not much, just slightly different UX

I honestly kinda prefer older civ games because they were simpler and more focused. For me, Civ3 might really be the peak of the series.

I’ve seen a few similar projects before, but can’t recall what they were off top of my head.

indeed

It’s the openly becoming part, before there was an attempt to pretend the US was some sort of a democracy. Now, the mask is completely off.

basically yeah, at least if it’s in a group, I always try to see how far I can push people left when just chatting one on one

Very much agree.

I recall you mentioned that Lemmy helped you get a better understanding of things, and I’m sure there are many other people people in the same boat.

It’s natural that even with open platforms, bigger instances will largely align with mainstream views. After all that’s what makes them mainstream in the first place.

The big advantage with the federated model in particular is that you don’t have a single authority deciding the rules for everyone. And that makes it possible for alternative views and ideas to be discussed.

As the liberal mainstream continues to discredit itself, people fall out of the echo chamber, and that’s where niche communities become important.

they really did bury the lede there

This is basically true for every for profit run publishing platform. Just look how quickly bluesky started accommodating nazis. This is precisely why public forums should be publicly owned instead of being operated by profit seeking corporations.

This isn’t a problem that can be solved through boycotts. It requires actively building open platforms like Lemmy and Mastodon, and getting them to the level of quality that can compete with the dominant private platforms.

The simple answer is it’s because western liberal regimes are not democracies. A system where you have one set of laws for regular people, and another for the affluent is a plutocracy.

So you’re saying it’s vapid like your own comment?

Pretty funny how we’re constantly told that free markets are the superior economic system, but apparently that’s only true as long as big American companies dominate the market.

What’s already been released shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that all western elites are guilty of horrific crimes, and nobody will be held accountable. You can’t pretend that we live in a democracy when the rule of law does not apply to the elites.

China also dominates in most technologies at this point, and in science. The US still has some power, but the reality is that it is a fading empire now. The whole retrenchment strategy is a clear admission of that. The US is no longer able to play the role of the global hegemon, and it’s now focusing on getting whatever resources it can out of Europe, and trying to consolidate control over western hemisphere.

I don’t see how the US is in the lead position in terms of global power projection. They lost their proxy war in Ukraine, which has been incredibly costly for them. They were unable to take on Yemen, and had to quietly pull back. They pulled a stunt in Venezuela, but didn’t actually manage to accomplish regime change, and did not put boots on the ground. Now they might try to start a war with Iran, and if they do that will go badly for them if they actually go through with it.

On the economic front, the US lost their trade war with China, and now countries are flocking to China seeing it as a stable alternative. The industry in the US is collapsing with each set of numbers being worse than the last. Things are so bad now that Trump admin is rushing head over hills to shut down reporting of the numbers on the economy.

I would argue that the collapse is in fact settled because it’s the material reality that matters in the end. The ephemeral things the US produces like entertainment, service industry, tech platforms, and so on, are not essential things people need to live. And they only have value when basic needs are met. At the end of the day, eople need to eat, they need goods for their every day lives, food, housing, jobs, healthcare, and retirement. The US is increasingly unable to provide these things for their population. It is no longer self sufficient in many critical areas, and it’s reliant on China to sustain basic economy. That’s precisely why the US was forced to pull back from their trade war.

It’s possible, of course, that the US starts a nuclear holocaust, but my bet is that the oligarchs will choose to rule over a diminished empire rather than live out the rest of their lives in bunkers like rats.

agreed on all points

Right, but all the infrastructure supporting international medical services was developed at cost through massive state investment. Now that it exists, using it is cheap, so you can charge low prices to foreigners for access and still make a profit.

same