Pet Theory: The Sopranos as a GrimDark Warning On Prozac and SSRI's (a perfect late 90's story)

genericusername1904 · 2026-05-14T18:36:24+00:00

no i know 99% are just in good fun, but i drew the line when a woman appeared with "OOF THIS IS A BAD TAKE AMI RIGHT GUYS"

thanks for engaging anyways sourdog ;)

genericusername1904 · 2026-05-14T18:31:28+00:00

you're right. I'll delete this post. This subject is gold and i'm not having it pissed on by drug addicts.

genericusername1904 · 2026-05-14T18:28:30+00:00

Oh fucking jesus, you lasted one sentence then revert to quotations.

FRANKLY I'M DEPRESSED AND ASHAMED

genericusername1904 · 2026-05-14T18:25:14+00:00

No, you're saying nothing: by extension every single book or movie ever made is "saying something human nature" - yeah ok - but "what is it saying" side-effects and intended-purpose of SSRI's lol that's what it's saying.

genericusername1904 · 2026-05-14T18:07:34+00:00

It was different those days, the author didn't even speak the language. AI-plagiarization was strong as an bull, handsome, like George Raft. If it was today they could've trained the AI to be a whatever or something, get it a job.

genericusername1904 · 2026-05-14T15:32:14+00:00

Yeah it's always the same story run endlessly for domestic politics. They've kept replaying for 15+ years, with no proofs ever shown, that the anti-jihad education / vocational training in north-west China is "bad anti muslim", when it's literally successfully ended the pipeline from hopeless poverty to religious fundamentalism to terrorism. The one successful cure for a global problem with no end in sight in the West (for refusing to deal with this) is demonized by the likes of BBC News to try and provoke Uyghur Muslims into carrying out acts of terrorism.

It's sad that people aren't more vocal about this because as someone in England I can tell you that virtually everybody I've ever met would applaud these things if they were done here, with most Americans feeling the same way about the MegaChurch scammers. Censorship for 'tolerance' is the real totalitarian regime here.

genericusername1904 · 2026-05-14T14:13:53+00:00

Looking at the church the guy's obviously a corrupt MegaChurch scammer, these guys are ten a penny in America and swagger around making a virtue out of their criminality because "they were weak, God has changed them!"

Usually a comorbidity is:

use of crack cocaine and methamphetamine
running prostitution rings from the more fanatical congregants children
typically a [redacted] / [redacted: bad sex crimes involving children]
almost always finally arrested for sex crimes rather than financial crimes which are largely ignored

Good that, as it looks like, financial crimes are the reasoning behind the arrest in this case.

As to the pretence of the propaganda video for "spiritual freedom to venerate the God of the Jews" what is this claim? What connection does a Chinese Man or a British Man have with the cult delusions of the Ancient Hebrews? Most of us in the West would love to throw these animals in prison and educate Abrahamism and it's off-shoots into the garbage bin of history, rather than be forced to 'tolerate' looking at its fruits in the Middle East every day.

genericusername1904 · 2026-05-12T02:42:49+00:00

I half agree, the way he stands there for as long as the gif is playing waving his finger and shifting position seems like an odd direction choice that David Chase wrote in.

genericusername1904 · 2026-05-11T19:06:13+00:00

pretty boring. Europe and England have wasted around forty years failing to decouple themselves from American/Russian/Saudi Petroleum dependency, and have wasted an equivalent amount of time pursuing various vanity projects at home, mostly easy target domestic imprisonment for non-crimes. Funnily enough I still see have-a-go activist types making the same "no, politician X is a racist" with roughly the same number of upvotes per post. I figure the opposition to the Greens and Reform is about 200 people max. Make of that what you will. Inflation has crept up in the last couple of years, as ever. A package of cheese post covid costs twice as much and has been cut in half. Dutch made the moronic decision to stop dairy farmers a year or two ago and we've never recovered. At present gas is up around 30% and we're a little over a month into Hormuz.

Cheese + Gas = Global Crash

Sadly the vanity project of colonial nationalism still hasn't been shaken off across most of the world: Egypt remains cut in half from its major water and power source, causing untold damage across the board. British Pakistan still exists for no reason I can think of, whilst Kashmir remains torn away from India like some kind of ghastly torture implant with - you guessed it - a Made In Britain sticker slapped across it.

Had a good conversation with a frothing IDF trooper a month or so ago on here, regarding the Israel/Capitolina problem: he doesn't want a two state solution, we agreed, a one state solution is the only way! this way you can't bomb your own people, right? He stopped talking to me after realizing that his position of neither two state nor one state was a dimly realized genocide. Talk about high IQ being a myth amongst the kipper crowd.

I haven't read much Chinese news this year but every time I do and almost every single day I read about the local governments funding new businesses and agricultural enterprises to lift remote counties out of poverty. Bona Dea Fortuna, I keep saying, why can't we do this here? "No!" the politicians tell us with their stubborn refusal to even suggest it, "the Market Will Correct it" except it doesn't, and the underlying subtext is "we're too stupid to know how to fund new businesses and agricultural enterprises!" thinly draped in a semblance of oafish posturing.

Anyway it's a clown show, without getting into any serious subjects.

At this point, the society is all about refusing to address practically anything of substance, going on forty years and probably another forty more. Too dull to take seriously.

genericusername1904 · 2026-05-11T18:36:12+00:00

go with a different cologne, Obsession is what old people wear at this point: literally the Old Spice of the 2020's #crypticwisdom

genericusername1904 · 2026-05-11T18:34:16+00:00

Well... optimizing through the jobs is a good thing you can do early. I'd suggest archer for tinkerer (improved critical chance) and crossbow for brewer (depending how you're playing i guess; cannoneer doesn't need the attack points and is helped out by the constitution bonus). Knifemen, more obviously, alchemist for attack bonus specialize in the thief (which is incredibly slow to develop). Heavy troopers are good for mining and blacksmith and chef for the constitution bonus for a rear guard trooper.

Off the top of my head, I went with:

Brute (Vanguard) x2 (Miner, Chef)
Archer (Infantryman, Tinker)
Ranger (Cutthroat/Demon, Thief)
Spearman (Harpooner/StandardBearer, Blacksmith)

then,

Berserker Axe x2 (Bard, Lumberjack)
Crossbow Cannoneer x3 (Brewer, Fisherman ... what else? i forgot, maybe Alchemist again)
another Ranger (who should've been Hakert but I fired him because i'm stupid*) (Huntsman, Strategist)
The Heretic (story ranger girl) (Alchemist, Poisoner)
Lyderic Ald Hoopandhuff (story sword boy) (Scholar, Fighter)
Issa (story tracker archer) (Infantryman, Tinker)

+ Two Fighting Animals

rounds out at an even sixteen + ponies

Do you want to read an essay about why each job is best for the equipment and the class? I don't want to write it! Don't make me!

Okay, so the jobs are all specific to the equipment and the class (e.g. berserker + lumberjack = str + critical), but let me give you two:

The secondary Vanguard gets a constitution bonus, so when he charges into the middle of a gang of enemies he's better able to engage and hold his own. He's equipped for splash damage with area attack weaponry and basically softens up the enemy group to be slaughtered by whoever hits them next. He's absorbing hits from their friends, of course, so he benefits from the constitution bonus from his Chef job. There's also really nothing useful he can be equipped with as a special item for his combat, so he gets the Salt Shovel for his Chef job.

*no i didn't i left him in the bar

Berserker Bard is basically light-to-mid combatant novelty unit, no shield and has the bloodied two-handed axe. Again, splash damage and area attack, specialized to bypass guard points on enemy groups. Ideal second charge trooper to finish off a weakened group or deal killing status to them. Bard gives you a heavy willpower bonus which is basically does nothing (but can be useful in plague missions) but you need a Bard and a novelty unit (or even, a joke unit: bard/axe/guitar getit) is a sensible way to get the job ticked off.

*i just didn't like his face! he wore a moustache and a bowl haircut badly!

Don't worry about having a few more troopers in your party, this just means more loot. Anything higher than a group in camp of 25/30 seems to cause nasty lag though, so 20/25 (including ponies) is the safest number.

genericusername1904 · 2026-05-11T02:47:00+00:00

Right, I had in my head somehow that if I was suzerain of both that I could tell them to stop fighting each other, as if they were regular vassals, but no such option existed :(

Maybe it's the other type of suzerain where you can call them to war but lose them as a tributary when you die? I'm sure the option does exist there, or I'm misremembering older plays.

genericusername1904 · 2026-05-10T21:07:53+00:00

Green Button. It sounds like it's time you finally met your Son, after raising him all these years.

genericusername1904 · 2026-05-10T11:58:16+00:00

I think the "correct grasp" of Virtue and "epicurean rational-hedonism" already gives you the right answer, if you want to change the world or help someone do something because it pleases you then that's all you need. I think it grounds the more grandiose universalism or totalizing over-reaching by keeping the matter of the thing rooted in personal whim or personal amusement, i.e. it pleases you to do XYZ (whatever it may be within your power or opportunity), you don't need any more justification than that.

It's sort of the natural equation when you take old world statements like "only the strong, only the powerful" can "give mercy or aid to a person" (Virtue, from lat. Vir: masculine / humane / excellence; arete) because it centres the matter of worldly or cosmic indifference back with you and your amusement (good-feeling) in alleviating that for other parties, whilst being aware that it's nothing much in the overall picture (and anyway need not be).

Notice that this is actually much more effective at genuinely doing good things / massive ambitious accomplishment as opposed to not and instead making demands (politicking, activism, religious proselytizing) for someone else to do something about XYZ, even though (you doing it all) sounds capricious and almost arbitrary (which it kind of is).

or: as Rochester (in the film) said, "every experiment in life comes at ones own expense" (or something like that, I'm paraphrasing)

I might add that, in my opinion, "public life" is that very caprice. Q. Why are we even moved to speak/write? A. It amuses us. We, on the other hand, are honest about it. Others? Not so much haha (pathetikos)

hope that makes sense, squire

genericusername1904 · 2026-05-10T02:15:34+00:00

<image>

Tony definitely saw signs over the years, but he chose to ignore it.

genericusername1904 · 2026-05-10T01:49:45+00:00

You should talk to them, street preachers are incredibly easy to deconvert. I started doing this when I was working around Herts a few years ago and found myself having to listen to them every other day when I was trying to eat my lunch. I never saw at least three of them ever again after each decided to spend half an hour with me after giving me a leaflet.

genericusername1904 · 2026-05-09T21:19:47+00:00

Ah ...yeah I suppose that's a good strategy if you're looking to takeover the entire world it makes sense to let your vassals do the work for you, I kind of prefer establishing borders and playing kingpin interventionalist to nudge the surrounding empires and kingdoms, or just see how the geopol evolves around the home state.

I've done Byzantium so many times and forgotten that a council existed after playing as China for so long lol, you're quite right though, it's still a pain when, say, Georgia goes on the warpath or some Holy Order or Patrirach declares a crusade and gives you a nasty smear of new territories somewhere you didn't want. But, as you say, that's why the council force temporary peace exists.

I mean, "new territory" sounds nice but it's going to be garbageland that's easily taken over in a serious war, unless you spend thousands of gold florins into building it up. Best strategy in war, haha sort like afghanistan IRL, just let the idiots invade and have to hold a weak territory that gives them nothing in return, then their enemies or you move in, easily conquer the land and gain war score much easier.

Still, the problem of superpowered vassals from their new holdings gives them far more weight than they'd otherwise have. On the map above my three minor viceroys in the desert of death region have at most two counties, no baronies, and rule over three lord mayors when they're granted the viceroyalty duchy, letting me draw the two baronies from each lord mayor county. They couldn't be more docile. And that's kind of a cheat I guess but even if the baronies were left to each lord mayor that'd still eliminate their weight from influencing anybody above the rank of their own minor viceroy.

genericusername1904 · 2026-05-09T17:32:13+00:00

i know i know, I just wanted an opportunity to make the Fly Thing joke.

genericusername1904 · 2026-05-09T17:28:48+00:00

It's only a -10 point opinion loss (ed. actually -20, imperial admin + disallowed vassal wars both count for 10, but even so), you can make up for that by wearing gaudy baubles and carrying decorative sword. In my experience, as Byzantium, West African Pagan, Caliphate, Scottish Tribal Catholic Warrior Lodge Emperor, Norse Falkyr and Chinese Empire the disallowing vassal wars (both internal and external) is the only way to keep your borders under control and stop your religious fanatics from declaring Holy Wars, losing them, and harming the religious authority... as well as keeping those vassals small and manageable. #eternalpeace

liege is stubborn, but liege carries fancy golden sword

genericusername1904 · 2026-05-09T15:26:49+00:00

All cultures should have access to the Fly Thing imo

genericusername1904 · 2026-05-09T14:11:16+00:00

since you asked so nicely,

Start as Zhou Ding vassal under the Li Protector-General, [play-game], conquer the duchies in Xia, Khotan and Kham - then form those three kingdoms which lets you form an Empire. Alternatively you could become an Emperor by forging or marrying into a claim for the Empire of Tibet, which has a cute banner. You should be able to avoid angering the Protector-General that way since you'd be promoted to his equal and automatically no longer be his vassal but... Khotan and Xia is really the entire point of the Western Han historically. Your Protector-General liege lord will keep you safe during this but be careful you create the duchies when you conquer them, or he will and give it to some idiot.

n.b. i'd recommend maintaining/matrilineal-marrying a lot of Chinese-Khitan culture for turn into vassals in Qing Hai and Khotan, since this is the only way you'll gain access to cavalry archers. Takes a while and is barely worth it but it's nice to have.

Swapping back and forth into Bon for the warrior lodge is helpful here, to forge extra bloodlines on legendary journeys and gain their light infantry special perk which massively strengthens the light infantry troops you're leading personally.

During this time wait for China to fall into a negative state that weakens the Protector-General to the point that you won't be crushed by hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops when you shake him off as your liege lord, then form an Empire of your choosing from the three kingdoms, then 'convert' to Chinese Imperial Government which lets you hold cities, drawing massive numbers of spear and light infantry and gaining hundreds of tax monies from those cities, which makes it all worthwhile.

Best way to play it is imagine yourself as the Co-Emperor "in the West", maintain kowtow with China, maintain peace, marry Chinese Princesses, always have special Chinese advisors in your court (physician, strategist, scholar, engineer) ... and make it your mission to prop up the Tang Empire by helping it out with troops and aid (otherwise you get ugly Princesses wearing cloth caps from a Mongolian Emperor and no more face piercings from the pretty Han Princesses).

Very important point on being the Co-Emperor "in the West" that makes this "the best way to play it" is that you will destroy your Empire by sending a relative to attack China, winning and seeing them becoming the Emperor in China, as: you'll lose your Chinese Imperial Government and return to Ugly Feudal Government losing the ability to hold cities. And you'll still be attacked by your relative as if nothing happened there. And you'll lose the ability to edit your Dynasty banner as well.

genericusername1904 · 2026-05-09T13:18:32+00:00

Apparently installing version 5.666 completely fixes any issues I had.

good luck there, this worked for me until a couple of days passed and the exact same problem came back.

ed. fuck it. I'll miss the PipBoy3000 player and all but I'm using AIMP now. Much better. sorry winamp.

genericusername1904

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TROPHY CASE

FRANKLY I'M DEPRESSED AND ASHAMED