I wouldn’t focus too much on the anachronistic technology, that’s more to keep with the vibe of the original trilogy.

The farming audits, IMO, are pretty directly an analog to what ICE is doing in the US.

There’s definitely some WW2 influence and stylistic choices, if anything that’s to keep the execs willing to fund the thing, but later on you’ll see some more blatant comparisons to our modern situation.

I was thinking Mon Mothma’s speech, in particular.

Season 1 is, yes. Season 2 is very much targeting today.

Andor.

The video is about a retro game, it’s just that the retro game has content you don’t like and don’t want other people talking about.

I think the analogy holds up beautifully.

The man proceeds to tell the booth talkers that he’s taken great pains to avoid seeing or hearing politics in his daily life, such as quickly muting political ads on TV, requesting his neighbors take down their Trump flags and local candidate election signs in their yard, and taking backroads to avoid seeing a political billboard on the way to work, all in the effort to spare their eyes the misfortune of sliding across disgusting politics. So it’s perfectly reasonable that he demand to the booth talkers they cease their discussion immediately, and switch to a topic he approves of, he explains, confident in the knowledge that they will understand the pains he’s gone through.

The two people in the booth glance at each other uncomfortably, wondering what terrible fate brought this demanding and oddly entitled man to their booth. Finally, one of them flashes a half-grin and spreads their hands disarmingly “Hey man, I get it that you don’t like what we’re discussing, but if we give in to your request, wouldn’t that mean we’d have to give into any other request you have about topics? What if we were talking about sex amongst ourselves and that too wasn’t acceptable since you go to efforts to avoid that topic as well? I don’t think we want to live our lives beholden to your feelings on things, that’s for us to decide. Have a good day.”

Interesting, by your guidelines, there’s quite some limits on expressing oneself to appease people who can easily avoid and skip over a clearly labeled piece of content.

From my perspective, it’s as though someone came into a tavern and, fresh ale in hand, overheard a political discussion happening in a corner booth. Perhaps the subject was particularly distasteful to this theoretical tavern goer, and instead of ignoring it or moving to a seat where they can’t hear it, they instead march up to said booth and demand these booth talkers cease their discussion immediately, explaining that they come to the tavern to relax, not have these political ideas pop up everywhere they go.

I suspect the people in the booth would be quite bewildered as to why this theoretical person is going to such trouble to involve themselves in ceasing an activity they could so easily avoid.

Could you elaborate on that? If I’m understanding you correctly, you’re suggesting it’s identity politics to say publicly that a piece of media influenced your political views?

Are there cases where that doesn’t apply? for example: “There Will Be Blood made me Anti-oil” or “How Nausica Valley of the Winds made me an Environmentalist”, or “Grave of the Fireflys made me Anti-war”. Are all of those conceptual titles equally verboten?

In another comment below, I briefly describe the sort of political content the game has in it. It’s not something a random leftist is projecting onto it, it’s explicitly political content in the game itself, which is what is being discussed.

It’s not really any different from discussing the themes or political content of Metal Gear Solid, Disco Elysium, or Planescape: Torment.

If that’s not something you’re interested, fair enough my friend! But surely it’s not an inconvenience for others to discuss it? The title makes it clear what this is, which makes it pretty easy to avoid and scroll on to the next post.

The first part seems to be for people who are unfamiliar with the games. The political analysis begins at 19 minutes.

The games go into:

• Discussion of monopolies, how they are used to exploit, and how they use state force to maintain their position to prevent competition
• The Carrot character is an anarchist in the first game, who infiltrates the weather factory of the second game to document the exploitation of its workers. He then gives the player a quiz about US economics so that you can infiltrate a board of directors, but when he becomes a member of the board himself, becomes a liberal reformist.
• In the third game, the devs put an easter egg only accessible by editing a config file with an obscure code, which adds police branded riot gear to the marching fascist candy soldiers, in a reference to the 1999 Seattle WTO Protests.

The first part seems to be for people who are unfamiliar with the games. The political analysis begins at 19 minutes.

The games go into:

• Discussion of monopolies, how they are used to exploit, and how they use state force to maintain their position to prevent competition
• The Carrot character is an anarchist in the first game, who infiltrates the weather factory of the second game to document the exploitation of its workers. He then gives the player a quiz about US economics so that you can infiltrate a board of directors, but when he becomes a member of the board himself, becomes a liberal reformist.
• In the third game, the devs put an easter egg only accessible by editing a config file with an obscure code, which adds police branded riot gear to the marching fascist candy soldiers, in a reference to the 1999 Seattle WTO Protests, which occurred 3 months before the release of the game.

It’s pretty solid, and reveals things I never could’ve imagined the devs would put into the game. Loved it as a kid growing up, but I have a whole new appreciation for it now.

I really like the premise, though if I might suggest, y’all might want to tweak that trailer so the intense movie trailer music doesn’t stop abruptly towards the end.

All I remember of that show was catching it on a VHS after I left it recording to grab squidbillies one night, and there was a scene of a shark trying to start a car for a really, really long time, which was pretty damn funny.

A Mind Forever Voyaging, by Infocom.

It’s an old text adventure from the 80’s with a particularly cool and oddly relevant concept: You take the role of an AI that’s been meticulously raised in a simulation to truly become a general intelligence. The reason this project was undertaken was to eventually send you, the AI, into other simulations based in the near future to test the outcomes of various political policies of the new republican government, record your interactions, and report back to the engineers who created you.

The game’s designer said that he created the game in response to the despair he felt from Ronald Reagan being elected.

I haven’t gotten super far in it, but it has an incredibly well written short story in the manual that details all the events leading up to the start of the game, and so far the game itself is unlike anything else I’ve ever played.

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I have a funny story about a Sony Mavica.

My family bought one when it was becoming obsolete on deep discount, I forget from where. We used the crap outta that thing, and when we became internet savvy, used it as a way to upload pictures to the computer for eBay listings. Eventually, around 2006 or so, we replaced it with a digital camera that used an SD card, and in its little protective case the mavica went, to rest.

2 decades later, I rediscovered it while cleaning out old boxes, found that it still worked perfectly (thanks to using standard AA’s), and decided to sell it on eBay.

It sits up there for a while at $20, until one day I get a message about it, asking if the screen was okay or sum such. I tell them it is and shortly after, they buy it.

Out of mild curiosity, I click on the buyer’s profile, and see that he sells stuff as well, and it’s a very old account, about as old as mine. The pictures for the items he currently had for sale are pretty grainy, and I thought… Surely not…

I download a picture of one of his items, and sure enough; it’s the same resolution as the mavica takes, 640 by something.

That crazy bastard had been steadily using his Sony Mavica floppy disk camera for over 20 years for his little eBay business.

I suspected that his camera must’ve finally given up the ghost, and he spotted my prime example and bought it so he could continue his well worn routine.

He left me positive feedback for the Mavica, and I suppose he’s still using it to this day, keeping that old equipment alive and useful.

As a fan of the brave little toaster, it nearly brings a tear to the eye… I just really hope he switched to rechargeable batteries at some point, the little floppy drive on it chewed through AA’s quicker than a terrier on a kilo of cocaine.

There’s definitely something going on. Whenever I add a Lemmy instance URL that isn’t obfuscated somehow, like replacing the periods with commas or (dot), then my comment gets no likes or responses, whereas a very similar comment in the same thread without a link does.

It seems to down rank it in the algorithim, if not outright shadow remove them.

Adding onto his recommendation to join or create unions:

Unionizing your workplace brings almost immediate benefits to you and your co-workers (a living wage, benefits, more time off), it also lets us fight back against the regime with an effective general strike, just as it worked in 1886 (they wouldn’t have fought us so hard back then if it didn’t).

Below are some resources to Unions from around the world who can help train you to become an organizer and form a grassroots union with your co-workers:

• 🌍 Global: IWW (Français) - (Español)
• 🇦🇷 Argentina: FORA
• 🇦🇺 Australia: ASF-IWA
• 🇧🇷 Brazil: FOB
• 🇧🇬 Bulgaria: ARS
• 🇩🇪 Germany: FAU
• 🇬🇷 Greece: ESE
• 🇮🇹 Italy: USI
• 🇳🇱 🇧🇪 Netherlands & Belgium: Vriji Bond
• 🇪🇸 Spain: CNT
• 🇸🇪 Sweden: SAC
• 🇬🇧 United Kingdom: UVW

Both are excellent :)