masked-rat

[masked-rat]

Sanctioned False Conversions? Better make sure the Donatists never find out about it.

fun heresies to do

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The way I remember it, cantrips were super weak magics left over from when someone was an apprentice mage, which would've otherwise been abandoned when they learned actual 1st- level spells. The relative power level was secondary to the mastery required to use them.

Don't cast this on whisky-drinking detectives when it's rainy outside. It only makes them stronger.

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Worth noting that a lot of the propaganda *was* engineered by Russia and Israel.

You probably missed the Anti- Defamation League- the traditional arbiters of what is or isn't anti- Semetic- making a statement that *any* opposition to the nation of Israel was inherently anti- Semetic. Or something to that effect, at least. It's been a year or so and I've had a lot on my mind since then.

In any case, the ADL is basically the Southern Poverty Law Center, but with a bipartisan legitimacy the SPLC doesn't have.

A few months later, we started getting the whole "zomg voting Kamala is voting Genocide™" propaganda from Moscow. And because Kamala had the ADL's metaphorical gun to her head, she couldn't say *shit* about it, beyond refusing to show up for Netanyahu's speech to congress.

To wit: Israel and Moscow both had an interest in the election because their chosen spray- tanned buffoon will give them carte blanche to do whatever they want in Ukraine and Gaza.

Did they conspire to do this? Possibly, thru diplomatic or military intelligence channels. We're not likely to ever know for sure. Could've been one doing something and the other seizing the opportunity on their own.

Point is, Republicans win if Democrats stay home. Which they did, thanks to propaganda. And now things will be infinitely worse for both Gaza and Ukraine.

If your democrat friends start muttering about stolen election conspiracy theories, the time to have a sit down with them and express your concerns is NOW, while you still have a chance to reach them, not 6 months from now when they're fully conspiracy-pilled.

Here's some of the talking points and why they're bullshit:

'10 million votes don't just disappear!' -> Joe Biden's 81 million votes were a statistical outlier, sparked by the recent experience of the Trump presidency. The democrats failed to maintain that sense of urgency, but Harris still got more votes than Hillary Clinton, more than Obama and more than any previous democratic candidate. These numbers are not weird at all.

'The Republicans tried to infiltrate election- and vote counting organizations!' -> yeah, they did, and yet hundreds of independent legal observers didn't see anything go wrong enough to raise any alarms. Independent exit polls are also very consistently similar to the counted votes. Tons of international organizations specialized in this stuff observed the election and didn't see a reason to raise the alarm.

'But I know a dozen democrats whose mail-in votes were not counted!' -> In any election a certain number of votes are registered as invalid because something was wrong with the ballot. In a country the size of the US, that translates to many thousands of votes. The internet allows these people to find each other, creating the false impression that a suspiciously large group of voted was not valid.

'Musk used Star Link to mess with electronic voting!' -> Electronic voting machines are not connected to the internet and dozens of independent media have already debunked this myth. It is absolutely impossible to use Star Link to fake election results.

'There is voter disenfranchisement!' -> This is true. This has always been true, for every election. It's an issue worth talking about but it's not a special secret conspiracy that's unique to this election.

But just as importantly as the facts: sit down with your friend and talk about the anxiety that's behind their conspiracy leanings. Acknowledge their pain and fear. Help them find ways to feel less powerless and regain their sense of agency. Take them to a mutual aid event, involve them in a fundraising event for a marginalized group, invite them to a local community effort. If they spend more time feeling connection and empowerment and less time doom scrolling online, they're far more likely to stay in reality.

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Also matters for photography. Especially if you're shooting in mixed light (i.e. using a 5000k-6000k flash in 2000k tungsten ambient lighting). Your camera's AWB (Auto White Balance) setting will tend to pick the wrong one and go with it.

There are so many different shades of white light bulbs, I am so overwhelmed walking down the light bulb aisle, and then I'm never happy with the one I choose, no matter which one I choose, I get it home and I put it in and I'm like, ugh, I don't like THAT white

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I might've bumped into decks like that a couple of times, and they didn't seem to come with the opportunity costs you think they do. Quite the opposite.

Then again, this was also the era of Winter Orb plus Time Elemental/Icy Manipulator/Twiddle, so the power level was different then. Alpha alone had three counterspells I can think of (Counterspell, Spell Blast, and Power Sink), plus at least four more in Legends (Force Spike, Flashcounter, Mana Drain, and Remove Soul). All of those were available in Type 1, which is what most people played in my local meta.

I didn't run into them quite as much in Arena.

So, I love counter spells. Honestly being on both sides of it. Being the player with counterspells and the player playing around counterspells. For me, it adds an interesting level of interaction and it feels rewarding to learn how to play either side.

But I've seen a lot of people who don't like them at all and will ban them from their playgroup. Which I understand not playing with an aspect you don't like. But I've seen people argue that counterspells are inherently unhealthy to the game itself and shouldn't have ever been printed.

What's your perspective. Since wotc still prints them, I assume you're in favor of them. But why? Why keep printing them if (what feels like) large portions of the fanbase think they're just bad for the game? If you do think they're good for the game, how come? Looking for a defense beyond the fact that other players (like myself) enjoy them.

I believe counterspells, at the right volume and power level, are good for the game.

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My problem with counterspell is that it skews the risk/reward balance in negative directions. You just can't plan for anything beyond the immediate turn- and sometimes not even anything within your immediate turn- if a Blue player has any lands untapped after theirs.

Now if counterspells started at 3UU or 5 Life, then maybe we could be talking. That way the Blue player has to risk as much as what they're countering, if not more.

So, I love counter spells. Honestly being on both sides of it. Being the player with counterspells and the player playing around counterspells. For me, it adds an interesting level of interaction and it feels rewarding to learn how to play either side.

But I've seen a lot of people who don't like them at all and will ban them from their playgroup. Which I understand not playing with an aspect you don't like. But I've seen people argue that counterspells are inherently unhealthy to the game itself and shouldn't have ever been printed.

What's your perspective. Since wotc still prints them, I assume you're in favor of them. But why? Why keep printing them if (what feels like) large portions of the fanbase think they're just bad for the game? If you do think they're good for the game, how come? Looking for a defense beyond the fact that other players (like myself) enjoy them.

I believe counterspells, at the right volume and power level, are good for the game.

[masked-rat]

[“The poverty debate could do more to recognize the powerful effects of rejection on a person’s self-confidence and stamina. Applying for an apartment or job and being turned down ten, twenty, forty times—it can wear you out. Theories about neighborhood selection or joblessness often assume low-income people are more or less “rational actors” who recognize trade-offs and make clear choices. The reality is that many are “exhausted settlers” who accept poor housing in a disadvantaged neighborhood or a dead-end or illicit job after becoming depleted and disheartened from trying and trying and failing and failing. The shame of rejection not only can pressure people to accept undesirable circumstances today; it can also discourage them from striving for something better tomorrow.”]

matthew desmond, from evicted: poverty and profit in the american city, 2016

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Probably because we don't want to be seen as lowering our standards? I mean, why else would small victories get written off as "not good enough"?

Not that I think people in general need to be more manipulative or anything but, like - deeply strange the degree which 'don't punish behaviors you want to encourage' is for many people some kind of suspicious alien magic.

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Aren't "Mythic Rares" just "R1" rares- appearing once on the rare sheet? As opposed to an "R3" rare that appears three times or an old "U1" "rare" that appeared only once on the uncommon sheet of a set that didn't have a rare sheet?

Yes, I'm told Arabian Nights had "U2" rares, but AN gets to be special.

So in that sense, there probably won't ever be a real end to "mythic rare." WotC could stop giving them a special- colored logo, but that won't change the card's actual rarity. "R1" rarity has been a thing IIRC since Alpha.

Random question: What would it take for you guys to go back to packs only having commons, uncommons, and rares? No mythics in the entire set.

I never say never, but I'm skeptical we're getting that genie back in the bottle. Mythic rares are pretty popular.

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I’m very curious so…

No doesn’t apply to me button because I will die on that stupid hill, if you must click use your imagination. Though to be honest these days I don’t imagine there are that many people who don’t have alternate spellings to their name…

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If you have a problem with children memorizing words, then you need to understand it's the *parents* demanding it.

Feel like going up against the parents' lobby?

No?

Can't blame you. They're literally the most powerful lobby- and one of the most conservative- on the planet. You do *not* take them on and win. And you do *not* try and change them from the inside.

[masked-rat]

Mood.

Late 1990s, dotcom collapse.

2001, Enron collapsed and all the "just get a degree, we'll train you" jobs evaporated overnight.

2004, finally graduated and got stuck substitute teaching. The economy had *not* recovered from Enron yet, at least not as far as I experienced.

2008, subprime collapse. This is also when I realized that substitute teaching is by administrative law unskilled labor.

2009, Obama can't prove he's Christian and the Republican party goes balls- out Christofascist.

2016, we all know what happened.

2019-20, COVID begins.

2024, we also know what happened.

I mean, my dad was born during WW2 and *only* saw the atom bombs and Vietnam before he was 50. I'm in my early 40s and that's what, seven "once in a lifetime" events? I just wanted to have a good job, a house and family, and retire at 64; like I was promised.

I don’t know how to explain this well…but I’m 30 years old and I feel like I’ve had to ‘sacrifice’ my entire adult life to unprecedented times, the pandemic and daily anxiety over hateful politicians and whatever rights they want to take away on any given day and I’m just so fucking tired

[masked-rat]

I've seen the same thing about New York subway trains. I think it's more of a Hollywood thing than a train thing.

In the movies when they show Japanese train stations there is guy that keeps shoving people into cars until they're packed in like human sardines. Is that true?

i aint never seen that

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Mad Max- inspired set when?

I believe I asked this before so feel free to ignore. But, in case I didn’t, what are the chances for rad counters to come back? I understand that the creative would be tough for a nonmodern themed set, but it seems fitting for say a space set?

We would need an environment with radiation, but such a thing could happen.

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I am by no means an expert but it seems to me “your body does not belong to you” is a major theme of right wing authoritarianism and, interestingly, modern USAmerican thinking. This underpins so much from abortion to forcing kids to hug their relatives. Your body belongs to the state, or God, or your husband, or your boss, or your doctor. Everything from trans and gay liberation to forcing autistic people to look in your eyes to making cashiers stand for no reason. Your body does not belong to you, but taking care of your body is your responsibility and your responsibility alone, and if you fail in some way, you deserve the consequences.

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Cool? Dunno TBH.

Far as I can tell it's got less tar than cigarette smoke which makes it somewhat less unsafe. Unless you're in the US in which case the warning labels claim it's just as bad if not worse.

does anyone actually think vaping is cool?? because everyone I've met that vapes calls it the lamest shit ever and are obsessed with self depreciating jokes ......