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[startaryat]

Where’s God?

Religion has been a dominating, corruptive influence on mankind since its inception, regardless of which gods or spirits people worshipped.   Anything that gives people an easy answer as to why "I'm better than you..." should be treated with skepticism at best.

Science has peered into the mysteries of the universe that religion once explored and found no god there.  Time and again, every dive into the unknown has found the natural processes that our universe follows, not a cosmic guiding hand of a Creator.

Now, we're entering an era of willful ignorance.  All the world's information is at our fingertips.  Don't understand how a radio works?   You can look it up.  You can have it summarized in countless ways.  You can see the diagrams.  Don't understand how to read those diagrams?  You can have those simplified, too.  The same goes for particle physics, the depths of the ocean, the interaction of chemicals, the properties of diseases, weather patterns.  The list goes on and on, with experts in just about anything discovering new aspects all the time.

There is so much to learn in the world, so many interconnected, interlocking, overlapping processes...  And followers of religion typically dive into the God of the Gaps fallacy.  They don't understand any of it, so they assume God did it, even as scientists come out with new discoveries that give lie to a God ever being there in the first place.  In their ignorance, their willful disregard for not just the knowledge mankind has accumulated over its long, LONG history, but also the people who did it and the things we're trying to accomplish with it, they find themselves trapped in a layer of society that is constantly staring at them, constantly judging them, constantly waiting to cast them down the moment they step a *toe* out of line.

All for a God that's not there. 

For every cancer-ridden kid who dies in agony, where's God?  For every child molested or raped, where's God?   For every child twisted into a soldier, his mind corrupted so that violence is the first, last and ONLY answer to the madness of his life, where's God?  Every parasite, every debilitating disease, every case of spousal abuse, every car accident, every serial killer, every war, every life lost in horrifying and depressing ways... 

WHERE'S GOD!?

This is why I'm an atheist.  There is nothing more dangerous than a monster who's certain they're right with God.  As physicist Steven Weinberg said, "With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."

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So, I just finished Cyberpunk 2077.

A lot of folks are riffing on this game because of the bugs, so I may as well get that out of the way.  Yes, there are bugs.  Yes, they are frustrating.  Yes, I've had to reload once or twice because of one.  Finally, yes, there were some quests I was unable to finish because of them.  In the end, it reminded me of Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines.  You know what people don't talk about from VtM: B?  The bugs.  They'll get a passing mention, but more people go on to talk about how the game's story riveted them... So...  The story... Cyberpunk 2077 made me realize something rather harsh about the Cyberpunk genre as a whole:  It is VERY racist against the Japanese.  The core of the genre was built when the Japanese looked like an economic powerhouse.  The TV Trope for it is called "Japan Takes Over the World."  In the late 70s, throughout the 80s and early 90s, it really looked like Japan was going to buy everything.  Despite that not looking like the case anymore, the fear people had of a world like that, that global society would be forcefully regressed to having to endure the society of Edo Period for some strange reason, inundates every facet of the Cyberpunk genre.  You can see it in Cyberpunk 2020, the tabletop RPG 2077 is based on.  You can see it in the game's contemporaries, like Shadowrun.  You can see it in the writing of William Gibson, such as Johnny Mnemonic, and even hints of it crop up in The Matrix or Strange Days.  Cyberpunk 2077 hits you with it full-force, as one of the major factions is a Megacorporation that, according to the game's backstory, has largely taken over the world and is very, VERY Japanese, replete with their founder being a WW2 veteran with a chip on his shoulder about the Nuclear Bombs and likes to wear traditional Japanese clothing, adhere to Japanese traditions and looks down his nose at everybody who isn't Japanese.  *sigh*.  You wind up having to deal with his bodyguard some and he's constantly complaining about people's lack of honor or that the food sucks and how much he wishes he was back in Japan, where people are civilized...  Never mind that's not how Japan was at the time the genre got its feet under it...  Never mind that's not how Japan is now... But I digress. The first bulk of the game is the sidequests.  There are all sorts of random fights you can get into, sometimes even saving the random passersby.  The city's police wire you bounties for the thugs you kill and bonuses for resolving the issues ("resolving" here meaning "Loot the bag everybody was fighting over.").  Some also involve a little more searching to find out where the rest of the loot is.  Read the little notes you pick up while doing these, and they help paint the picture of what you just interrupted.  Sometimes you're stopping a mugging, sometimes you arrive just after one.  Sometimes you're avenging a labor union that just got slaughtered, sometimes you're diving into a nearby harbor to pull the loot from a van the bad guys accidentally remote-controlled over the side of the pier. The second bulk of the game is the contracts and gigs, stuff your fixers (people who find you work) hire you to do.  These are dotted all over the map like the random fights.  These missions are often just more hardcore versions of the sidequests, but a few stand out for encouraging better tactical and strategic thinking.  Usually, these will exercise your stealth skills, or your out-of-the-box thinking (such as liberally exploiting your ability to hack the nearby electronics).  Most, though, have a much more decent story attached to them.  A few stand out in my memory...  One, you have to get a recording from a location.  The people who have it are editing it, and others, into essentially a high-tech snuff film.  Worse, it's a father-son operation doing this, and the more you dig into what's going on, the more horrifying the situation.  I normally don't inflict violence on these digital sprites when I'm playing these games, but this time I could tell the old man was clearly stalling for time...  So I shot him.  Reading the note I picked up off of him...  I have no regrets.  Dude contracts a gang to protect him while he edits recordings and distribute the product.  Said gang is a group of people so heavily mechanized, you can barely tell where the body ends and the machine begins.  The note is a recorded conversation between him and one of the gang's leaders, with the gangleader being thoroughly disgusted with the old man's behavior.  Somebody who WANTED to be inhuman was disturbed by this guy's inhumanity.  Chilling. Finally, the game's main stories provide some of the more interesting moments in the game, but then, they should.  Like most games, the main story is where the most effort has gone.  Some of the most fun I have is working with the nomads, helping one get her stuff back (and some revenge on the guy who took it from her), rescuing their leader from a rival gang, even pulling a heist and driving a hover tank.  The other main quests involve getting revenge for a killed contact on behalf of one of her friends and trying to clear the air about the botched job that kicks the whole game off, with each one having its own share of difficult choices and a staggering reminder of the consequences of engaging in such actions.  It's stuff that can actually make you stop and think. There are a couple odd "social" missions that are mostly you talking to some of the people.  The two I found were a doomsayer out near the first Ripperdoc the game introduces you to ("Ripperdoc" read: surgeon who installs your cybernetic upgrades, like a blend of cosmetic surgeon, physician and mechanic) and a talking vending machine that's a little too smart for its own good.  The doomsayer is an interesting interpretation of such a character, with him eventually pointing out that one of his implants has been picking up transmissions, leaving you to infer that he has trouble parsing the information he's getting, so he rants it out to people in what seems like conspiracy theory nonsense.  However, he does send you somewhere to deal with one of the things he's heard...  And you find he's not entirely bonkers...  The talking vending machine, on the other hand, is probably a statement on where talk bots and data collection algorithms are going to lead future advertising, and it's creepy and unusually heartwarming. |And all the while you've got Keanu Reeves talking in your ear, his low tone reminding you of Johnny Mnemonic, his clothing a dark reprise of Ted Logan, his cybernetic arm a reminder of Neo...  Though his pistol handling in the segments where you play through his memories would probably make John Wick shake his head in irritation.  Seriously, could anybody ELSE have played this character?  This was absolutely perfect casting, and Reeves does an excellent job of playing this rocker-turned-mercenary-turned-revolutionary-turned-digital ghost. All in all, it's a fun game.  It's not a massive, revolutionary thing, no, but I enjoyed it all the same.  It had its moments, like Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines did, like Fallout 3 did, like Fallout New Vegas did, like a lot of our favorites do, and like any good piece of media does.  It's not perfect, but I had fun.

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Your Misery Makes Them Happy

I’m constantly annoyed by the outrage. “Don’t deadname them!  Their name is Steve now!  You have no right!”

Here’s a little secret, kids: THEY FUCKING KNOW.  You’ve been shouting it at them long enough, they know the rules.

Fuck’s sake, you’re losing your shit over something a Middle School bully would do and you think that by whining about it is going to make a difference.  I mean, kudos for standing up to them, but unless fist meets face, all it does on the Internet is make the fuckhead giggle.

They’re bullies.  Your misery makes them happy.  It’s funny to them.  They get a thrill at the fact that, by the rules of society, they SHOULDN’T say stuff like that, but by the same rules of society, they absolutely CAN.  They feel great, especially as you whine, bitch and groan.  If they can get a picture of you crying, too, that’s better than porn to them.

You need to grow up and get some thicker skin.  Is it that none of you had older siblings who would pick on you?  Did you never learn the lesson that the way you beat these people is that you stop giving them attention?  You need to starve them of their entertainment.  Sure, it may seem like they are getting something out of learning Elliot Page has come out as they post their shitty comments about it, but you need to understand all those comments are bait, and it’s when people start flipping out on them that they get their fix of human suffering.

Don’t get me wrong, I know these losers would love to inflict more suffering by influencing policy, but that’s not affected by a flamewar on Twitter or Facebook.  Policy is affected via legislation.  Collect your information, write up your counterarguments, and take them to people who actually matter: your government representatives.

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So...  I just watched Avatar: The Last Airbender for the first time.

I can see why people enjoyed it so much.  It was a good story, with characters acting intelligently, even the comic relief.  It was a pleasant surprise. I guess that just leaves me further enraged by the crop of entertainment that followed, as most of it ignores the lessons learned from the show. *sigh* It’s sad how often that happens in entertainment.

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I really, really dislike Early Edition 2.0, or as it keeps calling itself, God Friended Me.

Aside from the fact that it's CBS going back to the Well, AGAIN (look at how many shows they create that are just rehashes of previous hits; Two and a Half Men was The Odd Couple; Two Broke Girls was Laverne and Shirley; How I Met Your Mother was Friends ((that one wasn't even their own well!))), the writers of this show seem to be operating on the fallacy that atheists are "just believers in denial" and they keep chiseling away at the main character's proposed atheism (which, thus far, has consisted of him saying variations of the phrase "God doesn't exist" and the show making a heavy insinuation that the only reason he's an atheist is because his mother died) with each episode.  I won’t be surprised when CBS advertises “A very special episode...” with the cliffhanger of him saying a variation of “I’ve gotta have faith...” “Maybe God is watching out for me...” or a scene of him praying SO HARD his fists are shaking and tears are streaming out of his eyes. ... I’m aggravated that this is what people think, that the complexity of every aspect of life can be best summed up in a few phrases and images.  “It has to be marketable.”  “You don’t want to alienate the audience.”  “You don’t want to confuse the viewers.” Television doesn’t make you stupid.  Movies don’t make you stupid.  Music doesn’t make you stupid.  But the people who are making these things for a mass audience?  They think you’re stupid.

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I posted this recently to a Facebook discussion that exploded under one of my comments to a Bill Maher post.

The original post, responding to a link to a news report about Trump saying that Google cost him “16 million votes.” “ Cool.  Can it cost him more?  Lots more?  Enough to get him elected out of office in 2020? Oh, I sincerely hope people don't fall into the same apathetic attitude of "Isn't he supposed to serve eight years?"  No...  He has to answer to the American people after four years of failure.  Don't treat this like George Jr.  It's been a painful three years, I would hate to have to endure five more. “ There were 68 replies to this.  Very few of them were mine.  Most were Trumpers trying to call me stupid.  It’s unfortunate that’s the best argument they’ve got.  Others were Democrats, Liberals or other “Bluesiders” who would usually volley insults back at the Trumpers.  A few of them actually posted facts to disprove Trumper lies and propaganda.  It’s telling that the Trumpers couldn’t provide any information to support their claims. So, sick of the discourse, I posted this.  It’s probably going to fall on the same deaf ears there.  Maybe somebody here will appreciate it. ========== It's really upsetting that this is the best the discourse can produce.  Now, say what you will about Bluesiders insulting Redsiders, at least Democrats and Liberals are bringing facts to the debate.  Republicans and Conservatives seem only able to spew insults, insist at the inevitability of their victory and make veiled threats.  The few who do little more than "express pity" (a subset of "insist at the inevitability") still can't provide any credible evidence at any of the nebulous "good" Trump has done for this country.  Everything he has clumsily tried to spin has been repeatedly shot down with the mountains of evidence against it.  The refugee situation at the southern border, the failed trade war with China, the tax breaks that benefited his rich friends and cost the rest of the American people a larger portion of their paychecks, the tearing down of the ACA with a promise to replace it with something better, only to drop the ball and have to default back to the original ACA.  He even failed to revitalize the coal industry or put anymore research into "clean coal" like he said he would, abandoning all of those miners after lying to them that he would be saving their jobs. This, in the face of mounting scandal, both old and new.  There is evidence that the man is a repugnant human being, a sociopath of the worst kind.  There's his refusal to pay his contractors, his "burn it and run" approach to business the second the business takes a downturn and starts reflecting poorly on him, his manipulation of a porn star so he could sleep with her while his wife was giving birth to their child, and the list goes on and on and on.  It is baffling that people who otherwise would be decent people are so eager to support him when he isn't a reflection of them, nor is he supporting their interests. The reality is that Donald Trump is lying to you, and always has been.  He is only saying what he thinks will get him a cheer and secure your votes, but he's not making any actual plans to run the country.  His entire Presidency has been little more than pageantry, a big show, and you've all bought the tickets.  What you don't realize is what the price really is.  In his vain, vapid approach to being a world leader, he has brought harm to our environment, our politics and our discourse.  Under Bush Jr. and Gingrich, the Republicans were clearly corporate aligned, but now they are seen as being in league with those who would like to see the nation as being the way it was in the fifties, back when white men were oppressing women and anybody who was two shades darker than them.  And Trump is doing nothing to assuage that appearance. The discourse has become so Hellish, that now the entire Blueside is gearing up to unite under whoever we decide in the Primaries, because we've already seen what we're left with if we don't.  The first comment under here is Debbie Sobolewski saying "VOTE BLUE no matter who".  I can't tell if it's sarcastic or serious.  Some people like it, others love it, others think it's hilarious.  I think it's a sad state of affairs that because of one man's sociopathic personality, this is the genuine mentality we're under. Biden?  Sanders?  Buttigieg?  Harris?  It doesn't matter who it is.  We Bluesiders are going to vote for them.  We're not going to grumble and groan that we wanted somebody better this time and abstain.  We're going to cut that orange tumor out of the White House and restore some dignity back to the office. That this is the only legitimate method available to us should leave everybody terrified of the future.  You Republicans need to learn to see the wisdom of change and us Bluesiders need to re-appreciate the necessity of compromise. For now, though, the single greatest accomplishment we can make to repair the damage is keeping Trump from getting another term in office.  He has proven to be wholly incompetent at the job, and I for one am sick and tired of watching him perform it so poorly.

[startaryat]

A lot of the points in this touch on a lot of why I dislike “Girl Power” in stories.  More often than not, the character is taking a HUGE hit to all of the things that made them interesting just for the sake of being the coolest person in the room.

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(WHY) Why was it easy for you (DID) Did I deserve the abuse (I) I can’t believe I let it (NOT) Not what I wanted (SEE) See through your bullshit (YOUR) You’re so traumatic (TRUE) True to your form of (FACE) Every consequence (UN) Unintimidated (TIL) Til’ the very end (IT) It’ll never happen (WAS) Was it all a lie (TOO) Many motherfuckers (LATE) THAT’S WHAT YOU DO BEST (LIE) THAT’S WHAT YOU DO BEST (LIE) THAT’S WHAT YOU DO BEST Yeah, I’m still bitter.  I’ll always be bitter.

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More strange dreams...

I have no idea what inspired this.

So, I come into the situation talking with my dad and a law enforcement officer.  They’re discussing a man holed up in a building and he, for whatever reason, wanted me there at that moment, but that was it.  My dad mentions that he hasn’t seen a friend of his, so I call the friend’s cellphone.  We have a quick discussion where I ask where he is (”Well, I’m right here...”) and if he’s doing okay (”Well, I’ve been better...”) and express an opinion that the guy is a hostage in the shoreline cabin.  Being a dream, since I said it, it becomes fact.

I don’t know the cabin, but I know the area the cabin is in.  It’s a lakeside rocky beach.  This is not the sort of secluded place where something like this can happen.  There are so many avenues of approach, there’s no way for the hostage taker to control the situation.  There is no reason for my dad to be there, for our friend to be there, for a hostile guy to be pulling this weird-ass hostage taking, for any of this to be happening.  This is so bizarre and surreal.

Then it gets worse.

The raid begins, and the police are, for some reason, utterly incompetent.  They engage the hostage taker and his cult (for lack of a better word) at point blank range and there are heavy casualties on both sides.  There are a few disturbing moments where the cult start using child soldiers, but at least those get taken out nonlethally.  It must have been around thirty people pouring out of a building that can barely comfortably house three.

Somehow, I’m one of the last men standing (largely from hiding behind my truck’s engine block), armed with a shotgun.  I wind up killing a cultist after a couple misfires; she was a shockingly ugly old woman, screaming nonsense and obscenities at me as she shot at me erratically.  I took a couple hits, but my shots were center mass and she slumped still.  Dream logic merging with videogame logic, I guess.  Ammunition depleted to just two rounds remaining, the dream ends as I march into the cabin and start making my way upstairs, shouting to “Tom” that this isn’t going to end well for him, with a plan to blast any locked door out of my way as I make my way to the roof, confident I can put him down.

Then I woke up.  Freaking bizarre.

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Strange Dreams...

I’ve been having a recurring dream.  About three times now.

I am in a hilly field next to a road.  There’s a white house nearby with a black steel roof.  However, these aren’t the things that really dominate my attention.  I just note them because of how normal they seem compared to what I see when I turn my point of view.

I stand below a strange site.  There is a massive, derelict excavator sitting next to what looks to be a dilapidated replica of the Statue of Liberty.  Cue “You maniacs, you blew it up...”  Sometimes, the statue loses its arm and it comes crashing into the grassy field near me.  The locals never seem too concerned, and, oddly, neither do I.

The fact I’ve seen this setting three times in my slumber recently worries me.

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Million Dollar Mile

I like this.  A more serious athletic competition in the vein of things like American Gladiators, but with more focus on actual athleticism than gimmicks. However, every time I see it, every time I see an advertisement, all I can think is “The Running Man!”

I want to see them do a Halloween episode wherein the professional athletes the competitors are up against wear goofy costumes and call themselves Stalkers, with silly comic book or professional wrestling nicknames.  They should even have one call himself buzzsaw and repeat the “This chainsaw is a part of me!  I’m gonna make it a part of you!” speech...  Then play chainsaw sounds on loudspeakers as he competes.  :P

Just another silly, random thought.

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A Crazy Idea...

I hate Britney Spears’ music.  Christina Aguilera’s, too.  Really, all of that stuff just irritates the shit out of me.

But I was tickled by a thought today.

Britney Spears, covering Cypress Hill’s “Here is Something You Can’t Understand (How I can Just Kill a Man).”

I followed this thought with Christina Aguilera covering Ice Cube’s “F*ck the Police.”

Katy Perry singing “Pistol Grip Pump”

Basically, a bunch of pop divas singing Rage Against the Machine’s Rage album, followed up with them doing the Torture bit from Method Man and Wu Tang Clan.  :P

I can’t be the only person who thought of this.