#we live in a capitalist hell but we can work the system

[thefirstknife]

First, I wanna say that I do NOT condone the extenely nasty and toxic behavior of various parts of the fandom, especially towards the devs. But I'm starting to wonder more and more if this is actually something the company brought on themselves? The game at this point relies on an increasingly expensive and predatory FOMO model and a lot of players seem to exhibit symptoms of genuine addiction to the game, or at least a very unhealthy relationship cultivated by that FOMO and "well I sunk all this money in I can't just stop now" mindsets. Which leads to players burning out and being irrational, which leads to some players being ruder or cruel and gives toxic players (who would be toxic anyway) a community that doesn't reject them out of hand because the community itself is so exhausted and frustrated and genuinely struggling to have a healthy connection to the game due to the entire model it operates under. It doesn't mean the devs or other players deserve the cruelty they've faced, but it feels like this behavior breeding among the fans is the natural consequence of the direction the game has gone. (I notice this in various mobile gacha type games that are heavily FOMO and predatory, too--the addition and sunk cost issues seem to make it truly difficult for people to be able to behave rationally)

In a way, I guess? It's not really the devs making these decisions though, it's the executives and marketing which pretty much has nothing to do with the game itself. It's still Bungie, but this stuff goes beyond just Bungie and just Destiny and just game development.

Basically, what people are mad about is capitalism. But since it's much harder to fight a whole system we live under and the system under which games are being made, people instead turn to individual companies and then also on devs, mostly because devs are the ones who are visible online. A marketing CEO from Bungie who signs off on these decisions isn't on Twitter.

I definitely wouldn't say that any company "brought individual employee harassment" on themselves. Like, no matter what state the game is in, you should never go for the random devs online and people should know that, no matter how mad they get. They're definitely not making these decisions and a lot of them are actively against them. For example, this is from a senior narrative designer at Bungie:

Note that the first thing he mentioned is "monetization and business interests overshadowing artistry." This isn't isolated, it's just one person who wanted to share, but it's a general sentiment among the actual devs. Nobody wants their work to be subjected to the aggressive monetisation schemes that ultimately piss off the consumers and ruin the product itself.

But as I said, the issue here goes above and beyond just one game or one dev studio. A lot of people keep talking about awful monetisation in Destiny, but I genuinely can't agree that Destiny, of all games, is the worst game monetisatio-wise. I'm actively involved in games that are worse and especially games that became worse, the best example of which is Overwatch. I don't think Destiny gamers could even comprehend how awful Overwatch became monetisation-wise. And that doesn't even begin to dive into other horrible practices in the gaming industry.

The point isn't to say that just because there's worse than Destiny, that Destiny is fine. It's definitely not and some things have certainly changed for the worse, though there were also horrible practices in Destiny before that were since removed. There used to be loot boxes. Like, actual gambling loot boxes. I would honestly just buy the ornaments directly rather than being tempted to buy 50 loot boxes and gamble. The only good part was that dismantling items from loot boxes could give you bright dust, but that makes sense for loot boxes that you had to buy with silver. So technically you bought that dust with silver. You could get them also for levelling so there's that, but that was really the only way to earn anything. Grind insane hours and hope for the best or take the easy way out: buying boxes for money. I cannot stress enough how much gambling is the worst predatory practice in existence in the gaming industry. Nothing else will ever be as detrimental and scummy as encouraging gambling. People don't really remember this or even know, but the switch to direct purchase is actually better.

However, of course, the increase in the amount of things that are silver-only is definitely felt. One of the worst parts is shaders for me. Shaders got no business being for silver and in bundles where you technically have to spend $10 for a shader. Event cards are also a sore spot; they're literally just Eververse bundles, but with extra steps that tie them to an event so you feel like you're earning stuff in gameplay. They come together with random currency (tickets) that stays unused unless you buy the card. It's 100% made to make people want to pay.

But sometimes the criticism on monetisation is also really superficial and from people who don't understand game development. One of the examples that people often use is dungeon key. Now, personally, I think that dungeon key should be separate for each dungeon instead of forcing you to buy 2 dungeons at once for $15. You should be able to buy just one. Like, come on. However, the idea that we have to pay for dungeons is not a predatory practice. It's content that has to be made and requires resources and dev hours (regardless of what people think of the dungeons). People will usually say "dungeons used to be available with seasons!" This is a lie.

Before WQ, we had 4 dungeons released since vanilla D2. Shattered Throne was the first and it was a part of the expansion. Pit of Heresy was second and it was a part of the expansion. Prophecy was a part of Season of Arrivals (!). And Grasp of Avarice was 30th Anniversary, a separate pack that had to be bought separately. Out of all dungeons available so far, only one was a part of the season and I genuinely don't even know how they managed that and I feel like some devs probably laboured over Prophecy essentially for free. So the idea that "dungeons were just for free in seasons" is just a lie. Only one was, an exception that possibly negatively impacted developers. If we want 2 dungeons per year, we will have to pay for them. And we do. It's either that, or maybe they can include one dungeon in the expansion and that's it. I wouldn't mind that, but the same people shitting on devs are also the people who shit on devs over "content droughts" and "not enough content" so I don't think that would satisfy them.

The point is that while some of the criticism is absolutely warranted, a lot of complete misunderstandings and lies often get mixed up with it and this all results in the situation we're in now where the only thing that the community is doing online is being negative and spiralling into dev harassment. And they end up feeling justified because the company is engaging in predatory practices. It's very easy to get into that mindset and to feel like you're not just allowed to harass, but encouraged.

The biggest issue with monetisation is always people who spend a lot of money aka whales. And by a lot, I mean a lot. Like there are people who buy every single thing in the store (and this is applied to all games). An average player buying a shader once in 3 months is not a problem. The whales are what shows up on marketing reports and what makes soulless capitalist ghouls add more of this shit to games. Which makes it even worse that the people who are perpetuating this hate train against monetisation riddled with incomplete misleading information and lies ARE WHALES. Aztecross who made the big video is a whale. Last time people checked his stream, he literally had 8000 silver in his account and people who watch his streams have said that he frequently has segments with his chat where they look at the store and he buys stuff, ON STREAM, while also asking his chat which items he should get. He's a hypocrite who is doing this to earn more money and is, to me, not any different from the soulless capitalist ghouls that work in gaming industry marketing departments.

The best thing he can do, if he cared about this topic, is to stop playing and stop making content about Destiny. Like, that's genuinely it. If he and other content creators like him are so serious about this topic and believe that the monetisation is such a serious problem in Destiny, they should stop spending money, stop playing, stop marketing the game and stop making content for it. There is no other way for Bungie to get the message, certainly not by going at random devs. And then after that, the next best step would be to involve yourself in political action to bring stricter laws to the whole gaming industry when it comes to predatory and anti-consumer practices.

In the meantime, serious talk: if any video game ever made you feel like you have to spend money, especially money you don't have, and you spent that money against your better judgement, please reach out to someone. It's not shameful and you're not alone. Games are a hobby and entertainment and should never put you in financial risk or ruin. If any video game is too much for you and you can no longer pay for it, but you feel like you have to keep playing and it's risking you financially, again, please reach out to someone. There are people who can help you deal with these feelings, especially if you know you can become addictive. The gaming industry as a whole preys on people's need for entertainment and dopamine rush and if you can't resist it on your own (which is, again, not a shameful thing), there's options to get help. This is mostly about the extra stuff like microtransactions, but it also works for just base game stuff. A year of Destiny content is cheaper than a year of some other games, but it doesn't mean that it's something everyone can afford. You can absolutely skip seasons or even expansions. You can also wait for them to be on sale and I always recommend looking out for sales anyway. There's genuinely very little value in being constantly pushed by FOMO and there IS a way to get out of the FOMO mentality. You can work on that, especially with people who can offer professional help if you need it.

Never let the capitalist scum control you.

#destiny 2 #bungie #long post #ask #it's gonna take a lot more than just being mad at a video game to change the system #unfortunately #also unfortunately when we go at devs that doesn't really touch the people who actually make these decisions #and might even be worse for the devs who have to work in these conditions. being harassed by players and pushed by bosses #i definitely understand the frustration though. i know a lot of people get pushed into this by frustration #the capitalist hell we live in hurts everyone but the ones on top and fighting among each other benefits them #we should stand with devs and encourage them to tell us what we can do as players to fight against this #honestly i want game devs to go on strike so bad. game industry strike NOW!!!!!!

[veganineden]

On the Evolution of “Happily Ever After” and Why “Nothing Lasts Forever”

A reflection inspired by Good Omens 2

One of my favorite Tumblr posts on the second season of Good Omens 2 was actually not about the series at all, but our reaction to it, primarily the ending. @zehwulf wrote, “I think a lot of us—myself included—got a little too comfortable with assuming [Aziraphale and Crowley would] work on their issues right away post-Armageddon.” We did the work for them through meta, fanfiction, fanart, and building a plethora of headcanons. Who among us AO3-surfing fans didn’t read and love Demonology and the Tri-Phasic Model of Trauma: An Integrative Approach by Nnm?

In the 4 long years since season one was released, we did more than seek to understand and repair rifts between two fictional beings: we were forced to reckon with ourselves too. We faced a global pandemic, suffered traumatizing losses and isolation, and were forced to really and truly look into the face of our atrocities-ridden and capitalistic world. The mainstream rise of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice work, and our participation in this work, showed us that the systems in place were built to oppress and harm most of us, and they are. 

So, what does this have to do with the evolution of “happily ever after”? 

My friend put it best in a conversation we had following the season finale, when she pointed out a shift in media focus. The “happy end” in old stories about wars and kingdoms used to be “we killed the evil old king and put a noble young king in his place and now citizens can live in peace” and we’re transitioning into a period of “we tore down the whole fucking monarchy.” 

If we look at season one, written to follow the beats of a love story, it comforted us by offering a pretty traditional happy ending pattern: you get your fancy dinner with your special someone, the romantic music plays, and you have a place to call your own. Season one’s finale provided a temporary freedom for Aziraphale and Crowley, the “breathing room,” but it didn't solve the problem that was Heaven and Hell, or the agendas belonging to those systems of oppression. 

Is it good enough to keep our heads down, pretend the bad stuff isn’t happening, and live our own personal happy endings until we die? Moral quandaries aside, if you don't die (or if you care about the generations after you), then, like Aziraphale said, it “can’t last forever.” There’s a clear unpleasant end to the “happily ever after” that’s based on ignoring our problems– it’s the destruction of our relationships, and humanity. 

Ineffable Bureaucracy can go off into the stars because they do not care about humanity. 

You know who does?

Aziraphale. 

And Aziraphale knows that Crowley cares about humanity too. (He knows because Crowley was the one who proposed sabotaging Armageddon in the first place, who only invited him to the stars when he thought all was lost, because Crowley would save humanity if he thought it was possible, and Aziraphale knows Crowley has survived losing Everything before, and he will do all in his power so that Crowley does not need to experience that again.) 

In season one and two, we see how much they care about humanity, beyond their orders, to the point The Systems begin to frown at them. Aziraphale hears Crowley’s offer to run away together in the final episode of season two, to leave Earth behind, and just like the first time that offer was made in season one, he declines. He knows choosing only “us” is not a choice either of them can live with for the rest of eternity.

I believe season 3 will provide an opportunity to “dismantle the system,” but I don’t know how it will play out. I worry that Aziraphale has put himself in the now-dead trope of the “young noble king.” (I wish Crowley had told him why Gabriel was dismissed from his duties.) I worry that he would martyr himself as a sole agent for change. I worry that he doesn’t actually know how to dismantle anything by himself: because you can’t. He needs Crowley. He DOES. He needs Crowley, and Muriel, and other angels and demons and humans without fixed mindsets to help him. Only by learning to listen and making room at the table for all can they (and we) move past personal satisfaction to collective liberation. 

Crowley was right when he said that Aziraphale had discovered his “civic obligations.”

So, I think we will get our modern-day happy ending– and it’s going to involve a lot of pain and discomfort, communication, healing and teamwork– and in the end, it’ll all be okay. There will be a time for rest and a time for “us.” 

And most likely a cottage. 

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”

 - Maya Angelou

Support the SAG-AFTRA strike and other unions. Trust @neil-gaiman. Register to vote if you haven’t yet. Hold yourself and others accountable with compassion. Read books. Keep doing the work. Rest. Then watch Good Omens 2 again.  

#good omens 2 #good omens #crowley #aziraphale #ineffable husbands #good omens meta #good omens 2 meta #ineffable advocacy #ineffable partners #neil gaiman #terry pratchett #gos2 spoilers #good omens 2 spoilers #nothing lasts forever #liked by Neil Gaiman

[utilitycaster]

look, I know polls are silly and fun and so I want you to understand writing this rant is silly and fun for me but EMON? Emon is the Critical Role Entry for Most Place of All Time? I must call bullshit. And so:

Friends, fellow critters, and people who have me blocked but hate read my blog each morning over breakfast: Emon is not even the Most Place on the Material Plane. It is not even the Most Place in Tal'Dorei. Hell, it's not even the Most Place on the fucking Bladeshimmer Shoreline, which includes a destroyed city now overtaken by bandits, and a cave system that hosts both a rift to the Far Realm and a different rock than residuum that can make a different magical drug than suude. Emon is if you took the aggressively mid vibes of Washington, DC and transplanted them to the inconvenient location and city of refuge for flaky people who avoid gluten for non-medical reasons of Los Angeles. The second Percival Frederickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III invents the motorcar that sumbitch is going to have traffic bad enough to summon Tharizdun. Also there's a literal pit of fire that's been burning for 30 years that both hasn't been adequately addressed but also doesn't really seem that interesting. Like oh a bunch of dragons destroyed your city? Big deal. Draconia got so fucked up it doesn't exist anymore, and at least Westruun has some fucking charm. At least Pike and Grog actually lived there, whereas Vox Machina got a house in Emon and proceeded to spend their time literally anywhere else.

Here is a brief list of places on the planet of Exandria in the Material Plane - not even across Critical Role's main campaigns/EXU, which includes such non-Exandrian places as "living city of people who mind-melded and escaped to the Astral Sea during a century-plus-long war of the gods"; "Ligament Manor"; "Ryn's groovy pied-a-feu, man I wonder what made the scorch marks on that furniture, anyway", and "THE MOON THAT IS ACTUALLY AN PRISON FOR A THING THAT EATS GODS AND IS POSSIBLY HATCHING" - that are more of a place than Emon:

Jrusar: 5 spires no waiting, sweet cable car system, city almost entirely destabilized by goo creatures as part of an overly complicated plot to blow up the aforementioned moon

Bassuras: (literally "garbagetown") Run by Mad Max gangs and everyone is cool with it; regular sandstorms; one of those gangs apparently sits atop a hive mind and NO ONE has examined this (except for them)?)

Whitestone: has a tree planted by one god over a buried temple to another god that was corrupted in the name of a third, shittier god; overrun by zombies but it's fine now; streetlights and two bears that are allowed to do whatever the fuck they want.

Yios: The canal system of Venice meets the colleges per capita of Boston meets the orcs from your fantasies, also there's some kind of kitchen-based organized crime ring so intricate it could be its own campaign (so, also like Boston).

Vasselheim: literally no one understands what the fuck its government system is. Old as balls. Temples everywhere! Temples full of trees. Temples full of blood! Temples full of an old guy who will kick your ass. A sphinx that regulates the monster hunter mini-game. Presumably the giant titan full of the ancient cannibal dwarf city is like, still there, as a new fixture, since I don't see how they're moving that.

The arctic: where teleportation doesn't work, there's a river of lava in the middle of the snow, ancient ruins full of snow globes full of actual people, and the Chaos Bisexual Emerald - and that's just a smattering of what Eiselcross has to offer.

Since this is about space and not time we can toss Aeor and Avalir too, since they once were places, and while we're at it whatever the fuck is going on with the Shattered Teeth and its permanent fog cloud and fish dream cult and capitalist shipwrecked merchants.

And, of course, any arbitrary square millimeter of Wildemount, frankly, has more Mostness than the entirety of Emon could muster under absolutely ideal conditions. But for the sake of one place per region, let's hand it to Rosohna (city of eternal night for practical purposes, built over the Evil God Headquarters); Uthodurn (underground! Giant goats! Elves and dwarves, living together, mass hysteria!); Hupperdook (steampunk gnome party city); Nicodranas (Fjord, Jester, Veth, Marion, and Yussa literally all live there at once; plumbing used to be courtesy of an imprisoned marid...but watch out); and Blightshore (Blightshore).

In conclusion: Emon is boring, nominating it was a mistake, there are literally sealed gods in other parts of the world and also way better taverns, good night, and what the fuck.

#critical role #long post

[gacha-incels]

Been boycotting limbus but it's a bit disheartening seeing everyone continue around me with this passing intl women's day. I don't know how to convince my friends to stop without getting into an argument because they're all knee deep into these games. But my real question was.. why? These people are boycotting other products for other things, why are they so adamant with sticking on this when it's proven to have harmed so many people in the small team that made it?

Had a discussion with one who is boycotting and I feel like that "political correctness" seeps into the themes of the game, actually, despite how people tout it as the ultimate anti capitalist game; The City is suffering, workers gruel and die at the whims of corporate overlords, people struggle to find housing, and whatever the fuck Carmen's doing in the light, while it could help people survive longer, is just giving everyone guns ignoring the power structures underneath. It's very strange to me now there's.. no suggestion of uprooting the system at all in the games. No true strikes or protests or even any mentions of unions as far as I know. There's no effort to change what is given

[outside of the seed of light project, which 1. famously Didn't Work and 2. having everyone manifest ego is still just giving everyone guns and going "now don't shoot each other!"],

which is very strange and kind of sad? Like sure maybe an arbiter or something would come and tear it down but surely people would come up with countermeasures? People are really good at adapting around things out of desperation, and surely at least an effort would be mentioned

And then my friend, she suggested something; without project moon's suffering, there would be no project moon. Without the city, project moon can't make games. To end the hell that the characters are in and truly resolve the city's hypercapitalist dystopia, they must stop making money off of them. But they don't want to. They definitely DO want to make more games, noted by the interviews which mention future game concepts such as the distortion detective visual novel. But in order to do so, they must keep the current games "clean" and consistent in their suffering to perpetuate conflict. There is some commentary about capitalism to be had; but it feels more like a "oh, look, people are dying, this is so sad" layer of paint on it at this point rather than something more in depth and meaningful. And I think in enforcing this sort of "we can't fix the system in any meaningful way, let's just live our lives instead and hope something better happens" mindset, it reflects into the players. Kind of ironic how the anti capitalism game must sustain its own horrible systems internally so the owners of the series can: make more money through a very predatory money making system, no less!

Limbus fans don't give a fuck about feminism in kr, they think its a system they cant help fixing so they just play the game as they please and any attempt to disuade them is met with a "stop ruining my fun!!" And "who cares?" The worst ones are the ones who KNOW their money is being funneled into stupid misogynistic shit but don't care! It's insane! I've never seen this level of apathy towards a serious issue before!

Sigh. I hope this ramble is coherent. If I missed talking about something or if you want me to talk more I'm game. Project moon's characters are some of my favorites but you have to admit the themes are surface level shit at some point, especially in later installments of their games. So tired but I'd figure I'd share my thoughts somehow. Take care account admin, youre doing gods work

yeah regarding your first point about fans that keep playing, back in August there was a discussion on this blog here regarding contemporary fandom “culture”- how it makes dropping a piece of media hard for some people and why they feel so quick to defend it. the nature of gacha is also that it gets you into the habit of doing “dailies” which makes them harder to drop, this is not even mentioning sunk cost fallacy. I’ve seen a recent post on the FGO subreddit asking why people still play the game and the top posts by a longshot were ones saying only because they spent so much time and money on it. For a lot of people (even people who think themselves progressives) misogyny is a non-issue as well so they will not take the situation in South Korea that seriously to begin with. This is in addition to it happening to “other” or “foreign” women in the eyes of the western fan. There is also an aggressive “fuck you, I’ve got mine” attitude some of the fans who want to keep playing have in regards to these women. It’s disturbing to watch happen but unfortunately not uncommon. I find some of the worst of it, in this situation specifically, is when westerners try to tell Korean women (who are boycotting and spreading information) that they are the ones spreading misinfo, or there’s no reason for them to boycott, how it’s not that bad for them, how PM actually didn’t do anything wrong, “both sides” are crazy and wrong, “let people enjoy things”, shit like that. like doesn’t it raise any flags for you that the people most affected by PM’s actions, Korean women, deleted entire accounts of fanart, took back fanmade items from PM’s cafe, started a boycott of LC and made posts in english to try and get the word out to international fans? you must think they’re idiots if you believe this is all some misunderstanding and vellmori quit of her own free will. Come on. imo it’s impossible to make any meaningful statement critiquing capitalism when you’re writing it in a game that uses one of the most exploitive types of gambling mechanics. I hope I don’t have to explain to anyone why this is absurd. You don’t need to expose young people to gambling addictions in order to fund new games. At the same time, things an author writes (or things that the reader infers from the writing) do not always reflect their ideologies or actions in real life and they can sometimes seemingly be at odds with one another. This is something fans have to reckon with, and not just by saying “actually hatsune miku made limbus company” or whatever. Personally, I can’t take PM’s “anti capitalist” or “feminist” or “revolutionary” work seriously when in reality they have mistreated employees, sued labor unions, acquiesced to incel demands and then later added a meme into the game from that incel community. On the other hand people struggle to believe Project Moon could do anything wrong like this because of the stories in their games so they vehemently defend PM, which at some point just feels naïve. well hopefully this is the type of answer/discussion you were looking for lol thanks for writing 👍

[qqueenofhades]

Do you have any idea where all the money in education IS going? People talk about administrators, but their percentage of the overall budget seems lowish? Facilities are expensive, but often paid for with bequests, no? Where the hell is all the money going?

The same place it's going in every other capitalistic American enterprise: to senior executives, endowments, and other places that decidedly do not "trickle down" (because you know, it never does). See my many previous posts about how college costs skyrocketed starting in the 1980s and post-secondary higher education was transformed from something in which most of the costs were governmentally subsidized to something expected to be paid (at higher and higher levels) either privately out of the consumer's pocket or from thousands of dollars in student loans. Because you guessed it, Reaganomics.

I can tell you one place it absolutely is NOT going, i.e. salaries of faculty and staff, at least in the less capitalistically sexy fields of study. The university where I work never hurts for money in the business and law schools, but because I am in the humanities/education/history, yeah, our department's budget is not in great shape. Of course, yes, COVID hit the higher-education sector like crazy (as it did everywhere else) and universities haven't figured how to recover from that, but just as with the rest of America, it's a model that is designed to funnel the vast majority of profits, i.e. from skyrocketing student tuition rates and other increased fees, to the highly compensated senior leadership and very little to the academics who do the work that makes the place, you know, RUN.

This is a bugaboo for both me and every other academic I know, because (again, just as with the rest of capitalism) it doesn't HAVE to be this way. I shouldn't be trying to manage a department that has to rely heavily on adjunct faculty every quarter and doesn't have a sustainable long-term scheduling or research model, because we're so badly understaffed with core tenure-track faculty and they won't let us hire any more, while constantly cutting our budget and giving us laughable raises (mine, after getting sterling performance reviews across the board, was a whole... 72 extra cents an hour. I wish I was joking). There is money tied up in the institution and the establishment (and as noted, I work at a well-regarded and highly-ranked private university, so it's not a matter of not having enough), but the system distributes it in a way that is inequitable and results in enforced scarcity, especially in the humanities. It's not that there isn't money to pay us fairly, it's just that they have chosen not to, because they exist in the same capitalist system as the rest of the west.

This is why there have been strikes by graduate and early-career academics in both the UK and US (I have worked/studied/taught in both places, and they're both BAD for paying lower-level academics and even established-career academics), because they simply do not pay us enough to live on or build a career on (by a long shot, ESPECIALLY if you're the only person in your household and don't have shared expenses with a partner/roommate/several roommates). This is after most of us have several advanced degrees and the debt resulting from such. We get burned out, we can't make a living in this field, we leave, and it's hollowed out even further. So. Yeah.

#anonymous #ask #school stuff #academia: not even once

[dreamweaversfavsandthoughs]

Rick and Morty S7 Ep. 4: That’s Amorte

(There is no ethical consumption under capitalism)

Don’t read any further if you don’t want to spoiler your appetite…

My Favs

We got Morty back!

When the world was about to send out an Amber Alert on a missing kid, Morty decided to return to us! I’ve enjoyed the season so far but having Rick and Morty together is a stark reminder that the strength of this show is found in the dynamic between grandfather and grandson. Also, I love seeing Rick getting healthy and bettering himself, but I also love to see a Rick that’s amoral and a bit unhinged.

Facial animation:

I don’t know if this is due to the Irish animation studio they’re working with now, but I’ve noticed there’s a bit more diversity in the facial expressions compared to the last two or three seasons. Has anyone else noticed this?

They did a Soylent Green!

I predicted that this might have been a red herring seeing the initial clips and they might instead do something akin to the Universal Paperclip game, but a Soylent Green is what we got. Well, the idea behind the paperclip game is still on the table for next season…

Euthanasia, Cannibalism, and Suicide

Quite the trifecta of “subjects we don’t discuss in polite society,” but I admire them for taking the risk and weaving everything together well. Kinda surprised S&P let them get away with it.

“His dying wish is to see deader people so he can feel superior.”

Morty-O’s Suicide Spaghetti

“ Is this people or not people? I just need to know how much I should pretend to be upset.”

Oh, Jerry…

“They dyed their sun institutional gray.”

“Ooo gray areas. My specialty.”

Classic Rick

Kotomi’s cover of “Live Forever”

“Life itself is wrong and that means death is right. But you can’t side with that. So you live, even when it means eating.”

Not My Fav:

They could have gotten nastier.

This is my one small gripe in an episode that I think is fantastic. I’m confident there is an earlier draft out there that got so much grosser before S&P made their cuts and I demand to see that draft!

Release that nasty cut!!!

My Thoughts:

First my less serious thought, how in the hell did Rick find out that those people turned in spaghetti when they unalived themselves? My headcanon is that he has made a regular habit of impersonating a doctor on that planet because he sees doctors as nothing more than glorified mechanics, but for people. Rick knows he’s the smartest man in the universe and a proper scientist so practicing medicine would not be that much of a challenge and along the way he discovered this delicious trait about the Keplar people.

On a more serious note, there are two moments that really stood out to me. First, was when Morty broke the news of the spaghetti’s origin to the family and their reaction. They were angry and disappointed—in Morty for delivering the message rather than Rick for feeding them people-spaghetti. That spaghetti was amazing and brought everyone joy and they were more angry about losing their joy than the moral implications of consuming human flesh. Morty destroyed the illusion that they were “good” people and instead of actually being good people and refusing to eat the spaghetti, Morty created a work-around so that he and the family could still maintain the illusion.

That felt very realistic to how, dare I say, all of us have acted at some point, whether it’s the food we eat or that store that sells the jeans that fit perfectly or the online retailer that delivers anything we could possibly want the next day. Maybe, we find out someday that it’s not created in the most ethical manner and we rationalize it. We think, “ Oh, it’s not that bad.” or “ I can’t afford the more ethical option,” or "I have such few joys in my life I don't want to lose this as well.” It’s easier to uphold the illusion of being morally upright under a system that makes it exceedingly difficult to do so. But even if the capitalistic system is destroyed can we ever really be absolved? This leads to the second moment that stood out, Rick’s monologue.

“Life itself is wrong and that means death is right. But you can’t side with that. So you live, even when it means eating.”

My interpretation is that Rick is saying, “Life, by it’s very nature, is inherently unethical and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Even if the meat you eat comes from an animal that is well taken care of, killed as quickly and painlessly as possibly, and processed in a facility that treats its workers well and obeys all regulations—that animal still had to die in order to produce that meat. You’re a vegan. Plants are still living things and for many plants the process of getting food from them destroys them in the process. Millions of bacteria are destroyed every time you wash your hands. Life needs other kinds of life to end for it to keep going, but humans are the only creatures that are aware of this fact so we create arbitrary categories around which types of life are okay to destroy (categories we can’t all agree on) in order to maintain the illusion of morality.

This episode does not have a feel-good message among the jokes and absurd characters and I appreciate that. This one got my brain a-churnin’ and I’m sure I read way too much into this episode but I couldn’t help myself.

#rick and morty #rick and morty season 7 #rnm #rnm spoilers #rick and morty spoilers #rick sanchez #morty smith #that’s amorte

[tittyinfinity]

Yes, it is going to be hard whenever capitalism comes to an end.

But the reality is that it's already collapsing in on itself and will only get worse from here on out.

Whenever people say they're done with the US government, it's not because they don't care about how people will be negatively affected – it's because it will be so much harder to fight later on down the line.

Capitalists have already been working together to make sure everyone is broke and exhausted. A good portion of our life is controlled by the corporate world & land-owners. Our bosses, landlords, and cops can control just about anything we do. Our phones spy on us and can send our info to the cops.

Capitalism is enforced through violence. There is public information about politicians taking money from corporations like health insurance & oil companies. There's public information about the US committing coups in communist and socialist countries to install fascist leaders. It has come out several times that our military is used to secure oil and other resources through terrorism. It's well-known that prisons are used to draft as many people for slave labor as they can. These companies that both pay off and install politicians to enforce policies that make them richer rely on this violence for their profit.

No capitalist candidate will never have your best interest at heart. Anyone willing to sacrifice lives for the sake of money will sacrifice your life the moment it's most convenient – all while saying that they're Helping The Country Get Better, Actually. And if our main goal is "less people dying," thinking short-term is not gonna save us. Especially when so many are already dying right now. Today.

If you're scared about the bad things that will happen when capitalism falls.....how do you think the people suffering & dying under the current system feel?

The people who have lost their homes and families? The people forced into slavery? Indigenous people who continue to lose more and more land?

All for the gas in your car, the lithium in your batteries, the land you live on, the job you work, and hell, most of the products we use.

You're worried about what might happen.... it's already happening, just not to you. And relying on the government to save you from the government isn't realistic.

Either you want imperialism, colonization, and genocide to end, or you don't. Stand up and fight while you have the chance.

Get your friends and neighbors together for direct action groups. Print out posters and put them all over the town. Don't just join protests, START them. Strike. Join the IWW. Get your coworkers together to start a union. Tell your boss to pay you more or you're all walking out. Stealing shit isn't even stealing shit – corporations & capitalists are already stealing tax money & the money produced by the labor of their workers. They take and take while they give us crumbs. We don't have to put up with this shit

#joe biden #donald trump #byeden #.bdo

[soupthatistohot]

an absurdist lens is SUCH a good one to use for bsd i feel like, seeing as how it came about because of the war and so many of bsd's characters were involved in the bsd great war.

what do you think of how the great war in bsd is written looking at it through an absurdist lens

(btw your analyses are so good and interesting i love reading them!!)

Ooh this is a really interesting ask! I'll admit that I don't know much about the great war, but war itself is such an inherently absurd concept. Like, you have some issue with another country/territory, so your conclusion is to start killing each other until one of the parties taps out? It's so weird when you think about it like this.

I think the best thing I can analyze with my current knowledge is Yosano's backstory. Because the soldiers Yosano treated were forced into this never-ending loop of horror and brutality, the war kept going and going, and I think this serves as a commentary on war and its absurdity.

Absurdist storytellers often exaggerate situations that already exist in our real world in order to bring to light just how ridiculous they are. For example, in Kafka's The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa wakes up as a gigantic bug, but is more concerned with the fact that he won't be able to attend work and provide for his family than finding an explanation for his circumstances. This is likely commentary on how our capitalist society forces workers to overlook their own physical wellbeing for the sake of attempting to live off of inadequate wages.

In a similar way, Asagiri does this with the concept of war, exaggerating it by forcing this group of soldiers and Yosano into this literal vicious cycle that traumatizes both parties time and time again. Living through the horror of war once is already bad enough, but imagine if you had to do it hundreds of times, wouldn't that be awful? A soldier that's been healed that many times over will have seen many more people die and killed more people than if they just died. Yosano as a nurse has to treat so, so many suffering people, and she's only like 11 at the time. And yet, isn't this what we're doing by forcing generation after generation to fight these wars because of the conflicts we keep making? It makes you question why the idea of a war even exists in the first place.

Even with the current arc we see it. The hunting dogs are military, and they're the villains! Yes, all of them but Fukuchi are misguided, but it's commentary about corruption in systems of power that are supposed to be protecting us. I'd also say Jouno and the satisfaction he derives from torture is probably some sort of commentary on police brutality. Hell, in the latest chapter, we're 30 seconds away from a nuclear warhead destroying Yokohama. If there's one thing that's completely absurd in our modern world, it's nuclear weapons that are literally world-ending.

Anyway! Anon! If you want to tell me more about the war, I'd be happy to try to analyse it based on what information you can give me, but also no pressure. I'm just worried I didn't really answer your question, but I did the best I could! I'm glad you enjoy my silly little rants :)

#bsd absurdism analysis #anon ask #bsd #bungo stray dogs #bungou stray dogs #bsd spoilers

[titleknown]

So, a new anti-AI-art post is making the rounds because of course it is, and while I have not breached the paywall to read the paper, I do think the summarized version of it the author provides has some holes worth poking.

Past the break, because this gets long.

Anyhoo, their core argument is that AI art people are just capitalists who see art as a profitable object and do not exhibit those four fundamental values of But like... this is just casual observation, but I have seen a lot of those values in the AI art community amongst itself.

They share models and tips on how they use the tool! I rarely see them doing it for lucre! I see creators who've used AI art to integrate into other mediums they've worked with! I've seen people with major motor disabilities welcomed. I have seen authenticity in garbage AI art; in aggregate from singular creators.

There is a reason I say that to make good AI art, you need to approach it like an artist.

And like, AI art has genuine logistical issues that make it uniquely difficult to integrate into communities, the "flooding" that turbofucked Deviantart and the harassment problem that is "spite models,"

But beyond that I think it is not just, as they blithely dismiss, "AI art can be used for good" but I think it is even possible to integrate AI artists into communities that share those values. Because I have seen those values at work in AI art communities.

There are simple things that can be done, like normalizing charging as much for AI art commissions as traditional ones, or normalizing showing one's prompts when possible or observing DNP (Do not prompt) lists and so on!

But there's a desire to put up a wall there, specifically because of the fear of original sin, because of the unique nature of the process and the dubious origins of the programs; even if you didn't pay a dime to use them.

Which like... even if the privacy issues side of things is relevant and one I see validity in, in terms of the issue of "they didn't get permission," as friend of the blog @o-hybridity pointed out when we were discussing this, the assumption of the need for permission to adapt (Which is also what annoyed me in this post) is basically a cargo cult for how IP law treats art, attempting to integrate the framework of IP law into a system of communal production that IP law is more or less designed to kill.

Like, the idea that permission is required for derivative works (A notion also in this post I am very annoyed by) resembles none of how art has actually worked in-practice for all but the tiniest sliver of our species' existence, it's tunnel visioned in a way that ignores; say; the history of things like the blues, or jazz, or sampling, or folklore, or hell even fanfic.

Most art has historically been built on top of other art, without permission, because requiring a contract for every derivative work (Especially those "orphan works" without known originators) would make it unworkable.

IP rights becoming essentially inherent to art at the moment of creation and making those contracts almost entirely mandatory have basically killed a lot of models of how art is made within the commons via that sort of unauthorized-adaptation, and IDK about you, but this is an abomination, and the loss of those modes of production wouldn't be fixed by making it a tier system as the article proposes.

The notion of eternal tiered permission ignores that history of art by way of trying to shove the means of communal production into an ideological framework it can't exist in, due to the collective failure to produce better ways of helping creators make a living.

I would also say the idea of tiers system obfuscates the real issue; which is power not permission; and the need for collective organization of labor-power as well; by way of trying to hybridize it with that folk politics system of contracts that dilutes it, but that's its own digression.

But beyond that very long digression, inherent in that fear of the powerful working without permission, I feel there's a conflation of "small-scale creators shitposting or integrating AI art into their work" and "megacorps that want to replace you with an intern on Fiverr and a copy of Stablediffusion," which I think is best evidenced by the insistence on calling all AI art supporters techbros, conflating the small-scale users of the technology with the makers even though we don't do that with; say; artists who use fucking Adobe and the way they normalized walled gardens in their field.

I am not saying the techbro assholes don't exist or even that they aren't prominent, I probably don't run into them because I hate Twitter, but I am saying there are AI art communities and users that are not Like That, and that it is possible for AI art to exist within those norms.

It is not No True Scotsman because, even if it is not the norm (Which I am doubtful on) it is simply a demonstration that is possible and; with some effort and outreach akin to groups like @are-we-art-yet, doable.

But there's a further problem, that their argument heavily relies on the idea of moral rights, as evidenced by their image morally quantifying re-using art. But moral rights are not usually how we enforce most of these issues in a legal sense, in the US they do not even exist in a legal sense.

So their communal rules, drawing from moral rights, have no real material power. At least, aside from strikes, but the small online artisan community is not protected by them in a lot of ways I think are a part of the problem, but that's its own tangent so moving on.

Their argument on operating procedure, if it were to be truly materially effective by legal means, would be implemented by the mechanisms of copyright, which would be merrily smash those communal rules with a hammer, because those rules are scrublord shit in the world of raw power.

And if they don't... well, a wall can only hold for so long, and I think keeping workers within AI art away from the solidarity that is extremely doable is going to bite people in the long run. For an example of that, see how CGI's disrespect as an artform lead to it being wildly undercosted and used to drive out the union-run practical effects folks.

And they have no tools against it because, again, power does not give a shit about your communal rules, and conflating small creators with the assholes in power isn't helping.

Like, you're making the same argument artisans in things like the Arts and Crafts movement or the Luddites made back during the rise of factories, while forgetting that they fucking lost.

And Karl Marx had some ideas why wrt how mechanization uses raw power to make the displacement of individual artisans inevitable, even if I think the way people use them in response to this issue is... wildly unhelpful and cruel.

Like, it's still shitty to say "You're destined to lose your livelihood unless the revolution (Which we are bad at convincing you will happen) happens, no we won't help lol," as I've seen from those in my community.

I think the solution to traditional/digital art surviving if AI art is the existential threat it says it is (Which I have my doubts about) is unite or die, which dovetails into my ideas on the Creative Commons in a way I need to write on further one of these days.

But like... what I'm trying to say is, in all my experience, the way they describe the values of the art community are fundametally not opposed to the practice of AI art, not the people I have seen, and I think the efforts to treat that as untrue is unhelpful at best.

#art #ai art #philosophy of art #long post #rambling #shut up titleknown

[notthestarwar]

does ‘the island’ also contain rats by any chance??? Will you talk about any wips you have that may feature rats? 🥺👉👈

You know all about rat island lol that's OUR baby

OK. For the uninitiated. Where to even begin lol.

So it all starts with a gremlins fueled haze. We'd watched the scooby doo movie earlier that day and au thoughts had been lit. Add codywan, my need for begrudging Anakin and cody buddy team ups, and the servers pet rat: it was a recipe for a fever dream. The gremlins music at 1am really just stoked the fire.

So the premise is: no order 66. It's post war, they're not quite at that happy ending yet. There's a feeling that they've all dodged a huge bullet. Cody is learning to live. Obi Wan has taken a sabbatical to figure things out post war. Anakin has been divorced, lost custody, and rejected the Jedi's help. He's a hot mess. He's trying to figure out who he is, in the most messy 'I'm 23 and didn't do any of this when I was 19' kind of way. He's partying. He's become a student. He's messing up in all the mundane ways that you can think of.

Then, he gets a mysterious invite to a all expenses paid resort. It's suspicious as hell, he pays that no notice. He's spiralling.

Now. The resort. Is rat themed. Don't think about that too hard. It's like Disney but it's rat themed and it's adults only so there's lots of rat bars ect and it's on an island. It's like the resort in the scoobydoo movie but it's more disneyfied and capitalist and also all of the rats are terrifying. Like. We have a storyboard of the worst rat costumes I could find (including our fav pet rat obviously) and that's the inspo we're working from here

Now if you're new to rat island you probably think that's the end. Oh no. That's just Chapter 1.

This is based on the scooby doo movie afterall. There's a sith conspiracy on the island. There's bodyswapping. AND. There's a dog.

i'm going to share 2 snippets of it. cause i love it too much to decide.

"Cody had always prided himself on his propensity for research. He was not one to walk in to a situation unprepared. As soon as they’d heard of Anakin’s trip, he’d done some digging.

Rat island was a combination of theme-park and party island, located on the beach planet: Muridae. The resort was, in its entirety, dedicated to a small mammalian creature native to the planet Eukaryota--which is not even in the same system.

Supposedly, the park was based around an ageing cartoon show that had only grown in popularity with civilians during the war, the war had brought many things, a wave of rat based nostalgia was maybe less expected than others.

Despite all his research, nothing could prepare him for the reality of it. As they leave the lander Cody finds himself in a corner of the galaxy he’s rarely had reason to imagine, let alone see. A place of over indulgence, excess and noise.

It isn’t one of the strangest places he’s found himself, Cody had seen weirder things during the war. Not many, but still, some. On one of the strangest planets. But this was maybe one of the least familiar. Kamino had never prepared him for this.

When they stepped out onto the landing platform, Obi Wan looked far too pleased. Cody only scowled.

He wished he’d listened when he was told to bring sunglasses but was utterly unwilling to admit it. Once, when he wore armour wherever he went he had a built in visor, he had tints! He squinted in the sun. Civilian life really was grim sometimes.

“Isn’t this nice.” Obi wan said, looking down at the nearby beach.

“We aren’t staying.” Cody told him shortly.

“Of course not dear, we are just here to collect Anakin.” Obi Wan agreed.

Cody gave him a suspicious side eye.

“Is the sun getting in your eyes, dear?” Obi Wan asked, tilting his head and looking at Cody through his own sunglasses, ridiculous bug eyed things.

“No. Not at all.” Cody lied.

Obi -Wan gave him a long look. Cody ignored it.

Eventually, Obi-Wan he spotted a map. “Ah look. Over here Cody. Look! There's a gift shop.”

“No.” Cody told him, flat, No gift shop.”

Obi Wan gave him a sad look.

“No.” Cody said again. He squinted at the map. “Where is the security office.”

Obi Wan sighed. “To the west.”

“Right lets go.”

Obi wan gave a pitiful sigh. Cody ignored that too.

Cody knew very well they’d be visiting one of the islands many gift shops before they left this forsaken place, there was no need for him to give in so early; Obi wan would only take advantage of such a weakness.

As they round the corner, a person dressed in a loose fitting grey costume, their whole head obscured by that of a rat, seems to pop-up out of nowhere, scaring the shit out of Cody.

“Have a Rat-tastic day!”

Cody will not be having a Rat-tastic day. He finds himself uncertain of what exactly a Rat-tastic day is, but he does know that he will most definitely not be having one."

Next, in this snippet, they finally visit the gift shop:

"Dear. Just pick a pair."

Cody continued to look at the sunglass stand in affront.

"I don't need any."

"Yes." Obi Wan gave him a stern look. "You do."

Cody gave the stand another spin, increasingly offended. "Does every pair have a rat?"

"Well…" Obi-Wan was looking towards the counter, where a sign declared that they where standing in an establishment of 'Rat-tastic Gifts'

Cody just scowled. "Why does the sun have to be so bright?" He made an irritated noise. "This place!" He huffed. "Couldn't Anakin have picked anywhere else?"

"Well, he was invited…"

"He had to accept! Who would accept an invite to Rat karking Island? Only Skywalker. Who would invite Skywalker to a Rat Island in the first place? The whole place seems like some demented way to torture people." He grumbled a few choice words under his breath.  

"Dear…" 

"Fine!" Cody picked out a pair with the least obstructive rat he could find, only a small metal rat shaped medallion on the end of each arm and a rat print that was, thankfully, reserved for the inside of the arms only.

As they made their way to the counter he caught Obi-Wan looking towards a display showing one of the worst rat costumes Cody had ever seen. It was made out of a kind of plush velveteen fabric that was quite frankly, monstrous. The thing was made of far too much material, giving it the appearance of wrinkly skin. And to add insult to the injury of having to see this thing (and see it he had, the staff in this place roamed the paths dressed in a collection of eclectic rodent outfits) the face was… The eyes. They boggled. The whiskers, were wonky. It was barely recognisable as a rat. 

"NO."  Cody managed, as he marched them to the counter. 

"Feeling ratty?" The twilek at the counter greeted with a bright smile. 

Cody swallowed a small amount of bile. "We are not." He grunted. 

The shop assistant seemed slightly caught for words, his lack of enthusiasm halting her usual script.  She looked to the sunglasses down on the counter. "Ah. Soon!" She threatened, with a smile. 

When they left the shop,  Obi Wan burst in to laughter.

"Soon!" Cody repeated. "I karking hope not. This place is like a cult."

Obi-Wan took one look at his face and burst in to renewed wheezes.

rat island is...ongoing. in the meantime, @felixeis003 has created an amazing piece of art of it here:

#notthereply #wip ask game #ask game #mywriting ntwyw #my writing ntwyw #snippet

[demon-girl-izalith]

I think we should keep something in mind this Christmas/holiday season. As the Christian narrative floats around, the white swaddled newborn plastered on billboards, and the focus on what's "sacred" and "holy" circulating through churches around the western world...

The body being "sacred" has nothing to do with some fucked white European idea of chastity or purity. It has absolutely EVERYTHING to do with making sure people are able to feed themselves and their children, not be straight up poisoned by pollutants, or fetishized and exploited for profit. Holiness has nothing to do with being clean or looking your Sunday best.

It was never actually about "purity" or "virginity" or "cleanliness". If it was, why the hell would Jesus have been crucified? The real historical dude said stuff that pissed off people in power so much they fucking merked him. Nothing pisses off agrarian feudal lords or modern capitalists more than telling the masses that they aren't simply morally justified, but on the side of GOD when they steal medicine and food for their children. If you don't believe me, I highly recommend reading William Herzog's "Parables as subversive speech", read about what theologians actually think historical Jesus was talking about all those years ago. Whether you believe in God or not, think religion is a plague or pray a rosary every night, I think keeping this in mind is like super important.

Christianity becomes dangerous and, in the opinion of this demon girl, blasphemous when it is removed from the context of its social cause, when it's co-opted by those in power and disarmed of the radical rhetoric that it was born from originally. I think that's exactly what we see in broader society. I think that an entirely rational response to this is to equate all of Christianity or even all of religion with evil... But I think there's nuance here.

To be clear, I stand with the satanists who support the fight for separation in church and state by chastising the corrupt institutions who have become the opposite of what they claim to espouse. I stand with the atheists who keep the naive theologians in check, and offer peace to the people who have been ravaged by the monster modern Christianity is to so many. Don't stop doing what you're doing. If Jesus was standing here today he'd be standing with you. You're fighting modern day pherisees out here and I'm for it.

Now, this is not to say there aren't problematic things that were always present in the Christian religion, of course there are. And they're quite abundant. I think Christians need to be very aware of that as well. There's nuance there. What I'm calling for here is a realization that the religion of the oppressed is not the same as the religion of the oppressor, and that the religion of the oppressed, when not stripped of its merit and co-opted by systems of greed, can be a force for good. And when we use that lens to look at this bizarre spectacle we call "Christmas", we can learn some interesting stuff.

What I'm saying is, if you're trans, gay, whatever, for the love of God, literally, please LIVE. Listen to your friendly demon izalith. By existing as who you are, you are sacred. Don't let the people wearing robes and claiming to be on the sides of angels and "God" tell you who you can or can't love, or what you can or can't be. If there is a God out there, and he's with those punks, then he's no god. I spit on his name. Angels are overrated anyways... It's the demons, the poor person who steals from Walmart to feed themselves and their children, the prostitute who is proud of their job and the life they work hard to sustain, the fat trans person who goes to Christmas mass in goth makeup... It's those people who the religion was originally made for. It wasn't made for the rich, the white, the straight, the normative. It was made for us. For all those people who are downtrodden, cold this winter, unable to buy food, scared and tired. Fuck that shit they used to traumatize us and belittle us when growing up. It's all lies and venom anyways. If no one loves and accepts you, this demon will.

#christianity #counter-culture Christian #some demon theology #blasphemy is kewl #jesus would scoff at whatever the hell y'all been calling Christianity. especially if we're basing that off the greek orthodox jesus #queer theology #liberation theology #religious commentary #religious trauma #trans #Christmas #tw: religon

[futurebird]

I was watching this really great video from Sophie from Mars "The World Is Not Ending" where she addresses climate change doomerism and the importance of being able to imagine and then working to create a healthy, non-violent, co-operative, self-governed, technologically advanced post-capitalist future. She talked about "reproductive labor" the work of producing, educating, raising and caring for the next generation and used the London trans community as an example. She talked about the kind of balancing acts around chores and planning and how all of the work that needed to be done got done without a transactional system. And that's when I started to feel-- uncertain.

Being in a tight knit community scares me to death. Social obligations, relationships that aren't well-defined scare me. Social skills have always been a struggle for me and I know I'm not alone in that. So, though I'm frequently one of the first to advocate getting to know your neighbors, and organizing locally there is an aspect to this kind of interaction that is frightening. I think this fear is natural for anyone who has ever had the experience of failing to fit into such communities-- because communities organized outside "the market" already exist. And people who are neurodivergent, or not a member of the dominant group may find such networking daunting, overwhelming, impossible-- And "tight knit" communities can be sources of great harm and evil. I think about the "tight knit" group of girls at the all girls school I attended-- I think about the times I've been "not a good fit" for some little theatre club or organization. Suddenly being a door dash worker paid by an app who never speaks to their "boss" seems appealing. One of the best things about living in a big city is you can minimize your mandatory human interactions per day. So, I guess what I want to discuss is if there is a way to imagine a solar punk future -- that gives those of us who are drained each time we must interact with more people a way to thrive? I don't think this is an insurmountable problem, I just think that people who are more outgoing, who enjoy those interactions more might not realize that when they describe such communities to some of us it sounds like you are describing the 5th circle of hell. (It's not that I don't want to be around you. Don't take this personally. No, it's that I'm certain that you, after a time, probably won't want to be around me. And I'd rather not find out either way. I'd rather just skip it. I have more than enough people in my life as it is.)

Some of the solutions can be found in cities. It's possible to participate in many community events, to help, to support the people around you without a lot of extraneous interaction. The key is a baseline understanding of politeness, and using online tools to bring together groups of people as needed. For example I've volunteered for years with a park restoration group over by 3rd Ave. I've shown up and planted vegetables, cleaned trash, pulled up asphalt, and I keep an eye on the garden when I'm in the area because I feel a connection to it. I don't think anyone in the group knows my name, I never talk to anyone, I just show up and work-- or make a suggestion if asked. I really appreciate that they haven't forced me into a corner or asked me to introduce myself. (Or worse when someone goes out of their way to learn your name, when you don't know their name-- and they are like "Hi ____" it just feels like a way to make you feel small.) Maybe, after a few more years, I'll introduce myself. I'm the same way with our co-op's roof garden group. I'm always there but don't say very much. No one forces me to say much and that's why I keep coming back. So, thinking about these groups has talked me down from the ledge of "the solar punk future is going to be full of people who know your name and say it all the time and you won't know who they are or what they want and it's going to be like a big loud party." No... I think there are ways to make this work even for anti-social people.

#solar punk #sophie from mars #Youtube

[alpaca-clouds]

Crony Capitalism? You mean... just Capitalism?

Like, two weeks ago one of my posts about communism made its way into liberterian, pro-capitalist circles on this platform. (Admittedly, I am surprised those circles exist here, but... Welp, I guess?) Now, I know better than to interact with them directly, given that they are so clearly brainwashed by the system.

But I really just need to talk about this one thing that they keep bringing up: "The problem is not capitalism, it is Crony Capitalism!!!" Which has me sitting there, giving this slow confused blink: "You mean... Just capitalism?"

In those libertarian circles, there are those two ideas that keep coming up again and again.

"Oh, the issue is not capitalism. The issue is the crony capitalism we live under."

"Actually, capitalism does not work because of the regulations! It would work great without it!"

And with both arguments I do wonder, how far removed someone can get from reality.

Now, let's talk about the first argument. "Crony Capitalism". This is the basic idea that capitalism get corrupted due to the big coorporations/big money interacting with the government in a mutually corrupting way. The issue they say is, that in fact this interaction gives certain companies an advantage, because they influence politics and hence hold more power than their competitors. It is discribed as a "collusion between the political class and the business class". The idea is, that because this is happening, the market is no longer "free", hence capitalism got corrupted by this collusion.

The irony obviously is, that my communist ass will readily agree with you that capitalism and politics interacting is an issue... but I land very much on the side of Noam Chomsky here, saying: Capitalism is always crony.

Under capitalism money always equals power. And this power interminglign with whatever governing body you have is just natural. Because the goal under capitalism is for those, who have money, to make more money. And capitalism says, you can do that by any means necessary. Including corruption.

If you really believe this is not the natural state of capitalism, try to think what would need to happen to prevent it. Because the basic issue will always remain. Sure, we could legislate the hell out of it. Not allow any politicial donations by big companies. Not allow politicians to take a position in the economy after ending their terms. Heck, those are political ideals, that any communist will agree with you on.

But... the big companies will always hold power over the government. Because so many jobs and so many tax dollars are bound to them. And they will just always hold more power than Uncle Mario with his little company.

Yes, regulating the things above might make it better - but it will not make the problem go away. (And, of course, neither big capital, nor the politicians have any interest to regulate the system.)

Crony Capitalism... Is just what happens, when you have capitalism. Because money will always be power.

The other idea is the AnCap idea. (Once again: Anarcho Capitalism is an oxymoron, because anarchism aims for the destruction of hierarchies, while capitalism aims to build more hierarchies.) "Actually, capitalism would work great without any government interference and rules!" Only that it would not.

The thing that AnCaps do not want to acknowledge is, that workers and just normal people have fought tooth and nail for any of those regulations put on capitalism. Rules against monopolies? Had to be fought for. Rules against trusts? Yeah, were fought for. Rules against slavery? You know it. Rules against child labor? Yes, exactly. Fought for. Rules for allowing people a weekend and somewhat humane working hours? People had to fight for it. Rules for the companies to protect the environment? Absolutely something fought for by activists.

If you would just remove all regulations from the market... I give it five years until the market is ruled by a handful of Monopolies or Duopolies. Disney is gonna own entertainment. Google or Meta is gonna own the online world. Given they rule that, they will set the rules for the workforce. You wanna work in this area? Well, have fun doing now legal 80 hour weeks. And sure we are gonna employ your 12yo kid. Duh. Little Martin's little fingers will be good for something.

And the environment? Yeah, just put that raw sewage into that river. Who fucking cares?

Hey, actually. Why pay workers actual money? Why not just pay them Mouse-Dollars in Disney, so they have to spend all their money within Disney. Wouldn't that be better for everyone? And let them live in the company village... Those guards keeping you in? Oh, they are... Uhm. For your own protection!

And why do we know, that it will go like that? Because we have already seen it happening. There already was a pretty unregulated capitalism going about 150 years ago. And it did not go well.

The entire endgoal of capitalism is to exploit the worker (and the environment) as much as possible, so that a few can live in unimaginable wealth. And it will do that by any means necessary, not caring about the negative influence it might have on anyone in the future.

#anti capitalism #fuck capitalism #late stage capitalism #eat the rich

[kimchicollardgreens]

even if there’s a solution to a “problem”, someone can still talk abt how they don’t like said problem… you know that right? it’s always “then ignore them” or write them yourself”… who says that ppl don’t do that already. it was one opinion. no one was demanding black writers to not write wtv they want, the person only shared their view and everyone went crazy… you legit wrote a think piece over this. There shouldn’t be fighting yeah, but maybe ppl should stop feeling butthurt over opinions. users make the most trivial things a bigger issue on tumblr, legit arguing with a minor lmao

i ask you to read all of this before sending another ask, its another “think piece” but its literally the answer to why what these woman are askin is lowkey problematic and i dont blame folks for not noticing dogwhistles. im also not say all “soft girls” are spouting this stuff. (hell im one of them). im also not calling these women evil, cuz they may not truly know what they saying is problematic as we live in a capitalist yt supremacist system. im more than happy to answer more. im not somebody that gon dismiss you if you wanna have discourse💖

but yes, you can talk about a problem when its in good faith as it actually cultivates productive insight. but bad faith arguments distract us from the real problems that both groups actually want to see fixed. however we need to acknowledge that most ADULTS who come with this “soft life fic” opinion be in bad faith.

bad faith is trying to get us to come back to things both parties already agree on. we all agree that soft fic aint seen much. what we are saying is why you keep coming in the dark/urban fic inbox stating it for people who have no problem with you? we’ve assessed the “problem” and we all agree it needs fixing. its like we running in circles, instead of different directions to fix other problems. the question is how are you going to contribute to fixing it in a healthy way and how do you want us to help.

im sure cherry and her friends would love to recommend a homegirls work so long as shes respectful. HELL I’LL EVEN DO IT!!!

tho i don’t recommend coming into blogs who are strictly dark and askin’ them for anything other than that. just like how soft writers don’t want to primarily write dark.

its not butthurt when you come on someone’s page calling them “ghetto” “baby mamas” then try and position it against “soft life” “divine feminine” “old money” aesthetics.

im not saying thats what this little girl did, but ive seen grown adult women do that. and thats nasty as hell to be positioning that.

the reason she probably caught flack is because she unfortunately used a simple question thats been hijacked and used by bad faith arguers when they come to urban fic accounts.

thats usually the question to get a leg in the door to start spouting off lowkey antiblack and classist shit.

and i dont know where soft being only afforded to the croquette looking girls came from. some of the softest girls i know are high fem baddies. so thats very weird, especially when you consider that black women make up majority of that aesthetic.

essentially its respectability politics and thats why its not trivial. to most, this looks like a minor creative liberties dispute, but the underlying theme is actually steeped in so much politics that affect black women for real.

i mean just look at the whole bonnet and pajama pants debate. or the straight hair or braids for your birthday/formal event debate. or the wigs vs natural hair debate. baby mama vs wifey debate (if you believe how a woman carries herself in a way thats nondestructive to others, is a reason as to why she doesn’t deserve respect; you not a feminist.)

its grown folks bratz vs barbie all over again.

not even gon hold you, i didn’t know that was a minor. just reblogged @chrollohearttags post on my dash. anybody doing anything other than telling that little girl to get off they page is a weirdo. but cherry made a general post thats been a topic of discussion AMONGST BLACK WOMEN since we’ve been writing stories. so ofc thats what my “think piece” is about. she may have commented one question but some iteration of that same question has been around for years. i’m responding to that.

since i now know this is a minor, they could have very well been wanting to know why there is a saturation of these fics on here. and i would have told her about the culture of urban fic being ONE of the first pioneers in Black Smut Fiction. it literally helped shape the black writing culture whether bad or good. then i wouldve told her that when she’s older she could contribute to said culture. but right now she should not be consuming any sexual media.

and to ask a question like that, its clear she has some gripes about the way general media treats black women; which those are well-founded. i understand hating the “ride or die”, or the “settling for less” when it comes to media for black women. but how can you read about a specific aesthetic or lifestyle and immediately know thats was going on?

these women used to have valid points and some still do but like this little girl, they cant tell the difference and if they can, they want any kind of reputation for “ghetto” girls out the window. there’s nothing wrong with being “ghetto” and nothing wrong with being a “the soft divine feminine” but we do need to talk about why the latter feels comfortable coming on someone like cherry’s page too disparage girls who aesthetics and social values don’t align with them.

writers like cherry aren’t advocating abuse, their characters are living they best lives. doing “ghetto” shit and truly loving the partners they’re with.

there are legit women out there who are “ghetto” that love they life. and are in healthy relationships. its vile to say that the way someone simply chooses to exist is a direct result of how black women face abuse, especially as something as silly as wigs, body con dresses and long nails. or even activities like twerking, having babies, doing drugs and partying.

its kinda like this whole Sukiana situation vs the Home Depot girl. Both were sexually harrassed but people tried to victim blame Suki more cuz of the way she dress and act. thats nasty. (plus there was no versus to begin with cuz neither one deserved it)

like there IS something to be said about how women who tend to write urban fic -at least in its early days- really do live the lives they are writing about. granted, looking back, some of these women were so unhealed that they ended up romanticizing abuse. but most girls now understand that you can live a hood lifestyle and not put up with bullshit.

somewhere along the way, the “city girl/ghetto/high fem” aesthetic got associated with abuse, crime, and poverty. which is crazy cuz girls who look like JT be havin’ money, a good life and still have plug/rapper boyfriends who not killing or getting them killed.

so if these women would be honest, its not about the way the “urban” girls look or behave. the real problem is the abuse that these women face.

which i see how thats a problem but abuse doesn’t correlate to aesthetics and its not a causation of abuse either.

soft girls can experience abuse. they experience financial, domestic abuse, sexual abuse. these women who hate urban fic, keep forgetting that the soft girl is modeled after the tradition yt housewife who faced abuse too. just cuz you get out the hood and get a financial stable man that isnt a plug or gangbanger dont mean he not gon beat yo ass or expect loyalty when he do some dubious shit.

yall ever seen the Stepford Wives?

now you can have the vintage look without the vintage values, but thats not what most of these women who come onto cherry page be talking like.

they disagree with any depiction of your so called city girl —whether good or bad.

it’s counterproductive to feminism. it quite literally antichoice feminism which is a huge problem with feminism today because it relies too much on this yt viewpoint of responsibility politics. i suggest people really read “Hood Feminism” by Mikki Kendall.

anyway thats whats been making people like cherry become upset and rather than having patience, they ain’t got no more to give cuz they keep having to defend themselves and explain why talking like this is a microaggression. they exhausted.

anyway im free to talk more, if i didnt explain good.

#asks #come back tomorrow #im done for today over here #thanks for the convo #💖 #the menu

[polyamorouspolymorphia]

Trans-Thoughts

I do not think a large portion of the populace of the U.S. understands, or does not care to understand, the everyday struggles of wanting to transition, so that almost every day, you aren't suffering from body dysmorphia or dysphoria. There are some of us out here, who are trans. But because the system is so twisted against us, it's nearly impossible. Especially in the south, and rural regions. Transitioning is not some sort of "fad" diet or "fad" surgery.

Before you can even get the surgery, you have to go through MONTHS or even YEARS, of therapy, doctor's visits, medications and hormone treatments, trying to hide who you actually are from your family, and often times, the community (especially in the rural south and southwest) for fear of not only being shamed, but nowadays, being outright KILLED, being disowned, being beaten near to death for being "an unnatural abomination against god", for being "a freak", or "just wanting attention". Let me explain something: It isn't some fad, to be trans. It is HELL. Especially so, in regions with very few economic opportunities. First off, there are almost 0 doctors that will even SEE you, if you even so much as MENTION transitioning. Then, there's the price of the hormone therapy, and any other medicinals you may need. Couple that with routine doctors appointments, routine therapy for a few years, and then the cost of the surgery itself, the prep, the hospital stay, being out of work, paying the government to change your name, having to fight (in the south) for the right to even be able to change your name, the list goes on. Why, on the Goddess' green earth, would someone subject themselves to something like this, for a fad? To the economic strain, the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual stress, the hate of their friends and family, and the community at large? Because it isn't a fucking fad. Transitioning is a life-saving surgery. And there are some of us, who cannot afford it. And we will die. The depression will consume us, the body dysmorphia and dysphoria will destroy us. If not that, we will kill ourselves trying to find a way to get hold of testosterone, or estrogen, in any fashion.

I say all this, as a trans-person, who may have to accept the fact, that based just on the sheer economic weight of the capitalist hellscape we live in, there would be no way it would be possible, barring some form of divine intervention, winning two lotteries, or some shady institute offering free trans care in exchange for like, free organ harvesting or something.

Anyways, that's my bit for today, thanks for forcing yourself to read my fatalistic thoughts. Be safe out there.

#transgender #lgbtqia #lgbtqia community #trans rights #capitalist oppression #capitalist hell #body dysphoria #body dysmorphia

[twilightmalachite]

Altered - Heaven and Hell 5

Author: Akira

Characters: Natsume, Rei, Kanata, Wataru, Shu

Translator: Mika Enstars

"Ugh, my soul is stained by my tongue, now that I’ve spoken about vile things such as money."

Season: Winter

Location: Sakura Park (Cherry Blossoms)

⚠️ This is an import from a unproofed Twitter Livetweet!

Natsume: UnfortunateLY, we no longer have the time for such reunioNS… Niisans, do you have your smartphones on yOU?

Though I doubt you’re interested and have looked into iT, they rank and announce the amount of votes received in OO performancES.

Rei: Mhm. It’s very nostalgic. It’s the same system as the Yumenosaki Dream Fes, where the winner’s determined by the amount of votes your performance gets.

For OO, the winning unit is who can receive the most votes over the event’s course of three days… At least, that’s the pitch.

Wataru: Indeed. There are no restrictions to how much you can perform, so the winner will be the unit that can continue to stand on stage for the entire three days.

Rei: In simple terms, yes. But since we are charged a performance fee every time we go on stage, you have to maintain a profit else you’ll be left in the red.

Wataru: So instead, you’re stuck with the fear of being in debt.

If you have to pay up 100 votes in order to perform, then if you can’t earn back at least 100 more votes, it’s a financial loss!

The longer you stand on stage, the poorer you become. You become the working poor.

At the conclusion, your vote surplus gets converted into L$, and that’s to be your paid reward.

Rei: It appears that ES wants to recover the money they splurged off in SS…

Because the performance fee is quite high, it feels like there’s no way to make a profit.

As a result, we’re not moving too aggressively , else we might end up losing money every time we take to the stage—Instead, we’re taking it easy and enjoying our time like this.

Once the government and banks become reluctant to lend money, companies slow their functions to the point the economy stagnates. It’s a bad capitalistic scenario.

Kanata: This is a difficult “topic”, huh.

Rei: Mhm. But you can’t move forward without understanding it properly. It’s an important thing to know in this day and age of which we live.

We idols are like sole proprietors, so we must have some degree of economic knowledge, else we’ll lose money.

Shu: While I get paid by ES, I’m treated like a temporary employee, not as a full-time one.

Ugh, my soul is stained by my tongue, now that I’ve spoken about vile things such as money.

Wataru: Money’s not all that bad, is it~?

The monetary economy is the world’s most powerful illusion. A concept that exists only because everyone believes that it does… The last remaining magic of the modern era.

An illusion shared by us all, because everyone believes that cash and coins, mere pieces of paper and mineral, hold value!

It’s magic. One that shares its roots with art, where value is found in paint and carved lumps of rock.

Shu: You’ve always been obnoxious, but lately you’ve been speaking more and more about money. Just whose influence is this?

Wataru: Fufufu, my apologies for going on about my love. ♪

Natsume: We’ve gone off topIC. It’s always like this when close friends get togethER…

But anywaYS, could everyone check the ratings on their phonES?

There’s nobody aggressively taking on the staGE, as it’ll only be a loSS. Though that’s just to be expectED, given OO’s atmospheRE.

You would expect the mood to run stagnaNT, yet somehOW, there are those making a fortune through OO.

And they have performed again and agaIN, and are completely unrivalED, currently ranked one with a massive amount of votES.

Rei: I guess not everyone can read the atmospheRE, or at least think ahead. They seem to be taking the festival’s premise super seriously.

Natsume: That’s not iT. Those guYS, they’re faKES.

Kanata: What do you mean, “fakes”~?

Natsume: The unit in questiON, the one currently at the top of the rankinGS, it’s called “Altered”—

Their true identity is a mysteRY. All over the internET, there are rumors that they are a completely new unit formed by the Five Eccentrics.

Shu: Wha? The Five Eccentrics? What do you mean, this is the first I’m hearing about this…?

Rei: Given everyone’s reactions here, it appears it’s a surprise to all of us.

It doesn’t make sense. None of us Five Eccentrics are involved, but for some reason there are some people calling themselves the Five Eccentrics running amok.

Something certainly is up. This really may not be the time to lay back and enjoy the cherry blossoms.

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#altered #event #translation #natsume sakasaki #kanata shinkai #wataru hibiki #shu itsuki #rei sakuma