I’m waiting for their multiplayer patch to play the game in full but I enjoyed the combat in the first 10 minutes and an excited to play it. ARPGs need to evolve past the idle games most of the current popular ones devolve into.

Which I understand and agree with. But to come to LateStageCapitalism and claim people who want to minimize taxes have the same motives as the people who want to minimize worker wages is I think too reductive for my taste.

I think the working man shoots himself in the foot when they push to minimize taxing. I think people need to hold taxation and public services in high esteem and it needs to be a pride for people. I think at the same time we have to be honest and outraged by how our tax dollars are spent (in the US at least.

The US being corrupt doesn’t change the principle, it just changes how we address this specific instance. But the people who shake their fist at union dues are doing LateStageCapitalisms’ work for the oligarchs, just the same as taxes. We should be pushing for more taxes on the wealthy, tax billionaires out of existence and cap millionaires at something reasonable and safe for democracy like let’s say 5 million in assets.

Taxes can be a formidable tool against corporations and for the people.

But building a good community through the funding of public services via taxation is a moral/ethical good.

Striving to reduce labor costs to enrich yourself, especially to the detriment of that labor and to an excessive degree of wealth for yourself, is a moral/ethical evil.

Taxation, when run by and for the people who generate it, is a good thing that people should strive to support. It’s a misunderstanding to not view taxation in a well working system (examining individual systems, not the whole in some binary fashion) as a cost efficiency for things you already want - childcare, education, healthcare, public transportation (busses, trams/railcars, trains, bicycle infrastructure), insurance, energy, food, research, protection, charity, infrastructure, etc.

You’re saying a large complex issue has many ways of tackling it to improve it? And that some random 3 paragraph response suggesting we improve the system by trying anything isn’t a full write up on the exact policy choices we should implement down to the letter of the law?

/s

Yes, obviously improving wages would help people afford things. Yes, helping construction workers improve their process would help make housing costs cheaper. There’s a thousand easy to implement ideas that would help the problem. ONE of those is “don’t treat housing like an investment vehicle akin to stocks”. Housing should be for housing, not for the wealthy to make a steady stream of income off of relatively poorer people. Landlords serve no function except for in a society where owning and trading homes is an expensive, slow, and bureaucratic process. Landlords are simply a means for money to transfer from the less wealthy to the more wealthy. They are an unnecessary cost that inflates the price of housing to the benefit of an extremely small number of people.

To be extremely clear, this is not the only solution. This may not even be a silver bullet. I am not listing the 1000 page legal proposal you can implement in your country tomorrow. My goal is to simply shift the common perception of landlords from “they totally have to exist and wow I love giving them money every month for absolutely nothing - boy owning things sure seems like a burden, thankfully I’ll never have to worry about that because I couldn’t afford to own something even if I wanted to” to “of course landlords are bad for society.” Or even “landlords are by and large capitalistic parasites that slow progress towards a more equitable society by draining people with less wealth of their means of becoming wealthy. Society doesn’t need them, even if you can think of reasons to have temporary housing there are better means than some rich person raising the rent every year on you.”

Sure, we can allow some small percentage of the overall housing to be owned by businesses whose sole purpose is providing a good rental housing experience for those in transit. But that’s fundamentally different than parasitic landlords whose only job is owning a property and periodically scheduling the cheapest maintenance workers to do actual work they can.

This isn’t your governments legislation branch, I’m not proposing a 100 page documentation. I’m simply suggesting a policy direction which is housing should be for housing, not for investment or for rent collection. If someone makes money off of someone they should provide a meaningful service and I think if housing wasn’t an investment vehicle the entire system would look so radically different people can’t imagine what a system without some landlords existing would look like.

Imagine everyone owned their house, it wasn’t expensive, selling one was like selling a car, but you could sell to the government if need be at no meaningful loss and the government sold them back to people like a service for just such a situation.

Idk man, it’s not that hard.

Imagine if owning a house was the same price as buying a car. That a loan was a 3 year ordeal not a 30.

60 years ago a janitor salary could buy a house in their 20s. Landlords only making house more expensive, not less - and exponentially so.

We need to ban (or tax out of existence) the concept of owning a house you don’t stay in. Landlords should be illegal, what value they provide to society is so marginal and so minimal that it would be an overwhelmingly net positive.

That tackles one of the largest worries against a universal income.

Again, you’re defending him under the notion that the ~3 political parties in this coalition couldn’t produce a single other valid candidate from among them. That’s unbelievable and if true should be punished by the voters. There’s just no way 3 massive political parties contain zero candidates as willing and as qualified as Merz (if not exceedingly more so) and if all of them can’t put the country first instead of their ambitions (which is arguably evident already) then we deserve chaos at the government level. And quite frankly I don’t know how much better we are with CDU in power vs no one in power. For most policies I’d argue the CDU in power means a decline in quality of life for Germans not an improvement.

The AFD grows not because of chaos at the federal level but because of the decline in quality of life for Germans. CDU is not fixing that they’re worsening it. I think there’s a solid basis to challenge the notion that a CDU government ran by Merz is better than any other candidate within those three parties and even a basis for argument on the notion that Merz over no one is better. I think the CDU actively harm this country based on their actions.

So no, I don’t think I’m misinterpreting what you’re saying - that only Merz exists as a viable option. And yes I do believe you’re defending him on the basis that it’s him or the AfD growing and I think that’s incorrect. The AfD will grow regardless because he won’t improve things and arguably faster because as corporate taxes go down and public services lose funding, quality of living goes down and more people become amendable to radical change which by their nature centralist parties don’t propose. I’m not seeing a left party capitalize on this in the same way the right is, probably because the funding for facism/racism is larger than for wealth equality but that’s off topic.

Well your original comment translates to defending Merz. To answer your follow up question, I don’t know the names of individual politicians in the CDU as I’m still new to German politics and learning as fast as I can. But I have no doubt the CDU has a handful of less ambitious people who could strive to produce some form of centralist policies. Will any of them be good in an absolute sense? No, if Merkel was the best they could do then no. But could someone be relatively better than Merz, who from what I can see would sell his mother down the river for more power and money, yes - most likely.

I’m looking at mailbox.org when mine ends.

Yes, really. My alternative would have been any progressive party and failing that any centralist party, and failing that the CDU with any centralist leader, but all of those failed and now we have Merz. He will damage the working class, exasperate the issues that promote the AFD, and he will normalize them. He is, and the CDU are, Republicans 20 years ago in the US. He will lead to Germany’s Trump and the decline of the standard of living for the common man.

Merz is bad for the working class and for Germany. Every day out of power is a good day for the world.

Right! They got punished by the voters but they haven’t received the social stain that should follow them for a decade. They’ll be back next election and I fear not enough people will remember what they did. That’s not enough punishment for what they did.

Being new to German politics I was shocked how obvious it was that Merz was not someone working for the betterment of Germans but for political power - and he is still successful in his party.

I also don’t understand why the country has fallen into this belief that the squabbling of the last coalition has caused AFD to be successful. I think it’s incredibly clear that the FDP sabotaged the coalition from the start - people should be calling for the removal of the FDP at the federal level for what they did (and thankfully they were punished in this last election). But why we didn’t go back to giving progressives more power and another chance I don’t understand - it was the one conservative party that undermined them. Instead we gave more power to conservatives who are the real cause for the rise of the AFD.

The only cure to the AFD is to shrink wealth I equality and a continued push for pro-worker progressive policies. Improve the trains, improve our green energy, regulate our businesses so they have higher quality bars to reach, protect the workers, tax the ultra wealthy, tax landlords out of existence so a working German can afford their flat or their home, support farmers, hold media accountable for misinformation, and protect us from foreign interference.

We need more actions that Die Linke would endorse and less actions that the CDU would, because fundamentally the CDU are pro-corporation and anti-worker and that’s the heart of the rise of fascism - a decline in living standards brought on by corrupt politicians bleeding the public coffers for the betterment of their corporate friends.

And we just witnessed this, they paid for corporate contracts with debt when they could have paid for it with increased taxes on the ultra-wealthy.

I don’t have a favorite source so any searching will give you various perspectives but here’s one I fully read that seems reasonably objective.

https://theintercept.com/2025/01/28/proton-mail-andy-yen-trump-republicans/

Essentially, they praised the Republican platform. Then they took it back and said we won’t share political comments that aren’t neutral. Then they shared some more pro-republican opinions. And then they again said “whoops our bad back to politically neutral comments.”

I personally think political neutrality is a coward’s position and most often used by the supporters of “The Empire” to hide their uniforms and obscure their salutes. I can understand when your company employs X people, it’s a highly public company, and your product is something as detached from politics as possible like - oh idk - a twitch streamer showing videogame footage or something entirely entertainment based. Even then, I still think neutrality is the garden which allows weeds to thrive.

But this is worse than that, this is pro-republican people who got excited their guy won and got vocally bold, got punished, and are now going into hiding. And their company isn’t an entertainment business, it’s one who’s product is intertwined with privacy and the digital/corporate landscape we live in today. Proton wouldn’t be doing as well as they are if a pro-worker party was in power for the last 50 years. They wouldn’t be as profitable if monopolies had been busted sooner and mergers denied. And this is only the tech related focus they’d like you to consider, which isn’t fair. If the KKK are burning crosses in the front lawns of your neighbors and lynching people, it’s a bit tone deaf to talk about how good their sponsored lunches are and it’s evil to walk around the town square praising them for their lawn care. There are more important things they’re responsible for than the things that benefit you. And that’s even if you believe they’re doing any good on this subject which I have not seen. Trump has approved historically massive mergers, republicans have removed people like Lina Khan who was actually doing good, and introduced people who have publicly said they want less scrutiny on business - while deregulating corporations and defanging the agencies responsible for holding corporations accountable.

I haven’t seen, read, or heard any reasonable defense of any of these points and I think more people should be aware. We all make deals with the Empire at times, I’m not here to shame the workers, but if you’re like me who wanted to move their email from Empire to something Rebel than you might as well know that Proton is not the best alternative you could choose.

I’m currently looking at mailbox.org as an alternative.

Ya, happy to spread the word! I was hesitant for a long while for the same reason but then Steam Deck happened and I looked into it more and BAM here we are. It’s one of the more hopeful changes in this tech landscape - the growth of open source and/or free software that’s often equivalent to the paid software.

But you are, you’re defending the line “Republicans are for the working class and Democrats are for Big corporations.” That’s your stance. I’m saying Trump got put in office by not one billionaire but by dozens. He was funded by big corporations and his actions show him supporting them. In his first term he gave a massive tax cut to corporations and the rich and he raised taxes on the working class (disguised as a temporary decrease in taxes while he was in office). You’re literally saying wall street was okay with RvW being repealed, an anti-humanist action done by Republicans, as long as they got tax cuts, an anti-worker action done by Republicans. Republicans did two bad things you can recognize that go against your central argument you’re defending “Republicans are for the working class and Democrats are for Big corporations.”

When the trump administration successfully does something Anti-Trust related and the American people benefit THEN I will say “wow look at that, one good thing they did.” Until then I’m gonna focus on the fact that they’re generally and overwhelmingly NOT doing good things. Including but not limited to pro-corporation anti-humanist anti-worker actions like deregulation, disrupting oversight, allowing massive monopolistic mergers, going against unions (except for police unions it seems) and taxing the working class more while giving slush fund money to their corporate donors. All the while they’re locking up judges and US citizens and immigrants without due process.

I’m not saying you’re a bad person or a bad progressive and I’ll happily join hands with you in making good policy changes but I will call out what I think to be bullshit that hurts the cause because we need to have a united front against the billionaire class and they win by creating wedges and one liners that are plausible and divisive. Like “Republicans are pro-worker and Democrats are for Big business” which is at best reductive and misleading and at worst fucking obviously stupid, wrong, and dangerous.

Just one of the sources detailing some of the billionaires that funded his return: https://www.forbes.com/sites/leokamin/2024/08/14/here-are-trumps-top-billionaire-donors/

Privacy focused company praising a political party jailing opposition and citizens without due process, ignoring the rule of law, and generally grabbing power to maintain complete control.

Speaking as someone who currently has a proton account, I was super disappointed. Thought I was leaving Google for the Rebellion, then I found out Proton was happy the Death Star’s construction was underway and doesn’t understand why the dissolution of the Galactic Senate is a bad thing. I’ll be leaving when my subscription expires.

Ya, nah this is some bullshit. You’re actively defending Trump and Republicans even if you’re pretending you don’t like Trump or his policies.

Republicans are definitively not the party for “the little guys”. That’s demonstrably false, Republicans are consistently the party working against progress in most fields but especially worker protections, wealth inequality, and competitive regulated business. I agree Dems have big business backing as well, that they have some corrupt ties going against their constituents interests but the fact remains that applies to nearly all republicans. That only applies to some to most of Democrats. There is no Bernie Sanders in the Republicans, there is no AoC in the Republicans, hell there’s barely anyone of color or who isn’t a male - like Republicans are entirely private sector goons. To equate the Republican and Democrat partys is to fundamentally misunderstand the political climate of the US.

Lina Khan was the FTC chair appointed by Biden and she’s been lauded as a fantastic agent for Anti-Trust and consumer protection reasons. Andrew Ferguson was appointed by Trump and although his track record doesn’t seem to be the worst he’s said he wants to ease scrutiny on mergers and acquisitions (so the opposite of Anti-Trust) while “continuing critical oversight over big tech”. To me this is a clear demonstration that Republicans are in bed with big corporations and Democrats were working with what tools they had to break up big businesses. To me, this should be an obvious concept to anyone who says they pay attention to the political happenings of the US.

Big tech paid into Trump’s campaign, famously, and there has been no indication that the billionaires behind Trump’s reelection are doing worse off for themselves. The US is now further away from having laws similar to the EU’s consumer protection laws and it is directly thanks to Republicans being corrupt. Are some Democrats corrupt in the same way? yes. Do I think voting Democrat will fix the country? No. But I’d argue day and night that if Democrats won every race in the country, worker wages would go up, standard of living would go up, crime would go down, wealth inequality would slow down or shrink, and the country would be in a better place because unlike the obstructionist Republicans enough Democrats care about their constituents that positive change would happen.

I know you’re getting a ton of replies already, but I switched to Arch Linux two months back or so and I just want to say nearly every game I’ve tried works great out of the box, a handful of games required me to go to my steam settings a flip a switch or copy and paste something from protondb, and no games have failed to work.

Gaming on Linux is so good that you end up flipping one switch in steam and get nearly perfect performance (with most games running identically or better than they did on Windows for me). It’s been such a surprise, I just played the Arc Raiders technical Alpha and I thought for sure Linux would fail me then. And it did. For the first day, then on the second day they patched proton and the game and I played all week and weekend with zero issues. It was fantastic!

I would highly encourage any gamer who’s thinking about switching to Linux but worried their games won’t work to not worry as much. Check protondb for your favorites, but you can safely assume most game work out of the box.