Depends on the audience but I’ve found adding “it’s just common sense” to the end of my argument tends to be more effective than citing sources.

Not really. Sometimes I think about it but it’s sort of hard to find the time. My interests also just started to shift away from writing after high school.

That being said I remember in late high school feeling pretty frustrated because I had a good grip on the rules by now and wanted to try adding some zest to my writing.

But zest is difficult to grade, my teachers were not paid well enough to deal with ambiguity and to be honest most of them didn’t strike me as particularly imaginative in the first place.

It’s pretty much naive realism applied to politics.

My understanding is most do but it’s the subject of occasional controversy.

It’s all Dwarf Fortress in the end

Nah there’s plenty of game without the DLCs imo, it’s not like a Paradox game. Even without mods it’s a lot of fun, if you like these types of games.

That being said if you’re willing to pick just one it can add a lot to the game. I put in like 400 hours with just Ideology.

It’s an enjoyable way to engage with fiction and think critically. Everyone in the debate knows lightsabers aren’t real, but there’s established in universe rules and community-agreed principles you typically frame your arguments on. This can keep a piece of media alive for fans, if it was just about watching movies and not really examining them then there wouldn’t be much reason to revisit them, which I feel would be a shame after writers put so much work into creating a universe to explore.

It can give you a good reason to continue to engage with the content, or engage with a community of people who also enjoy the content. In my case watching Star Trek is fun and all but not if I’m just mindlessly consuming the show. Looking at a ship’s engine, liking engines in real life and saying “I wonder how that thing would work” is a good mental exercise, especially when you’ve found others who have the same questions.

I wouldn’t care one bit, nor do I know anyone who does.

The only time I notice someone’s order is if it’s ridiculously elaborate. Like I doubt you’re actually interested in drinking this but abusing a worker for content or entertainment. Otherwise yeah I not only don’t care I probably won’t even notice.

Moreover if I’m in “coffee person” mode I have a little list of cafés I go to. To me judging your order at Starbucks would be like judging your order at McDonald’s. None of this stuff is good so I can’t really be elitist that you ordered fish instead of a burger, we’re just here for convenience.

I just felt less like a sith lord and more like a douchebag most of the time in Kotor.

Evil can be fun if it makes sense. I sometimes enjoy games where I find myself backed into a corner and have to do something bad to get out. Or I find myself genuinely drawn to the power that an evil choice tempts me with. Or circumstances beyond my character’s control compel them to use The Evil to get things done. It can make for an immersive and nuanced story.

The problem is if the “evil” path is more just “asshole” or “kills everyone in sight” then I tend to find it less fun.

Mobile, in browser with desktop mode on.

I’m weird about apps. It’s not even a privacy thing really, I just never got into them as a concept.

The same people when I was trying to warn them in like 2012 - “They don’t want my data, I’m not that interesting”

Teeth

My wife probably wouldn’t come with me, my cat wouldn’t make it, I think I would struggle with finding suitable water sources that don’t count as part of the civilized world.

I go solo camping about once a year to remind myself I’d probably die out there but get it out of my system.

I’ve never seen a more accurate depiction of my typical experience in a professional environment. “Nobody wants to speak up or handle things correctly because someone senior with direct responsibility for your employment shouted down any dissent because they want to meet a metric” is apparently a timeless experience.

At least where I am in the southern US self-checkout ends up being slower.

Ten years ago my experience was likely similar to yours, pretty quick to just scan your own groceries, not much of a line to speak of as some people are opting for a cashier. Go for the self checkout every time.

The trouble now is that there aren’t enough cashiers so almost everyone has to go through self checkout. Longer line but you would think it wouldn’t make that much of a difference.

But they only have one attendant watching all the self checkouts. So if three people are buying beer at once you have only one to go around checking their IDs. If an item (usually a fruit or vegetable) doesn’t have a proper entry in the kiosk’s database and no barcode to scan then the attendant has to go by and manually enter a code scan the item to unlock the machine. For example when buying habaneros my grocery store only had an entry for “green habaneros”, if you selected them the machine would call a cashier over because you picked an item they don’t actually have. Don’t even get me started on their touchy anti theft measures erroneously triggering because you moved your hand weird when setting down a bag.

Again, none of this was really a problem back then, but now at my grocery store it’s one attendant handling 8 self checkouts at once where any number could have these problems to resolve.

This part may be more in my head, but I also frequently feel like I’m stuck behind people who have never used a touchscreen before, or been in a grocery store, or exchanged currency for goods. Someone always needs help with some part of the process and if you add that to the problems I listed above, it can really slow things down.

It’s really disheartening. I originally pursued tech for the money but I fell in love with it as a sort of creative outlet a few years into my career. I actually WANT to make new tools but my coworkers immediately outsourced their brains and come asking me for help because the code they got from copilot (and didn’t test) is breaking something in production.

In 2016 I used self checkout if I wanted to get through quickly.

In 2026 I look for a cashier.

Cult of the Absolute seems to mostly be filled with weirdos.