#rich people wanna be oppressed so bad

[tatterings]

So, the story of most of Rylmyr’s pre-bg3 events in a nutshell under the cut:

PS - TUMBLR THIS IS NOT SEXUAL ART. RYLMYR IS BEING ATTACKED WHILE BASICALLY SELLING HIS SOUL FOR ROCK & ROLL. PLZ DONT NUKE ME.

Rylmyr Torrett was born into a powerful noble Drow house Torett, a bloodline rich with magic. A sorcerer or six were born every generation; anyone who wasn't born with inherent magic easily picked up the skills as a wizard - even the males.

His birth was foretold by the family's priest, who prophesied the house matron's next child will be born as a new beginning, ans will be bestowed with immense magical powers according to the prophecy.

Rylmyr was assigned female at birth, the third daughter to the house matron. (thankfully, not as the third son, else he'd have been killed at birth).

But for Rylmyr, being AFAB was never comfortable; he handled the dysphoria as best as he could. However, in drow society, females were the only people with value. So he laid as low as possible while in Menzoberannzan, playing along as a tomboy-ish young drow

Unfortunately it's difficult to lay low when a prophecy proclaimed you were going to be the most powerful magic-wielder of the generation and yet… that magic never developed. Ryl was no sorcerer, and struggled with learning magic underneath a harsh wizard tutor. Despite decades of study, he could not cast magic beyond sputters of faint green sparks from his fingertips.

Ryl learned musical skills and dance, so that at least he could provide entertainment to the guests of his noble house, and be of some use at least to his family. But as the rivalries between house and others grew more intense, Ryl feared for his life, as his family became less tolerant of his failures in magical study. Being shunned in Menzo society was nearly worse than straight execution. Someone left to fend for themselves would not survive for long.

Despite finding some form of respite in the arts and bardic ways, he was still deeply unhappy and resolved that before his 80th birthday, he would escape the oppressive Underdark. After begging every god in existence, except Lolth for obvious reasons, a cambion ended up feeling curious about young Rylmyr. This particular devil was a sort of patron of chaos, who monitored the Underdark and Menzo society because the bloodthirst and constant turmoil of warring houses was like reality TV to him.

This additional little drow, who has fucked up the fate of his house so bad just by being born presented a new "channel" to watch, so to speak. The cambion met with Ryl because there's only so many centuries of the same old backstabbing to be done in Drow society and he was intensely bored.

The cambion makes a deal with Ryl: he will be Ryl's warlock patron, and give him the magical powers that he were “supposed to have” (the prophecy isn't wrong after all, and Ryl's magic is stupidly powerful when he's able to control it). The devil also agrees to make his body and mind more in harmony but leaves the marks of his claws on Ryl's chest; the devil did not put in the contract's clause that he couldn't be barbaric about it.

For Ryl's part of the bargain, he agrees to having this Cambion keep an eye on him literally by just… being himself. An outcast drow, given magical powers and no training on how to use them, thrown into the surface world? Delicious entertainment again. (Sidenote: The cambion is also petty as fuck, and says something like 'also there's this bitch Mizora who i wanna piss off so i'm stealing her idea and taking your eye and using a sending stone because you're my personal entertainment'.)

Ryl loses an eye and its replaced with an onyx black sending stone so he can be this cambion's Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

Ryl for the most part is like 'there is literally no part of this deal that is bad for me' (spoiler it isn't ALL gucci because he has to do some fucked up shit after getting settled above ground) but it at least lets him escape in one piece.

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 art #bg3 fanart #bg3 ocs #bg3 oc art #bg3 oc #bg3 tav fanart #bg3 tav

[call-of-ishmael]

Canto III is kinda sloppy

Seeing the post on Ncorp and the Carl Jung essay and the nazi parallels

I have to say that makes the writing of Canto III messy in a pretty bad way?

So transhumanism is not a new subject to Project Moon, in particular i think of The Brotherhood of Iron

They are people who spent their savings on full body prosthetics to be able to work more efficiently. But they got real low end ones, they stutter, get stuck and paralyzed, feel hunger yet dont need to eat

Then we have the inhabitants of Cawl and this is where it gets bad imo

We take in the flashbacks Sinclairs perspective, how terrified he is of the augmentation, and well how is this framed?

While Sinclair 100% is framed as having made a mistake letting Kromer into his life, his fears arent rejected

The family dinner scene, switching from bright and cheery to a gloom foreboding oppressive atmosphere is visual cues that yeah this is kinda scary right dear reader? The body horror aspect is present as much as it was in the Brotherhood of Iron reception, but from a different perspective, one of rich out of touch people. Sinclair recounts how his family told him their new bodies are more efficient, productive, no need to eat and sleep and that terrifies him, he doesnt wanna lose those experiences

In Cawl prosthetics are basically fashion, and we see this detachment from Sinclairs classmates talking about where they are getting their procedures done and their shiny new models they will get

And lets to go back now, Nagel und Hammer is meant to be also a nazi allegory

And heres the issue, this transhumanist angle meshes real bad with it

If you wanna draw parallels to a group who did ethnic cleansing, the inhabitants of Cawl and their prosthetics are a terrible parallel!

Not only is your ethnicity not a choice, they get prosthetics and talk about them like a sillicon valley CEO would, about productivity and in a superficial rich asshole way.

And it makes me look at Canto III in a worse light, cause it makes the writing real messy and have weird implications

If you are gonna write a fascist group with nazi allegory imagery, and they will be persecuting a group, you really have to think about how you are gonna portray the oppressed group or things will look BAD

Another thing to point out is people say Ncorp is really ableist

And while i dont doubt that theyd be just as violent against people using prosthetics to aid their disabilities, lets again think of the framing, the people in Cawl get these cause they can and want to, the usage of the word "prosthetic" to refer to these is understandably going to evoke the thoughts of prosthetics used irl, but in universe it can refer to something like that, and also things you just get as an augmentation, so while undoubtedly ableist, its badly also not too well executed here

Its not well executed writing, in my opinion

#sinclair lcb #kromer #limbus company #sinclair limbus

[rolaplayor101]

There's this thing in the Ben 10 fandom that i wanna talk about that often goes ignored and its the fact that there's always conversations about "The Girls Of Ben 10" and how they deserved better... But here's the thing

All the characters of Ben 10 are underdeveloped. All of them are robbed of times to shine. Its not just Ben's old dates, who get the most attention in these conversations, it's women who exist outside of Ben completely. Its men who we see a few times but still know next to nothing about.

Look at Charmcaster. Charmcaster had a huge story line. She had soooo much going for her that was outside of Ben completely. She was the daughter of a man who fought against oppression and died, then she went into Legerdomain and took it back from said oppressor, and became its new ruler. But then?? She was a bad guy again?? Like, even outside the Michael Morningstar thing, she wanted to get her dad back and she killed all those people and even managed to kill the plumber squad, and then after uaf they completely got rid of that storyline. She has a rich backstory and so much ahead of her story wise that is so interesting!! And it was left for.. Whatever happened in omniverse..

And then there's Pierce, who was the older brother of Helen and friend to Manny, who had so much personality hyped up before we'd actually met him. He was capturing plumbers kids, then got sucked in himself, and met Max, and... Then what?? He joined Max's team with Helen and Manny, who, also, we know nothing about, and then we didn't really hear anything more about them. They went to Plumbers school. I dont even wanna talk about the Rooters arc rn, that's so far away from, like, an actual in depth character analysis to even mention. How did they grow up on Earth if they looked like that... How'd they meet Manny... That was covered?? In Omniverse?? I guess?? But whyd they stay together??

Oh my gosh Elena lets talk about Elena. Shes gotta have PTSD. Her body was taken over by nanites, she didn't even have a full sense of self by the end. She was creating these robots, then she went into the sewers, and eight or something months later shes in a gameshow for Ben's heart. What's up with that?? She has such a plot, a story line-- How'd she get her body back?

Then theres Alan. How long has Alan known he could turn into a alien. Who's his dad? Ok rooter arc stuff again but can we all agree that that retcon sucked?? What is Alan doing now? He was the same age as Ben when he first got his Omnitrix when we were introduced to him for the first time. And his last line was "i think my story is just beginning" like WHAT we were ROBBED

What's Cooper doing? Sunny? They introduce characters with so much interesting stuff going on in their lives or stories and then they never get to have a satisfying story line. Its not just the girls. Its really just background characters in general. They do a couple of things with Cash and JT too, but they never go anywhere--despite having some regular human high schooler dudes with a average redemption arc in play could be interesting in itself. And Jimmy! He's a kid detective! And he has one episode dedicated to it and then rarely shows up again!

I mean, look how many Anodite aus are on this site. Gwen isnt a love interest to anyone but Kevin-- and her, Sunny, and Verdona's experiences with being anodites have people so curious that you have countless headcanons loitering about the tag all the time. Anyway, all im saying is that various plot points are brought up and never seriously or fully explored to their full potential with both the men and women of Ben 10.

#ben 10 #ben 10 ultimate alien #ben 10 series #ben 10 alien force #ben 10 charmcaster #elena validus #sunny tennyson #Michael Morningstar #max tennyson #alan albright #gwen tennyson #kevin levin #ben tennyson #Pierce Wheels #Helen Wheels #Manny Armstrong #Cooper Daniels #Jimmy Jones #charmcaster

[birdsometimeswrites]

pt. 3, pink and spinel

so, let me go off a bit to tell you about what spinel's backstory would be (also a bit of pink's backstory)

these go in no particular order.

as always, please don't take my ideas <3

originally, pink was given the earth as a colony before she got a pearl. this is because she did something bad on an exoplanet: she tried to conserve some of its organic life bc she was intrigued. the diamonds punished her by getting her original pearl and ordering people to shatter her (because pink confided in her and loved her like a sister), but she, with the help of inside people who hated how the diamonds controlled, escaped. pink diamond's original pearl now is hiding in the outskirts of homeworld. pink, however, thinks they shattered her, which spawns a deep, deep hatred of the diamonds.

she doesn't get a new pearl until like a couple hundred years later, and during this time, to give pink something to do that doesn't intervene with their plans, the diamonds give pink spinel. they both don't really wanna be there, so this starts off an actual friendship. spinel existed before pink, and she was mostly used as a jester, which she grew tired of. pink confides all of her issues with spinel, who helps out somewhat by being optimistic, like how pink used to be before being punished by the diamonds, and being realistic as well, and talking about plans to overthrow the diamonds, plans that pink knew would probably never be useful (they will) but still appreciates. spinel begins to follow pink around like a pearl, but is never caught by the diamonds, so she gets inside information and tells pink, as well as the stuff she can't hear. overall, they both stay bubbly and optimistic, but brave, like steven (kinda).

spiel is ecstatic when pink finally gets a colony, and urges her to sneak out of the garden to go see it. a few days later (before she was given pearl) they both sneak out out, just for a day, to see what earth is like. pink sees earth life is completely dependent on organic life, using stuff not on homeworld and made of organic material, and treating each other equally. she tries to approach the humans, but they treat her weirdly because, well, she's giant and is pink. they eventually warm up to her and teach them both stuff on earth, like hunting, plants, agriculture, animals, status, riches, and stuff like that. this is around the middle ages, so about 500 or so years ago. pink grows to hate homeworld life more and more.

pink was not given a new pearl until right after she was given a colony. she was given orders to eradicate human life and to start to grow gem life on the earth. pearl was kind of supposed to oppress the idea of maintaining organic life, but she obviously didn't.

when she receives pearl, she remembers being treated equally on earth and remembers the awful treatment other pearls got from the diamonds, so she sets her free and decides to show her home on earth. she asks if pearl wants to live here, and pearl says yes.

the diamonds caught her sneaking out of the palace??? i think that's what it is?? anyway, they caught her and put her under the watch of some higher-ups, but she poofs them ("sorry!") and overhears them talking about destroying the garden, along with spinel. petrified, she rushes to the garden to give spinel some warning, and she succeeds to tell her somewhat with a jumble of words with spinel comprehends.

pink grabs her arm and attempts to drag her onto the warp pad to escape, but white diamond appears all mother gospel and drags pink onto the warp pad. white, enraged, sets off something to like destroy the garden (or so she thinks!!!!!!!!!!!1) and throws spinel away from pink, and spinel lunges to grab onto pink because she's afraid to be shattered by whatever white threw that would destroy the garden.

the last thing pink sees is spinel's face, contorted with rage and fear as she tries to grab onto pink, but white poofs her dismissively, and her gem lands somewhere white can't see.

spinel's gem lands on the one place the blow-up thingie hasn't destroyed (it's a kid's show, give me a break) and she regenerates like a week later in rebel clothes because she wants to kill the diamonds or something like that. she realizes, "oh god, the garden is almost completely destroyed, i'm laying down on like the one place the blow-up thingie has not destroyed." in this realization, she realizes she will probably never see pink again because the warp pad seems unusable. she wanders around the small space that wasn't destroyed, the grass scorched and the warp pad cracked. she spends her time yearning to avenge the diamonds growing more and more frustrated, as well as reliving the moments she had with pink, reliving her laugh, smile, and their plans, especially her plans, for the next 500 years.

(LET ME JUST POINT OUT NOW, M A J O R TIME SHIFTS IN WHAT I AM RAMBLING ABOUT)

#su #steven universe #pink diamond #pink #spinel #rants #wait #maybe.... #au

[thelittlepalmtree]

So you're all against prison until The person does something you don't like? Like, Prison is bad, The justice system is too much Until it's someone I wanna be mad at...?

Because, Honestly, Genuinely, Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher did the right thing. I get that Danny Masterson had already done something horrible. But the crime has already been committed, The conviction already happened. He's going to jail. It is okay for people to say, That he's still a human being, And the judge should take that into account. Because if you feel like criminals should be completely dehumanized, Then that's just genocide babes.

The truth is that terrible people are still people. And even the worst person on earth, Is still a person. When you dehumanize someone for their actions, You allow oppressive systems to continue. Oppression thrives on dehumanization. The existence of a criminal class, Allows people to be sorted into that class and removed completely from society.

And if you're sitting here like "I hate jail Because most of the people in jail are in there because of drugs". That's just not true. Most of the people in prison have been accused of violent crimes. And this is actually why I feel that there is a place for a truly corrective system. I do think that there are people who in their current state, Cannot safely participate in the larger society. However, Our current system does not correct problems, It exacerbates them.

Every criminal, Whether they are Rich or poor, Nobodies or famous, Regardless of their crime, Deserves to have somebody who advocates for them. As does every victim. And that is not a contradiction. Someone can do something horrible and still be a human being with a human experience. And they have the right to have that experience shared with the judge. A character letter Does not overturn a conviction, Or even really do that much. It's just a reminder that that person is still human and still has connections to the world. It just says hey this person is a person.

Now I'm guessing, That someone on his team leaked the letters, Which is pretty fucking shitty. But do you really think that Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis should have just said no for their reputation? Like obviously, you want them to completely dehumanize Someone because Misery loves company I guess. But if they're going to treat this person that they've known for multiple decades as a human being, You probably wouldn't have known about it unless it got leaked.

A lot of people are saying that like they must believe he's Innocent. Which is fair, Like that totally could be their motivation. But it really doesn't matter. Because even if they think he's stolen cold guilty, They still are not violating Their values of protecting victims by supporting him in this way.

And if you don't understand that, I honestly feel sorry for you. Because it really shows a lack of emotional maturity. And a very black-and-white morality that you will fail at.

#mila kunis #ashton kutcher

[birthisacurse-and]

Something mildly random, but it really bothers me how online politics has warped our discussion and understanding of many political and social issues. On one hand, it is a net positive that the American media and most of Gen Z and Millenials in the US seem to believe and espouse left-leaning talking points, but on the other, they do so on such a superficial level that it had rendered us so, completely unequipped to justly address counter-arguments.

Everything is so superficially understood by these people. Like, the tweet I just read that said, "the rich don't play by the same rule as us. they don't go to jail." I understand the need to water down the very broad concept of wealth inequality translating into carceral injustice, but the concise version has been repeated and taught so, so often that now, many of us truly don't understand what it means, and so, we can't counter when someone is like, "that's stupid because rich people do go to jail. No one is above the law. It's up to if you're guilty or not." Like the real statement should be, "when someone gets charged with a crime, they are significantly less likely to lose their case if they can pay for an expensive legal team than if they have a public defender, because of how police investigations/manipulation, bias in the courtroom, and the whole process of discovery and argumentation works in court." But that is too long, and it cannot be efficiently taught or spread on social media or online forums if it isn't cut down. Which is okay, it makes sense and is necessary, but it necessitates people who learn the shortened version eventually going, "please elaborate" or "I wanna learn more". Once they are hooked and introduced, they should then learn the long version, to truly understand. But they don't. We don't. And now, so many of us that hold leftist views, unless we specifically devote our studies or careers to political, sociological, or anthropological research, go around trying to convince others that these are truths, and we have no fucking arguments when someone is like "well actually-". And it's a disservice to us, and to the oppressed people leftists supposedly try to protect or seek justice for.

The right teaches its teenagers and young adults and fucking children, here's the foundation for why you should believe this. Here are all the processes that have led to the current reality. The alt-right online doesn't just go "whites are getting replaced", the alt-right online is like, "here are the 'scientific studies' that prove mongrel DNA (or whatever its called), and here are the statistics of how the US's demographics are changing, and here are full-fledged theories and philosophies that explain and provide context for the supposition of white supremacy, and here are videos of POC being bad or cringe or violent or dangerous. Finally, here is the conclusion: whites are being replaced, so we must fight to stop it." Like, that's how the very pipeline works. The pipeline is structured in such a manner that methodically equips future right-wingers with the rhetorical tools they need to eventually continue spreading their rhetoric. They aren't drawn in with the concise version and then pushed to learn; they are taught the whole story, and then given the one-liner.

Anyways, this makes it so a lot of the things leftists say, to the politically unequipped, seem totally out there and strange and crazy. They seem unsubstantiated. We make bold claims, but we don't ease people into them. Today in class, I said, "the problem with Rosalia is that, by singing with and using Latin music genres, she is taking the place of another potential Latin artist." To me, as someone who studied politics for 3 years, I thought all the underlying truths went unsaid. I thought I didn't need to elaborate. To me, I understand how race and culture are these tenuous, hypothetical spaces. I understand that, under capitalism, industries that require mass approval such as music, are always competitions, even if they don't seem like it. Under this system, there is a very fine limit on the amount of attention one can amass, and popularity is a scarce currency, not infinite. This means that, when one artist fades out of the periphery of an audiencemember, another artist will replace them. But there is a finite amount of attention each audiencemember can give, and there is a finite number of audiencemembers. When you bring race into the mix, and consider that Rosalia, by being born in a first-world, European country, and by having an amount of wealth that might not have made her family rich in Spain, but would have made her rich in most of Latin America, you realize that she always had a step up. She can approximate the Latin aesthetic, because she is tan and speaks Spanish and has the same hair and facial features that Spaniards passed on to Latinos centuries ago. But she will always be a misrepresentation of a culture she did not entrench herself in from birth, and someone whose very distance from that culture allowed her the success she currently enjoys, that many prospective Latin artists will never come close to. SO, when I said that in class, I said with all this background knowledge, with the assumption that everyone else in class would, too. And then I had the nerve to be confused and annoyed when someone responded, "I don't think Rosalia is taking the place of a potential Latin artist. I don't think if she wasn't a singer, a Latin artist would have taken her place." But I'm an idiot, because of course my classmates understood my statement as me literally saying, if Rosalia was taking outta the equation, fucking Maria Hernandez from Honduras would have been the Rosalia of our time, winning all the awards and amassing all the wealth. But that's not what I meant. That's never what we really mean, when we try to pass on these statements, these one-liners, these aesthetic little epiphanies fit for an Instagram infographic or a college Spanish class. But this is what we give, it is what people take away, and anyone in my class who went away with, "Rosalia is taking the place of another, actual Latin artist", without already knowing all the nuance and context I just explained... well, I did a disservice to them by not really teaching.

The left does not teach, nowadays. We may in classrooms in very prestigious colleges. But that's about it. In our social, daily lives, we do not teach our followers or coworkers or family members. We repeat. We parrot. Or, even if we ourselves understand, we still only give others lines to parrot. The right is the teacher. For the right wing in America today, Prager U is the norm. It is the universal strategy. And that's why they're winning.

#random ramblings #politics #anyways this was so bad and i cant ve bothered to proofread

[kindtobechurlish]

Joe Biden keeps a fresh shave, he never has hair on his face, but do you fear if “Biden” is enabled he becomes this sex symbol? Racialist.. I’m not Joseph Goebbels, I get enabled and I ask a woman to have children just to be chasing skirt; you have the area of pushback - so I must supply it. They say Goebbels had his lame foot, so he couldn’t go to war, and now I had my knee problem and I wasn’t the best I could be. They see me and act some type of way, I’m not the colour of Joseph Goebbels, you don’t give a damn about blood being red because you hate violence, and because I’m not a white man who didn’t leave Germany you see them see me and think I would be enabled just to be chasing skirt. Why is that view about? People see people as a sense of threat, and they become the reference.. now you see someone who has the eye to see “threat” and it isn’t Rastus.

Threat is grieve, irritate! Threat is OPPRESSION! You think I don’t know!!! Imagine me giving all the prototype answers, only for me to face someone that sees me and thinks I would just start chasing skirt and forsake who I am in money!

Do you see why I hate Joe Biden? I want to address ragtime, and he doesn’t want to address it only for his narrative on his Twitter to be aloof from the narrative I see with my plain two eyes! People see me as a wanna be sex symbol, I get enabled and I become this lax in moral, licentious, DISSOLUTE son of a bitch to forsake the woman I’m dealing with today. There are things that need to be known, beyond “fine people”, but asshole fuckface and the pinhead oppress me just for me to see who they are in my everyday life. Am I skinny white Joseph Goebbels? Do I have a Hitler, before the infamously profound history, to speak up for me? No. I’m not Kanye West, and I’m not mirroring his “I’m Jesus”, religion, to say “I’m Hitler”, but instead I give you the picture the rich man doesn’t want known. The rich man always wants to refer to his mind or grit, and when I can mirror Albert Pike you see a pinhead be relevant because of Marxism and technocracy.

Some woman thinks I would oppress her by being enabled, I start chasing skirt, Joe Biden doesn’t want Saturn to be talked about - how it’s more so attracted to the tawny - instead I am talking about William Goodell and the marriage of two slaves, two brutes, as he (Joe) promotes an equality that is far-fetched and it amounts to hate and population control. “The trees”, and jobs warrant growth RIGHT NOW! Things are about growth, I have an interview and I can feel racialism in the air.. “if he gets this job, he can live in New York as long as the company survives.” People look at a resume and ignore their “needs” when they see they can do a lot for you. “He could get a car.” So now you can feel the racialism in the air. Someone looking at me like I studied for the job, and that’s a bad thing. Have you ever seen some shit like that?

[xsteveharringtonsmistress86x]

You can’t be racist towards white ppl like white people are in power that’s like saying you’re being sexist towards men or classist towards the rich. The ones in power will never be the victims

They don’t get that you can’t oppress the oppressor. And they wanna be oppressed so bad.

#anon ask #racism #racism in writing #non inclusive writing

[sanpatron]

Anonymous asked:

so uh.... thoughts on Saints Row 2022? heard its uh.

its bad. really bad. "You butchered everything" kind of bad

I don’t wanna turn this into a full-fledged review sorta deal, but I feel like as your resident Sai/nts Row man, I should at least talk about my thoughts a little bit. Though before I get into anything, I wanna say two things.

First; despite my feelings towards the reboot, I really don’t hate it. I was super disappointed by it in a lot of areas, but I’m not like “oh my god this is the worst thing in the world, I can’t believe the developers broke into my home, kicked my dog, and then set my place on fire”. A lot of reviews have been crazy harsh and I just think that kind of attitude is tiring. But again, that’s just me.

Second; I feel like I might have to reevaluate everything given the recent announcement on how they’ll be fixing up a lot of things. For anyone curious you can learn more about it here. Not entirely sure how substantial any of the fixes are gonna be (I mean it ain’t like they can redo the story), but I guess we’ll just wait and see.

Anyway, my thoughts will be under the read more!

So to basically summarize everything, I think at the very least the gameplay is like mid to decent at best. There’s a lot of weird shit involving the combat where it doesn’t feel as good as it might have in previous entries (I’m sure we all know about gameplay feel and etc). But I don’t think it’s bad enough to make me not want to go around the map and fuck around, And once co-op has been fixed, I’m sure that’ll help substantially too.

The activities can be fun, but they don’t feel as integral to the story as they should be. They’re more like blatant padding cause the story is so weirdly short for whatever reason. Like in the first two games you didn’t even have to complete them all in their entirety to continue the main missions, just do enough to earn the Respect you need to unlock more. Not only that, but they’d let you earn Respect through other methods as well; stunts, diversions, buying stuff, etc.

The map is a step up from Steelport TREMENDOUSLY. There’s a lot more character and variety to the city, but it’s still missing a certain sort of something that made me really fall in love with Stilwater. Probably the grime? I think it might be a bit too clean in some aspects. Also if you’re gonna have a big corpo faction in the game, then you definitely need to make them feel a lot more oppressive than they’re depicted. Like ULTOR had their hands in everything compared to Marshall.

Now my biggest issues are regarding the plot and the new cast. The plot is way too short. Like ridiculously so. It feels like some basically had an outline or a draft of what they wanted the story to be, and wound up just using that while totally forgetting to beef it up. The stakes aren’t really there, we don’t have much to see when it comes to the rival gangs, the tone is frankly all over the place, and for a game that was marketed as an origin story, it really doesn’t feel like much of one. Especially for the main four because they’re already so close with each other when you start the game.

Also I don’t hate the new group entirely. Like in theory they could work out well. But the biggest problem is that I think they play it too safe with them. For a bunch of career criminals who decide to form a gang cause of really uninteresting reasons, the writers REALLY wanted to portray them as good people. And I know that’s a bit rich given what I’ve been doing with Boss here, but I always make it a point to say that he’s more than capable of starting shit whenever he feels like it. He just sees no reason to.

If you’re going to write about a gang then don’t hesitate in making them assholes! Like I’m sorry, but there is no way in hell this weird sanitized version of them is going to work out or even be remotely interesting. It feels like the misconception of what “morally grey” characters are. Honestly “sanitized” is they key word here; from the gang, to the tone, to even the violence that’s played out. All of it feels way too clean for my liking.

Anyway, I could go into further details about stuff like them trying to go for spaghetti western themes at literally the end of the game, or some gameplay choices that I don’t agree with, but like I said, I don’t want this to be a full-on review of SRR. Just wanted to get some thoughts out there.

Hope this answers your question well enough!

#Out of Fucks { OOC } ⚜

[emos-at-ihop]

I’m sorry, but the people who have been calling Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land by Marina white feminism or “girl bossing” need to take a step back and self reflect to realize that they are simply uncomfortable with hearing women discuss the fact that they are oppressed for being women. Ofc intersectional identities are further oppressed, but Marina literally addresses a number of other oppressions through the entire album.

Man’s World: discusses an lgbt issue

Purge the Poison: discusses racism, discusses the damage of capitalism, discusses US exceptionalism as an issue, discusses fat oppression/the damaging obsession with thinness, discusses mental health issues

Highly Emotional People: literally discusses a male issue of the negative “men don’t cry” idea

New America: discusses US exceptionalism as an issue, discusses issues that the indigenous people of the US have faced, discusses racism and racist police brutality, discusses the privilege of being financially stable, discusses cultural appropriation/the issue with not acknowledging that many popular music styles originated from black culture

And I’m sure I’m missing other topics that are within the songs on the album. So if after listening to this album, you thought it was white feminism or “girl bossing” because Marina, a woman, discusses the oppression of women, along with all of these other issues of different identities, then you should ask yourself why you are so uncomfortable with acknowledging that women are an oppressed identity as well.

#i was so delighted to see that she discusses issues of different people on this album #but why the fuck do people have such an issue with the fact that she discusses womens oppression #marina #marina and the diamonds #marina diamandis #ancient dreams in a modern land #feminism #feminist #intersectional feminist #terfs do not interact #i also wanna add that white feminism is an issue and I know it is bad but the thing is this album was clearly not just about feminism for #white women and just improving the world for the rich cishet mentally healthy/non disabled white woman with no other oppressions #and people who are coming to that conclusion in my opinion have an issue with women acknowledging their oppression as women #feel free to critique or leave your thoughts or disagree #oh also also this is not abt if you don’t like the album bc you don’t like the vocals or instrumentals or style #or even if you don’t like the lyric writing. it’s specifically about saying the album promotes white feminism or girlbossing

[snekdood]

maybe it was actually a terf that started the whole “trans guys have the privilege of being a man” so that we couldn’t be ironically misogynistic shitty towards them without them realizing whatever we say doesn’t meaningfully impact them due to THEIR privilege

edit: naw actually they did it to divide us as a community

#mood #perhaps. the misogyny is wrong. #however. i feel that small hot cinders floating your way is probably less bad than being in the fire #and the ones in the fire btw are trans and/or women of color. not you #hardly you. #esp if you're rich too #definitely not you #you're like. about a couple inches below rich cis white men then #meanwhile everyone else is like at least 3 feet below you #anyways ik i gotta maybe reign in the misogyny even though its really really REALLY fun to use against terfs whomst are transphobic #towards me and want trans genocide in general- idk I GUESS i should reign it in.... really hard to see the reasons why i should want to tho #bc right now i'd never wanna be misogynistic like this to a non terf or a trans woman or anyone.... but with ya'll it's like. #i feel an urge to remind you what it feels like when you are oppressed and how you treat us that way and worse. #it's ironic bc you talk all the time about how oppressed you are and yet you seem to so easily forget what it's like #it's almost like thats not the point nor what you actually care about. #bc if you were in pain and you were being as massively oppressed as you claim to be then you would find it easier to sympathize with people #who are DIFFERENT from you but who have similar experiences to you while also respecting who they are #and not try to change them to be the way you see them. you'd want to see other people for who they see themselves as. not control them or #the narrative around them or lie about what they truly have experienced. you'd find it easier to sympathize w trans people #even if you didn't 'get' them. but you-- YOU play the oppression olympics game. you have declared yourself the one who gets to decide whos #trauma/oppression/etc is real. mostly so you can keep all the focus on yourself I assume. because i can't really think of any other reason #when trans people are literally just existing causing essentially no harm anywhere. minding our business. in our lanes. etc. #the only thing i can assume is that you're essentially a child whos upset that their sibling is getting attention when you're not

[logicalbookthief]

Christmas Movies Ranked by How Anti-Capitalist They Are

It’s a Wonderful Life

Movies that make you want to pick a fight with the 1% and also weep with joy. Absolutely a classic and anti-capitalist at its very core. Will convince you we need to start oppressing landlords again.

“Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about... they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn't think so. People were human beings to him. But to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they're cattle.”

SAY THAT!!! George Bailey said fuck landlords, all my homies hate landlords, they have NO rights. Local man believes poor people are human, dedicates his life to helping them, and in his time of the need literally the whole town comes together to support him and his family. Class solidarity ftw!

“Remember no man is a failure who has friends.” Bitch I CRY EVERY GODDAMN TIME. 

10/10

Home Alone

Soundtrack goes hard, the wacky hijinks even harder. 

Loses points because the bandits had a prime opportunity to seize and redistribute some of the wealth from this ritzy Chicago neighborhood and instead they focus their energy on trying to kill an 8-year-old who outsmarts them at every turn.

2/10

Elf

A family favorite in our house. Touches on the overworking and mistreatment of employees through Greenway Press – Walter forced to choose between being with his family on Christmas Eve or losing his job, it’s implied Deb has a pet grooming business on the side to makes ends meet despite being a receptionist at a NY publishing company, etc.

Honestly most of the points come from Jonie’s underrated yet highly relatable storyline. She works in retail, exhausted and cynical towards the high-paced Christmas season which gives her little to no relief or reward, since she’s surviving on ramen noodles and using the employee showers because her water was cut off. Not expanded on enough to be considered a true Marxist piece but the effort is appreciated.

5/10

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Although the meme is correct in that Rudolph’s red nose becomes desirable only once it proves to be useful, it does get points for exposing the harmful nature of forced conformity and those alienated by these capitalist ideals -- Rudolph, Hermie, the island of misfit toys -- are given a place to belong despite the perceived “flaws” that before made them undesirable.

Also the elves definitely have a free dental-plan now thanks to Hermie and are hopefully on their way to unionizing. Fucking superb you funky little misfit.

6/10

Klaus (2019)

Turns a member of the bourgeoisie into a man I’d trust to carry my mail. Respect for postal workers this movie contains was ahead of its time.

 No direct takedown of the establishment but a heartwarming message -- “A true selfless act always sparks another” bITCH I may be crying -- that emphasizes the importance of giving to others even when there is no selfish motivation to do so, which is inherently anti-capitalist.  

8/10

The Santa Clause

Scott Calvin starts as a toy executive who takes part in the commercialization of Christmas. He was probably a business major so automatically loses points.

The Santa dynasty itself seems to operate under the cutthroat rules of the business world where you must overthrow (or in this case, throw him off the roof) the former CEO in order to seize power. 

Elves have not unionized or seized the means of production by the end.

0/10

A Christmas Carol 

THE ORIGINAL. Charles Dickens was not even in the neighborhood of fucking around with this one. CREATED the anti-capitalist Christmas genre!!

Rich man treats his employees like shit and gets terrorized by three ghosts on Christmas Eve. Force him to redistribute his wealth by dragging him through a montage of his most epic fails -- oh, hey, remember when your fiancé left you? -- and make him listen as all his employees and relatives complain about his stingy ass. 

They end this slideshow by throwing this dude into his own grave. DIRECT ACTION. 

Like damn, the ghosts really said, “If you hoard your resources and ignore those in need when you could directly improve/save lives with no cost to yourself, you will die ALONE and you WILL pay for your crimes in hell.” Literally watching this movie is a catharsis for anyone who is or has been poor and working class. 

I’m including all versions of this movie but a special shout out to the Muppet version because it fucks the hardest. 

100/10

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

Listen I’m not even in realms of joking with this one. This movie is THE anti-capitalist film of the holiday season. 

WhoVille commercializing Christmas and a fixation on consumer culture to the point where anything and anyONE who cannot be commodified -- aka the GRINCH -- is alienated? The Whos rediscovering that people should be cherished over material items once it all is stolen and they must confront how empty the holiday has become??

Cindy Lou becoming disillusioned in Christmas -- at an age that coincides when many children (those who celebrate Christmas at least) lost belief in Santa and had to wrestle with what the holiday means with the magic gone and they’re more aware of the rampant consumerism that taints the season?? Her resolve to find a meaning that goes beyond material consumption because if a holiday founded on goodwill doesn’t extend that goodwill to everyone, even those society deems undesirable, then what’s the point???

The Grinch despising Christmas because he is unable to participate and isolated from the Whos and also the better qualities within himself? His alienation serving to demonize him further as it allows the public to narrow his valid criticisms of the holiday down to him being different and thus inherently predisposed to evil?? And hmm isn’t it interesting that a LOT of this demonization comes via Mayor Augustus “generously paid for by the tax-payers of Whoville” Maywho, Mr. 1% himself.

The upper vs working class divide evident in the light show competition between Martha May and Betty Lou Who?? The opening scene of the shopping frenzy that mirrors our own consumerist culture and overworking of retail/poster workers??? This entire monologue:

“That's what it's all about, isn't it? That's what it's always been about. Gifts, gifts... gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts! You wanna know what happens to your gifts? They all come to me. In your garbage. You see what I'm saying? In your garbage. I could hang myself with all the bad Christmas neckties I found at the dump. And the avarice... the avarice never ends! ‘I want golf clubs. I want diamonds. I want a pony so I can ride it twice, get bored and sell it to make glue.’" 

MARXIST KING. MENTION IT ALL.

1000/10

#christmas #christmas movies #how the grinch stole christmas #a christmas carol #elf #klaus #rudolph the red nosed reindeer #home alone #it's a wonderful life #the santa clause #this was a labor of love please clap

[girls-are-weird]

so i watched The Video (tm) lisa tweeted out and may have ended up with a full running commentary...

before i say anything else: i wanna make it clear that i'm not saying james somerton's take on the portrayal/gaze of the rich young royals is, as a whole, bad. there are actually a lot of points he made that i agree with, it's just the bringing together of those points to form an argument and derive a conclusion off of, as well as how he relates it to young royals, that i feel was a bit of a reach. so i just wanted to clarify that i do appreciate him for taking the time to put together this video essay, even if it didn't necessarily work for me. it did still give me lots of food for thought.

now, hold onto your hats. this is going to be long.

1. BEFORE WATCHING THE VIDEO OR READING ANY RESPONSES

first, for context, here's my immediate response to lisa's tweet, before i even watched the video. looking back on it after having watched the video, i think i still feel pretty much the same.

2. BEFORE WATCHING THE VIDEO BUT AFTER READING SOME OF THE RESPONSE

i also jotted down some of my thoughts as i started seeing the discourse around it online, again before i watched the video:

a comment from the video came my way implying... that portraying happy middle-class/poor people is somehow unrealistic... i don't think i can agree with that

i mean, yes, capitalism is absolute shit, especially to middle-class/poor people. that's not to say they're always thinking about the utter misery that is their lives?

plus we do see simon's family deal with the pressures of not having money, so it's not like they're pretending those don't exist

this is my main gripe with this entire thing-- the erikssons are just not poor. it's very privileged of US middle-class folk to think of ourselves as tragically oppressed by capitalism when there are people who have it so, SO much worse

(insert the whole "but just because my problems are not that bad doesn't mean they're not valid!" argument here-- yes, i know. that's not what i'm saying. it's just, rich people aren't the only ones who are privileged and people tend to forget that in their analysis, so it needs to be pointed out)

see that's my thing with the "why do we focus on the problems of the rich?" argument-- i find it equally dehumanizing. yes, capitalism predisposes us to put rich people on an aspirational pedestal that isn't real and it's fair to demand media focus more on the opposite end of the class spectrum. but i object to linking people's humanity, and the empathy we should have for them as fellow human beings, with the size of their bank account, whether it's because they have too much money or too little. rich people can also struggle, and i think it's fair (and sometimes necessary) to tell stories of that struggle, too. there's an argument to be made that we maybe focus too much on the stories of rich people, and i don't disagree. but picking on one specific show that does it like it's representative of all the evils of capitalism seems a bit much to me. wille (and felice, and august, etc...) is a human being regardless of his status and i'm sure his problems and struggles resonate with many viewers out there, even though most of us aren't royalty or are even rich. we all can relate to having to deal with our personal issues while navigating our privilege. i would never feel like that story shouldn't be told. and with simon there, we also get to see ourselves reflected on a character on the other end of the spectrum, as well. we get to see and empathize with both sides, because they're all HUMAN BEINGS despite their differences, which i think is something we really urgently need more of in this world.

(note that i'm not saying the video implies this. i actually haven't watched it yet, i'm just about to 😂 those were just the thoughts that came to my head as i read the responses)

3. RUNNING COMMENTARY AS I WATCHED THE VIDEO

and then i moved into actually watching the video and commenting live. you may be able to follow along as you watch, but it took me like two hours to get through it because i had to keep pausing/rewinding. 😂

watching the video now and... LOL it has like full-on opening credits 😂 i don't know why i found that so funny

i... am not sure i like the tone of this

"attending hillerska through scholarships" no 🙄 seriously, where do people get this idea??

okay yeah i'm not liking this. you have 43 minutes to change my mind about you, dude, tread carefully

did he just say simon doesn't deal with his own emotional ties and only struggles with wilhelm's??? DID WE WATCH THE SAME SHOW???????

i do like the flipped cinderella comparison, though

okay i'm actually getting a little bit angry now. it's rich to say the show doesn't delve into simon's own issues when in reality it's just this analysis willfully ignoring that YES, IT DOES

like, yes, the point of how portraying the wealthy/royals as flawed human beings is capitalist/monarchist propaganda is a good point. yes to that. but that doesn't necessarily imply that the PoV of the lower-class people is ignored in favor of making their lives seem perfect/happy to show that poverty isn't that bad?? that's a leap, my dude. maybe i can see that in the crown, but definitely not in YR

oh he did NOT just reduce the choir scene to a "service" simon is performing for wilhelm. THAT'S NOT WHAT IT WAS ABOUT *head explodes*

disagree about "poor people are better off because they have freedom." VERY much disagree with this.

the LAST thing simon would ever do is imply that people should feel grateful they are poor, omg what is this

i appreciate the deep dive into shameless but if he plans to compare shameless to YR i feel like that is a massively unfair comparison

the CEOs vs royals point is good, though

LOLing at the trump point because yep, i completely agree

i don't think the show is at any point trying to imply simon is "impoverished," though. he keeps making this point, and i don't think it's the flex he thinks he is. he's falling into the trap of seeing things from the rich people's PoV because that's what the rich people do in the show-- when that doesn't necessarily mean the audience sees him that way, or that the show is saying he should be seen that way. you're falling into the exact propaganda system you're trying to denounce, my dude

also that's not AT ALL what rosh and ayub's reaction to simon's aggressiveness to august was about, nope, hard disagree

.............................................i'm just sitting here laughing at the way he pronounced "august" 🤣

ok i'm about halfway through and my thoughts are: good points are made. most of the putting together of those points to make an argument is... a reach

also i am not entirely sure this person actually watched the show, or maybe that's just how people who only watch the show once actually manage to get from the show, and it differs from my experience having watched it at least a dozen times

i feel like he's trying so hard to be snarky. and usually i like snarky, but i feel it's wholly unnecessary for this topic. i'm having a hard time separating the content from the tone

love that he makes the point that intellectuals glorify dourness right after he went on a 10-minute spiel about how much better shameless is

basically saying that shameless focuses on the struggles of a lower-class family trying to make its way out of poverty while YR focuses on the struggles of a rich/royal kid being mildly inconvenienced

i'm not commenting on shameless per se-- i've never watched it, but i've heard it's very good. i'm just saying, comparing it to YR feels like apples and oranges to me... and then he goes into that whole section about dourness and the glorification of tragedy... my man...

YR is not a tragedy. tattoo that on my forehead and carve it on my tombstone

..................what was this point about aristotle and mitochondria, whut 🤨

yeah i was wondering why he was equating drama to tragedies... not the same thing, dude

okay, bonus points for quoting carrie fisher

i feel it's also a reach to say that all of wilhelm's issues save for the death of his brother are a product of his own choices. some are, sure. maybe even most. but i think he's ignoring the level to which wille's life is out of his control. i certainly don't think the sex tape being produced OR released to the public is something he had any control over, and (while certainly NOT to the level of how society limits lower-class people) the monarchy itself does exert some level of control over him, which generates his internal struggle. should the show be more balanced about this vs the struggles of non-rich people? sure, that's a debate we can have. but don't put the faults of the system on the individual character's choices. it's as much of a fallacy as saying we can fix climate change by recycling our day-to-day trash. wille is a pawn of the system as the rest of us are-- perhaps on a lower level than those of us less privileged, but he still is, particularly because he's a kid. he has very little choice in the grand scheme of things. could he, perhaps, make the choice of saying "to hell with this" and renounce his birthright and live the life he wants to live? sure. but he's sixteen. are we really expecting him to? at least the characters in shameless are mostly grown up.

"according to young royals, being poor is actually kinda great! MUCH better than being rich" he just said this. again. why.

it's a pet peeve of mine when people equate "working class" to "poor"-- they are not the same, and it masks the issues that the people who are legit poor have. this dude keeps doing it over and over again.

like, i could make an argument that, while simon is 100% much better off than actual poor people, that doesn't mean his life is perfect. which it's not, and we see that on the show. but i guess this analysis just misses that?

yeah, i was just thinking that... like, micke might be poor by swedish standards? the rest of them are not

i hate this. i hate this so much.

i feel like i don't understand what solution he's offering with this analysis, if any. like, what should we as a society do with our depiction of class in media, then? never write stories about rich people? write stories exclusively about poor people struggling in life and never being happy? i don't understand what the endgame of this is. yes, it's not necessarily good to frame lower-class people as "having a better life" than those "poor sad unfulfilled rich people" so the capitalist system can make sure the lower classes don't revolt against it. but the solution is not simply to make every piece of media be about the struggle. it's the same for LGBTQ+ people, for marginalized races or religions, you name it. there is SOME value in showing that a marginalized group can also achieve a happy life despite overwhelming odds against it, and without having to "escape" that group (ie getting rich, "passing," staying in the closet). the goal of these happier portrayals is not to uphold the oppressive system, but so that our souls are not crushed by the weight of the knowledge that we can't escape that oppression. i think that's valid. he's somehow intent on making it sound like a bad thing.

"we overinflate the freedom of poverty, and omit the ways that a lack of wealth fundamentally stifles individual freedoms" yes, of course, showing how the poor struggle with oppression, i can't believe no one's thought to make a show/movie/book about that ever 🙄

"the poor in general have to dedicate a lot of their time and energy to not being destitute" WHOA that's a sentence. my dude. i'm just sitting here staring at his jacket and his glasses like...

"it's not fair to expect the poor to liberate the rich when the poor cannot liberate themselves" THEY'RE SIXTEEN, JESUS

he is putting WAY too much on the kids on this show, i swear to god

why did he not make this video about the crown?? this video would've been SO much better if it was about the crown. and hell, even in the ONE segment he actually mentions the crown, the example he uses is... charles not wanting to go to a boarding school his family is requiring him to attend. hey, maybe next time more focus on the adults, perhaps?? y'know, the people who can actually make a difference with their choices??

"why do we obsess over rich people so much?" listen. i know people might not want to hear this, or accept this on a personal level, but knowing that people who have it better than us also have shitty lives makes us feel better about our own lives. and i know that's your point, but you keep avoiding the fact that sometimes we NEED that so that our own problems don't overwhelm us. the point is not to make us satisfied of our own lives; it's to make us not want to jump off a bridge when we realize how unsatisfying our lives are. let us have that, man.

"leave some of your favorite emotional support poors in the comments below" OH MY GOD, STOP IT

he does say at the end that he liked YR and he's not trying to put all of this on one specific piece of media. which, great. but also i just sat through 46 minutes of him doing exactly that 🤔

i am not socialist enough to enjoy this, i think that's where the problem lies lol

"but the part that frustrates me is that even while i'm condemning the use of emotional support poors in media... don't you kinda wish it would happen to you?" LOL NOPE. not even in the SLIGHTEST. 😂 i sometimes enjoy watching it on tv, though!

"there is a literal never-ending flow of media material talking about how miserable the rich are, specifically because they're rich" yes, because "poor" people don't need to be reminded every five seconds of how terrible OUR lives are, thankyouverymuch. we see it every day when we, y'know, live our lives. that's why it's called escapism.

it just occurred to me that he started this whole video essay making the point that he was talking about YR because it's not just "regular" wealth but has the royal component to it... and then spent like 3/4 of the thing speaking about YR solely in terms of wealth. and using it to make points about billionaires and other "regular" wealthy people. 🤔 maybe you should've spent some time talking about your head of state, my dude

i hated the ending. i mean i don't disagree. i just don't think it's fair to spend 50+ minutes talking about how YR glorifies the rich and then be like "but at least it taught me a valuable lesson!" no, my friend. that lesson is what the show was going FOR. you just missed that.

quoting myself here, i'm gonna say "good points are made. most of the putting together of those points to make an argument is... a reach" is still my overall conclusion, i think

oof, this has been a JOURNEY. 😂 idk, maybe someone will find my thoughts interesting. just don't come for my head if you disagree lol

#young royals #young royals netflix #royalty #royalty media #class conflict #james somerton #prince wilhelm #simon eriksson #media analysis #video essay #long post #sorry i went on a bit of a rant #or several of them honestly haha

[avantyarde]

people always talk about big pharma and how the corporations are poisoning us so we become dependent on their product to the point of addiction and we end up in a cycle of terrible health that they profit off of but everyone ignores how the food industry does the same thing

#been on my mind a lil today #processed foods are addicting and like yeah its common sense that they're bad but people dont realize just HOW bad which is v sad #i dont just mean like physically i mean mentally the chemicals they put in that shit (even the ''healthy'' shit) make u depressed dependent #and sluggish and that makes you wanna eat highly processed food more bc short term it feels great!!!! #but overall it's destroying u mentally physically emotionally and spiritually #and people are just ok w/ it bc it ''tastes good'' #(it only tastes good bc it's fucked up your palette and if u give it up and try to go back it'll taste like the shit it really is) #problem is only the rich can regularly afford real food so anyone that can't has to live off The Poison(tm) and its a form of oppression #but that's a whooooooooooooole nother very long rant

[simplepotatofarmer]

ive seen people call c!techno ancap. seeing as youre a techno appreciator, actual anarchist, and probably enough of an adult to actually understand the wikipedia page unlike myself, i wanna know if you have any thoughts on this? is c!techno an anarcho-capitalist?

i do have thoughts on this!

my very first thought is: cc!techno admitted that he wasn't well versed in anarchism when he first started playing his character. you can see that in his one conversation about the strong surviving while the weak huddle in fear (though that conversation is in a kinda awkward situation to begin with: he was speaking to bad and sam, it was his fifth stream, and c!techno had said he wasn't sure who was on his side and it seems like he was trying to figure out where they stand) where he seems to take a sort of hobbesian stance on anarchism.

but he's since learned more about anarchism, quoting emma goldman, the syndicate's manifesto being basically 'intro to anarchism' talking points, and having his character work with an enemy to take down the egg.

so i think that a lot of people who dislike c!techno (and i say this because i've seen at least one or two bigger blogs bring up this line very often) point to the 'i want a dog eat dog world' bit and say 'this is what c!techno really wants' are kinda missing the fact that cc!techno has said on stream that he didn't know much about anarchism and wanted to learn, asking for people to recommend him things to read. basically it shows that the actual situation was 'whoops i didn't do my research i should fix that my bad'.

and i think it's also missing the fact that since then, c!techno has actively worked on changing his ways. he's even gone as far to say that he's been a bad example of anarchy in the past and saying he wants to do better. which he has done much better. not perfect, but better.

basically, i believe that cc!techno didn't know much about anarchism in the first few streams and has since worked to learn more though it's still not perfect.

my second thought is: anarchy in minecraft can't function exactly like minecraft in the real world.

to me, this is where most of the 'c!techno is an ancap' arguments come from. that and a kind of.....internet/twitter understanding of anarchism.

c!techno is rich. he has a lot of wealth. he hoards that wealth.

in our world, the people who hoard wealth are the antithesis of anarchism. they're the products of capitalism.

but capitalism doesn't exist in minecraft the way it does in our world. what makes capitalism in our world so oppressive is the fact there's almost no way to succeed if you don't have capital to begin with. a few people hold all the wealth and power and it's nearly impossible for the rest of the population to get to that level. and that wealth is gained through the exploitation of the working class.

in minecraft, however, wealth is gained through a single person's actions. wealth is gained by grinding. anyone can do it. all they need is time. there's no restrictions to who can or can't do it and it doesn't take anything away from the other people. (in easy, i kinda think that the only resource that really is limited are totems of undying but i've never played java.)

basically, having wealth in minecraft doesn't work the same way as it does in our world. c!techno isn't exploiting anyone, he's not taking resources away from others, and he's not harming the world (server) by industrialization.

but again, i feel like a lot of the time, especially online, we see having wealth as an automatic negative. you saw the sort of thing i'm talking about after the twitch leak where people got upset that these streamers were making so much money but realistically the only issue would be unpaid twitch mods because streamers aren't the problem. the problem is the system and the exploitation of workers and yeah, there's definitely a bit of privilege for people to be able to do streaming full time, but compared to the harm that billionaires are causing.... i'm getting off-topic.

what my point here is that this subject has been boiled down to 'rich equals capitalism' without any nuance. like, yeah! i hate billionaires! i'm pissed at people like bezos and oil companies and politicians who take money from lobbyists. i'm not mad at streamers or actors or whatever.

and in the same vein, i'm not mad at a character in minecraft for having wealth.

my third and final thought is: the other argument i've seen is that c!techno hasn't done enough mutual aid, especially re: helping those from l'manberg but... i don't know what he should have done? he offered c!ranboo a place, he checked on c!niki, he saw that c!jack had his home still. i mean, there's other people who were effected but then you start to get into problems with personal grudges and, out of character, issues with scheduling and being able to line things up.

like, you can't really say 'c!techno didn't actually care about the egg' when cc!bad and cc!techno's schedules and personal lives had a big impact on what they could or couldn't do.

so, in my personal opinion, taking any inactivity as proof that c!techno doesn't care is disingenuous. the idea that c!techno didn't actually care about what the prison could be doing and what it represented because he hadn't done anything when cc!techno has real life issues and cc!sam also had scheduling issues just. doesn't completely sit right with me.

my conclusion: no, c!techno is not an ancap. he's not a perfect example of anarchism, either, which is something that i've been saying for a long time. he's a character created and written by a young dude who wasn't well-versed on anarchism when he first started his character and who has since done a good job of correcting those mistakes and portraying basic anarchism. i wouldn't label c!techno as any specific sort of anarchist, really, but as someone who follows the base tenets of anarchism.

#loyal answers things #this is so long i'm sorry i got carried away #technoblade #dream smp #dsmp analysis #anarchism

[tiredbiostudent]

Wait I wanna read your we were liars review

your wish is my command <3 putting it under the cut bc it's long and rant-y and also not entirely finished but.

★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ [1/10]

I hate this book so fucking much. the praise from John Green on the cover should’ve been a final warning for me but hey, who am I if not a masochist. there was absolutely nothing I liked about this book except that it was the final nail in the coffin that is me deciding I will NEVER read a book about rich people again because I just don’t fucking care. if you did like this book ummm you probably won’t want to read my review because I am going to be very mean but god this book just inspires genuine rage in me.

-pretentious to the point of satire except I don’t think the author is smart enough for this to be satirical she genuinely thought it was just good literature on her part

-the stupid once there was a king with three daughters short stories were 1) way too on the nose and 2) the constant comparisons of Gat to an ugly outcast mous (esp since this was written by a white woman) were ummmmm questionable? at best? felt very “society oppresses you for being different but I think you’re cool so you’re welcome” white person woke. like “the father sees a jungle animal, and his repugnance will never leave him” ma’am did anyone proofread this for you. 

-trying really hard to be pretentious in a smart and interesting way but ended up being pretentious in a lazy and boring way. 

-oh boooooo fucking who my name is Tipperdon Langford Henry the Third and I spend my summers not working but instead lounging around a private island in fucking Massachusetts where we have paid staff who I can’t even bother to learn the names of but it’s sooooo hard being me. I HATE RICH PEOPLE SO MUCH IT’S UNREAL LMFAO you could not pay me to care about your problems. every second of this story is spent reminding me that these uppity rich white nepotism kids are spoiled and living a lavish life so different from mine it takes genuine effort for me to try and even care enough to relate to their issues. their issues are non-issues that they’ve created for themselves because their lives are too perfect to have real issues. 

-we are so woke for smashing grandpappy’s ivory sculptures and lighting his house on fire um actually you’re just entitled brats. we’re so political and challenge our elders but not enough to actually leave behind the lavish life we’re afforded to or face any real consequences for our actions. Gat leave these fools.

-guys I know I already touched on this but sufdhksdjf I cannOT get over the names. so pretentious it looped back around to being unbearably cringey. 

-the plot twist was understated and predictable. still don’t care. 

-I’m sorry again I can’t get over how deeply pretentious this entire fucking book is. with the names houses and calling her mom “Mummy” sfdskjfshdsf FUCK IT’S TOOOOO MUCH. this book inspires genuine RAGE within me. 

some passages I took pictures of with my phone because me scoffing at the pretentiousness was just not enough, I needed physical evidence of how awful this book was. “We burned not a home, but a symbol. We burned a symbol to the ground.” lmao shut UPPPPPPPP  “My full name is Cadence Sinclair Eastman, and contrary to the expectations of the beautiful family in which I was raised, I am an arsonist”. ummm and a murderer miss girl!! -

in conclusion this book made me want to reread the secret history just to wash the sheer pretentiousness out of my mouth. yeah, it was that bad. anyone who recommended this book to me please never recommend me a book ever again.

#reading this again I lowkey laughed. god that book sucked so hard #im not on tiktok but this is why I will NEVER read a tiktok/influencer recommended book or one of those ones with the stupid bright pastel #abstract couple cover #I will stick to my old man horror - psychological thrillers - action scifi and creepy fantasy thank u very much #asks #we were liars #summer-ies