Open Thread

Open Thread #284

Aaron "Sleazy" Elias

The Open Thread is a place for open discussion among my readers. Post anything you feel like sharing! From now on, the Open Thread will no longer be monthly. Instead, there will be a new Open Thread whenever it is adequate. The stage is yours. Go ahead!

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59 thoughts on “Open Thread #284”

  1. Trump is getting more supports.

    If what happened last time was election fraud, do you guys think it is gonna be another round next year?

    Reply

    1. You can bet that the Democrats will try to pull off another round of election fraud.

    2. If there would be an election fraud, then Democrats aren’t the masterminds. You can imagine the banking industry and the military complex work hands in hands to overturn the will of the People.

      I am so anxious to see how this plays out.

  2. I just watched Bullet Train (2022), an action movie with Brad Pitt that was recommended to me. I think it’s a solid 7/10, certainly good enough to watch to the end. If you like action with slapstick elements and don’t mind excessive gore, this movie might be for you. The plot is simple, but it is told in a pretty convoluted way, almost in the style of Tarantino: [This is a spoiler!] Some mob boss hires six killers to get something done, and puts them into the same Japanese bullet train. Unfortunately, the movie leaves you in the dark for a bit too long so that you are left wondering if you are supposed to take anything serious at all as you only watch people trying to kill each other on a train. Only towards the end it makes a more sense.

    Pros:
    – Good action, well choreographed
    – Witty banter between the protagonists
    – Great acting by Brad Pitt. He basically carries the movie.

    Cons:
    – Excessive runtime with over two hours, some tedious filler towards the end
    – Too much of wokism. Of the six killers, we have two white guys, one black guy who is a perfect gentleman and a particularly witty conversationalist, one Latino, one black woman, and one flabby white chick who is the deadliest of all.
    – Some shitty CGI
    – One of the female killers pretends to be a school girl, dressing in cute clothes. Too bad she is a few pounds to heavy and looks way too old for that. Her overly masculine face adds insult to injury. Consequently, her scenes are quite jarring.

    Reply

  3. So Tucker Carlson no longer works for fox.
    There are no details yet whether he got fired or he quit.

    Reply

    1. Not surprising. I was wondering when it would happen. It was so obvious he is not corporate enough to be there. He did start and work on his own podcast a while back. Perhaps it was his exit. I was wondering how he had time to do both a show on fox, and his own private show on the side. Guess he decided to double the work so he has something to exit to.

    5. Tucker has been marked for death for a while. The timing of Tucker’s firing is related to the Dominion lawsuit, because Fox is going to have a nightmare Q2 they went ahead and axed Tucker.

      Remember when Congress decided to release the January 6 tapes not to the public but specifically to Tucker? That was when I was 100% sure he about to be severed from Fox.

      I guess we’ll see if Tucker has an audience willing to move and pay like Jimmy Dore, or basically sink into irrelevance like Bill O’Riley.

  4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6scq3eC3PqA

    My god,this has to be one of the most blatant displays of entitlement that I’ve ever seen.

    You know,this does seem like another good way to potentially weed out women of unsavory character (or a gold digger who doesn’t genuinely like you) early on. An invitation to your place for a home cooked meal on the 2nd date.

    Reply

    1. This is painful to watch. It is not clear why this guy even keeps arguing with her. He should just kick her out seconds after she opened her mouth to berate him. Cooking a meal at home takes a lot more effort than just going to a restaurant, and as she is seemingly not used to cooking herself, she is unaware of this fact. Her attitude is unbearable.

  6. This is kind of old news now, but did anyone ever catch that Mine Craft streamers face reveal a while back? His name was “Dream”. Apparently, everyone was thinking he was going to be some gigachad behind the mask, but when he finally revealed his face people started making fun of him and bashing him for his appearance. The thing is, I don’t even think he looks ugly. At the very least he looks average and maybe even slightly above average (I don’t really know how to judge the dude, honestly): https://files.catbox.moe/593v0v.jpeg

    Reply

    1. I don’t think this guy is ugly but I would not call him a Chad. He has a great voice, though, which may explain why people were disappointed when he finally revealed himself.

  7. what do you think about mindest, dating advice from andrew tate. and also what are your views on Andrew Tate before and after converting to Islam?

    Reply

    1. I get the sense that with the success of RE4 and probably the massive success that will be TotK and FFXVI, that maybe this overly woke bullshit will at least hopefully blow over some. I mean, the damage is done and I doubt we’re going to get big titted manga sluts being put in their place by absolute Chad protagonists anytime soon. However, with the overly vocal backlash against all these woke IPs lately and the utter failure that was Forspoken, it is surely quite something. How long can you just alienate your core fan base for anyway? Seems like a stupid business model.

  9. I am currently reading the French translation of Aphorism On The Wisdom of Life of Schopenhauer.

    I have also looked into the German original text.

    I wonder if Sleazy can post some comments on Schopenhauer’s style of writing in German.

    Today, I visited a local bookstore in Vietnam and found a translation of Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil, published by Penguin. I ran a search online and found out that even though there are good translations, none of those can preserve the originality of Nietzsche’s German prose. Very interesting.

    On Sleazy’s forum, there is also a recommendation for The Art of Being Right by Schopenhauer. I think I would check out on the internet as well.

    Reply

    1. Schopenhauer writes absolutely beautiful German. He is a master wordsmith. What I particularly like about him is that he is not in the least bit dry, with a pleasant sense of humor that occasionally is acerbic, but for good reason. You probably want to get your hands on a proper academic edition of his works with footnotes that provide missing context. Quite often he makes references to historical events, quotes foreign-language books, in the original, or refers to contemporary figures. It is probably a much better experience for you to be able to read footnotes when needed as opposed to embarking on an online search when something seems unclear.

    2. You probably want to get your hands on a proper academic edition of his works with footnotes that provide missing context.

      What editions are you using?

      Have you read his major work The World as Will and Representation?

      I have tried to slog through Kant, but find him too hard to understand. My background is Buddhism so I find many things from Schopenhauer easier to understand. I have only beginning to read his Aphorism so I would withhold any comment for now.

      What do you think of Nietzsche? Have you read him too?

    3. I own editions for academic use (German: “Studienausgabe”) of the complete works of both Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. You can get them both in softcover format in Germany, so the cost is reasonable.

      I have read though all of Schopenhauer’s works, some of it multiple times, and Nietzsche’s works I have read once. Kant does not really appeal to me either. When it comes to philosophy, Schopenhauer is my guy. I found his writings to be much more relevant for understanding the world than Nietzsche, with some genuinely thought-provoking insights. Some of Nietzsche’s writing I find highly speculative and also quite irrelevant. Even his first book, “Geburt der Tragödie” (lit. Birth of Tragedy) seems to have been mostly made up. Some of it is total schizo-tier.

  10. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GeelZuwRxhY

    Can you see that soldier’s face?

    Seraient-ils neuf cent quatre-vingt-quinze millions et moi tout seul, c’est eux qui ont tort, Lola, et c’est moi qui ai raison, parce que je suis le seul à savoir ce que je veux : je ne veux plus mourir.

    Voyage au bout de la nuit

    I wonder if at night Putin ever heard the wailings of countless young men from both sides who are forcibly entered the country from whose bourn no travellers return. They have all hastily departed right at the age to fall in love, instead of falling here as bodies stripped bare, exposed to the intense summer sun. Surely what he has taken from them cannot be redeemed by sincere tears or mere regret. All are lost in a war of wanton desire and power thirst.

    There is nothing that is valuable in this life, except two extremities: death and plague.

    Reply

    1. War is hell. However, at this point I don’t think it’s realistic to think that it can be avoided. The global situation is way too complicated, and the West is too aggressive to be ignored. In any case, I think a war waged for territory, riches, women etc. is much more honest than any ideological campaign.

    2. The US use Ukranians like rotten meat, feeding into the mouth of the giant sick Russian bear to poison it.

      And the whole world watch in tremor, waiting to be brain-fried in a nuclear strike.

      Only the deaths ever see the end of war

      …and escape the claw of plague.

    1. There’s probably no Zelda game on the PC,is there?

      Honestly,the most modern console I ever owned was the PS2. Never owned anything more advanced than this before going over to the PC,and then using emulators if I wanted to play console exclusive games.

      Interestingly enough though,I hear emulators of newer consoles have actually seen more development than the PS3 and Xbox360,which I hear are difficult to emulate for a variety of reasons which I forget at the moment. haha.

    2. You can play all Zelda games on PC via emulators. Any PC that is not more than ten years old or so should be fine. For Breath of the Wild you probably need a somewhat beefier machine but surely nothing too excessive as long as you are fine with playing at the original settings as opposed to cranking the resolution up to 4k.

    3. Don’t underestimate Shaqueesha’s gaming prowess! This reminds me of Cyberpunk 2077 footage leaking to the public. Of all people, two black kids got their hands on one of the console versions. It is conceivable that they had stolen it even though they surely never would have done that. The resulting video was highly entertaining as they had absolutely no idea what they were doing and struggled with basic controls. They were barely at the skill level of a game journo. As this brief documentary by Nintendo shows, though, the blacks have stepped up their gaming skills big time since then.

    4. Well, to be fair it took her like three tries to figure out to put the fuckin’ mine cart on the rails. Maybe Nintendo is onto something with this.

    6. TotK looks great. Probably you can easily sink 100 hours into it. How much time did you spend on BotW, by the way?

    7. I don’t exactly know, but certainly over 100 hours. The first time I beat it was when my friend gave me his Wii U with a copy of it and told me to play it. It was the first single player game I had sat down and played through for years. Later on I got a Switch copy and played through the master mode, did all 120 shrines and beat the monk boss to get the motorcycle. A bit after that I started a new normal mode file and did a straight to Ganon run, which was quite challenging. There were still a few things I never completed because I lost interest, such as the master sword trials.

      I recall you ended up no really liking it and sold it?

    8. Yes, exactly. I thought that Link controlled very well but I was also aware that there is a huge world to explore ahead of me, which I did not have the time for at that point. This was back in 2017. The only long single-player game I tackled since then is Dragon Quest XI on the Switch in 2020.

    9. How are the RE games coming along, btw? I’m ready for you to get started on RE2 already. Play Leon’s campaign.

    10. I have blocked some time this week for RE 7. Hopefully I will be done with it by Sunday. (I’m still in the second mansion.) My plan is to play RE Village afterwards, followed by the RE2 and RE3 remakes.

    11. I liked RE8 pretty well. The story is not great but the gameplay is pretty fun, although a bit too linear at times maybe. That’s not necessarily terrible actually. However, I don’t think any of the RE games have been able to match the stellar open-ended sort of layout that the original two did, aside from the remakes of course.

      I plan to spend several months playing TotK, and I want to drip feed this game. I’ve been doing and am also planning to do some more self-improvement projects and other hobbies, like music. I’ve been walking a lot lately and it’s sort of reset my brain in a lot of ways actually, I feel. However, my next game to tackle will be Sekiro. The only thing that sucks about FromSoft games is that they never seem to go on sale via Steam. And even if they did it probably wouldn’t be that much of a deal. So, Sekiro will probably end up being a $60 purchase. However, considering that I only really plan to purchase two more games this year it doesn’t really bother me a ton.

    12. I spent about an hour and a half just walking around in nature here, which was great. Normally, I take shorter walks but the weather was just lovely. Easy access to nature is probably the biggest benefit of living outside of a big city, next to getting a break from all that vibrant diversity, even though, to my great surprise, recently an astrophysicist from the Middle East and his niquabbed wife moved in around here, in a village of about 1,000 people.

      Sekiro might be available via Fitgirl Repacks (in GTA, of course).

    13. What is the third game you want to purchase, after Sekiro and Totk? Is it still Sea of Stars?

    14. “…recently an astrophysicist from the Middle East…”

      Lol.

      I think I’m going to take your advice and wait for a SoS to go on sale. That’ll also give me time to research it and find some honest reviews of it. I liked the demo, I think it’ll be good and provide a nice nostalgic sort of JRPG experience. Also, I’m really holding out hope that Silent Hill 2 will be good. I honestly don’t see how the battle mechanics can’t be improved upon at least, but SH2 is arguably one of the best games ever made from a narrative perspective and it already looks like they’re ruining James’ character just from the trailer. The audience was never supposed to know he was so guilt stricken yet it’s being telegraphed so blatantly. In any case, I think Bloober is pretty decent at creating a good atmosphere. Check out some footage of The Observer.

    16. Armored Core is a really old series and even the most hardcore fans of it are quick to point out its flaws. On the one hand, I find it commendable that From Software is going to release a sequel of this series instead of yet another game in the vein of Dark Souls but on the other it seems that they can only lose. This series has never sold a lot of games but its small fan base may have a very narrow view on what an Armored Core game should play like, so they will alienate those people if the latest entry in this series will play much differently. This is a small price to pay but if they are willing to pay it, why not just create a new IP? On the other hand, if they want to cater to their old fanbase, then they probably cannot expect a lot of sales. Quite frankly, after watching the trailer, I am not at all impressed. This game does not appeal to me in the slightest.

  13. Everyone see that Crowder is getting divorced? I hope this wakes up those conservatives who still simp hard

    Reply

  14. @Sleazy,

    I am starting to take an interest in Philosophy. The field that I like to explore is Epistemology. For the time being, I have chosen John Locke. I could see myself reading David Hume afterwards. Some philosophers wrote in a style that was much more condensed and unfriendly to beginners, like Kant. I know you adore Schopenhauer much of your lives but do you know any of his work that deals with the question of how we acquire knowledge? Is his massive tome “The World as Will and Representation” a good work for this field. I am really curious about him because there is an obvious affinity between Schopenhauer and Indian Philosophy. That closeness is enough to engender a firm trust. I am myself a sceptic and am quite erred on the side of pessimism, so a calm voice like Schopenhauer is very appealing.

    I have read on your blog that you found Peter Unger and Peter Singer interesting. I have looked into them but they seem quite lieftish. Perhaps you have shifted your interest from them?

    The reason I am interested in Philosophy now is because as I dwell deeper into Speech Language Therapy, I find that there are a lot of abstract questions that should belong to traditional inquiries by philosophers. The nature of our perceptions and the world represented by it is quite a fascinating topic to contemplate.

    Reply

    1. My views on both Peter Unger and the ultra-Jew Peter Singer changed quite a bit. Singer’s Practical Ethics could as well have been titled Practical Judaism. I re-read his description of embryos a while ago and found it thoroughly off-putting. Peter Unger I used to find quite entertaining but his reasoning is pretty sloppy at times. He is furthermore very verbose.

      I studied epistemology in quite some depth in the past. This is an interesting subject in its own right, but I don’t think you should expect it to lead to any fundamental insights into how you perceive the world. You can probably save yourself a lot of time by just reading a few relevant entries in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, such as this one: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/knowledge-analysis/

    2. Oh I know Stanford’s encyclopedia. It seems very comprehensive and is a good start for philosophers.

      Do you study Ontology too? What do you think of it?

      I wonder why we stop having more interesting philosophers and thinkers in modern time. Consistent to the theory propagated by this blog, it seems that the decline in cognition, the destruction of intellectual autonomy, a disdain for intellectualism most noticeably among students in the US, the hostility of the elite, might play a role in this.

      Oh, just a personal question, but I have a feeling that you have past the age of knowledge explorating and now is more inclined to tackle practical matters, is this true? On the old forum, there were more discussions of intellectual topics than here.

    3. I have not looked too deeply into ontology. There is also the problem that modern science made large parts of philosophy completely redundant. In this field there were debates about certain natural laws that look bizarre in hindsight, yet may have been important back then. It seems that in the present time, all philosophers of science have left is waffling about the nature of causation, reaching the realm of the metaphysical at times. By this I mean that some of the supposedly most serious contemporary philosophy appears to be little more than speculation.

      Yes, I have certainly shifted from intellectualizing to discussing topics of practical relevance.

    4. Do you agree that mathematics has made a successful encroachment to modern Philosophy? I have skimmed through your website and find in there many imprints of mathematical language.

      It seems that in modern time, you cannot do much philosophy without being competent in Math.

    6. I believe a lot of the most influential Greek philosophers were really into geometry.

    7. Weird. I tried making this comment once and it didn’t seem to stick because I double tapped the post button, so later I tried again.

    8. This should not surprise anyone. Modern software development is a total shit show. We can be glad that anything works at all anymore.

    9. @Pickernanny
      My feeling about the age of traditional geometry, that is geometry with figures, is that its glorious days have passed. In pure Math, algebra and analysis walk hands in hands nowaday.

    10. @Pickernanny
      No but I don’t mean the role of Math in ancient Greece.

      I mean modern Philosophy relies on modern mathematical formalism and statistical concepts to make arguments. Thus a perfunctory knowledge in set theory and formal logic unlocks more door to you if you want to understand current Philosophy.

    11. “I mean modern Philosophy relies on modern mathematical formalism and statistical concepts to make arguments. Thus a perfunctory knowledge in set theory and formal logic unlocks more door to you if you want to understand current Philosophy.”

      No, a masters in parapsychology is infinitely more valuable in terms of modern philosophy versus some silly statistics.

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