Source on it not being consensual?

I don’t think there’s any context that can make up for forced impregnation.

I personally think we should close the loopholes in bestiality laws used by farmers.

There are no apolitical ways to talk about movies or the weather.

Not being into politics sounds incredibly boring. If you swear off talking about politics, then you can’t talk about books, movies, video games, the weather, sports, celebrities, science… what’s even left?

Not being into politics sounds incredibly boring. If you swear off talking about politics, then you can’t talk about books, movies, video games, the weather, sports, celebrities, science… what’s even left?

And all three of them are either mistaken or lying

profiting even a couple hundred bucks off the AI bubble feels like taking blood money.

Think of it as scamming an AI bro out of a couple hundred bucks.

If he was a competitive asshole because his parents made him into one, why did Kaira never see that side of him?

But I thought he was competing so hard with Genesis during the sportsball episode because Khionia was such a competitive society.

Kaira: Jay-Den’s toast. It was beautiful. But the man he described is someone I’ve never met. The Darem I know is quiet, always trying to appease, always one step behind me, our whole lives. […] Go. Be cocky. Walk on hulls. Live the life you were meant to live.

Jay-den: Congratulations.
Darem: Thank you. For-for what?
Jay-den: For realizing that you are essentially an asshоlе.

All that stuff about Darem becoming less of an asshole since joining Starfleet has been retconned out. Now the story is that he was quiet and selfless on Khionia, and became a confident asshole since joining Starfleet Academy.

Oh, what Kaira means is that back on Khionia, Darem was really quiet and dutiful and selfless. Starfleet is the first place he’s felt cocky enough to be an asshole.

It doesn’t make any sense.

This episode is far below the standard of quality I’ve come to expect from STA. From Chancellor Ake using an ableist slur, to the bad Darem retcons, this episode brings down the whole series.

trying to insist that evil doesn’t exist potentially opens you up to becoming a victim in the future.

No, it doesn’t. I have battled with some vile abusers who did horrible things. I deplatformed a pedophile by releasing leaked screenshots that showed the individual online dating children. Azsula believed that Azsula’s actions were ethically okay because consent doesn’t exist. I organised a campaign to contact everyone on Azsula’s discord server and send them the article with the screenshots. I told people to leave, and not give their time or presence to abusers, and over 1/3 of them did, leading Azsula to shut down the discord server and retreat from public life. I did so in the full knowledge that Azsula’s intentions were not malicious, that Azsula didn’t mean any harm. The reason why I was able to do so is that I think ignorance of the consequences of one’s actions is itself a form of violence which must be dealt with.

And I don’t agree that sociopathy is a recognised mental condition. It doesn’t have a DSM entry. What it does have is a note in the ASPD section saying that sociopathy is sometimes used as a slang term for ASPD. ASPD is a recognised mental condition, sociopathy is not. And I have met people with ASPD who had managed to learn a little of the skill of empathy. It was hard for them to do, but not impossible.

Hi Karim! Great job playing Jay-Den!

If you were a cadet at Starfleet Academy, which electives would you pick?

Lwaxana, you can’t ask that!

ASPD comes with reduced empathy, and thus reduced ability to visualise and anticipate the harm caused by one’s actions. I think people with ASPD mean well in terms of seeking to bring joy to all those they remember are capable of experiencing it. They just forget sometimes that other people exist.

Ah, so it’s a decline in skepticism leading to increased trust in scammers’ stated intentions.

Well, even if we think we know another’s intentions, that doesn’t mean we value them. I think everyone has good intentions, but I don’t base My actions on those intentions. I think even if assumptiveness is prevalent, intentionalism still must be high as well to explain the society we currently live in.

Remember when morgius morged all over those guys?

You know, I don’t think the “temporarily embarrassed millionaires” thing is true anymore. It made sense back in the 70s when the USA had what the capitalists call a middle class, but that group is getting smaller and smaller. Wealth inequality is higher than it’s ever been in history, according to some measures. Maybe I’m just not in touch with the youth anymore, but everyone I know treats “Sigma male grindset” as a joke and knows our generation is never buying houses.

Then again I’ve lived in a homeless shelter and surround Myself with antirealists, so what do I know about the consciousness of white suburbia?

“you” as the pronoun for hypothetical people is perfectly amenable to Me. However I know other capitalised pronoun users, and the risk of misunderstandings and the annoyance of clarification has lead Me to use “one” as the hypothetical pronoun instead in most cases, and thus I recommend it to make your life easier as well.

I confess I don’t fully understand how increased assumptiveness should lead to an increased value placed on intentions as excuses for wrongdoing.