The reality of life is that we will all die. Some will die quietly, peacefully, surrounded by loved ones. Some will die messily, painfully, alone and afraid. This is the reality we must all live in and accept.

It’s very possible that our species will die out. That is not an inherently bad or evil thing. Countless species have come and gone from Earth. Whether we destroy ourselves through war and ignorance, or we continue to thrive, doesn’t matter right now. What does matter is you.

You describe symptoms of depression and anxiety. You are sad and scared, and this is in part due to feeling powerless to fix the world. However, the only thing you have power over is yourself. Focus on helping yourself before you try to help the world. Try to find peace within yourself before seeking it in the world. The world is not, and has never been, a place of peace.

If you’d like practical advice, then I’d say stay away from weed and THC if it’s making you anxious. Keep away from alcohol as it will just exacerbate your depressed feelings. If you haven’t already, please discuss your feelings with a therapist and see a psychiatrist for mental health diagnoses and treatment. If either of these hasn’t worked for you before, I’d urge you to seek second opinions.

There a stage after denial?!

Does Nixon’s head in Futurama count?

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead. It’s a free, classic-style roguelike that has a massive amount of options. The game takes place in the near-future following an apocalyptic event that has turned most people into zombies. There’s also Lovecraftian horrors, Fallout-esque military installations guarded by robots, the ability to be a furry (like, with a full costume. Or you can get mutagens and transform yourself into an animal hybrid.), vehicle and structure building, and you can even milk cows. It’s updated daily if you want to play the latest test builds, or you can stay with the latest stable build. There are various overhaul mods and loads of single-feature mods. It’s one of my all-time favorite games, and I tend to go back to it every few months.

I don’t have much experience with JRPGs. What’s the gameplay like? Action or strategy, or something of a hybrid? Are they hard to get started with? I see Ys Nordic just released back in September. Would that be a good starting point, or would I be confused from missing prior games in the series?

I’ve got it toooo!

TL;DR: I have no idea, but I too struggle with the conflicted feelings you mention.

I apologize if the following is a long ramble, but I’m currently dealing with very similar circumstances. I also prefer female protagonists out of a combination of attraction and envy. If I had a magic potion I could drink that would turn me into my ideal (unrealistic) female form then I’d take it without a second thought.

However, it’s unclear to me if I actually want to be a woman, or if I really just don’t want to be me. I’ve always been more traditionally feminine than masculine (naturally quiet, verbal rather than physical, tend to socialize better with girls/women, etc.), but that has also contributed social pressures that made me feel like I wasn’t a “real man.” Do I not feel like a man because I identify better as a woman? Or do I not feel like a man because so many people have mocked me throughout my life and made me feel like I can’t be a man?

I’m working with a therapist now on the many mental health issues I’ve had, and I highly recommend looking into therapy if you haven’t already. In my case, my therapist has voiced a tentative opinion that, what at first felt to me to be a desire to be a woman, has been me conflating my own identity with my unrestrained sexual desires and fetishes. Put simply, I was extremely isolated for so long with nothing to give me purpose or definition except for the the media I consumed. The idea of a young, beautiful, kind, powerful, sexually liberated woman was both the height of my sexual desire and the height of my personal aspirations. That (unrealistic) archetype was a fantasy that took on a life of its own in my mind and became a part of my personality over the course of approx. 20 years.

I hope that we, and the countless other people suffering, can come to better understand ourselves. I hope for a future where we can feel happy and proud of ourselves, regardless of what form or gender identity we are or will become.

Thanks dad

It warms my heart just a little to see crooks robbing crooks.

I dunno, if a government cares enough to look into this then the corpos might get some VERY sharp slaps on their wrists.

I played Starfield on the Game Pass and was bored to tears after four hours. It made me want to explore space, but everything is so half-baked in Starfield that it drove me to reinstall and start playing more No Man’s Sky.

Fascinating! Thank you for this contribution and sourcing further reading material. I just read a bit into the Remington / Sandy Hook lawsuit you mentioned. Despite many opinions posted here suggesting that it’s impossible and/or unethical to blame the manufacturers, there’s a clear case of a civil court recognizing such damages.

I apologize if I am coming across in poor faith. I do not intend to argue, but to understand. I appreciate your discussion, and I hope we both learn more about other people’s beliefs.

I will note that I made no proposal of anything. Holding manufacturers accountable doesn’t necessarily mean we’d need to eliminate their ability to make and sell guns. I’m not even sure what making them accountable could, or would, look like. I was more curious as to what people thought about the idea of reviewing the responsibility of the use of guns to include those who make them.

At the moment, I read news articles everyday about the misuse of firearms. Children shooting each other. Criminals murdering people. Ignorant, though innocent, people playing with guns and accidentally killing others. In all cases, I see arguments of who to blame. I’ve always been confused why the manufacturers are never considered as a party worthy of blame. I was curious why that was the case, and the many answers throughout this thread have been very enlightening. If nothing else, this issue is clearly far more complicated than I first anticipated.

I think my hangup on the issue is a matter of intention and primary purpose. A car’s primary purpose is to transport. A screwdrivers primary purpose is to affix screws. A computer has a wide, unspecified set of applications such that there is no implied purpose outside of personal or economic enrichment. I do not believe that the manufacturers of these products should be held accountable for their products misuse.

However, I’m quite concerned about firearms being used for their primary purpose: killing people. To the manufacturers and legislators credit, as someone else mentioned in this thread, there are at least meticulous safety standards to greatly limit the likelihood of guns killing people OUTSIDE of the users’ intended targets.

I would argue that it’s currently impossible, or at least extremely difficult, to remove the civilian firearms from the United States. If I had a magic spell that could make all the guns vanish at once, I’d cast it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, there are so many firearms already in the US that it’d be absurd to expect all (or even most) people to voluntarily surrender them. The situation is made all the worse because of a minority of criminals and capitalists who would no doubt seek to profit off of a seizure or surrender scheme.

Hope, then, seems to lie with focusing on a healthier, happier future. An America where less people are forced into crime, and where profit for profit’s sake is frowned upon, sounds ideal.

I tentatively agree with you. You mention how this would be difficult and messy in our present legal system, and I guess I’m trying to consider what an alternative legal system might do to address the problem of gun violence without the “mess.” In a “cleaner” legal landscape, it might be desirable to nip the problem in the bud (restrict manufacturing), but we have the system we have and we need to work within it, I guess.

I think all of the points you make are fair. Seeing your, and other, responses is making me realize that this issue is far more complicated then just accountability. It seems there are a massive amount of economic, political, and cultural ideologies in play. Hopefully, one day, these ideologies can be joined into an agreement that reduces the violence we see today.

That’s a very fair point. Ideally, firearms shouldn’t be sold to those who would use them illegally in the first place.

I have no opinion on you owning a firearm, or using it for any purpose outside of the topic question. I think it’s great that you and many people can use guns for fun and as a hobby.

My question is specifically about the accountability of the manufacturers for the use of their guns as weapons in crimes.

I’m an iPhone heathen so I don’t have access to the Android apps. I’ve been using Mlem and it’s pretty similar to Apollo. Not as feature rich yet, and sometimes it’s a little quirky, but not bad for a relatively new app.