Always a bit of a shock to realise that Bob is still chucking along, angry as ever.

Might have to catch up on 15+ years of comics.

“Scientists are still racing to understand the causes of devastating marine heatwaves.”

It’s a real head scratcher.

I’m so glad they are following the rules on dress code. Where would we be if a government department with the power to destroy lives ignored the rules?

The issue becomes: if they used Gen AI to create background filler text, can we be 100% certain it wasn’t used elsewhere in the production of the game?

If they really wanted background text, they should have paid someone to write some, or use Lorem Ipsum if they didn’t want to spend the money and no one would have cared.

Nobody who is mad at this situation thinks that taking inspiration, riffing on, or referencing other people’s work is the problem when a human being does it. When a person writes, there is intention behind it.

The issue is when a business, owned by those people you think ‘demonised’ inspiration, take the works of authors and mulch them into something they lovingly named “The Pile”, in order to create derivative slop off the backs of creatives.

When you, as a “professional”, ask AI to write you a novel, who is being inspired? Who is making the connections between themes? Who is carefully crafting the text to pay loving reference to another authors work? Not you. Not the algorithm that is guessing what word to shit out next based on math.

These businesses have tricked you into thinking that what they are doing is noble.

No I don’t, but we’re not talking about a single copy of one book, and it is grovellingly insidious to imply that we are.

We are talking about a company taking the work of an author, of thousands of authors, and using it as the backbone of a machine that’s goal is to make those authors obsolete.

When the people who own the slop-machine are making millions of dollars off the back of stolen works, they can very much afford to pay those authors. If you can’t afford to run your business without STEALING, then your business is a pile of flaming shit that deserves to fail.

You’re right, each of the 5 million books’ authors should agree to less payment for their work, to make the poor criminals feel better.

If I steal $100 from a thousand people and spend it all on hookers and blow, do I get out of paying that back because I don’t have the funds? Should the victims agree to get $20 back instead because that’s more within my budget?

It’s like trying to reclaim the red cap though, it’s almost too far gone at this point. There was a period where people were wearing ironic red caps with anti-trump slogans on them as a way to take some of the power out of the symbol.

It only ended up causing stress to people who didn’t want to wait to find out if the hat-wearer was going to call them a slur.

If I saw a loud crowd marching down the street brandishing American flags, I would also not want to hang around to find out if they are fascists or not.

I also feel like flying the flag of the oppressive fascists government that is trying to deport and kill your friends and family sends the wrong message.

Sure, there is the idea of reclaiming the symbol of the flag, but on short notice, a march that is against the deportation of Mexican immigrants probably doesn’t call for the US flag.

“Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” “Israeli and US support”

My nose started bleeding, trying to unify these concepts in my mind. Its like the “Bird and Small Mammal Support Foundation”, run by house cats.

I read the comic as metaphorical for the state of the world in general, not a literal attack on low-income, undereducated individuals.

We fought the nazis less than 100 years ago. We lost loved ones in the fight against tyranny. We brought that victory, and that trauma, home with us. But in the decades since, the number of people who lived and fought in those times is dwindling. All that we are left with today are the symbols of that time. Yes, there are plenty of us that know the history, that have heard the stories. But there are also plenty of us that have only seen the sleek, manicured projection of the ‘bad guys from Indiana Jones’ through the Hollywood lens. And some of that trauma has been passed down too.

I feel like this comic is more about forgetting our own history.

Get this conspiracy shit outta here. Looks like the guys about to tell me that there’s a Walmart under the pyramids.

Christine married into the family, inherited her wealth when her spouse passed, and is not involved in the running of Walmart. She has previously donated to anti-trump groups.

Could she be doing more with her billions? Definitely. Is she the head of a corporate conspiracy to oppress the American people by funding a single ad in one newspaper? Highly unlikely.

As if the next step in the plan isn’t reinstating “state’s rights”…

Find something you enjoy (or might enjoy), and look for groups that do that thing. Groups that run regular events or classes or workshops are good because new people are always coming into the hobby. Keep in mind that just because you share interests with someone does not mean you will be instant friends, or friends at all. That’s why the activity is important. You can focus on doing something fun while you connect with new people, rather than stressing about if this specific person is going to be your friend.

I would like to know the plan here. They mention following in Australia’s footsteps, but as far as I can see, Australia is still trying to figure out how to implement this ban as well

The best they seem to have come up with for determining age without requiring an onlineID is letting AI look at your hands (NPR link.

Also, what is a social media? Because if you lock it down to specific sites and ban ‘Facebook’ and ‘X’, Musk or Zuck will just launch MashFace or Z, and get around the ban for a little bit longer. If you make it too broad, then kids could technically be excluded from text messaging.

All of this also assumes that a simple vpn won’t bypass all of this, the same way you can still watch pornhun in Texas that Ms to this weeks sponsor: SurfAtlus VPN.

Huh? These are the people who claim to represent the people. They instead raise money to stroke their egos and support policy that boosts their own wealth rather than the wants of their constituents.

“We the people” have no say over which puppet they place at the front of their R-lite party, and are told to suck it up and support genocide and bad environmental and economic policy or the other side will win.

I don’t think we should pity the billionaires.

“Please share what you would do differently”

Violent revolution.

Did I stutter?

When the fascists try to take people in your community, respond to their threats of violence with your own. When heads of government declare that your neighbours need to be eradicated because of their mere existence, you make that government’s life a living hell until they realise that they are not welcome in your country.

The government will respond with violence, because that’s what they call ‘Justice’, but by that point you should have a ‘well regulated militia’ if you believe in the value of your country and its constitution at all.

Fascists aren’t going to peacefully give back rights to their targets. What do you think they are suggesting? Violent revolution is the only action that has ever gotten shit done throughout history. It was a violent revolution that created America in the first place, but it is in the best interest of the winning side to pretend that their revolution was just, but any further revolution would be a step too far.

Who has the time and hate to render their fellow humans like this? Grow up and get a life.

Likely there would be more evidence. Eye witness accounts of the two parties together around the time of the incident; photos taken before or after the assault; Hospital records; Police reports made that were not followed up at the time; Texts; Call logs; surveillance video. There is a lot of evidence that can support an accusation like this.

As to why it’s been so long, coming forward after events like this can be terrifying. People who have been assaulted can hold a lot of self-blame. They can feel alone in their trauma, and the chorus of “she was asking for it” and other bs would be a big deterrent from coming forward. Isolation and stigma are a big reason that powerful people have gotten away with being abusive monsters for so long. It’s also why multiple accusations seem to crop up at the same time. The claimants see others who have suffered like them and feel less isolated and more supported in their claims.