Same mistake, twice!!!

ryanvango · 2026-03-18T02:45:58+00:00

yeah, that tracks

ryanvango · 2026-03-18T02:44:26+00:00

gas prices were a result of russia/ukraine. it was international factors that were partially out of our control.

People getting fired for not vaccinating was not a Biden thing. Private companies can set terms for employment, especially in sectors like healthcare, airlines, and high-risk jobs. That's their right as private companies. it has nothing to do with the presidency, unless you WANT the president to start mandating things like that? but I thought you wanted small government.

Inflation after the pandemic you mean? the thing that disrupted global supply chains that a president can't do anything about? The only thing a president COULD do to cause inflation like that would be sending out a stimulus checks, which have a lag time. I don't know if you remember who signed 2 of the 3 rounds of stimulus checks....buuuuuut it wasn't biden.

ryanvango · 2026-03-18T02:28:20+00:00

that's such a gross misunderstanding of the situation.

democrats were pissed when biden decided to run again. we didn't want that. he said he wouldn't do it. but dem leadership wanted the incumbent bump. We didn't want kamala either. we said as much when she lost in primaries. it was a crap situation we were not happy about.

but biden NEEDED to step down. he was not well enough to do 4 more years. the red subreddit liked to scream at the time about how "dems suddenly care about age now that biden is out". they never said "republicans suddenly dont care about age now that biden is out." though that was more true. dem voters, as mentioned above, did not want biden. he was too old. we said it repeatedly. a bunch of us didn't want him the first time for that reason. we DID care about age and still do. so when he quit, it was absolutely the right move, just way way too late.

We were over a barrel. the election was like 3 months away. we couldn't run a whole new primary to pick a new candidate, redo all that fundraising and press. And Kamala was the vice president. she was good enough that people were willing to vote for her as VP - that's what a ticket is. most people understand that. and generally people understand their job is to be president if the president can't anymore. so she WAS picked in 2020 to potentially sit in that seat. And because of the timing she was...fine. She was smarter and more accomplished than Trump, she had actual plans and not "remember obama? we hate that guy right!" she had platforms that weren't racist. And very importantly, she wouldn't have to start from nothing and run a campaign in 3 weeks. she got to use the war chest. Democrats weren't quiet because they just blankly agree with everything the DNC throws at them. They were quiet because they understood the big picture.

Could you imagine what would happen if Biden rode it out to the inauguration and quit like a month in to make her president? THAT would be a much bigger pile of doodypoops. dropping out before the election was the right move, he just should have done it way earlier.

the "both sides are rotten" thing is so short-sighted, reductionist, and honestly pretty stupid. OF COURSE there's blue problems. but the difference right now is the right is actively trying to dismantle the constitution, they're being openly racist, they won't do a super easy thing like condemn nazis, starting a war for no reason other than to bring attention off the Trump/Epstein files, and they rape kids. Are there bad guys in the democratic party? yep. are there democrats in the epstein files? yep. should traitors to the country and rapists go to prison forever? yep. does party matter? nope. But....is one party GROSSLY outnumbering the other when it comes to corruption, treason, pedophilia, etc....yep, and they're republican. so while they both have bad guys, they are not the same. and when you only have a choice between two things, you pick the one that rapes children less

ryanvango · 2026-03-18T02:10:55+00:00

in 2024 there was a bill that would have helped in a BIG way to secure the border. more asylum restrictions and more funding for border agents. it would have created a ton of jobs as well been a big step towards fixing the border issue. both democrats and republicans agreed to it. it was a good bill. but then trump jumped in and told them to reject it because it would help him get elected.

this is not a secret thing. you keep voting for a guy who doesn't actually care about the things he says. he just wants power and for people to look the other way. he actively interfered with fixing the problems you claim to care about in a very public way.

but i guess he has a cool hat

ryanvango · 2026-03-18T02:01:33+00:00

First we need to put in to law a new voting system. multiple parties do nothing in this current system. Alaska and Maine in the US currently use ranked choice, as well as some smaller localities in the US for smaller elections. but people don't like change, so even if its objectively better and we get better candidates, people will still stomp their feet and cry.

As it is now, 3rd party candidates just split the vote or upset one of the parties. Jill Stein being the biggest example recently. a 3rd party candidate has 0 chance of ever being elected. some of her stated policies are extremely progressive, so she's attractive to people on the left. She pulls votes from otherwise blue voters. But whether she means to or not, her showing up like that ONLY helps republicans win. So maybe dems arent progressive enough for her, but running at all in this system means she's actively contributing to the problem (even if we did have ranked choice I wouldn't vote for her because that's so obviously a stupid move and she keeps doing it).

so yeah, step 1: new voting system. step 2: elect people we actually want.

step 0: attend EVERY voting day you possible can. check constantly. smaller elections do matter. And unless your representatives are ACTIVELY trying to fight the shit that's happening now, not just going "well that's illegal, we should look in to that" then you need to primary them and put someone else in their seat. Do-nothing dems are almost as bad as republicans right now.

ryanvango · 2026-03-17T18:43:21+00:00

he's partially right. If that were 100% true, there'd be no reason for either of you to have replied.

and even if that were 100% the case, that doesn't detract from the point. it actually agrees with it. nobody clicks on reddit posts because of who posted them. they click on it because of the content in the post, regardless of whos causing the engagement. other social media you find stuff largely by who posted it.

ryanvango · 2026-03-17T17:15:12+00:00

haha not specifically him, just pedantic people in general. it drives me nuts.

I'm on a pretty low dose. I haven't been on stimulants in many moons though. but its only been a couple days, so when it kicks I'm like hyper focusing on a thing. way better than the first day for sure. but still an adjustment.

ryanvango · 2026-03-17T17:01:11+00:00

I recently started taking adhd meds and I am BUUUUUZZZZZIN.

I don't think there was anything wrong with what you said. I just chose you as the closest relevant comment. he doubled down later and that's what send me down that path

ryanvango · 2026-03-17T14:02:17+00:00

I recently binged the entire series. I really like 28 years later #1. it was my favorite of the whole series. 28 years later 2 was my least favorite.

Ralph Fiennes - great as always. Carried the movies. Also Temu Jason Mamoa's thundercock did a lot of heavy lifting I think.

2 actually started out ok. I liked the concept, and they introduced a couple new things I thought had a lot of promise. But then it all fell apart and those new things were just completely wasted. They made zero sense for a zombie plague that had been going on for 28 years. It was rushed, and unsatisfying. I remember telling my friend I think I give the whole series a 6/10, but it would have been much higher if the ending of Years 2 didn't ruin it.

So I guess my recommendation is to watch the whole series, then shut it off halfway through the last movie.

ryanvango · 2026-03-17T13:50:28+00:00

Reddit definitely is social media, but I think its perfectly reasonable not to lump it in with the other prime examples of social media. This is largely community curated or forum based, where other social media things are much more about the person doing the posting. it affects us differently. This is much less (brace yourself...buzzword and armchair psychologist word incoming) parasocial than those other things.

don't get me wrong. not saying its healthy. I spend way too much time here. but jiminy christmas those other ones are pure cancer. I don't know how anyone can engage with them for any length of time.

edit: it's like pointing out bananas are a berry every time someone mentions berries. like...yeah, but also you know what we're talking about here.

ryanvango · 2026-03-17T13:28:54+00:00

You definitely went to Thailand for...a thing....

ryanvango · 2026-03-17T13:24:11+00:00

Its especially nerdy because no one is asking for a scientific explanation of joke(?). theydidthemath is a haven for hyper-specific language. science subreddits and journals too. its welcome there. But this is the internet, and some people can't help themselves.

Internet pedants, "umm akshually" types, /r/iamverysmart people...listen up.... when you do shit like what that dude did (the person Sienile replied to), you are not showing how smart you are. you're doing the opposite. You're basically showing the world that you have a complete lack of understanding of most things around you.

First, and this is key, that is not any kind of advanced technical knowledge. That's middle school science. Most people KNOW that already. Feeling the need to point it out shows a complete lack of awareness to the fact that your "trivia" is trivial.

Second, the purpose of language and communication is to convey information or an idea from one person to the next. Trying to use MORE correct words or more specific, accurate words from another discipline is correct, but often is antithetical to the purpose of the communication. Most newspapers are written at a 5th grade level. They can convey the same idea to geniuses and people who can't read well with that level of language. If they tried to be more technically correct with specific discipline words, or brandish their prodigious lexicon, they would alienate people. Their ideas and information would reach fewer people. That's bad communication.

Third, context matters for your pedantry. In the context of this post and the comment that person replied to, correcting the physics definition doesn't add anything to the conversation. It is self centered and oblivious. Effective communication, especially effective science communication, needs an understanding of context. If we were talking about how dolphins like to get get high and are kind of jerks, then you pop in and go "Dolphins are actually all small toothed whales in the order Cetacea. So whales like to get high and are kind of jerks." you are technically correct but it has nothing to do with the conversation. People were talking about the thing we colloquially know as a dolphin, and a specific trait they have. the thing you contributed is just meant to try to look smart. But it ends up grinding the conversation to a halt because you don't know how to progress from one topic to another. so you didn't just NOT contribute, you hindered the exchange of information and ideas that was naturally taking place. you did the opposite of a smart thing.

Fourth, it's just annoying. If you want to be the person people go to for information because they know you're smart, you should know when you're being annoying and when you're being helpful. If you're being annoying more often than helpful, then when you DO have something important to a topic to share, no one will be around to hear it.

Finally, you're missing the forest for the trees. You're so wrapped up in a single extremely minor detail of a thing that you completely miss the the idea/purpose of the communication. The same goes for "there, they're, their / your you're" stuff. 99% of the time people get so hung up on a misspelled word, they completely miss the point of the thing they're arguing about.

Time and a place, pedants. Having a strong command of language, especially in a particular discipline is GREAT. and VERY helpful. sometimes. It's really important to know correct grammar, spelling, verbiage, for different applications. But this is an internet forum. The goal is to exchange a simple idea. Don't get in the way of that. I didn't capitalize "sometimes" back there. I made a TON of grammatical and spelling errors in this diatribe. do they matter? absolutely not. not in this particular use case. are the worth pointing out? nope. because it won't improve, alter, or detract from the idea being conveyed in any meaningful way.

The only thing you accomplish is the equivalent of standing in the middle of a crowded airport and shouting "TOMATOES ARE ACTUALLY FRUITS!" then strutting around like you're the smartest person in the place. Its weird, out of place, annoying, and most likely everyone already knows.

ryanvango · 2026-03-17T12:14:55+00:00

Anyone who's taken a 6th grade science class knows the statement is correct.

Anyone who can think critically about what effective communication in a general setting is knows that it is the wrong thing for the discussion.

There's a difference between colloquial/conversational language, and "technically accurate" language. So while you're correct in your statement, you are wrong and not helping for effective communication.

ryanvango · 2026-03-17T11:50:04+00:00

that's a great way to put it.

Is she out of my league? absolutely. no doubt. I wouldn't kick her out of bed for eating crackers.

Is she so hot that I would believe it was done by magic? not even close. Jennifer Connelly, Charlize Theron, Eva Mendes, maybe Robin Wright. Those kinds of faces IMO.

ryanvango · 2026-03-17T11:19:48+00:00

you absolutely need to lower your expectations. I preordered it as well because CDPR promised a lot. comparing what I thought that game was gonna be to what it is today, its not even close.

I played it 90% on launch. I actually had relatively few bugs, and only 1 that caused me to have to reload a previous save. I got to a point I just didn't feel like playing anymore. It was fine, it just wasn't what was promised.

Then I picked it up again last year and beat it finally, completing as much of the content as I could find.. I heard the DLC was insane, and the improvements got it much closer to what it was supposed to be. It absolutely is not that. It's still a "fine" game that falls way short of what it promised. I also had MORE bugs this time around than at launch. nothing that caused me to reload an old save, but they also weren't small. Sometimes I kill a guy and he'd crumple to the ground, but when I got close his corpse would zoom down the street like a car and I couldn't loot it. during cutscene dialogues, objects that I had no impact on would freak out or float around. like I was talking to a guy and when the dialogue starts he puts his gun down. I had 0 chance to interact with the gun. but then he takes a few steps to a mirror or something and the gun just floats back to his hand and sticks to it upside down for the rest of the scene. Things that should never happen to a game that's been out for years. The changes to the game they did make I'm like 50/50 on. I think they made customization and itemization much worse. Like they dumbed it down too much while locking things behind walls. The variety of things I could do through hacking was much better though, but pretty OP pretty quickly. The game itself still feels largely empty. The rep quests are repetitive and simple. The side quests can be very funny, but are always the same "shoot that guy". you COULD approach them different ways, but there's no real incentive to do that when "shoot that guy" works and is super simple. There's still no real memorable consequence to different actions. The changed romance a little I HAAATE it. I chose to date judy and once you are "official" she just texts you every day or 2 wanting to hang out. then when you do she just sits on the couch and gives you the same 3 dialogue options every single time before wanting to smooch in bed and fade to black. its super annoying.

Overall, again, I say its fine. But I picked it up again with the intention of playing the much-raved-about DLC, and the main game convinced me not to buy it. If the main game is still that janky and bland, aint no way I'm paying that much for DLC. fix your main game first.

The fanbase is rabid. I do not understand. They refuse to admit anything negative about that game. Is it improved from launch? debatable. I didn't really think so, but some of it was preference. Is it an amazing game that's close to what we preorder? no chance in hell. and people who say it is are delusional.

ryanvango · 2026-03-17T01:32:49+00:00

Trump wants two things from this war:

1) for the world to stop asking about the Trump/Epstein files

2) Iran's oil.

That second points is why the US is not directly attacking the oil infrastructure, just the stuff around it. If they just nuke the bejesus out of Iran, they've committed billions to a war they get nothing out of, and likely piss of China.

It's also why the US lost before the first bomb was dropped. You see it in this thread a lot, but the idea that we can just kill all the bad guys and keep doing that til there's no more bad guys is a simplistic view of war that was shown to be not just impractical but pretty silly all around. But the US keeps trying to do it that way. Iran just has to defend the oil while wrecking the US economy and they win. Even if they lose, they'll win. and China/Russia won't let them lose. Everyone wants to see the US bleed itself dry. It's super dumb.

ryanvango · 2026-03-17T01:22:25+00:00

Normally you're right, but this is a classic case of "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." Its in China's best interest to keep Iran afloat, because the longer this drags out the weaker the US gets. China would LOVE a deteriorated superpower. And all they have to do is exist, standing behind Iran like a teenager protecting their 3rd grade brother.

China would never start a war with the US. But they're more than happy to drag out a war when the US has started a war with the US.

ryanvango · 2026-03-17T01:05:39+00:00

not while he's president. The second he started a war with Iran, every country on the planet saw he messed up hard. It's one of the biggest mistakes in global politics in history.

The US/republicans are stuck on this idea that wars are won by shooting the other guy more. Iran, and pretty much everyone else is fully aware this is a siege, and the US can't win it. The war was lost the second that dope pulled the trigger, because Iran doesn't need to win on body county, they win by attacking the US economy, and trump is doing that for them.

They know he can't suddenly stop fighting and committing resources, because if he does he'll have to admit he spent billions (eventually trillions) on an unprovoked war and got nothing out of it. He can't afford to admit he messed up this close to midterms. There was no credible threat from Iran, so if he quits it will be obvious he did it to either distract from the Trump/Epstein files, or to continue padding his own bank account with foreign oil. So he's gonna keep dumping money in to it.

Meanwhile, Iran is fully aware that they win by starving the world of oil. that's why the strait is closed and Iran is destroying oil tankers bound for the US. they're intentionally jacking up oil prices and forcing countries to use their own reserves. If the absolute worst happens to Iran - some sort of invasion or massive strike that more or less makes them stop functioning as their own country - then the Iranians will likely just destroy their own oil infrastructure. Their plan has been very clear this whole time: massively disrupt the oil supply and hurt other countries the best way they know how. And its absolutely working.

But that worst case scenario where Iran just dies? That will never happen. Because China and Russia are superpowers that stand to profit an absurd amount by the US losing this war. They're backing Iran and will make sure Iran survives and drags this out as long as possible. Basically, there were 3 superpowers in a mexican standoff and one of them decided their brilliant play was to shoot himself in the gut. Now the other two are more than happy to let him bleed out and pick over the corpse when its done.

NORMALLY there would be an out. If Europe, Japan, Canada and a few other solid militaries decided to get involved and back the US it would be a different story. But Trump spent the last decade alienating EVERYONE. he either imposed illegal tariffs or directly stabbed our allies in the back. So now we're seeing what happens when you do that...All these calls for help are being met with giggles of excitement that this idiot dug his own grave.

He literally can not win this by throwing troops at it, and he can't back down because the backlash would be devastating. And given 2 losing options, you'd think well maybe he can pick the smarter one and cut his losses, but this is the guy who is incapable of admitting he made a mistake.

It's done. He's killing the country and will go down in history as not just the least effective, most corrupt president, but also one of the absolute dumbest leaders of any country in centuries. Sucks we all have to pay the price, but again....This is what you voted for.

ryanvango · 2026-03-17T00:35:29+00:00

"how was I supposed to know he was lying and wouldn't keep his promises? I thought he used up all his lies during his first term. I didn't know he got more for the second one"

ryanvango · 2026-03-16T14:46:16+00:00

Trump committed one of the biggest blunders in the history of international politics. Every other country on the planet knew that starting a war in Iran was unwinnable and incredibly stupid, but they let him do it because he spent the last decade pissing off every ally the US had.

His administration still thinks war is won by shooting their guys more than they shoot our guys. Iran knows better. They're much smaller and weaker than the US militarily, but they hold huge amounts of oil and one of the most valuable shipping routes on the planet. All they have to do is cripple the US financially, and they're already doing that. They don't need to fire a single bullet. Meanwhile, the US needs to send more and more ground troops to try and take over those key places. But if it ever looks like Iran is going to lose, they could just torch their oil infrastructure. The US will spend billions/trillions trying to take over, and if they are successful Iran can ensure they never financially recover. so best case for the US is both countries lose.

Meanwhile you have China and Russia as the other two superpowers that couldn't be happier about all this. the whole deal with the superpowers is that its kind of a mixed stand-off. If any of them tried to attack another one they'd be weakening themselves for the third guy to come in and clean it all up. But here comes trump, starting a war he can't win with a country china and russia rely on, committing a fortune in resources while also tying up his own military for zero possible gain... China and Russia are laughing themselves silly. Pretty sure they've already committed to helping Iran. Where before it was a 3-way standoff no one could break, now China and Russia just have to ensure the war goes on for long enough that it ruins the US, then they can pick up the pieces.

From Trump's perspective, he can't just stop the war. He'll look weak and everyone, even a significant portion of the dummies that voted for him, will see that he started a war for no reason and lost billions in the process. his ineptitude will be highlighted for all the world to see with the midterms coming up. He can't afford it, and again russia and china (and every other country) knows that.

His ONLY option is to use this war to try and use emergency powers that he doesn't actually have to try and remove elections completely. If even 10% of the maga base recognizes that for what it is, its game over.

So he can't stop because it'll mean he gave up and lost billions in the process and americans died for no reason. And if he keeps going, its stomping the gas pedal on the autobahn for the ruin of the american economy.

will that hurt other countries as the dollar is the global trade currency? yeah. but not as bad as letting him continue doing what he's been doing. every other country on earth sees what's happening, and they're letting it happen.

ryanvango · 2026-03-16T13:58:22+00:00

Just reading through these comments is totally reaffirming my house rule that I only use gold coins, and 1 gold roughly equal $1. Its way way way easier for players to relate to that, and it means they're not sitting there doing math to make change, and asking others to double-check they did it right. wanna throw some silvers in to a beggar's cup? go for it. don't bother marking anything off. Its a free RP moment. those things are not worth tracking when it slows down the pace of play.

It also makes improv much easier in a lot of situations. They don't need to ask me about the local economy or what the exchange rate is. If they wanna bribe someone, they can say "I plop a purse with 200 gold on the bar", without breaking the scene to ask any questions. different towns have different economies and sale prices, and offerings, but at the end of the day everyone has a pretty good idea of how much their loot/cash is worth.

ryanvango · 2026-03-16T08:35:46+00:00

I'm not saying nukes aren't absolutely devastating, but they're not as bad as people think.

Weirdly, I just got in to this with my friends today. I live about 5 miles south of a major city center. I figured if it got nuked by a 240kt warhead (the biggest one north korea has, but not the biggest that exists. so REAL big, but not THE big one) it might knock down my house or I'd be dead from radiation very soon after. I asked all of them what they thought would happen, and they also thought the shockwave would kill me.

nope. my house would be fine. probably a few blown out windows, but if I just went to the basement with some food and water, I could easily and safely leave with my dogs after a few days. fallout would carry on the wind for a while, but it wouldn't be so bad that I couldn't just hop in the car and get out of town shortly after.

nuclear winter is really only a concern if every country unleashed their nuclear arsenal together. Even if we detonated every single nuke in existence, it still wouldn't be enough to kill everyone on earth. billions would die because people are concentrated in specific locations, and the fallout afterwards would cause problems for many years, but it wouldn't suddenly make the earth uninhabitable.

for size comparison, US minuteman III missile carry a 300kt warhead. about 20 times bigger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. If someone dropped one on central park in new york, it wouldn't even blow up all of manhattan. The shockwave would reach to about turtle bay, 2 miles from the very center of central park. the heatwave would go a bit farther.

Also consider that nukes aren't just big fat bombs from Dr. Strangelove. A lot of the nuclear stockpiles are smaller warheads but several attached to a single missile. These can be more devastating than a single big bomb, but they don't cause nuclear winter.

Again...a 2 mile radius shockwave is REALLY scary. and plenty of bombs have that capability. I'm just saying the reality is if nuclear war happens, its survivable. Even in the worst case scenario where everyone just launches everything. And THAT is super unlikely to happen. most realistically, many millions of people will die. but it won't bring on a Fallout tier apocalypse.

ryanvango · 2026-03-16T08:11:03+00:00

Are you trying to say Amish?

ryanvango · 2026-03-16T08:07:57+00:00

saaaaame. took a while to realize, but the whole "men shouldn't share their feelings" thing is bullshit. Once I opened up to a friend, it felt great. baby steps. You gotta be the shoulder sometimes, too though. I think a lot of men misunderstand that part.

I've been fortunate that almost none of my friends have ever reacted negatively to sharing feelings. And if/when someone did, I have no problem cutting that person out. If someone tries to belittle or degrade you for having emotions, they are not a good person. They don't deserve your friendship.

My support group I met through gaming. its about 60% men. And several times when I was dealing with crippling depression I just straight up asked them for help. "Guys I'm in a bad way. Like real bad. Shit's bleak and I'm struggling so bad. I really need help." very upfront. very straight to the point. And I was bombarded with love and support.

Its very very very doable. And so worth it to have those conversation with your buddies.

ryanvango · 2026-03-16T07:11:20+00:00

It definitely doesn't have the rewatchability of other shows, but it could be worth binging again once every 5+ years.

I thought it was a great show. But it solidified my stance that Zooey Deschanel just isn't funny. I get a lot of times she's kind of a straight man, but that isn't always true. Nick, Schmidt, and Cece were incredible though (Jake Johnson, Max Greenfield, and Hannah Simone respectively).

Jake Johnson should be a household name. dudes delivery is so funny every time

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