GBS

safra

safra

long shot but if anyone's gonna be at GP Vancouver later this month I intend to host a cube draft and you're more than welcome! probably on day 2.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Onderzeeboot said:
I'm stunned the Leave campaign won in the UK. This is going to have major ramifications for the future of Europe. I can't imagine a scenario where this move is financially advantageous for the UK, and the renegotiations of all treaties will be a nightmare... Baffled. There might be other consequences as well. I've already heard talks about Scotland seceding and Northern Ireland joining Ireland so they can remain in the EU, and I know there are politicians in the Netherlands brooding on a Stay/Leave referendum to try and force a Nexit, and there's other countries that might follow the UK's lead as well. This result might split the UK and Europe. Terrible. At least from my point of view.
Click to expand...

Follow-up: Thanks to the drama on the other side of the Channel, over 70% of the Netherlands is now in favor of staying with the EU. Well, at least there's some upside to this whole mess!
 
safra

safra

On brexit:

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sigh

sigh

Rutger Bregman is a good egg. Takes some Hutzpah to call out an entire room of rich folk in Davos right to their faces.
 
sigh

sigh

His talk goes hard from sentence one tbh: "This is my first time in Davos, and I find it a auite bewildering experience, to be honest; 1500 private jets have flown in here to you know, speak about how we are wrecking the planet"

And maximum credit to Winnie Byanyima, stepping in and noting that High Employment does not equal Good Employment. She is an integral part of the overall taxation argument
 
TrainmasterGT

TrainmasterGT

This was a long time coming, and I am so glad it finally happened.

This guy's channel used to be the largest MTG youtube channel on the internet. He basically opened booster boxes of magic cards. This was before the days of the new great channels like TolarianCommunityCollege and Pleasant Kenobi. It was pretty much the only half-decent Magic content on youtube, save The Magic Show.

When I was like 12, I absolutely loved his content.

Then, around 2016, something horrible happened. With the publishing of the video "Censorship in the Magic community," USM was transformed from the headquarters for magic content on the internet into some sort of weird right-wing demagoguing channel. It wasn't about the game anymore so much as it was attacking so-called "sJw's."

Then #magicgate happened, the guy who runs this channel got banned from playing magic after his fans bullied a cosplayer out of the community, and then he started a hateful "news" channel called "the Quartering."

Now, I normally wouldn't bring this up, but I have had so much deep seeded resentment for this guy for a long, long time.

During "MagicGate," I was still pretty young. I'm not even an adult (age-wise) yet as I sit here writing this post. I was in a stage in my life when my mind was beginning to mature to a point where I could understand political and moral issues with a fair amount of depth, but I was young and naive enough to be unable to distinguish truth from lies in social discourse. Unfortunately, I had been a fan of USM, so I thought that he was in the right, at least to some extent. When he started "the Quartering" I even watched along. It took me until the guy was literally banned from playing in sanctioned tournaments to realize that I was being lied to. I remember watching a video called "Tolarian Community College supports Political Violence" (which I am not linking because the video is absolutely abhorrent), and I came to the shocking revelation that this content was quite literally soft-core Nazi propaganda. I don't want to call the creator of the video a Nazi, because that isn't constructive, but that type of video leads people to become de-sensitized to Nazi and White Nationalist rhetoric.

I'm a pretty smart kid. I graduated from high school at 15 and assuming all things go according to plan; I am going to be finishing two associates degrees while the rest of my friends are high school juniors and seniors. If the rhetoric of Unsleeved Media can fool me, then imagine what could happen to all of the other vulnerable teens who consume his content. Although "the Quartering" is now too hardcore to be considered a gateway to Nazism and White Nationalism, it could still be a part of the pipeline of deceit.

Good riddance.
 
safra

safra

The issue of a pipeline to Nazism is something that seems to have happened to, like, a third of the internet's content creators. Youtube feeds white nationalism to children in, like, a mere 5 autoplayed videos. That should be abhorrent to any thinking observer, but instead, people tell you that if you want to make it big on YouTube, you should talk about SJWs and encourage your viewers to develop parasocial relationships.

If it's any consolation, people like you are actually the easiest to radicalize. Your friends in high school have peers their age in a way you don't - pushing you to find that parasocial connection with USM.

Crackgate proved that the mtg community doesn't have a sense of humour, which is definitely tied in with its bitter sexism and general obsequiousness. I don't see us getting much better unless we can support and popularize diverse content creators and get everyone to yell at the Nazis faster than the Nazis can yell at women on the internet. I'd love to be surprised, but I don't see that coming any time soon.

Congrats and my immense joy at your escape from this world and worldview. You've always seemed like you had a good head on your shoulders - this post here is a great sign that that's true. Keep on keeping on, duder.
 
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