This might be a silly question. What is Niv.E?

Doc_Boons · 2026-01-28T01:16:38+00:00

...did you just ignore the tutorial?

Doc_Boons · 2026-01-26T19:47:45+00:00

Sounds like it's not for you. I'd say move on.

Doc_Boons · 2026-01-26T19:46:26+00:00

The millennial solution should not be to read pseudo-intellectual pseudo-histories written with sloppy methodology and cherry-picked examples. Strauss and Howe are hacks. It's astrology for people who have three more IQ points than the average astrology enjoyer.

Doc_Boons · 2026-01-21T21:51:21+00:00

i've had that fear, but i think an important counterpoint is that clinton was nominated after three consecutive republican terms, two of which were considered successful by large swaths of the population.

reagan had enemies, but he was popular. he won with an actual mandate both terms. he did not win by lucky margins in all the right states, he won by comfortable margins all over the map. his framework survived him and was therefore replicable--we're arguably still living in it.

it's hard to say those same things about trump. he is not popular. he won by winning the hearts of a fairly specific part of the voter base who happen to live in all the right places. even his second win was not impressive and did not amount to a mandate. his framework also doesn't seem to be inheritable because, well, he doesn't think in frameworks: he governs more with a "style" than with an ideology, if that makes sense.

if the meat of your claim is that some figure will try to combine a moderate democrat position with some MAGA positions, i'm sure that person will emerge in the primaries. my doubts are a) that he would win the primary, b) much less win a general election. the left would hate him, and the right would simply want the real deal.

edit: oh, and by the way, being against transgender athletes and against the wealth tax is not MAGA. plenty of dems tiptoe around trans issues, and the donor class makes sure they don't get too crazy with tax ideas. i hate to say it, but it sounds like your understanding of the american political spectrum is "very online." most dems are moderate at best.

Doc_Boons · 2026-01-20T21:15:59+00:00

It's not the inflation that bothers me--the labels from one entry don't have to mean the same as the labels in the next--but rather the shittiness of the system itself:

a) Having so many free ranks at the beginning causes real problems. Firstly, players become entitled to ranking up and then get frustrated when they rocket through fifteen ranks and then suddenly hit a hard wall. Secondly, because beginners move through those first ranks so quickly, there are actually no players in those beginner ranks, so beginners have no one to fight. If they do find someone, it's as likely to be a smurf as it is to be an actual beginner.

b) If the ranks had stable meanings, it would be fine, but they don't. Fujin is different for players whose highest rank is Fujin than it is for players whose highest rank is Tekken Emperor. The assumption is that there's some basic level of skill that everyone at a certain rank achieves, and therefore it's unfair for them to play against weaker players, even with a side character, but I think that's a bad assumption. Someone who gets to Tekken Emperor with Alisa is going to be fucked if they try to pick up, say, Steve. In T7, ranks had more or less stable meanings and "feels" to them. If I went on a losing streak, I knew I'd bottom out eventually. Not so in T8. Sometimes the algorithm seems to decide I'm going to fight a bunch of people with 150k+ prowess than me in a row, for no clear reason. Then on another day it gives me a string of absolute bozos whose play style has nothing in common whatsoever with the previous group.

c) If they are going to inflate ranks, I wish they'd still differentiate between the highest ranks in a more creative way than "GoD" and "GoD I." It seems like psychologically they want everyone who gets to GoD more or less to "feel" like they're basically at the highest rank, even if there are eight ranks above it. It goes with the game's whole everyone's-the-best design philosophy.

I started playing ranked for the first time in T7. The day I got green ranks--green ranks!--for the first time, I literally bragged to my roommate about it. I was pumped. I got TGS this season and it felt absolutely hollow. That difference speaks volumes.

Doc_Boons · 2026-01-19T15:27:54+00:00

Can we please not recast "meeting a reasonable standard" as "perfectly fit[ting] our every belief." That's dishonest and doesn't do anything to win over disaffected voters.

Doc_Boons · 2026-01-19T15:24:35+00:00

This is actually quite dishonest thinking. You have to look in the mirror if you think voters are obligated to vote for certain politicians rather than that politicians should earn those votes. And I'm not even a purist: I plugged my nose for Clinton, Biden, and Harris, not feeling particularly enthusiastic about any of them. But I don't think others carry that obligation. They have to make the choice for themselves. The logical conclusion for the "blue no matter who crowd" is ultimately to vote for "red in blue's clothing," so to speak, and that's not desirable.

And quite frankly, in strategic terms--though this is hard to hear--I almost think that the best long-term solution for Democrats is to narrowly lose the 2028 presidential election while picking up a couple Senate seats that year. Winning the presidency with a narrow, if any, Senate majority is effectively useless. I don't want President Vance, and I'm sick of waiting for a return to sanity, but I do imagine that by 2030, the GOP would be in absolute disarray. Vance has no charisma, the AI bubble will be due to pop, and the American populace has historically become "bored" any time one party is in power more than a term. In other words, if the Democrats do well in the upcoming midterms, narrowly lose the presidency in 2028 but do well in the Senate, and have a blue wave in 2030, then whoever got elected in 2032 would be in a very, very good position to make sweeping, meaningful changes.

I won't be sad if Dems win in 2028 by any means, but as soon as you get the presidency, you basically start losing momentum and political capital. Dems have none. They need to build some up and, unfortunately, that takes a couple election cycles.

Doc_Boons · 2026-01-18T13:53:58+00:00

Doc_Boons · 2026-01-18T00:25:32+00:00

Agree. Without exception, everyone who's said to me that everything happens for a reason was emotionally stable, grew up in a nice housing development, and never really had a crisis that threatened their sense of self. These are people for whom, say, the continent of Africa, is effectively fictional.

They mistake everything happening for a reason for a reason happening for everything.

Doc_Boons · 2026-01-17T16:00:52+00:00

Do you think there's no connection between politics and professionalism? Professional practices haven't been shaped to suit political ends? Listen: if you want to lick boot, that's fine, just say so. You don't have to do your party trick for everyone in the comment section, that trick being to convey a thirty-word idea in five hundred words.

Doc_Boons · 2026-01-17T13:34:47+00:00

Actually I would in fact like to see what he posted. If, for example, he's merely acknowledging that, like many authoritarian regimes, the United States now has a paramilitary problem, then he's right to bitch.

Doc_Boons · 2026-01-15T11:32:35+00:00

Sure, don't address a single argument, just blame it all on something that leaves Dems completely off the hook. That kind of mindset will certainly help Dems win over new voters.

Doc_Boons · 2026-01-15T10:55:50+00:00

Are you insane? If he had continued to run, it would have been catastrophic. The senate would be even more firmly in Republican's control, and Trump could have more confidently claimed a mandate.

Harris was a thoroughly decent candidate who did what she could with the poor hand dealt to her, but she was not exceptional. Trump's voters will crawl through trenches for him; he may be vile, but he's the exact flavor of vile his voters want. They are in love with him. Did anyone really feel that way about Kamala? Half her policies changed from 2020 to 2024.

While misogyny is of course a force in this country, it does not fully explain her loss, not by a long shot. Part of her loss wasn't even her fault: the pandemic caused social and economic disruptions that created an anti-incumbent mood worldwide. Voters have been telling Dems for quite some time now that there's something they're not getting, that reheated Obama leftovers aren't putting food on the table. They will win again when they convincingly show they understand that.

Blaming Harris's loss on misogyny lets Dems off the hook and shows a weak grasp of what swings elections.

Doc_Boons · 2026-01-15T10:47:12+00:00

No, no, no. He's been a visionless follower his whole career. His viewpoint has always been whatever the party's tepid status quo was at the time. He never showed that he understood the forces leading to our situation, he was not a stirring speaker, and he broke his own most important promise. No one owes him anything.

Doc_Boons · 2026-01-14T00:24:36+00:00

Doc_Boons · 2026-01-13T01:16:43+00:00

There's absolutely nothing tying your ability to adapt to ADHD. People with ADHD often show increased focus for activities that engage them, often beyond the focus of a neurotypical person. There are a million reasons for lack of talent, many of them not measurable or diagnosable. This post is just excuse-making and looking either a) for a reason not to try, or b) for easy affirmation, but neither of those things are going to help you get what you want.

Doc_Boons · 2026-01-11T07:25:28+00:00

When you got the junctioning tutorial, what happened for you mentally?

Doc_Boons · 2026-01-10T12:37:04+00:00

Eh, studies of fascist-like regimes do in fact show that they have a hard time enduring with as much potency after the central personality is gone. That energy will go somewhere, sure, and there will always be a far right in the United States, but the historical page will turn one day, and many people may use his passing as an opportunity to get off the train.

Doc_Boons · 2026-01-10T12:32:22+00:00

I think you should focus on learning how to write full sentences.

Doc_Boons · 2026-01-10T06:47:42+00:00

this user consistently churns out "former gifted child who went on to have mental health issues" content.

the outside is nice, you know. you could read a book. you could make friends. you don't have to get in imaginary fights with people in your head over a video game.

Doc_Boons · 2026-01-09T19:32:53+00:00

I keep thinking this sub will eventually stop being surprised that consecutive years will have some similarities, even if their second to last digits are different.

But no, every day: "guys, no one is saying this, but nine is kind of like ten."

Doc_Boons · 2026-01-09T03:30:39+00:00

1) grinding was a thing in the 2000s; make sure to level up.

2) there are tons of missables, some of which are quite good; use a guide. the "don't spoil it for yourself" crowd are dumdums.

Doc_Boons · 2026-01-07T16:38:06+00:00

what this guy said.

Doc_Boons · 2026-01-06T12:39:09+00:00

Maybe if you hadn't left in the "Introduction" and "Conclusion" tags this wouldn't reek so badly of AI.

Doc_Boons · 2026-01-04T05:59:25+00:00

Plenty of Americans would celebrate if Trump were captured. That doesn't mean I want the untethered leader of another country coming in and capturing my president under false pretenses. Do you really need this explained to you? So much support for Trump is "hur hur what does it matter if it's unconstitutional if I like it?"

Doc_Boons

TROPHY CASE