had a moment of 'what the fuck does Godzilla King of the Monsters have to do with the Chinese Communist Party' before I realized that it was the Disk Horse account posting that lol

I literally don't know any of this guy's deep internet lore or whatever but I can still tell you he sucks absolute shit without needing to know the tragic backstory that started his villain arc or whatever.

You shouldn't just take my word for all of this, obviously; do your own research into how memory, learning, and metacognitive skills function. I could be missing important details or new research, since I don't actually actively keep up with this stuff.

Well, if you've got a strong cognitive framework establishing distinctions between 'fiction' and 'reality', 'how fiction operates,' 'how fiction and reality relate,' etc. you're probably going to be a lot better at distinguishing between constructed narratives and reality than someone who doesn't.

Media literacy and critical analysis are learned metacognitive skills that let you break apart, reframe, and otherwise recontextualize the media you consume in various ways, which gives you more control over how you engage with narratives cognitively; it doesn't necessarily stop all this, but...

So if you were to watch a lot of horror movies, you'll probably learn the narrative patterns of those movies, and start acting in a way that takes those patterns into account. "Oh, people who go alone into dark cellars often get eaten by monsters, so I really shouldn't do that" and such.

Even if you're consciously aware of the fact that the horror movie you just watched is a work of fiction, your subconscious memory doesn't have a segment set aside for 'fiction'. It just recognizes patterns. And your subconscious doesn't always distinguish those patterns between fiction and reality.

So IIRC that's a known psychological phenomenon; basically, memory and learning doesn't partition things into 'fiction' and 'reality'. Your brain remembers the events you read about in a fantasy novel in the same way as it remembers the events in a history book, or gossip in a chatroom, or a blog.

obviously don't do this with literally everything, but if you want to stretch some veggies or meat further, it's a game changing strategy. just have a tiny amount of super spicy veggies and meat with filler like rice or lentils.

To be clear, the fact that Mamdani is willing to sit in a room with Trump and be nice to him is a great example of the fact that he doesn't really have any significant principles either, or at least that he's willing to abandon those principles for the sake of political expediency.

What I think is more likely is that Trump just doesn't have any real principles and just wants to feel powerful and respected, and so someone being charismatic and interpersonally nice to him makes him basically see them as the best thing since sliced bread.

Because an elephant is a Huge creature, they would functionally never be able to use stealth, which means that they're non-viable as a rogue class.

On the other hand, a tiny creature like a mouse or house cat would have significantly more and better cover available in pretty much any circumstance.

Basically they've reworked stealth to be more realistic- which means that it requires cover or other concealment, and if you end your turn within an enemy's sight line then it doesn't matter what your stealth skill is, they'll still see you.

sadly, while an awakened mouse barbarian could potentially work, an elephant rogue would be more or less totally non viable mechanically if I understand how stealth works in 2e correctly.

oh I never bought their doughnuts, they were overpriced as hell.