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S2 Ep172: Talkcast - September 2021
91 Plays4 years ago
Join Dave and Jake as we talk about games, friendships, keeping in touch, social cost, abortion, and The Satanic Temple in this week's episode!
As promised in episode, here's a link to details on the self-autonomy and The Satanic Temple's work with abortion: https://announcement.thesatanictemple.com/rrr-campaign41280784
Thoughts? Comments? Requests for new episodes? Feel free to email them in!
SoapstonePodcast@gmail.com
Like our podcast? Like our podcast! We'll post when new episodes are uploaded!
https://www.facebook.com/SoapstonePodcast/
As promised in episode, here's a link to details on the self-autonomy and The Satanic Temple's work with abortion: https://announcement.thesatanictemple.com/rrr-campaign41280784
Thoughts? Comments? Requests for new episodes? Feel free to email them in!
SoapstonePodcast@gmail.com
Like our podcast? Like our podcast! We'll post when new episodes are uploaded!
https://www.facebook.com/SoapstonePodcast/
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Transcript
Introduction and Casual Banter
00:01:01
Speaker
How's it going, everyone? Welcome to another episode of Soapstone. My name is Jake. I'm joined by my co-host is always Dave. How's it going today, Dave? Amazing. I am. That's a lie. That is blatantly a lie. Meet me too. If I'm ever in a good mood, I'm not sober or I just ate something. I guarantee it. But I mean, it's early afternoon. I did have like a walk. I got some gas. I had a wawa sandwich. Now I'm just chilling in some coffee and hanging out. How about you?
00:01:32
Speaker
I did not take a walk. I did get out of bed. We went to Taco Bell. We had a picture, they have like a, there's a chicken box thing. It's like a chicken wrap box is their current, because Taco Bell does these like temporary box deals that never really stick around. Taco Bell chicken, it's a chicken sandwich looking thing.
00:01:54
Speaker
but it looks very sad. Um, I'm going to send you a picture of one of these and I'm going to show you the ideal. Um, but basically it's just a wrap. Um, very small, uh, PETA like wrap. Um, and there's a couple of peppers on that. I didn't get peppers on mine, some sort of like Chipotle sauce.
00:02:19
Speaker
Um, but mine, uh, you, the wrap was not wrapped around. It was kind of just a piece of chicken with some sauce on a relatively flat pizza. Once I actually opened it, I was like, huh, this looks really sad. Um, and it, it did look really sad. Still tasted good though. I
Taco Bell and Food Choices
00:02:42
Speaker
mean, it looks all right from the picture you sent.
00:02:46
Speaker
That's definitely their picture. Here's a picture that's closer to mine. Imagine this one, but flat or mostly flat. Oh, yeah. It's it's wild what they actually do for the promotional pictures for certain things to make like, oh, this ice cream is nice and melty. But then like they're using glue and other shit. You get a certain texture like, oh, does that look appetizing?
00:03:12
Speaker
Yeah, they had like 150 percent contrast or not contrast saturation increase in like the actual picture versus reality. Reality is just this desaturated mess. Yeah, and it looks like a very hard nugget like it's more breading than meat type thing. Yeah.
00:03:33
Speaker
I will say the quality of the chicken was all right. It was basically a tendie. Um, it was one chicken tendie, large chicken tendie, but overall wasn't bad. It's Taco Bell. So I mean like.
00:03:47
Speaker
You get what you pay for. Yeah, you get what you pay for. Also, we just eat a lot of Taco Bell in this household. So it's straight up an addiction. Anytime I'm talking to Jenny and we're like, what do you want to get for lunch? And I rattle off a list of things and I accidentally include Taco Bell on the list of things. It's already been decided. So that's like your go to. If it's any possibility, it's always that one.
00:04:11
Speaker
I think literally, so we had Mexican food yesterday that we ordered in and it was delicious. It was some good stuff. Had some carnitas enchiladas and it was really good. And literally followed up with Taco Bell for lunch today. So now Taco Bell is not Mexican food. That's the bridge. Right. But I understand. I could see if you had Mexican food, you wouldn't necessarily, for the average person, be in the mood for Taco Bell immediately after for the next meal.
00:04:41
Speaker
Exactly. It should at least knock it down a few pegs, but we were listing off a bunch of options. Wawa Wendy's, you know, I think we excluded McDonald's Jules, which is always good and still talk about one out. So Jules is the one thing that like, whenever we talked about him, like I miss Jules. Yeah. There's apparently one, probably 10 or 15 minutes from me. I might need to check out.
00:05:08
Speaker
Cause I went to our local Swerx salad works cause I haven't been there in a long time and it was underwhelming. Yeah. That was our last experience too. The one that used to be up by where you guys live. Um, that one was good. Like I didn't really have bad experiences there, but then each other, what I would go to, I'm like, are you guys, is this the same business? Right?
Exercise and Volleyball Memories
00:05:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:34
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, our last time we ordered it delivered, but it didn't really match expectations. It was pretty sad. So we haven't really gone there much recently, which is unfortunate because I did like you used to enjoy their, um, um, let's just say crispy chicken snack wrap. That's not right. That's something that used to be offered to McDonald's there. Uh, chicken Caesar, light Parmesan. Hell yeah. It's good stuff. I would, the only change I would make there is it's Buffalo chicken instead of chicken.
00:06:03
Speaker
It adds a little bit of a acidity to it. Now I like it.
00:06:11
Speaker
Do you remember going there after, like, you went to some post-work volleyball stuff? Yeah. Yeah, we'd go with that. I mean, I was part of the volleyball group. Yeah. Like, when we went with Dustin, and then Dustin would be eating his thing still, and we'd be done. We'd be hanging out for 20 minutes, and he'd, like, sniff a piece of bread, then keep talking. But he was conscious. He'd be like, hey, guys, if you guys want to, like, leave, it's fine. I know I'd take forever to eat. And we're like, yeah, no shit. See you. See you. Peace.
00:06:41
Speaker
No, I do remember that. Those are good times. I do miss volleyball. It was good, regular exercise. Yeah, it's intensely draining. I like that we had a group.
00:06:55
Speaker
I still miss playing back up in the old country where I grew up. The hills of Appalachia. Yeah. Specifically the hills, not the mountains. Right. Well, I mean, there are no real Appalachian mountains. Yeah, there are Appalachian hills, common misnomer.
00:07:14
Speaker
Yeah. But I mean, it'll play up there. It's just it'd be like an hour and a half for me to get there. Yeah. And then it starts at like 10 a.m., which I could make. I can get up early. But then it's like, hey, do you want to play for three hours when you've had moderately no exercise for the past three years? And I'm like, no, that would break me. Yeah.
00:07:39
Speaker
I
Caffeine Habits and Dependency
00:07:40
Speaker
just had a visual of the Batman spine crack with Bane. Just a molly ball player in James Beck. Yeah. Yeah. It's good stuff though. I used to be good. Oh yeah.
00:07:55
Speaker
I think you were a top, top skill member. I mean, obviously, so I think at the peak of it, you were literally double dipping. You would, uh, I would play on days back in the old country. Yeah. Yeah. And also we played once, I think a week for our work. Wednesday or Thursday, I think. Yeah. This is pre-podcast, obviously. Right.
00:08:19
Speaker
Yeah, we don't interact with people now. We channel all of our mental energy into this instead of exercise. Yes, exactly. Exercise the vocal cords. It's very important. Before this podcast, I had a speech impediment. That's true. But we've absolutely broken that. Like Dave's back. We've got to play volleyball. No. But yeah, I think you were definitely top player there.
00:08:49
Speaker
And part of it was definitely because you were very ad, like you, you've advocated for Wally ball at multiple times. Like also when we were in school, I know we had a group go in there for a while. I don't think I started that though. I think Ralph might've, but I was immediately like, I know what this is. Yes. Very excited. Yeah. That was a good, good time as well.
00:09:11
Speaker
There's a, I don't know, going down memory lane here. Um, but I remember our sundress event. There's still a picture of that. I think up on Facebook. Um, and, uh, that was a great time. It was a great time. I don't remember who organized that specifically. I still feel like it was probably Ralph. Like, I know he was there in the picture at least. Well, yeah, of course. But I mean, like.
00:09:36
Speaker
I feel like whoever would have suggested Sundress probably would have already owned a Sundress. So I assumed it was a lady in our group. It could have been. Yeah. Note to self, find origin of Sundress Wally Ball. Yeah. I'm remembering the group there. I mean, everybody immediately agreed to it, so I don't know who the instigator was, but recommend it for the listeners. Find a group of friends, wear Sundresses, go play Wally Ball.
00:10:05
Speaker
If you don't know what a volleyball is, Google it. Jesus, I'm not your mom. Maybe depending on your pandemic status, the vaccination status also for health reasons, I should disclaim that this would be more difficult to arrange now than the before times. Good old before times. Yeah, there's some good stuff there.
00:10:30
Speaker
But other than that I'm sitting here drinking my energy drink. I have three cases Currently two on backlog one cracked open They're gonna be out of the the lemon rain so I'm gonna try a new flavor for the next shipment and see how that goes but I
00:10:50
Speaker
Fair warning. I would stay away from strawberry jalapeno. It sounds cooler than it is because it tastes like shit. OK, that's good. I picked orange dream sickle as the one time replacement to try it to be good. Do you like orange cream sickle? I do. I do like one. You will love this. They do a good imitation of that flavor. That's good. That's definitely good. I've been slowing down in my caffeine a lot, actually.
00:11:21
Speaker
That's probably healthier. Well, it's just like my throat gets scratchy a little bit from it. And then my heart's like, you're gonna die. I'm like, I used to be so good at this. What happened? Right. No, I mean, that's fair. It's definitely healthier to not have as much of a dependence on caffeine.
00:11:47
Speaker
I mean, that's it. That's the end of my thought. There's not really more to that. It's fair. It's literally like if history had gone a bit differently, you know, caffeine could potentially be one of these drugs that were regulating a bit more aggressively. But no, it's acceptable. So I just take as much of it as possible.
00:12:07
Speaker
I mean, it wasn't used in political gerrymandering, essentially. So that's why it got away with it. And then alcohol had too much pushback. But marijuana, people were racist, so that one got through. So that is the short of it.
00:12:27
Speaker
Google it. I'm not your mom. That's going to be my go-to. I don't want to elaborate on something. I remember when there was, I can't remember the word for it, but a conversation in the Senate, they were, oh, the Mueller report thing. And a phrase I still occasionally like to use, even though it's very, very specific is there was
00:12:54
Speaker
someone was saying something that was very much like, hey, this is very politically motivated and it doesn't even end with a question. And then Moeller was like, I take your question. He said, like, I take your question. And there was like articles that were released, like, is this a legal term? Is this a thing like saying I take your question?
00:13:13
Speaker
And to this day, I still remember it as sort of just a pocket that as the most passively aggressive way to respond to not answer something is just say, I take your question. It's
Gaming Experiences and Misleading Trailers
00:13:28
Speaker
just a blanket acknowledgement and nothing else. It's literally that. It's just like, got it. Receive no response.
00:13:40
Speaker
Although the context was a little bit different there because there was no actual question and he wanted to just acknowledge that in a polite way. But it was funny. I do not have the skills for that. Yeah, no.
00:13:55
Speaker
But saying I'm not your mom is basically the I take your question of our generation. I feel like certain things, like if I was actually in a conversation with somebody, whether it's like a friend or an acquaintance type thing, I would probably give benefit of the doubt and actually provide explanation. Usually like, oh, do you not actually have context of this? OK, let me share what I know. Right.
00:14:21
Speaker
Instead of being like, wow, you're stupid. Because there's tons of things that I just haven't heard about. We have to go, what? Because I live under a rock half the time. No, that's fair. That is fair. Speaking of under a rock, have you seen this game called Abyssus?
00:14:39
Speaker
No. And so I don't know how to make the connection. How is it really with rocks? So it's a rogue-like FPS. And by rogue-like, I mean like there's going to be chambers of rooms. There is a trailer for it from Gamescom. I'm going to let you Google that. So I'm not typing. I also don't have it up immediately, but it's kind of like,
00:15:01
Speaker
They had a term for it when it's like undersea punk, but think Bioshock and Brine Brine Punk. That's what it was. Brine Punk, which is a genre I was not previously aware of. Yeah, I mean, I haven't heard of it for sure. But it looks kind of cool. The trailer seems more cinematic than in game at the moment. Yeah. Mm hmm. We're like things are just too too awkwardly smooth.
00:15:30
Speaker
Yes, it's very clearly rigged together instead of being actual gameplay. Yeah. This is interesting. Now, I thought this was going to be a shenanigans because when I searched for Abyssus, the top result was actually from the Path of Exile wiki. I was like,
00:15:55
Speaker
OK, it's a rock for Path of Exile. Where are we going with this one? It's like it's a socketable item. I mean, I could always talk about Path of Exile. Yeah. It looks interesting. It kind of reminds me of
00:16:13
Speaker
Crap, begins with Xeno. It's not Xenoblade. Xenomorph? Xenoclash. Xenoclash on Steam. It's like that kind of like fighty style. I was going to say arena brawler, but it's not really. Just based off of the early trailer for a business, it does feel like every game has roguelike as a tag at this point.
00:16:43
Speaker
I don't really, I don't hate it, but it's very, very prevalent right now. So I will say, at least towards the roguelike aspect, I understand that it's probably easier to
00:16:58
Speaker
develop those variables and be like, Oh, a lot of the content will be from you doing extra runs and just doing whatever versus having something that's planned out and that they have to go through. Right. Um, and I think like, obviously Hades, we always talk about as being a great example of that, but I'm sure other things will do okay, but I don't know how many are going to thrive. Like what's going to be the next big rogue, like, like obviously everybody knows Isaac as a,
00:17:28
Speaker
an early instigator of that. Mm hmm. Slay of the Spire was probably the big off point for cards and roguelikes. There's a million. I don't want to say clones of that, but they are. A lot of them basically are the poorly developed clones. They're the rejects and they like Patriot program or whatever for Metal Gear Solid. It's just
00:17:57
Speaker
Yeah, it's not bad. It's just I think that if Games use it as a crutch. They're just like hey, we don't have the development effort to create a bunch of tailored content So let's replace that with roguelike elements. That's in my opinion not a recipe for success like it works in Hades because they put more effort into the game and the roguelike elements are actually just
00:18:23
Speaker
additional development actually beyond what it would have taken to make a linear game. It's not a shortcut for them, you know? Yeah, they really, really fleshed it out. And also with each thing, like you're at unlocking more story. Whereas I'm sure Abyssus is not going to be story driven. I'm sure it's gonna be much more in the gameplay and combat as it is a Phippus. Phippus, yeah. This is the official genre.
00:18:51
Speaker
I don't know, but like from roguelike perspective, you've always been hyped about in a blank on the name, same people who did. Oh, wow. Dishonored. Thank you. Dishonored and pray. We're talking about arcane suitors, presumably deathly upcoming, I assume. Yeah. Sometimes I just have to look into your eyes and you can just read my emotions. So thank you there. Well, I started smiling because I was like, we're going to talk about death loop for a second. Yeah. But I mean,
00:19:22
Speaker
Are you still excited for that? Do you think it will thrive even though it's explicitly going to be roguelike? Yeah, I think it's like they're not for the similar, the exact same argument that is good in Hades. Like they're building it into the base gameplay. They're not saying like, let's make the game more simple. Like we'll auto generate all this content. Instead, it's explicitly like
00:19:51
Speaker
the day progresses through these different time frames. And you can pick where you want to go. And it's like more procedural, procedural roguelike, where maybe enemy placements change a bit, but that's not changing a lot. The most important things are you learning the path through the loops. Like, and what impacts what? Which doesn't seem like laziness to me. It just seems like interesting game design.
00:20:23
Speaker
Yeah, I don't have much to comment on with it. It's just I want to see where it goes. I really want to see. I want to watch you play it and get your direct feedback because I know you're the most excited for it. I don't know if it's something I'm going to jump on specifically, but I do want to follow it for sure. Right.
00:20:44
Speaker
Now, it looks really good. At the very least, they've done good presentation for it. And if it's kind of the next incarnation, it looks very much like Dishonored. I don't want to, I realize we've already talked about Deathloop a lot. I don't want to get too in depth on it, but I just, I like Arkane's recent projects. I loved Prey. I actually like Prey a lot more than Dishonored as far as a realization of the Immersive Sim formula.
00:21:10
Speaker
A billion percent agree with that because Dishonored was fun from what I remember because it was many years back. But it's it felt much more like just cheesing stupid AI, whereas Prey had like exploration and there's more of an immersive sim like Bioshock where you cared about what was going on story. You want to get certain power ups. You opted in certain things like, how can I get through this door? Well, I don't have any tech.
00:21:38
Speaker
How strong can I punch through it? Maybe we'll punch through it. Right.
00:21:43
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's entirely fair. That's the same assessment I would give it. Prey has more questions to answer. It's much more free form. It's more of an actual immersive sim. Dishonored is like easy path. Kill everyone. More difficult path. Kill no one. And then that relates to the chaos in the world. And then they played that across three games, essentially. Yeah. And then after the first one, I feel the need to be like, I want more of this exactly.
00:22:14
Speaker
Although the protagonist of Dishonored 2 does have some really cool powers. It's not enough to play the game on its own. It's just if you had to pick one to play. Dishonored 2 is a good entry point. Maybe two. Yeah. Probably Dishonored 2. Death of the Outsider requires too much knowledge of other things going on. It's like, here's the game for the people who are invested in the world of Dishonored. Are there outside knowledge? Yes. Yes.
00:22:42
Speaker
But yeah, Abyssus doesn't look bad though, keep an eye on it. Hopefully it looks a little, like he said, a little tied together for that trailer, a little janky. I don't
Texas Abortion Law Discussion
00:22:52
Speaker
know how early concept that is compared to what the final game looks like, but anytime I see just a trailer like that, I get suspicious because it's literally, to quote Lyle Rath, it's a no game, no hype.
00:23:06
Speaker
type thing. It's like, I can't get excited about a thing if you're just showing me footage that's not actually going to be representing what it is. Like, it's cool on Steam where you're checking out a game that's listed. It's like, hey, here's a trailer. Here's your get hype moment. But then afterwards, I have like, hey, here's actual in game stuff. So you actually know, like, oh, this is what I'll be experiencing.
00:23:30
Speaker
Yeah. We've talked about misguiding trailers or trailers that aren't really indicating what the game's going to be like a bit more in the past. And there's just so much out there that a concept isn't enough normally to get me really excited anyway.
00:23:52
Speaker
Perfect example of this, Bethesda released, when they were trying to divert attention from Fallout 76, they're like, uh, Starfield is going to be our upcoming game. It's going to be a space type game. And people are like, is this ever actually going to be released? Or like, what's your timeframe on this? And they're like,
00:24:10
Speaker
Your children, perhaps, may see this game be released. They didn't outright say that, but they had nothing, right? Their trailer was a title card. It was the same with Elder Scrolls 6, right? A title card. Have you seen this Mountain Vista? It just might be in the game if we make it. It looks pretty good. Look at that lighting on this one. A completely unrelated to gameplay or anything trailer. Teasers, teasers are not.
00:24:38
Speaker
Like we have to have learned something from Cyberpunk. Don't tease your game decades before it comes out or a decade before it comes out.
00:24:47
Speaker
Yeah, please. I feel like everyone remembers the the initial cyberpunk thing with the lady with the arm blade across the mantis blades. Yep. It's like this really cool shot 3D render of a thing. Oh, that could be a thing in the game. And then nothing like the game.
00:25:09
Speaker
Yeah. The only thing they had in common is they did keep Mantis Blitz. Yes. That's just for how I was rendering it in game. Mash left click a bunch and hope you have heal on death procs. Not at all reminiscent or in any way related to the storyline of the primary game.
00:25:33
Speaker
Cause their trailer had like light storytelling. It's like, here's this person who went cyberpsycho, killed all these people. And then she's actually like inducted, indoctrinated into the cyber cyberpsycho response squad. Right. You see her at the end frames, like with the police helmet on her. Um, and, uh, yeah, that had nothing to do with the game. There was no.
00:25:58
Speaker
as far as I remember any mention of the psycho response quad actually existing for the most part, and then also taking cyber psychos and recruiting them. So anyways, that's a very specific critique. That's low on the list of problems with cyberpunk that they didn't realize the potential of the early trailer. But the game was so far divorced from that by the end, right? Like it had nothing to do with a trailer from nearly a decade ago.
00:26:29
Speaker
I'm trying to think of something that I would have posted on Facebook a decade ago and then just look at it now and be like, nah, pretty much anything. Young me talked a lot of shit or just had stupid updates. I don't know.
00:26:49
Speaker
Yeah, I don't really post updates. Surprise. You know, I talk about my complete lack of knowledge of anything going up on Facebook. That's very true. But definitely when I was a teenager, like I had a blog, I had a shared blog.
Adult Friendships and Social Interactions
00:27:06
Speaker
just posting stuff there, keeping up with friends on MSN a little bit later in life, much more active on Facebook. And now I'm just like, I don't know if I need any of that. What are some healthy communication channels I could use to maintain contact with my friends? I've got Discord, I've got Steam, okay, basically.
00:27:29
Speaker
I would love to use only Discord because easy to use. It can be an app on my phone as well. It's just certain people I don't game with, but I still feel the need to keep in touch with a little bit. Right. Family or non-gaming friends. Yeah, it's like as time goes on, I'm like, how close am I with these people?
00:27:54
Speaker
Yeah, every single day I like reevaluate all my relationships with everybody. Right. So that's fun. You wake up and you go to the list and just red marker drag X's over people. Well, it's kind of like.
00:28:08
Speaker
I feel sometimes I put in more effort than the person that I want to connect with is. I think I told you recently I was talking to somebody and they just kind of like info-dumped their entire life story and then after we got off the call they're like hey it was like nice catching up and I'm like
00:28:26
Speaker
I don't think we caught up. I think you wanted to talk about some stuff. But again, I had to reach out to them to hear any of that. So I don't think I'm a part of their intimate circle. And that's fine. I don't have to be. It's just mismatched expectations. Yeah. But more and more, I just love to cut more people out of my life. But also strengthen the relationships that I do like. Yeah.
00:28:56
Speaker
The part two I can empathize with, like I've had, I had a recent conversation on steam, which I never talked to people on steam. Like, um, I there's plenty of people on my friends list. I do not remember who they are. They came from a previous version of me in my life that I have do not have close contact with. Um, but this guy like reached out and I was just like, they just said like, Hey, whatever. And like some hours passed and then I responded like, Hey, what's up?
00:29:26
Speaker
You know, I don't really remember where you're from. Like, how do we know each other?
00:29:31
Speaker
And then he was like, sorry about that. Like my account was compromised and they were like reaching out to all my friends. Um, and we literally just had like a little back and forth of like, Oh, you know, I'm glad that you, you regained access to your account. Cool, cool. Um, still don't know where he was from. Um, I have to guess like old left for dead clan group for left for dead one. I don't know. Um, but the end result was like,
00:30:01
Speaker
Okay. Like we still don't know you and the conversation kind of stuff, but, um, I have other people who like, I was friends with and then just haven't talked to them in years, despite knowing that we share, you know, similar gaming, um, spaces. It's just without like discord as the constant reminder you're active on discord and I can like interact with you there. I don't have ways to keep up with people.
00:30:31
Speaker
So are you saying that you want to reconnect with those people? I feel like I should. And I know, like I've had friends with Dota that I've lost contact with that were great people. I guess I'm nostalgic for that sometimes. The friends you just kind of stop communicating with, but no. I get that. There's no reason to, you know? So another reason thing,
00:31:00
Speaker
I posted a picture on Instagram, and my location was tagged for something. And then somebody who was a buddy from college reached out. I was like, oh, hey, I didn't know you lived here. I live really close. We should do something sometime. I'm like, yeah, let me know. Nothing ever came of that. It's always one of those good intentions. We should do a thing. It's a attitude. And it's not like I followed up with it either. But I haven't spoken to this person in X amount of years.
00:31:25
Speaker
Do I like them? Sure. Do we need to hang out with them? Not necessarily. Like if we, if we've been good this long apart, I don't think we need to be intimately part of each other's lives. Um, yeah. So I think for anybody like that, you don't need to necessarily follow up with it. Um, but if they are somebody who you like and care about, I guess keep making the effort, but I don't think you should make the effort to the point of,
00:31:55
Speaker
Like you keep saying like, Hey, how are like trying to get, be a part of their life if they're not really. Yeah. I get that. Like don't burn your own time necessarily, or a time that's useful for your own mental wellbeing, trying to maintain a bunch of connections that are not naturally being maintained. Yeah. Like I'm just.
00:32:24
Speaker
Unless it's like, Oh my God, I haven't talked to somebody in so long. Um, and like we have that relationship where it's, we can not talk for a couple of months, but then like, Hey, we let's get together, grab dinner and hang out. Um, right outside of that just.
00:32:39
Speaker
Don't. Just don't. Because then if you do reach out and they don't reciprocate in the way you hoped, you're going to resent them for it. And that just could be who they are. There's just a mismatch. And it's not necessarily your fault or theirs, but quit giving yourself shit and paying for it.
00:33:02
Speaker
I'll count that as the life advice question at the end of the episode. So stop reaching out to people. There you go. I think it's just kind of the nature of growing up and I feel for the most part categorically we're adults at this point in life.
00:33:26
Speaker
Like I think at this point we all know that it's natural to grow apart from certain groups. But when we were told that as teenagers, it was kind of like you will make other friends, right? Like you'll find a different friend group. You'll find different people that you interact meaningfully with through your life. And that is usually the case. That's usually true. Some people make the transition, make the jump and that's great. You have lifelong friends and things like that. Obviously Dave and I grew up together.
00:33:56
Speaker
But you also, the part that they don't tell you is that there's not an equivalent exchange, like in numbers, right? So you will grow distant from current friends. It's not like you're making new contacts to replace all of that. Yeah, it's...
00:34:12
Speaker
Like high school, you were with a bunch of people who were in the same boat as you. College was a similar thing as well. And then after that, um, you really start to pick and choose like this work person who I met, do I want to get together for like a beer with them? Um, and usually not like usually not. I mean, I've met like a lot of nice people through like my career, but like we're not going to become good close friends. Right.
00:34:40
Speaker
I feel like I already have those people. I'm open to a new friend per se, but how does one go and do that? How do you force a substantial meaningful relationship?
00:34:55
Speaker
And maybe like, would you say that it's sort of a reduced bandwidth for meaningful friends? Or maybe just you want more meaningful friends now instead of a bunch of acquaintances at this point? Like, what's the difference now? I mean, in your current phase in life? I definitely want more of a stronger relationship with anybody who I
00:35:24
Speaker
hold close rather than... Let's say we have a friend get together that somebody else hosts and it's like the person who's hosting, you guys, myself, and some other people.
00:35:38
Speaker
So already, I like a majority of that group. But let's say somebody gets invited there who is a friend of a friend. I don't give a fuck about you. It might be nice to see you. We might have a good time. But I'm not leaving that event thinking, oh, I should get back in touch with so-and-so. Right. No, I get that.
00:36:01
Speaker
I do get that. I appreciate the time. Catch up briefly. Re-enter the standard ecosystem of friends in the circle around. Yeah, but it's ... You know what? Okay, here's an example. At LAN party, right? There's always a whole bunch of people, some of which you know very well, other ones you might not be as close with. But if somebody runs you like, hey, how you been? I hate that shit.
00:36:27
Speaker
Because we haven't talked in a year. We obviously don't care how the other person has been intimately. It's like a pleasantry. But I'm going to give you the most top level shit I give to my grandparents. I'm fine. Things are good. I'm not going to tell you about my intimate personal details because then what? What are you going to do with that?
00:36:48
Speaker
hold onto it and drop it in the trash? Are you going to see me next time and be like, hey, six months ago you mentioned something about serious depression. Did you kill yourself? What's going on? He's still around. That's good. That's good. I don't want people having my personal shit unless I have their personal shit. Yeah, no, I get that. And I only want you to have my personal shit and vice versa if we're close. It's a trust thing.
00:37:15
Speaker
I think that's fair. I was reading a discussion on Reddit not too long ago about the American standard greeting of asking how's it going and how it's perfectly acceptable
00:37:32
Speaker
There is literally our podcast intro, like, how's it going, Dave? And then you answer. And sometimes you also ask how I'm doing and sometimes you just answer. And both of them are actually literally acceptable in the U.S. form of it, which is not actually asking how the other person's doing. It's just a greeting. Right. Like.
00:37:52
Speaker
You can subvert that and actually tell someone how you're doing, but this could, this could throw them off. Like I walked by somebody in my development, did like a, Hey, how's it going? It's an acknowledgement at that point. It's the same thing.
00:38:10
Speaker
It's the same thing as the guy had nod, basically. That's just that acknowledgement. Like I see you as a person on top, but like, yeah. The one up nod. If you do like a one down now, that's your part of a secret society. Yeah, exactly. All praise Cthulhu. Yep.
00:38:34
Speaker
No, it's it's interesting, but it throws off foreigners or people visiting tourists and the whatnot. If they walk into a shop expecting to buy something and then the shopkeeper asks, I realize I'm using terminology like this is medieval times and RPG, but the person at the register asks about their own personal well-being.
00:38:58
Speaker
Apparently not everyone's ready to respond briefly with a lie and then move about the day. Yeah, it's weird. I feel like we have so many things we're like, this is how it is except when it's not. Yes. It's silly, our policies and rules. Speaking of
00:39:22
Speaker
This is my segue into the stuff that's going on in Texas. True. Policies and rules. And these policies do not rule.
00:39:33
Speaker
Do you want to give a quick synopsis? Sure. I actually, incidentally, listened to New York Times podcast about this just earlier today when getting food. In short, the Texas legislature put forth a law that made it so that there is basically a public bounty
00:39:55
Speaker
um where you can report people for getting an abortion after the sixth trimester or sixth week I guess would be the proper way to put it um slash actually correct and there's a hundred thousand not a hundred ten thousand dollar bounty but the same person could be sued by multiple individuals and you could sue either the practitioner providing the abortion or
00:40:20
Speaker
the individual receiving the abortion, basically any culpable individuals. And the reason for this, which I wasn't aware of until
Religious Freedom and Legal Challenges
00:40:30
Speaker
I actually listened to the podcast, was because they would not be able to enforce this as a law from the legislature, like the state government or the individuals in government.
00:40:42
Speaker
because it would be blatantly unconstitutional. So instead, the law is that anyone, it empowers anyone to bring suit against these individuals that are participating in or assisting with abortions.
00:40:59
Speaker
And the effect, as much as one would expect, basically none of the 24 facilities in Texas that currently offer abortions are willing to do so past the sixth week, which is very early. Most people don't actually know that they're pregnant until around that time. Yeah, because you don't really start to show until unless you're actively trying and monitoring it, it's entirely possible you wouldn't know until.
00:41:29
Speaker
That's like, you missed a period, right? Month has passed. And then you have two weeks leeway. That's a very quick turnaround for making the determination to have an abortion. Compared to like when a fetus is viable, which is like 20 weeks, 22 weeks around that. There's a massive time scale difference there. So how would you translate this law to a layman?
00:41:56
Speaker
because my version is if you hate women, holy shit, this is a great law. Yeah. It's definitely a massive blow to personal autonomy. And it's, so the Supreme Court ruled in on this and said that the law itself, they basically won't make a constitutional ruling on this to pause the law, its implementation. So it's live now in Texas.
00:42:25
Speaker
And potentially, if someone were to be sued, then this could be escalated back up to the Supreme Court where they might make a constitutional call in that case. But it was five to four conservative justices for the most part in favor, liberal justices for the most part against, except John Roberts, who is kind of a
00:42:47
Speaker
a swing justice. He was appointed, I think, by George Bush. Or maybe even more recent. Yeah, no, I'm pretty sure he was George Bush. Because Kavanaugh was the most recent appointee. And John Roberts is kind of like, he's the middle justice he wants to be seen as the one that could go either way, and he really is. But
00:43:14
Speaker
I guess that's not a layman approach. To answer your actual question, the actual implication of this is that abortions are almost completely unheard of. Well, they will be almost completely unheard of in Texas. And other states are likely to follow suit with similar laws or variations of it. That is legitimately terrifying, though.
00:43:40
Speaker
So spoken as somebody who has a dick, this is literally, to use the roughly appropriate term, not my jurisdiction. Nobody, especially let alone like a guy, should not be able to make a law or a ruling or some type of calling that would affect, as you said, your own personal autonomy and your legal right. And especially something that directly affects your body.
00:44:06
Speaker
So whether it's just personal choice, you don't want to have a kid, which is entirely valid, or if there's like any health risk or there's like the complication of rape, which for some reason conservatives are still not, I don't understand their views on it. Really clear on, yeah. Like all these things, that's, you should be allowed to do that. Blanket. Yeah.
00:44:31
Speaker
I mean, yeah, my personal opinion is I would agree. And again, you know, personal autonomy, I shouldn't have a saying bodily autonomy of somebody else or infringe upon their rights. But it's it's a bit of a crappy situation. Texas is leading the group of really trying to force something through that will undermine Roe v. Wade.
00:44:58
Speaker
and potentially lead to its overturn, which would be massive as far as abortion rights for the country. But I don't think people know how it's going to end up right now. There is a conservative majority of justices
00:45:18
Speaker
even, you know, counting John, even if like John Roberts goes, Chief Justice John Roberts goes the other way, that's not enough, you know, to overcome the conservative majority. So we don't really know what will happen. Yeah, although I do say you have a note in here that there may be a little bit of recourse
00:45:43
Speaker
Satanism is the word I'm reading right here. I found out what Satanism was in high school, so a brief blurb about my personal past. I grew up Christian. At some point, I was like, what's the Christianity issues with gays and women? And I looked into it more. I'm like, this really isn't my bag. I looked up other religions. I'm like, well, what are their views on certain things?
00:46:10
Speaker
um in general a lot of religions are very much don't be a dick but then they have specific rules of like accept against these people because fuck them whereas satanism is much more uh hey don't be a dick uh do not infringe on people's individual rights um so they are technically classified as a religion i believe yeah so there is satanic temples in particular yeah uh to my knowledge it's not a
00:46:38
Speaker
practicing religion. I don't think they necessarily have congregations meetings. It's just a religious organization or institution. But basically, they are, I believe, proposing a legislature that this law is going to infringe on people's religious rights under the Satanic Temple.
00:46:58
Speaker
Yeah. So you don't even have to be a member of the Satanist church for this to apply to you. You can just say like, hey, that's part of my beliefs. I'm with them. And they will say like, yeah, they're a part of our church.
00:47:14
Speaker
Yeah, because they realize that this is even though it's not officially documented, fucking unconstitutional and infringing on people's individuals and people's individual rights. Yeah, it's it's basically like so there's different there's actual Satanists out there. Like there's I don't know. So I'm not sure exactly what the purview of the term Satanist is because there's people who believe so Satan and Satan and there's people who just its definition is just the absence of God.
00:47:44
Speaker
It's not worshipping Satan. Yeah, in fact, I think one of the core beliefs of the Satanic Temple is that they don't actually believe in Satan.
00:47:59
Speaker
Their tenants are actually really good. Yeah. And so there is one thing I was reading about this as it pertains to abortion is they do have what's called an abortion ritual, which sounds terrifying. But what it actually is is like before you make a decision,
00:48:20
Speaker
about your own personal body, bodily autonomy, look in a mirror and have a moment of self-reflection where you like reflect on the tenants. And I think the ones to the two that they want people to reflect on prior to having an abortion are tenant three, which I'll quote as one's body is invaluable, inviolable. Basically you're in control of your own body subject to one's own will alone. And, uh, the other was, I believe four.
00:48:50
Speaker
Which is the freedom of others should be respected or no. What was it's not for? There's another one. I can't remember what the second one was. I think four or one would be the two.
00:49:06
Speaker
Yeah. I'll have to try to find that. I don't want to misrepresent, like, a religious institution. But the short of it is basically before and after an abortion procedure, have a moment of reflection, consider that this is your choice. And that's basically the core tenant.
00:49:27
Speaker
And it's really hard to disagree with any of their tenants, I think, as a rational human being. Um, the one that really stands out to me is tenant five, which is belief should conform to one's best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one's beliefs. That's huge. The past six years. Um,
00:49:56
Speaker
And yeah, it's it's actually kind of crazy. Well, it's not crazy.
Advocacy for Personal Autonomy
00:50:03
Speaker
This is probably the best argument against like any sort of religious justification for banning abortions is that you can't at the same time ban abortions because of a religious like any sort of religious standing.
00:50:24
Speaker
And at the same time, not discriminate against religions that explicitly allow people's own bodily autonomy, which is the satanic temple. They're standing for this issue. And it's going to be interesting. It's going to be interesting to see how this unfolds.
00:50:46
Speaker
because part of the issue with the chilling effect of the law is that all of these places offering abortions actually just stopped offering them after six weeks. Whereas in order to go back up to the Supreme Court, they would have to offer one after six weeks and then be sued and then escalate it back up the court circuit to the Supreme Court. That's the way that the law actually has to be
00:51:14
Speaker
contested and the satanic temple is taking a different approach, which is good because none of the, as I said, none of the institutions are actually offering abortions past six weeks, which is hold up. You're infringing on our religious beliefs. I'm glad that one fucking institution will stand to reason because holy shit, I,
00:51:42
Speaker
Like when you grow up in religion with whatever form it takes, statistically Christianity or Catholicism at this point, if you're in the United States, so much of it influences other things that you don't realize until you're outside of it. Like, hmm.
00:52:01
Speaker
Christianity and like nationalism is just indoctrinated so much into kids in just like minor ways, like pledge of allegiance, saying that America is the best, saying that abortion is bad. And just giving it this view of, hey, this is just Christianity's belief, not necessarily your belief. But if it's the only thing you're fed, it's the only thing you know.
00:52:27
Speaker
So you start to take issues with like, why are they trying to attack Christianity? Why are they trying to kill babies? No, no, no. That's how they're framing it. Yeah. Maybe somebody's not ready to be a parent. Maybe they just like have like having sex and don't want to be a parent. Who'd have fucking thought? That's me.
00:52:45
Speaker
I've never had an abortion with any of my partners, thankfully, because I don't think it's going to be a nice, fun, quick, easy experience that anybody wants. But at the same time, we're still young and figuring out what we want to do with our lives. Why would you want to commit to have a kid and a responsibility? Because as much as I don't like kids,
00:53:08
Speaker
I understand that if I had one, it would become my entire life because I want to make sure that the kids okay, taken care of. I can support the responsibility. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And I think that's literally part of the difference. I mean, places that have higher rates of abortion are those that have
00:53:30
Speaker
lower rates of contraceptive use. Like that shouldn't surprise anyone, but that's part of the religious sort of paradox here is like, not necessarily a paradox, it's not a true paradox. If the end result is you want more kids, everyone to have more kids, then yes, lowering contraception, lowering acceptability of abortions, like would result in more kids, but what it also increases is unsafe abortions.
00:53:58
Speaker
back alley dealings, things like that. And those are going to happen, right? You're going to have people who can't afford to leave the state and they need to, like they'll feel compelled to have this resolved using an aborted procedure that's now no longer safe. Like if you care about people,
00:54:17
Speaker
the people who are living right now and not potential future life as a concept, then it really doesn't make any sense to endorse these kinds of laws and legislature. But this is by far the most political I think we've actually ever been on the show. I think we talked about video games once for like 10 minutes and then it's been like, how do you feel about personal relationships also?
00:54:43
Speaker
And I did look up the abortion ritual. It was 10 at three and five. So one's body is invaluable and belief should conform to the best scientific understanding of the world. Okay. Those were the two. I didn't want to be wrong on that because there's, you know, it's a religion and they should, you should treat them seriously where you can. Yeah.
00:55:07
Speaker
But I believe the Satanic Temple, correct me if I'm wrong, if you fancy me I did not, but I believe that they are also offering financial support to if anybody is being sued under this currently.
00:55:20
Speaker
It wouldn't surprise me. They are an advocacy group. I don't have any specific information. But at the very least, you should. If you're someone affected and you want better advocacy, I would reach out for them. I do know people can also get membership cards, which lends some legitimacy here.
00:55:44
Speaker
As it's a religion, you don't need official, you don't need an ID to say that you're a member of any religion. No, it's just like, like we have a lot of religious freedoms. Just like you don't need to buy our merch to say you're a fan of the show. But if you'd like, but if you really want to be a fan,
00:56:01
Speaker
Well, it just, but I think it is that way. It is kind of repping the brand, so to speak. So the same way people have like bumper stickers or merch for like a t-shirt. You're saying like, hey, I like either this person's art or their beliefs or something that they do that I get benefit from.
00:56:18
Speaker
So, yeah, if you want to rep it by getting a card, by all means, I actually am considering getting one of their mugs because it looks pretty badass. I'm also probably going to donate towards their campaign for this specifically because I know some women and I don't dislike them. Hot take. Even some women who I do know and dislike, that's still their fucking right.
00:56:49
Speaker
As a white guy, I do not have many rights infringed upon. So I think it's even more onus on me to try and help out other people who do not have my exact experience instead of assuming, oh, well, they can just not go to Texas. They can go somewhere else. Like people have infinite time and money to just work around shitty laws.
00:57:14
Speaker
And it's very much like I don't want to say that it's a slippery slope. I don't want to say this is a slippery slope and have a slippery slope fallacy, but I think legitimately it is. Like if the rulings in Texas are not contested, other states will have more standing to introduce.
00:57:32
Speaker
Similar laws like this is how legislature works in the United States is if yeah, it's based on a law that is passed and it's not challenged exactly then other laws are much more likely to have standing to be passed and erode the freedoms enacted by Roe v. Wade
00:57:52
Speaker
That's literally how certain court rulings will work, because it said, well, even the whole thing with fucking Cosby, because of something that got fucked up 17 years ago, that caused an issue here. So in a similar fashion, if there was a precedent of, we made this ruling for this exact scenario here, you kind of then have to look at that as an example going forward. Yeah.
00:58:21
Speaker
I think we shouldn't I will put it in. I'll send you the link so you can put it in the description, but a link to their tenants and the abortion ritual and how to get in contact with everybody regarding this. So if you are someone affected or you know someone affected, you can have more advocacy here because I think both of us feel strongly that people should have advocates for their own reproductive rights and
00:58:54
Speaker
I said the phrase like nobody gives a shit about you except for you.
00:58:59
Speaker
I feel like this is an example of that. So a larger organization, like the government in this case, doesn't necessarily give a fuck about you. They give a fuck about some archaic ruling from a Bible or something else, which by all means subscribe to your own beliefs if they don't affect anybody else. But if you're using that as a precedent to affect multiple other people's lives who you do not know and you should not have say over, go fuck yourself.
00:59:29
Speaker
Hahahahaha
00:59:32
Speaker
Yeah, I would probably take a less aggressive stance, but at the same time, my messaging would ultimately be the same. I mean, like one of the core tenants here is don't infringe upon others' bodies. Don't, you know, respect other people's freedoms. And those are fundamentally what's at stake here.
01:00:02
Speaker
We're saying, no, everything should conform to this one beliefs approach as opposed to allowing different beliefs to have their own implementation, their own autonomy, right? Do you know what's funny? Going back to, let's say, elementary, middle school, high school,
01:00:26
Speaker
You know when we had certain holidays you're like, oh, yeah, of course we have Christmas and then Like you'd see some kids who are out for like Ramadan. You're like the fucks that about oh That's them exercising their religious freedom to celebrate a holiday. It's important to their religion and that's not your fucking business They'll do the homework later Tim
01:00:48
Speaker
Not sure why I chose him. Tim is usually the one who does. He's always raising the arguments of how we should stop respecting Ramadan. I'm not really sure what Tim's got going on. It's a nice one syllable thing. Also, that's my dad's name. I'm not meaning to target you, Dad, if you're listening.
01:01:08
Speaker
Yeah. Anyways, definitely something worth researching, following up on. Could affect you, could affect people that you love and care for. So it's something that, you know, I don't think that we're the most advocacy driven podcast out there. Definitely not. And we're not even a political podcast. We're not even a policy podcast, but potentially, you know, we have people, you know,
01:01:36
Speaker
We have people down in Texas who could be affected by this. We have friends. And even if we didn't, then we have friends if we have friends, right? It's we got to watch out for each other and ensure that at the end of the day, no one's rights and personal autonomy is being tried on by the government, the government or, you know, other individuals.
Final Thoughts and Listener Engagement
01:02:02
Speaker
And so.
01:02:04
Speaker
I would read the tenants give them a look see
01:02:08
Speaker
I think it's super edgy to say I'm usually the edgelord in video games and everything like that. I advocate for all of that. Uh, even myself, I don't know if I would go to a family reunion and be like, Hey, I've found this new religion and it's the satanic temple and expect everything to go well. But, um, it's literally the first thing in their FAQ is that they don't believe in the supernatural or Satan. So you don't have to subscribe to that part of it.
01:02:38
Speaker
But out of all of the religions I've found out or I've investigated, this has the most grounds and rationality since it is completely divorced from superstition. So I'm a fan.
01:02:54
Speaker
I would like to second that statement. So check the description if you're interested. Apparently, we're now advocating for a religion. Give it a look see. If it's not to your liking, that's absolutely fine. We'll still advocate for your personal bodily autonomy as best as we can through our podcast, I guess. And yeah, we already had words of wisdom.
01:03:24
Speaker
I can't think of any good topic that would follow up off those. I want to make a clarification in one of my statements because earlier I said, if I don't know you, I don't give a fuck about you. And then later I'm like, we should care about all people. So separate thing.
01:03:39
Speaker
I don't need to care about you individually as a person, but I still think you should have all the rights and access to things that you need as a person, 100%. But we don't need to be close friends. That's all I'm saying. Yes. But if you do want to be close friends with Dave, you could send him an email at soapstonepodcast at gmail.com or
01:04:01
Speaker
You could just join the discussion on Facebook, talk about Dave every week, I presume, at facebook.com slash soapstone podcast. And as always, we'll see you in the next one. Have a good night.
01:05:11
Speaker
you