Pattern Ghost

It seems to me that Antifa helped stir the pot, and helped put the peaceful counter-protestors at risk. There's a disturbing trend of smaller agitator groups inciting violence at protests, and it looks to me that Antifa is in that camp, or at least some subset of them is.

It seems to me that Antifa helped stir the pot, and helped put the peaceful counter-protestors at risk. There's a disturbing trend of smaller agitator groups inciting violence at protests, and it looks to me that Antifa is in that camp, or at least some subset of them is.

It seems to me that Antifa helped stir the pot, and helped put the peaceful counter-protestors at risk. There's a disturbing trend of smaller agitator groups inciting violence at protests, and it looks to me that Antifa is in that camp, or at least some subset of them is.

QOTD, planning a (possible) Friday night binge party for Defenders...
 
"What about inviting [dude]?"
"I don't think he's seen any of the Marvel/Netflix shows, so he wouldn't know what's going on."
"Well, he's got 48 hours to catch up."
"...Yeah, you could make it. 24 episodes of Daredevil, 12 episodes of Jessica Jones, 12 episodes of Luke Cage...and read the Wikipedia summary for Iron Fist."
"Ouch. I mean, yeah. But ouch."

Okay (and let me try to word this delicately), please stop equating Antifa with the brave soldiers of WW2. Antifa are not fighting a war against some genocidal axis of evil. They are merely a group dedicated to using tactics like violence, disruption of public order, destruction of property, and instilling fear to further their own ideological agenda. That the Neo-Fascists/Nazis are on the opposite side does not make Antifa better, it merely makes them the lesser of the two evils between the two extremist groups. I will happily and enthusiastically condemn the Neo-Fascists and all of their ilk but I think Anitfa should be held accountable for all of their transgressions as well. They just haven't outright publicly murdered anybody (to my knowledge) yet. I expect that it will not take long before they do.
 
This whole ideological/political climate stinks. Perhaps it is the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia, but I used to be able to identify with something. Now everywhere I look, all I see are bad guys. It kind of crushes hope and enthusiasm.
 
Think I better take a break for a few days. 

Top Secret S.I. rules adapted to the various genres of Pulp.

Just to wrap up where I'm coming from, I know quite a few people who identify themselves as Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, or other religions; and for whom their faith is a positive, humanity-affirming motivation for them to live decent lives and do good by their fellow human beings. And I applaud them for it. Whatever makes someone contribute to the betterment of the human condition gets my support, whether I personally believe in and follow it or not.
 
I judge people by their actions rather than the books they quote.

I'm pretty sure your average KKK member or neo-Nazi doesn't have a hard-on for full scale genocide.  Yeah, sure some of them do and some others could be be gotten by a charismatic leader, but in this moment I strongly doubt that is where most of them are at mentally.  No, I kinda suspect that for the most part they are guys that aren't doing that well in this life with white privilege on there side and are scared ****less of how they would fare without it.
 
So, more a return to segregation and Jim Crow, than concentration camps and gas chambers.
 
Now, I realize this doesn't leave any middle ground worth claiming for compromise.  Still, the change in perspective is helpful, because if they are genocide hungry monsters almost any act taken against them can be considered justified, including violence and even murder.  However, if they are just guys whose lives aren't going well and as a result of that are in a bad place mentally, then they can potentially be turned around and put on a better path.
 
It is worth noting that there are people who have made it their lives work to reach out to Klansmen  and neo-Nazis and have had a large amount of success getting them to drop their robes and swastikas. So, that would seem to support the idea that these are confused and unhappy people and not psychopaths.

Yeah, we do the same thing with Shadowfist, which has morphed from a CCG to an LCG over the years.  That game's been going since 1996.

That's easy to picture:
 
1 hectare: bunch of grass
1 acre: 2.47 bunches of grass
 

We didn't recognize clerics as adhering very closely to any particular template. The closest thing we could come up with were crusading knights like the Templars. I don't think that image was too far off from what Gygax imagined them to be. There's enough congruency there to place clerics firmly within the traditions of western European history and folklore (and the modern fantasy literature inspired by it). Just like there's enough in the Monk class description to firmly place it within the traditions of Asian fighting monks like the Shaolin, rather than those of western mendicant orders like the Fransiscans.
 
All the kids I played with in high school (back in the early 80s) had a working familiarity with the historical and literary inspirations for most of what we found in AD&D. You didn't need a Ph.D in Western Civilization, East Asian Culture, or Medieval Literature to get this stuff.

Good for Ms. Larson. It IS a tired concept, leastways I'm tired of it. I was very happy that Wonder Woman did so well. Maybe we can ditch the whole "lady leads are for rom coms" attitude and embrace that females can play up just about any type of role. 

". . . hard science fiction of the original series."

". . . hard science fiction of the original series."

I believe that this is the entire problem CBS has with Trek right now. 
 
They are dishonest in both intent and how they deal with the existing fan base,, they repeatedly say one thing and do a completely different thing.  And then make believe it never happened. 
 
Is Star Trek (TV) their IP?  Yes. 
Can they do what ever they want with it?  Absolutely.
Is announcing the intent to do one thing and then doing something completely different a good sales tactic?  Nope, In the real world that is known as Bait & Switch and is considered a con.
 
The Prime Universe timeline has existed for over 50 years and has been embraced by millions.  Even when the original show had been written off as a failure, the fans were there and those same fans embraced and launched the moves and then TNG and the rest.   When they created the new movies (Kelvin timeline) some liked it some didn't, but the only controversy was the controversy generated by magazines and web-blogs desperate for clicks.
 
In this case CBS announced that the new series would continue in the existing Prime timeline ten years before TOS and then immediately changed everything.  Literally everything.
 
Like Twilight tried to transform Vampires from ancient evil entities into glitter dusted boytoys, the first look at STD has the hardened no nonsense Klingon warrior race transformed into pimped out somethings.  Their equipment went from tough utilitarian tools and weapons to gaudy for gaudy's sake. 
 
All technology follows functional reasoning.  Form follows function.  That is why there are so few overall changes.  A ship today and a ship built in the 1800's is still recognizable as a ship, with the biggest noticeable change being masts and sails.   But overall if you line them up, you can easily trace the evolution of the ship from the past to present. 
 
Fictional settings are not different.  You pick the parameters of the rubber science and go.  TOS was created in a TV era where continuity wasn't a thing and no effort was expended to try and make things fit.  But they did establish a few general "rules".   When the movies sparked Treks return the new series (TNG, DS9, etc) did try to maintain continuity and did so.  Each new series adding to the "rules" and the canon.  When they did ENT they realized that a major issue was blending into the timeline when TOS on screen tech was obviously behind real world current tech.  They set the new series 100 before TOS.  But even with the visual update the overall ship designs and uniforms did look like they could have been before TOS.  Any fan could take the ships and draw a progressing line from ENT to TOS to TNG to DS9 to VOY.  Fudging a little to compensate for Hollywood Tech they all still held up. 
 
But here comes STD.  Ten years before TOS and the ship design does not fit anywhere.  There is no path from ENT to STD to TOS. 
 
If they would have been honest up front and said they were creating a new stand alone Trek then they might have succeeded.  Fans would watch a new reboot for all the lamentations for a fans favorite series.   But they didn't.
 
1) They say that Axanar is great, and then when it looks to be a massive hit, they reversed and killed it.
 
2) They see Trek fans as a collective herd of stupid idiots who will automatically hand them money so they pander with the Bait & Switch promise about the Prime timeline.
 
3) They blithefully intone "Ignore our lies and subscribe to a web stream for only one show that isn't what we promised". 
 
4) They repeatedly make believe 1 through 3 didn't happen and anyone that doesn't like being mislead is a whiner, ensuring anyone that was on the fence gets pissed off and leaves.

I hate people who post in all caps and type "it's" instead of "its."
 
Sincerely,
 
A Firefly Fan
 
  <-- This is the humor indicator. I don't really hate you.

These guys are kind of silly, but the factory tour is cool:
 

World of Darkness is too damn wangsty.

I hate people who post in all caps and type "it's" instead of "its."
 
Sincerely,
 
A Firefly Fan
 
  <-- This is the humor indicator. I don't really hate you.

I hate people who post in all caps and type "it's" instead of "its."
 
Sincerely,
 
A Firefly Fan
 
  <-- This is the humor indicator. I don't really hate you.

One of the best things DC did with Superman's faux death was the faux returns.  All those guys who weren't actually Superman but showed up to fill his shoes.  We got some great characters out of that such as Steel (who DC seems to have just abandoned, sadly) and it was interesting watching how each tried to be Superman but couldn't quite pull it off (especially one that was a villain, Metallo I think).

Sadly, when I was 3, I was convinced there was a number twelveteen