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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 4th, 2023

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  • Skyrim. Load up some new mods, play a completely different character. The magic of Bethesda’s old games is that they leave the player free to imagine what they are. The upside of having the PC have no personality is that you get to project whatever personality you like onto them. Don’t initiate the main quest, don’t bother with dragons, play pretty much the entire game as if it is your own sandbox. It’s grand.


  • I also live in a very tourist-y area, but in the States, and without question the worst tourists are other Americans. I think when you’re visiting another country, there’s a certain amount of humility and respect that kicks in, because you know you’re not on your own turf. When you’re just visiting another part of your own country, that pressure doesn’t kick in and it can leave you behaving like a bit of an entitled ass.


  • Back in my 20’s I was backpacking through Europe and had heard that Parisians were generally friendly to American tourists, but the one thing I was told was to start every conversation at least attempting to speak French. I did so, and everyone I spoke to either started speaking English or politely referred me to someone who did. There was only one incident I had there. I was ordering dinner in a restaurant and I asked the waiter what wine he recommended with the meal I’d ordered. This is a fairly common thing to do in America, but this poor waiter looked at me like I had just transformed into a 4th-dimensional kaleidoscopic entity before his very eyes. I mean, he totally froze, eyes wide, jaw slack. I immediately felt so bad that I just ordered the first red wine I saw on the list and the relief on his face was palpable, but he still looked shaken.

    I think French people are just so familiar with wine that they can’t comprehend people who aren’t. If you ever visit France, do some basic research just so you don’t freak them out.












  • In order to truly understand this, you have to tear yourself away from the Republicans and start looking at conservative ideology itself.

    At the core of conservative ideology is the very American idea of “pulling oneself up by their own bootstraps.” This is essentially the idea that, no matter the circumstances of one’s birth, one can achieve anything. Historically, this was a rebellion against the classism of old Europe, which was structured around a class system. So, in that context, it was a very liberal idea. The problem comes in when you start to recognize that people are not actual born on a level playing field, financially, culturally, educationally, etc. Today, the idea that everyone can “pull themselves up by their own bootstraps,” foments the lie that we are all born into equal opportunities in life, which is demonstrably false.

    So, the core of conservative ideology is based on an untruth, and it has never reconciled this. Conservatives thus blame disparities in achievement in society on lack of individual effort, and don’t take into account differences in opportunity by birth circumstances. As such, when they see people who haven’t done as well as others, they attribute that to personal failings rather than circumstantial inequalities. When you see all outcomes as a result of personal effort, you can dismiss bad outcomes as the result of a lack of effort, and thereby justify denying the less fortunate help under the notion that it is unfair to the more prosperous because it rewards those who didn’t try as hard with the same outcomes who had to work for them.

    Conservative ideology is simply outdated and uninformed by modern sociological research.




  • Tedesche@lemmy.worldtomemes@lemmy.worldPride balloon
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    23 days ago

    I’m pretty sure no Elizabethan ever said, “I’m so gay for thee,” as an expression of happiness or support. Your phrasing is therefore pretty locked in as “your parents want the gay incest with you,” so maybe you owe OP an apology?

    Just sayin’.