Zagorath

Zagorath, 10 months ago

There’s a big difference between being upset at some difference in ideology and looking at people sincerely defending or denying a genocide in the name of that ideological difference.

Zagorath, 10 months ago

Where are leftists denying genocide? I’ve never heard a leftist deny a genocide, ever.

In Xinjiang province of China. That’s where.

But of course, if you define “genocide” as “thing that I’m willing to politically accept is a genocide”, it’s very easy to pretend someone isn’t a genocide denialist.

Zagorath, 10 months ago

What evidence would you accept? Because you act as though you’ve already convinced yourself it’s not real and wouldn’t accept any evidence to the contrary. What, precisely, would convince you that you’re wrong, if firsthand accounts aren’t good enough?

Zagorath, 10 months ago

Horseshoe theory doesn’t make sense. That’s the thing.

Until suddenly you start seeing people who call themselves leftists denying genocide. Which is something we usually think of as being a quality of the far-right.

(The obvious solution here, of course, is that these people who call themselves leftists…aren’t. Because if leftism is about equality, there’s nothing equal about subjecting a people and preventing the continuance of their culture.)

Zagorath, 10 months ago

Oh, I see. I saw someone else make that same comparison just a minute ago.

I guess this is the new tanky line? Try and discredit the Uyghur genocide by pretending it’s equivalent to bullshit claims about a white genocide? Nice. Clever rhetoric. Shame you seem to have exposed the astroturfy nature of your movement so blatantly with your timing there.

Zagorath, 10 months ago

🙄

Zagorath, 10 months ago

The irony is that the only Lemmy instances blocked in China are the tanky ones.

Zagorath, 10 months ago

you seem like you’re pretty supportive of the violent authoritarian USian regime

Where, precisely, did I suggest that at all?

Zagorath, 10 months ago

claims are basically an astroturfed campaign by an evangelical christo-fascist named Adrian Zenz.

Yes, because Zenz is definitely the only reason anyone knows about the genocide. There totally aren’t actual Uyghurs who have told their own stories or anything like that.

that’s the hardest part for a lot of Americans since you’re

Nice try, but nope. I haven’t exactly been subtle either. Actually wait, not even nice try, because the correct answer is literally my instance.

Yeah, US imperialism, and western imperialism more broadly, is bad. That isn’t relevant here though, because we’re talking about a genocide China is committing against a minority population within their own borders.

(You could maybe have made something at least appearing to be a valid argument about imperialism if we were instead talking about Russia’s unprovoked aggression against another country, which I know tankies also like to defend. But that’s not where we’re at right now.)

If you call yourself a leftist, try reflecting a bit on what that actually means to you. Because to me, it means desiring equality and opposing social hierarchy. And restricting people’s ability to express their culture; stealing children away from their parents, preventing people from leaving your country to reconnect with their relatives. These are all very much not in line with leftist ideals. Defending a country that calls itself communist just because that’s in its name, without reflecting on how well they actually live up to those values, is pretty poor leftism in my view.

Zagorath, 10 months ago

I’m a leftist who isn’t a tankie

To be clear. If you call yourself a leftist, and you pretend China isn’t committing genocide, that makes you a tanky. That’s what tankies are: people who claim to be leftists who support violent authoritarian regimes.

Zagorath, 10 months ago

Sleep well, genocidist.

Zagorath, 10 months ago

You’ve already proven not to be interested in accepting evidence. So what more value is there in trying to provide any?

Zagorath, 10 months ago

Thus I do not accept claims about “genocide” committed by the US’ main rival without good evidence

It’s very easy to say this, because it means you can just reject any evidence to the contrary as “not good” or “biased”.

Separating children from their parents. Raising them to be assimilated with the majority culture. Clamping down on their expression of their culture. These are all acts of genocide.

The most untrustworthy source here is the Chinese government themselves. Any report from a country should be treated with scepticism, but none more so than when that country clamps down on the free press.

We have so many reports out of Xinjiang. Leaks from people in the province itself. Reports from the family of people there. Evidence inferred from satellite imagery and what information is publicly available from the Chinese government. There’s just no denying it. You can choose to pretend China’s doing nothing wrong if you like. I hope you sleep well, knowing you’re defending genocide.

Zagorath, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago)

If you deny something that’s actually not a real thing, you’re not a genocide denialist. So…no.

I do love how tankies have such poor intellectual rigour that if someone calls them out on something they immediately jump to the worst possible straw man. It really undermines your case.

Zagorath, 10 months ago

Tankies on Lemmy like to pretend China isn’t committing genocide against Uyghurs.

Zagorath, 10 months ago

You can pretend all you want that you’re “just asking questions”, but that doesn’t change facts. The Uyghur genocide has been very well-established for a long time now.

The Chinese propaganda trying to deny their genocide has the same vibes as that time a Chinese official went on a western political current affairs show and said “you have a voting democracy, we have a working democracy”. The fact that Chinese state censorship is so strong (while western media is not censored) means there is very good reason to distrust the reports from Chinese media when they are in disagreement with the majority of reporting from everywhere else. So yeah, I’m going to trust reports from high quality journalistic organisations like the ABC, rather than anything that’s allowed to be reported on publicly within China.

The irony here, of course, is that even if you take the Chinese party line at its word. That its actions are nothing more than heavily policing an area where there are dangerous terrorists and separatist. That’s pretty much exactly the same as the Israeli line. It boggles my mind that people can call out one but not the other. It’s not surprising for me that the right does it. There’s an element of racism there, and chauvinism for defending their political allies. And I’ll be honest, I’ve always associated the right with a denial of facts. But the fact that people who have the gall to call themselves leftists will pretend there’s nothing wrong is

Zagorath, 10 months ago

“Freedom of the press” is a joke

Yes, I know that’s what China believes. That’s why it’s so important.

Zagorath, 10 months ago

My favourite living composer is probably Elena Kats-Chernin.

Favourite dead composer is definitely Beethoven, but I’ve been getting very into Shostakovich lately.

Zagorath, 10 months ago

Yeah for sure. That’s actually another reason that old abandonware should be kept available for people to play. If they come up with a replacement that’s good enough to displace the original, that’s awesome. But if they come up with a replacement that isn’t worth it, they shouldn’t be able to artificially prop up that version by making the original unavailable.

Zagorath, 10 months ago

Yeah fair enough. That sort of thing is definitely subjective and it would be impossible for anyone to say you’re wrong.

Personally, I find the new QOL features impossible to live without now. Shift-queueing absolutely any task, being able to queue multiple techs or techs and units, villagers keeping one resource until they actually start gathering—rather than losing all the gold they’re carrying just because you accidentally clicked a tree—farm autoreseeding. To me, none of these really change the fundamental way the game feels, they just make it feel like a smoother, more polished version of the original game.

Zagorath, 10 months ago

Uhh, no, not for me. Was that a problem quite a few people were reporting?

Zagorath, 10 months ago

No disagreement from me whatsoever.

Zagorath, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago)

I agree with the goal of this, but don’t necessarily agree with its specific assertions.

Like yes, 100% we would be way better off if companies would actively support emulation by selling super-cheap any games that they otherwise have no interest in anymore.

But actually, yes, I do enjoy paying $40 for the remake of an old classic, if it’s done well.

The Spyro remaster from a few years ago was extremely well-done and I loved being able to play a favourite from my childhood on my computer. It was exactly the same game, only with modernised graphics. Well worth it.

Even better, Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition. It upgraded the graphics, but also added an enormous amount of new content and (most importantly) quality of life features, all done in consultation with the community that had been playing the original game for 20 years at the time DE came out. It would be best if you could still buy the original 1999 version for five bucks, but frankly I doubt many people would if you could, because the Definitive Edition was done so well.

It’s obviously different when there’s a remake that’s nothing but a cheap cash grab. Or when there hasn’t been any type of modern update. I wish, for example, it was easier for me to get my hands on a copy of Battle for Middle-Earth 2 to play with my friends. But the company that made it isn’t even allowed to continue selling it, for complicated licensing reasons. Because copyright law sucks.

Zagorath, 10 months ago

Yeah that’s not great. To be honest for the most part I really like it. Most of the stuff you unlock is pure cosmetics (profile pictures or alternate looks for units—which only display as different for you, not your opponent). They’re just some good fun, and I find my completionist nature enjoys jumping into the game to get them.

But there have been a few of the things unlocked as part of the challenges—that 256x mod is one of them, and there have also been a couple of cheat codes more recently—that did feel like more substantial things to miss out on if you happened not to be able to play while they were on offer. I wasn’t playing when the 256x mod was around, but when the cheat codes first appeared I recall thinking it was pretty disappointing for anyone who might have wanted them that would miss out for whatever reason.

Zagorath, 10 months ago

Huh, that’s very interesting. I’m genuinely curious to know what it was that you didn’t like about it.

Because the truth is that you’re seemingly in the extreme minority. While 2013’s HD edition seemed to split the community and received a bit of a mixed reaction, since 2019’s DE has been an unmitigated success in terms of both finances for the devs, and in terms of unifying and growing the size of the community.