Don’t a ton of the episodes deal with life outside the federation, boldly go where no (hu)man has gone before and all that? Hell, DS9 took place on a space station outside the federation…

Or do they mean outside Starfleet? I wouldn’t mind that show, it’d be nice to see the daily lives of people in or out of the Federation who aren’t part of a pseudo-military style organization.

Also… Risa was part of the Federation. Unless that was retconned with nu-trek or something…

Arin, is that you?

What leaf blower allows for neat little piles?

… what do you think “consumable” means?

Voting.

It’s not direct, and it’s not simple, but it’s about as good as it gets in any kind of representative democracy.

Yes, and if the kebab store pitched a fit every time someone provided a better product than them, calling that competition a monopolist, I’d have the same criticism of that kebab shop.

If they’re just doing their best to provide a quality product… I wouldn’t like that they have a monopoly, but if they’re not in any way abusing it… that sounds like they’ve earned their place. The problem lies in the people not putting forth enough effort (despite have the resources to do so) to match.

… because now your weird obsession with blaming Steam for all things going wrong with gaming has less ground to stand on?

So the systemic reason of… providing a quality storefront? Are you demanding that they just make things shittier so that other people have a chance?

This has got to be the most twisted criticism of Steam I’ve ever heard…

… right, which is why I said they want a monopoly, not that they have a monopoly.

Are they providing an actual alternative, or just creating a pseudo alternative then bitching about how someone else gets more attention?

Sounds like that was Sega.

That was on the developers, not the storefront, though. Epic has specifically decided they don’t give a flying fuck about Linux.

Steam is their scapegoat, they want a Monopoly without having to say they have a Monopoly.

Its not the main reason they do it.

More money is, of course, nice for them. But that doesn’t mean it’s their main reason. We can ascribe all sorts of benevolent reasoning to politicians, but reality often disagrees.

It’s a regressive policy made as a reaction, and not an action, and thus inherently destructive.

That’s the excuse they give, yes. That doesn’t mean it’s why they do it, though.

And here I have to pay more to register my hybrid.

Yeah, it signals to every both sider that they were right all along, and all the people they’ve been prosthelytizing to might actually start believing them.

If you want to be on the side of democracy, you don’t just decide to stop being democratic unless you’ve given up.

You’re not going to solve anything by playing by their rules, you’re only going to galvanize them. They are the party of “government doesn’t work”, doing this just gives them more ammo.

I think it’d look better with a belt.

Cooking takes time, ingredients, and if you want it palatable, ability. Fast food takes driving up to a location and saying “give me something easy”.

It’s not as fast as it used to be, but it’s still relatively quick, especially if it’s on your way home from wherever you are. Any extra time is just spent doomscrolling on your phone or listening to your preferred media pundit.

Don’t forget his terrorist fist jab.