Well … the game’s taking a better direction again.
Maybe one day the old man will come back.
We never really had a clash on the forums.
I always felt like we’d cause it to melt, if we ever attempted … 
I miss quite a few of the old bunch.
… glad you’re still here!
Spirit only my friend, I rarely play these days; it’s a long depressing story, literally.
Ooohhhhh … join the club, my friend!
You’re always welcome to share if you feel like it.
Hm.
At some point over all these years I’ve learned that talking too much with online people only …
… eventually just makes horribly sad simply because they’re not physically present.
Something something oxytocin levels, feelings of trust, blabla.
How are you doing nowadays?
First lockdown didn’t change life much for me; I’d been dealing with mental health problems exacerbated by a brain injury a few years back for a while, and was very antisocial due to anxiety.
Second lockdown is starting to hurt, as first lockdown ended I tried to start socialising in the real and was overcoming the anxiety just as second lockdown hit.
I’m now back to where I was in January, and I hate it.
You’re still mentally more healthy than many others around.
Oh boy I bet that makes you feel better … 
: - )
Do you hate it more than you fear people?
I guess your brain injury is visible?
Btw, this is horribly off-topic and we need to delete our posts after reading/responding. 
But you still don’t get my point?
Of course it wasn’t.
You only think that because you’re incapable of individual thought and literally rely on others to give you your opinion.
Rewards were/are in an unsustainable state.
Hey, I am looking for the term describing this but I don’t know how to find it!
When people believe that, when they talk about things it’s their own opinion,
but in reality they’re just talking about what they’ve read in newspapers or heard on TV.
…
I’ve never learned how to keep my threads on-topic.
ISD Ezwal always was unhappy about that.
I’m too chatty. 
Had a 40 KG weight fall from about 1 metre above me and bounce off the top of my forehead, my wooly hat took some of it and it didn’t knock me down but cracked my skull a good one and caused a cerebral spinal fluid leak which put pressure on the brain.
It’s an invisible injury but it affects my attention span depending on what I’m doing, on top of many years of yo yoing in and out of depression it makes dealing with people tough.
Hey, I am looking for the term describing this but I don’t know how to find it!
Sheeple.
Wow. You’re a hopefully proud survivor… ■■■■ man, that sounds bad.
Literal brain injury …
… attention span problems …
… and not a single sign of it …
… compared to all these morons running around here …
… who are most likely in perfect health … (well … definitely not all of them…)
… and destined to be complete idiots.
You deserve respect, mate.
Not quite the term I’m looking for. : - )
Edit: I don’t see the reason for flagging this post.
The forehead is nature’s armour plate; its shape is round which is a shape well known for its strength, the top of the forehead is made of the stronger bone types and the way it intersects with the rest of the skull allows for any impact energy to be dissipated rather than concentrated.
Nature is a beast.
Thinking by proxy?
If I’d posted what I was going to post instead of sheeple our evil overlord Mr Barstorlode would have been most unimpressed.
This article …
Do Schools Encourage “Proxy Thinking”? | Education Stormfront (wordpress.com)
… seems to agree.
Many Thanks!
Time for some digging!
Jonah:
You can always just let it all out and then delete it …
… after I’ve read it. 
Taught what to think, not how to think.
Also known as indoctrination.
This paragraph is particularly interesting, because it fits the fascists on the forum.
I noticed this happening last year in the election because I was never able to have a good conversation with somebody with opposing political views. Every time I tried to, I just got a mash up of talking points that I had previously read online. It wasn’t that they disagreed with what I was saying, they didn’t even listen because I had already been grouped with the enemy by their sources of information. This is important because if you regard the other person as evil then you won’t even listen to the message. Why would you?
This is along the lines of my alternative to sheeple…
Flagged the posts for moderation before anyone else could do it… : - )
Almost, just one comment on:
I completely agree. Otherwise this would be a new phenomenon and it just isn’t. People forget that the internet in the current form isn’t that old. What’s not new is that the new thing gets the blame… even if it’s for stuff that is as old as human civilization.
There is some truth in what you said, but I think much of it is coming from the algorithms feeding media to us over our various services.
Those programs are studying us and feeding us “that which we cannot stop watching”.
As it turns out, “that which we cannot stop watching” is a combination of “things that scare us” and “things that reinforce our world view”.
Thus, increasing polarization and hatred of those that disagree with us.
Should be a sad irony if the downfall of western civilization was an unintended byproduct of good marketing.