What's the mindset behind forcing a user to create an account to view the media on a page? For example an artist I like posts their art on Instagram and Twitter but I can't look at it unless I create an account. What's the dumb corporate rationale behind this? I have seen this on so many sites you can't even see what's there without an account? Doesn't it just scare users away? I know it certainly does for me. If I have to log in just to view a page I don't want to view the page.

They are objectively on the highest of tier public workers. If you make a bracket of public worker they are automatic S-tier

I'd really recommend it to anyone interested in the super early days of PC gaming. John Romero has a rather interesting tale, there is a lot of pathos surprisingly. Romero is one of the few katz I think is humble enough to actually talk about his flaws and shortcomings rather openly. I learned a lot about the 90's, game development, and was kinda inspired in a weird way. I was pretty lucky my library had a copy.

Not even a "Start Here", "Locations", or something super basic like that. They really want you to deputize yourself and the local "Big Brother" super snitch. It really got me heated , slamming away on the keyboard helping a less then tech-savvy person input their information and upload their documents. At the very least I think I got them squared away, and helping others is cool.

The supposed vigilance against "Welfare queens" is so goddamn stupid. If we really actually wanted to protect local and state budgets, we would y'know at the very least do something about tax avoidance/evasion. Of course this isn't about budgets at all, just making public services as punitive as possible. The bandits of Neoliberalism attempting to coarse people into the workforce while simultaneously robbing the public wealth.

It just gets me so mad, katz are out here struggling and even trying to do the "right thing" and they are "supposed to do" and we go and it so fuckin' difficult to do so.

Be sure to check out the c/mutal_aid channel to help out some strangers, cause I'm pretty damn sure their local government isn't gonna do it.

This is a genuine question.

(Please pardon spelling or grammar mistakes I typed in a meeting at work. A meeting on a Sunday morning. Fuck work)

I know that college students can be “annoying” but I have noticed that everyone seems to hate college students. From conservative college educated business vampires and ghouls, to college educated liberal rainbow/pink/pro-black capitalism types. Even many online progressives (not sure what that term even means anymore) as well college dropout “dirtbag leftists” (I don’t know if that term is still in use, I’m not on Twitter and I don’t even listen to Chapo anymore) say that college is stupid. . Which just so odd because while I agree there is a ton to critique about higher education and academia as a whole it just seems to dismissive and weird to dunk on students for being students.

It seems to me that most people seem to Make a caricature of the college student. Everyone who was college educated (especially liberals) seem to make their college education to be some halcyon golden age but now it’s all fallen apart. Those people seem to believe college is just young adult daycare now but was some rigorous training facility for the leaders of the world in past.

It seems to me at least this is a weird expression of the US hated of youth and youth culture but also a weirdly kinda fetishists it simultaneously. My theory is we collectively dunk on college kids because we hate ourselves and who we have become and see them using their youth to do youth stuff. Exploring and expressing themselves in a way were unable or perhaps unwilling to do in somewhat similar conditions.

But that’s just a baseless theory, I got my degree in STEM not in humanities/social sciences. Real talk venerate the humble humanities and social sciences majors. while their degrees are also used for evil like everyone else’s they at least don’t have a “start-up” they are pitching.

When I got my undergrad in 2017 at state university most of the katz I knew were working +30 hours a week and/or living with mom and dad and still in crippling debt. Now that I’m returning to get my master’s degree (part-time to be fair but I do into a campus for the night classes) also at a state university I’m still seeing the same thing. A lot of these young people are working, doing education as well as trying to become adult. It’s a lot, and honestly i empathize them. They are playing a rigged game and it sucks so many of them take it so personally, it’s a lot pressure to put on a younger person.

I don’t know why the pop-culture narrative is that everyone who goes to school is a “fail child” or some trust fund kid. I met a few in my here and there while at school my first time but was mostly just regular people of all types trying to get a degree, though maybe I was in the minority as I was (and still am) a square.

All that to say why do we hate college kids? Why do we think they are all “blue hair baristas” or whatever other current derogatory pejorative is. It just seems really stupid to me that we dunk on young people for doing what we tell them to do. The whole cultural narrative is “go to college, have fun, make friends, get a good job” but they seem to only care about the last part. It’s not like their a lot of alternative pathways for them to try, it just seems so odd to me

I love the games (the Telltale games were peak), and I actually like like most of the individual members of the cast (aside from Kevin Hart, dude just is plainly unfunny to me), and I think Eli Roth can do a decent job behind the camera. However I know most certainly this will be a product/marketing platform in the shape of a movie.

Is the cinema landscape this bleak these days? Movie magic is being wasted on this slop. Goddamn.

It's very frustrating watching knowing that quite literally everything bad that they said would happen in this hearing does in fact happen. They even directly point out that more cops will not reduce crime. I know 1994 and 2024 are two radically different time periods but goddamn. This bill has was fundamental to the expansion of the carceral and surveillance state.

It's a really long watch but I think it's worth watching. It's very long and dry and boring, but it's very insightful. I have seen clips of this C-SPAN broadcast in many different video political essays and such and never have I seen it in its entirety.

I think about this not just as it's an election year, or not even really about the DNC; Instead, I think about this is respect to all of the people who were hurt when they cranked up the police machine to 11.

( Just a reminder this isn't just a POC issue either. "Funny fact about a cage, they're never built for just one group...")

I recently had the displeasure of going to the doctor's office. Totally routine check-up. No aches or pains, no fever, nothing particularly ailing me at the moment. I just try to go the doctor twice a year because I have "good insurance™©®" through my employer. The amount of legwork I had to do just see a doctor was awful.

I found doctors that were covered but their practice was not. I found a clinic in my area that the doctor's were covered but the labs they sent their results to were not. Having to navigate through websites and compare them against my insurance coverage felt like I was trying to min-max a character sheet in an RPG. I can only imagine this being 9999% worse if I needed some real deal medical care.

I eventually found a clinic, doctor, and lab trio that worked with my insurance through their website. I drove (thanks American Car Culture) to the doctor's office I kid you not, I spent MORE time in the lobby talking to the nice dude at the desk then I did with the doctor lady. Some clinic aids took my blood pressure and weight and stuff, but I spoke to the doctor-person about seven minutes before they bounced. Again, I know this is just a check-up but damn, seven minutes of face-to-face with a healthcare professional seems pretty bad. I spent maybe two hours doing all this legwork for seven minutes of actual care. I don't blame the doctor-lady either, I'm sure she was stacked to her eyeballs with papers and forms and other patients. This system is so fuckin' wack.

I want to live in a world, where I pay my taxes and I get healthcare (and I want to know my taxes go to covering other people, not the endless war machine). All the shit in life that doesn't actually matter is pretty frictionless and easy, but something as important getting medical care is a goddamn dungeon crawl. There is so much obfuscation between patients and doctors it's absurd.

Also reminder, private insurance is forever and always a business venture. Maximizing shareholder value is the ONLY goal of a business. Also the amount of bullshit jobs in MEGACORPS is absurd. They are tons and tons of layers of obstructions built into these companies by design. They even hire folks whose role is to find reason to deny claims. Just really rotten stuff.

I want single payer healthcare because it's a rational and simple system. I want to go a clinic and get care. That simple. I want medical professionals to make choices about what sort of care i need, not some ghoul an a phantom office in Delaware.

It's a real actually existing policy that would make people's lives better. I know we live belly of capitalism, and the DNC and RNC are lapdogs for these companies but fuck I will still want it.

TL;DR - Private Insurance does nothing but get in the way. Insurance companies hinders healthcare providers ability to provide their services, and hinders people from getting the care they need. For-profit private health insurances are fundamentally bad.

Jennell Jaquays is a unsung game developer. She has a really rich history in games and design. Itchio had a game jam in her honor.

Salute to a real one 🏳️‍⚧️

Check out her website. It's old-school and good.

I hate the current YouTube thumbnail meta. I found this extension and it just takes a frame from the content of the video and displays that. I believe that is fair and more representative of the video. I have been using this extension for a while and I find myself paying more attention to the names of creator and then considering if I want to watch the video; rather than being enticed by some intentionally inflammatory image.

I find it just make YouTube more enjoy in combination with Ublock Origin and YouTube Search Fixer.

Just wanted to share this extension with any Hexbears who aren't liking YouTube's thumbnail arms race of increasingly distracting images. I didn't know if I should have put this in c/videos or c/technology. I rolled a D6 and odds was c/videos and evens c/technology. I rolled a two.

It can be time consuming due to the sheer length and duration, but I have found fat falling off in the places I have most issues (lower abdomen, chest, and back). It's free, it's super chill, and I have found it clearing my mind too. In combination with more intense regime, I think it is a a necessary supplemental exercise. I think walking outside is probably better (it feels more natural to me at least), but just a plain ol' treadmill or other cardio machine will probably get those steps up. Its super low-impact, easy, and do-able.

I'm dropping weight and I'm finding my brain rebooting in some places as well. It's overall super great and I encourage every Hexbear to increase their step count.