BruceVC

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?

But dont you follow lots of Reddit and Twitter sources about the war?

True but this war there seems to be excessive amount of interest in battlefield updates and gore pictures from people on both sides and SM is the medium for that For example we not seeing the same amount of SM attention from Gaza, there is some but not at the same level of distribution?

I know you not posting gore pictures or these types links for sensationalism But its a war and you cant avoid these types of videos if you want to understand how it unfolds on the battlefield, its about the nature of war What I have found different about this war is I cant think of another example where so much of active battles is captured on SM from both sides

I think you would really enjoy it and especially if you a HP fan As I mentioned the developers did an amazing job at recreating the HP world and there is lots of easter egg type things to see at Hogwarts For example you will go into a corridor and see 2 ghosts chasing each other or go past numerous paintings and they start acting out or talking It is light hearted fantasy, no chainmail bikini armor for example so its definitely not for someone like @HoonDing

Im 60 hours into Hogwarts so I can share an informed and more detailed review I am enjoying it and its overall been a good experience Firstly as I mentioned previously I am not a committed fan of the HP universe but if I was I would be truly enthralled because the game incorporates so many elements of the books. The developers did an excellent job at recreating the HP world and all its components I like the activities like Merlin Trials, the astronomy puzzles, the animal code doors and then exploring Hogwarts to find the moons. And broom races are lots of fun, I loaded a mod which lets you use the mouse to control the broom and that made things much easier Crafting is well done, they have created a good balance with how its better to create potions than buy them so I find myself looking for ingredients Combat is fun and spells make a difference, the game lets you adopt different spell strategies and I decided I can use Dark Magic because I can control it and its effective The companion side quests are interesting and I support Sebastian and his passion to save his sister...not sure how thats going to end but I can guess And then I found myself enjoying saving and breeding beasts, its not something I would typically participate in but you can get ingredients which help with item upgrades and the critters are cute The main negative is enemies are repeated ...a lot. I am not sure I can kill any more poachers or Ashwinders but I will persevere So Im at the point now where I will be focusing on the main quest and I should be finishing the game soon

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/04/01/how-to-lose-a-russian-tank-regiment-in-just-a-few-hours-attack-ukraines-angriest-missileers-in-broad-daylight-with-the-wrong-forces/?sh=3004ea551308 Another example of minefields preventing meaningful advancements for both sides

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/01/turkey-opposition-stuns-in-local-election-victory-over-erdogan-party.html Im very pleased with the Turkish municipal election outcomes Its not that I particularly dislike Erdogan but this is evidence that Turkey does have free and fair elections and more importantly Erdogan is prepared to accept the loss. Putin could learn a lot from him The general Turkish unhappiness is because of the state of the economy and particularly the horrendous high inflation sitting on 60% in February And if Erdogan has just followed normal monetary policy and raised interests rates when inflation started climbing they wouldnt in the mess they now in https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/09/07/turkey-economy-inflation-erdogan-lira-interest-rate-tourism/ I can understand politicians and the average citizen not understanding the synergy between inflation and interest rates but thats why you leave these decisions to Central Banks, they qualified and are aware of the historical reasons for doing this But its generally a recipe of disaster to conflate sustainable economic outcomes with ideology or populist rhetoric

I am conflicted on this one because I absolutely know there is lots of harmful and perverse content on the Internet that young people shouldnt be viewing but where is the responsibly from parents around how kids use the Internet? Also its a slippery slope, next thing they " ban " LGBT support groups or ban anyone who questions " CRT " teachings so suddenly this type of well meaning law becomes a political or ideological tool for the extreme left or right But reading the article its not a " ban" , it says it requires parents consent but how would that practically be enforced. They mention ID would be used, but that does mean just the ID number or a scanned copy of the ID? Because if its just an ID number any youngster who is committed can get his parents ID number and use it to bypass the verification I think a better way to preventing kids from accessing harmful content is some kind of net nanny program that parents control where they can decide what websites and content kids can access and you do get that. You start with an overall blanket restriction and then parents can add what they consider is fine. Leave the state out of deciding what is appropriate https://www.netnanny.com/

You guys are over-analysing the UNSC ruling and misunderstanding why its significant No country is going to invade Israel to enforce it if thats what you hoping But its symbolic and it matters to global and UN opinion and the continuation of the legitimacy of the IDF campaign in Gaza We tend to confuse Internet opinions and grandstanding with RL optics and how governments want to be seen in conflicts like this Its like with Russia, some people will say " Russia doesn't care what the world or the UN thinks. Its ignored the ICJ ruling to end the invasion and no country will invade Russia because it was nukes " But Russia absolutely does care what UN thinks, it wants legitimacy for the invasion and it has several cases in the ICJ and one of them is around how the invasion was justified because of genocide committed against Russians in Donbas. Russia wants the world to see it as a country that believes and supports international law so despite what we think and see Putin doesn't want Russia to be seen as a rogue or warmongering state who would invade a country without a legitimate reason And this is the same as Israel, they want legal legitimacy for the IDF campaign in Gaza. Netanyahu is a terrible leader but optics do matter to Israel Israel has ignored UNSC resolutions in the past but this is different. There is far too much global attention on Israel in this latest conflict and Biden is also getting negative views of perceived indifference and lack of action Just compare most of the worlds support for Israel after 7 October and look at it now? Global public opinion is now generally very critical towards Israel and if they ignore this UNSC it will only get worse Thats why it matters, its not so much about words like binding or enforceable. Its that it was passed and how the globe and the UN will reflect on this UNSC ruling

Im really disappointed, he is such a talented artist but the allegations are very serious and if he is on the run then the allegations are more than likely true

You make some good points here Wormie, especially " It seems Sven has a vision that he wants to reach one day and BG3 was just a stepping stone toward it. They took BG3 IP as they needed money and profile to evolve beyond D:OS2. Now they have both and they can do the next thing. " Maybe we will see D:OS3 because I assume they want to have control of what IP they create The risk with creating your own IP is it doesnt have the same global footprint as an established IP like D&D but look at games like Dark Souls or other JRPG, they have there own IP and they do very well

It was a surprise for me because BG3 was an overwhelming sales success, over 15 million copies sold and still on the top 10 for ongoing Steam sales https://dotesports.com/baldurs-gate/news/baldurs-gate-3-reportedly-passes-15-million-copies-sold-as-larian-prepares-to-move-on To quote " Vincke revealed BG3 sales were “almost double” that of Divinity: Original Sin 2 in an interview with GameSpot on March 21. Vincke also remarked that BG3 was more successful than the studio anticipated it to be, which tracks given both the speed of the sales figures and the game’s reception. Seeing as Divinity: Original Sin 2 shipped approximately 7.5 million copies according to Vincke’s interview with Eurogamer in 2023, that would put BG3‘s sales at over the 15 million mark and make it one of the best-selling modern RPGs of all time" So this one of those unusual outcomes where its not just the sales success that is the reason for a studio to make another game and I assume as you mentioned that working with WotC is arduous

Yes its clear they have been brutalized and tortured but no surprise. If a state is fine with killing political dissenters you can imagine what they would do to people involved in a terrorist attack

This was almost inevitable, Netanyahu has gone too far with the military campaign and dismissed the measures the US suggested so its not a surprise the US didnt veto this latest resolution Its the most clear unofficial statement you can get with overall US displeasure with how Israel is conducting itself

I also dont want to see Trump elected again but there are several reasons he might win For me I respect the outcomes in any free and fair election, I may not be happy with the result but I respect it. We also have our national elections this year in May. Its the first time since 1994 that there is a chance the ANC will get less than 50% so it will be a very interesting election

Well there are people who claim to support Neo-Nazi ideology but they are a tiny group, maybe 6-7 people? The Ukraine thread has about 40 active people so they not a big factor Codex does have extreme political views but its from the left and right. But it also has normal opinions and more centralist views which is where I place myself more or less but I always support basic human rights over anything else If you take the US definition of left and right politics I support both the Dems and GOP around different policies

Nazi or Fascist leanings, it will be one or the other

Codex is not an echo-chamber and they have relaxed moderator rules I have realized its good to be exposed to different opinions especially because I dont use SM as a news source But its a very active and busy forum and I like that. But you cant engage in political debates on Codex and get offended because thats what some people will intentionally try to do once they know your views

Its no different to anyone who uses numerous SM sources to debate and share information Some good points get made on Codex and some utter nonsense gets spoken But thats just the political debates and I only follow 2-3. Its a very good source of gaming information as you know

I think it really does matter around who did it and this will influence the Russian response What I am finding hilarious on Codex is the amount of cope and attempts to dismiss the obvious candidates which is ISIS-K and the strange reasoning for this false narrative There are many anti-US\West commentators who support terrorist attacks on US interests because " the US is an imperialist power and it keeps meddling in the ME so it deserves to be attacked " And of course these same people don't consider Russia to be an imperial power that doesn't " meddle " so they don't want to accept that Russia is an active target for groups like ISIS for several reasons that include Russia current involvement in the Syrian war which is the same " meddling " the US has done in the ME The reality of groups like ISIS is they have a wide range of possible targets and countries and no one is really safe from perverse and anachronistic ideological views

Wow thats a seriously positive endorsement for DD2, good to know Are you playing on PC and are you using controller or m\kb?

But ISIS has several affiliated groups and they dont all fight to the death When the ISIS Caliphate in the ME was finally destroyed in 2018 there were several hundred ISIS militants who surrendered. Interestingly enough they were mostly the "Western " ISIS fighters from EU countries and not from countries like Chechnya I remember reading an article about an Iraqi Sunni women who lived under ISIS occupation in Mosul and she specifically mentioned how the worst atrocities and drug usage was done generally by ISIS members from Western countries and not foreign fighters from the ME and other places Remember this guy from the UK, "Jihadi John " https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/26/uk-man-behind-isis-beheadings-named-as-mohammed-emwazi-jihadi-john

Exactly, its almost guaranteed to be ISIS and they have released another video claiming responsibility The denialism and attempts to not accept its ISIS has surprised me, Vatniks on Codex are peddling various false narratives and someone mentioned its because " only the US and its allies get attacked by Islamic extremists for meddling in the ME " So I guess that could be the reason we seeing this strange attempt to not believe the obvious culprits responsible? Its not like its the first time Russia has been attacked and it wont be the last, remember the Russian plane that was blown up leaving Egypt https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34687990