#<- discourse i guess

[webanglikethat]

"rigging" this, "rigging" that........OKAY someone’s rigging a poll for a fictional character ... okayyyyyy, lame, but why are we out here writing an investigative exposé like it’s some international exclusive scoop? it’s truly not that deep.

from what I understood, apparently, some group of people decided they couldn’t handle their fave losing, so they rigged a Reddit poll using 7-10 accounts each. they dragged their coworkers, parents, grandparents, and probably their neighbor’s cat into this by using their phones or something like that. because clearly, Grandma Doris voting for a brooding sexy vampire on Reddit was the missing piece to world peace.

like I seriously don’t get it. you’re out here with a literal PowerPoint presentation of screenshots and receipts like you're about to present this case to the Supreme Court. for what? to prove someone cheated at pretending their vampire boyfriend is more popular than an angel boyfriend?

I mean, seriously please 😭 let’s all be for real for ONE second. imagine sitting at home, seeing someone cheat in an online poll, and instead of laughing at the sheer desperation and ridiculousness of it all, you decide, “No, I must expose this injustice to the world!”

just . let them cheat, let the mods deal with it. do you want them to be persecuted? what’s the endgame goal? “Malbonte Fans Caught Rigging Polls — The Public is in Shock” articles? Malbonte, Cain, Livius, or whoever isn’t solving world hunger or stopping wars.

The LI isn’t real, the poll isn’t life-changing, and no one is getting a trophy.

drama can be fun. it’s entertaining to spill the tea and etc. but at some point, you’ve got to ask yourself: is this worth my time? is this the legacy I want to leave behind? they’re rigging polls like their lives depend on it, and you’re fighting back like you’re leading the Avengers into battle. are you really going to look back in five years and think, “Wow, I’m so proud of how I spent my time defending X and Y's honor on Reddit”?

this whole thing has turned into a spiral of pettiness, and honestly, it’s kind of hilarious but also kind of sad. so yeah, drama is fun, but maybe save your energy for something that actually matters? because if this is the hill anyone’s choosing to die on, I’ve got some questions about life choices.

if they need to cheat to feel good about their fave, that’s their own embarrassing problem. let’s not make it yours too. this is my only advice.

while you're here, use your fingers for this instead:

[a-method-in-it]

You know that Chris Fleming line that goes "Call yourself a community organizer even though you're not on speaking terms with your roommates"?

I honestly think every leftist who talks about the "revolution" like Christians talk about the rapture needs to spend a year trying to organize their workplace. Anyone who sincerely talks about building a movement so vast and all-encompassing that it overwhelms all existing power structures needs the dose of humility that comes with realizing they can't even build a movement to get people paid better at a badly run AMC Theaters where everyone already hates the manager.

[nedlittle]

it drives me bonkers the way people don't know how to read classic books in context anymore. i just read a review of the picture of dorian gray that said "it pains me that the homosexual subtext is just that, a subtext, rather than a fully explored part of the narrative." and now i fully want to put my head through a table. first of all, we are so lucky in the 21st century to have an entire category of books that are able to loudly and lovingly declare their queerness that we've become blind to the idea that queerness can exist in a different language than our contemporary mode of communication. second it IS a fully explored part of the narrative! dorian gray IS a textually queer story, even removed from the context of its writing. it's the story of toxic queer relationships and attraction and dangerous scandals and the intertwining of late 19th century "uranianism" and misogyny. second of all, i'm sorry that oscar wilde didn't include 15k words of graphic gay sex with ao3-style tags in his 1890 novel that was literally used to convict him of indecent behaviour. get well soon, i guess...

[rookflower]

whichever one of us is a person first

[idiotsonlyevent]

it is completely understandable to be uncomfortable with the sexual assault in dandadan. it's important to discuss how it's framed, whether it's handled poorly, or if it could be been portrayed better. but the number of people - even fans - stating that it is only fanservice, irrelevant, or could be removed is frankly bizarre to for SO many reasons, starting with the fact that this parallel exists.

the anime made it even more obvious by interpolating cuts from the first scene into the second one.

i thought this scene showed that momo gaining her powers by believing in her relationship with her grandmother gives her the strength to fight back against what is basically a horrific, much more aggressive and abstract (maybe even absurd?) representation of her shitty gross ex - who was demanding she 'put out' and pay for the love hotel in very first scene.

while the escalation from one scene to the next is surprising, it's not something that comes out of nowhere. this first scene is meant to be a set-up to what will happen later. it sets the tone, though significantly more lighthearted at this point. it tells you that sex, sexuality, etc. is something dandadan will touch on - though you don't know what the scope and depth will be until later in the chapter.

i cannot recommend this video enough, as it discusses some interesting interpretations of what the serpoians and turbo granny represent in their respective assault scenes, as well as how right now the treatment of both scenes is unfortunately uneven.

more notes about plot and thematic relevance below the cut. spoilers for anime-onlies (up to chapter 8, will probably be covered in episodes 4/5).

momo was assaulted, and almost cut up by the serpoians, much like the other victims turbo granny appeared around. this is an intentional parallel. turbo granny goes to momo because that is what she does. again, SUPER unclear how that factors into turbo granny's assault of ken, but if we keep the video's interpretation of cynicism in mind, it could be related to that; maybe turbo granny has a cynicism toward men - similar to momo in chapter/episode 1 - and this is why she chose to attack ken. unfortunately, it's still too early to really understand and explain a lot of her motivations.

again, completely understandable to not like how the sexual assault was handled or portrayed, and it's important to keep discussing it. but this is what dandadan does for many different types of trauma and difficult life experiences. this is a huge part of dandadan's identity. if you don't like it, that is fine, but calling the sexual assault 'just fan service' is blatantly untrue.

[starlightomatic]

is it just simply that people think jews are christians-minus-jesus, so it doesn't compute that we wouldn't celebrate christmas-minus-jesus?

[crowns-of-violets-and-roses]

There's an old probably apocryphal tale about Lyndon Johnson that was popularized by Hunter S. Thompson which goes like this:

This is one of the oldest and most effective tricks in politics.  Every hack in the business has used it in times of trouble, and it has even been elevated to the level of political mythology in a story about one of Lyndon Johnson’s early campaigns in Texas.  The race was close and Johnson was getting worried.  Finally he told his campaign manager to start a massive rumor campaign about his opponent’s life-long habit of enjoying carnal knowledge of his own barnyard sows. “Christ, we can’t get a way with calling him a pig-fucker,” the campaign manager protested.  “Nobody’s going to believe a thing like that.” “I know,” Johnson replied.  “But let’s make the sonofabitch deny it.”

Tumblr keeps making me think of this anecdote. There's a group of users on here who constantly demand if anyone mentions BDSM positively or even neutrally they caveat it by saying they aren't talking about abuse or if a man likes to call his boyfriend daddy they demand he disclaim that he doesn't support incest or if a trans girl likes to wear cat ears she needs to deny that she isn't into bestiality.

The point of this isn't that they actually believe it themselves or even a lot of the time it isn't about convincing other people that it's true but just to tar people by creating the association between two unrelated things by demanding that people constantly deny it.

[jolalibrary]

I miss when we were gardeners. when we tended to our fandom garden as a collective, instead of worrying that someone was making their part of the garden fancier than yours. I remember when people didn’t expect that it would be here tomorrow, when we lived in fear that we’d wake up and a site that housed our words would be gone, vanished. now, we don’t even care when our faves vanish and their blog becomes abandoned. we used to nurture fandom because it was an escape from the acting some of us had to do day to day, that we could be ourselves here. it feels—at times now—that people walk in, pluck a flower and leave. that if you’re not posting something new, your use is so little. but then, I remember when gif makers were respected and appreciated, and never had their work stolen and immediately put on twitter, and when moodboard makers and artists were adorned with so many reblogs and comments with ideas and headcanons that aided in new stories being generated. now no one shares any ideas out of fear some blog will write it first and you’ll be accused of stealing what you’ve spent months on. I remember when writers were seen as people who were just as talented as the people I’ve mentioned before, when people acknowledged how long it took to write a chapter or a one-shot. now, we’re easily replaceable, whether it’s AI or we’re simply not quick enough that people don’t want to invest. I remember waiting six months for an update on my fave fic, and I never felt slighted by it. because we liked being in fandom? we liked being supportive of everyone in it. we didn’t like everyone in it, because that’s impossible, but we didn’t make it our mission to burn them until they left, because we understood that even a gardener we didn’t like, was still someone cultivating a flower for someone we couldn’t make on our own. the saying it takes a village applies to fandom, and the question we need to be asking ourselves is: are we all doing our part or just taking and hoping it’ll be there to take from tomorrow?

[nyancrimew]

you're a pathetic criminal who should be arrested, charged, and executed for your hacking crimes.

ok, let me guess, you're a US liberal? how's that been working for you? have you tried growing a spine yet?

[rinhaler]

@saturnsatnin HAS STOLEN MY WORK

So I wrote this fic for a collab back in early November and this person has decided to steal not only the entire thing, but my requests and drabbles too. I haven’t had a proper look but I am SHAKING with anger. The only thing they changed is the characters involved. I’m not sure if they’ve stolen anyone else’s work, but you know people like this are too lazy and in creative to write their own stuff so please make sure to see if anything of yours has been stolen.

I am FUMING I have no idea what to do in this situation.

[maroonmused]

“spider-man 2 was robbed” “the game awards are rigged” and only yuri lowenthal was brave enough to raise the discussion of would peter parker and astarion explore each other’s bodies in their respective action adventure/rpg narratives

[miitopia-cake]

I wish some aces would stop excluding other aces with complex sexual experiences. like I get why but you have to realize that being ace does not mean they don't enjoy sexual experiences and it's weird when you complain about allo people and boil it down to "people who have sexual experiences" and also shame people for their sex life and kinks as if your own community doesnt INCLUDE those people. because there are other aces out there who still masturbate, who feel sexually attracted to their own body, who barely experiences sexual attraction but still enjoys sex, who like consuming sexual media, who like sfw kink. being ace is so so much more complex than just "disliking sex". and also aromantic exclusionism in the same genre of posts is something i see a lot. especially aro allos. I hate hate hate seeing a community that SHOULD be inclusive boil down sexuality and exclude people.

[half-oz-eddie]

Hey

Has anyone ever considered that Maybe Tommy wasn't very upbeat at the ceremony because his homophobic former captain was there and ruined his whole day and likely made him uneasy?

And maybe Buck was being his silly goofy golden retriever self to try and keep Tommy in good spirits?

Which only worked for a short while because Gerrard approached him specifically to harass him and basically called him a fairy. He knew Tommy transferred from the 118. He was purposely setting him up to be homophobic to him. He only approached Tommy to bully him.

So then, protective Buck had to come out and give him a nasty glare while Chimney stepped in front of them and put Gerrard in his place one good time.

Well ofc nobody's thinking about any of this because they don't like Tommy so they don't care about his feelings.

Tommy has consistently come through for the 118, Buck especially, and the one time he needs cheering up and support, people see him as miserable and "bringing Buck down" and they enjoy a moment where he gets hurt.

We have seen Tommy happier, laughing/smiling more and way more upbeat in other episodes.

How much fun did you expect that man to have when a homophobic demon that he wanted to be away from, is 10 feet away from him (and will soon approach him) on what's supposed to be as special for him as it was for everyone else.

Whether people like it or not, and whether people want to humanize his character or not, doesn't change the fact that the decision for him to have a hurtful moment was intentional to give him a piece of the "ghosts from your past" storyline that everyone else is impacted by, to emphasize that Tommy is part of the current story and his character matters too.

[bixels]

a drawing of miku by a white person wearing a hoodie is not indicative of culture

they think i'm white, chat.

[brainrotbutobsessed]

I've said it once and I'll say it again. The repeated theme in BG3 for every companion's story is a loss of autonomy. By a more powerful figure in their lives.

Then people will turn around and suggest Gale is the exception to this? His theme overcoming hubris? His ultimate lesson is 'fuck around and find out'? Are we sure? Are we sure that for some reason, they decided to break away from the theme for one character? Like please come on people.