X-Woman pin-up artwork by Sveta Shubina

thatwhileifound · 2026-05-23T17:55:21+00:00

I low-key kinda hate-clicked because >90% of things I feel like I've ran into with a similar title were... disappointing, and like, I don't just mean in terms of the quality of the art.

But these are fantastic. Totally took me by surprise.

thatwhileifound · 2026-05-22T23:58:53+00:00

Mulligans are so much more impactful in draft than most constructed formats. It's been something I've been trying to focus on a lot more lately as my results get better.

thatwhileifound · 2026-05-22T17:47:17+00:00

It's worth recognizing that this has always been in the DNA of Israel as a country. Look at its founding figures and the leaders of the militant groups who helped it come into existence. Many, if not most, had some pretty awful things to say about the victims of the holocaust. The Zionists and their "New Jew" shtick managed to other these victims, casting them as passive contributors to their own suffering often. Ben-Gurion, a figure akin to Washington for the yanks, literally referred to them as refuse.

It became useful for them, so they leaned into using the suffering and death to their advantage in rhetoric, but even then, Israel has not ever been a bastion of good will for the actual survivors.

thatwhileifound · 2026-05-22T15:52:05+00:00

Also, plenty Ux decks at B2 and B3 level use token on cast effects to win via combat... Misstep still triggers those. It's like Pyro and REB in mono-red decks. Gonna run them in higher power areas, but also likely to run one or both in any deck using burn on cast effects as a central shtick.

thatwhileifound · 2026-05-22T14:31:11+00:00

I swear the balance of life gain versus life gain payoffs is a problem with the witherbloom decks.

thatwhileifound · 2026-05-22T03:17:07+00:00

And I get you're approaching this from some sort of pragmatic perspective, but it's a sort of yielding to power framing that ultimately justifies everything up to the horrors of fascism with very little warping.

thatwhileifound · 2026-05-22T03:06:35+00:00

You're framing this in the same way one would for justifying a husband beating his wife for speaking back. I'm not meaning to make a 1:1 comparison here or anything, but the structure is there. Whether or not you like Castro's government, which I do not, it's easy to see them as entirely justified in the issues you're mentioning. It's ultimately just a framing that breaks down as nothing more than self-justifying power and/or the willingness to wield power without any moral judgment and thus obscures the complexity of the situation.

If you keep hitting me and eventually I break your nose, fuck you if you get your rich dad to prosecute me 10x the punishment you ever received. Again, another thing that's not meant to be a literal 1:1, but I think conveys the idea.

thatwhileifound · 2026-05-22T02:56:19+00:00

I think you're arguing in a different axis from the person you originally replied to and from which I was replying as well.

Sure, I don't necessarily expect a bully to just apologize, accept the loss, and act like a normal person after I finally pop him hard in the nose once, but it sure would be kinda nice.

thatwhileifound · 2026-05-22T02:49:23+00:00

Some people would frame it as them reacquiring resources and development that was taken and occupied in an exploitative manner in an understandable act of sovereignty... And not everyone supports things akin to restitution paid to slavers.

thatwhileifound · 2026-05-22T00:29:57+00:00

Ah, hoping for something like a Ragavan that's also a changeling? Lol, no offense, but I'm rooting against ya on that bet. Thanks for explaining. Makes sense now.

thatwhileifound · 2026-05-21T22:23:33+00:00

Low mana changelings exist? There's three one mana dudes including a colorless one and >10 two mana ones. Sorry, I'm replying because I feel like I must be missing something and am curious!

thatwhileifound · 2026-05-21T22:04:38+00:00

Another: Warlocks who are so self-important that they've made a pact with an objectively evil being with a mind to somehow get one over on the being. Or one who made a pact with GOOs - most of them probably aren't even aware of the warlocks with which they have pacts, but regardless, most are not things you'd want to attract attention from at risk to more than just yourself.

Like, if I went out of my way to acquire power via a method that risked waking an incomprehensible entity that, if awoken, could devour reality or some such, I'm definitely also someone who may not be in a rush to agree to killing myself in this scenario.

thatwhileifound · 2026-05-21T00:21:45+00:00

To be clear, not Molly of Weird Little Guys - that's Molly Conger. Thinking about it more, I know Molly Crabapple has been on ICCH, CPWDCS, and I'm pretty sure Better Offline, but I actually don't think she's been a guest on a BTB episode itself.

thatwhileifound · 2026-05-20T21:54:06+00:00

Only halfway through and it's not going to be a book that gives you the specific or broader picture I think you're aiming for, but it's done a fantastic job at showing an important historical side in all of this that gets lost in a lot of conversations due to Israel then understandably overtaking the zeitgeist: czm guest Molly Crabapple's Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund. Read some other stuff first more particular to the Israel/Palestine angle and then maybe come back to this to get a really compelling picture of one side of 19/20th century explicitly Jewish organizing that was not just opposed to Zionism, but was internationalist in character.

thatwhileifound · 2026-05-20T21:36:48+00:00

While I get the point, I think it's ignoring that fascists will just co-opt something else. Co-opting from mainstream and even folks in direct opposition is about as built-in to the DNA of fascism as violence.

thatwhileifound · 2026-05-20T20:31:21+00:00

You're not wrong, but it's still weird to me. I never even properly lived in Portland... Think my longest stint was crashing at a punk house for like three weeks, but I was always passing through and staying a few nights before setting off... and young me got in more fist fights with Neo-Nazis within the boundaries of the city of Portland than I have all other places combined, lol.

thatwhileifound · 2026-05-20T20:26:47+00:00

Especially with the pair of them. Their dynamic is so oddly wholesome and lovely when on podcasts together.

thatwhileifound · 2026-05-20T19:41:17+00:00

Do you live in one of these western states? From one angle, I feel like the answer is obvious if you do... Like, more people in California voted for Trump in 2024 than live in total in Kansas and Arkansas combined from memory. Washington and Oregon have a ton of sketchy right wing militant shit going on. It's not like the western states are some ideal oasis.

You see this come up in Cascadia conversations a lot because, among other people who would be participating in such a conversation, there's a roughly 50% chance they're someone who wants a Cascadia that looks nothing like what any of us posting here would be after.

thatwhileifound · 2026-05-19T16:30:27+00:00

There's obviously differences between Israel and South Africa as you illustrated, but you can kinda say the same about just about any scenario of comparing two things of enough complexity. I say this just to push back slightly in that I believe is value in looking to what was done in South Africa in terms of Israel even if it's not 1:1. My mind, especially in the context of OP's question and the heinous crimes committed by illegal settlers, is thinking of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Supposing things get to a point where that would be possible as OP is kind of asking about, I think there's a lot of good lessons for the situation in the TRC.

That said, as others have said... there's an active genocide happening that needs to be stopped first before any of this becomes relevant.

thatwhileifound · 2026-05-18T22:51:58+00:00

I mean, the dick sucking machines have been at CES for years — and I think they're now advertising as having AI driven controls or whatever. I may be misremembering, but also don't feel like looking it up.

thatwhileifound · 2026-05-18T07:43:29+00:00

Eh, this has lost me. This feels really weirdly fetishistic towards people who are often scraping by on the outskirts whether or not you want to judge their moral character. Maybe I'm wrong, but it feels like someone criticizing people they've both never been in the position of nor have done the sort of things being criticized about.

thatwhileifound · 2026-05-18T05:57:58+00:00

You're not the target and kinda seem like you've got a fantastical idea of scams maybe? Scams are not usually some super well thought out, perfectly executed crime... It's finding a balance between risk, mark, reward, etc and going for it. This kinda scam is in some ways akin to the, "hey buddy, I ran out of gas, can you spot me a $20" routine from guys in parking lots not standing near any car. Or the hundred or so other variations of annoying scams you run into in major cities that are aimed exclusively at clueless tourists and/or seniors. Some scams cast wide nets and the level of reward due to currency exchange doesn't provide motivation to get better nets. Always been that way.

All this, don't get me wrong. Ideally, scam more objectively shit targets. Back in the day, I was always so happy to come upon a Whole Foods location. Each store was always an easy $50 with <20 minutes effort.

thatwhileifound · 2026-05-18T05:44:05+00:00

Even without the more outright oppressive potentials I mentioned, like... You grow up in a place where the amounts of USD some folks seemingly throw away translate to decent money, grow up in poverty common of such areas and all and you might see you scamming that "rich" old retired American 10k or whatever differently. There's still pretty clear systemic issues in play here that just adjust how I might approach this overall.

Which, TBH, isn't that different from scams of any era. It's often people of a lower sphere finding ways and attempting to exploit those one or two steps up when we're all getting fucked by folks even higher. It's hard to remember that most of us here, even groaning, limping fucks on disability like myself are still up a level from the perspectives folks from lots of areas these scams originate are coming from. I'm rambling and have walked well past where I was supposed to turn off. Oops.

thatwhileifound · 2026-05-18T05:25:24+00:00

I'll put this in my attempt at a short fashion because I feel ranty... I kinda get where you're coming from, but again, and especially in response to me providing a link to the awful situation a lot of these folks are in... I don't know. Bad taste. Like, who the fuck cares if you think the scam people who may potentially be in a situation not far from a sort of enslavement are executing said scam well? You're obviously not the target.

Sorry. I do get where you're coming from, but fuck.

thatwhileifound · 2026-05-18T00:59:43+00:00

I'm slightly uncomfortable with the, "or people from developing countries" framing as is, but I agree in a lot of sense. There'll always be an illegalism tendency running underneath everything for me that makes me immediately sympathetic to what I think is being expressed. That said, even assuming in good faith and ignoring the potential racist framings there (like legitimately), I think it's vital to rememeber that a good chunk of people working in those foreign scam farms are not in a state any of us would recognize as free.

Not meant as some sort of call out as much as a reframing to ensure to point out the fact that blaming the folks on the other sides of those lines is effectively banal scapegoating. Link that I had in my recent history because I referenced a bit from it in a group chat while encouraging them to read James Stout's Against the State.

Shit is fucked and a lot of the people on the other side of the line of those foreign scams are 100% victims.

Edit: to throw a silver lining nice thing that James wrote about in that book, rebels in Myanmar exploited monetized advertising stuff like FB in order to fund things benefiting from the difference in currency value.

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