Basic Role-Playing (BRP), which is the system Call of Cthulhu is based on, is a great alternative to D&D as a roleplaying system. It is much easier to learn and understand, everything is based on percentages, and the system can be as mechanically crunchy or open as the DM prefers.

right, but OP is 3k away, so 6k round trip just for the grocery store … is that typical?

Yes, but we continue to fail to communicate - I was never undermining your point about material commitments, I think that point is well-taken, it’s the conclusions you draw that I disagree with, i.e. in terms of lumping the capitalist class together with members of the working class … When I say Che Guevara was a valuable member of the revolution, it is to highlight an example of how valuable class consciousness can be from members of the working class who are more privileged but are not members of the capitalist class.

I wish to resist the tendency to view someone like a software engineer as equivalent to the capitalist class, just because material incentives exist. A software engineer is not a capitalist, they are working class, and the revolution is served by viewing professional and managerial workers as workers, worthy of being included and incorporated into the revolution. Not because they are that way already, I am agreeing with you by suggesting the opposite, that they aren’t aware of their status as working class because they have some material incentives, so they align with the wrong class interests.

The right response to this, in my opinion, is to work on raising their class consciousness, while it feels like you are suggesting the opposite (essentially lumping them together and furthering the entrenched idea that they are helplessly aligned with the capitalists and thus basically capitalists themselves).

sure, but it doesn’t feel particularly relevant, those people aren’t that different from less economically privileged working class folks who defend capitalism despite gaining no material benefit from doing so. The upper middle classes that align that way are still exploited in their jobs and victims of the system they align with, and that’s no different than everyone else. Division among the working classes doesn’t help our cause, and those middle upper classes would be some of the most valuable allies in cultivating change if their consciousness was raised, since they at least are not completely empty-handed. Think of people like Che Guevara who had such immense influence - he was precisely one of those middle upper class people whose consciousness was raised when he witnessed the American-backed coup in Guatemala.

we’re talking about the average person; the idea that the average person in the US is using their higher income as savings to compensate for lack of social programs is delusional imo, I think most people have significant debt and will just fall between the cracks if they lose their job or get sick and can’t work, etc.

focusing on income is distorting, socially and politically some of the wealthiest and most powerful people have the lowest incomes, it’s just not the best lens of evaluating power or wealth.

as if anyone in America is saving their money 🤣

it’s probably so much worse

right, but when comparing my chances of economic survival, somewhere like Prague seems even more likely to work than Denmark just from a job market competition perspective, and Prague seems equally “idgaf” in attitude towards trans people (not that this kind of tolerance is the same as acceptance, non-discrimination, or integration)

yes, permanent employment that allows you to stay in the country is a must. As a trans person in the US, it’s been difficult to know whether to give up my career and whole life for basically constant instability and risk living as an immigrant in another country, especially when trans rights are getting stripped everywhere else too. Getting trans healthcare in Europe is not always such a breeze even for citizens.

Still, I appreciate your optimism and willingness to see the possibilities- that’s important to know.

Sure, but finding a job and housing in most of the places I listed is quite challenging, often even for citizens of those countries, but especially immigrants.

I was clowning with you 😉

“you can’t be serious” being a literal (joking) instruction on how to become a clown, while also making it look like I was questioning your dedication 😄

Honestly lots of Western Europe, but personally: Iceland, Germany, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, etc.

Objectively places like Spain, Portugal, Malta, etc. would work.

I have no delusions of ever making it as an immigrant in any of these countries. You need a lot of money.

you can’t be serious

beyond beef 😝

You got it! It’s really an excellent video essay.

I’m just now starting to work through his other works, but everything he does is magic. Honestly the topic of “I Don’t Know James Rolfe” was basically as dull as the dictionary to me, but I enjoyed it anyway.

Currently working my way through his “Mantracks” video, which is so far about fossils and creationism.

just gently suggesting both can be true - he was problematic before the stroke, but the stroke could also be playing a role in what by all accounts seems to be a change in behavior and long-held policy positions which started after the stroke. Even Fetterman himself thinks the stroke is what was responsible for this change: https://newrepublic.com/post/182504/john-fetterman-abandon-progressives-bill-maher

Stanley Meyer’s invention was later termed fraudulent after two investors to whom he had sold dealerships offering the right to do business in Water Fuel Cell technology sued him in 1996. His car was due to be examined by the expert witness Michael Laughton, Professor of Electrical Engineering at Queen Mary University of London and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. However, Meyer made what Professor Laughton considered a “lame excuse” on the days of examination and did not allow the test to proceed.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_fuel_cell

Probably the dune buggy never ran on the system he claimed. He was a fraudster, so probably it was just running on gas like normal while he was claiming it was all water.

a video to help people understand the problem with crypto: https://youtu.be/YQ_xWvX1n9g

I know the video says it’s about NFTs, but it touches on Bitcoin and blockchain first as background.

+1 for Spaced