Now KICK.

Vict Orbver

I've replayed 1-4 and have stalled during 5.

Personally I am voting from the rooftops.

I honestly didn't think I'd live this long.

It's called a loss leader.

You can do better. I believe in you.

Wait, I may have confused you with the other very similar bad faith arguer.

It really doesn't matter I guess.

No, according to me "the horrors" are worse than "being exposed to the horrors."

Look if I didn't have to pretend that you were arguing in good faith this would be a lot easier.

I mean, I don't, but for some reason I'm choosing to.

I guess we all have a lot to learn.

Horrors existing but nobody having a phone to scream at them about it

is worse than

No horrors exist but our phones constantly try to convince us that they do

Therefore horrors are worse than information overload and pesky algorithms.

It is the horrors that make us sad. Not the phones.

No that's you.

Things are pretty bad right now, and only direct collective action can make them better.

Oh shit if you the 40s were bad wait until you hear about the 1930s and the global rise of fascism.

Then again in the 19th century a lot of bad stuff happened with King Leopold in the Congo.

You only have to live through the current stuff and the collapse that follows though.

Oh, when you said that the horrors had been part of the human condition for a "long long" time, you meant since the 80s and 90s?

I'll take up your side of it then.

"The current horrors are NOTHING compared to the Black Death, which cut the population of Europe by up to two-thirds depending on region!"

or

"In my day we had to worry about invasion by the Sea Peoples and Bronze Age collapse, you don't know what Horrors are!"

I didn't recall specifying any vibes.

It's not that I think I'm a victim.

It's that you think you're not.

Things have been done to you, Pete. To all of us.

Accept this. Advocate for a redress of your harms.

Things haven't always been bad.

When things have been bad, they were not and always this bad.

This is worse than it's been in some time, and it's about to get even more dire.

You would do well to prepare yourself.

It's a lovely little permission structure to avoid victim blaming and instead focusing on those with agency as culpable.

Buddy you can compare it to the 90s 00s and half the 2010s if you want, but it still doesn't make "better things aren't possible" a palatable argument.

MMmmmm things are different and more horrible in 2026.

Coping mechanisms to get through the day when the very idea of having the ability to affect change has been kept from you.

The things I lack agency to affect? Horrors.
That which keeps agency from me? Also Horrors.
Incidental background context? Believe it or not, also horrors.

Sitcom where Jake Sisko takes a big loan from Quark to take over his grandfather's fusion Klingon-Cajun restaurant and an obscure Federation bylaw makes them business partners.

Slappers only, no odd-job, don't look at my screen

What if I were to tell you that blind obedience to law is not typically regarded as an American trait

What if it's not being told about the horrors, but the horrors themselves

I think the lack of agency to save a dying world from wealthy sociopaths might be a bummer to a lot of people.

Well there was the dust bowl. There was a vigorous debate over whether the affected farmers should be allowed to just die.