There are so many high-profile assholes in this country named Eric.

Having a great online gaming community can be a wonderful thing. I’ve returned over and over again to ALFA, a Neverwinter Nights (1, now Enhanced Edition, not NWN2) persistent world that’s over two decades old now, and me and a few lifers are still playing and DMing even today with each other.

Online friends are real friends.

Origins was so dang good.

A 100+ billion dollar valuation.

Absurd.

It’s just as absurd as when WeWork got a 40 billion dollar valuation.

These VC’s are insane and should be paying a high-as-fuck tax rate instead of having a bazillion dollars to drop on boondoggles.

That it does.

We still have to look at historical patterns and acknowledge that what a person claims to vote for is antithetical to what their party of choice is actually going to do.

Yes, it does. We may not like to consider that, but it’s the truth.

Does it not bother you that they all happened and got worse under Democrats?

Vote third party and be public about it.

Protests are a waste, so taking to the streets doesn’t matter much unless you can gather enough people to create a legitimate violent threat.

Absolutely right. The only power we have now is local.

Agreed.

If only.

If you want that to change, you have start local

You’re partly right.

The only power we have now is local, unless you’re a billionaire or willing to commit a terrorist act, both of which do not apply to me. You can always do good with your own two hands, but we can look at the last two decades and conclude correctly and definitively that voting for either major party is throwing your vote away, at least if you’re a wage earner.

The thing is, fascism’s already here for most. Abortion is criminalized in part of the country and will soon be criminalized in most of it, and it happened with Democrats in power. A vast majority of Americans have to work 2-3 jobs to survive now, and it happened while Democrats were in charge. If you have a major injury or illness, you will be bankrupted, and that remains true no matter who we elect. If you’re a person of color, a police officer can kill you at will and there won’t be any meaningful blowback to the police system, and not only did it happen under Democrats, Joe Biden mocked the defund movement in a SOTU speech.

It seems most people want to give credit to Democrats for what they say. I’m giving them credit for what they actually do.

they don’t make an effort to correct it.

An interesting take, but nevertheless, an incorrect one. The individual vote has no power to make significant change at the Federal level unless they’re a billionaire or willing to commit an act of terrorism. (Both of which don’t apply to either of us, I imagine.)

I respect your right to vote as you choose.

Thank you for your perspective.

Voting system reform is my #1 issue

Respectfully, I don’t think it is. You’ve seen the same history I have and, whether you want to acknowledge it or not, you know how your Democratic vote reinforces that which you say you want to change.

Thank you for your response.

I’m asking a legitimate question here.

We can look back at the last 40 years, but the last 20 in particular, when Democrats were handed a mandate not once but twice.

And they’ve used that power to make us poorer, not wealthier.

So how exactly are you not throwing your vote away voting Harris or Trump, given that we can look at recent history and infer exactly what they’re going to do once elected?

I could vote Harris, but my eighty year-old parents are still going to have to drive for DoorDash, in the car I lent them, and if they can’t Harris or Trump will gladly allow their monied friends to take everything away from them. You and I both know it, so all of the discussion about ‘throwing your vote away’ just rings very hollow to me. My vote is already worthless, at least as concerns the Federal Government.

How exactly are you not throwing your vote away voting Harris or Trump, in full knowledge that neither is going to do anything meaningful to help the poor and working class?

Every two years, 99% of voters here in the US choose to put their stamp of approval on capitalism. Then they inexplicably clutch their pearls when capitalists do capitalist things, as if it’s somehow shocking.

Looks like public pressure brought a positive outcome in this case, so that’s something, but this is the stuff you should consider when voting for the two ruling parties.

Whenever Kari Lake’s name is mentioned, a fart noise should play too.

Literally just Mint.

And yeah, I kind of just assumed dual-boot was a big part of the issue. I’m planning to repurpose my old PC to be a non-gaming Linux PC for everything but gaming when I upgrade later this year. Will be perfect for me to have a system for gaming only and one I can use for everything-but to protect my privacy.