I almost skipped over this video, because I thought it was about some other drama about the origins of D&D, which is mostly just outrage tourism.
Happy to be mistaken! It's been a little bit since I watched Matt Colville, so I'll give this a watch when I have the time. And it includes a book recommendation on top of that!
My favorite was death panels.
"The government is going to decide who lives and dies by gatekeeping access to healthcare!" Motherfucker, that's what insurance does now. The potential failures of a collectivized system are treated with more scrutiny than capitalism working as intended.
I've made a habit of saying "Look, [city] was a powderkeg ready to go off before we even got there." It's come up in multiple campaigns.
It's bending the rules, since it's a camping meal, but I have made it at home, too, since it makes a great depression meal. I got it from backpackers, who I'm pretty sure got it from prison inmates:
The Ramen Bomb.
Cook a crushed up packet of instant ramen noodles, maybe with a little more water than usual. Add like half a packet of instant mashed potatoes. You can also add a protein, like... chopped up Spam. Maybe some hot sauce or other fixings if you're feeling fancy.
I hated how much I enjoyed it. Granted, that was when I was really tired and hungry, but that hit the spot.
Also, I've heard meals like the ones in this thread affectionately referred to as "glop," by a fellow glop-enjoyer.
Minus the egg, that's also a popular backpacking meal.
Personally, I also like genericizing D&D.
It's a shorthand for folks outside or new to the hobby, it skips a hurdle to talk to people about other RPGs with those people, and it weakens the brand identity. Considering how much D&D has coasted on brand identity as the game suffered, I'm all for that.
I'm less likely to do it places like here, because it causes more confusion, but still. It's fun to say, "Pathfinder is a great way to play D&D." :P
I didn't see it until later, but yeah, it's been around for years. It crops up every now and then from right-wingers trying to test the waters for being overtly anti-democracy. What I found scary was how much more common it got, and at higher levels. I remember a fucking senator repeating that line.
I also use the square vs. rectangle analogy. Granted, we're not going to convince fascists acting in bad faith, but it plays to an audience.
I really liked that Ed Helms asked a lot of very straightforward questions about Yarvin's ideology, which just went to show that it completely falls apart if you think about it critically for even a moment. It's not something you come to believe after listening to the best arguments from a bunch of different positions. It's something you come to believe because it justifies your own elitism.
FUN FACT: Five Justices of the Supreme Court were appointed by presidents who were inaugurated despite losing the popular vote! That's a full majority! And purely by coincidence, all of them are Republicans! :D
...alright, obviously it's not fun. I can't believe the audacity some people have to act surprised and offended when people say the Court is illegitimate.
Oh, another one: anti-vaccination was pushed by health insurance companies to dampen public perception of government-run healthcare.
Vaccine development and implementation fucking worked. If people were happy with the results, they might end up swayed towards publicly-funded healthcare. So... put a lid on that by whipping up a bunch of fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Some folks will no longer see the vaccination programs as successful efforts to protect public health, but as a conspiracy to... do something. And instead of pointing to it as an example of a public healthcare program, you've first got to spend time defending evidence-based medicine, which takes up so much fucking time and energy, and ultimately won't convince people who bored too deeply into that alternate-reality tunnel.
It turned a public health initiative into a fucking tar pit, and now the once-free vaccinations cost over a hundred bucks if you don't have insurance.
Paper straws were pushed by big corporate polluters to build a negative association with environmentalism.
Plastic straws are single-use plastics, but seem unexceptional by those standards. It's almost a meme that they're being singled out like they're the single greatest source of plastic waste, or uniquely damaging to ocean life.
On top of that, there are way better ways of reducing straw usage. I've used bioplastics that seemed way better. You could redesign the lids. You can do the plastic bag thing and charge people a nickel for a straw or whatever. Hell, you could just not give straws with every drink, and plenty of people will just drink from their cups and glasses. Instead, we get paper straws, something that is so obviously a bad idea it sounds like a joke, or a metaphor for a useless invention. Often served with cups and lids made entirely out of plastic.
So you get a bunch of people who have their drinks kind of ruined by a frustrating straw. It's a small thing, but it's just a little nudge away from environmentalism. You build an association with disappointment and inconvenience. Maybe it doesn't cause a big sway, but it makes people maybe a little more anti-environmentalist than they already were, or just less passionate about environmentalism.
I love that kind of history. On the topic of cooking, Tasting History is one of my favorites!
And I'm also adding that book to my reading list. I'm kicking myself for not reading enough books, but I've gone on a nonfiction kick out of nowhere.