Baba is you

Appreciate that, genuinely, and right back at you. This has been a better exchange than most on the internet lol.

On timing and targeting, I think that’s fair. Leading with that comic in response to “some communities genuinely can’t relocate” was dramatic on purpose, partly to see if it’d draw more than a shrug, and it did exactly that. I don’t think that makes it a good rhetorical choice in that specific spot. The Aunt Tracey case you and described isn’t who I’m actually aiming for, of course, and answering it with the heaviest available comparison muddies a point I still think is real underneath it.

Because I’m not walking back the mechanism itself. Aware, unaffected, therefore inactive shows up identically whether the stakes are a chat app or a policy vote, that’s not me being dramatic, that’s just how scope insensitivity works. But you’re right that treating “won’t switch platforms” as one bucket is its own kind of flattening. Just like Jewish people shouldn’t be treated as a monolith on Israel (exactly as Netanyahu and many others want), not everyone still on Discord is doing it out of laziness or tacit support for what the platform enables. Some are Aunt Tracey. Some have cancelled Nitro and are stuck on network effects they didn’t choose. Those aren’t the people I was actually aiming at, and lumping them in with genuine complacency is my bad. A bit of that twitter short-form limitation coming through lol.

The people I’m actually talking about are the ones who know exactly what’s wrong, have the means to leave, and just won’t be bothered. That’s a much smaller and more specific group than “everyone still on Discord,” and I should’ve said that the first time instead of making you drag it out of me.

For what it’s worth, I cancelled Nitro the first time this news broke too, and that’s what got me actually researching this instead of just being mad about it. I started building a homelab finally, part of which is a Discord alternative. I know not everyone has the hardware, time, or funding to do that themselves, which is exactly why I’m trying to build a bridge between the two, a frontend fork plus a bridge so people can message across both while a community migrates, so nobody feels cut off or left behind in the transition. It’s also why I’m trying to learn Nix flakes and documenting my process and thoughts so I can more easily share it with others who can benefit from my time put in. That’s the actual lever for the Aunt Tracey case, not arguing with strangers about it. FOSS is one of the better arguments I’ve got against the “individual action doesn’t matter”, people building real alternatives because they saw a problem, not because there’s money in it. And that’s what gives me a lot of hope today when we all need it more than ever. All the better if it takes a swing at the bottom line of big corpos, even more so the ones that fund genocide 😉

Tales of Symphonia - boy does the discrimination critique feel more relevant than ever now lol

Dragon’s Dogma

Final Fantasy 14

Guild Wars

TLoZ: Majora’s Mask

In no particular order.

I’d say Dark Souls, Monster Hunter, Tales of Vesperia, Spyro, and the mainline FF’s would be some honorable mentions.

Being healthy and not making a claim…is fraud?

So kick off all the healthy people who pay in more so that those who use it more won’t be funded. That way both the people that need it now AND the healthy people that need it later won’t be funded!

The literal dumbest administration. Except they’re not just dumb, they’re explicitly cruel. And that’s the point.

The upvotes I couldn’t care less about lol. I just used it to show that others appear to recognize what I’m saying. It did open me up to being a “polling data farming agitator” I guess, on a niche platform to boot, but 🤷

But “no ethical consumption under capitalism” helps me more than it helps you. That phrase exists to say systemic complicity shouldn’t paralyze people into doing nothing, not that individual and collective choices carry zero weight. If choices genuinely didn’t matter, boycotts wouldn’t be a thing worth having opinions about, companies wouldn’t spend money on PR to avoid them, and states wouldn’t pass anti-BDS legislation to head them off. Discord rolled back their verification push after backlash. They added the credit card mechanism because of it too, their words, not mine. Public pressure, people being active, brought a material outcome that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. You and I wouldn’t be conversing if people didn’t give a shit because there’s no ethical consumption and, according to you, it therefore wouldn’t matter.

So which is it? Either collective consumer/user pressure can move outcomes, in which case individual participation isn’t irrelevant and the mechanism I described (aware, unaffected, therefore inactive) is worth naming when you see it. Or it can’t, in which case the Discord rollback you’d have to explain away didn’t happen for the reason it obviously did.

Naming the mechanism doesn’t mean every instance of it carries equal weight, and I take the point that reaching for the heaviest possible comparison isn’t necessary to make it. But dismissing the mechanism itself with “no ethical consumption, so nothing you do matters” is just a thought-terminating cliche being used exactly backwards.

Upvotes say otherwise friend.

If you can’t recognize the similarity, or how consumption and individualism enables mass violence and terrorism because someone remains unaffected, maybe you should reassess your worldview.

Everything exists in a context. And I don’t think anyone except for you thinks I’m equating consumerism and genocide. I am drawing a parallel. Scale and impact are entirely separate things.

Please don’t try and force a narrative onto me. Look up diffusion of responsibility and scope insensitivity to see what I’m pointing to here.

Yeah, I agree. Like I said with the first one though, I think it’s relevant to those people who choose not to support their friends, not so much us here.

“It’s one more app” was the answer I got with signal. “I don’t want one more app.” Not an hour later we talked about how they had just downloaded like 4 different airline apps. But one app for me was too much?

I’m privileged enough and it doesn’t negatively affect me personally, so why should I care

I think it really boils down to convenience and ease of use

Yes. I agree. Lol.

People will stick around until the pain of moving to a new platform is less than the pain of staying there

Another one for you. Basically, it’s gas prices for the individualists:

This feels relevant for those people

If waiting too much of a bother, if you want the game too much, then go ahead and cross the picket line

We have so many people that are just this unfortunately.

I don’t think it was actually getting at that specific interaction, that was just one of them that recently went very badly for the billionaire ball coddler.

I think it’s looking more broadly at how many of those in privileged positions, including everyday citizens in a country like America, will simply say they aren’t political because they are individualistic, unaffected, and lack empathy. Many “enlightened centrists” pull this schtick because then they don’t have to stand on any principles and “broaden their appeal.” When in reality, just like a corporation, they couldn’t care less and only seek their own personal enrichment.

A lot of times, they actually are very political when it benefits them.

Example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVzeOBPeb3w

I move to call this a Sheeran. You’re pulling a Sheeran right now

Cattle

Looking to witewash herself.

Don’t fall for when centrists learn to speak our language as it becomes popular.

Kinda like art is inherently a form of speech amd one that incites emotion, thought, and often rebellion. Any real artist knows where they stand. Sheeran sells a product. The others create music.

However many days congress doesn’t work should be codified into law to be the minimum number of days off federally mandated to all workers.

I bet a lot of white people in the south remember segregation as a good thing. They didn’t have to see how “dirty” their communities are.

God, I cringe just typing that, it’s disgusting.

Fascists are weak little pussies and prefer to be told what to do, say, and wear. They think it makes them strong to look and sound like someone they’re not rather than standing up for themselves. Ironic, isn’t it?

Same reason they bully minorities. They only feel strong when they impose themselves on someone they deem weaker. Just like a playground bully, these are immature, selfish adults who never grew up. They can’t think for themselves, they allow others to do it for them and pretend to be strong when they’re the weakest, most pathetic pieces of shit around.

They build nothing, they contribute nothing, and they deserve nothing but contempt and utter shame if not worse for the harm they commit on us all because they can’t grow up and look outside of themselves.

I mean, if you haven’t seen the Benn Jordan videos yet…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp9MwZkHiMQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB0gr7Fh6lY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU1-uiUlHTo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3MQLlMbS-Y

I mean, certainly says something that someone heavily associated with Epstein made a game about sneaking around and force feeding people your meat…