Oh for the love of fuck. Americans. Your country isn’t the centre of the universe. It doesn’t matter where a company’s headquarters are. If you are doing business in, for example, Germany, you have to abide by German laws. Being American isn’t an excuse and it doesn’t shield you from consequences for breaking the law.

Also, the big issue is that Valve isn’t actually using their right to refuse service. People can spread all sorts of bigotry via Steam’s discussions and groups without Valve acting on it. They’re providing a platform for hate speech and that is inherently immoral, regardless of what the law says.

Valve also does business outside the US. American law doesn’t clear them of their legal obligations in other countries. And besides, legality and morality are not always the same. Providing a platform for hate speech is supporting hate speech, and as far as I’m concerned that’s unethical regardless of whether or not it’s legal.

And ultimately they’re still Valve’s responsibility. If you provide a platform, you’re responsible for what people do on it.

Really? Because in my experience you have to wade through racist, homo- and transphobic, and misogynistic shit the second you foolishly open the discussions page on any game that features black or brown, LGBTQIA, and/or female characters.

I used to have downstairs neighbours like that and I loved it, free underfloor heating, I just opened the windows when I felt it got too warm. Saved me a good bit of money because I basically didn’t have to heat at all.

Germany, zero minutes. Postal voting ftw!

As yet another 30-something year old I’ve never even seen a cheque. Is that a USA thing?

As claimed by MediaTek. I doubt they’re outright lying but I can guarantee you that the “up to” is doing a lot of heavy lifting.

Usually Steam. I like the idea of GoG, but a lot of the time if you want mods you’re basically forced to buy it on Steam because of the Workshop. Also, I kinda like having everything in one place.

The UFP has a currency - Federation Credits. The average citizen may not need (or even have) money, but it exists and is presumably accessible in some way if you have genuine need. For example the station personnel on DS9 never had issues paying at Quark’s, so one can assume that they did get a salary because they were posted to a capitalist environment. I’d assume that child support would work on a similar “as needed” basis.

Yes, it can.

That’s the issue with online advertising in a nutshell, isn’t it.

Brutalism is brutalism for capitalism. It was a highly influential architectural movement on both sides of the iron curtain (and I’m pretty sure it got started in capitalist France).

Looking at it from the outside it doesn’t look like a failure at all, it provides the prison industrial complex with an endless stream of slaves cheap prison labour. If we assume that that’s the actual goal, it’s a resounding success.