Itās sad that toxic game culture is so prevalent cuz like. As someone who has ended up in random matches with kids before, I can attest to how fucking easy it is to reverse and un-teach shitty attitudes in kids.
Example: I downloaded Friday the 13th because itās free on psn. I dunno how to play, so I just enter quick play and Iām matched with 3-4 kids on mic. Immediately on mic theyāre shitty and disparaging to each other. They laugh at each others deaths, they actively work against team mates and self sabotage, they call each other āfagsā, etc. From the sounds of the voices they cannot be older than 13-14.
I put on my mic and just decide I aināt havin it. I am nice. I thank them for barricading doors or leaving me items. When they break free from Jasonās grasp I say āgood job!ā or I try to help them. One kid survived for most of the match by himself. When he dies, I tell him he did a fantastic job.
The mood shift is practically INSTANT. These kids almost immediately stop being dick heads. They start encouraging each other and being kind. After the match all of them try to friend request me. Which should tell you a couple of things:
A) kids want to be kind, and they want to have a nice time playing games. But encounters with adults like me or so rare that theyāve trained themselves to instantly put on a toxic, shitty, defensive veneer when encountering any new person online. Itās literally just THAT EASY to not groom a horrible gaming community, itās just that NO ONE does it.
B) the speed of which they all tried to friend me was cute, but paints for me such a sad picture? Like these kids are SO desperate to find people to play with who arenāt crappy jerks. They played with me for 10 minutes TOPS and all instantly tried to reach out to me.
tl;dr: The kids are alright. Adults are shit heads.
romesh ranganathan is the most passionate drunk history narrator of all time
āThatās a whole bruvah!ā
CAPTIONS:
Romesh Ranganathan, narrating the re-enactment in his English accented voice: Carnarvonās half-brother, Mervyn HerbertāDEAD! Aubrey Herbert, his other half-brotherāDEAD! Thatās a whole brother! DEAD!!! Carterās secretary, Carterās secretary, he didnāt have nothinā to do with it, he just typed the lettersāDEAD! DEAD, mate! Murked! Can you believe that shit? Thereās a CURSE!!! DO YOU UNDERSTAND? A CURSE, MATE! YEAH? YOU DONāT GO FUCKINā AROUND WITH SOMEONEāS TOMB![Romesh pauses before continuing in a calm and casual voice] Are you gettinā my socks in the shot ācause I donāt want you to.
The point of voting blue in 2018 isnāt to make the US perfect. We cannot accomplish that in one fell swoop. Thereās gerrymandering, voter apathy, voter suppression, and generations of older party-line fucks we have to deal with.
Voting blue in 2018 is to make it lessimmediately threatening for PoC, LGBT+ people, the disabled, and any other marginalized demographic. Itās a stopgap against Republicans who are aligned with Nazis, white supremacists, and sexual abusers.
Correcting politics in the United States is going to take decades of new voters staying on top of politics and not falling prey to apathy, like our predecessors.Ā
People telling you not to waste a vote on 3rd Party this midterm arenāt sayingĀ ānever vote 3rd party.ā Republicans have united behind one utterly heinous front.We need to unite behind Democrats, for the time being.