Open Thread

Open Thread #317

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46 thoughts on “Open Thread #317

  1. The discussion on the power and beauty of men got me thinking of an article I read a long time ago in Cosmopolitan. It was about different male looks women are into and what it says about them. Basically it said that women who were into either very masculine looking men or very pretty boys tend to be at both the extremely submissive or extremely dominant ends of the spectrum. They tend not to be in the middle no matter which type they prefer. Is there any truth to this? I mean, it is Cosmo lol.

    1. I would generally not consider Cosmo an authoritative source, or any woman’s magazine, for that matter. However, this particular example does not strike me as implausible. However, I can think of many other explanations, i.e. women wanting to date very masculine-looking men having a greater need to be protected. This does not mean that these women are extremely submissive, though, at least in an everyday interpretation of this word. For Cosmo standards, any woman dating a guy whom she could not easily beat up is probably “submissive”.

  2. From the NY Post: “A New York University professor is sounding the alarm about a looming social crisis for young men driven by the rise of “AI sex bots” and excessive consumption of pornography.”

    These people are confusing cause and effect. AI and porn didn’t drive young men out of the dating market. Women and their enablers did.

    Are they worried because enough men have dropped out that they can’t squeeze much more blood out of the male-to-female wealth transfer turnip via existing means (inflation, taxes, anti-male discrimination in college and the workplace, the divorce industry, etc etc etc)?

    1. There has been a significant rise in anti-male rhetoric in recent months, which I ascribe to the worsening macroeconomic environment. Quite often, women are the first ones to get laid off, which is when they realize that it would be great to get a man to support them, and the primary method of the mainstream to keep this racket going was to shame men. The current hope is presumably that by banning porn men will be more inclined to date real women again. This may sound far-fetched, but I think that this motivation is behind the recent push towards adding ID-based age verification to porn sites. I do not think you need to be particularly distrusting of tech companies to not upload a picture of your passport.

    2. “the recent push towards adding ID-based age verification to porn sites”

      It’s reassuring to know they’re retarded enough to think (1) anyone still pays for porn and (2) people will not find ways around this months before it can be finalized, let alone rolled out.

      If they actually could ban porn, my guess is the only result would be a lot more cultural misunderstandings between women and imported doctors and engineers.

    3. “by banning porn men will be more inclined to date real women again.”

      This is reminding me of a past blog article by Roissy,where he showed there is a not-insignificant correlation between the availability of porn,escorts,and sexual services in general to how frequently rape and general sexual harassment (I’m talking the real deal,and not the feminist’s twisting of the term) happens in a society.

      Less porn = more rape basically.

      I don’t want to say conclusively yet if this is all correct,but there IS a correlation between sexual frustration and violence in men. Removing an outlet for the less sexually successful, I can see it backfiring big time.

  3. For all men of culture, I warmly recommend Being a DIK. I am done with the first season and found it very entertaining, even spending more time in front of the computer than initially planned, just to see how the story would continue. This is something I have not done in years. Overall, this game is a huge improvement over Acting Lessons, which was already very good. The story-telling is a lot tighter, albeit there is still a bit too much going.

    Some of the humor is quite edgy, which makes it so good. In Acting Lessons, there is a joke at the beginning where you are given the option to kiss a woman you don’t really know on the mouth, which results in her punching you in the face and the narrator telling you that “this is not what happened”, before resetting the scene and taking this option away. Yet, in Being a DIK, you are given similar options that have actual story impact, such as a — SPOILER ALERT — party at a strip club, with some horny stripper going on all fours and pushing her behind in your face. The game offers you to watch, stick a finger in her pussy, or stick a finger into her anus, without any kind of build-up. As you can probably imagine, none of those options leads to sex.

  4. There is currently a horrible attack on Israel going on. Being a Zionist myself, I do not need to spell out where my sympathies lie. As much as I am a Zionist, I am also a supporter of the feminist cause. Thus, I would never mock an Israeli woman who takes a selfie as she is being dragged off by the enemy:
    https://uploads.kiwifarms.st/data/video/5383/5383145-8123a34ebadd757d9049ef0eec725ee9.mp4
    A much unkinder soul would refer to this as a “peak woman moment”, albeit I have to admit that I do not really know what this is supposed to mean.

    1. One take is that this will turn out about as well as Pearl Harbor did for Japan. Meaning that Palestine might be severely fucked.

    2. The big difference to Japan in 1941 is that Palestine has a lot of supportive countries nearby, most importantly Iran. Also, early indications are that Israel is not ready for this conflict. At least from a layman’s perspective, it seems odd that they are calling up reservists at this point already. Given how much they trump their horn about having the best military in the world, this is not quite what I would expect.

    3. On another note, I find it very revealing to see how many politicians and commentators on the right are so quick to jump to the defense of Israel. Biden is predictably on board, or course. However, plenty of mainstream lefty commentators seem to abhor Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, and even go as far as to call for the halting of all foreign aid and even sanctions should Israel decide to go all out again Palestine.

    4. There seems to have been a music festival for peace and a lot of the people who went there got capture and/or killed. The video you showed seems to be a women who went to that festival too. There are also reports about German Citizen (whatever that means) being captured and then killed.

      In any case this war will probably suck for Europe whatever the outcome.
      If Israel wins, then expect tons of Palestinian refugees in Europe.
      If Palestine wins, then except tons of Israeli refugees in Europe

      If Israel wins, then the new Arab migrants in Europe will cause trouble due to rage.
      If Palestine wins, then the new Arab migrants in Europe will cause trouble due to euphoria.

    5. re: German Citizen

      CNN has confirmed the identity of the woman as Shani Louk, a German-Israeli dual national. CNN has reached out to her family for comment but has not yet received a response.

      Her cousin confirmed to the Washington Post that Louk attended the music festival.

      In the video, Louk is seen motionless. One gunman, carrying a rocket propelled grenade, has his leg draped over her waist; the other holds a clump of her dreadlocks. “Allahu Akbar,” they cheer – meaning “God is great” in Arabic.

      Some of the crowd gathered around the truck join in the cheers. One man spits on Louk’s head as the car drives off.

      CNN does not know Louk’s whereabouts or condition at this time. CNN is not airing the video because it is graphic and disturbing.

      “We recognized her by the tattoos, and she has long dreadlocks,” Louk’s cousin told the Washington Post. “We have some kind of hope … Hamas is responsible for her and the others.”

    6. “There seems to have been a music festival for peace and a lot of the people who went there got capture and/or killed.”

      In this day and age, being amongst any large mass of people, except where you have no choice (e.g. business-related air travel), is insane.

  5. I’ve had quite a few moments where women who are making quite a bit of take home pay are very adamant about sharing exactly how much that figure is. The purpose being to brag about their earning potential and economic status. However, what always stumps me is that these chicks always seem to be living paycheck to paycheck. You can generally probe for more details, such as how much money they have in their bank or brokerage (lol) account, or what their current level of debt is. Usually, not only are they paying an exorbitant amount of money each month on cars, houses, streaming services etc., but it goes much further than that. These chicks will brag about meaningless shopping sprees where their extra funds get nuked—for essentially nothing. Perhaps they’ve taken several trips within merely a month (where hundreds more gets dropped on food and merchandise on each occasion). I’m of the opinion that if you’re making a clean 6 figures but only have a few grand in the bank to show for it, then you’re walking an extremely fine line headed towards complete (financial) annihilation.

    1. The reckless spending behavior of (single) women is probably one reason why the elites were so keen on getting them to join the workforce. I recall reading that “luxury rentals”, in particular studios and 1BRs, are predominantly sought after by women. Without them, this market would likely not even exist because the wealthy would not rent a shoe-box apartment. Its a concept about as ridiculous as getting luxury vehicle the size of a Fiat 500, and if cars were cheaper, I am sure that women would also want that.

      On a more general note, guys are most certainly better off not pairing up with a woman who makes a lot of money as she will expect to keep up her spending habits, even after reducing her hours. If you want to speedrun your way into bankruptcy, go marry that hot-shot lawyer making six figures, or one of those recently laid-off ditzy big-tech “product managers”.

    1. I then found this calculator that gives a pretty in-depth report based on this same information:

      https://www.fitmatic.com/body/calculator/muscular-potential-calculator

      Tells me I only have 5 kilos left to add (in my case its regaining muscle). And that I only have 1 year of training left until I max out what’s possible naturally. I think it’s based on gaining muscle for the first time. In my case it’s regaining muscle, so we’ll see what happens in the next 6 months.

      I also found this other calculator “Muscle Gain Potential Calculator” at legion athletics. Not linking as to not post too many links.

      “Good news! You’ve achieved 89% of your predicted genetic potential for muscle gain. You may be able to gain another 4.9 kg of muscle if you eat and train correctly.”

      This is both good news and depressing at the same time. I literally spent 3 years not lifting a weight, only resumed lifting 2-3 months ago and already back to 89% of physical limit. It’s kind of depressing how low the natural limit is.

    2. “I literally spent 3 years not lifting a weight, only resumed lifting 2-3 months ago and already back to 89% of physical limit. It’s kind of depressing how low the natural limit is.”

      You spent a good amount of effort building muscle when you were younger, no? Sounds like the last 2-3 months of lifting reactivated your muscle memory. For reference, check out Christian Bale’s ridiculous transformations from being incredibly malnourished for a role to back to being buff as fuck again for his following movie. The gains come back very quickly assuming they were there to begin with.

    3. Were Christian Bale’s gains natural? Given his rapid transformations I consider it more likely that he is roiding, just as most other big Hollywood actors.

    4. It was only partially regain, it was mostly (or at least half of this had to do with) not even losing much muscle despite not training. Natural muscle sticks around. I’ve seen stories of female bodybuilders frustrated that they can’t get rid of the muscle for years, because they decided to look feminine, and it just won’t go away.

    5. I wonder if steroid use caused physiological changes in those female bodybuilders that were pretty much undoable. From what you say, you had already pretty much almost maxed out from before. If you’re 90% of the way to your natural genetic potential then you’re probably about at the point of diminishing returns.

    6. If you’re 90% of the way to your natural genetic potential then you’re probably about at the point of diminishing returns.

      Actually no, the calculator assumes this is the most muscle I’ve ever had. I’m yet done done regaining muscle. When I am finished regaining I will know what I had achieved.

    7. Thanks for the link Alek,I’ll definitely check it out later.

      On the topic of getting rid of natural muscle,I have indeed heard that it can be quite a challenge to get rid of if you’ve accumulated enough of it. You can lose fat while minimizing hunger thanks to protein having such a satiating effect(especially when combined with other hunger minimizers such as sufficient fiber,water,and healthy fat intake),but you deliberately have to go on both a calorie AND a protein deficit if your goal is to lose excessive muscle mass.

      Interestingly,women may not even necessarily need to use steroids to get to the point it may pose an issue:

      https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CfwAfjzJNIQ

      Do note however that these are bronze age female pro bodybuilders,who have obviously dedicated their lives to the craft. chicks lifting 3 days a week on a beginner routine still have nothing to worry about.

      I guess over the long haul though,women are better off with something like Calisthenics or Gymnastics. You are definitely not going to get too “bulky” on bodyweight training alone,lol.

  6. As I have been living under a rock, I was not aware that the sequel of one of the most successful PS4 games is going to be released this month. I am referring to Spiderman 2. I knew that there is now a black main protagonist because we are woke now, but I did not know that the love interest of spidey, Mary Jane, got hit with the ugly stick. Sony went out of their way to replace the existing model from the first game with a really ugly one. I bet this is a total coincidence. Modern capitalist theory has no explanation for it because supposedly companies are interested in maximizing profits, not in wasting resources in order to create an inferior product. I would really like to see a breakdown of ESG economics because this is total clown-world territory. Looking at the example of Bud Light or Disney, this train only stops when companies start to lose significant market share. Interestingly, nobody asks about lost profits while the numbers still go up a little bit or are not dropping too much.

    1. Miles Morales got his own spinoff game, however, Spider Man 2 is supposed to feature both Peter Parker and Miles as playable characters.

    2. This was also my impression from watching the trailer, i.e. the two main protagonists are Wakanda-Man and Peter Parker.

    3. Wakanda-man lol. As far as consoles (besides Nintendo) are concerned, I can quite literally see zero incentive to own a PS5, much less an Xbox considering how awful this generation’s games have been. This has to be the worst generation in the history of gaming, all things considered. Normies are full of copium, though, I’m sure. The best new triple A releases this year have been a Zelda game based off the map of a previous game, and a remake.

    4. The PC is the main platform now. Xbox has not had any compelling exclusives since the X360 era, and the biggest PS4 exclusive seems to be Bloodborne, which is more of a niche title. Nintendo is doing their own thing and will probably survive quite easily. The fate of Sony and Microsoft, on the other hand, is a lot less certain. We are at a point where a PC basically pays for itself due to free online gaming. This is not “girl maths” if you have any interest in online gaming. Here in Europe, I would have to pay a cool 71.99 euros/year to Sony for the privilege of playing online. The PS5 is supposed to have a shelf life of about eight years, and games cost more on PSN than on Steam. Ignoring the cost of games, the buy-in price is 550 euros + (72 * 8) = 1.126 euros. This gets you a really decent PC and if you bother to do a bit of research, you can put together a solid PC for about 700 euros.

    5. That figure you quoted is the “essential” package for PS Plus. There are two tiers above going all the way up to $160 for the premium package. More and more I feel like I’m getting my money’s worth from own a Deck. If I wanted to play Titanfall 2 from time to time whenever I felt like it, for example, I’d have to an Xbox live subscription or some shit. The sheer backlog of available games for PC will keep the Deck relative for many years.

    6. The $160/yr. figure made me laugh. As far as I know, there are a lot of games where Sony does not even maintain servers, so the actual connection is done from peer to peer. Thus, they are nothing but a le happy merchant middleman. It is basically extortion at this point.

    7. Aaron, I was recently just thinking about which game I want to play next (new releases only). And there has not been any new exciting announcements even aside from a couple of Konami remakes that are yet TBA in terms of their release. We can assume some there will be more Resident Evil games, but there is zero official news on that. CDPR is assumed to be pozzed with regards to The Witcher, and Nintendo seems to be winding down on big new releases as they try squeeze every last drop out of the Switch (there won’t even be TotK DLC apparently, as it is assumed that all hands are on deck for the next generation of Zelda development). I might need to really assess what games I’m going to play in the meantime. Perhaps now is a good time to get more into classic games, as well as some of those shmups and puzzle games I’ve collected.

    8. Speaking of the Nintendo Switch, Super Mario Wonder will be released in a few days. It looks pretty solid, based on the little bits of gameplay footage I have seen. Otherwise, I am not aware of any noteworthy upcoming games.

      Have you put serious time into Crimzon Clover yet? It is truly excellent. For many months, my side-game has been Tetris the Grand Master 2, which is also on the Switch. A while ago I finally achieved the M-grade in T.A. Death, easily the most difficult skill-based challenge I have overcome in a few decades of gaming; GM is still way out of reach. My current main game is Being a DIK. It is a lot better than Acting Lessons, which is already a very good game. Minor criticisms are that the plot is still a bit overloaded but much less than in Acting Lessons. I also think that it is a negative that the game is so incredibly long. You are looking at about ten hours per season, and there are two seasons, with a third on the way. There are a lot of branching story paths, but I am not sure I will bother with multiple playthroughs.

      Which puzzle games are you looking forward to playing?

    9. Sorry for falling off here. I am going to play Dark Wood next, but I think I’m going to attempt to study and get a bit better at Puyo Puyo at some point as far as puzzle games go. Of all the shmups I own I have put the most time into Caladrius Blaze. That game just never stops being fun. I have not put any serious time into Crimson Clover or DoDonPachi as of yet. I feel like CB is easier for plebs like me to enjoy because the graphics are “better” and there are sluts with big tits in it. I also want to pick up Gun Vein when I catch it on sale again, but then I’ll probably stop collecting shmups after that. I figure if those don’t keep me entertained, then no others really will. Another game I have my eye on is Blasphemous 2.

      As far as Mario Wonder goes I can’t say I’m really interested in it. I can certainly see why it is praiseworthy, and it’s nice that there is finally a 2D Mario game where they seemingly decided to take some risks and create something a bit more innovative. There were a string of 2D Mario games that all just seemed bland and to be playing it too safe. Personally, I just can’t really get excited by 2D platformers at the moment, and haven’t for a real long time. The last one I played was probably Sonic Mania (years ago), which was not only very nostalgic but also quite incredible, I thought.

    10. 2D platformers are a strange genre as it is essentially dead, if we ignore the “maso-core” subgenre, which do not have mainstream appeal. The only noteworthy traditional 2D platformers are made by Nintendo, i.e. Mario and Donkey Kong, and each such franchise gets about one game a decade. I can’t even say I feel compelled to play these games anymore. However, whenever I pick one up, I get quite into it. This happened when I played Super Mario/Luigi U and also Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, and a few 3DS games.

    11. I will say that there for a while whenever I visited my one friend there for a while who had a copy of Rayman Legends installed on his Switch, that it was always a blast to co-op it together. Platformers are probably best enjoyed with a friend, in my opinion. There’s the added benefit that you can generally just pick up and play these types of games with very little narrative, or if there is a bit in the beginning then you can just ignore it and not miss anything crucial to the overall experience. Another fun game I used to enjoy with friend was Bomber Man for the SNES.

  7. It is incredible how shitty Windows is. Just now I fired up a game and noticed that my headphones were not plugged in. For some reason, Windows can’t just reroute audio on the fly, and a manual change in the task bar has no effect, so I had to restart the game. Then I got a Microsoft ad for some bullshit cloud service taking over the screen. I close the window and then this somehow messed up controller inputs, so now the up or down key seems permanently stuck, as if there was autofire on it. To fix this, I had to start the game the third time.

    Valve has been working hard on improving Linux for gaming, and the Steam Deck is one great example of this. There are rumors that Valve is looking into getting into the PC business again, after their failed Steam machine initiative about a decade ago. If they put out something decent, I would consider buying one as the biggest issue with PC gaming is the shitty Windows operating system, shat out by the guy who wants to vaxx you to death and manipulate the weather.

    1. I remember watching a video right before I bought a Deck arguing this very thing. The Deck isn’t a Switch killer like some speculated, it’s more accurate to say that it’s becoming a Microsoft killer (in terms of gaming). For anything else, I imagine Apple is superior at—especially music and possibly even video production.

    2. I can recommend learning Linux. There’s a learning curve, but you can get more user-friendly distros like Ubuntu, Mint, MX, etc. The only Windows-only application I still use is Notepad++, and I run that under Wine. For gaming, use a desktop-as-a-service provider like Paperspace that offers Windows. If you have a good Internet connection, the experience is the same as running Windows locally. That said, I had other issues with Paperspace and quit them, so I’d be glad to know of a better alternative.

    3. I tolerate Windows for gaming. Otherwise, I have been using Linux for about 25 years, and macOS for close to 20 years. If I have to use Windows professionally, then I set up a virtual machine with Wine right away. As I work in tech, I normally have local admin privileges, so this has never been an issue for me.

      Depending on how resource-heavy the games you play are, you may be able to get by with Wine or related products like Parallels Desktop or Crossover.

    4. Ah, then you were well ahead of me. I just read speculation that Windows 12 is going to try to get in on the monthly subscription scam. I refuse to touch any software that won’t run any more unless it can suck my blood month after month. I actually hope they don’t drive too many people to Linux, because that just gives the bad actors more incentive to screw with it.

  8. I just gave the game State of Decay 2 a try. It starts great: you can select between three pairs of protagonists: a black m/f pair, a hispanic best friends pair, and a lesbian couple of which one looks as if she is 1/4 white. There is apparently no character customization. That’s exactly how I imagine spending my spare time. The gameplay seems quite solid, but I am not going to play as one of those characters. Thanks, Microsoft Game Studios!

    1. The cock-sucking FDP is out in Bavaria and likely Hesse too, which may lead to a collapse of the current governing coalition.

    2. The Greens are losing it: “You are not allowed to elect Nazis, you dumb fucks. We will ban AfD!”

      Look into ZEIT-comment-section. LOL.

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