As a civil (and not religious) holiday, Thanksgiving opens the door to a lot of new Americans to be able to participate in a broader America in their own way. No other public holiday comes close to the assimilating force of Thanksgiving

You can do it in game or in the meta or however you like, but once you do it, you’re going to discover a really neat behavior shift.

“Survival” is such an overwhelming goal that it overshadows everything else. Once it’s out of play, everyone starts thinking a lot more about stakes and motives.

oh yes, this is why I have proposed "My Dinner With Andre, but with superheroes"

As much as we rag on these games for having horrible models of history/politics/military theory and the fanbases they attract, there isn't anything inherently wrong with enjoying them because if you look hard enough *everything* is problematic

I mean the big reason to want a public opinion is that it serves as a rate setting mechanism for the insurance market & also as a backstop for Medicaid in states that opted out of the expansion. It is in fact good public policy.

there's a picture of the 2024 PHB in the dictionary next to the word "mid" and it literally does not matter because the people hunger for Third Space The Game.

My own solution in the past has been to speak of a political structure - vassalage - which connected kings, aristocrats and retainers, and then an economic system - manorialism - which connected aristocrats and peasants.

I can explain that in a simple, foundational model, which we can build on.

It’s been accepted as common sense wisdom from people who hold firm to the “nasty, brutish, and short” vision of humanity articulated in The Leviathan.

it won't happen automatically. but there is very obviously an opportunity for ambitious types who want to quite literally save the American republic to have their names written in history. crowns are in the gutter waiting to be picked up

when I say "liberal," I mean "centrist who believes in all the basics of Western neoliberalism" but when Chris Hayes says liberal, he means "progressive who believes in a degree of regulation of capital" but when the cheeto says "liberal" he means "anyone left of Reagan"

The lesson to be learned from “Disco Elysium” was not the use of the second-person narrative, nor magical-realist alternate histories, nor different voices in your head. The lesson was to write deeply personal stories without compromise, to lose your fear that your own voice might not fit in.