I'm not trying to claim my work is IMPORTANT. I'm saying that politics is inescapable, particularly when a) money; or b) children are involved.

Just games, christ. Microsoft bought Activision-Blizzard for $70 BILLION. How is that 'not real'?

That's like saying music is 'not real' or movies 'aren't real'. Music, TV, movies, games. They're all culture. It takes a distinctly ignorant person to sit here and say otherwise.

Everything is political. If you don't think that merely existing is political, you've a) got your head buried...somewhere; and b) you're probably some affluent dude that doesn't have to consider other people.

Either way, fuck all the way off.

Like, it's deeply obnoxious to me as a game developer that you can sit and say that huge sovereign wealth funds buying up studios isn't political. That allowing huge anti-competitive mergers isn't political. That workers and their rights aren't political. That the work and art that goes into games isn't political. Even trying to stay APOLITICAL is a huge political choice and is frankly, very difficult to do. Who's allowed to play them, what we consider appropriate for kids, whether or not they cause violence (they don't, demonstrably, but it's still a political football)--these are all political questions.

Games are culture, and culture interacts with politics. Go look up something on why and when zombie movies come into vogue. The movies reflect back to us what our worries are. So too with games.

The games industry has been bigger than Hollywood for years now and you have the gall--or simplemindedness, you pick--to sit and tell me that this stuff isn't political? Man, gtfo and read a book or something. Stop wandering through life so ignorant.

I keep hearing it's great for boilerplate stuff. Okay, fair enough. But how much boilerplate code do I have to write before it becomes worth my time? I really don't spend much time bootstrapping files, and 95% of the time I'd rather just use a previous thing that *I* wrote that I know works.

Ah yes, let's ignore a huge part of the last half-century's history and pretend that prior conflicts don't translate into current detente. The ongoing size and strength of the US military contributes to the relative stability in the region because it is well understood that disruption could lead to intervention.

Oil prices are low and stable because of constant, unending, ever-threatened intervention by the USA.

It will be utterly hilarious if/when the extreme Texas gerrymander actually loses them seats in Texas.

They had to make 'solid red' districts be just 'lean red' in order to get the new 5 seats.

A big enough blue wave and oopsie.

So both fossil fuel and nuclear get MASSIVE subsidies by not having to pay for their emissions/waste. If gas prices included the cost to sequester the CO2 they released, they'd be FAR more expensive. Same for nuclear and it's waste storage and disposal. It isn't priced into the per kwh cost consumers pay.

Where solar and all renewables are *cheap* is long term - 50-100+ years out. Every ton of CO2 we don't emit this year saves $$$ money in reducing the increase in disaster spending gov'ts will definitely have to spend.

Hence gov't subsides are the cheapest thing govts could be doing, but stupid is gonna stupid.

minor nit - in the 2024 election Trump most definitely did have 'experience in govt'

Which is why Ranked Choice Voting will be a game changer....and why BOTH parties are generally not in favor of it.

It lets you protest vote all you want...and still cast a sanity vote.

Sure, just as soon as the taxpayers stop subsidizing petroleum companies. I'm okay with that solution. Let's see what the market decides when the government isn't gifting free land in protected wildlife areas and cleaning up abandoned wells and waging wars to protect oil interests in the middle east. Let's go.

100%, glad we agree on that. :)

I wonder what will happen with their other BEV. By most accounts, it's a competent vehicle, and from my research, it's currently the most affordable used non-Tesla BEV. You can pick one up for around $25k Canadian. Not cheap, but half price? Will they keep it just to keep their toe in the water?

Gov't has many, many, many regulations including fees attached to them. If you want to 'run a business' you pay ridiculous amounts of fees.

1st Amend also allows people to complain about said fees.

Doesn't make them remotely unconstitutional or a chill on speech.

You have no idea what you're talking about.

230 requires *providers* to have a way to report content - not users.

The definition of a provider is wider than most people understand.

That they can now take down content is irrelevant to being sued for it. It can't be taken down prior to it being posted, unless you're reviewing everything before it goes public. So the suits happen - that's expressly why a law like 230 is needed.

A mom n pop store that allows reviews of purchases could be bankrupted over a single user review that contains copyrighted text.

230 has flaws that should be fixed, but the concept it represents is absolutely vital to the current internet. The *only* companies that could deal with it being repealed are the big social companies.

If the only people who can deal with the penalty are the ones you're trying to penalize....you might not have a grasp of the problem.

Entirely reasonable question...but it also invalidates the question you asked.

https://eepower.com/tech-insig...

Capitalism isn't a system - it's half a balance sheet. It looks great until you uncover the debits it's been glossing over.