Hi everyone! Once again it’s time for a blog anniversary post. This marks four years of the blog I started on June 1, 2018. It’s been fun!
Read on for a recap of the last year and some thoughts on next steps.
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U.S. politics move through familiar cycles. Here’s one of them: A mass shooter kills lots of people, most (or all) of them children. Media attention and public outrage follow. Many in the GOP dismiss the incident, blaming mental health and framing Democrats as opponents of gun rights. Democrats use the incident to push their usual set of ‘gun control’ solutions to gun violence – background checks, assault weapon bans, and targeted limits on who can own guns (e.g., red flag laws).
The Uvalde shooting at Robb Elementary School, of course, serves merely as the most recent example of this cycle.
As I get closer to age 40 (I’m about to turn 39), I’ve noticed that I get lots of ads for life insurance. Not just on social media – annoying enough – but also in the mail. I assume all this gets worse as you continue getting older? I’ve seen enough of it already, I think.
For those readers over about age 35, how’s this going for you? Do you get life insurance ads in the mail? Don’t you feel it’s a bit too early for all that?
And here we are at the end of the post. Sorry about the short Thursday post, everyone! I’ll be back next week, and hopefully with more profound thoughts.
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‘Radlib’? What’s that?
Let’s start here. Leftists turn to insults and name calling every now and then. And we have no shortage of names to call the people who disagree with us. We can (and do) call them ‘liberal.’ For the edgier among them, we can call them ‘ultra-liberal‘ (or even ‘ultra-left‘ if they’re leftists we don’t like). Or if we’re just feeling like pouring gas on a fire, we can use ‘shitlib.’
But I’m interested in ‘radlib.’ Let’s take a look at it. What might be compelling about it? Can it do any work those other terms can’t?
So, about a year ago, I wrote a blog post on an old RTS game called Age of Empires. The article was a reaction to a Current Affairs article on the same game. Along the way, I mentioned that I started playing a game called 0 A.D.
I’ve continued playing that game (you can play it for free here). And I must say it’s an enjoyable one! Maybe the politics still aren’t great. But the makers of the game show an admirable commitment to historical accuracy. And it’s just a ton of fun.
If anyone’s interested in playing, my lobby name is ‘thephilosopher.’ And if you want to watch me play (and lose), you can find a broadcast of one of my earliest games here. If you just want to get a sense for what the game is like, check out the youtube channels Tom 0ad and 0AD Newbie Rush!
Update: And here’s a broadcast of a more recent game I played!
