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nancypullen · 3 years

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Where Is Home?

We talk about retirement a lot. A LOT. The mister wants out of the south because he hates the hot, sticky weather. I want out of the south for a variety of different reasons. He tears up when he thinks about leaving this house. I get excited thinking of a house with better storage, maybe even a walk-in closet and a big pantry. He loves the idea of townhouse living and all of the freedom it provides. I love the idea of half a football field between me and a neighbor. I wouldn’t mind being snug against a neighbor if we were in a walkable little town and I could have a white picket fence. As we age into our golden years I want to be on city water and city sewer. I do not want to be ninety when the well runs dry or the septic system has a fit. Nope. No, thank you. We have discussed towns from Maine to Arizona and are constantly trading articles about property taxes and real estate markets. Night after night I search Zillow, Realtor, Trulia (oh, those handy dandy crime maps!) and so on. I’ll send Mickey a house in Maryland to admire and mention that it’s just two hours from the world’s cutest grandgirl. He responds that he loves it. Then I send him a townhouse near Tucson and he says the same thing. I’m getting nowhere with this guy. Side note: Yes, I know Arizona gets very hot, but it is not humid. HUGE difference. Also, Arizona has two enormous positives - we could escape allergies and my hair would behave. If you had my hair you’d know that’s more important than the property taxes. Two major negatives would be that it’s too far from family and I can’t imagine never experiencing another autumn. I’m happily willing to give the townhouse idea serious consideration. I know that Mickey would love to never weed eat and edge another yard. Remember the good old days when no one did that? My main issue with townhouses is that they all tend to be multiple stories - sometimes three floors. Wherever we retire, that’s where we’re going to die. I don’t want to be unable to navigate my own home when I’m old. Same reason I refuse to have a basement laundry, I don’t want to drag baskets of clothes up and down basement stairs when I’m a little old lady. You know damn well a cat would trip me and Mickey wouldn’t miss me until he got hungry. Of all the chores I’d be willing to expire while doing, laundry is not in the top three. We’re not lottery winners so our options are limited. When we sell this house we’ll make a tasty profit that will allow us to find a comfortable home - nothing fancy, but we won’t be in a box under bridge. I can make any home pretty, but the bones have to be good. I’m more concerned with structure and mechanics. Who needs a beautiful house with a bad roof or an hvac system on its last leg? The region definitely determines what you get for your money. For the same price you can have this sort of square footage in the south (complete with inground pool)...

or you can opt for proximity to Portland, Maine and get this.

The second house is new construction, but it’s itty bitty, has well water and septic, and is missing the all-important garage that we’d need up north. This is a struggle, people. We just want a nice little house in a nice little town, hopefully one that will meet our needs as we get older. Other items on our wish list? Small town living with easy access to a larger city and a decent international airport. Part of my hunt includes exploring each town’s library website (a vibrant, busy library says a lot about a place) as well as their Facebook page. Looking past the mouthy keyboard warriors that lurk on every page, you can still get a good idea of the town’s vibe. Let’s see - fair property taxes, decent cost of living, small town feel, good airport, seasons...sounds like we should stay put and just endure long, sticky summers, right? Ugh, no. Our reasons for wanting to relocate are so much more than just the summers. Soooo, months and months of searching keep leading me to one state that ticks all of our boxes and then some. Minnesota. A myriad of cute towns surround Minneapolis and St. Paul, all with easy access to the fabulous airport. I’m crazy about New Ulm (I love a town with lots of festivals) and I wouldn’t be heartbroken to live in Mankato, Owatonna, or a number of others. Real estate is affordable, taxes are fair (and are used wisely!), all four seasons are present and accounted for, and quality of life seems really good - from healthcare to education to crime, they seem to have a handle on it.

and you knew there was a but, right? We could happily move there knowing that we’d be close to at least one of our kids. Matt lives in Minneapolis and the thought of having him nearby warms my heart. But he’s weighing the pros and cons of an opportunity that would take him to the east coast and more likely to far flung parts of the world. It’s quite possible that he’d be gone in a flash and we’d be in Minnesota, once again far from family. Right now we’re a day’s drive from everyone except Matt. Truly, we could do it in a day but it would be a miserable thirteen to fourteen hours. I have scoured Maryland and settled on a little place called Ocean Pines. It’s okay, a bit further than I’d like to be from airports, etc - it’s between two to two and a half hours to Baltimore, D.C. or Philadelphia’s. That also means it’s just two hours from my favorite little girl. That would be HEAVEN. But who retires to one of the most expensive states to live in? Would it make our golden years miserable? Who wants to pinch pennies when you should be enjoying life? HELP!! Where is home? I left Alaska more than twenty years ago, the mister was a Florida boy - we don’t want to live in either place. I love the prairie, he loves the mountains. At one point we were looking at real estate on Prince Edward Island (affordable and gorgeous!) but Canada doesn’t want us. Seriously, we filled out the online immigration form. We wouldn’t be able to live there year round and I can’t imagine having to go squat across the border for a couple of months every year once we’re old and rickety. There are pros and cons to every place we’ve looked. No spot is perfect and we have to decide what we can and can’t live without. If someone could just plop this house down next to my grandbaby I’ll shut up about this forever.

Imagine that house surrounded by hydrangeas in the summer. I don’t think that’s too much to ask - just a little pink house near some people I love. Some snow would be nice now and then. What a lovely dream. This boring blog post has been brought to you courtesy of my latest level of boredom. It was either this or go dust the bedrooms, so you had to pay the price for my laziness. My plan for this evening is to watch the Golden Globes and through that maybe find something interesting to watch. We’re approaching the first anniversary of when we locked down here on the Pullen spread and we’ve run out of shows to binge. Remember how naïve we all were when we thought we’d watch Tiger King and then lockdown would be over? At least we’re headed in the right direction now. That’s something. I’m thrilled that my mother is fully vaccinated and so is Dr. Matt. A handful of my dear friends are also protected now. I’ve lost some friends to this horrible virus, including the husband of a dear Rat Patrol member. Our little group now includes a widow for the first time. There’s been so much heartbreak over the last year. I’m ready for it to stop. Okay - what a crazy, rambling post. I think I’ll go dust. It’s probably more productive. If you’re still here, you deserve a cookie. Treat yourself! If you happen to know of the perfect town (I really just want to live in Stars Hollow) send me a message! I’ll put my dust rag down and check it out! Sending out lots of love on this drippy Saturday. Stay safe, stay well, stay sane. XOXO - Nancy

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ixvyupdates · 6 years

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Our Country’s Addiction to Guns Is Endangering the Lives of Our Students

On March 14, students across the country will walk out of school to demand action on gun violence. They are telling elected officials, “Enough!”

They are saying what most people know but are reticent to admit: Americans have an unhealthy relationship with guns.

On average, 25 American children age 17 or under are killed every week by gunfire. That’s 1,300 kids who die each year from homicide, suicide or accidental discharge.

If these deaths came from any other source—think lead paint, cigarettes or cars—we would have all manner of political action and restrictions. Not so with guns, because we are addicted.

We are so in the thrall of guns that even the loss of our most precious asset won’t change our behavior. Since Valentine’s Day when 17 people were killed in yet another mass shooting, teachers across the country have recoiled in horror:

Today at school I cleaned out my closet so I could hide a few extra kids should a shooter come on campus. Then I tried to calculate how many could fit under my desk. There isn’t a day I wipe tables in the cafeteria for lunch duty that I don’t think, if a shooter were to enter that door, where would the closest exit be?—Mary Schlieder, 2008 Nebraska State Teacher of the Year

I am still recovering from the latest school shooting. Facing my 10-year-old students the next day, looking them in the eye and assuring them that they are safe and that I would never let anything happen to them was brutal. Brutal because I couldn’t be honest and had to make them believe me. They were really scared so I lied, repeatedly.—Marguerite Izzo, 2007 New York State Teacher of the Year

There is a high-top table in the corner of my classroom. It’s big enough to sit four students with a wooden top and a metal base. I was thinking of that table the other night at 3 a.m. the other night, after helping my wife with a feed and change or our 4-week-old. I was thinking about it because if I turned it on its side and pressed the top against the door and curled my body behind the base, I might be able to hold off an armed gunman and see my family again.—Sean McComb, 2014 National Teacher of the Year

Addiction is a subtle process.

Whatever we become addicted to is used judiciously at first, but over time starts creeping into inappropriate places. Drinking at work or using one’s smartphone at the dinner table, once unthinkable, can become normal in the mind of an addict. Claims that the behavior is harmful or should change are met with great anger.

Guns Are No Different

So too with guns. Our addiction to guns is so strong that we’ve normalized allowing them in places that were once unthinkable: churches, protest marches, bars, private businesses.

Now we’ve hit bottom with some leaders suggesting we add schools to that list. Arming teachers, they say, is the best way to reduce gun violence at schools. While many citizens—including teachers—are responsible gun owners, we don’t believe having guns in the classroom will make kids safer. In fact, we believe it would make things worse.

Former New York City Police Chief Bill Bratton called this idea “the height of lunacy.”

Anthony Swofford, a marine veteran turned college professor, said, “The presence of a firearm is always an invitation to violence. Weapons have no place in a learning environment.”

America has roughly 4 percent of the world’s population and 40 percent of all privately-owned guns. That’s more guns per person than any other country.

We have more gun deaths than any developed nation. Yet our response to mass shootings is always the same: MORE GUNS.

A shooting at a movie theater? Arm the ushers! At a concert? Arm the concertgoers! At a school? Arm the teachers! Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results, is it not?

There are myriad reasons that teachers oppose carrying guns at school:

While gun proponents envision armed teachers heroically stopping assailants, research suggests otherwise. Numerous studies show that highly trained police hit their targets less than 50 percent of the time during a shootout. If our stray bullet kills a student, who’s responsible?

Research shows that people with guns are more likely to harm themselves or accidentally harm others than stop a crime. The FBI reports that in 2012, for every felon killed by an armed citizen, there were 78 suicides, 34 homicides and two accidental gun deaths. Given our suicide epidemic, how long would it take before a teacher or student used a sanctioned gun to kill themselves at school?

Schools, by nature, are chaotic places. There are hundreds of people, varied schedules, multiple classrooms, substitute teachers and few cabinets or drawers that lock dependably. In the hectic school day how often might an overwhelmed teacher leave a gun unattended or unlocked? Gun proponents say it won’t happen, but it already happened with a teacher in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. And children die from gun accidents about once a week in America, almost always from finding their parents’ “secured” gun at home.

Educators work hard to create warm, welcoming environment in schools. Do we really want kids seeing armed teachers at school? How would kids respond? Our guess? Not well. Consider the morale and academic results in schools with metal detectors and heavy security. That is not an environment conducive to learning.

Adding guns to schools is counter to the way we treat other societal dangers. For other hazards we use government research to design policies that reduce risk. Think about cars. Over the years we’ve added seat belts, airbags and child seats. We have age requirements, road tests, speed limits and size limits; a license to drive a car is not the same as a license to drive a large, potentially more lethal truck. To reduce deaths caused by speeding drivers, we didn’t suggest other drivers speed as well. We found sensible ways to address the problem.

The president and others suggest that gun-adept teachers could keep our schools safe. For gun proponents—and the politicians they support—it’s an emotionally satisfying idea. But students from Parkland and their peers across the country aren’t buying it. Neither are we. We are saying out loud what most people instinctively know: If we truly want to stop school shootings, we must change our relationship with guns.

Photo by ASKOLDS BEROVSKIS, Twenty20-licensed.

Our Country’s Addiction to Guns Is Endangering the Lives of Our Students syndicated from https://sapsnkraguide.wordpress.com

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sportsandfitnessinfo · 7 years

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New Post has been published on http://fitnessandhealthpros.com/beauty/climate-change-is-starving-millions-right-now-why-isnt-this-a-thing-yet/

Climate Change Is Starving Millions Right Now. Why Isn’t This A Thing Yet?

A version of this article previously appeared on My Kind Closet.

This article is part of a collaboration between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Ethical Writers Coalition.

Climate change is no longer an abstract concept that can be relegated to the bottom of our “things we should address eventually” lists … We are presently in the throes of feeling the very real and serious consequences of a rising climate; consequences which will become more dire by the year if we continue to live as we’re living without massive intervention on a global scale.

Those of us living in wealthier, more developed countries surely understand that climate change is a complex problem with a range of diverse implications; however, it’s easy to forget how real and serious these implications actually are when one can simply open a faucet to pour a glass of clean water on-demand, drive to the market for access to an unlimited and seemingly endless array of food choices, or have a more than reasonable expectation that one’s food is safe and free from food or water-borne illnesses.

It’s heartening that climate change is a conversation finally happening in the mainstream – one that has become a hot topic among politicians and media outlets. But, these conversations are typically limited to a few very narrow topics like the rise in sea level, air pollution, and protecting clean water.

In order to truly become more considerate of all the impacts climate change is having, we must be willing to expand our perspectives and think more globally; Our conversations need to extend beyond what we already know and regularly discuss.

Climate Change and Food Security

Did you know that by 2050, the world’s agricultural systems must produce 70% more food* than we have today to meet the demands of a population expected to reach 9.6 billion?

If you audibly gasped after reading that, please know you’re right to be alarmed.

This enormous food gap is daunting in and of itself, but it seems particularly insurmountable to close when compounded with the effects of climate change, as food security and food supplies are among the casualties of global warming.

Individuals most at risk are those in developing countries, most notably women and children, many of whom are already undernourished. As of 2014, 795 million people are estimated to be undernourished, often as a direct consequence of environmental degradation, drought, and loss of biodiversity (United Nations Development Programme, Sustainable Development Goals, Goal 2: Zero Hunger).

These points are made distressingly clear by the current humanitarian crisis facing over 20 million people in Somalia, Yemen, South Sudan, and Kenya; Drought, famine, and unstable political climates compounded by the presence of terrorist groups has displaced many and has left millions of people hungry. In just two days alone, it has been reported that 110 people in Somalia, mostly women and children, have died from drought-related starvation and disease. Unicef reports that 1.4 million children in Somalia, Yemen, South Sudan, and Nigeria could die of malnutrition.

The continued trend of a warming climate does not bode well for the health of these regions as higher temperatures will continue to reduce an already strained water supply, shorten growing seasons, and reduce crop yields.

People are considered “food secure” when they have access at all times to sufficient, safe, and nutritious foods.

There are four key dimensions to measure food security: availability, stability, access, utilization.

Our warming climate and increasingly erratic weather patterns affect food production directly and indirectly across these dimensions.

Direct impacts of climate change would include reduction or unpredictable crop yields due to damages caused by more severe and frequent weather events like cyclones, droughts, and flooding.

In regions that are already drier, for example, a warming climate will reduce the moisture content of soil and has the potential to make agricultural land unsuitable for growing, in addition to increasing the risk of erosion and landslides.

Warmer temperatures may also lead to crop reduction. The UNDP reports that for each 1 degree of temperature increase, grain yields decline by about 5%. Between 1981 and 2002, maize, wheat, and other major crops have seen significant yield reductions at the global level of 40 megatonnes annually.

Indirect implications of climate change on food security includes restricted access to food due to changes in income or availability, or reduced utilization of food due to an increase in disease.

For example, heavier rainfalls can lead to an increase in water-borne illnesses, like cholera, that would reduce an infected persons’ ability to adequately utilize food due to diarrhea.

But, with the right tools, it is possible to bolster food security by adapting food production to account for the changing climate and prepare for future impacts of climate change; the UNDP works in countries around the world to help facilitate this.

Seed nurseries, drip-irrigation, crop diversification and various other agricultural practices have been introduced to at-risk communities, while climate-resilient crops have replaced climate-sensitive ones. The UNDP also helps to rehabilitate water harvesting systems.

And because we tend to care more about an issue when we can make some sort of personal or visual connection, I’d like to highlight a region already severely impacted by climate change, which is one of the many projects the UNDP has undertaken to improve food security and access to water.

Greening the Dry Zone of Myanmar

Food insecurity is a growing problem in the Dry Zone of Myanmar, which is a region spanning around 54,000 km and home to around one-third of the country’s population. Food insecurity, and the chronic poverty that characterizes this region, is closely correlated to the regions droughts and dry spells. Conversely, during times of heavy rains, communities in this region have become increasingly more susceptible to the perils of flash floods and landslides due to soil erosion.

In areas of the Dry Zone hardest hit by droughts and dry spells, adequate water isn’t always easy to obtain.

I don‘t have time for many dreams in my life. My family is usually struggling for our daily needs… Water is always a big concern. Without rain, I cannot do anything.” Daung Yi, Sin Ka Village, Chauk Township, Magway Region (as quoted in “Greening the Dry Zone: Conserving the Land While Improving Water Access and Food Security in Myanmar“)

Duang Yi is just one of many in her village, and throughout the Dry Zone, who not only pay a significant portion of their income on water, but who endure a significant time-burden traveling to the well nearest to their home. In Duang Yi’s case, the well is a 15-20 minute walk away.

Individuals who are struggling to meet the basic needs of survival do not have time, or the resources, to improve their lives through education or other income generating activities.

A key project of the UNDP in this area is supporting community-based and community-driven efforts to secure water resources by enhancing water capture and storage to provide continuous freshwater availability to the 280 villages participating in this project. In addition, the benefits of improved water security are maximized by promoting climate-resilient agricultural practices, like the examples listed earlier. Finally, additional farmer-managed projects, like establishing community-based agro forestry plots, are underway to restore and rehabilitate the region’s soil.

Ultimately, these projects benefit the communities through access to water, higher crop yields and access to food through subsistence farming, and economic opportunities through job creation.

Food security issues will continue to be a growing concern in the wake of climate change; what can you do about it today?

With a greater knowledge and understanding of the myriad aspects of a warming climate, we’re in a better position to make appropriate changes in our lives.

And, if there ever was a silver lining in all of this it’s that because we’re largely the cause of climate change, we can actually make changes in our lives to help mitigate the effects.

Reduce over-consumption of calories and reduce consumption of animal-based foods

Take the carbon neutral pledge

Further educate yourself by heading over to the UNDP website for additional information and tools.

Also by Stephanie: 6 Ways to Protect Endangered and Threatened Species

Related: What You Can Do Now to Fight Climate Change In Your City

A Few Smart Initiatives Stand Between Global Warming and Utter Devastation of Our Oceans

Get more like this—Subscribe to our daily inspirational newsletter for exclusive content!

*As measured by calories.

Photo: Oxfam, Pexels, UNDP

Stephanie founded My Kind Closet hoping to inspire you to ditch the leather, wool, silk etc, in favor of a kinder style. She is also a monthly columnist at Vilda Magazine and a member of the Ethical Writers Coalition. Follow Stephanie on Instagram @my_kind_closet.

Originally at :Peaceful Dumpling Written By : Stephanie Villano

#Change #Climate #Isn’t #Millions #Now.#Right #Starving #Thing #This

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viralhottopics · 7 years

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‘Watch Dogs 2s’ representation of hactivism is more relevant than ever

Hacking is well-known in gaming, indicative of a predilection for hacker culture but often without the culture itself. By contrast, hacktivism the intersection of hacking and social activism has gone relatively unexplored in gaming.

Hacking as gameplay

The Deus Ex games, most notably Mankind: Divided, focused on technology as a way to subvert power structures and ultimately overthrow the corrupt establishment. Though the gameplay focuses on infiltration, technology is how Jensen pulls apart the Illuminati, byte by byte.

Shadowrun used hacking (or in the Shadowrun vernacular, decking) and technomancy (decking through use of magic) as a tool for stealing from and embarrassing the handful of MegaCorps that run the games world. Some deckers, namely the environmental hacktivists from the fictional Salish-Shidhe region (formerly British Columbia), see technomancy as a necessity to ensure the future survival of their land. When a MegaCorp comes sniffing around, eager to exploit the bounties of the Salish-Shidhe, they arent afraid to drive them back with everything they have, including technomancy.

Even Inside, with its sinister, faceless regime converting humans into pliable meat-puppets, uses the power of technology to challenge (and ultimately overthrow) the authorities. Technology as a tool for social change isnt new. Hacking, and therefore hacktivism, is still a daunting socio-technological concept that requires quite a bit of nuance to explore effectively.

It wasnt until Ubisoft introduced us to the Watch Dogs franchise in 2014 that audiences got a real taste for what hacktivism was (and wasnt). The original Watch Dogs captured an aspect of hacking as a narrative tool, but didnt demonstrate any understanding of hacker culture. Watch Dogs was a lacklustre revenge story with a dour, unlikeable protagonist and fell woefully short of what hacktivism really is.

Marcus, Watch Dogs 2s protagonist, is proving a point: no corporation is above accountability

Image: ubisoft

The sequel, Watch Dogs 2, manages to tread the line between the gravitas of hacktivism and the loud iconoclastic roots of hacker culture. Watch Dogs 2 is an irreverent, effervescent nod to modern hacktivism, both with its storytelling and its gameplay. Unlike most games that incorporate hacking as a mechanic, Watch Dogs 2 peels back the complexity and invites lateral thinking to solve puzzles. Much like how modern hacktivists use a variety of tools to achieve their political ends, Watch Dogs 2 encourages playfulness and creativity when tearing down the powers that be.

Hacktivists are everywhere

The modern internet was built by hacktivists, fueled by idealists and optimists who wanted information to be free and data to be protected from government interference. They are internet standards pioneers, champions of net neutrality, and innovators of every sort. They are pirates, artists, activists, script kiddies and hackers. They are the disenfranchised, the original online social justice warriors, long before it became a pejorative term.

Hacktivists are everyone from anywhere, and no one at all.

Watch Dogs 2s hacker troupe, DedSec, is a combination of the witty irreverence of LulzSec and the dedicated activism of Anonymous. Their major players use a wide array of tools in order to take down Blume, the architect of ctOS a central operating system used in major cities to monitor and control the citys infrastructure, as well as its citizens. Your in-game contact and hacker friend Sitara uses art and distinctive branding to bring the DedSec community together, similar to how Anonymous reaches out to hacktivists and regular people through their own flavour of recruitment videos.

DedSec is much less ominous than Anon

Image: ubisoft

DedSec prefers the amicable join us to Anonymous expect us, indicative of its real-world inspiration from the now defunct LulzSec. LulzSec was a splintered cell of Anonymous that took embarrassing the establishment from private corporations, like Sony, to the US government to the next level for no reason other than, well, lulz. As much as the spin would have the public believing that LulzSec and Anonymous are (or have been) cyberterrorists seeking to cause permanent harm to individuals or groups of individuals hacktivism stops short of that as a matter of principle.

Hacktivism didnt start with Anonymous. The term was coined in 2001 by the Cult of the Dead Cow long before social media, the 24-hour news cycle and the smartphone. Their manifesto, the Hacktivism Manifesto, was meant as a call to action for hackers with a social conscience. It called for hackers to band together and fight to keep data free. This Manifesto gave birth to a new era of online social activism through hacker culture: hacktivism as we know it today.

Anonymous has been willing to get its collective hands dirty in order to achieve their political ends. Members often put their personal freedom on the line, especially if their identities are revealed, so that others may have a voice. Anonymous is responsible for keeping the internet going during the Arab Spring in 2011, bringing to light the myriad of issues taking place across the Middle East.

While DedSecs motivations are far closer to home, tied to American cities and American citizens, their dedication to hacktivisms core purpose embarrassing power players by exposing whatever skeletons are in their corporate (or government) closets is undeniable. Marcus, the protagonist in the game, creates legally questionable mischief wherever he goes, throwing power structures into upheaval more often than not. Nothing like airing a corporate executives dirty laundry over the internet, live and uncensored, for the world to see. Or stealing an iconic vehicle from an upcoming film just to screw with film execs for not getting hacker culture right.

This is what happens when youre a scumbag exec DedSec takes you down

Image: ubisoft

Several missions gave a firm nod to Anonymous and LulzSec operations, including the parallel between the Church of New Dawn and the Church of Scientology. Anonymous notoriously harassed the Church of Scientology in 2008 (dubbed Project Chanology) by clogging up phone lines as a virtual sit-in, overloading their faxes with garbled messages (known as black faxes), and a distributed denial of service (DDoS). Watch Dogs 2 requires much more hands-on time with their version of the church the final mission in the arc is a heck of a challenge if you arent sneaky and subversive the whole way through but there are obvious parallels in DedSecs motivations, right down to the celebrity element.

Effective hacktivism isnt limited to code

Watch Dogs 2 reinforces that hacking isnt just about code, nor is it about the method of delivery; its about the motivation behind it. Hackers existed long before the advent of the internet, or even personal computing. Hacking was (and is) about innovative mischief. And DedSec uses every bit of innovative mischief to make their political points. Deface property? Only if it embarrasses Blume. Steal a car? Only if it deters dirtbag movie execs from making terrible movies about hacker culture. Socially engineer your way into a company, just to sabotage it from the inside? Only if it makes people sit up and listen to your warnings about Big Data.

The global political climate has become rather chilly over the last five years. The unrest, the violence, the upheaval we are collectively walking down an unlit path in Central Park at two oclock in the morning and it is mighty dangerous out there. While the activists are on the ground, doing the big work in meatspace, hacktivists are behind the scenes, quietly subverting the establishment. And when governments seek to destroy intellectualism, hacktivists siphon research and protect it for the future.

You cannot arrest an idea. – Jake Topiary Davi

Hacktivism in games is a nascent narrative. Watch Dogs 2 has done a marvellous job of capturing the bombastic qualities of hacker culture without relying on the clandestine, shadowy hacker trope. Games have a number of opportunities to take hacktivism in new and interesting directions. Crafting stories that explore the power of community in fighting injustice, rather than focusing on a single hero character, for example, would be a great way to demonstrate one of hacktivisms major tenets. While hacking is an important part of hacktivism, its not all about code. Consider social engineering, which weve seen integrated into a number of espionage-centric games (such as Tom Clancys Splinter Cell), as the basis of a hacktivism narrative. Leave the code to the black-hats, while a protagonist infiltrates and subverts power structures in a social capacity. Clandestine, Logic Artists cooperative action-strategy game where players play a hacker and a spy, started to touch on this, but was far more James Bond in heels than Anonymous.

Watch Dogs 2 gave us a peek at what neon-powered, socially conscious (albeit slightly shallow) hacktivism could look like under a certain lens with certain lighting. Its real power, and beauty, is in driving home the same message that the Cult of the Dead Cow has been espousing since 2001: we see you, we hear you, and we wont stop subverting your influence, even if you threaten our freedoms. Were stronger together.

Amanda Farough has been writing about video and tabletop games for a number of years. Her tastes are eclectic and varied, with a love for strategy and action. You can find her on Twitter at @amandafarough, where she is likely shipping her Overwatch main, D. Va, and Lucio. You can also find her previous work at her personal site.