They’ve got a really talented bench of people, I’m surprised this has gone on so long (though I am far from a regular viewer). My vote would have gone to Jordan Klepper, who I think has both the intelligence and sincere anger that made Jon Stewart the cultural force he was on the show. My theory is that the execs saw him as too much of a risk after his previous (unfortunately) failed solo outings.
You too, thanks for the interesting conversation.
Based on this conversation, what you consider right has a lot more in common with pride and laziness than it does with moral integrity. You say a lot of revolutionary words about dismantling power structures before finally admitting you’re just shrugging your shoulders in your own little corner.
At some point, if the people don’t say enough, let it all come crashing down, and rebuild a more equitable system
Who’s organizing this? Your withdrawal isn’t part of some collective movement, it is solitary and impotent. It is harmful. There’s no board room hosting the league of evil medical barons, no agenda item about how Allonzee stopped donating blood so they’d better start taking things seriously. You’re not changing anything, and squeezing sick people isn’t a necessary step in effecting change anyway.
There’s no “we” and there’s no collapsing. These systems persist despite your personal rebellion, because they’re really good at persisting until faced with overwhelming collective action. Until then, fucking help people.
Sorry friend, it’s not really about you. But a lot of good people who care about inequity have let their pride convince them that systems will implode if they personally choose to stop participating in them. That’s not how it works. The only people feeling any hurt are the innocents in your own communities.
Seriously, I get it. It’s fucking infuriating, but again…what’s the alternative? Is there some way in which this moral rigidity is not holding patients hostage in an impotent effort to force change in a broader healthcare industry?
There are alternative and more effective methods of effecting change that don’t involve sacrificing life or well-being. I implore anyone who’s rightfully disgusted by this reality to grit your teeth and help people however you can, and direct your ire where it’s best deserved.
The next link in the donation delivery chain is unrelated? Agree to disagree.
Forgive me, but this is misguidedly reductive. No healthcare is provided in the US, by providers, without being subjected to capitalist exploitation. If I understand your thought process, a collective of the best pharmaceutical scientists in the world could create a completely non-profit pharmaceutical NGO, design and manufacture life-saving drugs, and give them away to hospitals (or sell them at-cost). But so long as hospitals then charge profit rates for those drugs, it would be ethically indefensible to financially support the NGO?
Is that not holding patients hostage in an impotent effort to force change in the broader healthcare industry? I donate to my local non-profit blood center, who (assuming they’re similar to ARC) sells my blood to local hospitals at-cost, and then my blood is used to save a patient in need. The patient will then be responsible for paying the hospital exorbitant sums for my blood (from which the blood center doesn’t benefit) and all the other services it provides, but what’s the alternative?
Edit: would it make a difference if the blood center didn’t charge hospitals for the blood, even though the hospital will still charge patients?
Ransomed? I hadn’t heard about this so I checked and found that places like Red Cross sell the blood for roughly $250 per unit to hospitals in the US, which seems…perfectly reasonable within the parameters of our healthcare system. There are operational costs to collecting blood that have to be funded somehow.
The cost to patients charged by healthcare providers is unrelated, and this does not apply to for-profit plasma centers, which…yeah, don’t do that.
One of the earliest pieces of media I can remember consuming was the mid-90s TV show Viper, where James played the main character. I remember very little about the show except James’s face and that he played his character cool as fuck.
I’ve been replaying Alan Wake and Control recently, and I have such a soft spot for his roles in them because I loved that stupid show when I was a kid.
I wish media would give credit to the organization leaders responsible for these types of moves rather than crediting a homogeneous “Biden administration.” The fact is that the administration does deserve credit for employing a number of “progressive” (read: competent) administrators, but those departments compose a progressive wing of the administration that is not on par with some of the overall administration’s more centrist leanings.
Personnel are policy, something that the Biden administration has proved again and again since the 2020 election. Biden himself is a kind of empty vessel into which different wings of the Democratic party pour their will, yielding a strange brew of appointments both great and terrible.
By jove I think you might be right.
This is so fucking exhausting.
Lee – who went from hoping for the appointment to, in recent weeks, making a political issue out of knocking Newsom on the assumption she wouldn’t get it – spent Monday and Tuesday reaching out to fellow members of the Congressional Black Caucus to urge them to stick with her, even though there is now another Black woman in the spot. Schiff’s initial response was to trumpet the big lead he has in fundraising, which aides were hoping would get both Butler’s attention and that of reporters busy assessing her chances. California political insiders have noticed anti-Butler opposition research appearing and a new anti-Butler account on X, and have been pointing fingers over who is behind them. False rumors that Newsom offered others the appointment first have been floated, too.
Patting backs, making nonsense announcements to get media attention, oppo research… I mean, I'm not naive, this is the way things go. But we're never going to get the best-qualified people to serve in government while campaigning requires this much machination unrelated to the actual merit of the candidates. Maybe some time around our evolution to a full Type 1 civilization we'll have figured this out.
I'm in favor. However, I think shuttering c/PS5 would be better than leaving it open/active if the intent is to consolidate and grow the community. A loosely moderated and largely disused secondary community will just draw some of that precious engagement away from c/Playstation. When the PS6 is announced it can be opened back up :-)
I am almost never bothered by minor niggles and do my best not to blow things out of proportion, but I don't care how good this game is, I will play it with deep resentment if Insomniac doesn't patch in Peterface 1.0. To me, that face was somehow the perfect expression of benign charm, compassion, and hidden pain. It impeccably complemented what I think is one of the greatest adaptations of the character, including some/many eras of the mainline Amazing/Superior comic books.
Peterface 2.0 is…blank somehow. Even though it's supposed to be more expressive, its features just don't seem to match the emotion that's being animated, at least certainly not to the same degree as 1.0. And it just doesn't look like the Peter that I grew so instantly attached to the first 3-4 times I played this game in the original release version.
I feel so validated by SkillUp's stark disbelief in the beginning and throughout this video. Nothing about this game seems like it should work, but I can't say I'm not glad and intrigued that it, apparently, somehow very much does.
From the developers of the critically acclaimed derided Terminator: Resistance and Rambo: The Video Game (as well 90(!) other games since 2006) comes another bizarrely timed nostalgia-arousing video game based on an 80s IP.
The gameplay clip here looked almost provocatively bad, but some hands-on previews seem…relatively positive. Hands-ons are always a little more soft on criticism though, so I’m gonna go with my gut on this one until proven otherwise.
I thought I was finally getting worn out on RGG games after playing Yakuza 0-7 and Judgment, but damn if this didn’t pique my interest.
In this fight, we got to test out some of the new fighting skills you’ll be able to utilize in his Agent fighting style. You’ve got plenty of face-crushing fist strikes, of course, but now Kiryu also has a whole slew of unique, outlandish gadgetry to enhance his already elite combat prowess. Ever wanted to turn on some rocket-powered shoes and glide around as a human battering ram? How about turning enemies to toast with one of those exploding cigarettes you’d see in old-school spy thrillers?
I do love Kiryu as a character and this just feels like the right thing to put him through.
Honestly I loved it my first time through. There were certainly bugs (minor spoilers), but they were more amusing than game-breaking. I’m mostly waiting on new game plus (fingers crossed) to revisit it.
Neat idea. Looks…janky, and the line “How do you save humanity if no one’s fully human” is pretty bad. Feels like it’s going to be low-tier AA quality, but I’ll be pumped to be proven wrong.
I sympathize with the cynicism in your last paragraph, but I push a little optimism back on a couple points. 1: our capability for speech may be limited by the corporations who have grabbed control over our media platforms, but insofar as freedom of speech refers to our ability to speak freely without retaliation from the government, we do still have real free speech. It’s a juvenile point, but given events in the last few years it’s not a right I take for granted as I did previously. That being said, I did just watch a video of FBI agents interrogating a woman in front of her house for posting non-violent content on Facebook relating to Gaza that you can add to a pile of evidence that the government is frequently toeing the line on free speech, so… that’s not good.
2: Regulatory authority has become almost laughably meek, granted, but you’re commenting on a video of one of the most aggressive regulators to hold the position in as long as I’m aware. This is a powerful sign that regulatory capture is not inevitable if we care enough to vote for candidates who will appoint strong regulators – even if it hurts our pride to do so (<<conscientious vote objectors).