#not to mention how the vast majority of mass shooters are men too

[blackswallowtailbutterfly]

If we're going to justify companies underpaying and underhiring women for potentially getting pregnant, well, women might get pregnant and take a year off for maternity leave but at least they won't kill themselves because they got stressed and wouldn't go to a therapist or because child porn was found on their computer, so actually I'd say men should be paid less and not given prestigious positions and lots of responsibilities. Just in case.

[spectralspices]

The possibility of a Resonance Cascade is never zero. 

It is, however, always nearly zero. The chances, day to day, of a Resonance Cascade, are approaching 5e-9. Not impossible. But about as low as a titanic pair of fingers reaching out from the void to snuff out our sun like a reading candle. 

But at Black Mesa, they were studying the dimensional barriers that separated this space from that space. Which is where the chances are raised dramatically. At the beginning, at the first discovery of the signals that indicated that some sort of “Border World” existed, the chances of a Resonance Cascade was raised to 6e-9. Still miniscule, but the simple awareness of another reality is enough to raise it.

When the first experiments into observing it occurred, Quantum Mechanics kicked in. The simple act of direct observation changes things-And so, the chances jumped suddenly. 6e-8 percent chance of Resonance Cascade. 

This is when Black Mesa had a visitor. He had all the proper credentials, never gave them a real name, spoke like a broken robot, and he always seemed to stare past whoever he was talking to-like they weren’t even there. A picture perfect G-Man type, here to give them lots of money nobody officially knows about to keep researching, so Someone Else didn’t know before America.

Well, they assumed it was for America.

7e-7 Percent Chance of a Resonance Cascade.

Director Breen met with him, and secured more than enough funding to develop the technology needed to transfer matter back and forth between this “Borderworld” that they had named “Xen”. He assigned some of Black Mesa’s best to the project. Isaac Kleiner, Eli Vance, Arne Magnusson, Richard Keller, Stan Rosenberg...the greatest minds in their field (and under Black Mesa’s employ. Damned Aperture, poaching Ratmann...)

Another massive jump. 9e-5 Percent Chance. And this was not just simply mathematic calculation that was determining these things-As the pieces moved together that would eventually result in a Resonance Cascade, the fabric of reality was actively weakening, making the process all the easier. 

Do you understand what’s being said?

The progress the Black Mesa Team made seemed exponential. When at first, the most they could transfer were simple probes...they soon discovered a frequency that would open holes in space. They sent teams-Ill fated as they were-to collect samples. Both Mineral and Biological. 

1e-3 percent chance. Or, in clearer layman’s terms, a Resonance Cascade had .001 percent chance of occurring. That number would be catastrophically high, if they had understood what a Resonance Cascade actually meant. 

Three men, around the same time, are promoted. Gordon Freeman becomes a Research Assistant on the Anomalous Materials team, working directly under his MIT mentor, Isaac Kleiner. Barney Calhoun is granted Level 3 Security Clearance and meets the previously mentioned men, becoming fast friends. Corporal Adrian Shepard joins the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit of the United States Marines, fast-tracked there by recommendation by an unnamed high ranking official. The HECU marines are ostensibly meant to counteract unconventional enemies in dangerous areas and tight corridors. While a heroic description to the outsider, the simple truth is they are meant to clean up any mistakes that could lead to deserved scrutiny towards what the military is actually funding.

The chances are .01 percent. 

Experiments begin to determine the composition of certain crystalline structures discovered in the Borderworld, and the nature of the energy they seem to hold. Doctor Rosenberg develops a variant of the more common mass spectrometer to analyze these exotic materials, under the watchful eye of that G-man. 

The Anti-Mass Spectrometer is theorized, developed, and constructed. 

There is a 1% chance of a Resonance Cascade.

Experiments begin. Incredible things are learned from the first samples- HG-1866, HP-1937, IA-1992 are all immediately replicated and put into use for the development of Tau Cannons, localized gravitational displacement through Zero Point Energy Emission, and further stabilization of the portal generation. Experiments continue on living tissue from the Borderworld. But a problem arises.

All of the samples have certain impurities, non-exotic matter that prevented certain data from being gathered. Namely, the origin of this matter-the way to make more, not just synthesize similar material.

Director Breen is approached by the G-Man. He has something to provide Black Mesa-A sample purer than any they’d ever gotten their hands on. Breen asks no questions, as the two had...come to an understanding.

The sample is christened “GG-3883″, a tongue in cheek reference to a phrase Doctor Breen’s son often repeated during his time playing the online shooter “Quake”. After all, when Black Mesa came out with the fact that they’d discovered free multiversal travel and near infinite energy, it would be the absolute end of their rivalry with Aperture. The director sent the sample off for analysis, no matter how unstable it may have been, with a self-assured certainty that he would go down in history as one of the most important figures in the field. 

If only he knew.

Chance of a Resonance Cascade had reached 13%, and was climbing as the sample was brought closer and closer to the Anti-Mass Spectrometer. Some work is done to prevent it, however-Safety measures are put in place in the time before the experiment. The chances of a Resonance Cascade are lowered to “only” 7%. 

Gordon Freeman wakes up late after snoozing his alarm one too many times, and must rush to get ready. He rides the Black Mesa Transit system. His car pulls into the station.

Barney Calhoun is locked out of the security office.

Adrian Shepard is finishing a morning jog.

9% of Resonance Cascade.

Gordon Freeman climbs into the Hazard Environment Suit Mark 4, a variant of Black Mesa’s advanced body armor systems that increased physical capability, featured modular ports for various pieces of equipment, and generated a low-yield battery powered energy shield for the partial deflection and absorption of small projectiles and other dangers common to the work they were doing. Everyone called it a “Hev Suit”.

Barney Calhoun is finally let in, pulling on his own variants that were developed for the security guards. Bulletproof vests and helmets, containing the same type of battery powered field generation...even if charge was less potent. At least it didn’t mean every single guard was walking around with a 127,000$ piece of equipment...

Adrian Shepard inspects his Powered Combat Vest, a military produced variant of the HEV suit’s technology, along with his other equipment. The others in his unit are joking around. He’s making sure that if their helicopter crashes, he won’t get impaled on the wreckage or suffocate from an improperly secured gas-mask. A grim man, that Adrian Shepard. But not a paranoid one. At least...not unjustly paranoid.

13% chance of a Resonance Cascade.

Gordon Freeman is shortly briefed, before witnessing a major equipment malfunction in one of the support systems for the Anti-Mass Spectrometer. The safety measures have been lowered to their absolute limit for a safe reading of the exotic matter present in sample GG-3883. Eli Vance and Isaac Kleiner stay behind to repair it as best they can, but doubts are expressed for the safety of this experiment. Not only was this the largest sample ever put through the analysis procedure, it was the purest and most unstable. The system cannot handle this. Nevertheless, Gordon descends, beginning the process to prepare the Anti-Mass Spectrometer.

27% chance of Resonance Cascade.

Barney Calhoun notices the lights flickering above, as the strain on the facility’s generators is too great to maintain everything. The air feels wrong, the people are uneasy, but they aren’t sure why. 

33% chance of Resonance Cascade.

Adrian Shepard showers alone once the others had finished, as he preferred the quiet. He steps out and stares into the mirror. Did he ever plan for a life other than this? Was he going to be a grunt, doing wetwork until he died? Would he ever grow old? Did he even want the chance?

These are the things a quiet man thinks when he trains to murder civilians for knowing too much, when he knows nothing at all.

49% chance of Resonance Cascade.

The sample is brought up. The Spectrometer is powered to levels that the system cannot handle for an extended period. Gordon Freeman pushes the sample in. 

100% of Resonance Cascade

At once, the machinations of two vast powers clash. A meddler who has carefully manipulated the pieces into position, who provided funding, who held authority and power despite not a single living human recognizing him. Who had changed things...made sure certain discoveries were made, and others were not. Who had done all this, changed the course of human history...Because his employers had a vendetta against Something Else Entirely, using the Resonance Cascade as a flare to bring them to this world. 

But at the same time, a vast psychic force, master of an enslaved race of enlightened psychics, creator of twisted weaponized flesh and guns that shoot bees at you, a creature that had harnessed its own power and the power of its thralls to peer into the world beyond them-and the worlds that were yet to be-and it knew of the meddler’s plans. A conflict with the force he had directed his enmity towards was not something the creature could allow, as an invasion of Earth...would pass through it’s Borderworld. 

So, the creature took control of the Cascade. In most situations, a Resonance Cascade occurred when an object begins to vibrate at the exact frequency required to begin “Resonating”, meaning it has started to emit energy that causes the same reaction in other matter, which then cause the reaction both in the original matter and the matter around them, massively weakening the fabric of space and the barriers beyond one world and the worlds that border them. This chain reaction was self sustaining, but did not spread laterally in the space it originated. Instead, it would spread to other worlds-Exchanging matter between them at random as the two spaces began to blend. 

The Psychic Force stopped the cascade in Xen, forcing it to focus on sustaining the reaction between just those two worlds, weakening its hold...but allowing it to send its forces (And hostile wildlife) to Earth, to destroy the systems that caused this-To stop the cascade with the death of every human in the facility. To this end, it maintained the cascade in a lesser form.  

The Meddler had predicted something of this sort. He had...preparations in place. Including two agents of chaos...

Gordon Freeman awakes to the destroyed remains of the Anti-Mass Spectrometer, dazed and confused. He has seen alien worlds, and nearly died several times. They won’t be the last for a very long time.

Adrian Shepard’s unit is alerted to their next deployment. They gear up, enter the choppers, and ride. A Manta Ray that shits lasers destroys their helicopter, and Adrian Shepard is glad he charged his vest that morning.

Barney Calhoun desperately tries to escape the deadly forces that were flooding the facility. He was not a piece in a cosmic game. He was just...some guy.

An unexpected enemy appears. Marauders that only seek to steal resources before greater threats stake claim on this newly opened world. They are repelled by the Meddler’s more trained agent, as Adrian Shepard trades one amoral faceless master that decided who he killed for another.

But the Psychic Force...The Nihilanth. Its death would come by a different hand. One clad in orange and black, swinging a bright red strip of metal. Gordon Freeman frees a race, stops an alien invasion, and was prepared to die in an impossible world for his troubles-all to save lives. But he did good work. He was the right man for the job. He’s “Hired”. 

In the end, the Meddler’s plans worked better than anyone could expect. His true targets were alerted, preparing their forces to take the Earth. The lesser marauders repelled and the psychic barrier dealt with, making the blue marble seem an even sweeter prize. Several agents obtained for his schemes, to be deployed when and where they would be appropriate. Dangerous alien life and Portal Storms-the aftershocks of a Resonance Cascade-prevented the governments from truly being able to prepare. 

The Combine arrive. The war lasts seven hours. Wallace Breen negotiates humanity’s surrender. Isaac Kleiner and Eli Vance firmly disagree with this course of action. Judith Mossman, another survivor of the Black Mesa Incident, is less sure. 

The last human child for the next two decades is born. The Combine establish a field that prevents human procreation. Other hostile alien life begins to take hold-Antlion Nests, hives of Headcrabs, Barnacles spreading, ichthyosaurs stalking the oceans and lakes. Combine weapons-made from heavily modified creatures from previous conquests-are regularly deployed, roaming the streets in shows of force. Humans are converted into their police, enhanced infantry, special forces...and lobotimized worker slaves. 

The Meddler waits for a red-letter day, and he chooses his agent carefully. To destroy a machine like the Combine, one needed not a precision implement. Military training would do nothing against a force that conquered worlds in hours. No, Adrian Shepard-a knife in human sheath-would be unfit for this.

What one needed to destroy the Combine was a blunt thing. A force of chaos that couldn’t be stopped. Whose strength was matched only by his luck. His intelligence, matched only by his willingness to do things like drive a muscle car into hyper-agile flechette-firing cyborgs, or throw a toilet at a man’s face so hard his skull is obliterated and he backflips twice before hitting the ground. Or fight a helicopter from an airboat equipped with a fully automatic plasma cannon.

To break a machine of World Consumption, the G-Man would ram a crowbar into the mechanism, just where it can cause the maximum damage-and keep causing damage to the entire thing. The right man in the wrong place.

Gordon Freeman wakes up on a train car, as it pulls into the City 17 station, deeply confused and disoriented. The moment he steps out, a floating camera photographs his face-which would soon enough be processed and identified as Anticitizen One, Gordon Freeman, the most wanted man on the planet-who had been gone for twenty years and looked identical to the day the Black Mesa Incident occurred. Minus the ponytail. His old boss is on a giant viewscreen. One of the aliens he used to fight is sweeping. Cops in gasmasks maintain a fascist state and he’s somewhere in Eastern Europe. His confusion and disorientation deepens severely.

Wallace Breen receives notice that Gordon Freeman had been sighted. A pit forms in his stomach. He feels a familiar hand in this. Within a few days, he will be screaming high-concept threats from an ascending sphere of energy as a former research assistant flings tightly condensed plasma orbs at him with a gravity cannon.

The G-Man continues to meddle, despite the intervention of a hive mind of benevolent psychics. His plans are, for the most part, undeterred. However...

He begins to regret deploying Gordon Freeman. Chaos, while able to be directed, is quite hard to wrangle when it’s gotten loose. For now, Freeman continues to act in favor of the disruption of Combine operations. But...his personal connection to a secondary objective-another new agent to recruit-sours the G-man’s elation at a plan more or less well executed. The end of this, however, is still untold. 

Because who fucking knows when they’re making Half Life Goddamn 3.

[alia15]

Hypocrisy is a Disease

You claim to care about and have unwavering support for our military, and yet you support a President who has insulted veterans and gold-star families on multiple occasions.

You claim to care about children -- firm in your anti-abortion stances and going on tirades about alleged celebrity pedophile rings and human trafficking in the US -- and yet, children being locked in cages and separated from their parents doesn’t seem to faze you.

You argue that Black men are often killed by police for resisting arrest or not complying, but stay quiet about the multiple instances of white men doing the same thing and living to tell the story, unscathed.

You scream from the rooftops about the sordid pasts of every Black man killed by law enforcement to prove some kind of point about them being bad people who deserved it, but fail to mention examples like Breonna Taylor, an essential worker and upstanding citizen who was unarmed and asleep when shot and killed by police.

You say you love our country and wholeheartedly respect the American flag, but have no issue with it being used as a symbol of hate by those who have racist and violent beliefs.

You are outraged by riots and looting and tell folks they have completely botched their message by resorting to acts of destruction and violence, but you’re equally angered by the silent and respectful protests, too.

You love to talk about Black on Black crime and how dangerous and violent Black people are and yet, never seem to mention that a VAST majority of mass shooters are White.

You claim the ‘left’ are all liberal crybaby snowflakes who are offended by everything and are the leaders of cancel culture, but the second a professional sports team or a brand declares an anti-Trump or anti-racism stance, you boycott them and publicly bash them online.

You often talk about respecting the law and police officers, but when the government asks you to cover your nose and mouth with a small piece of fabric to PREVENT PEOPLE FROM DYING you have a conniption and deem it “government control.” 

You despise how the Democrats seem to worship the “Hollywood elite” and celebrities, but belong to a party that dons Trump flags and head-to-toe MAGA gear and has a cult-like obsession with the former celebrity/reality show star-turned-POTUS.

You poke fun at the way Joe Biden talks; noting his disorientation and the way he stumbles on words, and yet stay completely mum when your President does the exact same thing.

You believe you are the party of Christian values and support a President whose actions are everything but.

You complained when people took to the streets to respectfully protest police brutality, asking “don’t these people have jobs?” or telling them to stay out of your town, but didn’t seem to have an issue with pro-cop or pro-Trump parades or protests demanding that our government open up restaurants and barber shops.

You are enraged at rioters/looters for “disrespecting businesses” and yet have people in your party who scream at and degrade grocery store workers when they are politely asked to put a mask on.

You were shocked and appalled at the lyrics of Cardi B’s song, “WAP” but didn’t have the same reaction when you heard your President on video saying he could grab women by their.... well, you know.

You go to bat for Melania Trump; defending her when the press is critical of her or the media is particularly harsh, but were unbothered when people called Michelle Obama an ape, a man, or depicted her as an “angry Black woman.”

It’s almost as if you cherry-pick your outrage or the things you care about to fit a certain narrative, as long as it supports the message and agenda of your party.

Your hypocrisy is showing.

[illusivegore]

Eight to Consider: Games of Last Generation – Part Two

Well, I guess it’s finally time to lay the previous generation of games to rest. If you missed the first part of my list, you can check it out here. In it I discussed the first 10 of my top 20 favorite PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 games.  So for what could be the final time I discuss them, I give to you 10 more games from last generation for your consideration.

10. Plants vs. Zombies

Platforms: PSN, XBLA, Microsoft Windows, OS X, iOS, Google Chrome, Nintendo DS, DSiWare, Bada, Android, Windows Phone, PlayStation Vita, BlackBerry Table OS, BlackBerry 10

Plants vs. Zombies is the perfect take on the tower defense game and the best game I’ve ever played in the genre. If you asked me to, I’d be hard pressed to find a flaw within it. Everything from level design and progression to the art and music is on point. It also features some of the most addictive gameplay I’ve ever had the joy of experiencing.  I’ve played Plants vs. Zombies to completion (multiple times) on no less than five different platforms and would gladly add to that list should another opportunity arise.

9. Mass Effect 3

Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Wii U

Mass Effect 3 is a fantastic game that gets a lot of flack thanks to its lackluster ending.  While I agree that it wasn’t the best way to end such an amazing trilogy, it’s not nearly as bad as some people would lead you to believe.  It is still a great entry in the trilogy and has the best gameplay of the three games. It also introduced multiplayer for the first time in the series which, after my initial skepticism, I fell in love with. I spent somewhere around 165 hours with the multiplayer alone and had some great times with a couple of my friends playing.  While Mass Effect 3 isn’t the best game in the series, it’s still better than a vast majority of the games released last generation.

8. Borderlands

Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, OS X

In a world where so many shooters are trying to implement RPG elements and RPGs are trying to pander to shooter fans, Borderlands is one of the few games that actually gets both aspects right. The shooter gameplay feels great and the progression, skill trees, and loot system are some of the most satisfying of this past generation. On top of all of that, Borderlands is a genuinely funny, entertaining game that never takes itself too seriously. Whether you’re playing solo or with friends, there are hours and hours of enjoyment to be had here.

Honorable Mentions Fez | Gears of War II | Geometry Wars 2 | Guitar Hero III | A Kingdom for Keflings | Magic: The Gathering Duels of the Planeswalkers (Series) | Mark of the Ninja | Mortal Kombat (2009) | Ratchet & Clank Future (Series) | Rogue Legacy | Thomas was Alone | Telltale’s The Walking Dead Season 1

7. Spelunky

Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita

If you’ve been a reader of the site for a while, you may already be aware of the love I have for Spelunky. It has quickly become one of my favorite games of all time. Much like Super Meat Boy, I’d consider it a modern day masterpiece. It’s not an easy game, by any means, so the first time I ever completed Hell I actually felt like I had accomplished something. It remains one of my proudest video game moments and thanks to that Spelunky is one of the few games I can actually claim to be at least decent at.

6. BioShock

Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

BioShock was the first game I ever played on the Xbox 360 and after being away from games for a few years, it completely blew me away. I remember seeing the water for the first time; I almost lost my mind with how good it looked. After getting over the initial awe I felt, I soon found that not only was BioShock a beautiful game, but it was also a fantastic experience with a great story. I’ll also never forget my first encounter with a Big Daddy. Very few moments in my gaming career were that intense and horrifying.

5. Mass Effect 2

Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows

Mass Effect 2 might be the perfect game. This is something I’ve been saying for years and I still stand by it. Mass Effect 2’s gameplay improvements over the original game are night and day. The combat is better so many times over and I would put it up against some of the best 3rd person action games. The skill system is streamlined and just felt much more user friendly. The various tech and biotic powers also all actually felt unique, as compared to the original game where many abilities felt a little too similar. Outside of gameplay, the story structure felt precise and was about as well paced as you can get. Mass Effect 2, also boasts the largest assortment of squad mates and introduced some of my personal favorites like Grunt, Jack, and Kasumi. If you played the original game and couldn’t get past its technical issues and never tried the sequel, you owe it to yourself to at least give Mass Effect 2 a try.

4. The Last of Us

Platforms: PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4

I was late to the party when it came to The Last of Us. I didn’t get to play it until well over a year after it was released, but boy was is worth the wait. I’ve never been a big fan of Naughty Dog’s other games, but The Last of Us was always a game that seemed to click with me from the first time I saw it. What’s even better is that it actually clicked with me when I played it. Right from the beginning and to the very end, it kept me interested and engaged. Very few games can live up to the type of hype that The Last of Us had, but it did and in some ways even surpassed my expectations.

Great, Underrated Games of Last Generation BioShock 2 | Bulletstorm | Dante’s Inferno | The Darkness II | Ghostbusters Prince of Persia (2008) | Remember Me | X-Men Origins: Wolverine

3. Dead Space

Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows

Dead Space completely took me by surprise. I remember seeing it during E3 2008 and writing it off, but then the reviews started pouring in. After seeing the positive buzz surrounding it, I had to play it and it didn’t take long for me to completely fall in love with it. Well as much as you can fall in love with a game about blasting the limbs off of bizarre, deformed alien creatures. It remains the best survival horror game I’ve played in the last decade. Fantastic gameplay, wonderfully disturbing enemies, environments that make you dread what’s around the next corner, terrific sound design, great boss fights, and a sweet arsenal of unique weapons all combine to make Dead Space one of the best games you can play on Xbox 360 or PS3.

2. Fallout 3

Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows

Fallout 3 was my first experience with the Fallout series and it was one hell of a place to start. Fallout 3 really lets you play in any way you want, from both a tactical and moral standpoint. Prefer to sneak around and kill creatures with your bare hands? You can do that. Feel like making your presence known by destroying an entire city with a nuclear bomb? Go for it. Want to be a complete dick and murder all the innocent people in a small settlement? You’re a demented bastard, but you can do that too. It’s a game all about choice and while the main story isn’t anything to write home about, the vast wasteland can offer you hundreds of hours of exploration. Set off in any one direction and you never know what you might find.

1. Mass Effect

Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows

That’s right, all three Mass Effect games in my top 10. I was originally going to include them all together, but I decided to differentiate between the three. The original Mass Effect has more than its fair share of issues and as a whole isn’t nearly the best game in the series, but it remains my favorite and I still play through it at least once a year. This is where it all began. This is where we were introduced to this incredible galaxy, where we got to know some of the best characters ever to grace a video game, and where we learned that the Reapers were real and were coming to wreak havoc. Mass Effect’s story is phenomenal and it was the first game I played that really felt like the choices I made had a long lasting impact. It’s also one of the few games that has connected with me on a personal level and actually made me care for the characters within it. It’s for those reasons that Mass Effect is my favorite game of last generation and one of my favorite games of all time.

[guildedtittytwister]

Its not video games its people.........

In 2019 alone a whopping 1,325 people fell victim to mindless gun violence and to this notion the government has decided to reuse a chapter in their war on video games which took place in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s because instead of address an already preexisting problem with the status quo they would turn attention to shit that has literally nothing to with the blatant disregard for human life, in fact, when you look at the demographic of these perpetrators of violence there is a 98% common denominator and that is the these are WHITE MEN………. Now the new would have you believe that these men are the result or statistic of mental illness but according to  Dr. Michael Stone Ph.D. - about half of the 200 mass murderers he had studied had no clear evidence of mental illness before the attacks. About a quarter displayed signs of depression and psychopathy. Also most of the shooters had access to mental health treatment but saw no need for it or ended up acting on their violent urges regardless of treatment or counseling, case in point a one: Elliot Rodger  - saw several therapists before killing six people in Isla Vista, California back in May 2014 – even still with all that had happened his therapist disagreed with the nature of his mental illness stating that his mental illness and sudden propensity for this level of violence had no visible correlation. Or Adam Lanza – who shot and killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy-Hook Elementary School before going home and killing his own mother back in December of 2012 even after receiving years of counseling from both psychiatrists and psychologists. Now what they don’t (or rather won't) tell you about Adam is that he had Asperger’s Syndrome which is a mild form of Autism, even still, all of those who counseled him or dealt with him to any capacity agree that his mental health had no correlation whatsoever with the acts that he was responsible for in the Sandy-Hook shooting. And to further solidify my point allow me to mention Devin P. Kelley had assaulted his wife and stepson five years before he killed 26 people in Sutherland Springs, Tex., in November, according to the authorities. Robert L. Dear Jr. beat his ex-wife’s head against the floor years before he killed three people at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs in 2015. And Omar Mateen, who killed 49 people in Orlando, Fla., on June 2016, had a history of beating his ex-wife, she told the authorities.

“Having a history of violence might help neutralize the natural barriers to committing violence,” Paul Gill, a senior lecturer in security and crime science at University College London who studies the behavior of lone-actor terrorists, said in 2016. With all these pertinent things being said there is still for some ungodly reason or another a lack of visual understanding of why this has happened for some reason no one and I mean no one is pointing out the truth of the matter instead they would rather say that – I’m citing this from a news article that recently popped up on my timeline - “Missing father and America’s Broken Boys – The vast majority of mass shooters come from broken homes” to which I say “NAH….. Fuck that…” now don’t get me wrong the title would lead one to believe that these supposed boys are just victims of fucked societal status quo – but allow me to spin a web of facts for you….. Before my stepfather came into our lives (mines and my mother’s) my mother was the victim of domestic abuse – trust me when I say that it’s definitely part of why I’m so fucked in the head. My father wasn’t around because he had the thought fixated in his cerebellum that he was not my father – egg on his face because I am that nigga’s twin – and we have (because fuck a past tense the shit’s still evident) family that just doesn’t see fit to help anyone outside of themselves so in many aspects we – Myself quite truly come from an otherwise broken home. At a very early age I had to endure mind-numbing and traumatizing shit to survived till adult-hood, considering the common environment of inner-city youth – which a lot of us 80’s and 90’s babies saw it all – drugs, sex, aids, rape, molestation, etc. etc. etc…. not many of us can say that we would at any point shoot up a place or commit crimes with the same level of heinousness. Truth be told a lot of us never received any attention from the local or federal government because of our traumas – granted that is also our parent’s faults for forcing the stereotypes that “black people can’t have mental illness” - or – “pray about it because that’s just the devil working on you” – or my personal favorite – “only white people have mental illnesses” needless to say that black families or rather Families of colors – because not all of it is the black family are inherently guilty of trying to maintain some superficial image while transgressing their child’s mental and by extension overall physical health to placate to society’s hackneyed notion that black people are too strong to exhibit any kind of emotion other than giddy coonery or zealous anger (I’m referring to you baby boomers). Regardless to the overlying or should I say hanging fruit of what is going on and what we as a nation are paying attention to – I have yet to see anyone and I do mean anyone address the obvious (I do consider that there are well-spoken individuals who have spoken up but haven’t been fully heard by the masses hence why I and writing this article to at least do my part – don’t at me) the American legal system is designed to help coddle problematic, and emotionally fraudulent White men who suffer from LDS and BNS (Little Dick Syndrome and Bitch Nigga Syndrome) whereas it is also seemingly designed to hurt and otherwise oppressed – POC’s, women, or basically anyone who isn’t either an obedient fool, narcissist, an uncle tom, or any of the latter type of people that would lick balls just for a pay raise or a faulty guarantee that they would not be target this month.

With this out in the air now let’s REALLY air Amerikkka’s dirty laundry by chopping the proverbial beast’s head off….. Shall we? With the 2020 elections coming in hot the has been an arguable insurgence of democratic candidates pushing for the chance to run against Trump – now granted I don’t trust any of them quite frankly I will say that maybe 3 are on my list of people I wanna see run for presidency… and before you assume – NO – I do not support Kamala Harris, or Elizabeth Warren, or even Bernie Sanders (I would absolutely love to see him as VP though) but it goes to say that my trust and intrigue lie elsewhere this year around. With cacophony of people that are trying to swing voters the question remains what are any of the people going to do differently - I mean they say good things to the country as a whole, however, doesn’t one’s boyfriend whisper sweet nothings to them before they proceed to FUCK the soul out of them (correct me if I am wrong in my knowledge of fuck-boy-ology but last time I checked that is precisely how that goes. Now admittedly there is a lot at stake here with the current dictator running this fine republic into an even deeper hole of stupidity and hatred but with the death toll of mass shootings reaching record highs (we’re talking historically high) and the desire to mitigate the damage and change the overall dichotomy of the suppose “amazing” country there is still after 154 years of supposed freedom and the 65 – 75 years of supposed outlawing of racial segregation and discrimination in America, for some odd reason – and I really need y’all to hear me on this black folk – we still have yet to meet the true stride that our ancestors fought, bled and died for and yet here we are arguing and tripping over infinitesimal subject matter like “is it okay for dark skin girls to wear yellow eye shadow…

But that’s no tea no shade honey……….

[theconservativebrief]

In my entire adult life, I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like the Jordan Peterson phenomenon.

In less than two years, the Canadian psychology professor emerged from obscurity to become an international best-selling author with a massive online following. In the process, he’s morphed into a self-help guru of sorts, railing against identity politics and dispensing tough advice to (mostly) young alienated men.

Peterson has stirred up a ton of controversy, particularly on the left. But I find him oddly fascinating, even though I think he gets some important things terribly wrong. For example, he seems to think that because social hierarchies are natural, they must therefore be desirable or just. That’s an old fallacy in the philosophical world, and Peterson appears to commit it regularly.

Nevertheless, compared to most of the gasbags filling up our collective headspace, Peterson is reliably smart and interesting. I’ve tried to interview him twice now, but he has declined both times.

So I reached out to Kate Manne, a professor of philosophy at Cornell University and the author of Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny. Manne recently reviewed Peterson’s book, 12 Rules for Life, and, unlike many Peterson critics, actively engaged with his ideas.

Over the course of our discussion, we talked about what Peterson gets wrong, why his audience is overwhelmingly white, straight, and male, and we analyze some of the, um, strangest passages from his new book.

Manne argues that Peterson’s appeal among young white men has to do with the “undeniable progress that has been made in extending opportunities to a wider range of people,” which leads to more competition in areas “they often expected and sometimes felt entitled to dominate.”

A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.

Sean Illing

Peterson has this recurring interest in identifying social hierarchies, which resonates with people who think they’re in danger of losing their privileged position or are resentful about having lost it. This is something you really home in on in your review of his book.

Kate Manne

Yeah. I mean, it’s striking. There’s an interesting moment in the book where Peterson talks about resentment as a “revelatory” emotion that can mean one of two things: One, you feel it because you’re immature, in which case you just need to buck up. Two, you feel resentment because you really are being oppressed or taken advantage of, somehow. Your resentment shows you that something needs to change or that you need to assert yourself in relation to other people.

But there is clearly a third possibility. People often feel resentful because they appear, based on historically entrenched social norms, to be getting a bad bargain, when what’s actually happening is that others are getting a somewhat fairer deal. When you’re accustomed to unjust privilege, equality feels like oppression, as the saying goes.

Sean Illing

What do you think is the biggest mistake — moral, philosophical, or otherwise — that Peterson makes in the book?

Kate Manne

His idea (in chapter six of his book) that what leads to mass shootings in general and school shootings in particular, is a kind of ahistorical, existential angst, or a crisis of Being — that’s the phrase he uses! — about the despair and misery and suffering of human beings.

Peterson thereby takes on a huge burden of explaining why white women, people of color, nonbinary folks, and so on, almost never act on our existential angst and despair in this way.

Because, as you know, the vast majority of school shooters have been white men.

I also think the way Peterson cherry-picked the few more dignified-sounding sentences from the diary of one of the Columbine killers, Eric Harris, was downright dishonest. As I wrote in my review, he failed to mention the fact that the majority of Harris’s diary was a virulently racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and ableist screed.

Harris, like many other mass killers, was obsessed with the very hierarchies whose importance or validity Peterson never really challenges or offers an alternative to.

“When you’re accustomed to unjust privilege, equality feels like oppression, as the saying goes.”

Sean Illing

Peterson has been called a “sexist” and a “misogynist.” To be honest, I’m not sure this is a fair characterization of his work, but I haven’t read his book, and I haven’t listened to all of his lectures. I’m curious what you think.

Kate Manne

As we’ve chatted about before, I draw a theoretical distinction in my own work between sexism and misogyny (though they are often tangled up in practice). Peterson’s book has numerous sections which I would characterize as sexist because they naturalize and rationalize a patriarchal social order.

Sean Illing

Can you cite specific passages as evidence of this?

Kate Manne

Sure. Here’s a passage that conveys what I’m talking about:

Boys are suffering, in the modern world. They are more disobedient—negatively—or more independent—positively—than girls, and they suffer for this, throughout their pre-university educational career. They are less agreeable (agreeableness being a personality trait associated with compassion, empathy and avoidance of conflict) and less susceptible to anxiety and depression, at least after both sexes hit puberty. Boys’ interests tilt towards things; girls’ interests tilt towards people. Strikingly, these differences, strongly influenced by biological factors, are most pronounced in the Scandinavian societies where gender-equality has been pushed hardest: this is the opposite of what would be expected by those who insist, ever more loudly, that gender is a social construct. It isn’t. This isn’t a debate. The data are in.

This is based more on sexist stereotypes than compelling scientific evidence. And even in the gender progressive environment of Scandinavia that Peterson mentions, it’s not as if all sexism and misogyny has been eradicated overnight; many patriarchal norms linger and are sometimes enforced, or whose breakdown has led to backlash.

As a result, there is currently no control group of people raised in a truly nonpatriarchal culture, which is what we’d need to investigate claims that men “naturally” prefer masculine-coded activities, and women “naturally” prefer feminist-coded ones.

I also suspect that, for many of Peterson’s readers, the sexism on display above is one tool among many to make forceful, domineering moves that are typical of misogyny. And I define misogyny as hostility certain women face, because they are women in a man’s world, rather than the hatred men harbor in their hearts toward all or even most women.

Misogyny, to me, is more about policing and controlling women’s behavior. Belittling her intellect or acumen in competitive domains is certainly one way of doing that — especially when backed by the sense that it’s in her womanly nature to be oriented to people rather than abstractions. But that’s a false contrast: You can be both.

Jordan Peterson in Toronto in 2016. Carlos Osorio/Toronto Star via Getty Images

Sean Illing

I know that Peterson received some criticism recently for endorsing, or appearing to endorse, “enforced monogamy.” To be fair, this is a very particular anthropological term that doesn’t imply that the government is literally forcing people into monogamous relationships, but instead refers to social policies that incentivize monogamy.

What does he actually say about this in the book?

Kate Manne

He said that subsequently, in a New York Times piece, I believe, in response to the point that school shooters are often sexually, romantically, and socially frustrated young men. This suggestion is classic, straight-up misogyny, according to my definition of it.

Peterson has since waffled about what he meant, but I’m mostly interested in how the proposal would naturally be understood by ordinary readers, which leaves little room for charitable interpretation or plausible deniability in this case.

Peterson is very closed-mouthed about the prevalence of domestic violence, marital rape, and intimate partner homicide in the context of the idea of enforced monogamy. So if you’re trying to prevent male violence, enforcing heterosexual monogamy seems a remarkably poor way to go about it — as well as obviously infringing on women’s entitlement to orient themselves toward whatever and whomever they wish (other women, multiple partners, and their own projects and ambitions). Monogamous relationships are just one potentially valid option among many, all of which have risks and rewards, costs and benefits.

Sean Illing

I’ll say this about Peterson: He is far more interesting than most of the gasbags currently occupying our collective headspace. But I also see him morphing into a celebrity-performer as his influence grows. He’s developing a customer base, and that means he risks becoming more of a salesman than an intellectual.

Kate Manne

As far as being more interesting than the average anti-feminist crusader goes, that seems right — but the bar is none too high at the moment. As to the populist quality of his persona, I think that’s already evident in his book. I’ve never read a book preface quite like it. He uses smiling emojis. He talks about how much his agent liked his book proposal. He talked about the percentage of Quora users who viewed and upvoted his answer to the question that inspired the book, and elatedly reports one comment that he had “won at Quora.” [Author’s note: The question was, “What are the most valuable things everyone should know?”]

I mean … okay, but who cares? If he wants to be truly excellent, he should aim to make the best contribution he can, not measure himself by the size of his celebrity. The idea of winning or dominating others as an end in itself is one I tend to find objectionable.

Sean Illing

What do you find most interesting or challenging in Peterson’s ideas? Or what has perplexed you the most about how his ideas have been received?

Kate Manne

Honestly? I think the fact he’s not been called to account for saying some really eyebrow-raising, authoritarian-sounding, and even cruel, things in his book.

Sean Illing

Give me an example.

Kate Manne

One part of the book that I found disturbing was when Peterson responded in his capacity as a psychologist to a particular client. According to Peterson, the client announced, “I think I’ve been raped.” He wrote that he immediately thought that alcohol was involved.

How else to understand “I think”? But that wasn’t the end of the story. She added an extra detail: “Five times.” The first sentence was awful enough, but the second produced something unfathomable. Five times? What could that possibly mean? My client told me that she would go to a bar and have a few drinks. Someone would start to talk with her. She would end up at his place or her place with him. The evening would proceed, inevitably, to its sexual climax. The next day she would wake up, uncertain about what happened—uncertain about her motives, uncertain about his motives, and uncertain about the world.

Miss S, we’ll call her, was vague to the point of non-existence. She was a ghost of a person. She dressed, however, like a professional. She knew how to present herself, for first appearances … Miss S knew nothing about herself. She knew nothing about other individuals. She knew nothing about the world. She was a movie played out of focus. And she was desperately waiting for a story about herself to make it all make sense.

I’d raise an alternative explanation: Maybe she was raped — five times, as she stated — and then was effectively undermined or even gaslit by her therapist. To be clear, I’m not saying that that is what happened. I can’t possibly know, on the basis of what Peterson writes here. But I’d certainly like to know more, and I’m surprised Peterson has not yet been asked about these and similar passages, in which he comes across as highly contemptuous of female clients.

Later, he goes on to say this about the woman:

Who are you? What did you do? What happened? What was the objective truth? There was no way of knowing the objective truth. And there never would be. There was no objective observer, and there never would be. There was no complete and accurate story. Such a thing did not and could not exist. There were, and are, only partial accounts and fragmentary viewpoints.

Funnily and sadly enough, Peterson sounds like a stereotypical postmodernist here — one of his chief intellectual foes. And it doesn’t seem accidental that his skepticism about objective facts arises when it’s conveniently anti-feminist.

Original Source -> A feminist philosopher makes the case against Jordan Peterson

via The Conservative Brief

[dudeguythethird-blog]

Is Anthem's biggest divergence from Destiny’s formula that important?

The similarities between Destiny and Anthem are obvious to anyone with any familiarity with the games. Anthem appears to be taking many of Destiny’s ideas and running with them: there is a ‘safe’ human settlement that is high up and has big walls around it to keep out dangerous wildlife, you play as a special dude of some variety who has abilities and goes out and kills said wildlife. For doing so, you get loot.

However, there are of course differences, some of them seemingly important. One difference is that Anthem is a third person action game that is first person in the social space. Destiny is third person in the social space and first in the actual game. Brilliant. That’s innovation baby. No, so I consider this one of the less presient differences. Obviously first person and third person games play differently. But in this case it looks like it won’t be that different. For example this seems to be the ‘run around and don't worry about cover’ style of third person shooter that was the norm 10 years ago, and was all but obliterated by Gears of War. Thanks to changes in the ways developers approach movement it has recently returned in more refined forms. Like in, unsurprisingly, Bioware’s Mass Effect Andromeda. I think there is a more clear and fundamental difference between third person shooters of the Gears of War variety and fps than between third person shooters of this variety and fps.

In all instances the basic thing you are doing is shooting enemies. But in the Gears style of third person shooters you have these predetermined ‘safe spots’ which are the cover. You end up spending a lot of time in these spots picking off the dudes. There is then a layer of strategy one has to employ when deciding whether to break cover, to risk leaving its relative safety for a potential big reward, chiefly an easy kill. You are also forced out of cover by flanks and grenades. In the ‘run around and don’t worry about cover’ style of third person shooter and, it is my contention, in FPS one does not have these predetermined safe spots in the same way. There is cover of course. But one does not snap into it in a binary fashion and generally will end up using it in a freeform way. Adaptively trying to put it between you and the bad guys mid firefight rather than just hunkering down behind it and taking potshots.

Obviously these rules are not hard and fast. But in the cases of the games being discussed it looks like it might well apply. So that’s why I’m not thinking of the perspective shift as a particularly important difference between these two games. One that really could be however, is the open world. Now Destiny is not really in possession of such a world, I think it is fair to say. It has large hubs that you can freely explore but you can’t move between all of the content in the game without going through a loading screen. In fact, all the main content, the essential and fun content, while often set on these maps, has to be accessed through a menu. So the action is consistently broken up by, admittedly flashy, loading screens. As a result any feeling of being in a “vast open world” is incidental to the way in which the game presents its content and has more to do with the cohesive aesthetic and tone of all the activities. Anthem appears to be trying to go full open world. This I am inferring from the giant vista that the trailer front loads. As well as the icons that litter it (seemingly to indicate activities scattered throughout the world) and the voiceover where the player mentions coming back to a harder challenge later. In short the trailer was quite clearly trying to say “look! We’ve got a real open world, not like destiny”.

So my question then is this: is this really a meaningful difference? I think the honest answer to that question is to say that it all depends on execution. Over the last 5 or so years open world games have seemingly asserted themselves as almost the de facto big triple a genre. It has become a hackneyed clique to hear some developer at E3 announce that their game is going open world and that yes, really, you can visit that hill over there. This has led to a growing cynicism among players about the essential merits of open world design. What was at first something one could get excited about in and of itself: open world design has become a bullet point many treat with trepidation. This is largely due to the trend itself. Developers and publishers saw that saying their game was open world caused an immediate positive response and thus, without thought made more open world games. There is, to my mind, no better example of this than Ubisoft, who made it their mission to release only open world games. The upshot being that the design of these open worlds makes them little more than destiny’s menus. The worlds are just space between the content. Space that it takes time to traverse which is tedious. It is also space, which once traversed, often doesn’t even yield any interesting content, merely the 10th iteration of a challenge.

My point is that unless Anthem can prove that its open world has been sensibly designed, as a cohesive space rather than glorified menu then it is of little advantage to the game. You might as well use a destiny style menu, it’s a hell of a lot quicker after all. I would bet that the developers of Destiny realised this at some point during development and added menu access for all major content. The presence of the largely empty open maps potentially indicate a shift in objective. So it is a strong move for Bioware to come out swinging and say “yes, we’re making a destiny-like game but we’ve actually done the open world properly”. I just hope they realize that “doing an open world properly” means more than having one big seamless environment, it’s about how that environment fits together.

Interesting open worlds can be logically constructed, to mimic a realistic environment. Exploring them is interesting because it is satisfying to observe the attention to detail. I would cite Fallout New Vegas as an example of one such world. Developers can also justify an open world by making it an unrealistic but fun sandbox (like Zelda: Breath of the Wild). These are but two ways of doing it. What really needs to be achieved is a world that is entertaining to move through through visuals and ideally gameplay too and one which incentivises exploration of it. There is definitely hope for them succeeding on the first score. It is clear from this trailer that much of the exploration will be done from the air in an Iron Man like fashion. Allegedly this flight will be, to some extent, skill based. That is important but what’s really important is as I have already said, the content in the world and how it is structured. Will the game compel me and my posse of Iron Men to fly over that next mountain in search of even danker loot? Let’s hope so.

I really do think this is the key to success with an open world. A vast world with no restrictions really only brings exploration to the table, so if a game includes one, there better be a reason to explore.