Lurker > snake1989

They should play a role in deciding where to aim policy and where things need to be revised, but they shouldn't dictate the course of those processes or the follow-up research on outcomes. Results are important, and oftentimes feelings about how well a policy will work don't line up with the reality of implementation.

Ideally, policy starts from an emotional impetus such as "discrimination is bad", but must eventually evolve into logical and truly evidence-backed policy that will solve the problem rather than half-baked policy that only serves to alleviate the emotional distress surrounding the problem.
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"A man chooses. A slave obeys."-Andrew Ryan

K181 posted...

I like how the Clinton's are apparently super effective at getting their enemies killed and yet somehow inept at running a campaign. Seems like a pretty obvious logical disconnect.

To be fair, Putin has become famous for killing his detractors and he also supposedly rigs elections. I don't think there is sufficient evidence to convince me that the Clinton's have been doing that, but it is presumably much easier to pay one hitman to kill someone than to convince an entire nation to vote for you.
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"A man chooses. A slave obeys."-Andrew Ryan

Pairs well with eggs, but a sandwich can work. It can be a bit salty though.
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"A man chooses. A slave obeys."-Andrew Ryan

They're great, 0 is a perfect starting place. Has a few nods for longtime fans but the story is a perfect standalone start to the series, and it's also imo the best all-around entry in the series to date.
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"A man chooses. A slave obeys."-Andrew Ryan

I did it by working at one place for a while until I was pretty liked/useful/necessary, then taking up the second job on my two consecutive days off from the first job. The first job wasn't completely happy, but they let me do it since I had proven myself already and hadn't asked them for anything else ever, and it worked out very well in the long run. Everyone else there had crazy swinging shifts each week, but I ended up with a locked schedule thanks to that, an unintended benefit.
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"A man chooses. A slave obeys."-Andrew Ryan

I wish they had stuck with Black Flag's considerably more limited modern day storyline. Or taken it out entirely. Every time I think of picking up a new game in the series I remember there's going to be modern world stuff intruding on the better half of the plot, and end up playing something else instead.
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"A man chooses. A slave obeys."-Andrew Ryan

Given how she blatantly lied about her experiences with pay inequality in the past, I don't see why she should be taken at her word about SNL's past issues.

Not that it sounds unbelievable that there were harassment problems given everything else coming out recently, but she makes it seem like a matter of backroom security rather than the more likely circumstance of openly trading favors, as seems to be the course of those things in the rest of her industry.
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"A man chooses. A slave obeys."-Andrew Ryan

This doesn't necessarilly indicate that microtransactions make games more successful. Correlation doesn't equal causation, after all.

It could just as easily be inferred that developers are more likely to include microtransactions in top-selling series or games projected to do well because they are more likely to see high profit relative to development cost, which makes more sense from a logical standpoint than the idea that gamers somehow prefer games with microtransactions even when they don't use them.
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"A man chooses. A slave obeys."-Andrew Ryan

I honestly forgot Mike was there for half of Season 2. He just seemed to fade into the background for several episodes in a row until right before the finale.
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"A man chooses. A slave obeys."-Andrew Ryan

I like this. Much more effective and creative than most other activism these days. It's nonviolent and drives home the idea that the wall is a mostly symbolic but ultimately meaningless project not worth the effort or money. And I say this as someone who also thinks immigration in general has been too high for too long, and reducing illegal immigration (while fixing our legal immigration system) should be one of our main domestic priorities.
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"A man chooses. A slave obeys."-Andrew Ryan

Tastes good, kind of cranberry and cola if I had to describe it. But it is unique and not as jolly-rancher esque as a lot of other energy drinks. I never find myself getting too jittery or crashing from it either, although I usually only have one 8oz can.
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"A man chooses. A slave obeys."-Andrew Ryan

No, but I wish I did. The few times I've done it (usually to surprise my SO after a hard day) it's always been incredibly cozy to come back to.
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"A man chooses. A slave obeys."-Andrew Ryan

GreatEvilEmpire posted...

snake1989 posted...

And the rest of the posters seem to be ripping him apart, indicating that his values are not widely accepted. Unless you think one user on an internet forum is more representative of wider society than all of the other users on the same forum. One user named GreatEvilEmpire of all things probably shouldn't be the metric by which we infer the values of mainstream society.

I also didn't say there were no wider problems in regards to societal attitudes toward women, just that they have seemingly no bearing on the Weinstein case except as a means to deflect from the very specific cultural factors that allow this to keep happening in Hollywood. Or to deflect from the allegations that Weinstein himself used his power and influence with the NYT to quash the story when it was originally written in 2004, at least according to the original author at the time. By acting as though it's a societal problem, this normalizes their behavior as simply being par-for-course of an allegedly sick society, but Hollywood seems to churn out a lot more drug-addled and sex-abused individuals than wider society does, and also seems much more capable of covering up its indiscretions using money, influence, and threats.

For the record, I think what Weinstein did is disgusting. Just because I argue about the meaning of things doesn't mean I support that pig in any way. I support the rights of people who want to date, the right to fail and make mistakes in the dating world and not have it demonized. Sexual harassment of women is wrong.

Apologies if I came across that way. I don't agree with your opinion on dick pics, but I support your right to disagree with other people's definitions, and I don't assume that your opinion on that issue indicates a forgiveness or apathy toward Weinstein's behavior. Society is always trying to figure out where the appropriate line should be drawn, and even if I disagree with you, you're part of that dialogue too.
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"A man chooses. A slave obeys."-Andrew Ryan

ShinyMasamuneZ posted...

snake1989 posted...

Even if I take your statement to be fully true, this campaign is still serving to draw attention away from the specific Weinstein and Hollywood scandal and re-position it as an indictment of our society. But our society clearly and unequivocally does not approve of his behavior, so I think it's worth recognizing that the only way he perpetuated his own personal rape culture was by hiding it from mainstream culture. Therefore, I think that in this specific case, it's more valuable to talk about the ways in which Weinstein and Hollywood jointly concealed something they knew the wider culture would never stand for, rather than accusing that wider culture of being just as guilty. It blatantly isn't, because within days of this being publicly revealed Weinstein was widely reviled and lost his academy position following the huge scandal that broke.

If this was a problem rooted in wider societal attitudes toward women, I don't think there would have been such a scandal - people would have just accepted it as normal instead of as a heinous crime. There is, however, a cultural problem within Hollywood, hence why this didn't become a scandal internally for so long in spite of it being an open secret.

You say there's no wider problem, Yet we're literally sitting in a topic in which a person is defending people that send unsolicited dick pics as not worthy of being considered a form of sexual harassment. It's just something guys do every once in a while, no?

And the rest of the posters seem to be ripping him apart, indicating that his values are not widely accepted. Unless you think one user on an internet forum is more representative of wider society than all of the other users on the same forum. One user named GreatEvilEmpire of all things probably shouldn't be the metric by which we infer the values of mainstream society.

I also didn't say there were no wider problems in regards to societal attitudes toward women, just that they have seemingly no bearing on the Weinstein case except as a means to deflect from the very specific cultural factors that allow this to keep happening in Hollywood. Or to deflect from the allegations that Weinstein himself used his power and influence with the NYT to quash the story when it was originally written in 2004, at least according to the original author at the time. By acting as though it's a societal problem, this normalizes their behavior as simply being par-for-course of an allegedly sick society, but Hollywood seems to churn out a lot more drug-addled and sex-abused individuals than wider society does, and also seems much more capable of covering up its indiscretions using money, influence, and threats.
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"A man chooses. A slave obeys."-Andrew Ryan

shanefu22 posted...

snake1989 posted...

I understand people wanting to speak about about their experiences, but this seems too much to be shifting the blame away from Hollywood's sick culture and trying to act like it's a societal problem and not one specific to Hollywood. The Catholic Church's sexual misconduct was only addressed at all because it was recognized as a specific institutional problem and they were hounded for it. Talking about rape in general, while valid, in this case takes away from the specific conversation about abuse in Hollywood. It makes me worry that nothing will be done, and Hollywood will be allowed to just continue on its course.

But it is a societal problem. Every woman has been assaulted or harassed at some point in their life, and most men too. Even if it was unintentional.

Even if I take your statement to be fully true, this campaign is still serving to draw attention away from the specific Weinstein and Hollywood scandal and re-position it as an indictment of our society. But our society clearly and unequivocally does not approve of his behavior, so I think it's worth recognizing that the only way he perpetuated his own personal rape culture was by hiding it from mainstream culture. Therefore, I think that in this specific case, it's more valuable to talk about the ways in which Weinstein and Hollywood jointly concealed something they knew the wider culture would never stand for, rather than accusing that wider culture of being just as guilty. It blatantly isn't, because within days of this being publicly revealed Weinstein was widely reviled and lost his academy position following the huge scandal that broke.

If this was a problem rooted in wider societal attitudes toward women, I don't think there would have been such a scandal - people would have just accepted it as normal instead of as a heinous crime. There is, however, a cultural problem within Hollywood, hence why this didn't become a scandal internally for so long in spite of it being an open secret.
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"A man chooses. A slave obeys."-Andrew Ryan

I understand people wanting to speak about about their experiences, but this seems too much to be shifting the blame away from Hollywood's sick culture and trying to act like it's a societal problem and not one specific to Hollywood. The Catholic Church's sexual misconduct was only addressed at all because it was recognized as a specific institutional problem and they were hounded for it. Talking about rape in general, while valid, in this case takes away from the specific conversation about abuse in Hollywood. It makes me worry that nothing will be done, and Hollywood will be allowed to just continue on its course.
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"A man chooses. A slave obeys."-Andrew Ryan

As a non-religious person, I always understood it to be a caution against those who would take up the teachings/words of Christ without understanding them or actually intending to live according to them.

From a literary standpoint, I think the book of Revelation is weird and hard to understand, but I think one interesting way to read it is as a prophecy for how the religion itself could lose its way in the world if it allows itself to become more obsessed with looking virtuous than being virtuous. The idea being that everybody would, on the surface, love somebody who allows them the easy way out from the personal struggle that is endemic to Christian theology, but that this is a temptation that would in the long run corrupt the faith from within and erode any of the actual value or meaning within the belief system.
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"A man chooses. A slave obeys."-Andrew Ryan

robellr13 posted...

snake1989 posted...

I don't see why somebody who disagrees with any given political message in music shouldn't listen to it. The whole point of expressing political or philosophical opinions through art is to reach a wider audience and hopefully convince people to re-think their views. If it doesn't do that, it runs the risk of becoming self-indulgent rather than persuasive.

I'd rather see a racist become less racist over time by listening to rap than see them avoid the genre entirely because they're "not allowed".

Its more than just political. Its a culture that your side doesnt respect or acknowledge. Yall just want football players to shut up and play. Or rappers just make music that you will like. We are more than that. Foh.

I didn't vote for Trump, don't watch football, but I am a fan of rap. I'm by no means an expert on the culture around it, but I feel like I understand it at least more than I would have if I had never listened to any. I'd like to think the same would be true even of people with strong prejudices, even if it means just a little whittling away at their pre-conceived notions or expectations over time.

I'm pretty sure musicians in the 60s didn't write powerful, moving protest songs just so other hippies that already agreed would listen to them. That was their primary audience to start, maybe, but the music was a major way to get people to think about issues they might never hear about otherwise, and clearly it paid off for a lot of those musicians in terms of both their own success as well as their ideas becoming more accepted.
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"A man chooses. A slave obeys."-Andrew Ryan

I don't see why somebody who disagrees with any given political message in music shouldn't listen to it. The whole point of expressing political or philosophical opinions through art is to reach a wider audience and hopefully convince people to re-think their views. If it doesn't do that, it runs the risk of becoming self-indulgent rather than persuasive.

I'd rather see a racist become less racist over time by listening to rap than see them avoid the genre entirely because they're "not allowed".
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"A man chooses. A slave obeys."-Andrew Ryan

I met my current GF on a dating site. We were also at the same school and even in one of the same classes, so we may have met eventually anyway, but we've been going strong for almost six years now. I'm always amazed when I hear about people who had much worse experiences with online dating, given that she was only the second girl I had met up with through that site, I feel ike it worked out well in the long run.
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"A man chooses. A slave obeys."-Andrew Ryan