Listen. Smartypants Society? Fuck yeah. I'm going to come clean and admit that I am one of those people that kind of enjoys public speaking/ presentations, and in turn loves seeing people who are Good At Public Speaking/Presentations and enjoy it do their thing. Tricks of timing and emphatic delivery and precise rhetoric and structured argument construction all delivered with charisma dialed up to x100000% is just. 👌
Like, you can make anything sound legit with the right tricks, and in theory I find it SO enjoyable seeing it happen!!! Unfortunately in the context of the Real World this is often seen in contexts that tend to range from Impressive but Sobering or just Literally The Most Frustrating Shit because hey you're talking awful hurtful absolute bullshit but saying it The Right Way, Im Going To Lose it.
So. Therefore........ Smartypants Society generates a deep joy in my soul. Deeply talented speakers/comedians with phenomenal stage presence and quick wit, to use their command over delivery and rhetoric and comedic timing to dissect and break down the most nonsensical things ever? Meticulous argument construction and empassioned delivery about absolute, ridiculous, zero stakes bullshit?? Fuck yeah. Its like seeing someone with expert culinary training and a professionally equipped kitchen make the most 3AM drunk food meal with intentional precision. Tell me why vegetables arent real. Break down who's invited to the cookout. What IS the happiest birthday. Make me believe you. :')
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The way Terry Pratchett handled police in the Discworld continues to be one of the many, many things I love about his works. I certainly don’t have time to describe all the details of why he wrote such good policing, but I think the best summation of it is the arc that Sam Vimes had in many of the books.
I haven’t read all the watch books, but in the ones I have, there’s often a similar plot structure. We meet a truly detestable criminal Vimes is chasing down (think the Deep Downers in Thud, or Carcer in Night Watch). They show themselves to be truly awful people who do awful things, and they’re also just plain jackasses. They’re characters you hate to read about, the grind the audience’s gears. They also grind Sam Vimes’s gears.
Throughout the story, they commit more and more crimes. Horrible crimes, like torturing and killing innocent people, or practicing violent religious extremism. They do things that personally target our protagonist, like go after his wife and son, or relentlessly taunt him and try to kill him and his past self. They consistently do bad things, and even as Vimes is chasing them, they do more bad things. You want them to be punished.
Finally, at the climax, we get some sort of final confrontation between the villain(s) and Vimes. In a different book, Vimes might kill the people who sent people to hurt his infant son, or tortured and killed innocent people, and the audience would probably cheer. In fact, Vimes wants to kill them.
But he doesn’t. Every time, he suppresses the urge to enact his own justice, and he doesn’t kill them. He arrests them. Because, as he says many times, if you’ll do something for a good reason, you’ll do it for a bad. Even when there’s every excuse as to why this particular villain doesn’t deserve to live, he just arrests them. It’s not his job to decide how they should be punished for their crimes.
I think this is a masterful takedown of police brutality and Punisher style characters. Vimes isn’t a perfect person, it’s not that he could never dream of killing the bad guy. He can, and he does, often. But he never follows through, he understands why he can’t do that, so no matter how tempting it is, he doesn’t.
Because in this story, the hard boiled cynical cop truly believes in following the law. The message is always that law enforcement killing a criminal is never ok, even if they’re undeniably guilty of something truly dreadful. Hell, police brutality is personified as a millennia old demonic quasi-deity possessing Vimes, one that’s never been beaten before, but he beats it and doesn’t give in. I think that’s a really unique message in cop stories, and another reason as to why Pratchett was such a good author.
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dnd shopping sessions are always, so fun
(credit to @salamanderapocalypse and @error-marigenous for this)
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When people talk about needing to network/know people in showbiz. They're actually talking about "i need a cheerful, polite young man who is good at playing up the "horrified beaurecrat" while in a mildly sinister role in a premise that steadily gets more horrifying" and Sam Reich going "Oh I can get Brian David Gilbert!". They're talking about "I need a someone willing to completely straightfaced create a gag video parodying classic youtuber formula with a ridiculous premise but completely deadpan tone' and Sam Reich going "Oh I can get Sungwon Cho!". They're talking about "I need a guy who is willing to just be the creepiest most sinister clown with the goofiest voice and mannerisms" and Sam Reich going "Oh I can get Josh Ruben!". They're talking about "I need the goofiest guy possible to incompetently eat spaghetti and scatter it all around the set and onto my competitors podiums while doing witty banter" and Sam Reich going "Oh I can get Grant O- he has WHAT. Shit. Zac, Zac Oyama, where are you-"
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EARTH 1610 MILES (our miles) WAS SUPPOSED TO BECOME THE PROWLER.
in Into The Spiderverse we see Miles meet Peter
his colors originally look like this. green and purple. which are his “canon” colors and are supposed to represent him
but then they change. they turn red and blue signifying the change of canon and therefore his fate.
so instead of him becoming an enemy to Spiderman, he becomes a friend to spiderman.
and instead of Earth 42 Miles becoming spiderman, he becomes the prowler in a world where spiderman can no longer exist.
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I don't normally do things like this but my cousin's 7 year old was just diagnosed with Liver cancer and it's very expensive. Insurance is covering some but not all and they have three other kids they're trying to provide for as well. Any help would be good.
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Help a Trans Person Move to a Safer State
Hey folks, as some of you know I currently live in a red state (Iowa) that's trending even further right and I need out. While I have been saving up to move since the 2022 election, the rapid escalation of transphobic legislation here has left me unable to save up quite enough to cover my full move if I want to get out of here before the legislative session reopens in January. I have a job lined up in Minnesota already, I just need help to get there.
A longer explanation and cost breakdown is in the link, but the short version is that I need $1580 to cover moving costs and a pet and security deposit.
If you can't afford to donate anything, I entirely understand. Even just a reblog helps.
Thank you so much! <3
Here's a photo of my cat in gratitude.
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