This is great analysis and spot on as usual. I'm a Linguistics anthropologist who also loves to game. And I'm really tired of these neo Templar cosplayer moralists.
I’m glad I’m not the only one delineating the difference in the swastikas — especially as the swastika is the first sino - Korean character in my Zen Buddhist name, given to me by the head monk at the Han Maum Zen Center, in Kwanak, South Korea — in 2008. When people have asked me why — despite their understanding of my spiritual adherence to secular Zen Buddhism, I still use the symbol in this name — I say, ‘because the mentally deranged war criminal who absconded with it for about 40 years doesn’t deserve the mantle of one in history to take it away from so many cultures which own it. When I lived in Japan it was comforting to see it in the eaves of the temples I visited. As the host of the right words podcast — one of my main focuses is on meaning, some thing I am slowly trying to inject into American culture — a place that does use the wrong words, and does depend on willful misunderstanding, all too often. Let us not be defined by the deranged war criminals of the world – including the one in the office of the White House now and his minions.
What happened to the edit function in Notes? I recently got rid of the app, because I found it inconsistent with the browser--but I’m back, because it seems like each has its benefits. Why can’t one of these site owners have his or her applications made to be comprehensively easy to use, with everything in one place? I was Geocities, My Space, Cyworld, Kakao, Facebook, Twitter, X, Medium, Soundcloud, Instagram, Bluesky and am still on Wordpress (16 years), Quora and Linked in--so this is not an issue of my being a Luddite. What the hell is wrong with these tech ‘geniuses’? Is it just sales manipulation? What am I missing here? How does it serve these people to not make a comprehensively, one-stop, one menu, easy-to-uses system? Medium came close, but their menues, like here--at Wordpress, are bonkers. Wordpress went design complex, thievey and entitled, Quora’s algorithms are AI stupid--with generated questions so so dumb, you know they’re not from people, Bluesky is too much snark, anger and divisiveness, Twitter became X--of course (I left the oligarchs, including Facebook, saying goodbye to 2,000+ friends over finding autocracy)--and am now only here, on Wordpress and Line messenger, all of which are very lonely and stupidly designed. Anyone feel the same? Don’t I wish NASA would design an app.... I have to say--Kakao was smart, but like Line, they are obsessed with security and basically only have Asian populations and only my expat friends use them in Japan--with Kakao all but only used by Koreans for fluff.
I am literally, and I do mean literally dealing with one of them right now in a mobile strategy game. When are they going to just admit they have an execution fetish?
This is great analysis and spot on as usual. I'm a Linguistics anthropologist who also loves to game. And I'm really tired of these neo Templar cosplayer moralists.
Thank you! High praise coming from you.
Skeptoids unite!
Idiots all of them.
I’m glad I’m not the only one delineating the difference in the swastikas — especially as the swastika is the first sino - Korean character in my Zen Buddhist name, given to me by the head monk at the Han Maum Zen Center, in Kwanak, South Korea — in 2008. When people have asked me why — despite their understanding of my spiritual adherence to secular Zen Buddhism, I still use the symbol in this name — I say, ‘because the mentally deranged war criminal who absconded with it for about 40 years doesn’t deserve the mantle of one in history to take it away from so many cultures which own it. When I lived in Japan it was comforting to see it in the eaves of the temples I visited. As the host of the right words podcast — one of my main focuses is on meaning, some thing I am slowly trying to inject into American culture — a place that does use the wrong words, and does depend on willful misunderstanding, all too often. Let us not be defined by the deranged war criminals of the world – including the one in the office of the White House now and his minions.
卍道 (만도/Mändō)
What happened to the edit function in Notes? I recently got rid of the app, because I found it inconsistent with the browser--but I’m back, because it seems like each has its benefits. Why can’t one of these site owners have his or her applications made to be comprehensively easy to use, with everything in one place? I was Geocities, My Space, Cyworld, Kakao, Facebook, Twitter, X, Medium, Soundcloud, Instagram, Bluesky and am still on Wordpress (16 years), Quora and Linked in--so this is not an issue of my being a Luddite. What the hell is wrong with these tech ‘geniuses’? Is it just sales manipulation? What am I missing here? How does it serve these people to not make a comprehensively, one-stop, one menu, easy-to-uses system? Medium came close, but their menues, like here--at Wordpress, are bonkers. Wordpress went design complex, thievey and entitled, Quora’s algorithms are AI stupid--with generated questions so so dumb, you know they’re not from people, Bluesky is too much snark, anger and divisiveness, Twitter became X--of course (I left the oligarchs, including Facebook, saying goodbye to 2,000+ friends over finding autocracy)--and am now only here, on Wordpress and Line messenger, all of which are very lonely and stupidly designed. Anyone feel the same? Don’t I wish NASA would design an app.... I have to say--Kakao was smart, but like Line, they are obsessed with security and basically only have Asian populations and only my expat friends use them in Japan--with Kakao all but only used by Koreans for fluff.
Nice job, Brian. I've read quite a bit about Crusades but it's hard to keep track and this brief article is a great summary
The crusaders would not have been as polite as the Pope was…
I am literally, and I do mean literally dealing with one of them right now in a mobile strategy game. When are they going to just admit they have an execution fetish?