#‘I now see that I am a fascist for having standards and that this system is cruel’

[mariacallous]

For a new world we need new words.

Facing the coming Musk-Trump regime, we will have to be creative. It will not be enough just to rely on the standard terms that come to easily to our lips and pens ("administration," "presidency", and the like). That normalizes the abnormal.

And to repeat unreflectively the words that Musk and Trump and other mumpers use is to take part in the transformation that they bring. Opposition requires clarity and clarity requires concepts. "Mump regime" is one I propose.

As I explained in the last post, "Mump regime," Musk+Trump, keeps the two men who currently matter the most, Elon Musk and Donald Trump, in the proper order.

Musk matters more than Trump. He is the one with the money, the one to whom Trump owes debts. Musk also has a much more lively sense of his own interests and more energy generally. When the two men's ideas clash, as over China in the recent shutdown dispute, Musk gets his way.

"Mump regime" also keeps front and center the basic issue of illness. Democracy is closely connected to health. The historic path to modern political peace and the rule of law led through two stages: vaccines and institutions of public health. Americans have never broke through to a universal health insurance system, and the associated disease, death, fear and poverty is a central problem for our democracy. Now the mumpers and the mumpets are threatening to take away vaccination, which could kill millions of people. One of the diseases it would bring back is, precisely, mumps. Some of the others are far worse.

"Mump regime" is also better, at this point, than "MAGA." That term was always Trump's propaganda, and Trump simply does matter as he once did. So “MAGA” is not only misleading but obsolete.

MAGA stands for "Make America Great Again." "Make" -- no one is going to make anything. "America" -- the people in charge are largely from elsewhere, and America is no mumper's object of concern. "Great" -- small and fractures is more likely. "Again" -- this level of oligarchy is new, as is the fascist language. We have moved on from a politics of eternity, an obsession with an imaginary past, to a politics of catastrophe.

"Mump regime," on the contrary, helps us to confront a real future. We are heading for a situation in which the fracturing of the government is deliberate and the weakness of the society desired. Some people talk of being the change they want to see in the world; the mumpers are the catastrophe their ideology tells them is inevitable.

And "Mump regime" prepares us mentally for the very real possibility that this form of politics can go on without Trump.

Musk himself is obviously completely unconcerned by the results of elections; it means nothing to him that people voted for Trump. Indeed, the fact that he was able to use a meaninglessly small portion of his wealth to get Trump in office can only breed contempt of both the man and his electorate.

Musk's current public humiliation of Trump may very well be part of a plan. Make the man look weak; and then make him look crazy; and then invoke Article 25 of the Constitution and put him to bed. I am not saying that I am sure that this will happen: but rather that it is the kind of thing that would be normal in a Mump regime but would be all but unthinkable in a "presidency" or an "administration."

Trump is a fake rich person, and Musk is the richest person on earth (except, possibly, Putin). Trump is crazy like an improv comedian, but Musk is crazy like a guy with satellites. Musk surely understands, even if Trump does not, that the welter of policies we will see in the first six months of the Mump regime will be contradictory and chaotic.

Where does popular sentiment go when tariffs increase prices, as they must? When Canada and Mexico enforce countermeasures which push prices still higher? And when government spending on deportations (which would, at least as planned, cost about a trillion dollars) also brings inflation?

And that is just one example. Will Americans actually like a defense department and an FBI designed for domestic conflict? If all of this goes crazily wrong, Trump will be to blame. It is at least worth considering the possibility that Musk foresees all this.

At the moment, left-wing commentators laugh that J.D. Vance has disappeared from public view, displaced by Musk. Thinking of a Mump regime helps us to see Vance's absence differently. There cannot be MAGA without Trump, but there can be Mump without Trump. For Musk and for kindred oligarchs, Vance is a more natural ally than Trump. He speaks their language and seems to believe the libertarian-fascist amalgam according to which government itself is doomed and therefor a strong man must rule. Vance was chosen by the oligarchs to be vice-president.

In the two scenarios above -- Musk drives Trump visibly crazy; six months of chaos is blamed on Trump-- Vance would be the successor. Staying in the background for now thus makes perfect sense for Vance. A quiet Vance does not look crazy, and is not tainted by Trump's six months of chaos. He is available when Musk is ready to move on from Trump.

As Musk once tweeted, "we will coup whoever we want." Whoever we want.

We also need a term like "the Mump regime" to classify Republicans. It offers a vocabulary that helps us to sort people out according to their involvement in and fealty towards Musk. The people who are active in the Mump regime are mumpers. The people who go along are mumpets.

But not all Republicans are mumpers, only a select few -- and, indeed, Musk and Trump and Vance lack a traditional Republican background. The mumpers are a select group, like a politburo: a few people, who can brought in and pushed out. Those beyond the small circle of mumpers who support the Mump regime are mumpets, a much broader group.

Plenty of Republicans follow Musk. But these are not the same people, exactly, who would follow Trump. And as we have seen from recent votes on the shutdown, there are Republican elected officials who are not mumpets. Not all Republicans actually want to see Congress rendered obsolete by one-man rule and the United States cease to exist as a republic.

With terms like "Mump regime," "mumpers," and "mumpets" we can parse the present reality and prepare for the future much better than we can with "presidential administration," "Republicans," or "MAGA."

"Mump regime" also gives us adjectives, like "mumpy," "mumpier," or "mumpified." Beyond domestic politics, it can help us towards understanding (topic for another post) the United States as "the sick man of the world" in foreign policy, as we will likely be.

Musk is right that he is bringing something new; what he is not bringing is a tyranny so great that we cannot think for ourselves and name things for ourselves. Indeed, holding tyranny back begins with just that.

[boymoder-echo]

don't fall to the whims of people who want the worst for you. they do not care about your wellbeing and smile at the way you suppress yourself for the approval of a fascist regime. we welcome you with open arms. take your e.

This is insane. "We welcome you with open arms" who is "we"??? I'm not a part of your lame community. I will never be a part of ANY community. I don't do anything for anybody but myself. People like you are the worst, all nicey nice and supportive when no one asked. It's condesending. I never asked for your support. I do whatever the hell I want to do, I'm not into detrans kink to appease some nebulous demographic of haters. I used to be a girl, not a trans girl, just a girl, I avoided the label trans as much as I could. Do you think that's because I was afraid of oppression? No, it's because I don't want to be trans. It's gross. I'm taking estrogen to preserve sperm before bottom surgery, not because I want to be a guy. I am still probably getting bottom surgery. I was a conventionally attractive cis girl. To be completely honest, even now if I chopped off my stupid mullet and got a bob, put some makeup on, and wore a dress, I'd still be more attractive than 99% of trans girls. I put on makeup yesterday. I passed fine. The trans community is so fixated on lifting people up and supporting others, it's gross. When people try to do that to me I want to punch them in the face. I don't need your sympathy. Stop assuming everyone wants to be comforted or reminded of how strong they are or whatever. I am not the victim here, I'm part of the problem, and I don't really care. At the moment my plan (with complete sincerity I do mean this) is to kind of cosplay as a boy for the next 3 weeks, not even necessarily because I think I am one but because I want to get it out of my system before I commit to being the pretty girl I used to be and will be in the future. Then I'll shave my face throw out any boy clothes I have, wear makeup every day, and be "one of the good ones", and you'll hate me for it, and you should, because I'm the bad guy here. I don't want to be a trans girl, I want to be a real girl. I don't want anyone to know about that shameful secret. I am not suppressing myself. I never have suppressed myself. I am loud and annoying and confident. What you don't understand is that I'm not conforming to the standards for society. I don't do this because the public demands it. I do it because I don't want to look trans, because I don't like how trans girls look. I am transphobic myself. I always have been. I've been a girl for over half my life now and I spent a quarter of my life being more masc because I didn't want to look trans. Turns out that shouldn't have been a concern. Who knows, maybe at the end of those 3 weeks as a boy I'll decide I'd rather be a cis man than a trans girl, not because the fascists won, but because I don't want to be part of such a miserable demographic.

Don't feel sorry for me, I'm the villain here.

Respond in my asks, I want to see what you have to say back :)

[dystopiandramaqueen]

Suzanne Collins includes details that resonate so deeply with me

Moments I remember from adolescence. Specifically- I wanted to shave my legs. Because I knew I "should". From all the advertisements I saw, and from my mother's practices.

I was excited. I shaved the first one. But then I sat in the bath and cried. Because it felt un natural. Like betrayal of my body.

When the Capitol prep team removes Katniss' leg hair- it hurts and feels unnatural.

Before the victory tour- it grows back. Because she doesn't remove her own hair when she's left to her own devices. Hair removal is something that is done to sexualize the body.

Specifically- to make a female body look young. Child-like. Hairless, wrinkleless. Pre-hormonal.

It's such a damaging, impossible beauty standard. But like so many things- most people just do it most of their lives- to fit in.

I remember my mother having a lot of angst about hair removal. Knowing she had to do it or she'd be shamed when she went to the beach. I realize now -the shame lived inside her. And there was no escaping it. She did everything right, and she was still ashamed of her body, because of a life time of conditioning.

As a doctor I see so much damage and harm from infections, burns... it's a violent practice that can hurt us.

And it's so important to remember that it's just a cultural standard.

I remember when my mom confessed that women in France don't shave their arm pits. I was fascinated. Because surely a whole country of women can't be gross. In fact, the women I saw in pictures- were attractive by all other metrics. That was the first crack in the illusion for me.

Then I had some friends who just didn't.

I had to reconcile that too. These people weren't gross. They were cool and hot. They just chose not to remove that hair. And maybe that was ok?

During COVID we all got a pass on showing each other our bodies in the summer for a few years- and I stopped shaving.

This year I didn't shave at all. It was liberating af.

I like stroking my soft downy leg hair. Just like Katniss does before the Capitol rips it out again.

There are these subtle details in these books- of what freedom looks like. Freedom from oppressive beauty standards. Freedom from industries that profit off us. (Invent a problem- BODY HAIR- sell creams and wax and razors).

I am especially anti hair removal the more I realize that rich powerful men are actually pedophillic in their tastes. Trump, Epstein, all of these circles- they like their women as childlike as possible. As what. A status symbol? Or more likely because they want innocents who don't know what predators look like.

For all of the reasons above

Like- nah.

Hair comes free with our endocrine system. It's normal and beautiful and attractive.

(and of course if someone WANTS to remove their body hair- then they should! In the way that makeup is a tool. Everyone should be allowed to choose whether they use it. Bodies are canvases. Gender is a performance. Our lives are art. What we do with them should be 100% up to us. My beef is with Gender Binaries enforced by fascist systems of power so that they can label, control and profit off of us.)

[misfitwashere]

Why is Musk-Trump the "Mump Regime"?

Ask the Mumpers and the Mumpets

TIMOTHY SNYDER

DEC 22

For a new world we need new words.

Facing the coming Musk-Trump regime, we will have to be creative. It will not be enough just to rely on the standard terms that come to easily to our lips and pens ("administration," "presidency", and the like). That normalizes the abnormal.

And to repeat unreflectively the words that Musk and Trump and other mumpers use is to take part in the transformation that they bring. Opposition requires clarity and clarity requires concepts. "Mump regime" is one I propose.

As I explained in the last post, "Mump regime," Musk+Trump, keeps the two men who currently matter the most, Elon Musk and Donald Trump, in the proper order.

Musk matters more than Trump. He is the one with the money, the one to whom Trump owes debts. Musk also has a much more lively sense of his own interests and more energy generally. When the two men's ideas clash, as over China in the recent shutdown dispute, Musk gets his way.

"Mump regime" also keeps front and center the basic issue of illness. Democracy is closely connected to health. The historic path to modern political peace and the rule of law led through two stages: vaccines and institutions of public health. Americans have never broke through to a universal health insurance system, and the associated disease, death, fearand poverty is a central problem for our democracy. Now the mumpers and the mumpets are threatening to take away vaccination, which could kill millions of people. One of the diseases it would bring back is, precisely, mumps. Some of the others are far worse.

"Mump regime" is also better, at this point, than "MAGA." That term was always Trump's propaganda, and Trump simply does matter as he once did. So “MAGA” is not only misleading but obsolete.

MAGA stands for "Make America Great Again." "Make" -- no one is going to make anything. "America" -- the people in charge are largely from elsewhere, and America is no mumper's object of concern. "Great" -- small and fractures is more likely. "Again" -- this level of oligarchy is new, as is the fascist language. We have moved on from a politics of eternity, an obsession with an imaginary past, to a politics of catastrophe.

"Mump regime," on the contrary, helps us to confront a real future. We are heading for a situation in which the fracturing of the government is deliberate and the weakness of the society desired. Some people talk of being the change they want to see in the world; the mumpers are the catastrophe their ideology tells them is inevitable.

And "Mump regime" prepares us mentally for the very real possibility that this form of politics can go on without Trump.

Musk himself is obviously completely unconcerned by the results of elections; it means nothing to him that people voted for Trump. Indeed, the fact that he was able to use a meaninglessly small portion of his wealth to get Trump in office can only breed contempt of both the man and his electorate.

Trump's current public humiliation of Trump may very well be part of a plan. Make the man look weak; and then make him look crazy; and then invoke Article 25 of the Constitution and put him to bed. I am not saying that I am sure that this will happen: but rather that it is the kind of thing that would be normal in a Mump regime but would be all but unthinkable in a "presidency" or an "administration."

Trump is a fake rich person, and Musk is the richest person on earth (except, possibly, Putin). Trump is crazy like an improv comedian, but Musk is crazy like a guy with satellites. Musk surely understands, even if Trump does not, that the welter of policies we will see in the first six months of the Mump regime will be contradictory and chaotic.

Where does popular sentiment go when tariffs increase prices, as they must? When Canada and Mexico enforce countermeasures which push prices still higher? And when government spending on deportations (which would, at least as planned, cost about a trillion dollars) also brings inflation?

And that is just one example. Will Americans actually like a defense department and an FBI designed for domestic conflict? If all of this goes crazily wrong, Trump will be to blame. It is at least worth considering the possibility that Musk foresees all this.

At the moment, left-wing commentators laugh that J.D. Vance has disappeared from public view, displaced by Musk. Thinking of a Mump regime helps us to see Vance's absence differently. There cannot be MAGA without Trump, but there can be Mump without Trump. For Musk and for kindred oligarchs, Vance is a more natural ally than Trump. He speaks their language and seems to believe the libertarian-fascist amalgam according to which government itself is doomed and therefor a strong man must rule. Vance was chosen by the oligarchs to be vice-president.

In the two scenarios above -- Musk drives Trump visibly crazy; six months of chaos is blamed on Trump-- Vance would be the successor. Staying in the background for now thus makes perfect sense for Vance. A quiet Vance does not look crazy, and is not tainted by Trump's six months of chaos. He is available when Musk is ready to move on from Trump. 

As Musk once tweeted, "we will coup whoever we want." Whoever we want.

We also need a term like "the Mump regime" to classify Republicans. It offers a vocabulary that helps us to sort people out according to their involvement in and fealty towards Musk. The people who are active in the Mump regime are mumpers. The people who go along are mumpets.

But not all Republicans are mumpers, only a select few -- and, indeed, Musk and Trump and Vance lack a traditional Republican background. The mumpers are a select group, like a politburo: a few people, who can brought in and pushed out. Those beyond the small circle of mumpers who support the Mump regime are mumpets, a much broader group.

Plenty of Republicans follow Musk. But these are not the same people, exactly, who would follow Trump. And as we have seen from recent votes on the shutdown, there are Republican elected officials who are not mumpets. Not all Republicans actually want to see Congress rendered obsolete by one-man rule and the United States cease to exist as a republic.

With terms like "Mump regime," "mumpers," and "mumpets" we can parse the present reality and prepare for the future much better than we can with "presidential administration," "Republicans," or "MAGA." 

"Mump regime" also gives us adjectives, like "mumpy," "mumpier," or "mumpified." Beyond domestic politics, it can help us towards understanding (topic for another post) the United States as "the sick man of the world" in foreign policy, as we will likely be.

Musk is right that he is bringing something new; what he is not bringing is a tyranny so great that we cannot think for ourselves and name things for ourselves. Indeed, holding tyranny back begins with just that.

[chaseprice]

BBC are such shitebags i fucking despair.

they write about trans people like an obnoxious and perpetually incomprehensible alien species, every news notification lately is an announcement of the criminalisation of or slapping terrorist charges onto groups with headlines that make it seem like they just killed someone and you click on like surely this wasn’t a peaceful act of protest was it and it’s like oh wait yes. it was a peaceful act of protest involving some paint and trespassing.

this morning i see

and the whole fucking article is unsubtly stigmatising mental and behavioural health issues (adding handy - this includes things like adhd! - after every mention of it) despite this category only counting for like a .5% increase in claims across the working age population in the last 9 years, consistently pointing out that it’s younger people claiming for mental health rather than people in their 50s.

Is this not just so transparent? So transparently disgustingly conservative and biased reporting framed as neutral objectivity? Am i going fucking insane? Why is it only socialists talking about how the bbc are basically tories why does the median left and centre voter not fuckin’ see this? (We are just going to ignore the far right fascists who think bbc are communists because they are not to be taken seriously)

THE ARTICLE DOES NOT MENTION HOW THE GLOBAL PANDEMIC, THE COST OF LIVING CRISIS, NOR ANY OTHER LATE STAGE CAPITALISM FACTORS LEADING TO BARRIERS TO WORK could possibly have lead to an increased in disabled people claiming benefits. Pandemic and cozzie livs are mentioned Once, and it’s an economist saying “maybe these two factors have led to people understanding their entitlements more”. Then Immediately segues onwards to how the Labour Party intend to “reform” the system by making benefits harder to claim.

Starmer says we aren’t realising the “wider action [they’re] taking to lift people out of poverty and raise living standards, especially through work”

So he must be right. Because he’s always been principled and consistent in what he says. He believes in things! He helps the working class! Right? Right….

Ghoulish fucking backwards country I’m so glad i no longer live in it. Scottish independence now.

[princesscolumbia]

Who We Are and How We Got Here

Dear Princess Celestia Tumblr

Once Upon a Time in Canterlot

Back in April, we (the system) wrote of our experiences in becoming a system...again. I won't rehash it because it's easy enough to pop that link open in another tab and read it real quick before coming back here. All done? Good, let's continue.

Since then, a change happened, and it really was something we should have expected.

Hello, I'm Sunset Shimmer, and I'm a Fictive in the system known collectively as PrincessColumbia.

That there's a former pony taking up residence in this mindspace probably isn't a surprise, we did pick the name "Princess Columbia" back...before. Before the most recent wave of (calling a spade a spade) Naziism in this country, wherein white supremacist cops think they're being clever in coopting the Punisher logo, it isn't really a surprise that the faction of the American public that think it's a good idea to install a dictator completely fails to see the irony in claiming they have any right to use The Gadsen Flag, which is the original anti-Tyranny banner of this continent. It bothers us no end that the icon we selected before the rise of Fascists within the Tea Party (remember them?) is now connected with the very people it was made to signal the fight against.

But I'm rabbit-holing.

It's a Lovely Morning in the Mindspace and You are a Moon Princess

Hi! Speaking of rabbits, I'm Usagi! Just like Sunset's a fictive, so am I. 😁 Really, it's not surprising that, if Ranma's here, so am I. We started Fission back when we were a system before, and the two main characters were...Ranma and Usagi. 😋

The New Status Quo

Ranma here; So in April, Helen and I had reached a...deal. It was unspoken, mostly, slapped together from our respective interests and passions. We also wound up creating a distinctly unequal claim to the responsibilities. Helen was the parts of "PrincessColumbia" that I didn't get, plus a few things that being freed of me allowed her to express more fully. This means she saw me emerging with the approximate mental age of 20 and decided to 'mom' me. It was unintentional, that's something we've worked out, but it meant she saw herself as the de facto load bearing member of the system. Anything that stressed us out she claimed full ownership of and only portioned out bits to me that she absolutely couldn't handle. This left her spinning plates and me sometimes sitting in the back and twiddling my thumbs. Half of what kept me front-and-center for the initial weeks of us existing as a system, that is being in charge of our physical health and being Helen's coach in her own head, had to stop for safety; we live in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, which can reach up to 99℉ (37℃) at night and this made going out for morning runs an actual health concern. Without the constant reminder that we were supposed to be equal partners, she basically sidelined me. This was extremely self-defeating (we were literally created to help each other) so I figured out how to wake up before her without disturbing her, age myself up (being a headmate has its advantages) and gave myself purple hair. Take notes, because this will come up later.

Helen freaked right out, panicking at the thought of a new headmate. I had to revert back to my "standard" form to get her to calm down, and at the time played it off as a bit of a joke. This also will come up in a little bit.

A Challenger Enters the Arena Apartment

[Sunset] During June, our girlfriend went to Indiana, ostensibly for a month. Many of you were supportive as Helen was fuming over the conditions that our girl encountered there, but the one bright spot in all of that was rescuing a nine-year-old cat that had been neglected and abused. Patches came to our home and was half-starved and had trauma responses on a hair trigger. One of those responses was to rip and tear in response to something that triggered kitty PTSD, resulting in us having an infected hand. We're doing much better now, the swelling has gone down completely and the actual puncture wounds are just bumps on the skin now, but there were immediate consequences.

Ranma's ailurophobia, which she thought she had left behind in whatever caused her to spawn in as a headmate, came roaring back with a vengence. Not enough to trigger a nekoken, but she was catatonic in the headspace for a while. The next morning when she went into the kitchen to make breakfast, one of the cats followed her in and tried to beg for food and it took Ranma by surprise; she was a shaking, sobbing mess that was jumping at shadows.

Helen, who loves cats, found herself in the emotionally conflicted place of feeling protective of Ranma but the perpetrator of Ranma's distress was a 6-pound cat that had only done what she did due to abuse that we were trying to help her recover from. The poor cat kept trying to apologize with physical affection but Ranma was terrified and this triggered Helen's anger...the cat is confused, to say the least.

[Ranma] I'm doing better as the pain recedes. I'm still not eager to be around Patches, but Hexen's a sweetie and I'm able to give her hugs and kisses again.

We're currently on an antibiotic course, and if you've never looked into how antibiotics work, they're basically killing pretty much everything in your body, including you, they just kill the infection faster than the host. A side effect of this is the body has what's called a 'gut biome,' a literal complex ecosystem of microscopic flora and fauna that actually works in tandem with your body to digest food. Depending on the biome in your stomach and intestines, you have a chemical stew that those symbiotic life forms inside you use to provide you nutrition and energy and even alter your brain chemistry. Antibiotics, unfortunately, wipe a LOT of that out, too.

We've been on antibiotics before, most notably after surviving living homeless, so we knew what to expect, up to and including a fogginess of the brain and low energy. We planned for about a week of that and arranged a bottle of probiotic to repopulate our gut biome...and got one that includes strains that some studies show an increase in fat digestion efficiency. Basically, we're taking the opportunity to min/max our digestive system.

What rather surprised me was the discovery that while I was learning how to epically troll Helen with my appearance and behavior, she'd been suppressing two new splits to the system. A few days ago Helen allowed herself to be distracted and that let Sunset and Usagi out to play.

A Pattern of Misbehavior

[Ranma] Remember what I said about Helen freaking out about the possibility of us splitting off into new members of the system? Yeah, she apparently was trying to keep us "normal." Some of our old fears and phobias came back as time progressed and she forgot the purpose of the system is to protect the whole of it, not for one member to be life's punching bag.

She kept behaving badly, almost entirely because she has a need for control, almost pathologically. She'd 'let go' for things that she specifically had ceded to me, but outside of that she was being her usual dragon self and just hoarding everything, including all the stuff she really should have asked for help with. Stupid, stubborn lizard!

[Sunset] Additionally, whenever Helen would 'break' as a result of everything she was hoarding just being too much, Ranma had to take over, even into situations where Ranma was not ready or even willing.

[Ranma] FUCK that job! I swear, I don't know ho you and she deal with it!

[Sunset] Heh, anyway, we needed a middle-point between the two extremes of Ranma and Helen, which is where I come in.

[Usagi] These redheads don't seem to know how to have fun, so I popped in, too. Not much more to say about me, I'm pretty much what you expect if you watch Sailor Moon at all.

Well THAT was Unexpected

[Sunset] Two days ago we were viewing some porn. We've been tired and stressed and needed some 'us' time and we have a...pretty wide variety of tastes, so wound up venturing into some artists libraries and tags we don't normally go, and one piece (On R34 somewhere...?) and this one featured a big, buff dragon lady having her way with a smaller, daintier dragon lady.

Damn near everyone was floored when Helen got 'excited' about the idea of being the smaller dragon lady. This was a complete inversion of Helen's usual preferences and Ranma, Usagi, and I teased her...well, a little mercilessly.

[Ranma] Not proud of it, but we were functionally bullying her.

[Usagi] But only because she was responding positively to it! We're here for each other's care and protection and wouldn't ever have continued if she had told us to stop or wasn't enjoying it.

[Sunset] Right, so that particular session had the interesting result of Helen basically de-aging and becoming...small. If I were to take a guess, she's younger than Usagi, and she's not a whole lot older than her canon age. It was cute, she acted like her usual grumpy, slightly distressed self, so we finished up and went to bed.

What completely bowled us over was she hadn't returned to her 'normal' incarnation by the time we were up and about the next morning.

She's still here, but she's decided to be a kid again. She'll surface and take control occasionally, usually when we're writing or taking care of our daughter or (and we discovered this tonight) building lego.

The New-New Normal

[Sunset] So, yeah, things have changed. Helen is no longer running the show. She's completely given "the keys" over to me, and I've split time with Ranma and Usagi for the most part. I've instituted a bit more balance in our life (Helen had been obsessing over working on Code of Ethics to the exclusion of nearly EVERYTHING else), tackled a few tasks that Helen's executive function just wasn't up to handling, and running a bit of triage. Usagi has volunteered to take over the household cleaning and similar chores, Ranma has taken back her role of managing our physical body, and I'm in charge of a lot of the 'adulting' that Helen was doing.

And speaking of Adulting, we've had a long, rough (but productive) 72 hours, we're getting dinner and going to bed.

See you tomorrow, your beloved student overly-verbose system,

Sunset S., Ranma S., Usagi T., and Helen M.

(Adapted from a message to a Discord server)

[lunargracklepersonal]

It occurs to me that we're in a collective abusive relationship with our government. We have the chance to elect a government composed of one of two main forces. One is openly abusive. The other is covertly abusive.

There exist other forces we could elect to make up our government, but as a result of the first-past-the-post voting system most people don't consider these viable options.

Look, I come from a (relatively mildly) abusive family. If I had to choose to vote between my mother or father, one of who is less abusive than the other, and those were always my two choices, eventually do you know what I'd still realize? This is an abusive family. Does that mean I am obligated, morally, to vote for the less abusive one, and that things will in time stop being abusive as a result?

Now, imagine my siblings, some of whom are periodically being gaslit to be convinced no abuse is taking place, also get a vote.

Do you get where I'm going with this?

I'm essentially trying to get this family to vote for Uncle Mike, just long enough for us all to realize what's going on.

Failing that, I'm trying to get enough people to vote for Uncle Mike to trigger - something, anything, that gets real change. Maybe the abusive elements of the government will try to illegally crack down on people who voted third party and folks will riot. Maybe somebody more charismatic than I am will use that as the impetus to start a movement. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Better than waiting around for politicians to magically start growing a conscience.

But that's beside the point.

Do you see why I can't get behind the democratic party now?

This is still an abusive situation, just covertly instead of directly. These people are still fascists, just subtly instead of openly. And given a choice between Hitler and Mussolini the moral choice is not Mussolini as was proposed in a post that floated across my dash a few days ago.

I still believe in voting as a tool of democracy. Just consider voting third party - any third party you feel comfortable with will do. Vote for a joke if you can't find a good one. The point is to convince the people in power that you're still willing to put time and energy into democracy. Voting third party is a threat to them. A roundabout way of saying 'fuck your two party system'.

The argument of the split vote effect becomes irrelevant when both parties are abusive and you do not want either to win.

Someone somewhere is muttering, still, vote blue no matter who. Fuck that. Relegate it to the depths of hell where it belongs.

Do you realize how far right the blue has gone?

Even basic criticisms of wealth inequality have gone from a basic milquetoast centrist position anyone from the center right to the left could hold back on the 1990s to being considered actively leftist. (Oh, democrats, my dear sweet summer child, if you think a leftist is someone who criticizes wealth inequality and maybe has pronouns you're in for some shock when you fuck with any actual leftist.)

And do you know how we got here?

By voting without criticality.

A claim to blue-ness is a nothing claim. It's like claiming to be a nutritionist (as opposed to registered dietician) - anyone can do it, it's a nonregulated term. There are no official criteria. There is no test. No battle of wits with your predecessor or even a swearing in.

In other words, infiltration is really, really easy. Especially when your base keeps chanting 'vote blue no matter who'! So is just... Enshittification. We could have done so much better if we had held our side to a higher standard.

As far as I'm concerned, it's already over. Don't bother trying to convince me there's a chance to push the dems farther left or god forbid, rehabilitate Biden. I am an anarchist.

Tl;dr fuck 'vote blue no matter who'.

[resourcesofcolor]

I want to add: the term "i was born in the wrong body" was repeated in media and awareness campaigns as a way to police transness through transmedicalism and bioessentialism. many (especially poor and marginalized) trans people in the late 1900s did not believe that transitioning only required surgery, or being trans required surgery/hormones, especially if it was unaffordable. even when transitioning medically/surgically became a thing, even now, black/brown/poor/disabled trans people do not have the same opportunities for medical transitioning than middle class and wealthy white trans people. the reason we don't see a lot of trans people saying "i was born in the wrong body" in the 21st century is because 1) there is much more discussions about what transness means to each individual trans person's lived experiences, cultures and sense of self now, in the 2000s, welcoming discriptivism and exploring queerness via social media/internet and community workshops, and 2) the experience is not universal; it was a storyline that was "sensationalized and capitalized on by Western media from Tyra Banks to the BBC to Katie Couric for decades".

associating transness and trans people's autonomous bodies with a specific physical appearances and even phenotype: allows the government and transphobic fascists to say "you were born in the wrong body, you now have the correct body according to us and the law, this is what makes you trans and nothing else. and now we can take away your new body using laws, lobbying, and evangelical fearmongering".

bigots need queer people to believe that their outward appearance is what makes them trans, makes them a man, makes them a woman. bigots and oppressive systems NEED everyone to believe in the sex-gender binary dyad created by old white cishet eugenicists. if they can take away your ability to transition into a visually "proper" representation of your sex-gender, then you are no longer trans by the standards that transphobic oppressors have set.

but there are so many trans/enby/qenderqueer people out there who do not agree with "being born in the wrong body." they embrace their body, love their body, and still just like every queer and trans person: they choose their body.

maddison godfrey, a trans nonbinary writer and activist, explores transness in their artice, "I don’t feel like I was born into the wrong body. There’s not a right or wrong way to be trans":

"My transness is not about feeling uncomfortable in my body; it is about feeling uncomfortable with the gender that was allocated to this body. Although I was once assigned female at birth, on days when I wear winged eyeliner and a crop top that makes my boobs look great, I am still non-binary. Medically transitioning, sometimes involving hormone therapy or surgical procedures, can constitute an integral part of a person’s journey of gender affirmation – but pursuing this process is not a prerequisite of being trans or non-binary, and does not determine the validity of anyone’s gender identity. Imagining it as a checklist overlooks the barriers often encountered by trans people who want to medically transition – such as inaccessibility, costliness, wait times and stigma perpetuated by some practitioners. To suggest that being trans requires a specific type of transition is to enforce a hierarchy that is ultimately elitist."

other articles written by/about trans people that address this:

This Trans Woman Never Felt ‘Born In the Wrong Body’ – And Here’s Why That’s So Beautiful by Kai Chen Thom

Why I Chose To Be Trans by Rachel Anne Williams

"You don't have to constantly take hormones to be trans, 3 people who have gone on and off hormones say" by Quispe López

I graduated high school in 99.

There was a student at our school named Wayne.

Wayne was gay. It was obvious. He was unable to stay in the closet even if he wanted to. To make matters worse, he was also Black. From a bullying standpoint, that was not a great combo. Both Black and white students made fun of him relentlessly. He was ostracized from the only community that may have given him protection. Only us theater kids stuck up for him, but not to significant effect.

Wayne was bullied so much that at one point he finally snapped and attacked his bullies with a lunch tray. I was actually seated in perfect line of sight and just sat there chewing my soggy fries in stunned silence. It didn't even seem real as I was witnessing it. The image of him wailing on his main bully as the food on his tray flew off is permanently logged into my long term memory.

The bully he attacked had blood all over his face and went straight to the nurse. Other than superficial cuts, he was not injured.

Before the attack, Wayne went to teachers for help. He went to guidance counselors for help. He went to the principals for help.

He did all of the things you were supposed to do. No one helped him. They wagged a finger at the bullies and warned them to stop.

Wayne's lunch tray melee was the only thing that worked. His bullies stayed far away from him. But a week later Wayne was expelled and the bullies were given no punishment.

So... no.

No one in my school talked about being trans.

Because the only way to survive being openly queer was to bash people with a lunch tray.

[cherryblossomshadow]

Sound of Freedom

Excerpts:

As for the film itself, critics have described it as a pretty standard “principled man goes rogue” procedural, as Caviezel’s Ballard, burnt out after years of catching online pedophiles, cuts ties with the government so that he can rescue a kidnapped girl from Colombian revolutionaries.

.

Angel Studios itself claims that “Seeing the film is the first step in spreading awareness about child trafficking,” calling it part of “a historical movement to promote stories that amplify light.” A key part of the movie’s messaging centers on positioning the very act of seeing it as a radical and moral act; anything that then gets in the way of that process—even if it’s just a busted sound system—presumably becomes immoral in response.

.

It is worth noting, though, that a percentage of those sales are the product of Angel Studios’ “Pay It Forward” program, which allows donors to send the company money to essentially comp tickets for movie-goers who can’t afford it, in theory … It’s not clear how much of the movie’s subsequent $100 million box office take has come from people making these donations, but if the proportions have held steady, it’s a decent chunk of change

Comments:

Nilus: I see a lot of trolling by just right wing haters saying “The left just can’t handle how well this movie is doing” while literally ignoring the fact that the damn movie has a program where large conservative groups can buy out tickets and give them away free.   You can literally go online and get a free ticket for this shitty movie and watch it in an empty theater.  

ArgieBargie: This fascist propaganda and piece of shit movie is the cinematic equivalent of “Moms For Liberty.” It’s astroturf bullshit.

Toshe21: Of course this Communist scum bag called ArgieBargie hates Sound of Freedom. He doesn’t like the realities of child trafficking being exposed to the masses. I am shocked, I tell you, shocked!

Killa K: What “realities” does the film expose? It’s based on a true story that was widely reported in the media when it originally happened, and most of the film takes place in Central and South America, a place that the target audience has little-to-no sympathy for when they come to the States to seek asylum.

MrPuzzles: Except it isn’t. There’s technically nothing wrong with the film. It’s based on facts, it tells its story competently, and it doesn’t beat you over the head with it. That’s really all you can expect out of a dramatized biopic. And, hell, there really isn’t even any kind of hard right message behind it either. It doesn’t even meet the basic definition of a propaganda film. It’s just the circumstances surrounding, and the sort of people selling the film. This film is now a hardline conservative symbol. It’s really no different than when the Nazis took the swastika as their own and basically ruined it forever. Cultural and factual appropriation is, after all, a time-honored fascist tradition. If anything, it really sucks that hundreds of people who likely worked hard on this now have to completely distance themselves from it. I know for a fact if I made something that fucking Trump claimed as his own, I wouldn’t be putting that shit on my resume.

[qqueenofhades]

Do you really hate this county? Or were you just ranting?

Sigh. I debated whether or not to answer this, since I usually keep the real-life/politics/depressing current events to a relative minimum on this blog, except when I really can't avoid ranting about it. But I have some things to get off my chest, it seems, and you did ask. So.

The thing is, any American with a single modicum of genuine historical consciousness knows that despite all the triumphalist mythology about Pulling Up By Our Bootstraps and the American Dream and etc, this country was founded and built on the massive and systematic exploitation and extermination of Black and Indigenous people. And now, when we are barely (400 years later!!!) getting to a point of acknowledging that in a widespread way, oh my god the screaming. I'm so sick of the American right wing I could spit for so many reasons, not least of which is the increasingly reductive and reactive attempts to put the genie back in the bottle and set up hysterical boogeymen about how Teaching Your Children Critical Race Theory is the end of all things. They have forfeited all pretense of being a real governing party; remember how their only platform at the 2020 RNC was "support whatever Trump says?" They have devolved to the point where the cruelty IS the point, to everyone who doesn't fit the nakedly white supremacist mold. They don't have anything to do aside from attempt to usher in actual, literal, dictionary-definition-of-fascism and sponsor armed revolts against the peaceful transfer of power.

That is fucking exhausting to be aware of all the time, especially with the knowledge that if we miss a single election cycle -- which is exceptionally easy to do with the way the Democratic electorate needs to be wooed and courted and herded like cats every single time, rather than just getting their asses to the polls and voting to keep Nazis out of office -- they will be right back in power again. If Manchin and Sinema don't get over their poseur pearl-clutching and either nuke the filibuster or carve out an exception for voting rights, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act is never going to get passed, no matter how many boilerplate appeals the Democratic leadership makes on Twitter. In which case, the 2022 midterms are going to give us Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the House (I threw up in my mouth a little typing that) and right back to the Mitch McConnell Obstruction Power Hour in the Senate. The Online Left (TM) will then blame the Democrats for not doing more to stop them. These are, of course, the same people who refused to vote for Hillary Clinton out of precious moral purity reasons in 2016, handed the election to Trump, and now like to complain when the Trump-stacked Supreme Court reliably churns out terrible decisions. Gee, it's almost like elections have consequences!!

Aside from my exasperation with the death-cult right-wing fascists and the Online Left (TM), I am sick and tired of how forty years of "trickle-down" Reaganomics has created a world where billionaires can just fly to space for the fun of it, while the rest of America (and the world) is even more sick, poor, overheated, economically deprived, and unable to survive the biggest public health crisis in a century, even if half the elected leadership wasn't actively trying to sabotage it. Did you know that half of American workers can't even afford a one-bedroom apartment? Plus the obvious scandal that is race relations, health care, paid leave, the education system (or lack thereof), etc etc. I'm so tired of this America Is The Greatest Country in the World mindless jingoistic catchphrasing. We are an empire in the late stages of collapse and it's not going to be pretty for anyone. We have been poisoned on sociopathic-libertarian-selfishness-disguised-as-Freedom ideology for so long that that's all there is left. We have become a country of idiots who believe everything their idiot friends post on social media, but in a very real sense, it's not directly those individuals' fault. How could they, when they have been very deliberately cultivated into that mindset and stripped of critical thinking skills, to serve a noxious combination of money, power, and ideology?

I am tired of the fact that I have become so drained of empathy that when I see news about more people who refused to get the vaccine predictably dying of COVID, my reaction is "eh, whatever, they kind of deserved it." I KNOW that is not a good mindset to have, and I am doing my best to maintain my personal attempts to be kind to those I meet and to do my small part to make the world better. I know these are human beings who believed what they were told by people that they (for whatever reason) thought knew better than them, and that they are part of someone's family, they had loved ones, etc. But I just can't summon up the will to give a single damn about them (I'm keeping a bingo card of right-wing anti-vax radio hosts who die of COVID and every time it's like, "Alexa, play Another One Bites The Dust.") The course that the pandemic took in 21st-century America was not preordained or inevitable. It was (and continues to be) drastically mismanaged for cynical political reasons, and the legacy of the Former Guy continues to poison any attempts to bring it under control or convince people to get a goddamn vaccine. We now have over 100,000 patients hospitalized with COVID across the country -- more than last summer, when the vaccines weren't available.

I have been open about my fury about the devaluation of the humanities and other critical thinking skills, about the fact that as an academic in this field, my chances of getting a full-time job for which I have trained extensively and acquired a specialist PhD are... very low. I am tired of the fact that Americans have been encouraged to believe whatever bullshit they fucking please, regardless of whether it is remotely true, and told that any attempt to correct them is "anti-freedom." I am tired of how little the education system functions in a useful way at all -- not necessarily due to the fault of teachers, who have to work with what they're given, and who are basically heroes struggling stubbornly along in a profession that actively hates them, but because of relentless under-funding, political interference, and furious attempts, as discussed above, to keep white America safely in the dark about its actual history. I am tired of the fact that grade school education basically relies on passing the right standardized tests, the end. I am tired of the implication that the truth is too scary or "un-American" to handle. I am tired. Tired.

I know as well that "America" is not synonymous in all cases with "capitalist imperialist white-supremacist corporate death cult." This is still the most diverse country in the world. "America" is not just rich white middle-aged Republicans. "America" involves a ton of people of color, women, LGBTQ people, Muslims, Jews, Christians of good will (I have a whole other rant on how American Christianity as a whole has yielded all pretense of being any sort of a principled moral opposition), white allies, etc etc. all trying to make a better world. The blue, highly vaccinated, Biden-winning states and counties are leading the economic recovery and enacting all kinds of progressive-wishlist dream policies. We DID get rid of the Orange One via the electoral process and avert fascism at the ballot box, which is almost unheard-of, historically speaking. But because, as also discussed above, certain elements of the Democratic electorate need to fall in love with a candidate every single time or threaten to withhold their vote to punish the rest of the country for not being Progressive Enough, these gains are constantly fragile and at risk of being undone in the next electoral cycle. Yes, the existing system is a crock of shit. But it's what we've got right now, and the other alternative is open fascism, which we all got a terrifying taste of over the last four years. I don't know about you, but I really don't want to go back.

So... I don't know. I don't know if that stacks up to hate. I do hate almost everything about what this country currently is, structurally speaking, but I recognize that is not identical with the many people who still live here and are trying to do their best, including my friends, family, and myself. I am exhausted by the fact that as an older millennial, I am expected to survive multiple cataclysmic economic crashes, a planet that is literally boiling alive, a barely functional political system run on black cash, lies, and xenophobia, a total lack of critical thinking skills, renewed assaults on women/queer people/POC/etc, and somehow feel like I'm confident or prepared for the future. Not all these problems are only America's fault alone. The West as a whole bears huge responsibility for the current clusterfuck that the world is in, for many reasons, and so do some non-Western countries. But there is no denying that many of these problems have ultimate American roots. See how the ongoing fad for right-wing authoritarian strongmen around the world has them modeling themselves openly on Trump (like Brazil's lunatic president, Jair Bolsonaro, who talks all the time about how Trump is his political role model). See what's going on in Afghanistan right now. Etc. etc.

Anyway. I am very, very tired. There you have it.

[maxwell-grant]

So that ask about a Doc Savage/The Shadow crossover (which as an aside, I agree that Doc is probably the worst of the archetype he is functionally the Ur-Example of that isn’t an intentional deconstruction focusing on his worst eugenicist/borderline-fascist aspects to create a villain) has me thinking: what exactly would be the boundaries for a good, well-written crossover between the Shadow and different genres or eras of what we all collectively call pulp? Could someone do a crossover between the Shadow and Indiana Jones that didn’t rely on one or the other being little more than a glorified cameo in a small portion of what was essentially the other’s story, or reducing the former to his lamest two-dimensional “gun-toting homicidal maniac” interpretations? Could the Shadow ever functionally exist in a universe shared with a space opera setting like the Lensman series? It seems like one could theoretically do a crossover between the Shadow and a character of the same era like Nero Wolfe or Sam Spade, but would it strain credulity to attempt it with characters from an updated form of the private detective archetype like Thomas Magnum’s Hawaiian noir or Rick Deckard’s cyberpunk dystopia? Obviously not expecting answers to each of these hypotheticals specifically, just as examples of the kind of thing I’m wondering now.

I will be going through some of your hypotheticals though, you clearly gave a lot of thought to this and it's only fair I respond in turn. I am always eager to respond anyone who wants to ask specifics about writing The Shadow, because much of what I strive to do through this blog is to just inform people about the many, many things that made The Shadow great, the things that have been neglected, and to provide paths anyone who wishes to write the character may take. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to write The Shadow someday, but the least I can do is spread knowledge as I work my way there. I'd like to think I've done allright so far.

It's a fairly big question though so we're gonna through it by pieces...

...not THAT way

what exactly would be the boundaries for a good, well-written crossover between the Shadow and different genres or eras of what we all collectively call pulp?

Part of the reason why I did a post yesterday on The Shadow's influences is because looking at them, looking at a character's influences and history, I think are always essential to the prospect of tackling them. And in that regard, The Shadow doesn't actually have much, if any, boundaries stopping him from crossing over with just about anything. The most that's stopping the pulp heroes currently is, besides legal issues, their time periods and obscurity, but The Shadow is the most famous of them all, and a lot of stories have already worked with the idea that he's immortal (which I have my misgivings with, but for better or worse is clearly not going anywhere, and it's not a unworkable concept).

Right from the start, The Shadow was designed to be a long-running, versatile character that could partake in whatever adventures they felt like telling, and part of this is due not just to an incredibly strong personality not afforded to most pulp heroes or characters in general, even those who tried imitating him, but also the fact that he often takes a narrative backseat to the agents and proxy heroes, which means he doesn't have to carry a narrative by his own (and is in fact best suited not to), can blend in to just about anyone's story, and still stand out and be the center of sprawling mysteries. Actually, I'm gonna let Walter Gibson answer this one for you:

While his major missions were to stamp out mobs or smash spy rings, he often tabled such routines in order to find a missing heir, uncover buried treasure, banish a ghost from a haunted house or oust a dictator from a mythical republic.

There was no limitation to the story themes as long as they came within the standards of credibility--which proved easy, since The Shadow was such an incredible character in his own right that almost anything he encountered was accepted by his ardent followers.

Widespread surveys taken while the magazine was appearing monthly showed that a large majority of newsstands sold nearly all their copies within the first two weeks of issue. While other character magazines might show an early flurry, their sales were either spread evenly over the entire period or gained their impetus about the middle of the mouth and sometimes not until the third or even the fourth week.

From the writing standpoint, this made it advisable to adhere more closely to the Cranston guise and to emphasize the parts played by The Shadow's well-established agents, since regular readers evidently liked them. Also, it meant "keeping ahead" of those regulars, with new surprises, double twists in "whodunit" plots, and most exacting of all a succession of villains who necessarily grew mightier and more monstrous as The Shadow disposed of their predecessors.

Always, his traits and purposes were defined through the observations and reactions of persons with whom he came in contact, which meant that the reader formed his opinion from theirs.

This gave The Shadow a marked advantage over mystery characters forced to maintain fixed patterns and made it easy to write about him. There was never need for lengthy debate regarding what The Shadow should do next, or what course he should follow to keep in character. He could meet any exigency on the spur of the moment, and if he suddenly acted in a manner opposed to his usual custom, it could always be explained later.

The Shadow’s very versatility opened a vast vista of story prospects from the start of the series onward. In the earlier stories, he was described as a “phantom,” an “avenger,”, and a “superman,” so he could play any such parts and still be quite in character. In fact, all three of those terms were borrowed by other writers to serve as titles for other characters.

Almost any situation involving crime could be adapted to The Shadow’s purposes

The final rule was this: put The Shadow anywhere, in any locale, among friends or associates, even in a place of absolute security, and almost immediately crime, menace or mystery would begin to swirl about him, either threatening him personally or gathering him in its vortex to carry him off to fields where antagonists awaited.

That was his forte throughout all his adventures. Always, his escapes were worked out beforehand, so that they would never exceed the bounds of plausibility when detailed in narrative form. And that was the great secret of The Shadow.”

In some regards, The Shadow is a mirror. He presents himself to people the way that's best suited to them, the way they'd like him to be, the way he needs to be to affect them. They want money, he has it. They want honor, glory and purpose, he gives them that. They want to fight and turn around social systems for the better, he funds their dreams. Gangsters want the underworld's greatest hitman on their side, he becomes that and lets it be their doom. The story calls for a rich aristocrat who can rub elbows with politicians and kings and presidents, he can do that as long as it suits him. Kent Allard can be a world famous celebrity in one story and a disfigured, broke and faceless nobody in the next. You want a kind janitor with unexpected fighting skill to spy on police and assist the homeless, he has a little someone named Fritz for the occasion. You want an evil monster to be defeated, bring out Ying Ko. Hell, James Patterson's upcoming Shadow novel, which by all reviews seems to be pretty lousy, apparently features The Shadow transforming into a cat. Why? Screw you, that's why! But you'd never see James Bond or Batman spontaneously transforming into a cat without outside interference. He's The Shadow, he's got a face for everything.

(Okay to be clear I don't actually want the Shadow to literally transform into animals, at least not without a good explanation which the book clearly doesn't provide, but I do think it illustrates my point about how generally weird he is)

He is a shapeshifter who can be just about any character in any given narrative who only reveals himself when it's time to materialize into a cloaked terror or a familiar face (whether it's Cranston or Allard or Arnaud and so on). War stories, romance stories, sci-fi stories, globetrotting stories, parody stories, he's done all of them and then some. He doesn't need to be the protagonist of a story, he doesn't need to be invincible, and he doesn't really have any set rules regarding powerset. Gibson stressed credibility a lot, but for over 70 years now, that's clearly gone by the window of the character's writing. By design, he was always meant to be able to smoothly integrate into any existing narrative. Frankly, the only thing that's really holding him back (or saving him, depending on how you look at it) is the fact that he's not public domain (yet).

I think for a start, it's not so much boundaries, because in make believe land boundaries are just things to be overcome on the way to telling a story, so much as it's a good working knowledge of the character and of how far you are willing to stretch your storytelling limitations to include him, because he can account for just about all of them. Now, obviously there's stuff that works for the character better than others, a lot of Shadow fans don't like it when they take the character too much into fantasy, there's debates on how superpowered should he be if at all, and so forth. I have my own preferences, but one of the bigger tests of long-running characters is how can they succeed and thrive when placed outside of their element, and The Shadow can do that.

Could someone do a crossover between the Shadow and Indiana Jones that didn’t rely on one or the other being little more than a glorified cameo in a small portion of what was essentially the other’s story, or reducing the former to his lamest two-dimensional “gun-toting homicidal maniac” interpretations?

would it strain credulity to attempt it with characters from an updated form of the private detective archetype like Thomas Magnum’s Hawaiian noir

Well regarding the first question, the latter portion I think is very easy to do. Just, don't write him like that. Just be aware of why that's a mischaracterization, why the character doesn't need that to work, why he works better without it, and so on. It shouldn't be that hard.

Regarding Indiana Jones and Thomas Magnum, I think these two actually lend themselves very easily to crossovers with The Shadow. On Indy's case, he already is a Pulp Hero operating in the same time period, who's got a heavily contrasting niche and personality to build a fun dynamic around. Indy is more story-driven, in the sense that the Indiana Jones moves are all centered around his experiences and point of view and growth as a person, compared to The Shadow's stories, which are not really about "his" story as much as they are about the stories of the people he comes in contact with. Indy is a blockbuster superstar while The Shadow lurks and slithers through the edges and cracks of a story until it's time to strike. But if anything that just makes even more of a case as to why they could team up without issue, since there's a further built-in complimentary contrast to work with.

I have never watched Magnum P.I so there's definitely stuff I might be missing, but looking him up, past the necessary explanation as to why The Shadow's hanging around the 80s, it wouldn't strain credulity at all for the two to team up. The Shadow has had Caribbean/beach-themed adventures and one unrecorded adventure in Honolulu, he has a beach bum secret identity called Portuguese Joe that he could use for this occasion, and Magnum seems like exactly the kind of character who could star as the proxy hero of a Shadow novel. He's lively and friendly and can look after himself, he has a job that leads him to trouble and puts him on contact with criminals as well as victims, he's got secrets and a dark past and a laundry list of character flaws, he's perfectly capable of carrying a story by himself but can be out of his depth in the schemes that he gets caught up in.

Could the Shadow ever functionally exist in a universe shared with a space opera setting like the Lensman series? Or Rick Deckard’s cyberpunk dystopia?

I'm going to tackle parts of this question more throughly when I answer one in my query that's asking me "How would you do The Shadow in modern day?", which I still haven't gotten around to answering because it's a tricky one. I won't go into the specifics for the two examples you listed because I've never read the Lensman books and googling about them hasn't helped much very much, and Deckard's a fairly standard P.I character mostly elevated by the movie he's in, there's not really much to discuss regarding him specifically interacting with The Shadow. The question you're asking me here seems to generally be: Could The Shadow functionally exist in settings so radically apart from the 30s Depression era he was made for?

My answer for this is a maybe leaning towards yes. Starting with the fact that the concept of The Shadow is more suited for allegorical fantasy along the lines of space operas and cyberpunk, than the gritty realism he's been saddled with for decades, which I'll get into another time. For some reason, a lot of people seem to harp on about how the Shadow's costume is impractical and unworkable for modern times, and said James Patterson novel mentioned above ditched it all together, which as you can guess was a massively unpopular decision. Matt Wagner talked once about how cities don't have shadows and men wearing hats anymore and that's part of why you can't have The Shadow in modern times (as if The Shadow was always supposed to be dressing like an average guy, and not cowboy Dracula). But nobody seems to have a problem with characters dressing up exactly like The Shadow showing up all the time in dystopian future cities with fashion senses where they stick out like a sore thumb (and really, they should stick out, otherwise what's the point of being all weird and dark and mysterious?)

Although The Shadow is specifically suited for urban settings, is conceptually rooted in 1930s America, and there are important facets of his characterization related to history like the Great War, there are not the be-all end-all of The Shadow. It's part of the character. Other parts integral to the character are, as mentioned above, the versatility and metamorphous nature he was always intended to have. His nature as a character who exists to thrive in narratives not about him and not centered around him. His roots on Dracula and King Arthur and Oz and Lupin which are concepts that have had so, so many drastical revisions and turnabouts that still stuck to the basic principles of the icon.

Besides, The Shadow's already been there. He's already been to space, he's already been in alternate dimensions, he's already reawakened in modern/future times several times now (when he doesn't just live to them unchanged). He's been a cyborg twice, and between those, El Sombra, Vendata, X-9, the Shadow-referencing robot henchmen from Bob Morane and Yu-Gi-Oh's Jinzo referencing the movie's bridge scene, it's enough to constitute a weird pattern of The Shadow and Shadow-adjacent characters turning into robots. Perhaps one positive side effect of The Shadow's decades-long submersion in fantasy is that it's opened the character for just about anything, and I think this could be a good thing if it was married to an adherence to the things that made him such a juggernaut of an icon in the 30s and 40s.

Really, The Shadow partially works on Predator rules. And by that I mean, the big secret of the Predator that filmmakers don't seem to get is that the best way to make a Predator film is to just put the Predator somewhere he's not supposed to be, and let that play out. Because the Predator is, by design, a trespasser who invades narratives and turns the power dynamics around, and that works for any narrative you put it into.

The first movie is all about setting you up for a jungle action movie with Schwarzenegger's Sexual Tyrannosaurus Crew as the biggest baddest death squad around, only for the Predator to appear, turn the tables on these shitheads and pick them off one by one until Arnie scrapes a victory by beating it at it's own game. The 2nd movie is about a drug war between cops and gangs in L.A, until the Predator shows up and suddenly he's the big problem again that's gotta be put down. All the other movies fail because they try to be "about" the Predator, but the Predator doesn't work that way. He's a ugly motherfucker who's here to fight and kill things in cool ways for the sake of it's warrior game, who already has a specific structure to how his story's meant to play out, and that's all he needs to be. What you do is just take that character, take the structure he carries around, and throw it somewhere that works by different rules, and let the contrast play out the story.

Obviously there's a lot more to The Shadow than this, I write a billion essays on the guy after all, but much of what makes The Shadow work, much of what made The Shadow such an icon at the decade of his debut and such an interesting character to revolve any kinds of stories around, was because of the great contrast he posed to everything surrounding him, and the ways he can both be at the forefront as well as the backseat of any story.

Going back to what Gibson said:

Almost any situation involving crime could be adapted to The Shadow’s purposes. He could meet any exigency on the spur of the moment, and if he suddenly acted in a manner opposed to his usual custom, it could always be explained later.

The Shadow was such an incredible character in his own right that almost anything he encountered was accepted by his ardent followers.

advisable to emphasize the parts played by The Shadow's well-established agents, since regular readers evidently liked them.

The keyword here isn't that the Shadow should be realistic, frankly that's always been a lost cause. He was never really that realistic, and it's unfair to expect writers to keep pace with Gibson who had lifelong experience with the in and outs of magic and daring escapes and whatnot. The keywords I want to stress here is "accepted by his ardent followers".

Make a good explanation, an explanation that fits the character, an explanation that works, and the rest will follow. And if you can't, make us like the character. Make us accept that he can do and be all these things. Give us something to be invested in. And if that can't be The Shadow himself because he has to stay at arms length constantly to be mysterious, Gibson cracked the code almost a century ago through the agents. Make us invested in them, and through them, we will become invested in The Shadow.

The pulp Shadow would get tired, get injured, need rescuing, need to stop and rest and catch his breath, would need to think and plan and make split decisions on the spot and sometimes would make the wrong ones only to reverse them in the nick of time, and it made the fact that he was achieving all these things all the more impressive. The pulp Shadow was a creature of fantasy grounded in the history of the world he was a part of.

If you can make people care about The Shadow, be truly, genuinely invested in him and his world and the people he comes in contact with, be as invested in those as audiences were back then, you can and maybe should put him anywhere, doing anything, as long as you know what you're doing. As long as you understand what makes The Shadow tick, what makes him work and what doesn't, and whatnot.

Which is a lot of words for "do whatever you want, just don't fuck it up"

[andmaybegayer]

[Warning: this post is mostly me talking to myself in text form for journaling purposes, and as a result is boring and sucks. I told you so.]

I've been listening to The Anthropocene Reviewed for the past couple months, slowly working through the episodes. A couple weeks ago I listened to the one on "Tetris, and, The Seed Potatoes of Leningrad."

You've probably heard about the seed potatoes of Leningrad, there was a post from the @tilthat bot going around. TL;DR, during the siege of Leningrad, scientists at the seed bank in Leningrad protected the enormous cache of food crop samples in storage there (many unique) and didn't eat any of it, while the scientists and people around them starved to death, cut off from supplies by the siege.

There are of course, two ways to look at this. Those scientists were brainwashed idiots, who protects mere crops while human lives are ending, how cold and heartless can you be. Those scientists are stoic heroes, they understood that the value of a seedbank far exceeded the value of the individuals around them, a fact they knew truly and objectively as professionals in their field.

Lots of problems people face look like this. Do you do something that helps you and the people immediate to you in the short term, likely leading to long term benefit for your group, or do you do something that is suboptimal for you and yours but helps many more people who may not help you in turn or even know you exist.

This post takes a turn now, and we’ll talk about Brain Drain.

Brain Drain (more formally "Human Capital Flight") is when people trained by one nation emigrate to another, usually because of actual or perceived improvement to quality of life in the second place, carrying their skills with them. The classic example is Jewish scientists fleeing the Nazis, or for a more controversial example, Soviet professionals defecting to the USA.

Now those are highly politically charged situations, so let’s look at the one I’m dealing with: South Africa is kind of a lame place to live compared to some other places.

South Africa is a rich and functional country by African standards but it’s still not a First World Country. Our currency is weak. Our Gini index is a joke. Education is poor the moment you step outside of urban centers, and even then, there are problems. The electrical supply is mostly reliable but regularly suffers from rolling blackouts. Violent crime rates have fallen dramatically over the years but are still higher than in many other parts of the world. Cities are unnavigable sprawls with little public transport. Internet is expensive. We get lower quality produce because the best stuff gets exported to richer countries who can pay more for it. The political system is deeply corrupt in ways that make even normal corrupt politicans go “well that’s a bit much.”

But I also grew up here. I got my immunizations from government clinics and government nurses. I attended a government school, and my university education was heavily subsidized because I am a citizen. I drive on public roads, My house is lit with electricity from a nationalized electrical grid. I was part of a team that had government funding to compete in a high-profile supercomputing competition, which included a completely free 10 day long training course for 80 undergraduate students. At some level, the investments of the government (and by extension, taxpayers) function and provide a return, if by return you mean training individuals within the population who can produce value in the standing economic system, workers with high school certificates and medical doctorates and welding qualifications.

Lots of South African professionals seek to leave the country. It is all at once a sufficiently modern and unequal country that if you grow up and become University Educated, you will likely identify more with other countries than with South Africa at large. I have lost count of how many people I know who have moved to Australia or the Netherlands or the UK or the USA. Many of them went through the same school and university system I did, and benefited from the same subsidies.

People frequently encourage me to leave the country, both for the primary reason (you can make more money as an engineer in the West) or for other reasons (you should see the world/you should experience other people) and I always feel torn between those. I have long been on the side of those Soviet scientists protecting their seed bank. I like to believe that I would choose the mass benefit over short term personal gain, that is the Socialist™ way after all. I feel (at some level) an obligation to live here, work here, to work to (at least) give value to people around me and (at best) to directly improve the systems around me.

But there is a thin line between obligation and nationalism. This is a nationalist tendency, at some level. Not quite “this country is good because it is mine,” but “this country has a claim to me, and I to it, and so I should stand by it,” which is, worrying, at times. How do you tell the difference. Should you even contribute to a system that you think creates a great deal of pain, suffering, and violence, and which sustains many harmful cycles. Can the good cop improve a bad system. Or should you just take what you can get and run as far as you can, because nothing you can do will help.

(Incidentally, I believe that a lot of things tied to the fascist aesthetic are not implicitly bad, but rather things that combine poorly with other traits. Nationalism is theoretically a powerful attribute to cultivate, if, of course, you are a truly virtuous nation which can vouch for the aims of its people en masse. Not that those nations exist anywhere.)

A deep part of me also /wants/ to flee. The work to improve a country (even when you are in a good position to do so) is slow, frequently hopeless, and does not often bear fruit in your lifetime. I have ADHD, so that’s a rough proposition. I can barely wait for things that I know will bear fruit in the next three days. I have been to New York City twice, and since the first time my heart has ached for dense public transport, the alien experience of white people walking in the street by choice, and the strange sense of certainty New York has of its place in the world. I love central Johannesburg, I like walking and being there when I get the chance, it is a place that is full of people and occurrences, but I am always reminded of a line by Neal Stephenson.

The only ones left in the city are street people, feeding off debris; immigrants, thrown out like shrapnel from the destruction of the Asian powers (and) young smart people... who take the risk of living in the city because they like stimulation and they know they can handle it.

Many people despise central Johannesburg, because it is a dangerous kind of stimulating which does not allow much room to relax if you, like me, are an outsider to the place. This isn’t the USA where every seventh person has an iPhone, it is easy to be a mark. Hell, several of my friends have been robbed in the suburbs, the city is a whole other animal.

That was fairly off topic. This is also my post, so I don’t care.

I have mostly been on the side of staying. The potential benefits of moving away are often just ideas of greener grass on the other side. There is no reasonable proof that I would be happier with public transport in the long term, merely more mobile. There is no reason to believe that living in the country that produced the media I am inundated with will somehow make that more meaningful to me, just physically closer. There is no reason why people from elsewhere could make better friends in person than the ones I already have here. These are mostly thoughts that are appealing to think because they cannot be proven, and so benefit from being hypothetical.

[honeyrose-tea]

this has been a strange start to the new year for sure. how are you doing? what did you think of the situation in the capitol? any thoughts or worries about the rest of the month? I'm curious to hear your thoughts on everything. -🌙

thank you so much for the ask💞 almost every day I check my inbox anticipating the next time I'll hear from you. just knowing that someone cares.... it really does a lot for my self-esteem. I don't have many friends right now and the few I do are very busy and have a lot of things they would rather do than talk to me. thank you for making time to listen to me and ask me how I'm doing. you wouldn't believe how many people don't. I haven't always been the most consistent presence for you and I'm sorry. I'm trying to do better and be less selfish because I know how it feels to be on the receiving end of that. thank you for always being kind to me, pen pal.

there is a lot I want to say regarding the capitol and the situation in the country in general. as a social science student (and hopefully one day a professor!) these situations are of great academic interest to me. as a bisexual woman and an informed US citizen who cares about my rights I am also very personally vested in American issues. but first I would like to tackle your question regarding how I'm doing:)

I'm doing pretty good. classes have started back up but most of mine are online. I'm thinking of switching to online exclusively because of how much emotional (and sometimes physical) labor in-person classes are, and also for the sake of my health and my parents'. it's funny how so many things we did with ease before the pandemic seem so burdensome now. even small interactions are anxiety-inducing now, and I find myself having a hard time socializing even casually. like a muscle that has atrophied without use, my social skills are awful now. on a happier note, my productivity and creativity are both at all-time highs since social interactions aren't using up all my energy anymore. I brought my record player to my dorm room and I've been listening to a bunch of music, I've also been writing and recording some music of my own. I have a couple of demos and if you or anyone else is interested, I'll post them on here. once I record and edit full band versions I'll put them up on my soundcloud. I've tried sharing some of my stuff with some friends but none of them really care and I don't want to annoy them. besides, it's more for myself anyway. I wang to prove to myself that I can make music and that I can say something worth saying. a lot of my struggle over the past 6 months has been that I feel as though nothing I do or say can change anything, that none of my actions matter. I struggle a lot with control and I've been working on it for years, but it's still really hard for me. anyway. I'm enjoying class and what I do outside of it. I've been in my element living alone again (in my dorm) and feeling free to wear/do/say what I want, when I want. I wash my dishes and sing to myself and manage my time and drink lots of artificially sweetened and heavily flavored coffee without anyone around to judge me. and I get to cry and masturbate when I want, both of which are helpful in regulating my moods. I don't know. it's not like I'm doing anything exciting, but I am doing each thing I do well and with a happy heart. I feel like this portion of my life is something of a hibernation- the winter seasons combined with the pandemic have me in a cozy little daydream, reading and self-reflecting and getting back in tune with myself and my passions. I have a feeling that the spring and summer will be very vibrant bustling months so I am trying to enjoy my rest and soak in as much knowledge about myself and the world around me as I can. it's hard for me to live in the present and not get antsy (connected to control issues, I think) but I'm getting better at it. on the subject of the future, I've also been using this time to look into grad school and prepare for the GRE (a standardized test required for most grad school applications, similar to the ACT/SAT). I'm learning a lot that I didn't know since neither of my parents went further than undergrad, and I'm getting excited. I'm really looking forward to doing research. I've already been collecting some thesis ideas for an undergraduate-level thesis that I have to complete next year for the honors college, and hopefully I can turn that into a masters and/or PHD thesis when the time comes. now, on to more important matters than my silly little life.

I have very complicated feelings about america. I do have some attachment to some of the original ideas that are at the foundation- "bring me your huddled masses...", "all men are created equal", the general spirit of democracy, etc.- all of these are valid and worth keeping (in some form) to me. I think a lot of good people and ideas exist around us and I believe that we must be as empathetic and kind as possible to one another in order to navigate the current climate and preserve the good that we do have. that said, america was also founded on some pretty terrible, bigoted principles and our history- as well as our present- is marred by injustices. our society has become highly individualistic because of capitalism, and it has resulted in considerable division on every level. the competition that fuels capitalism is like an invasive species of plant, it does not only exist within our economy but it slithers out into our social world and the way we relate to others. I think capitalism coupled with our post-enlightenment founding is the source of most all of our problems as a country. capitalism has taken root in america in a way more malicious and all-consuming than in any other culture, because it was there at the beginning of our country and all of our social norms have grown out of it. many other cultures have existed long before capitalism and though it has modified their culture, it has not altogether become it. because america was founded on capitalism, we have no cultural identity outside of it. america is, itself, capitalism. that is precisely why america is experiencing all of the best and worst parts of capitalism at their most extreme. it is why, as I mentioned previously, we are perhaps the most divisive and competitive society in the modern world, and probably in history. we are the richest and most powerful country but we have the largest wealth gap and incarceration rate, among many other extremes.

all of this is to say that the rise of Trump and fascism in this country has been a long time coming, and unmistakably inevitable. to defeat it we will have to break america down to its fundamentals, throw out everything that is unethical and unjust, and rebuild our entire society from there. this is radical and hard to imagine, it will also be very difficult to execute, but I strongly believe that much of our societal systems just cannot be reformed, they must be thrown out and replaced.

the capitol riots were inexcusable and sickening but decidedly inevitable. this has been steadily building for america's entire existence. I think it will get worse before it gets better, as there are already plans for bigger and more numerous protests across the country in the following weeks. that said, I feel hopeful as I see the anti-fascist movement grow in the wake of fascism, I am hopeful as I see many people being radicalized and awakened to the realities of this country's failings. I don't know how exactly we will even begin to rid ourselves of the biases, prejudices, and downright hatred that plagues our country. I don't know how we will relate on an individual level to those with such deeply-ingrained hate in their hearts. I don't know how we will change our systems of government and economy to reflect new cultural values that we begin to build together. I am not sure what the future will hold. I do believe, however, that we will triumph over this moment and that the future will be better. I think that the only way to radically change and unite so many vastly different people and remove the blinders from their eyes is through a terrible, historic awakening like the one we are having now. the situation itself is awful, but I am hopeful that out of this mess we become a nation more committed to justice and to some of the ideals which we have falsely claimed to be emulating for our entire history.

so yes, I am worried about the next few weeks, months, and even years. there is no end to the pursuit of a just society, and I think every informed citizen is always a bit apprehensive about certain aspects of their culture. there will always be problems to combat and injustices to rectify, but I think that we will soon be moving to a better place, that we will remember these moments and say, "never again". I am hopeful, despite seeing some of the worst of humanity in recent days, that these atrocities will bring positive change.

I know that was long and instead of discussing issues about the capitol, or even just current political issues, I expanded the scope considerably and dragged in a lot of things from history and grander sociopolitical theories. still, I think it is hard to talk about the insurrection attempt without talking about a lot more. thank you for reading my takes and caring about them. I spend a lot of time thinking about these things, and it feels nice to share them with someone other than my annoyed professors who want me to shut up so they can finish the lecture and stick to their semester schedule.

I hope you're well and that you're staying safe and healthy. are you in school now too? have you or your family had the virus? thank you for coming to talk to me, I always enjoy it. I'll talk to you again soon💞

[silvokrent]

(Trans anon) Rep is good, important, and necessary for the progress of society. I’m glad you’re not complacent, neither am I, fight for rep and all that it entails, and I hope we can see that day that everyone doesn’t feel like a stranger that’s out of place. Just leave Doom and every other successful franchise alone if they continue to do their own thing. They’re unifying, despite the progat, as every race, gender, and sexuality I know love Doom despite its lack of rep.

For the sake of ending an argument before it begins, we clearly have different opinions regarding representation. I accept that. But I'm not going to stop demanding that franchises provide representation. I have no intention of leaving Doom and their ilk alone. That's my prerogative. If you don’t like it, that’s fine, then don’t engage. At the end of the day we can live-and-let-live.

But you don’t have the right to dictate to other members of our community to stop just because you feel it’s unnecessary. You don’t have the right to come into my space and demand that I “just leave [them] alone” and let them do their own thing just because they’re successful. If people like myself want to criticize media for being bereft of queer rep, we should be able to do so without fear of backlash. There are already enough detractors out there without having to contend with intra-community conflict. That’s simply not a discourse I want to engage in beyond establishing my stance on the matter. At the end of the day, me asking for representation doesn’t do any harm, and at best, carries the potential to do some good. I see criticism as a catalyst for change and progress. And right now, the forces driving those changes are feedback from consumers of media, be it videogames, cinema, literature — take your pick.

Large companies including representation is important for quite a few reasons. It’s a sign of allyship — that by featuring queer characters, you’re promoting human rights over lost profits from bigoted customers boycotting your game out of a sense of entitlement. At the end of the day, that’s the message that’s being sent: that a company values diversity more than profit. That normalizing queer existence is a more important endeavor than catering to the whiny queerphobic pissbabies out there that throw a tantrum whenever a franchise gets “taken over by the SJWs.” That making their communities safe for minorities is more important than permitting toxic people within those same spaces, at the expense of minorities feeling unwelcome.

We need rep in triple A titles and other big-name companies because this knee-jerk reflex is still a thing. Because whenever a company includes even one (1) character that’s POC, or disabled, or neurodivergent, or queer, there’s always an inevitable shitstorm on social media from alt-right, fascist, white supremacist, homophobic hate groups and their members. It’s gotten to the point where this is expected. This is normal.

That’s why we need representation from id Software and other industry veterans. Because it sends a message. If diversity doesn’t matter, then why are the protagonists of so many games the exact same cookie-cutter cishet white guy? Why is this template “default”? Why is the ratio for this archetype so disproportionate to reality? The world is not 50% generic white dude, 50% “other.”

I’m not gonna stop playing these games because I do, in fact, love them. But I can love something and still be critical of it. I can still enjoy the content I consume, while holding its creators to higher standards. I can still expect these franchises to represent the other demographics that make up their consumer base. To reiterate: there is nothing to lose in asking for diversity, and everything to gain. No one is harmed by a game featuring an asexual Muslim woman, or a nonbinary Deaf Korean person in their casts. But if you pitched this idea on Twitter, I’m sure you’d have thousands of people bitching about how their beloved franchise is being tainted by the “liberal agenda.”

Why is a Deaf person’s existence an agenda? Why is a queer person’s existence an agenda? Why is simply being a radical agenda?

It’s because people feel comfortable asking questions like these that we need representation, and we need to hold content creators accountable. Art is informed by our opinions just as much as the art we consume informs our opinions. We need to deconstruct the systems in place that make the existences of marginalized people controversial, when the act of existing shouldn’t be in the first place.

And I have a right to say something about it.

I doubt we’ll ever see eye-to-eye on this topic, and that’s fine. For the sake of parting amicably, please don’t continue to engage me further on the topic. I’d prefer to simply part ways and let the matter be done. Thanks.

[walaw717]

“Populists (claim to) speak in the name of the 'oppressed people', and they want to emancipate them by making them aware of their oppression. However, they do not want to change their values or their 'way of life.' This is fundamentally different from, for example, the (early) socialists, who want(ed) to 'uplift the workers' by re-educating them, thereby liberating them from their 'false consciousness'. For populists, on the other hand, the consciousness of the people, generally referred to as common sense, is the basis of all good”.

This principle is well known aboard ships where populism would be called mutiny.

I struggle with media-controlled populism. More than anything I see the media using the bully pulpit of the news to manage facts and to then manage people. Orwell predicted this and Malcom X pointed it out as well over fifty years ago.

Mostly – when I read social media posts – I see emotional driven statements that demonstrate very little thought or understanding of the wider implications of what they are saying.  That is the nature of populism, left or right – create a position and appeal to the emotions of your particular populist group and condemn anyone who disagrees with you.

In my lifetime I have seen this worsening as journalists seem to have lost all sight of the concept that they are to report without taking sides. Instead journalists crave recognition and celebrity, they are driven for the “Scoop” – and they in turn are fueled by the political views of the owners of mega institutions controlling the media so we get anything but a fair and balanced view of what is happening  no matter who is harmed and whether the “scoop” is accurate or not. 

Add to that the average person seems to not understand or care about the value of a thoughtful response and generally resorts to name calling anyone not holding their position and you have the mess we are descending into now.

Understand, populisms are the social movements of polarization and the belief that an emotional reaction of the moment is a good basis for an utterance and/or decision.  In its extremes one ends up with Fascists or Bolsheviks and in the end a dictator like Hitler or Stalin, or the myriad of dictators we see worldwide because no society can be led by multiple factions and heads and retain its civility and coherence. So, in the end populist forces throw themselves behind a charismatic character until in the end that character thinks for them and reacts for them.  Whether Pelosi or Trump, it is all the same, in the end you never have to think again and can simply live out of emotion because you have turned your life over to someone else. 

There is a solution however and it does begin with the populace. It is a solution many will not embrace because it becomes a fundamental denial of narcissism, vanity and self-importance. It is a solution of holding oneself to a standard of behavior based upon well thought out values and at times, especially when one is emotional, doing and saying nothing and understanding that doing and saying nothing is often the first best response – often the second best response as well.  

Now, I am not saying that one should withhold criticism of politicians nor am I saying that one should do nothing in the face of “injustice. But as the image above illustrates – injustice is often a media manipulated point of view and the media holds the agenda of a very few wealthy people who control it far too often to their own personal ends. It is a reason to break up centralized control of all media social and otherwise. 

Also, the populist response is based fully in emotions of the moment which are generally grounded in a personal sense of victimization which is then projected upon others.

As a therapist I have found in thirty years of practice that clients come to me in a reactive emotional muddle and  most often I help them by remaining calm, not taking the emotional reactivity personally and  helping them look beyond the immature emotional reactions they carry in to adulthood.  Once people move toward a rational, systematic way of looking at the world and stop taking everything as an injustice toward their own childhood woundedness they are happier, healthier and less buffeted by the winds of emotional reaction employed by the media and others in social media.

In the end – all political populism requires is that your sense of victimhood is projected up others but is not recognized as your own woundedness and that some great leader or group of leaders can right the wrongs you are feeling and project onto the world.    

Politics was described to me once as a contest of my daddy can beat up your daddy. In fifty adult years of life I have seen that be true more and more.

This kind of thinking puts most into a role no more mature than of children on a playground.

The founding fathers understood this principle and Washington actively discouraged political parties for this very reason. 

The founding fathers also constructed the Republic” with principles which allow the forces of populism to not rise up into a dictatorship. 

There are forces at play now that absolutely want to break that system. Never for one-minute believe that the very wealthy owners of the media and social media companies’ think for one minute that they could not run your life better and do not use the power of all the medias to sow strife in your heart. And never think that the person down the street from your house does not feel the same way, they simply do not have teh power to control you as well as the owners of the media.

Sadly, every day we prove them right – and they continue to fuel our lack of real rational social responsibility – a reasoned discourse- to achieve their own ends. Ultimately a dictatorship is just a dictatorship of the elites and left or right will not matter.

“Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you.” - Henry Ward Beecher

[sunnysynthsunshine]

New Year New Roomate (the self insert stories) (The Young Ones)

A couple of short stories I thought up about The Young Ones some of which involve my oc Kelsie (the new "5th" roommate).

Chapter 1

 The 5th Roomate

It had been a few days since recovering from the bus incident luckily Mike was able to get enough money for the boys to continue living in their Bristol student house, They were given news that there would be a new roommate living with them.

Her name was Kelsie, the 5th roommate she was a drama/media student and she was new to scumbag college She entered, she put her belongings in her room and was quiet She had a jacket, band shirt, choker, shorts, leggings and boots on

Mike, Vyvyan, Rick, and Neil were confused but fascinated Unlike other birds, they had previously seen this Kelsie girl didn't talk much outside of mumbling and sarcasm

Rick decided to talk to her while he was studying Kelsie got out her notebook and started writing

Rick peeked over at what Kelsie was writing about

“So what’s the course like?”

Kelsie shrugged

“It’s alright I guess what do you study?”

Rick said, “Sociology and Domestic Sciences”

From the living room, Neil overheard saying “Domestic sciences maybe you should help me with the cooking sometimes”

“Shut up Neil” Rick answered back

Kelsie finished writing and watched TV  ignoring him

when she went to the sink to put her dishes away she saw Vyvyan sitting on the counter drinking tea

Kelsie complimented his t-shirt

“Oh Rush that’s a great band”

“I know what bands do you like?”

Kelsie answered

“I love Blondie, Iron Maiden, Sex Pistols, Simple Plan and various other bands”

Vyvyan said,

“Good taste, I don’t know what Simple Plan is though”

Kelsie asked

“What do you study?”

Vyvyan said,

“Medicine I’m going to be a doctor if I can be if not I’ll be a surgeon”

Kelsie joked “So you like playing with people’s bodies”

Vyvyan laughed

“Yes, with all these new diseases people need someone to help them and considering the bastards in charge of the health system no wonder people are dropping like flies”

Vyvyan chuckled again sipping his tea

“You know that bastard rRck?”,he once tried to down laxatives and goes on and on about starting a revolution but never actually goes through with it"

“I see” Kelsie answered

Vyvyan said,

"I mean he's alright sometimes but other times he does my head in so we fight a lot"

"perfectly understandable" Kelsie responded

Later after realizing not much was on television that night they went to bed

Chapter 2

: Distracting Mr Balowski

Mr Balowski is about to annoy the boys once again but will their new roommate be able to distract him?

It was like any other day for four college students Vyvyan was watching television, Rick was reading & Neil was doing some coursework while Mike was busy doing "Business" on the other sofa in the room the newest member the 5th roommate of the Young Ones was relaxing until there was a knock on the door... It was Mr. Balowski what sort of scheme was he planning next?

the house had just gotten cleaned after all the time warps and if Mr.Balowski was going to do anything that would make Lazy Vyvyan and Rick get off their asses to have to deal with that would be an ant being a molehill.

Vyvyan sighed at the doorbell ringing "Oh No"

Rick said

"Wait I've got an idea"

Kelsie yawned on the sofa with her headphones on

when Rick suddenly ran over to her "hey Kelsey you're studying Drama right?"

Kelsie nodded

"Yeah?"

Rick made a suggestion

"how about you try to distract Mr. Balowski"

Kelsie didn't know who he was talking about

"Uh, whos' Mr. Balowski?"

Vyvyan answered

"The most annoying bastard in the world second to Rick"

which Rick glared at

Kelsie sighed

"I'll see what I can do"

Kelsie then answered the door looking stoic

"Hello what are you selling"

Mr. Balowski explained

"Yes, I'm looking for Mr.Rick, Mr. Vyvyan, Mr.Mike, and Mr.Neil"

before he removed  his shades

"Oh, Oh my and who are you?"

Kelsie attempted to sound like a generic sexy anime girl

"Oh, It's". she flipped her hair seductively Kelsie"

Mr. Balowski realized

"I might have the wrong address"

Kelsie said

"you know I love guys with Russian accents"

Mr. Balowski blushed

"Oh my "

Kelsie asked holding her phone out

"you want me to show you this band I like My Bloody Valentine?"

Mr. Balowski was turned off and disgusted

"erm no thanks have a good day"

Mr Balowski had ran off

Kelsie cringed

"Oh my that line made me cringe it sounded so wrong"

Rick grinned

"brilliant  at least you got rid of him now we know the best way to stop him is to gross him out"

Chapter 3

: Looking for SPG

Vyvyan can't find his Glaswegian hamster SPG so he tries to think of a plan to get him back

Vyvyan had lost SPG so he was looking around the house for him

"SPG SPG SPG!!!!!!!!!! Where are you?" he yelled

Neil was confused as to why Vyvyan was repeating himself

"why are you saying the same thing over and over again?"

Vyvyan shouted

"It's SPG he's gone missing"

Neil shrugged so he could get something out of the fridge

"Oh well, I'll be using some food for class and?

Vyvyan suddenly got an idea

"I know I'll get some hamster food and bait surely he'll arrive when sees it"

so Vyvyan got some hamster food and poured it all over Rick who was having a nap on the sofa

to get SPG's attention

SPG crawled out of a hole noticing the bait

"I see something"

Kelsie was also resting next to Rick

"I see a sweet looking lass"

SPG walked along Kelsie and then started to jump and crawl all over Rick

Rick trembled unamused

"Ah! something's biting me get it off get it off VYVYAN WHAT PRANK DID YOU PULL THIS TIME?"

Vyvyan smirked as he had found his hamster

"I didn't pull a prank I was just looking for SPG"

Rick scoffed and whined,

"oh your filthy hamster that explains why I smell like onion sandwiches"

Vyvyan explained,

"I needed bait and I knew you'd be the perfect test subject"

Chapter 4

: The Reveal (Rick)

Kelsie (their new roomate) has been hiding their gender identity for quite sometime and they decide to come out to Rick the person that they thinks will understand

It was around dinner time and Kelsie hadn't joined usually kelsie would just chill in her room but this time was longer than before Rick snuck upstairs to see what was the holdup  

he saw Kelsie looking in the mirror of her wardrobe trying to press in her breasts making it looks like she didn't have them

Rick was puzzled by this he had also overheard Kelsie punch a mirror mumbling about how she felt about her gender identity so he observed until he saw Kelsie's eyes turning indicating that she had seen him notice.

Rick asked

"What are you doing"

Kelsie answered

"You must promise not to tell a soul"

Rick nodded making mime like hand gestures

"Cross my heart, not to die, punch a fascist in the eye". "Vyvyan and Neil know enough about me to make me the next celebrity my secrets might be around but I'll keep yours safe and sound"

Kelsie rolled her eyes

"was that another hiaku of yours?"

Rick shrugged it off

"anyways what is this horrible and private secret you want to tell me?"

Kelsie confessed

"I-I may be biologically female but I feel more like a male and sometimes I just feel like nothing ever since I was little I would identify with boys most of the time"

Rick said

"Oh well that's not bad I feel nothing all the time, the world's existence is nothing"

Kelsie tried to explain

"What I mean is I want to be seen as a boy more than a girl sometimes it's hard having to deal with forced expectations and all the pressure"

Rick processed the information, taking the information in a serious understanding way as he also got  personal in his response

"I understand as someone who is androgynous I understand that gender roles are stupid I'm in a similar boat I'm biologically male but I'm non binary those feelings are normal society might say your not ladylike or that you don't fit their standards  who cares what society thinks I think you should be what you want to be and if that involves you sometimes being one of us boys then I have no problem with that"

Kelsie felt accepted as she sniffled a bit "Thank you, Rick, living with mainly some conservative brothers I would always feel different compared to the other girls it's great that I have a roommate who feels the same I accept you

they then held each other in an embrace

only for Vyvyan and Neil to walk in

Neil said "Rick's a transvestite"

Rick was offended at them ruining such an emotional moment

"STOP BRINGING THAT UP!"

Vyvyan joked

"is that why you have girly pigtails in your hair?"

Rick whined

"OF COURSE NOT beside it's in fashion now for men to have more femmine hairstyles"

Kelsie smirked at him

"so you won't be offended by the poof comments?"

Rick was still glaring at Vyv and neil but he smiled when addressing Kelsie

"Not particularly but I want all men to love each other like brothers men like you"

Vyvyan laughed while he started a slapstick fight with Rick

"HA Rick's still a poof"

Rick screamed fighting back

"AM NOT"

Neil asked

"So you're Gay?"

Rick ranted

"NO, I just wish males were more friendly towards each other!"

Neil moaned

"Gay also means happy"

Rick kept shouting

"When am I ever Happy?"

Vyvyan smirked

"then why did you smile at kelsey and not at us?"

( while kelsey just watched tv ignoring the others they were blushing.)

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Chapter 5

: The Reveal (Vyvyan)Summary:

After what happened earlier Vyvyan decides to go to a Rock festival with Kelsie which he unexpectedly enjoyed (both the music and the cuddling)

Chapter Text

Vyvyan announced

"I've got tickets to a punk festival who wants to join me?"

Kelsie decided to join him

(At the concert)

Vyvyan and Kelsey were sitting on a picnic rug eating mozzarella sticks, hot dogs, and junk food while enjoying the music

Vyvyan felt like maybe he could make a move while he had the chance so he put his hand round, Kelsie, while she was busy bobbing her head along to the musical screeching she found the cuddle to be quite comfortable

Usually Vyvyan was the tough type who was rowdy, loud and tough but on the inside, he had a soft spot for women and platonic emotional connection he would never tell any of the housemates that except for that one time he accidentally joked/blurted out to Rick one time that he fancied him Rick was the poof not him.

It was a fun concert but the fuzzy feeling he had in his heart made the concert more enjoyable than it was planned to be

then the band Against Me! performed onstage

Kelsie awoke from her Nap "is that Laura Jane Grace?"

Vyvyan nodded as he ate from his crisp packet

halfway through the performance, Kelsie asked: "Do you like Against Me?"

Vyvyan yelled

"Of Course I bloody love them one of my favorite punk bands of all time"

Kelsie lowered her voice

"Vyv can I tell you something?"

Vyvyan said

"What? you're going to have to yell It's a bit hard to hear you

Kelsie made her voice louder

"It's something personal Vyv"

Vyvyan answered

"alright whisper it then"

Kelsie explained

"Vyvyan sometimes I feel like a bloke sometimes I know I'm biologically a female but I don't feel like one I like the idea of transitioning but I want to wait for a while first because of the risks involved

am I a bloke or am I a woman?

Vyvyan understood

"I know that feeling all too well Kelsie, a few years ago I myself started my transition from a woman to a bloke it was a rocky road but worth it, in the end, I'll give you advice sod what people think whether your a bloke a woman or anything in between your still Kelsie and that's what matters"

Kelsie smiled as he and Vyv headbanged to the song being performed only for Vyvyan to hold Kelsie's hand before they cuddled

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Chapter 6

: We are all Mad hereSummary:

the authors ideas on the backstories of the characters (including Kelsie)

Chapter Text

Neil wasn't just a hippy he was a trustafarian while he loved learning about different cultures and saving the planet he came from a very posh high-class family but there is a reason for his self-deprecation because he was so different compared to his family he felt like an outcast so much so he questioned whether or not he was needed at all he eventually just stopped caring about himself altogether.

He became what was known as a flower child he had a connection to nature that others in his family didn't while he hated society he loved the theory of the world's existence whether it meant the many flowers in his families garden or the amazing animals he would find at the zoo.

He learned about Buddhism and he decided to study peace studies at university and made a friend there at Scumbag college he met 3 other misfits, even though he thinks they don't care about him they do they have a soft heart on the inside.

Vyvyan was a troubled child his mom was a shoplifting bartender who cared more about drinking, smoking & stealing than caring for her daughter turned son, she and Vyvyan would sometimes fight and because of her behavior Vyvyan had trouble fitting in as a child other kids were scared of him, authority challenged and broke him mentally he was a rough kid often mistaken for a bully when really he just wanted friends but his own bullies made him bite back making his behaviour violent at times when he didn't want to be.

His dad was ok for a short time he was in his life but  his mom divorced and due to his dad's busy work schedule they rarely spoke however... he did introduce Vyvyan to the Metal scene due to enjoying many horror movies and comics that involved different creatures and scientific experiments that gave Vyvyan the idea to study medicine while he hated society he also hated how diseases like "AIDS" and "Cancer" had the ability to kill so many people.

The reason why he acts strangely is because of how he was raised, he didn't know any better and was mostly raised on television,comic books and the working class neighborhood he lived in that and other than his metalhead buddies at scumbag college he didn't really have any friends to mess with or joke around with or share his video games with he hides it with the anger problems he has but deep down he does care.

Mike's dad was an Italian immigrant who would often bring girls home to pleasure  Mike had a happy childhood but he knew the government and society were crumbling by the time Margaret Thatcher became prime minister he inherited his flirting skills from his papa, he was close to his dad but he had no idea what happened to his mother not that he cares anyway.

Rick was an outcast despite being raised conservative he leaned more left when Margaret Thatcher was in office Rick would cringe internally when he'd hear what her next scheme was going to be on the news he didn't feel like other guys  they were all about sports, getting girls and being tough while he was more interested in changing the world, the arts and fashion he often would write poetry when feeling down so he used that to his advantage.

However his parents didn't really approve of some of his choices and would often take their anger out on him Rick didn't have many friends despite trying to join various groups at school giving up but having developed an ego due to his good grades to hide the fact he was hating life he made jokes but not many people would find those jokes funny he thought he was entertaining the audience when really he was annoying them.

He went on to study sociology at school he also read up about socialism and anarchism and felt like starting a rebellion (in his head).

He genuinely is a weak coward and he knows it but he hates that fact too so he distracts himself often whether it be with poetry, mind games or just failing to get back at Vyvyan for 80th prank he pulled on him that week he may get irritated by Vyvyan and Neil's shenanigans but they are the only friends he has...well until Kelsie came along.

Kelsie never really fitted in at school she used to think she could entertain people like Rick but after getting bullied by kids younger than her  she stopped that idea she was interested in fantasy and witchcraft but then a rumour was spread around the school saying Kelsie was possessed and worshiped the devil she did not want her brothers to find out about her religious beliefs.

After doing research Kelsie became an anarchist she was often used as a scapegoat and felt socially awkward often sometimes tilting her head randomly or occasionally stuttering due to a development disorder she has but never mentions. She had a confusing personality trying to be kind but as times passed became more stoic and emotionless due to trust issues via the internet she delved into escapism through tv, music, anime and various other media based outlets.

She moved to scumbag college and ended up in the same student house as Neil, Vyvyan, Rick and Mike she felt more accepted there and every day was a day of laughter, randomness and unexpected hijinks after joining Kelsie started working on her social skills and wasn't as shy as before.

(despite Kelsie being the same Kelsie from the Matzelberger stories since this is in a more human universe her backstory is slightly more like "Kelsey" (the author) than Kelsie (the OC).

Chapter 7

: Why am I screaming why can't I stop?Summary:

Kelsie has a unexpected panic attack,luckily the boys try to help her

Chapter Text

(Note: this particular scenario was based off a real-life event that happened to me but that didn't end as well as this scenario did)

Sometimes your mind plays tricks on you and sometimes you are your own worst enemy

Kelsie had planned to spend the Saturday afternoon relaxing, However, that didn't go as planned she didn't feel well but not in an "I have a cold way" in an "I'm shaking and shivering and I can't stop while uncontrollably crying" way.

Kelsie tried distracting herself with music but something odd was happening

her hands felt shivery, her stomach was continuously feeling warm and sweaty

then Kelsie started to howl  as she held her throat lightly it felt warm, dry and she was drowsy a little faint

Kelsey's mouth felt like it was blocked by something feeling like she wanted to choke

her body was heating up like an oven and her mind was giving her a feeling of terror and fear

this caught the attention of a certain spotty faced anarchist as he ran down the stairs wondering where the screaming was coming from

"Kelsie?  a-are you alright?" he said concerned

Kelsie shook her head "No Rick I feel like I'm having a panic attack" Kelsie burst into tears "why can't I stop crying I was fine earlier?". "make it stop make it stop WHY CAN'T I STOP??"

Rick tried to understand what was going on as he ran over to the sofa

"Oh dear"

he tried to reassure Kelsie

"it's ok I'm here um how many breaths can you take?"

Kelsie started to attempt some breaths

Rick nodded

"that's good"

before Rick pondered

"As much as I don't want to ask Vyvyan for help I'll probably have to he is a medical student so he'd know more about handling these situations than I do"

"Stay on that sofa Kelsie  I just need to go and get something I'll be right back," he said before running upstairs past the hallway into Vyvyan's pigsty of a bedroom

"VYVYAN!!!!" he yelled

Vyvyan yelled back

"what do you want?"

Rick asked

"Do you have any books about Panic Attacks?"

Vyvyan complained

"what would you need my bloody textbooks for???"

Rick explained

"it's Kelsie she's had a panic attack"

Vyvyan understood

"Oh... have you made her breathe in and out?"

Rick nodded

"Yes her breathing is normal but she's been sweating, shivering and feeling drowsy"

Vyvyan answered

"Right I'll see what I can do"

Vyvyan and Rick ran downstairs where Kelsie was sitting her legs felt weak shaking like a jellyfish

Rick said

"Kelsie! Vyvyan's here I think he might know how to help"

Vyvyan then got a cold washcloth and lightly rested it against Kelsey's face, Neil was told about the situation so he prepared a tea with two sugars and some milk.

Kelsie was eventually able to settle as she laid snug in a blanket as she watched some tv with Rick and Vyvyan Kelsie got better in the past when she would have panic attacks she would've either hid the fact she was having one or she was left to deal with it herself at least now she had Vyvyan, Rick, Neil and sometimes Mike she wasn't alone.

The Young Ones may be a boisterous bunch but they are a soft bunch as much as they don't like to admit it sometimes.

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Chapter 8

: Cuddles

It's a Stormy night resulting in power outages and a certain punk showing a weakness of his

It was like any other evening at Scumbag College as the storm crackled in the dark dim sky.

Mike was upstairs with some bird he somehow managed to get with

struggling to find food in the kitchen was the grubby self-deprecating Hippie Neil scavenging the fridge for leftovers as he rarely used the oven even if he did that would be dangerous considering the appalling weather.

Trying to ignore the noise was Rick in his room listening to some Dexy's Midnight Runners before the radio paused to static.

Kelsie was sitting at the table doing some coursework on the other side of the room Vyvyan was playing a video game.

Up in Rick's room when the radio and lights turned off it gave Rick a surprise.

"Oh Well that's just bloody great isn't it because of Thatcher and Republican oil deals it's been messing with the weather which is preventing me from enjoying some pop music stupid fascists they'll stomp on anyone's fun"

with a bored shrug, Rick reluctantly went downstairs to see what the rest of the flatmates were up to.

Rick ran down the damp steps when he heard a groan coming from Kelsey trying to practice some play dialogue for their coursework.

"Ugh I can't do it the words are coming out but my tone just doesn't fit the scenario and I just can't seem to smile today IT'S ALWAYS A FAKE ONE!"

"Now Kelsey I'm sure you can do it I fake a smile all the time what emotion is your character supposed to show?" replied Rick in a soft sounding tone while a stoic stubborn Kelsey answered coldly with

"Happiness"

Oh well, how do you feel when you are with me, Vyvyan, Mike, and Neil when you have to put up with all their nonsense and feel so eccentric your skin crawls?"

Kelsey took a bite into her Dorito before saying in a more neutral, calm laid back sort of way "I don't mind it actually It's quite a funny feeling like I  belong with you guys seeing what odd scheme Mike's planning or what concoction Vyvyan is preparing is a thrill to my day".

Rick was taken aback but it made him grin a little except it wasn't out of arrogance like it usually was.

clapping his hands together he said, "See? you can be happy sometimes when you are playing your southern belle stereotype just think that some of us are there with you sure you'll be able to steal the show!"

"Thanks" mumbled Kelsey sounding timid under her duffle coat while she proceeded to pack up her scripts and file folders into her bag placing it next to other bags under the staircase.

The Thunder had turned into lighting as the bolts struck the sky with a loud "CRACK".

Kelsey and Rick joined Vyvyan on the sofa while Vyvyan ignored them to focus on his game swiftly fidgeting the buttons on his controller staring at the blinding television screen despite how bleak the room had become.

Mike was trying to shag a gorgeous woman he was with....when the lights went out

He couldn't see a thing not even the irresistible looking woman sitting before him clad in only underwear.

As she tried to get to the next base, Mike was still puzzled he knew he was in his room but he didn't have a clue that he was supposed to be laid tonight suddenly he felt several sharp pricks at various regions of his body he fell backward feeling idiosyncratic as he left the room. After he had seen some light he noticed the lady had dug her painful fingernails into particular areas of his body Mike was usually the calm, collected flatmate of the group but not this time.

he yelped "ahh!" as he dashed downstairs clambering onto the sofa before shutting up

the final crack of lightening hit the power supply when Neil came running to the back of the sofa blocking Vyvyan's view while he completed the game Vyvyan was confused since the words "GAME OVER" are usually displayed when you die in a video game

it terrified him to notice his surroundings seeing the four other people taking up his space

the little hot headed metal head punk had enough as he screamed

screaming louder than the sound barrier making the electricity work again like magic

"Whoah! that was heavy like heavier than Thor's hammer" exclaimed Neil in wonder at what had just happened

Vyvyan shuddered feeling quiet a feeling he would only really show during classes or when sleeping

h-hold me he meekly said under his breath like if his voice colliding with the Thunder was too much for him

almost like he was scared though he would never ever admit to being scared of anything

Vyvyan? asked Rick concerned that his normally loud psychotic rival was acting like more of a "poof" than he was

"There there," said, Mike, as he rubbed calming circles on Vyvyan's back Kelsey lightly rested his head on Vyvyan's shoulder and Rick gave Vyvyan a gentle cuddle startling him slightly

"You Poof what are you doing?"

"I'm cheering you up matey you were scared of the thunder weren't you that's a bit soft ain't it?"

Vyvyan hated that his weakness was revealed sobbing a little not being able to think of any insults to get back at rick with

"Cuddles are alright even if they are for poofs" Vyvyan answered calming down before an irritated Rick started arguing with him making the punk smirk as the sun started to come out starting the beginning of another day.

Chapter 9

: Apolitical Anarchy

Rick and Kelsie babble about politics

Kelsie and Rick were protesting

Kelsie held a megaphone as she said

"Teresa May is trying to turn Britain into an authoritarian government

Rick said "Teresa's bloody Britain that's what I say"

Later a news crew who were recording people who were voting recorded their protest.

the News Reporter asked, "are you voting for labour or the tories?"

Rick proudly stood on his soapbox

"None of the above"

the News Reporter added what about Ukip?

Kelsie said "they are a bunch of fascists"

(later)

Rick innocently asked, "What is Northern Ireland's political spectrum like?"

Kelsie blankly stared "it's crap"