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So in short, this question could have been used in all sorts of ways to provide an answer that clarified the commenter’s position.

I mean, in the way it was asked not really. It was explicitly asked, or rather condescendingly demanded, as a simple binary choice stripped of all context.

That’s not how you engage with someone when you actually want to get their take on a complex issue. That’s how you engage if you want to score an easy win for upvotes. And I for one am done with that kinda hostile “debate bro” culture / popularity contest that’s defined many subreddits over the years. It shuts down any chance for an actual exchange. So let’s not act surprised at the result.

Yeah it was asked in bad faith and framed in a manipulative way.

That’s not a good thing and should be called out, no matter if you disagree with the person it was directed at. It’s called integrity.

The question itself was a cheap gotcha. Shockingly, it’s not as simple as that as I’ve been pointing out. Which you’d acknowledge if you were arguing in good faith.

It’s unfortunate that any attempt to insert some nuance automatically makes me the enemy in your simplistic position on the matter. And now ego prevents you from backing off of this kind of thinking by any means, no matter what toxic and regressive conclusions it takes you to.

I didn’t say the people of South Korea are being subjugated. Not sure how I could have made clearer that these are two separate issues.

You also won’t find me defending NK. Not everything should devolve into tribalism and dunking on whatever we perceive as the other team. Which is exactly what I’m criticizing about this question and the way it was asked.

So prosperity for one people is worth any price to you?

There’s two issues. The one is that prosperity is already very ambiguous, and in the context of nations we usually default to easily measurable things like GDP. This doesn’t define human well-being which is actually not so easy to measure. Look at the US as the richest nation on earth for a stark example. The question was asked in this way and without this clarification for a reason.

But the bigger issue is that it’s just the wrong question to ask. Any definition of prosperity for one massive people can be built upon the cruel subjugation and exploitation of others. And that’s exactly what happened and continues to happen under the “former” global colonial powers, as well as aligned governments (which includes a lot of puppets). Hence US foreign policy. Celebrating this as a victory of capitalism is either clueless or outright malicious.

Yeah I guess you got me down to your level.

So now only the difference remains that I didn’t misconstrue your point on purpose to score a cheap dunk.

I said literally: it means absolutely nothing historically or ethically, or worse it typically means “aligned with imperialist hegemons”.

Do I need to explain to you what that means, or do you have a clue about South Korean history and US foreign policy?

What a pointlessly hostile and asshole way to make your point! Did it feel good? I’ll try to refrain from doing the same.

What “prosperity” means in this context is typically just amassed wealth and GDP, which says nothing about how well the population is actually doing.

“More prosperous” means absolutely nothing historically or ethically, or worse it typically means “aligned with imperialist hegemons”.

Ah yes, corn. Man’s second-best friend.

Fortunately I don’t sweat that easily, Alyx was fine for me so far (about 2 hours in). What REALLY gets me going is (modded) Beatsaber. I can only play it wearing briefs and it’s a serious workout if you want to challenge yourself, but it’s so much fun that I’ve managed a few play sessions that lasted for over 3 hours.

That doesn’t mean they’re not having fun, but it’s quite physically demanding and the experience just doesn’t translate to 2D.

I got an Index for cheap last year and was very excited to play a number of my favorite games with optional VR mode. Turns out:

1. the Index ecosystem is more accessible than expected. 2) the games I was looking forward to all played like ass and made VR seem like a stupid gimmick. 3) In a desperate move that felt like sunk cost fallacy, I tried several VR-only games, and got TOTALLY hooked on modded Beatsaber. This itself made the buy-in worth it.

Right, there was that too. Guess they have both kinds.

Looks 100% water-based to me. Fixed frozen in a Popsicle shape, nothing creamy about it.