people used to think I was on crazy pills because I for some reason used to point to 2008 as my favorite nostalgia year.

Nothing particularly major happened with mine, no sports team championship, no graduation, no first date, nothing like that, and my family was for the most part, well insulated from the financial crisis, we lived in a country that was less impacted anyway

2008 was just another year in the 2000s, I only remember it so well because of the small little gaming communities I had joined online when I was 16, Still talk to and hang out with them today at 32.

the market will be taken over by cheaper, less “luxury” alternatives.

Its looking more and more like the end result is just going to be millions of Americans will have to do without, Live with less.

and no doubt at the same time their oligarch fantasy-wealthy overlords will preach to them about Spartan values or something. Ultranationalist Jingo Ghouls will talk about how its tough times create strong men, or about how we all have to prepare for war with China or something.

My answer is going to include a short story as a pretext.

In Canada in the 90s, we used to have these commercials from an organization called “Concerned Childrens Advetisers” the commercials were about a variety of things, some being positive reinforcement about self esteem, others were more on the nose like not eating glue…

there was one important one that would come on a lot called “The North American House Hippo”. And for about 60 seconds it would tell kids about tiny hippopotamus that come out in your kitchen at night, eat crumbs of dropped food, and make beds under your fridge or in the pantry or something… At the end of the commercial, the narrator says something to the effect of “That was an interesting story, but Its not real, not everything you read in a book or see on the TV is real.” the internet wasn’t mentioned because it wasn’t widespread enough yet… but it had a simple lesson. Not everything you see in media is real.

that lesson hasn’t been transfered over to the majority of people, or more likely, most people are not responsible enough to be trusted with the internet because they dont know how to filter, they dont know how to think critically when presented with information online, and its even worse now in the age of deepfakes and AI, that even the smart ones get fooled now.

Collectively we’re dumber because people have allowed their public facebook comment section keyboard warrior persona, to take over their real lives. Who people are in person and who people are online, are two different individuals, but the online persona is the one who is in charge. When we are in public, we usually revert to our social norms, respect each other. But when you’re a keyboard warrior, your impotent rage and urge to yell the N word and other slurs is unchecked because there isnt anyone present to break your nose for saying or doing something antisocial or arrogant.

its odd that they open sourced Generals and the first CNC and Red Alert, but nothing in between.

CNC3 was my favorite, and I’ll die on that hill . but RA2 was obivously the fan favorite, and Tiberian Sun had probably the best atmosphere

I know this is the meme and shitpost place but some lurker might have some insight.

I actually still use IE from time to time when Im trying to watch a movie or whatnot. I have 2 screens and 2 sets of speakers, call them left and right. When streaming I treat the left like a TV. with its own audio direction

but to do this I have to run it through a different browser, and then I have the volume mixer set to output Internet explorer audio through the secondary speakers.

someone know a way of doing it on a tab basis. maybe? In chrome