Absolutely the case, but we can’t throw nuance to the wind just because bad things will continue to happen. SA propaganda is definitely note worthily worse than many other forms.

Whats more, I feel that gaming generally is more focused on trying to use marketting dark patterns to encourage spending than pushing any messages typically. This makes them, in my mind, even more vulnerable as they won’t even be expecting it as their viewpoints change over time.

You took a leap from someone being excited about a company they hate hypothetically being bought, down their throat

I’m just going to stop you right there. You’re reading in a whole lot of malice into a pretty benign comment pointing out why someone might care in spite of not caring about their games.

and what downstream effects that might have on American culture.

I don’t believe any specific country was named in the context of that point. The USA was only brought up to preempt comments derailing the point of my comment by bringing it up.

That one Steam user will be hyped as fuck.

Finally, a games company that praises the glory of the regime.

Where did you read me saying it was their fault, or that I expected them to stop it?

I said neither thing.

All I am saying is it’s something to pay attention to, and its not good when media sources are bought by the saudis.

Why keep this in mind? In case there is ever somewhere that does make this relevant. Like maybe it should be in the eyes of the public more such that its a political talking point so regulating agencies are less happy with letting companies be sold to SA.

You don’t think the saudis having a great deal of control over the content your fellow countryman engages with has any effects you should care about?

Its not sports anymore. Its just media washing.

Comedy, games, whatever they can get their blood soaked hands on.

You cheer this on, but what are the odds that saudi arabia buys them up?

How many things do you want owned by the worst country bar none for human rights? (yes I am aware the US is racing to catch up, but is nowhere near as bad per capita).

Wow you’re really cheesed.

Is this how you engage in political discourse? You just blow up at whoever you’re talking to? Assume they are evil and stupid?

Fucking relax.

Jumping to trolling with the comment equivalent to “u mad bro?” while pretending to care about civility is wild.

This is legit the most bad faith response ive ever received.

This right here is straight projection, especially given clearly some others thought my comment fit perfectly/was a reasonable interpretation of yours.

What “solution” did I even offer?

Because as long as our political strategy amounts to “shame anyone who demonstrates an affective affinity with the right, and vote” we won’t be able to resist the creeping threat of fascism. In 5-10 years it will be full on Nazi shit and I dont want to die in a concentration camp please and thank you

You are clearly suggesting that not shaming the fascists is part of the solution here and now you’re feigning ignorance to having said that.

Explain to me, a regular person just trying to get by, how immigration doesnt affect me. Convince me.

and

I asked a fucking question.

Yeah, nah. Now, with the rest of the comment as context this seems more like an effort to sealion than a real question, especially with you saying:

Explain to me, a regular person just trying to get by, how immigration doesnt affect me. Convince me.

Which completely changes who you’re portraying yourself to be and asks me to waste my time with a right wing talking point that is now suddenly the focus, as if the uncaring people think this is a major point anyways.

I probably spent to much effort responding to this comment that is clearly actually in bad faith.

I mean look at this shit:

What real work are you doing to help people and resist fascism? Are you just getting mad at people you made up in your head? Im pretty sure you aren’t doing shit, because people who are doing the work dont act like this.

Pure right wing, 4chan style ragebait trolling.

If they’re both the same level of difficulty, I’d rather fix all the problems at once

Neither fixes all the problems at once. People keep holding onto the ideas of some hail mary that wins the “game” and it aint coming.

Proportional representation would break 2 party and be one of many steps. People would be able to vote for one of many parties and no0 longer would throwing away your vote with a third party be a thing.

rather than take step one of a hundred.

Many steps is the only way to eventually fix things. Your basically faced with a highly liable to fail, bloody fictional solution you wont do, and the long, diet and exercise you swear wont work.

I think it would actually solve a huge swath of problems, but absolutely yes its ridiculous to state as a solution just as we both agree.

As for the overthrowing the government part, I think that given they’re both at the same levels of difficulty, Id probably opt for the one that also accomplishes the practical goals and doesnt end up in half of us being bloody pulp on the ground.

“Kid” is an imprecise term that just means someone who is young and inexperienced

I think most people assume it means under 18.

Yeah, it’s ambiguous, that’s kinda how language goes. It can mean anything from a baby to an old person, given context.

Sure, but this context was about voting age people. That was the whole context.

I would hope the context here (voted multiple times) would be enough to show I wasn’t referring to an elementary school kid, but a young adult.

You were still using it as an excuse for not paying attention though.

Today, the most impactful policy is immigration since my SO’s family are immigrants and we’ve only been able to help with my SO’s parents.

This sounds directly like it impacts you.

The reality is that both parties suck when they have a massive majority

This type of bothsiderism indicates that you still don’t pay attention when you refuse to see nuance past this.

That’s not left/right thing since they prioritized a liberal area over a conservative one.

Providing better things to richer people isnt a left/right thing??? You basically choose to stick your head in the sand is what it sounds like.

Then your understanding of libertarianism is misguided.

I highly doubt this.

It’s a big tent, with everything from socialists

Nope.

Here are some policies I support:

Almost none of these policies are actually supported by any libertarian politicians.

expand school choice by replacing school buses with city buses in metro areas, and encourage schools to specialize

This sounds dangerously close to privatizing schools, especially where we’re talking about basic education necessary for life (K-12)

eliminate federal student loans, expand Pell grants, and replace most other functions of the Department of Education with an independent group that assesses school performance across states

Sounds dangerous and vague, once again, almost like privatizing education by replacing a government agency.

mandatory balanced budget

This sounds pipe dream like. Everyone dreams of such a thing, and itll happen right after the US switches to a proportional representation system.

Really, Im getting the impression, that like many conservatives (including the ones who call themselves libertarians), you’re presenting a prettied up, as clean as possible sounding list of policies that with a little bit of digging reveals that its all headed towards the classic libertarian problems where these ideas only work if everyone is assumed to act in good faith, and somehow privatization is more efficient than a government doing things.

Plz fucking give us the clear option

I considered myself a “kid” up until I had my own kid.

This arbitrary milestone that is only meaningful for you doesn’t really translate well in conversation no?

More than that, it feels like it hints at, but does not fully confirm a sort of “I didn’t care till it affected me personally” angle to it.

That’s when I found libertarianism, and now I look less at party affiliation and instead try to find the least insane option.

Ok, here I was not jumping to conclusions and then you end with libertarianism… the self defeating ideology that really translates to “Don’t tread on me, but fuck everyone else” and when asked how things will still run responds with a shrug.

Kids cant vote tho, and you indicated that you voted that way for multiple prior elections.

One thing alone would help shift the Overton Window MASSIVELY in a country like the USA - mandatory voting. If everyone who had the right to vote actually voted, Republicans would never hold federal government ever again and would only be able to hold onto a couple of states and a few dozen local governments across the nation.

The problem with “solutions” like this (and I actually don’t even think this would fix things vs any number of other solutions in a similar vein), is that these aren’t solutions. These are vague wishlist goals, and very much so have all the hard parts of getting there removed.

Like I think every country having proportional representation would improve the quality of their politicians and government massively, but good luck getting the establishment politicians who benefit from the old system to give that up.

If you introduce ranked choice voting as well,

Im always super shocked at why anyone likes ranked choice voting. It doesnt actually solve the 2 party system at all.

Proportional voting is what solves that. Ranked choice just means that 2 party system has a slightly higher chance of changing who the 2 parties are.

because I thought they cared about small, responsible and privacy-respecting government.

Sooooo you did no research whatsoever??

You misunderstand. They don’t think racism doesnt exist. They simply approve of racism. You’re trying to think about this from a point of view where things have to make sense.

I think you’re trying really fucking hard to pretend that there are people there worth saving and it eats at me that your perspective is not only popular, but common.

These people are irredeemable. Their primary goals are to hurt others for their inalienable traits.

You don’t need these people. When the common opinion was such that they had to hide their shitty opinions, everyone was better off for it.

What you need, is people who don’t pay attention to pay attention. Stop focusing on the magas. You can never find compromise with them, nor convince them with reason, because all of the arguments they give are fundementally based on “I hate that person because they are the out group”.

That trumps literally everything else to them, as you are clearly seeing here. They are not outliers. Thats the common maga mentality.

You doing mental gymnastics to pretend that the common person just has to be good is a coping strategy that is killing you.

Because as long as our political strategy amounts to “shame anyone who demonstrates an affective affinity with the right, and vote”

When has that been anyones political strategy. Thats what the right says it is (instead its trying to sell people on a DNC lead democrat party that fundementally does not want to offer noteworthy change).

Firstly, we should shame them, because the right wing is demonstrably awful, and pretending it has merit does no favours. That is what the DNC wants to do, and has done for the past… very long time.

So shame is not the solution, but its also not the problem.

Instead, the problem is that an average person here’s 2 people put up some arguments, doesnt think about it further, thinks “ah well both sides” and then stops thinking.

Left leaning people often don’t help this as they screech more loudly about the party closest to actually being moldable into something positive than they do the party doing harm, which helps keep precisely the group they need to convince the most in that valley of “both people are shouting, both sides I guess” and then that person stops caring.

Also,

we won’t be able to resist the creeping threat of fascism.

Creeping threat??? You’re currently trying to fight your way out and you call it a creeping threat. Just part of the problems.

My opinion on the world is that 50% of people don’t really care all that much about anything and have an extremely mild positive bias, 30% of people are just awful, and focus more on hurting others than making things better, and then 20% are the inverse of the 30%.

Your “solution” involves somehow convincing that 30% instead of figuring out whats stopping that 50% from figuring out how this will personally affect them, and to snap out of they’re “both sides” voter apathy/general apathy delusion.

Part of the problem is that their position is self defeating. They think nothing works, everything is corrupt, and so there is no point doing anything, and that entrenches all of those problems, making them even worse.

Thats the real struggle; getting them both to see the personal threat to themselves (as they don’t care about the larger picture) and then getting them to see that they do in fact have none bloody death alternatives to that.

All of this just emphasizes how disastrous it was that the democrats folded and didn’t let people see the consequences of their actions with the government shutdown.

Yup.

You seem to think MAGAs act within the boundaries of the law… must be nice to be so innocent

In no universe could anything I said be reasonably summarized as this. Its actually pretty ridiculous this is the conclusion you came to.

First of, I have ever said people should not vote.

Because implications don’t exist right?

I am simply stating the fact that it will not be enough, not anymore.

Which just encourages people not to vote if you’re saying it doesnt help.

Second, you keep the “until that happens” as if that make any sense… You are the one moving the goal post here to justify inaction.

Im sorry bud, what actions are there exactly that you’re so willing to step up to take?

As far as I understand it, any action that I’m advocating for is apparently justifying inaction, but actions further than that would mean you couldn’t be talking to me right now.

You do not want to sacrifice anything to get your country out of the hole you allow it to get… and news flash, once the power grab is complete (you are 98% there) there will be no option left… every minute you allow to pass doing fuck all, is a minute you are closer to having NO OPTIONS LEFT

Once again, what are you doing buddy?

Yet your “strategy” here is to do nothing an wait 19 months to cast a ballot… where did I say it was one battle?

You really like to imply a shit ton from nothing so that you can argue against strawmen dont you.

The question starts out with a strawman argument. The full comment included “All that time, youll need to replace the old guard with more progressive members through overwhelming support in primaries, and being active in state and local politics.”

There also aren’t many countries that have the same political situations as the USA. What other countries are democratic republics with extremely slow constitutional and political inertia, top class military and insane intelligence capabilities.

The question doesnt make sense. This is a one of one.