there is literally nothing stopping you.

Except my obligations. I’m a parent with kids, so if I want to go somewhere alone, I need to get my SO on board and/or get a babysitter.

I know this is targeted at single people, but single people also have obligations and preferences that stop them from doing things alone.

Games never meet the hype, which is why I generally try to avoid hype.

I’ve played or own a surprising number of those of the first 50 or so, but I did find a couple that look fun.

Has anyone played Later Alligator? I had never heard of it, but it seems to have a fair number of reviews.

Also, anyone notice any other gems?

Could we unpin the other thread? It has been there since August…

It’s important to take the broader context into account. This happened at the start of the Cold War, so anything that looked remotely connected to the USSR was suspect. Árbenz legalized a communist party, and that seems to be what pushed Eisenhower over the edge.

It had nothing to do with the actual ideology of the Guatamalan government, but suspected ties to USSR. At the time, “communism” meant “USSR,” and anyone that was sympathetic to communism in any form was suspected of being in league with the USSR.

If the Guatamalan Revolution happened just 10 years or so later, the US probably would’ve been an ally instead of an enemy of someone like Árbenz.

wasting stuff just because it’s cheap is how we got here

Not really, at least if we’re talking about electricity use.

We got here by expanding our standard of living. Most residential electricity use is heating, cooling, and other major appliances, and we’re not going to make up for that by cutting a few watts here and there.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m absolutely in favor of small wins, but it’s important to not miss the forest for the trees. For example, don’t throw out good hardware just to save a few watts. If your goal is to help with climate change, there are much better ways to spend your time than cutting a few watts here and there.

Lemmy doesn’t meet my needs, but it’s closer than Reddit is. As soon as something better comes along (or I build a replacement), I’m out. I still use Reddit occasionally, I just don’t have an account there anymore because I’m unwilling to feed them more data.

Likewise, Forgejo partially meets my needs, and since automatic syncing a/ GitHub is a thing, I’ll probably use both. I don’t hate GitHub, I just prefer to self-host, so I’ll probably go that route instead of buying into GitHub’s ecosystem.

That part is incredibly misleading, because it assumes you’ll pay off the entire payday loan on day 175, which would require quite a bit more than the rental cost.

The truly damning thing here is that it’s cheaper to buy on credit and pay it off using the same monthly payment as the rental (assuming 30% interest). Many credit cards give you an extended warranty, so you’re better off than with the rental terms, so there’s literally no reason to rent, assuming you’ll keep it at least a year or are willing to sell it at the end.

Don’t pay credit card interest, but if the choice is between credit card interest and an NZXT rental, you’re better off getting fleeced by the credit card company.

Cool, once it works properly on my Steam Deck, I’ll consider it. Until then, Valve and GOG get my money.

Arévalo wasn’t socialist, he was actually anti-communist and generally pro-capitalist. He had way more overlap with FDR than Stalin or Castro.

That wasn’t “capitalists keeping the socialists down,” it was cronyism and FUD from United Fruit Company, which Eisenhower bought into.

All the death and destruction capitalism caused but they try to sell you on socialism being much worse.

Then you’re obviously ignoring the death and destruction socialism has caused. Socialism has only been a thing for 100 years or so, and yet it has caused nearly 100M deaths (source: a libertarian publication referencing an infographic based on WHO data):

Curiously, all of the world’s worst famines during the 20th century were in communist countries: China (twice!), the Soviet Union, and North Korea.

I bought an OG Deck and am still quite happy with it. I thought about getting the OLED, but it didn’t seem worth it, but I’ll definitely get a Deck 2.

I’m not even looking at other handhelds, because why bother? My Steam Deck experience is fantastic, why change that?

Exactly, and that’s with decade-old hardware. I bought a Switch for first party games and a fun playing experience. I didn’t buy an Xbox or PS because they don’t offer much of anything over my PC.

Nintendo’s lawyers suck, but their games are fantastic and their consoles are fun to use. I’ll probably end up getting a Switch 2, and I’ll probably continue not bothering even looking at Xbox and PS.

There have been many elected socialist democracies, but the West undermined them

We’re getting into very biased reporting territory.

Let’s take Venezuela as an example. Here’s the events as I understand them:

1. Hugo Chavez takes power in 1999
2. Venezuela becomes rich from oil (prices increased in early 2000s) and spends a ton on populist social programs (presumably to stay in power; corruption is rampant
3. Rapid inflation and widespread shortages starting in 2010 due to over-reliance on imported goods and exported oil (oil prices started dropping in 2007) and no spending cuts after revenue shortfalls
4. Maduro takes over in 2013 and is even more heavy handed and doesn’t ease spending or improve anything economically
5. Protests and unrest, which the government violently repressed, especially in 2015 when oil prices fell dramatically
6. Sanctions due to human rights violations started in 2014-ish but really picked up steam from 2017-2019, which deepened the problems they already had, especially since the government refused to cut spending

Western sanctions only became a thing years (more like a decade) after they were already in crisis. The crisis wasn’t caused by western countries, it was caused by mismanagement and corruption. Venezuela was held as a model for socialism under Chavez, but things only worked because of oil money.

I’m happy to discuss other countries as well.

Sure, and many capitalists support socialist ownership structures within an otherwise capitalist system.

I’m pretty supportive of laissez faire capitalism (with caveats; I consider myself a left-leaning libertarian), and I also agree that worker co-ops are a great idea in many cases. The important thing, to me, with capitalism is that profit motive drive the decision making process in a competitive market. Sanders seems to largely agree, he just wants more of that profit to make its way to the workers.

Socialism (generally speaking, I know socialism is a big tent), seeks to eliminate both the profit motive and competitive markets, seeing both as waste. From what I know of Bernie Sanders, he’s not on board with that view of socialism, he just wants the average person to be better off.

he clearly says that workers should have ownership stake in companies, which is not a capitalist sentiment

It absolutely is though. Partnerships have been a thing since pretty much forever, and a lot of publicly traded companies and some private companies hand out company stock as part of compensation. Employees owning stock isn’t socialism, it’s capitalism, and the goal is for employees’ interests to be more aligned with the company’s so overall profitability is higher.

Sanders is approaching it from an employee outcomes perspective, but it’s still very much from a capitalist mindset.

He’s not advocating for companies to be run democratically like they would under socialism, he’s advocating for more profit sharing without meaningfully changing ownership.

It absolutely is. I try to play 1-2 of these each year, and I have a collection in Steam called “short games” for experiences under 5 hours with something unique to them.

Some others:

• Gorogoa
• What Remains of Edith Finch
• INSIDE

They’re all very different, but they fit into that “games as art” category and don’t overstay their welcome.

I’m not always in the mood for these kinds of games, but when I am, they really scratch that itch.

The first 10-20 levels of any skill are pretty quick, but then it becomes much slower to progress.

I played through Gris and had an absolute blast. I finished it in <3 hours, but spent another 3 or so tracking down collectibles (momentos) because the world is so pretty.

I also played Monument Valley 1&2, each in one sitting. The puzzles weren’t very hard, but I’m a sucker for non-Euclidean worlds (also loved The Bridge and Manifold Garden).

Other than that, I’ve been playing a bit of Fire Emblem: Engage. I probably won’t finish that before Christmas though, it’s a long game.

I’m probably going to pick up Bomb Rush Cyberfunk this Steam sale, which recently turned 1. I have kids, and they’re each getting a Switch game for Christmas, so I’ll have a few more to play soon.

He really isn’t anti-capitalist, he’s against concentrations of wealth generally, but he’s absolutely in favor of our capitalist system, he just thinks there should be more rules so workers fare better. He’s not a socialist, much as the right wants to think, he’s just in favor of a large welfare system and high taxes on the wealthy. He doesn’t want to fundamentally change our economic system, he just wants to make it more fair for his definition of “fair.”