get something out of it. However I fear that this will lead to dependency on AI money, and that, that’s not good.