Yeeeaaahh, we really did turn a tool which was supposedly meant to enhance our performance in the real world into a world of its own, that’s often mentally addictive and exploitative.

At the same time, the real world is properly fucked right now, where individuals are highly isolated from one another and there are financial barriers at every turn. I don’t blame folks who get stuck in a spot where they only have people they want to interact with online.

I mean, we can point at the legal system, but as you said, casinos just find new loopholes to circumvent the law. Ultimately, Valve is the group with the power to remove any gambling-adjacent mechanics from their games, but they have been pretty flaccid regarding changes because they know that they will lose money from it.

Crackdowns won’t stop the gambling on CS, legislation and enforcement won’t change it, but making items non-tradeable, or damaging item value or appeal through any method, can stop the gambling - but at the cost of CS’s financial success and overall appeal.

It’s a bit weird (skip to 10:41 for specifically the pay system)

Gonna piggy back off this to drop a decent summary from coffeezilla about valve’s lootbox gambling problem that Valve has consistently dodged responsibility on. It’s really not new news but folks should be informed/reminded of it nonetheless.

I don’t watch CoffeeZilla in any large amount, but this pretty well sums up the situation in this instance.

I think that any adult secret society is either going to be lame and boring, or it quickly escalates into a cult, gang, cartel, racket, or terrorist organization, depending on the group’s intentions.

Eat fruit like an animal.

2x0 is still 0, bro woulda got more than twice what homie got.

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The pyramid stays on in the bedroom!

In other news, the colony Szinthar failed to update its software systems due to a lack of pregrammers and Techmancers. Signals received suggest there were no survivors.

TBF, I understand this annoying kind of ‘reading into it’. at the same time, if someone starts dropping dogwhistles or starts dancing around something in a convo, i am definitely gonna read into that shit.

Cutting holes in fences, as in trespassing to vandalize or cause havoc.

prior comment edited for ya.

you’re correct, they do not strap guns to improvised attack drones. they’re not necessarily single-use either, though. A kamikaze drone will detonate its payload while its still attached, which is an option. There is plenty of footage of IADs which use a servo to just physically drop a payload onto targets from above, and those could potentially be used over and over. I think the kamikaze version is able to be more effective, for a variety of reasons, but both versions seem to be seeing use.

it’s not necessarily with a bullet. Most improvised attack drones drop explosive payloads, since it’s both simpler to set up and simpler to use. Outfitting a drone with a gun takes making a complicated system for aiming it, while a payload drone just needs some 3d-printed parts, some extra wiring, and usually just a single servo.

GarandThumb did some tests in a video a while back. IIRC he did both choked and not, along with different types of shot and slugs. everything but birdshot was pretty effective out to a couple dozen yards? I’ll track it down and drop a link after I’ve rewatched.

EDIT: so in “How Deadly are Shotguns”, they fire 00 Buck unchoked at around 7 - 8 minutes, and it is still getting a drone-sized spread at 21 yards. In the video “How Far are Shotguns Deadly? BirdShot, Slugs, and 00 Buckshot”, we see birdshot and 00 Buck used choked all the way out to 120 yards. From my perspective, birdshot and 00 buck start having a potentially viable spread at 50 yards (slowmo spread footage at 14 minutes).

I think that most likely, a pellet size between birdshot and 00 would be better, to provide that peppering effect while still delivering greater impulse per pellet. Garand also mentions in the first video that chokes can actually cause wider spread when used with shot, so unchoked shotguns may be ideal for an anti-drone function.

I would say that both Malcolm X and MLK ultimately failed at their end goals, personally.

My bigger point was that the holy week uprising was able to progress things forward more in one week than either movement could do in the many years they were active. To be fair, I do not think the level of vigour and organization shown in the holy week uprising could have happened without the many liberation groups’ prior work.

Ultimately, the use of violence is complex and how to effectively use it is just as complex. We should be discussing how to use all tactics and methods available, and not view violence as the only important component.

didn’t even notice the headline before I was laughing.

Nelson Mandela was released on the terms that he would preach peaceful protest, as the movement he had formerly been leading was a serious threat to the South African Government.

Reverend Martin Luther King Jr was a proponent of peaceful protest, though it could be argued he was losing faith in it near the end when he was assassinated. right after his death, the Holy Week Uprisings occurred, which saw immediate action from the federal government to pass the Civil Rights Act.

At the same time, acts of violence lie on a spectrum, and I think there is a fair amount of conversation to be had about what degree of violence and what type of violence are most effective.

‘eat the rich’ specifically means ‘we should eliminate the existence of the rich - by any means.’ so taxation works, but more extreme methods are not ruled out. It’s entirely up to the rich on how they’d prefer to respond to this motive - and it’s then up to the working class extremists on how they respond in kind.