Yet I fear that the second amendment mostly exists as a pacifier to keep people clinging to the perceived security of “having the 2nd amendment after all”.

Keeping something as a last resort is meaningless if you are never willing to actually tap it.

Then it is just comfort.

covered in cobwebs, confusing the birds and one flick away from total darkness.

I think in this case it works well enough.

Most comedy works by subverting expectations. And sometimes you can shift the burden of establishing these expectations to the audience by offering an unclear and vague statement, that later is revealed to be the punchline to the joke.

There is a certain risk involved because how well the joke works on an individual basis is a question of how imaginative or unimaginative the audience is (depending on how the joke is constructed).

A joke that relies on lack of imagination basically turns the audience into their own straight man. While the joke that relies on imagination banks on you being the straight man to the flights of fancy of your audience.

Where else do you get mortgages?

I mean, technically you can contract a mortgage between any two legally able persons.

But I’d say a mortgage between private individuals is a rare exception.

Usually it is bank/credit unions, or corporations specializing in mortgages as their primary business. But I think you can lump most of those under the umbrella term. At least as far as their employees being able to just approve or deny you for personal reasons.

Maybe the mortgage application was just not within approval guidelines. It is not like a bank clerk gets to arbitrarily decide by personal sympathy.

Maybe there is another side to this toxic macho “manosphere” you mention.

After all, as a baseline men are by nature predisposed and culturally conditioned to protect and be considerate to women.

Despite all lamentation, Chivalry is not dead for some.

So obviously the sanctity of a woman’s restroom is more highly valued than that of a men’s bathroom. After all, women are more vulnerable and more often targeted in that way.

So the debate tends to skew towards women spaces, as those are more likely to cause public discord if disturbed.

Rarely are men stepping up on the soap crate to defend their own spaces. Because after all, they are strong enough to take any number of “inconveniences” and disadvantages because to admit to struggling with them would be weakness.

I’m not saying it’s fair, or right, or how it should be. But maybe that bias isn’t always driven by hostility. Maybe it’s just that society still places more weight on protecting women, while expecting men to grit their teeth and deal with it. Even when those same men help reinforce that standard among themselves.

It doesn’t make the imbalance okay, and it doesn’t mean the outrage is consistent. But it might explain why all the noise gets focused on trans women. It’s not just transphobia, it’s the scaffolding of gender roles, still quietly deciding who gets defended, and who’s expected to tough it out.

It seems absurd to conceptualize a “chivalrous transphobe”. But we are all more than just one label.

Just reached for the fan remote while seeing this.

I just like to feel the wind in my hair.

I want a place that makes tiny burgers

Forget the premium burger places where burgers are held together by whaling harpoons and you need to eat them deconstructed. Instead of one giant undesirable burger give me a plate with 4 regular sized burgers in exciting variations.

Give me a chicken chili burger, a double irish beef patty blue cheese burger, an italian herb lamb patty and as a chaser a smoked bison brisket with bourbon sauce.

All on one plate. I would be happy

4 burgers. 1 plate. 0 regrets.

And if you don’t like one, you have 3 more chances to forgive the cook.

Thanks for the reply. I do appreciate your candor.

I wish you would have actually said anything about the game. I know that you enjoyed it. 45$ worth, at least.

You are blown away and find it breathtaking, but I am not really sure why that is.

Asking people what they like about a piece of media is not “letting internet strangers form your opinion”.

I was asking because I am wondering where the game’s strengths lie and what it does exceptionally well. Because then I could compare that to what I value most in a space game. And could decide if I give the free fly a try or spend my time on any of the other infinity+1 amounts of things to indulge in. (Which is right now emulating Bloodborne and playing Clair Obscure)

Elite Dangerous, X4, EVE or any other high-depth simulators never totally clicked with me. But I have spent considerable hours in Star Sector or the Starpoint Gemini games. Games that make me feel like I am a space cowboy without throwing me infinite possibilities with no reason to pursue any of them. Which is often the feeling No Man’s Sky is giving me.

If I had to sum it up, I’d say I am more interested in Space RPGs than Space Simulators.

Maybe you could have shared what is actually sensational about the game. Which would probably have done more to counter any unfair criticism towards it, than just expounding on how unfounded preconceived opinions about it are. After all you love the game. So let some of that love shine through and carry the day.

I should have chucked the lines about budget and time, because they raised your hackles so much. You are probably used to the game being attacked on that avenue.

Maybe it is top of the pack in the genre; but by how much?

For how absolutely out of any reasonable dimension their budget and development timeframe is, what have they to show for it, that you cannot get from X4 or Elite: Dangerous or any Starship Traders or any similar game? I cannot imagine it doing every single appeal of those games better.

Honest question, as I do not like the super deeply simulated games anyway. I like my space sims at least 30% arcade-y and easy to pick up.