As bad as things are, most Americans are not living paycheck to paycheck. It looks like that 60% figure comes from a single survey from an online banking company in 2023. The Fed reports the majority of US adults have had at least 3 months of emergency savings every year since 2018.

I’m always surprised to hear people unimpressed with others on dating apps. A couple of my friends have shared their “feeds” and I was struck by how many good-looking people are out there. But they would swipe away from just the smallest turn-offs becoming deal breakers. Like if I saw these people in real life, I would think of them as average looking at worst, many being remarkably attractive. This is in the 20s to mid 30s range like the tweet. I definitely understand deciding you’re incompatible based on politics or religion or culture but most of the time it would be for minor quirks. It felt like they were spoiled for choice in my eyes.

But then again, they’re in serious long term relationships with conventionally attractive and supportive partners now so maybe being picky pays off. At the time, their reluctance to settle was a very frustrating experience for them.

There is an unstuck button. It’s in the bottom left if you hit esc iirc. I’ve used it a few times.

How is this a short history of liberalism? Historically, the liberal nations beat the fascist ones.

If this is in reference to Trump, then that’s an ongoing fight. Judges are generally doing what they can to stop his actions, even those appointed by Trump, to his chagrin. Given his rapid dip in popularity and historical trends, I would also expect Republicans to fare worse in Congress in the mid term election, meaning we can expect more pushback there too. Maybe even proper impeachment, but that might be too much to hope for right now. But I view it as a sign that the liberal system is working that he keeps running into checks and balances issues.

sexually assault

Its name is wordplay in Korean, where P means blood. But it is weird when translated.

I’m sorry, I can’t understand what you are saying.

If everyone quit tipping at once, yes, that would mean immediate, dramatic change. But that is unrealistic. And some people not tipping in protest when it is expected while most continue the tradition is the worst outcome for the workers. It makes their material conditions worse but not to the point of achieving anything.

I don’t disagree with anything you said. But being a cheapskate is rude and will not solve the problem.

Not tipping is rude. You are not facilitating change by not tipping, because the burden of your choice is felt almost entirely by the worker you stiffed. The employer is not motivated to pay their employee more from reduced tips because they aren’t really worse off for it. Sure, maybe their employee eventually quits if they aren’t making enough, but tip industries typically have high turnover anyway, so the worker is already considered replaceable. The worker suffers from missing an expected part of their income, but they also lack the ability to make things better for themselves. So it’s just piling onto their bad situation.

If you want to get rid of tip culture, stop patronizing places that rely on tips to give their employees a living wage. That’s how capitalism works, businesses make changes in their power when something affects their bottom line. So you have to protest in a way that actually hurts the person with the power to change something, not someone caught in the crossfire. And of course, try to support reform that guarantees a living wage regardless of tips.

Temtem uses cards that circle around the creature when capturing iirc. I thought it worked well.

Putting aside an afterlife, common wedding vows have “for better, for worse, … in sickness and in health, until death do us part.” So at least for people using those vows, they are committing to stay together until one of them dies. A divorce would mean a failure to follow through with that commitment.

Yeah it’s good in a lot of ways but especially early on you can just get stuck with no way to progress in a day due to bad luck. Also, many synergies require a sequence of specific randomly-generated rooms and the resources to use them when they show up (and in viable locations). But there are a number of permanent upgrades that make it much more consistent, and a few of the minor upgrades are fairly common.

TLoZ: Spirit Tracks had you control Link primarily but you used Zelda’s ghost to possess things, help you fight, and solve puzzles. It would be hard for a solo dev, but you could have a knight with an AI that proceeded based on what paths you unlock for it. So the princess would be some sort of astral projection I guess. But then, you wouldn’t really feel trapped. Maybe you need to hide your activity from the dragon or distract it for a stealth aspect or resource management. You would need to balance swapping back and forth between your body and helping the knight. Might be easier to settle on an in-universe justification after figuring out the core gameplay.

The right of the US to establish and enforce any law is implicitly dependent on a fundamental right of people to reject the authority of a tyrannical government. Otherwise the legitimacy of the US as a sovereign nation is invalidated.

I haven’t played it and hate nearly everything I have seen about the age system, but they did make the map generation more varied in the latest patch. They’ve called the map inadequacies a priority to work on, so it will probably get better if you return to it down the line.

I also picked this up recently and am enjoying it a lot. Can’t speak for the multiplayer, but the singleplayer is very good. There are a lot of meaningful choices and variety that keep things fresh throughout and between runs.

If anything, it weakens their argument. To try to support their claim that supposed examples of antisemitism are frequently false flags, they show an example of someone making a roundabout claim that an arson attack on a mosque was a zionist false flag. And then that person was forced to withdraw their accusation from the backlash with an admission that it was “intended to be an academic exercise” and not substantiated by evidence.

My friends and I really like Civ 5, but we didn’t get into 6 much and had some reservations about the changes in 7. I think we’ll get it at some point, but it will probably be during a sale after some more polish (and maybe some mods to adjust some of the controversial changes).

But I’ve had the itch from the hype and I’ve been wanting to try some other turn-based 4X games. Old World is 75% off on Steam at the moment so I pulled the trigger yesterday. I’ve seen gameplay but I’m eager to try it myself. The narrative choices seem like they add a lot of meaningful decision-making that I want to explore. I also played some Age of Wonders 4 and have enjoyed that too, but there’s a lot to learn with all the combat mechanics. It means there’s a lot of replayability though.

When people criticise me or my actions, I have at least as much right to defend myself as you do to cast judgement and voice it in the first place. But the magnitude of the condemnation you expressed by your word choice is greatly at odds with what I have done.

I bought a game because I thought its value would be worth the price for me. Having used it, I’ve found my early assessment was right. You clearly have different expectations for a game to be worth buying, and my purchase makes it less likely that companies will have to cater to you in the future. I understand your frustration, but I have not wronged you or anyone else.