They don’t care. They also are not stupid. Its both part of their upbringing and their character. But more importantly their entire moral, ethical, religious, and societal compass is pointed to “reap it all.”

They’ve been educated and had short term reinforced since they were in Pampers. “Short term profits,” “Can’t take it with you,” “yolo,” and other varieties of get it while you can. There’s also continued moral and religious approval for this behavior. Hell, they manufacture systems of approval when they can’t find it out in the world already. Thiel is masterful at this self deception.

Take for instance altruism. You had that altruism movement (the crypto bros went fill tilt on that, name escapes me at the moment) now its the “school moral ambition.” Its like Nietzsche’s worst philosophical nightmare come to bear. Doing good at the end of your life makes up for being a total nightmare during it. Make as much as you can as fast as you can so you can give a pittance back. That’s one style of justification the ultra rich like Gates give us.

The entire institution of contemporary wealth is both a mentality and world view. That’s hard to counter.

There are people who want violence. They relish in it because of the power. War, economic, domestic, people exist that want violence.

Look, I strive for peace because I’ve seen war. But the kind of violence being perpetrated on people, nature, and general “good” is well funded, unrestrained, and unrelenting. It’s beyond a war in the conventional sense. I believe more people are looking to meet that violence with violence because its the only option left.

I’m sorry. I read this as American Pessimism Germinating. I was all in.

So I’m glad that was not the case and that your seeds germinated! Congrats!

Gotta keep it alive since Netflix is actively trying to kill it.

Joking aside, great to see a game like this get new content.

Former professor here!

Students these days are fucked. Professors are fucked too. Two points about AI and one about grade inflation. I’ll keep this brief and give you three quick observations:

1. US, Canadian, and UK students are increasingly under pressure to pay more for everything. When you need to choose between working to pay rent and studying, you outsource to AI. Student athletes are, by far, the worst due to the exploitation opportunity athletics programs view them as. Practice more, study less, shop it to AI.
2. Student evaluations caused me more pain than anything else. I won a student curated Teacher of the Year award at my university. I’m good at teaching and love it. My student evals were from the ones that got bad grades. Those students spent more time challenging a C or below than actually studying. I know other professors grade inflate just to avoid bad evals and lost time. The eval system needs reform.
3. The rapidity in the decline in critical thinking, writing, and problem solving skills is shocking. One moment that sticks with me was when a student insisted Flint, MI didn’t have a water problem but a political leadership problem. OK, fair, explain. They just stared at their laptop blankly. Started typing. Read a chatgpt response. That stuck with me. They probably heard a talking point or used AI for their question and had zero understanding of the situation at all. Its my job to inform them and educate, but it was the blind reliance on AI as their rationalization and knowledge tool that stuck.

I’m writing more and reading more, yet horrified of what to do with the later half of my life. So mixed bag mentally this week. However, I’m back with a great personal trainer and gym, mountain biking again (oh wow it’s been a hot minute), and enjoying cedar trees and mountains. So pretty happy with the physical fitness in these surroundings. I do miss cycling everywhere though…doing it in truck-land is a bit harrowing.

Neocities.org is my new favorite surfing the web activity. I also have my author website there because its amazing.

I have an internal morality, economy, and democracy check:

Does Steve Bannon, Steve Miller, or Russell Vought think it’s a good idea? If yes, it’s terrible and will hurt everything and everyone but them.

I will buy a used Pixel for this from a third party.

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I’m sorry but all I could think of was that scene from the Orville. “Five. Hundred. Cigarettes.”

Windrose but I’m hitting the “this got repetitive fast” stage and am starting to return to my classic RPGs. I’ve fired up an oldie but a goodie from the glory days of Bioware - Dragon Age: Origins. Dark high fantasy RPG. Absolutely loved it when it came out and I’m revisiting it. Its a little wonky compared to similar contemporary games like BG3 but oh so much fun.

“Enchantment? Enchantment!”

That is an excellent breakdown. I’m glad I’m not the only one noticing these posts. Poor data analysis being published or claims taken at face value.

I interacted with the Guardian editorial team once in the UK. I had a dataset on academic censoring and we were focusing on sharing the qualitative responses. All seemed on the up and up but we never moved forward for a variety of reasons with the story. Editors and the journalist were great. Tough questions, good insight, etc. Seemed like a good outlet. But that was earlier 2025 and in less than a year, I read that trash we are discussing.

This paper is of the same caliber as all of those cigarettes are safe papers from the 70s. Funded propganada with a PR firm plying it to a willing news source.

As an aside, is the Guardian becoming a shit rag? Lately (last year or two) I’ve noticed a huge dip in their quality.

I appreciate this insight. The COVID shift broight a professionalization of new entertainment styles. With, as other users mentioned, a means to earn extra or earn through creativity.

Not judging. I never said DMs who run paid sessions were being judged. I’m just wondering why they would seek payment and got some very good insight and answers. Frankly, it’s a diverse set of reasons and great insight helping me navigate my own play and motivations to DM.

Fair and appreciate the response. Kudos to your friend too!

A few more days until I emigrate and reunite with my family. Start a new life outside academic research; whatever that brings.

I’m stoked.

I also had the best gluten free croissant of my poor celiac life in Amsterdam Zuid at Craft Coffee. Holy shit it was magnificent.

I think there are plenty of fair comments and perspectives in this thread. I appreciate the responses.

What I’m working through now is how the contractual element in a pay-per-session arrangement changes the character of the gameplay journey, so to speak. Do you get the same depth of connection to others? Memories? Or does the psychology change because of the economics?

But that’s just something to stew on for a bit.

Yeah. When I moved to Europe, everyone used WhatsApp. Its impossible to get around without it. I’m leaving now and it will be deleted faster than you can say fascism.