Evilsandwichman

Has it aged well? I've been curious to give it a shot, and I'm somewhat patient with old animes, but I think the oldest I ever went was the 80's

Well quite frankly with all the meat people consume, they'll certainly need help passing it. I recommend state provided salads.

Weeeeeeell.....I like the Irish and I think they've been awesome all around (the IRA and their support for Palestine), but even by their mythology they apparently did colonize their lands ages ago; something about defeating the Tuatha De Danann who themselves defeated the Fir Bolg and the Fomorians. The De Danann, Fir Bolg and Fomorians are depicted as inhuman beings but I personally think these were peoples who lived in extremely ancient Ireland who were defeated by the ancestors of modern day Irish people, but then, this would have been quite a few thousand years ago anyway and holding it against them would be silly (basically it was so long ago that it's not even concrete whether this myth has any basis in reality and certainly no trace of those peoples, their culture and their civilizations still exist; also even if you decide to believe the myth has some basis in reality behind it, Irish culture has not been a culture of colonizers for the last several thousand years).

the most rudimentary skepticism of US media

When I told the guy I knew that the US media has repeatedly lied for decades and offered tons of examples his response was "Maybe they're telling the truth now"

I'd love to say it would be a PR disaster for American news, but realistically people have become too invested in the American Cinematic Universe to be swayed by what visitors have to say.

The lib I work with believes all the nonsense about North Korea and I've tried explaining to him that North Korea literally has non-North Korean tour guides who absolutely allow you to go where you want but usually prefer if you don't because no one would be able to communicate with you if you got lost, and your vacation would be wasted if you had no idea where to go, but he believes that it's all just a show, as though any country on the planet actually puts in that kind of effort to convince foreigners. Every time I tell him there are literally people who've posted positive news in regards to being there, or about a non-North Korean who works there, he still wants to believe what the news says or whatever negative claims are being made about it, and so he challenged me to go to North Korea on vacation and 'find out the truth for both of us' (he already believes I'll come back with horror stories), and so I challenged him and asked "If I go there and find out that it's all nonsense, that the country is fine and peaceful, would you believe me?". I personally hate traveling, and going on vacation anywhere is a chore I loathe, and so surely if I go to such effort then he'll believe me, right? His response was a reluctant "I'll be more likely to believe it"

This guy doesn't want to believe he's been lied to about North Korea; literally no amount of evidence will sway him; it's almost like this is some kind of investment for him (I say him, but this applies to libs in general).

Hey I too know a lib I can't get through to; this guy however doesn't know nearly enough about history to try and sound informed; he instead spouts whatever comes to mind, for example: when I told him about what had been going on in Donbas until the war, and that Ukraine wanted the land but not the people, he argued for ethnic cleansing in the form of forcing all the Russians there to leave, and it was enough that the Ukrainian government wanted them gone for him to say that. When I brought up that the US is causing major issues with Taiwan, his response was "Do you believe that China does bad things?", and then wanted to start talking about the Uyghurs even though.....it has literally no relation to the situation with Taiwan. He pretends that countries not being democracies is the reason he supports the US intervening or invading many nations, and when I point out that Ukraine has shut down many left wing parties, he then pivots and says Putin does it too with a face as though he's said something really clever.

I've spent hours trying to educate him about what's going on in many countries the US intervenes in but the truth is this guy just inherently supports US empire.

Your friend may be different, but I suspect he's using what little historical info he has to try and lend legitimacy to his claims but the truth is he already knows who he supports (just not why).

Lemme ask you this, does the US doing something bad nullify the wrongdoings of another country/regime?

When they're in the process or about to cause a humanitarian disaster in said country, yes.

Saddam's regime was terrible, however sanctions, plus destroying vital infrastructure such as water treatment facilities and power plants during war were infinitely worse. The sanctions on the DPRK that have been going on since 1950 compounded the nightmare of destroying all the infrastructure in the country and the killing of 20% of the population and are still ongoing.

America is hosting the world cup next so.....yeah literally at this point anything goes. The only way it could be worse is if the literal Nazi regime was back and they were hosting the world cup.

"During the war, American military and civilian officials stretched the term "military target" to include virtually all human-made structures, capitalizing on the vague distinction between the military and civilian segments of an enemy society. They came to apply the logic of total war to the destruction of the civil infrastructure in North Korea. Because almost any building could serve a military purpose, even if a minor one, nearly the entire physical infrastructure behind enemy lines was deemed a military target and open to attack. This expansive definition, along with the optimism about sparing civilians that is reinforced, worked to obscure in American awareness the suffering of Korean civilians in which U.S. firebombing was contributing."

One of the things I never understood is why Western countries (as we're not the only ones who do this) bother coming up with these laws and rules of engagement and such if they're just going to basically be interpreted in the most liberal sense to allow one to do whatever they want. Take that adviser to Trump who suggested sending out a drone to 'deal' with migrants before they crossed the US border or entered American waters because they wouldn't be protected by the US constitution at that point. What even is the point of these laws if the intent is ignored and people simply find a way to play the system?

New cyberpunk future just dropped:

Companies mimic existing console terms and agreement whereby their products are still their property despite you having bought them, and can now demand ownership over fetuses as they are now at least 1% company property. WW3 will be between the Applings, Googlers and Amazonites. Personally I'm rooting for Amazon because out of those three they've already gone the cool route with how they've mentally roboticized their work force; exchanging parts of their bodies with actual machine parts is just the next logical step and will help them do their jobs better and faster. The Googlers will still have an edge because they know where everything is, and they know how it all works. The Applings? They're the scrappy underdogs just like they are today; no one thinks Apple can keep up and they keep dicing with death but keep winning even though the odds have been stacked against them; Apple's the plucky underdog it's always been, coming up with brand new gadgets every single time.

Honestly corporations keep showing us a brighter and cooler future! If we're lucky, blade runner and cyberpunk 2077 will just be the tip of the iceberg.

The secret in all this though? Everyone cuts a deal with the Nestlers; they'll own all the water, and that water? Primary source of fetus microplastics; you want to tip the tides in favor of a new legion of Applings in twenty years? You grease the Nestler palm.

I managed to avoid getting it for the longest time (and even when I got it, I'd gotten that worthless Pfizer vaccine by that point (talk about a waste of time THAT was)) and only got it because my brother is a very social person and got it from one of his friends.