I think the difference here is that Valve isn’t forcing a monopoly in the way our tech overlords like Google and Amazon do through acquisitions and regulatory capture.

Several companies have tried and mostly failed to compete with Steam, I’m primarily thinking of whatever the EA and Ubisoft launchers are. The two closest have been GOG whom I would argue is fairly successful considering what their goals are and Epic, whom I would say is much less so.

Regan. The person you’re thinking of is Regan.

Yes, but when was the last time these guys cared about “precedent”? I agree in thinking Pharma wins, but only because money. One CEO visit to the Whitehouse and some brown nosing and Trump will start saying how they’re “good people”.

We have always been at war with Eastasia.

I feel like you more concisely summarized my early 30s life perfectly. Most of my old friends just went their own way and there’s no major drive to reconnect now. It’s just me, my wife and my son. Everyone else is basically coworkers and my own direct family.

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33 at this point. I get a decent amount of socializing with my coworkers to where I don’t feel a “need” to socialize. I’m a fairly chatty person, so that may be a result of who I am personally wise.

With that being said, these are strictly coworkers and not “friends”. I would consider them more positive than a stranger by far, most experiences are warm and positive but not a “friend”. Oddly enough despite my ability to socialize well, most of my friends drifted off to do their thing after highschool, so I barely see any of them.

I can see this as detrimental to some folks but I haven’t really been affected… Yet. I can’t rule out the potential problems in the future. I spend time with some of my remaining friends I’m in contact with, it’s mostly just posting memes laughing and shit talking.

I think part of the point isn’t so much to dunk on these dudes specifically (although they’re not great people for choosing to actually go so I don’t feel bad for them) but rather to point out that not even a week ago Hegseth was yapping about the “ideal soldier” to a room full of men who are way more knowledgeable and qualified than he is. Meanwhile the only folks that seem to wanna actually do this shit in Chicago are less than ideal specimens by Hegseth own fucked standards.

Abso-fucking-lutely well said. Kudos to you for having the strength of character to admit your failings and be able to reflect on them. A willingness to say “I was wrong” without throwing a tantrum or doubling down is sorely needed in this world.

Even Nazi Germany had “good Jews” who would cooperate with the Nazis. Some of the top ranking Nazis each had their own “good jew” that they were sympathetic towards including Hitler himself. They thought their status as “one of the good ones” would save them. Other party members, especially the SS, would hold them accountable and even the “good ones” got “taken care of” sooner or later.

I agree with your sentiment, but just to be clear in US presidential succession the vice president (Vance) is next in line. So while I think he’s a piece of shit and wholly incompetent, he is actually legitimately president if Mango Mussolini croaks.

I think I’d personally join up with Khorne. I’m not much for violence or rage, but I feel like he offers a pretty straightforward deal compared to the other gods. No shenanigans, no chance of becoming a spawn as long as I do what I’m supposed to, and although he’s not gonna protect me he also isn’t gonna backstab me.

Maybe I can forge weapons or something while blasting Amon Amarth? I feel like that’s Khorne enough.

So does that mean they need to sacrifice 1000 teenage girls a day to keep it powered?

SUMMON THE ELECTOR COUNTS

Start small and don’t dive into the deep end. Do that and you might find sticking to it easier. When you’re a complete beginner the bare minimum amount of work is enough to start seeing results in a few weeks/months.

Only go hardcore blood and guts later on if that’s something you really want. Willpower/motivation is a finite resource, so making exercise absolutely miserable from the very beginning is a good way to fail after a week or two tops.

To be fair to Signal, they kinda outed themselves by including that journalist in the chat. That’s not really a fault of signal. But they also shouldn’t have been using signal in the first place, so there’s that.

I agree entirely. I’m not against foreign aid as a concept at all, but I feel like it should be extremely conditional and the shit Israel is pulling in Palestine very much justifies pulling any and all aid we’re providing them. Children shouldn’t be dying, full stop.

That’s why I said I wasn’t casting shade on your specific circumstances, since I don’t know them. There definitely is a tangible difference as we age, so far I find it to be recovery times that are affected, I just find a lot of folks use that as a crutch to justify getting more and more out of shape. Not trying to project onto you or any one in particular.

You can clearly see in the video that visibility was not that bad. The video was shot from most likely a screen side camera and not the main camera so it’s not like there was a ton it could do to upscale the quality. Even the cops perspective it was mid day at best and shows they were fishing for sure.

As for folks arguing against this it’s just apologists grasping at straws to justify why this man was pulled over on flimsy at best reasons. It started simply so a cop (and then multiple cops) could stroke their authority egos.

Even if the initial cop that pulled him over was coming from a legit placed of concern he clearly couldn’t keep his boy with the wild fists under control so he’s just as culpable. Not one of those officers reacted to officer fisticuffs and that’s simply not okay.

Some folks can’t seem to grasp the concept that shitty or incompetent people can wind up in a place of authority and that these officers can’t be placed upon a pedestal simply due to their position. Actions speak louder than words. Period.

I was half drunk when I typed that, but even sober me didn’t notice the difference. I legit appreciate this and that fact you didn’t belittle me means you came from a place of education and I respect the hell out of that.