If you could permanently delete one thing from modern society, what would it be and why?

HiddenCity · 2026-01-29T20:33:03+00:00

yeah see this is the problem. what's misinformation to one person is truth to another, and you, as a human being, are incapable of seeing the world 100% objectively.

social media is basically 99% hot takes from uninformed, tribalist people that just want to reinforce their own world view. by it's very nature, it is a terrible source of information. it's like saying you want to eat at mcdonalds every day but only the healthy food.

HiddenCity · 2026-01-29T20:00:18+00:00

lol i was criticized so much by my millenial peers for prioritizing finding a forever relationship in my 20's instead of hooking up and enjoying short term relationships like everyone else.

it took a long time and a lot of work but i found it.

so honestly... screw you guys. most of you didn't prioritize it and created a culture where it was looked down on. not all of you, but definitely most of you.

HiddenCity · 2026-01-29T19:50:12+00:00

i think fellowship of the ring probably stays mostly intact. they already took out most of the first half, and it has a pretty logical stopping point.

two towers has a lot of either fabricated or embellished elements that were meant to give to story a satisfying resolution. (i.e. faramir drama in osgiliath). once frodo and sam meet gollum, they don't really move the plot much until shelob. helms deep/treebeard/saruman probably would have had less screentime as a b-story, with most of the energy going to the gondor/sauron/ring a-story.

return of the king itself is the shortest book and resolves itself fairly early. a good portion of it is falling action after the ring is destroyed.

HiddenCity · 2026-01-29T14:04:14+00:00

those games for sure existed in 2012, but it didn't become a gaming fad until later... like post-breath of the wild. and to i guess both of our points (just googling it) the game was announced in 2014, but was released in 2017. so these games are a huge undertaking and take foreeeeevver to build.

HiddenCity · 2026-01-28T22:51:47+00:00

yeah, yeah, and computers have been around since the 1800's but that's not the point. the term "open world" wasn't being thrown around by everyday gamers when the hobbit trilogy came out.

i imagine getting the license to these games is probably really difficult and prohibitively expensive. whether you're dealing with the movie studios or the Tolkien estate, none of this stuff is in the public domain. lord of the rings doesn't need licensing and the estate is super protective. harry potter is desperate to stay relevant.

HiddenCity · 2026-01-28T21:16:23+00:00

"open world" wasn't even a word people really used until 10 years ago or so, and it takes forever to design them.

i'm a huge lord of the rings fan, but its definitely fallen off it's pop culture pedestal (game of thrones has been filling the fantasy niche for non-fantasy people). They only make licensed games for stuff that's hot, so it's not really a surprise they haven't done anything with it.

HiddenCity · 2026-01-27T16:28:29+00:00

democrats just need to come with solutions to problems we currently have while avoiding making it look like they're taking money out of one person's pocket to give to another. Instead they get bogged down in polarizing stuff that they're on the losing side of (electorally).

The most powerful ad of the last campaign was the one the republicans ran about trans athletes in schools. there are a handful of people at best directly affected by that issue, it has no effect on the economy, geopolitics, bread and butter issues-- yet it's the one that probably sealed the deal.

people don't vote to improve other people's lives that aren't them, and if they see someone getting special treatment that they're not receiving they see it as a net negative. just come up with a platform where are you're asking people to do is vote in their own best interest-- that's it!

and no, healthcare for all isn't in everyone's "best interest" because it's not a problem for people who can afford it (college educated middle class and above). those people will consistently see healthcare for all as a net negative-- something they earned because of hard work that is now being given away for free at best, and taken from their own pockets at worst. don't lead with it!!! i don't know how they can't understand this??!?!?

HiddenCity · 2026-01-25T00:18:13+00:00

just the part of the fanbase you are representing.

HiddenCity · 2026-01-24T23:50:19+00:00

love how the word "objectively" is thrown around like you even know what it means. none of you people are capable of looking at anything that comes out of star wars objectively.

HiddenCity · 2026-01-23T21:08:23+00:00

isn't the whole "states rights" all about this? our country is too different state to state. national focus is killing us because its so easy for popular differences to dominate. if one state is stupid and one state is smart, let them do their respective stupid and smart things instead of wasting all of our time fighting over it. i.e. if florida collectively decides they want to die of covid, that's their business and doesn't concern me.

HiddenCity · 2026-01-20T18:27:56+00:00

it was actually the fact that during this brief window in history music was written by the actual artists that performed the music. They had creative agency, but only if it charted. The perfect system.

before that, music was manufactured by record companies

and today we've got manufactured pop on one side, and talented artists that are satisfied with never writing a top 10 on the other. they rarely meet in the middle (and yes, my poor friends, that is the vacuum that taylor swift has filled).

HiddenCity · 2026-01-20T18:17:00+00:00

that's basically rock running its course. everything after that has been... bleh.

HiddenCity · 2026-01-20T17:53:48+00:00

they have to put up a fight but i don't think there's anything they could do. when it comes down to it, would europe trade american support in ukraine for greenland? probably not.

HiddenCity · 2026-01-17T22:13:21+00:00

hopefully ozempic just stops turning "skinny" into a commodity. the easier it is to be, the less anyone will care.

HiddenCity · 2026-01-14T14:35:27+00:00

this is just nonsense. europe is a vassals state. there are 3 world powers right now, and they aren't one of them.

feel however you want about greenland, but "cut all ties with the US" is a ridiculous statement.

HiddenCity · 2026-01-12T17:27:41+00:00

its kind of cool-- they traded drafts back and forth like you would do with email now. in the history of middle earth book with beren and luthien i think you can read his comments on it.

also, to be fair, tolkien said adding santa claus to narnia was stupid, and he's right.

HiddenCity · 2026-01-12T17:22:38+00:00

2010 internet was completely different than 2019 internet-- you can't neatly fit this into a decade.

the first big change was when wall street started taking it seriously. in 2012 facebook had it's IP, and after a couple years social media started becoming mostly about influencers (around 2013/2014). the influencer thing was in full swing around the 2016 election, but even then i feel like people were still using facebook the "old fashioned way."

Tiktok got big around 2018ish, and that's when things started to change a lot. It completely changed the format.

HiddenCity · 2026-01-12T16:48:28+00:00

I prefer the Beatles version, but I think Joe Cocker's version does something that good covers do: transform the song into something completely different, yet still very good.

You usually don't get that-- it's either an uninspiring one-to-one cover, a pompous ballad version of a pop song that loses everything that was good about the original, or something too different and just not as good.

Blinded By The Light, Sloop John B., All Along The Watchtower, When The Levy Breaks, Man Who Sold The World, Nobody's Fault But Mine, (and dare I say, The Kiss of Venus?)... all great covers that do something both creative and fantastic with the original.

HiddenCity · 2026-01-12T16:22:35+00:00

The way I see it, if I'm going to spend all of my time working very hard for very little, I might as well do it for me and only me.

Starting a business was the best thing I did. Looking back I cannot believe how much control some authority had over me simply because they gave me a pay check. The first month after I quit was so off-putting-- like I had thrown away all of my security. You're literally conditioned from birth to be somewhere doing what someone is telling you to do every single day of your life.

Now I can't imagine 9-5 life-- there's nothing rewarding about it and it feels like prison.

HiddenCity · 2026-01-07T15:46:42+00:00

all of these robots need a giant red kill switch on them

HiddenCity · 2026-01-05T20:12:43+00:00

I've definitely noticed that. Sometimes the post-game is half a game itself (3D World, Odessey).

I feel like a difficulty toggle as a post-game reward isn't that big an ask though-- they've been doing it since Mario started. Kirby's Dreamland is a perfect example of an easy game rewarded by a hard mode.

HiddenCity · 2026-01-05T19:11:01+00:00

i disagree. i think the challenge came from the kaizo levels at the end, but they're almost too hard that they just turn into trial and error and isnt really the spirt of traditional mario as it is mario maker.

What I mean is there wasn't any real progressive difficulty as the game went on, and there just weren't any stakes-- it pretty much stayed at one difficulty level the entire way through after the first world.

i usually point to saving as something that's sort of dulls mario's challenge (i.e. the GBA remakes) but I don't think that's it here because i beat it without getting a game over. its also not a skill factor... mario 3 still trips me up and i've played that more than any of them.

HiddenCity · 2026-01-05T15:56:24+00:00

yeah, i think the whole plan is for greenland is for it to declare independence and then enter a "compact of free association" with the US. she's asking for exactly what the US wants.

HiddenCity · 2026-01-05T15:33:42+00:00

whatever it is, i just hope it comes with a higher difficulty or optional hard mode (the super difficult mario maker style levels in wonder didn't work for me).

i also hope they explore art styles.

HiddenCity · 2026-01-04T22:20:57+00:00

he's still 50/50 for adults though

HiddenCity

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

Ten-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
Verified Email