Oh, it’s petty cash to be sure. If you have $100-ish bucks to throw around, you probably aren’t going to miss much by not doing this. Unless, of course, letting someone else take even one dollar from you in this way is against your religion or something (i.e. the principle of the thing). Conversely, if you need the handful of dollars this makes, you probably don’t have that kind of walking-around money in the first place.

Which season is this? Winter, Still Winter, or Road Construction?

It’s a terrible plan, to be sure. I bet their thinking was something along the lines of creating an environment suitable for looting/rioting, along with police brutality to follow, all in the hopes that racial tensions in the region play out in their favor.

Of course, they completely ignored how things went when hurricane Irene knocked out power to the region. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t fun but folks were generally okay.

Jesus. This makes it reasonable to just buy $100 worth of your own game every month, just to make sure. Assuming that the number of real sales cover Valve’s percentage and then some. Yeah, that’s a non-zero opportunity cost for you, and additional float for Valve, however petty it may be. But for a small developer, maybe that makes sense.

I’m more impressed that you got the batter to stay put. Or is the entire appliance at 120 degrees?

Correct. This happens on a global scale too: it’s why everything is using GDPR compliant cookie dialogs now.

I can see it now. It’s like The Fact Core from Portal, only worse.

I mis-posted my reply, which is located further down the thread in case you’re interested.

Aw crap. Thanks!

Is there a reason people hate him? […] isn’t he mostly known for giving away money and helping people out?

I may know why. The recently leaked PDF about how he runs his production company makes it patently clear: they aim to make successful YouTube videos, full stop.

Everything else is a side-effect. Not to suggest that they lack any ethics, but rather things like charity are there to get you to click and watch, nothing more. With enough exposure it’s easy to get the impression that something is “off” with being click-bated like that. I’m not saying that behavior is deserving of hate, but it may help explain why people don’t like his media.

Also, for people that are trying to make content in a much more honest fashion, Mr. Beast’s popularity can be disheartening and frustrating. YouTube has clearly decided to reward this eyeball-grabbing behavior without any regards to the quality of the content. It’s stuff made for the algorithm, rather than people showcasing their craft, skill, or interests. I’m guessing that people see their favorite makers and entertainers struggle to make a go of it by doing what they love, and see this guy come along and reap millions in revenue without any emotional connection to the output. To me, that’s a recipe for anger.

Personally, I refuse to view popular click-bait stuff to begin with, and routinely filter such content out (click “not interested”). As a result, my YT recommendations never contain Mr. Beast content and I actually had to fire up a privacy window and click on this nonsense so I knew what the hell everyone was talking about.

Thirdly, fuck y’all are bad at poly, like worse at poly than the people constantly talking about poly.

You are not kidding. I nearly forgot about this story and the absolutely gross and unethical sexual practice at work here. From the article linked earlier:

“None of this non-hierarchical bullshit,” the account elaborated. “Everyone should have a ranking of their partners, people should know where they fall on the ranking, and there should be vicious power struggles for the ranks.”

For those following along: if you browse the existing literature on poly practice, this uncompassionate practice doesn’t show up anywhere. These animals were using the “poly” term as a fig-leaf for their Lord of the Flies inspired, libertine, thunderdome-style non-monogamy. I’d even hesitate to call it a cult, only because it just seems so incredibly unstable as a concept. These are the people your polycule will warn you about.

No wonder these people fleeced others for billions. There’s having a skewed moral compass, and then there’s having a huge vacuum where a conscience and empathy should be.

Food that contains nutrition, galactagogues, and folk-remedy ingredients to help with (human) milk production. Arguably, they’re just food.

… Oh.

the use of language as a means of control […] well may have been his most prescient point.

While I think Orwell’s “newspeak” was contrived, it did illustrate the point in strong relief as something unfamiliar… at least at first. But I don’t think he was predicting the future. Instead, I think he was warning the reader of what dangers are already with us.

Honestly, I think this has always been a thing. The spoken word is often inexact as a form of communication efficiency; if the other party has the same ideas in their head as you, pronouns, idioms, recalling past events, are all powerful ways to compress dialogue. However, that same inexactness leaves the door open for doublespeak, dogwhistles, and suggestion in place of fact. Language as a means of control is just in how you use it; the underlying mechanisms were always there.

I try to use “driver” or “person”.

Second to this: an app has to earn social media status, or social media levels of engagement.

I’m looking at you, Venmo. No, sharing my spending details with other people online, is not a good idea. Ever. Conspicuous consumption is a social blight already, and you dare taint my phone by suggesting I lean into it? Do better.

I know this person and, honestly, it’s a thing of majesty. These discs have presence, heft, and are valuable. They’re collectors items on some level - every last one of them. So what if we’re watching “Jaws” or “Aliens” for the 400th time. We’re having a real, visceral experience here.

Yeah. I’m starting to think the misspelling is not deliberate, but ironic - it’s one thing to have guns and a written warning saying you will use them. It’s another to loudly convey that you’re this dumb and also have guns.