To the extent shoes, boots, and yes even loafers have a higher barrier to entry they also have a higher reward with how you look. It's fashion, put in a little effort.
I disagree. It's not that hard to find some nice loafers especially if you're fine going secondhand (get a cobbler). A pair of leather soles loafers (I'm biased for tassels) clacking away makes you feel pretty good. I agree on the sneakers & suit point however, death penalty.
I stand by this as well. Most guys are better off with the *right* pair of sneakers than they are going tryhard with a pair of loafers or something
On the other hand, good shoes are a great way to elevate an average outfit. Most guys do the opposite (suit & sneakers. Hideous)
@quininequo That is all very true, I'd say there's an immense obsession with "lore" now with those who worldbuild but produce only that. Even worse I'd say is the laziness of lore, one can easily expand a setting in vast ways yet offer no substance to it. Like 40k, it's all an addendum.
I've always felt that fantasy as a genre in recent decades has been the most contradictory in nature. It is quite literally fantasy, you can express whatever you wish. Limitless potential. Yet all works are stunted to be within the bounds of what exists in like D&D etc.
However it's harder to express mass politics and materially dependent ideas. This is where you get silly modern "dark fantasy" which tries to pull off themes an immiserated peasantry that somehow has the class consciousness of like a 1900s industrial worker (oh and gore, wow)
I genuinely want sci-fi to return as the major genre of anime, manga, etc. I remember Thomas777 saying like "sci-fi lends itself to higher order political concepts" something like that. Which...is true. Fantasy can lend itself to higher order concepts...
You are expected to intellectually toil in every subject on your own, not out of personal fulfillment, but so you obtain some level of fleeting social status or financial stability. If you receive any advice, help, laughter, or emotional support that isn't paywalled..."grooming."
This world is very much ripe for individualistic psychopaths who basically pump out self-help books and podcasts, capitalizing on that sense many have of being adrift at sea. Sincere mentorship no longer exists and any such attempt at it is met with banshee harping of "grooming."
Everyone is retarded because our alternative education is self-education.
There are no mentors, spiritual fathers, elders.
Working backwards from nothing, wasting valuable time.
@LuciferGroyper When he uttered this in Three Kingdoms (the 2010 adaptation) I absolutely fell in love with Cao Cao. A very unfairly treated figure by the book, albeit modern historical academic oieces have cleared much of the air.
@tortured_man Perhaps enjoy the few months left of existence on dilaudid and morphine, the few moments in life one can experience legal pure opiates without. Then again, not being cogent of your doom and constantly high might be bad.