A cult is just one example of this pattern. Humans in groups will have a tendency to follow the same pattern whether it’s a political movement, religion, social media, criminal gangs, workplace department, or even a fandom. The person seen as the leader is not questioned, anyone that asks questions is ostracized, proving loyalty is rewarded. People will knowingly tell lies since that proves loyalty to the tribe. People will pretend to believe the lies since that’s also rewarded. With social media it gets really stupid since the reward is usually just a number beside a “like” icon.

When you go along with a lie long enough, you may start to believe it’s true.

At what age did you stop wearing the ring?

I wasn’t aware that they had a ball throwing mechanic in the game. Considering the context they put a Pikachu with a machine gun on the cover, yeah they were just copying someone else’s shit.

No, it’s just a monster capture and battling game.

Do you really believe the similarities are coincidental? Like if Pokeman didn’t exist, they would’ve had the character on the cover look like that and would’ve had players collecting creatures with balls?

They’re obviously just ripping off someone else’s ideas.

Humans lived in tribes for millions of years. Tribalism is hard-coded into our brains.

An attack on the tribe is considered an attack on every individual within the tribe. Saying “Trump is racist” is an attack on everyone in the MAGA tribe and makes you an enemy of the tribe. Not someone to be trusted. Someone to fight back against.

Things that are obvious to anyone outside of the tribe won’t even be considered by anyone within the tribe. If there’s any doubt, the other members of the tribe will tell them “no, we aren’t racist, they are the racists!” The obvious thing becomes a lie and rejected.

Even when something impacts your life, you may think “well that was just a mistake” so you can continue feeling happy to be in the “good tribe”.

No one is good at questioning these things because we don’t want to think of ourselves as not all that much more evolved than apes. So we develop ideologies to paint over how we really think.

Are you able to question your tribe? What are the things that are obvious to anyone not in your tribe that you can’t consider?

Whose faces do the leopards you hang out with want to eat?

That’s not how the law works. It’s not a thing where this company sued another company for patents and won, therefore all future lawsuits on patents automatically win. There may be some precedent about specific details in the case, but there’s no reason to assume a future judge in a future case wouldn’t rule in the same way even if this case never existed. Seems to me precedence paranoia is just some internet lawyer thing.

The strangest thing about this case is that Nintendo didn’t sue for trademark infringement or copyright. I assume Pikachu is trademarked and this company had a Pikachu with a machine gun on the cover of their game. Looks like an easy win for trademark infringement, given everyone referred to it as Pokeman with guns.

I like how you think of wealth solely in terms of money. That’s just a number in a database.

There’s a lot of houses owned by boomers and the housing market is insanely expensive. When all of those houses go on the market, people might be able to afford to buy a house again. Owning a house is wealth.

The two biggest famines in human history weren’t caused by droughts or natural disasters. They were caused by socialism.

Socialism was a failure. The economic policies of 1930s capitalism was also a failure.

Fortunately those aren’t the only two options. We don’t have to follow the failed systems of the past. There were successful economic policies used after WWII up until Ronald Reagan which were very successful.

Trust-busting, taxing the wealthy, and Keynesian economic policies were what led to the peak of human prosperity.

Socialism from the perspective of the working class was starvation followed by building lots of shitty tanks, followed by economic collapse. You should read history from that perspective a little more instead just reading the writings by the elites in those societies.

I live in a country where we have laws that are determined by the people we vote for. If they pass laws we don’t like we vote in someone else. Works quite well, you should try it in your country.

Right, so I wouldn’t be able to see it if I met you in person? Did you have a ring in it in the past?

There’s a saying in Jamaica: If you throw a stone at a group of pigs, the one that squeals is the one you hit.

I mention antisemitism and now you’re doing a whole lot of squealing about it.

Golden age of America!

“I would like to fight you, but my hands are registered as lethal weapons…”

This is basically the plot of The Boys, except instead smashing cars they splatter people.

Where I live I think you can get these kinds of piercings at 16. And I’ve never met anyone that still have these that over age 25.

When I see these I automatically think the person is a teenager.

I understand the statement “Jews secretly control X” fits the pattern of how antisemites talk. I see many people on this site fitting that same pattern.

If it walk like a duck, and talks like a duck…

I also note there’s a broad movement to discredit any claim of antisemitism before it even happens. What’s the goal of this?

Things are often withheld from the jury. Do you have no familiarity with the legal system.

Their intent was to influence government through property damage which escalated to violence.

Do you think Israel’s intent of saving lives by destroying Hezbollah and Hamas is justified?. These organizations have weapons and kill people. Israel is destroying their weapons. Some people might get hurt or killed while they do this, but by your logic everything is justified if your intent is to destroy weapons to save lives.

If these criminal’s acts are justified because their intent was to “save lives” then the above paragraph is equally valid since it follows the same logic.

You can’t have it both ways. Either both Israel’s and this group’s acts of violence are justified or neither are justified. Which is it?

In civilized countries we vote.

I don’t want to live under the political system that you propose.

This is a property destruction was premeditated crime, and apparently while planning this crime they didn’t consider what they’d do when the cops showed up?

Come on, you have to be smarter than this. When you get to the point when you feel the need to put so much effort in defending the actions of a monster that broke a woman’s back with a sledgehammer, how do you convince yourself that you’re still on the side that cares about people’s lives?

To make matters worse this woman has been harassed because she while doing her job she had her back broken. How does this make any sense in terms of basic human decency? Because you see some imagery from a war you’re allowed to do horrible things to other people?

I’m pretty sure it’s still a federal crime in the US.

Here in the True North Strong and Free, weed is legalized at all levels of government and I can confirm that I can indeed buy weed with a Visa card. I can even buy it online and have it delivered to my door by the postal service. That got me through the pandemic.

Sorry your country kinda sucks about this, but it’s not really a credit card thing. CC companies suck for many reasons, but this isn’t one of them.

So you don’t think that the intent of the original crime doesn’t apply to subsequent crimes committed during the same act?

Or do you know that you’re wrong and can’t admit it and still feel the need to say stuff anyway?