I actually don’t think this is true. I used to think it was true, but after seeing more and more people I think it’s simpler than that. It’s a belief in the justness of hierarchy— the “great chain of being” from medieval thought, where people on the top both deserve to be there by right of being there, and it is right to submit to them.

On a certain level, I even see the point. Despite anarchist clams to the contrary, leaders are important, necessary even to accomplish anything greater than a single person can manage. Even kids can see this first hand the first time they get assigned a group project by their teacher, or try to win a game of sports. But it’s too easy to twist “we need a good leader” into the tautology of “the leader is good, right, and justified because he’s the leader”.

If everyone rebelled against leadership all the time, there’d be no leadership, and people do need leaders. But at the same time, leaders can be or become shitstains that need to be rebelled against. It’s difficult, and I don’t think being reductive about the difficulty is right.

In case anyone was ignorant amidst the jokes, the purpose of both flag bearers and drummers was basically communication, and was utterly crucial for command and control of an army. It wasn’t just an honor thing, though adding honor on top made sure that soldiers wouldn’t abandon it.

I had one of these in my last game. It wasn’t as obvious as some of the others being commented on here, but there were still just two pieces to put together.

Fact 1: the players learned that the evil cultists are being lied to by the cult leader— the promised vision of a glorious future that solves all the world’s problems is not, amazingly enough, a genuine glimpse of the future, no matter how emotionally fulfilling and sensorially overwhelming it seemed to them. They have complete proof of this.

Fact 2: evil cultist minion who is obtaining godlike powers from a ritual has written in her diary about how horrified she is at all the terrible things that they’ve been doing in the cult, and that it’s only the complete certainty that she has of the promised future where all the world’s problems are solved that keeps her going. If there was even a single crack in this belief, she wouldn’t be able to go on doing all the horrible evil shit the cult leader is having them do.

Can you guys put the two pieces together? Please? Can I remind you of the two pieces of this puzzle again? How about a third time? No? The only solution you see is to kill the cultist after she’s obtained godlike powers? Ooookaaayyy….

Look, I know this is a common repeated question in response to this, to the point of being a meme. But honestly, sex is private, and you know it. Try having sex in the middle of a shopping mall and ask again. That’s acceptable in approximately zero places across the world, and it’s not because sex is bad. It’s just not the place for it, it’s an intimate thing.

Next you might say “cutting people in half isn’t acceptable in a shopping mall either”… but bad things need to be discussed in public to make sure people understand what’s bad. Communicating bad things, and what IS bad, is an important part of society. And again, sex is not bad, so it’s not typically included in this.

The dog always suspected…

Demonstrably true. Try saying anything contrary to a tankie talking point on .ml and see how long before you get banned. May I suggest “Russia was wrong for invading Ukraine” for starters, or “China committed unjustifiable atrocities against peaceful protestors”.

Deep simulations appeal to me, and I haven’t heard of this game before. Is it… is it any good?

To clarify, don’t use nonsense gobbledygook words. Do speak slowly, pitched/melodically, drawing out vowels, and with special emphasis on key words, and using shorter, simpler sentences— which tends to be instinctual for most parents. It’s known as Child-Directed Speech or CDS in linguistics and has been proven to be beneficial for the child. Do not try to avoid this instinct by forcing yourself to speak as if to an adult, it’s built in for a reason.

Spoken like a dog lover who doesn’t get cats. Many… dare I say even most cats would. Not constantly, not in an obsessively needy way, but they do love you and want to be around you and want to know where you are. They do actually care.

You’d think they’d mention it when he meets them though? But the resemblance is definitely there. In appearance and deed.

People who hate raisin cookies REALLY hate raisin cookies. I don’t get the hate myself— raisins are fine. Is it a texture thing?

Incidentally, I think there’s a good chance the story came about because of the way cookies puff up in the oven, sometimes looking a little like breathing. I can see that easily turning into “don’t open the oven too early or it’ll jump up and run away…”

It really helps to not think literally, and mentally substitute as follows: it is plainly evident that if you do nothing, five people will die. But there is something you can do to prevent this, at the cost of another person’s life.

The trolley car isn’t real, it’s just a visualization tool— but people get hung up on the visualization. And if that’s you getting hung up on the visualization, then drop it.

It’s usually not a person that is “tying people to the tracks”, it’s a situation that’s just… happening. For the purposes of the thought experiment, there is no relevant cause— maybe someone evil tied people to the tracks, and sure that’s bad, but the thought experiment isn’t about someone else, it’s about you. What do YOU do, when everything else is out of your control, but the one thing in your control will also kill someone.

It’s always phrased as “do nothing, or pull the lever” for a very good reason, by the way. People often mentally change it to “choose five people or choose one person”, but that’s not the situation. It’s “let events happen without getting your butt off the couch (and maybe feel bad about it later), or actively do something that ends in someone’s death to save them”.

What’s wrong with loving putting on snuggly warm clothing in winter? Not to mention that I love both warm inside and cold outside in winter.

When I was a child, I loved snow. The adults told me that when I had to start shoveling the walkway and driveway, my love would fade. It did not.

Then I was told that when I learned to drive, I would hate it. First snowstorm after I got my license, I instantly headed out to an empty parking lot to practice donuts. I’ve been caught in sudden storms and watched other cars slide off the road. I still love snow.

Then I was told that when I got a job and had to support a family that I’d hate snow. Yet this has come to pass, and I still squee like a child when snow starts. I long to take walks in it. I dream of sledding, or building snowmen, or throwing snowballs, even in my middle age, even if I can no longer run as I used to.

No, you will never take my love of winter from me. Summer heat, get thee behind me.

My memory was that the new episode of X-men would run on Saturday, but during the week they’d loop episodes previously run before the school bus arrived.

It is factual and political. Political doesn’t mean imaginary, opinion based, or non-factual, in fact, it generally means things of great importance. But this is supposed to be a place to take a break from those things of great importance— the cortisol needs a chance to rest sometimes.

AaaaaaaAaAaAaaaaaaAaAAAARGHHHHHackackack……

Thank you! I’ve got some years on me but wasn’t familiar with that song anyway.

That when breathing funny is a ptsd trigger, breathing exercises and meditation is a bad idea. Reciting memorized poetry helps more— the Raven did me wonders, Jabberwocky too.

Sorry it isn’t the kind of more generalized advice that applies to more people, but you asked what I discovered about myself, personally. You probably don’t have a ptsd trigger when focusing on your breathing— that probably helps you relax.

Tankies don’t only support modern fascist Russia, they also support Stalin and Mao. In fact, pick a brutal dictator, and they likely have full support. Pick any American sin (and there are many) that they decry and you’ll find them cheering and supporting and rationalizing a non-American committing that sin but worse.

My dad was NSA. Why does that make him any different regarding privacy at home than any other dad? The experience of having an NSA dad is that he doesn’t talk about work, and otherwise is just a dad. Any issues I had with my dad are utterly and completely unrelated to him working for the government. My dad was fine in terms of having privacy.