Hyperreality

I assume this is Northern Ireland, so obviously this isn’t so much a ‘we love the King’ mural as a ‘this is a unionist area’ mural.

This is probably better than a picture of a man in a mask and a UDA flag.

Growing up in the 80s and knowing the context, this doesn’t seem like the worst possible time line for Northern Ireland.

It’s been said before, but if I were a Palestinian (or an Israeli) I’d also be angry at Israeli politicians like Netenyahu for helping prop up Hamas, in order to divide the Palestinian cause and undermine the PLO.

No, you’re retro! runs away sobbing

Villains don’t always think they’re evil and don’t often do evil things just because they’re evil.

Often they think they’re doing what’s necessary for what they consider the greater good. For example, an evil character might think that strength is key to survival, is a higher good, so the weak should be punished or eliminated. For example, if you come across a camp of nice but weak innocents, you might side with those attacking them, because you don’t believe the weak deserve to survive.-

Or maybe they think they’re being kind. Those poor villagers were going to get killed by the monsters anyway! Let’s be kind and make it quick by helping the monsters make a quick job of it. Let’s kill the eldery crone or the children who are hungry. It’s a kindness.

Or they might follow a god and do things to appease that god. Serving your god is good, so anything you do that pleases your god is good, whether it’s human sacrifice or killing fluffy animals. Similar to the weak villain, who is too scared of their god or master to oppose them. Like Renfield in Dracula, they (think) they have no choice but to do the evil things their master wants them to do. Often they’re in denial about how they actually enjoy doing these evil things.

Then there’s villains who have no morals or who are nihilists. They do evil things because they’re bored, because it’s easy, and/or because they don’t believe it matters either way. Burn the village down? Why not? Everyone dies anyway. Corrupt someone good? That’s a fun game to play. Someone powerful but good comes along? I’ll help them, because to do otherwise would be dangerous or disadvantageous.

Then there’s villains with delusions of grandeur. They think they’re better than everyone else and will do everything in their power to ensure that anyone who might be better than them, gets cut down to size. Or they like to get involved in evil plots and schemes, because it means they get to feel like they’re influential. Someone wants to overthrow a kingdom? Time to get involved so that people know me as having changed the course of history.

Or there’s the evil characters, who are deeply cynical. The world is evil, nothing is fair, I’m just doing what’s necessary to survive. If I don’t kill/rob them, they’d do it to me. They probably deserved it anyway.

I moved around a lot as a kid. One thing you learn pretty quickly, is to make clean breaks.

Sure you can try to stay friends, but once you’ve moved away, those friendships will inevitably fade. Those friendships were real, but they existed in a particular context. You bonded over work stuff. You talked about work stuff. You’re no longer a part of that context, so they’ve ended. 99% of the time you can only delay the inevitable.

That doesn’t mean the friendship wasn’t real. It just means that it didn’t last. That’s life.

Join a club, volunteer, make new friends.

North Korea isn’t a monarchy. It’s a necrocracy. Officially the first Kim is still leader, despite being dead.