Rather than make a new thread every time that dipshit does something (or people enabled by him do things), I guess a single thread for updates will do.

Trump has effectively eliminated medical research in the US: https://www.science.org/content/article/...and-hiring

Shutting down the NIH's research efforts is a massive blow to medical research both domestically and globally.

Additionally, if a new pandemic emerges, we will not be warned about it by any US authorities, and it will probably be difficult for WHO to identify it because we're pulling out of that, too.

Evidently making America great involves a bunch of people dying for no reason. But I guess that's American history in a nutshell.

Please respond with memes / images that hit right in the childhood 
   

I am posting a link here but before you click it, understand it is about child sexual abuse: https://bsky.app/profile/taliabhatt.itch...agapyno22c

I fully agree with this conclusion and I also agree this culture is incurably diseased and can only be destroyed.

Even if you don't want to engage with that, can we all just agree that the "demographic crisis" is bullshit made up my white supremacists to justify all kinds of horrible shit?

this is really just an excuse to post this fake ad.

   

seriously, though, if you haven't played it, why not? do you value having a life or something?

are you hankering for more old-fashioned websites? fringe stuff? weird writers? stuff you won't find on big social media sites?

good news! here are some links to lead you to a different corner of the internet, where people are staking out their own spaces, well away from the big platforms.

i assume if you're here you have at least some interest in that.

so, enjoy:

• https://geminiquickst.art/
  
• https://www.wrecka.ge/
  
• https://fujocoded.com/
  
• https://marginalia-search.com/
  
• https://ooh.directory/
  
• https://thefabulousneckbeard.neocities.org/
  
• https://tilde.club/
  

so, we have a reputation system. i only allow positive reputation. but honestly, nobody seems to be using it? and it's not really as fun as an actual reaction system. anybody particularly want me to keep it? if not, i'll just disable it. i don't think there's any pressing need for this kind of gamification.

The Plants vs Zombies music is just a variation of the Final Fantasy VI Phantom Train music, fight me.

do you like roguelikes? do you like city builders? do you like roguelike city builders?

"what the hell is a roguelike city builder?"

check it: https://store.steampowered.com/app/13364...the_Storm/

it would be interesting enough if it was just a roguelike city builder, as that's an unusual choice to start with. but it also has a distinctive setting: a "rainpunk" world with anthropomorphic creatures including beavers, foxes, lizards, and harpies. humans are in there, too. (you can also get frogs in a DLC, and i do love the froggies.)

if you've ever played an Anno game, the basic gameplay loop is very similar. the premise of the game is such that you are always building new settlements, trying to reach deeper into your ruined world to reclaim it. your cities are wiped away every several years by "the storm." your hope is to close all the magic seals which enable the storm to continue, thus permitting you to reclaim the world completely. (i have yet to accomplish this, though i have done several of the seals.)

i love this game and will tout it to anyone who will listen.

i also have a Steam key for it if anyone wants it!

if you haven't watched Barry (HBO series), you should!

if you have: hell of a show, right?

i am most of the way through the final season. i have a lot of thoughts about it but to summarize:

1. every character in this show is caught in the tension between two versions of themselves: who they are now, and who they wish they were.
   
2. Barry wanted to get into acting to "become someone else," to hide who he was beneath the veneer of a fictional character. meanwhile, Gene's entire theory of acting is that it's only real if you bare the deepest parts of yourself.
   
3. these people are constantly done in by their own selfishness. NoHo Hank is the only person who more or less consistently behaves in the interest of others, and he faces the most agony when he acts out of pure selfishness.
   
4. people on this show are also trying to escape the consequences of their pasts rather than face them. the message hits over and over: you can't remake yourself if you won't own up to who you already are and what you've already done.