No one likes to think they can be manipulated. Yet here I am; I have buttons, they can be pushed, and if you push them, everybody loses. I can be acquaintances--maybe even friends--with someone for years, but if they push a button... we're done.
He said that companies would be within their rights to break people's fingers for copyright infringement. It's not the worst thing I've ever heard of, but it hit a button.
I expressed dismay/disgust, drew the obvious parallel with the practice of cutting the hands off thieves, and he didn't back down. He wasn't joking.
Now, I'm something of an armchair tough-guy, myself. I believe in grand destruction. I believe in disproportionate response. Your dog poops on my lawn, I sprinkle birdseed on your car. You slap my face, I punch you in the neck.
But breaking someone's fingers for copying a fucking video game isn't funny. It's petty, barbaric, fascistic, corporate. It's the kind of attitude that reminds me of my father, may he rot in hell.
And that's one of my buttons.
I was a member of a certain video game forum/discord server for years, now I'm not. The clincher...some time after I soft-flounced, I got a DM telling me I should return, and resume my place. So I naturally cut off all remaining avenues of communication, without so much as a good-bye.
My place is where I am, not where I've been.
