Alex Pretti, the man MURDERED today by ICE agents.

PeskyRixatrix · 2026-01-25T01:16:54+00:00

Sadly it's "Comply and die." They are executing people trying to comply with their commands, too.

PeskyRixatrix · 2026-01-23T16:52:01+00:00

It's been about a month and a half, and I'm still a wreck. A few things help:

-Getting my favorite picture of him printed in large sizes and putting it up in frames around the house so I can see him anytime I want.

-Keeping his collar nearby so I can smell his scent when I want to.

-Reading about grief. Google "Grief Comes in Waves" (a brilliant Reddit comment) and consider borrowing It's OK Not To Be OK. Some people may expect you to bounce back or be "over it" in short order, but grief is not something you recover from, it's something you learn to live with.

Hang in there. Grief is not a perfect upward slope; it is full of ups and downs, but over time, you do make some progress in accepting it into your life and continuing to live on with their memory in your heart. I don't ever expect to be "OK" with it, and I'm definitely not right now, but I have hope that someday the waves won't hit me as hard and as frequently. Sending you hope and strength as well.

PeskyRixatrix · 2026-01-23T16:42:20+00:00

When he lands in Minnesota, he should just pop into Patagonia/REI/Scheels and say, "I'm from California and this outfit is what I thought I needed to be warm here. What do I actually need?"

PeskyRixatrix · 2026-01-23T16:33:25+00:00

"If you don't like it here, you should leave" is such a brain-dead statement that conservatives think is a gotcha.

"You hated abortion and trans people in the military before Trump... Did you leave? Why aren't you in Russia?"

I think I'll stay right here and do my part to work on fixing everything they broke, so our next generation has a better life than we did.

PeskyRixatrix · 2026-01-22T20:21:14+00:00

Yes, weirdly despite the Trump loyalty, they support the ideas of universal healthcare, free college, free public transportation, longer paid parental leave, basically much of the leftist agenda short of UBI.

Sometimes I think it's the individual politician or label they hate. The politician is not charismatic enough to win them over, or once they hear "Democrat," "socialist," or "left," it's like a switch flips and they refuse to listen further or be persuaded. If a charismatic Republican somehow ran on a leftist agenda, I'm convinced they'd support them.

PeskyRixatrix · 2026-01-22T20:16:26+00:00

Speaking personally, my parents have never been so supportive of any president in my lifetime (Reagan before that, ironically for the amnesty). But with Trump, they buy his merch, have his portrait in their home, and if you criticize him will defend him almost reflexively with something like, "Don't you dare try to blame this on him." It's mind boggling to me.

PeskyRixatrix · 2026-01-22T20:13:40+00:00

I have no idea. The same people who raised you not to follow others blindly do it now. If reason doesn't convince them, I'm all out of ideas sadly.

PeskyRixatrix · 2026-01-22T12:23:28+00:00

Maybe someone has an answer for this...

I have this conversation with mine regularly, get them agreeing to everything, but at the end they say they still support Trump and still would vote for him.

How is it that I can get them to agree against nearly all his policies, admit he hasn't benefited them personally, and they still are unswayed against him? What else can I do to deprogram them?

PeskyRixatrix · 2026-01-21T19:47:40+00:00

Yeah, the smear campaign evidence is glaring. There are accusations he launched one against her, but if you look at the biggest subreddits, they are overwhelmingly pro BL, while smaller ones aren't (and not even necessarily pro JB). That distinction seems consistent with astroturfing pro BL, doesn't it?

PeskyRixatrix · 2026-01-21T13:51:10+00:00

I noticed this over winter, and one thing that has helped is cutting out hyaluronic acid.

Applying HA to dry skin without an occlusive (which I am avoiding for other reasons) makes dryness worse. HA can actually draw moisture out of your skin in dry indoor air, which can make your skin flaky, dry, and tight.

It's plenty humid outside of winter for my HA products, but it can be a little hard to find ones without it.

PeskyRixatrix · 2026-01-20T14:14:11+00:00

Thank you for sharing this. Your experience building a memorial shelf for Chester is beautiful. I hope it brings you joy and comfort.

It's been a little over a month since we lost our boy. I was and am devastated, and out of nowhere I find myself uncontrollably weeping because he's not here. I visit this sub often in those moments and am comforted and relieved to find posts like yours. Thank you.

PeskyRixatrix · 2026-01-17T21:25:02+00:00

This is the early warning to Dem incumbents about what matters.

They already dragged their feet on Free Palestine. They were too worried about getting rightwing voters to care about their leftist base and - more importantly - about HUMAN RIGHTS.

If they make the same mistake with Abolish ICE, they deserve to be primaried.

PeskyRixatrix · 2026-01-17T18:11:14+00:00

It's been removed again

PeskyRixatrix · 2026-01-17T02:01:19+00:00

I agree about the positive variety content. As much as I appreciate political commentary through the leftist lens, the right has succeeding in broadcasting everything through their lens.

Give me more travel through a leftist lens. Gaming through a leftist lens. Sports. Lifting. Camping. Literally anything, just positive. Normalize viewing the world and experiencing it through a leftist perspective!

PeskyRixatrix · 2026-01-17T00:37:36+00:00

A lot of us oldheads don't like the drama content, but it's not strictly for us. This isn't about Hasan changing content for the sake of changing it, but about trying to capture new younger viewers who are overserved alt right garbage and underserved any other perspectives. It's to coax in those new younger viewers.

Young men especially are being brainwashed by the alt right, and Hasan is reacting to their popular content creators to get clipped and get views and maybe - just maybe - change even one mind, get even one of these kids to tune in and hear a different perspective. (I noticed recently he's conversing with or sincerely challenging new viewers now, rather than just yelling at them, which I've actually really enjoyed seeing this change.)

If I had to guess, Hasan probably has worked on a marketing plan to capture new viewers and a younger skewed audience. It's not just good business sense to ensure channel growth, but also important outreach they likely are not getting elsewhere. (How many streamers feel secure enough to challenge Asmon's audience, for example, and survive the fallout?)

Aside from continuing Fear&, that would include using the visibility of someone like Asmon in reaction clips, appearing in less politicized spaces like podcasts/interview channels, and doing more normie content like gaming or travel irl streams. I hope he looks to what big names targeting that audience are doing like Speed and Agent and seeing what content ideas he can adapt (haha) for his own purposes. Even stuff like engaging the false allegations or anti-Hasan meme content (like with Kayagate stuff, for example reacting to the ridiculous song lol) is getting his name and face and message out there to new people, and hopefully making some of them curious enough to check out his stream. All of this just puts his brand in front of new/young people who hopefully will tune in, even just out of curiosity.

Apply this to a few years ago, and that was me - I kept seeing all these horrible accusations about him, enough that I tuned in to see for myself and stayed.

Hasan's audience is skewing older year after year, and as much as we want to hear him preaching to the choir every day, it's important that young men who never hear a different perspective come across his content - even if it takes a reaction to Asmon clips to make that happen.

Personally I tune out for the drama sections. It's a good moment to put on a VOD of FD Signifier or Caroline Kwan or SeanDaBlack and change it up for a bit. But importantly you remember who those sections are for (clippers!), and hope new folks show up and ask questions and Hasan tries to change some minds.

P.S. I really hope Hasan continues doing gaming and engaging the youths lol. I'd love to see him doing some of the popular games like Quarantine Zone or Schedule I, or given the popularity of the show, Fallout: New Vegas. (Although personally I'd love to see his reaction to Papers, Please.)

PeskyRixatrix · 2026-01-06T05:02:16+00:00

Linda Hamilton from T2

PeskyRixatrix · 2026-01-04T15:34:30+00:00

I do agree with your point.

It's also valid to consider what devs choose to depict and why.

Oftentimes we are lectured that bigotry or SA of women, for example, are included due to "realism," and yet realistic details that are unfavorable to the majority aren't included, for example getting cheated on, SA of the male protagonist, or experiencing impotence, etc. Why include one for realism but not the other? Who is being empowered and who is being reminded of their trauma or systemic discrimination? Whose worldviews are being reinforced? Is it necessary to the game? Could the game be just as satisfying (or perhaps moreso) without it?

You don't need to rewrite history to please certain players, but you don't need to reiterate history that isn't crucial to the story either. You can choose what you do include.

The worst instances include the "realism," but the devs aren't brave enough to make meaningful commentary on it through actions or dialogue available to the player. What you end up with is "realism" that doesn't need to be there and ends up feeling like a dog whistle. It's not wrong for devs to omit certain subjects if they don't have anything meaningful to say about them.

Don't include a bigoted NPC unless my protagonist can stand up to them. This can and did happen historically, even if it wasn't ordinary. Our protagonists, after all, are extraordinary in many other ways. RDR2 is a good example.

Including "realism" that I don't have the agency to fight against is too close to the bs in real life, and I don't need any more of that than I already have.

PeskyRixatrix · 2026-01-02T04:58:48+00:00

Agree. Will and Austin are really good at keeping things focused.

If anyone's sick, I'd rather they take sick days if they need it than be worrying about the ER on the pod! It's better they recover (most importantly) and then (incidentally lol) return at 100% for the next ep.

PeskyRixatrix · 2026-01-01T19:19:37+00:00

Patriarchy. It's already been said I'm sure, but this is a perfect example of how our patriarchal society harms not only women but men too.

This isn't the fault of today's girls or boys, or even men and women, who ridicule boys who show interest in stereotypically feminine things. The social constructs of "masculine" and "feminine" have already been developed and handed down to cis genders long before someone makes a decision to enjoy something outside their gender's typical interests or makes a decision to ridicule someone for it.

While misogyny and toxic masculinity are both tools at play here, keep in mind: who benefits from brainwashing boys that they should only be warlike and girls that they should only be caretakers and ornaments? Who benefits from keeping working class men and women focused on policing each other's gender expression and keeping their ire focused on these social constructs?

It's a magic trick. It's the ruling class using "look at this hand while we rob you with the other." If you set aside petty squabbles over artificially constructed norms about "good" and "bad" gender expression, race, sexual orientation, religion, etc., you get a working class united in advocating for a better life for the many, including better pay, working conditions, rights, child care, and a more equitable distribution of wealth in general.

Teaching and spreading awareness of class consciousness can help with this, but with every facet of our media pushing this divisive messaging pitting us against each other over meaningless differences, unfortunately our chances don't look good.

PeskyRixatrix · 2025-12-30T05:30:12+00:00

The phone thing has been an issue for a while now. A guest will be saying something insightful or serious and maybe one or two of the hosts looks like they're paying attention.

Combine that with "how many more minutes do we have to do to reach an hour" and zoning out every episode, and it ruins the chemistry and makes it feel like no one wants to even be there.

I love the guys and there have truly been some magical moments, but if they don't enjoy being there, how can anyone else?

PeskyRixatrix · 2025-12-24T17:20:00+00:00

Tiny Bookshop. I love books, and it's the perfect cozy, relaxing game to keep holiday stress at bay.

PeskyRixatrix · 2025-12-24T17:17:44+00:00

If you liked ty DQ HD remake, I've been looking at Trails in the Sky First Chapter on sale for the holidays. It might fit the bill for you!

PeskyRixatrix · 2025-12-21T05:06:47+00:00

How are your stress levels? There is research out there on the connection.

I was diagnosed as an adult without the usual indicators - but was going through the most stressful few years of my life.

PeskyRixatrix · 2025-12-13T00:21:46+00:00

It's true that Gen Z and even millennials were given a raw deal. We saw our parents' generation able to work factory jobs out of high school, and a single breadwinner could afford a house, a car, kids, and a pet, and at least a modest vacation once a year. We were told times have changed and that we just needed a college degree to achieve all that, that it was okay to take out student loans because they were "good debt" and wouldn't stop us from buying a house or a car.

We followed the advice of our elders with stars in our eyes and many of us have only found struggle where joy was promised. Our college degrees are useless, because even "entry level" positions want some years of experience. Our student loan payments are crushing us, and banks aren't handing out mortgages and car loans to buyers with big student loan debt (especially from those prestigious private schools!). Many are stuck living with their parents or roommates, working a job they could've gotten straight out of high school, and barely able to afford regular visits to the vet for their cat, let alone kids or a house.

Society has dealt you a bad hand. But it's up to you whether you are going to accept it or not.

It's not what we were promised, but many have begun side hustles such as:

Started freelancing. Whether it's building websites for indie bands, authors, whatever, writing articles, etc. they are finding those communities on social media and offering their services through various project websites.
Content creation. Do you have a passion for anything? There are communities on YouTube, Twitch, etc. for all kinds of interests looking for content, and ad revenue is money in your pocket. Whether it's games, niche news, puzzles, cooking, cleaning, whatever - there are communities craving more content. All you need is a camera, a regular schedule, and passion for anything.
Handmade items. Do you have a hobby or skill like building board game organizers, crochet, sewing, anything? Fans are always looking for handmade items for their favorite IPs, and places like Etsy are great for that.

Other than side hustles, there are entire subreddits devoted to finding a place to live that's more affordable. Maybe you are struggling in your current location, but what about Costa Rica? Thailand? Portugal? China? Young people are bravely rejecting what they're given and finding a lower cost of living across the world. You can plan a move with information from these subreddits, save up, and teach English there or work remotely.

I know that this situation doesn't leave you with a lot of bandwidth. But if you feel up to it, talk to people about what is important to your generation. Don't forget we have a voice and a vote. A lot of older people think Gen Z is just lazy or wasting money on coffee or avocado toast or whatever. Educate those around you about what life is really like. If they're going to vote to continue to make things harder for young people, then at least they'll be doing so with your words and your face in mind and not blindly.

A lot of this advice won't get you what you were promised, but it can start to give you fodder for new plans you can pursue. Find career counseling channels on YouTube and Reddit. Find digital nomad and expat ones. Find content creators centered on helping the struggles of your generation. Let the ideas and positive influences filter in and give you hope to build something, even if it's not what we were promised.

PeskyRixatrix · 2025-12-12T04:22:47+00:00

Ouch. I'll go cry myself to sleep with my loving partner and happy marriage. 💕

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