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klanced · 1 year

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mx katie klanced are we voting voltron straight through in the worst fandom poll or genshin. your troops await

i am so sad i missed this poll. i am now going to hold you all hostage and force you to read my outrage. i know this ship sailed literally two weeks ago but LISTEN TO ME!!!!!

anyway i cannot BELIEVE that voltron lost to south park. the category was "most annoying fandom." this is distinctly different than "most annoying show" or "worst show," and it is NOT synonymous with "most unhinged fans." okay? for this poll, what matters is the group character and cultural staying power of the fandom that organized around the show.

an annoying fandom must be:

incredibly vocal and prominent, to the point that even the most reluctant and detached layperson still has some vague idea of the fandom's biggest discourse/fights, usually entirely against their will; and

annoying, in the sense that the fandom's presence (or even a mere reference to their presence) is enough to actively disrupt or impede one's ability to enjoy online internet spaces; and

the fandom is annoying BECAUSE of the source material in question.

point 1 is fairly subjective, as it's all based on one's own experience or perception of a show's cultural diffusion across the broader public consciousness. so i weigh it less heavily when ranking how annoying a show is.

for point 2 i would argue that south park is annoying, and south park fans are annoying, but the south park fandom itself is NOT as annoying (i.e., the fandom is the least annoying aspect of south park). this is because i firmly believe you can differentiate between south park fans versus the south park fandom.

[[actually if i can be frank -- does south park actually have an organized fandom? obviously they have fans, i have seen them in the twitter wilds (usually in the context of out-of-context incredibly well-developed yaoi art/content of? 10 year olds ?????????). but is there actually a cohesive fandom that routinely interacts and develops concepts together? is there a collective identity ??????? my gut reaction is no, but this is very much an online space i don't enter, so what do i know? i also have no idea what that fandom can even talk about, other than the yaoi (although you could easily say this to the voltron fandom as well). whatever, for this argument i will presuppose that there IS a organized south park fandom with a fairly coherent and cohesive identity.]]

anyway, what i wanted to highlight is that there are certainly incredibly annoying individual south park fans who are outrageous, vulgar, and vile. so you would think that, if you put all these annoying individuals into a single collective, that single group would have skyrocketing amounts of annoyingness. but that doesn't seem to happen. i cannot recall any specific complaints about the south park fandom; personal stories involving individual south park fans, sure, but what does the fandom actually do on a broad scale?? if there is any sort of discourse or mobilization, it seems to be fairly contained and localized.

so how can a collective fandom somehow be less annoying than its individual parts? this brings me to point three: an annoying fandom MUST be annoying BECAUSE of its source material. and this does not apply in the south park fandom's case.

to qualify as an annoying fandom, it is not enough to be a group of annoying fans loosely connected by a shared interest; rather, the source material ITSELF must be the inciting incident that galvanizes the group to organize and THEN become annoying.

is the south park fandom annoying? to some extent yes, of course. but i would argue that the south park fandom is annoying, not specifically because of the show in question, but rather because the fandom is comprised of persons who were already predisposed to being annoying, regardless of whether or not they had ever watched south park. this is a subtle but incredibly important distinction.

south park's vulgar and vile humor certainly enables its most annoying fans, but the continued annoying activities of said fans are NOT dependent on the show's existence. a shithead south park fan was always going to be a shithead, now they just have cartman to idolize.

i have spent a lot of time talking about south park. let us now move on to voltron and the voltron fandom.

in contrast to south park, the voltron fandom qualifies as an annoying fandom because its annoying activities were entirely dependent on the existence of voltron the show. would individual voltron fans still have been annoying even if they had never stumbled upon voltron? of course. but the voltron fandom was an organized collective of people that specifically came together to BE ANNOYING ABOUT VOLTRON. and then they made it everyone else's problem.

the voltron fandom was like an ouroboros devouring its own tail; a symbol of infinity, referencing the literally never-ending fighting; and it survived entirely by maiming and cannibalizing itself. the voltron fandom actively ruined every online space it entered. i saw the greatest minds of my generation destroyed by voltron.

honestly, i would argue that the voltron fandom's impact has completely altered the way online fandom functions to this day. the voltron fandom capitalized on the momentum started by the steven universe fandom and other early 2010s online fandoms, and spawned an entire new flavor of fandom discourse that was obsessed with morality and virtue. truthfully, it feels disingenuous to frame what happened as something innocuous as "fandom discourse"; it almost feels like a disservice to the levels of personal faith, passion, and vitriol people poured into voltron. the terms "pro-shipping" and "anti-shipping" have been around for ages, but the voltron fandom turned "pro" and "anti" into genuine identity markers.

this post is already way too insane so i need to quit while i'm ahead. but i would just like to conclude by reiterating that south park has annoying fans but not necessarily an annoying fandom, whereas the voltron fandom was annoying specifically BECAUSE it was the voltron fandom. i think the south park fandom could dissolve tomorrow and assimilate into other similar fandoms without a problem. whereas the voltron fandom was like lightning in a bottle; the activities of the voltron fandom are quintessentially wrapped up in the specific details, characteristics, and attributes of voltron. if voltron's characters or story was even slightly different -- if, say, every character was a college-student for example -- then the nature and activities of the fandom would have been irrevocably different.

and that is why voltron is the more annoying fandom and SHOULD HAVE SWEPT SOUTH PARK IN THE POLL.

#at any given moment i have a 300k thesis brewing in the back of my mind about how the american 2016 presidential election #(and general political developments between 2012 - 2020) is irrevocably tied up in how the voltron fandom developed #it's the most batshit insane thing ever. i know.#anyway i'm going to law school in boston this fall!! using my debate skills for. this.#ask #anonymous

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the-crimson · 10 months

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Ok so here are my current thoughts on the two philosophies the candidates have based on the second debate, feel free to correct me or add ur own throughs :> (ElQuackity and Foolish aren’t included cuz they are doing their own thing lol and I haven’t seen anything from Etoiles so idk where he’d fall)

Philosophy 1: Forever, Cellbit, Felps

Use what ever power the Federation allows the President to make positive change on the island via mods and using federation resources to make events unique - ie the hide and seek event. Take advantage of what ever the President is given for however long it lasts/what ever they can.

Philosophy 2: Baghera, BBH, Gegg

Refuse to play the federations game. Turn it into a democracy or dissolve the presidency all together. Even attempting to use the power for positive change means the federation has leverage over you and can use you as a scapegoat for their bad actions so refuse to allow them that excuse.

Both philosophies are 100% valid and could play out positively or negatively depending on the federation’s plans for the president. I can also see how both sides could consider the other naive. Reading everyone’s explainations for why they think one of the philosophies is more likely to succeed based on irl cultural experiences and history has been really interesting and enlightening and has definitely given me a lot to think about.

Personally, I think combining them somehow would be the best approach but I’m excited to see how the characters handle it going forward and hope they can all come together with a unified plan before the election is over.

#qsmp #qsmp elections #crimson speaks #I’m biased towards philosophy 2 #simply because I want conflict between the server and the federation #and I don’t want the president to be brainwashed and turned against the server #XD #give us rebellionnnmmm #also the last two times the players played by the federations rules they were yoinked #and brainwashed (Cellbit) and replaced (Quackity)#I’m just waiting for Jaiden to get yoinked or brainwashed or something #at this point #the election is just a big trap #mainly to divide the server and sow discord between the players #and to potentially turn their leader against them #regardless of the elections outcome #I’m sure it’ll be one hell of a story :D

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gremlin-pattie · 2 months

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if trump gets re-elected because you cunts want to make a statement by not voting i’m killing all of you

#‘we shouldn’t have to choose between two horrible options’ ok but we do. realistically that is what’s going to happen #biden is a monster too #but you can not choose the far right fucker who has openly announced his plan to overthrow democracy #not voting isn’t going to prove anything #you’re just letting him win. you may as well vote for him at that point #kat is typing #us politics #us presidential election

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mezimraky · 1 year

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So what on earth is happening with the Czech election right now? Who is this general? Do people actually want Babiš? How does this vote work?

it's complicated! essentially, what is happening in czech rep right now is the third ever direct presidential election. meaning, every citizen over the age of 18 gets a vote. the last two elections ended with miloš zeman as the winner. miloš zeman is a bitter old man who is a rude drunk but people felt represented by him, and so elected him twice.

the second time around there was a big wave of dislike for zeman but the voters did not manage to pool in to one other candidate but instead spread to at least three fractions, making it impossible to beat zeman. this is not the case this year, with this election.

the first round of the election ended with two favourites. generál petr pavel and andrej babiš. they both had around 30something% of votes and ended within less than a percent to each other.

andrej babiš, the poplusist oligarch, is the head of the biggest political party in the country, ANO. andrej babiš is also a businessman who first went into politics in cca 2011 and his main positive was that "as a rich businessman he would not need to steal from the people as a politician." and "as a successful businessman he can run the country like he runs his company". they essentially built their popularity on populist policies that range the whole political spectrum without much of a system or reliability. they would form alliance with anyone who allowed them to be in the position of power.

the prominence of ANO has indirectly caused a crisis in democracy. the two sides of the political spectrum are out of balance. ANO's populist policies have replaced the political left almost entirely. if you'd watched the last government election last year, you'd see that the fight was no longer between the left and the right but between populism and democracy. the democratic right has won at the cost of forming a giant coalition made out of five different parties. they really needed that many in order to beat the ever so popular ANO, and babiš himself.

and this appears to be happening again. the choice of the second round of the presidential election is between babiš and generál pavel. babiš being a populist who will say just about anything to win (including pointing at the general's millitary past and claiming that he will drag our country into the war, take your kids away and whatever else). generál pavel being a guy with diplomatic experience in NATO, who mostly bases his campaign on his unshakeable calm and order. which, to be fair, following the many years with miloš zeman does seem like a very alluring concept.

both babiš and pavel also have a communist past, much like most people their age in this country. while pavel was a regular party member (and gained part of his millitary training under the old regime), andrej babiš has been proven to cooperate with the secret police at the time, being their secret agent of sorts. the cynics would tell you that there its not a real choice, that its between a communist and an agent, that they both suck. but.

it's not just the choice between two people. it's once again between a real diplomat and a liar. they are many poignant arguments concerning these two, but let me just focus on this one, as it is the most important one to me. babiš as a person does not stand for anything. he will say anything to get what he wants. he contradicts himself on the regular and does not cope well with being called out. he makes himself out to be an underdog but he was the prime minister until last year, and as a prime minister proved himself to be both completely spineless and worthless. and yet, his loyal fans seem to forget. they seem to have a weird sort of parasocial relationship with the kind grandpa in a turtleneck that he presents himself as on the social networks. they don't care what he did or didn't do. they like him as a person. they don't care what he would do to the image or political orientation of our country. they don't care. they care that he baked a delicious vánočka the other day, just like they do, every christmas!!!!

generál pavel has his own minuses, one of the ones that get thrown around a lot-- having millitary past, it's not all clear what he's done while in the millitary. having had diplomatic affiliations before, they say we can't know for sure where all his allegiances lay. and he was a communist after all. but. the thing is. he's the only other option we've got. and he's not all bad. he speaks well, he's consistent in his opinions, and he's willing to listen to marginalised groups for reasons other than to make himself look good.

and he's decent. and unaffiliated with a particular political party. insistent on democratic values. it's a low bar, i know. but it's the best hope we've got...

#under the sun with kai #what i failed to mention is that there is a two week gap between first and second round of the election #and this time is so far getting used mostly by babiš to throw dirt on generál pavel and spread misinformation #which. makes generál pavel keep repeating the same shit every debate just defending himself.#this kind of past-based and fear-based campaign moreover sidelines the important issues.#such as actual presidential power. diplomatic relations. concepts for The Future of The Fucking Country.#i have a lot of thoughts. i hope i voiced them in at least a semi-understandable manner.#there is also a lot of memes made abt these elections if you're interested in those too hmu #i just didnt wanna mix up the serious and the funny because the serious already got so long #also for the record im not a politics student im an art student so this is my very basic assessment of the situation feel free to add to it #czech

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labyrynth · 5 months

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can’t believe i’m already seeing posts to the contrary (and from non-americans, no less) but

when it comes down to the final vote…

Do Not Die on the Hill of Third-Party Candidates.

I understand the urge, but our current election systems are unable to support third-party candidates, and voting third-party is throwing your vote away at best.

do the rules of the game suck? yes! should they be changed? absolutely! but the game is going to happen whether or not you like the rules, and if you insist on playing by what you think the rules SHOULD be instead of what they ARE, you are setting yourself up to lose.

if you want to support third-party options, support your local candidates, look into movements to abolish the electoral college or implement ranked choice voting, and by all means—protest the current rules!

but so long as the rules remain what they are, protest with your voice, not your vote.

#moi #politics #us politics #american politics #2024 elections #especially if said third party candidate has zero chance of actually getting enough support to win #if you are going to tell people to vote third party #and i google their name and can only find ~3 news articles from the last two months that mention them #your candidate is not nearly as popular as you think they are.#your candidate cannot win if nobody knows who they are.#like. this is an ongoing problem on the left.#we cannot keep splitting the vote between aspirational candidates and electable candidates #literally look at the 2000 election #look at 2016 #we shouldn’t need to have this conversation as frequently as we do

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bibliophile-bi · 7 months

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love hearing your prime minister say "we can't be bullied into believing people can be any sex they want, they can't. men are men and women are women, it's common sense" - it does wonders for your mental health when you're a young trans person trying to get a referral to a gender clinic with a 30 month wait list :))

#love it even more when your mum and sister tell you “not to worry” because he cant do anything #but a lot of damage can be done between now and the general election and Labour arent in a rush to help trans people #like im sorry that the prime minister isnt trying to invalidate you're entire fucking existence ill just stop worrying #i hate it so much here #why does the world hate us so much lmfao #bibliophile-bi #uk politics

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swagyna · 5 months

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A "Quick" Guide to Independent US President Candidates of 2024

Regardless of the party you usually vote for, I encourage you to go over this list

Jill Stein, Green Party

Ballotpedia

Wikipedia

A Jewish Doctor, she's been running in different campaigns for 21 years. This will be her third time running for presidency; her announcement was in direct response to President Biden's lack of action in regards to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Her main concerns are to reinvigorate our lacking Green New Deal, for the right of a living wage in a revised Economic Bills of Rights, an end to discrimination of women, BIPOC, and LGBT+ members; the removal of US influence in wars across the globe, as well as an end to our politicians being bought out by lobbyists.

Dr. Stein learned of the impacts of environmental pollution first hand while she was a practicing physician; her patients' were suffering from the nicknamed "Filthy Five" coal plants in her area. This spurred her into activism, which did eventually lead to the removal of these coal plants. While involved in this activism, she heard how many people had been demanding the removal of the plants for years. Local politicians refused to heed the people's words. Stein eventually learned it was due to lobbying, and helped to pass the Clean Elections Law. This law would only last for 5 years before Democrats removed it. A/N: Dr. Stein has only declared her running just this month on Nov. 9th. This may explain her lacking platform.

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Chase Oliver, Libertarian Party

Ballotpedia

Wikipedia You could describe him as sort of an "average Joe". Before entering politics, he worked restaurant jobs for 13 years. He's previously ran for Georgia's 5th district for House in 2020, as well as running for Senator in 2022 of the same state. He got enough support during his run for Senate that it caused a runoff election. His campaign is addressing many different problems, from positive immigration reform to being prochoice. Here's the list and a brief summary of what his plans are:

○ Healthcare system overhaul, swap to Direct Primary Care ○ Addressing Student Loans, making current loans interest free, ending FAFSA entirely, using Department of Defense money to pay for interest fees lost by this move. Also addressing high tuition costs. ○ Education, removal of the Department of Education to allocate money directly back to the states. ○ Allowing free market on Marijuana, signing full pardons for anyone with a non-violent drug-only criminal charge. ○ Changes to the Justice System, from courts to prisons to cops, removal of immunity from those in power, removal of mandatory minimum sentences, removal of prosecution of victimless crimes. ○ Work Changes, adjustments to taxes to make it easier on lower-income families, as well as law adjustments for people looking to open their own businesses. ○ Immigration reform, simplification for immigrants to become citizens to allow them to work and better integrate into our society. ○ Government invasion of Privacy, the potential repeal of the Patriot Act as well as any other invasive laws the government has passed in the guise of "safety". ○ The rights of bodily autonomy and Abortion, which should be codified. The exception here is that tax money cannot be used for it.

○ Ending the Death Penalty ○ Reducing Inflation by reducing government spending [a/n: this is not what causes inflation] ○ Removal of any Gun Restrictions and will strike down any new one that come up in the future What spurred him into activism roughly 2 decades ago, was President Bush's war campaign in Iraq. In 2008, he initially supported President Obama but later left the Democratic Party as he found that their policies were not anti-war and had no intention of becoming anti-war. He's spoken against regulations that prevent that feeding of the homeless and hungry in the City of Columbia [agenda], and has also made a public comment to the Atlanta City Council against Cop city (time stamp is 2:17:00).

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Independent Party

Ballotpedia

Wikipedia

An avid environmentalist lawyer who has won exceptional lawsuits for Indigenous People. This will be the first time RFK Jr. has officially ran for an election. In prior years, he's considered running for a Senator seat, NY's Attorney General seat, and has previously declined NY's Senate seat.

RFK Jr.'s campaign also has quite an extensive list of problems to address: ○ Housing Crisis and Cost: raising minimum wage to $15 an hour, changing zoning laws, changing taxes, opening ownership to local abandoned housing/buildings ○ Environment: restoring USDA and EPA control, incentivize companies to go green on a global scale, change agricultural practices ○ Ending of Lobbying: prosecution of officials and politicians who have been bought out by corporations, restoration of individual privacy, full government transparency. ○ Ending Party Division: RFK Jr. acknowledges that the Left vs Right is not helpful to the average person and seeks to remedy this divide by listening and compromising. ○ War: the removal of our troops and bases from countries in which we do not belong. The stop of unnecessary and profligate spending in our military machine. ○ Southern Border: Tighten control on checkpoints, restore lighting and motion detectors, but also allocate money into our courts to move asylum cases thru faster. This ties back with his stance on war, however; he wants the removal of our forces and weapons from the hands of the cartel. The US needs to stop funding the displacement of civilians in their own nations. ○ Restoration of Rights: Write into law that tech companies cannot ban, shadowban, or suppress someone if the government asks them to. Removal of government surveillance. ○ Civil Rights: to do this, a complete overhaul of these systems will happen - community repair, prison/police reform, focus on the working class and disenfranchised schooling, find addiction care that is long term, expanded youth programs, and free IDs for US citizens. ○ Native Americans: the restoration of land, the complete adherence to previous treaties that have been written and ignored by the US. ○ Veterans: optimization of the VA, creating a federal Veteran's council, to provide ways veterans can still "serve" in their communities. ○ Student Loans: the repeal of Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act which will allow people to file bankruptcy on student loans, allow people to refinance their student loans, remove interest on student loans, to hold universities accountable and not banks for loan defaults to prevent the rising prices of tuition.

Some things to note; Robert is a member of Children's Health Defense, which is an anti-vax organization that claims vaccines cause autism. Robert doesn't believe that HIV causes AIDS which he writes about in his book The Real Anthony Fauci (pg numbers: 298, 332, 347, 348, 351).

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Cornel West, Independent Party

Ballotpedia

Wikipedia

Another Doctor on the list, Cornel is a philosophy professor at Union Theological Seminary. In his practice, he focuses on how American society treats differences between gender, race, and class. This is his first time running for office, and had previously been with the People's Party which he dropped for the Green Party. In October '23, he left the Green Party to be Independent. Here is a list of what Dr. West is looking to address during his presidency: ○ Environmentalism: Canceling any and all national oil projects, codifying informed consent (FPIC) for Indigenous people and their land, end water privatization by making a clean water committee ○ Racial Justice: Reparations for black residents, following thru on the Civil Liberties Act of '88, public review commissions for all police stations, creating a committee dedicated to finding missing and murdered Indigenous women ○ Prison/Police Reform: End the death penalty, abolish current privatized prison practices, shutting down Cop City, end and ban police training thru military forces ○ Voters' Rights: Election day is to be a national holiday to ensure everyone can vote, term limits for all elected officials, ban on past elected officials from becoming lobbyists, term limits for SCOTUS members ○ Gun Control: Create national gun registry, reduce gun sales at shows, similar requirements for driver licenses to gun ownership ○ Economics: Tax billionaires, remove tax loopholes for the super rich, end Wall Street housing market holdings, ban stock trading for elected gov. officials, national minimum wage of $27/hr, create UBI commission ○ Workers' Rights: Four day work week, review US trade agreements and ban any that exploit domestic and international workers, free pre-K childcare, all for-profit companies must allow the creation of unions ○ Healthcare: Free healthcare, codify abortions, address addiction and help those affected by it, create federal panel to oversee the creation/safety/effectiveness of vaccines, focus on giving more power back to disabled people ○ Education: Redistribute tax money equally across all public schools based on student count (this way rural students still receive the same schooling as urban students), minimum wage of 80k for K-12 teachers, abolish state laws that obfuscate our US history, cancel student debt ○ LGBTQIA+: establish standards for trans healthcare, end assaults on trans people, ban on state anti-LGBTQIA+ laws, codify equal rights for LGBTQIA+ people ○ Global Influence: Removal of military support in all current wars, establish Truth Commission for the global south, disband NATO, cut the military budget, end global patriarchy and help women in Iran and Afghanistan, cancel IMF debts

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A note to end on: Firstly, I will not be discussing who I will be voting for on this post. Secondly, I want to add that just because a candidate has a large list of issues they're addressing doesn't mean they will actually get it done while in office. We regularly see candidates come in with large promises only to "forget" about them once they reach office.

Remember: the presidential election is important, but getting out and voting during midterms is infinitely much more impactful because those are our lawmakers!! A president cannot change anything if there is no house or senate backing her/him!

#yes. green and lib are established parties.#but they fit the bill bc of the massive discrepancy in funding between them and red/blue parties #just in case y'all can't tell - their campaign pages are embedded on their names #and for the love of god PLEASE read this list thoroughly and do your own research #a rb that would be nice :') idc about numbers but i KNOW a bunch of people are going to be asking “who do i vote for” in 2024 #doing research ahead of time is extremely important #i'd make a list for every midterm but there's literally hundreds if not thousands of total candidates for some of those uhm :') i'm sorry #2024 elections #presidential election #2024 presidential election #us politics #for later

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