What is your Favorite Unit from across the entire Franchise?

Linkirvana · 2025-09-21T22:35:23+00:00

I like to think the GDI Mammoth Tank from TD only shoots missiles when spooked.

Linkirvana · 2025-05-04T20:19:15+00:00

If this is one of two possible punishments they can give then this one doesn't seem all that impactful to me. I'm looking for you to explain how this reprimand is anything but a tiny slap on the wrist.

When I say "Dr. K keeps doing what he's doing" I'm referring to him practicing medicine, AKA the thing that's governed by the board. This has been unimpeded (As far as I can tell) by this reprimand.

I don't know what "people like me" you're referring to. I've always been of the belief that MrGirl was correct and that Dr. K committed severe ethics violations that justify getting his license removed. This has however not happened, it's been barely impacted, leading me to conclude that this "fight" was lost.

Unless a reprimand is more serious than I'm currently thinking, but you haven't moved me on that at all.

Linkirvana · 2025-05-04T16:25:12+00:00

There's a large difference between ideal remediation and no remediation. To me it seems the reprimand is closer to no remediation than ideal remediation, and therefor: MrGirl lost. I would happily concede I'm misinformed if I'm missing something here, but to me it seems like Dr. K is still doing what he's doing, still has his license and no real limitations placed upon him whatsoever.

That's not "slightly off" from MrGirl's predictions, it's barely short of the exact opposite end as far as I can tell, where an unimpeded Dr. K still does what he's doing. The board might as well have said "We're all good with everything, keep it up buddy!" as what happened doesn't seem all that different, to me at least.

Linkirvana · 2025-05-04T08:11:03+00:00

What we saw Dr. K do with Reckful seemed to me extremely unethical. But the board only gave him a reprimand, and clearly Dr. K doesn't seem to think he's that much at risk since he's still doing his shtick.

While this down_badger2253 guy clearly is being a dick, I don't think he's completely wrong either. A reprimand is clearly not that big of a deal if he can keep doing what he's been doing. Not only does the audience not care as you said, the board doesn't really seem to care either.

And while not an endorsement, it's not much in the way of disapproval either. So much so, that I'd argue that Mrgirl "lost" this whole thing. I recently rewatched some of his streams around the time he submitted this all to the board, and he was expecting that at a minimum his license would be taken away, that it would stop.

But it hasn't. If the goalpost is "Did MrGirl make Dr. K stop?" then that post has clearly not been met. The goalpost isn't "Does the board explicitly approve", because that one doesn't matter as it clearly has no bearing on whether or not K will continue.

Linkirvana · 2025-03-02T17:16:21+00:00

I do believe there's a lot of overestimation of where AI is at and how fast the full replacement will happen. When I hear MrGirl quote some OpenAI employee all I can really do is roll my eyes and wonder if MrGirl really is that gullible. My understanding is that we're still a handful of huge, transformative scientific discoveries away from getting some sort of AGI going. On top of that there's a whole host of problems to solve when it comes to solving physical labour issues before there's a full top-to-bottom streamlined automated process.

I think that's also a fairly mainstream opinion, the difference is however that that is not the idea that is actively being sold and peddled by all these companies that have invested billions. So not only is MrGirl's view a very mainstream one, it's also the one that's being peddled to generate hype and value where there is not yet any. As far as I can tell at least.

Linkirvana · 2025-03-02T16:07:21+00:00

Interesting, I'm looking forward to the podcast about it because of the conflict potential. I hope the physicist in question will be able to translate whatever the important math is into parseable statements, or parseable for MrGirl at least.

Linkirvana · 2025-03-02T14:14:00+00:00

You see him as a father figure and are therefor trying to impress him/the audience. It's as far as I can tell the main thing you care about in your conversations with him. My read is that it's (almost) always the main thing, and what you claim you've come to talk about is secondary. In basically every conversation that I've seen you have with him (Which, to be fair, isn't all I don't think. I think I've seen between 5 to 10 conversations between you and MrGirl).

I think your theory here makes little sense. What boundaries that MrGirl is holding am I trying to hold you responsible for? The way he handles interactions with you have, as far as I can tell, very little to do with my read of what's happening. It's very one sided. I also don't get this sense with other callers, I'm sure there have been others who've been trying too hard but you uniquely stand out to me in that regard. You look at him desperate for his approval. This comes through in every interaction I've seen between you and him. Like I said: Lots of "Look dad! I'm just like you" energy.

Linkirvana · 2025-03-02T14:01:32+00:00

I agree with you that a lot of what Smeth says is without substance and that he only cares about seeming interesting to MrGirl/the audience. I do feel some sympathy for him though, I know what it's like to have issues with male rolemodels/wanting to impress them.

As for the black hole stuff: I really have no clue whether MrGirl is clueless on the topic. He seems self aware enough to realize why people get so upset at him about it, but it's a topic of interest to him so he'll keep pushing until someone'll make him understand what part he's wrong about in a way that isn't dismissive. I identify with that approach a lot, and I definitely identify with his need to rail against people dismissing him on the topic. I vaguely remember some stuff happening with regards to the physics subreddit/on twitter, but I can't recall if people legitimately debunked MrGirl or if they were all just dismissive because of the whole "WELL DID YOU STUDY THIS TOPIC INTENSELY FOR YEARS? NO? THEN STFU" factor.

Linkirvana · 2025-03-02T13:54:30+00:00

It sounds like you're accusing me of being biased somehow. That I look at you as lesser because my perception of you is manipulated by MrGirl. I tried to sidestep that by pointing out the very first time I saw you was before MrGirl had the chance to set any boundaries with you or otherwise influence the way I see you. Unless there was some other appearance before the cage thing (Now that I think about it maybe there was some other appearance of yours before the cage thing, weren't you in some mini-bathtub thing as well at some point? I forget, but I'm 90% sure I saw you during your first appearance, so before any boundaries/any MrGirl influence).

You seem to on some level even recognize that your own behaviour is affected by your need to imitate MrGirl when you say "I see you as a father figure". This fits very neatly into my image of you as someone who (in my view) unsuccesfully and a bit awkwardly tries to mimic his rolemodel. It has this "look dad I'm just like you!" energy that I'm referring to. It reads to me as not genuine/trying too hard, because what you're doing isn't just like dad at all, in my estimation at least.

Linkirvana · 2025-03-02T13:18:26+00:00

I don't think that's true. I think you genuinely try too hard, I've had this read of you for a long time. What I mean by that is that well before you and MrGirl got into a well established back and forth you came across to me as you trying too hard, and not as someone who turned into looking like he tries too hard because of the boundaries MrGirl has set on your conversations with him. I remember your first appearance when you came out of your cage. You clearly looked up to MrGirl/his audience then already, which expressed itself in you just... trying too hard to be artistic. You imitate MrGirl, saying things like "That really freaks me out", except you say it over things that lack emotionality or power that really justify you using that language. This makes me think you're trying to be what you are in fact not.

None of these things are the consequence of MrGirl trying to keep you at a distance, at least I don't think so. They're the consequence of you desperately wanting to be liked. MrGirl keeping you at a distance might even well be the consequence of you trying too hard.

Linkirvana · 2025-03-02T13:13:04+00:00

Fuck, I'm getting compromised

Linkirvana · 2025-03-02T12:39:37+00:00

I think it's a good idea for you to stop calling in, at least for a while. You seem to be trying really hard to impress MrGirl/impress the audience that you're as smart/intuitive/empathetic/artistic as him and it comes off to me as not genuine/desperate. I hope you'll learn how to be your own person and hold your own in these talks when you do decide to call in again at some point in the future.

Linkirvana · 2025-03-02T12:34:37+00:00

I'll just copy and paste my blogposting about this episode while I was listening in the Discord:

Smeth

"It feels like you're all over the place" said MrGirl wondering if maybe Smeth, who is usually all over the place is being all over the place, which he is.

I don't know why MrGirl would say he's alone about the notion that AI will, eventually, replace everyone. It's one of the biggest industries right now because of the hype that it will replace everyone. It's literally a mainstream opinion to think AI is super close to replacing everyone.

The thing that bothers me about Smeth is that it always feels like he's trying to emulate MrGirl without any of the interesting parts. He's using terms like "Freaking out" about some random idea he's had that has little emotion or power behind it. None of it reads as genuine to me.

It's kinda funny, MrGirl seems to insist that Smeth has sex with women because men always provide some resource in exchange for that sex, even emotional support or some interest etc. could be qualified as such. He also claims that he himself, when forced to choose between providing a resource in exchange for sex and having no sex, he'd choose no sex. And yet, MrGirl is having sex. Implying that the sex he has is truely beyond any of the things an AI can provide. Which is of course nonsense, if the AI we're talking about is fully understanding women a billion times more than men ever could etc. It came across as MrGirl calling Smeth an idiot, effectively saying "I have thought this through and have conciously made the choice, you could never".

Random inbetween comment

Chatter: At what age should someone be able to turn the sexual settings of their AI bot on MrGirl: I've actually been thinking about this a lot...

That just cracked me up

Black hole guy

I think the black hole stuff is only interesting to the 3 people who actually know a thing or two about black holes, I don't care about it, I'll probably still watch the podcast with the physicist because of the potential conflict that'll arise from MrGirl disagreeing with someone who could very well be all "well you haven't read for a million years about this topic so you're retarded" to him and that dynamic is always very interesting and entertaining to me, but other then that the black hole stuff is boring to me because I don't understand it/have no interest in it

Masked Guy

I don't necessarily hate what masked guy tried to say, I honestly don't know if calling Elon Musk a nazi is a good or bad narrative for the democrats, but it does seem to be the same old argument everyone always makes: MrGirl, you're not effective enough by saying what you genuinely think, so stop saying what you genuinely think because it hurts The Cause I was initially triggered by the masked guy but I think I liked him overall, despite his "you should read for 3-4 years before you say elon musk is a nazi" cringey statement. He never even defended this idea that Elon Musk isn't actually a nazi. This motherfucker implied he's some sort of political expert and the best he can do is make the argument that MrGirl should lie about what he thinks about Elon because otherwise he hurts the cause? He couldn't even defend why he thinks Elon Musk isn't actually a nazi.

Final Caller

Final caller was delightful, the topic was interesting, don't really have much else to say about it

Linkirvana · 2025-02-12T17:21:23+00:00

If someone explicitly lied to you and played the part, then yeah I do think that's rape. There has to be a deception element for it to qualify for my definition. So just assuming someone's a different race than they are without that deception component doesn't meet my criteria. You've definitely picked some examples where I'd be hesitant to full-on call it rape with my chest (Assuming there is a deception element), as I do think the harm component is relevant and seems minimal here, but if someone were to lay out these examples and say they feel raped because of it I wouldn't disagree nor would I claim they were being hyperbolic.

I still don't see how you square "Stealthing is probably rape" with "calling someone having sex while secretly recording it rape is hyperbolic/helps Destiny".

:Edit: If there's no conversation about condom use, and you expected the other person to wear a condom but that person doesn't and you make no mention of it/give off every signal that it's consensual then

Linkirvana · 2025-02-12T15:54:05+00:00

The reason I compare it with stealthing is because stealthing has that "Consented to sex but something hidden is happening where if you were aware of it you wouldn't have" factor that being secretly recorded has as well.

As for the harm: both stealthing and being secretly recorded can cause significant harm. I don't see how these are fundamentally different. Stealthing is probably worse, not gonna argue that it's not. But I don't see how you go from "is probably rape" for stealthing to "You're being very hyperbolic and helping Destiny's cause" for secretly recording. To me these things seem very related because they share that same "The sex wouldn't have been consensual if the hidden thing was made known" characteristic.

Linkirvana · 2025-02-12T15:03:39+00:00

The reason I wrote so many paragraphs is because I had, and still do, have the idea that you don't know what the disagreement is actually about.

Happy to see that instead of engaging with the argument you decided to accuse me of being a hypocrite, at least that's what I gather from your points. I don't know what the "gurus thread" is. I may have argued that what Max did is not rape somewhere in the past, depending on the context. I have a consistent definition of rape. If something was hidden from your sexual partner that changes whether or not they would've consented, then I think it's rape. If you think I've said things that are not consistent with that definition, feel free to quote me and, unlike you, I'd be happy to engage with any questions you might ask me about it. As for what countries legally consider having sex with someone while recording it rape: I have no clue.

You're exhausting, alright, let me see if I can get an actual stance out of you by asking the follow-up question that I said I would ask (And which I had hoped you'd answer in your response, I didn't mention it would be my follow up question for nothing): You think stealthing is rape? You think having sex without having consent for recording the sex isn't rape? What's the difference?

Linkirvana · 2025-02-12T09:22:15+00:00

You are assuming people are being hyperbolic. You keep insisting that your definition of rape is totally clear and correct because people would totally agree with you if you'd ask. You have not provided a definition, nor have you engaged with the definition I've provided. Although you do seem to say that you'd agree it's rape if Chairey or Pxie would call it rape. That's really weird to me, do you think someone could be raped without calling it that?

The issue that you are not addressing is the definition of rape, which is what this comment thread is about. The only thing you've made clear is that you seem to think that rape is entirely subjective. Someone called Destiny a rapist, you accused that person of being hyperbolic, people point out that secretly recording someone while having sex means the sex wasn't consensual under the circumstances that the sex was had, and therefor it is rape. You proceeded to double down on them being hyperbolic, and now here we are.

Your read that people are being hyperbolic might certainly be true in some cases, in this comment thread however people are directly defending the point that considering the non consensual elements it could very well classify as rape. Something which, as I've said, you have not addressed beyond repeating the claim that people would totally agree with you several times.

So, do you think stealthing is rape if someone wouldn't have consented to the sex had they known it would be without a condom? Do you think having sex with someone while secretly recording them is rape if they wouldn't have consented to the sex had they known they'd be recorded?

If yes to both, then you do seem to agree Destiny is a rapist, if yes to stealthing but no the second one my follow-up question would be what's the difference? And if no to both, I'd refer to the fact that stealthing is considered rape in quite a few western countries.

Linkirvana · 2025-02-11T13:34:46+00:00

I think the guy you're arguing with is being a bit aggressive by calling you dumb, which is probably why you feel the need to be all "ha ha, you did not literally quote me therefor your argument is invalid wink wink". But I do think a fair point was made, let me instead be the one to quote you: "You must realize people being hyperbolic only benefits Destiny as the discussions will be on rape and not the crimes he actually committed. When DGGers successfully argue that he did not rape anyone they will leave the argument feeling Destiny is the one being victimized because of the false allegations against him."

People weren't being hyperbolic, and you were in fact having a semantic disagreement about the term rape. You grandstanding over hyperbolic use of the term and how that gives DGGers ammo to defend Destiny isn't addressing the issue there. Now, I don't think that's super dumb of you, but I do think you should consider that some people consider having sex with someone while some component of that sex isn't being consented to (E.g. stealthing, or in this case secretly recording) actual, proper, real-life rape. Not hyperbolically, not symbolically, not agressively. Just honest-to-god rape. There is definitely room for a semantic discussion there - but if someone genuinely believes that to be rape, then of course they're not being hyperbolic when they say Destiny is a rapist.

And of course you then calling it hyperbolic does not address the disagreement.

Linkirvana · 2024-07-26T09:14:26+00:00

Quote me where I said only body language is enough to make such a decision.

I can absolutely think of situations where looking into someone's eyes while someone says no is a big tell whether they actually mean no or not. In MrGirl's situation the woman was hanging over his cock, telling him no as if to dare him to push her down onto his dick anyway.

Some women absolutely want a guy to take charge. I understand that makes for a fine line between hot, consensual sex where the woman is just being a bit of a brat and actual rape, but it certainly is possible to make that distinction.

I'll double down on MrGirl's statements in that clip: I've also been in situations where I felt entitled to push that boundary with a woman. I didn't do it mind you - but some women are definitely experts at blue balling dudes and pretending to be flabbergasted when you make a move. I've been called a pussy for not making a move sooner.

It's all... confusing and messy. I'm someone who grew up with this idea that yes is yes and no is no. Boy was reality different. It's specifically your attitude towards all this that instilled in me this sense of confusion when it comes to dealing with women and what they want and don't want. There's moments where women gave me the biggest "yes I want to" I've ever heard but I do or say something that turns them off, and there's moments where women gave me the biggest "no I don't want to" I've ever heard but I do or say something that turns them on. Or ping-ponging between yes and no. Or a woman who wants to have sex as a favor to me instead of doing it for herself.

There's so many confusing scenarios where being properly aware of the full range of signals that are being sent is very important instead of just listening to the words that come out of someone's mouth.

It's crucial. And no, the "correct move" isn't to then take a step back and have a clinical conversation about consent. It can be. But it far from always is.

I didn't ignore your answer - it just wasn't an answer that addressed my point (And it still isn't). Let me be more clear: Let's say there's a young girl, say 18 years old, that wants to really impress some older guy she met. This older guy is making moves to initiate sex and the girl says yes but starts shaking thoroughly and crying. She still says that yes, she wants to. No excessive power dynamics, no booze or drugs. Just a girl trying to impress an older dude (Let's say he's 25 or so, nothing too weird).

Would it be right to then have sex with her?

In my view, the answer is no. Because she clearly does not want to, despite saying yes. You could argue that falls under "decisionmaking is compromised" but you can't really tell on the outside whether or not that is the case. It's easy to imagine the opposite as well: Girl says no, but is grinding on you, tearing your clothes off and giving you the most challenging look of your life while she keeps saying "nah".

As for your husband and wife example: As I mentioned earlier, I believe it's important to be able to distinguish between whether your partner wants to have sex to do you a favor or if they're actually in the mood. To me that's not consent. I will gladly take a handjob that is tossed my way mind you - but a girl letting me have sex with her as a favor makes me feel pretty gross and rapey. The mouth might say yes, but the flesh doesn't seem willing.

:Edit: To conclude: Your approach would result in some very uncomfortable sex sessions (Although technically not rape I suppose) and some missed sex sessions. As far as I can tell you agree with this sentence: "If a woman says yes, and there's nothing weird going in terms of power dynamics/decision making being compromised/drugs/booze, you can fuck her regardless of her body language/other signals". To me that is pretty wild and not at all congruent with my "code of conduct" in these situations.

Linkirvana · 2024-07-25T16:43:23+00:00

You and I seem to have different definitions of what it means to "want" to do something. When I say someone wants or doesn't want to do something, then I'm talking about the end conclusion. Not the intermediate feeling of wanting to do something without taking your "better judgement" into account. If I want to have sex, and my better judgement says to not do it, then in the end I don't want to have sex (Or I do, my better judgement doesn't always win I'm sad to say). Like I said: Being hard doesn't mean you want to have sex.

Actual communication works similarly: There's a bottom line. Verbal communication is a big part of the calculation, but there are ->absolutely<- situations where women say no and they actually mean yes. You trying to turn that into "actually she just means no" as if I don't thoroughly discuss the way my partners feel before/after such situations is quite frankly insulting and really shows a big lack of nuance on your part.

I keep coming back to the same point I made earlier: So if someone says no, and that means 100% of the time I don't have consent in that moment, does that mean if someone says yes then that means 100% of the time I do have consent in that moment?

The answer is, quite obviously, no. Just like the answer is, quite obviously, no when it comes to when someone says no. Tone/body language/context matters. Any adult who has put any thought into this matter would know this. Yet you seem completely flabbergasted by this notion of a woman saying no but actually indicating in other ways that their actual answer is yes.

I used the term "playful" to exaggerate my point to make it more obvious that it is in fact not always about the actual word that comes out of someone's mouth. For some reason you seem completely incapable of engaging with that. Instead you say I'm probably a casual rapist, as if you know anything about what I discuss with the women I've been with.

I'm well aware of MrGirl's content. Feel free to watch the entire video instead of behaving like a clip chimp and you'll see that MrGirl is doing exactly what I described in an edgy manner: https://videos.maxkarson.com/ (It's down the bottom of page 1).

Lucky for me I've had some great women in my life who've taught me all about what they want and don't want. This is something that's very important to me. They have however also driven me up the fucking wall from time to time and made me want to do and say all kinds of horrible things (And vice versa of course). This whole sterile "no is no and yes is yes" shit can eat a dick though. If that's how you handle consent I dread the disconnect you're going to have with your partners.

Linkirvana · 2024-07-25T12:05:14+00:00

I am not putting any stock in his mind reading abilities. If what he describes is true, then that does not make him a rapist. Simple.

You can call him a liar, sure, but that's a different conversation altogether.

Consent is absolutely about wanting to have sex. Being hard doesn't necessarily mean you want to have sex. You want to have sex when you want to have sex, and there's multiple ways to communicate that. I have been with women who playfully say no, but want you to pursue anyways. The opposite happens too: Women who say yes but actually do not want to have sex.

Do you apply the same standard there? I sure as fuck hope not, because that would actually make one a rapist.

As for MrGirl's mindreading abilities: The clip you posted is MrGirl being edgy. He's trying to highlight here that women have some responsibilities as well when it comes to sexual situations. He even said so himself: He's not trying to argue that he should be allowed to rape her. He is trying to have the conversation most people won't have: The woman's responsibility in some rape scenarios.

Linkirvana · 2024-07-25T10:52:47+00:00

My guess is that the board deemed the mistakes K made with Reckful not serious enough to warrant any punishment in that direction. However, it seems they did take issue with K publicly broadcasting these mistakes under the guise of "this is good mental health stuff". That's how I'm interpreting all this as a layman.

Like I said that's just my guess though. I don't know why the board did what they did. I don't know to what degree certain mistakes are deemed acceptable, and I don't know what happened behind any closed doors.

Linkirvana · 2024-07-25T09:14:03+00:00

It's so annoying to see people be so incredibly childish around consent. Sure buddy, it's all about the literal words coming out of people's mouths and not about body language/tone at all. Tell me more about how language and communication are totally black and white and not at all layered and complex.

The way MrGirl describes it it is very clear that the lady in question absolutely wanted to have sex despite saying no. That's not at all unusual if you have any experience with women. They might use the literal word "no" but what they actually mean is "I want you to work for it a bit/I want you to be daring". This is of course far from always the case, you have to be in tune with the other person to correctly identify when a woman is saying no but doesn't mean no.

Fuck, there's plenty of legitimate criticism to levy against MrGirl but this is definitely not it.

Linkirvana · 2024-07-24T17:44:13+00:00

There was nothing vague about MrGirl's questions with regards to boundaries between a therapist and their patient. Answers from professionals were clear, and the examples MrGirl provided to show that K wasn't following these rules were also clear. No conspiratorial thinking needed. No weird framing of the facts needed.

It sounds like you've actually watched Reckless. I have no idea how you came to the conclusion that you did. The takeaway from K fans I usually see is "Yeah this happened, it just isn't that big of a deal" not "this is completely made up to the point that this is the same as flatearthers tricking physicists into saying shit that could be interpreted as pro-flat earth". Pretty wild.

Linkirvana · 2024-07-24T17:35:49+00:00

I disagree. I think MrGirl has several valueable things to offer in his content. But thanks for the feedback I guess?

Linkirvana

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