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Shinzo Abe may or may not have nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, because North Korea something something.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/18/us-asked-japan-to-nominate-trump-for-nobel-peace-prize-report

Dammit, Japan, you need to pick your friends better.   

Japan has been a political dumpsterfire for awhile, and Shinzo Abe is one of the conservative "ultranationalists" of their worst political groups. In essence, Abe is a fascist by any other name. I can grab sources tonight if Cain or Dok  don't beat me to it.

Extreme music is extreme for a reason. I have friends who base their choice between far-left/right depending on which they see as the most effective way to kill everyone.

That sort of crap in general I have no patience for these days. I prefer extreme music with motivation of the "punk" style now: "I'm goddamn angry that I'm constantly dodging my demise by inches and I'm gonna make your fucking ears ring about it"

Lots of that in sludge metal right now, which is especially awesome.

It's weird how Gamergate, of all things, sent so many people off the deep end.

I mean, sure, the calculated effort from Bannon & Co. didn't help. But still...

There has to be some hypno shit in games. I always wondered why my mom didn't let me play as much as I wanted to, and still dodged that pothole only by an inch.

I think there's some pretty weird socialisation in online multiplayer games* specifically which contributed to this. I know I played a lot, but generally single player stuff, which has a different dynamic.

*And Japanese games, because as we know, the alt-right are basically a bunch of weaboos.

So I actually researched and studied this, because I've been eyeball deep in "gamer culture" since 2001, barely dodged the GamerGate bullet, and watched people I grew up with fall headlong into groups that despise them (e.g. a black man going full "ethnostates!" And not understanding he'll be one of those on the chopping block if his friends have their way.)

Relatedly (really!) I was a part of the extreme metal and experimental electronic music/noise music communities, which has a concerning amount of overlap with "hardcore gamers": most hardcore gamers you will meet listen to extreme metal. Go on, ask them some time. Lots of extreme folk metal and modern deathcore, of course, but a frankly alarming amount of black metal too, and they all know Burzum (better known as Varg Vikernes, the church burning neo-Nazi who killed his band mate because of a belief he was gay).

There's an obvious tack to take here, but it's wrong. Until around 05 actual nazis in most of the extreme metal community kept their mouths shut, because they announced who they were and their sales and listeners plummeted, their labels would cut them loose, no one wanted any of this. Even after they started getting outspoken, they ended up mostly being ostracized still.

No, the role that extreme metal played was "nazis are ok as long as they are harmless whack jobs." Since they had no chance to be anything else, well...

Then there are two other things. The rise of militant atheism as in Dawkins and Hitchens, which encouraged a belief that emotions being involved in an argument makes it wrong. And *chan culture, where shocking and offensive behavior was the default.

Almost every hardcore gamer around the time of GamerGate was exposed to some mixture of these three things. Moreover, due to a misogynistic streak I've still never been able to figure out the exact source of, there was a serious dearth of outspoken female hardcore gamers up until a couple years before this, so you have mostly young angsty men who think masculinity is shown by the virtual gore on their computer monitors.

Then the inciting factor: game journalism sites are saying "hey gamers! You're assholes and should stop it!" But they see that and think that it is wrong, because it's "normal" to be a disgusting asshole, and the argument is based on "it hurts peoples feelings". And then the whole bullshit with Zoe Quinn happened, giving these angsty young men a target for their frustrations in this area.

All it really took from there was anyone with a decent knowledge of how to play a mob speaking to their sympathies. They were angry and outraged that anyone would dare call them bad people, anyone who was going to ally with them was going to be followed. After that, sunk cost fallacy dominates, and boom: a bunch of newly minted fascists.

There's more priming for fascist sympathies that had been unintentionally going on for years mind you, but I have the flu and don't feel like doing the whole thing right now. Remind me later.

Look, I promise you I never once said such words. I'm done with surprises.

That sandwich is the scariest thing I've seen in the past two months, and anyone who saw my post in Open Bar knows I've seen some shit lately.

Yeah...being hungry while over at niece and nephew's house and while their parents were out grocery shopping meant my mother thought that was a decent idea. Just...the string cheese, man.  

Like, I've used string cheese on a sandwich before! It's not that hard! You peel it into thin strips, spread a tiny bit of butter on the bread it's going on, and nuke it for ten to fifteen seconds. It's just mozzarella. Putting WHOLE STICKS on there is criminal.

I just wanted everyone to know I am safe in Michigan, with wonderful people and a comfortable place to sleep. The nightmare appears to have ended for now.

That sandwich is the scariest thing I've seen in the past two months, and anyone who saw my post in Open Bar knows I've seen some shit lately.

Is there a political label for someone who thinks we made a massive mistake when we stopped being hunter gatherers?

I regularly fantasise about going off to live in the woods.

It's only the knowledge that its a stupid idea that would suck in reality that stops me... and also I need to do the laundry.

All kinds of very serious and well considered ideologies as based on stupid ideas. I think this could be a real go-er.

Mosquitoes and malnutrition are natural.  Electric light and painless dentistry are abominations.

Reminds me of a man named Ned. I hate that guy.

You have to invite someone on Her level though. It's cool if it's like "no deities allowed!" Who knows, maybe you're discussing overthrowing the gods again. Good idea to let folks keep that on the down low.

But if you invite a deity who isn't Her, now you're just being rude. On purpose. She knows you know how She feels about that sort of thing.

I know just enough about databases to avoid them if I can by any means manage it.

Whoa! I guess it's kinda a dick move following up that with my good news but dick I am, so here goes - My partners and I just sold our business and I got myself about 3 years of runway cash now, with which to become a professional artist and/or launch an AR business. Got a gig next month at facebook HQ in London Being filmed competing in an art battle with 15 proper pros. Don't expect to do particularly well but it's all about teh networking. Been bored for about the last 5 years. It's time for some adventure before I snuff it from old age and poor lifestyle choices!

That's super awesome! Good luck with the whole competition thing.

Damn, and I was stressed by moving while ill.

Eh, thing I learned that I think is important is not to critique yourself for what stresses you or fucks with your head. "Look how bad I have it, stop whining" is just a kind of victim shaming. I have no doubt that you had a stressful trip, and I'm not going to play some dumb comparison game. I'm glad you made it out the other side of your situation, that's all that matters imo.

Sucks what you went through.

Yay for winning!

Goddamn right yay for winning. If life is a game I must have accidentally picked hardcore mode in nightmare difficulty, but I'll be damned if that stops me from beating this bastard.

True story, I don't think I'd have made it through if it weren't for the lessons folks here taught me over the years. Credit where credit is due, you flea ridden mutants and tentacle faced antifa terrorists and mustachioed mad scientists and everyone I can't think of a snappy term for off the top of my head. Your internet drivel gave me the motivation and inner strength and damn bull headed stubbornness to keep moving when all was apparently lost.

I have the sneaking suspicion the worst of the badness is over, so I summarized it all now.

Idea was basically that there's no point giving blow by blow updates and depressing everyone, better to be like "look at this bullshit I survived" after the fact. And that's how it feels right now, I have been through the wringer but goddamn it I won!

Oh yeah, so: this time I'm going back to Utah and taking the goddamn train to Chicago, dropping a piece of luggage to be shipped there, then taking a bus which only lets you check two bags (hence the dropping off luggage) to Lansing.

I will never board a Greyhound again, this is the second time doing so nearly killed me.