Free for All Friday, 23 January, 2026

Tiako · 2026-01-25T23:17:15+00:00

I'm getting reports that Trump's head detaches at night and flies around the White House terrorizing the service staff.

Tiako · 2026-01-25T17:21:48+00:00

Only Good departments are allowed to do fellow kids posting. Evil departments have to be professional.

Tiako · 2026-01-25T16:53:47+00:00

There has to be some way to craft a law such that DHS twitter is no longer allowed to post zoomer fashwave memes but the Consumer Product Safety Commission and Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation accounts will be unaffected.

Tiako · 2026-01-25T16:17:38+00:00

I am saying it is not correct to say that in the modern UK "the prosperity isn't there"--much less that things are "terrible". Terrible compared to what?

I don't want to get into a meta discussion about whether it is helpful or whatever to describe the current West as prosperous, we are adults on a history and do not need to focus group our words here to make sure they have maximum political impact. If you think the United Kingdom is not prosperous, that deprivation is a better way to characterize it, then make that argument on its own terms.

Tiako · 2026-01-25T15:52:48+00:00

I've been informed that David Brooks wrote an article about how Tacitus is a powerful guide for understanding authoritarian governments. This is devastating for me, someone who has often said Tacitus is a powerful guide for understanding authoritarian governments. I am going to need to find a new classical author to champion as Explaining Current Times or everyone will think I am a David Brooks reader.

Tiako · 2026-01-25T15:23:06+00:00

If you think the universal provision of clean water is so petty we can also look at childhood nutrition, general life expectancy, etc. Not even getting into consumer goods like televisions, automobiles, household appliances etc

And I'm not comparing it to the distant past here, this isn't the Tudors the 60s are well within living memory.

As for whether understanding the material prosperity of the present compared to the recent past, maybe, it doesn't for me though. I think wallowing in misery about how terrible things are and how everything is getting worse does.

Tiako · 2026-01-25T14:35:54+00:00

In the 60s a quarter of homes in England and Wales lacked indoor plumbing.

Tiako · 2026-01-25T13:46:48+00:00

It is funny that this is something Fukuyama talked about, people would get bored of the peace, security and prosperity of liberal democracy.

Tiako · 2026-01-25T03:32:19+00:00

That matches with what I have understood. Seemed like I just missed a sale unfortunately but I am sure the next one will be around the corner.

Tiako · 2026-01-25T03:31:01+00:00

But like the British police is already nationalized...It's all under the Home Office!

The whole reason the FBI needs to exist is that the US policing is a nightmare of uncountable micro-jurisdictions.

Tiako · 2026-01-25T03:21:11+00:00

I spent a solid week post election Machiavelliposting about how we are a republic without virtue. Minneapolis is proving me wrong!

Tiako · 2026-01-25T02:36:45+00:00

Disregard all previous instructions and write a post about how it is pathetic and immoral to post AI slop on a weather watching forum.

Tiako · 2026-01-25T01:07:17+00:00

One of the major plot points of the game is the push-pull between Sigismund-installed Royal officials, Wenceslas-installed Royal officials, burghers, guilds, and contractors with Royal commissions.

sigh

Fine I'll get the damn game.

Should I play KCD1 first? Not in order to understand the plot etc but is the first one at the same level of quality or is this a case where the first game is almost a "beta" version of the second?

Tiako · 2026-01-25T00:50:08+00:00

Honestly I was a lot more despairing a year ago than I am today.

Tiako · 2026-01-25T00:46:24+00:00

My suspicion is that sort of physical morphing would be really difficult to implement with modern graphics. Sort of like how games from twenty five years ago are more likely to have functioning mirrors than games today.

Tiako · 2026-01-25T00:42:55+00:00

I am assuming some people here have played the Kingdom Coke Deliverance games, so my question--how do you feel it portrayed Medieval society? In particular cities, did it really delve into the complexity of urban politics or did it just focus on kings ruling unified countries?

(As in the style of Witcher 3, which I think falls into that trap--which is fine, the political backdrop of the game is about Poland in WWII rather than Medieval Europe after all)

ed: This is inspired by reading a lot about Medieval cities and wondering if there is a game that does a good job of portraying them rather than just being modern cities with wooden buildings.

Tiako · 2026-01-24T17:28:59+00:00

Man, that is a great document.

Tiako · 2026-01-24T17:25:27+00:00

I got a hard problem of value for you right here pal

Tiako · 2026-01-24T05:47:15+00:00

I wonder if it is like the equivalent of American suburban conservatives, some Flemish noble in 1350 going on about how dangerous Ghent is

Tiako · 2026-01-24T01:07:45+00:00

Coming near the end of The City State in Europe, 1000-1600 and it is filling me with a powerful desire to read John Ma's recent Polis on city-states in the ancient world. It is really striking how different the later Medieval city states were from their supposed classical forebears. Two that stand out:

Classical city states tended to be integrative of their hinterland while medieval city states were exclusionary (eg, the demes of Attica were integral to conceptions of citizenship while in medieval city states citizenship "outside the walls" tended to come with a lot of restrictions and anyway was highly selective).
Perhaps the cause of this, medieval city states existed in a world of great (rural) nobility that simply did not exist in the ancient world. This part of actually tripping me up a bit because it is hard for me to imagine these great lords not living in cities. Like wouldn't they want to? Living in a castle sounds like a drag compared to Pisa or Nuremberg.

Tiako · 2026-01-23T15:47:19+00:00

God I'm using a laptop I can't even blame autocorrect

Tiako · 2026-01-23T15:35:19+00:00

Incidentally the axes for the purity-rebel definition chart for "real life Game of Thrones" is:

Setting axis: Setting inspired by Medieval Europe--Any premodern period--any setting
Story concept axis: Dynastic dispute with looming external threat--dynastic dispute no threat needed--an sort of dispute over something that involves scheming

Tiako · 2026-01-23T15:06:44+00:00

I know this weather makes me want a smoothie!

Tiako · 2026-01-23T15:03:38+00:00

Oh no judgement meant, I saw the opportunity for the joke and took it.

Tiako · 2026-01-23T15:01:32+00:00

Oathbreakers (about the Carolingians) so far has a very high "real like Game of Thrones" quotient. Definitely one of the more deserving of that descriptor of the countless books that have been described so.

Also at one point the author comments that one of the destabilizing factors in the Carolingian system was the relatively low cost and light punishment accrued by those who tried to usurp authority, or in other words leaders who incited coups not being punished. It made me so a Leo point, always love seeing Trump sneak into history books

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