Console gamer here as well, though with a PC and redeeming my weekly Epic Games since a few years back. I sometimes play on my PC, but mostly games I don’t have on my console.

Most of what I hear I believe it’s mostly due to the Epic Launcher being quite a bit behind standard, and the store not having great costumer service policies. I think Epic’s games with timed exclusivity don’t garner a lot of respect from the gaming community either, as they rather have freedom of choice to purchase their games on their main storefront.

Now, I think it’ll be obvious, but all of what I mentioned is further impacted by the comparison between Epic (or most other launchers, really) and Steam. Steam might as well be called the “default launcher” at this point, and naturally not everyone can compete (or they don’t want to) with the numerous and consistently good business decisions Steam tends to have, which keeps it in the top.

Not only that, and even though I still benefit from it, I’d say Epic’s strategy of offering weekly free games might feel like a sort of ‘obvious bribe’ to some, a cheap way to try and vainly make gamers turn on their main competitor. Which isn’t really moving the needle that much, because gamers preference for Steam isn’t due to free games, but good and consumer-oriented business practices.

I’m sure from gamer to gamer there’s more depth to this, but I’d say that’s the gist of it.

Well, Europe welcomes them, their talents and their research. And it’s a stable place, which in any other circumstance would just be the bare minimum instead of an actual benefit.

What better way to manipulate someone with self-worth issues who must flaunt his “power” and “wealth” to “prove others wrong” than stroking his fragile ego?

Small pp energy. Or rather, botched pp energy in this specific case.

Same for the Trump and co. axis of evil - a bunch of adult children with ego issues wanting revenge on the world that belittled or thwarted their constant schemes, all banded together.

Oh shoot. What did Biden do this time? Who’s constantly letting him sneak back into the White House to sign random stuff with the DJT signature?

So I learned today that, supposedly, 86 is a really old code:

According to Merriam-Webster, “86” is used as a colloquial term meaning “to throw out,” “to get rid of,” or “to refuse service to.”

As for 47, that’d be Trump, the 47th POTUS. So, in essence, and despite debate on its actual intended meaning in this context, it could be perceived as “take out” “the 47th” - 86 47.

God damn, being true… I consider myself quite the imaginative and creative person, but these folks have me beat.

Still, props to these people - if they applied all this creativity and effort for good instead of evil, we’d already be living in an utopia, there wouldn’t be hunger or poverty in the world, I dare say. Instead we’re gliding down into dystopia.

Just when you think we’ve hit rock bottom they’ll yet again prove you wrong - as they say, “where there’s a will, there’s a way”, especially for evil.

Yes. Minimum wage is supposed to cover every basic living necessity at the very least - from rent to food to even a modest amount of leftover money meant for a bit of fun here and there. It’s not supposed to allow a lavish lifestyle or allow one to eat at restaurants every day, obviously, but it should allow you to live modestly and support your household regardless of you living with others or alone.

So for these McDonald’s overlords who live lavish livestyles thanks to the thankless work these workers put in, then why should they even work at a McDonald’s in the first place? With inflation constantly rising and wages staying where they are someday even a McDonald’s job won’t be worth the hassle for the non-livable pitance of money they receive in return.

Down with overly rich billionaires living off other people’s misery. If your business allows for you to live the most lavish and extravagant life while your workers barely have enough to make ends meet, you are not a successful businessperson, but a grifter to society and use your power to keep the status quo as it currently is. Flipping burgers on a McDonald’s or working in garbage disposal are still essential jobs to serve society, and people are needed for them.

So they should still be properly valued and compensated as humans trying to live their lives while they supply the vital workforce for those same jobs - those positions have to be filled anyway and are of importance to society at large, so let’s not pretend we don’t need people for them and treat them like less-than-humans. Plain and simple - there’s more than enough for the rich to still be rich and live their lavish lives while regular people maintain a satisfactory level of life, and no need to ghoulishly hoard all the wealth (in many cases through tax loopholes which should not be legal whatsoever) like they were gonna live eternally.

And no, I’m not a minimum wage worker, so with this I’m not advocating for myself, but for what’s right for us as a society.

At this point, with all the crazy unreal stuff happening - tinfoil hat on - I’m not even 100% sure his previous assassination attempt was not staged. The more I think about it, the way the shooter managed to get past security and actually fire shots, how the shooter was being framed as a mad leftist (except not really, it seems), and how Trump already had so many pieces in place before election (Project 2025)…

Sure, I was convinced that the near-missed shot to the ear was impossible to fake - what would be the chances? But how about shooting in the general direction of Trump, faking a shot, while a micro-explosive device from the dark spy budgets gets placed on his ear? Tech is always evolving, so I wouldn’t be too surprised if such a device existed. A ripped ear in exchange for being a quasi-martyr and getting lots of support as “God’s chosen survivor” - not a bad tradeoff. Way too many coincidences along the way, to the point it becomes a pattern. Almost befitting a man who lost once and would go to any lenght to make sure he’d not lose ever again.

Anyways, even if somehow something as crazy as this could even happen - and it being found out - what would be the chances of him actually facing consequences for it? That said, I share your hope anyway.

Not only that - and the fact that it’s not a free gift at all, since it’ll absolutely come with strings attached and it’ll cost millions upon millions of taxpayer money to retrofit Trump’s personal Airforce 1 - but Trump also stated:

We give free things out. We’ll take one, too

No, Donnie. Not “we”. Other administrations, and indirectly taxpayers give “free” things out, and not even then, because even foreign aid is a form of securing power and influence abroad - an investment, to speak in your corporate terms. You do not give anything for free, being the so-called “transactional President” you are so proud to be - there’s only grift, free lux planes, free weekly golf trips to Trump courses and tax cuts for your class when you’re the one in the Oval Office. Like you love to claim that “We aid Ukraine”, when the previous administration was the only one to actually help, while as soon as you took office you started undermining and weakening Ukraine’s position in the war.

You mean “The US gives out while I cut all forms of aid and reinforce corruption, but I get to benefit from it more than anyone else.” FTFY. Imagine Obama or Biden, who certainly did not grift even nearly at your level, and at least did their jobs even if imperfectly, going “We give things out, so we’ll get some as well”, as they accepted millions-worthy gifts for their personal use during and after their terms.

Not american, btw, but I know the way I wrote might lead some to that conclusion. Not my intent to lead anyone to wrong assumptions.

Things like that do tend to make me lose a bit of respect for people.

Oh noes! However shall I live without your “respect”, my dear anonymous paragon of righteousness? I depend on it like living creatures need water to stay alive! /s

Ironically for someone who claims to value respect to and by others you certainly didn’t do much to garner any of it - which makes it quite hypocritical to expect others to assume mistakes they made on your mind only, while you yourself adamantly refuse to acknowledge your toxic attitude, and what you get wrong. Which to be clear, I don’t mind at all, unlike you - how you choose to view the world and if you wanna live in self-delusion is entirely a you problem and does not affect my self worth in any way.

You don’t have my respect either, for that matter. Now look at me, being a hypocrite just by replying to you after telling others to not bother with your sad excuse for an existence. Anyway, really moving on by blocking you this time since I’m not a source for your self-validation or dopamine needs, cheers.

Seriously my dude. No point in arguing with this person, it’ll only wear you down.

I’m not even joking or exaggerating - look at their beautiful lemmy rep sheet, full of bans for the most braindead stuff - such as blatant trolling, genocide denial, spamming and misinformation - and starting not long after account creation. Truly a pitiful state of existence, and that’s coming from me, a neurodivergent.

They’re here only to vent rage on others for whatever straws they can grasp and spread around their own personal misery, nothing else. They get their dopamine fix from this.

Anyways, cheers and stay well!

What? Where do I even hint that I would deny “Qatar’s human rights are of significant concern”? Or that I am surprised that Trump is accepting bribes?

My statements on this matter have pretty much been: Trump openly takes bribes -> Trump should be held accountable -> Regardless of where the bribe takes place or from who it comes. And one commenter starts derailing it because “Hurr durr Qatar and Syria are not the same place”, while another goes “why are you denying Qatar has a human rights problem”, both of which don’t even come near the point I was making. Can’t we just agree what Trump is doing is wrong and not look elsewhere for excuses to nitpick and create chaos? Are the internet points for having “good obvious opinions” really that important?

Literally nothing to do with defending wrongdoing from anywhere or trying to justify it- which is just twisting words to make them seem like something else and go from there to create needless drama - which in turn is why I ignored the other commenter in the first place.

I mean, every apologist and defender of capitalist apocalyptic hellscapes will have that view, sadly. So long as it makes them an extra buck it’s good for them, consequences to society or environment be damned.

As an European who does advocate and see value in the use of AI, but not at any cost, I’ll take his opinion as a compliment. As they say, “I want AI to do my dishes while I create art, not for me to do the dishes while the AI produces insta-art”.

And eventually if AI gets capitalistically out of hand and leads to many people in service-based economies to poverty and unhappiness we’re sure to see a revolution to restore balance, as many times in history when a few elites made things unbearable for the rest of the population. AI is here to serve humanity, that’s where the value is, not to serve only a select few.

Unironically I think if he sees this he’ll think it’s funny and actually consider doing it. Maybe even “Sleepy Joe Fault”.

You are right. But here’s the key difference:

while the entire government for the last 50 years has been bought and sold with lobbyists and business owners

A President enriching others who support him (as opposed to “doing what’s best for the nation” generally speaking), while still wrong, is not the same as personally enriching himself and this blatantly. The US has always been like this and many would have loved to do what Trump is doing, but didn’t dare go this far and so recklessly. Trump is merely a product of his country, and it kind of surprises me it took this long for someone like him to get his paws directly on this kind of power.

Instead of being a businessman currying favor with the President, he skips the middle man entirely and becomes President himself, to his own personal benefit.

First of all, not american, and me “mixing” them up is entirely another assumption of yours - which you are free to make, as I can’t control what you decide to think or how you interpret things, and that’s a-ok with me. I’m in fact considerably closer to Syria and Qatar.

Secondly, this rather seems a personal and touchy subject to you, as your willingness to insult, dismiss and assume (ironically) indicates. This is further reinforced by your posting history, which clearly tells me you’re a very combative person who loves to disagree for the pleasure of it, and doesn’t mind spending a lot of time trying to one-up others disagreeing with you in any way, I assume with ego as a driving force. So with that in mind, no real point in arguing with you, right? Even though it would seem we’re mostly aligned when it comes to the bigger picture.

So I hope whatever is going on gets better, but this is where I stop engaging in toxic rants, regardless of what you may think of me.

Ok? What does it have to do with the fact that “Trump has opened the Presidency up for business/loves his bribes”? Feel free to narrow context outside of the point of my statement, as if either bribe is completely disconnected from the other, but the plane is still a really important catalyst for the rest - it’s what signals “Qatar quid pro quo, then Syria quid pro quo, then somewhere else quid pro quo”. I won’t even say “quid pro quo with anyone”, because that line is already being crossed right here with a terrorist, so that would be moot.

Way more effective to cut the whole evil right at its root, where its most blatant, in order to stop the rest from spreading.

I really hope for once Congress does its job and MAGA actually fights him on this, since some have already been saying this is too much even for them, starting with the plane.

Let it be on the record yet again that Trump does not have a luxury plane retrofitted with millions in taxpayer money - not because he refused the bribe, but because he was barred from accepting it. Refusing a bribe =/= Having a bribe forcibly taken from your hands.

Let him not gain anything from it or this, but still have that ethic shitstain smeared all across his face as he tries to gaslight the world with his lies. Not that he wouldn’t try to claim that since he doesn’t have the plane, it means he “refused” it, or “it was a joke all along”.

Schrodinger’s racism: All non-whites must be deported, but South-African white people must be brought over, granted asylum and protection from “genocide”.

I am white, so there’s no confusion. And no, I’m not saying they don’t deserve help, as the situation in South Africa is pretty bad for them - it’s really just the double standard.

Oh no. If this happens Canada could lose its “shut pornhub down” card. How dare the US take that gun and willingly shoot itself in the foot?

What’s next, they’ll start taxing themselves on Europe’s use of their digital goods and send the money to Europe before they can impose the taxes on their consumers? 47D chess moves here.