They are the very model of modern major generals!

Send a gift. If gifts will be received at the event ask a friend who’s attending to take it on your behalf. If you can come up with something small, but meaningful, it’ll say that you noticed the slight without saying it and it could still be an olive branch. Include a nice card that tells her how much you’ve appreciated her friendship and help organizing group events. She’ll either take the olive branch and open up or back off, or she’ll catch the slight, it’ll be entirely up to her.

Absolutely!

Even were it true, which it is not, that the ruling classes push LGBTQ+ acceptance, Nutomic’s argument would be ignorant at best and dishonest. Either they don’t know of all the historic instances in which those in power have played both sides of an issue against each other in order to divide potential opponents or, more likely, they are willing to selectively overlook it to justify their prejudices.

They spelled “out of racism” wrong. “In error” isn’t even close.

This is the solution, and the place to start is your local comic shop if you have one. Almost all of them run gaming clubs in the back.

This exactly.

I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if it did, and Japan would be a likely culprit.

Tech has the right of what I was getting at though. I’ve been a member of several organizations and every one has made an attempt to turn me out to events. Most recently I’ve been working with a local Democratic Socialists of America chapter which got me out for canvassing and socials, which lead to protests and neighborhood cleanups, and now includes mutual aid events and tabletop gaming. All of this happened after I was laid off and moved half way across the country. Not all organizations are the same, but a good one can practically create a whole social life from thin air.

My brother in Christ, that is just a club! You pay dues to belong and everyone elects the few most organized and functional people to plan events that everyone can enjoy. You can even kick it up a notch and make it a civil organization so that you’re accomplishing good works while hanging out with likeminded people. Society used to be full of such organizations, and it’s time we brought them back.

Gods, I wish someone would gag that bloated gasbag.

I don’t think it’s a cop out at all. It’s a very good start and I appreciate the work and the quote. It sets me to thinking of a monstrous demigod by the name of Na’scrivas I’ve had rattling around for some time (I made an anagram of scrivener and changed a few letters. Plus, who doesn’t enjoy a good apostrophe in a fantasy setting.). It’s takes the form of a journal that makes its contents a reality at the cost of slowly detaching the writer further and further from reality. The idea is that by the end of the story the reader should question how much of it actually happened, and how much was simply the protagonist going mad.

‘Twas ever thus.

If Reagan were around to see this we might stand a chance at getting some kind of gun control.

It’s certainly a beer in its own right, but that’s simply a matter of definition and production. I know it has a history of being served mixed, but I’ve certainly come across it served on its own a non-trivial number of times.

I was just looking to express my penchant for collecting pseudo-historical stories that I don’t feel compelled to check the accuracy of because they don’t purport to express anything important. Ngl though, I would play the fuck out of that encounter if you made it.

Xitter* (pronounced shitter)

I once ran across a Berliner Weisse at a brewer’s festival that made excellent use of pickle juice. I had to try it out of curiosity, and while it was too much on the palate to drink many more than one, had a lived in the area I would have had one every evening. I wish I remembered the brewery so I could recommend it.

Iirc, Tchaikovsky wrote his 1812 Overture rather quickly to commemorate the defense of Russia against Napoleon and wasn’t too thrilled with it himself. I believe he called it noisy and without artistry, but I’m prone to collecting myths, so please do check my work.

Just because you don’t agree with criticism doesn’t mean It’s not constructive. You asked how a progressive party would work, the type of local grassroots activism and organizing cutthroat describes is exactly how many nascent parties form. You grow your influence where you can when you can as a bloc that others have to win the support of if they want to win. Once your movement is big enough you either capture the party that has become dependent on you or take your base of power and start your own.

Absolutely! But it’s not just about the internal pressure. If everyone trump threatens retaliates even when he backs off, and then demands he offer assurances before they do, he looks weak. The one thing he doesn’t want, and can’t afford, is to look weak in front of his base. It won’t work immediately, but if he keeps looking weak on the public stage he’ll either stop making such threats in order to avoid it or lose enough support to matter.