Care to defend those claims or are you just making noise?

Yay or dismay

Big Hanlon fan, but I don’t think stupidity is enough to explain why the site behaves that way.

Nah, it’s a lunch/deli situation, where you can order a sandwich or get a salad, so they also have soda fountains like this.

Fuckin… Goddamnit. Thanks for letting me know.

It’s still fun, though. I think it has a cohesive look that I would call “visually distinct for gaming purposes” rather than specifically beautiful.

Of what? Valve?

To be fair, it was a video game aimed at children to teach them how to be good soldiers during a time when the US was entering a deeply unpopular war under false pretenses.

Around the same time there were all sorts of lawsuits surrounding video games and their effects on children, so maybe it was a double whammy.

Regardless of any claims for or against violent video games, the Army shouldn’t be recruiting like that.

Wasn’t it a guy responding to a vehicle accident and he credited America’s Army for teaching him about triaging patients? I think it stuck in my mind for the egregious click-baity headline.

Still do

Are you serious? I just told you.

I think it would be cool if you couldn’t see the upvote/downvote score until you voted

Sounds like you were the correct amount of high. It’s the only way I get that introspective.

Like putting speakers in monitors.

Okay then, I’m being performative. I feel better about myself, thanks.

It’s so weird that so many people are calling being accommodating in such a small way “performative” or whatever! I think some people just can’t handle change and blame others for it.

I signed up for TWS almost 20 years ago, but I never really used it. Isn’t it really just for finding old service buddies?

Only until the next email

Is there anything you feel strongly enough about to protest like that?

In trying to look at it from the perspective of “what could make me do that” I can only think of some downright heinous shit. To get to the point that you’re willing to stand in front of cars and have people hate you for preventing them from living their lives? It’s pretty hard to imagine.

And on top of that, to know that your actions are going to ruin you in some way or another; that you’re facing jail time, bodily harm, or extreme financial burden? Either they’re being both sensitive and stupid or they’re so fed up that they feel like there’s no other recourse. It’s insane to me to think about being pushed so far that that seems like a good idea.

But then I think about how they must have gotten there, and the things that would get me there, and they’re not so different.

Lots of conjecture incoming:

I’ve asked myself this same question, and coming from a military background rather than anything more typical, I think it coalesces as something altogether different depending on the situation.

When I was stuck on a ship with hundreds of others, underway two or three weeks out of every month, 6 to 8 month deployments sprinkled in just for fun… Hard not to come out of a situation like that with some lifelong friendships.

On the other hand, in the years when I wasn’t on a ship, almost regardless of the work, even if we were friendly during the day, when the time came to go home it was like cockroaches when the lights come on.

I’ve come to the conclusion all these years later that it was some combination of shared hardship, forced closeness, security in employment, and a core belief that we were all working toward the same goal. We were in it together, and it felt like it.

Social relationships come from everywhere, even work, and while there are many people who worry that friendships at work will distract from… I don’t know… There are still plenty of people out there who want to make the day go by a little faster by working with a friend.

Maybe it just comes down to people not being committed to their work, because why would you be? Sticking your neck out, working extra, helping others, etc. are punished in a lot of different little ways, to the point that the best alternative is just to hop between jobs, staying one step ahead of accidentally giving a fuck.