I think it’s safe to say no one loves Iroh as much as he deserves.

I’m pretty sure Temu is Chinese.

The King in Yellow by Robert Chambers is not modern, but it is what inspired Lovecraft, and Chambers is a far better writer. It’s several short stories, is pretty accessible, and has some moderate critiques or observations on society that are still relevant.

Important caveats - it’s not all horror. Chambers was mostly a romance author who occasionally did horror and it shows near the end of the collection.

The beginning of the first story is pretty jarring to modern sensibilities, but Chambers was probably not a racist, and it was probably meant to be jarring even for readers of the day. It’s a story where you have to remember the author is not the narrator.

Whichever editor let them post “100 thousand” should be spanked one 100 times with the severed hand of whatever asshole wrote it in the first place.

Why is Medium conflating trolls and shills?

People who are paid propagandists are shills, not trolls.

Even if they did damage anything their message is that anyone getting mad about damaging works of art or heritage sites through direct action should be just as mad about people destroying the actual entire planet indirectly and calling for their immediate imprisonment too.

As annoying as I find them and as much as I want to preserve these things, they’re exactly right that paintings and rocks mean fuckall if we ruin our only home.

Yeah. Every week some fan killed a player before they invented tasers and militarized security.

It’s actually pretty easy to keep your chill if you don’t train yourself to imagine every interaction is life or death.

Shoot any teenagers turning around in your driveway lately?

Guess I should tase or shoot all the people that walk past my no trespassing signs instead of just walking out and asking them to leave.

Shit. I think they all had elbows too!

Shit. I know like 20 people with fists, elbows, and knees. I’m gonna call the cops on them right now.

Ignoring whatever semantic arguments about socialism and communism, it’s easier to just point out that statement isn’t true.

Employee-owned businesses are socialist - in the actual definition of socialism where capital is owned by the workers. They work fine, maybe even better than capitalist businesses.

Fire departments are socialist - in a slightly different definition where a non-capital resource is owned by a community. They definitely work better than the capitalist versions that used to exist.

The problem with saying anything communist always fails is that they only call it communism when it fails. When it succeeds they just call it something else.

“What does error code XYZ mean on my 40 year old limited run old-tech device from a company that stopped existing 39 years ago and never made a manual”

Vs

“Is Earth round”

There is a vast resource of nearly all of humanity’s collective knowledge that you can tap to learn why a govt doing something doesn’t mean it’s not capitalism.

More from the same author:

Starvation and malnutrition plummet as crop yields increase. Unfortunately a new industry of storing food must be created to ensure the excess is preserved for times of need.

Free time skyrockets as menial labor is offloaded onto AI and machines. Unfortunately a new self-actualization industry must be created for people to learn intellectual and creative skills they didn’t have time or money for.

Higher education rates increase as governments help fund students and enact laws to keep for-profit-education from price gouging. Unfortunately untold new industries are created as unnoticed talent is given the opportunity to cultivate it.