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Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty

@irhottakes.bsky.social

14K followers 260 following 16K posts

Political science PhD student. World’s third best Bigfoot colonial governance simulation expert. Had to drag myself kicking and screaming to she/her, but she/her nonetheless.

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Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty @irhottakes.bsky.social · Jan 26

Just going to make today a wiki day for the D&D campaign, I think. Goal is to have all the useful things up and links to the pinned thread here by the end of the day. Character bios and sheets, daily briefs, transcripts of previous acts, etc. People have said it's easy to get lost, want to help.

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Reposted by Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty

MariedeGhoulnay @mariedegournay.bsky.social · 9h

You DON'T fuck with Flyswatter the Magnificent.

a pixel art of a frog wearing a wizard 's hat

ALT: a pixel art of a frog wearing a wizard 's hat

media.tenor.com

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Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty @irhottakes.bsky.social · 9h

Imagine being a dying WW2 veteran and the last thing you see on earth is your great-grandson invading Portland for fascism and losing to a frog wizard.

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Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty @irhottakes.bsky.social · 11h

In fairness to the hogs, I’d be pretty hyped too if I was a Canadian swine and heard there was an entire country down south ran by pigs.

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 11h

Fingers crossed we never have to deal with the US hog/Canadian hog mix:

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023...

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Bruce Ediger @bruceediger.bsky.social · 11h

They're conflating two things:

Tabulators mechanically/electronically count ballots

Voting machines present a ballot representation to the voter, accept inputs, then tally inputs

Tabulators are common. Ballots exist outside the machine, verifiable. Vote by mail states use these, and verify.

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Reposted by Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty

QuoProQuid @quoproquid.bsky.social · 11h

Liberty (née Dominion) appears to be trying to address the concerns articulated by Trump and other conservatives, which they would probably do regardless of owner because their machines are bought by both red and blue counties and their business model cannot handle being boycott by one side.

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Cao Cao Power Hour Enthusiast @statsboyandi.bsky.social · 11h

The somewhat more nerd response is that because the machines are more or less air gapped and are still audited anyway, actually futzing with them is extremely difficult, even if you were competent. Add to this the complex, patchwork nature of our electoral process and well.

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Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty @irhottakes.bsky.social · 11h

Some Republican firm supposedly bought up a voting machine company for vaguely suspicious reasons.

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Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty @irhottakes.bsky.social · 11h

I was under that impression but confess the finer details are beyond my present knowledge and the general “all bets are off” nature of the world these days had me second guessing.

Cao Cao Power Hour Enthusiast @statsboyandi.bsky.social · 11h

It is literally impossible to do.

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Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty @irhottakes.bsky.social · 11h

Look, I’m just gonna ask. How bad is this voting machine thing? Because it doesn’t sound good but all the people going on about how it proves all elections will be rigged from here on out forever smell like an op.

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Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty @irhottakes.bsky.social · 13h

Basically, the situation is that smart Americans rigged the entire world to prevent dumb Americans from tasting the fruits of their own incompetence, but didn’t count on the masses voting to eat the turd apple.

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Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty @irhottakes.bsky.social · 13h

The collaborator class seems serenely confident that the Trumpenreich will last a thousand years while the House GOP is in complete meltdown. Look, I’m not *promising* comedy gold by any means, but the possibility is there.

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Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty @irhottakes.bsky.social · 13h

Wyll is underdeveloped, but I wouldn’t go as far as to call him incomplete.

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Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty @irhottakes.bsky.social · 13h

Starting game squad save Karlach, who is clearly incomplete with the infernal metals that go nowhere and cut upper city content and so forth.

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Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty @irhottakes.bsky.social · 15h

Also very funny that the stock market basically survives on the belief that there is a 95% chance of nothing bad happening over the course of this administration if there's a 5% chance of something bad happening every day for four years.

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 16h

it's fun how every Trump tantrum about China has a 95 percent chance of blowing over in two weeks and a 5 percent chance of destroying the global economy.

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Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty @irhottakes.bsky.social · 16h

Imagine how demoralizing it must be to rock in as a fascist stormtrooper ready to crack some skulls only to be repulsed by a frog who shrugs off your pathetic fire and starts casting magic spells.

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Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty @irhottakes.bsky.social · 16h

Agreed. Also, Frog Wizard tanked getting gassed to the goddamn face. That's a little more than just dicking around.

Laura Jedeed @laurajedeed.bsky.social · 19h

This video is everywhere because it's a hilarious visual refutation of Portland being on fire. You can't get a mass movement going without convincing the masses

so yes, this does do something actually

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Dallas Steele

@Cherrykickstart

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This literally does nothing. You are not beating fascism by dressing up in inflatable suits and dancing

Quote tweeting Claude Taylor @TrueFactsStated

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Portland is leading the way. This is how you (non violently) beat Fascism. Humor and ridicule are key.

Stillframe from a video of Portland protesters dancing in inflatable suits

9:17 AM 08 Oct 25 758K Views

13:01 09 Oct 25 32.6K Views

88 Reposts

11 Quotes

1,049 Likes

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Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty @irhottakes.bsky.social · 16h

A fun fact about America is that our health secretary literally has less of a grip on reality than an Ork Painboy from Warhammer 40,000 second edition.

The rules for a "Vaxxine Squig" which immunizes Ork troops from virus outbreaks.

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Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty @irhottakes.bsky.social · 1d

Oh, I’m not joking at all.

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Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty @irhottakes.bsky.social · 1d

Not disputing that at all. It being hard to start with is why it getting massively harder with every generation makes me sympathetic to devs’ plight here.

Jintor @jintor.itch.io · 1d

while this is true, it would still have been a load of work in DX at the time iirc. planning for branching stuff is wild work

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Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty @irhottakes.bsky.social · 1d

There are 17 companions in BG2. There are 10 in BG3 and about half of them are what I’d consider “complete.” Approximately 50,000 times more effort went into BG3’s companions.

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Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty @irhottakes.bsky.social · 1d

I think choice is becoming a victim of technological advances and player expectations. If you choose whether Bob or Jim live in a SNES RPG, you’ve got a different set of pixels and text boxes. Now you‘ve got a new set of voice lines, Hollywood tier animations, etc.

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 1d

Thinking about it, the original Deus Ex may be the king of choice in a game with a story, because your choices are significant, linked to gameplay and unforced. From the very start, for instance, whether you use or avoid lethal force against the “terrorists” determines something about you.

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Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty @irhottakes.bsky.social · 1d

Honestly, I think some accounts on here are ops meant to sow division by random drive by scoldings.

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Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty @irhottakes.bsky.social · 1d

"We have to let the voters touch the stove!"

"No! We have to deliver results on healthcare!"

This is what is going through the minds of the people you are trying to strategize around: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtL_...

Patrick on a seahorse listening to fly me to the moon

YouTube video by SystemFormat

www.youtube.com

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Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty @irhottakes.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah, I think this is the key insight. Nobody here is capable of generating a theory of mind for the "moderate" Trump supporter or the indifferent in late 2025. It's like trying to see the world through the eyes of a turkey with brain damage. We're all feeling our way through the dark.

Jen in Motion @jeninmotion.bsky.social · 1d

Everyone is having a hard time answering the question, "why on Earth did anyone vote for Trump is they literally hate everything he does? How do we stop them from doing this dumb shit again?" and one theory is clearly, "we have to make people realize the GOP is not an option."

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marcy and the banshees🦇 @beneprism.rip · 1d

It feels like my favorite coffee shop has suddenly started selling the stinkiest ass cigars imaginable. My friends are still here, the conversation can be good, but every hour or so we're just immersed in a cloud of oily, choking stogie smoke

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