A dear friend of mine was complaining about Greta back when she was still a kid, saying what right does a kid have to complain to nations? I huffed. I pointed out she has more right than any of us- the most of her years are ahead of her. She can't control what world she inherits, only the people she's screaming at can do anything.

Back in the 90s, when I realized what shape things were in then, my adults just told me to shut up. They said they didn't care. Greta had supporting players who let her express herself on these, the things that matter. I wish we had more kids whose parents let them address the world like this. It's going to be theirs. They should have a say in what it looks like.

There are over 1,000 pokemon. I think it's a Tolkien situation- where famously, you can't write fantasy without using ingredients that Tolkien created, because if you do, obviously it's from Tolkien, and if you didn't, the reader is asking why not? That kinda deal.

If you set out to create a game involving collecting, or even looking at and cataloguing, a bunch of different fantasy creatures, you're going to have some that are at least a little similar to pokemon. The electibuzz/grizzbolt example you gave is a fantastic one. You're claiming it's stolen, but that there is a cat creature with a single lightning bolt in it's belly. Versus a... monkeything? Covered in them. My point here being, even if they didn't steal (which, I'm sure they did, there are other, better examples) at a certain point you have to accept that with 1,000 pokemon, there's going to be overlap, so you either need to just be up front about the stealing, or you need to spend 5x the amount of development time making sure none of your creatures have overlap.

Personally, Pokemon has been around for more than 25 years. Even if they released a million games a year, they shouldn't get to gatekeep 'all creature-collection simulators that you use balls for and that you can ride like a dragon.' Fuck that. They got infinite money back on their initial investment, and they shouldn't be allowed to just own the ideas. This is the kind of bullshit that makes me (a lifelong pokemon fan) want to never, ever, ever give them money again.

What is the charge? Enjoying a meal? A succulent, rotisserie meal?

I appreciate your comment.

I've actually talked to my fiance about things like this, because I noticed that I was 'handling' him, and I felt like it was demeaning to him. Luckily for me, he considered what I said and informed me that he likes that.

Consent makes the difference!

Probably helps that I'm used to disturbed and abused humans, too...

This response vexes me because while Uncle Barry here is certainly an example, what these people are forgetting (and what this thing about Uncle Barry glosses over) is that until the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the fights from the 70s onward, if a family in the US had a child with an IQ of under 70, they were often shipped off to an institution.

Deinstitutionialization didn't really begin to gain steam until relatively recently in our collective history- here in Tennessee we still had one of these facilities open until the nineties. These people didn't believe there were people with severe mental disabilities, because our society hid them away!

Look up Clover Bottom. But don't, because it's horrifying. I've met people who lived there their entire lives. What was done to them was disgusting.

It is awful what was done to them. But it's awful that people with a greater severity of condition, a greater need for care, are often glossed over in these comment sections. It feels like they're made invisible in these conversations just like they were in those institutions! And I'm terrified that assholes like RFK Jr will disappear them for real!

I am so excited to tell you this.

When Tucker Carlson (right-wing shithead) was hosting a show called 'Crossfire,' and still wearing a stupid bow tie, he made the mistake of agreeing to have Jon Stewart on his show. Here's a link to the wikipedia page. There is a whole page for this one incident.

Here is a line that might appeal: "Three months after the appearance, Crossfire was cancelled and Carlson was fired; commentators differ as to how impactful it actually was, but generally agree that Stewart was at least part of the reason."

And one thing is for sure, Tucker Carlson may have kept his incredibly stupid "man just asking questions" expression... but he stopped wearing that stupid bow tie.

I went ahead and got you all a link to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.

Which was a rather famous fire that killed so many people, because the stairwells were locked.

Please remember that OSHA rules are written in blood.

I prefer to believe, trolling strangers asking questions, as well as those other things. Because I doubt I'd ever have the presence of mind to be such a legend.

Considering that all these models are trained on stolen content, no one should be surprised if this were true.

Yep. This is an unpopular opinion. Well done.

The failure to scrub the metadata is so insanely on-brand.

I mean... Marvin is highly entertaining.

But no, I wouldn't want him actually around me.