Welcome again to everybody. Thank you for joining us for the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.
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I just saw someone call the houthis virtue signaling for shutting down “global trade” and took psychic damage.
Situational depression can be such a catch-22. Like the change in circumstances that would (probably) resolve it can require sustained motivation and energy that the depression saps right out of you.
Become change
I was reading law this week (for an exam) and I noticed some things about constitutions: (not a lawyer, so this isn’t legal advice)
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Constitution states, but does not explain. Look at these articles from the Constitution of the USSR:
ARTICLE 1. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is a socialist state of workers and peasants.
ARTICLE 121. Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to education.
Like, the Constitution doesn’t bother to explain why exactly the people of the USSR chose socialism as their system of government nor the entire theory of Marxism-Leninism. It also doesn’t explain what subjects are gonna be taught in schools etc. The Constitution is a guideline for future developments. Explanations are probably part of jurisprudence.
I know it’s a bit obvious that this is the purpose of constitutions but I still think it’s neat to note. Imagine if Marx wrote like this:
Article 20. Labor-power is the capacity to do work.
Article 21. The proletariat is the class defined by its lack of capital and whose only means to sustain itself is by selling labor-power to the bourgeois.
Then in a book, he goes like:
Consequently, it appears that the capitalist buys their labour with money, and that for money they sell him their labour. But this is merely an illusion. What they actually sell to the capitalist for money is their labour-power (Constitution, Article 21). […]
All Marxist theory would just people citing articles from the “Constitution” in other documents and exploring its consequences.
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Law works in a general pattern: “If X, then Y, unless Z happens, in which case W.”
For example, everyone has the right to move anywhere, except if you commit a crime, in which case you lose your freedom in jail. Laws don’t work like physical laws or Math axioms that generalize a lot of cases. It’s a general principle and then a ton of exceptions.
Exception in laws is where loopholes live and arguably where the bourgeoisie do their businesses.
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Law is made to achieve an outcome.
Also obvious but noting this kind of takes away the “power” of the law. Like, if you know that a law was made to punish protests then you know you should protest even if it’s illegal. Because…
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Law is a superstructure.
Law only exists if there is people to enforce it and people to obey it. Otherwise it’s just a piece of paper. Even something that isn’t a law like a sign that says “Do NOT touch the saw. The saw CAN turn on at ANY moment” is probably gonna have way less disobedience than a federal law that forbids loitering.
Also another interesting thing. There are three states with a uncodified constitution: United Kingdom, New Zealand, and the Zionist regime.
Of these three, “Israel” is the only one without clearly defined territories in any law. I wonder why that is /s
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Any comrades here know anything about Worm web series by Wildbow https://parahumans.wordpress.com/?
I am trying to read more fiction during my 16 day vacation. Any other Science Fiction/Fantasy recommendations are welcome.
I also have Ghost-Eyes by Amitav Ghost in my reading list.
I absolutely loved Project Hail Mary, way better than the movie adaptation in my opinion. Descender / Ascender is a good scifi and fantasy comic series.
Not sure if it’s what you’re looking for but I’m enjoying The Iron Heel by Jack London right now, it’s an early sci fi book about a failed revolution in the US basically. But it’s quite expository and has lots of speeches, that early 20th century socialist style. But the conceit of the novel is very cool in my opinion–you’re reading the journal of one of these future revolutionaries annotated by a historian in a future utopian society.
My time has come.
First, warnings for what you’ll run into: gore, torture, sexual violence, child death, body horror, and suicide. It’s a heavy read.
Next, a other few things about Worm before you read it:
It was published as a serial, so, each chapter was written and published individually rather than the whole work being published all at once. This leads to some peculiarities in how it is written, because serials need to keep readers engaged between publishing dates and because the author relied on donations coming in while publishing.
This lead to a few odd editing choices that probably wouldn’t have happened if it was published as a single finished work. It’s very long, even compared to entire book series. Worm is 4 times longer than the entire Lord of the Rings series of books. It’s 3 times longer than the Bible. You get the idea. There was no editor trying to cut things out, so everything is in there.
That isn’t to say it’s bloated, but it’s a slog. Especially since our protagonist, Taylor, spends most of the story suffering and pushing her way through it and making bad decisions for the right reasons. She’s always waiting for the other shoe to drop, and then it does, and then she has to survive it. Just when everything seems hopeless, it gets worse. It’s not light reading.
But it’s not grimdark, per se. Even as everything gets worse, they get through it. The end is ambiguous and surprisingly hopeful.
Anyone that says its a deconstruction of superheroes missed the point, though. It’s actually a reconstruction: it tries to take superhero tropes as they exist and then justify them logically in the world. Why do people dress up in costumes and punch each other? Why don’t superscientists cure cancer instead of turning everyone into dinosaurs? Why are there giant monsters, and how does society adapt to it? Where did powers come from? Are they good? Bad? Why?
All in all, it’s interesting. It could do with an editor to trim some of the excess, but maybe only 5% of it.
And then the author published a controversial sequel that retconned a bunch of things and the fandom is still mad about it.
Stopped drinking coffee for two days now and I have legit headaches. Didn’t even drink that much coffee either.
In my experience it doesn’t matter how much coffee you were drinking, you’ll get withdrawal headaches. I even think sometimes when I’ve been drinking absurd amounts then suddenly stop I don’t get headaches somehow. I think they go away in less than a week though.
Apparently caffeine restricts some blood flow to your brain so if you quit all those blood vessels get opened up, causing a headache. The amount of caffeine indeed is not that important.
caffeine restricts some blood flow to your brain.
What. I didn’t know this.
What do you comrades think about The Road by Cormac McCarthy?
Honestly I found it kind of cheesy when I read it in high school. I just had this idea the other day about a similar idea for a novel but it has some sort of sci fi future archeological slant…
Incredibly dark and not my favourite apocalypse book but still worth reading at least once. And there’s some hope buried somewhere deep in it too.
Lol the FIFA scandal is insane, seems like there is a split upcoming between UEFA and FIFA, likely other football unions splitting too. Contradictions are piling up even in the football world.
If UEFA isn’t willing to go with your corruption you know it’s bad lol
That’s what i thought too lol, FIFA reaching new qualitative levels of corruption.
Permanently back in The Netherlands, watching TV at my parents place. Dutch TV is full of talk shows every night and it so insanely lib and pro capitalism. I never really watched TV in my Belgium years and it kinda feels like a shock to watch this slop.
In Germany they are going full neo-nazi with the russia and now the “enemy within” (literal quote) since that terror attack.
I feel you. The TV in our break room at work plays satellite channels and it does feel like Robocop sometimes. Especially when the “news” is playing (if you can really call CP24 news). That’s how I learned that CBCNN existed. 🤢
That’s just TV in general. I honestly don’t know why people watch that crap. Read some books, people!
While learning Spanish I’ve noticed that my native language (Portuguese) is really weird sometimes.
Like, “I am hungry” is “tengo hambre” in Spanish (trans. “I have hunger”), but in my language it’s “estou com fome” which literally translates to “I am with hungry”.
In Korean it’s paegopa, which literally means “Stomach is empty”. My mother tongue is Telugu we have two words to describe this, and one of them is “stomach is empty”.
That’s cool! Does your language describe other things in the same style?
Italian and French use the same grammar as Spanish for that expression (“j’ai faim” in French for example). Interestingly, Romanian, which is often the odd one out among Romance languages with its rather unusual grammar, does not use that form and instead says “mi-e foame” (a shortening of “îmi este foame”), which could be translated literally word for word as “to me is hunger”, a rather odd dative-reflexive grammatical construct for a Romance language but actually not that strange if you know German or Russian.
German also works like this, but not English, I find that pretty weird
Interesting. I didn’t know Romanian worked like this.
Romanian has a very interesting and unique (some might say these words are euphemisms for complex and difficult) grammar for a Romance language. As a native speaker i never appreciated this until my spouse started trying to learn it. It also put my own attempts with languages with equally or even more complex grammar such as Russian into perspective.
One of the many reasons why learning other languages is so rewarding, it teaches you a lot, even about your own.
You are a native Romanian speaker? That’s cool as hell.
Also, yeah. learning languages is one of the most rewarding things someone can do. Especially ones that are completely different.
I learned Sign language in the past. To say something like “when do we go to the store?” you really need to think about the space, facial expressions, the Deaf culture etc.
You are a native Romanian speaker?
Yes. My goal currently is to speak at least five languages fluently. I’m at around 3.75 right now, lol.
I’ve never thought too much about sign language though. That is fascinating.
I do not have any feelings of gender dysphoria.
Period.
Quit looking at my two blåhajs.
Too bad, I thought we were all trans tankies over here. I thought everyone was into Fully Automated Luxury Trans Gay Furry Space Communism.
Oh kewl, I was double-checking for your pronouns and saw that you’re Macedonian.
Nice!
the three genders: male, female, macedonian
The Holy Trinity
Honestly, if you want to be femme anyway, that is valid.
The no gender dysphoria part is actually true, but I very much own two blåhajs.
Trying to give Undertale a second chance (last time I got like… idk, 3/4 of the way through? and couldn’t finish it).
Currently on the verge of giving up again because there’s a part with the kind of game design that is so bizarrely player-unfriendly, it feels more like the developer is playing a practical joke on the player than anything else.
Explanation / vent in spoilers:
spoiler
There’s somebody you gotta fight and if you’re going pacifist route (where you befriend / avoid hurting anyone), you have two options with this fight. Either survive for 17 rounds of attacks (which is more than it sounds like if ‘bullet hell’ mechanics are not your strong point) or… and this is where it actually gets under my skin… there’s a particular item you can buy early on in the game and give it to them. But you can also use this item as a consumable to heal along the way (which I did) or never buy it (which could also easily happen). So you are essentially punished for not working out something extremely obscure. On top of that, the ideology of this game has yet to make any sense to me. The “pacifist” route just seems to be a “self sacrificing against all good sense” route. The lore tries to justify how hostile so many are toward you, but the mortal threats to you means you should fight your way out if you have any sense, out of self-defense (which is considered the “genocide” route, if I’m not mistaken???). I’m vaguely aware there’s supposed to be some extra layer to it and how it’s designed, but it’s hard to get past the identity and ideology of the game. Bullet hell is not fun to me and I don’t understand what I’m supposed to be proving by trying to befriend beings who want me dead. And like, the quirky humor is fun sometimes, but the game can’t seem to decide whether it’s all a big joke commentary on video game design or supposed to be a genuinely challenging game. Like with the aforementioned example of design, it could be very easy to get past this part… if you know something very obscure and keep track of it from an early point to a much later point. But this is not funny or quirky or cute to me. It’s just mean.
Speaking as a massive fan of Undertale (one of my favorite games of all time) if you don’t enjoy it by now you should stop forcing it on yourself. Which enemy are you talking though? I don’t remember many instances of struggling with dodging enemy attacks to that extent.
Sometimes you just don’t enjoy something even if it’s otherwise near universally beloved. I think A Link to the Past is a boring, bland game with unsatisfying combat that sucks at guiding the player, and no amount of other people going on about how it’s Shigeru Miyamoto’s personal gift to humanity will change that.
Which enemy are you talking though?
spoiler
Muffet.
Though given what another poster said, it’s seeming like the issue may be that I didn’t level up at all the whole way so I’m very weak.
But yeah, it’s been years since the first time I gave the game a chance, so I thought I’d give it a second chance. Just doesn’t seem to be my cup of tea.
In case you didn’t know, the true pacifist ending isn’t available on your first playthrough anyway. You must complete at minimum one neutral ending first.
Undertale became massively popular so now everyone knows everything about it, but the game is designed for players to come into it blind & with the expectation that it’ll be a normal JRPG. You’re meant to kill monsters, be surprised that they stay dead, finish the game to learn why, and then be told to avoid combat as a new game+ challenge run. You’re not supposed to know the gimmick beforehand and start the game with the challenge run.
There’s something to be said about how subversive things lose their appeal when they become so popular that they lose their subversiveness. But yeah, go do some grinding because you’re probably level 1 and have garbage equipment.
I see. No wonder it feels jank then. I’d heard about the pacifism thing before playing it for the first time and so not only did I expect the game to not be so combat-heavy, I didn’t know there was some thing where you can’t fully be one the first time anyway?
There’s something to be said about how subversive things lose their appeal when they become so popular that they lose their subversiveness.
From the sound of it, because I knew some things about it going in (apparently too much), it became annoying in part because it doesn’t expect me to know things and beeline right past its subversive ploys to try to get the “best ending”.
So I’m essentially playing the game “wrong” because I didn’t treat it like it’s a typical “fight and level up” video game. It sure sounds like the designer did not account for a person doing that and instead designed on the basis that the player would necessarily treat it like a “normal” game.
Yeah you did well to avoid story spoilers but you did get spoiled on game’s premise, which is arguably more important, so now you pretty much are playing it wrong. Undertale is best when it’s subverting your expectations but it falls flat if you don’t have those expectations in the first place. But to be fair, this is a kickstarter indie game from a creator previously best known for making music and who had only developed an earthbound ROM hack up until then. By all means, undertale should’ve been a niche game and it’s weird that it blew up as much as it did. I don’t fault the developer for designing his game with the assumption that people will treat it the same as the billion other indie RPGs.
Like with that boss you mentioned, she’s designed to be challenging for a player with good gear and a high LV. Then you beat the game and are told to replay it without fighting. Then during a second playthrough, you remember this boss when you reach the point where you can buy her key item. Then you’re relieved that you don’t have to fight her again, but without your gear and stats.
I feel confident in saying that you’re not meant to know in advance that this boss is optional because you’re not supposed to know at first that fighting as a whole is optional. The key item is better understood as a mercy for repeat playthroughs than a secret requirement.
This video is tangential, but I think you’d be interested. It covers what RPGs is like from someone with nearly no gaming experience at all. The player didn’t resonate with undertale either because she didn’t recognize the tropes that it subverts so it just came off as boring and irritating.
That makes sense.
The video was interesting, thanks. It does seem like even though I’m experienced in video games where she isn’t, I got annoyed because I expected it to be a break from normal RPGs and it’s apparently more like a heavy-handed message about them that needs you to come in thinking of it as a normal RPG in order for it to work right. In both cases, I guess you really need to come into it with a very specific idea about it.
That’s true. I guess only the vanishingly small demographic of people that like RPGs but haven’t heard of undertale can still experience it as intended. At least everyone can still enjoy the charming characters and catchy music regardless.
What you refer to as the “genocide” route is actually something a lot more specific.
spoiler
It’s not simply killing the random encounters, it’s going out of your way to grind in each area until there’s literally no one else to kill. You aren’t really condemned for killing in neutral runs beyond getting locked out of the best ending and having to restart the game.
My bad, saw it mentioned in guides and made an incorrect assumption.
spoiler
Though still, “getting locked out of the best ending and having to restart the game” for doing some killing in self-defense sounds pretty blech to me.
i would recommend you finish it, you’re really quite far anyways.
spoiler
not using a baked good to skip muffet isn’t really that big of a deal, it’s just supposed to be a joke because most players wouldn’t buy anything at the bake sale anyways. i didn’t do it on my first playthrough, either; i believe all the items there are purposefully overpriced so that it’s more likely for you to encounter the boss battle on your first playthrough.
obviously if you’re not that great at bullet hell i can understand it being a hard time, but i wasn’t that great either (never really played any bullet hell before) and i got better enough that it was a reasonable challenge but not too frustrating over the course of the game. i thought the different mechanics used within the bullet hell JRPG framework were clever throughout.
in terms of writing, it’s really a story totally focused and revolved around the characters. if you don’t like the characters you’re not going to have a good time, but if you do you’ll have a great time.
as far as ideology it’s obviously very liberal but for a reason slightly different and/or deeper than what you describe: after all, the monsters in the story could reasonably be interpreted as a nation exploited/oppressed by the humans, which is good. but, the story takes place from the perspective of that nation (with the exception of the main character, who is just an insert) as opposed to the fact that the vast majority of “gamers” come from an exploiting class (white, men, etc). furthermore, as you touch on, the story posits that peace by all means (literally pacifism) is the way to resolve that exploiter/exploited contradiction, which is of course deeply, deeply liberal.
I tried a couple more times to do that fight, even following a tip to buy more healing item to have on hand first. Still failed. I will probably try again another day, but it is not really fun for me, the fight mechanics. I don’t get the appeal of bullet hell and some of the attacks later in the fight seem designed in such a way that it’s virtually impossible to dodge everything because of the pace it goes at and things overlapping. I probably just suck at bullet hell though.
But yeah, the pacifist ideology of it kinda annoys me. I want to give it a fair shake to see it all the way through so I can properly judge what it’s actually doing in design and storytelling as a whole (partly cause the game designer in me is interested to learn from what it does well in design), but I wish there was a way to play it without the bullet hell stuff. If I end up giving up again, maybe I’ll just spoilers myself and watch a playthrough of the parts I haven’t seen.
that fight was definitely hard for me, but probably within 10 tries i got it. but yeah, i was going to say: worst case scenario you just watch a let’s play or an overview to get the whole story.
Keep going, the pacifist ending is one of my favorite video game storylines ever. Also, I think it’s trying to tell you that
spoiler tag i guess
pacifism isn’t an easy thing to stay committed to.
I don’t know if this is happening to someone else but in some posts I can’t see the comments.
if you’ve blocked anyone, their comments and replies to their comments won’t appear but will still be included when calculating the number of comments on a post
Nope. No one in my blocklist. I don’t know if this is happening due to someone blocking me (I don’t know if lemmy works like this, and I don’t think I’ve pissed off several people). it could be some bug or smth.
(also apologies for reporting an issue in the main discussion thread. I don’t know where I should have posted this)
It can happen if you access a hidden post (e.g. NSFW posts if you haven’t enabled them in the settings) through a link, and if you’ve hidden bot accounts those comments wouldn’t appear. If neither applies, it might just be a bug.
(There’s no rule against talking about these issues here, don’t worry about it.)
Its because I have you blocked. (this is a joke)
I watched “The Odyssey” today. Nothing worth to talk about honestly, it’s just another shitlib slop. Just don’t mention it and let it fall into obscurity. At least I didn’t pay for the ticket.
My score is 2/5. It’s only redeeming quality is visuals, but visuals mean nothing without a solid story.
I am gonna watch this with my wife in IMAX, just for spectacle. Also any good Iliad/Odyssey translations you recommend for book reading?
I am taking a break from non-fic
I read the books in my native tongue, so Idk if I can give a good suggestion on that front.
I heard the IMAX is the best for experiencing its visuals, have fun!
I’m surprised everyone on lemmy hates this so much. I thought it was great, not the most amazing story or set design (apart from Agamemnon’s armor) but still great music, action, and cinematography
I expected to see Homer’s Odyssey, saw another liberal lecture to today using the past setting instead, and I hated it. That’s my main problem.
There wasn’t really much of anything being lectured tbh, yes they had their thing about how the trojan horse caused the original breaking of trust or zeus’ law or whatever but that was it and kind of in the background
Is the story not just “The Odyssey”? I mean I can’t see it deviating much…
Believe me, it deviated as far as it can from the original. They took the epic, removed the main theme of “too much pride causes hubris”, and put the perversed Late Bronze era shell on their classical liberal lecturing points.
Just go write your own shit instead of smearing them on already existing things.
Is it even worth sitting down and watching for free with my gf this week? If I’m able to rid myself of the cynicism?
Just go for it, I’d say. But be warned it’s not loyal to the Homer’s epic.
if its free sure, i didn’t even watch it so i can’t participate in the discourse lol
what do u mean by shitlib slop
The movie is another allegory for “conservativism bad liberalism good”, it has nothing to do with Homer’s Odyssey.
and for us as communists how is this relevant
As relevant as CNN reports
Probably full of great-man theory, individualism, and idealism.
I mean, this story is like 3000 years old so it’s not like it’s gonna have modern philosophy in it, and Odysseus is literally chosen by the gods…
Yeah, no. The movie version has modern philosophy in it, and it’s the liberal kind. They just took an ancient tale and Californicated it for culture wars bullshit.
Dawg what “culture war bullshit” was there?
A moroccan-belgian dude defended a Muslim woman on a subway against a racist guy and he got hit in the face by a heavy object. He died after being in a coma. He was murdered by a racist.
The headline: ‘Man passed away after defending woman from attacker’
Passed away. Passed. Away. Like he peacefully lived his life until old age took him away.
It reminds me of the shit they do in the US when a cop murders somebody (usually a black person) and it’s like “officer involved shooting.” I guess it’s same shit, different country; “journalists” (if they can be called that when they’re part of the bougie status quo) tending to be on the side of white supremacy.
