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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 10th, 2023

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  • I know this is a bit of a meme, but there is no such thing as ethical consumption under capitalism. It’s entirely a question of where you choose to draw the line.

    This applies to a lot of causes/principles I care about, but to illustrate with my stance on LGBT issues:

    • If a company openly donates directly to anti-LGBT causes? I’d boycott them, no further questions needed.

    • If a high ranking member of a company donates to anti-LGBT causes using their own (likely unethically obtained) funds? I’d boycott for sure unless their product/service is an absolute necessity.

    • If a company is headquartered in a state/country that is anti-LGBT? I would definitely boycott as long as there is a suitable alternative.

    • If a company pays/employs people who are anti-LGBT? Gosh, well, that’s probably most companies. Is it possible to account for how every individual employee/beneficiary chooses to spend the money they make for their work? I have no capacity to make choices at this point.

    Those are my lines.

    When I shop at the supermarket, I have to accept that there are likely people working there somewhere with horrible beliefs whose income is financially supported by my patronage. When I buy clothing, I have to accept that there are probably products I’ve purchased that are made through exploitative labor practices. When it is within my means to spend capital more ethically, I will. But it is absolutely not possible for me to ensure that every dollar I spend goes to a worthwhile cause or to someone who deserves it.

    The Good Place really illustrated this point well in the later episodes. In the modern world where everything is so much more interconnected than ever before, we need to redefine traditional ethics to better consider what is practical for normal people. And the worse your circumstances are, the harder it is to have that luxury of choice.


  • It’s kinda part of the continuity they have between events. They have a Ninja Warrior-esque obstacle course. One year they bring in a group of super sentai sort of people for the event (obstacles, explosions, Japanese pop culture, kind of an easy mix) where the red/yellow/black ranger pose emotes came from. Now this seems to be building further off of that, since there must always be one ranger cooler than the others I guess.













  • You’re right. A lot of people in China would probably disagree with me. But a lot of people in China lack the basic critical thinking skills to even question their circumstances, because secondary schools (if you even have the means to attend one) don’t like students who ask too many questions.

    A lot of people in the US would also disagree with me politically, because they think they were chosen by Jesus to oppress brown people and spread glorious capitalism around the world. But that doesn’t make them right either.

    I am a Marxist. I’ve done my homework. What do you want me to do, start quoting Zizek or Gramsci to pass your shitty litmus test?

    China is an experiment in socialism gone awry, because like the rest of the world, those with power lust over capital. I lived in a T3 city in China where things were relatively quiet, but flew out to visit a friend way down in Shenzhen periodically. It’s hard to see billionaire kids racing their Ferraris down the street there while the poor masses look down from the windows of their destitute coffin house apartments and think that this is somehow a socialist success story.

    China is as capital-driven as any other world power. The government just likes to participate in it a bit more directly.

    But sure, you’re the expert, not me, so I’m sure this is all just capitalist propaganda intended to denounce great Mao zhuxi and sabotage the workers’ revolution.



  • I’m going to level with you, I don’t have time to watch an hour long video for a topic that is likely just government-approved talking points.

    In practice, I just don’t see any difference in the way the mega rich in China control society, just as they do in the rest of the western world. There is too much aesthetic reverence for the West in the upper eschelons of Chinese society.

    It is just as dystopic as the West with the way workers are used as fodder by megacorps with no regard for their well-being. Any country with such widespread income inequality cannot call itself a socialist success story.



  • Just to add onto this good answer, you are really only expected to tip for sit-down restaurants with service and bars.

    For takeout, cafes, fast food, etc., you don’t need to tip. A lot of places these have payment machines that just ask if you want to tip by default. You can safely hit “No tip” on these if you don’t want to.

    Ostensibly it’s just to replace the tip jar for those who don’t use cash, but the prompt appearing every time you pay by card has convinced a lot of people that tipping is what you’re supposed to do in those situations, when in reality you have no obligation to.



  • FYI: This is mainly going to be a rebalance/bugfix patch. Expect both PvE rebalances now that the dust has settled on the Savage race and PvP rebalances as followup for all of the Frontlines adjustments.

    The following content will not be coming until 6.45 sometime in late July/early August:

    • Blue Mage Update

    • Mount Rokkon (Variant and Criterion Dungeon)

    • New Hildibrand Quests

    • Next Relic Weapon Stage

    • Next Crafting/Gathering Relic Stage

    The island sanctuary bug fix concerning the Workshop Board that was originally slated to come with 6.41 ended up arriving earlier as a hotfix, but there may be other fixes included in this patch that were not mentioned as part of the original 6.4 patch notes.