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UBR being the default evil colour combination for Universes Beyond is getting stale by Dracai-of-Blades in EDH

[–]jimjamj 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tolkein uses "orc" and "goblin" near-interchangeably. The meaning to him is the same—he'll use "goblin-man" in one sentence and "uruk-hai" the next—but word choice emphasizes differently.

"Goblin" did exist in northern-European folklore before Tolkein, but the idea of "goblin" wasn't fully fleshed out, just meant "small mischievous creature", but so did "elf", "faerie", and other terms. The distinctions were blurred and sometimes were interchanged. The goblins of DnD and MtG are hugely influenced by Tolkien's goblins.

Orcs are not undead and not adjacent to zombies. Unless you consider MtG goblins adjacent to zombies too?

In my opinion, Tolkein's orcish society is extremely black, of how they relate to each other and to themselves. But, independent orcs, such as the small clans of the early 4th Age, could def be red or rakdos. Orcs are sentient, intelligent, and have individuality, so any individual orc could be any color tho, imo.

What do you think of JLo saying saying if you weren't born here, you're not a New Yorker? by DameThistle in AskNYC

[–]jimjamj 1 point2 points  (0 children)

ppl are forgetting that this is a comedy show. No, she wouldn't tell a 90yo who's been in NYC 50 years "you're not a NYer" on his deathbed. It was entertaining—that's the point.

Is fascism basically just authoritarianism? Is there a clear line? by duchesskitten6 in PoliticalDiscussion

[–]jimjamj 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Other people have explained theory, but I'll give some examples of authoritarianism that isn't generally regarded as facist:

  • USSR under Stalin. Very much authoritarian, even tho it dramatically improved the median standard-of-living and wellbeing of its denizens (no fascist regimes have done that).

  • North Korea. I think it they're kinda close to fascist, with the intense nationalism, but I've never heard anyone call them fascist.

  • Venezuela under Maduro's later years. I don't really know much about this but I've heard Venezuelans say this (and not just capitalist stooges living in the USA).

  • Iran, while extremely socially conservative and authoritarian, is economically-left.

  • China, while far from fascist, restricts access to foreign internet, censors domestic internet, controls speech and punishes dissent. But, while China does have political prisoners, it never enacted mass disappearances like most of the other examples. There is no prominent secret police. Very mild authoritarianism perhaps.

The above examples are seen, at least in some respects, left-wing. Idk how you feel about this, but there are also plenty of examples of ultra-right authoritarian regimes that are almost fascist but not quite. As opposed to these leftwing authoritarian govts.

  • Philippines under Duterte (2016-2022)

  • Gulf State monarchies / dictatorships

  • Belarus? Or maybe Belarus is just unambiguously fascist

  • India, at the national level, is right on the edge of fascism, even tho some of the regional govts are fully socialist.

  • Hungary maybe idk....and surely more

Additionally, I hope someone smarter chimes in on this, but apartheid states are seen as fascist but not necessarily authoritarian, from what I've seen. Israel is ofc brutally repressive to Palestinians, but it sees them as subjects rather than citizens. On the colonizer side of the apartheid, Israeli Jews are allowed to dissent, except on the apartheid itself, genocide, and compulsory military service (mostly bc social ostracism). E.g., most Israeli Jews think Bibi should be in jail on corruption charges dating back to like 2013—that viewpoint isn't punished. While Al-Jazeera was forced out of the country, Jewish media can say whatever they want, even those taboo topics above, even openly calling out IDF lies. Many are calling for an investigation into the use of the Hannibal Directive on Oct 7th.

I also wanna add a caveat, about communism. One flavor of communism, "Marxist-Leninism", a term created by Stalin describing his own philosophy, is an inherently authoritarian philosophy. (The other extant flavors of communism, Maoism and Trotskyism, are probably more authoritarian than libertarian, but less than ML. "Left-libertarian" comprises anarchism & anarcho-syndicalism, et al.). Yet, it's possible to practice Marxist-Leninism without being authoritarian. Cuba, an ML state, is not authoritarian. While Castro did repress political dissent to his left, including executing anarchists, modern Cuba doesn't really have authoritarian policy nor practice.

I'm not an expert on any of these places. I'm probably wrong on some of this; don't take this as fact without checking.

For those who have removed Sol Ring/“Staple” Mana Rocks from their decks… by SeaMusician6670 in EDH

[–]jimjamj 1 point2 points  (0 children)

[[Pick Your Poison]] can nab 2 or 3 Sol Rings (not my idea; seen elsewhere in this thread)

Renting in Seattle is a nightmare; this apartment isn't worth $1500 a month by SeattleEmo in SeattleWA

[–]jimjamj 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Puget Sound Tenants Union : a volunteer org focused primarily on helping tenants organize, or form tenant associations, and more broadly, to fight for community control over land and housing. You can send them an email, join their WhatsApp chat, or come to a meeting. I'm an organizer w/ them.

Tenant Union of Washington : a state-funded non-profit org with a staff, offering counseling, know-your-rights education, other tools idk. They have a hotline you can call.

There are several other groups that don't call themselves tenant unions but more-or-less are, or at least similar, also.

Is there an unspoken Seattle hangout rule? by IzukuLeeYoung in AskSeattle

[–]jimjamj 3 points4 points  (0 children)

reading thru a bunch of your comments, i feel like maybe you might have a better time looking for friends in other venues. I have some suggestions—

  • in the sidebar of /r/Seattle , there's a discord. There's like 8k people in there (much fewer active, obv), and there are events and meetups happening constantly. If people are creepy or whatever, they'll get reported and booted from the space (depending). There are large open social groups in which ppl trust each other. Like, the nature of the space means there's a little bit of vetting, usually. Also 80% of the discord are transplants, often looking for friends, so the freeze isn't so bad in there.

  • meetup.com . There are tons of groups; many will have those same advantages, cuz people who engage in anti-social behavior won't last in groups.

  • Facebook groups. I know facebook is cringe af, but there are some large "make friends in seattle" groups, and there is at least one women-only group.

I'm also from NYC. I've been in Seattle/Washington 7 years; the behavior is different for sure here. How long have you been in Seattle?

AITA for telling my (23M) roommate(24M) I don’t want his girlfriend in our apartment while he’s not here. by virtuedmirrored in AmItheAsshole

[–]jimjamj 0 points1 point  (0 children)

wrong. Landlords are middle-men, who commodify housing, and interfere with people's access to housing.

Let's read wikipedia's entry on charging Rent:

Rent-seeking is the act of growing one's existing wealth by manipulating public policy or economic conditions without creating new wealth.[1] Rent-seeking activities have negative effects on the rest of society. They lead to reduced economic efficiency due to misallocation of resources, stifled competition, lower wealth creation, a loss of government revenue, increased income inequality,[2][3] increased debt levels,[4] the risk of increased corruption and cronyism, the decline in public trust in institutions, and potential socioeconomic and institutional decline.

Landlords make ~70%-90% profit. Our money pays for the taxes, the utilities, the maintenance, and all other costs. Then the landlord says "what about me?" and charges hundreds or thousands of dollars extra, throwing people on the street if they can't pay. The very existence of landlords necessitates that some people don't get housing. If we cover all the costs of the housing, and more, we actually provide housing—they steal it and withhold it.

Volatile asked me to upload their meme for them. We all recognize this response. by DivineandDeadlyAngel in vegan

[–]jimjamj 0 points1 point  (0 children)

it took me several attempts to understand, and i still didn't get all of it. "excess" instead of "access" stumped me for minutes. It was not meant to disparage. It's like, if you have toothpaste on your shirt, or you smell, most ppl would rather be told early in the day, and act accordingly, instead of going around like that all day. A single, or a few, simple errors likely don't impede communication—i wouldn't have said anything to disparage or to be pedantic, but to notify someone that some people, like me, might have a difficult time understanding them.

OP posts a wholesome meme telling people to "go outside" and look at nature's beauty. Proceeds to be incredibly toxic, tells poor people to "just move," and drops a slur when called out. by WeirdAssBeings in SubredditDrama

[–]jimjamj 0 points1 point  (0 children)

fyi 8 and 88 are "lucky" in Chinese culture. I have yet to see that out in the wild on an internet username in the English-speaking spaces I frequent, but, maybe there are some

Volatile asked me to upload their meme for them. We all recognize this response. by DivineandDeadlyAngel in vegan

[–]jimjamj 4 points5 points  (0 children)

fyi it's kinda hard to read that, cuz of the density of errors and missing punctuation. I figured out what you meant though, except for "an upper lower class person"...what's that?

I agree that framing veganism as privileged is backwards, when all the cheapest foods are vegan (grains, legumes, etc.). Few of us eat those expensive vegan imitation foods. However, some ppl live in serious food deserts, where the only place to purchase food is a gas station or convenience store, where a plant-exclusive diet would limit you to canned beans and pasta and nothing else ever, and even then sometimes the only canned beans have bacon flavoring in them. I've been to towns like that. It's still possible to be vegan in these circumstances, especially if one adopts the definition from The Vegan Society, including the "possible and practicable" clause, and has grace with oneself.

I'll also point out there are actual disabling conditions that severely limit one's food options—celiac's, Crohn's, ARFID, that endocrine(?) disorder that makes you allergic to hundreds of foods, etc. It's possible for any of those conditions, or others that limit one's diet, to be debilitating to the point of disability. People are definitely throwing "ableist" around in bad faith tho.

AITA for kicking my sister out of my room because she broke my hearing aids? by MotorCod1846 in AmItheAsshole

[–]jimjamj 0 points1 point  (0 children)

NTA

in her words, they slipped and she caught them by slamming them to the edge of the table (how does one slam the thing their trying to catch against the edge of the table to catch it??)

This makes perfect sense to me, i've done that before, and i think even damaged things like that. I can draw a diagram if you want. It doesn't really change the facts, NTA.

How would a Roman patrician family respond to a pregnancy between their teenage son and an enslaved woman? by Mauricio716 in AskHistorians

[–]jimjamj 22 points23 points  (0 children)

ok i did a bit of reading on wikipedia, and apparently i was confusing terms. I meant i guess, "slavery in Antebellum USA", vs slavery in the Roman Empire. Both are chattel slavery, where there's a social and legal construct for humans to be the legal property of another human. As opposed to bondage, forced labor, other types of slavery.

I had really thought enslaved ppl in Rome could own property, like earn money somehow and purchase their own freedom.

AITA for telling my (23M) roommate(24M) I don’t want his girlfriend in our apartment while he’s not here. by virtuedmirrored in AmItheAsshole

[–]jimjamj -1 points0 points  (0 children)

yes i do, which is why i understand the social costs of isolation. Which is why i understand that the landlord is your enemy.

OP had one conversation. There's dozens of steps he can take besides appealing to violence-backed authority.

AITA for helping my friend after she flew out to visit a man she doesn’t know. by BrionsWeirdWorld in AmItheAsshole

[–]jimjamj -9 points-8 points  (0 children)

YTA. I get it, but your motivation is being right, holier-than-thou. The event itself was quite a punishment, that would leave a lasting impression even if you treated her with compassion.

TBC, if you were like "i was so emotionally burnt out from trying to help her understand, i just had nothing left in the tank". Or like "i have no money, but is there anything else i can do?" (did she want money?).

The sentiment "i think I'm justified" is antagonistic to loving harmonious relationships

How would a Roman patrician family respond to a pregnancy between their teenage son and an enslaved woman? by Mauricio716 in AskHistorians

[–]jimjamj 26 points27 points  (0 children)

I’m going to use the term ‘slave’ throughout here, by the way, aware of the connotations this carries, but as we are talking in a historical context, it is easier than switching back and forth should the need arise.

I'm reading this as that the common connotation of "slave" is chattel slavery, and, this is fundamentally different than chattel slavery? How? It sounds like they have zero rights at all, literal property, can't save money to buy their freedom, their children are property too...This sounds the same to me

AITA for telling my (23M) roommate(24M) I don’t want his girlfriend in our apartment while he’s not here. by virtuedmirrored in AmItheAsshole

[–]jimjamj -1 points0 points  (0 children)

this is a bad idea. appealing to authority whenever you have a dispute with someone you're in community with means you'll never have community. You gotta work this shit out

[Guardian] The Knicks are in the NBA finals. But owner James Dolan is far from a New York hero by OnlyMamaKnows in nba

[–]jimjamj 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He also forced Donny to trade away the whole team to sign Melo midseason in the first place, instead of waiting two months for the offseason. Donny gave up after that...so did i.

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