I'm not banned yet because the admin's at least a bit sympathetic, but I sure as hell don't think 90% of the group's gonna want to speak to me after this. I told them I'm voting and campaigning for a 3rd party candidate who is anti-Israel and pro-trans and explained that I could not in good conscience vote for Biden after his blatant and willing complicity in genocide. Here are some of the arguments I encountered in response to that:

• "Not voting for Biden makes it easier for Trump to win, and Trump will genocide trans people in addition to Palestinians. Therefore anything you do supports genocide, so you might as well support less genocide."
• "Your trans friends will all know that you're functionally anti-trans." (I'm sure this would be a shock to my trans friends in my org, all of whom have made it clear they will also not vote for Biden)
• "Trump would genocide Palestinians even harder."
• "Biden wants to stop the genocide, but the Republicans won't let him."

Some choice quotes:

Have pride in your self centeredness, I guess.

Choosing someone who you know cannot win, especially as they're not the chosen candidate, is only symbolically different than choosing apathy.

It's just objectively how it works in this system. There is no non vote.

And it is most depressing your friends here at home are not important enough to check one box for.

And this:

[The Palestinian] genocide is going to happen regardless of the two. But the one that's happening here, that one can be stopped. And you refuse to do anything about it because you think you're so much better.

You're right about one thing, though. I do think I'm better than people who give their endorsement to running over Palestinian children with tanks.

And I'm better than people that choose two genocides at once, I guess. If we're ranking each other. I'd laugh if it wasn't stupid.

link

I have a few:

• Chosen ones, fate, destiny, &c. When you get down to it, a story with these themes is one where a single person or handful of people is ontologically, cosmically better and more important than everyone else. It's eerily similar to that right-wing meme about how "most people are just NPCs" (though I disliked the trope before that meme ever took off).
• Way too much importance being given to bloodlines by the narrative (note, this is different from them being given importance by characters or societies in the story).
• All of the good characters are handsome and beautiful, while all of the evil characters are ugly and disfigured (with the possible exception of a femme fatale or two).
• Races that are inherently, unchangeably evil down to the last individual regardless of upbringing, society, or material circumstances.

"Social-Democracy must change from a party of social revolution into a democratic party of social reforms." - V.I. Lenin

Back in the 00s, the anti-LGBT culture war targeted primarily gay people, and it primarily used religious arguments. The Bible condemns homosexuality, marriage is a sacred institution, it's a violation of Christians' rights to make their churches marry gay people, &c.

Clearly, it didn't work. During the 10s, when gay marriage was legalized, conservatives were dealt a pretty decisive blow on their anti-gay agenda, and so they shifted from targeting the LGB to targeting the T (they always targeted trans people, of course, but they really ramped it up during the 10s). With this change in focus came a shift in rhetoric. The right-wing certainly does argue for oppressing trans people on religious grounds, but you're a lot more likely to hear them use scientific-sounding justifications. They'll talk about chromosomes, about anatomy, about how "biologically there are only two genders," about "people trying to put their feelings above objective reality." They'll throw around words like "rational" and "reason." This of course ignores all kinds of actual science, such as the degree to which gender is culturally constructed, the existence of intersex people, how gender affirming care is the only dysphoria treatment shown to be effective, and a thousand other things. It's anti-scientific to its core, but it can fool a casual observer into thinking it's scientific if it's telling them what they want to hear. It's a bigotry for a materialist age, palatable to bazinga brains and nu-atheist Redditors, and maybe it's just anecdotal, but it seems to me to have more traction among a younger, hipper crowd than the religious arguments ever did.

I can't help but wonder if this pivot was concocted in some right-wing think tank somewhere.

Been stuck on one sprite for hours, not having a good time.

Fed up with capitalism ayyyyyy

Asimov sure liked Converse shoes

At least, that's what I'll do if I don't get bored before it's done (and that's admittedly a big if). Here's an early concept of it - all of the buildings in the residential zone are my designs.

The largest buildings take a lot of effort to make, so I won't do a lot of variations of those. That should work out anyway, since it aligns with the functional commie block aesthetic I'm going for.

Things you can expect a lot of in this city:

• High-density housing
• Mass transit
• Greenspace
• Video arcades
• Public swimming pools

Things you will not find in this city:

• Single occupancy homes
• Lawns
• Bright, gaudy advertisements

In a previous post, I mentioned that my schedule for each temple was as follows:

• 1st month: Plot dungeon map, design and implement dungeon's unique enemy's puzzles, and other mechanics - with placeholder art and sound assets, build and test entire map except for the boss
• 2nd month: Art assets, sounds, and animations for the dungeon.
• 3rd month: Program and gameplay test boss; once satisfied, create art, sound assets, and post-fight dialog for the boss. Give the dungeon to a few close friends for playtesting, then make adjustments based on results.

I started the Unicorn Temple at the beginning of April, and it's now close to the end of May.

• 1st month goal has been met. Dungeon mechanics were fully implemented late in April, giving me a bit of a head start on next month's work. That ended up being a good thing, because...
• 2nd month goal will be met or a few days late. The assets for this dungeon ended up being more elaborate than expected, and I struggled with some of the graphics. Most of the work is done, though, with only some enemy sprites remaining.

Visible in the screenshot are a few different features of this dungeon: certain sections are flooded with both shallow and deep water. Shallow water can be safely walked through, but falling in deep water is functionally the same as falling into a pit. Godot doesn't natively support animated tiles (plus I needed to implement little splashes that happen when you walk through shallow water), so this took extra time to take care of.

Also in the screenshot is one of the three new enemies, thornspitters, whose sprite sheets I have completed. Every couple of seconds, these spherical pods spit thorns in four directions. Some of them, like the ones you see here, are placed such that they're impossible to kill.

The streams, the wheel with a handle, and the little caves are part of a water routing puzzle that will form the centerpiece of this dungeon. This puzzle encompasses many rooms, and solving it is required to collect the Master Key that opens access to the Unicorn's room.

I'm currently working on a sprite sheet for another enemy, the Foxfolk. These magical menaces constantly teleport to your position and emit bursts of magical fire, forcing you to stay on the move. Here is one of the completed sprites: