Topic: The Chit Chat Thread

@KratosMD A friend of mine is from African descent (I feel like I have to state this to make it somehow more credibly), and he thinks in a similar way. Just like I have a homosexual friend who absolutely despises the gay pride. People are individuals, and everyone can have their own opinions. That doesn't mean he thinks racism is acceptable; far from it, but it does show that you can't just lump everyone in one group and expect them to have the same opinion.

I like to refer to this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2d2SzRZvsQ

I think he makes a good point, and I 100% agree with it. As long as we keep defining people on the colour of their skin, you create the opportunity for racism (and discrimination in general) to exist. Until when we see each other as equals, as another human being, instead of a ''black person'', ''white person'', or ''gay person'', this won't go away.

@themcnoisy
Thanks matey, I'll see if I'm able to make room on the hard drive, sounds like good fun.

@themcnoisy Nah not got it this year , went for Fifa instead through EA Access. Only just recently though.

Cheers for the tag @themcnoisy. That looks like a fascinating read so I'll look at it later and share my thoughts.

@Octane I can somewhat understand why somebody wouldn’t be enamoured by Pride. It kinda does feed into stereotypes even if that does result in being able to see Britney Spears and B*Witched for like £20. That’s without taking into account all the infighting that goes on, same as any other social group. There’s colourism among BAME people, the bloody LGB Alliance etc, the problems won’t end when the blatant human rights abuses end. At the same time, I can definitely see why the sentiment of not even looking at another person’s skin tone, sexuality etc is important, but I fear that may just end up erasing specific cultures. Of course, nobody wants to be treated worse for those reasons but even a very wide and shallow look at rap for example, shows that it’s deeply rooted in the injustices black people have faced over the years. I guess it should probably be taught in schools to try to avoid things getting this awful, unlike all those historic atrocities committed by the UK that mysteriously are never discussed in high school.

@nessisonett Well, cultures are already disappearing as we speak. It's kinda inevitable. The more globalised we become, the less variation of culture will exist.

You can't have both it ways I think. As long as we label people, there is an incentive to create an ''us vs them'' mentality.

I've just pre-ordered TLOU 2 to save € 15. And since I'll avoid any gaming site from mid-June until I've finished it, this will save me also a lot of stupidities.
Sound like a good plan to me.

@Octane
There's a huge amount of people out there that really like to label themselves though and I imagine there always will be. For many, that's part of their identity. I think the best thing you can probably do is educate people.

Did anyone ever see any of Charlie Brooker's programs on video games? What did y'all think of them?

Making one post on this topic, and then I'm dropping it, because I don't come here to get into contentious political arguments. But some recent posts have gotten my blood boiling, and I need to speak, if only briefly.

I've always found the idea that people who deviate from the white, heterosexual anglo-saxon protestant model of normality are somehow obligated to support whatever social movement claims to represent them, or are obligated to believe in a cause or hold certain political opinions because of their skin color/gender identity/sexual orientation/etc. etc. to be extremely offensive, ignorant, and othering.

There is variation in ideology and life experience within every category of human on the globe, but somehow, in the United States, at least, you don't get to have that freedom anymore without coming under attack over it. Only white straights get to freely choose their destiny as a part of their moral, spiritual, and intellectual evolution as human beings. The rest of us are expected to think and speak like clones of one-another.

Are you black, but don't necessarily think these riots are the best idea in the middle of a pandemic, or think they won't end up having a postive lasting impact? You're "arrogant," apparently, or an uncle tom. A self-hating black, because, you know, you don't get to have an opinion. And god forbid if you're black and have the temerity to join the police.

Are you gay, but aren't really into embracing gay culture, or find the 'gay pride' movement to be unhelpful in a time when the goal should be the complete normalization of same-sex relations? Same deal. Self-hating gay. And god forbid if you're a right-wing gay, because, according to the gatekeepers of gayness in our culture, that disqualifies you from the club (particularly remembering the reaction to Peter Thiel being outed).

Are you trans, but think that being part of a tiny minority of human experience doesn't mean that society needs to reshape itself to reflect you? Do you think that, even if trans people should be accepted, that maybe it's dangerous to allow children, who frequently question and challenge gender roles as they're discovering who they are, to undergo hormone treatments that have profound effects on how their young bodies develop, sometimes leading to irreversible changes and/or side-effects? You're transphobic.

And so on and so on.

Let me tell you, the worst thing in the world is a white, straight "ally" who thinks they have the right to tell you what you should be believing, or what your destiny is.

And, frankly, nobody should support ANY social movement, or hold ANY beliefs, because of what cultural identity group they belong to. People should interrogate everything in their environment, and consider for themselves what is helpful and what is harmful, regardless of whether a group claims to "represent" them or not.

"""""""""""I""""""""""" choose who represents me, because I am the person who gets to decide what my broader social identity is. Not you. Not some protest movement. No-one else. That's what it means to be equal. That's what it means to fully human.

@Ralizah To be honest, at least in the UK, I see far more Tory politicians who are gay than Labour politicians. I think people fail to realise that social and political issues are completely different. It might be different in the States though, having a true two party system probably makes most decisions binary. Trump himself got elected on the back of rather a lot of Hispanic voters, all things considered. I guess that’s one of the problems with white middle-class liberals, their lack of experience leads them to be incredulous, instead of understanding that many Hispanic people were extremely poor under the Obama administration. Hearing a ‘continuation’ of that compared to Trump promising change, it’s not hard to see why many would take his word for it. It’s definitely wrong to try to fit every single person into a template based on their background, in a way that’s exactly what these people think they’re fighting against.

@andreoni79 I have pre-ordered and am going to completely avoid social media and articles till I finish Once reviews are out. Prob YouTube too since giving spoilers in thumbnails is a thing.

I hate that people decide there is a shelf life on spoilers. Oh it is out a week... spoil spoil spoil.

Thanks @Ralizah that was a passionate comment. Well said.

I've done a bit of digging on PS5 over the last few nights. It's being built by Foxconn who are a Taiwanese company, the working conditions arent great with a high level of suicide, dormitories reside on site and unpaid overtime is regular and ongoing. Security watch over to make sure productivity is as high as possible. I think its a bit hypocritical of Sony when the PS5 is being built in a modern day sweatshop which housed a 2000 man strong riot.

Considering that tensions here are getting rather heated over the last couple of days, I propose that political chat should probably be kept to a minimum on this thread for now. We’re not really solving anything by fighting amongst ourselves and it’s a bit pointless given the circumstances. We’ve all said our piece, can we not just leave it at that?

@KratosMD You don't need to do that though bro. Talk it through. As I commented I had no other info other than what you originally wrote, it came across like you thought every black person should support BLM because they are black. Now you have given additional information that is obviously not the case. That's fair enough.

Ralizah is cool man, as are you.

@nessisonett @RogerRoger no we can't, we need to get everyone arguing until we get to the boss argument at the end of world 1-4. Yeah let's not talk politics for a few days.

(I'm timing that and will be back on Saturday)

@nessisonett
Sensible suggestion, it's a shame to see people fall out like this. Always a risk unfortunately when talking about these sort of subjects.

Anyone discovered or rediscovered any hobbies during this pandemic?

Well, there is a reason I try not to 'get into politics' online too much.

I know you won't see this since you apparently put me on ignore, @KratosMD , but I really wasn't trying to talk behind your back. Your post might have triggered me a bit, but I really wasn't even talking ABOUT you. I was talking about a lot of people I've met over the years who have that attitude. And I was talking about an attitude in general that white-cis-het "allies" often lead with, regardless of whether they're consciously aware they're doing it or not. And I don't see the point in tagging someone when I'm making a more general point.

I do apologize if I made you feel like I was trying to undercut you or ignore you or whatever it is you think I've been doing to you (honestly, by the sound of it, you've been growing increasingly irritated me with for a while; since we're on the subject of not talking directly to people, it would have been nice if you'd actually tagged me and told me that I'm doing something to upset you, so we could have had a discussion about it before it came to this). But I won't apologize for voicing my opinion based on my life experience.

I'm here to talk if you want to patch things up, but if you don't want to, that's fine as well. It's fine to not like people.

@LieutenantFatman I've taken to doing jigsaw puzzles with my family. Haven't really messed with them in over a decade. It's supremely irritating at times (a lot of puzzles have weirdly low build quality, even when they're more expensive or from a big or recognizable brand), but it's also a nice way to bond with people that doesn't involve electronics (which have come to dominate too much of my life, I've found).

@Ralizah Woah, according to the great Push Square gods that control the mention technology, apparently your post there mentioned me. I mean, it clearly doesn’t so now I’m really confused 😂😂

@nessisonett I had. I responded to your post about incredulous white liberals, because it's another subject where I have things I'd like to get off my chest, because it frustrates me to no end seeing a 'group' of people with universally popular policy beliefs shooting themselves in the foot continually with their apparent inability to see politics and culture through anything other than an idpol lens (which, as you point out, really hurts them with many Hispanic communities). But it doesn't do well to push on the politics subject when people are openly tiring of it right now, so I deleted the comment after some reflection.

...oh, I mentioned politics again. Last time, bae, I swear to God!

@Ralizah That explains that then! I was extremely confused for a few minutes there 😅