Yeah, I tried Black Flag a while back—because I’d heard good things—but just couldn’t be bothered with all the busy work. I did really enjoy Mafia 3, The Witcher 3, RDR2; I’m not anti-side quest by any means. I think I need a more compelling story, and that’s never been AC’s strong point (based on ~3 AC games I’ve picked up and quickly dropped over the years).

People are saying it. Many great people.

I think 75% is far too generous an estimate, tbh. Every policy I’ve acquired through the ACA-mandated marketplace has been garbage, right from the start. For-profit health care is evil, and the ACA just served to further entrench this evil in our lives. It did some marginal good, and I’m certainly not advocating for its repeal in favor of ‘concepts of a plan’. But 75%? I can’t get on board with that.

This is something I do, so I’ll take a crack at it—though, bear in mind, it might be total bullshit.

It’s a defense mechanism. Many popular things are—in my estimation—objectively terrible. Every time something utterly devoid of merit (and often actively detrimental to the public good) is generally agreed to be a popular sensation, the connection I feel to my fellow human beings takes a hit.

I want to believe in people—in society. But I’m clearly a judgmental sob. So maybe by avoiding the popular things, I’m trying not to further my own alienation.

I have blocked at least one “videos” community, since I have no interest in watching anything masquerading as informative. I’ve been on Lemmy a bunch lately, so I can only assume that I’ve preemptively blocked the instance or community where it’s being posted.

I’ve been blissfully unaware of this trend, because I’m not on any other social media! I get that posting this is a bit of smug self-satisfaction, which nobody likes, but I feel strongly that corporate social media is a scourge, and that far too many people farm out their critical thinking to random “content creators.” Black-box content algorithms are not doing you any favors, and they will affect your thinking if you subject yourself to them.