I actually started early with gamepads, dating all the way back to the Gravis and the original Logitech Wingman, but it might be relevant that I still primarily use a mouse and keyboard, and especially for anything that requires precise aiming.

I use a gamepad for emulated console games, since they're designed for a pad, and for things that require free and flowing movement, so respond well to a stick or a d-pad - racing games primarily, and many platformers and similar action games. But for things that combine separate movement and aiming - first person shooters and RPGs and the like - I just think a mouse and keyboard is better than dual sticks ever could be.

Seriously, WHAT is THE DEAL with conservative disinformationists scattering ALL-CAPS WORDS throughout EVERYTHING they WRITE?

My THEORY is that it's MEANT as a SUBSTITUTE for LOGIC and REASON - that in LIEU of saying things that are ACTUALLY logical, reasonable or true, they JUST say things really LOUDLY.

It MUST be TRUE because it's so EMPHATIC, right?

And it PROBABLY triggers a PAVLOVIAN response in the DUNDERHEADS who READ it. "LOOK at all the CAPS! This is MY kind of TRUTHINESS!"

It's just... WEIRD. And sort of PATHETIC.

Lied. The word you want is lied. They lied.

Good to see this - this is a story that needs to be repeated often, so that more and more westerners will come to see where and how things went wrong, and most notably, who bears the responsibilty for it.

It's also what first led me to the theory that the underlying goal of American Middle East policy is simply destabilization - that the American authorities, and the interests they represent, broadly seek to avoid the threat to western hegemony that would be posed by Middle East oil wealth administered by stable and progressive governments, and to provide recurring enemies to empower the military/industrial complex, so have deliberately pursued policies designed to keep religious fundamentalists and paranoid authoritarians in power.

Is anyone actually confused about this?

It's common knowledge that the Kremlin's propaganda machine is pushing Trump. But the doltish Americans who support Trump need to believe that they're not just tools for the Russians. Since they're both stupid and desperate, it doesn't take much - they just need something to cling to. And Putin's given it to them.

And I guarantee that right now, on Vichy Twitter and truth.social and all the other places where those angry morons hang out, they're all telling themselves and each other that all of the stuff about the Russian propaganda machine backing Trump - all of the evidence that's come out sbout Russians funding American conservative influencers and politicians and all of the examples of American conservative influencers and journalists and politicians brazenly sucking up to Putin - that all of it's just Democrat lies, because after all, Putin supports Harris. He said so.

And that's why he said it.

It's really very, very simple.

Regulation of things like pollution serves the interests of the people broadly, but undermines the interests of a handful of obscenely wealthy sociopaths.

And much of the current Supreme Court explicitly works NOT to serve the interests of the people broadly, but to serve the interests of the obscenely wealthy sociopaths.

And that's it, right there. Just as has happened in numerous past civilizations, the power structure in the US has become so warped and corrupted - so entirely in the control of sociopaths - that it not only no longer even pretends to serve the interests of the people, but tends to explicitly work against their interests.

And the hell of it is that the ruling class is so far gone in corruption and shallow self-interest - so sincerely deeply mentally ill - that they don't recognize that ultimately they're working against their own interests - that serving the interests of the people maintains the health of the society from which they benefit, and that working against the interests of the people undermines that health. Like any other mindless parasite, they're going to destroy their host, and in so doing, ultimately destroy themselves.

And the US will just be added to the ever-growing list of societies destroyed through the machinations of a relative few profoundly mentally ill people granted undue wealth and power.

Literally, officially, it's now entirely legal under federal law for officials to accept and even solicit bribes for specific services rendered, just so long as they do it after, rather than before, the service is rendered.

They aren't even pretending to be a legitimate court of law any more - they're just a rubber-stamping service for the oligarchy.

Trump is owned by Russia.

It really is just that simple - Putin and his oligarch cronies have bought and paid for him.

On brand.

How deliciously ironic that this is paywalled.

Bezos isn't going to miss a chance to dick people over. Because apparently he's not rich enough yet.

Imagine what the world would be like if we treated sociopathy as the vividly destructive mental illness it so obviously is, rather than rewarding sociopaths with wealth and power.

And like virtually every one of the similar complaints, this comes from someone who isn't otherwise active, so basically boils down to "I've noticed that other people aren't providing me with enough content. What can we do to get other people to provide me with more content?"

If you want to get more activity in niche communities, POST! And not just once - do it again and again, day in and day out.

The communities that you appreciate didn't just spring into being - they grew, over time, because people did exactly that.