I never thought I’d say it, but I don’t even use YouTube anymore. I might go there once a month to watch a tute, but only if I absolutely can’t find help from any other website.

Well, in essence, propaganda is advertising. And advertising leans on satisfying perceived need.

So if I’m selling you shoes it’s to satisfy your physiological, social, or self-fulfilment order need. Shoes are functional, make you cool, or make a statement.

Propaganda is fulfilling some need to be effective - probably fear based in the social, safety, or belongingness orders, and carried via viral channels like word of mouth or social (viral).

I haven’t really thought about it too much but it’s just a communication or a reinforced message; it’s just advertising. Think about it that way.

And with regard to Russia, they are all ‘fear the West’ and ‘national pride’ driven, compounded over 3-4 generations. It would be such an easy spin.

Shit, my guy or gal.

That’s put my mind massively at ease. Thank you for putting the time in.

And yes, behavioural/clinical is exactly the path I’d go down.

I’m not. I’m aware of how selfish it is but something in my system of belief that I have (undefined? spiritual? no idea?) says that when I’m dead, I should be ALL dead.

Like, if there’s any kind of afterlife, will leaving a functioning part me behind hold up the transition? This even sounds fucked up to me because I’m 100% not religious at all.

I would just prefer all of me to be dead or all of me to be alive. Not fractions of both at the same time.

Kids are about the only thing Italians can beat in a fight.

Amirite?

New research is suggesting caffeine’s stimulant effects are caused by the placebo effect anyway. The idea of decaf is kind of void if true.

I can offer you a very small example of a difference in thinking that I experience.

I’m a grown ass man and I can’t easily tell my left from right. The best example of this is when I’m gaming and the tutorial tells me to press ‘left thumb stick’, I usually fuck it up. It took me a long time and a lot of thinking on it to realise what was going on. For me, left and right is not instinctive like up or down, but rather, it’s either a feeling, or not a feeling.

The reason for this is because when I was 5 I nearly lost my left index finger in an accident. It was reattached, but during the healing process I was constantly told my left finger was the one I hurt, so I literally learnt left from right as ‘injury’ or ‘no injury’, which I then attributed to as ‘hurt’ or ‘not hurt’.

So now, when I have to choose left or right, my brain has to remember an injury and where it was, then kind of feel that injury and tell myself that yes, I feel it so that’s left, or no, I feel nothing so that’s right. These steps take more time than a normal person’s automatic reaction to left or right direction.

Imagine someone touching you and saying, “does this hurt”. It takes time to figure out if it hurts or not and then reply. Thats what I’m doing every time I need to identify left or right, and if there’s no time for that, like “quick, make a right turn here”, I’m forced to guess.

And there is no way for me to unlearn this.

My experiences with stink.

• Old people. Some were raised to shower infrequently because regular bathing wasn’t a luxury they had access to growing up. They carry this habit with them now. Source: I used to work with lots of old people.

• People from cold climates who move to warmer ones. Sure, in Amsterdam you can shower once a week but move to Australia and you stink. Source: My ex-father-in-law is Dutch, living in Australia.

• People who avoid soaps and deodorants because they prefer natural alternatives or ‘splashing and rinsing’. They think they don’t stink. Most girls I’ve met with bad smelling vaginas fall into this category. Source: Dating.

• Teenagers who haven’t worked out puberty yet. Source: Used to work in a school.

• Re-wearing unwashed clothes too many times. Source: Figured this one myself.

• People who prefer to stink. When you don’t bathe and don’t use deodorant, you get used to the icky feeling and the smell to the point where you prefer it, and a shower and soap then makes you uncomfortable (itchy/tingly). Source: Ex-girlfriend.

Yeah, hi. I’m lactose and gluten intolerant and I was wondering if…

Back in the early days of Reddit if you edited something it was marked as such, but people didn’t know what you edited. So, as a courtesy, you explained your edit.

Lots of platforms now have an ‘edited’ notification so it’s still common to leave the ‘E:’ comment.

1. Morrowind
2. World of Warcraft (2004-2007)
3. God of War (2018)

We live in a time of most access, most abundance, and most peace. Even if you’re doing it tough, you still have it better than most humans in history ever have.

Relish in that because it probably won’t last. We could be remembered as the 2 or 3 generations to ever live in a golden age of resources, space, health, access, opportunity and freedom.

I often eat a meal and look at my plate and think… the components and flavours on this plate alone come from 5 or 6 countries, while I’m sitting in total safety and comfort, while also being entertained in some way, and if I want I can immediately talk to my family or friends, who live 3,000kms away, who I know are all alive and healthy.

Some of that wouldn’t have been true two decades ago. Probably none of it would have been true for people 100 years ago. Probably most it won’t be true for people in 100 years.

We really are in the sweet spot.

Blocking a handful of something hasn’t worked for me. I must have blocked about 100 anime/furry porn sites and I still get a dozen every day in my ALL feed.

Even when I sort HOT, they still come up constantly with no comments and no upvotes.

Ahh, fair. I got some WW1 and WW2 details mixed up. I’ll edit so I’m not feeding false info.

How long do you have? Here’s the very brief summary, and full disclaimer, I don’t have dog in this race.

1. Jerusalem is an important place for both Jews and Muslims.

2. They’ve been fighting over this space for two millenia. The Roman’s had it for a long time (Christian), the Ottomans had it for a long time (Islamic).

3. After WW1 and the Ottomans were defeated, it passed onto the Turkish (Islamic).

4. After WW2, with Britain now in control of it (Palestine) and with the surviving Jews now displaced worldwide with no country to live, the U.N decided to give Jews a new home and call this new place the State of Israel. They put Israel right in the middle of Palestine, which no Islamic nation could object to because they were all defeated in war.

5. Since then, Jews call Israel their home country. Surrounding Islamic countries don’t recognise Israel and want the Jews to leave.

6. Islamic nations including Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Iran, Syria have all gone to war with Israel (the 6-day War) to kick the Jews out. They’ve all lost because Israel is militarily backed by world powers. Israel is now a military powerhouse and have full control of the region.

7. Israel allow Muslim Palestinians small areas to live in the area, namely Gaza and the West Bank, but they’re not particularity nice to the Muslims living there. This is the Palestinian/Israeli war that’s been going on for almost a century.

8. This space is now two main religions crammed into a very small space. Both claim that it’s their ancestral land. Islamic nations don’t recognise Israel as a country. Most of the rest of the world does.

9. Israel has become a defensive fortress with nukes, and is surrounded by five countries that hate it. No Islamic nation is strong enough to beat Israel. Skirmishes and shit fighting continues. Sometimes it gets serious. This week it got really serious.

10. This fight will probably go on forever because of the religious significance of Jerusalem which neither the Israelis or Palestinians will ever give up claim to.

11. So who’s right and who’s wrong? Probably neither. Probably both. Probably humans are just shit.

EDIT: I know there’s lots of missing parts here but honestly, the full story would be a semester of university worth of info. I tried to keep this ultra-digestible, without bias or conspiracy or finger pointing.

Thank you below for the corrections.

I love Starfield. My mates love Starfield. It’s Fallout meets No Man’s Sky meets Mass Effect.

It’s just another kick ass Bethesda game in a long list of kick ass Bethesda games IMO.