#atlus shrugged

[utterlyunlovableloser]

Being made to read Atlus Shrugged again, I think one of the main reasons why the story, let alone its philosophy is utterly so uncompelling is that it has no grounding in reality. Whenever it tries to talk like a manifesto it sounds utterly melodramatic because the world it has made up is generally the opposite of the actual issues that are faced in reality. To oversimplify it that of inequality.

One can tell that part of the reason that rich right wingers like it so much is because it makes up a world in which they would be oppressed for having lots of money and what they believe to be their meritocratic and intellectual merits that too aren't based in reality with all their wealth being on the backs of exploited labour.

Atlus Shrugged creates a world of ungrounded oppression where things such as the abstract idea of love and acting upon it is limited. One might relate it to homophobia or romeo and juliet or some other thing, but it is rather just love in general, focused entirely on how sad it is that straight people can't get it on beyond for procreation. It is something that rings even more hollow today than it did back then to be fair, but rather than grounding it with any context it is instead made into the abstract in a bizarro or opposite world that would rather make up a reality for you to get mad at than have any grounding of the existing one with existing oppressions that are all the more enraging to anyone who has dealt with or sympathized with an actual struggle in their lives.

The only things that seems even a little grounded in reality is the mention of eugenics and the relagation of the eldery or old as useless members of society, but even then there is hardly if any commentary on capitalism and how it defines humanity and its value based on labour value that can be exploited by capital or any racial or racialized aspects of eugenics. Instead it is the vague idea that all people are oppressed by evil equality and collectivism in what reads like a cartoon world version of what better dead than red types thought the ussr was at the time, an evil cartoon world you'd think even red scare poisoned people would think is at least a bit silly.

Again, you can see why Atlus Shrugged is so popular to right wingers and rich people, and of course they tend to be white men for socioeconomic and social appeal reasons. It imagines a world where you can be oppressed by all these things that actual oppressed people might be oppressed over in actual, real contexts even if you're the very group of people that are oppressing them. You too can be oppressed as a cisheterosexual white man for your love of a cisheterosexual white woman! You're so oppresed for being smart and cool and good at everything and everyone's keeping you down for being rich and smart and cool and good and popular, just like in real life!

It's a fantasy for people to pretend like they're oppressed for things that they're very much not, and might not have ever experienced actual oppression to begin with, and gasses them up in their minds for being so smart and innovative and pats them on the back for being selfish and not caring about others. To do so, it must be as fantastical as possible, as ungrounded by (though not untethered from) the real world as possible. Of course the work was made in a historical, socioeconomic context that can be examined through historical materialism and so on, but Atlus Shrugged would very much wish that it couldn't, perhaps because it would be too collectivist to examine the world and its context and how society is based on real class struggle and not a fictional meritocracy struggle of individuals.

#atlus shrugged #literature

[blurzo]

Does anyone actually think Ayn Rand is good writing? Stans please put the philosophy aside for one moment... is the writing good? Tell the truth.

#ayn rand #philosophy #literature #the fountainhead #atlus shrugged

[scripture-pictures]

#howard phillips #atlus shrugged #alex jones #the nice guys #proverbs 4:23 #daily bread #nightly bread #god is love

[callmearcturus]

Persona 3's remake is out! Are you planning to liveblog it?

uuuuuuh I wasn't........... planning on it? I don't think anyone would enjoy me sulking my way through what's apparently an extremely good game just because they didn't put in FeMC and I'm actually really salty about that.

it's apparently the fastest selling persona game ever so i'm wondering if Atlus will do the Gurl DLC but i know its way more likely they'll do the Answer DLC instead so idk. SIGHS.

at the moment I am replaying P3Portable just for fun.

SHRUGS

#Anonymous

[your-local-granny]

Me (past tense): Hey why are you so transphobic Atlus: *shrugged*

#is this anything #atlus #atlus games #persona 4 #persona 3 #persona 5 #portal of rambling

[arcplaysgames]

If the Fortune Arcana is literally a fortune teller, I am going to slash some tires. Especially since, like, the point of the fucking Wheel is that you are not in a position to see where it will turn.

Some journalist I've seen for like five minutes makes a deal with Reverie. She'll give a name of the criminal running the scams in Shibuya but she wants access to someone at Shujin who suffered under Kamoshida's abuse.

Which is a shitty deal, so calling it: Devil arcana.

Morgana suggests Mishima for the deal, so, uh

I hate Mishima but this feels terrible. 8C Come on, he's gonna think it's a date and instead someone is gonna ask him about the volleyball coach beating him. This sucks, Persona 5 Royal!!!! I hate this!

And Ryuji gets accosted by... drag performers??? Or are they just queer people? I am literally looking through my screencaps of this scene and I frankly don't get what it's trying to imply here???? I feel like it's a joke at my people's expense but I'm missing context, so. SHRUG.

Kaneshiro's palace seems to be the entirety of Shibuya's central street. Which made me think they just didn't want to make new assets but I'm proven wrong in a bit.

Seeing people as walking ATMs doesn't make sense to me, like, you withdraw from your own account with ATMs, not from the magical ATM fairy. I don't get this metaphor. Whatev!

TURNS OUT THE ACTUAL PALACE IS A FLYING BANK. Alright. That's sure a thing.

I feel like this was an incredibly valid question. Unfortunately, Morgana cannot turn into non-car things. Which really begs a lot of questions about why he can become specifically a van.

Ryuji when was the last time you were useful, homes, you are the one who got us into this fucking mess with Makoto because you kept screaming about being a Phantom Thief, you absolute dunderfuck. Don't insult Morgana.

Dinnertime at the Nijima Household.

This is a totally inappropriate reaction but I started laughing in disbelief because like. This turn is SO hard and SO sudden and came out of nowhere???? Sae, bruh, what the fuck, are you having a bad day?

OH MY GOD SHE IS LMAO THAT'S HER EXCUSE. And then she says she's going to stop coming home for dinner from now on???? Holy shit?

lmao as the main caretaker of a very frustrating person who drives me batshit, I am judging Sae so fucking hard right now. Remember the halcyon days when we first met Sae? God, I barely remember. Now she's interrogating our card collection and making Dojima look like Parent of the Year.

The Thieves meet up to talk about how to reach the Palace and Makoto just invites herself along again, and Ann happens to call her "useless" and oh my god is this like her trauma trigger?

ATLUS

WHO THE FUCK WAS YOUR SCENE COORDINATOR FOR THIS SEQUENCE

AM I SUPPOSED TO TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY?

YOU JUST FLASHED BACK TO A SCENE THAT LITERALLY JUST HAPPENED 40 SECONDS AGO.

Makoto completely loses her shit and is like "okay fine I will go find you Kaneshiro" and storms off

Gets shoved into the back of an unmarked car by two thugs

Everyone very reasonably flips their shit too and chases after her, including Ryuji throwing himself into the path of a speeding car to make it stop

which: is the most Chariot shit any Chariot has ever Charioted, but also if he got hit doing this, I would have deleted the game in a rage-blackout, i'm so furious with Makoto

and oh she leads them to Kaneshiro! and he immediately snaps a photo of them all for blackmail purposes. he wants 3 million yen in 3 weeks.

HEY YUSUKE?

THANK YOU

Everyone gets a shot of sympathy for Makoto because she's like super sorry that she flipped her shit and ran off and confronted some mafia dudes and got in their car and wound up needing a rescue and then got everyone on the hook for 3 million yen, which is about what I make in a fucking year (roughly)

whatever, they bring her into the Metaverse, she pops her Persona, it's a motorcycle, which is way more fucking cool than she deserves

you know what, same here. same here.

I think I feel comfortable saying, yeah, this is worse than Ryoji. If anyone is hoping I turn on Makoto later, do not hold your breath, because this is a staggeringly bad prolonged introduction to this character. I am to a point I want to sit down with the writers and just ask them to explain to me what impression they intended to leave on the player, taking a character who has thus far only been a stalker and harasser of the protagonists turned outright blackmailer turned into oh now someone else is blackmailing us bc of her? and then handing her off like "here's a new teammate"

what

the actual

fuck

thank you and good night. I'm going to bed.

#p5 #persona liveblog #can i just skip this palace #she is permanently on the bench i want nothing to do with her #holy SHIT

[ninebaalart]

Kasumi

atlus shrugged

#persona 5 #kasumi yoshizawa #sumire yoshizawa #p5r spoilers #p5r fanart #art #fanart #atlus

[gay-yosuke]

hmm maybe ann for the asks? since you did ryuji :)

ANN!!!! once again remember i havent played p5 in years.

favourite thing about them: i mean i love that she sticks up for herself all the time. shes strong and determined and she doesnt let anybody get her down. thats cool as fuck. i think she should have killed kamoshida.

least favourite thing: i uh. do not know. so i get to use my get out of jail free card and say Atlus Moment

favourite line: IM SO SORRY ANN I DONT. REMEMBER ANYTHING .

brOTP: her and ryuji. of course.

OTP: doesnt she have a girlfriend? shiho? her.

nOTP: shrugging emoji. iunno.

random headcanon: much like most agi users i think that ann can breathe fire in the metaverse.

unpopular opinion: i am not sure. i do not know opinions on her to know what unpopular would be. but i like her .

song that reminds me of them: ann. i am so sorry. i do not have songs.

favourite picture of them: once again youre gonna have to go look at @luuxxart's anns. go. enjoy.

#anonymous #I FEEL BAD I HAVENT PLAYED P5 ITS ON MY LIST ILL GET THERE. #I JUST NEED TO FINISH P4G FIRST

[funkylittlepenguin]

Guys I’m totally normal I promise (having so many thoughts about the choreo from Battle Hymn of the Soul in Persona Super Live 2017)

Like. LISTEN. The symbolism. The passion. The music fucks obviously but that part when *Shinji* lifts Mitsuru? Chills. Every single fucking time y’all. Because Atlus is full of cowards and they didn’t show Mitsuru’s actual reaction to Shinji’s death, but this??? This captures It, I feel like. Because like.

Mitsuru was in command when it was just her, Akihiko, and Shinji. She was in charge when Shinji accidentally killed Ken’s mom. The guilt tore Shinji to pieces, and you expect me to believe that Mitsuru just shrugged it off? FUCK NO. I bet that shit tore her apart. That shit probably destroyed her. She probably blamed herself, because that’s what she does!!! She internalizes EVERYTHING. She apologizes for EVERYTHING. And then Shinji goes and DIES, just when she thinks that things might be rebuilt. Add to the fact that the symbolism behind her awakening points to her letting go of her guilt to move forward,,,,

Shinji lifts her up. She reaches to the sky with shaking hands. COME ON HOW ARE YALL NOT FERAL ABOUT THIS

I really hope P3R gives us some Mitsuru Actually Letting Herself Mourn Shinji, or at least visibly not letting herself mourn.

Anyway. Yeah I’m totally normal

#yelling into the void #persona 3 #persona 3 reload #mitsuru kirijo #shinjiro aragaki #persona súper live #also unrelated but I would kill to go to one of the super lives

[alexsiple]

For the fandom ask: 1-10, Persona 5

ok hello thank u for the ask, i'm putting it under a cut LOL

What originally drew me to it

ahhhh. my past roommates were already very familiar with it and knew the story / had watched playthroughs. and through a series of events we came to have a ps3 in our apartment and they jumped on having the chance to play it themselves and then we just. would play it every night until 4 am as a reprieve from working on our thesis films. tired out of our minds. one time the ps3 crashed after we'd defeated all those mini bosses at the end and we had to do it all again. good times

What I like most and least about it

hmm... i love the story and the characters. the thieves specifically. made in a lab for my brain to enjoy. i love the rebellious messages, i love this game when it gets it right. but on the other hand i really hate the writing when it gets it wrong (misogyny? messy writing in general? sometimes the story is like "jk don't rebel against oppressive systems" or is an apologist for characters who don't deserve it) i hate kawakami as a character / dating the full grown women / the dating system in general. sorry? also it's rare i love a game that long for its mechanics but i like the battle system and all that shit. not perfect but it's fun as hell to me

A character I want to carry around in a little jar and study like a bug

answered in another ask but it's akechi. omg wait also maruki HAHAHAHA hate that guy. putting him in a box and poking holes in it

A character I couldn't care less about

uhhhhhh. kawakami? lol? or ohya? i refuse to finish their confidants. shrug. yoshida's confidant goes hard though am i right

The character who gives me the greatest gender envy

joker :/ too easy i know

A character I'd like to frame and hang on my wall and admire like a work of art

yusuke??? not because he's an artist ok i'm not on-the-nose like that i just love him he's so wonderful to me. i want him to have everything he ever desires

A character who feels like home

ryuji. i've cried about him. he's your BEST FRIEND

The character with the greatest wasted/unexplored potential

OH. lolol [any woman because atlus hates women and] i'd say haru? i could write an essay on haru but it's not interesting we all know

The character I'd most enjoy feeding to a pride of ravenous lions

uhhhhh any palace ruler can get in the lion pit i guess. even maruki but i say it affectionately (?) even sae i'm sorry girl you have to try harder. any adult in p5 actually. get in the pit. shrug. no one is safe

A ship I would gladly go down with... and then become Davey Jones, so I can continue to captain said ship for eternity

shuake... if it wasn't clear already. but i also love yusuke/ryuji :')

#ask

[prismatoxic]

loving the timeline i got to witness of:

-yahtzee reviews a game on zero punctuation -in the course of the script he finds a reason to bring up ayn rand/atlus shrugged, mostly as a joke -brings up ayn rand again as the closing punchline -final credits message is "bioshock was a good game wasn't it" -one day later the escapist uploads a new extra punctuation about why bioshock's opening is amazing

did you get bioshock on the brain by any chance, mr. croshaw?

idk what his schedule of making ZP/EP looks like, though i do suspect that EP might possibly be visually edited by someone else? i'm like 99% sure yahtz still does ZP by himself except to pass it by matt the editor for notes on where he should maybe swear less, but EP is kind of visually different (despite using yahtzee's art still) so maybe he just reads his script and lets matt do the visuals? idk. the man's busy he puts out 2 videos like every week, i wouldn't blame him

regardless, my point is that idk where in the process he decided to make an EP on bioshock, but the idea of him writing the sea of stars script, thinking about ayn rand a little too hard, and getting on a bioshock kick because of it is pretty damn funny

if he addresses this in the bioshock video i'm going to feel very silly but i was just taking a food + youtube break so i only watched the sea of stars review for now

#sorry i think yahtzee has been a part of my life for so long that he's some sort of special interest #i know he used to be very... uh... Colorful #and still makes bad taste jokes from time to time #but he's not worse than south park and i think getting married and having kids calmed him down #i watched a compilation of old ZPs several months ago and while there were still funny jokes it was definitely kind of a #“you should not be saying that” cringefest #and it's funny bc i saw all of those videos before. i watched many of them when they came out #i just forgot how bad it was lmao... #my late uncle who i loved very dearly introduced me to yahtzee's work and i've never really moved away from it #took a break for a few years for reasons i don't recall #but then spent weeks going through the backlog of videos i'd missed lmao #i respect his opinions and he's made me pick up several games bc of how he described them #(psychonauts and saints row 2 come immediately to mind) #and it's impressive bc ZP has never used visuals from the games he's talking about you kind of just have to take him on his word #the “new” video format for EP does use game visuals which is another reason i think yahztee isn't the one putting it together #(real gamers remember when extra punctuation was an escapist column and not a video series) #sorry i kind of went off here in the tags didn't i. thanks for reading #if you did. which. if you did read them you'll be reading this! #thank you i care you #tox.txt

[bobzora]

ok going thru the p3re trailer

3d cutscene with aigis looks kind of lame (i really like the anime cutscenes in 3!!) sorry for being a hater ily aigis

the minimap looks like they’re trying to do p5 with a p3 recolor and it is Not working for me sorry. i don’t mind the date/location displays tho

DIALOGUE BOXES SOOOOOOO ASS

groomer p5 style portrait! ok

junpei portrait is ok

yukari portrait looks nice that's my GIRLFRIEND btw

trying to squint at the mall minimap to see if they added anything if they did i can’t tell. low resolution

i still fucking hate kenji. his portrait looks like him ig. fucked that he’s in high resolution downgrade his ass real quick pls

minato choice portrait! he looks eepy no complaints. still hate the dialogue boxes tho the font n color r NOT IT!!

police station okay whatever

SHOP MENU! very very p5esque. i don’t mind it! kind of neat!

3d cutscene still mid

tartarus! wonder what they’re gonna do with tartarus if anything i know it’s really divisive. well they’re on a high ass floor so that’s a realll good sign it’ll still be random lol

party panel is cute

they’re obviously trying not to spoil party members here (just p3mc junpei yukari)

BATTLE! the lighting is so fucked. the blue clashes with the background in a way 5’s black doesnt. they have skills under persona (D: weird) looks like they’re keeping tactics as an option (good call) the ui is so rough here the blue is not it don’t use blue like this dear god

MAIN MENU STILL SO GOOD the underwater transitionoptions seem standard. he’s so pretty :)

velvet room. shrugs. hi lizstandard

i. don’t think femc is here atlus prove me wrong pls pls pls pls i can't do this anymore

#bobtalk #im literally.having a moment. i need to sleep but im having a moment #just as im playing portable too! ough #please dont be ass please keep p3 personality please be okay at least #if they dont include femc. ill have to laugh. this is your One chance to have a more definitive edition after all these years atlus #guys im having a moment here. im shaking like a small dog im having a moment

[wp-blaze]

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[scripture-pictures]

#howard phillips #ayn rand #atlus shrugged #who is john galt #the nice guys #daily bread #nightly bread #god is love #bible

[callmearcturus]

Morgana enjoyer YES very good, thank you for being correct. Same for Maruki. <3 Also totally fair on Ryuji and Makoto - imo most fans of them like what Atlus was "going for" rather than the characters as written. I hope the story as a whole is hitting you right too :)

hahah i completed my playthru of Royal and my final thoughts were "I think P5 Vanilla might legitimately be a terrible game but Royal is so transcendentally good and well written, it redeems everything". If you are curious, my liveblog of the entire game is over here, which if you open it in a browser and NOT the tumblr app, it'll be in chronological order

i got no idea what Atlus was going for with Ryuji except to take all the worst things about the Phantom Thieves and condense them into a single person who also says he's gonna rip out Joker's tongue for daring to NOT oogling girls, so. idk, man. it was not great.

Makoto, idk what the fuck to say because she stalks, blackmails, and then endangers the team, and then everyone turns around and is like "omg we're like SOOOO glad to have you" and I just... never used her. I never even activated her confidant, I was so uninterested.

In one of my post-mortems, I pointed out that P5R has a larger main cast than P3 and P4 and I truly believe that's part of why the cast is so week. IMO Makoto and the entire Kaneshiro plotline should be deleted, it would make the game's runtime less ridiculous and give more screentime to other members of the team instead of dropping their characterizations so goddamn much.

SHRUGS

#Anonymous

[randomthefox]

Given the hypocrisy of modern fandoms, anon has a bit more respect for Ayn Rand, the philosopher behind Objectivism. Don't get me wrong, her philosophy is terrible; it's all about how selfishness is actually good, the rich and powerful are the true heroes of society, only people who "produce" deserve to thrive, etc. But at least Ayn Rand was honest about what she believed. Her philosophy was all about not caring about others, but at least she "honestly said so", and didn't pretend to be caring.

Actually if you look into it Ayn Rand was a massive hypocrite and clearly was only peddling her supposed beliefs as a business venture. You ever actually read Atlus Shrugged? The little objectivist utopia society didn't even believe in giving gifts to each other, the people living there would pay each other one penny in exchange for a gift just so they could pretend it was a transaction and not giving something away for free. It's so ridiculous it's borderline satire lol.

You might think she was shilling this to the rich and powerful as a masturbatory fantasy, but the truth is Objectivism mostly appeals to the young and naive and overly idealistic.

Those books are all about pointing out the bullshit of life/human society, and proposing a way to live a more virtuous life. Rand's books are the apologia for a self-interested and goal-driven way of life. Siddhartha appeals to wanderers and folks who just want to 'experience the world'. ZatAoMM speaks to people who find meaning in craft and creation, but who aren't ready to insist that the whole world be remade to fit their ideology.

Basically, Objectivism would probably be very appealing as a philosophy to stupid internet communists if they weren't already told by their cult leaders to think that it's very bad no good smelly poopoo capitalism rhetoric lol. With her absolute (and poorly supported) pronouncements - particularly because of their reactive and emotionally prickly qualities - she appeals most to people who would prefer to BELIEVE that their beliefs are objective, rather than consider criticism of those beliefs or counterexamples.

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

OK so this is a kinda out there question, but if metaphor somehow tied back to persona (be it a prequel, a sidequel, or an alt universe) would you be more excited or go all "FUCK YOU ATLUS" from all the inevitable lore and time-line headaches?

I'd be confused but ok with it.

Alt universe....shouldn't mess with the lore too much, we can probs wave away any inconsistencies as 'oh it's just not like that in that universe". Alt timelines (I know I'll use the words interchangeably at times) might be a biiiiiit more of an issue depending on what it is.

Ex: The DH works differently between the male and female timelines for some reason??? We could write it off as different "just because" but it's not really satisfying and messes with our understanding.

It's when things take place on the same continuity that's an issue. I guess the easiest one would be P5's use of cognition within it's own game as well as in like....PQ2. (aka where cognition is just mucked up regardless if we are within the main game or if we are in a spinoff interacting with other games).

Prequel......well I always wanted a prequel Persona game.....This one would be weird since Persona usually reflects our reality but.....*shrugs* The idea in itself isn't an issue, I mean they can always muck it up (that's ALWAYS on the table, but it's not something I depend on happening TT0TT)....but so far so good I guess.

Sidequel.......THAT might be an issue. Like I said about the continuity thing being an issue. If it's an Alt universe (maybe Alt timeline)? Might work. Sidequel indicates it's on the same continuity tho........

That being said I foresee them pulling a Catherine in some aspect....and making it a piece of media in the Persona-verse. Which I'm fine with. jfdlkdasjf

Anyway I guess we'll see klfjasdkljf

#silly asks #silly answers

[ecoamerica]

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