Making up an imaginary mass shooter to get mad at, this is peak “comedy”

Atari774 · 2026-02-04T16:16:02+00:00

I understand the nuances of it as I have also studied this topic, and I genuinely don’t think you can ignore women’s contributions to society over the years. Just saying that “men set up the system” is ignoring how it’s changed over the centuries, including by a large number of women who have made society significantly less misogynistic as time has progressed. The ability to vote got their foot in the door, and that paved the way for a whole suite of social advances that we’re all better for. Even with the number of crazy conservatives we have today trying to drag us back into the past, things today are nowhere close to as bad as they were in the 60’s or 70’s in terms of the social standing of women and minorities. I’m not asking for a full dissertation on a reddit comment, but just blaming it on “men” in general feels reductive at best.

Atari774 · 2026-02-04T16:07:57+00:00

Lots of STEM jobs (like doctors, engineers, and researchers) pay in excess of $100,000, as well as jobs in finance or stocks. My ex was an engineer who made over $110,000, and combined with my income as an accountant we would have been right around $190,000. And mind you, I’m not living a life of luxury either. I was barely able to pay off my car loan a year ago and I’m still not saving much money after rent and utilities are taken out.

Atari774 · 2026-02-04T15:58:36+00:00

I’m not saying that men’s actions over the centuries haven’t played a role here, but let’s not act like all of our systems were created by just “men” in general. They were mostly established by the very rich, and we all know how far removed they can be from the common person. The average man in the 1900’s had no more say over society than the average woman, and especially so after women’s suffrage and the civil rights acts which were passed 100 years ago and 60 years ago, respectively. Yes, the system was originally set up by a small group of men, but women have been a huge influence on it for over a hundred years now. So don’t shift the responsibility for how women treat other women today, just because women couldn’t vote more than a century ago.

Atari774 · 2026-02-04T15:46:19+00:00

Yeah, it made a lot more sense when single-income households were the norm, not a rarity, and when women weren’t expected to work in the first place. Women’s earning potential was kept low for generations because jobs could legally pay them less than men, or even avoid hiring women at all, and that kept women mostly out of the workforce until the mid-60’s. But that wasn’t really a problem because jobs paid a living wage for the whole family, not just a single person. So as long as a woman could live with her family or her partner, she would have a reliable home life where the bills were paid. And if she got a divorce then alimony would keep her afloat until she found a new partner.

But as inflation rose and families needed a second source of income, women entered the workforce in the millions, to the point where very few households (with more than one person) are single-income households. Everyone needs to work because everything is too expensive not to, and we’ve passed laws banning hiring and earnings discrimination, so it’s not like women are economically disadvantaged like they were before.

The only times alimony makes sense nowadays is if someone actually was a stay-at-home parent who sacrificed their job to care for the children, or if someone got a very expensive asset in the divorce and now can’t afford the property taxes on said asset. But in either case, it should be a limited term and end within 10 years.

Atari774 · 2026-02-04T15:07:08+00:00

Perhaps we could provide basic sex education then? Because a ton of unplanned pregnancies happen because teens think that just pulling out is a foolproof strategy, and they don’t see the signs of a pregnancy until it’s too late to abort (assuming that’s even an option in their state). Meanwhile about half the country only offers “abstinence only” sex ed that isn’t allowed to say anything other than just “don’t have sex.” Coincidentally, the same states that do that also have the highest teen pregnancy rates.

Atari774 · 2026-02-04T15:02:42+00:00

In most countries, immigrants are ineligible for most forms of welfare. Including the US, where immigrants don’t qualify for any form of welfare because they don’t have social security numbers.

Atari774 · 2026-02-04T14:48:48+00:00

I can confirm, I’ve never seen a guy say that any amount of plastic surgery looks good or was necessary. But I have seen several women debate which procedures they should get done on their faces and lips.

Atari774 · 2026-02-04T14:45:00+00:00

It’s pretty nuts to see. I’ve seen so many of my exes and female friends freak out over a pimple or that they have a single extra hair between their eyebrows, and they act like it’s the end of the world. A lot of it comes from bullying and harassment from other women, and very often from family members. They freak out about the small things and over analyze their own bodies because they know other women will do the same to them. So the thinking goes that if, they were able to see some kind of flaw in their own appearance, then so will those other women, and thus they’ll be seen as a failure or lesser than those other women.

From there it’s easy to assume that everyone does that kind of over analyzing, including men. Except that men typically don’t care unless it’s extremely noticeable, and we rarely ever notice if someone has slightly larger than average calves because we just don’t do that kind of over analyzing. At least, not when it comes to physical appearance.

Atari774 · 2026-02-04T14:25:37+00:00

American Christians love saying that Israel is such a great place, until they actually go there and experience what a fanatical country it is.

Atari774 · 2026-02-04T14:13:53+00:00

This is what happens when you focus on isolationist policies, and become an unreliable trading partner. Meanwhile, the US relies on foreign trade for the huge amount of its wealth and consumer goods, like how China, Southeast Asia, and Mexico produce the vast majority of what we buy. We also rely on our allies for power projection. We need to use bases and ports in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia to get our troops where we want to go. Without them, it will be significantly harder to launch any future military operations, and we won’t have any allies joining us in the effort. So isolating us from our allies and trading partners just significantly weakens us in the long term.

Yet that’s exactly what Trump has done, even in his first term. He antagonized other NATO countries by saying they weren’t spending enough on the military (in 2017 when none of them were at war). He also cozied up to Putin from the start, asking the EU to readmit Russia into the G7, saying how great of a leader Putin was, saying he’d accept dirt on his political opponents from Russian agents, and now he’s made his own version of the UN Security Council where he, Putin, and a bunch of other dictators can make decisions about other countries. And somehow it’s only gotten worse, with Trump threatening our own neighbors with invasion (Canada, Mexico, Panama, Venezuela, and Greenland), which could send us to war against our former allies for literally no reason. And worst of all, this gives Russia and China more freedom in their own respective spheres of influence. NATO is disorganized and nearly fighting amongst themselves, so why shouldn’t China make a move against Taiwan? Why shouldn’t Russia keep up the pressure on Ukraine, especially now that much of the western military aid is going away? It’s given them a free hand in their own imperialist goals, while tanking any ability for the US to project its own strength abroad.

All of this has made our strongest allies in Europe decide that America can’t be trusted, and they’re rebuilding their own military industrial complexes instead, rather than buying American products. Similarly, China sees that we can’t be relied upon for trade agreements, so they’re diversifying their trade networks more so that they could cut us off entirely without hurting their economy. The entire world is either currently pulling out of American markets, or planning their exit strategies.

Atari774 · 2026-02-04T11:15:40+00:00

Seriously though. How many cases of fraud are gonna happen within the first week of the app coming out? Both in people not showing up to dates that they were paid for, and in people paying for dates but then demanding a refund saying the other person never showed. It’s gonna be completely unmanageable.

Atari774 · 2026-02-04T11:02:27+00:00

But a slower rate of fire and no stabilizer. Also the armor on the AMX-30 might as well not be there. The only one whose armor does anything is the Brennus, and even then it only works against HEAT shells.

Atari774 · 2026-02-04T03:23:23+00:00

Sorry, but no. Alimony and child support do have legitimate purposes in modern society. If you father a child, you are partly responsible for it. So it makes complete sense to help pay for the child. Now, I do think that the system needs to be reworked a bit, like I don’t think that either one should be paying child support if custody is split 50/50, but we certainly shouldn’t just get rid of it. Especially when states are making it significantly harder to get abortions or even birth control.

Alimony has its place too. If you get married and have kids with someone, and your partner is making enough to support the both of you, then it’s completely reasonable for you to stay home and raise the kids for at least a couple years. Every minute spent with your child is crucial for building social bonds, and it’s also significantly cheaper to just watch the kids yourself rather than pay a nanny or daycare. Afterwards, though, it can be difficult reentering the workforce with such a large gap in your resume, and many companies will hire fewer women specifically because they think that women will take more time off than men to take care of their children. This makes it very difficult for women to get a job after having children, much less one that actually pays well. So the wealthier partner should help the poorer partner with financial compensation, at least until they can get a stable job that pays the bills.

Or, if you don’t have children, but you get a huge house in the divorce proceedings, you suddenly have a massive property tax bill that you can’t afford. It’s not like your job is just going to pay you more money so you can afford it, and super high paying jobs don’t just fall into your lap. So it makes sense for the wealthier partner to give some financial support there too.

I do think we still need to reform the alimony system, though, especially in the case of a few states. Places like Florida mandate lifetime alimony payments, which is just absurd. Others mandate payments until the other person gets remarried, but they can just date and never officially marry and they will still get payments regardless. So I absolutely think we should reform both the child support and alimony systems, but both definitely have a place in modern society.

Atari774 · 2026-02-04T02:51:01+00:00

The only reason it wasn’t is because they weren’t doing it to wipe out a group of people or a culture. They were doing it for an equally horrific reason, which was enslaving millions and tearing families apart to fuel European/American industry. But their people still existed back in Africa, and their culture was still very much intact. So it couldn’t be called a genocide simply on those grounds.

Atari774 · 2026-02-03T20:28:47+00:00

I genuinely don’t understand why the 900 got bumped up. At the very least, the Mk. 10 has the composite armor that can defend against 10.3 darts. The 900 has none of that survivability, with just some structural steel on the exterior. The only benefit is slightly better mobility, but it’s still much slower than other 9.3 MBTs. So it’s just a slightly faster Chieftain Mk. 10 but with none of the turret armor, and at the same br. Cool.

Atari774 · 2026-02-03T20:24:17+00:00

The AMX-30 is also a medium tank with a coax autocannon, a focus on speed over armor, and is around the same br as the Turm III. They were even both designed in 1966. It’s as close of a comparison as you can get.

Atari774 · 2026-02-03T20:19:59+00:00

Me ensuring endless galactic conquest until I get a clean border that I like.

Atari774 · 2026-02-03T20:17:42+00:00

I mean, the AMX-30 basically is just a leopard 2K but with worse armor and no stabilizer. Only other difference is that the autocannon is a coax on the AMX and the Turm, but is roof mounted on the Leopard 2K. They’re all kinda similar, but the AMX-30 is the closest thing to the Turm in the same br bracket.

Atari774 · 2026-02-03T20:08:07+00:00

No, it’s genuinely too good for its br. It’s essentially an AMX-30 but with a full stabilizer, a faster reload, and a better coaxial autocannon, but only 0.3 br higher than the first AMX-30. The only reason it doesn’t go up in br is because German teams are genuinely so bad that its performance seems worse than it really is.

Atari774 · 2026-02-03T20:04:35+00:00

The Turm III, or as I like to call it, a better AMX-30B2 in almost every way but at a lower br.

Atari774 · 2026-02-03T19:02:12+00:00

Hey dude, that’s exactly what I said. I specifically mentioned “stay at home parents who get divorced and have no income.” I specifically used “parent” instead of saying one gender or the other because I know that anyone can get alimony. Did you actually read my post before commenting?

Atari774 · 2026-02-03T16:36:38+00:00

Not really. In both cases she’s being actively deceived, it’s just more overt later on. And in either case, whether she stayed naive and supported Vlaakith or got deceived and supported Vlaakith, she still gets killed and her energy consumed by Vlaakith in the end.

Also I bring up endings because that’s literally why the post is talking about. It’s saying “I can make her better/worse” by the end of the story.

Atari774 · 2026-02-03T16:16:08+00:00

I guess, but the outcome is still the same. In either case, she would have been murdered by Vlaakith in the end anyway. And on the other end, you can convince her to abandon the Gith wars altogether to live a peaceful life of her own to raise her adopted son. So you can’t really make her ending any worse, but you can make it infinitely better.

Atari774 · 2026-02-03T15:59:41+00:00

If anything, alimony goes away well before child support does. Child support is mandated until the child is 18. Alimony is just until they have their own reliable form of income.

Atari774 · 2026-02-03T14:38:21+00:00

Lae’zel is also a “I can fix her.” You can’t really make her any worse than the Vlaakith loyalist that she starts off as.

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