The original Baldur’s Gate story (1 and 2 + expansions) begin with you being a barely trained orphan sent on an unexpected journey by your foster father…

I wish I was winning round cheeses! TFW too hetero a man to seduce a farmer and get treated like this:

I disagree that “their humiliating defeat on November 5 was due largely to their undeniable role in the Israeli war and genocide in Gaza.” I definitely think it played a role and Dems would have won more voters with concrete promises to halt Israel’s genocide and enforce US laws like the Leahy Law. People are justifiably upset with Israel crossing lines without Biden enforcing consequences, and the huge amounts of money going to fund genocide as opposed to being used domestically.

Was it really THE major issue affecting votes though? IMO the more significant issues were things like a feeling of “more of the same” when people are struggling and focusing on trying to win “moderate” Republicans instead of motivating a base they thought was guaranteed. Still, it’s an article with valid points.

Rare W for separation of church and state in Republican territory. I hope it lasts.

A lot of people did in fact set aside Gaza until Trump was stopped. As for those that didn’t, they should have listened to Bernie Sanders. I did months ago and went all-in on Dem support. There were multiple times when I wrote up an angry post about US support of Israel and then didn’t post it because I didn’t want to turn a voter into a non-voter or worse a Trump supporter.

I understand their position of never rewarding ethnic cleansing and war crimes though. They chose to make sure the Dems know they would never “settle” for the illegal killing of civilians. The support for Israel made it especially hard for Arab Americans to vote Dem. It’s difficult to support a party that has been in power during the whole conflict yet gives unconditional support for the internationally condemned murder of Arabs.

I’m sure a lot also felt disenfranchised by the bipartisan protest suppression and condemnation. Even in Dem states peaceful protesters were punished, and sometimes pro-Israeli protesters who attacked got away with it. Then there was the whole “vote with us or else” pressure that went on for months. Dissenters like the “uncommitted” voters were insulted by the party that wanted their unconditional support.

So it’s not like it’s completely insane. But as Sanders points out that position only makes things worse and has done so.

Policies should be passed at a governmental/institutional level to reduce inequality as it’s identified by data. No one should be at a societal disadvantage because of how they were born or choices that are their personal right to make.

That said, I think some problems to avoid are:

• On case-by-case scenarios, assuming that broad trends apply to every individual. I don’t like automatically assuming everyone of a certain demographic is a victim. Also, some people in disadvantaged groups will use very real discrimination to excuse bad decisions and behaviors. Everyone is fallible, and sometimes justice requires punishment even for these folks.

• Gatekeeping suffering. It’s hazardous to society and individual mental health to tell people of “advantaged” demographics that their suffering/problems aren’t valid because of who they are. I’m talking about “what do you have to complain about, you’re not X or Y”. We can acknowledge discrimination and work to reduce it without dismissing the concerns of other groups.

There are indications that things like abortion bans will affect the number of present and futures doctors/specialists in particular in places like Texas. Perhaps if doctors and dentists come to the table in large #'s with meaningful pushback the damage can be mitigated.

I sincerely hope RFK’s promised position proves to be largely ceremonial, because his proposals could really impact nation-wide quality of life. Especially for kids who have no choice or voice.

Anyone who opposed him, and especially those who have/had a lawsuit against him, are now in the crosshairs.

As a foreigner looking in, I’m worried about how things like widespread protest suppression and union-busting will affect the called-for attempts at change. Some of that stuff was bipartisan, and it’s unlikely to get better now that the far right has control of the Presidency, Senate, SCOTUS, and perhaps the House.

We’ll see. As an Albertan I’m hoping other voter pools will even recognize the harm for what it is. I have family members who would be absolutely thrilled to have abortion made illegal, forced Christianity in schools, homophobia/transphobia/Islamophobia, anti-immigration and hostile foreign policies, etc. There’s a reason Alberta is called Canada’s Texas.

Lots of reasons. Left-leaning Canadian’s take on Kamala’s loss:

• Biden/Kamala have acted against the American majority for months now in Gaza. This isn’t a sabotage take, it’s as close to fact as can be determined of national attitude. Look at my post history before you accuse me of “both sides”. A lot of Dems and especially young people are very vocal about hating support of the ethnic cleansing of Occupied Palestinian Territory. Millions of people chose to stomach it, but I think other millions felt unrepresented and betrayed by protest suppression/bipartisan condemnation.

• I don’t want to insult anyone, but even moderately detailed campaign plans may not work in America. Trump’s campaign was run on vague promises and angry rhetoric that was emotionally engaging. Clearly people don’t know how much Trump’s policies like tariffs are going to hurt them personally, but like “America for Americans”. Kamala ran on a detailed platform that took effort to understand and clearly it failed to motivate enough voters.

• “Try to please everyone and you will please no one.” Instead of solidifying support and inspiring hope among the Dem base, Kamala’s campaign assumed their support due to fear of Trump and went after undecideds and Republicans. Republicans aren’t going to switch and many undecideds are that way due to apathy.

• No Dem primary meant people couldn’t choose the candidate they might actually want to support. They were given Biden then Harris without being asked for input.

• Related to that: Biden’s campaign soured voters, and Kamala wasn’t able to climb out of the hole left to her. His low approval rating didn’t help given Kamala felt like a younger version of more of the same.

• Misinformation and propaganda by foreign and domestic right-wingers kept a lot of people from switching sides.

That’s such a Philly headline - DA set to go full Broad Street Bullies. Philly is also celebrating the 20th anniversary of one of the greatest hockey brawls ever this year.

• If you’re the owner of the home, know what bylaws there are regarding snow removal near your home. Where I live you can get a fine + snow removal costs if you aren’t reasonably prompt getting snow off the sidewalk.

• Snowy surfaces (sidewalks, driveways, roads) are often icy surfaces = slip and fall hazard. This is especially serious for older folks but it can hurt/injure at any age. This gets worse if it snows then melts then refreezes. Don’t run if you don’t have to. Sand/grit on these surfaces can help, and in my area you can get sand for free at certain town facilities.

• Frostbite on exposed skin is a genuine hazard. Look up the weather forecast when it’s cold and take time-to-frostbite warnings seriously.

"It’s easy for her to talk, sitting far from where the death scenes take place, but put a gun in her hand, and let her go fight, and she’ll say, ‘No thanks!’” This from a guy who discusses deploying troops in America against Americans, yet dodged the Vietnam draft with fake medical issues.

Reddit:

• It has a much larger user base and many heavily specialized boards that nevertheless stay reasonably active.
• It’s a collection of echo chambers. Dissent is usually stomped out by mass downvoting and heavy moderation/bans. It’s rare to find a board that allows arguments for a long period of time. Agree with the board’s users/mods or get silenced. Posted rules do not matter, and you can definitely be hateful in ways that violate posted rules so long as that type of hate is acceptable on that board.
• So many users mean that getting content to succeed is a crapshoot. Often posts become lost in the noise, especially on busy boards.
• I left about a year ago, but apparently there’s a lot of bot/AI slop on boards now.

Lemmy:

• Much smaller user base. Heavily specialized boards move slowly if they exist at all. It’s not unusual to see boards where it’s just one/a few people posting with days in between new content.
• More ability to have disagreements. Whether it’s because moderating a smaller # of users is easier, the mods are less authoritarian, or whatever you are more likely to be able to disagree. Don’t be blatantly racist, celebrating violence, clearly trolling, etc. and you’ll probably remain able to participate. I’m sure this isn’t universal on all boards, but it’s my experience on many boards.
• For all that I believe the above point, there are still “echo chamber” moments on Lemmy. Sometimes it seems people may be downvoted simply because they are already downvoted. It’s still way less egregious than on Reddit, and such is human nature I suppose.
• Fewer users means you are more likely to get some engagement on your post, at least in my experience. I never sorted my feed by new posts on Reddit because it was an avalanche of posts of questionable quality, so I only saw whatever content had already succeeded. On Lemmy I can look for new posts and see most if not all content on the boards I enjoy.

• Take time off from social media once in a while, or at least avoid doomscrolling all day. Bad stories generate FAR more engagement than good stories, and every form of media knows this. If 100,000 people in your area have an average-to-good day and 5 people have terrible days, all 5 stories presented to you will detail how things are in your area are terrible.

• Physical health affects mental health and vice versa. Eat healthy (or healthier). Stay hydrated. Get 7-9 hours of sleep regularly and use sleep hygeine. Get 90+ minutes of exercise (anything that raises your heartrate) a week which is like 15 minutes/day. Don’t worry about doing it all immediately - if you try to change everything at once you’re more likely to get overwhelmed and burn out. It’s way better to make slow, sustainable changes over months than it is to do a difficult crash course for a short time and get fed up with the process.

• Do thankfulness exercises. When I go to bed at night I think of 3 things I’m thankful for in the day. On average or bad days it may be that I wasn’t in constant/chronic pain, that I got to eat and drink, and that I’m in a safe place and a soft bed. Just remembering those basics (that many of us take for granted) helps keep me aware of good things in my life.

• Find ways to enjoy hobbies that require participation - arts, sports, board/video games, whatever. Just something other than passively taking in TV/online media. This will help you feel engaged and double points if it’s something that allows for improvement because you’ll feel rewarded as you get better.

Good luck getting ring-laden sweets away from invisible kids.

deleted by creator

If Christian parents were really concerned about their child’s safety they’d let them go to library book readings and keep them away from church groups and camps.

Looking at that 2nd point: it’s so odd that Trump’s Republicans include hardcore Netanyahu-style Zionists AND unrepentant antisemites. It’s like they want to cover all possible approaches to the wrong side of history.

As to the meat of the story, Legal Eagle made a video about the legality of the Musk lottery. It seems pretty clearly forbidden, but we’ve been down this road with rich Conservatives many times before…