BruceVC

So we know more about the Iranian attack on Israel and its objectives So the Iranian hardliners had to " respond " due to domestic pressure after Israel attacked its embassy in Syria but they want to avoid a war with Israel and the US which they know they will lose but any country that attacks Iran will suffer consequence because Iran is not a pushover So Iran makes it unofficially known they will attack Israel and 99% of the missiles and drones are destroyed and no real damage is done to Israel which was the Iranian calculus but they have also satiated the domestic nationalist fervour for a response And the US unofficially makes it known they wont support an attack on Iran which ostensibly had an influence on the Israel war cabinet decision Because the reality is the US has leverage on Israel and not the other way around which is what most of the Israeli\Jewish conspiracy theories misrepresent And the US doesnt want to be dragged into a war with Iran especially if its not justified and IMO you cant justify a war with Iran considering no real damage was done to Israel and Israel did attack the Iranian embassy with was the reason for the Iranian response We dont know what Israel is going to do but I doubt they will attack Iran without US support so maybe Netanyahu is hoping Trump will win in November and that Trump will support a military attack on Iran. But thats also not a given because we dont know how Trump will respond considering his capricious nature

But with all the domestic political issues in the US are large numbers of people really going to vote because of the Israeli vs Palestinian conflict? I know within some US media circles this gets raised as a " possible " influence on election outcomes but I will be surprised if that will be an important factor or influential factor I have also never seen a single current poll that includes this current war or even Israel as a main reason that people vote for? I have seen R vs W, border security, increased crime and inflation\economy as the most important reasons that will decide the election But I might be wrong, do you know anyone who will cast there vote based on perceptions of how the US is dealing with this latest war in Gaza?

Maybe but IMO this is definitely not the right time to bomb Iran back to the stone age and definitely not because Israel was attacked, if the US was directly attacked by Iran that would be a different story but Iran uses its proxies with the dozens of recent attacks on US interests If the US is going to go to war with Iran there has to be a legitimate reason to justify it and I agree with Biden on this

Update the Iranian attack and what we know majority of drones and missiles shot down, I dont think any casualties. Several countries helped Israel which include France, UK and the US and ostensibly some ME countries The US intelligence gathering was correct AGAIN and they warned the attack was imminent Iran wont launch further attacks unless its attacked by Israel US wont participate in a direct attack on Iran We now need to see what Israel does and will this lead to further escalation?

Iran doesnt have nukes yet, no need to worry

Im about 6 hours into Sons of the Forest and Im absolutely loving it The game starts with ZERO hand holding and Im just exploring and using my GPS. I dont know what Im supposed to do except for find the " family " which is great I havent really explored caves yet but thats clearly where the main quest needs to be but I did go to one cave and it was terrifying experience with strange mutants but lots of resources to find I appreciate the complete randomness of the design and the rewards for exploring , I went down to the beach and swam to a raft and I found a gun !!!! But I assume bullets will be a scarcity so Im using my bow in combat and I will only use the gun in critical battles I had a disappointing moment where I came across this attractive blonde women lying in some bushes and I thought " nice, possible Romance arc with an NPC" but then she got up and ran away ...and she had 4 legs !!! Mutants just dont do it for me so major Romance interest destroyed Forest 1 was my favourite survival game of all time and this sequel could deliver the same experience

Its easy to align my personal gaming experience with Obsidian games because NWN2 and PoE2 are in my top 10 games of all time

Im also going to add something. My love and passion for gaming goes back a long way even though I didnt game from about 1995-2007

Gorthfuscious, you know what I would suggest? Start at the beginning and when you get to the end then you stop

This is an accurate view of Hogwarts, there is no real choice and consequence except for the end of some side quests where you have an option to not return the item that you were sent on the quest to find in the first place. It seemed a bit silly that type of choice and I dont think there were any consequence for not returning the item

I see the game is created by a single developer, thats impressive I am playing Sons of the Forest, I loved the first one and it was the best survival game I have ever played Im only 4 hours in and Im doing lots of pausing of game and using google around " how to make a fire " There is almost zero hand holding but its coming together with the mechanics

Are you planning on voting this election? Your vote counts, never forget that

I hear you but is that enough to not vote for him? He believes in other things that most of us would agree with like he is pro-choice https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2023/presidential-candidates-2024-policies-issues/robert-kennedy-jr-abortion/ The point Im trying to make is one disagreement on a certain policy enough to not vote for a politician? What about the other things you agree with him on ?

Thanks, the interview on CNN I was talking about is the Chris Wallace show which is a weekly 1 hour show and he has 4 journalists on and most of them are anti-Trump and generally support the Dems and Biden but 1 journalist is always a moderate Conservative and they were objective about RFK Jr and most of the 4 journalists were saying things similar to you They raised an interesting question about " does a vote for RFK hurt Trump or Biden more " and they were saying it depends on the state that he appears on the ballot on or it hurts Trump more in the long term and Biden in the short term but Im not sure what that means because there is one main election But the main point they made is he is an alternative with certain views that resonate with people and thats more than enough to make him a viable choice for those tired of the theater of Trump and the inconsistency and frailty of Biden because Bidens age keeps coming up as a concern Exciting times ahead for you guys in the USA

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rfk-jrs-ability-sway-2024-election-depends-ballot/story?id=108753511 @Keyrock I was watching on CNN the support that RFK Jr has gained and how some people definitely like him. The news anchors were saying he appeals to certain voters for different reasons and one of those reasons is he isnt " much of the same " What do you like about him and would you vote for him? I am looking for a summary about what he stands for outside of the political rhetoric and exaggeration because he clearly resonates with people?

Yes but with a caveat, like I mentioned it doesnt have adult themes but that doesnt mean you wont enjoy it and it does have engaging components. I didnt get the thrill of exploring and risk vs reward like in normal RPG For example the beasts are all cute and you dont really feel like you MUST kill the monsters because they truly diabolical like a Daedra or Baatezu with the exceptions of spiders which I hate in any game. And almost all your companions are teenagers and kids which was a bit weird and unusual for me but thats how Hogwarts is suppose to be by design And then as you mentioned the books are written for a younger audience but adults do read and enjoy them which is the most important thing, adults are reading. And you dont want to shame people to suggest " why you reading a children's book " But Hogwarts is light-hearted fantasy game and you will enjoy it if you understand its narrative limitations compared to " adult " RPG

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-military-withdraws-most-ground-troops-southern-gaza-spokesperson-says-2024-04-07/ I think this is a really positive development, the IDF is withdrawing most of its forces from southern Gaza Is this the beginning of a permanent ceasefire and real negotiations between both sides or is it something else? I also think the mistaken killings of the Kitchen Aid Workers was the " final " straw for the US and the Biden administration around the egregious IDF military strategy and continuous and callous killing of Palestinian civilians

Maybe you sleep walking at night and gorging on food then? Have you checked the fridge and food stocks in the morning?

I completed Hogwarts after 80 hours, it gets a solid 71/100 on highly popular " BruceVC game system " I have mentioned all things I liked about it so I wont repeat it The main negative is the combat doesnt require much strategy and the repetition of the same 5-6 enemy types for the whole game You can only have 4 spells active at one time and even though you can change this in the HUD for most battles you dont need to so combat does tend to become repetitive But that negative doesnt detract from the overall positive experience

Yes and Im glad you mentioned this because what is more interesting than confirmation bias is why do people have confirmation bias because why they have it differs from person to person and the severity of it And anti-semitism IMO is definitely part of the confirmation bias around how many people reflect on the media reporting in Gaza but its not the normal historical Nazi anti-semitism or part of what Netanyahu keeps saying where any criticism towards Israel is " anti-semitism " and this is cringe because you can have legitimate criticism of the IDF and its not because of anti-semitism What Im seeing is its more about a general mistrust and immediate rejection about anything Israel reports on and people who typically wouldnt have an issue with Jews suddenly reaffirming previously held biases and now generalizing and repeating Jewish conspiracy theories about domination of the world and the media So for example in South Africa after taking Israel to the ICJ our president and several senior ANC members suggested that "we could face regime change and interference in our election because we took Israel to the ICJ " But its like WTF They cant produce any evidence of how this may happen and we have always had free and fair elections since 1994 with no evidence of vote rigging or any real "foreign powers somehow implementing regime change " and yet suddenly the Jews are going to use there Jedi mind tricks to undermine our election because of the ICJ ruling And then of course the conspiracy theories get more ridiculous and it evolves to " the US is going to implement regime change in South Africa because of the ICJ " and this is some politicians suggesting this. Its not random citizens who would have wide ranging opinions. You would assume politicians would be more responsible and informed But end of the day anti-semitism is a nuanced type of bigotry and how people demonstrate it, its often not like other forms of bigotry like homophobia which is much easier to see

Yes and I can believe this is true but this type of misreporting exists in most countries. On DSTV we have 2 private sector news channels and 1 public sector national broadcaster and I alternate between them And they sometimes get things wrong or have very strange or inaccurate framings of stories but they get things mostly right and Im sure thats the same in most countries I like to believe that most journalists in any non-autocratic country do believe in the truth and the integrity of what the media stands for But that doesnt apply to opinion pieces and whole ideological bias you find from the likes of FOX or MSNBC. But even these news channels report on things accurately, it just depends on what they reporting on and its the culture wars garbage that I seldom take seriously

Fair enough, do you consider the likes of CNN and BBC as generally trustworthy on its reporting? I do but they sometimes get things wrong or misrepresent events. But my question is more about what media sources do you personally consider to be generally trustworthy?

Yes I do think its confirmation bias but I cant assume that is what everyone thinks, thats why I am asking the question. In the context of South Africa and how some commentators dismiss the media reporting on Ukraine but believe the same media in Gaza is inconsistent and strange to me I do believe the international media is generally reporting correctly, like this link, in both Ukraine and Gaza and the IDF has killed many civilians and the stories about the kitchen being bombed is true and egregious. I just dont think it was done on purpose because of the obvious negative media coverage this creates but that doesnt change how the IDF military approach is heavy handed and unacceptable But the point I was trying to make is if the war in Gaza hadnt happened there will still be some people dismissing the media reporting coming out of Ukraine yet many of those same people dont question the media reporting from Gaza And I was looking for an opinion on that so thank you for responding

I assume this is legitimate response but you not answering my good faith question because I used the wrong word, yes its the wrong word. I should have said "some " or " certain " Can you answer now and again this your opinion. I know you dont speak on behalf of billions of people And the question is simple " why do you think some\certain\ a few people believe the media reporting in one war but dismiss the same media reporting on another war "

Maybe you answer a different question for me? We have had over 2 years of the war in Ukraine and there is view from some, like @Zoraptor and even commentary from people in South Africa, that we cant trust what the Western media reports on and we must question Russian atrocities and killing of civilians. And this is despite the fact there are many different media houses and embedded journalists in Ukraine reporting live on many things and often the same things like the massacre in Bucha which is still denied by Russia But there is limited media access in Gaza for reasons you mentioned and reported deaths of Palestinians that even the UN uses come from the Gaza Health Ministry which is controlled by Hamas I accept that the media can get things wrong both intentionally and unintentionally but my question is why do you think most people will believe what comes from Hamas but question what we hear from Ukraine? I realize you cant comment on why others have this stance but I want to know why you think this occurs. In South Africa there is a constant view from some that " you cant trust the Western media " but those same people will believe and repeat everything that Hamas or Palestinian spokespeople say And Im not denying that Palestinian civilians havent been killed or the IDF has been heavy handed, they have Im interested in why people will spend years questioning global media on one war and yet immediately believe everything about another war with limited and often unverified reporting? Is it as simple as confirmation bias in your opinion?