Frank Podmore 🌹 @frankpodmore@social.coop

If you'd like to read a blog about why Ocarina of Time was the first videogame that aspired to be a work of art, boy do I suspiciously have exactly that blog for you: https://frankpodmore.wordpress.com/2018/11/22/20-years-of-ocarina-of-time/

A positive politics post? Yes:

With Miliband the other day and Rayner today, #Labour are previewing phase 2 of becoming an election-winning party: show that there's talent on the frontbench beyond the leader. So far, it's looking good.🌹 ✊

I don't know what the hell is going on with bigotry right now, it's fucking everywhere and I hate it. I thought we all agreed that we hated it and we were all trying to fight it, and now I'm listening to bigoted shit from my parents, who I could swear were *the same people who taught me not to be a bigot*!

IDK what's in Rowling's new book, but it's sure brought out a lot of transphobic bigots over on birdsite. Remember, kids: block early, block often.

Aliens, though.

I went from 'Pff, not a real Zelda game' to 'Just take my fucking money' in about half a second of watching the new trailer

Re: my earlier thread, it also does not help when the Prime Minister consistently and repeatedly lies at #PMQs. I thought lying to Parliament was illegal, but what the fuck do I know?

Partisan idiocy means that the now openly corrupt governments of the UK and the US are allowed to remain so. But, worse still, the expectation that they will *not* be corrupt no longer exists, regardless of where you are on the partisan divide. My group chats are full of people asking why the hell we shouldn't break rules around socialising when the government refuses to abide by rules it agreed to and campaigned on. What is the answer to this question?

... but one of the things that does keep people in line is the existence of social norms, which is why most motorists speed but DON'T drink drive; it's why people torrent but DON'T walk into a record shop and come out with a CD under their shirt.

When the government is openly, manifestly lawbreaking, the *social* norms against lawbreaking collapse, even if the laws themselves nominally hold. Brazil has all the paper structures of a law-abiding democracy, but it is neither...

... in the UK, the government illegally prorogued Parliament, defended a lawbreaking adviser (who remains de facto the most powerful person in the country) and is now open about breaking international law.

In this context, why be honest? Why be decent? The capacity for following through on moral precepts is limited. It is a fact that hardly anyone reliably has the capacity to do this: the vast majority of people break the law regularly, whether it's speeding or torrenting...

... but in practice, it truly is not obvious why you should be honest *to your own detriment*, which is what honesty in much of Brazilian society in fact entails.

We are increasingly seeing something similar happen in the developed world. In the US, Reagan's administration committed treason, with no consequences. There is a direct line from there, via the 2000 election, to Trump today. Of course he's a criminal. How does that make him different from the rest of them? Meanwhile...

My wife is from Brazil, so I have some knowledge of the culture there around corruption. Corruption is absolutely endemic, to the extent that no one expects anyone to be honest. And, as such, virtually no one is. Why obey the laws when the leaders don't? Why be honest when you can cheat and lie your way to wealth and power with no consequences? The moral answer to this question is obvious: you are responsible for your own behaviour....

Gah, the Co-op are not actually stripping their ads from the Spectator, I have committed a cardinal sin of social media and shared something too soon.

No YOU'RE watching videos about Chadwick Boseman and crying while you're meant to be working