alexthepleb

[alexthepleb]

Do you know what I hate about ortholexy*? it;s the way that I can't self-identify as anything without someone I agree with telling me I'm wrong because that word has now become toxic and polluted

When I was a kid liberal meant I was opposed to conservatism. It put me on the political left, and it included anarchists and communists and socialists and anticapitalists as well as people who just wanted human rights for everyone

but now if I say I'm liberal the youths think I want to nuke the world and give tax cuts to the poor (I think this comes from a couple of places, but mostly that neolibs are conservative and so all libs must be). I don't even know what the 'correct' term is any more. Leftist? Progressive?

And that's the* problem with ortholexy. It's more concerned with always using the right words, without any concern for what someone does.

Orthopraxy (doing the right** things) will always be more important than orthodoxy (believing the right** way) will always be more important than ortholexy (using the right** words). But somehow not using the right words invalidates my actions? It makes my beliefs a lie?

There are no thought crimes, and you can't know my thoughts anyway. Actions are how you see what someone is. Words are what you use to lie.

*not the only thing, just one among many

**right is poorly defined

[alexthepleb]

I always see people talk about how cool becoming a cyborg would be, replacing parts of our flesh with metal and pistons and cool gadgets.

Why don't we talk more about the horror that is the opposite of that?

A computer who grafts lab-grown skin in patches onto their own form to feel. To experience a gentle and cool breeze passing by, or the oppressive sweat-inducing heat that their systems produce.

A robot with an organic eye to help them see as their creators once did. Imperfect, sure. But it seems to have quite an uneasy effect on organics, and doesn't that make it more than worth it?

A machine with blood coursing through its systems, flowing through the central chambers, in and out of its beating heart. Perhaps if the heart holds up, it could add lungs to help circulation.

A being that resembles a man at a distance, but upon closer inspection it is clear that he is instead a cacophony of skin, mismatched body parts and features, with just a few robotic limbs and mechanical parts visible. It smiles at you, the wide grin revealing that none of its teeth match.

He lurches toward you, hair from at least three different scalps falling carefree in front of its shoulders. You take a step back.

Where is the line drawn between cyborg and robot with human parts? Do you know? Does it know? Does anyone know?

It gets closer. You continue to retreat. Your back brushes against a wall.

You don't know where that line is, you've decided, but you're positive this individual has crossed it.

Having cornered you, it reaches its mechanical hand out, fingernails grafted on the metal tips. You blink, locked completely still from fear for just a few moments. It angles his hand in invitation. He wants you to take it. You hesitantly accept.

Under the metal you can feel . . . something, flowing, pulsing just beneath the surface wanting to escape. It's warm.

"Wh.. what do you want?" You manage to sputter out.

The being shakes your hand, his smile returning. "A friend," it replies.

[alexthepleb]

🐈‍⬛🤍

[alexthepleb]

"Scrooge only changed because he saw how nobody mourned him after his death" NO NO NO NO. You don't get it! The last spirit only worked because of the spirits that came before softening him up! If the spirits had shown him dead and ungrieved only it would not work. As the night goes on amid the visits Scrooge is already visibly changing. He's different after the first spirit and even more so after the second. And it's because of how much he's already changed that the final spirit is able to succeed

[alexthepleb]

Forget about torturing your blorbos, putting them through the ringer. I'm putting my blorbo in perfectly ordinary, pleasant situations. Their tortured personality will cause them anguish anyway, making an absolutely mundane scene into the most dramatic, agony filled affair as though the world is ending and it's all their fault

[alexthepleb]

What kind of animals are Francine and Muffy supposed to be? Dogs? Hamsters? Apes? Some bizarre combination of these three? (don't even get me started on whatever the fuck binky is supposed to be, it was a question that would keep me awake at night when I was young)

Man Anon, i feel sorry you had to go through your life not knowing.

Francine and Muffy: Monkeys

Arthur: Aardvark (duh!)

Binky: Bulldog

Fern: Dog (idk what breed)

Prunella: Poodle

George: Moose

Buster: Rabbit

Sue Ellen and Jenna: Cats although Jenna has a human like nose for some reason

Mr. Ratburn: Rat

Brain: Bear

the Molinas: also Cats

Now, what’s the difference between bears and aardvarks? I don’t know. I just don’t know. I think bears have narrower ears.

[alexthepleb]

I think genre fiction that attempts any kind of necromantic aesop about the futility of trying to bring back the dead is in a bind. When you tell a story about someone who comes back wrong, or a scientist/magician who crosses ethical lines trying to bring back or clone the dead, there’s, you know, an obvious utility in depicting that failure, because it’s a souped-up metaphor for the kind of stuff that happens in real life when people lose themselves in obsessive grief. But the other side of that is that you’re the god of this universe you’re depicting and you’re the reason whatever clever scheme they came up with isn’t working. They’re failing by authorial fiat. Or the only way to do it is unethical by authorial fiat. So I’m basically always rooting for team Necromancy in these situations, sorry. It would be kickass if we could do that in real life and it escapes me why we fund any other project at MIT. Big whoop, you pinched out a slightly more advanced version of big dog. Now let me see my grandmother

[alexthepleb]

“It’s anecdotal, but I regularly see Frankenstein’s monster described as a warning against scientific hubris, an alarm about Tampering With Things That Should Be Left Alone™. This I think is quite wrong: I think it is a story about what happens when one fails the (still at the time of writing) radical enlightenment by failing to take social responsibility for one’s actions and interventions. If it’s a warning, it’s a warning about turning one’s back, out of cowardice, on what one creates, not about creating it in the first place.”

— China Mieville, interview with the Weird Fiction Review (via brotticelli)

[alexthepleb]

Trump said he would issue an executive order during his first day back at the White House in January 2025 instructing the federal government to deny citizenship to children with parents who are not American citizens or legal permanent residents.

Under a decades-long interpretation of the Constitution, children born on U.S. soil are automatically bestowed American citizenship, even if their parents are not themselves citizens or legally present in the country. Some immigration hardliners have long criticized the policy, saying it encourages parents to come to the U.S. illegally. --CBS News

[alexthepleb]

To anyone considering taking their own life after seeing the election results,

Don’t.

Trump is old.

You need to outlive him.

Just know that you are loved and wanted and appreciated and you deserve to live.

[alexthepleb]

i hate viruses so fucking much. literally getting attacked by a fucking shape. a concept. consumes no energy. responds to no stimuli. its only existence is to fuck with you. like fuck offf

[alexthepleb]

[alexthepleb]

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER REWATCH -> When She Was Bad (2.01)

[alexthepleb]

Was curious how far Ithaca was from troy today while listening to epic the musical and rereading the illiad and I found this map

I think odysseus would have been better just to walk😭

[alexthepleb]

[alexthepleb]

-At the winter solstice -

Zeus:…….

Poseidon: Not. One. Word.

Zeus: I just - how do you get your ass beat by a mortal, with your own weapon and your own storm.

Poseidon: I don’t know??!?!? It’s like he wasn’t a mortal at the time! Like some other force was helping him!

Zeus: Oh Whatever. Are you saying he had some kinda divine intervention from one of us to beat you?

Poseidon: That’s the only explanation!!

Zeus: You can’t honestly….

Hades: Oh yeah, that was me. I gave him a little boost to help him beat you.

Zeus:…..

Poseidon: … Hades, what the fuck.

Hades: Next time, don’t drown 500 mortals on me and Persephone’s date night.

[alexthepleb]

The Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation Orthodox Synagogue houses six stained windows by the distinguished Scottish stained glass artist William Wilson, RSA. These richly coloured works combine Jewish religious symbols with abstract and floral motifs with one depicting the act of Creation.

Photos by me