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Cake day: May 12th, 2020

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  • I’d say it depends on the environment. TTRPG tends to attract analytical types and when there’s actual roleplay, is effectively an exercise in taking on the perspective of others. As well, classical RPG fare tends to come down hard on people who act in an oppressive way.

    There are many video games that are exercises in empathy (That software company), looking at the bigger picture, and sorting through noise to figure out what’s going on (Torment, Disco Elysium). Additionally, mega corporations are so vilified as to be useable as comedy (Portal). Additionally, there are games which paint the government as morally gray (Control, and yes I know but still).

    Then, of course, there’s Fallout.

    Games like this are useful because they are narrative simulations; they let you try out different ideas by playing them out. As long as there is some critical thinking and/or media literacy skills present, engaging with these will challenge right wing thinking on different levels.


  • Nonviolence is an inherently privileged position in the modern context. Besides the fact that the typical pacifist is quite clearly white and middle class, pacifism as an ideology comes from a privileged context. It ignores that violence is already here; that violence is an unavoidable, structurally integral part of the current social hierarchy; and that it is people of color who are most affected by that violence. Pacifism assumes that white people who grew up in the suburbs with all their basic needs met can counsel oppressed people, many of whom are people of color, to suffer patiently under an inconceivably greater violence, until such time as the Great White Father is swayed by the movement’s demands or the pacifists achieve that legendary “critical mass. – How Nonviolence Serves the State




  • Now who can argue with that? I think we’re all indebted to TheFerrango for clearly stating what needed to be said. I’m particulary glad that these lovely children were here today to hear that speech. Not only was it authentic Star Trek technobabble, it expressed a courage little seen in this day and age.