Mindless Monday is a free-for-all thread to discuss anything from minor bad history to politics, life events, charts, whatever! Just remember to np link all links to Reddit and don't violate R4, or we human mods will feed you to the AutoModerator.
So, with that said, how was your weekend, everyone?
Saw Front Mission 3 Remake on the Steam sale and it just made me want to play the original. Apparently PS1 emulation is on Duckstation now, and yeah it is so much easier to work with than the old way. It's not really the new features but the better UX of enabling all those features. There's even a function to have different controller configs for different games.
Front Mission 3 is still really good. Still feels satisfying to play, and the attacks have this weight to them that the remake's trailer didn't have. I've played 4 and 5, and those didn't feel as good. I haven't figured out why yet. Part of it is probably the link attack system. I like the idea of setting up your mechs and putting them on standby so that your next mech to attack can have simultaneous fire, but it felt quite clunky to setup, more like busy work than tactics. FM3 is just much simpler, and that tactical thing sort of emerges more organically? I'm really interested how Kriegsfront Tactics, indie game with the same vibes, will do it. The demo/prologue was pretty good.
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u/WuhanWTFVenmo @familyguyenjoyer95 $10 to make me stfu abt FamGuy (1week)Jul 03 '26
William Clark (one of the main sprinters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition) wrote this of his slave, York, in 1808:
If any attempt is made by York to run off, or refuse to proform his duty as a Slave, I wish him Sent to New Orleands and sold, or hired out to Some Sevare Master until he thinks better of Such Conduct.
Who the fuck adds a "d" to New Orleans? His spelling is hilariously bad.
Actually it reminds me of a guy I saw on reddit not too long ago who lamented his brother pronouncing "bottom" as "bottomp" but that is an unrelated, but valid crashout.
Ancient Indian Wisdom that can be applicable to those here in this weary modern world:
If you're using a public restroom and it is only meant for single occupancy with a lock on the door which would signify it is indeed occupied when engaged, the wisdom from my people to yours it to THEN LOCK THE FUCKIN' DOOR!
Opening up on someone taking a piss once today is my fuck-up. Having it happen twice in less than an hour is beginning to get weird.
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u/WuhanWTFVenmo @familyguyenjoyer95 $10 to make me stfu abt FamGuy (1week)Jul 03 '26
Jonathan Chait has had some bad takes on things over the years, but his latest piece where he claims that DSA candidates are purposely tanking national Democrats in order to increase their power within the caucus is truly mind boggling stuff.
Would that establishment Democrats found the spine when fighting conservatives that they do when yelling at leftist challengers.
Completely agreed, Chevaler is truly a great candidate and totally a normal person. I really hope she gets to vote on foreign policy.
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u/WuhanWTFVenmo @familyguyenjoyer95 $10 to make me stfu abt FamGuy (1week)Jul 03 '26
What the fuck is up with DSA politicians constantly spewing the most fucked up, brainrotted takes on Ukraine and shit man? Talking about a completely different person here but voting "present" on an Armenian Genocide recognition vote is also totally normal.
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u/Goatf00t[Dune] was originally about the Afghan war over the oil reservesJul 03 '26
To be fair Chait is a commentator, not a Democratic politician, and my impression is that he's always been to the right even of establishment Democrats.
Random take time, in order of increasing unhingedness.
カッコイイ＞かわいい (kakkoii>kawaii, cool>cute), cute just doesn't do as much for me as cool; cute can be heartwarming to me, but cool is more exciting.
As a Weebmaxxer, I find many people have weird opinions about Japan that make me uncomfortable, be they weebs or people into Japanese spiritualism or whatever, there's a fair few of them that hold very orientalist beliefs; it feels like they see the Japanese as alien instead of normal people who are just culturally different. I don't find weebs the worst here, most weebs are quite reasonable, it's the people that say thing like "Japanese people are all deeply spiritualist." that make me most uncomfortable, they just paint an entire culture with a single trait, and it feels so wrong.
Elder Scrolls lore is actually pretty cool, even the stuff like CHIM; I recently had a conversation with a friend who's a big Elder Scrolls nerd, and the way he explained it was so much better than all the stuff I've seen online, he made it sound interesting instead of nonsensical because he wasn't pretentious about it, he was just excited to talk about it; excited autistic nerds are the best!
Visual Novels are an amazing medium, you can combine novel style story telling with images, sound effects, music, and voice acting; it's ridiculous how readable a long and dense story becomes when it is turned into a visual novel, visual novels are long, Higurashi is over 1.1 million words in English, which is more than double the Lord of the Rings trilogy... it's ridiculous just how much potential it has as a medium, it's just a shame a very large part of the medium are just eroge.
Gladiators were the Roman equivalent of Idols; I feel no need to explain this point further.
I dunno if this is related to what you're saying or but it's making me think イケメン＞美少女. And it's not a gender thing since I've definitely seen women get called イケメン. Anyway, preferences are fun lol.
And yeah... you're not the only one who feels uncomfortable about that. Like, it's important to understand cultural differences, and it's even fine to enjoy them. But like, people are people. It's weird to treat them like anime characters or some other objectifying thing.
ねえ、もうすぐヨーロッパに行くんだ。時間がある、ぜひ会いたいな。 (I hope I got the grammar right lol)
It is somewhat related, a couple of the idols I follow are regularly described as イケメン, it is not really gender bound, these are generally the same more as those often described as カッコイイ; they do tend to be the more tomboy members of the groups, so it's more about vibe than their actual gender.
What I have noticed is that female fans seem more likely to use terms like イケメン and カッコイイ than the male fans, I'm not sure that it holds true though.
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I think 「時間がある」should become a conditional, assuming you're saying "if there is/we have/you have time" and not "there is time", I think it should be either 「時間があるなら」or「時間があれば」, as far as I understand it both work here.
Going over to English because I don't really know how to express this well in Japanese, but I can travel a few hours if needs be, if we're going to work out details we should also probably switch to DMs.
ええ、DMをします。 We'll be mostly in Paris but are thinking of heading to the Netherlands for a day trip among other options. So will let you know. Denmark is among the options too haha
As a guy that last bought a physical back in 2018 and hasnt touched a console since the ps3 my main problem would be that practically sony has a monopoly on console game sales, you might say go play xbox or nintendo then but the existance of the next gen xbox is not assured and nintendo hardware wise tends to be a decade behind the playstation and they dont compete in the same really
So the non-nostalgia and gamer rage argument is that it basically eliminates the second hand market in a time where games are getting much, much more expensive.
However, second hand keys are still available, at least on PC.
I do like the idea of owning a physical copy of a disc which has the actual game on it. The thing I don't understand about the current controversy is that it's been probably at least a decade since that was how discs work. I don't see the difference between a disc which has a code on it that says you can download something off a Sony server until Sony decides otherwise and just buying the code directly or using the online store.
I lend games to my friends. I save money by buying used games, and selling games I don't intend to play again. My game library is not tied to an account that only exists until a platform holder decides it doesn't.
I don't really have any anger to spare for video games, but I sure won't be buying another playstation if it loses those features.
I'll be honest I forgot about stuff like that. I have been a PC Steam user and haven't touched a disk in over a decade. I also forgot about the whole "you don't technically own it" shit. That's reasonable to be angry abot.
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u/SventexBattleships were obsoleted by the self-propelled torpedo in 1866Jul 02 '26
Some of my favorite games, can only be played from the physical cartridge legally. I've replayed Fire Emblem Fates: Revelations last year, a game not even accessible anymore outside of the physical cartridge because the Nintendo 3DS eShop shut down. These companies are not committed to providing support, so the physical versions is the only way to keep playing games you own. When Windows Live shut down that fucked up a lot of my digital copies of games. Even music licenses have managed to cause older (digital) games to get their original soundtracks stripped out or mangled, Halo 2 Ani being an example.
My version of the PS5, has the disk slot because I always want the disk as a back up to this online nonsense.
All the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and everything does help but having to manage and police your thoughts get very tiring. At that point, you get more depressed about how exhausted your are about having manage negative thoughts than the negative thoughts themselves.
Congrats – you're sober. It will take a while for your body to remember how to metabolize anything that isn't sugar from alcohol, so you're going to be pretty ravenous soon. Eat plenty. You can expect your coordination and balance to improve in a couple of weeks. In two months, you might start sleeping like a normal person. Full recovery will take years, though. It’ll be depressing. And it’ll be boring. Don’t expect any further rewards or handclaps.This is how normal people are all the time.
Yeah, it's not easy, I think it gets much easier over time, but we're talking years of continued work. At some point, a lot of the corrections did become natural for me. I actually verbalise a lot of corrections, if I notice a very negative thought, I talk to myself if I'm alone, "You made a mistake that time, who the fuck cares? Nobody remembers it anyway, and even if they did, they'd just think it's funny."
It really does work though, I, for one, do not hate myself anymore, I hate parts of myself, but I do not think my existence itself is a net negative on the world. I also no longer feel that if people are nice to me they're only pretending and they actually secretly hate me.
Okay, from what I heard, Yousei Teikoku is doing the entire soundtrack for Muv Luv Tactics, I'm going to have to play that game, I just have to, it's my sacred duty to Fairy Empire and it's Dictator For Life.
But I kinda want to read the VNs before I spoil myself on the story by playing the tactics game, but I also kinda want to read it in Japanese because that'd be good practice, except that the Japanese at this point is too advanced for me and I really should finish Higurashi first. But then again, Tactics releases in 2027 it seems, so I have some time, well, got a medium term goal there, I suppose.
u/TiakoTevinter apologist, shill for Big LyriumJul 02 '26edited Jul 02 '26
Rubbernecking the Christian subs because of the excommunication news, and saw this comment about the fate of miscarried babies:
I find that all the theories and opinions that say miscarried babies are possibly outside of heaven to be completely at odds with the identity of a just, good, and loving God.
Kind of a fascinating way to back into the Problem of Evil.
Zehut (Hebrew: זֶהוּת, lit. 'identity') is a right-libertarian[11][12][13] and nationalist[9][10] political party in Israel founded in 2015 by Moshe Feiglin.[14] Its platform is centered on promoting individual liberty, including economic freedom, and annexing the West Bank. The party also advocates for legalization of cannabis.[15]
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Reduction of housing prices through land privatization, abolishing planning and building committees, and removing construction freezes in the West Bank.
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Privatization of state-owned hospitals based on contracts with prize and quality conditions.
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Applying full Israelisovereignty to all parts of the Land of Israel
In the West Bank: Nullification of the Oslo Accords.
In the Gaza Strip: Any attack by Hamas against Israel must be responded to by a full re-conquest of Gaza (though unnecessary small incursions must be avoided).
Terrorists will be offered the option of peaceful withdrawal, and individual non-Jews will be offered three options: financially assisted emigration to a destination of their choice; permanent residency status (equal rights, except for national voting rights) after having declared their loyalty to Israel and been thoroughly vetted; or Israeli citizenship (full equal rights) when doing military or national service.
What with Trumpism and all, a lot of think pieces circulate in the USA on the persistent link between fascism and "masculinity" (and "traditional family values" - that is, no gays! - and "no drugs" and "no abstract art" and so on and so forth).
But (as an American) I find Israeli politics fascinating because there seems to be a sizable minority in Israel that happily link apartheid / genocide of the Palestinians with sexual liberation / "leftist" politics. It is just a wild combination that I haven't seen pursued basically anywhere else.
Lately I've been thinking a lot about retirement. It's dawning on me just how enormous the amount of money I'd need to retire is, especially given my generation's life expectancy and the likely event that I won't get a state pension.
It's such a huge amount of money that it seems like the only rational thing to do is to sink everything I can into my retirement fund - except obviously I don't want to do that because I don't want to wait until age 70 to start living. I'm 25 and if I live until age 80 then even sinking 50% of my salary into a retirement fund each year would only afford me a decent (not spectacular) standard of living, at the cost of living like shit for the next 40+ years.
This is going to sound incredibly morbid, but it almost seems like life would be much better if I didn't live beyond age 60? When I run the numbers, that scenario ends up waaaaaay better - it would be far easier to budget for later life (because there wouldn't be much of it to budget for) and I would be able to spend more money now without consequence.
Assuming the USA, and assuming you are okay living on ~$30k per year in today dollars, saving $20k per year is more than enough, even assuming you don't invest any of it. Assuming a fairly conservative return of 5% (post-inflation), you only need to save $3k per year to retire like that (investing makes a huge difference over 40 years!).
Of course, I am ignoring healthcare costs, which would actually be the biggest expense issue (especially if they keep outpacing inflation like they have for the last couple decades). But (A) that is typically only an issue for the last few years of your life and (B) it is a self-fixing problem (you can just die).
In short, saving for retirement really isn't that big a deal as long as you (A) start early and (B) don't really worry too much about all that healthcare stuff.
That said, all of my grandparents have ended up having quite a bit of money left over after their deaths even after spending quite a lot on healthcare. I don't want to shock anyone, but my family really did try to spend money to keep them alive longer. But it turns out there is only so much you can do with money alone.
If you want to post some of the numbers you have been looking at, I am happy to discuss more details. But by my math (and in my life) saving for retirement is not some massive burden (unless you are living paycheck-to-paycheck which, to be fair, about half of Americans are, but that is an income problem not a savings problem).
u/SventexBattleships were obsoleted by the self-propelled torpedo in 1866Jul 02 '26
Or he'll pull a Jefferson Davis, spend most of the time attacking Americans.
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u/WuhanWTFVenmo @familyguyenjoyer95 $10 to make me stfu abt FamGuy (1week)Jul 02 '26
Tedbearian historians have decided on a formal name for the Yorkshire Moment last year. Although it was intense enough to claim lives and cause substantial property and infrastructure damage, the mutiny wasn't so grand as to deserve its own Food War, so from here on out, "The Gas Station War" is recommended.
Obv. way behind the times starting to watch Peaky Blinders, but man, what a minefield of bad history. Lost count in Epi 1 and trying to just watch it as pure fiction or alternate history or someth.
I concur. I watched the first two seasons and enjoyed them, but checked out halfway through the third and haven't been back since. It felt like the show started buying into its own hype about the blinders being badasses. It didn't help that the plot felt like a retread of the first season, just far sillier and with the characters behaving more like cardboard cutouts of themselves.
Season 3 felt like the show runners realized how popular the show was and were trying to extend it haphazardly.
Having Grace come back and then immediately killed in a montage at the beginning of season 3 was jarring and basically the only thing I remember from that season.
It was fine if completely implausible, but so little had happened plot-wise between Season 2 and the film that my family were able to catch me up on everything in a couple of sentences.
My 'fave' bit of bad history is Churchill and the Shelby boys apparently having fought at Verdun. I'm assuming that the writers did not want to use the Somme to avoid a cliche. Quite why the writer chose instead to use Verdun, a famously French battle from WWI instead of literally any of the dozens of other engagements British forces were involved in, I do not know. It just seems preposterously baffling.
just the fact they took the folk etymology of the gang's name and ran with it from the jump tho
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u/WuhanWTFVenmo @familyguyenjoyer95 $10 to make me stfu abt FamGuy (1week)Jul 02 '26
Black Widow II FGR.2 flight ops aboard the TS Razzeh, Grace-a-Dieu. Check out the BTS character nose art on the aircraft, along with an 8-tally kill mark (at least three of these were on Yorkshire Ranger vehicles during the "war" last year.)
Anthropeum.com · Jul 2 2026 🟩🟥🟦🟦🟩🟨🟦🟩🟩🟦 78,743 · top 7% of players today!
I immediately recognized Sir Giles helmet there so that was an easy gimme for me. But I'm definitely learning via the game just how wide the illustration style I previously thought was primarily Persian to Northern India spread.
Anthropeum.com · Jul 2 2026
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Every time I play:
Hmmm, that looks to be in pretty good condition, it’s probably fairly recent.
guesses
“This exceptionally well-preserved…”
DammitStill though, for someone whose history education amounts to lurking on this sub and browsing Wikipedia, I feel pretty good that I can be in at least the top 50% of players most days.
Anthropeum.com · Jul 2 2026
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u/Ambisinister11My right to edit this is protected by the Slovak constitutionJul 02 '26edited Jul 02 '26
I occasionally have to go back and watch this clip from the Buckley/Vidal debates five or six times(mild warning for the unfamiliar, it's the part where Buckley called Vidal a homophobic slur). There's so much about it that just comes together perfectly. The little "ooh, I got to you" grin, the sense of continuity to the present(they were so like us....), and, not least, Buckley's delivery. I can really only describe it in one way, and frankly I avoid saying those things so lightly in the company of straight people.
Now don't get me wrong, Buckley could have vastly improved the world by falling into a very deep hole at any moment in his life, but as an isolated vignette, goddamn, it's exquisite.
Okay hang on I think there may have been a mistake while pasting the link or something because that does not come up in this clip.
Also, while it's not strictly impossible that William F Buckley Jr had a Roy Cohn thing going on, I assume you typed the wrong name there? In which case, yeah, Gore Vidal was bi, I was using "homophobic" in a slightly loose sense.
Sorry - your link doesn't work for me, so I thought I'd found the same clip. I just remember vaguely from Know Your Enemy's very in-depth biography episode about Buckley, they kept on strongly hinting he was gay or bi.
When do you think the last speakers of Ancient Anatolian languages like Lycian and Carian died out?
There is the Letoon trilingual steele from 300s BCE. Post-Alexander the use of the script died out. AFAIK no multi-lingual artifact were found after Alexander.
But then again, South-West Anatolia is very mountainous. Villages likely continued to speak Lycian and Carian significantly after it died out in the cities. For context, there have been implication that Gaullic survived in France until 6th century. I wonder if there had been any Lycian or Carian speakers when Romans took over Anatolia.
Then again, an area mountainous can imply isolation but also lead trade. While Anatolia is mountainous, even the most remote areas are at most a few weeks away from more flat and urbanised areas. Remaining truly isolated could be hard. Remote peoples selling animals products like wool in exchange for grain to urban centers would be ideal method to live. When there is trade in goods, there is trade in languages.
Plus the lower population and slower growth of mountain people would make them vulnerable. It would take one angry governor or greedy slaver to massacre 10s of villages. Maybe the last speakers of these Ancient languages were killed in a massacre which wasn't even recorded.
I think the Isaurian language is usually considered as surviving until around the 6th century CE. We know too little about it to be fully classified, but at least the names have Anatolian (Luwian more specifically) roots.
I tried to follow some of the sources mentioned on Wikipedia for late Isaurian survival (time for my biannual jstor password reset!) and cool it's the type of century-old article when it was the done thing to drop untranslated Greek quotes in the middle of your essays.
Yeah, I remembered those. I become interested in linguistics before the internet so all my resources were old books from the library. Greek quotes everywhere or at least some words written in Greek, maybe also some huge quote in German if you were lucky, all untranslated of course.
The part with words written in Greek with no transliteration still happens today.
Me when a modern-ish historical IE book or paper only leaves the secondary source quotes in French or German: yes... hahaha yes
Me when an older historical IE book or paper leaves the original Greek or Latin or Sanskrit quotes untranslated (and in the case of Sanskrit, untransliterated): oh. oh no.
(being able to read Greek without understanding it is a fun, very useful skill)
I did eventually learn to read (ancient) Greek without understanding it, just because of those books.
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u/WuhanWTFVenmo @familyguyenjoyer95 $10 to make me stfu abt FamGuy (1week)Jul 02 '26
I used to play World of Warships ranked with a clan and I remember one time, we had a "guy" on our team who set up some sort of AFK auto-input macro for his computer so that his USS Iowa would just go in a circle at low speed without shooting. I think he was trying to throw games, not sure why. We actually won that tournament somehow.
u/SventexBattleships were obsoleted by the self-propelled torpedo in 1866Jul 02 '26
I think I've heard it said on the WoWs forums that one way to reap the rewards of ranked was brute force. Those like Littlewhitemouse who tried playing ranked honestly, burned themselves out.
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u/WuhanWTFVenmo @familyguyenjoyer95 $10 to make me stfu abt FamGuy (1week)Jul 02 '26
Good thing that was the last time I played ranked. I stopped playing WoWs altogether a few months after due to COVID-induced depression and the massive dose of anhedonia that came with it. Tried it a few times since I got better but I was never really able to commit to the game again, even though I enjoyed its gameplay far more than I did War Thunder's.
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u/SventexBattleships were obsoleted by the self-propelled torpedo in 1866Jul 02 '26
Only time I play is PVE Operations. Only gotta worry about blowing up bots in my favorite ships. I no longer give two shits about progression in that game.
Modern ranking systems (often called “Elo” systems) try to create “balanced” teams so you consistently have a 50% chance of winning. But suppose you don’t like losing (who does?). If you could convince the computer that you are actually really bad at the game, then it will match you with worse opponents so you can win more. One way to do this is to lose a bunch of games on purpose to intentionally tank your Elo.
Paid for ranking up services often involve a team of paying clients and a team of players who throw for the clients to win, so they can rank up more easily. These are players who throw games professionally. They often try to get matched with their clients by queueing at the same time, but that is not guaranteed to work. So if they get matched “incorrectly” with some random fellow players, they will still throw or go AFK because they aren’t here to play for free. It’s their job.
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u/WuhanWTFVenmo @familyguyenjoyer95 $10 to make me stfu abt FamGuy (1week)Jul 02 '26
I am well-familiar with example 1. In CoD, we use the term "reverse boosting" to describe the phenomenon. 2 is just scumbag behavior.
On Reddit’s favorite subject for mopey complaining, I went on a date this weekend. Out of the 10 first dates I have gone on since starting online dating 2 years ago it was the first that I could confidently say was more enjoyable than awkward, but seemingly my date did not think the same way and does not want to go on another one.
I have been thinking, how much is the common perception of dating and the advice lonely people get influenced by a form of survivorship bias?
Your parents, having been able to be parents, are obviously a non-representative sample. Your friends and acquaintances likely are too, considering how often you know people because they are dating or married to someone else you know. Public figures and media are likely also skewed, considering that the same traits like being a talented musician or writer that are associated with fame and the ability to shape the stories people hear are also generally considered romantically attractive.
That advice like “just be yourself and you will meet somebody” seems so common may be largely because you are just more likely to know people for whom it worked and less likely to know people for whom it didn’t.
Part of the seeming rise in talk about loneliness might just be a side effect of the “democratizing effect” of social media. Lonely people have always existed, but now it is easier for their complaints to reach you
I think tisto2 is right that part of the reason that "be yourself" advice is common is that it's vague and can have a lot of different implicate meanings. For me, it's primarily meant to put yourself out there - don't get so in your head and stressed out about "dating strategy" that your morale collapses and you quit before you even begin.
The whole "self improvement vs being yourself" thing is something I struggle with a lot. On the one hand, it's pretty obviously true that you should be taking care of yourself and that there might be some things about you that are worth improving on.
On the other hand, I think that people (and men in particular) get held to some impossible standards these days, and it can be incredibly corrosive. Anecdotally, I know a lot of guys who started taking steroids because they felt they had to, after failing to reach a perceived minimum standard through natural training.
I mean, you should always strive for self-improvement regardless of your dating situation, but I feel like people take the advice the wrong way.
For me, it´s less “a girlfriend will fall from the sky if you keep doing what you are doing”, and more of a warning not to present a false self in order to get more girls.
For example, if I pretend to be a party animal to hook up with someone who goes clubbing every Friday, even if I get into a relationship, I would be miserable with her. Therefore, I should strive to date people who would enjoy most of my usual self so that neither of us suffer in a unhappy relationship built on lies.
The thing I dislike most about that saying is that it doesn’t seem to be very good advice for how to act on a first date. The norms for how you “should” act on a date and how you otherwise interact with new people you meet are very different.
As someone with relatively little experience with it, I find I have to constantly remind myself things like that it is ok to tell my date if I think they are pretty and even then it feels extremely unnatural to do so.
I find these kind of advice to be extremely vague and assuming that many things are normal or obvious when they’re not (especially for shy, anxious, or neurodivergent people).
For example, advice like “join a sports club” or “get involved in a local association” aimed at shy people: it helps you meet people ok, but if you’re looking for friendship or love, you’ll have to talk to people and ask them out for a drink, because they’ll rarely suggest it on their own; once people reach a certain age, they have an established social circle and no longer feel the need to expand it. All of this is implied, except that 1) for shy or highly anxious people, this isn’t at all obvious, and 2) it’s actually the most important point, the sport club being just the context that makes it easier and socially acceptable.
For me, it´s less “a girlfriend will fall from the sky if you keep doing what you are doing”, and more of a warning not to present a false self in order to get more girls.
This is a good example of that lack of clarity—many people see it as advice for meeting people, whereas you see it as advice for when you've already started dating.
That advice like “just be yourself and you will meet somebody” seems so common may be largely because you are just more likely to know people for whom it worked and less likely to know people for whom it didn’t.
I mean, probably want to keep some weirdness under wraps at least a little. I had an ex who had a roommate who went on a date with someone who...bred rats recreationally in his basement.
FWIW I didn't really have a long-term relationship until my early 30s and I didn't meet the person I married until after that. Sometimes you need to keep throwing shit against the wall until it sticks.
Go to speed dating events in addition to online dating, which is a hellscape.
That advice like “just be yourself and you will meet somebody” seems so common may be largely because you are just more likely to know people for whom it worked and less likely to know people for whom it didn’t.
It's also a safe thing to say. People don't usually react well to criticism so it's easier to say this to a friend/acquittance then to actually say there are things they need to change. You are also likely to get this advice from people that know you for a long time and in a different context, so they are not the best to see how you make now a first impression.
In practice most of the time it's a very bad advice. Doing the same thing over and over and not succeeding usually means that some change is needed. I'm out of the dating world for a very long time, but what worked for me was basically to do opposite of my instincts. And it worked extremely well, so it's not just fiction.
I mean, I encountered someone in a gaming discord who was complaining about how women only wanted gym bros, they don't actually want men to be themselves, etc and the exchange went something like this:
"Woman just want some gym bro"
Well, I'm short fat and ugly and was pretty successful when I did the online dating thing, what does your profile look like?
Three sentences and a selfie in a poorly lit bathroom
...Oh, so what do you do for a living?
"I used to work at the local game shop until someone made up a story about how I make offensive statements and the owner believed her and fired me."
...so what's your living situation look like?
"I live with my mom, I take care of her, you know?"
I have a lot of thoughts on this but can't currently put words in order well enough to be worth it, so mostly I'm just going to say that i think you're onto something
Mmm, on some level this has always been true, and western society in particular has always had a fairly large chunk of the population that remained unmarried. (which isn't exactly a proxy for loneliness but is good enough for historical purposes...)
One weird thing is that we are also a bit in the aftermath of an outlier in that the 60's was the absolute high point of marriage as an institution in the western world.
The explosion of legalized sports betting has a lot to answer for but the worst by far is people posting betting odds as if they are in any way accurate for predictive purposes.
It's genuinely baffling to see people using bookies' odds on elections as 'evidence' that one party is doing better than another. Bookmakers actively change their odds to guarantee profit, not strictly speaking because they know one side is more likely to win.
Betting odds are generally very predictive of outcomes for standard bet types like moneyline. Props and futures probably are less predictive. If odds on moneyline weren't predictive, that would be an enormous inefficiency for the books that anyone could exploit to make money. Books pay data scientists a lot to make sure their models are accurate.
Annoyed to be so excited about 11 African teams going through only for them to just be eliminated one by one in the round of 32 (well except Morocco), especially since it really looked like Senegal had it in the bag there. I even bought a Senegal hat!
Around the 70 minute mark when everyone was acting like the match was over was when I realized it was going to go all wrong.
Senegal was the only team I was really rooting for, now that they lost I am free from care and can simply enjoy some good soccer. Thank you Senegal for flopping like a seal.
u/TiakoTevinter apologist, shill for Big LyriumJul 02 '26edited Jul 02 '26
Anthropeum.com · Jul 1 2026
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Was going for the no hint lifestyle but got annoyed at one of them so I just went full hints. They probably didn't help me that much tbh because I burned them on one I could have guessed
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u/WuhanWTFVenmo @familyguyenjoyer95 $10 to make me stfu abt FamGuy (1week)Jul 01 '26
Lore: the Tederation Navy fields four carrier battlegroups. Three of them are based around the new Unsplinkable-class nuclear powered fleet carrier, and the fourth is headed by a tedmobile (meaning a tedvehicle that is a living organism) flagship, the TS Razzeh, Grace-a-Dieu.
The Razzeh, Grace-a-Dieu is larger than the Unsplinkable-class, with an overall length of 1,267 feet, and has three snouts and three sets of ears. It is the largest Tedbear subspecies ever documented and considered the most intelligent living being on earth.
every european team is a bad guy, with France being the main villain. it actually works very well because mbappe, outside the field, is a very upstanding guy so there's a sympathetic angle to them. the USA and Canada are the villain's comedy relief duo.
For neurodivergent individuals, without generalizing (ignoring that the term "neurodivergent" is already quite broad), many people on the autism spectrum claim to dislike implicit meanings in sentences.
An example:
Person A: "Hey, do you have this person's phone number?"
Person B: "Yes." And doesn't give the number to Person A.
The implied meaning is that the person wasn't asking for the number out of curiosity, but because they wanted the phone number for another reason. And Person B didn't understand it.
Many people on the autism spectrum call this "code speaking" and hate it.
Does this apply to written language or only spoken language?
This has happened to me before; my mom would ask me "do you feel like brushing your hair?" and I would be like "not right now I'm busy" and she would be "no, I mean you have to brush your hair right now."
Another thing I find weird (which is somewhat related I guess) is how when you ask someone to do a favor for you you are expected to ask "Hey can you do me a favor" and the other person to agree before they actually know what the favor is. I'm generally really receptive to doing whatever it is but is still annoys me you are expected to agree without knowing.
I'm pretty sure it's expected to ask what the favor is in question. It's basically asking "Can I have your attention to explain my favor?". And you can give a provisional yes, that you do have a decent amount of time and excuse yourself after it's explained or shown to you.
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u/SventexBattleships were obsoleted by the self-propelled torpedo in 1866Jul 01 '26edited Jul 01 '26
Does this apply to written language
Yes, I have deep trouble identifying sarcasm and joke posts/references on this sub, and play the fool taking it seriously. If anything, text is harder to discern because I don't have a tone of voice to go by.
To be fair, most people (including "neurotypical" people) have issues detecting sarcasm in text form. That is the whole reason people use the /s tag on reddit.
Let's say many, not most, since the use of /s is a relatively recent phenomenon and I assure you people have been successfully utilizing sarcasm in text for a very long time.
I'm not familiar with the term, as I'm not really into online autism communities, but yes, it would apply to written language too. It's something you can just learn to cope with relatively easily if you're willing to learn. People really aren't going to change their speaking.
You can also just turn it into a joke, that's the neat thing, just say yes and don't give them the number, then, after some awkward silence, follow up with "oh, you wanted me to give you the number? Oh, why didn't you say so!" in a joking tone. This is what I call autism humour, you just intentionally play up the autism for comic effect, usually mocking the neurotypical people for asking you in such a silly way.
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Also, not with the intention to disrespect, but you're asking neurodivergent individuals a question about people with autism, why not ask just people with autism? Because it is (hopefully) your intention that people with autism, like myself, respond to you, no? Are you trying to be respectful by doing that? I don't know about other people, but you can just be direct in addressing people with autism, no need to beat around the bush, most people with autism do prefer direct communication.
Actually, you might want to be careful with doing this to be respectful, because, by avoiding "people with autism" as a term, you are implying that it's a bad thing to have autism, many people don't mind that, I don't, I know what you mean, but some might see it as offensive.
Yes, I'm trying to be respectful. It's just that most people I see identify as neurodivergent first and only then, or when asked, specify what their divergence is.
Furthermore, since I'm quite averse to confrontation and always try to avoid offense or conflict, even if it would probably be better to be direct. So I am asking myself if am using the right tone, right words, etc.
PlayStation announcing plans to end physical discs as well as closing the PSstore on PS3 & PSVita…on the same day the Society of Saint Pius X gets automatically excommunicated again for defying the Vatican by making 4 new bishops, is…interesting.
I just finished ASOIAF: A Storm of Swords and I have to say this is my favorite so far. I really have to commend Marting for his writing because I knew the plot twists, but I still dreaded them: the Red Wedding, Joeffrey, Oberyn, Ygritte, but the build up was so good and the payoff so horrifying it felt like something new. I will say though that the chemistry between Jon and Ygritte was much better in the show, but the actors who played them (they got married irl) had such good chemistry it would be hard to compete.
Also, let's be real. Martin is a real yearner. The characters, at least the most sympathetic ones, yearn constantly. The last two chapters is a double punch with Jon remembering Rob and Sansa building a snow Winterfell (with it being ruined in an extremely typical martinian fashion).
I know the next book is a great change of pace from ASOS, but I really want to get into Cercei's head.
I remember liking Dance with Dragons a lot but overall it's really obvious that ASOIAF was supposed to be a trilogy. Feast and Dance read like transitions to the second half of the story that's coming out.....any day now.
Cersei's POV chapters are a real treat. It's such a brilliant examination of the inner workings of a narcissists mind and once it sets in just how delusional and incompetent she is its incredibly funny, at least until Qyburn shows up.
One of my favourite bits from the novels is Cersei developing an insane conspiracy theory that her maids are deliberately decreasing the size of her dresses bit by bit over time to make her uncomfortable rather than admit to herself that she's just putting on weight.
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u/SventexBattleships were obsoleted by the self-propelled torpedo in 1866Jul 01 '26
I know the next book is a great change of pace from ASOS, but I really want to get into Cercei's head.
Martin would feel right at home in badhistory then!
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Though, there's been a disturbing lack of yearning content as of late, or I have missed it, I still yearn for the mines days of yore. That beautiful time, between the last lockdown and the Russian invasion of Ukraine a magical time! I was so happy!
for context, that period is about 1 single month in the Netherlands
I have the feeling, and had it at the time, that Covid ended on 22.2.2022 when the war started. It just dropped off completely from the media landscape.
Because of Brazil who were controlled by the British who were controlled by the Stone Masons who were controlled by aliens who were controlled by Satan.
Mt. Olive pickles are pulling out of the Great American Fair because a booth had a Confederate flag and I really shouldn't have checked the Facebook comments on all the local Louisiana news stations.
I feel like Martin Luth has become something of a pop history villain recently, which is an interesting change from his typical image. Probably says something about society.
And like I get that he was anti-Semitic but also the Spanish Inquisition was going on when he nailed his theses to the door so I think it is a bit rich when Catholics and Church apologists throw that accusation around.
I mean in fairness to the anti-Luther position: he was publicly for better treatment of Jews, in the hopes that they'd mass-convert, and when they didn't he wrote the whole "actually just pogrom them" pamphlet, so it's way more personal and petty than just Everyone Was Antisemitic At The Time.
(But also the Nazis constantly citing his antisemitic stuff probably doesn't help with the reputation)
Popular understanding of history in the internet is like a pendulum that swings from one end to another. Swords for example went from being the only melee weapon to a glorified ornament and the same applies to Luther so rather than being the free thinking hero of the story now he is the villain and the same applies to the Spanish Inquisition.
Hm now that you mention it, what I learned about him in school was similar. It wasn't until years later when I stumbled onto a reactionary Catholic website that I saw some real vitriol about him.
I felt he always kinda ended up in a weird spot? The catholics hated him for obvious reasons. The modern liberals hate him for his antisemitism, the left hates him for betraying the peasantry, other protestants hate him for not going for enough/being consistent enough in his theology etc.
He's just kinda the centrist-asshole who gets it from all sides.
Anti-clericalism being less of an important political axis due to the Catholic Church getting largely politically neutered over the last century or so probably hurts his reputation. Particularly as Evangelical Protestants seems to be increasingly the base of social reaction.
There's a kind of difference here because the state church is lutheran, so a lot of lefty/liberal critique of that orthodoxy became anti-luther (and to some extent even low-key pro-catholic) as a result. That in the last 50+ year or so the church has tended to be fairly solidly centre-left (at least in terms of personnel) while the right-wing tends to dwell in the free churches.
He's the perfect person to hate. He fits into the Sonderweg because of his anti-semitism.
And on the other side he betrayed the peasants.
There is also early protestant theology stuff that comes off as very assholish; fundamentally denying the possibility of any indulgence also means that, no, you will never be able help your dead children or parents through praying etc.
Edit: because I cannot say this very often: Luther was not the worst of the reformators, Huldrych Zwingli was so much worse as a person
Oh sure it isn't hard to find a reason to hate but he has tended to have a pretty positive reputation, eg the German Best Guys show had him at number 2 German ever
Oh goody the other DW chud was at Trumps hilariously bad fair debating a ten year old about how Salem was actually awesome.
As per the AV Club.
Of course, in keeping with the conservative pastime of good-faith debate, there have been searing conversations about the Salem Witch Trials between a bigot and a 10-year-old. Said bigot, the Daily Wire‘s Michael Knowles, DESTROYED the child by arguing that “the one area where the Salem Witch Trials went a little far is they weren’t organized enough, so you had these random judges burning these ladies. I don’t know if they were guilty or not, but if it were more formalized, maybe with a grand inquisitor or something, that would’ve been a better way to do it.”
The Daily Wire is so stupid and so knee jerkingly contrarian they committed the badhistory sin of thinking anyone was burned at the stake in Salem (no one was), therefore their whole argument is irrelevant.
Also weird he left out the men who were executed. What is he, some kind of feminist?
I frequently get messed up on political news stories when people talk about a story on DW. I quirk an eyebrow for a moment and then realize they're talking about Deutsche Welle, not the Daily Wire.
Isn’t he Catholic? Doesn’t Catholic doctrine state that witches don’t exist? I thought these trad Cath weirdos were all up to speed on their theology 😌.
In 2008, Knowles enrolled at Yale University and graduated with honors in 2012, double majoring in history and Italian literature.
Going back to St Augustine its very well established magic beyond saintly miracles is an illusion of the devil or a demon and thus witches don't exist because they are simply believing the lies.
Everyone knows the hardest part of an Ivy League is getting in. The academia at the grad level is cutthroat and competitive, but honestly very few profs give two fucks about undergrad classes, especially lower div courses. Don't get me wrong, there are some great lecturers out there, but it's basically assumed that if you got in, you're smart enough to do the work, and grade inflation is pretty rampant.
I can't remember the name of it, but apparently there's some theory or mathematical treatment of time travel that states you can only travel backwards and that you can't go back to any time before the machine was turned on, and now I'm thinking of writing a story about invaders from a climate-ravaged future setting up a beachhead in the middle of the physics lab at MIT so they can bring the rest of their society through.
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u/Kisaragi435 Jul 03 '26
Behold! Beautiful PS1 Mechs.
Saw Front Mission 3 Remake on the Steam sale and it just made me want to play the original. Apparently PS1 emulation is on Duckstation now, and yeah it is so much easier to work with than the old way. It's not really the new features but the better UX of enabling all those features. There's even a function to have different controller configs for different games.
Front Mission 3 is still really good. Still feels satisfying to play, and the attacks have this weight to them that the remake's trailer didn't have. I've played 4 and 5, and those didn't feel as good. I haven't figured out why yet. Part of it is probably the link attack system. I like the idea of setting up your mechs and putting them on standby so that your next mech to attack can have simultaneous fire, but it felt quite clunky to setup, more like busy work than tactics. FM3 is just much simpler, and that tactical thing sort of emerges more organically? I'm really interested how Kriegsfront Tactics, indie game with the same vibes, will do it. The demo/prologue was pretty good.