What grinds my gears

Many non-Americans might not be fully acquainted with the political landscape of the United States, and the names of the different political parties don't necessarily ring any bells, so here's a very short summary: The "Republican Party" of the United States are the conservatives, the so-called "right-wing" (in the American sense). It's the party of Donald Trump, George Bush, Ronald Reagan. The "Democratic Party" of the United States are the "liberals" (in name only), the "left-wing". It's the party of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Bill (and Hillary) Clinton. Perhaps a bit surprisingly to many, Abraham Lincoln, one of the most famous and important presidents of the United States, and under whose administration and direct activism slavery was abolished in the country (by adding the 13th and subsequent amendments to the Constitution), was a Republican. Indeed, it was the Republican Party that ferociously advocated for and drove...

Particularly in the United States, but in increasing manner in other countries too, whenever there's a city that's being run by modern far-leftist activists (ie. the city government is dominated by or even exclusively far-leftist), the quality of life of the city tends to go down the toilet: Streets become dirtier and dirtier, and more and more full of trash and human waste which takes longer and longer to clean up (this eventually and inevitably ending up in a situation where it's just never cleaned by the city at all). Homeless people and drug addicts start taking over and invading park after park, alley after alley, street after street, eventually even major streets. Homeless tent encampments become a common sight. And, of course, all these areas that have been taken over by drug addicts and homeless people become more and more dangerous to traverse, as crime soars. The police will effectively stop enforcing the law. The city government, of course, always uses all the ex...

When the American far-leftist cult at some point during last year (as of writing this) decided that Elon Musk is evil incarnate, second only to Trump himself, many of them stopped using Twitter because Musk happened to own the company, and migrated to another similar social media platform. Even though there are several alternatives (some of them even outright advertising themselves as anti-right-wing far-leftist heavens), for one reason or another they chose the site Bluesky as their go-to alternative. And, of course, when an idea starts spreading among the cult, everybody will blindly follow it. When the mass exodus started happening, quite unsurprisingly Bluesky reported about a massive surge of "abusive post" reports, skyrocketing from about a thousand a month to something like 40 thousand a week. Par for the course, of course. While the number of users and activity skyrocketed for a few months, both have now been on a relatively steady downfall for quite some time. The si...

It's pretty much the rule rather than the exception, and the rule pretty much has no exceptions in existence: Whenever you sign up to a paid subscription of something, whether it be a real-life product or a digital product, your subscription will be set to auto-renew (usually yearly unless the subscription interval is something else) by default, often without even telling you. Or even if it's somehow shown during the subscription process, it's usually relatively unnoticeable and, quite egregiously, there will quite often not be an opt-out option right then and there. Be it a PlayStation Plus subscription, or an anti-virus subscription, or an online website subscription (such as, for example, geoguessr, chess.com, YouTube, etc.), or whatever it is, the automatic yearly renewal option will be on by default. And most often than not, as mentioned, this fact will either not be prominently displayed, or if it is, there's usually no checkbox to turn it off. Many such sites wil...

The modern far-leftism cult has this doctrine that not only did white people engage in massive amounts of slavery in the past, but they outright  invented  the concept and were the  only  people who practiced it, and if any other peoples practiced it, it was only and solely because they learned the practice from white people, and even then mostly to sell the slaves to white people. Of course this is outright not true. (Just as one example among hundreds, the Aztecs practiced absolutely brutal exploitative and homicidal slavery long, long before they even knew that Europeans existed or had any contact with them.) However, there's something on the opposite end of that spectrum that if these far-leftists are asked about, they will refuse to answer, they might not even  know  the answer (because they have never thought about it, nor taught it), and by far and large with  refuse to accept  the answer. Or even if some of them at some level accept it, mo...

The current situation with Steam, itch.io and some other digital distribution platforms, and their payment processors, is very confusing. VISA and Mastercard both have made public statements that they don't police content, as long as it's legal, and that they have not contacted Steam or any other platform in this regard, nor made any demands. Valve also made an announcement through an online gaming journal interview that was superficially clear but still somehow extremely vague, which appeared to answer all the questions but in my opinion ended up not answering any. Well, at least one thing Valve made very clear in that response, and that was that, indeed, they have had no direct contact to or from Mastercard nor VISA. Instead, apparently there's a very complicated semi-hidden network of intermediate payment processors and banks that stand between those companies and Valve, and apparently some of those had made those demands (although Valve's statement didn't give a...

One of the strangest notions that modern flat-earthers have is related to gravity. Particularly, they think that it doesn't exist and it's just a lie. (Of course saying "one of the strangest notions" when it comes to flat-earthers doesn't really say anything because you could literally list a hundred such "strangest notions" that they have, but anyway.) Many of the things that they are saying at least has some kind of correlation to physical observations, even if these conclusions are very infantile, primitive and rather idiotic. At least "well, it looks flat to me" is based on  something  that can be observed, it's based on something that actually exists (ie. the visual impression that the surface of the Earth that you are standing on appears quite flat all the way to the horizon, at least if there aren't mountains etc.) It may be a very simplistic and naive interpretation, but at least it's based on something that can be seen and ...

The term "high trust society" has become somewhat of a topic of conversation in later years, particularly with what's happening currently in Japan , a country that has been widely considered one of the "highest-trust" societies in the world for decades and is in a real danger of that situation being quickly eroded. But what is a "high trust society"? Rather than writing an essay trying to explain it, I'll instead write a sort of questionnaire or checklist: Check each of these bullet points and score each one for your own country, city or town for example from a scale from 0 to 10, and then sum up all the scores. The higher the end result, the more of a "high trust society" you live in. More crucially, has this score gone down over time, particularly because of increased immigration?  1) How likely is it that you can walk down the street without being accosted, asked for money or something else, harassed, or outright mugged, especially if ...

"Democrats" in the United States, in other words those who primarily or even exclusively support and vote for candidates of the Democratic Party, can be roughly divided into two types: The radicalized brainwashed drones, and the moderates. A good portion of the democrats in the United States are of the first type: In other words, completely indoctrinated and radicalized drones who just believe and follow completely blindly whatever is the doctrine that particular week on their side, and who will always support it no matter what, and will always repeat whatever the talking points happen to be that particular week. If today their side decides that thing X is a good thing and worth supporting, then they will rabidly and blindly support it and shout from the rooftops how it's a good thing. If next week they decide that very same thing X is actually a bad thing, that it must be opposed, and that they never even supported it in the first place, they will shout from the rooftops...

I wrote earlier about how canine police units in the US are mostly a scam , and that's because not only are these drug sniffing dogs unreliable in these situations (having a considerable amount of false positives and negatives), but moreover the entire thing is extremely prone to abuse, and that's because whether the dog "alerted" is 100% based on the word of the dog's handler. If he says that the dog "alerted" then that's taken as gospel, it's the absolute fact, and there's literally zero accountability. (These incidents are never examined nor investigated for accuracy. It's the handler's word, and that's it. Zero accountability.) Rather obviously this very easily leads to abuse. Well, there's another thing in traffic stops that's likewise prone to abuse: Field sobriety tests. It's very similar: There are studies that show that the tests that are typically administered are unreliable, with a chance of false positives ...

One of the more curious and strange cultural phenomena that has existed for many decades and to this day, is this notion that primary and secondary school grades are utterly important. You see this all the time in all kinds of TV series, cartoons and so on (although admittedly significantly less today than 20 years ago), ie. parents being upset when their children get poor grades in school (The Simpsons might be one of the few cartoons that still play on this trope to some extent). And this isn't restricted to fiction, as it happens a lot in real life as well. This... cultural custom that primary and secondary school grades are of utter importance, and emphasizing to children how important it is, and sometimes even rebuking them if they get poor grades. In the United States in particular this is a very detrimental culture because the pharmacological industry is abusing and taking advantage of this by convincing parents that their children absolutely must take concentration-enhancin...

Concord cost something like 400 million dollars to make, and was the biggest video game disaster of all time, with all servers shut down and all purchases refunded in less than two weeks from launch, which is definitely a world record for high-budget games. You can read a lot more details about it in my previous blog posts . However, when Sony announced that they would be shutting down the servers, they didn't say that they would just be abandoning the project for good. Instead, they said that they will re-evaluate the situation and research their options going forward. Which, I assume, implies the idea of a complete redesign of the game. Well, if that's the case, let me give some ideas to Sony about how to make the game actually better: 1) Drop the "modern audience" stuff from the game. Drop the pronouns, drop the "queerness", drop all that. The "modern audience" are not your clients, and thus you don't have to, and shouldn't, placate to t...

Recently the Mexican government issued an advisory warning to its citizens traveling to England that the country, and particularly its major cities, should be considered dangerous because of its high crime rates. In other words, the risk of getting robbed or mugged, or other crimes being committed against you, is significantly high. That's right. Mexico considers itself safer than the UK, and it dangerous for its citizens to travel to the UK because of the crime rates. Mexico. Let that sink in. To the United Kingdom: Get your shit together. You are becoming more and more of a hellhole every passing day. 

Far-leftists have been protesting in the United States every single day without fail, non-stop, for the last 10 or so years. At any given moment there are probably dozens of protests all around the country, perhaps slowing down only during the night (but most of the time not completely stopping even then.) Some observations I have made about these protests: 1) The vast,  vast  majority of these protests, probably over 90% of them, have no specific reason, initiating event or target goal. They were not sparked by a particular event that happened at a particular place, nor are they aiming at a specific goal (eg. having the city officials do something particular, or having a particular person be dismissed from his position, or something). Instead, they are there just to protest for the sake of protesting, just shouting the same generic slogans that they have been shouting for the past ten years non-stop, repeating the same tired boring claims that they have been making for all th...

Hopefully the current messy situation with payment processors, or their affiliates or intermediaries, or whoever is causing the current ruckus in Steam and itch.io, will be solved soon and we will be able to go back to normalcy. However, in case that somehow doesn't happen, and somehow payment processors are able to keep this draconian totalitarian control over all commerce and restrict it as they see fit, and lawmakers are either exceedingly slow to respond, or completely unwilling, here's an idea that came to my mind that would solve the problem: Split the digital storefront, such as Steam, into two completely separate independent entities, each with their own separate names, separate websites, and perhaps even separate desktop applications. The primary storefront would be the "payment processor friendly" storefront, which contains no games that the payment processors don't like. The secondary storefront would contain everything, ie. it will be completely uncens...

I have written earlier about the undeniable fact that all so-called "reality TV" shows are staged . It's not a question of whether the show is staged, the only question is how extensively. Even in the absolutely least offending cases, where something like 90% of the show could be considered genuine "reality TV" (in other words, real everyday people, no paid professional actors, acting in completely unscripted ways, reacting naturally and spontaneously without being coached or induced to do so, making decisions 100% on their own without any influence from the show producers), there will still be at least that 10% that's fake, artificially created for the sake of drama and viewer engagement. Editing will often be used to give the wrong impression to the viewers about things having happened that didn't, or that happened in a different way, producers will induce drama by instructing participants to do something, or in some way affect their behavior, and so o...

It started about ten years or so ago, and while it hasn't got super-common, it nevertheless has been happening again and again, particularly in certain big-budget triple-A games: And that's the phenomenon of deliberately uglifying female characters (especially if they are the protagonist playable characters). The "uglification" doesn't only happen by creating a brand new character that looks more "homely". That's not really "uglification" per se, it's merely just creating an uglier character. The "uglification" happens when the character is significantly and deliberately uglier than the real-life model that was used to create that character, like what was done with Mass Effect Andromeda, where the playable female character is significantly "homelier" than the real-life model she was modeled after (while, curiously, no such uglification was done with the playable male character). Another example would be this side cha...

It's quite ironic that the American far left has now decided that deporting illegal immigrants is somehow a crime against humanity and are fighting tooth and nail against it. Why is it ironic? Because during Barack Obama's presidency (a Democrat president) there was a record-high number of deportations of illegal immigrants (far, far more than during both of Trump's terms combined so far), yet nobody on the left said a peep about it. For some reason it didn't seem to be a problem back then, even though now it apparently is a crime against humanity. It's now a crime against humanity only because Trump is in office, and that's it. The American left and the Democratic Party are painting this picture that the vast, vast majority of illegal immigrants in the United States are "otherwise law-abiding". That the (otherwise) criminals are a microscopic minority of them. They want to paint this picture that illegal immigrants are just fleeing poverty and persecu...

Currently there's a huge controversy about an activist group taking credit for inducing several payment processors, including VISA and Mastercard, to demand that several video game online distribution platforms take down games that this activist group doesn't approve of. This is not just empty words, as both Valve and itch.io have delisted or hidden thousands and thousands of games, which can no longer be found even if searched for. Lots and lots of youtube channels are talking about this, and thousands of gamers are flooding the support telephone lines of both payment processor companies with complaints. There's one thing I find a bit strange about this whole thing, though. Something that so far I have not seen any of those youtubers, or anybody else, point out: Neither Valve nor itch.io have told what exactly are the demands that they have supposedly gotten from VISA and Mastercard. In both cases the announcement and rules changes are extremely vague, and only refer to so...

Professional bodybuilders, especially those on the top, will spend up to 10 hours in the gym almost every single day, sometimes even more, and they consume copious amounts of nutrients and enhancement drugs (such as steroids), both legal and illegal. Have you ever wondered where they get their living? That's a surprisingly rarely asked question. Some of them have legitimate source of income, actual jobs from which they get a salary. They just manage to get both things done. Others may get their living from bodybuilding magazines, tours and other such events. However, given how many thousands and thousands of professional bodybuilders there are, not all of them can be this lucky, or have a job that would allow them spending 10 hours a day in the gym plus all the expensive drugs and supplements. So where  do  they get their money? How exactly do they live and manage all that? Well, while these are only rumors, some insiders have confirmed that at least some of them get their mon...

Many people are quite baffled at the upcoming Warner Bros / DC Entertainment movie " Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires " which, unsurprisingly, depicts the Aztecs as the good peaceful noble guys, and the European conquistadors as the evil villains set on conquering, destroying, killing and oppressing. This is just a symptom of the modern far-leftist zeitgeist: The demonization of white people and, consequently, the sanctification of non-white people.  All  non-white people, regardless of anything. The typical mental picture is like one of those animated movies where woodland creatures live in peace and harmony in nature, and then humans come and destroy and pollute their environment, take all the resources, and kill the woodland creatures and take them captive. Except in this case the "woodland creatures" are of course all non-white people and the "humans" are white people. And this isn't even an exaggeration, as the majority of modern far-leftists genuin...

Here is one idea for flat-earthers to test the flatness or curvature of the Earth, particularly a large body of water, that they can perform for a modest sum of money (or even almost free if any of them happen to own such a boat): Rent, borrow or use a fishing or recreational boat that's medium-sized and capable of navigating while a 50-foot pole has been installed vertically on it. Then, as suggested, procure a pole (or similar lightweight structure) that's 50 foot long. Place bright differently-colored light bubs at 10 feet intervals on this pole, the first starting at 10 feet, the second at 20 feet, and so on, with the last one being at the tip of the pole. These should all use different colors (like yellow, red, green and so on) and be as bright as possible, and powered by the boat's own power source or a separate battery or generator. Install this pole vertically on the boat. Now stand on the shore of a big-enough lake or the sea, with all the camera equipment and tele...