Journal of Other Forum Analysis (Volume II, Issue 2)

[benji]

I knew the "Soviet crimes" would sting

Hmm.

Hmm.

That's all I've got to say on that one.

Hmm.

Okay, I do have a bit more to say. It's the subtext that's making me go "hmm."

"Sorry if you were hurt," "don't overreact," both sidesing, bringing up soviets in addition to Nazis completely unprompted and basically claiming GOG is a victim too (oh?) It's all diplomatically worded but that's the vibe I'm getting and it's… not really helping my impression of anyone. Maybe I'm just cynical.

"were not Nazis and were not facist ok? Good. Now that we got that out of the way, the hate from BOTH SIDES needs to stop, especially the side criticising us. Everyone who said we are Nazis just for sending out mass emails with Nazi symbols is in fact a fascist. YOU are the real bad guys. You and the Soviets. Not us.

It was a mistake alright. An oopsie whoopsie. Now can't we all just move on?"

I'm also thrown a bit by the mention of the Soviets. Not to say that Poland doesn't have reasons not to be fond of the Soviets, but nobody was asking about that.

It feels like they're bothsidesing a conversation except the other side is one that they just came up with right now.

This reads like Kicinski doesn't really give a shit and is covering for some edgy relative or friend he gave a marketing job. After his other questionable statements and Gog's other actions like with Hatred and genAI, I have no benefit of the doubt left for him. Immature manchild.

Also, bringing the Soviets into an unrelated conversation unprompted sure is curious. I wonder if he is a PiS supporter or worse.

Mentioning the Soviets when they aren't part of the conversation is a way to signal to their Nazi fans that they're not taking a serious stance here.

Maybe it was that whole part where the Nazis and the Soviets signed an agreement to invade and partition the country between them then carried out programs of ethnic cleansing, mass theft, mass rape and other war crimes leading to the total subjugation of the nation for half a century?

[HaughtyFrank]

I knew the "Soviet crimes" would sting

Hmm.

Hmm.

That's all I've got to say on that one.

Hmm.

Okay, I do have a bit more to say. It's the subtext that's making me go "hmm."

"Sorry if you were hurt," "don't overreact," both sidesing, bringing up soviets in addition to Nazis completely unprompted and basically claiming GOG is a victim too (oh?) It's all diplomatically worded but that's the vibe I'm getting and it's… not really helping my impression of anyone. Maybe I'm just cynical.

"were not Nazis and were not facist ok? Good. Now that we got that out of the way, the hate from BOTH SIDES needs to stop, especially the side criticising us. Everyone who said we are Nazis just for sending out mass emails with Nazi symbols is in fact a fascist. YOU are the real bad guys. You and the Soviets. Not us.

It was a mistake alright. An oopsie whoopsie. Now can't we all just move on?"

I'm also thrown a bit by the mention of the Soviets. Not to say that Poland doesn't have reasons not to be fond of the Soviets, but nobody was asking about that.

It feels like they're bothsidesing a conversation except the other side is one that they just came up with right now.

This reads like Kicinski doesn't really give a shit and is covering for some edgy relative or friend he gave a marketing job. After his other questionable statements and Gog's other actions like with Hatred and genAI, I have no benefit of the doubt left for him. Immature manchild.

Also, bringing the Soviets into an unrelated conversation unprompted sure is curious. I wonder if he is a PiS supporter or worse.

Mentioning the Soviets when they aren't part of the conversation is a way to signal to their Nazi fans that they're not taking a serious stance here.

Maybe it was that whole part where the Nazis and the Soviets signed an agreement to invade and partition the country between them then carried out programs of ethnic cleansing, mass theft, mass rape and other war crimes leading to the total subjugation of the nation for half a century?

A bunch of Americans offended that someone Polish closely connects Nazi and Soviet war crimes, really can't make it up. Not to mention that modern day Russians are actually kind of cool with Nazis considering the Wagner group commander had Nazi tattoos
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230825-utkin-the-nazi-tattooed-commander-who-gave-wagner-its-name


Intersectionality remains a tough cookie to crack

[benji]

Just learning that Russians not big on that whole sovereignty and legitimacy of neighboring nations and their unique ethnicities.

[Vertigo]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/thegamesbusiness-the-number-of-video-game-journalists-has-fallen-by-nearly-300-in-2026.1573189/
Oh no! How awful. Moment of silence.

Streamers have basically have taken that role for most people. A lot more people would rather watch someone like Asmongold play through a game for 6 hrs than read anything these people are writing. Most of which is bilge.

Game news can be found on Twitter or BlueSky

I see in the article Chris Dring is trying to shill his buddies new games review website

https://www.respec.net/

Looking at it it looks like all the other sites, but of course they'll say this one is different. I give them less than 7 months before they fold.

If you haven't already built a patreon cult around yourself your gonna be SOL. 

The other elephant in the room is many of them brought their weird ideological shit into the space. Just tell me if the game is good or not. I don't need all the extra political shit.

[benji]

Why us, why now? Well, if you hop on social media or visit some of video games media’s biggest brands, times look pretty grim. The trend of layoffs, closures, ill-advised acquisitions, and euphemistic ‘streamlining’ aren’t just limited to video game developers and publishers - this phenomenon has been hammering the media too. In general, we’ve seen many sites shut down, and others slowly shrink as they’re stripped of resources without being outright closed. Oftentimes, good sites are hoovered into larger ones through consolidating acquisitions - costing both parties a little bit (or a lot) of their soul in the process.

Ultimately, there is a suggested new wisdom that the more traditional kind of video game coverage simply isn’t viable outside of the confines of established mega-sites - but we don’t think that is true. In fact, we think there’s a lot of people out there who want to read and watch good, fun gaming content with the tone and timbre of the magazines of their youth or that they were too young to experience but have heard much about from nostalgic old-timers. We think that audience is best served through independence. That leads us here, putting our money where our mouth is.

And so our mission is simple: A good games news, criticism, and feature website. A chill tone that’s like you’re hearing a pal wax lyrical about games over a beer, be that in the written word or in podcasts and videos. On the boring side - sensibly and sustainably built. No clickbait ‘you’ll never guess’ or ‘one neat click’ headlines. No silly bollocks - and on that topic, unabashedly British-owned, even if we have contributors from all over.

So it's a site for chuds (aka Reform and Labour voters)? Are there even any trans women on staff?

[Uncle]

news as a concept feels archaic, like it was to meet the needs of an unconnected world

"farmer hornbottom's house burned down? why that's a whole county over, there's no way I could've known this if not for this news paper which collects interesting local news for me, thank you journalists"

now, on twitter, farmer hornbottom will tell you himself, probably with video footage

we needed gaming news when stuff was announced at E3 and almost no one got to go to E3

now the companies just tell us what they want to tell us directly, why should they bother sending out info to journalists to disseminate? they can totally control the message themselves

and when it comes to game ratings, everyone knows there's no reason to trust any reviewer over an aggregate, or over people you KNOW play games you like because you can watch them do it on stream

[benji]

Unfortunately the only queer woman on the staff is cis.  

After a six-month stint at VG247 back in 2021, Rebecca (she/her) finally settled in as a permanent addition to the team in 2023. A former member of staff at our sister site Rock Paper Shotgun, she's also had her writing featured on Eurogamer and PC Gamer over the course of her seven-year career.

She holds a BA in English and an MA in Medieval English

[benji]

Look at this one writer for that site's profile picture on Twitter.  

[benji]

I don't see any data at all about the total number of game journalists so this is entirely meaningless

what percentage of jobs were lost in the "industry" overall? 50%? 2%?

More than 250 specialist and over 90 mainstream video game journalists have left the industry this year, according to latest Press Engine data.

Press Engine is the PR tool that developers use to send out press releases and media invites, and it tracks the number of journalists in the industry. The latest data shows:

In 2026, 349 journalists have left the business, including 255 specialist writers, while there have been 63 new people join.

Therefore, the net decline in video game journalists is 286, which is just 11 behind the drop reported in the entire of 2025 (297).

106 of those journalists comes from ‘tier 1’ media, which are the bigger and more professional game outlets.

The US (-104) and UK (-54) are the hardest hit countries, but there’s also been big drops in Italy (-26), Spain (-23), France (-22), and Brazil (-20)

The current worst year for video game media losses is 2024, when 544 specialists and 166 mainstream writers dropped from the list.

In total since 2020, there has been a fall of 1,674 specialist video game journalists and 621 mainstream journalists.

https://pressengine.net/

Press Engine-at this time, I wouldn't recommend them
When my first mini game came out, it performed quite well to my surprise. It was free and had about 14,000 downloads within the first three months. I was contacted by Press Engine to set up a new account; since it was free, I said sure. They never set up my account; I had to actually go to their site and use the 'Contact Us' page to figure out what happened. They said they forwarded my request to someone and in short, they never set up my account still.

I then proceeded to set up my account since I saw at least one Reddit post where the user said he was glad he tried it. I sat up the account and then when my second game came out, I did what I had to for creating a campaign and putting in the keys.

The second game is performing well but not because of Press Engine.

The first week of the release of my game, I had one key request. The person had five stars rated in Press Engine and was a curator for Steam. Well, three weeks have gone by and no word. After not hearing from the person for a week, I sent this person a message. And as of today have never heard from this person. I tried to see if I could rate this person 1 star. I went all over the website of Press Engine to rate him but never could. Its like the rating system is not actually for game devs. Just for show. The (non free) game started to perform well by the end of the first week and I began to get more key request. As of now, I have about 21 key request. I have not sent out any more keys beyond that one.

Why? I don't trust it. I sent Press Engine via their 'Contact Us' page once more and asked them how their curators, influencers, etc are vetted, how are they reprimanded, how do they submit proof of delivery. I got one email response back from Press Engine that was very copy and past, and the man pretty much went on and on about how he had 30 plus years of PR so he knew what he was doing.

At this point in time, I would not recommend them. I have only sent out one key, and do not desire to send out more keys only for the person to simply disappear. I'm sure there are some credible entities on the site but since the site doesn't have an actual vetting system and there's no proof of delivery then...I just don't want to risk it.

Hey,

Gareth from PressEngine here.

You really didn't get a copy and paste response - you got my personal repsonse, which I've re-read, and don't think I said anything untoward. You're welcome to post it pubicaly here, shoudl you wish.

While I can't promise we can help everyone, we do try our best. But remember, you're getting a free service, that potentially connects you with people who might play your game. It will ALWAYS depend on the game you've created, and the marketing assets you're using to promote said game.

Perhaps we could outline a little more what our free account does and doesn't do. It does allow you to do all the work, and we handle verification of anyone that clicks your URL - you handle distribution. We are the ONLY platform that doesn't let everyone in by signing in with a YouTube or Twitch account - there is a manual verification and barrier to entry for every kind of account - this increases engagement.

We even email every media/influencer signed up to a weekend update of new games added based on their preferences.

For free.

What you can't do, is engage with media/infiulencers and offer code, or send press releases, or track twitch, youtube and tiktok, or setup and invite people to offline or online events.

PressEngine is the only place you can do that, and at £300 for a month (which you can turn off, so you're not recharged), I think that's pretty great value.

I also didn't get anything from your after your original reply. Had I done so, I would have asked if we can do anything else to help. We're good people, trying to do good things, where every other company has had millions in seed funding (or hundreds of thousands six years ago, in the case of Keymailer).

We generate more coverage per 1,000 keys sent than all of them put together (87% today - it updates on our website every five minutes).

hello at pressengine dot net always come through to myself or my team - so please don't be afraid to reach out.

They're two different things- I'm Gareth from PressEngine.

GamesPress is brilliant and has been going for 20 years. The team behind it are also brilliant, and good friends. You can send press releases to the team, assets, and it'll be listed on their feed, which tens of thousands of media and influencers access each month. They'll also build you an extranet, so you can do a bunch of cool things.

PressEngine is a self service tool for media outreach, code management, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok tracking, event management and more. It has the most accurate media database for videogames, and we can say that with confidence, because I know most of them, and I approve every single sign-up manually. Every media and content creator goes through verification, so you know who you're talking to is the right person.

We show you recent, relevent data to help you make better decisions.

Both have a place and are valuable within your marketing functions, depending on yours needs.

I'm not sure what they consider a journalist. Anybody who signs up with a website or something?

Anyway, not sure why Messofanego is platforming these fascist scum because on their website:

Every post is instantly tracked by search engines through our instant submission pipeline and we can even send the content straight to AI engines to ingest

Fuck off, you're literally boiling the planet to destroy games journalism and artist jobs. 

[Alpacx]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/thegamesbusiness-the-number-of-video-game-journalists-has-fallen-by-nearly-300-in-2026.1573189/
Oh no! How awful. Moment of silence.

The other elephant in the room is many of them brought their weird ideological shit into the space. Just tell me if the game is good or not. I don't need all the extra political shit.

This is why I checked out on following games media. I like Luke Plunkett's taste in games but I'm not wading through the woke slop to get to the parts about the games.

Then you have the way the mob got Tim Stone fired from his Rock Paper Shotgun column and ostracized him for the totally reasonable take:

"there are diverse voices within RPS when it comes to games, genres, preferences etc but I would say (and i'd be prepared to be challenged on this) there is zero diversity in respect of political views and arguable groupthink and alignment particularly around trans issues."
There's at least one regular RPS contributor who'd like to see the site show a little more respect for the gender critical position in the trans rights debate. Me.
I believe arguments like the ones articulated in pieces like these…
…are perfectly reasonable. I agree with all those arguing for more constructive discussion and less name-calling in this debate.

[Boredfrom]

now, on twitter, farmer hornbottom will tell you himself, probably with video footage

“Wait a minute, farmer hornbottom lied and took our money in the crowdfunding campaign.”




I mean, this also happened when print was in vogue, but still better way of catching BS.

[Straight Edge]

Look at this one writer for that site's profile picture on Twitter.  

A bully from a 90s highschool flick?

[malfoyking]

Unfortunately the only queer woman on the staff is cis.  

After a six-month stint at VG247 back in 2021, Rebecca (she/her) finally settled in as a permanent addition to the team in 2023. A former member of staff at our sister site Rock Paper Shotgun, she's also had her writing featured on Eurogamer and PC Gamer over the course of her seven-year career.

She holds a BA in English and an MA in Medieval English

First Life is Strange is goated (before they turned into nothing but internet queer slop). Im confused though. how the hell do you put that many hours into it?

[Jansen]

Look at this one writer for that site's profile picture on Twitter.  

What the fuck is this Nick Jonas /Justin Bieber hybrid

[Boredfrom]

Unfortunately the only queer woman on the staff is cis.  

After a six-month stint at VG247 back in 2021, Rebecca (she/her) finally settled in as a permanent addition to the team in 2023. A former member of staff at our sister site Rock Paper Shotgun, she's also had her writing featured on Eurogamer and PC Gamer over the course of her seven-year career.

She holds a BA in English and an MA in Medieval English

First Life is Strange is goated (before they turned into nothing but internet queer slop). Im confused though. how the hell do you put that many hours into it?

With one hand. 

[Boredfrom]

Talking about farmers announcing their house burning at Twatter:

https://www.resetera.com/threads/domestic-abuse-allegations-against-craig-burnatowski-vo-for-resident-evil-xeno-wesker.1573198/

ERA never learns.

[HaughtyFrank]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/thegamesbusiness-the-number-of-video-game-journalists-has-fallen-by-nearly-300-in-2026.1573189/
Oh no! How awful. Moment of silence.

Streamers have basically have taken that role for most people. A lot more people would rather watch someone like Asmongold play through a game for 6 hrs than read anything these people are writing. Most of which is bilge.

Game news can be found on Twitter or BlueSky

I see in the article Chris Dring is trying to shill his buddies new games review website

https://www.respec.net/

Looking at it it looks like all the other sites, but of course they'll say this one is different. I give them less than 7 months before they fold.

If you haven't already built a patreon cult around yourself your gonna be SOL. 

The other elephant in the room is many of them brought their weird ideological shit into the space. Just tell me if the game is good or not. I don't need all the extra political shit.

The original Giantbomb basically ended up being just a streamer group and honestly it was kind of great. The quicklooks were always great to learn about a game. After most of the OG group has left though it kind of has become too disheveled. But yeah, streamers are the future of games media, for better or worse

[Let's Cyber]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/increase-in-racism-during-world-cup-reflects-%E2%80%98growing-pattern-of-abuse%E2%80%99.1573108/#post-157709374

They are just adapting to the American culture, that is all.

Yes, because America invented racism.

• "America's history of racism and imperialism is unparalleled, and its evil is unprecedented. No other force in world history has created as much misery as American capitalism."
  

 

The same people without a hint of irony...

• "America isn't exceptional, and you're not the center of the universe, ok? If not for WWII, the United States would be just another regional power with limited influence. Get over yourselves!"
  

 

[benji]

First Life is Strange is goated (before they turned into nothing but internet queer slop). Im confused though. how the hell do you put that many hours into it?

HowLongToBeat says average of 19 hours for "completionist" so she's only beaten the game 25,000 times.

[Besticus Maximus]

What is it with Weskers voice actors?
The previous guy was a creep too.

Yeah seems kinda sus that he keeps playing genocidal zombie supersoldiers who are not good with women

[benji]

Apparently he's talking about H3H3, I had to go to her YouTube account to find out who she even is in that regard.

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

[Besticus Maximus]

you lose the ability to say any of this when you willingly and proudly

[Boredfrom]

Zeo: “Quiet, piggy.”

[Let's Cyber]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/thegamesbusiness-the-number-of-video-game-journalists-has-fallen-by-nearly-300-in-2026.1573189/

Oh no! How awful. Moment of silence.

Reminder of this Imran Khan post
https://www.resetera.com/threads/physical-disc-production-ending-in-january-2028-for-new-games-releasing-on-playstation-consoles.1565773/page-75#post-157312789

I do think if you want to send a message, it starts right now, today. By the time the PS6 comes out or they stop producing discs, no message is going to matter.

That means stop sharing or discussing marketing materials, stop buying games, stop paying for your PS+, etc. Yes, this means games that are still being printed on discs, yes, this means games you really want to play.

He actively wants the industry to shrink and to put his colleagues out of business. 

If you see him crying crocodile tears over other journalists losing their jobs, know he's either full of shit or a hypocrite. 

[Snoopy]

Ree on hearing about layoffs and no discs -

Fuck this. Industry sucks. Absolute monsters. Scum. That’s it I’m done. Cancelling my sub when it runs out in 6 years. So tired.

Ree on hearing about layoffs and new Fallout -

OHMYGAWD!! Hype!!! It’s happening!!!! New Fallout!!! Take my money.

[benji]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/thegamesbusiness-the-number-of-video-game-journalists-has-fallen-by-nearly-300-in-2026.1573189/

Oh no! How awful. Moment of silence.

Reminder of this Imran Khan post
https://www.resetera.com/threads/physical-disc-production-ending-in-january-2028-for-new-games-releasing-on-playstation-consoles.1565773/page-75#post-157312789

I do think if you want to send a message, it starts right now, today. By the time the PS6 comes out or they stop producing discs, no message is going to matter.

That means stop sharing or discussing marketing materials, stop buying games, stop paying for your PS+, etc. Yes, this means games that are still being printed on discs, yes, this means games you really want to play.

He actively wants the industry to shrink and to put his colleagues out of business. 

If you see him crying crocodile tears over other journalists losing their jobs, know he's either full of shit or a hypocrite. 

Reminder of this Imran Khan post about Highguard:

This happened so fast it's almost satire. It's difficult to believe someone didn't want it this way.

what kind of implication is this professional journalist trying to make here? That’s not rhetorical: I have no idea what he is insinuating, though he is clearly insinuating something.

[benji]

This isn't surprising. I don't visit any gaming news sites anymore. I basically come here and watch YouTube.

Which are still getting most of their primary source content from journalists! Youtube is just ragebait, sensationalist, chud-friendly trash as the loudest and contentious get the biggest platforms there. Like if journalists didn't exist, we would just talk about lists, nostalgia, franchises, wish casting, and sometimes talking about our impressions of videogames.

Also, this is his second reply without responding to the person who pointed out he copy and pasted the entire thing from the article.

[benji]

Theory Update (with some digressions):
https://www.resetera.com/threads/til-mark-wahlberg-committed-multiple-violent-hate-crimes-in-his-past.1567711/page-2#post-157389286

He's donated millions of dollars and his foundation has raised and distributed over 20 million dollars for inner city kids.

As I stated in a previous post, idk if he's rehabilitated. But I know he at least appears to be doing good.

He's doing good on that front, but I'm not sure what a children's charity is doing to actually combat racism and hate crimes which is what he was guilty of perpetuating. This is my point about rehabilitation and restitution; I don't think people fundamentally understand what that entails and will default to believing a vague "charity" as the ultimate trap card that wipes one's slate clean no matter what they've done or whether or not the charitable giving is even relevant to the harm committed.

As far as I can find, he's only said it'd be nice to actually apologize to one of the victims, Johnny Trinh; while it seems this apology was never rendered in person, which is odd for a fucking multimillionaire, Trinh did ultimately forgive him of his own accord. However, some years after that, Wahlberg applied for a pardon to get his entire criminal slate wiped clean for fear he'd be denied a concessionaire license in California which can hinge on the criminal background of the applicant. Nothing has ever been mentioned about his specific Black victims, nor has he genuinely made amends with either the Black or Vietnamese communities, but hey, at least he feels good going to sleep at night and waking up in the morning. Also note that the aforementioned pardon would've ultimately been for a 45 day sentence when he was supposed to be jailed for three months for hate crimes.

What an upstanding guy!

https://www.resetera.com/threads/media-is-disposable-at-this-point-and-i-dont-really-care-about-owning-it-anymore.1568728/page-2#post-157454248

If you are consuming media in the attempt to keep up with the times, you will inevitably be overwhelmed because- even before the explosion in access to "content" through streaming and social media and the resulting degradation of the monoculture- there was already more media in existence than you could ever experience in a single lifetime. You will never keep up and need to drop the pretense that it's possible to keep up. On the other hand, if you are engaging with media to actually enrich your life, and do not care about trends unless those trends genuinely align with your interests, then you will drop a lot of the stress and worry about this. It truly isn't that serious; experience whatever you want to experience on your own time. Yes, going back to something you've experienced before takes away time from something new that you could experience, but who gives a shit? You were never going to get to it all anyway, and you don't seem to really value much of the stuff you consume anyway because that's all you're doing- consuming.

I dunno; this just seems like another knock-on effect of capitalism which fundamentally boils down everything into a commodity whose purpose is to be exchanged and consumed.

 This seems pretty anti-art/artist.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/should-the-left-big-tent-left-embrace-patriotism-more.1571869/page-3#post-157662931

In the best of circumstances, the United States should have never even been brought to exist in the first place. It was always a white supremacist, settler colonial empire- breaking away from the European mainland because they couldn't conquer and pillage on their terms- and it is intent on maintaining that project even at the destruction of the Global South's autonomy and the ecology of our planet.

"Patriotism" towards the continuance of white supremacy, settler colonialism, and imperialism is a folly if you are meaningfully leftist. The values of the Founding Fathers that are so enticing to people still on the bandwagon were not in reference to anyone except white male capitalists and fundamentally cannot be rendered to "all" unless you actually transform the society such that what we think of the United States doesn't meaningfully exist anymore.

If you care about the good of humanity and the planet, this shit is not salvageable with mere reform and rebranding.

nods*

People put on the shocked Pikachu face when they're told America has been slowly doing the same thing to the global south that Israel has been doing quickly in Gaza. That America was among the very last countries to stop supporting apartheid South Africa. A quick glance at the conversations around "blow back" and the uncomfortable truth that Jeremiah Wright was correct on this subject should sober people up quickly. Patriotism here necessarily becomes head-buried-in-sand meme. It's why I say it only functions to obfuscate critical truths.

Absolutely not. Patriotism and nationalism eventually lead to fascism. As Arthur Schopenhauer so beautifully said:

"The cheapest sort of pride is national pride; for if a man is proud of his own nation, it argues that he has no qualities of his own of which he can be proud; otherwise he would not have recourse to those which he shares with so many millions of his fellowmen. The man who is endowed with important personal qualities will be only too ready to see clearly in what respects his own nation falls short, since their failings will be constantly before his eyes. But every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud adopts, as a last resource, pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and glad to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority."

What we need to do is use populism to win over voters. That's precisely what Mamdani has done. Populism isn't an inherently negative thing. Find out what the voters care about, focus on that, pander a bit and deliver. The economy affects everyone. No one cares about the flag and their nation, if they are barely hanging on and can't get through the month. Similarly, in a more pragmatic view, we can't push leftward and pass leftwing legislation and progressive sociopolitical ideals if people are worried about their finances. I wish more people would be against fascism on principle, but we've seen too often that if people are suffering from their economic status they couldn't care less about fighting back against political oppression.

TL;DR: Patriotism and nationalism - hard no. Populism - yes.

Wait until this guy finds out about the form of politics the fascists prioritized.  

When I think "patriotism" I think of the founding fathers, the birth of the nation, the vision for a system of government, our core guiding beliefs as a nation, etc. Those things are the underpinning glue that holds our states together and gets us to cooperate with one another.

If you know the history of this country, why would you think any of those things you listed underneath the umbrella of patriotism invokes cooperation with each other?

Culture changes anyway.

When has the United States materially stopped being a white-supremacist settler-colonial empire?

I'm obviously refering to regular people who make culture happen, not the monsterous apparatus that has been rotten from the beginning. It is they who affect change.

Culture is an inherent byproduct of the economic and subsequently political sphere, the "monsterous apparatus" as you aptly call it. How culture is built and maintained is directly affected by how people are able (or unable) to access the living space and material needs they need to survive any given society and the struggles and contradictions borne from that environment, and currently our access to our material needs and the environment we exist in is fully controlled by an authoritarian cabal of imperialists.

Not in disagreement at all, it's of course all interwoven. There are limits though, and we already see them becoming more clearly. Empirestijl have an end date, fortunately. I just hope something better, something more just will take its place.

The only way something better is going to come along is if people commit themselves to a long-term project to make it so. I don't see the seeds of such an endeavor being borne from a conversation though on how we can reclaim American patriotism from the right. (Hell, I don't know how you get into a conversation about that with an appeal to a "big tent" left; you are begging for muddied politics and self-sabotage.)

It's difficult to be optimistic, especially when you're aware of all the terrible things, the injustice, the corruption and lies. But I do think that love of life and of the neighbor will be chosen over death in the end.

Part of my hope lies in the fact that all of the terrible things within this country and the terrible things this country have wrought upon the rest of the world pretty much have a singular source. What you need then is a synthesized theory and critique and subsequently a movement to build from that theory and critique.

Maybe if a country isn't a settler colonial state like USA, I could see patriotism being a thing from the left. But Americans have no leg to stand on. Unless if part of that patriotism political campaign is giving Native Americans their land back and reparations.

 

You know it's an option to use the symbols, images, and aesthetics of patriotism and not implement nationalist policies?

It's an option to use any symbol for your cause and not implement congruent policies, but that has nothing to do with the appropriateness of the symbols to that cause in the first place. What, should we try to reclaim the Confederate Flag but still preach against anti-Black racism?

What historical flag could you possibly hoist then?  

https://www.resetera.com/threads/increase-in-racism-during-world-cup-reflects-%E2%80%98growing-pattern-of-abuse%E2%80%99.1573108/page-2#post-157711732

What Americans think of racism and even the concept of race in general was literally borne in Europe and solidified into law by Europeans (and yes, I include the white South Americans into that designation too; the Indigenous weren't speaking Spanish and Portuguese.) This is a no brainer and it's something I've been trying to remind people of for the past couple of years as they seriously thought they got an out from being recognized as the colonizer countries they are simply because Trump got elected again. Now that some of your citizens wanted to openly pop off over some fucking football, now people can't hide behind the veneer of being more "civilized" and "educated" and now wanna be like "yeah, the racism over here is pretty bad."

You weren't fooling anyone. Work on your shit.

 This isn't remotely true. (And aren't these people always claiming the Nazi's got all their ideas from American racism?)

https://www.resetera.com/threads/july-8-2026-wapo-graham-platner-ends-u-s-senate-campaign-in-maine.1572646/page-8#post-157719124

Oh, is it okay on Era to not support this guy now? I was offline for a week and a half or so, apparently he managed to do something *more* disqualifying than just be a lying Nazi POS?

He assaulted at least two white women, which is the second worst thing you can do in the world next to preying on children. We know this because a few of the remaining diehards are saying they don't believe the allegations because they're beyond the pale, when previously they were able to completely overlook the lives he destroyed in the Middle East.

She hates her only forum so much.

[Hap Shaughnessy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/july-8-2026-wapo-graham-platner-ends-u-s-senate-campaign-in-maine.1572646/page-8#post-157721158

Yeah AOC seemingly has generational political instincts.

I think she wins the presidency in 2028. Calling it now. But perhaps that's for another thread..

[Jansen]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/thegamebusiness-confused-xbox-staff-living-in-fear-after-first-round-of-brutal-lay-offs.1573066/page-3#post-157719886

Survivors guilt?