I’m glad other people see this. One child is always singled out for abuse and I think kim was the chosen one. Kyle is the baby and was spoiled and pampered. She cried to get her way - and it always worked. She’s still doing that annoying fake cry and people are still falling for it. I always hated kyle so intensely…

Eh, Cross I respect your central theme. Yeah, plenty of people rise above, but I don't look don't on those who seemingly don't. This is a very weird circumstance to find yourself in.

I was really struck by the scene with Kyle and Kim in Palm Springs, when Kim started singing her sad victim song about Kyle stealing her house. “You wouldn’t let me buy it! You sold it before I could even take my things out!” But then Kyle reminded her that they’d discussed their daughters co-listing the house, which…

With all due respect Nef, I think you’re being too hard on Kim. She’s dealing with the trauma of a fucked up childhood as being a child actress who was the family breadwinner for years, then losing her identity when the roles dried up. Her relationship with her sister is truly fucked up and toxic with Kyle being a…

It would be like that if I thought our readers were children. Gamers have long divided themselves into tribes often to the point of deciding who is a real gamer and who isn’t, what are real games and what aren’t. I wrote about that in the “Four years ago” piece I linked to above.

Were a lot of people saying video games cause sexism/racism/whatever? Because I don’t think think they were. I always thought it was about video games/gaming communities being full of sexism, regardless of cause. I’m no Anita expert but I always thought her videos were pointing out sexist examples and saying how that…

No it’s a very important study. It shows that a game content doesn’t CAUSE sexism. Games causing sexism and sexism in the game industry and community are two very VERY different things. And that might be apparent to you, but it’s not apparent to a majority of people and investors pouring money into the games industry.

That’s a common distortion of the argument. I don’t really think anyone honestly says they cause sexism but the moment anyone argues that games have sexist elements, messages and tropes, said argument gets distorted into “games cause sexism” and then people act as if the sexist elements have zero impact or relevancy…

What to make of it is simple- more evidence that playing games, even those that contain violence, brutality, or expressions of unsavoury societal attitudes (sexism, homophobia etc..) has minimal, if any, impact, on the player, and certainly does nothing to encourage violent or prejudiced tendencies in them.

The line between physical and psychiatric pain is so blurry. For example I’m a stress puker. Which side of the line is my nausea on? Isn’t it both?

Definitely. I have a family member with fibromyalgia who is desperate for effective treatment but refuses to even try antidepressants, because she feels that if her pain turns out to be treatable by antidepressants then it’s not real. As if the source or contributing factors matter more than the fact of the suffering.

Last time I ate an oyster, after being harassed by family to try one, I immediately threw it up onto the table. I’m 32.

I was a military prosecutor and monitored a couple of these "tests" (about 15 years ago). The defendants would voluntarily submit to prove they weren't incurable perverts but simply run of the mill sex offenders (in order to reduce sentencing). Even the military courts never accepted the test results, because, as…