Author Archives: Raizen

We should want to avoid a civil war.

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I’m just a guy who likes taking it easy and playing games, but I’m usually deep in thought, even if it doesn’t seem like it. I don’t have access to more information than most people, but what I’ve seen is sufficient to come to the conclusion that we’re in for some wild times, and we would do well to prepare.

It’s evident that society is reaching a turning point. With what degree of conflict with which this will come about is difficult to say, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that conflict is difficult to avoid. It’s just a matter of time, and it seems it’s coming real soon.

One point that I would like to make is that, while people can be highly unpredictable, their actions make a lot more sense when you account for their self-interest. That may sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how often people forget that, and assume that the people that they take issue with are either insane or stupid.

Another point is that people generally don’t have a very well defined political ideology or philosophy, which has to do with the fact that they haven’t given them much thought. People generally make choices that appeals to their basic sensibilities, which can include underdeveloped ideas concerning what would make the world fair, which is often little more than self-interest disguised as altruism, flavored with sound bites and slogans which usually amount to little more than an abuse of language.

Consider all this with the expectations that society has placed on millennials and zoomers: that they are expected to succeed in ways that boomers did, which usually means that they’re expected to have a house and a family by their mid-twenties, and if they point out that the western world’s economic conditions have changed to the point where that’s not reasonable to expect, then they’re treated as though they are making excuses for their failures. Thus, we’re left with two generations who have a resentment for the people who have already claimed all the assets, leaving their children with no choice but to rent from those who have them, and to fight for the few opportunities that exist. As this is happening, millennials and zoomers can be expected to have a decreased tolerance for a bloated bureaucracy whose constant demands for a cut of what little they’re making further threatens their potential prosperity.

While there may be a few things wrong with this perspective, it’s still a fact that these perspectives exist, and they can inform people’s decisions.

I don’t resent people for being motivated by self-interest, as I see it as reasonable to expect for humans in general. Having said that, I do understand that it’s played a role in bringing society to this point, and it’s part of the reason why the coming conflict cannot be avoided.

When people talk about the deep state, they often speak of it as though it were some mysterious collective that secretly rules from the shadows. The reality of the matter is far more mundane. The deep state is the facets of government which are not elected, but nonetheless have hands on levers of power. The IRS is not elected, but they have authority to act on behalf of government to collect taxes. The FBI is not elected either, but they have authority to act on behalf of government to investigate. You can probably think of other features of government that are similar in that they have power even though they are not elected.

Inasmuch as these agencies act reasonably with the authority that they’ve been granted, they are not malevolent. However, they have the potential to become bloated and bureaucratic. When this is the case, they can become terribly inefficient. This often takes the form of jobs created that accomplish nothing in reality, they just push papers around and manipulate access to assets back and forth in such a way that creates the appearance that something productive is getting done. It can even come to the point that there can be hundreds of people employed in a single building, each drawing a consistent paycheck, but only a couple people in the building actually accomplish anything (usually building maintenance).

Knowing this, consider how such an operation is funded. Often, it’s through taxpayer dollars. As the operation grows more bureaucratic, it requires more taxpayer dollars to keep it funded. Each person in its employ has an interest in keeping the operation going, and well-funded. And the government, which keeps these operations going through taxpayer dollars, itself has an interest in keeping money going through itself, as the work that they do of passing dollars through their hands justifies its own bureaucracy existence, and thus it justifies funding of its own. In consideration of this, an increasingly bureaucratic government has an interest in taxing people as much as they can get away with.

However, that’s not the only way that government is funded. It’s also funded through paying itself with freshly printed currency. This can be a dangerous thing, as doing such a thing amounts to huge fraud and theft committed against anyone who is attempting to use the currency as a store of value. While many are aware that this is happening, they generally tolerate it as long as it’s not out of control. However, it’s easy to see how the government and the deep state have an interest in pushing this as far as they could while avoiding consequences.

This is dangerous because it’s difficult to tell just how much the public is willing to tolerate. In a sense, it’s like playing a game of chicken by speeding towards a cliff, while blindfolded.

If the government can fund itself through the creation of money, one might wonder what the point of taxation is. For one thing, taxation is still useful as a means of extracting value. Second, it helps to maintain the illusion that we’re the ones who fund the government.

If you’re among those who are within the bloated, bureaucratic system, and you see what the problem is, you might like to believe that you could do something about it. Either that, or you’ve come to the realization that there’s nothing that you can do that would make any kind of difference. If you were to quit your job, you’d just be replaced with another bureaucrat, and if you were to push back, you’d discover just how strongly you’d be resisted by countless people defending their self-interest. And if it comes to that, you’d just be replaced with someone too psychopathic to give a care, and business will continue as usual.

And yet, this bureaucracy would keep expanding due to self-interest, and it would continually demand more and more funding to feed its growth.

You’ll see how this will lead to the coming conflict when you see just how this bureaucracy impacts the bottom line of the common people. The common people are motivated by self-interest as well, and when it becomes more difficult to live, they’re going to become more angry.

Another factor that contributes to currency losing value is that more and more of it is being paid to people who don’t actually produce value. As people realize this, currency will lose its ability to represent value. This is a problem which doesn’t come up as often as inflation, but it’s significant.

To get into one example of how the bureaucracy is impacting the general public, property taxes are going way up. This feeds the bureaucracy, but makes it more difficult for rental companies to keep the lights on. Therefore, they must increase rent. This makes it more difficult for renters to pay the bills, which is an issue compounded by the rising costs of food and energy.

Some will attempt to make this out as a problem with rental companies being greedy, but with more people seeing the problem for what it really is, this false narrative is no longer holding up, and the bureaucracy is being identified as the problem. Not everyone will see the problem of rising rent as another way that government taxes them, but that’s just what’s going on.

One of the reactions to the problem of the increasing bureaucratic deep state has been the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement. Superficially, the MAGA movement looks like a cult of personality revolving around Donald Trump. But when you recognize it for what it is, a response to a perceived problem, you know that it’s not going to go away if Trump is taken out of the picture.

Speaking of, because Trump is getting on in years, it’s reasonable to wonder whether the MAGA movement will unite under a different leader. I think it’s likely, because it’s the tendency of people to get behind a charismatic leader. Trump is as popular as he has been because he speaks with his own in a way that makes them feel appreciated, which is often overlooked in favor of how bombastic he gets in public events. I think it’s reasonable to expect that whoever the MAGA crowd gets behind will be similar in character. But even if not, the fact that they are united in a desire to resolve a perceived problem is sufficient for the movement’s continuity.

One thing I can’t tell you is exactly how the coming conflict between the bureaucracy and the common public is going to play out. But one thing that’s obvious is that the deep state is going to continue to pull the levers of power in ways that serve their own interests, as one would expect people to do. Alarmingly, this would appear to include actions that are intended to deny the general population the outcomes that they’d prefer.

What can be said is that, it would be better to avoid the conflict, if at all possible. After all, if a conflict were to break out, few people would benefit, even among the winners.

One thing that’s often overlooked when speculating about how a civil war would play out is interference on the part of foreign entities. The fact is, a civil war would have an effect well beyond a country’s own borders. As if a civil war wouldn’t be messy enough on its own, when you factor in how foreign entities could interfere, things would get far more complicated. And because those foreign entities are motivated more by their own interests than those of any side in a civil war, that’s yet more reason for Americans to want to avoid a civil war.

Personally, I think Russia and China would be more likely to side with an uprising rather than the establishment. While those countries have corrupt bureaucracies of their own, they tend more towards traditional values which the U.S. bureaucratic establishment tends to eschew. The deep state’s strategic thinkers largely fail to account for this, because they don’t think generationally the way other cultures do, and don’t comprehend what motivates more culturally-driven civilizations.

While the statist faction may have the armed forces on their side, this wouldn’t serve them as much as they may think. They’d largely be dependent on soldiers to occupy, as the same couldn’t be done with fighter jets, and they wouldn’t dare deploy nukes on their own territories. As for the soldiers, many of them would defect, as they’d would refuse to raise a gun against their own countrymen, who themselves are easily the most heavily-armed people in the world.

Those siding against the deep state would likely be those on the political right. While those on the left might like to imagine that a civil war would be red state against blue state, what would really happen is that red counties and municipalities would either defect to neighboring red states, or just break away, leaving the left with a few large cities on opposite coasts, which aren’t even connected. This would leave the right with agriculture, energy, supply lines, and means of production. And the left would have densely-populated cities, with lots of mouths to feed, but mostly don’t produce anything.

If you already think that sounds like it would be ugly, consider how cities have been captured since ancient times; by closing them off from their supply lines, and starving the population into surrender. Historically, people have been driven into cannibalism in the time it takes for leadership to decide to lay down their arms.

Because the deep state would have a great deal against it in the event of a civil conflict, it may be a more strategic move on their part to make some concessions and allow themselves to decrease in size, to appease their opposition. I don’t expect this, as it would go directly against their more immediate self-interest.

But hey, that’s a thought: have a fair election open only to legal US citizens, without putting thumbs on the scales, and accepting the will of the people, without cheating them, because there’s no telling what they might do when they’re angry. Perhaps the deep state’s self-interest really lies there.

As the body politick takes notice of the abuses by those in positions of power, more power may be in the hands of those who are more difficult to predict.

My Impressions of Poppy and Tinkaton (Pokémon Masters EX)

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I’ve been out of Pokémon Masters EX for a while. But this morning, I learned from Serebii’s site that a new sync pair dropped, which is characterized by a combination of cuteness and overwhelming force.

Some might find such qualities mismatched, but such a combination of attributes appeals directly to my sensibilities, which could probably be called the most normal thing about me. So, I opened the app for the first time in months, and saw that I only had enough gems to run the x11 gacha three times. With a 2% draw rate for each of the 33 attempts I’d make, it was a roll of the dice. But it worked out with the 3rd x11 scout.

This time around, I scouted a character before even knowing the character’s kit. I’ve been through this enough times that I had learned from the pattern: the power creep had long since hit this game like a monster truck, so the newest character was probably the best by a long shot.

If Poppy and Tinkaton are not the best, then they are sure close. Their slap-you-in-the-face power can be likened to that of Steven and Deoxys or Erika and Leafeon, and certainly far beyond my first OP sync pair, Leon and Charizard.

Let’s give this kit a look, starting with the stats:

Yes, I already unlocked the EX outfit. What she’s supposed to do with that Sp. Atk, I don’t know, as her attack moves come off her physical attack. She’s got the glass cannon thing going for her, which is just fine, because you’ll place her behind two bulky support characters. Probably Red and Snorlax and Leaf and Eevee. Which go great with just about any attacker.

Here’s the move selection:

You could probably guess what Play Rough and Thunder Wave do. Play Rough will be the move you fall back on after your initial catastrophic barrage. There’s two moves I want to focus on, here:

The main setup move, which instantly cranks Tinkaton’s Attack stat to max, and makes the next move free. That’s gotten to be a standard convention for these OP characters. But now for her attack move:

A move only available each time Tinkaton uses a different move, which is slightly inconvenient, but with a catastrophic 450 power. While I’m not as impressed as I once was with such huge numbers (I’ve seen what power creep does to games like this), it’s still to be appreciated just how enormous this attack is. You do get to use this immediately after using the setup move, which means it can come off a maxed attack, for free.

Looking at passive abilities, she gets a couple good ones. For one thing, her stats can’t be lowered, so that increased Attack and whatever other stat boosts she gets from her allies isn’t going anywhere. This also ruins any strategy an opponent may try that depends upon lowering an opponent’s stats, but that doesn’t happen in this game very often. Speaking of, she also lowers an opponent’s Defense by two stages if her use of Thunder Wave is successful against them. Which is great if you want to slammify an opponent even harder.

But here’s the passive skill that I want to put the spotlight on:

So, on top of all that, her attacks are going to be critical hits. Unless the opponent is immune to those, for whatever reason. Assuming that critical hits work in this game like they do in other Pokémon games, this means that the attacks will do 1.5x damage, and ignore opponent’s defensive stat boosts. Because, you know, this kit needed even more irresistible power.

Reading Poppy and Tinkaton’s kit is like seeing that a character has a lot of damage potential, and as you continue reading, each ability the character possesses increases the damage potential further, for reasons that are simple and straightforward, and only require minimal setup, if any.

Basically, if a kid wanted to design a character who they wanted to win because they do a lot of damage, they’d come up with a kit like this. Except they’d probably also attach missiles and laser beams. Or is that just me?

If you’re interested, here’s Poppy’s character tags:

“Fancy” does not mean “nice”.

For those participating in her event, she can gain access to an exclusive Lucky Skill that brings down an opponent’s defense if they’re already paralyzed and survive an attack that Tinkaton uses against them. This sync pair is the total package.

And what’s more, at 6* EX, her sync move hits all opponents. Standard for an attacker sync pair, but hits a bit different considering the force behind it.

At this point, it’s clear why this game doesn’t have a direct PVP element. If it did, then most battles between players would come down to which ones can wipe out the other before the other can even make a move. This being the case, Pokémon Masters EX depends on in-game opponents to provide players with satisfying challenges. And it does okay at this with event battles.

Like with most RPGs, the objective of battles in Pokémon Masters EX is to lower the opponents HP to zero, before they do the same to you. Poppy’s kit shows that she’s very effective at this, and can accomplish it in a highly straightforward manner, with little in the way of elegance.

This sync pair may be diminutive in stature, but if you respect power (and admire cuteness), then it’ll quickly become a favorite. In my opinion, it’s definitely worth pulling.

Review: Made In Abyss, volume 12

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I’m going to say, first of all, that if you went to the store to buy a physical copy with that cover, you’re one brave dude.

That said, this report contains my impressions of Made In Abyss manga volume 12, and it does contain spoilers, so be aware of that in case you’re yet to read it.

Previously, in volume 11, Riko’s crew happened upon a trap, which they investigated. One thing led to another, and they ended up meeting Nishagora of Hail Hex and her prisoner, Tepaste. Following Nishagora back to her base, Riko’s party met up with another White Whistle, Srajo the Obscure!

The author, Akihito Tsukushi, can be commended for introducing a handful of characters, while avoiding having them give off the impression of being a bunch of NPCs, and characterized each of them, putting them in scenarios that draw upon each of their personalities.

First, with a combat trial, next, by giving the characters an opportunity to wash, and then, with a meal. From a narrative viewpoint, this is shown as Srajo’s hospitality, which serves her as an opportunity to gather intel about her guests, whom she’s still cautious of. Riko’s party is similarly cautious, which Srajo notes and appreciates as a virtue, and goes to show that Riko’s party has learned a few things from their encounters with Ozen, Bondrewd, and Wazukyan.

And, speaking of, I can appreciate how Ozen and Bondrewd were written into the narrative, and Hail Hex has alluded to the possibility that Riko and friends may not have seen those two White Whistles at their full potential. It’s possible that we haven’t seen the extent of their involvement in the narrative, which is exciting, because these characters were already quite impactful.

So, you could probably guess that volume 12 dumps some lore on us, which is always fuel for discussion. What’s especially exciting is that this volume introduces us to the “beast guises”, a new category of character that seems related to the previously established character concept of hollows. Personally, I prefer the Japanese moniker for these characters, juusou, which rolls off the tongue easier than beast guise. Tsukushi introduced this new category of character by having them show up in force, with each member of Srajo’s faction, Hail Hex, being a juusou, except Srajo herself. Interestingly, it seems juusou respond to the sounding of white whistles, similar to relics.

Now that we’ve met them all, here’s my impression of each member of Hail Hex:

  • Nishagora: Very expressive. She’s simultaneously terrifying and endearing. It’s obvious that she’s going to be a fan favorite.
  • Yataramar: Though he’s called a combatant, he seems rather tactful, and takes opportunities to deescalate situations. I think we’re yet to see the extent of what he can do.
  • Frapam: Seems Srajo has her own Meinya. As for what it’s about, we still don’t know. Because it’s been given a title as a member of Hail Hex, there may be more to it than appears.
  • Menae and Sherumi: The twins. It seems like there is still much mystery surrounding them, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they ended up joining Riko’s team, as they do fit their aesthetic.
  • Srajo: It’s been noted that she acts very middle-school, even though she’s plainly an adult. It seems she shouts most of the time, which may indicate that she’s hard of hearing. People with difficulty hearing tend to shout so they can hear themselves, though it seems she can hear the more soft-spoken characters just fine.

From here, let’s go over some observations in a “here and there” kinda fashion.

For one thing, Riko’s party finally makes it to the seventh, and possibly final, layer! How close this means that we are to the conclusion is yet to be seen. But if there is a civilization at the bottom, as all hints indicate, then there will probably be a lot more potential for stories to tell.

The Hariyomari Collection seems to be transforming from background lore to possibly an integral part of the story. It’s gone from a nameless nursery rhyme that Nanachi told Mitty to possessing a secret that a number of adults have taken interest in, which is somewhat disturbing for a horror manga. Whether my theory that Riko is the miko, and thus the author of the Hariyomari Collection, holds up remains to be seen.

Sherumi and Menae have some mystery about them. How they turned out the way they did is a mystery that they don’t seem to want to pass on. It would seem that the event was so traumatizing that they don’t want to remember, or for that matter talk about it. But considering their warning that Reg and his friends could turn out the same way, they could probably use more information. Or, maybe it’s some secret that they’re better off not knowing about.

Back in my review of volumes 1-9, I pointed out that, though this series does have nudity, I didn’t spy any tube steaks or roast beef sandwiches. As of volume 12, this changes, as the series shows its first tube steak. It actually slipped by my attention the first time I read the Japanese version. Perhaps Tsukushi wanted to make the point that, even though the twins were quadruple amputees, they weren’t missing all their features. In any case, the manga showed peepee. Thus, this manga with the great characters, worldbuilding, storytelling, and art has just become a little more difficult to introduce people to.

Srajo’s stew sounds awesome. Yet another recipe from this manga that I’d like to try. But remember the salt. And it comes back that Riko is good with languages, and it turns out that she understands sign language. Considering this with the fact that she can devise complex strategies on the fly, and it’s easy to see that she’s a smart one.

Volume 12 was a bit short. There was only three chapters. The economy is a bit tough, and people are stretching their entertainment dollars, so it would be appreciated if there was more content for our money. I know that Tsukushi only writes so much at a time (and I don’t want him to push himself too hard). But I’m okay with waiting a little longer if it means a more robust volume.

Having said that, volume 12 succeeds at what it does, introducing great characters, building up the story arc, expanding the lore, and having amusing moments (and at times being quite awkward).

To turn my subjective feelings about it into a number, I give Made In Abyss volume 12 a score of 8 out of 10. Having said that, if you’ve been following along, you’re probably springing for this one, anyway. And we know that once you’re in this deep, there’s no going back.

Consultants Will Kill Your Company!

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Imagine that you ran an electronics manufacturing company. Would you hire someone who has an education in electronics and a few years of experience?

Now, suppose that the applicant instead had no degree, no experience, and, for that matter, no background in electronics at all. Would you still hire him? Odds are, you’d favor the applicant who has the degree and the experience.

So then, why would you hire someone to make decisions for your company who has no experience with electronics manufacturing, or with managing such a business? Such a decision would seem counterproductive.

Yet, that’s what happens when countless businesses hire consultants, and delegate their decision-making to them.

But it gets even worse than that, because such a move would be a betrayal of the trust of each individual who is in the company’s employ, and each of its shareholders.

Think about it: each person employed by the company is dependent upon the company’s continued success. Each employee represents at least one mouth to feed, considering that each of them could hypothetically have multiple dependents who rely upon them to continue paying living expenses. If the company were to fail, then each of these employees and their dependents would face an uncertain future.

And as for the shareholders, understanding how self-defeating it would be to hire someone who would undermine the company, and the effect this would have on investments, would seem a standard feature of a three-digit IQ.

Now, let’s be a bit more specific. One of the trends that’s become evident in consultants is an embrace of the concept of DEI, short for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. It has to do with ensuring a certain amount of representation in the workplace. When presented in as many words, this might sound like a noble endeavor.

But it’s not.

DEI focuses on meeting certain quotas in hiring decisions, without respect to actual qualifications. It has to do with making incentives to hire based on characteristics such as race, sexual orientation, religion, sexual identity, and other characteristics.

It sells itself by saying that it’s not racism. But it’s something that might be more damaging, called tokenism.

Ideally, an employer should not be racist or tokenist. Hiring decisions should be made based on qualification and ability, with no regard to immutable genetic characteristic.

DEI does not respect this, and this is its fatal flaw.

Suppose you had to go in to see a doctor. Suppose a team of physicians agreed that you have need of open-heart surgery. Which would you prefer:

  • The most qualified and experienced operating physicians in the state? Or,
  • A team of less competent physicians, who at least look different?

Does this seem too dire? Okay then, here’s a different example:

Suppose you’re booking a flight from Philadelphia to Houston. Would you prefer that your airline of choice have a team of mechanics who:

  • All know what they’re doing, because they’ve been carefully selected from the most qualified, educated, and experienced candidates? Or,
  • A bunch of entitled busybodies who can’t turn a wrench, let alone identify a mechanical fault, but at least a few different religions are represented?

That wasn’t much better. Here’s another example, which might be more lighthearted:

You need an electrical repair to your home. Would you rather:

  • Have a few experienced, qualified electricians on the job? Or,
  • Sleep under a bridge knowing that your house was burned down by people who preferred certain genitals?

I hope that the point is getting across. While racism on its own was bad, the tokenism espoused by DEI has the potential to be far more destructive.

Here’s a real-world example: Last year, a submersible in the Atlantic Ocean experienced a catastrophic failure, resulting in the implosion of the submersible, instantly killing everyone on board, including Stockton Rush, the head of OceanGate, the company that made the submersible.

Previously, Stockton Rush had stated an interest in not hiring white men, saying that he didn’t think this was inspiring. If his focus was more on qualification rather than tokenism, Stockton Rush might still be alive today, as would his passengers.

While tokenism is horrifying in both theory and practice, it’s an ideology that is espoused by a disturbing number of consultants.

Related less to tokenism and more to inappropriate cost-cutting, the McKinsey consulting firm advised Disneyland to cut maintenance costs. Consequently, there have been many ride failures, many involving injuries and fatalities, which could have been avoided with the proper maintenance.

While it’s often said that consultants are economic Marxists, it should be known that most consultants are evidently not economic Marxists. Today, it’s challenging to find any economic Marxist who can be taken seriously.

However, consultants bear the memetic legacy of Marxist ideology. This is particularly relevant as relates to consultants because Marxists teach that there is an adversarial relationship between the collective and the private corporation. Obviously, to hire someone on with an ideological motivation to undermine the company would be counterproductive.

It’s important to understand that no company needs consultants. Consultants don’t exist for the betterment of your company, they exist to draw in a paycheck. And they are excellent at tricking gullible people into hiring them on.

The fact is, you can make your own decisions for your own company. The people in your employ are counting on it. And for that matter, so are your customers and your investors, whether they know it or not.

Is Pokémon going woke?! And why isn’t Raizen concerned?

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It’s just come to the attention of the general community that The Pokémon Company has a job posting for a Director of DEI. This has resulted in concern that Pokémon has become the latest to fall prey to the woke ideology.

While it’s true that this is an unsettling development, I’m not as worried as others seem to be, for reasons that I’ll go into.

But first, I’ll go over why my fellow Pokémon fans are understandably concerned.

Wokeness degrades everything it touches. It’s concerned with the ideology rather than the quality of the product. Where it infiltrates, tokenism and virtue signaling become the order of the day. The usual consequences involve the quality of the product suffering, investors losing out on stock value, and in many cases, sales tank because customers disagree with the implementation of political ideology in a product that was otherwise less divisive.

So, if The Pokémon Company is looking for a DEI director, does that mean that Pokémon is falling to woke?

While this development is far from welcome, and may call for action on the part of the community, it does not mean that Pokémon is already a lost cause, as some might make it out to be.

For one thing, The Pokémon Company are not the main developers of the core Pokémon games. That would be GameFreak.

You might remember that Nippon Ichi Software America (NISA) was among the first companies to jump onto the anti-GamerGate bandwagon when game journalists initiated their slander campaign against gamers upset about the state of games journalism. One might imagine that Nippon Ichi Software (NIS) games turned SJW as a consequence.

But they didn’t. And here’s why: NISA doesn’t develop games. NISA is a localization company. The games were still made by NIS in Japan. The worst NISA could do is make changes to the original product in such a way which constitutes censorship, which one could get around by getting the Japanese originals and playing the games in their original languages. Whether NISA censors the games they localized or not, they must recognize that to do so would risk alienating their core audience of JRPG purists. And, as it so happens, NISA’s censorship has been minimal, if at all existent. The main issue with NISA is whether they can localize a DLC package without turning it into a buggy mess.

Knowing this, consider the fact that The Pokémon Company, which is largely a merchandising and localization company, is looking for a DEI officer. There wouldn’t be much expectation that such a person, if hired, could do much to damage the brand.

Now, I know that some might present the picture of the jacked woman from Scarlet and Violet as evidence that Pokémon has already been going the woke route:

Oh, hold on… That screen was from Pokémon Colosseum, released in 2003 (2004 in Japan and Europe). Here’s the one from Scarlet and Violet:

Aside from the fact that this is an obvious example of the cherry-picking fallacy, as there are many NPCs in SV that have many body types (the female protagonist is standing right there), it also overlooks that sometimes comically jacked characters are used for irony, particularly when they’re women. It’s also nothing new that sometimes ambiguous characters are used for humor, and for some reason, we’ve all collectively decided to overlook it when it was employed in FFVII and its remake.

Having said that, the fact that The Pokémon Company is seeking a DEI director at all is concerning. But there’s another side to this that’s not being understood: that the posting isn’t new. It was only recently discovered by the general community. Unless I’ve been misinformed, the posting is years old. Thus, the position hasn’t been filled, perhaps because The Pokémon Company wasn’t actually serious about filling it. What’s more, the posting was packed with buzzwords.

When you consider this, what it looks like to me is that the posting was formed to fill out some arbitrary checkboxes to satisfy some unsavory consultants, rather than a sincere desire to pay someone $200,000 a year to destroy a brand and piss off investors.

I know that taking a moment to look at a matter rationally might not be as fun as rushing out in some indignant rage, but it’s important that we understand the reality of the matter, so we can make more strategic moves.

Still, I know that some might see the posting, and feel tempted to flood it with joke applications and résumé’s. To this I say, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.

Now, if you want to reach out to someone who is in an official capacity to express your concern, the best way to go about this is to make your concerns known to the Japanese company, GameFreak. While you can try to reach out to Nintendo of America or The Pokémon Company, because they are largely merchandising and localization companies, they wouldn’t have much say over how their respective parent companies are run. Basically, it’s companies like Nintendo of Japan and GameFreak that hold sway in how the products are made, and the direction that their respective merchandising companies go in.

When writing to a company in Japan, it helps to know that the culture is way different. The Japanese are far more likely to respond to respect. If you come off as entitled or condescending, they’re not likely to listen to you. Also, it might not hurt to run your message through a translator to get your message in the Japanese language. There may be someone there who can read your message in your own language, but it’s less likely. Perhaps include a disclaimer that Japanese isn’t your first language.

Woke is coming for the things that we consider fun. It may be late in the game, considering the effectiveness of the boycotts against Bud Light and, more recently, Planet Fitness. Still, we can’t let the woke mind virus destroy the things we love. Even if the tide is turning in our favor, we can’t let up in fighting back.

Matt Walsh had another bad take.

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Matt Walsh is developing a reputation for bad media takes. This time, Matt railed against violent video games by saying that, even if a person who plays a video game doesn’t commit a violent act, there’s still some part of their mind where they’d entertain such a fantasy.

Which sounds similar to another bad take he spilled out about anime.

By now, people are starting to figure out that Matt Walsh is more Conservative than Libertarian. And to those who are starting to figure out the difference between the two, that’s great, because that’s the kind of thing people need to know.

Matt Walsh is still problematic. For one thing, it’s already obvious that Matt doesn’t care for anime, and has no idea why anyone would. He also seldom plays video games, and can only guess what motivates anyone who plays them.

What Matt Walsh does is a great job of representing a brand of Conservatism that is insular and only grudgingly participates in culture, preferring instead to piss all over it when he can do so in a way that’s consistent with the image that he made for himself, which is akin to a stodgy old curmudgeon whose idea of entertainment is sipping an Old Fashioned while watching some non-interactive form of entertainment that’s so ancient that any surprise and every point of trivia has been thoroughly raped from it, leaving behind a desiccated film on the musty reel that hosts it.

Conversely, the left has no problem with making culture. The culture may be debased and a sad debauchery of what has already been established, but they still have no problem with making culture. And for their efforts, they now have an entire team of Avengers which, while they inspire no confidence, will parrot all the DEI talking points that the consultants lurking at Marvel and Disney would have them say.

Matt Walsh is out of touch and more willing to complain about culture than pull it in any particular direction. Unless you were to call Johnny the Walrus a sincere attempt to influence culture.

If you’ve been following along, you’d know my position when it comes to violence in entertainment media: that any depiction of violence in media that someone consumes does not indicate a sincere desire to act out the violent acts depicted. And even if the person did harbor such fantasies, I’d prefer that they keep it limited to their fantasies. I wouldn’t consider them guilty of a crime that they haven’t committed.

But if you disagree, then go ahead and call me a dragon slayer, because I’ve killed a bunch of those. And died a lot. But for that matter, can we talk about the time I saved spacetime by slaying a reality-devouring parasite? Or captured and cataloged over 1000 cryptids, and currently have living samples of each?

What’s that? That didn’t actually happen? Exactly. It’s just made-up stuff, and nothing to get worked up over.

But while we’re at it, let’s talk about the time I studied mountains of math and physics, and only ended up making slightly more per hour than someone at a nearby gas station.

As we consider culture, it helps to keep in mind that culture doesn’t form in a vacuum. Culture always forms in response to something. Aboriginal culture came about in a particular time and place, that is, recent Australia, which contrasts with the Inuits of northern Canada. Considering what these cultures are in response to, it should be obvious why these cultures would not be expected to continue in their new homes if the people were to swap geographies.

California has a particular culture in its densely-populated coastal areas, which came about as a consequence of a willingness to explore new paradigms, which they were more willing to do as the area became wealthy, in no small part due to the richness of the land and climate. Because of their wealth, it appeared as though the consequences of traditionally-unwise behaviors would be blunted, emboldening the people to continue in them. At the same time, relative ease allowed for people to become more creatively involved, and an industry grew in the midst of this.

Normally, the particulars of a culture would be localized, and thus any failures of that culture would be specific to the location in which the culture developed. However, because California has a far-reaching influence by reason of its tech and entertainment sectors, its culture has reached far beyond California’s coast. This allows for the consequences for the failures of its culture to be felt far outside its point of origin. Thus, there’s a new problem, which will result in a new culture that seeks to solve the problems caused by California culture.

One of humanity’s greatest attributes is the ability to adapt to changing circumstances, either over the long term through adaptation, or on an individual basis by reason of the plasticity of our minds.

Matt Walsh, however, is characterized by a certain rigidity of mind that makes him poorly suited to adapt to changing circumstances. This is a huge shortcoming, and contrasts with the real manly men throughout history who have been nimble, quick to adapt, and diligently sought solutions to problems.

The fact is, times are changing. While it’s true that humans are motivated by the same things they historically have been, the technology and the means available to them have changed, and those who insist on remaining in the past are likely to do just that.

But hey, perhaps Matt Walsh can change. I remember that my mom wasn’t fond of video games either, but she became more accepting of them when she saw that they didn’t negatively affect my grades, among other reasons.

As far as politics goes, Conservatives are not that great. Where one party insists upon radical change, the Conservatives are little more than the ones that mildly resists. Sure, they slow the other side’s agenda, but they can’t be counted on to reverse direction.

If Libertarians prove to be more proactive in their advocacy for limited government and personal freedoms, they’d be an excellent replacement to the Conservatives, who have largely proven themselves useless.

We’re now up to that chapter.

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I’ve been following along with Geno Samuel’s Chris Chan: A Comprehensive History. If you’ve never heard of it, then you’ve probably also never heard of Chris Chan.

If you were to get into it, it’s a doozy of a rabbit hole. In summary, Chris Chan is one of those people who is infamous on the internet, and is easily the most well-known among internet infamous people. To the point that there are documentary series’ and there have been entire wikis that cover his antics and various facts about him.

About two-and-a-half years ago, it came to light that Chris Chan has been committing incest with his own mother. This set off a firestorm that resulted in Chris Chan trending on Twitter, culminating in Chris Chan’s arrest, and subsequently legacy media outlets have reported on it, exposing aging boomers to the Chris Chan phenomenon.

For those who have been following along, we knew that the time would come that Geno would come to these events in the timeline of his docu-series.

Well, here we are:

Chris Chan’s crime was disgusting. But as bad as he looks, this chapter made Bella look worse.

When I heard about Bella’s mythically horrible exploits, at first I thought that they were embellished. If even half of what I’ve heard about her was true, she was a magnificently bad person.

As bad as she looked in the documentary, it didn’t touch on everything. After all, the documentary was about Chris Chan. But people like Bella are the reason why prisons exist.

Of course, she got off because her parents worked for a three-letter agency.

As much as I’d like to quip with some insightful takeaways, what can be said that wouldn’t be obvious to just about all of us?

  • Don’t commit incest with your own mother,
  • Don’t associate with shitty people like Isabella Loretta Janke,
  • If you’ve committed a crime, don’t be so smug that you drop hints to people who might turn you in,
  • And, for that matter, don’t make a long, unprompted, and highly-descriptive confession to the same crime (oldie but goodie),
  • If you have an EPO against you, don’t violate it,
  • If you’re down and out, don’t prioritize buying a bunch of shitty toys,
  • And again, to emphasize: Don’t commit incest with your own mother. Ugh.

See what I mean? Who really needs to be told these things?

But whether or not there are lessons to be learned from the debacle that is Chris Chan’s life, it is still nonetheless fascinating, in much the same sense as watching a train crash in slow motion, with every last failure being meticulously documented, and every person who was impacted being carefully studied.

But with Chris Chan now being free, apparently having avoided the consequences of his actions, it now falls on the connected network of those monitoring Chris Chan to keep a careful eye on him, to mitigate the likelihood that he would reoffend, as Chris Chan is once again a danger to the public.

Pokémon Legends Z-A just announced, but not much else out of Pokémon Presents.

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There was a Pokémon Presents today, I suppose.

I didn’t go in with high expectations, but I was somehow still disappointed. Just remembering last year, it seems like Pokémon Presents has basically come down to a bunch of announcements for some mobile games that I mostly don’t care about.

Pokémon Sleep? I tried it, and it got old after about a month. Pokémon Cafe Remix? I played it a few times, but it was basically a puzzle game with a Pokémon theme. Pokémon Unite? Did anyone really still care about Pokémon Unite a week after it dropped?

The new Pokémon TCG app looks kinda lit, but outside of that, what was there? Pokémon Go is still huge, but its announcement was yet another Pikachu with a hat. Anyone who has been playing Pokémon Go can tell you just how mundane that is. The Pokémon Horizons anime is great, so it deserves a better tie-in than to add its characters to the list of photobombs in Pokémon Go.

Here’s the Pokémon Go announcement that I want to hear: that Niantic will finally address the many problems that have plagued the game’s features since the inceptions of those features.

Instead, Niantic is probably just going to implement one flawed feature after another, not implementing fixes unless there’s an exploit that players could potentially benefit from, that they would issue a quick-fix for.

I used to really like Pokémon Masters. So I might have hoped for something that might have gotten me back into the game. Instead, they announced a new batch of variant trainers that you have to randomly pull from gachas. At this point, Pokémon Masters can be called a “try to pull your favorite waifu character from the gacha” game. Is that accurate?

The big announcement was for Pokémon Legends Z-A. That was completely unexpected. That might be exciting, but it’s not even arriving this year. Sure, it’s great that GameFreak is putting more time into their next game rather than going for the yearly scheduled Nov. 18ish release. And it’s from GameFreak and not another buggy ILCA mess, so it’s probably going to be great. And mega evolutions are coming back, so there’s that, too.

But overall, this year’s Pokémon Presents was a great disappointment. So, maybe I’ll give PalWorld a try.

This is an unmitigated disaster.

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Lately, I’ve been feeling a little nostalgic. Therefore, I decided to look up places where I used to live on Google Maps’ streetview. Then, out of curiosity, I decided to look up an apartment community that I used to live at.

As I did, I was hit with the community’s rent, which nearly doubled since my time there, just over a decade ago.

It was unbelievable. So, I looked up rent for other places in the area, and the trend was consistent.

It’s only been a few years since I last checked. And just within the last few years, rent has skyrocketed to the point of nearly doubling.

I can tell you why this so deeply affects me. Back when I last lived in that community, I worked a full-time retail job, but somehow lived on what little I made. On most months, I barely scraped by. Most of the time, I was concerned about my finances, because there was nothing I could do to save a significant amount. If anything went even slightly wrong, my financial situation would have been a disaster.

Right now, I’m much better off. But I couldn’t try living the same way I did in the same place, if I were to make the same money. If anyone tried now, what are they supposed to do?

I’ll throw some numbers your way: On the typical month, I took home about $1100 per month. Rent got to be about $800 per month. Of the rest, most went towards other expenses like bills, leaving me with about $30 to spend on stuff to eat. For the time being, I’ll leave you to imagine the kind of food that I ate.

But if the rent were to instead be $1500 per month? Just forget about it, unless you were to share the one-bedroom apartment with one or two other guys.

Lately, I’ve been entertaining the thought of moving back near my hometown. But now? That doesn’t seem reasonable.

Thinking on what could have happened in the last few years that might have resulted in this, there’s one thing that springs readily to mind: an explosion in unchecked immigration has caused demand to soar. Companies like BlackRock have profited huge off of shitty policy that has fucked Americans over, and the current dogwater administration has done jack-all outside of enabling it.

If you’re poor and just getting by, leave a comment and let me know how you’re getting it to work out.

Cart Narcs may be just what’s needed to restore your limited faith in humanity.

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You may have heard of the “shopping cart test”. It goes like this: If you return your shopping cart to the cart return (or corral, or whatever you call it), then you can function in society. If not, then probably not so much.

The reason why it’s so effective as a test is because it’s a simple ethical consideration: you get nothing for bringing the cart to the cart return when you’re done with it, but it’s a little thing that’s expected of people to keep society running smoothly.

If you don’t, and you leave the cart loose in the parking lot, then that means that you’re only considering your own convenience, and are expressing indifference towards other people who may want to use a parking space that the cart might occupy, or that the cart might damage a car if it were to roll away.

Do you do your small part to keep society neat and orderly, or are you only concerned with your own convenience?

That’s something to consider when watching the Cart Narcs, who confronts the lazy and self-centered among us, in the interest of getting the “lazy bones” among us to reconsider their choices.

The Cart Narcs are social media personalities who go to parking lots, and confront the lazy people who don’t bring their carts to cart returns when they’re done with them. It’s a simple premise, but pure entertainment.

See for yourself. Here’s the latest update on their YouTube channel as of this posting:

One thing that I can appreciate about what the Cart Narcs does is the risk that they take with each confrontation. After all, if someone is the kind of person who places their own convenience over keeping society running smoothly, they’re probably simple-minded to the point that they don’t think things through, and might tend towards violence.

Yet, such people are seldom physically fit, so they wouldn’t be great at that, either.

One of the reasons why I appreciate the Cart Narcs as much as I do is because I once worked as a cart fetcher at a supermarket. In fact, the store was so busy that that was just about all I did throughout my shift while I was there. And in my time there, I got to see humanity on full display, complete with its entitlement and laziness.

I often did see customers just leave their carts between parking spaces. It was a mild inconvenience for me, but I didn’t see it as so much of a problem that it would have been worth confronting anyone about it. And it often went that it evaded my notice until after the customer drove off.

It didn’t take long working that job to see it all, after which point returning for another shift was like tuning in to a rerun for a show that was never fun to watch to begin with.

I’ve seen quite a few lazy people, and in the case of many of them, it wasn’t hard to see that they’re not right in the head. It’s because of this that I respect the efforts of the Cart Narcs. There’s also the fact that there are people out there who really need to hear what the Cart Narcs have to say.

Also, they make me remember how glad I am that I no longer work in customer service. Some people out there are only fit to be drowned.