I wish I loved anything as much as the writer loves quotation marks. So the "anti-imperialists" oppose the "Western world", namely the "US", due to "Marcyist" "Campism". Wow, you really wouldn't want to write this sentence without those scare quotes!

I need some geopolitical information on Western Sahara. From a quick read, it seems like a simple colonial situation where Morocco acts as a Western proxy against the nationalist Polisario Front. But there's obviously some other complex factors, like the ambiguous position of the non-Western superpowers. Any informed opinions?

Once again reminding everyone that Politico was bought by Axel Springer three years ago, a German right-wing tabloid company that has support for the USA and Israel as its stated core values. Even if they have nominal editorial independence, they know what their employer wants to hear.

I've always wondered why people were so ready to convert. Like, if I was some ancient Roman and some guy came up to me offering a new god that's even better than the old ones and much easier to worship, I wouldn't just immediately fall for it. It just seems like a scam.

It's not this one, is it?

My favorite memory of the two Pathfinder games, and I mean this unironically, is doing that infamous quest in Kingmaker right near the start where you have to fight swarms. Level 1 combat against enemies immune to weapon damage – you have to actually consider your options and possibly accept turning down the difficulty. That interplay of character options and enemy immunities is, in my opinion, the core gameplay of CRPGs.

I miss him. We could all do with some more hatred for mainstream popular culture. Otherwise, what's even the point of being a communist?

I was about to say that this account cannot be real, it's obviously fake for hitting so many stereotypes and controversies at once, and then I saw that she's posting videos and everything. Sometimes reality is crueler than our imagination.

I hate you for showing this to me

Once again Substack provides space and publicity for the meanest kind of Internet bigotry. I don't know why anyone would want their writings to appear next to this trash.

Incredible. The future. I will pay 10 billion dollars to replace my company with this picture.

12 o'clock is not early. Check your watch

There is literally precedent that the president can just order the killing of anyone in the world if it's for "national self-defense". The democrats' attitude of despair just isn't matched by the actions taken by their leaders.

Is it wrong to say that gamma male can get it

Any chance you're on iOS? That's where the bug mostly happens, but no one knows why. I can recommend using next.hexbear.net for now.

Edit: Yeah, I'm also on Firefox. I wonder why it works fine for everyone else.

It's a nice addition to the weekly /r/curatedtumblr transmisogyny post

I believe character descriptions became a big thing in the time of physiognomy – when Balzac narrates someone's physical appearance, he wants you to extrapolate the character's personality from that. Physiognomy fell out of fashion and if there is no other motivation to provide a description, like signalling someone's class position or injecting a bit of lyricism, it's simply economical to leave it out. To provide a counter-example, Mary Gaitskill always writes exactly one paragraph of description in her short stories which you can just skip because it's not properly integrated into the story as a whole.

I just got Dragon Age: Inquisition and to be honest, it's been rather frustrating so far. The controls/camera and interface are obviously made for a gamepad and the whole MMO vibe – endless fetch quests in wide, empty spaces; rogue and wizard are the classes that do damage while warriors are supposed to take the heat – is bothering me. And common equipment at level 7 being infinitely better than rare items at level 5 is just depressing. Still, I'm hoping that the story and characters pick up soon.

Exactly! I think part of it is a, in my view, mistaken historical realism where authors think fantasy should be based on the middle ages when, in reality, the better part of our modern fantasy genre derives from post-1600 literature. Like, the rise of the bourgeoisie and decline of feudalism is the primary social context for all of this, I think.

Any representation of feudal ruling classes. Maybe I'm overdoing it with the class hatred a bit, but I can't watch nobles cavorting around and not feel an instinctive revulsion. It's even worse when, in fantasy, we're required to care about the machinations of court intrigues as if that's a real form of politics. One thing I do like about many standard fantasy settings, like that of Pathfinder, therefore is that they usually have a modern conception of class and an abundance of republics; especially the whole idea of adventurers as individuals outside of society but still integral to it has a lot of potential I feel. Basically, I just don't want any more fantasy stories about good kings and evil kings.