from what i remember, they are coached to do it because pointing is seen as too aggressive but not making any hand gestures is too robotic. so its a way to make a non-aggressive emphatic hand gesture.

there is nothing to feel excited or hopeful about from american progressives at the moment, so it is all cope posting. i am more disheartened by posts like the one that showed up the other day eith a link to a supposed story about a cybertruck owner who complained that he got laughed at by children. it is not news, it is not worthwhile, it has not enriched the lives of anyone who read it. it is an outlet to expend political energy for those who dont know what else to do. politics are unavoidable, and complaining about politics is natural and can be cathartic, but at this level it is drain that is part of a trumps political strategy.

a lot of people here migrated from reddit for political reasons, so a lot of the communities have been set up by those who tend to view things in a political way. it also seems that the general climate in the united states, where a large amount of the english language content is made, views nearly everything as political, either caused or reinforced by american politics dominating most forms of media.

it also cant be discounted that there are certain users whose sole motivation for posting in any community is either bait or propaganda, which can spoil any community that does not have very active moderation or rules prohibiting political posts or comments.

the scariest implication of this whole business is the most favorable interpretation of the nonplussed reaction of the majority is that they are in such denial that a nazi government could be possible again in a first world country that they cant see it for what it is. that is to say, the exact things the people who lived through it had been vigilant to remind us about ever since.

i definitely agree that it empowers legitimate nazis, which i suppose could be his way of cultivating a voter base which no other candidate would openly support but would vote for whoever he throws his money behind as trump will no longer be a valid candidate. a best case scenario here would be that this kind of attention is too much even for trump to tolerate and will cut ties with him. i feel that would be likely to happen regardless, as they are two narcissists of the highest order, but it would be better if it happens sooner.

i think he allowed himself to do it as part of his edgelord persona, trying to trigger people on purpose. the motion is intentional as his arm shoots straight out to the side as opposed to being directed to the center of the crowd or sweeping across the crowd as if to spread his “heart” as it were.

the autism defense is one that i think is being used to try to checkmate the left on the subject, as they are the most offended by the gesture but also more likely to be sensitive to neurodivergent persons and potentially less likely to criticize their actions.

in short, i believe he intended the gesture as interpreted, just not as a genuine expression of his personal beliefs. that being said, i think hes a white supremacist fascist, but i dont think he thinks hes a white supremacist fascist.

sorry, ive never left a comment like that before and didnt realize it would look off. thanks!

aside from some of the more obvious choices (rushdie, wallace, mccarthy, morrison):

don delillo, esp. underworld and white noise

ted chiang, esp. exhalation

marilyn robinson, esp. housekeeping

denis johnson, esp. jesus’ son and tree of smoke

colson whitehead, esp. the intuitionist and the nickel boys

and while relatively new so maybe not at the same status as some other writers, jamil jan kochai and nana kwame adjei-brenyah will be making lists like these in the future if they keep writing the way they have.

there is a website for a pizza place in seattle whose website does this, maybe you can get some inspiration. dinos

i am desperately praying for a pineprinter

i imagine theres a lot of overlap.

i have a roku express from like 2015 with only a 2.4ghz antenna and it is exactly what i want. for a bit it didnt update custom artwork and subtitles would not be on by default but both of those are straightened out now.

senseless pedantry in general is one of the things that annoy me most. i first started realizing my hatred for reddit when someone replied to a comment where i said ‘bury the lead’ with ‘lede*’ and i was annoyed enough to not comment for a long time after that. im not a 19th century newspaper columnist so unless youre trying to save the barely literate farmers on computer science subreddits from a minor misunderstanding, thats a comment better left unmade.

dang, i hoped it would be rock and roll mcdonalds on loop

directed by miloš forman, who also directed one flew over the cuckoos nest, amadeus, and the people vs larry flynt. hard to believe anything hes done could end up being so underappreciated!

i would see your point if my reasoning were extended beyond where my boundaries are set. my position is based on a lot of factors and isnt a blanket statement that piracy is never immoral or that everyone should pirate all the time regardless of circumstances. if everyone were to pirate, it would certainly change my perspective on it as a broad practice, though not absolutely.

my argument, at least from the perspective of my original comment, was more of a reflection of my feelings that the least deserving are making the most profit off of any given large studio property, and i advocated piracy as a reaction to that given current studio structuring and the state of the entertainment market. and i understand that the profit of previous properties are directly responsible for the amount invested in subsequent works, but there is a certain degree of profitability which makes me feel like any argument about how piracy is hurting business is petty complaining over what is comparitively loose change for those that continue to be paid. i dont quite get a pang of empathy for a few thousand or even tens of thousands of instances of piracy for a property with profits in the hundres of millions considering how many instances were from people priced out anyway.

well, when reduced to those terms they so seem to be similar concepts but needs and luxuries are not exactly equivalent, not to mention the difference between a tangible possession vs an intangible “experience” which have wildly different relationships, transaction types, and even grey area over what is considered piracy.

also, claiming society has agreed on these exchanges being “right” isnt exactly accurate. society certainly tolerates these exchanges, but to what degree has changed significantly in recent years. theres a good debate over intellectual property ownership, and whether the original idea is more valuable than the creation of the work itself. certain aspects of filmmaking, for instance, are recognized as being more significant to the finished work than some other roles (directors, cinematographers, etc) but the fair compensation of other roles which make no less significant contributions to the relevance of any work is a subject on which society cannot make a fair judgment without knowing the details of every relationship.

in the end, i believe piracy is and should be viewed as an organic market force which should prompt corrections in order to minimize, but due to the nature of the transaction it will never go away.

the way i see it, on big budget productions anyone who is relying on their paycheck to survive already got paid for their work, and the ones collecting royalties or sales percentages are rich enough that i couldnt care less. smaller independent studios or individual creators are the ones that i will always support, and in cases like itch.io games that are pwyw i will take the free download and figure out how much i will pay based on how much i like the game.

this is the ultimate result of shareholder theory. after a company hits their efficiency stride based on its resources and theres no more innovation to fuel profit, what else can it do but make shit smaller/less effective/worse. we just need an economic theory that includes broader society in the scope of fiduciary duties that businesses will actually take seriously.

previously I think I would have said about 10-12 feels like the proper cutoff, but I took my 3.5 year old out tonight, and at one house she got a king size snickers bar while the teens after us got fun size. this feels the most fair.