Oh maybe. I read that a long time ago but don’t remember the details anymore.

I also get mad at people who drive cars instead of walking or taking mass transit, if that helps.

But someone smoking near you makes your day undeniably, immediately, worse.

If you’re sitting in a room that smells uncomfortably of cheese, and someone rips a juicy fart on your face, it would be unreasonable to be like “who cares about my shart it smells like cheese in here”

Most people follow election results and those people’s actions have real, discernable, effects. If you yield on this front, even if you think elections are flawed, you’re letting your opponents have this power uncontested. That’s a terrible strategy.

I’m not sure I follow. I was talking about what individuals should do: direct action and also voting. Voting is often just a few minutes for the end user.

I’m not talking about what the state should spend resources on.

People are emotional. They feel things, and then make up justifications for it afterwards. We all do this to some extent, in some contexts or others, but some people seem to do it the majority of the time.

Someone who smokes and has a choice between admitting they fucked up, they’re hurting themselves and those around them, OR denying it so they’re just a persecuted innocent? A lot of people will go for the latter. It’s weakness and cowardice, but saying that won’t change their mind. If results are wanted we have to do the very arduous task of massaging their emotions and I kind of resent that thankless, endless, work. Even though I almost certainly am the same way about other things.

Humans are a mess.

True, true. Saint Luigi inspired people. But that alone didn’t fix the world, and it’s a very chaotic move.

I meant the amount of effort it takes for the end user.

If we’re going to talk about higher order levels of effort, then everything gets very expensive very quickly.

No single thing alone will fix the world. Voting alone won’t fix it. Throwing a molotov alone won’t fix it.

Voting (in many places, for many people) takes almost no effort. Go do it. But don’t call it a day and think you’ve done everything you can do. Refusing to vote just yields one of the many fronts in this conflict without a fight.

There was a book I read where the exorcism failed when the Christian guy tried to do it, but worked when the best friend sang their favorite song. It was corny but sweet. (I might be remembering it slightly wrong)

I ran a game in near future New York and used Google maps and street view for guidance. Worked well. None of the other players lived here, so I think the visuals helped them.

I had one really good game of Vampire. Lasted a couple years. We still talk about it sometimes, and its best scenes. Like how one PC saved an NPC by jumping out a 10th story window with her. Or the time they had a huge in character fight because the job they’d tried to do went sideways.

But I’ve also had a couple really bad games. There was one where they just didn’t read and retain anything from the books. One of the players on like session 4 was like “wait. How do I get more blood? Do I like… Bite people?”. My friend what do you think was happening in the other scenes when people were hunting for blood? They also didn’t retain anything about the different factions, so they didn’t really understand anyone’s motivation. It was bad. Still feel bad about it.

Arguing for what’s best for humanity long term…

all their wealth has been distributed to feed those who are in need. Who are you going to kill and eat next?

No one. This isn’t the fascism that always needs an enemy to hate on

The intention is different. Self defense against conservatives vs their offense against all. See also the paradox of tolerance

Doctors cut people up just like serial killers. They’re basically the same.

is that not also a form of weakness masquerading as strength?

what?

How are you any better if you hate them for that?

I’m better than them because I’m not trying to overthrow the government to install a dictatorship that protects my in-group (eg: straight white people) and binds my out-group. I’m not trying to destroy the environment, murder the queers, ban books, ban vaccines, either.

Please. Elaborate.

I don’t think the fumes from vaping are especially safe or welcome, either. At least there’s no littering, though

You probably watch YouTube with the sound on and no headphones in public, too.

Hating on weak people feels good to them, maybe?

Every smoker I’ve met gets very defensive about “why can’t I breathe my toxic fumes on everyone else?? What’s the big deal?? And then they get so mad when I litter like get over yourself”

Smoking in public is indefensible. There are smoking cessation programs.