Content ideas, Yakuza games and fucking conspiracy theorists
Hey there,
I hope you had a fabulous week. Mine was rather productive and I hope it goes like that from now on. This weeks newletter features some content ideas, brief thoughts on the Yakuza games and a huge rant about a nonesense sermon my pastor gave.
Content Ideas
There hasn't been anything that I've really wanted to write on my personal website besides the book reviews I'm ignoring, but I have two posts to write this month.
- The first one has to do with some images I "donated" and how I went about doing that. On the Codelab, I have some content planned which uses those images. For now, check out my Flickr.
- I want to write about "fire in a crowded theatre". Won't spoil too much but Americas staunch protection of free speech means a lot of objectionable things stand, something lots of people have an issue with. One counter to this is that you "can't yell fire in a crowded theatre" meaning there should be sensible limits. Problem is that precedent hasn't applied for a while and the reason it came up might anger you...
Stay tuned!
I'm Really Getting Annoyed With My Conspirotal Pastor
This section will be blog post long but I'm putting it here since it's not indexed and I don't want the attention. Still, I'm so fucking livid!
As COVID cases are rising here in Zim, we have to have services online again. I'm kinda glad that I don't have to go for services in person because the church literally don't give a shit about this thing. Social distancing and masks is a suggestion. At least have the services outside but nope. "The blood of Jesus will protect you". "It's important" and all that bullshit (in the sense that COVID won't hear it).
The thing that got me livid was my pastor sermon and it was full of "just asking questions" (JAQing off). He wanted to look into whether end time prophecies are being fulfilled looking through Revalations 6. Details aren't important but his thesis is that COVID and COVID vaccines are bringing about a genocide. Thesis being that the seals aren't physical so the "crown" mentioned could be COVID and the "arrows" could be vaccines. The whole thing was full of lies and weasel words about this whole thing.
He kept pointing to "doctors who disagree", "people are saying" and such hedging. Thing is:
- who's "people", @vaccinesAreHolocaust1488?
- Okay maybe that's an appeal to authority. What are they basing their "saying" and "disagreement" on? Not everything thought and opinion out there is valid, especially ones based in untruths.
The whole thing was a conspiratorial bingo. You have no idea how livid I am writing all of this. The thing that annoys me most about all this isn't the untruths themselves but his insistence of JAQing off, wanting a "debate" and "dialogue" but if he did just 1 second of research like his similarly conspiratorial wife (birds of a similar flock hey?) always suggests (typically research she agrees with), his questions would be answers satisfactory. Also the fact that he's shoehorning his scepticism and leaning against the scripture to prop up his senseless theory is irresponsible.
I will say that there's much we still don't know and more we still need to find out so it's a diservice not to point those out. We aren't sure about transmission reduction and they're effectiveness against new variants and all.
After this I got in a big fight over it with my mom. When I pointed out the outlandish nonesense which have no basis in fact she's like "we just can't know" or "how do you know". I'd admit that I was wrong about being forced but is that a bad thing? We all trade some form of autonomy for the sake of social wellbeing. Also "it's your choice". Like, your choices affect others. Sure I wouldn't care if some denialists die of COVID, but is it fair to the people they interact with? Also the issue of risk. I acknowledge the vaccines are risky as they're experimental but don't we take risks all the time? Thankfully we're all vaccinated against COVID so I shouldn't care but my country's healthcare system is a shambles so I'd prefer we get this over and done with.
As livid as I am, I want to be understanding too. It's hard to make sense of the whole COVID pandemic, some of the science isn't communicated well. We don't know enough and there's much to be afraid of. I know I've been condesending here and I want to think badly of these people, but they're better reached with empathy over condesention. Doesn't make me less mad however.
God I'm just so livid. I'm not gonna bother editing this section because I just wanted to vent my frustrations. I can't wait until I don't have to listen to that pastor ever again. The one pastor hasn't been able to come home for the past year (and I'm glad she couldn't to peddle her nonesense) but she can now and has a sermon planned for next week which I'm certain will be full of nonesense. Fuck this shit, I'm gonna play Yakuza 5 once I send this newsletter.
Speaking of Yakuza
I managed to get Xbox's Game Pass again and I'm continuing my look through the Yakuza series. So far I've played 0, Kiwami 1, Kiwami 2, 3 and 4 and I'm going through 5 now. I might write some thoughts on it once I've finished 7.
So far I really enjoy the series and I love the beat 'em up. The main stories are well written and serious and matched with absolutley ridicuous side stories. There are moments you cry, get angry and laugh hysterically. It's practically a Yakuza themed soap opera video game. You could say that it's a soap opera for men.
A few things to note are that the games are really long and most of them are cutscene heavy. In the first two hours of Yakuza 5, 1 hour was cutscenes. It's also voiced in Japanese with English subtitles which wasn't as frustrating as I expected and might be better than having it dubbed, though it's annoying to miss some dialogue. I'm happy that 7 has english dubs.
In 5, so far there's so much filler my God.
1057 Livid words later...
Sorry for the giant rant in the middle. I was just so grated by the whole thing. I'm putting it here since I don't want the attention. Outside of that, I'm gonna plan some content and play Yakuza.
Until next week!
Farai