Lianodel @ Lianodel @ttrpg.network

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2 yr. ago

If you value freedom of expression, that doesn't mean you need to extend that to people who fundamentally oppose it. To maximize freedom of expression, you can't tolerate the people who would outright destroy it.

It's also a slippery slope argument. We can just crack down on Nazis. And as for the government cracking down on other groups... they already do that. We see crackdowns on plenty of other demonstrations, with more repression and violence. Tolerating Nazis isn't helping the good guys, because people in power don't care about applying the rules evenly. Besides, even if we took the slippery slope seriously, then we have to consider what happens when we just let literal Nazis go about their business.

Everyone. Everyone. The article is five SENTENCES long.

Two climate activists on Tuesday targeted Botticelli’s masterpiece “The Birth of Venus” hanging at Florence’s Uffizi Gallery, attaching images of recent flood damage in the Tuscany region on the protective glass.

(Emphasis mine. I also wanted to pause to mention that this is likely a sentence you wouldn't have to click through to read, because it's in the preview on Lemmy.)

Authorities immediately cleared the room and the two protesters were brought by carabinieri for questioning. Under a new law, the protesters risk up to six months of jail time.

The protest materials were easily removed from the glass without leaving a trace, and the room where the painting hangs was reopened within 15 minutes.

The activists from the Last Generation climate movement said they were protesting the Italian government’s failure to address climate issues that result in more frequent floods and landslides, including severe flooding in Tuscany last year that left at least six people dead and caused widespread damage.

I'm sorry, but complaints about any damage done by this protest aren't exactly serious arguments.

I will, begrudgingly, when my friends run a game. Playing it is okay, running it is a nightmare, and I really don't want to spend money on this game.

It's a shame, because D&D has been a huge part of my life, but nowadays, when I want to play D&D, the best way to do it isn't to use D&D.

And that's if they even offer a physical version. I'm betting we'll see a lot of digital-only content. And if you want to use it in the official VTT, I imagine the monetization is going to be even worse.

Correct about physical books, and I doubt physical books are going away. However, WotC has been leaning towards digital distribution, and hired on people with experience in software-as-a-service.

By all means, keep playing the version of the game you own! But it looks like the future of D&D might make a lot of content available to rent, not to own. Hopefully I'm wrong, but honestly, there are plenty of other games that let you own your stuff.

Yeah. On the face of it, it's a good move, but the full story is far worse.

• They "updated" the OGL to be far more restrictive, impose unsustainable fees past a certain level of gross profit, and would grant WotC the full right to use, sell, and even license your work to others, irrevocably.
• They tried to de-authorize the original OGL retroactively, fully against the spirit and practice of the license, using some legal chicanery. While the OGL 1.0a was perpetual, it didn't use the word irrevocable. (WotC's rights to your content, of course, were clearly put in irrevocable terms).
• They only moved to CC-BY after public outcry. While the results were good, it was for PR, not out of the goodness of their hearts.
• There's a new edition coming anyway. Unless they surprise me and put it under CC-BY as well, I'm betting they'll try again to use a really restrictive license.

Also, even though WotC walked back from de-authorizing the OGL 1.0a, the damage was done. Every publisher I'm aware of that had used it has since moved away from it entirely, with surprisingly little change to the product.

True, but (a) IIRC, not all 5e books are even available as PDFs, and (b) D&D seems to be leaning towards a service business model. I doubt they'll get rid of books entirely, but still, Paizo has a more straightforward "buy the thing, own the thing" approach.

Peskov claimed on Wednesday that Carlson’s position on the conflict with Ukraine is “not pro-Russian by any means, and it’s not pro-Ukrainian; rather, it’s pro-American. But at least it stands in clear contrast to the position of the traditional Anglo-Saxon media.”

Pffft hahaha, what a fucking racist dork. That's some 4chan-level shit.

Also, while I think it's overall a good article, I think calling Tucker a useful idiot is unfair. When I think of a useful idiot, I think of someone who means well, but is on the wrong side without realizing it. Tucker's not a smart man, but he knows what he's doing. If you ever watch his shit (which I only recommend to verify his grift), he's not just disconnected from reality, but actively contrary to it. He's trying to poison the well, while inoculating his viewers to reality and any argument based on it. He's not simply wrong, he's lying. He knows what he's doing is wrong, but he's doing it anyway, for his own benefit.

My friend just went through this recently.

She had significant sinus problems, one side being blocked entirely. Went to see her doctor, went to see a specialist, tried some things, but what she needed was surgery to get rid of polyps. She schedules it, takes off of work, gets a blood test, goes to the surgical center, and as she is being prepped for surgery, finds out they have to cancel, because her insurance was denying a part of the procedure.

What a huge fucking waste of time and money.

She did get a reason in the rejection letter, but it just pissed me off even more. The insurance company has a "doctor" who said the procedure might not be necessary, so they want to try doing X and Y first. Things she's already done. Things her PMC doctor and specialist already know, but this one asshole who sold his soul to an insurance company gets paid to skim shit and say "no." There are plenty of people in the insurance company structure to hate, but some of them are outright scum.

Also, to state the obvious, this is just slowing down the misery machine, when we should be dismantling it. I know it will help people, it's a small victory, and the Republicans will want to turbo-charge said misery machine, but still.

That REALLY depends.

Year One? Absolutely.

The Dark Knight Returns? Agree to disagree.

All-Star Batman and Robin? Christ no, it might be the worst.

So much right-wing rhetoric is targeted squarely at low-information voters, and it's depressing how effective it is.

It doesn't matter if it falls apart under the lightest scrutiny, because they aren't talking to people who will scrutinize anything at all.

I believe that's Andy Ngo, so yes, absolutely a pro-fascist activist. He was caught on camera actively coordinating with Patriot Prayer, a far-right extremist group.

I feel like a large majority of AI problems are really just systemic economic problems below the surface. Not all, but most.

Oh, this'll be fun in the future when people try to whitewash it. We'll have another chance to follow up by asking, "a state's right to what, specifically?"

I quit Spotify when the "New Library Experience" completely fucked the music library side of the app. If you mostly use playlists, it was a lateral change. If you used it to collect some songs here, and album there, and keep them all sorted, it's like it dumped your entire collection on the floor and expected a thank-you for the new organization system.

My guess, as others have mentioned, is that Spotify tries to squeeze more profits by pushing certain songs, whether because they get paid to promote them, or the royalties are lower. That's easier to do with their playlists and recommendations, so they pushed people to that side of the app by making everything else dogshit. And now, apparently, the curated side took it too far and is awful, too.

I still use Apple Music, which is one of like two services that actually let you organize your music in a sensible way outside of playlists. That said, after I cut cords with video streaming services and set up my own library, I think I might do the same with music.

And their recommendation engine sucks.

Netflix used to be famously good at suggesting films. Articles were written about it, and there was even a cash reward for anyone who could contribute to its performance. Then it just turned to shit.

And the funny thing is that it would have helped counteract the shrinking library. Sure, there would be fewer films on the platform, so you'd be less likely to find a specific title, but at least you could select a film Netflix recommended based on your past ratings and be fairly confident you'd enjoy it. Now? Absolutely not.

I've thought about this a lot. I think there are three main elements.

1. People like this will judge the facts based on the conclusions they want, and they sure do prefer the conclusion where their selfishness wasn't that bad.
2. They're extremely bad at understanding anything that isn't black & white. So when you go into things like rates of effectiveness or levels of confidence, they shut down, and either say "it doesn't work" or "nobody knows for sure."
3. One of the major benefits of masks is to prevent yourself from spreading infection, and they just plain don't give a flying fuck about other people.

Also, the point that got to me was his defense of sending kids to school because covid wouldn't affect them too badly. Firstly, some kids will be badly affected, and secondly... where the fuck does he think the kids go after school? They go home, where they've got parents, guardians, maybe even grandparents and other elderly family members.

What a dumb asshole.

I HIGHLY recommend people actually click through and read the superintendent's full ad, because it's a gold mine of hypocrisy, idiocy, and not-so-subtle racism.

EDIT: To clarify, the article doesn't actually present the superintendent's screed. It embeds a tweet that has a photo of it. That said, it's been posted elsewhere in this thread, which has the added upside of avoiding Twitter.

That was my experience, too. After tinkering with KDE a while, I tried GNOME, added a couple of extensions, and it was like a wave of relief when it suddenly turned into almost exactly what I wanted the entire time.

It's a bit weird. KDE is so customizable that I don't want to do it. If a distro has nice defaults, great, but if I'd have to start with a fresh, default KDE install, I wouldn't want to bother.

Yeah, I get that, and honestly agree. I just like the rest of GNOME, so it's worth it. Plus I've tried KDE before, and it could be a bit finicky. Like, all the options are there, but it weirdly takes longer to get it set up in a way I like, and sometimes I run into issues along the way. With GNOME, yeah, I have to add the extensions, but once they're installed, it's pretty much exactly what I want.

That said, I totally get why someone would love KDE, especially if they like the tinkering and getting things just right. I also check it out every now and then, so maybe one day it'll grow on me. :)