I wanted to make this thread as a way to share news and independent reporting/coverage outside of gaming.
I’ll start us off with this, to give a good example of what I will be posting, before this thread become a problem and I or mods have to close it.
Some talk from Al Jazeera on Discords government ID requirememt.
Louis Rossman talking about Ring(he’s talked about it before, as Ring shares their footage with Flock, who shares that with law enforcement) and how the newest Superbowl commercial has had the opposite effect of what they wanted from people.
We Rate Dogs own video on the ad.
Guess this might fit here, in both cases it highlights why it feels like turkeys are voting for Christmas, while the rest of us look on in horror…
Already posted this in the community thread but obviously the non-gaming impact is worse, it’s a study showing once people are exposed to echo chambers they’re easily and irreversibly (for the most part) radicalised, which is why Musk bought Twitter:
There’s also this investigation into the bad faith (often racist) AI slop generated to make money and sow discord amongst simpletons too stupid to understand it’s fake who think it highlights governments allowing lawlessness and blowing money on “the wrong people”:
Both, along with this childish desire of some to piss off “the libs” / “woke-ies” / “bleeding hard liberals” / “the eco lot” / anyone who’s not a selfish asshole - even at the cost of their own economic security or the planet, go some way to explaining the state of the planet, and why there’s a toddler in the White House who grabs anything shiny.
I do enjoy the “I can’t believe the leopard bit my face off!” sob articles from people who voted for the “leopard biting people’s faces off" parties too, but I think my schadenfreude and “I so informed you thusly! / I told you so!” will be short-lived if we end up in WW3 or the planet burning lol…
We have a similar issue in the UK - the billionaire and media barons keep us all fighting over scraps and they highlight welfare spending, when by far the biggest welfare recipients are corporations.
Amazon barely pays any tax in the UK, but they use the roads our government and councils built and maintain to make deliveries, they use the electricity grid and water utilities we paid to install, and don’t have to pay for employee health insurance due to the NHS.
Yet they pay their employees only a bit above minimum wage, not a true living wage - meaning we’re usually topping those employees up with in-work (but low pay) benefits and childcare support etc.
Nearly every corporation in the UK does the same, and billionaires structure all their money to either be wealth (so not taxed as much, for example capital gains) or loans / corporate money so can have tax write offs etc - and we’re unable to go after them because often their enablers (the right wing) are in power or are in power in the USA (meaning they threaten us if we do anything to hurt “American companies or American (rich) people”), and going after the rich themselves to pay more is difficult as they always have lawyers and accountants looking at loopholes or are able to “live” elsewhere with no global consensus.
It’s infuriating and in inequality terms we’re definitely reaching or exceeding the levels where Rome started to fall and the French and Russians had a revolution, but now we’ve got comfortable enough lives with enough entertainment to keep us busy, plus propaganda to keep us divided, that I think we’ll probably take it for another few centuries at least…
I really wanted to share this Hank Green video and it actually seems to fit here. A lot of it goes into how the way we’ve built the stock market, the wealthy are encouraged (it benefits them) to NOT look to create value but instead sit on money and invest for short term gain. It goes into how the economy is kinda held together with duct tape now (or is only held together on the surface while it breaks down below) as companies in America at least have a president that they feel confident will benefit them and the stock market even if it means skirting traditional legal boundaries. There’s also a good bit about how all this money is being invested into AI and tech companies are building up, but unlike previous times that isn’t leading to as much actual value being created or nearly as many jobs. It does end an a hopeful note though. He speaks with an economist whose been going around America and seeing Americans solve these problems in sustainable ways on lower levels.
It’s an on going issue that extends to when left leaning politicians that are centrist are in charge. As they work with corpos who fund their campaigns, to get them more favorable treatment.
Which in the US spending on Politics has increased from several millions to billions, after the corpos got the finance laws for campaign changed with Citizens United v Fec.
But we have are seeing successes from more socialist leaning left wing in the US. Which gives me hope that we are all starting to understand what we should be looking for politics.
This is the Emptywheel, she goes over many of the political on goings and breaks it down with historical and political precedents, to show why something that is being done is wrong/revisionist or illegal.
In this one she goes over Marco Rubio’s recent speech in Europe.
Yep the US is completely screwy even compared to the rest of the West - we know elsewhere we’ve got lobbying issues, campaign finance issues and media plurality issues but nowhere does money talk as much as it does in the USA.
There’s greater transparency elsewhere too.
The US system practically guarantees everyone is always grifting, always fundraising - as there’s elections every couple of years and no one can get anything done with simple majorities most of the time so have to pork barrel the bills that pass to get backing.
I mean even coroners are elected in half the USA - that’s insane lol, certifying cause of death is a scientific and medical procedure not something political…
Turkeys voting for Christmas - where’s the improvement in the cost of living he promised, or lower taxes on actual workers?
Yet they still cheer him on because he’s hurting people they don’t like more.
What many of them forget (Reform voters over here too) that while it’ll hurt the most disadvantaged, that can include them - and a large number of people who vote left wing do so for conscience rather than need, particularly the “woke” lot they hate so much - we’re often in well paid jobs and can weather the storm better than they can.
We just don’t want to see the most disadvantaged go through it, while for them as long as someone is doing worse they’re happy
This is a link to Democracy Docket website/news letter that covers many political events in the US and Legal Practice run by Marc Elias’ that works constantly to maintain the right for Americans to vote.
At the bottom of the page, there is a link to show cases they have been part of.
It’s a video from 2 months ago, but one that shows how things could be different.
HasanAbi’s coverage of the Racist tweets by Asmondgold, where he used Richard Lynn, the self proclaim Scientist Racist, “Research” to declare that Samolians have lower IQ why also claiming it wasn’t racist. Hasan also views a video that goes over the same issues and debunks Asmondgold.
There’s also an edited video that adds some context from Asmondgold, from Hasan Productions where they use video of Asmondgold stating he doesn’t read, or do any research.
Why would anybody get cooking recipes, home cleaning tips or political information from Asmongold?!
So, Persona the company Discord is working with to verify IDs, has already been reported as getting hacked and having 70k IDs stolen before. Was hacked again, by hacktavist this time.
HasanAbi’s coverage of the situation in Mexico, after the Army killed a Cartel leader in an attempted arrest.
Brian Tyler Cohen and Marc Elias of Democracy Docket about the Redistricting victory for fairer maps in 2026 midterms.
Louis Rossman going over a verification bill that is being brought up in Colorado, US.
Love Last Week Tonight - I might be in the UK while many of his stories focus on slightly niche things in the USA, but it’s witty, informative and genuinely makes potentially dull topics interesting.
Plus it makes me feel better about the UK lol
EDIT: Now watched it in its entirety, and yep fuck Elon
John Oliver and his people are really good at doing the research and his presentation style is great at maintaining seriousness of the topic while making fun of just how ridiculous it is.