Lurker > Lightning Strikes

They did a limited run for the 25th anniversary so I guess that's why. Of course, that was just a rerelease of All-Stars.

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KamikazePotato posted...

If Trump wins the next election, by any means at all, we're not going to be having elections anymore. It'll just be handpicked successors.

Oh, there'll be elections, in four possible flavours:

-Non-competitive elections where you can only vote "yes", that are also massively rigged (Nazi Germany).

-Competitive elections which are massively rigged in favour of the incumbent (Belarus).

-Competitive elections that aren't necessarily completely rigged, but the political and social systems are set up to guarantee the incumbent wins (Russia).

And if you're really lucky:

-Competitive elections that the incumbent can lose, but power structures, voter suppression, low-level electoral fraud gerrymandering and political violence make that very difficult and ensure that as much power stays in the executive as possible (Turkey).

If Trump wins the next election the US only becoming like Turkey would be a result.

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If Biden wins the popular vote by 7% and loses the electoral college I don't see how anybody can say it is fit for purpose.

Then again over in the UK a huge majority of recent governments haven't had a majority of the popular vote, including the incumbent - but it was especially bad when the "brexit election" enabled brexit despite a sizeable majority of voters voting for parties which pledged for a second referendum.

The gold standard is STV which they use in Ireland among other places, ironically designed by Britain to suppress republicans, who got voted in under FPTP anyway. It's both highly proportional and keeps local representation. And let me tell you having lived under and voted in both systems it's nice feeling like your vote actually counts. Voting in UK elections being registered in an incredibly safe seat just feels like a pointless endeavour.

And to extend that to the electoral college, it wouldn't be so bad if the electoral votes were administered proportionately - you get 60% of the vote you get 60% of the electoral votes and so on. And if the electoral college was updated every election cycle to actually reflect the population. What a system.

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If Trump does squeak in via the Electoral College again, it does just go to show that one of the best tools for preventing extremism is strong proportional representation, which is funny because that used to be the big argument against it!

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Super Mario 64

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https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/08/22/u-s-active-duty-military-presence-overseas-is-at-its-smallest-in-decades/

Pew seems to reckon that it was 193k in 2016, so there has been a small decline, but much smaller than the rate of change under Obama. So Trump hasn't done much one way of the other. That's all countries of course as well, so who knows what the number is for the middle east.

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...Man it's been a while since I've seen a good "debate me bro!" response. No, people don't have to engage with you on a level that ignores things that are actually extremely important. Which is another thing about dogwhistles: the ability to go "oh but it's not about X, it's about Y", which Corrik is now doing.

...Of course, even if we were to engage on that level, you still don't have a point. It's not a good idea because it's economically unviable, it's not a noble intention because actually people outside the US matter as well, and even Trump doesn't practice it, nor does he believe it should be practiced. He just uses it as a dogwhistle.

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And to add to that, the root there is Britain First (and again, one of Mosley's main beliefs was "self-sufficiency"), which later ended up being the name of a fascist party in the UK, infamous for being tied to the murder of an MP and you may also remember them promoting false videos purporting to show Muslim refugees attacking Europeans (but really it wasn't). You might remember that because it was retweeted by none other than Donald John Trump, sparking a massive row in which he refused to apologise. He knows exactly what he's doing with that phrase. You don't accidentally end up retweeting fascist propaganda from a party with a suspiciously similar name to your own slogan.

You don't use loaded terms like that without the knowledge of what it's signalling in addition to the supposed main message. That's why it's called a dogwhistle.

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Corrik7 posted...

Buying American and providing for Americans before foreign nations is like common sense.

No it isn't. It's impossible to look after your own country without engaging with other countries. It doesn't mean that you can't do that in an ethical way that doesn't undercut working and vulnerable people in your own country. No country on earth is truly self-sufficient, not even North Korea, because it's neither possible nor desirable. I wasn't aware that you were a believer in Juche though.

It ultimately doesn't matter though because we all know that that isn't, and never has been, all that phrase means.

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Is nobody going to point out that one of. Corriks best Trump ideas is just fascism.

That is, America First, named after a group that wanted to ally the US with Nazi Germany, and inspired by British Union of Fascists leader Oswald Mosleys slogan, Britain First. Its a fascist dogwhistle, and Corriks like yeah Ill have me some of that.

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LinkMarioSamus posted...

The reason Boris Johnson handled the pandemic okay is because he himself contracted the virus.

Oh he handled it pretty damn poorly and thats part of why he contracted the virus at all. Indeed hes now getting punished for it. But he did something. Which is more than you can say for the American right and the likes of Bolsonaro who literally thought they could lie and diminish their way out of it. And Trump is still pushing these conspiracy theories. It amazes me that they havent realised they need to change course.

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Yeah that's really why a lot of these right "populist" types have been running into problems now. You can't lie your way out of a pandemic.

That doesn't mean that people won't try though!

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Trying to diminish COVID is such a bizarre strategic blunder. You cant lie about it and get away with it, its a virus, it just is. And if you tell people not to worry and they go about their lives as normal, guess what, the infection will spread, and it turns out openly letting people die is never a popular strategy.

On the other hand, look at the countries where the government has been honest about it and taken direct action against the virus. Rocketing government approval ratings and polling, even in more badly affected countries. When it turns on you is when the government betrays public trust.

A good case study in this is the UK. The Tories got 43% at the last election, were stable around there until COVID hit and their polling skyrocketed to ~55% even though their response was fairly poor because they were at least trying to handle it and people gave them the benefit of the doubt. Then the Dominic Cummings scandal happened (for those unfamiliar, powerful adviser repeatedly violated lockdown and received no punishment), they crashed to 40% and are level pegging with Labour just months after a big victory. This happened because they broke public trust on a disease and you cant lie your way out of the health consequences. Something similar is happening in Ireland too as they retightened restrictions then a bunch of government officials broke them.

All you need to do is be seen to handle it. Just do something, it doesnt even need to work.

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Dark Souls

Though I will give a shout out to the people saying Splatoon because that series' lore is much more interesting than it needs to be.

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Star Fox Assault.

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Robin Atkin Downes as Travis Touchdown (No More Heroes)

And heres a late one that should absolutely get in:

Eden Riegel as Diana (Zero Time Dilemma)

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Somebody once hiccuped for 68 years, it will be alright.

Try drinking water for 60 seconds straight.

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Dead Space

You said Visceral.

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Bioshock Infinite.

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It's also worth noting that in the UK and other countries with unarmed police they still have firearms units where guns are absolutely necessary. They are specially trained and don't use them on civilians. There really isn't much of an argument for having regular police armed to the teeth.

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If I remember my Star Wars lore right, slavery was illegal in the republic but a lot of the Galaxy, including Tatooine was outside their jurisdiction. The Empire expanded that and as a result ended slavery in much of the galaxy, with the downside being brutal colonialist and fascist rule.

Star Wars is kind of dark when you actually think about the implications.

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xp1337 posted...

excuse me what about the hutts. smh at this clear disregard for Tatooine's economy

...You mean when the Empire ended slavery? >_>

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The first modern police forces were specifically supposed to be unarmed. I consider myself lucky to have spent my life living in two of the only countries to have an unarmed police force. It's not the only way to deal with the problem, but this problem can't happen if the police don't have guns to begin with, and it would probably reduce unarmed police violence as a consequence of taking away the threat of armed violence as well.

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The Daily Mail sells a lot (relatively) but is not reliable. The Sun is the highest selling and is less right but even more unreliable. The UK has the lowest trust in the press of any democracy for a reason.

LinkMarioSamus posted...

Yeah the way I see it Trump's practically trying to turn America into a police state. And much of the country is fine with that somehow? Just another step to fascism, which I guess is still preferable to social justice or something.

This is the thing with these kind of quasi-dictators. They dont need to pretend like the whole country loves them or get everybody on board. They just need a solid 40% to keep backing them so the electoral system can carry them to victory on a technicality. Its why strong proportional democratic systems are more resistant to fascism.

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LordoftheMorons posted...

https://twitter.com/KevinMKruse/status/1298079050162999296

Gross

This needs additional understanding of how Turkey operates to make sense.

Ive seen people call Erdogan an autocrat or a dictator like Un or Lukashenko. He is not. He doesnt, for instance, have a majority in the Turkish parliament and most of the major provinces are now ruled by the opposition including Istanbul and Ankara, both happening as recently as last year. He is still operating in a broadly democratic system (Turkey is considered a hybrid regime not an authoritarian or truly democratic one). Does that mean he cant be called a dictator? No, because he:

-Actively tries to subvert or question democracy to favour himself.
-Has diverted power to the executive from the representatives.
-Stacks the supreme court (and other independent state bodies) with people favourable to him.

Among other things. Remind you of anyone?

This is why Trump likes Erdogan. Because Trump *is* Erdogan. Or rather Erdogan is Trump. Before the likes of Orban, Erdogan was the first of the new populist tinpot dictator-lites that Trump drew inspiration from. Erdogan can absolutely be called a dictator as he subverts democracy in his own interest (though he is not all powerful and is elected), and so can Trump. If Erdogan is a dictator so is Trump, and frankly Im fine with that definition.

I will just say as a way of removing bias, when you see headlines about what Trump is trying to do in the election, try replacing Trump with Erdogan and USA with Turkey. Yeah, its messed up.

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Excellent trailer.

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JL was a big nothing. BvS was an ambitious mess. And the rest range from decent to great.

Suicide Squad was just awful though, so that.

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So thats why Peter Capaldi shaved his head.

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No Mans Sky.

All they had to do was take a third off the price and slap early access on there and nobody would have complained.

It is a very different story now though.

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KamikazePotato posted...

If you held it today, Biden

After months of prep time for Trump to rig the election, who the fuck knows

This.

Imagine if this went on in literally any other country outside of North America and possibly Western Europe. The media and likely governments would not stand for it.

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Love that synergy.

Adam Howden in Xenoblade.

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All of these are good movies except for TRoS.

Honestly the vocal minority against Into Darkness has always been silly. Yes, it's not as good as the 2009 Star Trek but that's legitimately one of the best summer blockbusters ever. Yes, it doesn't earn the last act after only ~1.7 films as opposed to decades of material, and yes it really needed to split that plot over two films, but it still largely works and is very entertaining for most of the runtime. It's good! And I guess I'm glad to see that vindicated here haha.

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Adam Howden as Shulk (Xenoblade Chronicles)
Jenna Coleman as Melia (Xenoblade Chronicles)
JK Simmons as Cave Johnson (Portal 2)
Melina Jeurgens as Senua (Hellblade)
Viva Seifert as Hannah (Her Story)
Ellen McLain as GLaDOS (Portal/Portal 2)

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This is on Game Pass by the way so you can just go for it now on PC.

It does make sense because this is the grand return for the series and big name flight simulators in general, and it's one of the most technologically advanced games out right now.

Looking forward to it... when I get a new PC!

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People are wrong if they say there was immediate disappointment. It took a few months. I did not play it at launch and the hype was still high when I did. It started to get more credit after Skyward Sword came out, then fully bounced back around the release of TPHD which is a great version of it.

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I dont get why you didnt just have the Democrats be centre.

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What?

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Nanis23 posted...

Oh wow turns out Evergate trailer was actually released half a year ago

Yeah the new info is that its out today. Come on...

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Even despite the fact that there was no Silksong, that was probably the best Indie show they've ever done? They shadowdropped like six games (Spiritfarer, Takeshi & Hiroshi, Raji, A Short Hike, Manifold Garden, Evergate) and all of them look really cool. Some big ports, other cool new announcements, updates on most of the MIA games (except Silksong). That's a lot of stuff.

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The Red Lantern exists! Out in Autumn.

Inmost is a cool game, out Friday. Looking forward to using a controller with it lol.

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Manifold Garden is a very cool game.

Edit: Oh look it's out today. Also here comes the Ori clone.

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Also out today, what is going on

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This Ancient Indian game looks really really cool. Raji.

Edit: Out today, like a lot of things.

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Oh wow Subnautica and the sequel?

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And then Hypnospace Outlaw next week. Already the best one in ages.

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Oh wow Hades, hell of a start.

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LinkMarioSamus posted...

I was thinking of just excluding Wrath of Khan, The Voyage Home, The Undiscovered Country, and First Contact.

Nah the first ten make up a full series in their own right I think.

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There is a rumour of a general direct for the 28th. This would fit that.

Also where is The Red Lantern

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I think people voting for the remake over 3 just shows how much principle votes matter. Have these people seen the remake? Its completely inoffensive (in fact, its the second best Robocop film), people were just mad there was a remake at all.

There is no argument that the remake is worse than 3. 3 is sheer drek.

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I said this in the last topic because I didnt realise this one was up so I will say it here: Dragon Ball FighterZ got 8 votes, it easily won the anime topic. Thats hotta be more than a lot of winners!

Also, Empire Strikes Back.

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