[General US Politics]

So... Sarah Silverman has yet to apologize for her jokes involving dressing up in blackface, dressing up as Hitler, and child molestation. 

[General US Politics]

5 minutes ago, Res said:

Also, trolls like Milo are absolutely being taken seriously! He's been on multiple TV segments, he's been granted lecture space, he was given a $250,000 book deal - and he's only been dropped, finally, because his views on pedophilia came to light. 

 

I wonder why the news haven't discussed this in the summer of 2016 when Milo made that statement? Their silence during 2016, until now, is weird. It's not like it's hard to find and I expect them to be somewhat internet savvy and keep up with the latest on differing opinions.

[Favorite Pokémon of each type?]

Asking the tough questions, indeed. What does HM mean?

Fairy type: Cleffa line. Normal type: Zigzagoon, Lickitung, Kangaskhan, or Zangoose. Electric type: Mareep line, Emolga, Pichu line, Shinx line. Psychic type: Jirachi, Woobat line. Dark type: Poochyena line. Ground type: Sandile line, Phanpy line. Ice type: Lapras or Spheal line. 

Dragon type: Lati@s. Ghost type: Giratina. Grass type: Shroomish line, Skiddo line, or Snivy line. Water type: Buizel line, Mantyke line, Corsola. Fire type: Cyndaquil line, Larvesta line. Steel type: Jirachi. Bug type: Wurmple, Venipede line. Poison type: Nidoran (male) line, Croagunk line. 

Flying type: Rowlet line. Fighting type: Infernape, Pancham line. Rock type: Cranidos line, Rockruff line, Anorith line, Archen line.

[Favorite Pokemon non canon pairings?]

Humans or the pokemon themselves? 

I don't really ship anyone as much as I did when I was younger (to the point where I even tried to make fanfiction and fanart. Hahaha. Thank god I didn't publish anything online).

I remember liking N/Hilda (game only), May/Drew (anime only), Cynthia/Dawn and Red/Lyra (game only, these two were more like hero worship). 

[General US Politics]

Sometimes I wish news articles would get to the point. Short and simple. You all ever feel like that?

[Digimon general]

I loved all of the Digimon series as a kid.  From Adventure 01 to Savers. I had a little Ikkakumon and a Terriermon (and the rest of Terriermon's evolutionary line) toy I owned for a time.

I also had one of those Digimon Frontier digivice toy. I also owned several Digimon video games (like Digimon world 3, Rumble Arena, Championship, etc).

[General US Politics]

So, how should a state government go about with maintaining old buildings, dams, etcetera in order for a situation like the one in California to not happen again? Yeah, I'm a bit miffed and I think that this Oroville dam nonsense could've been avoided.

[What Makes A Character Boring?]

52 minutes ago, Augestein said:

What character in question are we talking about rewriting, because I can't say how I'd rewrite a character in general (if at all!).

 

Just ones from a series (invested in enough to know the world and the little details) you like or hate, where there are certain characters you find to be either boring or you dislike them in some way.

[What Makes A Character Boring?]

What personality traits turn you away from liking a character?

What sort of character interactions would make you like or dislike a character?

How would you rewrite the character, so that they'd be better developed?

I've been inspired to make this topic, so that I could better understand what it is like to hate a character of a popular work. (for example, if someone thought characters like Superman and Tim Drake were boring.)

[Samurai Jack: Season 5 Episode 6]

I'm so happy about this! I was wondering whether or not something new was coming.

[General US Politics]

5 hours ago, Lord Raven said:

I can safely say I was a libertarian when I was 15ish, where I believed that people could pull themselves up by their bootstraps and be successful. It helps that at the time my dad was making a six figure salary despite surviving two heart attacks and cancer, and I was living in one of the best places for public education in the country.

Then some things happened (restaurant burned down), my dad wasn't doing as well anymore (and you can also tell that his mental health was in a state - due to the chemotherapy - that if something went wrong it would spiral into something worse) and I realized that nobody is poor on purpose. I realized the reason why my dad came to the US in the first place (which was ultraconservatism taking over his home country of Pakistan) and I realized that my dad would happily pay taxes and donate because it is just so difficult to pull yourself up when you're poor. I can speak partially from personal experience, but I looked into the statistics on top of certain other anecdotes and saw that it's just not easy.

In general, it's much harder to be for something if you haven't experienced it for yourself. In the end, talk is both rewarding but also cheap - it might be harder to convince an upper middle class person that poor people get screwed over because they don't know any other life. It's rewarding because it helps you question where your convictions lie and it helps others do the same, but it's cheap because it's tough to change your fundamental beliefs from when you grew up.

My life experiences have shaped my beliefs, which is why I argue for certain things, but I also try to look up my assertions. For instance, I am a hard pacifist and I don't believe in violence, but I lean towards allowing guns moreso nowadays than I did even around a year ago for various reasons. But otherwise, I'm more or less a socialist, and I believe that people also cannot be trusted to vote or run the world because of the number of politicians and people in general (doctors and pharma companies being another key example) to run things themselves.

I'm not arguing any of this as an objective truth (though I believe it to be truth), but I'm just stating that many people really believe certain things due to how they're raised and what they've personally done. The issue comes when people purely use those anecdotes to justify themselves in proper debate - anecdotes in general don't mean much, they just shape you. You're only a year younger than me though, I'm not sure what your life has been up until now. Reading discussions also helps as much as participating and asking questions.

 

4 hours ago, Res said:

Not particularly, in my case. Even growing up in a household where I attended church twice a week and have a staunchly pro-life mom (but, then again, we're talking about the UK here and that's a very different kettle of fish; also, abortion isn't such a political issue there). 

I benefitted hugely from a social healthcare system growing up, and I attended university back when tuition fees were only just being introduced (I missed the cut-off for free tuition by a year or two; they were still low when I attended, though). So I've seen that socialistic practices can work. With the privatization of many industries in the UK in the 90s, prices rose sharply.

Everything has two sides, sure, but what's your thought process? For example, gay marriage. If you're against gay marriage, why? How does gay marriage being legal affect people who aren't gay? I used to be on the fence regarding many issues until my social circle grew to include people who were impacted by such laws. My life isn't impacted in any way by letting trans women use the women's bathroom, or by letting gay people marry, but my trans and gay friends are affected negatively if they have such laws made against them. I've also never been on welfare (and it's worth pointing out that, as a legal immigrant, I CAN'T be on welfare until I've resided in the country at least ten years. The myth of the immigrant - even legal immigrants, but especially undocumented immigrants - coming to the U.S. and taking your tax monies is just that, a myth), but I can see how it's benefitted friends when they've been suddenly abandoned by their husbands and left to try and feed their kids, or when they've unexpectedly lost their jobs and have no way to pay their bills. 

Hope you both don't mind me quoting the both of you.  I appreciate the response.

My thought process?

Get information before I make a decision on the something. I try to do this and give people or laws or situations the benefit of a doubt. Unfortunately I end up being indecisive. Usually go to my mom or grandma for advice when that happens.

Those two and I don't agree all the time on certain topics, but I know I can trust them, even if I end up feeling a bit confused or unsatisfied with their answers afterwards.

Edit: Unfortunately, I'm a recluse. So my family are the only ones in my life. 

[General US Politics]

I feel a bit lost when it comes to my beliefs about politics (when it seems that everything has two sides and no clear answers).

 

Have any of you felt the same way at some point? What helped you to overcome that feeling?

[Is Fire Emblem really screwed up?]

On 1/27/2017 at 0:18 PM, Folt said:

Hm... There's no doubt in my mind that the latter Fire Emblems were very experimental when it came to gameplay. Shadow Dragon, the remake of the very first Fire Emblem game, threw out some previous staples in the series to keep it a bit like how simple the original was, yet was the first instance of a reclass system. The game after that, New Mystery of the Emblem, introduced the Avatar system (despite Nintendo wanting you to believe that Awakening did), and also added the Casual Mode which let you avoid having your units being killed forever.

Then Awakening came and overhauled both of these mechanics into something that I think in many people's eyes "worked better" than either of them did in the other two games, as well as an overhaul of the Skill system, the return of the marriage and child unit system, and a feature that let them introduce paid DLC to the series for the first time (and also the first time in history that Nintendo would feature paid DLC content in any of their games) as well as an excuse to have units from previous games make possible appearances in other games, and Awakening featured a world map and the ability to grind as well which let it have a postgame (which in turn let people keep using the units they had trained throughout the game to pursue new challenges and other stuff).

In general, Awakening also streamlined quite a bit of stuff: Characters (with exceptions) had only three class trees to reclass between, weapon types were kept to only the six general types (Swords, Lances, Axes, Bows, Tomes/Magic, and Staves) and weapon ranks could only go up to A (but a character could have every weapon type that they could use go that far up), any character could equip any skill they had learned from the classes they had leveled through up to a maximum of 5 skills, many earlygame and some midgame characters could support with other earlygame and midgame characters which meant that most of them could marry one another, and classes as a rule often had things in terms of stats, weaponry, and/or or abilities that let each have a certain role in battle. Awakening also introduced the Pair-Up feature: You could also pair up characters with one another which would boost the main attacker's capabilities and let the supporter add in a second attack as well to really play up your army's unit as working together.

Also, in general, a lot of these changes made every unit rather customizable to a point, and made child units very customizable. And in addition to that, with the DLC, they could all interact with some of the former Fire Emblem units of the old games: The way Gangrel would diss the Black Knight or Yarne finding Zephiel's lack of faith in humans troublesome are things I can still recall up to now, and it was fun fighting all those battles against the heroes and villains of now legendary epochs. I know people in general say there's a lack of character or development in Awakening's characters, but quite frankly, I find most of them to be very good, rather developed characters all the same.

Fates took most of the gameplay elements that Awakening had and improved on them: customization of units was harder and more initially restricted than ever, but the characters could all eventually become as customizable as, and even moreso, than Awakening's (though granted, for some characters, this would have to be through multiple playthroughs). In addition, we got the My Castle feature which gave us a hub base to build and interact with as we pleased, and expanded gameplay options through the introduction of the Dragon Vein mechanic and the Daggers/Shurikens that gave us an option to debuff units, essentially adding another way to support your heavy hitters.

And then of course, there was the reworked weapon triangle (Tomes, Shurikens, and Bows were added to the existing weapon triangle and could thus get an advantage or disadvantage against Swords, Lances, and Axes, as well as themselves and vice versa) and the decision to rework the classes into counterparts of each other found mainly in the armies of opposing Kingdoms. It also took the Pair Up system from Awakening and nerfed it to the point where it was still useful, but not as broken and as overpowered as it had been in Awakening.

Moreover, thanks to the success of Awakening and Fates, Fire Emblem has become considered by Nintendo as one of their major IPs of the present. It means that it is no longer considered a niché franchise to them, and the recent Fire Emblem Direct shows that they are willing to market the Fire Emblem brand more heavily than they have ever done before.

In just about all of these games, they have one or more shared flaws: People say that the story tends to be average, boring, or just plain bad depending on who you ask and what game you're referring to, there's an overly big focus on the Avatar in the games that have them, the characters are becoming sexualized and fanservicey in the latter two games, and perhaps some other things that I can't remember at the moment.

But, honestly, as a Fire Emblem fan since the days of Blazing Sword, I don't find an average/boring/bad story, a big focus on the player-created character, and the sexualized and fanservicey appearances of characters to be a problem. I, as a fan, want to continue playing Fire Emblem games because directly interacting with a Fire Emblem game, and experiencing stuff like the visuals, the music, how characters interact with the player directly, is fun. In addition, looking at the newest Fire Emblem games, IS has been in a very experimental mood lately which has resulted in games that played different to me. New Mystery of the Emblem, Awakening, and Fates, even Shadow Dragon to a point; to me, they have all been different experiences to me, despite having essentially built on one another in terms of mechanics. And that, more than a good story, excites me when it comes to a game. And heck, as a horny perv, I like the increased Avatar focus coupled with more sexual fanservice too, so I'll go against the mold and say that this is a good thing. I want more of that.

In some ways, despite Shadow Dragon and New Mystery saying the opposite, I feel like IS has actually been playing it risky with a series that have now become my favorite videogame series of all time. And, given that Fire Emblem has become considered by Nintendo as one of their main IPs compared to when it was so close to the chopping block and permanent retirement, this has paid of, both for the franchise itself and for me as a fan: Fire Emblem Gaiden is now going to get remade from the bottom up, and it will get an official localization, which means I legally get to play a version of Gaiden. If it had been 2014, I'd have said that us getting a version of Gaiden at all would be flat-out impossible! And with a potential for it not being the only semi-remake on the cards, my dream of legally getting to play a version of every Fire Emblem that I can understand is now possibly becoming a reality. The series is also gonna get crossed over with the Musou series which has been one of my biggest desires ever since I got to experience a Musou title for myself.

So, do I think Fire Emblem is screwed? My answer: I never thought what the series did with Awakening was a screw-up. I never thought what they did with Fates was a screw-up. I never thought they screwed over the series for FE fans back then, and I certainly do not think so now.

I actually kind of agree with most of what you've said.

[Fire Emblem Getting The Avatar System Right]

Why not just have the FE community create a fan made, D&D style game based on Fire Emblem? 

[Least Favorite Character]

Keep in mind I've only played Awakening/Fates. The cast is pretty likable, yet there are those few I'm lukewarm towards.

This is a sentiment that has most definitely been said by people before me, but I dislike Peri/Pieri. 

It's mostly due to her childishness, which comes across as annoying rather than cute. 

[General US Politics]

8 minutes ago, Res said:

When you read about history, it's hopefully from a variety of sources, and although all history books come with an agenda, well-written books will be backed up with facts, sources and an index. Milo isn't aiming to be a historian; he doesn't represent so much of an alt-right view as he's just a troll. 

 

I see.

8 minutes ago, Res said:

Religion vs science is a bit of a misnomer (one hopes!). After all, one can be both religious and a scientist - and equally one can be non-religious and believe in all manner of crackpot theories. Science aims to present theories about the observable universe and it isn't necessarily at odds with religious belief. What we do have is religions vs. other religions; usually the fundamentalist religions against one another, since the majority of religious people live peacefully and don't desire to impose their views upon others.

 

True.

8 minutes ago, Res said:

Are you talking about cooperation between different political factions, or between people within the same political faction (I.e. looking at solutions to stop the infighting?). 

Mostly the former rather than the latter. I believe it would be somewhat easier for people within the same political faction to cooperate than otherwise. 

[General US Politics]

 

43 minutes ago, Lord Raven said:

Luckily the logic wasn't vacuous.

Quote

M'kay.

43 minutes ago, Lord Raven said:

Well, for starters, actually cooperate instead of making the issue binary.

I see. I think they should state what their #1 priorities are, and make decisions that will help their policies fit the other's own policies. That is, if they swallow their pride long enough to compromise. 

That is what I'd say if it were at all possible for them to do so. *Sigh*. I just realized that it won't happen.

[General US Politics]

1 hour ago, Lord Raven said:

Difference is that Milo is a bullshitter and professional troll. Nothing he says is worthy of anything - it's not rooted in fact, he is a writer on Breitbart after all. Which is textbook fake news and alt-right/neo-nazi propaganda. Added onto this is the fact that he flip-flops on various issues in a clear attempt to pander - and it includes things like how video games are for mouthbreathers which was later retracted when he realized that his following includes those. He also claims that he chose to be gay and that he can revert to straight at any time.

Hmm. I believe I've seen a few of your statements echoed on other forums about Milo by someone else. You may have a point there.

1 hour ago, Lord Raven said:

I doubt he really cares about anything but money and attention and furthering his brand. His actions certainly contribute to those three things being his endgoal. He is not some historical figure that anyone should give two shits about.

By your logic, you aren't a historical figure and no one should care about what you have to say. What's the point in holding and expressing an opinion then?

Ah, or if you prefer, why should I listen to my elders when they give me advice? They're not in the history books.

Sorry for being so sassy, I just felt like poking fun at it a bit.

All in all. After both sides (democrats vs republicans, antifa vs fascists, religion vs science, everything else that encourages an "us vs them" narrative) say they want the other side to condemn the bad apples in the group, what exactly should they do in order to cooperate?

[General US Politics]

1 hour ago, Res said:

It's interesting that he should mention MLK Jr, when MLK's legacy was to be shot dead (and forever after be misquoted by white people).

As Radiant head said, the shooting of a protester in Seattle has garnered virtually no news, especially after it was confirmed that he was a protester and not one of Milo's potential attendees (when there was some doubt, everyone pounced on it in order to denounce the protesters). The general message I'm getting from a lot of people is the left should be prepared for self-sacrifice if they wish to get anywhere.

You say it's important not to forget history, which I absolutely agree with. But there's a huge difference between reading about history and listening to Milo's speeches, which leads to the outing of society's most vulnerable people. 

I see. Do you mind clarifying what this difference is?  Maybe this is a stupid question. Sorry.

I'm looking at the results in the news section of my google search. There seems to be quite a few articles about that situation, but I'm not seeing NY times or Huffpost or BBC covering this story. Hmm. I wouldn't just rely on popular media outlets in order to get my news (maybe try local news?).

About Milo? Well, it already happened and he's probably not going to mince his words anytime soon. I admit I listened to a few of his livestreams and didn't really buy everything he was selling.

[General US Politics]

19 minutes ago, Radiant head said:

yeah that's what I meant.  I did mention (and condemn) the pepper spray thing. 

i think there are cases where violence against people is justified, but this isn't one of them (from what I know of what happened exactly) 

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/is-it-ok-to-punch-a-nazi-leading-ethicists-weigh-in/

Here is one article where an ethicist gives their opinion. I hope you, and everyone else, finds it interesting.

[General US Politics]

3 minutes ago, Radiant head said:

fair question! 

i think in this specific instance, we're talking about someone who outted a trans student at the university of wisconsin, ruining her life, and there were unverified concerns from berkeley that he was going to out undocumented immigrants and tear their families apart. 

and while milo himself might not be a fascist technically speaking, his following does include plenty of neo-nazis, which is pretty fucking alarming.  I know a protester was actually shot at one of his events (why does this get less publicity than rioting??).  now i think the rioters here went too far (pepper spraying a random woman with a maga hat is really stupid and counter productive) but at the end of the day no one was hurt and I generally don't agree with the liberal notion protests should be polite and not break anything.  sometimes you have to offend some middle class sensibilited to be heard. 

the whole point of fascism is that it leverages and exploits liberal tolerance until it has the power to dissolve it all together for anyone.  so I think people have the right to be angry and make it heard if berkeley made the wrong call that would endanger a lot of people 

Thank you for the response. It's interesting to read things from another perspective.

[General US Politics]

19 minutes ago, Radiant head said:

yeah somehow I can't really bring myself to be sad about smashed objects ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

milo is far right trash and Berkeley shouldn't be giving people like him a platform tbh 

Well, it is the school's decision at the end of the day who they can let speak. There's always the internet if there's something you want to watch or read.

 

Do your feelings on far right, conservative, etc. ideas, extend to reading material based on said ideas?  

Should these ideas be allowed for people and the general public to be read in school libraries, classrooms, bookstores and public libraries?

You don't have to answer if you don't want to. I'm just being curious and want to know your thoughts.

I personally think history should not be forgotten and that we should always have text regarding a multitude of subjects available to the public.

 

[General US Politics]

27 minutes ago, Radiant head said:

yeah won't someone think of the poor windows and private property

 That just means there's more work for city maintenance workers to do, because the rioters obviously aren't going to cleanup their mess afterwards. "We care about the community" my ass.

What really grinds my gears is  that I've watched some people get beat up in Berkeley. I also saw some people climb on top of a car and and pound on the driver's widows while the driver was driving. Not to mention the misuse of pepper spray.

[General US Politics]

I hate antifa so much right now for the Berkeley riots. They need to stop fucking up my state.

[General US Politics]

22 minutes ago, Res said:

Wow at this Arkansas abortion law. I have no words for how awful it is.

Maybe it'll get overturned or amended (for better or worst) in the future.