Prelude to the Apocalypse

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Iran War. When.

2021
3
6%
2022-2025
15
28%
2026-2030
7
13%
2031-2040
3
6%
2041-2050
0
No votes
Never
25
47%
 
Total votes: 53

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Mischief Maker
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Mischief Maker »

BryanM wrote:Action Park
Obligatory.
Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.

An oligarch walks in and grabs nine cookies for himself.

Then he says to the white dude "Watch out for that black dude, he wants a piece of your cookie!"
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Sengoku Strider
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Sengoku Strider »

Well, I'm a convert. After Herschel Walker's speech about vampires being cool and that he didn't know they were able to kill werewolves, I'm pulling for him to win. He's gonna say so many dumb things.
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BulletMagnet
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by BulletMagnet »

Well gee whiz, whoda thunk it?

Not to worry though, I'm sure all of the Totally Not Authoritarians on the right will tell her in no uncertain terms to knock it off instead of sitting on their hands and drooling all over themselves as they've done in every single instance leading up to now. But hey, after all, what is the downside?
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Mischief Maker
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Mischief Maker »

Elon Musk gave his remaining employees the choice between working "hardcore" (ie. super-long hours with a crushingly increased workload for the same pay) or three months severance. Apparently everyone who didn't need the job for a green card took the money and ran.

Now the Twitter offices are closed on the eve of the World Cup. All the people whose tweets I follow are posting links to their alternate accounts on different platforms, just in case.

You know guys, I'm not entirely sure we're living in a meritocracy.

Just Kidding! He's totally the real-life Tony Stark! SOOOOOOOOOY!!!!!!!
Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.

An oligarch walks in and grabs nine cookies for himself.

Then he says to the white dude "Watch out for that black dude, he wants a piece of your cookie!"
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orange808
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by orange808 »

Now might be a good time to have another conversation about selling out honest Americans and taking away their bargaining power with these predatory work visa agreements. It's intentionally crafted to hold down wages and worker rights. It's not fucking free market--and it's bipartisan. A free market wouldn't trap workers and take away their bargaining power. It's bullshit and you know it.
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BryanM
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by BryanM »

That reminds me of that time Kyle was talking about Clinton's paid speeches and he dismissed the ones from the summer camps as unimportant, which maybe it is compared to the huge banks that rule us like hogs.

But it still made me say "No you silly dudebro! There was something they wanted!" That something... was cheap cheap super cheap imported almost-slaves.

Pay someone a dollar, you expect to get something in return.
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BulletMagnet
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by BulletMagnet »

Great googly moogly, it's taken frickin' years to happen, but at least one has, at long last, finally appeared: a political writer who actually lives on this planet.
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BryanM
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by BryanM »

The idea that words matter at all is such gas lighting. They make it out like it was such a massive failure because the republicans only control most things by a fair bit, instead of all the things outright. But the margins on so many races were still close to 50/50.

The entire thing feels like the election where Corbyn's labour held up very well, right before being crushed in the next one after a few additional years of propaganda saying he hates Jews and other crap.

In this case I think it really was Biden's student debt relief that tipped the scales. He did a little something for them, they did a little something back.

After so many decades of cruelty and imposing rents on people, it's no wonder the electorate that's into politics is either numb to the imperium, or revels in it.

Almost everyone hating Trump's guts is also reminiscent of everyone hating Bush's ~08, and the revolving door that's Britain's prime ministers. You just rotate a new face in there, use it up until everyone's sick of it, and you then you stick someone else in there.

Novelty bias. It's an effective design pillar in all entertainment media, from movies to games and everything in between.

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Beau of the Fifth Column said something that really resonated with me recently.

That young people actually believe in the idea that "all people are created equal." It's not just words. It's not just a symbol. Something that you stick in your profile pic to show off your loyalty to a crusty old aristocracy. They actually believe that.

These kids deserved better : /
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orange808
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by orange808 »

America has a gun problem. The more guns we put on the streets, the worse it will get. You're tired of hearing it, I'm tired of reminding you, and the bodies keep piling up. It can't change until we vote for a change. People have always been unstable and always will be. You can't change that, but you can change the gun culture and the laws. We can roll this back.
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To Far Away Times
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by To Far Away Times »

orange808 wrote:America has a gun problem. The more guns we put on the streets, the worse it will get. You're tired of hearing it, I'm tired of reminding you, and the bodies keep piling up. It can't change until we vote for a change. People have always been unstable and always will be. You can't change that, but you can change the gun culture and the laws. We can roll this back.
Here's an idea. What about instead of taking mah gunz away, what if we put guns in every classroom. And every Walmart. And every LGBT club. And then we can have a heroic Clint Eastwood type figure save the day in a "good guy with a gun" scenario after an acceptable amount of people are killed.
Spoiler
Fuck, I am so sick of this gun violence. Status Quo is sometimes the worst place to be. I think as a country we need to wake up to that fact.
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BIL
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by BIL »

Not that it changes a damn thing about anything, but on some futile level, it's nice to see a mass shooter not only apprehended but bludgeoned in the process. Image

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/21/patrons ... eapon.html

Spoiler
Image
Last edited by BIL on Thu Nov 24, 2022 3:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Air Master Burst
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Air Master Burst »

Gun reform sounds great until you remember that 90% of american cops are full-throated fascists already and would have no hesitation violently upholding a white christian male theocracy given the chance.

Show me a few consecutive elections in the opposite direction and I'm totally down, though.
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Sengoku Strider
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Sengoku Strider »

Air Master Burst wrote:Gun reform sounds great until you remember that 90% of american cops are full-throated fascists already and would have no hesitation violently upholding a white christian male theocracy given the chance.
Help me out here, I missed the part where gun fetishists are opposed to them instead of wearing thin blue line Punisher pins like the cops are their second favourite college football team.
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Air Master Burst
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Air Master Burst »

Sengoku Strider wrote:
Help me out here, I missed the part where gun fetishists are opposed to them instead of wearing thin blue line Punisher pins like the cops are their second favourite college football team.
I wouldn't call myself a fetishist, but there's a lot of hardcore leftists who believe very much in the idea of an armed proletariat. We're just a lot less likely to yell about all our guns and post themed family christmas card pictures with them since there are usually other facets to our personalities. Three percenters are a lot less than 3% of us, they're just really loud and have nothing else going on in their lives.

Remember, even the NRA called for gun control back when the Black Panthers started open carrying en masse.

ETA: I've also heard that posting a bunch of pictures of yourself with expensive guns on public social media might be a good way to get robbed, but I have no personal experience with this on either side of the equation.
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BryanM
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by BryanM »

The shooter's dad was very very very relieved that he's not gay >_> >_>

Sigh. We're such garbage apes.
Air Master Burst wrote:We're just a lot less likely to yell about all our guns and post themed family christmas card pictures with them since there are usually other facets to our personalities.
That's so true, it's all all some people care about. In 2016 I heard some strangers at the local Golden Corral trade gentle barbs over the recent election, one guy proudly proclaiming he voted for the "lesser evil" because he wasn't gonna take away people's guns. :roll:

(This was the free annual military appreciation meal they always gave every year back when they existed. Turns out it's a week after elections. I've found over the years it's far better to show up for it closer to 9 PM; a couple horrible experiences of it being way too packed otherwise. (The first time I ever saw one in action, the line was so long it snaked around the building and ended at the OTHER steak house next door.) That one wasn't so bad since I was more learned in veteran's day free stuff.)

(And no, I suspect this man has never once noticed the fact he was accepting "free stuff", but is likely to have used that meme in a debate sometime.)

It does bring me some comfort they're even more repulsed by leftist culture. "Be gay and do crime" might as well be poison to them.

Image

... I'm so glad this meme was updated for gamer culture; a goose from Untitled Goose Game carrying a knife in his mouth.
Last edited by BryanM on Fri Nov 25, 2022 1:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
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BIL
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by BIL »

BryanM wrote:The shooter's dad was very very very relieved that he's not gay >_> >_>
Ha, yeah. Reminded me of War Machine, or whatever his real name was. MMA guy set for release in his 70s, iirc. Reality TV dredges up some class acts - as does porn! Combine the two with meth for endless human trash!
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BryanM
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by BryanM »

Oh god, I had forgotten the Mack beating. She and Washing Machine were in and out of my mind, I guess..

Reality is pretty shite, you can't trust anyone who wants to live in it I tells ya..
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Air Master Burst
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Air Master Burst »

BryanM wrote: That's so true, it's all all some people care about. In 2016 I heard some strangers at the local Golden Corral trade gentle barbs over the recent election, one guy proudly proclaiming he voted for the "lesser evil" because he wasn't gonna take away people's guns. :roll:
To be clear, I'm not a fan of the whole Wild West attitude this country has toward guns, but I also refuse to disarm myself before we steer a lot clearer of fascism and defang the police a considerable amount. I always like to ask the liberals who are all-in on gun control if they'd be willing to use guns to defend their bodily autonomy when the government comes for their or their family member's uterus, and most of them won't even consider the concept. If this country is really as close to the brink as they seem to believe, they better figure their shit out quick; nonviolent protest doesn't work against militarized fascists.
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BryanM
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by BryanM »

I know. Conflict is anathema to liberals, part of the reason they're so shit at the bi-yearly popularity contests.

A mob wants to hang Mike Pence, and the strongest words he has against it is "I think we have better people than Trump."

Que 2024, where he endorses Trump and campaigns for him. The future is less subtle than being ran over by a semi-truck.
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BulletMagnet
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by BulletMagnet »

Air Master Burst wrote:nonviolent protest doesn't work against militarized fascists.
For quite some time I believed (or at least hoped) that what worked for Gandhi could still work now, i.e. as long as one side remains steadfastly peaceful in bringing its demands, whenever the opposition inevitably gets heavy-handed outside pressure will force them to not only relent but give up ground; part of me still really wants to put stock in this, but considering that one section of MLK's Birmingham Jail soliloquy has been forced to play on constant loop in my head for a couple of decades now it's getting a lot harder to do so. For whatever it's worth I'm not sure I'd ever truly trust myself to take up arms against anyone, as not only being able to end a life with the twitch of an index finger but feeling an obligation to do just that is the ultimate "I don't want to live on this planet anymore" scenario for the likes of me, but I certainly can't criticize anyone else on the left for being less hesitant about it than I am.
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Air Master Burst
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

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BulletMagnet wrote:For quite some time I believed (or at least hoped) that what worked for Gandhi could still work now, i.e. as long as one side remains steadfastly peaceful in bringing its demands, whenever the opposition inevitably gets heavy-handed outside pressure will force them to not only relent but give up ground;
The key is where that outside pressure would be coming from; I don't see any government or organization with both the ability and the will to try to hold the US accountable like that. It also helped that India was, like, an entire continent away from the British homeland and they were already pretty overextended. America is the fascists' home too, so they can't just give up and leave when it starts getting tough.
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orange808
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by orange808 »

You're armed and protected?

LMAO!! :lol:

Fuck!!! LMFAO!!

The United States hasn't fought a war in so long, you so don't realize what they can do? You think this a fly by nighter outfit that will roll out vehicles from the 1980's (and before) like Russia? There's a reason Putin keeps leaning so hard on those nukes. Without them, he would get steamrolled.

Your vide-a game isn't pretend. They can see you through the walls and put a .50 calibre shell through your chest. You'll be absolutely torn apart. Your fucking pop gun won't help you. The American military doesn't even have to engage you directly. You won't even see what's shooting at you--and the people shooting will be safe under cover.

You're "armed"? Shit. What are you gonna do?

Warfare ain't what it used to be or what you're picturing.
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Air Master Burst
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Air Master Burst »

orange808 wrote:You're armed and protected?

LMAO!! :lol:

Fuck!!! LMFAO!!

The United States hasn't fought a war in so long, you so don't realize what they can do? You think this a fly by nighter outfit that will roll out vehicles from the 1980's (and before) like Russia? There's a reason Putin keeps leaning so hard on those nukes. Without them, he would get steamrolled.

Your vide-a game isn't pretend. They can see you through the walls and put a .50 calibre shell through your chest. You'll be absolutely torn apart. Your fucking pop gun won't help you. The American military doesn't even have to engage you directly. You won't even see what's shooting at you--and the people shooting will be safe under cover.

You're "armed"? Shit. What are you gonna do?

Warfare ain't what it used to be or what you're picturing.
Who said anything about fighting an open war against the military? I was speaking more to the difficulty of subduing (and keeping subdued) a heavily-armed populace. It's really easy to find out who someone's family is and where they live, and most cops don't live more than a town or two away at best. Most American fascists are weak cowards with no stomach for that sort of conflict, and on some level they know it.

ETA: also, my time serving in the army gave me a very deep appreciation for how complacent and incompetent the US military is as a whole. We spent trillions of dollars just to get our asses kicked by a bunch of goat herders and subsistence farmers armed with hand-me-down scrap weaponry for the last couple decades. There's no way the US military deploys for real on domestic soil like that, especially against a more heavily armed populace that has easy access to their family members and share the same infrastructure. Nobody above the rank of like E5 wants that smoke.
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

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Fascism is cool. Everyone should turn to fascism. Just my two cents.
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BryanM
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by BryanM »

While we are all familiar with how a head to head type military conflict would go, conflict in reality is a bit different than that.

Look at what they're afraid of most. Besides being turned gay by some guy's hot butt. Besides Mexicans swinging by to roof some tiles. Besides other idols besides Reagan Jesus being worshiped. Besides their ability to shoot people being taken away. Besides young people.

The anti-fascist movement.... drove them absolutely crazy.
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

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The UK isn't collapsing and they don't all have fucking guns. Shut the fuck up. It's not perfect and I'm not in country, but I'm certain of it--even though things have changed over the years. You're a maniac. Spouting the benefits of everyone carryjng guns with zero proof--and ignoring market theory.
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

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Air Master Burst wrote:The key is where that outside pressure would be coming from; I don't see any government or organization with both the ability and the will to try to hold the US accountable like that. It also helped that India was, like, an entire continent away from the British homeland and they were already pretty overextended. America is the fascists' home too, so they can't just give up and leave when it starts getting tough.
All valid points, though in all honesty I probably should have put more emphasis on my invocation of the Birmingham Jail segment than on Gandhi in my post, since, as I've opined before, what I find both so frightening and so incredibly infuriating about the landscape at the moment is how so, so many voters right here at home who don't consider themselves "extremists" also don't consider extremism a dealbreaker, specifically when it comes from the right, when it comes to who and what they're willing to throw their "reluctant" support behind.

Just as all the "reasonable people" silently twiddled their thumbs when a Supreme Court seat was brazenly stolen and then proceeded to eagerly re-elect the legislators who refused to certify the 2020 election the very same day of the Capitol riot, if and when things turn outright authoritarian and/or violent all indications are that the same people will simply sniff "well, admittedly it's not quite the way I'd go about it" and then proceed to just let it happen. And again, that both angers and scares the living hell out of me. Though considering how many of these trends are also in vogue elsewhere in the world I suppose the international angle could also sadly apply.
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Air Master Burst
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

Post by Air Master Burst »

orange808 wrote:The UK isn't collapsing and they don't all have fucking guns. Shut the fuck up. It's not perfect and I'm not in country, but I'm certain of it--even though things have changed over the years. You're a maniac. Spouting the benefits of everyone carryjng guns with zero proof--and ignoring market theory.
I just believe strongly in the idea of an armed working class; at no point did I say everyone should carry a gun around everywhere. You're missing my point completely, and since you don't live here in the US then maybe you don't have the same perspective as those of us who do?

Also, the UK might be collapsing, but since I'm not "in country" I really couldn't say. Remind me again how long their last PM lasted, though?

ETA:
BulletMagnet wrote:if and when things turn outright authoritarian and/or violent all indications are that the same people will simply sniff "well, admittedly it's not quite the way I'd go about it" and then proceed to just let it happen. And again, that both angers and scares the living hell out of me.
The real question is what happens when "reasonable people doing something" basically means armed resistance, since all of those other people will be willing collaborators.
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

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Boogeyman Whitey
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Re: Prelude to the Apocalypse

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Air Master Burst wrote:The real question is what happens when "reasonable people doing something" basically means armed resistance, since all of those other people will be willing collaborators.
Honestly, all I'm asking them to do is not vote for people who would rather trample democracy than not be in power. Unfortunately, once you've proven yourself willing to do just that it becomes much more difficult, if not impossible, to ever reverse course, since you'll simply no longer be given that option by the people you voted in.
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